45 minutes.
Checking my status for the time, I clocked it had only took 45 whopping minutes for the sun to dip under the horizon as if afraid to be seen. The levels I’d collected in endurance had made for comfortable travel most any distances thus far. My achilles heel instead was my companion Lonni, huffing and puffing a few paces behind me. It was no shock he’d been gassed.
Outside of Lonni’s body weight, the massive shield that covered even his large statures entire side nearly head to toe couldn’t be light. The bulking flail that of his looked heavy enough for me to need two hands to lift in the air reliably probably didn’t do his stamina any favors either.
“Tom…my guy…can we hold up a sec?” Lonni muttered through heavy breaths from behind.
“It’s already dark, Lonni. We can’t afford to be without shelter in the first nightfall, we don’t know what’ll be waiting.” My tone was cold as the wind cutting at my skin between the spaces of my armors and fabrics. The cowl kept my face plenty warm, and hopefully it’d conceal the any leaking external concern that had been gradually welling in the pit of my gut. There was no detectable source to my bad feeling, but I’ve never been one to ignore my own intuition.
Slowing my pace so Lonni could catch some air while we moved, my mind began digesting the day I’d had. So much death, so many lives lost for few justifiable reasons. Yet there was so much gained, levels and land alike along the process. All the while, I’d yet to meditate about any of this even once.
It was my greatest solace before and during the tournament. Even worse, I’d selected the Pylon that was near water explicitly to improve my meditation quality. An egregiously selfish decision no doubt, especially given the results. This made having zero time spent meditating by the endless source of naturally occurring water mana all the more disappointing.
“Tom, I think I seen something to our right moving around.” Lonni whispered over my shoulder.
“Relax, I didn’t see anything. If it were close we’d h-“ a loud branch snapping sound echoed from the direction he’d seen something, followed by bushes and trees being slapped quickly.
“…hear it.”
Fuck.
“Lonni, if the spiders begin descending, we’re running. Without the sunlight, I can’t imagine us seeing them well enough for a fight. You have to move quickly, do you understand?”
Lonni’s head shook up and down, sweat already beading down his sunburned temples.
We continued through the forest far more cautiously, headed northwest towards my newly conquered Pylon. Based on how long we’d been hiking, and having made this journey a couple times now, the Pylon couldn’t much further. We just had to evade the spiders, preferably all but at minimum most of them. They weren’t a tough fight, and I figured a boss spider would give me some form of juicy stat percent stealing, but not in the dead of the night. Not yet, at least.
Stepping through the tall grass and bushes, movement alerted my attention to the right. This time it was close, the glimmer of a yellow eye reflected in the moonlight back at mine. Considering it wasn’t a bunch of eyes, my confidence remained high gleaning it wasn’t a spider. Maybe a rat, but that’s no problem. More experience for me and Lonni.
The sound of multiple branches snapping above me caused my body to shoot back uncontrollably, my knee barely finding the grass before sliding back 6 feet. The large thump in front of me gave ample justification as to why my subconscious anxiety apparently knew better than me.
What spun around was a very, very large wolf. Only it was just a giant wolf, but more of some amalgamation between a wolf and a tiger. Its long skinny tail swung through the air like that of a felines, black and grey stripes lining its coat. Even its paws were that of a typical cats, the padding much large and spread wider than that of any canine.
Yet its body and heads physical structure assumed that of a massive wolf, save for the eyes. Not until it growled a deep, tiger-like warning exposing its dauntingly sharp canines did I think to use identify on it.
[Canis-Pantheris (Level 3)]
The canine/feline hybrid slowly paced toward us now, the bushes rustling at me and Lonni’s sides.
“Lonni, buddy, I need you to get that shield up and point it to one side. Watch the other, and yell if you see or feel anything.”
Lonni hadn’t moved yet, staring at the patterned amalgamation of beasts. He wasn’t shocked as he’d reacted in the previous engagement, rather more infatuated cocking his head to the side. My elbow tapped his shoulder as I raised my twinblades still attached at the grips. He shuffled quickly into place rather than steadily, causing three Canis-Pantheris to collapse down on us simultaneously.
