Domison's inner core flared as he drenched himself in its power. With every step he rotated the energies faster and faster, a whirlpool of black energy pulling mana from the air and incorporating it through his body every second. With each beat of his heart, he could feel a thrill of chills running under the surface of his skin. A black veil outlined his skin as the pull of mana from the air grew, causing a breeze to touch upon the hanging purple vines. The hunger only grew with this increase of energy and with a snarl on his face he stopped marching forward, instead launching himself towards his prey with a single bound.
His sword split the air in a scream as he whipped it toward the thing's head. Domison could already imagine the decrepit head rolling from its shoulders and blood showering the landscape, but instead, the thing flickered and disappeared. A line of agony ran down his chest and he turned to see the lanky quadruped shuffling around behind him with a sadistic grin.
"Older and hungrier hmm…? Perhaps you will sing my gods' scriptures for longer then." Its ghoulish grin barely separated to allow the gruesome voice provenance upon the world, "Come then, ape. Allow me to create horrible hymns with your agony."
The monster winked out of existence again as Domison snarled and thrust his blade forward. Another flash of pain hit him as he felt sharp antlers enter and pierce through his arm from the back of his tricep out the front of his bicep. He could still feel the pain lancing up his back from the first wound, but it was already starting to dull so he continued his attack. He was sure if he could corner the thing he could gain the upper hand, but it was so fast he couldn't even track it with his eyes.
The battle continued this way for ten minutes, Domison slowly accruing wounds faster than he could heal them and the monster trying to wreath him in despair. After five more minutes of contracted battle, it even started to chuckle mockingly at him. The proclamations of humor sounded like hitched, painful gagging in the creature's mouth. In a moment of blind rage, Domison overextended himself, lunging on one leg to maximize his reach in an attempt to score a mark along its flank. An opaque hoof smashed into the top of his head right when he was sure his sword would land, the impact rattling through his very being.
Everything got fuzzy then and for a few moments Domison was unable to refocus his eyes, confusion and a lack of practice with the ability halting him from dropping into the shadows. The monstrous zealot did not give him a chance to recover and rushed forward to gore him with its large antlers. Domison barely regained his senses with enough time to slightly shift his body before it impacted and he was pinned against a nearby tree.
The beast seemed to be planning on running him through the center to skewer and hoist him above itself, luckily his slight shift caused the sharp point to instead enter his right shoulder. This saved his chest from being torn asunder but caused his sword arm to be pinned beneath almost the entire bulk of the monster. It was enormously heavy and as it continued to press Domison further into the tree behind him, he could feel his ribs creaking and the bones in his arm started to shift painfully. He could only grit his teeth against the pain for so long before something snapped and his sword fell from his limp grip, dissipating into shadow before it hit the ground.
He kept trying over and over to slip into the shadows beneath his feet, but the unnatural pain lancing through his shoulder kept his concentration from solidifying enough to do so. It was like there was a mental wall behind which the shadow world sat and he could do nothing to penetrate it. No matter how hard he pushed, the only difference that was made was a feeling of tightening around his temples.
Domison bellowed in fury and resolve as he started pummeling his left fist into the monster’s humanoid face. It started to jostle him side to side, now more confident with his weapon gone. The bloodstained antler dug deeper into the muscle of his shoulder and started to press through the skin on his back until finally it burst through and dug into the tree trunk behind him.
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The world started to flash monochrome in time with the falling of Domison’s fist. His surroundings faded to scales of gray every time his knuckles dug into the strangely mushy flesh. His agony and anger built to a crescendo, cascading through his core and fusing with the virulent Abyssal Energy there. Every slap of his fist into the face grinning up at him caused that volatile force within him to build, bit by bit until finally, he felt a connection. It was a very small connection at first, like the first time a neural link connects to the synapses of the brain, but every attack solidified it.
“This is my master's domain!” The thing bellowed in its harsh voice, but he could feel something just beneath the monster's skin. Every time he withdrew his fist whatever it was seemed to try to come with him, causing the monster's flesh to pull away slightly with his hand. Following his instincts, he pushed the growing torrent of energies at his core into his left fist and one last time brought it down. The connection completed itself then and Domison felt a crack in the veil separating his knuckles from the energy beneath the flesh.
In a single instant, the energies behind the creature's skin expanded to twice its size and then contracted to the size of a thumbnail. It sat for only a second before dashing into Domison’s core. This resulted in two things happening in quick succession. First, the monster’s sadistic black eyes went wide with shock as its features started to bulge out inordinately, then its entire skull collapsed in on itself. The wet crunch made was quickly drowned out when the massive body collapsed, the antler pinning Domison to the tree snapping off at the base with a loud crack.
The sensation of the antler being broken off while still being gored through by it was jarring. Nausea gripped his stomach as he wrapped his left hand around the antler and pushed his right foot against the tree. Taking three deep breaths, he pushed off of the tree with his leg and the wood squeaked as it released its hold on the bone antler. Domison’s left hand kept the wider portion of the antler from ripping the hole in his shoulder into an even greater wound. His vision started to look like a kaleidoscope of monochrome and the vibrant greens and reds of the forest around him as his battered body hit the ground.
Hey lay there staring at the sky, panting, for what felt like hours but he was sure it was only minutes. His breathing started to calm and the storm in his core shortly followed, returning to its nebulous black void. Domison took three more deep breaths as he shifted his grip on the antler, before pulling it out in a smooth motion. He grunted and grit his teeth as the antler scraped against bone on the way out. The instant it was removed he could feel a connection being restored from his center to his right arm.
Tendons began to wiggle and muscles started to worm around as his body healed at an inhuman pace. The only way Domison could think to describe it was as a very painful and itchy feeling. It was oddly satisfying though, feeling the motor control return to his fingers, the bones in his arms shuffle back into place with wet pops. As his body knit itself back together, Domsion looked over at the pair twenty feet away from him.
Mel had kept busy while he fought and it seemed she had done her best to stabilize the man, but his situation still wasn’t looking great. Mike was still wheezing and trembling but at least it could be said there was no longer a fountain of blood with each corresponding breath. Mel was staring at him with wide eyes, her lower lip trembling slightly.
When words finally left her mouth they did so in a storm, “You actually won? How could you beat that thing? I mean, what did you even do to it?” There was an odd mixture of emotions on her face as she spoke. He could see fear, worry, hope, and… was that excitement? He thought he could see joy lingering in her eyes for a moment and then she continued speaking.
“I don’t know exactly what that thing was, but the box above its head said it was a Myacept high priest. It had a level too, but its box just had question marks next to it…” She trailed off at the end, memories of the initial attack flooding her mind. “It gave me a lot of experience points though… Probably because it was so much higher of a level or something like that and I was increasing in experience points the entire time I fought, I think we both were.” She looked down at Mike for a moment and pressed her hand over his wound for a few seconds.
“ I think since we’re with you it split the distribution of experience points for its death too… But anyways, I leveled up to eight in total and I was able to choose a class before you killed it.” The hopeful look in her eyes grew as she spoke her next words, “I was able to choose a class called battle medic and…I think I might be able to save Mike”