TS4: Chapter 45 (Patreon)

It only took Garak a second to realize that the giant he was facing was Thorn, as all the god beasts were well aware of what Thorn looked like and had been warned to avoid him at all costs, as he had killed a number of them. Fear and rage burned equally in the god beast's mind, and he shifted his target from the spell construct hanging in the air to Thorn. Yet, even as he struck, one of his eyes caught a slight ripple, as his shadow, and Thorn's shadow intersected. Instincts born of hundreds of years of hunting sent off warning bells in his head, but before he could react, his shadow warped, and a massive mouth emerged from under his belly.

Salliish's fangs sunk deep into the softest part of his body, pumping horrifying venom into him, making his body slow even more, and much of his anger began to morph into fear. Thorn had never stopped casting, and even as the spider tried to let out a loud shriek, Thorn's hand wove an arcane symbol in the air, causing the shadows in the area to multiply drastically until they were entirely entombed in a black haze that absorbed every sound they made. But Thorn wasn't done yet. With a flick of his finger, the shadows that made up the shadow-silence spell transformed into hooks and barbs that sank deep into the spider's body.

First slowed by the ancient rune, and then paralyzed by Salliish's venom, the spider never had the chance to act, and its movements and even its thoughts, continued to slow as its body was torn apart. At the very last moment, a faint figure surged out of Thorn's chest as a wolf made from pitch-black darkness with glowing golden eyes latched onto the spider's spirit, rapidly devouring it. Falling back with a terrified hiss, Salliish coiled up, his dark eyes staring at Thorn. Despite the fact that there was no light, he had seen the devouring wolf clearly and felt a deep terror in his soul.

"What was that?" he asked, his eyes fixed on Thorn as the wolf finished devouring the last strands of the spider-god beast's divinity.

"Not something you have to worry about," Thorn said. "You can think of it as me returning Hati's power to where it belongs."

Feeling an instinctive threat, Salliish slowly shook his head.

“That's not reassuring," he said.

Though the giant snake fell silent, Thorn knew exactly what he was talking about. Salliish shared some of the same aspects as Hati, and Thorn hadn't considered how much of a threat the giant snake would feel seeing him devour another god beast. Still, there wasn't much Thorn could do to reassure him, and so, with a tap, he dispelled the darkness and gestured towards the shrine down below.

"We can talk about it afterwards," he said. "Let's make our attack before they realize that their friend is gone."

Staring at Thorn for a long moment, Salliish nodded his head and dove into the shadows, keeping a good distance from Thorn. With a short sigh, Thorn focused his attention on the crystal down below. This one floated in the middle of a pagoda and was three times the size of the smaller shrines that he had seen. The giant porcupine sat out front, staring dully into the air, as if it had not a care in the world. But Thorn could tell that its senses were on high alert. With a sweep of his mental sense to make sure everybody was in position, Thorn stepped forward, vanishing from the top of the ruined tower and appearing down in the pagoda below. Immediately, the crystal flickered, and a guardian appeared, a heroic-looking general with a long spear and a round buckler.

At the same time, the god beast porcupine spun, and a flurry of quills shot toward Thorn, who intercepted them with a wave of stone that rose from the ground. Hearing the stone shatter, Thorn quickly cast a mana shield to reinforce it and was surprised to see the quills pierce through. It slowed them enough, however, that he could step to the side, even as the guardian lowered itself into its stance, its long spear pointing at Thorn's throat. The porcupine was about to attack again when all of a sudden, it heard a loud roar and quickly balled up, rolling to the side, as Boreg's massive fist slammed down where it was. A moment later, the ape was kicked to the side, as Skoll jumped into the fight.

"You're supposed to be fighting the spectral soldiers!" the sun wolf yelled.

"Aw, man, I really wanted to punch him," Boreg complained as Vengef dashed by.