FUCK!
Having no time to split my twinblade, both edges spun as I used my old bo staff techniques to generate Flow. The first beast to arrive was the one who crept in front of us after missing its pounce on me. Having both shoulders pointed at two incoming evil cat-dog hybrid, my body surged with energy as Lightning Strike fired through my blade, stabbing into its shoulder as it dodged, ripping it off entirely.
Too occupied to finish the kill, mana surged through my weapon immediately firing out another Lightning Strike towards the second attacking animal’s neck. Its form flickered into a dark cloud a millisecond before my blade touched, but a stray electric current invaded the cloud, rippling veins of blue energy in the mist. The cloud illuminated before dispersing around Lonni’s spinning flail, wrapping around it before hovering where the previous Canis-Pantheris lay suffering.
The black cloud reformed into its animal shape as it blew toward me, only fully returning to flesh and blood mid-leap while roaring through the air. Disconnecting my twinblade hilts, a chain of lightning mana crackled as they separated. Letting go of my grip on one hand, I water stepped around its leaping strike, leaving the chain for its chomping head to land in instead. Barely reaching in time, my body swung around its back with another change of direction, grabbing for the released twinblade grip.
It was a hair out of reach, but I willed for the chain to extend just enough for my palm to grasp hold of the blade hilt comfortably. Wrapping my legs around its body and switching grips to twist up the chain, all of my might pulled backward, tightening the chain around the beast neck. Black mist started spewing from its pours, my energy concentrated on sending Lightning Mana through my twinblade in retort. The energy surged into the beast, making its smoky features dissipate rapidly as it gagged loudly trying to howl for its kin.
The injured one had bled out by now, indicated by the ding sounding while I strangled its fellow Canis-Pantheris. Lonni was still holding back the beast that attacked from his shield side, sliding and stepping around to keep from giving the giant predator-mix an angle. Honestly, that’s about everything I’d hoped out of him in general. 3 of these things at once sounds rather unmanageable, especially with that corporeality-cancelling smoke shit.
The frantic restrained jumping and thrashing slowed rapidly as the beast began going limp within my chain. It finally collapsed to the earth, followed by the death sound. The Canis-Pantheris still biting and paw swiping across Lonni’s shield saw its last family member die and immediately abandoned its hunt, whimpering as it fled into the night. Getting a decent glance at Lonni, his body looked in good enough condition, bar a few deep scratches along the forearms.
“What the fuck were those things?!” He asked, showing his first sign of passionate speech since we fought. Not wanting to damper the victory, I responded in kind.
“They were some fucking wolf-tiger hybrid. Sneaky little shits too, I never heard them coming.”
I retorted.
“Yeah, hey by the way how did you even kn-“ a thunderous, chest rumbling roar echoed through the trees, its source sounding not nearly far enough.
“Hold that thought, let’s get to the Pylon. Now.” I said, before we both turned hips and took off towards the camp.
Breaking through the tree line, commotion rang from within the walls of the electricity riddled fort, a few well cooked Canis-Pantheris laying by the walls. Jogging up, I went to yell for the door to be opened when a prompt asked if I’d like to do so myself.
‘Pylon leader perks aren’t so bad’, I thought, only for the Anthony fellow I killed earlier to come screeching at me, his body looking half rotten as he charged. I spun laterally away from his clumsy attempt at a grapple as my blade decapitated the mindless monster, without hesitation. Frankly, a giant spider jumping at my head was my personal worst fear numero uno, and we already knocked that one out today. A stupid zombie of an absolute tool bag won’t do me in.
“Holy shit, why was Anthony back in there? Or…moving at all?!” Lonni said, in his naturally baritone voices version of a whimper.
“No clue. But we heard your friends, let’s get in there before they end up like him.”
Not waiting for him to agree, I slid through the half opened entrance, willing the gate to shut behind me regardless of if he follows. Inside was relatively calm, no signs destruction or fires ablaze. Only problem was we needed to find the other two survivors, hoping they aren’t already somewhere wandering aimlessly as a mindless zombie by now.
