“Binky?!” the others shouted with disbelief.
“Binky was his final monster?” Ariyana questioned as she looked from the Possessed Askith Beast Tamer to Liam.
“Yup,” Liam smiled at her.
“But how?” Artem started.
“How did Binky, who was this guy’s tamed pet, escape and become an EFM in a different room?” Blair inquired.
Mercer pondered on the question and at something else that was nagging in the back of his brain. A sudden thought appeared in his mind as he muttered, “It has to do with the word Possessed.” He then looked at Liam and asked, “Doesn’t it?”
Liam nodded.
A lot was bugging him while he and the others were fighting the creatures this beast tamer released.
Why the word possessed was in their names? Why the beast tamer and the other beats’ dropped and their status bars disappeared with them when they did? It had taken him a while to figure it out.
It was thanks to the one creature they struggled with in the last EFM room, Binky.
“These beasts were the beast tamer’s tamed beasts. Binky must have been one of them as well,” Liam started as he looked at Ariyana. “However, tamed beasts only obey the tamer who tamed them correct?”
Ariyana nodded as she agreed with Liam.
“However, every beast that we have fought in here had the word Possessed in their name,” Liam continued. “When we fought Binky, she did not have that. Which tells me that these creatures died due to the flooding water. We all know that Binky can handle being underwater since we fought it.”
The others nodded as they continued to listen.
“Since Binky escaped here that means the taming magic it had over her is completely gone making this Beast Tamer dead as well,” Liam continued.
“Yeah, but all the EFM’s besides Binky were undead like creatures,” Roman stated. “Since this guy was turned undead wouldn’t it be able to re-tame these creatures as undead beasts?”
“Ah that’s where it gets interesting,” Liam said with a smile. “That would be the case if the Beast Tamer became an undead.”
“If it became undea…,” Mercer started to mutter until realization dawn on him. “This Askith Beast Tamer never became an undead did he?”
“Correct,” Liam replied. “He was never reanimated, but instead became possessed by an undead creature making him just a puppet just like the other beasts in here.”
“Then that means…,” Avery started before looking at the Askith Beast Tamer.
“This man isn’t the real EFM,” Liam started. “He is possessed by the true EFM.”
Everyone’s eyes widened.
“But how is it that possible?” Artem asked.
“Hell if I know,” Liam said bluntly. “The only thing I do know is we’ll have to kill him and the rest of the creatures if we want to find out who’s pulling the strings.”
“How dare a lowly species think it can kill me!?” the Possessed Askith Beast Tamer shouted with anger. “I will make sure to kill each and every one of you!“
After making the declaration, the man suddenly dropped to the floor.
“Quick!” Liam started as he spun his gaze around the room. “Look for the beast that it’s going to possess!”
The others scanned the room. They could see the Roc since it was close by, but they couldn’t see the hyena.
A bestial laugh echoed throughout the room as they looked around.
“If that isn’t a sign on which beast it is then I don’t know what,” Roman muttered as they grouped up.
Artem noticed something on the other side of the room.
It was the Possessed Vicious Askith Hyena’s tail.
Artem turned his eyes to the others and gave them a wave to catch their attention.
After they looked at him, Artem brought a finger to his lips before pointing to what he saw.
Mercer and Liam nodded as they started slowly moving towards the direction the creature was hiding.
As they made their way over to the creature, Liam started to wonder why the beast wasn’t moving to attack them.
Before he could come to a conclusion, his Danger Sense suddenly flared up. However, instead of coming from the front, the feeling covered his entire back.
Shit! Liam thought as he spun around and saw the Possessed Askith Roc spread its wings out wide. Liam was about to shout out a warning, but it was too late.
The Possessed Askith Roc flapped as hard as it could and sent a powerful gust in their direction.
The force of the wind shot towards the middle of the group and suddenly exploded, sending each member in different directions.
Liam felt his back slam hard against the pillar he was closest to at the back right of the room.
He got up as fast as he could and looked around.
The Possessed Askith Roc was nowhere to be seen around eye level. He swiftly looked up to see the creature was flying towards Artem who was getting back to his feet close to the pillar the hyena’s body was hiding behind.
Without waiting, the Possessed Askith Roc started to fly down as fast as it could with its talons stretched out. This strike looked different from the dive bomb it was doing earlier. The speed was slower, and he was able to see it soaring down.
“Artem!” Liam shouted out to warn him. “Above you!”
Instinctually, Artem swung his shield up and activated the spikes to protrude out right before the bird tried to strike.