The tiger god beast swiped with his hand, eliminating a whole swath of spectral soldiers as his fingers launched wind blades into the air. Not wanting to be left behind, Boreg let out a loud roar, pounding his chest, and launching himself to the other side of the shrine, where he began to crush any spectral soldier that entered his reach. Skoll, who fought almost exactly the same way Duratan did, with a golden aura of light that transformed into any sort of weapon he wanted, was using a long spear to engage the porcupine and was quickly joined by the other members of the team. The goal was to eliminate this shrine as fast as possible, and so Thorn didn't mess around.

Even as the guardian lunged forward, Thorn's affinities all engaged at once. The earth around the spectral guardian surged, sending dozens of stone spears into him from every angle, while from above, a meteor of purple stars rained down, threatening to tear through his body. At the same time, the shadows cast by the pillars of the pagoda rose up as chains, binding the spectral guardian in place. Letting out a roar, the guardian tried to shake free, but Thorn wasn't about to let him, and Titan Step carried him forward as he brought his halberd down.

There were simply too many threats for the 8th tier spectral guardian to contend against. And even though he managed to block the stone spears with his own spear and defend against the falling stars with his buckler, there was little he could do against the dark chains or Thorn's mana blade, which pierced straight through his chest. With a hiss, his body evaporated. The fight had taken only a few seconds, and as Thorn turned around, he saw that the porcupine god beast wouldn't last much longer. Between Stello, Sparky, Skoll, and Consecrate Kendall, there was little the god beast could do, despite its innately defensive nature. It had quickly realized that it was outnumbered and, instead of fighting back, had curled up into a ball, hoping to find a break in the attack to flee.

The problem was that its enemy's attacks were too strong. Sparky, transforming into his three-headed troll shaman form, had braved its spines and wrapped himself around it to lock it in place. Though the porcupine's quills stabbed deep into his body, Sparky felt a wave of healing energy as Consecrate Kendall cast a support spell on him. With a roar, he lifted the porcupine into the air and slammed it into the ground, breaking its defenses open slightly. That was enough for Stello and Skoll, and in the next moment, a spear and a blade tore through the unfortunate god beast's chest, finding its heart and eliminating it. With a scream, the god beast died, and Thorn saw a brief flash as a faint golden energy seemed to seep into Sparky's body. It would have taken considerable time to extricate himself from the large spines that had stabbed all the way through his body, so Sparky simply ripped himself free, blood dripping everywhere. But a moment later, the regeneration granted by Consecrate Kendall's spell and his troll form kicked in, and he was back to perfect health.

"That's one way to do it," Skoll said, giving Sparky a glance. "Not the way I'd choose, for sure, but quite effective."

Panting, Sparky transformed back into his normal body. Thorn, who was watching Sparky very carefully, could feel the faint growth in Sparky's divinity. It was incredible how well Sparky could hide it from the others, but he was unable to hide it from Thorn. The porcupine's corpse had taken on a faintly gray appearance, so before anyone else noticed, Thorn tapped his staff on the ground, casting the Entomb spell. A moment later, the large corpse was dragged below the earth and covered over in stone, completely vanishing as if it had never existed.

The entire operation had taken less than two minutes, made possible thanks to the overwhelming strength the team exhibited, but even though it had gone smoothly, Thorn's brow furrowed. If there had been a few more god beasts hanging around to defend, it wouldn't have gone nearly as well, and he wasn't the only one who knew it. They had managed to kill the porcupine god beast rapidly, but it had taken four of them working together to do it. In a one-on-one battle, it would have taken significantly longer, making it much more likely that the enemy god beasts would have been able to find a chance to escape.

"This might be harder than I thought," Thorn said, and saw the others nodding.

"That's fine," Huginn replied, flying down and landing on Thorn's staff. "We'll take it one at a time, but we should get out of here. It looks like the other fight is about to break up, which means that the god beasts will be heading back in this direction.”

“Any casualties?" Thorn asked.

"A few on the saint's side, just some of their soldiers," Huginn replied.

