My Best Friend is an Eldritch Horror - Chapter 262 (Patreon)

Kat was wiling to take them up on sparring. In fact, when Damien approached her that morning to ask if she would be willing to test out a new ability he’d developed, the professor practically dragged him back to the sparring arena.

“Well? What is it?” Kat asked eagerly. “Did you figure out a way to do more with that strange magic of yours? I want to see it!”

“You’re a lot more excited than I thought you would be,” Damien said with a chuckle.

“Of course I am. Do you know how many students are actually exciting to fight against? I’ll give you a hint. Not many. Half the other professors here are sourpusses too, so I barely ever get a chance to go all out.”

“Are you implying you’ve gone all out against me?”

“No, but that doesn’t mean I won’t be able to soon.” Kat rubbed her hands together and licked her lips. “So, lets see it. Give me a challenge, Damien.”

“Sorry to disappoint you, but I’m not the one that you’ll be fighting,” Damien said. His grin grew as Kat’s face fell.

“What? I came all this way for nothing?”

Damien’s shadow stretched out and Henry rose up from it, taking on his normal humanoid form. “Nothing? I’ll have you know I take offense to that.”

Kat blinked. “Your companion? And wow, he talks and has a humanoid form? That’s an impressive full manifestation, assuming it can do anything.”

“This isn’t his full manifestation,” Damien said. “And that’s what we’d like your help with. We want to see what he can do against a strong opponent.”

“You want me to spar your companion? Without you?”

“Yep.”

Kat pursed her lips. “Damien, that isn’t really a good use of my time. Companions are meant to fight together with their summoners, not on their own. I know you’re excited about your companion’s ability, but there’s only so much a companion can do on their own.”

“Don’t be like that, mini-Delph,” Henry drawled. “Humor us. I promise I’ll be able to make you try at least as hard as you had to against Damien when he was going all out.”

“Oh? And what happens if you can’t?” Kat asked, raising an eyebrow. “You trying to make a bet?”

“Whoa,” Damien said. “Hold on there. I don’t know about–”

“Only if I have something to gain if I impress you, Professor,” Henry said, several mouths splitting open in grins. “There are other strong professors in Mountain Hall. We can just hunt them instead.”

“Hunt? Quite the opinion you’ve got of yourself. What are you, a demon from the Plane of Darkness?”

“Something like that,” Henry said. “I want the best cultivation supplies you can provide.”

“Those are reserved for Mountain Hall students, but I suppose I could make an exception. I doubt Hawk would complain much,” Kat said, cocking her head to the side. “What if you lose and are completely disappointing?"

“Damien will clean your room or something.”

“Wait, what?”

“Hah. Deal,” Kat said. “Cleaning is a pain in the ass. You should have opened with that.”

“I didn’t agree to this,” Damien grumbled, but neither Henry nor Kat responded to him. He sighed and walked to the edge of the arena, sitting down. “Henry, you better not lose.”

“Me? Lose? The word isn’t in my vocabulary,” Henry replied. “You ready, girl?”

“I am a fully grown woman, not a girl,” Kat growled, her red wings unfurling from her back.

“Not to me,” Henry replied. “Try to make this fun for me. Damien doesn’t let me play around much.”

A pool of shadow expanded from his feet, covering the center of the arena. Henry’s body burst into motes of shadow and started to reassemble. Long, slender legs and lanky arms formed as his gaunt form stitched itself into being.

Damien had expected it to be less intimidating in the daylight, but he was sorely mistaken. Henry’s lanky arms hung low by his sides, his jagged fingertips nearly scraping the ground.

As his axe-shaped wings rose into the air, casting a shadow over Kat, she took a step back before she could stop herself. Henry’s featureless face scrunched, as if he were smiling behind a tight blanket.

“Seven Planes,” Kat said, her eyes wide. “What are you?”

Henry sank into the pool of shadow beneath him, his laughter echoing even after he was gone. “Don’t lose your nerve, professor. We haven’t even started yet.”

Kat’s eyes narrowed and the fear vanished, replaced by practiced determination. She dropped into a fighting stance, waiting for Henry to strike. He didn’t make her wait long.

His hand rose from the dark, pointed fingers reaching for Kat’s leg. She blurred, vanishing before he could get close. The hand vanished and Henry reappeared behind Kat, reaching for her again.

They flitted around the shadow circle for several seconds in a game of Kat and mouse. While the Professor was considerably faster than Henry, he seemed to be able to reappear anywhere within the circle once he was completely submerged within it, locking them in a stalemate. Damien couldn’t even keep up with their movements. There were just constant flickers and splashes of shadow.

After a few seconds, Kat stepped out of the circle, completely unharmed. It only covered the center of the arena, so she had considerable space to maneuver around it without leaving the bounds of their fighting zone.

Henry pulled himself out of the darkness, covering a yawn. He hadn’t taken any hits either. “You do a lot of running.”

“But you don’t do much catching,” Kat said with a smirk. “You’re slower than I am.”

