Chapter 83: Chapter 83 - Resurfaced nightmares
While Esdea kept hunting with Marc and her subordinates despite knowing something was wrong. An equally terrifying being as a dragon was keeping an eye on them from far off in the distance. It didn't matter for it if there were a few hundred trees in between them, as it could look through them although it didn't have eyes.
Standing slouched on an ice platform, it smiled so much that it revealed its gums and thin long jagged teeth before it growled.
Coming up from behind it, numerous Magic Beasts gathered at the side of the ice platform and seemingly waited for further order. One of them is blue in color, with white rhombuses around the body and a white belly. Has an aquamarine crest on its head which is in the shape of a hexagram. Behind its crest is a purple mane with supposedly thick, smooth fur. Two white, ribbon-like tails sprout out from its back.
Turning its head and pointing at some Magic Beats with its finger, it let out a growl more. The selected Magic Beasts then moved forward. Some climbed into the trees and disappeared out of sight and others stomped forward.
'It' just continued watching through the trees and let out an eerie laugh.
…
On a branch stood Marc and Esdea once again— this time looking at Balto burning a Magic Beast to a crisp with his Fire God Slayer Magic. The frustrations he has been building up were unleashed.
"Isn't this a little too easy?" Questioned Marc.
Esdea didn't immediately answer and thought about it. "It is. By now much tougher Magic Beasts should have appeared after realizing we have invaded their territories."
"So why haven't they? Can it be that the Magic Beast you want to kill is controlling them and keeping them from attacking?"
"I doubt that. The description I got from the survivor didn't describe it to be so powerful. But I don't count on a weakling's words from a coward that fled without fighting. So what you are saying might very well be feasible— if it has intelligence."
Her statement piqued his interest. "You mean?" he asked, hoping it was what he was thinking.
"The only beings that are known to be able to organize and strategize like humans are Dragons, Phoenix, Gods, Devils, and Spirits." Explained Esdea while looking at Balto a little displeased as he was using more Magic Power than necessary to kill a simple Magic Beast.
"Yea-yea, so what do you think it is? I have only seen dragons before and I don't think they are the type to rely on anything other than their own kind." He forgot that he had already befriended a god, Turtle God, Kurma.
Esdea thought a little before answering "Either a God, Devil, or Spirit. I have always wanted to fight a God, so I hope it's one."
"Why not a Phoenix?"
"Haven't you been reading at my grandfather's place? A Phoenix has just as much pride as a Dragon and would always fight unafraid of death— that might also be the reason why they are scarce now compared to Dragons."
"So you have actually never seen one?" Questioned Marc with raised eyebrows.
"…No. But I have fought and subdued a Spirit before forcing it to make a contract with me, killed a dragon, as for a Devil, I have seen my grandfather take one down."
Hearing Ihwach being mentioned, not to mention fighting a Devil "So how was the fight?"
"Anticlimactic. He killed it before I could even blink with his Light Magic. The Devil looked so weak compared to him, but apparently, Devils are like humans— most can't use Magic. The one he killed was one of them." The lesson ended as Esdea decided to end the hunt and go back to rest. After throwing a sign at the others, she started jumping to other branches. Behind, Marc just followed for a while before he suddenly began frowning.
On this hunt, Marc didn't stop once training his [Panthera Disaster] while being inside the Cold Region despite using Magic Power to be active. His efficiency improved and his senses got even better than ever— that's why at this moment he could feel what felt like millions of eyes looking at him from higher in the trees, that were ready to attack. It felt disgusting.
He felt it was unwise to look up, instead, he asked in a low voice "…Have you realized?"
"Yes. I can use the heightened senses of my contracted Spirit. When I say "now" get close to me and jump down."
After nodding in agreement, he just waited for the signal to jump down. He thought about blasting the treetops away in one shot with [Shock Cannon] but decided against it as it's too early to use such big spells.
"Now!"
Getting the signal, Marc got close and jumped down with her. Looking up, a shiver went down his spine, when multiple giant black spiders covered in frost were jumping down with them. A head filled with small eyes, big fangs, and six long spider legs. The old nightmares about giant spiders from Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings surfaced. After having snaked his legs around Esdea waist he began spamming [Pressure Shots] in a hurry.
"Begone, you vile creatures!" Yelled Marc while continually slapping the air and sending small bubbles of compressed air at the spiders.
While surprised for a second, Esdea used her magic to create an ice slide to take care of the fall. She didn't forget to create a few spikes on it where the spiders landed.
After sliding off the ice, they landed on the ground safely, and Dixie, Gypsy, and Balto gathered around her.
The Spiders didn't come down from the trees. Instead, they divided and used spider silk to hang around in a circle— blocking any possible ways to use the trees to escape.
"We should quickly get out of their encirclement and fight them outside it." Stated Balto in a hurry and more spiders continued to appear in the trees.
"Why? You can't kill a few weak spiders?" Asked Esdea with contempt.
"You jinxed it!" Interrupted Marc, prompting her to look between her legs where he was currently hiding crouched from the stares of the spiders. The reason he said Esdea jinxed it is because Magic Beasts that he has never seen before appeared around them fully circling them from the ground too. They had similar looks to behemoths, except they had different numbers of legs and how they walked was different. But one thing was for sure— they were much stronger than the earlier Magic Beasts they hunted. Like the spiders, they were covered in blue frost.
To get his mind of disgusting spiders and bad nightmares, Marc took a peek up into her skirt to get healed.
Esdea grinned at Marc's silliness "Scared?"
"No!.. But how about you deal with the spiders in the trees and I will take the Magic Beasts on the ground?" It was worth a try to evade dealing with spiders and it paid off— kinda.
"How about… I kill them all?" A total maniacal expression appeared on her face as her killing intent was let loose and attacked before Marc even got the chance to answer.
She stepped forward and touched the ground with her hand, making Marc lose his roof.
On the ground in front of her, an ice pillar appeared and began to rapidly grow and branch just like a tree. Each branch had a spiky end and impaled many spiders that didn't manage to dodge. Those who did manage began crawling down the ice pillar rapidly. The long spider legs hitting the ice could be heard as they ran.
*Roar*
The Magic Beasts on the ground roared before they joined the fray and charged. Heavy stomps were added to the mix.
"I will deal with you in a second— but first these annoying insects have to be taken out." She turned her hand on the ground a little and spikes grew out of the ice pillar under all the spiders and impaled them, making green blood flow.
Turning fully sadistic, the tattoo on her chest shined as she used [Spirit Assimilation] to transform the physiology of her body into a spirit. The transformation was very quick as her Spirit didn't come out of the tattoo and just directly fused with her as perfectly willed.
Shining briefly light-blue, Esdea had changed. On her shoulder was the head of her contracted Spirit that looked like a silvery-gray serpentine and was wearing it like a shoulder guard. Her long white boots turned into ice. Last was her big rapier. On the guard, shards appeared around it while the blade itself turned icy.
Looking at the leading Magic Beast, Esdea met the charge with her own. The snow she had stepped on left a frozen imprint from her high-heeled boots. Before they collided Esdea turned her body to evade a bite and slammed her transformed shoulder guard into the side of the beasts' throat. A sound of collision echoed and it stumbled to the side, unfocused.
Before it knew it, its throat was sliced after Esdea had quickly followed up with a slash of her rapier.
***
(A/N: I'm sorry it took so long to release this chapter, but I needed the time to think through what kind of boss to introduce here.)
(A/N: I have just watched the Monster Hunter movie— and gosh those spiders are disgusting ass hell. I really couldn't help adding it here after I remembered how I was scared of the spiders from Harry Potter and LOTR when I was a kid.)
(Words: 1615)
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