The ground below Artem caved in a bit as he used every ounce of his body strength to not buckle under the pressure.
The Possessed Askith Roc let out a painful screech as it felt a couple of the spikes pierce through its foot.
Before it could flap its wings to get away, Liam heard Blair finish a chant.
The creature suddenly felt a massive pressure push down on it. As soon as it felt the pressure it tried flapping its wings as hard as it could. However, the sheer weight of the gravity pushing down on it prevented it from going any higher.
Forgoing the chance to get away, the Possessed Askith Roc turned its head to Artem who slammed his mace over a part of the its foot that wasn’t pierced and tried to hold it down.
Anger filled the creature as it tried using its free talon to maneuver past the shield to dig its claws into him.
However, the few moments it took to figure this plan was a few moments too long.
Liam felt something powerful building up behind him.
As he turned around he noticed Mercer had powered up his Zodiac ability, True Shot.
Understanding what Mercer was going to do, Liam decided to run as fast as he could to get ready for the next monster. As he began to run, Mercer released the arrow.
The Possessed Askith Roc only had a moment to turn its head to see the fiery arrow soaring at it. It tried to move its head out of the way, but it was too late. The arrow shot through its head, exploding it into pieces, the creature’s feather lit up from the passing flames and spread throughout its body.
Artem quickly pulled his shield out from its foot before the flames could touch his shield.
As he went to turn around, he noticed a pair of claws were extended towards him with a drooling maw opened in the air.
Liam was about six feet away from the creature with no one directly in front of.
He swiped the blade in his right hand through the air, which made the others confused why he swung early.
However, everyone quickly understood the moment they saw the shadowy hand trailing behind him swing out in an arc six feet away and sliced the Possessed Vicious Askith Hyena across its eyes.
This brief moment allowed Artem to duck and bring his shield over his head. Once when the creature was right over his head, Artem quickly stood up, shoved his shield into the stomach of the creature and flip him over.
The Possessed Vicious Askith Hyena flipped in the air and landed on his back. As it hit the ground, its body slid and rolled over and over; right into the remain pool of the Askith Battle Scorpdread’s acidic blood.
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The Possessed Vicious Askith Hyena let out yips and screams of pain as the acidic blood started sizzling its fur and flesh.
Liam watched as its health pool soared down and down, until it finally hit zero.
“This…,” the familiar gurgled voice shouted.
Liam and the others turned to see the Possessed Askith Beast Tamer stand back up. Anger filled this man’s expression as he glared at the group.
Liam stared at his status bar as it reappeared over the man’s head.
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“Possessed Askith Beast Tamer. 250/1,000 HP. 50/500 MP.”
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“This can’t be happening!” the Possessed Askith Beast Tamer roared. “My precious collection should have been enough to kill you!”
As Liam watched this man start to throw a fit he noticed something that made him put his guard up.
The Possessed Askith Beast Tamer’s health was starting to drop as sounds of bones breaking escaped from its body.
What the hell is going on? Liam thought as he watched the man’s left leg bulge a bit.
“I can’t believe you have made it this far!” the man shouted as his right arm swelled up. It looked like the hand and arm was being filled with some kind of liquid. It swelled so much; Liam thought it could pop at any moment.
“What is he doing?” Ariyana questioned as she repulsed at the sight of the man.
The Possessed Askith Beast Tamer’s left arm stretched out to the point where it looked like the skin was about to rip off. His fingers on this hand elongated and turned into sharp claws as the nails grew out and sharpened like a beast’s.
The man had become grotesque and unnatural. The process it went through to take on this horrifying form was enough to make the group feel like they were going to throw up.
Liam fought the feeling as hard as he could. After a moment had passed a chime echoed in his mind.
This sound confused him, but he didn’t take the time to look at it. Instead, he turned to Ariyana, who looked like the color in her skin had drained and stated, “Ariyana. Snap out of it!”
Ariyana slowly turned to look at Liam. A horrified expression was written on her face as she stammered, Wha…what?”
“We need to be ready to stop it from moving,” Liam replied. “We don’t know what its planning on doing, but we need to make sure it doesn’t reach us. Can you bind it if it tries?”
“I…I…,” Ariyana stuttered.
Shit! Liam started thinking. She’s terrified. I need to wake her up.
Liam turned to the others to get some help, but then noticed they too were looking like they were frozen with fear.
He looked back at the disfigured male who stared back at them with fury. His health had stopped deteriorating.
