Beastforged Bond

B4 Chapter 31

The first Spawn died to phoenix fire augmented by the Mark, but it didn’t go down in silence. It dragged its brethren and the Fiend toward us and left behind a deep gash across my chest and upper arm. I barely noticed the wounds. It was only when Sapsie grew eager to leave the World that I noticed something was off.Phoenix fire burned through the injuries and sealed them even before I could use my new trait, Pond of Life, to tend to the wounds. I still used some of its nectar to jumpstart my recovery, but there was no time to properly inspect my condition.

The divination beast emerged amidst our group as we prepared for the worst and neighed. Its horn glowed vibrantly and emitted lifelike pulses. As soon as one reached me, I felt a resonance. Not with the divination beast itself, but with its trait. The ether within me stirred. My core seemed to unfold and connect with the weave as that ether came to life. It was almost as if my ether had attained a will of its own as it grew stronger. It wasn’t compressed, nor did its purity increase, yet the ether coursing through my body felt more potent than ever.

The same was true for the ether within the Gates. The ether infused into the linked Gates increased in potency as well, resulting in drastic changes. I reactivated Nullblade and watched the hue coating my blade. It was more compressed than it used to be.

Even though I had already used the trait at its full potential, its effect was greater than before. The same was true of my other traits and my physique. I felt stronger, faster, tougher, and I could only hope that my friends experienced the same change.

I shot forward, fiery wings sprouting from my back. They carried me swiftly through the air, fast enough for me to collide with the fastest Spawn before the others could catch up. Azure flames enveloped the colossal figure and burned it down, but my newest target was not as easy to kill as the first Spawn. It hadn’t been wounded, giving it all the energy it needed to fight me head-on. And that it did.

The Spawn’s body rippled as dozens of heads sprouted from its neck and upper body. They covered the five-meter-tall, giant-shaped Spawn entirely, each head carrying at least one trait–if not multiple.

Some appeared familiar: the heads of a Magmanous Salamander, a Dragonflame Hawk, and other creatures that looked as though they were partially made of magma or fire. The reason was as obvious as it was painful. The Giant Spawn had seen what I did earlier and countered my greatest power by attuning to it. It hoarded beasts with fire-resistance traits or racial characteristics that produced the same effect.

Whether those traits overlapped or the Spawn possessed a beast with complete fire immunity, I didn’t know, but the result was apparent. My flames barely did anything. They burned sizzling hot, yet even Volca’s Mark failed to deal meaningful damage. Whatever harm the flames did vanished just as quickly as it appeared.

I ended Volca’s Mark and my Soulfusion with Volix, saving them for later. I fused with Aureus and Nox next, replacing the phoenix wings and fire armor with a black, heavy-plated exoskeleton and massive dragonfly wings.

The Giant Spawn did not remain idle. One of its arms lunged at me with surprising speed. It caught me mid-fusion and hurled me through the air. Instead of crashing into a distant tree, ethereal chains shot toward me from the Spawn’s back. They coiled around my legs while I was still airborne and yanked me back.

Pain raced through my limbs as sickly green thorns grew from the chains. They somehow pierced Nox’s exoskeleton and my skin, depositing a numbing substance into my legs.

By the time the Spawn dragged me in front of its hideous faces, I could barely feel my lower body. Nectar from the Pond of Life and searing heat coursing through my legs fought against the numbness and locked it in place, but it took considerable effort not to panic. Instead, I cleaved through the chains coiled around my legs with Nullblade.

The chains stood no chance and dispersed, but the damage had already been done. Flapping my wings, I shot into the air, only to watch the Giant Spawn unfurl a set of wings that could only have belonged to a mature drake. Before it could follow me, however, a familiar figure appeared beside it. Two, actually.

Scott was ready, his clothes soaked with sweat and his chest heaving. His eyes were milky white, his face pale as snow, yet he smiled as he unleashed a mountain of ether through his spear.

The divination beast stood behind him, its horn pulsating even more fiercely than before. My own ether was no longer being boosted, but the ether flowing from Scott changed drastically. It was unlike anything I had ever seen. Like a river of stars beneath a cloudless night.

The sight was mesmerizing. I nearly forgot to move. My heart skipped a beat as the combined attack of Scott and the divination beast tore through the Giant Spawn, splitting it open from its abdomen up toward its neck.

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A dozen heads were destroyed in the process, weakening the Giant Spawn drastically. It collapsed to the ground, though its body continued to writhe as regeneration began almost immediately.

Scott’s legs threatened to give out, but he charged anyway. His spear whipped through the air, carving through several heads with immaculate precision, his ether consumption enormous.

