"Uuuraaaaaaaaaaaghhhhhhhhhhh!!!"
A sticky goo covered the Blood Knight like a veil of darkness trying to cover its entire body, as the knight tried to tear it off forcefully in a fit of rage.
But the goo kept regenerating, and eventually covered it whole.
It stopped moving, while the Blade Reaper continued to float around Gawain's head.
"..."
"..."
Kuro and Lestia watched in relief, as the effects of the tome malfunctioning receded back into its pages. Soma's right hand which was holding it had returned to normal again.
But-
Summon: [Blood Knight Gawain] has resisted control.
Penalty incurred.
Health 7,500/12,000 Mana 0
"What?! How can the decay happen so quickly?!"
Kuro had noticed the decaying health of the Blood Knight, but he had not expected this to happen so quickly in succession.
Penalty... Is this the results of attempting to take control over the familiar of another person...?
"Master, even I don't know what this is!!!"
"It's under my control, but it can't move anymore...!!!"
"Tch!"
...There were clear measures to prevent the stealing of another user's familiar it seems.
Summon: [Blood Knight Gawain]'s Passive Skill: Decaying Life has been activated.
Summon: [Blood Knight Gawain]'s Passive Skill: Decaying Life has been activated.
Summon: [Blood Knight Gawain]'s Passive Skill: Decaying Life has been activated.
The messages continued to repeat that line of dialogue.
Health 2,000/12,000 Mana 0
Gawain's talismans that was covering its eyes began to tear off. It fell down to the grass and dissolved into smog.
Soma shut the book tight and picked up her sword stabbed onto the ground in front of her.
And then she pierced Gawain through the chest.
The familiar was short-lived, as the darkness dissipated from its body and faded into nothingness.
Character: Soma. Active Skill acquired: Blade Reaper LV1
Kuro did not question why Soma had done that, and quickly signalled everyone to return to L'althukul to avoid staying there like sitting ducks when the Abomination was just about ready to pull off another large-scale attack.
The three rode on the undead worm and managed to dodge another huge blow to the ground; the soil blasted around like a grenade explosion. It had reverted to its enraged state with the use of Enrage Blood.
When they had mounted successfully, Soma then explained.
"... ...It seems that this ability that Master has given me... Book of Blood Knights. This ability allows me to summon knights that I've read in stories before. And if I kill them, I obtain a characteristic of that summoned knight. This time, it seems I have obtained a skill. Although it has been downgraded in level and effectiveness."
"...Kuhu..."
"Master?"
"Master?"
The two women looked at Kuro with a worried look as they held onto the reins of the worm.
Kuro grabbed the hair on his forehead and broke into a maniacal laughter.
"Kukukuku... kuhahahahahahahahaha!!! Blade Reaper, was it? That's the final piece I need to defeat that thing. Finally, the inconsistencies are no more. You two won't be using your Origins anymore."
----------------------------------------
"DIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Shun's voice screeched out as the body that was controlling him chased after L'althukul in huge strides.
As the ground trembled in its wake, it noticed that its prey was heading towards a dead end.
Its human consciouness residing within its body felt victory was at hand. Dark emotions surged upwards to its mouths, forming a smirk. The sight of that multitude of mouths smirking and laughing softly, was ominously creepy.
Extending a few more limbs out of its humanoid shape, it tore down the nearby trees with glee. The sight of destruction filled it with immense pleasure.
It was coming closer.
It's prey was going to die very soon.
That was all it could think about.
Since it did not consider about its opponents' abilities if it didn't threaten its life. Of course, the Abomination had taken a huge hit from Gawain's Gallahad earlier, but that opponent that had surprised it had vanished.
It didn't think too much.
Nor did it think too much of the other three, after taking them on individually and in a group.
They could interrupt its attacks, but through its acquired Passive skill: Status Awareness LV2, it could sense that they could not keep up with those kinds of maneuvers soon.
It didn't know why it relished those last moments of desperation coming from the hunted, but it did.
Was it from one of its parents it had consumed during its infancy stages?
It didn't care.
It wasn't important at all.
It just continued to eat.
Consume.
And fed off the negative emotions fueling its actions.
!!
Finally, the worm had stopped.
