A huge spider head that had the body of a purple snake freely revolved around the body of Vikram and created coils around him after each rotation. Each coil's breath spanned half his height due to the massive body size of Victoris.
Starting from his legs, each rotation of Victoris formed a layer until eventually, a cocoon completely formed around him.
After the cocoon had formed, a spider head peeked out from the top as its eight Amethyst eyes gleamed with pain. Immediately, purple smoke gushed out of the body enclosed inside and travelled through the surface of the cocoon until it condensed within its head.
A bump formed at the centre of the spider's forehead and began to rapidly absorb the gushing purple smoke like a black hole as the swirling purple smoke formed a vortex around it. After what seemed like a long time but also like an instant, the bump had grown big enough to cover half its spider face and finally detached from the spider head.
The detached bump then shrank in size until it became a thumb-sized egg and silently hovered in the air.
The eight Amethyst eyes of Victoris looked tired as it dissolved into purple smoke and was absorbed back into Vikram's body.
"This is how I enabled the others in the base to also possess a mini Victoris. It takes a significant amount of my Spider Karma though and seems to only form when I use my Spider Karma to create it," Vikram said as he lightly pushed the thumb-sized egg towards Prakash.
The thumb-sized egg shone with a purple lustre as it slowly floated towards Prakash and hovered in front of him. Prakash cautiously touched it with his hands and felt that the purple egg was soft to the touch and also seemed to contain a faint pulse within it.
Prakash brought it closer towards his face and observed that there were various veined patterns which had formed all across its surface that looked like the grain structure of a well-forged iron bar.
Purple smoke gushed out of the pores on his skin and condensed into Ugly Shaggy which gazed at the small purple ball that hovered before it. Before either Prakash or Vikram could react, Ugly Shaggy opened its mouth to reveal three rows of sharp teeth and gently swallowed the thumb-sized egg.
After it had swallowed it, something seemed to have exploded within its body that mounted fierce struggles. Purple smoke evaporated from its body while it began to thrash in the air in response to whatever was wreaking havoc inside it.
Prakash hurriedly manifested his record and watched in horror as his Dog Karma began to rapidly decrease.
"Vikram! What is happening?" Prakash shouted in fright at the shocked youth who seemed to be vacantly gazing into space after seeing Ugly Shaggy swallow the thumb-sized egg he had created.
Vikram had only intended for Prakash to inspect it because Prakash too possessed a Karmic Art and the two wanted to exchange ideas. But things had taken a turn for the worse as the two men were careless for a moment as they hadn't felt the need to raise their guard against each other.
Purple smoke gushed out of his body in torrents as the tired Victoris immediately materialised beside him and began to roar in anger. It looked as if it wanted to tear Ugly Shaggy into pieces as its eight Amethyst eyes burned with unconcealed rage. Faint purple smoke also began to evaporate from its eight eyes that further enhanced its imposing appearance.
Vikram desperately tried to control Victoris as it tried to charge at Ugly Shaggy while the latter began to shrink in size as time passed. One a closer inspection, one could see a small spider headed snake darting to and fro in its body and colliding into numerous purple image fragments.
'Roar'
Victoris roared and charged towards Ugly Shaggy, intending to kill it while simultaneously resisting Vikram's efforts to control it.
As Ugly Shaggy gazed at the huge scary visage of Victoris that was about to pounce on it, its body further shrunk in size as some of the image fragments in its body began to burn.
The image fragments burned like a flame and congregated towards the head region within Ugly Shaggy and transformed into a burning mass of purple smoke.
Just when all of the burning image fragments had combined and fused into a single large fragment, it began to burn with even more intensity.
The moment when it seemed as if the large image fragment was about to disappear, all the burning energy congealed into a purple bolt of lightning that streaked through its long streamlined body and collided into the thrashing mini Victoris.
The body of the mini Victoris that was wreaking havoc all over its body suddenly became docile as its eyes began to gleam with a light of sentience that looked almost like a replica of Ugly Shaggy.
Just when it was about to snap its mandibles on Ugly Shaggy, Victoris paused in the air as if time had stopped for it. Its eight eyes blinked in confusion as it gazed at Ugly Shaggy that had stopped thrashing and retreated towards Vikram's side.
The four humans present in the room gazed with confused emotions at Ugly Shaggy that let out a satisfied breath of relief as a small purple snake with the head of a spider branched out from the mid-section of its body and hovered in the air.