“We need to kill that thing or we’re dead. Fast!” Scott screamed when I appeared by his side. My legs were still numb. Fortunately, even then, legs weren’t needed to kill a five-meter-tall monstrosity. Highly compressed earthen spikes burst from the ground, but they failed to penetrate the Spawn’s thick hide or any of its skulls. After the third failed attempt, I coated the spikes in Nullblade as soon as they were conjured. My reserves reached a dangerously low level as I commanded dozens of spikes to pierce as many heads as possible.

Then I triggered Soulfusion with the Elemental Phoenix once more and transformed the Giant Spawn into a living campfire. Volca’s Mark burned hot on my neck and the right side of my face. It hurt, but so did the barbed tail raking across my back. It melted within seconds, yet it distracted me long enough for the Giant Spawn’s body to ripple and change once more. It had attuned again. This time, however, I was prepared.

Spikes covered in Nullblade’s thick membrane jutted from the ground, piercing the Giant Spawn over and over again. Some pierced straight through, whereas others turned into hooks, pinning the Spawn in place long enough to burn it to ashes.

In the meantime, the fights around me continued.

***

Adam was terrifying.

It had been a long time since he and Scott had fought together, but Scott would have never expected their strength to differ this much. Not only did Adam kill one of those Spawns by himself, he doubled down and burned through a second one as well. Standing close to the regular flames he conjured was already painful, but those azure flames? Scott suffered several bad burns when he released a few bursts of ether to protect Adam the first time. The second time, the flames were even stronger. Scott didn’t dare to get too close to Adam then.

Instead, he stared at the divination beast, his eyes growing wide. The beast’s silver eyes lingered on Adam’s figure, shrouded in flames that transformed into a fire several meters wide.

It appeared curious, which stung much more than Scott’s bubbling skin.

He wanted to scream as the beast finally turned toward him.

It neighed, the silver in its eyes shimmering like a thousand stars.

“We came here to help you,” Scott blurted out loud, his chest burning.

He had already used close to half of his ether reserves, although that hardly mattered. His ether was much stronger than it used to be, courtesy of the divination beast. It empowered him just like Fabienne’s spells had. No, more than that. The divination beast’s trait was far greater than Fabienne’s. The ability to empower his ether was exactly what Scott needed. It suited him perfectly.

The divination beast neighed and nodded, looking at Scott as if it were perfectly aware of the entire situation. It then turned toward Daniel and his sister, Lea, and charged ahead. Scott followed instinctively, leaving Adam to fend for himself.

. Scott calmed himself, even though that wasn’t entirely true.

While he couldn’t see Adam in his visions, he had seen what happened to Daniel and himself. The Giant Spawn survived and killed them. Killed everyone, only to die in white, pristine flames at the end of its rampage. The vision hadn’t been all that clear–none of his visions had been lately–but the sentiment had been obvious enough for both him and the divination beast.

Leaning into the visions once more, Scott cursed. The siblings needed help.

While the Fiend was more annoyed with the Spawns, engaging three initially, one split off and attacked Daniel.

Lea Zerog came to help, her fighting style resembling a nimble feline, but she was slower than her opponent. Lea severed several limbs but suffered greatly in return as well. A scorpion’s tail stuck out of her abdomen, the result of a failed attempt to rescue Daniel. She did manage to push her brother aside and suffered the consequences herself.

She cursed and pulled the tail from her abdomen, her skin tone shifting to a deep green. Her feline appearance transformed into a far less beautiful and more grotesque frame, yet none of that mattered as she began to recover from a wound that would have otherwise killed her.

The divination beast caught up to her, the glow on its horn changing momentarily. A moment later, Lea recovered even faster.

Then a tall figure was hurled past them and straight into one of the colossal tree trunks behind them. It was Daniel, his Soulfusion intact even as blood poured from a dozen injuries at once.

“Bleeding trait,” Scott cursed, but his expression worsened further as an explosion tore through the area. It stretched far and wide, informing the entire valley that the battle had reached a critical point.

Spinning around, Scott found Adam pushing himself to his feet beside a molten mess. The Giant Spawn was dead, yet Adam didn’t retract his flames. They continued to consume the Spawn’s remains and even burned through the black smoke rising from it.

The corpse erupted in tiny explosions, which Adam ignored as he stared at the remaining Spawns, his expression impossible to read.

Then the Spawns disengaged from the Zerog siblings and the Fiend. They barely spared the divination beast a glance, despite it having been their priority not long ago, and charged at Adam in a frenzy.