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338. Beast Battle
🕑 Added 2025-03-20 14:00:08 +0000 UTCIke struck the beast hard in the midsection with his Hungry Sword just as Wisp’s foot found its spine. The beast screamed. It reached out to fight them off, only to give the birds access to its eyes. It immediately snapped its hands back up to defend its eyes, but that meant that Ike and Wisp were able to smash into it, and it was defenseless to stop them. It kicked at Ike, and Wisp tried to hook its other heel and send it to the ground. Slamming its first foot down, it barely caught itself, only for Ike to capitalize on its lost balance and strike it hard, pushing it further toward the direction it had almost fallen down. The beast stumbled.
“We’ve got him pinned down. Whatever your biggest hit is, do it!” Ike shouted at everyone.
“I’m working on it!” Mag shouted.
“I’m already hammering him. This guy is insanely sturdy,” Wisp replied.
Ike nodded. He, too, was already using all his strength, but the beast barely budged. It was as though it didn’t even feel his attacks. He could see its skin abrade, but that was all; the porcelain couldn’t bleed.
If I could use the King—he immediately banished the thought. Would the King deign to help him? Not only that, but this was the journey to find the skill that would allow him to best the King, once and for all. It would be suicidal for the King to help him. In fact, he wouldn’t understand at all if the King did acquiesce. More likely that the King would take the enemy’s side.
Of course, if he could best the King, none of that would matter, but that was putting the cart before the horse. He couldn’t best the King. That was why he was here in the first place. No, no matter how he thought about it, this wasn’t the time to use the King, and even if he tried, it wouldn’t work.
But it wasn’t hopeless. The birds’ claws and beaks scraped its hard outer shell deeper than Ike or Wisp could. Ike charged his sword with Storm Clad until lightning shot from its thousands of tiny blades and struck the beast hard, only to confirm what he already knew. The blade came away after inflicting nothing more than a superficial scrape. Pure magic attacks seemed to do more than physical attacks, even physical attacks enhanced with magic. He had a few of them—Lightning Caller chief amongst them—but he wasn’t a magic-attack specialist. His arsenal of pure magic spells was short. He’d focused on physical attacks and physical enhancements. Until now, it hadn’t failed him; in fact, it had served him well back in the King’s trial. This was simply the other shoe dropping. If an enemy could be immune to magic, then it tracked that an enemy could also be basically immune to physical attacks.
He glanced up. It looks like Mag might be our only hope.
Mag was in a rare form, with both wings and arms. He almost looked like the mythical creature known as an angel, except they were supposed to be elegant, drop-dead gorgeous, and bear white wings, while his were black, streaked with white scales. His wings beat steadily behind him as he focused on the magic in his hands, brows knitting in concentration. Aether whirled around him, so thick it physically manifested in loops and swirls of blue energy. This truly was his most powerful attack. If this couldn’t do it—
I’ll figure something out, Ike thought, forcibly cutting off the train of his original thought. He wouldn’t give up. They’d just have to pivot, and he’d have to come up with a new plan.
The beast grumbled under its breath. Its mana spiked oddly, and Ike tensed. “Watch out! He’s doing something!”
“I noticed,” Wisp replied, eyeing the beast’s rear end.
“Huh?” Ike asked, and then it burst free. A thick, meaty tail grew from the beast’s back, and immediately struck at Wisp.
He shook his head. Thank goodness it wasn’t what I thought it was.
Wisp dodged the tail and spat a glob of poison at it. The poison sizzled and hissed as it met the beast’s body, but did little to seriously damage it. She wrinkled her nose. “Why is this guy so unnecessarily tough?”
“Wish I knew,” Ike muttered. It’d be way less trouble for him if it wasn’t so tough. This thing was way more powerful, compared to how weak the puppet had been before it had found its mount. It was night and day. It almost felt as if it had become exactly as strong now as it had been weak before. So easily shattered before, and now, unbreakable as diamond.
Unbreakable. There was something to that. Something that caught his attention, but that he couldn’t quite put to words. Ike frowned, wanting to think on it more, but before he could, the beast whipped around, spinning in a circle so that sturdy tail of its smashed at his calves. He leaped into the air, yanking his legs out of its reach, and the thought was gone.
Given a little space thanks to its new appendage, the beast dug its paws in. Ike smashed its right paw with the Hungry Sword, and Wisp caught the left paw with her spider thread, and with the two of them working together, they stopped its charge before it happened.
Ike glanced up. It still fended off the birds, but for the most part, it held its arms over its face so they couldn’t reach its eyes, and watched them through the narrow gap between its arms. The beast was starting to adapt to getting swarmed by the birds. Its arms were still locked into battling the birds for now, but it could grow new appendages. How long until it grew another pair of arms?
It's only a matter of time. If we don’t end this soon, it’s going to end it for us, Ike realized.
“How much longer?” Ike shouted, glancing up at Mag.
“Just a little bit…!” Mag replied, deeply focused on the spell in his hands.
The beast swept its arms out. The birds scattered. In its rare moment of freedom, it slashed at Ike with both hands. Ike caught its blow and held it, refusing to parry, just trying to stall for time. “Come on!”
“Okay… get back!” Mag shouted, for the second time.
Ike jumped away. Wisp shot out a silken thread and darted to the nearest petal. The beast stood alone.
“Take this!” Mag shouted, and unleashed his spell at the beast.
