Divine Beast Ascension

A guttural roar swelled and reverberated inside the dome walls. Rathe’s entire body tensed up. The gorilla’s production of essence and soul energy increased even further beyond his limits. A cough escaped Rathe’s lips as well, as did drops of blood that trickled down his face. But the mighty roar wasn’t stopped as Rathe leaped into battle with reckless abandon, as hastily as his overwhelmed body could muster.

Bicard’s grin waned as he prepared to receive the next strike. He wasn’t sure if tanking the blow was the right response, However, Rathe’s new increase in speed was going to make complete evasion nigh impossible. So the king activated all the essence and spiritual energy he had. Given how self-destructive Rathe’s attacks seemed to be, Bicard just needed to outlast those effects.

Yet Bicard found himself waiting. A second passed. Blinking, Bicard was caught off guard to see Rathe frozen in the air, his large fist less than a krin from Bicard’s face. But Rathe couldn’t move all the same, and Bicard soon realized that neither could he.

“Sorry, Rathe, but you’re no longer allowed to die.”

A new figure flickered into existence at Rathe’s side. The shadowy hood hid the figure’s identity, only revealing the bottom half of the man’s face.

Rathe wasn’t sure what to feel at that moment, apart from overwhelming agony and atrophy wracking his body and internals.

.....

“Just sleep before you kill yourself...” That figure extended his hand and lightly tapped on the side of Rathe’s swollen neck. But a light touch was all it took. The essence and spiritual aura dispersed as the gorilla’s body forcibly relaxed and collapsed to the ground. “Now, to deal with you...”

As the figure took a step toward the swordsman, Bicard found himself able to move again. His sword was still at the ready but his smile and playfulness were long gone. He was fully focused on the spiritual aura the figure was emanating, unable to comprehend just how powerful the man truly was.

“Go ahead,” the figure calmly stated, taking another step. “Most people aren’t willing to accept death without a fight, so I’m not expecting you to do so. But this is the only moment you have. Either reminisce or fight in vain. I’ll allow you to decide.”

Hearing that, Bicard’s pupils constricted and his mouth dried up. He immediately lashed out with everything he had. Flames exploded and filled the entire dome, seeping out of the cracks and crevices. Soul energy encompassed Bicard with as much force as he could muster, trying his hardest to make the ethereal energy into a physical armor.

But from the flames a hand emerged, untouched and unscathed by the heat. That hand gently yet firmly gripped Bicard by the throat, unimpeded by everything Bicard dared attempt.

“A proud warrior too arrogant to flee... Or do you understand that fleeing from me is the same as giving up?” The chuckling figure’s grin came back into view as the surrounding flames died down. “Either way, you tried.”

KRSH! RIIIP!!

Blood spattered and spewed. Bicard’s eyes nearly popped out his skull from reflex, but life instantly left his pupils before he could understand what had happened.

Letting go of the corpse’s neck, the shadowy man let Bicard’s body fall to the floor like a boneless ragdoll. Blood oozed and drained out of the hole in the deceased general’s chest.

But the man was now focused on Rathe. With one hand, the man gently placed Bicard’s lifeless heart in Rathe’s unconscious grip. With the other hand, spiritual energy pulsed and draped over the gorilla.

“Sorry, but this was necessary so that it’s believable. How can a perennial defeat a king without barely surviving the battle?” jested the man, chuckling sarcastically as he filled Rathe with more soul energy. “If anything, you’ll just be mad that I didn’t give you a fair battle before interfering. But you’ll have to live with that. You’ll have to live. I’m sure your sister, nephew, father, and friend will understand that better than you’ll ever choose to...”

After a few more seconds, the man retracted his energy and stood up. He looked down at the gorilla with a soft grin before sighing. Then, the man’s silhouette vanished as he slipped through the largest cracks of the dome walls.

Inside that dome, not a sound was made, apart from Rathe beginning to snore. But the active silencing barrier wouldn’t allow his snoring to interrupt the nearby battlefield.

At the center of the battlefield, Vloz eyed and surveyed his opponent carefully. Both of his sides were bloody but Vloz didn’t seem to care. His focus was on keeping the slow but mighty peak-perennial from attacking anyone else.

Not far off, Eefran stomped down on the throat of his opponent while Lambier slashed through the low-perennial’s abdomen.

“Not bad, kitty. But how much longer can you hold me off?” Showing off his axe, the peak-perennial cackled. Turning once more, the man lunged toward the nearby wildebeest. “Let’s go again!”

As usual, Vloz dashed ahead to protect Eefran. He stopped the armored perennial before Eefran could be threatened by the axe.

“Again!”

The man threw his axe behind him, aiming for Nixt, who was busy cornering his shifty opponent so Marsel could finish the man off. And Vloz acted again, separating into two to both preemptively block the axe while it was still nearby and keep the man from nearing Eefran and Lambier.

“Good! That’s four rounds you’ve lasted, more than I would’ve guessed!” laughed the peak-perennial. “Show me more! Come on!”

“Eefran, hurry and decimate the army. Lambier, help Hurman,” Vloz gave his orders while they were still closeby.

Snarling and rearing his horns to the sky, Eefran promptly nodded. “Yes, sir!”

“Sure thing,” replied Lambier, speeding back toward the fort walls.

“You think it’s that easy?!”

But before the man could throw a fireball towards the charging wildebeest, he sensed something new. He let the flames dwindle in his palm as he grinned curiously at the leopard. “What’s this? A new trick?”