At this distance, it no longer needed to cancel its enraged state forcefully to use its combination of sword skills and Flame Shroud to devastate its target.
All it took...
was a single...
Punch.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!
As a large explosion resounded throughout the Shmizula Forest, a dust cloud was formed at the point of impact as well.
This time for sure... it thought.
This time...
...Why was the dust not clearing up...? It had turned... purple...?
Annoyed from the wait, it cleaved the air to allow it to regain its clarity in vision again.
Axe Acceleration.
Flow Acceleration.
And then it punched the air.
The dust finally began to clear up. But it had somehow taken some damage mysteriously from coming in contact with the dust.
Nothing.
It had hit nothing.
What seemed like a dead end... the three had vanished from that place.
This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.
?!
It was confused, and finally found where there were with Presence Awareness LV2 suddenly getting its targets within a 20 meter range. After all, it couldn't detect presences as far as Kains who had the quirks of a Hero.
...They were...
...AIRBORNE?!
----------------------------------------
After using Slime Veil on all of us during that split second-
Casting Diamond Dust to obscure its vision for all the time we can get.
Using Blade Current and Breakmoon to propel us upwards through that draft of current created from that repulsion force.
Then using Soma's vampire wings to suspend us even higher-!
When we're this high up, it should take up his attention even easily this way...!!!
The Abomination quickly noticed Kuro speeding down from the air, leaving the other two behind.
It was ecstatic.
That guy was jumping into the embrace of death.
Not even requiring abilities, it detached its front and formed a large hole as its mouth, ready to invite Kuro into its collection of hosts inside.
But it was suddenly frozen still from some kind of invisible pressure.
"Mind Drain! Induce Passiveness!"
As Lestia shouted out, Soma fell down even faster to the ground with Sword Rain.
The Abomination returned with Induce Passiveness, cancelling out its meagre effects of control.
Somehow, it haven't been able to use Inaho's abilities, but sensing some kind of 'controlling situation', those skills were suddenly released.
That brief moment of stun wasn't enough, but Kuro immediately followed up with his own.
"Spectral Cowling!"
He would have wanted to take this thing into the memory world and killed its inhabitants there with his Spectral Memory, a recollection of the dark creatures he and White had faced before. He would be invincible there, but right now... Kuro just wanted to buy enough time.
It only added to another two seconds.
The Abomination broke free, and unleashed an attack. It didn't need to take too much time to have an ability potent enough for Kuro.
Spirit Summoning was about to activate from Inaho's pool of active skills, but Lestia immediately reacted.
"Bloodcurdle!"
Bloodcurdle was similar to Battlecry and the family of that type of ability, but it instead created debuffs.
In this case, Bloodcurdle had applied a skill cancellation effect. But it required 2,000 MP like her Banner abilities and it could only cancel low rank and level skills.
It went through because Lestia knew from Inaho's conversation with her before, that Spirit Summoning was the only one she had at LV 1. Since it was assimilated into her as well, she had known its effects fully as if it was part of her. Thus she had not hesitating in the slightest when attempting to cancel Spirit Summoning with Bloodcurdle.
As a result from the large expenditure, Lestia could no longer cast anymore without drinking her Basic Alchemic Potions that would take her some time, essentially putting her out of combat for quite a bit of time that she clearly could not afford now.
Even now, she was still shaking from having to face her fears. Of what she had created, but she held firm when using her abilities.
The Abomination used another ability in a haste: Fire Blast.
Lestia immediately used the last few bits of her MP to cast Bone Shield, detaching a portion of L'althukul's body into a semi-circle and deflecting the flames.
Kuro still took a bit of damage, with a few bits of his skin turning bright red. He grit his teeth, and frowned from the pain.
As Kuro free dived downwards in a hugging posture even closer to the gaping mouth of the Abomination, he replied mentally to Lestia.
-Good work. Now leave the rest to us.
...Un.
----------------------------------------
The Abomination attacks were no use through that quick sequence of events.
It had started to feel annoyance surging within its hosts' consciousness, but it still believed it had the upper hand.
Its HP was still full after recovering from the last bout, there was nothing to worry about. And Kuro who it had checked with its passive: Life Essence LV5, did not have enough HP to survive in its body, where it could still activate its skills to thoroughly destroy its trapped victim inside.
