Chapter Five Hundred And Three – 503
Fiendforge is level 34!
Fiendforge is level 35!
Felix felt it when the storm rolled in. Primordial Essencepreviously all but frozen just outside the bounds of Beefs core spacenow raged with all the pressure of once-dammed river.
He floated outside the space, viewing it from above like a diorama spread out on a tableall while he dodged the relentless appendages of the ooze beast. It was amorphous and grabby, a puddle made of pseudopods that were both sticky and incredibly dense. A single hit was enough to lower his Health by a whole percentage, and the thing struck a dozen times a second. It screamed constantly, a single atonal note that hissed and buzzed at the edges, meant to tear him down. But Felix had heard far worse from inside his own core space.
Hand of Calamity!
Hand of Calamity is level 2!
Hand of Calamity is level 15!
Slipping through its whirling attacks, Felix ripped through the ooze with an acid punch, liquid against liquid in a sizzling explosion of blue-purple gore. The creatures screams increased in volume, if not pitch, but it didnt retreat. It was just as tireless as Felix.
He never realized how annoying that could be.
Felix could have eaten the oozehad even tried at firstbut the tangle of connections he had perceived within Beefs core space had halted that thought at conception. The ooze, whatever it was, had knotted itself so deeply with Beef, the Mana of his core, and even the echo of the Regalia that Felix wasnt sure what he could just tear out. More worrisome were the threads that spread outward, beyond the core space to somewhere very close byand when he brushed against them, Felix was afforded a grim look at the outside situation.
Everyone was in trouble.
So now he was fighting a multi-pronged battle against the ooze, engaging it away from Beefand elsewhere. If nothing else, he could strengthen his friends, giving them all the space to save themselves.
And if Beef can work through this, hell be strong enough to clear this up on his own.
Smart!
Thanks, Pit. Just keep us flying as best you can. We need to keep this blobs attention for as long as possible.
Easy! Pit dropped them, fully in control of their shared wings while Converged. They swooped low before twisting into a cyclonic corkscrew. An expulsion of ice Mana manifested blades on both hands, turning themselves into a living blender for a few moments. Oh, that was effective!
Pieces of the ooze were flung in all directions, but the majority were quickly reabsorbed into the main mass. Their attacks hurt it, Felix could tell that much, but it barely slowed the thing down. The best they could hope for was to occupy its attention until Beef was finished.
The storm flashed, lightning chased by a hot, dry wind that tore apart trees and buildings. A hurricane condensed into a city block, filled with rain and debris that burned as it hit. It sizzled over the sound of his fight, a rising sputtering hiss that almost drowned out Beefs panicked shouts.
Felix! the Minotaur cried. What do I do?
They dove, Pit tucking their wings tight to their Body as Felix seized upon the myriad connections around him, juking in a dizzying flow around the oozes tendrils. Felix could see Beef, standing stock still at his window, hoof still upraised from when hed booted it open. His hands trembled on the frame while Hallowstill at his sidestood stock still and clenched harder than a fist. They both sang with dread, a bellowing crescendo that was far louder than Beefs words.
Thundering toward them, the storm did not stop. Flows of wild, desiccating dust, and violent heat advanced, changing in the flashing lightning from a deluge to a sandstorm and back again. Lights flickered among the core space, the pieces of it loosening even further than before. The entire thing was collapsing under the incredible pressure. Beef had to take action immediately, or else he wouldnt survive.
Beef! You Unbidden, a flurry of lights ripped from below, splashing into Felix as if they were a flock of suicidal birds. His words choked off as a Memory flitted across his Mind, a half glimpse gleaned from the casual contact: a bed, machines, and a woman with red hair holding a small boys hand in his childhood room.
The Memory vanished, fled into the dark, and Felix floundered. The woman had looked the same as Hallow.
Helen, Pit said.
The storm of the Primordials had been held back by fear. He heard it in both Beef and Hallow, a bitter, tentative song that wore long notes into their collective Spirit. Felix didnt know why, not fully, but it didnt matter. He knew what Beef needed to hear; what Felix had needed to hear, during all of his worst moments on the Continent.
Embrace the fear, Beef!
Felix didnt shout it, but he didnt have to. His Intent was transmitted to everyone within and it reverberated with Beefs core space. Things shook, rocked by it, softening ever so lightly around the edges as it all destabilized.
