Chapter One Hundred and Seventy Two – 172
Felix marveled as he flexed his hand. The hole that the priest had shot through it had healed completely. All it had cost him was stolen essence. The other slices and bruises on his body healed just as fast, fading to simple scratches in minutes, though it depleted him just as quick. The Revenants were more than happy to keep him topped off, however.
"SCREAAAAARGH!"
Felix leaned back from the Revenant's wild swipe, before closing the distance and tearing out its throat. Black ichor sizzled against the stones, a stain that spread with every strike. After some difficulty, he'd manage to keep his transformation localized to his hands and forearms, which gave him claws and a hefty bonus to his defenses there. A final blow to the thing's skull and it fell. Felix stood over it, his Body buzzing with stolen energy and craving more.
A gleeful cry came from one street over.
Felix looked to Zara, who stood some distance away with her arms folded into her black chorister robes. "I've got them," he told her, a touch of challenge in his voice.
Zara raised her eyebrow but didn't argue, instead watching him with her bright, curious eyes.
Ravenous Tithe!
A jagged spear of pain lanced through his gut as his Mana burst from his channels, but it soon dwindled as the four Revenants at his feet turned into dark smoke. Pain for strength.
Without another word, Felix took off, speeding down the nearby alley moments before the toothy beasts appeared.
Nine, he counted. They let out snarls of surprise as he bowled directly through them, tackling one musclebound abomination into the wall opposite. They hit hard enough to crack the stone edifice, and his heavy Body was more than enough to turn one into a meaty paste. They Revenants rallied and spun on him, but Felix was already up and hurling himself back at them.
Sovereign of Flesh!
Dark scales burst along his arm and his upper body swelled, his full transformation activating. He hit them like a truck filled with knives, and in moments two more were twitching meatsacks on the cobbles. Still, the rest piled onto him, their slavering hunger hitting him almost as hard as their bodies did. It didn't take his Affinity to read exactly what they wanted.
"Come and...take it!"
Barbed wings burst through the pile, neatly severing two more Revenants into four. The edges of his new appendages were as sharp as his talons, their mixture of bone and rigid feathers a unique, and once in a lifetime experience for the Revenants. Three stumbled back, the sudden transformation startling even to their tiny Minds. One, however, was not so smart and went in for the kill.
Felix drove his jaws into it's descending neck, savaging it across its collarbone and trapezius muscle, before his left hand ripped it's damn head off.
He stood up, and ichor pour from him like a waterfall, soaking his clothes and filling his nose with a nauseating, delectable bouquet.
Ravenous Tithe!
Forcibly turning to Essence was an explosive event, Felix had found. So when the Revenants flinched as the corpses of their fellows sublimated, Felix had all the time in the world to rip them apart. The last Revenant died while screaming, and another flare of his Mana and Will turned all evidence of them into dust.
"That was...enlightening, Felix," Zara said. "I didn't expect wings."
"They were a surprise to me too," Felix said. Feeling suddenly guilty, he wasn't sure what to do with his hands. With a gasp of pain, he reverted them back to human-seeming.
Zara tilted her head. "It hurts?"
"Not as bad as it used to," Felix said with a shrug. He eyed her a moment longer. "You don't seem particularly weirded out by my...Skills."
It was Zara's turn to shrug. "I've seen far stranger sights than a Body alteration Skill and a consumption Skill. Both courtesy of the Maw?"
Felix nodded, and almost by silent agreement, both of them started walking down the street again. "It's had a...formative effect on my development."
Zara laughed. "Remarkable."
It felt good, Felix realized, being open about everything. Zara was a Chanter, a Sorcerer, and who knew what else; she'd seen so much that even his strange and terrifying beginnings were old hat.
Still, he reminded himself. Don't get too comfortable. She doesn't know that I'm an Unbound, yet. He eyed her in his peripherals. How'll you feel about that, Zara Cyrene?
He planned to tell her, just...not yet. Soon.
The journey through the city had so far been a smorgasborg of battle, with the center city being heavily overrun. The cathedral of the Pathless had been up on the hill itself, so they'd had to wade through bodies to get back out. Had Felix not been imbibing straight monster Essence every other breath he would have fallen with exhaustion by the tenth block. As it was he felt jittery and strong, as if he'd been mainlining the blackest of coffee mixed with industrial grade steroids.
