The moment Arlosse saw the horse and took in its deep desire to protect its master despite being heavily injured, a thought rapidly sprang up in his mind; it was something that he had been introduced to rather recently.
The Bond System.
After completing the First Floor, he was given a new privilege that allowed him to create bonds with living creatures, and have them accompany him on his trials to become the Hateful Demon Tyrant.
At once, the Incarnate imagined himself astride the large white horse as its master, having completed the conditions required to earn its loyalty and invoke the Host Guide’s Bond System. It was a fleeting image, but it was wonderful indeed – powerful even.
The Incarnate felt a tug at his heart… hearts. Perhaps, a greater contributing factor to how he was suddenly compelled to charge forth and kill the demons now attempting to breach the tall walls of ice the white horse had created, was that he had also had a loyal horse he had known for a time in his previous life.
The horse had been lent to him by a farmer who had supported the efforts of the army against a particularly fierce nation called Inuad. The horse Arlosse, unlike the buffalo-esque variant he could see now, had been rather skinny, but quick and driven, answering to the name Wick.
Sadly, as brave and as loyal as Wick had turned out to be, it had died to twelve arrows like any other normal horse.
There was a chance, however, that the frost-spitting steed ahead of Arlosse would prevail against even that.
Thus, with eyes teetering between fury and terror – dreading the fact that he might be spotted and deemed a traitor – Arlosse surged towards his kin who had already shattered a portion of the ice around the horse and its fallen master and were beginning their assault.
With his reinforcement using Spirit Essence, Arlosse managed to cover the distance in a few breaths and soon, he was able to see the white horse standing on its hind legs, whipping out its long, sharp tail to fight back. It was wounded indeed.
A few gashes could be seen across its chest and thick neck, the blood slipping from them staining its pristine white hairs.
The Incarnate saw one of the demons, humanoid like him, raise and crash its mace into the horse’s face, sending it tumbling away from its master. The horse bled from the mouth profusely, having lost a few of its sharp teeth.
‘I have to act now!’ Arlosse thought, hoping what remained of the wall of ice would act as temporary cover from outside surveillance on what he was about to do.
The Fickle Viper appeared in his hand, and immediately, Arlosse charged it with an abundance of Spirit Essence. It shone like a lantern. Then, he finally used the Acquired Skill he had inherited after besting King Alabas in their short exchange.
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[Soaring Severance | Grade Epic]
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By infusing Spirit Essence into a sharp-edged weapon, amplify its general attributes and enchantments, and imbue them into an immaterial slash that will be sent forth from the weapon upon swinging it.
The projectile attack will bend to your will depending on your strength of mind.
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Cost : 65 Spirit Essence
===
This was the variant of the Acquired Skill that King Alabas used to summon his fatal immaterial slashes. Replicus had studied it while in the Isolated Lobby. It had a high cost, but Arlosse thought he could manage it. He had plenty of Spirit Essence left even after using Sundering Bunt a few times, after all.
He rushed into the gap in the ice and quickly went on offense. He swung the Fickle Viper at a demon that had been about to use some kind of purple, liquid sort of flame on the wounded hulking human warrior. At once, as Arlosse expected, a vague, feeble slash was projected from his gleaming katana and it whipped quickly towards the demon.
POW!
The slash met the demon’s armor and created a long, thin, wiggly indentation on it from which blood spilled in torrents. The attack hadn’t been nearly as powerful as Arlosse hoped, but the demon shrieked in pain and fell to the ground convulsing.
The Incarnate hadn’t waited to see the result, however. He had already turned to the demons about to put down the neighing white horse. He had the Fickle Viper elongate while simultaneously swinging it at full strength.
With a sharp, crisp whipping motion, the Fickle Viper, empowered tremendously by Soaring Severance, cut down three out of the five humanoid demon assailants cleanly in half.
The ones that survived had only managed to because they had sensed the attack coming, one leaping up and the other ducking down. The one to dodge upwards roared malignantly – the shroud of Boorish Frenzy clearly outlining him – and he sent a set of daggers flying through the air toward Arlosse.
The Hollow Demonling manifested the Valiant Subject’s Ward and blocked the whooshing blades easily, though he found that they had a shocking amount of power behind them.
Arlosse then launched himself forward while activating another recently gained Kanva.
===
[Light Birr | Grade Rare]
By coating your entire body in Spirit Essence, increase your speed by 25% per every singular lunge; in the process, become akin to an unseen breath of air.
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Cost : 25 Spirit Essence
===
Arlosse indeed became akin to a breath of air the instant he flashed forward and before the enemies realized it, he had severed both their heads, one with the sharp edge of the Valiant Subject’s Ward reinforced with his Spirit Essence, and the other with the Fickle Viper.
As the two bodies dropped to the ground, Arlosse took a quick breath and then hurried towards the downed horse.
On his approach, a hateful look appeared in the horse’s eyes and frost seeped from its bloody mouth like clouds. Arlosse stopped in his tracks.
He gulped. Right. He was a demon. The horse was probably wary of him, though he was sure it had seen him save it and its master.
“It’s alright,” he said and he stowed away the Fickle Viper and Valiant Subject’s Ward into the Hermetic Vault and raised his hands. “I don’t mean you any harm.”
The look in the horse’s eyes relaxed slightly. Arlosse recognized within them a great deal of intelligence. It was no ordinary horse, and that went beyond just its uncanny powers.
Arlosse took a slow step forward and his right hand was bathed in an orange light.
“I want to heal you. It will take some time, but I promise, you will get back to full health,” he said.
The horse’s eyes narrowed and the chill spewing from its mouth lessened. It allowed Arlosse to approach closer and closer until he was merely a meter away. The Incarnate crouched. The horse twitched nervously.
“It’s alright,” he said, looking at its hazel eyes which promised death if he acted outside the script. They also kept darting behind him, where its master was.
Arlosse looked at the horse’s wounds. There were several gashes, but all of them weren’t too deep except for a particularly nasty one cutting across its chest; that one bled profusely.
Arlosse placed his hand, livid with the light of Reform, over the gash.
He tried to smile at the horse.
“It’s uh… It’s going to take a while. Half an hour,” he said, and to his surprise the horse snorted with what sounded like suspicion and disbelief. “Yes. I hate that as well. Believe me.”
Anxiously, Arlosse looked around.
Did he really have thirty minutes of calm here though, or was he going to have to use the time to earn the horse’s trust and try to fully heal it a little later?
Just as he wondered, a voice came from behind, startling him.
“You… You… demon…”
Arlosse turned.
The voice was coming from the heavily wounded hulking human warrior. His steed immediately tried to rush to him, but it buckled.
The Incarnate persuaded the horse to settle down and turned, sweat dripping from his brow.
“Y-yes?” he said, shaking.
“You… you can speak our tongue?” the hulking warrior asked, his eye, barely visible through his helm’s visor, appraising his likeness and actions. Arlosse was stunned.
He had opened his mouth to reply when a ferocious force blasted the ice wall around him and a malevolent presence washed in.
A truly menacing demon stalked in, towering over the Incarnate by a full body.
At once, Arlosse realized that this was the demon who had been responsible for the hulking human warrior’s state.