Realizing the change that was happening Lucifer dropped the weapon The line was relatively near the tip of the sword but the changes continued down most of the length of the blade until there were only 10 centimeters or so of blade remaining and that was red and rust eaten Lucifer frowned at the blade almost seeming to be more upset he lost his sword than in the manner of its destruction
That’s a blast of concentrated time It’s hard to tell easily how much time passes when that hits you but Rose thought about it then repeated what she said earlier Do not let it hit you
Right at that moment two more red balls struck the stag sending it staggering dispersing another grey ball of energy that was starting to form But as he watched what was happening Drake forgot all about the dried vomit on the inside of his helmet Instead he lowered his hands and gripped his sword sweating for two reasons
The first was that his armor was basically useless against this stag that struck with time The second
Guys Drake said slowly I think those red balls aren’t They are healing it
The divvet in the grey and withered flesh pillar was gone healed over cleanly And no longer was the flesh grey but now firm and pearlescent almost strange colors reflected from its fur Ponderously those pillars of flesh raised themselves seeming to flex experimentally
Oh shit Rose whispered her eyes widening How could I yes it’s healing it filling it with life force from somewhere
Drake glanced back towards the Death Cultists Now over half of them were on the ground unmoving while the Grey Death Cultist a wide smile on its face was looking forward towards them
Yes we finally found you The Grey Death Cultist said pausing in its ritual to raise its hand towards the stag Our Ivory Queen please open your eyes Your servants are here to give you our very lives
A tremor ran through the stag Then strangely the cancerous growth began to twitch Drake’s eyes widened because it quickly became clear that it was a misshapen squashed head It trembled again and folds of flesh parted revealing a mouth with yellowed and broken teeth Immediately there was a slow trickle of bile that came outward flowing slowly over the tongue and across the teeth
In a strange twist Drake felt quite a bit of empathy for the strange monster forced to deal with vomit for the rest of this fight But then more folds parted revealing beady eyes one of black and one of silver red rimmed with hatred Then they rolled around staring to the sky
Slowly those ivory pillars raised themselves farther revealing them to be the sinewy and massive wings of the Death Cultists made of corded muscle that could be spread out thinly for flight But unlike the other Death Cultists these wings were each full 20 meters long stretching almost improbably far outwards covering the Raid Party in their long shadow
Chapter 463
Lucifer kill those fuckers before they make it worse Alana barked Drake
Yea I can’t stay like this Drake said shivering as he dismissed the armor He put the heavier sword back into his spatial ring and removed another one handed sword that he could more easily use without the boost in Strength from the Bone Armor
Annie you are our other main source of damage then Rose said snapping back into focus after realizing her error earlier Drake suspected the real reason it had happened was that it wasn’t targeting them so she hadn’t thought to dig more deeply into what was happening Also the appearance of the Stagbat was a pretty intimidating thing in and of itself
Raising its head the Stagbat released its braying call as the Raid Party split heading to strike at the two groups
Lucifer covered the distance quickly but was unable to catch the Grey Death Cultist as it recognized the ambush that was coming and rolled to the side to avoid his strike Grimacing Lucifer immediately withdrew through the portal closed it and then just began to dead sprint towards the Death Cultists
Chrysanthemum help him Thea said before approaching with the rest of them towards the Stagbat
Alana arrived first and wasted no time stabbing towards it again and again aiming to test the defense of its flesh with her spear But the Stagbat was surprisingly graceful more so now that it didn’t have to drag its withered wings along on the ground with it It weaved through her strike and then stepped forwards flapping its wings for an extra boost of speed
What should have been a short hop turned into a charge and Drake was smashed to the side by the momentum of its advance However he hadn’t spent the last month in constant battle in vain As their bodies crossed each other Drake twisted raising his sword letting the Stagbat pierce itself with its own speed
To Drake’s surprise the sword slid into its soft fur without any sort of resistance When the Stagbat landed it stumbled a little but instead of braying the bat head on its back twisted opening its mouth
You will Feed me Let’s Die together ha It slowly enunciated as green ichor splashed out of the sword wound eating into the sword that was still lodged in its chest until the hilt fell to the ground warped by the blood of this creature the rest of the blade already disintegrated
But this did have the side effect of starting its blood gushing out of the hole and the Stagbat swayed unsteadily
Incoming Rose shouted She needn’t have said anything though because before she spoke one of Annie’s arrows was already released catching the crimson orb at its bottom The whole thing didn’t disperse but the bottom half of the orb exploded with the force of the arrow and as the remaining half traveled forward a red dust drifted down behind it settling on the ground also weakening the spell further But the crimson orb still reached the Stagbat before anyone else could react it simply traveled too quickly
The sword wound closed up and it seemed the rigidity to its spread wings eased somewhat but little else seemed to change By this point Lucifer arrived at the Death Cultists and began cutting through the Red Death Cultists aiming for the Grey Death Cultist that continued to chant
Chrysanthemum arrived soon after him and where he was like a methodical butcher she simply crushed opposition making a beeline for the Grey Death Cultist It hissed in annoyance switching abruptly to a Wither spell but it was too late Chrysanthemum crashed into its body and began mauling the Death Cultist
For the great oblivion It shouted executing a strange series of syllables very quickly and Death Cultists around him fell like flies dying quickly and easily
Meanwhile Drake Alana and Ace weaved through those grey lines of force They didn’t travel particularly quickly but they could change directions on a dime which meant that near miss dodging was more dangerous than it was useful against this enemy And based on how much damage was done to a metal sword
How would a human body hold up against that passage of time Even with a System increased Vitality
Fuck me Ace cursed removing his helmet which had been clipped by a beam He then watched frozen and wide eyed as the helmet turned to dust and fell away At that moment Ace was pale in a way that Drake had never seen him before seemingly lost without his helmet Drake was aware of the theatrics that Ace had employed with Dauntless’ and the jokes at his expense that called him insane but only now did Drake realize how true it was
This man something precious at his core was irrevocably broken That helmet had kept it hidden but now
Another beam rushed towards him and when Alana yelled he didn’t respond At that moment Clarissa launched a Lightning Bolt smashed him to the side the beam narrowly missing him Drake caught the body and took a welcome break from the high stress game of dodging beams of death by old age returning Ace’s still shocked body to Ptolemy
Or that’s what he meant to do but Ptolemy took this as a signal to switch and with a nod he moved forward supporting Alana against the Stagbat
Annie rained a constant flood of arrows against the Stagbat aiming for its stag portion of the body with its soft flesh because the bat portion repelled the normal arrows easily Luckily the bat’s wings were still rather stiff and it was unable to move them well to protect its more vulnerable core body leaving it with a dozen or so bleeding scratches across its torso