Huge Kroot Carnivore by IanFreemanFox on DeviantArt (original) (raw)

It tasted strange. Sweet, but strange. Each small bite of the pink-red flesh that Ka'toht swallowed somehow felt equivalent to consuming the entirety of another being, as if generations of potential shaping were condensed into each morsel. He felt the change as he ate, faster than any he'd ever been through or heard of. The experience might have overwhelmed a lesser Kroot but Ka'toht paced himself as he consumed his prize, not by the guidance of any Shaper but through equal parts awe and terror.

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He had watched the human swiftly carve it's way through scores of Kindred; a giant in gold armour that stood in stark contrast to the short, slow humans that made up the majority of their force. Where Ka'toht stood over a head taller than the common humans he had faced, this giant was another two or three heads above the Kroot with which it was fighting, faster, stronger, and flanked by two others of it's kind. This was no pilot in a war suit such as the T'au so often deployed, at least to no where near the same extent of reliance on equipment, no, the creature itself was the source of battle mastery here.

Separated from his squad, Ka'toht had seen the golden warrior on the battlefield even as he sprinted through outlying ruins in an attempt to flank a sniper position that had reduced his kindred to three. More Kroot and T'au fell to the giant's onslaught, a squad of fire warriors, their weapons only slowing their foe down, were obliterated by return fire from the giants and the other encroaching human troops.

Crouching beside a tumbled column, he squinted at the carnage and wondered exactly how the T'au commanders were going to answer this devastation. He felt the charged particles in the air on his quills and ganglia as if the answer was being delivered to him directly. On the other side of the battlefield, placing the giants directly between Ka'toht and themselves, three XV88 battlesuits unleashed their plasma rifles upon their target. The ground was awash with a flash of fierce plasma as the shots seemingly hit their mark. A thunderous crack momentarily deafened and enveloped Ka'toht. The ruined wall a few paces away crumbled as a speeding solid mass made impact. The sound subsided, only to be replaced by the previous familiar sounds of intense battle once again.

Peering through the settling dust at the demolished wall, Ka'toht saw the huge glimmering armoured arm of the golden warrior - rent from the giant's body by the Broadsides' shot and hurled across the battlefield by the plasma blast – the armour was damaged only at the flexible inner-joint, with superficial markings to the ornate exterior. The human arm lay within, bloody and largely protected from the plasma. Ka'toht turned, keeping low and surveyed the battlefield again. The giant stood, arm gone, with the other still firing its weapon towards the T'au lines. There would no doubt be another volley from the XV88s, but for now the giant still fought.

He dragged the arm away from the rubble, and turned the heavy pauldron over. If but a fraction of that warriors strength could be unwrapped from this flesh, if it could be his, and if he could make it through this battle, then the possibilities were unprecedented.

Ka'toht removed the arm and bit into the flesh. It tasted strange. Sweet, but strange.

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