“Zack?! Terra!!? Where are you?!” Lonni boomed through the camp. Footsteps could be heard rounding the Pylon building we were walking towards. Lonni immediately assumed it was his friend, quickening his pace to meet the steps.
“Thank god one of y-“ the gurgling of another fallen friend leaping towards him cut his warm welcome short, as he barely got his shield between him and its gnashing, dark sludge spewing teeth. My twinblade barely sunk into its spine when two others appeared from around that corner, forcing me to retreat off of Lonni’s attacker.
They charged with reckless abandonment, allowing for quick cuts to vital areas as I dodged around them. Only issue was, two additional zombies appeared clumsily running across the way from another building exit. Recognition eclipsed understanding as each resembled that of the original folks I’d killed or seen dead already here.
They get up at night.
Making a mental note to question Perunious’ prudent lack of sharing this knowledge, my barrage of stabs and avoiding bites had become exclusively dodging the many grasping undead arms. Lonni was still occupied with the one zombie, whereas four were chasing me around. Two of them had no business living anymore, much less keeping pursuit as they did. Their throats both completely ripped open, their bobbing faces ghostly pale.
“Tom…h-help me man?!” Lonni called out, still dancing around the one zombie.
Are you fucking ki-
“Listen…Lonni…” I called out between dodges and whatever strike I could slip in.
“It’s now or…fucking never.” An opening appeared between the group, and instinct guided my movements. Water stepping down the path, my twin blade flourished across the zombies necks and limbs exclusively, being sure not to waste my opportunity. With each shuffled step my blades danced through the rotten flesh, leaving two dead and two without their legs.
My twinblade had just pierced one of the prone zombies’ neck when Lonni bellowed a deep war cry, his tone having commonality with the one from the forest. Moving to defend him, my feet froze seeing his arm fully tense with veins bulging as swung his flail. The spiked metal ball bashed into the zombies skull, sending brain matter flying across the settlement grounds. Lonni stood over the corpse, his face a stoic stare of dissatisfaction with his enemy.
“That was Nathan…fuckin’ hated Nathan.” He grumbled with a twitching nostril before walking back toward the Pylon building entrance. A smile crept across my face as he walked away, looking down at the headless corpse.
Yeah, fuck Nathan.
Entering my Pylon building, the silence and cleanliness implied a lack of activity here. Before we could turn back however, a bright purple energy manifested in the air from the staircase, flying straight for Lonni’s exit-facing head. My foot extended into his hip bone, shoving his giant body to the side with all my might. He hardly leaned over to the side, but it was enough for the magic ball to miss his skull. He recoiled as the energy blasted off the door in front of him.
“Reveal yourself, let’s just make this q-“ Lonni’s quick shuffling in front of me cut off my words.
“Terra? Holy shit you’re okay?” He said, headed towards the empty staircase. As if from thin air, the woman from earlier appeared, not 15 feet away from us. Her eyes welled as she ran towards Lonni, leaping into his arms.
“I was so fucking scared. Anthony showed up at the door making weird sounds, a-and Zach let him in a-an-and-“ ‘Terra’ was stumbling over her panic, struggling to speak. Sure, zombie versions of your friends are probably pretty traumatizing. That being said, had they not noticed the giant fucking spider neighbors all around them? Wait until she hears about the fucking Cani-
“And there’s a big, big, BIG fucking cat wolf thing, it came in behind Anthony or, the thing that looked like him.” Terra added after controlling her tear soaked breathing.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
I should start asking more questions.
“How big are we talking? Like, giant wolf size?” I asked.
“You mean giant hippo sized? Then sure. A giant fucking animal came through, okay?” She sneered through her runny nose and tear soaked cheeks.
“I’m going to ignore the angry parts and just say thanks for the info. Where’s your other buddy?”
She glared hatefully at me, biting her lip having more to say but thinking better of it
“Upstairs. He locked himself in there, didn’t even let me in even though nothing except you came in.” She answered, really trying to share her misery.
