"Is there anything I'll need to watch out for? Like giant splashes of acid or super-explodey fireballs?" I asked as we covered the entrance to the cellar with some of the fallen debris from the nearby house.

Sereza grunted and dropped the large chunk of wood next to the pile. "I do use acid, yes. But only one skill and it's close range."

"What's your skillset affinity?"

"My, you move fast. That's rather personal." I gave her an unamused stare, and she chuckled with a placating gesture. "Fine, fine. Most of my skillset is poison-based, and you can see my choice of weaponry."

She gestured to her daggers, and I nodded. And then, her tail flicked into view, and I found myself focusing on the sharpened needle point at the end.

There was no doubt in my mind that she used her tail for some of her skills. The needlepoint was perfect for that. And if the tail was something she gained by evolving tiers, it would have developed by her skills influencing a significant part of the form it would take.

She must have caught my staring cause she narrowed her eyes and tracked my gaze to where her tail was. She instantly flicked it behind her and out of sight.

I smiled innocently and began walking away from the house. This time, I wanted to head towards the barrier in the middle of the city and find out what was on the other side.

Sereza jogged to catch up, and she touched my shoulder. I stopped and turned. "What?"

"You didn't tell me what your skill set is. It's only fair."

"I thought you already knew. You pretty much guessed it last night."

"You're telling me your whole thing is summoning? What's the affinity type?"

I chose not to answer and shrugged. I could feel the glare radiating behind me, but that was all I was going to say. There wasn't an easy answer to give, and it'd be better to let her figure it out on her own. Luckily, she didn't push for a deeper answer and was content to follow behind me.

Like yesterday, I summoned Zharia to scout, and the little phoenix took to the rooftops, flying in and out of buildings.

It took nearly an hour of slowly moving through the ruined sections of the city for Zharia to report something up ahead. She was nearby, so I didn't bother checking her memories.

I informed Sereza that my familiar had found something, and she pulled out her daggers. I activated my skill and summoned Magnus. He bumped his head on my leg, and I gave him a scratch behind the ears before we continued.

When we neared the corner to where Zharia was watching, she hopped down and landed on my shoulder. "Master, there is a human. Frozen like the monsters."

I glanced back at Sereza, who confirmed she heard what Zharia said. I praised the phoenix for her hard work, and with my spear in front of me, we slowly turned the corner.

It was a section of road that led to a dead end. Surrounded by four buildings splayed out in a semicircle, it was a small space well hidden from the rest of the city.

Two of the buildings were demolished messes. One looked like it had been on fire until recently. The smoking remains of blackened wood and stone drifted off in the wind.

The other two buildings were mostly intact, one having suffered several cracks running down its side.

But none of that was what caught Zharia's attention. It was the screaming elven man who demanded our focus. His mouth was open, but no sound came out, and the air around him looked off. It was as if time had frozen for the man, and the air was his prison.

Drops of blood that dripped off the cut above his head were stuck midair, unmoving. Upon closer inspection, one could see pieces of rocks and small pebbles frozen in time.

I stopped and held out a hand to prevent anyone from pushing forward. "Ever see this before?"

Sereza shook her head. "Never. Before you came along, I didn't scout very far. What about you?"

"Not something like this, but in the house above the cellar, we got ambushed by a weird monster dude in robes. Magnus detected spatial magic and absorbed it. The next thing we knew, a creepy guy was trying to cut me with his dagger."

"Alright then... do you think this is spatial? What do you want to do? We could leave this alone and move on."

I gave it some thought. On the one hand, we could be saving someone. And the guy did look like an adventurer. He had leather armour strapped to his body and what looked like a bent sword in his other.

However, if we turned around and left, we'd be free to move on and lose no time on our way to the barrier. This was a trap, and triggering it would most likely end in a fight. And as friendly as Sereza was, we had only met yesterday. There was no telling if she was a good fighter or not.

The unknown variables stressed me out and caused me to bite my lip and glance toward Magnus, who was sniffing the air. He turned and looked me in the eye, and I made my decision.

"Fuck it, let's do it. If we have to run, we run. Meet back at the cellar if we get separated?"

"Agreed. How do we want to do this?"

I channeled mana into Spirit Lord's Invocation and merged with Zharia. I kept the flames contained around my feet, and I let the fire settle over my body. I grinned at Sereza and stuck out my tongue.

Pointing to Magnus, I crouched and readied my spear. "Magnus will go first; once he absorbs the mana, be prepared to attack."

With everything settled, we slowly made our approach. The weird shimmer in the air was hard to notice initially, but if you looked long enough, you'd start spotting the distortion.

Magnus confirmed it as we got closer. He felt the same strange energy here that we encountered in the manor. With the dimensional folding in place, I was ready for something to pop out.

Crouched low and moving one paw forward at a near snail's pace, Magnus crossed the threshold for his skill to activate. The layer of clear crystal grew over his fur and extended across his face. When he completed his transformation, he opened his jaws and began inhaling the mana.

The distortion strengthed till the space near the man twisted and folded. It was like a spiral sucking reality into itself.

I checked on Magnus through our connection and could feel a lot of mana enter his body.