Just then, it sensed a person at its feet heading towards its chest, where its main host Inaho laid.
It was probably the person who had fell down with Sword Rain.
But that person didn't have a weapon. It was impossible for the person to deal damage to it.
But as a safety measure, it extended a portion of itself, unconsciously activating its passive skill: Intangible Control LV MAX.
Twenty 'foot soldiers' were created in an instant, as they walked out of the enormous feet of the Abomination. But it had the same abilities and stats of itself except for the HP and MP. It had a strong defense value so it wouldn't die easily from one attack, or even a hundred.
It had no face, no equipment. It was stark naked, and seemed to be covered in skin entirely, resembling a naked terracotta soldier.
Expecting things would carry out on its own through its hive mind control over those soldiers, it welcomed Kuro who was about to fall into its mouth.
"Now!"
"-Skill scroll activate! Translocation!"
?!
Kuro revealed what he was hugging all along.
The Sword of Bloodwell, which no longer rejected Kuro as shown earlier.
In a flash, he blinked into another place, startling the Abomination.
It was caught off guard. The weapon had been cleverly disguised within the weak presence of Kuro, while Soma who was on the ground was weaponless... for just enough time to get close to it without getting bombarded.
Kuro appeared right beside Soma and quickly retrieved Bloodwell. It pulsated red.
"̴̴D̶o̷n̴'̸t̶ ̵u̷n̵d̴e̶r̶e̸s̶t̸i̵m̴a̸t̷e̴ ̷m̷e̸!̸!̷!̵"̷
A voice of contempt, resembling the Flame Wizard Urayama Ichiyo, cried out.
A large volume of fire attacks rained down onto Kuro and Soma, and the foot soldiers backed off to prepare for the incoming flamethrower.
But the duo was prepared.
"Blade Reaper!"
Blade Reaper LV1
Consumes 10,000 MP to manifest a Reaper for 120 seconds. (Cooldown: 500,000 seconds)
The Reaper destroys 99% of incoming magical attacks, and converts it into a duration extension for its summon period. (1 second/500 damage destroyed)
While the Reaper is active, the user cannot move on their own but skills can still be activated.
----------------------------------------
This skill can be cancelled prematurely, and refunds MP back to the user based on the remaining duration left. (LV restriction: 5)
The flames were all negated, as the Abomination blew through a large amount of MP for nothing. It did not understand that it was feeding the duration continuity of Blade Reaper.
Soma suffered a little damage during this time, as it wasn't a perfect defense from the magic, but it wasn't enough to take her down.
After around a minute, it seemed as if the Abomination had finally realised it was no use and stopped.
The foot soldiers it had created charged forward the charred ground where the two was standing practically unscathed.
It felt that something was wrong.
Through its Mana Condensation LV5, there was a large expenditure of MP for a while now.
Even though nothing was happening.
More like, the flames were covering the duo, disabling its vision once more.
And then it saw what they were doing as the light from the flames cleared up.
"Cancel Blade Reaper! Sword Dance! Sword Dance! Sword Dance! Sword Dance! Sword Dance! Sword Dance! Sword Dance! Sword Danc-"
!!!
"It noticed! Go for it, we should have enough to take one down!"
Realizing that a large amount of power was convulsing and storing within Soma's demonic blade, the Abomination quickly backed off. It was not enough to kill it, but it could take out nearly a quarter of HP if it landed cleanly.
Within its growing calculative mind, it felt that the humans that were using their remaining efforts to beat it could be manipulated, and it could finally eat them once they have expended all of their resources.
...But the two did not give chase.
Kuro grinned as if he had read its intentions.
"Did you think we would believe that this attack would defeat you on its own? Kuku, I wasn't born this late into the world like you~"
Soma dashed forward towards the foot soldiers which were still charging towards them.
----------------------------------------
That's right, their target had always been one thing only.
Kuro's deductions were correct. He had seen the Abomination revealing a weaker version of itself before when White was hiding in a corner to activate his Field of Memories. While White was unconscious, Kuro could still use the body in some small ways.
...Including the opening of his eyes.
He could see how the Abomination handled the male elves initially as it went berserk from White's mental interference.
A number of small humanoids appeared within itself and killed off the male elves controlling the mechanism that held it in place.