“Thank you. Lonni, go get him down here.”
“Got it.” Lonni ascended the stairs hastily, before a knock and some chatter followed.
“Listen, Terra. About your fr-“
“You. You killed my brother, in front of me, with his own battle buddies nunchucks. I’m fighting every urge not to try t-..FUCK!” Terra interrupted, anger now fully overwriting her fearfulness.
…ohh.
She hammered her fists through the air as she yelled, clearly fighting demons to hold her tongue, allowing me to process her resentment.
“Look, I don’t blame you for hating me. I’d hate me too. But right now? We’re trying to make sure this place is safe. Believe it or not, I do wish to fill this place with many happy families someday. But we can’t do that with a giant wolf tiger loose and everyone secretly trying to kill me, can we?” I asked, my emotions beginning to slip from me at the end there.
Didn’t mean I wasn’t right.
“I…I figured that, considering you’re even here. But the pain is just…I feel so empty. Ant was my only family.”
“For now.” I responded quickly, Terra’s eyebrow raising in confusion.
“Look, life is long, trust me. I’m not saying you’ll ever replace him, but you have to keep going forward. He’d need to do the same if he were your shoes anyways, and wouldn’t you want that for him?” My curiosity of her selfishness-levels giving the happy accident of consolation, she stopped wincing for the first time.
Instead, she looked deep in thought for a long pause before she spoke.
“You’re right. And, I do hate you, and will always fucking hate you. But that doesn’t mean I have to die miserable. Ant wouldn’t want that fo-.”
BAM
“GET THE FUCK DOWN HERE, IM NOT PLAYING THIS FUCKING GAME ZACH.”
The blast of metal doors ripping from their frame interrupted Terra’s version of a peace offering, with Lonni’s burly voice echoing down the staircase. Not long after, he walked briskly down the stairs, presumed ‘Zach’ in tow by his collar as he scuffled to keep his balance.
“Lonni, yo why are yo-“
“Zach decided to barricade the doors when he heard me coming. Don’t worry, he’ll stay where I tell him to now.” Lonni grumbled, tossing Zach to the ground in front of him. His incredible strength sent the man bouncing off the floor like a rubber ball before laying face down, groaning as he shifted in pain.
“Sorry, Tom, please continue whatever you were doing.”
My face froze in shock. Before me stood an entirely other person than the coward who let my words pierce his heart sharper than my twinblade ever could not a day ago. Instead, I saw rage in his heavy breathing. His eyes fixed in a determined position, his chest puffed from having fixed his previously hunched posture.
He was aware of himself now, maybe a self that lived before he’d frozen up. Before I’d come along and fucked up his friends…
In any case, he was brutal, even willing to snag his old allies in fealty to whoever he serves at the moment. There were no conflicting interests, no variation from the job at hand. He was simple, but clearly held a code of some sort. He had pride.
And I have never been so proud.
Terra began heading for Zach to tend to his injuries when I placed a hand up in her path.
“Ah, hi again. I’m going to go ahead and help your buddy out right now anyways. I need a favor from you.”
“Okay, can’t it wait?”
“Noooo, no not really. It’s actually why I came here.”
With a thought, Korbin’s contract was sent over to her notifications.
“So if you could go ahead and accept these terms, we can make you and happiness better acquaintances real soon. Then I’ll help your friend, and go kill this beast roaming my land.”
Her face scanned mine suspiciously of the offer. Knowing she hated my guts however…
“I should mention this isn’t my contract. The Pylon Leader of where I come from made it. He’s got…connections.”
Her face loosened, but only a little.
“If anything I said today was true, it’s that this contracts your best shot at surviving. What'll it be?” I finished, beginning to feel fed up.
She appeared offended at first, only for her mind to carry her away from her personal grievances with me. After a brief pause, she finally came to her conclusion, folding her arms before she spoke.
”It's done. Now what?”
Finally.
