Beastforged Bond

Nox was the first to react when the space around us warped. He materialized on Aureus’ back, scythe blades coated in Annihilation Blade. The Ferronox Mantis did not wait for the winged Spawn to fully emerge from the warped space and leaped at it as soon as a head popped out of thin air.

The winged Spawn, a creature roughly three meters tall and wide, was one of the ugliest I’d seen in all my life. Its head was half the Spawn’s size, and it was covered in nasty warts and ulcerations. Nox didn’t care about that. He was overflowing with the desire to fight and rammed his blades deep into the winged Spawn’s neck. Once inside the Spawn, the Ferronox Mantis twisted the blades and ripped them downward.

That went as smoothly as cutting butter with a hot knife. It was effortless, courtesy of Annihilation Blade, yet it was also nowhere near enough to kill the Spawn. The ulcerations on the Spawn’s head stirred and expanded. They transformed into bladed arms from beasts not unlike Nox, but also arms and tentacles that shot toward my friend.

Before I could help Nox, Aureus snapped his head up and used Paralyze to freeze the Spawn for a moment. Channeling spirit power into the trait strengthened it, giving Nox just enough time to pull his blades back and transform into a storm of blades. He whirled around, blades flashing everywhere, cutting through bladed arms and all the extremities coming his way.

When the Spawn regained its senses, it let out a pained screech and plummeted to the ground. I half-expected the Spawn to use one of its stolen traits to teleport through space again after Nox severed one of its wings, but that didn’t happen. Instead, my heart skipped a beat as yet another set of tentacles grew from its body to coil around Nox’s legs, dragging him down to the battlefield of Knights and Spawns.

I fine! Fight!!

Nox hissed, twisting and turning to avoid the tentacles and sever the ones already holding on to him.

Once that was done, Nox hissed out in pain. His legs, the plates covering them to be precise, had started to melt. Exactly where the Spawn’s tentacles had held him. Irritated, the Ferronox Mantis severed the Spawn’s other wing before his blades dug into his enemy’s stomach, piercing through and through. He twisted and turned until the Spawn was below him, which was all Nox needed to survive the fall.

At least, Nox was certain he would survive the fall. I was not too sure about that and was about to use the Gravity Aspect when my Soulkin’s disapproval struck me like a lightning bolt.

My. Fight!

Nox screamed in anger, unwilling to cave in. This was his fight and he would emerge victorious, with the Spawn’s head speared on his razor-sharp scythes. That Aureus had helped him already with Paralyze was pointedly ignored.

Fine. Just…don’t die on me. If you do, I’ll kill you! I grumbled while anxiously watching my bloodthirsty Soulkin crash into the ground down below. Sure, the Spawn was beneath him, acting as a cushion, but the Ferronox Mantis didn’t escape the fall completely unscathed.

Then again, he was nowhere near as badly hurt as I’d feared.

You know you can trust us. Even if you’re anxious and uncertain, you should never forget that we know what we’re doing.

Aureus commented, only for Sapsie to chuckle in my head.

Sometimes we do. Most of the time we’re just following our instincts, and that’s fine.

She quipped.

The Earthen Spirit didn’t respond to that. Instead, he drew more and more spirit power from his heart. Black spikes of highly compressed stone from the depths of Razarn burst out of the ground, either blocking Spawns or tearing them apart. One spike severed a Spawn’s upper body, leaving its lower body scrambling on the ground, only to be pierced by a dozen spirit-infused spikes. The Spawn’s lower body dissolved, while the upper part was soon forced to face two Proto Knights. Blue flames ripped through the air as the Proto Knights, Fire Caldera, dispatched the Spawn in a hurry.

Once I noticed the Fire Caldera, I recognized the other Knights as well. The Proto Knights moved in small groups of no less than four members and attacked one Spawn at a time. Sometimes, when fighting younger Spawns with less powerful stolen traits, they fought two Spawns. Alas, there was more than one group that ended up too confident in their power.

One time, Aureus had to help out a group of Proto Knights who’d been confident enough to fight a Spawn that could create doppelgangers. If it was only that, it wouldn’t have been much of a problem. To their misfortune, the method used to create doppelgangers triggered only when the Spawn’s body parts were severed. When split in half, which happened four times in quick succession, the Spawn split into two, then four doppelgangers. They did not possess the same prowess as the fully merged Spawn, yet they all retained access to their stolen traits. That included a trait that turned their blood into sickening miasma and one that accelerated the spread of corruption, poison, and venom. And, of course, their claws were coated in venom as well.

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The Proto Knights could have overcharged the power they’d been granted by their Vowed Spirit, but the price was clearly too steep for them to pay. Unwilling to use their lifeforce to end the Spawn, they ended up facing several Spawns coated in sickening miasma and venom. Aureus conjured earthen spikes made of raw spirit power around him and hurled them at the Doppelganger Spawns. The spikes pierced not only the Spawns but erupted upon impact, releasing all the stored spirit power into their bodies.

