Daniel’s Encyclopedia, and the hyperlinks on creature tags, either provided the information he wanted or was blocked from doing so by external meddling. That wasn’t what was happening here. His information source was, ultimately, the Octyrrum itself. If it didn’t know what this monster was…
System intrusion. The underlying rules and mechanics of the Octyrrum were beginning to fray, starting at the edges, allowing the influence of the monster gods to invade. With one waking up next door, both Threst and Aughal would be the first to experience what was in store. At least mortal classes and powers would still function appropriately, according to Cloak. The Octyrrum would have to be broken entirely before they would be affected, though that didn’t help now.
Damn it. “Khiat, can you move?” he called out, ignoring as Kahvin gave a half-hearted glance downward and started bantering again.
“It hurts.” She tried to flex her arms and let out a small cry of pain. The wounds must have been agitated whenever she tried contracting the plates. If it wasn’t for the fact that her armor self-repaired, he’d be worried about her being unable to lock down once Sun Resistance ran out.
Daniel looked back to the Hero and thought, I don’t care if you’re level 3 or how important you are, you’ll pay for that even if I have to go murder mode and claw you out of the sky. The new monster wouldn’t give him that chance, though. “Tlara, get Khiat and take her and Willow out of here.”
“Hunt’s not done yet,” Kahvin taunted. “The assignment was to kill all the whitesprings. Be a shame if you failed now after putting all that blood into it.”
“I’m staying. Khare, it’s your call if you want to. This could be more dangerous than the rest.”
“The Crest are you so worried about?” Kahvin bellowed before Khare could answer, looking again at the monsters now about 400 meters away. “They’re just level 1s. Sure it looks like they’re… wait, I thought monsters couldn’t do that. Gross.”
He still hadn’t understood the danger, though part of that was probably due to not being able to see the aura. At face value, what the remaining whitesprings had turned into at this distance just looked like the six had tangled together. Something else had occurred.
The fuzzy lines of the caterpillar-like wing arrangement had faded, and the aura sat closer to the tubular main bodies. That in itself was alarming considering it was still somehow flying, but more of the anatomy had been scrambled. It seemed like the six had formed into the general shape of the crossed whitespring that had died earlier, which made Daniel wonder if his theory on how that had spawned had been correct.
Instead of just the look of two fused whitesprings, this new formation had something approaching a torso in the center with a wide mouth, the eyes of the six former creatures surrounding it. It made him think of a six-limbed starfish to look at.
The combined monsters were levitating toward them too, not making use of the spring-like motion they had before the transformation. As Kahvin got a better look at it, Daniel fired after swapping to non-explosive rounds. He had Snap Shot back and could hit big enough targets at this distance, so-
The monster slid to the side at an incomprehensible angle, dodging the shot easily. Even the winged boots had limitations on the direction they could allow Daniel to fly, but this monster had moved at an odd angle while retaining its full speed.
Huge mouth, freedom of movement, and it can dodge what the iridescents can’t. What’s going on? He knew level wasn’t the ultimate indicator of strength Kahvin thought it was. Both he and Gadriel were perfect examples of how bonds and skill respectively could overcome power gaps. It seemed like whatever had happened was another edge monsters could now access.
“Get the rest of your team out of here,” Daniel said to Kahvin as the Hero floated his shield to his other arm.
“Look, don’t be so serious. We can handle it. I’ve killed level 3s solo, this is nothing” he bragged, as if Daniel’s team hadn’t just faced a handful themselves. “If you’re not willing to take some pain, you’ll never be anything.”
“The rest of your team doesn’t have anything enchanted like you,” Daniel pointed out, having been with Talonwing long enough to figure that out. “The normal level 2s bit through Khiat’s armor. What do you think that mouth is going to do?” He tried for another shot at the end of the sentence but the rapidly approaching monster dodged again.
Kahvin beat his wings a few times. It seemed to cost him something as he said, “Rookie, glide out of here with the rest. Everyone else get ready, I’m sure this will be difficult.” He put a sarcastic spin on the end as he did his best to sneer at Daniel with a beak.
Bertrar quickly complied, flying out after the two now riding on Tlara. He couldn’t fly as much as fall slowly, whereas the level 2s on Kahvin’s team could produce some lift. Only he could fly with what Daniel would call grace if it was anyone else. He didn’t get how a team of theoretical Bertrar’s could be automatically flight certified just by having Grow Wings at level 1, but his team with better methods and experience had to jump through these hoops.
Well, he was about to find out if the avianoid race had any other justifiable advantages in the air aside from their racial power. The hungry star that was the fused monsters had dodged almost everything coming toward it, and Daniel swore a slug that had gotten close had been pushed away. Telekinesis? That doesn’t make any sense!