“Now, chill here. We’ll head back home tomorrow. I said, turning heels toward her pal, Zach. My peripherals caught a glimpse of her forming a word, however my dismissive turn proved most effective.
Zack was up on his elbows now, his eyebrows raised facing me as his breathing sped up a bit.
“Hey man, I’m not really interested i-“
My twinblade blasted with energy as they separated revealing the crackling lightning energy surging all around the chains. My Strider found purchase on his neck, pushing him flat on his back.
“I don’t like you, because my friend here doesn’t like you. Sign. The fucking. Contract.”
Zach’s eyes were glued to the energy pulsing from my weapon, only snapping to reality after adding more pressure to his throat. After a bit of frantically darting around his pupils, he nodded rapidly.
“I-it’s d-it’s done, it’s done.”
“Good”
My boot released, dropping Zach who grasped for his throat coughing as he rolled on all fours.
“Same for you, stay here, be nice, wait for us.”
Without any required eye contact remaining, my gaze tunneled heading towards the building exit.
“Come on, Lonni. We got another house pet monster to kill.”
Exiting the Pylon building, my eyes wandered around the illuminated settlement I’d built with essentially money and magic. The blue hue flickering on the ground and few buildings made shadows replicate movement, putting me on high alert.
Surveying about, there was little to no sign of any sort of struggle outside of our arrival. What bothered me so much about this was, even after day one’s carnage, Korbin’s Pylon was a mess. Blood strewn across the sands, imprints where bodies were, drag marks and giant rat prints peppered the land.
Yet, there was no sign of any Canis-Pantheris, much less a giant one. No claw marks, no sounds, not even dog hair could be found. Yet, my stomach fluttered and churned as it did before that Canis-Pantheris attacked from the tree. My father hadn’t been a man of much wisdom, but ‘trust your gut’ was one of his few timeless gems.
All that said, the absence of the beast invading my Pylon was aggravating to say the least. Lonni tailed me a few feet as I patrolled the settlement area.
“Hey, Tom? Can I ask you something real quick?” Lonni asked, still holding his braver-sides confident tone.
“Sure, just keep looking while you do.”
“You treated Zach totally differently than Terra. Was that just because he hid?” He asked.
“Sort of. Terra hated me, and she has good reason to.”
“Anthony.” Lonni added, knowingly.
“Right, but she was willing to hear me out, at least about her willingness to survive did.” I responded, now deeper in thought than scouting.
“That, and I figured you two were close based on that dramatic embrace.” I added through a devious grin, pantomiming their hug. Lonni chuckled as I held myself tightly, fake tears streaming down my face.
“Hey, we used to mess around back in the day. That whole group grew up together, you know.”
My feet stopped.
“Wait, what do you mean?” I asked.
“We all grew up in the same city. We were friends real young, and all of our parents were ex-marines so, we all joined up at 18 together too. Sure, we split at times between then and now, but by the time we were really getting action, we’d linked by sheer chance on tour. We got older, got out, and got homes on the same block.”
“So that’s why you were all together then? You were neighbors.” I said, connecting dots aloud.
“Yeah, all uh…all 10 of us.” His eyes trailed to the ground.
“Look, Lonni I really meant it that I wasn’t planning to j-“
“Stop. It’s okay. War changes people, Tom. At least, it did all of us in different ways. Some of those guys, especially Nathan and Anthony, lost themselves entirely…They still had their skills, their experience, their jokes, but they just didn’t have a reason to fight, to use them anymore.” Lonni’s grip on his flail tightened harshly as it trembled.
“They’d make reasons. With anyone they could. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to bail each and every one of those idiots out of jail. For fights that didn’t need to happen if you asked anyone but them.” Lonni’s face shifted from disgust to amused as he recalled his life-long companions.
“It made me hate violence. Hate what I’m good at.” He paused, his strong self clutching desperately onto holding his pain deep.
“…now I see, though. Through all their made up, half baked forms of justifying themselves, they were lost. Not me. You showed me I merely waited for a fight worth fighting. For this.” His posture stiffened once more, his face so determined one would miss the single tear that hung from under his jaw. It was the first time I’d seen someone really pull it together…ever.
