Finding himself unable to act, John only observed through someone's eyes the golden silhouette of the behemoth before him.
I think it's my body, he noted after noticing his right arm blurring on the edge of his vision.
It was very odd because he couldn't see anything but the silhouettes. Just now, his arm went through the motions of a javelin throw, but he couldn't see any weapon flying out.
Ohh shit, it's gonna jump!
His body must have realized the same thing, and he saw himself dive to the left and fall into a neat roll. After standing up, his body glanced over its shoulder and John saw the moment before the monster slammed gut-first into his group.
Out of the nine, Loras'ki and Melis'ar reacted far too late and Hakar'li still got caught by one of its twisted appendages that served as its hands.
He watched as the silhouette's head split open in the middle and from it shot out another appendage, snagging Ulian'al's ankle and started pulling him into its horrifying maw.
John could almost feel the bone-chilling crunch as it closed its jaws shut with the prince's torso between its crushing teeth.
What the fuck am I supposed to do?
His body tried to send out his minions which were painted as very weak clumps of golden light, but from what he saw, the fight looked utterly hopeless.
Another blurred throw and behemoth's flinch followed, but its advance was inexorable. John saw it go through the motions of spitting something into its hand and tossing it into Sakhul'la's path. Luckily, the man reacted fast enough and blinked into safety.
Annoyed, the behemoth once again crouched down and a second later, it was flying through the air like a freight train. This time, it remained closer to the ground, turning into a huge ball of flesh that smacked into Duraq'er like a bowling ball.
Colliding with the arena wall brought it to a sudden stop and it unrolled and opened its mouth wide.
Lacking the sense of sound, John wasn't immediately certain what happened next, but from the flapping lips and then everyone's arms desperately clutching their ears, he guessed it must have been some kind of a debilitating roar.
Luckily, his body was able to react, and it tossed itself to the ground, avoiding another thrown projectile but even then, the fight was going terribly wrong.
A couple of cuts marred the flabby skin of the monstrosity, but compared to its size, they were insignificant.
Is it hopeless? He wondered as he watched everyone around him die and his body was about to follow after them.
The last thing he saw was its leg filling his whole view before the vision froze up and began rewinding backward at a much faster speed.
Huh?
It might have lasted a little over two minutes, but as it was replaying, the whole encounter rushed before his eyes in less than five seconds until he found himself once again standing in the middle of the arena, facing a crouching behemoth and everything paused.
Uncertain how he was filled with an instinctive knowledge that he could cut this odd ability off. However, there was also a distinct option not to…
This time, he saw his body sweep the arena in a quick glance, and by the immediate reactions of his group, it must have shouted some kind of warning. They were all fleeing to the sides of the arena and the monster slammed its gut into the middle and tried to snatch someone with its tongue, but it came just a few feet short.
Believing that his place was to act only as an observer, he scrutinized every action his body and the Aerilians took, the severity of injuries they managed to inflict, and attacks or patterns the behemoth revealed.
The first ones to die were, unexpectedly, the less agile fighters, followed by Galan'il and Friala'el, and due to an unfortunate slipup it seemed like John was about to be killed next.
His body was evading a wide sweep of its arm when its heel caught on a dismembered body part. Despite his quick reflexes, the momentary loss of balance opened him up to a nasty tongue attack. It locked itself around his left wrist and began reeling him in.
From previous experience, he knew that cutting through the appendage was a hopeless endeavor and he was already reconciled with another death when a flash of movement from his right made his body's arm jerk down, and immediately after, another slash fell on his arm, and severed it at its elbow. The behemoth sucked the forearm in and John was thrown back from the sudden release of tension.
Good thinking, he praised Duraq'er who cut his body's arm off.
Having more time to think, John began planning for what to do next.
Lightning was partially effective but he was afraid the problem was its size. They just didn't have enough power to trigger the paralysis. His Flameling seemed useful, but once again it took too long to cause enough burns to gain any reliable results and his stiletto was wholly ineffective. It might cause its death eventually, but John didn't have the minutes or hours to benefit from it.
Less than a minute later, they were down to only John and Duraqer, and the Knight-Protector was now solely focusing on buying as much time as possible.
Wait! What is happening to it?
Unable to notice it earlier due to the golden nature of the silhouettes, the bottom half of its jaw all the way down to its chest was noticeably less golden than the rest of its bulbous body.
They must have realized something and are both trying to buy time, but what… and why did it happen?
As the seconds stretched into another minute, John gained his first clue.