He did not want to fight this thing up close, but Kahvin, puffed up and pride hurting, was mentally preparing to cut this thing in half with one strike and then further dunk on Daniel’s team. If he’d arranged the rest of his team around him Daniel might have suggested he play it safe but since he was alone? Kahvin seems pretty confident. I’m sure he can handle himself.
It was close, slightly spinning as it broke through a cloud and continued to come for them. The mouth in the center had been made from the combined jaws of the former whitesprings and hinged backward at six points. The limbs coming off the sides moved independently of each other and not in any way that suggested they were responsible for the flight.
Khavin thought better of his original plan and sheathed his sword. “Feather Rain!” The ability was similar to Daniel’s own Grow Feathers, though in this case it looked like the Hero’s arm was a machine gun continually firing the sharp projectiles. It wasn’t very accurate as the location on the Hero’s wing each came from partially determined their trajectory, leading to a wide spread instead of what Daniel could achieve in combination with Snap Shot.
The monster, whose aura remained undefined, spun sideways and away from the torrent. It’s definitely deflecting projectiles, Daniel decided. Only a few out of the hundreds of feathers even made it, the rest skating away. The effect’s stronger there. It must be like my Telekinetic Reach, less effective on things with more momentum. They could have used Khiat here, but Kahvin’s refusal to participate had gotten both her and, by extension, Tlara removed from this fight.
“I think we need to get close for this one!” Adva shouted, her voice slightly twisted as she adopted the martial aspect from her class. Bird transmutation on a bird person wasn’t as immediately stark as Tak’s normal shift, but he could make out a section on her wings that had claws poking out of the feathers. It looked like she could stack both Grow Wings and Claw Strike. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“I can rage if we need to take this down quickly.”
“Don’t!” Daniel shouted back at Clacki, but Kahvin quickly overrode him as he flew back up towards him, the monster on his heels.
“You don’t order my team around! Clacki, you’ll need those buffs. Do it.” Daniel watched as the Berserker let out a loud cry and started charging toward the monster, Adva following close behind. She stopped and turned in the air when it became clear Kahvin was letting them fight the monster first, but the other one didn’t.
It can’t be too strong, Daniel thought to himself, hoping for Clacki’s sake he was right. He was done trying to save them from Kahvin’s stupidity and depending on what happened next, was ready to get himself and Khare out of here. The rest had made their bed.
The monster didn’t scream or bellow on its own as the two closed, Kahvin falling in a few meters behind for a follow-up. The shape of its central body was flat, and it couldn’t have contained normal biology for things such as lungs. If you could avoid the jaws, and if there wasn’t anything special to this monster aside from its flight and deflection, then it wasn’t that difficult an opponent. That must have been what the Talonwing team thought before they struck. Monsters rarely had many tricks, surely there was nothing else.
Clacki’s wings glowed red as he evaded one of the six tendrils coming for him, the light focusing on the blades fit to the exterior of his wings before winking out. Daniel didn’t know what kind of rage power the avianoid had, but from his own he had an idea of how they worked. His best guess was that Clacki’s strength and evasiveness were boosted, given the Berserker was properly flying now in a way only level 3 Grow Wings allowed on its own.
The slight fear that he had been exaggerating the danger was quashed as, hovering next to Khare above the melee, Daniel watched three limbs of the monster not directly adjacent to Clacki point toward him. They bent like fishing rods as the Berserker entered a spinning dive, lashing out with his wing blades as he grazed the monster’s side and flew out from under it. Or, at least that’s what he had tried to do.
Clacki squawked angrily as he began to slow, the monster rotating to face him while also matching the descent. Even with his equipment, Daniel couldn’t pull off something like that, especially when the flaps of his wings were detached to allow him to hold the blast bow comfortably.
Kahvin and Adva dove after the limbs pointed at Clacki, having made the same connection Daniel had. Cooperating for the Berserker’s sake, he aimed for the one they wouldn’t immediately reach and tried to selectively mark it to communicate to Khare. Unfortunately, their bond was all or nothing when it came to monsters.
He fired and managed to strike his target, though the flesh was only cored from the damage. It held together about as well as the level 2 monsters he’d struck, which wouldn’t have died as easily from his attacks were it not for him targeting weak points and using his area damage buff. With frie-, with allies this close, he could only use Snap Shot.
Khare went for the main body instead, the edges of their arrows red with the bleed effect. It’d be great if they managed to apply it since this new monster still had blood, though the overall damage from one of their volleys was also respectable. Daniel’s blast bow beat any one projectile Khare put out, but the gestalt had a quantity over quality approach and received a universal damage buff while using items Daniel made.