"All right, then let's leave a little bit of a surprise for the god beasts and get out of here. Our next target is going to be one of the saint's shrines," Thorn said, flipping out the map and pointing to the major shrine to the southeast. "It's guarded by soldiers, and chances are that's where Quilla's team is heading."

"Are we going to kill them?" Consecrate Kendall asked, raising an eyebrow.

Taking a moment to think about it, Thorn turned to the god beasts that made up the majority of their group.

"I'm going to leave that up to you guys," he said. "If I'm honest, I have no love for any of the Ascendants or any of the forces from the Temple of Man, so if you guys are interested in eliminating them, that's fine with me."

Before anybody spoke, Stello held up his hands.

"I'm recusing myself from this decision," he said. "I'm not part of either group, and so I'm happy to kill or spare anyone you guys decide."

To Thorn's surprise, Vengef, the tiger god beast, held up his hands as well.

"You're the boss, as far as I'm concerned, and so I don't care one way or another either. I'm following you, not the Council of Gods."

"Yeah. What Vengef said,” Boreg chimed in. "Doesn't matter to me either."

Chuckling, Huginn cast an eye at Thorn and ruffled his feathers.

"I think you'll find all of us in the same boat," he said. "god beasts do not naturally have a cooperative relationship, and so killing one another is not only entirely normal, but is a natural part of the way we live. The only reason, as far as I understand it, that the Council of Gods exists is to fight against the Temple of Man."

"Huginn is right," Skoll said. "We follow you, rather than the Council of Gods, so there's no need to be concerned. Whatever you decide is fine."

Though he didn't speak, Thorn could sense through the shadow that surrounded him that Salliish felt the same way, leaving only Consecrate Kendall and Sparky, who hadn't spoken up. With a sigh, Sparky scratched his chin.

"I mean, honestly, I'm happy to play it however you like," he said to Thorn. "Like everybody else said, I plan on hanging on to your coattails, so I'll take your direction. But I have to admit, I hate the Temple of Man just as much as I hate the Council of Gods, and so any chance to weaken their strength, I'm a fan of. If it were up to me," he drew a finger across his throat, clearly conveying the way he would vote.

"Got it," Thorn said. "I appreciate all of your perspectives. It's clear that you're trying to avoid getting me in trouble with the Temple of Man, even if it means you getting in trouble with the Council of Gods. All right, here's what we'll do. If we're going to encounter forces from the Temple of Man, I'll make sure to disguise myself, and Kendall won't have to participate."

Holding up his hand to interrupt Thorn, the Consecrate shook his head.

"No way," he said. "All is fair in love and war, so if they don't back off, then I have no qualms taking them down. My blade is free to bite anyone in my way, and that includes those from the temple. Besides, even though soldiers from the Temple of Man are supposed to work together, us Saints have a lot more freedom. There are no rules saying we can’t get in each other’s way."

"Sure, but no doubt you’ll find yourself in hot water if you end up killing someone.”

“Thorn, I’m running around in a team with god beasts, I’m pretty sure the water I’m in can’t get any hotter,” Consecrate Kendall said, causing the rest of the team to laugh.

“Okay, that’s a fair point. Still, it would be good to preserve your standing with the Temple of Man as much as we can," Thorn said, “but I also respect your position. You can make the decision on a case by case basis and we'll deal with each situation as we come to it."

“That works for me,” Kendall said, nodding.

After Thorn spent the points needed to upgrade the shrine, they left for their next target, making sure to give the returning god beasts a wide berth. The god beasts were in for a nasty surprise when they returned to the shrine, and Thorn had thought about hanging out to ambush them after they accidentally triggered the newly upgraded fourth level shrine, but taking the next major shrine was more important than killing the god beasts, so they pushed on, moving as fast as they could. Thorn’s hope was to arrive at the Temple of Man’s shrine before or at the same time as Ascendant Quilla’s forces, so that they didn’t have time to dig in and set up their defenses, but as they got close, he realized that wouldn’t be possible.