My Beastly Fertility System Chapter 80: The Night in the Limestone Cave

Claire gave a bitter smile. Rogue beastfolk never showed mercy to younglings. They wiped them out without hesitation. There was no way they'd let her babies live.

Ten days. At this rate, she might not even last that long before stepping through death's door.

The light inside the limestone cave dimmed. Night had probably fallen.

A few rogue beastfolk lit bonfires and set meat over them to roast, the fat sizzling over the flames.

Claire glanced over by accident, then froze. What was roasting over the fire was a beastfolk. A fox clan beastfolk.

"My dear..."

The woman's voice trembled with grief, squeezed out from between clenched teeth. The beastfolk on the spit was probably the one she was calling for.

Beastfolk were still people. Whether they died in beast form or human form, the moment their breath stopped, they reverted to human form.

And these rogue beastfolk could still eat them. They laughed and danced around the fire like they were celebrating at some grotesque bonfire feast. Liquid sloshed from the stone bowls in their hands as they drank themselves red-faced, wild with excitement.

Claire turned her face away at once, unable to bear another look at the fire.

Then, through the deafening revelry, came screams. Louder and louder. It was Fiona.

Claire recognized her voice instantly and looked toward the cave where the worm beastfolk had dragged her.

The limestone cave walls were riddled with branching tunnels of all sizes. Some rogue beastfolk lived in those smaller caves, while others simply crowded together on the main cavern floor.

"Get away from me... get away... Jeffrey... Jeffrey... save me..."

Fiona's screams went on and on, growing hoarser, weaker, until she sounded nearly out of breath.

The rogue beastfolk feast seemed endless. Food covered the ground in abundance, and one beastfolk after another was thrown onto the fire.

The females inside the cage slowly went numb. They had cried until they had nothing left.

Then suddenly, a large hand shot through the vines of the cage and grabbed one of the females with perfect accuracy.

"I want this one. I had my eye on her already. Hahaha!"

The rogue beastfolk's breath reeked so badly it was almost unbearable. Cackling, he dragged the female out.

"No! No, I don't want this! Help me! Somebody help me!"

No one could save her. They could only watch as she was dragged away.

Before the others could even recover from the shock, more hands reached in through the vines, each one clawing for the female it wanted.

The cage exploded into chaos. The females screamed and shoved toward the center, trying to avoid those filthy hands.

The rogue beastfolk simply lifted the whole cage, and one by one, grinning viciously, rushed at the terrified females inside.

"This one's mine!"

"Haha, where do you think you're going?"

"Come have some fun with me, sweetheart."

One after another, the females were snatched away like chicks being picked from a coop, until only Claire and one other female remained in the cage.

The other one was an old female lying on the ground. She was barely alive, her shriveled body looking like it could give out at any second.

But the females taken earlier clearly hadn't been enough. Many rogue beastfolk were still gathered around the cage.

"What now? Next time we need to grab more females."

"The one standing there is really beautiful."

One rogue beastfolk approached Claire, drool hanging at the corner of his mouth, his filthy eyes sliding over her body. There was nowhere left to retreat.

Claire made up her mind to bite her tongue and kill herself.

Just as she was about to do it, a stone came flying through the air and smashed straight into the rogue beastfolk's head, blowing it open. He dropped on the spot.

A blood-soaked hole the size of a fist split open in his skull, red and white spilling out together. His eyes remained wide open, that vile grin still frozen on his face, as if he couldn't believe he had just died like that.

Then an irritable voice, heavy with suppressed fury, echoed from high above the cavern.

"You've got a death wish. You dared touch what's mine?"

The speaker couldn't be seen, but every beastfolk knew who it was, Jeffrey.

The rogue beastfolk fell silent for a moment. Then one of them muttered under his breath as he stepped forward to drag away the corpse.

"You had it coming. Every other beastmen stayed away from her, but you just had to pick that one."

No one dared object.

Claire looked toward the source of the voice. At the very top layer of the limestone cave was the largest tunnel opening of all. Jeffrey was probably living in there.

That narcissistic bastard had already decided she belonged to him.

And clearly, he didn't care much about the followers around him either. Cold-blooded to the extreme.

Just as Claire was wondering whether it was fair to think of her so-called savior that way, another rogue beastfolk, reeking of alcohol, staggered into the cage.

He walked straight toward the old female lying on the ground.

"Damn, I was too slow this time. Better grab faster next round. This'll do for now."

He dragged the old female away. As she passed Claire, those dead, hollow eyes turned toward her without the slightest trace of life. That one look stayed with Claire for a long time.

The rogue beastfolk who'd come up empty-handed went back to drinking and feasting like before.

But now the limestone cave echoed with screams, curses, and filthy abuse from every direction, the kind of words so foul they were unbearable to hear.

Claire curled up with her knees drawn close and pressed her hands over her ears, too afraid to listen.