Use it!
Maintaining concentration on both fights at once, Felix was all but rooted to the spot. He could perceive enough through his Illusory Double to cast his Skills beyond his supine form, though things were far more hazy than he was used to; that cleared with every level gained in the illusion Skill. But it was taking everything he hadwhile with Evie and others he had chosen to remain passive as they solved their own problems, now Felix found himself with little left to give Beef.
Fiendforge is level 36!
Fiendforge is level 42!
He held on tight, clasping the trembling bits of Beefs core space together as the teen embraced the chaos. Tides of power surged below, tearing at his control and Willpower even as the ooze tried to rip his projected Body into pieces. Pit defended up, decoupled from their shared transformation, now strafing across the vast expanse of the nasty goo. Frozen lightning and crescents of golden light hit its jiggling mass like bombs, tearing holes that healed over only seconds later.
It was enough.
Hold on, Beef! Hold on!
Beef fell.
It was only two stories, but it felt like an eternity as the stormwall raged. A hot swelling was taking place, somewhere deep in his chest where his heart and lungs all tangled about; it hurt but it felt like it was supposed to hurt. The heat of the oncoming tidal wave was immense, baking him with its proximity as it swept down his street. That was a different sort of hurt, but one he was forcing himself to accept.
He screamed, terror and jittery enthusiasm all bound into a knot. You with me Hallow?
Always.
He landed moments ahead of the wave of dust and water and lightning. A handle materialized over his shoulder, a post as thick as a telephone pole, but he knew what it was without conscious thought. He hefted it, lifting a maul so heavy his knees buckled and the asphalt splintered in concentric circles all around him.
Hey! Primordial jerkass! The maul was the size of a damn house. His entire core spacehis small, cramped room on the upper floor of a suburban home. All of it ound to the end of his maul. This is myhouse!
Beef brought it down hard.
The tidal wave split and crashed, and Beef laughed as it swallowed him up. Burning assaulted his limbs, soaking into his fur and ripping into his mouth just as it pervaded the end of his impromptu weapon. Images flashed across his vision, things hed seen and things that no one should ever see. Airplanes flying low over his house. A Sandwolf hunting him in the dark. Lightning storms above the Gulf. Cursewinds filled with undead intent on eating his skin.
A face of bones.
It spoke.
BEEFHAMMER. UNBOUND. CHILD OF HEALERS.
Get outta my head! Beef swung his maul again, but it had become unmoored in the swirling storm. The telephone pole dissolved in his hands. What? My room!
YOU RUN. YOU HIDE. WHY?
Because youre a creepy bastard! Beef scrubbed at his eyes, but the bone face never vanished. It was there, before him in the storm, too large to be real and too visceral to be fake. Sand tore around them, turning to water that faded into desolate dust once again. What do you even want?
I WANT TO ILLUMINATE THE TRUTH, AS I HAVE FOR THE OTHER ALLIES OF FELIX NEVARRE.
That tells me exactly jack-shit, dude!
I WAS THE PRIMORDIAL OF THE WITHERING DUST. MY ROLE WAS TO BREAK APART, TO WEAR AWAY. I AM THE CHILD OF A CARDINAL BEAST, ONE OF THE LAST. TRUTH IS NOT MY ROLE BUT IT IS WHAT MUST BE. The bone face split, its too-large features becoming more and more inhuman as it spoke, until it bore several sets of jaws and far too many eye sockets. BEAR WITNESS.
Impossibly, the tempest around them grew more frenetic. From the whirling dust came motes of light that screamed in Beefs limited senses. He wasnt so great at the Harmonics stuff, but even he could hear that they were filled with a nasty noise.
AND BE CHANGED.
The lights hurtled at him, but Beef lifted his arms and caught two of them in his massive, bare hands. Hallow caught the last, though it very nearly buckled her thinner frame. Im not letting you hit me with some crazy magic lights, man! Ugh, what are they?
A LIE, A TRUTH, AND A WAY FORWARD. IF YOU ARE STRONG ENOUGH.
Fuck you, Im plenty strong!
Beef! No! Hallow screamed, as the Minotaur teen took both howling lights and slammed them into his own chest.
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