I could feel him begin to panick as the mana threatened to overwhelm him, and I prepared to make him cut off the skill. But then something shattered, and the last of the spatial mana entered his mouth and settled in his core.

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What rang through the street wasn't a pop, more of a series of pops echoing off each other. I winced and lunged for Magnus. Tossing him backwards, I swung my spear around as reality forced itself to expand and reveal what was hiding inside the dimensional space.

Sereza was the first to act. Her daggers sliced through the air, leaving behind spectral green imitations in its wake. She jumped back as the eight spectral blades shot forward.

The mass of tentacles bulged and exploded. I had to duck and cover my head as all the debris became shrapnel. A rock whistled by my ear, cutting an angry red line through there side of my head.

I couldn't look to see if Sereza's skill hit, but I could hear the creature release a strange trill that set my teeth on edge. I endured the pain and looked up in time to roll out of the way as a tentacle slammed down on where I had been kneeling only a second before.

I stood up and lunged forward, stabbing into the slimy appendage as I held out my other hand and released a torrent of fire. The appendage burst into flames as if soaked in oil.

Another bone-tingling trill screeched out, and I had to pull back my spear. Thankfully, the blade sliced through the burning tentacle with zero resistance. With the tentacle free, the abomination yanked it back and slammed it to the ground again and again.

"Cyrus!" Sereza yelled as she rolled out of the way of a cluster of tentacles trying to grab her. "Behind you!"

Instead of turning around, I jumped to the side and twisted my spear backwards. I felt the blade puncture something squishy, and I released the shaft to send fire at whatever I had hit.

There was a moment when something tried to grab my hand, but it failed to grip hard enough to force my hand away, and their fingers brushed past my arm.

When I turned to look at what had tried to ambush me, I found another one of the robed figures falling to his knees, desperately trying to push itself off my spear.

Their body was exposed and burnt, the already skeletal look exaggerated to a new height as their flesh sloughed off. I heard another trill followed by a dull thump hit the ground, so I planted my boot in the center of their chest and kicked off.

My spear came free, and the now naked figure slumped to the ground. The body curled into a ball as the fires blackened their corpses.

The smell was awful, so I let my mask run its enchantments and filter the air. The effect activated, and I could take a deep breath.

Damnit, stop being distracted, Cyrus! Focus!

When I turned around to face the abomination, Sereza was already facing off against the creature in a deadly game of cat and mouse. Whenever the mass of tentacles swung to grab her, she would dodge out of the way and activate one of her skills. I saw bright green and neon yellow as her blades coated themselves in a liquid that rushed into every cut she left behind.

Through the endless assault, I saw a few of the tentacles were hanging limply, moving much slower than the others. They each dripped black ichor mixed with green congealed ooze.

"Hold on! Keep it distracted, and I'll torch its other side!" I called out.

"Fine!" She grunted as a stray rock impacted her leg. "Hurry up, though. I can't do this forever."

I ran to the opposite end, and focused power into my palm. I let the mana build, holding it together rather than instantly sending it out.

Finally, as Sereza severed the tip of a tentacle that had managed to latch onto her arm, I extended my hand and pushed. The fire mana that left my channels turned into a watermelon-sized fireball. The blast forced me backwards, and I let the motion carry me while keeping my focus on the projectile.

Sereza's eyes widened in surprise, and she flipped over a fallen tree to duck down. The fire wouldn't hurt me, so I watched as the fireball flew toward the abomination's side.

Before it hit, all the tentacles not engaged in attacking Sereza extended and formed a multilayer barrier that caught the attack. The sphere of golden flames exploded upon impact, and the world turned golden for a split second.

Fwoosh!

The tentacles that caught the fireball went up in flames. The slime around its body lit up and started to spread across the wall of tentacles.

The trill that rang out physically hurt. I felt my bones vibrate as the soundwave washed over me. The abomination wailed and went ballistic as it started thrashing in place.

Once a deluge of slimy tentacles, became a multithreaded whip that splashed burning ichor across the area. Three tentacles slammed the previously untouched building next to the monster at the same time. Two windows cracked while the other tentacle wrapped around one of the pillars near its front.

It ripped the pillar out of the ground trailing pieces of road. The overhang it was holding up crumbled in a pile of burning wood.

The abomination flung the pillar at me, and I dived forward. I felt it rush past my body and impact the wall behind me.

The thing continued to rage and trill as the fire spread further and further. I rolled to my side and pushed up with my arms. As I got up, I was ready to turn and run, to let the flames do their job, but then the abomination did something unexpected.

The non-flaming tentacles on the other half of its body reached over and began to pull at the base of the other half of the tentacles. A loud squelch followed a wet rip, and the flaming appendages came free. It immediately dropped them to the ground and knocked them away.

With the flames stopped, the monster turned to me, and suddenly, all the remaining fleshy limbs were lashing at the air as the thing began to roll forward.

"Master! Get away," Magnus called out.

I barely had time to register his words as I felt my familiar release his skill and send forth a beam of energy. Like before, the beam seemingly teleported when it exited the cub's mouth.

The strange space-warping energy beam cut through the tentacles coming my way, and then I felt it expand. The abomination pulled in one direction as the spatial vortex tried to suck the abomination in.