“Point in your favor,” Henry admitted, studying his pointed nails. “You really are fast. I hope you’ve got more than that, though.”

Kat cracked her neck. “You’re going to have to be a lot more impressive if you want more than this.”

Henry’s wings extended to their full size, casting a long shadow over the ground and Kat. One of the lines on his right wing twitched and pulled open, revealing the eye behind it. Even though the attack wasn’t targeted at him, Damien staggered as a thrum of energy slammed into his body.

He brought his mental resistance to bear as the world shuddered and warped. Even as prepared as he was, Damien couldn’t convince his mind that the world wasn’t starting to fall apart at the seams.

Purple light slipped through cracks in reality and chunks of the ground crumbled and fell away into the endless void opening beneath their feet. Kat launched herself into the air, Ether curling around her body defensively.

She dodged to and fro, seemingly at random. After a moment, Damien realized that she was likely seeing illusions that he’d managed to suppress. Henry watched the results of his spell for a few moments, then snapped his wings downward, launching himself into the air.

The illusion wavered at the movement. Kat spun, her eyes focusing on Henry, but he was already on top of her. His claws scored across her chest plate and Ether flared around the two of them. Kat blurred, reappearing behind Henry and slamming a fist into his back.

He rocketed into the ground and hit the ring of shadow in the center of the arena, sinking into it without a trace. Laughing, Henry rose once more, the eye on his right wing still open. Kat gritted her teeth, raising a hand to her head as she struggled to keep his influence out.

“You’re holding out better than I thought you would,” Henry called. “Do you have training against mental intrusion?”

“Delph and his companion taught me a lot,” Kat replied through gritted teeth, lowering her gaze to meet his face. “But this is nothing like what–”

She hissed and dropped from the air, slamming to the ground with a groan. Curls of Henry’s Ether floated around her body, growing in number.

“What is this?”

“Careful now,” Henry warned. “Stare too deep into the Abyss and something might look back. Delph taught you how to resist a human mental intrusion. I am not human.”

The eye on Henry’s wing snapped closed. Kat shot back to her feet and launched at Henry. Still chuckling, Henry sank into the shadows, vanishing as her hand passed through the air where he’d been instants before.

He reappeared on the far side of the ring, the second line on his right wing snapping open in the process. Damien cursed as light and color twisted into a maelstrom, vanishing into the devouring abyss in Henry’s wing.

His smug laughter was cut short as a loud smack echoed through the air.

“I don’t need to see you to fight you,” Kat said from somewhere in the darkness. Damiens squinted, but it was pointless. All he could see was black. He sighed, straining his ears as hard as he could to try and pick up what was happening.

All his efforts gave him was aggressive scuffling against the sand and the occasional crash of magic. Then, as abruptly as the light has vanished, it roared back into being. Henry and Kat stood across from each other, both covered in scores and cuts.

Kat was breathing heavily, and one of her wings had been completely cut off. Henry was riddled with dozens of small cuts, but none of them looked serious.

“Incredible,” Kat breathed, spinning out of the way as Henry brought his claws raking toward her shoulder. “This might be the most powerful student Full Manifestation I’ve ever seen.”

“I am pretty great,” Henry agreed, flicking some blood from his claws. “But I’m still taking offense. Only the most powerful amongst the students?”

“You’re putting up a fight, but you haven’t pushed me to my limit,” Kat replied. “Be happy that you’re strong enough to cause me trouble on your own. Once you and Damien get stronger, you’ll be unstoppable. You’re just a little too limited to close range.”

Henry’s wings folded back to their resting positions. “Ah. Well, this was a fun little test. I’ve got some things I’m going to need to fix, I’m afraid. What a bother.”

“You admit defeat, then?” Kat asked, not letting her guard down in the slightest. She shifted from foot to foot as she watched Henry, waiting for the first sign of movement. “Because you’re impressive, but you didn’t beat me.”

“Nothing of the sort,” Henry replied, raising his hands into the air. Dozens of motes of dark Ether twisted into reality around them, forming into floating eyes. They peeled open, turning their gazes toward Kat. “I was just done playing with my new toys. I only just figured those out, after all. Isn’t that fascinating? I made them myself, you know. But, for now, I suppose I’ll have to go back to what I know. Start dancing, Professor.”

Beams of purple light ripped out of several of the eyes and cut through the air, cleaving through the ground. Kat flickered, her eyes going wide as she reappeared. Damien couldn’t be certain, but it felt like the attack had gotten far closer to catching her than the others.

Henry swept his hand in a wide arc. Tendrils erupted around him in every direction, rapidly expanding until they filled nearly a quarter of the arena. Kat vanished from view, only reappearing for mere instants at a time as they shot out at her.

Damien grimaced as he felt his Ether reserves start to strain. Henry was still limited by his strength, and his companion was using a fair amount of magic. He still had some left, but it wouldn’t last long at the rate Henry was wasting it.