He had known that the Abomination held this kind of slime-like ability from the start, and had appraised them for their values already. All along, he was trying to make the Abomination lower its guard again to do this. He had already figured out the pattern of combat it had always taken since the start.
It would never attack a weaponless person with a spell. It always started with a melee attack.
And if Soma whom he had instructed to attack from the ground closed distance quickly to where its feet were at, it wouldn't have enough time to move its humanoid hands down to personally attack now that it had taken the humanoid form of Shun.
In other words, all according to plan.
----------------------------------------
"We just wanted to take out one of them."
"-Delay: Lightspeed Thrust. Delay: Blade Current.
TAKE THIS! CUTTING EDGEEEEEEEE!"
Soma leapt forward, and sliced one of the soldier in half.
But she didn't break momentum.
She made quick work of the remaining nineteen.
...Blood spilled out of them, as it slowly seeped into the blade of Bloodwell.
"It's... really blood..."
Soma finally lost her focus for a moment and realized that her haemophobia was going to act up again.
...But she felt a hand on the grip she was using to hold the demonic blade.
Turning around, she realized that it was her Master who had done so.
"M...Maste...r..."
A tear was forming around her eye, and Kuro smiled weakly.
A similar situation isn't it. But I'm here. I'll always be here. Even if you try to run away from me, I'll find you. And then I'll take over all of your fears all again.
"..."
...Master...
Lestia felt a surge of electricity shooting up her back. It was as if that had been directed to her as well, since Kuro had said those words through their mental link as Master and Slave.
Forcing a smile as well, Soma felt a warmth of reassurance welling up in her heart. Gripping Bloodwell even tighter than before, she readied a look of determination on her face.
"Are you ready?"
"...Un."
"Then go! Turn your weakness, into a strength!"
"Bloodwell Expend! Bloodwell Expend! Bloodwell Expend! Bloodwell Expend! Bloodwell Expend! Bloodwell Expend! Bloodwell Expend! Bloodwell Expend! Bloodwell Expend! Bloodwell Expend! Bloodwell Expend! Bloodwell Expend! Bloodwell Expend! Bloodwell Expend! Bloodwell Expend! Bloodwell Expend! Bloodwell Expend! Bloodwell Expend! Bloodwell Expend!"
The Sword of Bloodwell was glowing even redder, as if it was trying to consume the world along with its ominous hue. A color as thick as blood.
Or rather, a color that personified blood.
Flapping her demon wings, Soma flew towards the Abomination with Kuro behind her back holding the handle of the sword with her.
It seemed to notice finally that its life was being threatened by something. Something coming out of that sword.
It used every single ability it had to attack Soma and Kuro who were approaching it incredibly quick.
Soma was using Blade Current and Lightspeed Thrust with their "Delay" effects after all. It was still active and raised her agility parallel to the sword's direction.
But then it wasn't fast enough, and had only activated when the duo was already extremely close.
The abilities phased through them.
-It was Lestia's Slime Veil, which had Intangible Control LV MAX. Unlike the Abomination's, she had mastered the intricacies of that Passive Ability after being a Slime for so long.
Thus she could allow characters to phase through things for a second.
The true ability to become intangible.
GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!
Lestia screamed within that mental link the three shared, spurring Soma up even more.
Expending its remaining MP, it attempted to use a protective skill in a panic instead.
Slime Guard. Slime Veil. Fire Shield. Harden Swor-
Soma closed her eyes, and shouted out.
"-DIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!"
The red blade plunged into the center of the Abomination, the heart of Inaho's body. And then the two blew a hole through its body and arrived on the other end.
It stayed motionless for a few seconds. And then-
Bulging up like a balloon, it exploded out a sea of red.
Losing all of her strength as she started to smell the thick odor of blood, Soma's wings lost power and the two skydived downwards to the ground...
"I... can't... anymore..."
"Somaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!"
Kuro shrieked as he closed his eyes to brace for the impact.
And then he felt something soft on his back, as he landed safely down.
Opening his eyes, he knew he had found the answer.
"-I got you two."
"...Really... Haaahhh... at least let me know you're going to catch us..."
Lestia formed out a head from her slime body and smiled.
"...Master... ...Thank you."