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“Possessed Askith Beast Tamer. 173/1,000 HP. 0/500 MP.”
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“Guys!” Liam shouted, trying to get their attention. “You need to snap out of it!”
“Oh? What is this?” the man started. His gurgled voice now worse than before. That sludgy sound he had before sounded even more intense. It was not the voice of a human. “You were able to fight back the Fear of watching me transform?”
Liam took an offensive stance as he stared at him, readying himself for anything.
“Not like it’ll help you,” the Possessed Askith Beast Tamer tried to cackle. “I’ll kill you first.”
Liam watched as the creature bent his over-flatted leg down. Before he pushed off of it, Liam rushed forward.
With much more speed than what Liam thought it would be able to use, the man cleared the distance between him and Liam quickly.
As soon as Liam got within his long arm’s striking range he swung it like a whip to swipe at Liam.
Barely seeing it in time, Liam ducked and rolled his upper body under the arm and swung up. The dagger in his hand missed, but the shadow hand followed the path his right hand took and was able to slice vertically up the creature’s stomach to neck.
The creature spun around and tried using its inflated arm to strike at Liam.
Liam quickly pushed off his legs and did a back hand stand to dodge the strike. He was barely able to dodge it as the closed fist almost hit his feet during the dodge.
Liam quickly sprinted back in after righting himself.
The Possessed Askith Beast Tamer thrust his elongated arm with the claws pointed out.
Liam pushed his legs to jump to the right to dodge it and ran his left dagger along the man’s arm, slicing into the flesh.
The creature let out a painful howl as it retracted his arm.
It then swung his right arm as hard and fast as it could to slam right into Liam, however, before he could connect the hit, Liam disappeared.
Confused, the creature looked around to try and find him.
Before it could say or do anything, the Possessed Askith Beast Tamer felt two daggers plunge right into its back.
As the daggers were pulled out, the disfigured man snarled and swung its right arm around.
This time, the Possessed Askith Beast Tamer was able to land a hit against Liam due to his miscalculation on which arm was going to swing.
The force of the strike was hard enough to send Liam flying to the steps in the back of the room.
The force of the crash sent a sharp pain up his back and throughout his arms and legs.
Liam felt the air inside of him escape and tried to gasp for air.
This action sent even more pain throughout his body as he tried to gain back the air that he had lost.
As he tried to regain the air, he started coughing which made the pain wrack throughout his body even more with each motion.
As Liam tried to stop coughing and calm his body down, he noticed the Possessed Askith Beast Tamer was slowly walking towards him.
“The fight you put up was pathetic and not worth it,” he said. “I will commend you for trying though.”
The creature stopped within the distance for his left arm to still be able to reach. He brought his left arm back, ready to strike as he added, “This is the end for you.”
Liam watched this, but instead of fearing for his life or struggling to get out of the way, he grew a smile.
The Possessed Askith Beast Tamer saw the smile and grew confused as to why it was there.
Something dawned on him; however, it was too late as roots suddenly shot out from the ground and wrapped around his body.
The man was furious and was about to try and break free, but before he could try arcs of lightning pierced through his skin and ran throughout his body.
He tried to turn his head to see which creature dared to strike him in the back, but felt his muscles tense and root him in place.
Shortly after that, the pain of a sharp needle-like blade struck him several times as arrows sailed right into his swelled arm.
The force of a blunt object struck against his head several times as well, making its vision spin.
A snarl grew on his face as he grew frustrated.
A figure suddenly appeared in front of him. It was the Dragonkin that wielded that weird battle axe. He went to make some remark, but before he could, Blair swung the weapon that had smoothed out and sharpened across the man’s throat, bringing his HP down to zero.
“You alright Liam?” Blair asked as she turned to face him.
“Took you guys long enough,” Liam jokingly said with a small smile as he placed his elbows behind him bringing his body into a sitting position. “I’m alright for now, but we’re still not out of the clear yet.”
The others looked around the room to see if they could spot anything.
Nothing appeared before them, nor did anything show itself in the room.
Is it hiding? Liam thought as he looked around once more.
He still couldn’t see anything.
No matter how hard he looked he couldn’t see anything out of place nor see any signs of anything in the room. He knew something was in there though. He could feel it.
Maybe it’s using some form of magic? Liam suddenly thought to himself.
He closed his eyes and activated Mana Sight.
As it activated he saw the colors of mana outline everyone in his group as they cautiously moved about the room.
Where could it be? Liam thought to himself as he scanned the ground level once more.