It's something to do with the azure flames.
Unfortunately, it was peppered with fireballs from the beginning of the fight, yet began showing the signs of serious affliction only recently. His observation was coming to an end because Duraq'er faltered after the latest roar and got crushed.
John's body was not doing much better and without the Knight-Protector's assistance, it got clipped by some kind of a projectile—most likely a body part—and then herded to the side with the gate where it got savagely torn apart.
Damnit! He cursed, seeing the vision stop moving and begin rewinding.
It picked up speed, showing him the fight in reverse order and finally, one moment caught his attention.
Could it be? He pondered, letting the rest go by with barely a thought. It would make sense, but where do the azure flames fit in?
That was when—hopefully—the last piece of the puzzle fell into their place.
From the sudden feeling of heaviness after the second attempt ran its course, he knew the third one would be the last and there was going to be a heavy price to pay afterward.
I need to make sure I understand how this all works before I have to use it in a real situation and perhaps the price for it won't transfer outside of the trial.
One last thing before he let it begin anew, he decided to wave his hand as a signal to his future self.
Let's see how it goes.
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The opening repeated in a similar manner with the group scattering to the sides but immediately after that, his body ran to Galan'il.
By his reaction, Galan'il was a bit reluctant to do as his body asked, but after a moment of arguing he relented and lifted his wooden glaive.
Admiring his body's steel confidence, he watched the weapon flash with light and cut through his left arm exactly below the elbow.
Ok, this confirms that I can use the knowledge in the following visions, but why didn't it wave as I instructed it to…
When the behemoth leaned down and opened its maw wide, his body used the opportunity to throw its arm in and followed it up with a large serving of purifying flames.
Good, hopefully, that will be enough.
Continuing the fight, his body did its best to stay alive and keep the monster's attention elsewhere and as the minutes stretched out, the tide began shifting in their favor.
Seeing it falter and later collapse, John would have smiled, however, soon after that he got taught a new part of this odd ability—its time limit.
The behemoth was still alive and struggling when the vision froze up and began its final rewind.
Ok, unless I got trapped in some mental prison, I should come out after it returns to its beginning. Here… it… comes!
As the colors returned, John was struck by an ungodly smell of desecrated bodies and the unmistakable stench of tar-like blood, but remembering the plan, he looked around and yelled out a quick warning.
"Get out! To the walls!"
Following his advice, he headed opposite the main gate, and just like in his vision he ran into Galan'il.
"Cut off my arm!"
"What? What do you…"
"No time to explain, do it now!" He shouted, pointing at his left forearm. "Cut right here, under my elbow."
The ground shook under his feet as the colossal behemoth slammed into the center of the arena, sending a cloud of dirt in every direction.
Grabbing his left wrist, he aimed his elbow out for easy access and gritted his teeth.
This is the only way, he reassured himself and a moment later felt a light jerk as the wooden glaive passed through like a hot knife through butter.
"What do you want to do now?" Galan'il asked, throwing a glance at the current situation.
"Now we need to stay alive for as long as we can. Let everyone know to focus on their survival above all else."
Seeing the man nod, John didn't waste any more time. His opportunity was about to open up.
And open up it did. The sight of the half-rotten meat chunk that served as its head split in the middle and revealed dozens of mismatched teeth of all sizes as the monstrosity took a deep breath.
Now! Tossing his severed arm out, he pushed a decent part of his remaining Fate to guarantee the odds and watched it fall into the back of its throat and vanish into the endless gullet beneath.
And… now! He followed it up with a command for a steady stream of azure flames to serve as its desert.
The expected roar ripped out of its maw and despite his covered ears, the sound rammed into him like a physical force and made him stumble.
Gods, that felt so much worse than I thought.
Shaking the debilitating effect off, his eyes were in focus just in time to see Ulian'al get backhanded into an arena wall with a wet squelch.
Fuck, we need more time.
Keeping himself safe on the opposite side of the Coliseum, he used his minions to distract the behemoth during its rampage.
Just like in the vision, the battle stretched out and his party members got caught one by one. Luckily—or unluckily—the monster was quickly losing its interest when chasing someone it couldn't catch, creating this scenario where the most experienced or the best suited for it was the last to be focused on. Over the first five minutes, the first half of his group died off, but they weren't the only ones taking injuries.
Its entire body was covered in shallow wounds and most importantly, its throat and upper half of its chest were now covered in wrinkled skin that was deathly dry despite the grey liquid dripping out and smearing across the rest of its body and also the dirt floor of the arena.