There was a twist, and the other half of the tentacles and a good-sized chunk of the monster's body were torn away. The ichor running through the tentacles shot into the air like a hose and caused a slight rainfall.

A few drops landed on my face, but the mask prevented them from reaching my skin. The smell must have been awful since I could feel Magnus' misery bleed through our link.

With the monster stunned by the sudden damage, I rushed toward where Magnus was. I grabbed him and tucked him into the crook of my arm as I ran in the direction Sereza was hiding. By now, the tree she had used as cover was tossed to the side, lying in two cracked pieces near the edge of a house.

Before I could stop and look around, a distinct feminine battle cry came from above the monster. I looked and found Sereza plunging two of her daggers into the exposed center mass of the abomination. Her blades released a flood of neon-yellow acid that washed over the monster.

I watched in disbelief as she rode the creature down, the abomination deflating as the acid ate at its flesh. When she neared the ground, she jerked her daggers out and rolled away.

She sprung to her feet and gave me an insane smile as she turned to admire her handiwork. Together, we watched as the monster released a final death rattle before its flesh became a brown and black puddle of goop.

I wiped more of the nasty sludge off my mask and helped Magnus brush off the drops that landed on his fur. Sereza gave me a betrayed look, but I shrugged and continued to watch the layers of slime peel and slough off and drip to the ground to join the puddle of melted flesh.

I let out a whistle and shook my head. "That's a nasty skill. Remind me not to get on your bad side."

Sereza scoffed and pointed to the tired kit resting in my arms. "And remind me not to fuck with your adorable but terrifying spirits. What the fuck even was that attack he did at the end?"

I smiled and stroked Magnus' fur. His skill ended after releasing the absorbed mana, so his fur was back to being nice and soft. "I told you he would absorb the mana. Spatial mana, apparently, likes to teleport and expand."

She gave the cat a reevaluating look before we both turned as we heard something wet hit the ground. What we saw made our heads spin, and it took me a second to realize what I was seeing.

Hidden inside the center mass of the abomination was the man we had seen frozen in time. His body connected to a layer of tendrils that pushed into his body. The bottom half of the man was gone, replaced by a congealed blob of black slime.

The sight was disgusting, and judging by Sereza's reaction, it must have stunk like hell. I gingerly used the edge of my spear to cut through the slime, but I could not find where the man ended and the muck began.

"What in the hells did they do to this guy?" Sereza muttered.

I pulled back my spear and crouched low to examine the man. He was truly dead. I didn't need to check for a pulse; the space where his heart should have been was invaded by the black tendrils diving deep into his flesh.

I doubt he would want to be alive after what happened to him.

With a silent goodbye, I plunged my spear into his open eye and let the blade sink in. It was an unneeded gesture, but I wanted to be sure.

I twisted my spear and removed the blade from the corpse's eye. As the body fell to the ground, I raised my head and surveyed the area. The damage the monster had caused was immense, and I glared at the pillar embedded in the far wall.

"That was crazy. We should have left the distortion alone. Could have died," I remarked.

"Oh yeah? Then why were you smiling during most of the fight?" Sereza countered.

"What do you mean?"

She reached over and tapped my mask. "The weird ink blotch was in the shape of a wide grin the entire time. It only changed when the thing threw the pillar at you." She lowered her hand and shrugged. "I don't know what you were really showing under there, but it sure looked like you enjoyed the thrill of it all."

I scratched idly at my mask before remembering my gloves were stained with the ichor. I shook my head and held up Magnus. "You did amazing, buddy. Do you want me to resummon you?"

"Yes... Stupid gunk caught in my fur," he replied.

I smirked and embraced him in a hug. I ignored Sereza's aww and let my mana flow stop. I undid the Reflective Coat of the Mirror Beast and Spirit Lord's Invocation. When Magnus faded away, Zharia appeared in his place.

She took off before I could wrap my fingers around her, and she landed on a nearby roof that had remained untouched by the abomination's blood.

I let out a sigh and sent a few complaints through the link. Zharia responded with thoughts of disgust and revulsion, along with images of her beautiful feathers ruined with tar.

Another sigh escaped my lips, and Sereza crossed her arms. "What, was it something I said?"

I waved her off. "No, not you. Zharia says I'm too gross to touch her, and I can't blame her. We might have to burn these clothes before we return to the cellar."

This time, Sereza pouted, peeling away a part of her shirt soaked with the disgusting ichor. "We'll have to find somewhere to wash these off. This is my only set of armour."

I gave her a thumbs-up and approached the charred skeleton that was once the robed figure. Sereza joined me, and I let a grin form on my mask. "Wanna see something cool? You have to promise never to mention it to anyone else if you do.

She looked at me suspiciously but agreed in the end.

I didn't want to reveal Erebus, but there was no way I would leave behind the two corpses. I nearly died several times during the fight, and I was going to make the monsters pay up.

It took a single thought to let my mana flow. And when Erebus appeared in his clean, white-shelled glory, I instantly scooped him up and dropped him on the corpse.

I was only slightly disappointed that his body turned to shadows before he landed on the goo-covered corpse.