Reacting to the captain’s words, Andric caught sight of the corrupted lioness and dodged just in time to avoid it as it pounced onto his prior location. Instead of prowling like before, the monstrosity immediately charged him with reckless abandon.

Furless, skinless black muscles visibly squirmed as it charged. Andric threw a knife, but while he struck it face first, the monster didn’t even react at all. Even as sizzling black blood dripped to the sand below, the former lioness charged straight ahead.

Dashing to the side, Andric dodged a vicious snap of its jaws. It whirled on him instantly. Saliva dripped down its toothy mouth — which Zoe could now see had split open its whole head.

The other corpse was now beginning to rise as well. Andric clearly caught sight of it too, because he took out his twin blades and dashed towards it even with the first monstrosity still nipping at his heels.

He was clearly trying to destroy the second monster before it became a true threat — but he was too late. Just as he closed in, the corpse leapt to its feet and slammed into him. Rolling to the side, Andric leapt to his feet — and then ducked as the firs monster leapt over him.

As it did, he scored a deep gash in its side. Unfortunately, he lost the blade in the process, as it was twisted out of his hand and quickly subsumed by the writhing, rotting flesh.

As Zoe tracked the fight, she realized that she still had {Manasight} active. She hadn’t been paying much attention to it, but she could now see that the dark purple haze she had sensed in Andric would flare to life whenever he activated one of his dash abilities.

Perhaps dark purple is spacial magic?

As Andric went back on the defensive, Zoe realized that she could also guess the direction he was going to travel in. It was subtle, and she would still get it wrong sometimes, but it was definitely possible.

{Manasight has leveled up! Manasight is now level 3}.

Unfortunately, Zoe realized something else as well. Her own mana was resonating in sync with the monsters. When they would lunge, she could feel a kind of anticipation thrumming in her chest. The black mana in her own channels was pulsating. There wasn’t actually any more of it, but it was more pronounced. Like it was inflamed.

What is this? And what does it mean?

In any case, Andric was still on the defensive, and the monsters were now circling him. It was a strange departure from the relentless frenzy that had possessed them up until this point. Zoe realized that she was holding her breath.

All of a sudden she tensed, and the abominations pounced upon Andric at the same time from opposite directions. Instead of dodging to the side, the assassin dropped to the ground and rolled out from beneath the two bodies as they slammed into each other and dropped to the ground.

Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.

Stumbling to his feet, he ran without looking back. Zoe shifted her attention back to the lionesses. Instead of rising back to their feet to try to rush him again, they appeared to be — well, Zoe wasn’t quite sure. They were tangled up, flesh squirming together, and she realized she couldn’t tell which one was which anymore.

At the same time that Andric spun around and regained his bearings, the singular monstrosity rose to its feet. Or at least, two thirds of them. The former lionesses had merged together head to tail, forming a six-legged creature that stood with its front torso upright.

Zoe analyzed it.

{Corrupted Lioness Liontaur - ???}

The liontaur released a deep, thunderous roar. Zoe’s heart pounded in her chest. Lumbering towards Andric with none of its former grace, the abomination swung one of its bony, scythe-like forelimbs in a downward arc, clearly trying to cut him in half.

Andric stood his ground, parrying the attack with his one remaining blade and then hacking off the arm at the shoulder. Flinching back, Zoe winced involuntarily. And then she shuddered, feeling sick again.

While she was rooting for Andric at an intellectual level, she couldn’t deny that her body was responding physically more to the lioness. It was fucking weird, and disturbing, and she didn’t like it. Was there any chance that she was going to mutate into some kind of corrupted monstrosity herself?

Zoe flinched again as Andric relieved the liontaur of its other scythe limb. Enraged, the monster spun around and attempted to chomp down on him with its too-wide, slobbering mouth.

Unfortunately, that didn’t work out, and the creature was soon missing its head. Nevertheless, that wasn’t going to stop it, and the monster continued to kick and flail blindly. At least, it did until Andric hacked off two of its legs.

Collapsing to the ground, the mass of slimy flesh quivered in impotent rage. Stepping up to it with obvious caution, Andric stabbed it several times before attempting to hack it to pieces.

“Enough!” Rising to his feet, the captain waved his hands. Stepping back and looking up, Andric waited for whatever was going to happen next. “That’s enough,” the captain continued. “You pass.”

Turning to the side, he pointed at the woman who still hadn’t given Zoe her name. “Go get him out of there and cleaned up.”

The woman nodded and left. Zoe wondered where she was going. Was the path down to the gate at the bottom of the far cliff somewhere behind them? In any case, a minute or two later, the gate swung open and Andric walked inside.

Four lionesses hopped down. Circling the still-moving remains of the corrupted abomination, they released a swirling torrent of flame. The fire washed over the bits of gore, undoubtedly burning it to a crisp.

Regaining her composure, Zoe finally turned to the captain. “What was that?”

“Corruption,” he said simply. “Don’t know much about it, don’t know where it comes from. But the river is full of it, and it’s nasty stuff.” He paused. “I’d only encountered it once before, and that was twenty years ago.” Shifting in his seat slightly, he stroked his beard. “It wasn’t always in the river. It only appeared a little under a year ago.” He paused. “We’ve thought about following it upstream to the source, but…” he waggled his hand. “Didn’t seem like a good idea.”

“Anyway, Zora figured out how to stabilize it temporarily. Useful if you want beasts that take two times to kill.”

Zoe shivered. He said it could be stabilized — temporarily.

Looking inside herself, she frowned at the pulsating, squirming black mana. It looked hungry.

“Alright, you’re next.”

Snapping back to the present, Zoe watched as Lily hopped down. As soon as she landed, someone threw down her enormous staff. Picking it up, the mage took a defensive stance in the very center of the pit, facing the far cliff.

With a start, Zoe realized that the four lionesses had left. But then another two jumped down, and the fight began.