[Ashborn-B1] 63. Souleater (Patreon)

LXIII

Souleater

Vapour followed in the wake of the flame cutter eating through the air.

‘It’s beautiful.’

Erri didn’t share my appreciation. Yelling at the top of her lungs, the drake princess jabbed the tip of her tail in the earth. She pulled herself to the ground, then swung her body sideways and balanced on one leg.

The cutter passed an inch in front of her nose. It shot into a group of drakes and split a lesser drake in half.

I glanced down. The branch had snapped in half. Losing the counteracting force made Erri lose her balance, but the princess vaulted away with the aid of her fifth limb.

My gaze remained on the branch. ‘I cut it?’ Nothing had ever so much as left a dent in the tree. Was there that much force behind my attack?…No, it broke because I was the one cutting it.

The branch was not dissipating into flame but slowly wrinkling and shrivelling. I mentally reached out for the detached piece of my sacred tree. With a shove, I pushed energy through our connection, and the branch stopped shrinking.

My pupils widened.

“What are you looking at?!”

I cut in the general direction of the voice and met Erri’s armoured fist. A splitting soundwave ruptured out with us at the centre.

“Forgive me,” I grunted with a smirk. “I was just discovering new facets of my power.”

“That won’t help you!”

Erri was a lot heavier than her appearance let on. Throw behind that her tail which allowed her to direct every ounce of her weight into her punches…

I pivoted out of the way and let her shoot past me.

A glance around me. The spectators had stopped being mere witnesses.

Blazing weapons arced through the chamber and speared advancing drakes through the chest and feet so they toppled before coming close. In the middle of the chaos, I managed to make out jets of superheated water punching through scales.

The drake elites were not to be outdone. They rammed through the myriad of arts flying through the air and broke the onslaught for their lesser clan members. Serpents similar to that of Erri gathered around their fists. Others took a whip in hand and lashed out against the frontline of Dawnflames, sending multiple of our army flying with a single hit.

I grimaced. ‘Frontal battles aren’t our style.’

Our firepower was good, but the drakes had scales to counteract that balance. Most fire cultivators also lacked great defensive arts at our level.

One of the elites veered away from the frontline and headed towards me. The red haze in his pupils was palpable and one I recognised. “This is for Renna!”

I huffed. ‘Must’ve been another brother or sister that they lost.’ Poor thing.

Erri turned around just as my boot smashed into her face, and the princess was sent flying back into the approaching elite.

‘I need to wreak as much havoc as I can.’

Which was why I redirected Saber into the fray instead of after Erri. Together, we rammed into a lesser drake who’d been sent reeling by a Dawnflame. The drake’s skull separated from its torso without much resistance.

[Drake Whelp - lvl . 17] killed. Experience gained accordingly…

Continuing with the same breath, Saber and I sliced through as many opponents as we could. Until a whip came flying towards me from the side.

A glance told me it wasn’t Erri’s weapon—the drake princess had only just gotten up from my kick—but just an elite roaring as it leapt through the chamber.

“No need to scream.” I whirled on the drake. “I hear you loud and clear.”

Their voice increased in volume in response.

A twirl of the wrist pushed the rope off-course. ‘Saber, they’re all yours.’

His legs tensed for a split second, then he launched. He was too quick for the elite to dodge. I turned back to Erri and the elite with her as Saber carried his target into one of the many entrances in the walls. It was a fight he would win, given the buffs he had active.

“You…!” the elite fighting for Renna (whoever that was) yelled. The haze clouding his sight had doubled, making the red a deeper colour than blood.

I clicked my tongue. “You shouldn’t lose your cool.”

My flametalon’s flame cutter smacked him dead centre and sent him crashing to the floor.

I prepared for another clash with Erri—

“Stand back, Lady Sunstrider!”

I kicked off and jumped back.

Erri had heard the call, too. She lashed out with her whip without looking. A molten fist the size of my body punched through both weapon and wielder.

Ren pulled to a stop beside me. He was hovering in the air on jets of fire shooting from his feet. Steam rose from his fist as he pulled his arm back.

‘Neat.’

Not one to waste an opportunity, I used the time his attack bought me to slay more lesser drakes. The drakes may be more powerful, but we outnumbered them (if only slightly). Each member they lost was a big hit to them.

Blood trailed behind me as I found my breathing rhythm, and another drake fell lifeless to the ground. A hole was slowly forming in my stomach. ‘I’m burning through my essence.’

It’d never been an issue before, but now that my summons were reaching peak and unlocking bigger skills, their abilities, combined with those I was using myself, were taking their toll.

My attention turned to the smouldering orb hanging in the sky. It was going to run out within a few minutes. When it did, I wouldn’t be able to create a second one. The Flame Horizon was also keeping the flametalon alive for longer. That effect would disappear, too.

“You’re as good at running as you were last time.”

