Chapter 574: Duskwraith
A light flashed before Edgar, and he blinked his eyes. Confused, he held his hands out in front of him, then looked down. “I’m… healed?” he muttered to himself. “What…” he started as he looked around, but stopped as soon as he noticed something.
He was in a room—a very comfortable room, it seemed—and he was not alone. Inside, there was a massive creature… or man, who looked to be half human and half horse. Along with him was a very sullen woman and an elven woman whose beauty would give the Siren a run for her money.
“So…” Edgar said as he walked over to the group, who all seemed to distance themselves from one another. “I take it you are The Indomitable?” he pointed at the half-man, then said, “You are The Queen, and you are… Vendra?” he motioned at the elf and the human woman.
“Yes,” The Queen was the one to answer.
“Oh, man!” Edgar chuckled as he turned his attention to The Indomitable. “You got super unlucky, huh? I can’t imagine teleporting into another world and running into Derek as soon as you arrived.”
“You didn’t fare any better against Jakis,” The Indomitable said.
“Oh, yeah?” Edgar raised his brow. “So… you had a fun fight and even made him bleed?”
The man snorted and turned his head away in a huff.
“Didn’t think so,” Edgar said. “So… what is this? Just a place where the defeated hang out?”
“Something like that,” the elven woman answered. “We cannot fight…” she looked at Vendra, then at The Indomitable… “No matter how hard we try to,” she continued. “But when a Champion or Guardian is in battle, it is displayed over there.”
Edgar looked at the wall she was pointing at and nodded. “That’s at least something. And we’re about to have even more company soon. I can’t wait to talk to Jakis again. I don’t hate him. Queenie… tell me about Amelia. Oh! And Vendra! What the hell happened to you?”
***
Amelia had stopped in her flight when she noticed that Jakis had gotten into a battle with Big Sparky. What kind of name is that? She couldn’t help but wonder. She heaved a sigh of relief and started back on her flight home as soon as Big Sparky was defeated. However, she was now hovering in the air once again. Moments ago, Jakis’s battle status had changed once more… and this time, Ascending Monarch’s status changed along with his.
***
Derek blocked three dark energy-covered swipes from Jakis’s claws in a row. Sure, he was surprised by how fast the man moved, but that didn’t mean that he couldn’t keep up—it only meant that it wasn’t easy to follow if he wasn’t focusing entirely on the fight. Now that he was, Derek’s increased stats—specifically his dexterity—were showing their worth.
Another thing that was showing its worth was his armor. He could tell just how sharp and powerful the strikes coming from the man were. However, those strikes left next to nothing on the new armor. Being third on the list, Derek expected Jakis to help him understand the true strength of the new equipment.
“I know…” Derek started, pausing to block another swipe. “That you can transform more than that,” he finished as he kicked off the ground and dodged an attack. “You’re just tiring yourself out by doing this. You might as well go all out. Like this… like you were when you fought Edgar… you don’t have a chance to even draw blood.”
Hearing that, Jakis stopped his onslaught. His eyes narrowed at Derek, and he growled, “You are serious?” He didn’t have any anger in his voice, it was just distorted from his transformation. Seeing Derek nod in confirmation, he continued, “I don’t have the best control in my complete transformation. I cannot promise that you and your friends will not die, and I have given my word to only defeat and not kill you all.”
“Don’t worry about that,” Derek said with a chuckle. “The situation is reversed here. You have to give it your all. Go for the killing blows. Don’t worry, I won’t kill you.”
Jakis snorted, but surprisingly, he didn’t seem all that mad. “Very well,” he finally said after a few moments of thought. “You will be one of the few who will see my Duskform—from a beast outside the system that I chased for months on end. I call it a Duskwraith, and I have neither seen nor heard of another. Prepare yourself!”
Derek took one step back to see the man’s transformation in full. Slowly, the man’s arms and legs both quadrupled or more in length. His muscles bulged and grew in proportion to his limbs. His already large chest from his partial transformation, and the rest of his torso exploded in growth, then, finally, his head began to change changed.
A second row of razor-like teeth grew behind the first, his face elongated into more of a stubby snout. His eyes grew horizontally—now showing nothing but small slits with pitch-black darkness behind. The man’s ears turned pointed and rotated to point directly behind him instead of vertically. Finally, a rolling darkness started from the bottom until it covered the man—no, beast’s—entire body.
“Holy shit!” Derek couldn’t help but say. The man had gone from a very short and small person to a beast that could be comparable to the Starfury Leonaris in size. In fact, it wasn’t all that much smaller than the lion. It was just as tall, just not as long.
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Derek, for the first time in a while, felt his heart really get to pumping. Was it possible that the man before him was actually as strong or stronger than Alanah had been during her final days in Cydaria? If so, then what about the two listed above him?
As he was thinking this, he figured out the flaw in the man’s transformation. It was taking forever. How many people would allow Jakis to complete the transformation? The partial transformations happened quickly, but, as Derek watched, minutes had already passed. How vulnerable is he during the transformation? he wondered. And how painful is it?
He started seeing the real problems that Jakis would have to face in fights. To fight at his full force, the man would have to transform before the fight began. However, if he couldn’t control himself, he would be a danger to enemies and allies alike. Derek didn’t deny that he was strong in his partially transformed state. He had beaten Edgar, after all.
However, Derek felt that the former prince had actually held back. He went after the man’s heart—which, had he been successful, would have most probably only sent Jakis into a Dying State. If he’d gone for the brain instead while the man wasn’t prepared, it would have been a different story. Edgar had actually pulled his punches so as not to kill the man.
