As the hunger built upon itself in her stomach, Alesha grit her teeth.
It was starting to become painful.
She found herself clenching and unclenching her hands, twiddling her fingers and continuing to pace in order to distract herself from it.
When she reached the appropriate side of the room, she glanced up at the Examiners, still seeing no indication of a reaction to her behavior.
A few more laps around the room, and the hunger was definitely painful by now.
Why wasn't it going away? It felt like this part of the task was taking longer than the others. Fear and anger hadn't lasted this long, had they? Or was it simply that her perception of time's passage was amplified because she wasn't used to this sensation?
Gahh, this was getting incredibly hard to bear.
Alesha breathed in and out, trying to steel herself against the hunger pains. As she did, she realized that at some point, her instincts had kicked in, and she'd subconsciously activated her "bite" skill, thereby transforming her teeth into larger, sharper ones designed for tearing meat.
Oh, gosh no.
Why did she have to think of meat right at this moment?!
The moment she did, her saliva started flowing, her stomach rumbled, and her nails instinctively shifted into claws. Where was the meat? Could she hunt something?
She found her thoughts straying fondly to the meat "Mrs. Green's Groceries" had sold her back home, and the Quest Penalty she'd suffered on her first night after attaining the System. Right now, she wished fervently to return to that night. At least then she'd had access to food! But here, stranded in a cubic pit for a stupid test requiring her to fight her instincts, there was nothing she could do.
Wait… was that really true? Was there nothing she could do?
Thoughts dominated with her hunger and how to satisfy it, she briefly fantasized about climbing out of the pit and eating the Examiners. Not only would doing so satisfy her hunger, but imagine the chaos it would cause if the Examiners died while trying to test a so-called "weak demon?" It would serve them right for trapping her here without meat! Heck, she could even blame them for bringing her here to this world in the first place. If it wasn't for this stupid Dark Summoner's Exam, she would be back at home, with easy access to all the meat she desired…
Wait, was she thinking about eating humans right now?! Even if the Examiners weren't human, they'd still be Elves or other sentient humanoids! Alesha stopped patrolling the perimeter and crouched down, clutching at her hair. In her distress, she accidentally forgot to deactivate her claws and tore fairly deep into her skull before she realized what was happening.
[-13 HP, minor bleed inflicted]
[31/44 HP remaining]
"AHHHHHH!" Alesha screamed, the pain in her head completely distracting her from the pain in her stomach. She started to cry as she clutched her head, this time with her palms after deactivating her claws, and shifted from a crouch to a droopy sitting position. "This stupid test, I hate it!!" She yelled.
On the platform above, Seth clenched his hands into fists, standing stiffly as he stared at the three glowing magical displays in front of him. They appeared as semi-translucent circular windows, charcoal gray in color. The leftmost screen showed the Second Task countdown, as well as the various phases of the task. Each phase was an "instinct" the magical spell had detected in the Demon, Alesha, and labeled as being "potentially problematic" in terms of keeping the Demon under control. There were four of them. Next to the completed phases, Fear and Anger, was the Examiners' Assessed Score.
Alesha had done exceptionally well in managing her Fear. Her score for Anger was slightly lower, but not by much.
Judging by how Hunger was going, though, Seth was particularly nervous. During their time together, he had, of course, noticed that she wasn't very good with hunger. But he hadn't realized it was this bad. He'd never made her go any significant length of time without food; the longest time was likely when she'd first arrived. And neither Flynn nor Delilah had mentioned seeing anything strange about her behavior then.
Now, though, using the middle screen, he watched the Demon he'd summoned scream in pain after accidentally hurting herself while trying to distract herself from her hunger. Was hunger really that intolerable for her?
On the right hand screen, he manipulated the controls for the Viewing spell, panning the View Point in, getting a closer look at her face.
Once he did, he felt a chill. Right now, screaming in pain and clutching her head, rainbow eyes' pupils contracted into slits and sharp teeth exposed, she looked more Demonic than he'd ever seen her.