The mini Victoris danced in the air like a child as it revolved around Ugly Shaggy and pulled at its elongated horn-like ears.
<Skill: Supplement (0.1%)>
Prakash gazed at the mini Victoris that seemed to be having the time of its life as it teased and played around Ugly Shaggy, treating it as its mother. His gaze then fell on the new row that had appeared in his 'Record'.
It now felt like he was connected to two separate entities: Ugly Shaggy, and the mini Victoris.
"What the hell happened?" Prakash looked at Vikram, intending for the latter to provide him with a possible hypothesis.
"It seems this happened because you too possess a Karmic Art. I can no longer sense a connection with the mini Victoris that you possess now." Vikram continued on about how the process happened usually when he gave a mini Victoris to one of his men.
The process practically proceeded without a hitch when they sent some of their Karma into the purple egg and absorb it into their bodies which would later hatch into the mini Victoris. After it had hatched in their bodies, Vikram would then be able to sense the presence of mini Victoris in them through his Victoris.
But in the case of Prakash, his connection with the mini victoris began to weaken the moment Ugly Shaggy swallowed the purple egg. It was also the reason Victoris emitted murderous intent towards Ugly Shaggy when it felt Ugly Shaggy trying to convert a part of it. Its rage also disappeared the moment it lost connection with the mini Victoris that Ugly Shaggy had swallowed.
The exact reason as to why Victoris stopped its attack on Ugly Shaggy was something the duo couldn't understand even after racking their brains for a long time so they decided to leave the matter for a later date.
"There are two main abilities that my Victoris or any mini Victoris in that regard possesses: the ability to gain some Karma of the creature by eating its flesh, and the ability to supplement Karma expenditure while in transformation. For example, I can stay transformed into a wasp without expending my Wasp Karma as long as my Victoris can feed on the flesh of a wasp," Vikram said while motioning with his hands for the two ladies to walk out for a second.
The next part was a secret that he only intended to share with Prakash and vice-versa so he didn't want the two ladies to eavesdrop on them.
"It wouldn't be long before we resume the meeting," The two ladies nodded without a change in their expression as they exited the meeting room and firmly locked the door behind them.
"Ah, I'm pissed. It would be nice if he could trust us more," Vidya complained as she leaned on a wall and puffed her chest in displeasure.
"You need to be patient to get what you want. He's bound to open up more in the future," Shreya said as she laughed in a cunning manner.
"You can say that because Vikram has already dropped his guard around you," Vidya said while cursing the cunning lady before her a thousand times in her head.
"Anyway, I'm giving up on Vikram. The other one is more my type," Vidya said as a small blush crept up on her face.
"Oh, my," Shreya laughed as she began to poke fun at the bashful appearance of Vidya. From an outsider's perspective, the two seemed to be in harmony with each other like they were childhood friends but in actuality, the two had their own schemes running in the background.
Both of them were experienced ladies and they knew when to advance and when to retreat in the game of life. Even though they might come face-to-face with another life and death battle any second, they couldn't help but struggle for a better life.
If they relied only on their appearances they would have long become the plaything of an ambitious man and discarded after they had lost their value. They could only rise up to be under the direct orders of Vikram within a single day since the descent of the apocalypse using their wits and cunning.
The strength of Vikram could never be surpassed by any other person in their base, and this was a fact that had been proved each time a battle occurred. There was a vast difference in the rise in strength between Vikram and the other strong people in their base mostly due to the fact that he possessed a Karmic Art and none of the others did.
Also, all of the strong people in their base had obtained a mini Victoris from Vikram that further accentuated his role as a leader.
Vidya was the person in charge of the scouts and compiled all their information while Shreya was involved in the planning of their various structures.
Shreya was a civil engineer before the apocalypse but her position wasn't as stable as Vidya's because there were hundreds of engineers in their base so it was quite the struggle for her to maintain her position.
Vidya, on the other hand, had to face many life-threatening risks to scout their surroundings. All in all, they were getting stronger using their position to their full advantage but they also had to face the risks and responsibilities that came with their position.
After the two ladies had exited the meeting room, the smiling face of Prakash transformed into a frown, "The two of them are…what to say…"
"They are wolves alright," Vikram said with a sigh.
"But, they are really smart and skilled while as compared to the others who are strong; at least wouldn't try to kill me," Vikram gave out a helpless smile; the weaker humans in their base practically worshipped him while the stronger ones had already begun to create politics. It really took a huge toll on him to constantly keep everyone in check.