“Damn fucking straight, Lonni. And you know I must sa-“
“LOOK OUT!” Lonni shoved my chest, sending me flying back 6 feet in the air before crashing down. A giant black figure zoomed between me and Lonni at a speed similar to the speeding train.
Quickly I climbed to my feet, darting across the settlement for an indication as to where the fuck whatever that was went or came from. Lonni slowly walked towards me, keeping his head on a swivel.
“Lonni, what. The fuck. Was that?” I whispered, not pausing from my scanning of our surroundings.
“Don’t know. The Wolf, probably. But way bigger.” He whispered back, now putting his rear shoulder to my flank.
Good idea.
We stood effectively back to back, letting no angle go unmonitored awaiting a second attack. We stood there for a minute, the icy breeze cutting through my armor at the sweat dripping in anticipation. Then five minutes passed.
Then ten. Nothing. The bones in my body were gyrating with excitement at a formidable foe, and I grew restless. I leaned my head over my shoulder toward Lonni.
“Anything on your side?” I said. Lonni turned his head to face mine.
“No, it’s fuckin weird isn-“ a massive pair of yellow eyes manifested a mere 8 feet in front of Lonni closing fast, forcing me to sweep his legs and pull him down to avoid becoming this ghost dogs lunch.
His body smashed to the floor shoulder-first as the beast sailed over him, its clawed feet only an inch from his body. Tracking the phantom-like beast all the way across, it sprinted for an unlit corner in the center of the settlement. The beast's form went completely dark before it sank into the ground suddenly.
What the hell? How did i-
The memory of that chest piece offering a ‘Shadow’ skill flashed in my mind, reminding me darkness is an affinity too.
“Lonni, get up man. We got to move.” Lonni quickly shuffled to his feet.
“Wait, we’re leaving?!”
“No, cover each other and head for the southwest corner.” The reasoning being the beast clearly depended on the shadows t-
“Okay.” Lonni said plainly.
Wow he’s a ride or die.
Shaking off the lack of resistance, we slowly side stepped and shuffled our way over to the corner, about 12 feet from either wall. The lightning mana protecting our metallic walls illuminated the area, far more sufficiently than in the center by the Pylon building.
“Okay, we can walk freely here without it being too sneaky.” I said, splitting off from our defensive form.
“Now we got to lure this thing out, make it even want to leave the shadows.”
Lonni held his chin in thought, “I mean, I could run out there alone, and book it back when it arrives?” He proposed.
“Only problem is it's fast. Probably faster than me honestly. And if it gets behind you I might not get there in time.” I responded after genuinely considering his terrible idea.
We spent some time mulling things over, but neither of us came up with anything groundbreaking. After some time, the sound of thumping toward the middle of town drew our attention. The screams for help short after sent us both headed straight for the Pylon building.
The thumping grew louder and louder, shaking the ground below as we flew across the empty settlement. Turning the corner to the Pylon Building, however, the thumping stopped. The walls above the doorway had webbed cracks indented into the wall above, but there was no sign of intrusion nor any possible intruder. Terra’s forehead rose from a window above.
“Okay, it didn’t get in.” Lonni said, in a sigh of relief.
“No, but it got us here.” I said, staring at the faint black smoke that hovered in the darkness. It’d be invisible if it hadn’t been for a stray burst of light from the walls hadn’t illuminated its corner a moment.
Lifting my back leg slowly, I place it on Lonni’s hip, not breaking visual on the smoky haze hovering in the night. Pushing him lightly, he caught on, and slowly shuffled beside me.
“Lonni, on my count, be ready.” I whispered.
“Okay.” He responded.
“3…2…”
My hands moved to the grips of my twinblade.
“…1.” Pulling apart my chains, the electricity shot out from the handles as I shuffled quickly with Water Step toward the massive cloud. It responded in kind, flying towards me in the darkness. Electrical currents exploded from my body as Lightning Strike triggered seeing the mist form enter my range.