Derek looked at his wrist, miming a watch, then looked back up at the beast. After another minute or so, the roiling darkness finally encased the beast’s entire body, just as his own void-created encasement did. Finally, Jakis—or the Duskwraith Jakis—threw its head back and released a booming roar that could probably be heard throughout the entire kingdom.
“Finally,” Derek said, then kicked off the ground with a void-covered fist and punched the creature directly in the gut.
***
Avery was intently focused on the invasion status, wishing he was in Eloria. Jakis and Derek had been fighting for a long time, and he couldn’t help but wonder just how strong the Champion was to still be in battle with his friend. Hell, the Champion had already defeated Edgar, so he most certainly was strong.
However, as he watched the status, a sudden shiver went down his spine, and he quickly drew his daggers. Spinning near-instantly, he brought his weapons up to block a pair of claws aimed at the back of his neck. In front of him was a cat-like woman with claws that would put most daggers to shame.
“Oh… you are quite the assassin…” the woman said. “Just like me. I didn’t expect you to block that. Doesn’t matter though. You won’t block the next.”
“No, lassie,” a voice sounded from behind the would-be assassin. “He’s just a manager. I’m the assassin.”
The cat-like woman’s eyes went wide as Braxton’s full aura was unleashed in an instant and his warhammer came swinging at her with all his strength. Trying her best to dodge, the woman jumped and did a backflip, but just as she was upside down, the hammer caught her in the elbow.
Braxton followed through with his swing, and the woman was sent rocketing back outside the Stronghold circle. Avery, even with his enhanced eyesight, could barely keep up with the woman as she vanished into the distance. He turned his head to Braxton. “Are you going to chase?”
“Nah,” the man yawned and pulled out a jug of brew. “She’s far gone by now. No way I can catch her. I’m not fast enough. You did a good job sensing her, though.” He took a drink. “Could have been bad. She’s surprisingly agile.”
“I didn’t even sense you come up behind her,” Avery said.
“When you’ve worked as an assassin as long as I have, you learn some tricks…” He took an oddly shaped piece of paper out of his storage ring. “Or you run into a guy named Marcus who works for Miss Savannah and make him give you some surprisingly well-made talismans.” He belly-laughed. “You should go see him. He’s got all kinds.”
Avery smiled and rolled his eyes. “Maybe I will…” He shook his head and brought the invasion status back up. “He sure is taking his time.”
“Indeed,” Braxton replied. “Must be having fun.”
***
As Derek hit the beast with a third punch, it finally let out a grunt. Its darkness-covered claws were certainly on another level from the partially transformed ones. Even being at a low-mythical rank, his armor was damaged. It wasn’t damaged to the point where it really lost any of its durability or effectiveness, but it did have some scratch marks on it.
The beast roared and swiped away in fury as the overlay of darkness landed on Derek, one after another. Since his armor was enough to block the blows, he didn’t have to worry about any cuts or gashes, but the force with which they landed was still enough to rattle his insides a bit.
His health would drop a bit, then instantly refill with Greater Meditation. Just as he thought, even in his beast form, Jakis didn’t have a chance against him. Still, he let the fight go on. Not because he was toying with the beast… well… not just because he was toying with the beast, but because he wondered if Jakis’s problem was the same as Alanah’s.
Was the man he was facing also on the edge of being able to ascend? If he could gain control of the beast, then what? Would his affinity reach a new height? Derek didn’t really care for the man, but he liked his attitude. And he was very interested in how that would work. But he didn’t have all the time in the world. While the man was transforming, he saw Avery, Braxton, and Silent Night all enter into a battle on the invasion status.
However, the battle had ended seconds after Braxton’s status changed. He wasn’t exactly worried, but he wanted to know what happened. So, after being pushed back a few yards, Derek held his arm out and summoned Harbinger.
As soon as his trusted glaive was in his hand, he sliced out with Spatial Rend. The strike cut through the man’s darkness and left a giant gash on his chest. Jakis truly was nothing but a beast in his current form. His Spatial Rend wasn’t that hard of a skill to dodge—especially with Jakis’s strength and speed—but he hadn’t even tried to dodge.
Next, Derek bent his neck to the side—just moving it out of the way of the overlapping darkness from a strike. Then he held his hand out and squeezed. “Sorry about this,” he said. He was going to do what Edgar was unable to. Inside the beast’s body, just past his chest, Spatial Collapse activated.
Derek’s aim wasn’t the best, but when the space collapsed, it did catch a small portion of the beast’s heart. He knew he’d at least hit it because a mouthful of black blood was vomited from the beast’s maw. However, the beast was still standing.
“Durable!” Derek smiled. Then he used Active Void Shift and moved behind the beast. I think I’m good to do this, he thought. Then he brought a void-covered Sweeping Slash, enhanced by Multi-Strike, down on the creature’s back.
Surprisingly, after a few moments, the beast didn’t go down. Instead, it turned around, let out a furious roar, and began swiping at Derek faster than ever. It definitely has a dampening effect. Derek thought about the dark energy surrounding the beast. However, after just a few swipes, it slowed. Eventually, it wasn’t even coming at him as fast as a normal person could swing.
Derek saw the darkness inside its eyes slowly retract as the beast swiped out again. A look of recognition appeared in the creature’s eyes, and he saw Jakis return. The man coughed twice, then fell on his face. Derek pulled out a potion to remove the Dying State that was soon to come, but as the man fell unconscious, his body disappeared.
Derek frowned, then looked at the invasion status. He let out a sigh as he saw ‘defeated’ appear beside Jakis’s name, then put the potion away.
“That was fun,” he said, then stretched. “Totally worth it.”