“Relax, Damien,” Henry called. “Get that look off your face. I’m just having fun.”

“Pay attention to your opponent,” Kat yelled, appearing behind Henry and driving a fist into his back and blowing a huge hole through his chest. His body continued to split down the middle and Kat launched herself into the air before a dozen tentacles slammed into the spot where she’d been standing.

Henry reformed, drawing the writhing mass of tendrils back into him. Kat hovered in the air, watching him warily. The eyes Henry had formed still tracked her every move, but no more attacks had fired from them since the first.

“There are so many options,” Henry complained. “I don’t know which one to use! What do you think, Damien? Cool lasers? Forgotten magic? I don’t know!”

Kat’s eyes narrowed. Red magic crackled across her body and her hair rose up around her, electrified. “You aren’t taking this seriously. You’ve got quite the ego, companion.”

“Oooh, are you getting serious?” Henry asked, clapping his hands. “Unfortunately, I don’t feel like fighting anymore. I already tested what I want to.”

“You don’t get to–”

Henry snapped his fingers. Damien staggered as an enormous amount of Ether flooded through his body and into Henry. Hundreds of eyes formed in the air around Kat. She raised her hands to defend herself.

Instead of beams of light, they detonated. Whirlpools of jagged black energy filled the air, and Damien recognized miniature tears flitting through the sky. It was like Henry had cast dozens of Storm spells at once.

He flicked his fingers and dismissed the magic. Kat’s armor had been carved to pieces.

“You still weren’t taking me seriously,” Henry said, clicking his tongue. “Should have used your Full Manifestation instead of that half-assed Combat one. Oh well. My win.”

Kat dropped to the ground, awe etched across her face as she studied her ruined armor. “I don’t believe it. You might have actually killed me if you didn’t stop those spells.”

“You’re welcome.”

“What magic was that?” Kat exclaimed, running over to him. “How did you do it? How can you channel so much Ether and concentrate on that number of individual spells? This is incredible! You’re a marvel of nature! Are there other creatures like you?”

Damien shook his head. For a moment, he’d thought she might have gotten mad. He certainly hadn’t expected her to start gushing over Henry.

Henry’s body fell apart as he returned to his spherical form and shot back to Damien. “Whoa, back up. No touching the tentacles. You don’t get to ask questions, Professor. You lost. If you wanted to get something out of me, you should have tried.”

Kat crossed her arms and pouted like a child. “That’s no fair. Why would I ever expect that a student’s companion would be that powerful? It would have been overkill to try against you.”

“Which is why I made that bet,” Henry said cheerfully. “Thanks for the win. I’ll be more than happy to take you on for real in a few months, once I’ve gotten my new toys working better. Evidently, they only do so much against an experienced opponent.”

Kat’s face lost its glow and grew serious. She walked up to Damien, but her eyes were transfixed on Henry. “No. Actually, they’re probably far more effective than you think.”

“What do you mean?” Damien asked.

“Damien, Delph trained me against all forms of mental attacks, not just ones from humans. I spent years specifically learning to fend them off. Everything about my body is optimized to make sure nobody can affect it. The fact that Henry was able to do so much damage to me with an illusionary spell – you can’t use this against any other students. Do you understand? You might legitimately stop their heart and kill them.”

Henry burst into laughter. “Like a rabbit? Dying of fright? Oh, that would be a sight.”

Kat’s eyes narrowed. “I’m sorry?”

“We’d never do anything of the sort,” Damien said, giving Henry a sharp glance. “Apologies, Professor. Henry is a bit insane, if you haven’t noticed. Luckily, he follows what I tell him to do.”

“Every word,” Henry said, somehow keeping a straight face. “I’m a good companion. I’d never disobey Damien. No chance.”

Kat sighed. “Somehow, I don’t believe that in the slightest. Don’t give me a reason to become your enemy, Damien. I like you, but I need to protect my students.”

“Don’t worry,” Damien promised. “I’m not Mountain Hall’s enemy. Not unless they make me into one.”

“I think we’ll be doing everything possible to avoid that,” Kat muttered. “This was quite the wake up call. I did not expect to actually lose. Granted, I think I still would have won if I’d fought with my true strength, but it would not have been easy. What kind of monster will you be in a few years?”

Damien wanted the answer to that himself. Kat stared at them for a few more moments, then shook her head. “I’ve got a class to get to. You’ll get your supplies, Henry. For that matter, why do you even need them? Damien’s core has already evolved, hasn’t it?”

“They’re not for Damien,” Henry replied with a cackle. “Deliver them to our room. Thanks for the spar. I look forward to beating you again next time.”

Kat clicked her tongue. “We’ll see about that.”

She vanished. Damien waited a few moments, then let out a slow whistle. “That was something, Henry. Imagine what we can do when we’re actually fighting together.”

“I’m looking forward to it.”

“One thing. How hard were you actually going? Was that all out?”

Henry turned to give him a side-eye. “No. It was just a little more than half.”