"Eh, I'd say I'm still fine with my fists and galebreath. Then again, I need to save ether to cook."
"Cooking? With galebreath?"
"You'll see."
Abel, with effort, thrust the knife through the hide of the thresher and began slowly carving the meat off of the bone near its spine. Since threshers were rather large reptiles, they carried a sufficient amount of meat for a person to comfortably survive off of.
"That is one sharp knife."
"Once you pierce the hide, it's easier to slice. Still hard, though-"
Quies stood there watching Abel meticulously butcher the deceased thresher. He could feel his wound throb with pain again as his mind emptied of preoccupations.
"What should I do?" Quies asked.
For a moment, Abel stayed silent—eyes focused on the blade slowly traveling down the body of the thresher.
"Well, can you make a knife?"
"Make a knife? Out of what?"
Abel stood silent, knife pausing in the flesh of the fallen reptile before continuing.
"Your blood."
"..."
Quies didn't give a response. He didn't feel the need to, necessarily. He didn't think Abel was looking for a response either considering his facial expression.
He noticed his throbbing finger again, lifting it slightly to view the wound. This whole time, he had consolidated his blood manipulation to his finger alone—keeping the blood from flowing out due to his hemophilia. He released that tension. A subtle relief hit his mind as liquid began to trickle.
Not long after, a crude, yet sharp, dagger-like weapon had solidified in his grip, end pointed downwards. Abel still stood there next to him, but had continued carving the flesh off of the bone of the thresher.
Quies inspected the knife-like tool. Despite his experience in bloodrend, he never had an urgent need to form a weapon like this. During his time here, he didn't encounter many predatory creatures which also happened to be good meat. Most of the time, he made use of his crimson blade—a familiar shape—to do most things. Nevertheless, he was able to mold his blood into this simple shape with some slight imagination.
Not wasting any more time, he drove his newly-formed knife into the hide of the thresher—piercing it with less effort than he thought he would need.
'Not bad. I should use this shape more often, especially now that I have a means to actually cook the meat.'
He looked over to Abel—halfway done with carving up the thresher—wondering how exactly a galebreather was able to cook this meat.
Noticing the sound of splitting flesh, Abel looked toward Quies.
"Could you… ah, nevermind. Let's finish this side up first."
"How should I…"
Quies paused, looking at the side of the thresher's body near its protruding spine.
"Do whatever feels good. Though, I'll say the meat near the front limbs is more on the lean side."
Quies nodded before sliding his blade through the thresher's underbelly—making sure not to pierce any of its guts. He didn't want to spoil an already unsavory, but redeemable, meat with the remains of whatever the reptile ate last.
"Should we save the organs?" He asked.
"Ah… well, the liver's good… other than that I don't know much."
There was a momentary pause.
"You tried thresher liver?"
"Our cohort is more on the picky side of things. I have, though, when a few other guildmates had brought thresher meat one time."
"Ew."
"Try it."
Quies hit a tough spot in the meat, his blade stopping suddenly within the depths of the thresher's chest. He pulled a tad harder, slicing through the obstruction. However, his blade must've cut a major vein, as dark crimson blood began to flow.
"Can you bleed it Quies?"
"Sure."
The opportunity presented itself right in front of him.
In general, Quies' aptitude in bloodrend has increased in all aspects. Control, endurance, precision, those were aspects he had honed and practiced. However, he wasn't sure about the adaptability of his bloodrend, as in he hasn't manipulated blood other than his own until he saved Abel.
'Flow.'
The blood gushed even harder out the wound of the thresher. Quies could do this. It was a simple enough task, and required minimal ether and mental power to achieve, since he was only manipulating the movement of the liquid instead of its form.
'Don't know why I'm doubting myself.'
He scoffed at his own thought, prompting Abel to look his way for a moment.
'First time I found the mantra I controlled the Sharko's blood just fine. Then again, it was imaginary…'
…which reminded him of Valerie. He wasn't sure how she was doing right now up on the surface. Who knows, she might've fully recovered from the Lord Regent's mental attack.
'Or whatever happened in her Illusory Realm.'
He still didn't know exactly what happened in there.
Quies relaxed his hand, having subconsciously moved it in a way to manipulate the blood out of the carcass of the thresher earlier. It was dry now. The still warm liquid encased the edges of his feet as it fell within the depthless sands.
"The taste shouldn't be too strong, hopefully."
"How long has this one been dead?"
"Not sure."
Quies swiped the remaining blood out and away from the thresher, clearing the space again for him to finish gutting and butchering the rest of the carcass.
With the amount of threshers—two in close proximity, not including this current one—that were taken down, threshers would be their main food source for a while.
Despite not needing to, since he lacked the knowledge, he worried and calculated in his mind how perishable thresher meat was, and how they would be able to preserve it.
There was no salt here to the best of his knowledge. There would be no way to dry the meat, since the Depths are practically devoid of light. Well, perhaps they could if they came across a flamecharmer. Unfortunately, the cohort was full of Galebreathers and nonattuned members.
"Get back to cutting, Quies."
He snapped out of his trance. He gave a look of acknowledgement to Abel before slicing into the body once more.