NOVEL NEXT 337. Blinding Light
White light flashed. Ike saw nothing. Felt nothing but electricity, coursing through his entire body. When the light faded, he stood alone in the darkness, blinking away the black to call his vision back. Did it work?
Once more, he could see. Dust still swirled all around him, but a good chunk of it had vanished, going up in black smoke. The Rank of the dust no longer spiked, but instead flatlined—at high Rank 3, but not Rank 4. He'd stopped it from breaking through to the next Rank.
"Hell yeah!" Wisp cheered.
Ike backed away, panting. His whole body was blackened, and strange scars crawled over his whole body. Every piece of him ached, and a portion of his nerves screamed in rabid pain. He needed a moment to recover, just like the puppet and his beast needed a moment to recover. He sank to his knee, too exhausted and damaged to stand.
"Ike, you alright?" Wisp shouted.
Ike waved. His body was already recovering, the burns fading and the strange scars melted away. He'd be fine. That was just a fierce strike, and right after recovering his arm, it was taking him a little time to recover. He caught his breath and stood, forcing himself back to his feet. "I'm hanging in there."
"This guy's a toughie, isn't he," Wisp commented.
"He sure is."
"Hey, do you know why he looks like you?"
"No idea."
"Huh." She considered, then shrugged. "Let's kill the fucker, then we can figure it out."
"Sounds good to me."
Mag fluttered down to hover near them. "Why are you guys all worried about him looking like Ike? Lots of people look like each other."
Ike opened his mouth, then shut it. Mag was a bird. He saw all kinds of 'people' who were exactly identical to one another, thanks to their feather patterns. Of course he wouldn't find it strange to see two identical, or at least very similar, 'people.'
"It's a human thing," Wisp explained, before Ike could step in.
"Ohhh. Why are humans so weird?"
"Dunno. I think it's because even the non-magical stupid ones have some smarts. It causes everyone trouble, but mostly the humans."
Mag nodded.
"Don't nod at that. It's not true," Ike grumbled.
"Is it not?"
"It's… not…" Ike gritted out, but it was hard. It wasn't completely wrong. People did cause themselves a lot of problems by all having some level of intelligence. Problems that beasts simply didn't share, so it wasn't like he could completely rule out them being caused by people smarts.
People smarts, what am I doing? Human intelligence! These damn beasts have infected me.
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The dust started to settle. One figure emerged. First the feet, then the calves, then the thighs. The legs were abnormally long and muscular, completely out of proportions with the puppet who had vanished into it, but not out of proportion for the massive beast it had combined with.
"A little more and I'll kick," Wisp muttered.
"He's a puppet. I don't think he has anything to kick," Ike replied.
"There's only one way to find out."
"It's your foot on the line."
"Eh, I can heal it."
The dust continued to settle. The hips emerged, and as promised, Wisp rushed in. She unleashed a furious kick, one that lifted the legs up into the air a bit. Ike winced in sympathy, even though it was a puppet and an enemy; it was just too hard to watch. For all that, the puppet didn't react in the least. It landed back down, completely unharmed.
"Dammit. Oh well, at least I tried," Wisp said, limping back to Ike's side.
"At least you tried," Ike replied, patting her shoulder.
A powerful, muscular, barrel-chested torso formed from the dust, then broad shoulders and meaty arms. The original puppet hadn't been stick-skinny, but they had been a relatively normal-sized human being, muscular, but not insanely beefed up. The new form before them was different. This was a hulk of a man, roiling with muscle on every limb, his thigh as wide around as Ike, his biceps as big around as Wisp's head. The muscles bulged, too, all but trembling with power. The beast and the man had become one, and the man had consequently become a beast.
At last, the head took shape. That eerily-familiar face contorted, no longer quite as familiar. It had merged with the beast's face, leaving a hideous amalgam somewhere between beast and human, with a muzzle and fangs, but oddly human eyes. The beast's heavy horns crowned its head, though now the horns twisted a bit at the end, thrusting upward and forward.
The beast-puppet amalgam growled. It lifted its clawed hand and waved Ike forward, as its tortured lips twisted into a smile.
"Don't need to tell me twice." Ike glanced at Wisp, who nodded. Her foot had healed enough that she was ready to go.
Ike charged, and the beast charged in answer. Wisp shot spider thread upward and shot away, landing on one of the nearby petals. Mag circled nearby to watch the clash from above, waiting for an opening.
The two of them slammed together. Ike instantly went flying back, but rolled and regained his feet. He'd mitigated enough of the beast's charge that it was digging in its feet, about to start again—but he wouldn't let it. He rushed in and hammered it with a flurry of heavy blows. The beast swung at him, but in this format, where they both stood still and traded blows, Ike's speed was a massive advantage. He could neutralize the beast's strength advantage by dodging or darting away. When it did land a hit—and it did, and they hurt—he jumped back instantly, giving himself enough distance to recover. The beast tried to charge every time he backed away, but before it could, Ike dashed in again and resumed the beating.
The beast roared. Shockwaves flew from its mouth and forced Ike back. His feet slid over the rocky earth, unable to hold against the beast's roar. Wisp shot thread in, trying to sabotage the beast's footing, but its roar disintegrated that, too. The beast's body swelled up, growing more muscular. It charged Ike again, able to use the roar to make enough distance.
"Ike, get back! Run away from it!" Mag shouted from overhead. With both hands, he compressed a small ball of black aether. The ball pulsed, and his hands gapped. Only with effort did he manage to close them again. The ball of aether exuded power, so strong that Ike instinctively knew it would seriously damage him if it hit.
Ike obeyed, fleeing the beast rather than meeting it. Enraged, the beast gave chase—but that was exactly what Mag wanted.
"Eat birds, loser!" Mag hefted his arm and tossed the ball directly at the beast. At the last second, the beast sensed it coming and whirled. It tore the ball apart with its claw, and the ball exploded into thousands and thousands of magpies, all of them with murder in their eyes. Swooping and darting, they swarmed the beast, cutting at it with claws and beaks alike. The beast raised its arms to block its face while the magpies angled in, searching for its eyes and ears to rend them asunder.
"Maybe don't tell him to eat birds. You're a bird," Wisp pointed out dryly.
"Shut up!" Mag snapped.
"It was very cool, Mag. Good job." Giving the bird boy a thumbs up, Ike nodded at Wisp. She nodded back and leaped off the petal, flying toward the beast's rear. Ike charged it from the front. While it was distracted by the birds, now was the time!