He looked down at the ground to make sure nothing was underneath. After he saw no signs of anything, he tilted his head up and saw the outline of something new.
Its movements looked like it was floating in water. It had a bulbus form with several tentacles waving around underneath it. It looked a lot like a jellyfish.
So, it’s camouflaging itself with mana huh? Liam thought to himself. I wonder if that spell will be able to work.
Liam slowly brought himself to his feet. He then pointed his Moon Shadow Dagger out and start chanting while keeping his eyes closed, “Moon, beautiful and radiant. Bless us with your power to lighten up the night. Expose those which try to hide within your majestic light. Lunar Exposure!”
As Liam started to chant this, he watched as an orb appeared in front of his blade. The orb then grew to the size of a basketball. After the chant was done, Liam shot the basketball size orb at the spot right in front of the jellyfish shaped creature.
As the orb floated to the spot, Liam shouted out, “Everyone look down! Whatever you do, do not look up!
The others, confused by what Liam shouted did as they were told but were still curious.
Their curiosity was filled as a sudden bright pale light lit up the room, making their shadow grow big enough to make them look like giants.
The bright light lasted for a few seconds before dimming away.
Shortly after the light dimmed a loud thump and squish echoed in the room as the ground lightly shook.
Everyone turned to see what had fallen and were shocked.
As Liam opened his eyes he laid them on the creature that was trying to elude them.
He was right about the shape, it was in fact a giant jellyfish. Its bulbous body was clear enough that you could see through it while its tentacles were purple.
Liam assessed the creature before it.
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“Demonic Large Dybbuk. 597/3,500 HP. 12/950 MP.”
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Without hesitating, Liam lifted his Shadow Moon Blade dagger and started chanting, “Hidden within the dark, I call upon you to bind my target. Grasp them with the tendrils you possess. Remind them why they should fear their own Shadow. Grasp of the Shadows!”
Shadowy tendrils shot out from underneath the creature and crisscrossed over it, completely trapping it.
The creature wriggled and squirmed trying to break free. However, to Liam it looked like it was in pain.
He got his answer as a small bit of health dropped.
Liam tilted his head as he thought, Maybe it’s hurting because of the mix of Lunar and Shadow magic? I didn’t know these spells could still hurt a creature even though they don’t do any damage.
“Quick!” Mercer shouted, bringing everyone back to the battle in front of them. “Attack it while it’s still down!”
Everyone in the group raced over to the creature and struck it as fast as they could.
Liam stayed in the back and pulled out a health and mana potion.
As he drank the two potions he watched as the creature’s health was slowly diminishing with every attack.
As the Dybbuk took the damage, it tried its hardest to fight back the tendrils that held it down.
Liam noticed the shadowy tendrils start to break and took another look at its health bar.
A smile grew on his face as he decided on the final blow he would deliver.
He raised his Shadow Moon Blade dagger up and started chanting, “Shadows coalescing, head my call and come forth. Manifest mediums that will serve to unleash your wave of power…”
The last shadowy tendril snapped, allowing the Dybbuk to swing its own tentacles around to push everyone away. As soon the others flew backwards or jumped away to dodge, it shot up into the air as if it was swimming in water.
However as soon as it got into the air Liam finished his chant, “Swarm together and into your target. Go forth and unleash your power. Shadow Swarm!”
Five shadow orbs suddenly appeared around Liam’s dagger. Once when the chanting finish they soared through the air and surrounded the Demonic Large Dybbuk, stopping it from going any higher.
As soon as the last orb got into place, wisps of Shadow energy escaped through each orb and shot right into the middle of the transparent body of the creature.
Everyone watched as the swarms of shadow energy swam through the body and connected at one point right in the center. Each wisp that entered and connected with the others formed a small shadow orb that started growing with each piece of energy connecting.
When the last bit of shadowy energy entered the orb, it suddenly expanded.
All of the energy within the orb that was created inside the creature filled the entire body, making the translucent figure become a black filled one instead.
It looked like the energy was trying to escape the body as it started to expand it. Not soon after the body started to expand, a part of the shadowy energy pierced out.
Without warning the energy started to cover the entire outside of the body. However, instead of just coating it, Liam noticed the shadows consuming it.
Within a matter of seconds after the energy came out, the Demonic Large Dybbuk was swallowed up into the shadowy energy that came out of it. The energy puffing into a whiff of smoke shortly after it ate its meal.
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“Congratulations! You have defeated Demonic Large Dybbuk!”
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