The Proto Knight group, seizing the opportunity, leaped into the sickening mass and killed the Spawns. Yet, even then, they did not use their Spirit’s power well. Watching them and the other Proto Knights confirmed once more just how different Proto Knights and Spirit Knights were.

The former were full-fledged Vowed with access to their Spirit’s power like the Spirit Knights, yet they were either too weak or inexperienced to use it efficiently. Even someone like Zegrath was still struggling to use Volca’s fire, though she had improved a lot. In a few years, as long as she continued to improve, she would be promoted to a Spirit Knight.

As for the others... I was not too sure. The Proto Knights were clearly strong and fast enough to deal with most of the younger Spawns. Even as the number of Spawns emerging from beyond the battlefield increased, they were fast enough to react. But being fast and powerful was not all that mattered. In fact, it didn’t matter at all if they couldn’t deal a finishing blow to an enemy that never really died. Not until spirit power or something equally powerful was at play.

The Spirit Knights were nothing like the Proto Knights. Most moved across the battlefield alone. They kept their distance from the others and used the space around them to the fullest. Their bodies erupted in tremendous power which would have affected fellow Knights if they had been too close. Since that was not the case, the Spirit Knights unleashed their power imbued by the Vow.

Rankers, for that was what they were, could handle the power of the Spirits. They were not just on equal standing with Rulers—being at the Ruler Rank was one of the requirements to become a Ranker—but they were more. Just like True Rankers were more than ‘mere’ Emperors. True Rankers stood beneath the Spirits in terms of raw power, though some even claimed that a True Ranker could be stronger than that. That they were stronger than the weakest of the Spirits, which would make sense... in a way... if one of the Spirits had been weakened too much by closing too many Fractures with its power.

Maybe one of the Spirits was truly weaker than the strongest of True Rankers. It was possible, but it did not matter at this moment.

Turning left, I caught sight of a Spirit Knight tearing through a group of younger Spawns. Her eyes flicked across the battlefield before she disappeared once more. Lifesight picked up her movement even though she moved faster than my eyes could follow. I found her nonetheless, in the next valley closing in on the core region of the Spawns’ territory.

Several signatures of life that could only belong to other Spirit Knights could be seen closer to the core region, including those of the Earthen Knights. Scanning the battlefield and what unfolded further beyond, it was clear that the weakest Spawns were in this valley. The Proto Knights ought to be strong enough to deal with them alone, yet they were guarded by two Spirit Knights who’d stayed behind to hold the fort. The rest had pushed further, which was something Aureus wanted to as well.

But before I could move ahead and throw myself into danger, I had to find Nox and Daniel. That turned out rather simple. Daniel was the only Blessed on the battlefield covered in deadly lightning. He resembled a massive Minotaur from fusing with Coco, except that his body didn’t feel completely physical. It was almost as if Daniel’s body were half ethereal, made out of compressed lightning shaped into form, while the other half remained human. His horns contained the most power, which was released through Daniel’s body whenever he attacked.

Every step and every strike of his was accompanied by destructive lightning bolts. The same bolts that tore through the Spawns’ defenses because they were amplified by the power of a sacred beast.

It wasn’t enough to kill them but whenever one of the Spawns collapsed and convulsed on the ground, a familiar mantis from next door appeared by the Spawn’s side to behead it and cut it into dozens of pieces. Unsure if that was enough to kill the Spawn, Nox looked up at Daniel, who released a net of lightning to fry the chunks of Spawn until they no longer moved.

“Are you ready?” I asked, my heart skipping a beat. Nox and Daniel were doing great, their teamwork surprisingly efficient. Watching them and the Spirit Knights get rid of the Spawns made my heart beat faster.

I was waiting for you.

Aureus rumbled before disappearing, returning to the World to merge with me.

The moment the Earth Spirit disappeared, I began to fall to the ground. Adjusting my position calmly, I called upon the bond with Aureus and triggered Soulfusion.

A mighty set of four wings sprouted out of my shoulder blades within seconds, slowing my fall before stopping it completely.

Power rocketed through my limbs and upper body as the Earthen Spirit fused with me, and the Insignia flared. Aureus’ spirit power merged with the spirit power I’d accumulated ever since acquiring the Spirit Heart trait, and now it was time to let it all out.

A blade made of spirit power coalesced in my hands. It was incomparable to a Ranker’s sword, or even the weapons I usually used, but it was the perfect tool of destruction against the Spawns.

Annihilation Blade coated the blade, granting it the sharpness needed to cut through everything. And that it did as I teleported to one of the most troublesome Spawns in the valley.

It was weaker than the Spawns the Spirit Knights beyond the valley were dealing with, but it was powerful. Was being the right term once the spirit blade carved through its chest. The Spawn tried to use the wound inflicted on it to initiate a counterattack, yet nothing happened. Instead of counterattacking, the Spawn let out a pained screech that reverberated across the entire valley. That was also the last sound it made before it was beheaded.

The spirit blade rammed into its chest as soon as its head lobbed through the air, and I deposited a considerable amount of spirit power into it, destroying its body until it faded away. From nothingness into nothingness.