That the monster withstood these attacks, and managed to completely stop Clacki midair, told him it was no longer level 1. The two in melee fared no better, though Kahvin’s enchanted sword got halfway through severing a limb before his blade stopped. On even ground he’d have had the leverage to completely follow through, but fighting in the air meant transitioning the weight of the fall into a strike. There was no way to shift the momentum with his sword loosely grasped by whatever power tied it to his wing, not unless he tried to land on the monster. Adva was faced with a similar issue as she tried to sever a limb with a spectral attack that looked similar, though not identical to Cleave.
Clacki tried to escape the monster’s grip as his teammates circled for another pass, beating his wings so fast they began to blur. He barely moved, locked in place as all six limbs of the monster were now pointed at him. Daniel fired twice into the back of the creature, hoping now to kill it before it could bite Clacki. The Berserker managed to get a little bit away whenever one of the limbs was damaged, but he was tiring from rapidly sustained flight.
It should have already gotten him, he thought. The monster didn’t need to maneuver to reach Clacki, it could just fall onto him. It’s gravity manipulation, not telekinesis, Daniel decided. It can only move one thing at a time and it sticks in place when it does. Was its deflection actually repulsion? That would make sense since both he and Khare weren’t having issues hitting it now.
He’d begun to consider if there was a way he could do more damage than his blast bow when it happened. Khare’s next volley deflected as did all of Talonwing, including Clacki. The monster had taken considerable damage up until this point without showing signs of serious injury, but several of its limbs were close to being cut off. It seemed to have abandoned its attempts to snare the Berserker, until the arrows Khare was shooting began twisting in the air back and forth. Kahvin and Adva were caught by the turbulence as well, but only in the weak field effect that surrounded the creature.Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.
In the area around Clacki, where it was focused, the effect was more pronounced. It only took Daniel a few moments to see what was happening. It’s switching the direction of its effect every time he flaps his wings! The Berserker had been tiring and working himself further up in a mad attempt to escape, which left him off-balance against this type of attack. The rapid fluctuations of gravity must have been disorienting.
Kahvin, by merit of his higher attributes, managed to overcome the turbulence himself and strike at a limb to fully sever it. The five that remained were still enough. Clacki performed the flying version of stumbling and as soon as he lost cohesion, the gravity around the monster remained attractive. Adva tried to knock him away and almost got caught in the main effect herself. She tried to push off from him in the last moment but only got herself clear.
Daniel had to judge by aura what happened next. The now five-limbed monster’s aura eclipsed Clacki’s, this coinciding with a scream. Daniel used Moment of Clarity after hearing this, his mana dwindling after already being spent on so many ranged attacks. We’re not going to kill this fast enough. The main body of the new monster was far tougher than its composite parts and didn’t appear to have any singular weak spot. His blast bow could cut all the way through, but without something like a brain to destroy there was little point in that. It was something he’d have to consider later, with the lightning bolt design proving too dangerous and problematic to consider making more of, but there was no way he could change things now. Not like this.
There was no limit to what Daniel could designate once Moment of Clarity ended so long as it was a singular action. Using Beast Mode qualified. Revealing the power and all that came from it wasn’t his first choice, but he wasn’t going to leave someone in that kind of situation no matter how much of a jerk their boss was. Plus, he knew that as long as Clacki survived in some fashion, Regeneration would allow him to eventually heal. It was a power almost every Berserker awakened.
The conversion was almost instantaneous, similar to other transmutation powers. Coming out of both stopped time and into a new body was disorienting at first but falling was all he needed to do. As he willed the lightning wings to reattach to his arms, the cling effect making them crawl up from his back, he fell into Longstalker’s Stride. He’d had to get used to flying before the movement trance worked, but a few covert nighttime ventures had been enough.
“Caution!” Khare called after him, but it barely registered. In this state he was focused forward. Perhaps a weakness in the sky, but with nothing else nearby there was no need for caution. The trance broke after only ten seconds, Daniel having gotten too close to the monster for it to function. Even the small amount of speed he’d gained would translate to a shorter amount of time his fellow hunter was being chewed. He had almost forgotten to slip on the bone claws but thrust both hands into the bags on either side of him in time to make contact with the twisted white mass.
His mind blocked out the taste as he bit and clawed into the monster. Defiant Rage was activated, it was always activated, but he neither felt a boost from facing an enemy of higher level nor overwhelming emotion like when he’d gained the feature. His prolonged exposure to the power, and especially Quala’s guidance, were helping. He could sense Clacki and the two others of Talonwing even with Pack Sense still at level 1. The Berserker wasn’t doing well. On the other hand Sense Astral gave him nothing, so this wasn’t a foe that crossed into that place.
