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Chapter 37 - Light Work
🕑 Added 2024-08-23 15:32:11 +0000 UTCAs he approached the beast, John realized it was taller than Kerchak, at about twelve meters in height. Its massive lower body was supported by two long legs with webbing between each toe.
The long neck was the main reason it was so tall. In terms of weight, it would likely be close to Kerchak. But even though the neck was long, it didn’t seem fragile. It was more like a giant chicken without the tail. Instead of a beak, it had large teeth constantly exposed due to its lack of lips.
‘Alright, Kerchak is approaching it now… I’ll stay up here and watch first. See if I can figure out its aspect before engaging.’
Kerchak stopped walking before getting close to the beast and put his hands together. His right hand seemed to grip something in his left, and then he started pulling on it. A white blade appeared from his hand, growing directly from his forearm.
‘What?! He can manipulate his own bones? That’s such a cool aspect!’
A long curved blade of bone now remained in Kerchak’s hand, about four meters long. John had his eyes glued to the massive sword, entranced by its beauty. The only drawback was that Kerchak was so large he made it look like a normal saber with some extra width.
Next, Kerchak started twisting his neck and shaking his head—a helmet of bones formed around his head, giving him extra protection against the most dangerous attacks.
‘I want it! I want my aspect! Kill the bird!’
John wondered if Kerchak would keep creating armor, but he seemed to be done now, steadily approaching the brown bird. He started picking up speed right before the bird noticed him, running with his saber lifted to his side.
The bird didn’t seem bothered and simply turned to Kerchak, lowering its stance slightly. John was somewhat scared by the bird's lack of reaction, but he assumed Dennis knew what he was doing.
John noticed he had clenched his teeth from anticipation. He had never seen two beasts fight before, let alone demons. Only ten meters remained between them now, mere seconds before the clash.
Kerchak jumped into the air, swinging the blade toward the long neck in a decisive attack. But the bird was no longer there. It suddenly appeared five meters to the left of where it stood, moving in an instant.
‘What?! It can teleport? Damn, that’s going to be trouble!’
Kerchak turned in mid-air to see what happened, but he could not stop his momentum before landing again. The bird stayed passive, still not taking any significant action to fight back.
Figuring that staying out of the fight might lead to problems, John descended to the ground and jumped off Larang. Then, he controlled the greatsword to fly behind him, building speed to do a flying attack.
He remembered the centipede having no issues blocking it in the past, but this bird seemed much less protected, so he wanted to give it a shot.
Meanwhile, Kerchak had landed in the sand again and kicked off with as much power as possible. The soft sand made it hard for him to get much traction, but he still built a decent speed before rechallenging the bird, sword at the ready.
Instead of jumping past it, he merely swung at its neck again, hoping to be better able to respond to another teleportation.
But instead of teleporting, the bird dodged the blade by swinging its neck with surprising speed. Then, it attacked Kerchak’s hand with its jaws, tearing parts of flesh from the forearm and making the blade fall to the ground.
‘How does it move so fast? That neck is a menace!’
Fearing the teleportation ability of the bird, John kept an air blast ready in one of his arms. He wanted to be prepared if it suddenly appeared over him.
Larang just passed above him after building speed, about to hit the bird with as much momentum as it could create in the available space.
‘Can you dodge this?’
Kerchak roared in response to the attack and swung his other fist toward the bird's burly torso. His movements were fast, but they didn’t seem to be powered by liquid essence yet.
The bird teleported again, moving about five meters away from the fist. Luckily for John, it didn’t move much compared to Larang’s course, letting him keep pushing it forward without altering the direction.
‘Okay, it can only shift about five meters, it seems. Good to know!’
The bird roared back at Kerchak, but it was interrupted by Larang suddenly piercing its side and collapsing its lung. The blade had hit the target perfectly undetected and sank down to the handle, dealing massive damage.
‘Yes! It does work! It's just a shame I can’t finish it off with… the shortsword. Or can I?’
John approached the fight without much thought, hoping to deal a finishing blow with his lucky sword. He still lacked an enchantment for his shield, after all.
Kerchak had noticed the sword stabbing the bird and was heading for the finishing blow. The bird had fallen to its knees, swinging its neck like a drunkard. It seemed to understand that it was as good as dead.
The monkey's giant fists took hold of its head and seemed to be attempting to squeeze it apart. Blood was still spilling from his forearm, but it didn’t seem to make a massive difference in his gripping strength.
“Dennis, hold on! Can you just hold it still for me? I’ll explain later!” John yelled, hoping his words could reach Dennis through Kerchak’s mind. He kept a distance of fifteen meters between them just to be safe.
Kerchak looked at him briefly before nodding, keeping his hands and the bird’s head in place.
John couldn’t have asked for a better opportunity to get a new enchantment and prepared the shortsword for launch, summoning it into his right hand and preparing another air burst.
The bird looked John in the eyes moments before he was about to shoot and seemed to tense its body, using its last remaining strength. Then it was gone.
The light above John suddenly dimmed, and he immediately understood what had happened. The bird hadn’t been using its maximum range during the teleporting. Whether that was on purpose to fool them or simply because of luck, it was a perfect counterattack.
‘Fuuck!’
As quickly as he could, John activated the air blast in his free hand, suddenly shifting his position and narrowly avoiding the crushing attack from the bird's neck. It hit the sand with extreme force, sending tremors even through the soft surface.
The sudden burst sent John off balance and flying through the air, but instead of preparing for a hard landing, he aimed at the bird’s head.
“Dodge this, fucker!”
The blade flew through the air at an incredible speed, while the force from the blast sent John flying even faster in the other direction. The bird didn’t have time to recover after the attack and was still reeling from its injuries.
The blade hit it perfectly right above the eye, piercing the skull and rambling what little it had for a brain. It fell straight to the ground, dead on the spot.
‘Yes! Oh shit!’
After confirming the kill, John summoned the greatshield by his back to absorb the impact from his fall. He barely made it in time, feeling the shield press against his back and slowing him down right after it materialized.
A long, wide track remained in the sand after his landing, but John was fine. Kerchak ran toward him but stopped once he saw John landing safely. With a roar and a thumbs up, he asked if John was okay. Or at least that’s what John assumed.
“Oof! Yeah, I’m fine. You guys can come here now so we can have a nice meal. At least I hope this guy tastes nice…”
Kerchak nodded and started running to where Rain and Dennis were hiding. The wound on his arm had stopped bleeding, but it would take a while before it healed completely.
John looked at the dead bird, hoping the killing blow had left him a good surprise. He stood up and recalled his equipment before walking over to it, putting his hand on the thick neck.
‘Please give me an enchantment? It’s been so long!’
The plentiful essence inside the beast quickly refilled the little John expended in the fight before it started growing his core. It grew by another twelve percent, bringing him over sixty percent more than the original size.
‘... Does it stop at a hundred? I kind of assumed it did, but I never asked. And then what?’
His thoughts were redirected to his core, where a new light floated around. It was blue this time as well, meaning his luck was as good as ever.
‘... Nice! Very nice! It feels like it has something to do with… light? How does that… Should I put that on a shield?’
It didn’t seem to make much sense to put a light enchantment on defensive equipment, but he couldn’t think of any better things to put it on.
‘Ah, well, if it doesn’t fit, I can just put another one in later. Now let’s see what you do!’
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