Felix grinned and helped them both to their feet. "Good. See to your friend."
Beside them, the Goblin was shaking the paralyzed woman frantically. "Get up get up get up!" By the time they looked back, Felix had already moved onto Yan's battle.
"On your right, Yan!" Felix shouted, before plowing into two of the Revenants. He took them down to the ground, letting gravity and his own weight force his claws deep into their chests. The creatures let out piteous shrieks and thrashed wildly at him, slicing up his shirt and trousers, but they weren't getting up.
He wasn't gonna let them.
"Mine."
Quailing before his grip, Felix ripped into the Revenant's scaly chests and gripped what amounted to their hearts. He tore them out.
Ravenous Tithe.
Both bodies turned to smoke, and the essence spun around him as he stood and turned to face the group again. He breathed in the last of it as Yan finished off the final Revenant, easily decapitating the creature now that the odds were a little more even. Behind them, the others slowly brought the shaking Human to her feet. He almost smacked himself for using the Skill near so many others though. Zara was one thing, but he'd rather keep his abilities underwraps from folks on the street. Luckily, everyone was entirely too preoccupied until it was all over.
"Felix?" Yan asked, blinking in surprise. He sheathed one of his swords to wipe a layer of blood from his face, staring incredulously. "We thought you were dead!"
"Alive and...well enough," Felix said with a smile. "What're you doing out here?"
"Patrols," Yan nodded at the four behind him. "We've had an excess of...volunteers. Cal's been tryin' to train them up."
Felix assessed the four women, wishing he could have used his Voracious Eye. He didn't want to risk the pain though. "Untempered?"
"Mostly. The Orc, Cade, she was a caravan guard. She hit Apprentice yesterday." Yan finished cleaning his other sword and sheathed it. "C'mon, I'll introduce ya."
Keeping his frown to himself, Felix followed. Surreptitiously he released his shifted form and let his hands go back to normal. As they approached, the Goblin and Hobgoblin were checking on the Human woman, while Cade inspected the tattered remnants of her buckler. She looked up at them and hurriedly straightened.
"Cade, everyone, this is Felix. Felix, this is Cade Ovanna," Yan said. "The little one is Merk Twinhandle, the Human is Stellis Jor, and the firebrand over here is Heva Keldatter."
"Nice to meet you all," Felix said.
"Ah, the same," she said, and her voice was deeper than he expected. Felix hadn't much interaction with Orcs though, it was probably normal. "You saved my life. My heartfelt thanks." She bowed.
"Oh uh, you're welcome. I'm sure you'd have done the same for me," Felix said hurriedly, hoping she'd stand up again, but the Orc remained in the bow for a full five seconds. Only then did she straighten. Felix turned to Yan. "I need to get to the warehouse. Are you headed back?"
"Hm? Oh yeah, we were on the return trip when these nasties ambushed us," Yan kicked a severed arm away from himself. "We shouldn't have come this far with so few of us, but the Revenants haven't been crossing the river in hours."
"They are congregating near the city center, but they are multiplying somehow," Zara said, sending a surprised jolt through everyone except Felix.
"GAHH! Where'd you come from!?" The little Goblin screeched.
"Chorister?" The Hobgoblin asked, her eyes flickering between Felix and Zara. She seemed almost...in awe of him. He felt uncomfortable about that.
"You're...Zara?" Yan asked and gave her a level look. "Cal talked about you. She's been waitin'."
"Let's not keep her any longer then, yes?" The Chanter swept forward, and in the wake of her swirling black robes they all followed. "We have much to discuss."
"Hmph," Yan grunted and Felix offered him a half shrug. "Glad your alive, kid. Can't wait to tell Kelgan. He owes me two solid crowns."
Felix laughed, but his eyes tracked the remaining corpses. One by one they had started to break down into greasy black smoke and drift away. He felt a pang in his core as he witnessed several ruby-red sparks flit off into the sky. He restrained himself. There'll be more where those came from. We've got time.
Except they didn't, he reminded himself. The true threat behind the Domain's collapse and their new monster infestation had been revealed to Felix and his friends, and it still loomed large in his mind. The Archon.
Felix quickened his steps.
The warehouse, and his friends, were close.