Following that, every time the grey substance got into contact with the azure flames it started bubbling and expanding like milk that was left too long on a hot stove.
Oh shit. That must be what Sakhul'la warned me about, John realized as the grey substance greedily sucked the azure flames in and multiplied. From the reactions of his four remaining teammates, he wasn't the only one understanding the real potential for a cataclysm he was now capable of unleashing.
Friala'el was the next to fall, but instead of being squashed into a paste, she went out in style. Yelling a defiant roar of her own, she jumped onto its back and delivered a devastating blow to the back of its neck. That sent a shower of meat all over her and also covered her in dozens of still-burning droplets of grey blood.
Her demise was quite horrifying as her body turned into an azure torch yet she refused to give up and desperately clung to the rotten skin, spreading the flames deep into the wound she chopped off.
That brought the behemoth to its knees as it finally dislodged the half-melted berserker off its neck and slammed her into the ground, finally ending her torment.
"Just a little longer," John yelled out, trying to cheer the others up. "It is on its last legs."
The behemoth was struggling to stand up and was now leaking the grey blood like a wet rag, creating a small pool on the right side where it stumbled.
Lacking the strength to stand, it tried to drag its bulk forward, but all its effort only made it flip over and fall on its back.
"You should stop feeding it the flames, the spread is getting out of hand," warned Duraq'er on his left side.
"Right, sorry," John muttered, commanding his Flameling to fall back.
Yeah, banning these cards is making much more sense.
The four of them remained together and watched the behemoth slowly dry up and dissolve into the puddle of grey blood beneath it until a grunt echoed across the arena.
Looking up, he watched the echo shimmer and a quick use of Feral Intuition brought up a new name.
[Territory Hierarch {C⋆⋆}]
"Uhhh, guys?"
"Calm down," he spread his pale hands in a I mean you no harm greeting. "You have passed all fifteen waves and are about to be rewarded, but I wanted to take a look at those who overcame my Behemoth… personally."
"Huh, are you… sentient?" John asked, curious about the enemy he would eventually have to face.
"They didn't tell you?" He raised his eyebrow in a very human-like gesture. "This integration is as much a trial for you as it is for us, but… Alas, it seems I am not allowed to say more about that. Good luck… and you are going to need it, because the next time we meet, this," he swept his hand over the carnage around him, "is what you have to overcome for real to earn the right to challenge me. Now… BE GONE!"
With a flash of light, John and everyone else found themselves inside the—already crumbling—barrier on the stone platform under the midnight sky.
[Congratulations!
For overcoming all fifteen waves, your Bastion qualifies for one minor and one major territory boon.
As a leader of Bastion created inside this sector, you have to select your desired rewards.
Open up the list now? Yes/No
Also + 1 Fate for overcoming the first fourteen waves and + 1 Fate for overcoming the final fifteenth wave.
Note: Major boon is twice as powerful as its minor variant]
"John, did you also get it?" He heard Melis'ar ask him after he finished reading through the pop-up.
"Yes. You knew I would?"
"No, but I expected as such." He explained. "Before I get to it I want to thank you. We once more owe you for your invaluable assistance and I am glad that you were also able to obtain the trial's reward. One important thing, pick only among the choices affecting your Bastion directly, because the moment you step out of this Sector, the other rewards lose their effects."
"I see," John nodded, "thank you for the warning."
Selecting Yes, a new screen came into his view.
[Choose two of the rewards and mark one as a major boon.
1: All allied sentient beings inside your sector earn 10% more ash from their kills.
2: All allied sentient beings inside your sector gain an increase of 5 to their Strength and Dexterity.
3: All allied sentient beings inside your sector gain an increase of 5 to their Perception and Focus.
4: All allied sentient beings inside your sector gain an increase of 5 to their Vitality and Willpower.
5: All allied sentient beings inside your sector require 20% less rest to remain in peak condition.
6: Passively earn an extra 0.1% of the ash your population obtains inside your sector.
7: Your Desperate Fool's Inn has a 50% discount on all basic meals.
8: Your Al'drul's Emporium provides an extra 5% discount on all available cards.
9: Your Astragoratius Mechatius provides a 20% discount on all of its services.
10: New building the Ethereal Arena becomes available for construction inside your Bastion, giving you and your population an option to train against themselves without any risk of permanent injury and also an option to challenge any monster you delivered a killing blow to. (This reward acts as a major boon and remains indefinitely)
Note: All boons last fourteen days]
Well damn.