Daniel pulled himself across the creature, needing to sink his claws in as the monster’s gravitational effect switched to repulsive. The limbs were acting semi-independently now and there were two tracking both him and Kahvin. It was trying to distance them while it killed Clacki and felt it had a better chance this way, rather than escaping itself. He dug in, using both Mark Prey on the monster for a good portion of his remaining mana, as well as slightly giving in to the anger Hammer had originally sparked.
It was like pulling on a stuck lever and meeting no resistance once the rust was broken. He almost lost himself to it, feeling the attention of Adva and Kahvin turn to him through Pack Insight, but held on. His friends were counting on him. His family would never see him again if he got himself killed. Hunter…
He blinked and was at the compound jaws of the monster that were currently stained red, Clacki’s feathers stuck in places where it was drying. Some of the limbs had tried hitting him when it became clear he wouldn’t be pulled off, but Daniel either avoided the damage or healed it back through Ferocious Healing. He hissed lowly as he gripped one of the protruding upper jaws and felt a slight burning. Not fire, but the saliva of the monster was acidic enough to take the fur off him and eat into the flesh. Acid wasn’t quite the counter to healing fire or necrotic damage was, but it would fight any restoration until neutralized.
At least his claws, both natural and bone, were resistant due to their enhancement. Daniel pulled fiercely, getting what steady footing he could with the boots preventing him from sinking his smaller back claws into the monster. The resistance wasn’t overwhelming, and if it had been just this hinge keeping Clacki in he should have been able to escape. It was the combined effect of each keeping him contained in the maw that was slowly dissolving him.
The flesh within the jaw itself was solid where a throat should have been, muscle connecting the top and bottom halves. Toward the center of the monster there was an opening through which he could barely see Clacki. He wasn’t doing good, already knocked unconscious and kept alive only by the self-healing power of his class preserving what the acid hadn’t reached yet. Daniel slashed at the connective muscles while using his other hand to keep the jaw elevated, feeling it grow slack.
His eyes found Kahvin where his power suggested he’d be and he growled out, “Two more, then help me get him!” He saw the Hero breathing hard, on the edge of panic. If the monster made an aggressive move towards him he might flee, but it appeared it was now trying to run. Three of its limbs had been hacked off and its movements were less coordinated as it fell through the sky. Every wound bled fiercely as Khare’s continually applied effect took its toll. All of this had been happening while he’d been zeroed in on the jaws, barely registering in his mind.
Bad leader, Daniel idly mused as he pried up another jaw. They needed to find Evalyn and the others. He saw the island of Diver’s Rest flash by as he crippled it, and then moved to the next. The ground limit would be close, but they’d transition with the monster. There was no escape.
“Now!” he yelled. There was only one limb left and it seemed the monster didn’t have enough to stabilize itself in the air. It was trying to brake, the mystical barrier at the bottom of Threst nearing. It was odd, now that he could see it. The sky continued downward, but his seventh sense registered the immense magic sustaining the combined illusive and teleportation effects.
Adva landed by him first and he heard her gasp as she made out Clacki within the acidic maw. “He’s still alive, grab him!” To her credit she didn’t hesitate, compared to Kahvin who had yet to appear. Daniel pulled and then levered up a fourth jaw with his feet while reaching in with the Totem Warrior, both retrieving the stricken Berserker.
Through unspoken agreement they retreated from the monster, Adva quickly looping rope onto a latch he hadn’t noticed before on Clacki’s armor before remaking her wings and flaring them out. The monster would hit the ground limit before they got him clear, but Daniel intended to make sure Adva could support Clacki alone. Then he would go after that thing and-
The fused whitesprings hit the ground limit as if it was physically solid, splattering. Its body didn’t entirely break, but this was enough to kill it after all the other damage it had taken was accounted for. Neither commented on this, instead getting Clacki back up to Diver’s Rest. The shared movement was awkward, Daniel having to compensate for how Adva flew, but he used the time to calm himself. He breathed in, trying to catch where Tlara was, but they must have been too far away. He’d have to meet them back in Aurus.
When they laid the Berserker down on the grounds of the destroyed village, Daniel got a sense of just how damaged he was. There must have been pools of acid in the maw that parts of his body, including one hand and both feet, had sat in as there were spots of greater damage. The back of his head was eaten into as well, but thankfully not through the skull. Still, it was worse than the injuries Tak had sustained after a mountain had tried to fall on him. Regeneration could allow people to survive extraordinary injuries, but it said nothing about a pleasant recovery process. Like his spine, Clacki would have to depend on his power alone to regrow the parts that had been completely lost.
