Lucius focused his mind on the information he was receiving from Sense Danger. He had become skilled enough at identifying threats that he could sometimes even determine which attributes his enemies favored. For example, a creature with Strength as its highest attribute would give him a vastly different feeling from one that favored Dexterity. Unfortunately, this new threat possessed a unique flavor all its own that was difficult to identify.
If he were forced to categorize it, the closest comparison would be to the Hobgoblin Summoner, but even that was a stretch. The similarity was enough to make Lucius suspect that his current foe favored Magic Power over other attributes. That meant the leader's Magic Power attribute was likely greater than forty points, but less than ninety nine.
Lucius slowly approached the direction of the greatest threat in his senses, entering a clearing in the forest where an assortment of tents were spread out around a large bonfire. He spotted his target immediately. The man was thin and of average height, with short gray hair and light blue eyes. Nothing about him appeared particularly remarkable, but the feeling in Lucius' chest as he gazed at the man made his unassuming appearance feel like a cruel deception. There was a deadly threat lurking beneath that facade.
The leader was the only one seated on a chair. The rest of the group huddled together on the ground at the far side of the fire, seemingly keeping as much distance as possible from him. The entire group, including the leader, was watching a single man fighting an Abyss creature at the northern edge of the clearing.
What's going on here?
Lucius' brows furrowed as he tried to make sense of the scene. Why was everyone sitting around, watching as an Abyss creature attacked one of their own? Only when Lucius looked closer at the man locked in a life-or-death struggle with the monster did the situation become clear.
The creature was massive, bear-like, and covered in shaggy red fur. Its claws and fangs were long and thin, but the large number of them compensated for their thin appearance. Its mouth resembled a cluster of oversized porcupine quills, and its massive paws—currently swiping at the man—bore the same appearance. Lucius clenched his jaw tightly at the thought of what it must feel like to have such a strange set of teeth in your mouth... No wonder the bear was so angry.
Shaking the disturbing thought from his mind, he refocused on the man battling the beast. Though dwarfed by the massive creature, the man was still rather tall, even more so than Tiber and Roland, standing roughly up to the beast's armpit level, where most others would barely reach its stomach. He wore a plaid shirt and blue jeans, wielding a woodcutter's axe in his hands. It was Maryanne's father, David.
The leader was using Sarah as a hostage to control David and had no qualms about forcing the man into life-threatening situations for his own amusement, it appeared. Unfortunately, David didn’t know that both Maryanne and Sarah had already been saved. Lucius glanced between David and the leader, clenching his teeth as he fought the urge to intervene.
Sorry, David. You’ll have to hold on a bit longer.
Lucius wanted to help the embattled man, but doing so would expose him and throw away his greatest advantage, the element of surprise. Besides, David seemed to be holding his own, in fact he was fighting quite impressively against the deadly creature. The oversized woodcutter's axe in his hands seemed to possess the ability to grow larger as he swung it forward with tremendous force. When the creature tried to duck behind a tree to avoid the blow, the massive weapon smashed through the thick trunk, shattering wood and sending splinters flying through the air in all directions. The tall tree came crashing down from a single strike of David's axe, forcing both man and beast to leap aside to avoid being crushed. Moments later when the large tree was safely on the ground, their struggle resumed.
Stolen novel; please report.
"HaHaHaHa! Well done, David! Try not to think about what that scoundrel Ashtray might be doing to your precious Sarah while you fight. Distractions can be deadly in a battle you know!"
Lucius’ eyes widened as he turned toward the leader upon hearing his words. Something was definitely off about the man, besides his disgusting behavior of course. His laughter shifted between the voice of a man and that of an old woman for an instant a moment ago. It happened quickly, but Lucius’ enhanced perception caught the subtle detail. The strange phenomenon made him reconsider Nicolai’s claim that something was controlling his uncle.
Lucius hadn’t admitted it to Nicolai, but he had initially suspected that his uncle wasn’t being controlled by anything—just driven mad by power. After all, both Lucius and Jack had bonded with mythical creatures, and neither of them had been taken over. Now, however, he was beginning to believe something had gone terribly wrong. Had the leader really defeated a mythical creature and bonded with it? Or had he perhaps lost the fight... leaving the creature to use the man’s body to carry out its own twisted desires? But why would a Mythical creature who had not been defeated need to use a human's body? Something did not make sense.
Either way, Lucius’ task remained unchanged. He needed to kill the man who was causing so much suffering among his fellow human beings. If he needed to, he would kill the mythical creature who might be possessing him next.
Creeping through the clearing, Lucius approached the leader with Matriarch’s Fury held tightly in his grasp. He moved with superhuman grace, carefully placing each step against the ground in such a way to avoid making any sound or leaving prints as he flowed through the area in absolute silence. Just as he closed the distance to within a dozen feet, the man he was approaching suddenly rose to his feet without warning.
Lucius froze in place, refusing to release the breath in his lungs as he waited to see what had changed. Fortunately, the leader’s eyes remained fixed on David, who was gaining the upper hand against the beast. Apparently, that was unacceptable, as an unpleasant scowl began to form on the leader’s face, like he had tasted something bitter.
“Poor David, how will you ever grow stronger if your foes are so weak? Do not fret, I am here to aid you. If your enemy is not up to the challenge, we simply need to bring you down to their level! Don’t you agree, David?”
David’s face turned several shades paler. His brows furrowing deeply as his jaw clenched tightly in anticipation of what was to come.
“Say it, David... Say you agree.”
David let out an angry howl, swatting the oversized bear away with the side of his axe as he glared at the leader with bloodshot eyes and teeth bared. Shouting so fiercely that it seemed like he was trying to kill the leader with his words alone.
“I AGREE!”
The leader appeared to relish the suffering in David’s expression, his face lighting up with a mockingly kind smile as he nodded slowly.
“Well, in that case, it would be rude of me to refuse. Of course, David. Of course I will help you. Try not to die, okay? Wouldn't it be embarrassing if you died like a fool, slain by a creature much weaker than you?”
As the leader finished speaking, he flipped his hand over, palm facing upward. Lucius noticed the storage ring on the man’s finger as a mundane-looking chicken egg materialized in his hand. A gray mist seeped from the leader’s palm into the egg, and as it did so, the egg’s bleached white shell changed, growing red veins across it's shell as it turned darker and darker until it was pitch black.
The leader held the egg as though preparing to crack it against the edge of a pan or bowl, miming the motion through the air. Lucius watched with narrowed eyes as the egg cracked against the empty air, splitting in two and releasing a puff of gray smoke. The smoke coalesced into the translucent form of a pristine white pelican. The bird flapped its wings as it flew toward David, but as it moved, its white feathers visibly decayed and fell away. The once-beautiful creature’s flesh rotted; its eyes drooping out of their sockets, exposing the veins and bloody tissue that connected the organs to it's skull, while bones protruded grotesquely beneath it's dying skin.
The bird let out a tormented screech as it collided into David’s broad back.