I spun in place (in the corner of my sight, Ren was fending off one of Erri’s serpents). My blade’s edge smashed into the four fangs trying to jam their length through my skull. The serpent’s momentum carried me backwards, so I leaned against the force—

Another snake head soared over the first, this one attached to an elite’s arm.

Muscles on my forehead contracted. Where was Saber? Half of my sight switched, showing me that he’d just finished the elite. He wouldn’t make it back.

‘There’s no other option.’ I dismantled Saber’s form and painted the beginning of a gate…

The snake head set on devouring me sword and all snapped upwards. Korin’s satff slammed into the base of its neck.

Two quick steps recovered my balance. A third got me face-to-face with an elite descending on me. My blade arced to catch the strike, but a razor thin blast of water made the beast abandon its attack and raise its arms to defend.

I lowered my sword. Cool energy passed through me as the flametalon channelled its second calm mind.

Rin landed beside me. Her hair was no longer black due to the amount of blood splattered onto it. She sighed. “This is what I’m talking about. We should’ve done this sooner.”

Korin leapt away after ripping off the serpent’s head to join me and Rin. “Please tell me that sun is staying forever.”

“Unfortunately not,” I said.

In front of us, near the far wall, two of Erri’s serpents hounded Saber. He jumped off the wall, avoided one of the beasts, and clashed with the second. The issue was that a third and fourth snake were on their way. He wasn’t making it back to me unless we bailed him out.

I counted the number of bodies. ‘Ten or so drakes…and Dawnflames.’ So we’d reduced the Dragonflight’s numbers by around a third, while ours had decreased by a sixth.

A good exchange. As good as it was going to get.

Too bad that it was going to get more difficult.

I dematerialised Saber before he sustained any heavy injuries. The instant the last puff of his essence entered the garden again, the flaming star crumbled.

Around us, Dawnflames pulled back. They heaved. Their shoulders lowered underneath the weight of the sudden, vanishing buffs. My own breathing, too, was harder and louder than before.

“Phew. I thought that might do the trick.” The ground burst as Erri landed. Four massive serpents, one whose head had just finished reforming, slithered around her in a dance.

Her elites strolled between the gaps, whips and serpentine constructs burning in their hands. One of the elites was dead. Another badly injured. That put the remainder fit for battle at four.

Flames gushing from Ren’s feet died and he touched down next to Korin. “This could get bad, Lady Sunstrider. Should we run? Part of our army can keep them at bay.”

What part, he didn’t say. Neither could I tell from his tone if he volunteered.

“I did say it was your only good point,” Erri chuckled.

“Don’t worry,” I said. “I’m not going anywhere. I haven’t even served you the main course yet.”

“Ah, finally time, is it? I thought he didn’t enjoy ‘weaklings.’”

My lips curled. Warm breath joined the heated atmosphere, whose touch had tainted the eternal frost of the shrine and formed puddles of water all over. More heat entered the air as fires connected behind me.

“For the record,” I said. “I don’t think Skul is a dragon.”

Erri snorted. “Who would’ve thought—”

“That would be doing him a disservice,” I added.

With a swipe, I cleaned my blade of blood, and put it back in its sheathe.

Erri, as well as those around me, frowned at the action.

Behind me, the heat exiting together with the summon was so fierce I felt it through the strands of my hair that had come undone.

“He feeds on your kind,” I said. “This is true. But, you’re not dragons. And what Skul feeds on is not the physical.”

The drakes looked up at the shadow of the beast overhead, their gazes locking on what must be Skul’s jaw. Their faces grew hard.

I smiled. “You should know better than to leave injured untended near me.”

The corpses in Skul’s jaw, the previously heavily injured elite among them, dropped to the floor. Through Skul’s eyes, I saw how the blue haze of energy drained from the body and joined the towering beast.

I held out my arm for him to rest his snout in. Though Skul gained more body parts during battle, he didn’t turn into a physical being. His scales may look and feel real, but he was a spirit through and through. Underneath it all was nothing but a mass of raging flames.

Fires hungry for souls.

Air depressed underneath a great weight and Erri and her four elites stilled. Skul faced the sky and opened his mouth. The wisps pulling out of the drakes twisted until they became as thick as rope, the ends of which flowed into his jaw. Skul pulled.

My gaze narrowed. ‘I was right.’ It wasn’t just that he grew more efficient as he consumed more of a creature.

What bubbled out of the trembling bodies was nothing so shapeless as some essence. The shapes resembled the corpses one-to-one, though they were miniature versions of themselves.

The souls bundled and Skul gobbled them up.

Bronze Drake soul acquisition level: 100/100

Souleater I Trait activated.

All Balekin stats increase by 10% when fighting Bronze Drakes.

Balekin gains increased Soul Attack against Bronze Drakes.

Balekin gains increased general durability against Bronze Drakes.

Balekin gains temporary skill [Terror] against Bronze Drakes.

New Bronze Drake soul acquisition level: 0/200.