The blade hadn’t connected yet when the energy hit the dark smoke. The fog ignited and vacuumed inward into a shape instantaneously, revealing my stab was an inch off the mark of the beast’s neck to the side. With barely any time, I skipped the Flow Inverse strike and instead threw a head kick as I flew by, my shin blasting downward onto its snout.
My body spun and flipped as I tumbled, only fortunate to fall feet first before sliding on my ass through the dirt. The beast’s wipeout was a bit less graceful, contrarily. Its nose had dug into the floor, its rear hovered in the air before flipping forward from the inertia of its charge, the dirt spraying as it left its large track mark.
After some rolling, it stabilized against one of the small buildings. Not wasting the moment, I used identify.
[Canis-Tigris Nonpareil level - 5]
Oh man, I don’t know what that means.
‘Nonpareil’? Like, non-parallel? Maybe it’s French, it’s definitely useless information besides its level gap over me. It began strafing towards the darkness, maintaining eyes on me.
“Lonni, I need you bud.” I said, strafing away from his position, he’d hardly moved since I engaged, leaving him closer to the Canis-Tigris monster as it continued its course past me.
No words were returned, only a deep war cry as he appeared from behind the beast, charging towards its front legs while its attention was on me. Its head wrapped around quickly to face its flanker as it recoiled a bit, giving me time to Water Step as fast as I possibly could to land a strike.
It swiped at Lonni, his shield and stance holding firm as its massive paw crashed into it from the side, only to ricochet back from the energy being reflected. The block was a bad one having not sheathed the strike along the shields curve and instead took it head on, yet Lonni looked completely unbothered.
Thank fuck too, I needed one more step before I was in range. Planting and blasting forward, I stabbed toward the beast again. This time, it was priming another swipe at Lonni, not noticing the blinding white and blue lightning energy flying towards its hip, my blade piercing deep into its side. The energy blasted outward, blowing black mist in the air instead of blood from above its leg. The monster howled in pain as its head reared back desperately towards its wound.
Landing by its midsection, the head met me halfway with its maw wide, forcing me to side step under its belly. Sliding my knee under it, I stabbed upward into its gut, more black smoke bursting from its body. Lonni sprinted across towards its other rear leg as I came out the other side before dropping into a defensive stance, blocking a mule kick it had ready for me. His feet held form as he slid back a couple yards from the impact, before slamming his flail into the beast's rib cage next to him.
Bones cracked and sunk at the impact, the creature whimpering in agony. I tried for another stab, but its form puffed into smoke all at once. The cloud quickly hovered away toward the shadows, with me and Lonni giving chase.
Oh fucking no you don’t.
“Lonni, throw me!” I yelled over my shoulder to him as he trailed before leaping up, putting my body parallel with the ground. With no words, he reached out and grabbed me by my leg and chest. Spinning counter clockwise, he flung me forward, the wind blowing tears from my eyes as I shot toward the escaping mist. It was headed towards the walkway up the walls of the Pylon when my lightning infused sword trip touched the smoke, causing its form to manifest.
Not having dedicated an attack and only lightning mana to the move, I Flow Inverse’d one twinblade handle, causing the other to shoot around the beast's neck. Reaching with the other, I caught hold and pulled my body to it. The wily animal thrashed and pulled me around the settlement at incredible speeds, my grip barely able to keep me from flying off. Struggling, I fought to find a foothold on its body before my grip would give.
Feeling my fingers slipping, my mind went blank as my foot kicked off its elbow as it ran, sending me spinning over the top of it. Pulling down, I released one hand, double gripping the other blade as I spun towards it. Charging Lightning Strike with the one blade, the sharp edge easily slid into the beast's neck as I spun down onto it, energy exploding as a chunk of its spine flew from the crater freshly formed in its body.
Immediately it nosedived into the dirt, crashing and rolling from the speed it was running around at, me still on its back. My hand barely felt the grip of my weapon before a mass of fur consumed my vision, followed by a loud thud and a quiet ding immediately following.
After that, total darkness.