“You!” he heard someone shout. Kahvin. The Hero had flown down and had been storming towards them, only to see Clacki’s wounds himself. “This is all your fault!” Daniel felt incredible anger coming from the Hero, but also fear. “This was supposed to be a simple hunt but half of you abandoned us. Look at what you’ve done to my friend!”
“Kahvin-“ Adva started to say.
“SHUT UP!” His sword was in his hand, and while it wasn’t pointed toward Daniel, he suddenly lost his sense of Kahvin through Pack Insight. That only worked on allies. “You weren’t ready. You weren’t ready, and this is what happened!”
Daniel didn’t reply as he would have in human form. Instead, he just made sure the fit of his bone claws was still snug as he walked away from Adva and Clacki. Neither the Hero nor the Totem Warrior had commented on his transformation, and he hadn’t shown too much to distinguish it from a normal power. He grinned towards the Hero, feeling a soft nudge of a burgeoning power awakening in the back of his mind.
“Kahvin, we need to get him back to Aurus,” Adva tried again, but the Hero pretended not to hear. A mark suddenly appeared over his head, Khare giving their own opinion from above, but Daniel dismissed it.
“You think you can just come here and fly over everyone like you’ve earned anything? You’re nothing. Nothing!” He did point his sword toward Daniel then. “And if you don’t know that yet, I’m going to show you. Fucking prepare yourself.”
With pleasure, Daniel thought, making no outwardly welcoming gestures. The degree to which the Hero was unhinged puzzled him but he ultimately didn’t care. Defiant Rage was giving him the benefit of facing a higher level enemy now, and he was getting closer to realizing the hidden power. It was an ability, he knew that much.
Daniel widened his stance as the Hero suddenly shot toward him, moving fast enough that it had to have been a power. The sword came within a centimeter of his arm as he bent away, and in that moment he awakened not one, but two powers. The first had been the one he expected, but the second had been a complete surprise, provoked by the kind of attack Kahvin used.
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Siphon Mana (Ability, Intelligence, Domain: Restoration, Cooldown, Modifier, Level: 2):
You possess the Power to absorb Mana used to fuel an offensive power targeting you. This ability does not reduce the target’s Mana Pool or weaken the effect of the triggering power. This power has no mana cost and can be combined with another power without interrupting it. The mana gained from this ability must be used immediately, and once used this ability has a one minute cooldown. This is a Magical Ability that does not function in an area of Magical Suppression.
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Opportune Moment (Ability, Intelligence, Domain: Time, Counter, Level: 2):
You possess the Power to improve your speed and reaction times over a brief period for a major Mana cost after completing evading an Attack. This is a Magical Ability that does not function in an area of Magical Suppression.
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Daniel instinctually used both, understanding why Siphon Mana didn’t interrupt the other as he did so. He gained a sudden sense of control over mana radiating off of Kahvin’s waning power and it flowed over to him, mirroring the path his began to take to trigger Opportune Moment. Despite the extra mana it almost wasn’t enough, this ability having the largest cost he’d ever seen.
Time slowed, though not to the degree it did with Moment of Clarity. It was at maybe quarter speed, and Daniel couldn’t move any faster than he would have normally while this slow. Still, he saw the justification for the higher mana cost as he could move. Kahvin continued past him, but Daniel was both flexible and fast enough to get a hit in before the Hero was out of reach. Reluctantly, he took off one of the bone claws while stepping away from the strike. There was no point in making this worse than it already was.
Daniel shifted his weight and aimed a punch straight for the Hero. If he was trying to end this fight here and now he’d have gone for the neck with his claws, though he knew killing this asshole would be a bad idea. As the Hero fell away from him his power didn’t immediately end. Daniel felt he could cut it off at any point, but he wouldn’t get a mana refund for time unused. He decided to keep it going to see how long it would last and guessed it was about five real seconds.
The Hero crashed to the ground, the momentum from what the committed attack giving him no ability to save himself. Reeling, the Hero didn’t immediately rise in aggression but instead felt at his beak around where the crack was, panic returning.
“I didn’t hit you there,” Daniel said distastefully, disgusted by the pathetic creature in front of him. How had this weakling made it to level 3? “But I will, if you keep acting like an idiot. I’m taking my team and leaving. Go help the only two on yours who actually did something.”
“I-“ Kahvin started to say, but his voice broke as Daniel glared at him. “My father will learn of this! Do you hear me!?”
Daniel laughed at that and ascended into the sky. His only thought toward that was that no one who raised Kahvin could prove a serious threat.