Beastforged Bond B3 Chapter 27

Don’t attack them.

I was convinced Volix wanted to see dead, but the Elental Phoenix was no longer in the Great Fire Spirit’s grasp. He chose to help , so I did the only thing I could think of: I decided to trust Volix, ignoring the doubts swirling through my mind.

The Chira didn’t strike when the opportunity arose. Its heads swiveled toward the retriever-sized bees. I released a burst of light, leaped into the air, and used Mirage to turn invisible. Doing so strained the bond, but I could maintain the racial ability for several seconds before the strain would tarnish the effort of the last few days.

As the dazzling light disappeared, the Chira was alone with the bees. Their predatory hum rang in my ears like distant thunder, which only improved my mood as the massive bees flew straight toward the Chira. The ether they emitted was a sight to behold. It almost manifested outside their bodies, cladding the dog-sized beasts in a poisonous green–reddish hue. Each of the predators was an Evolved beast, their bodies augnted.

But as fast and deadly as they appeared, the bees failed to reach the Chira. Several blobs of death and rot struck the fastest bees, their bodies withering within seconds. A beam of light tore through two bees simultaneously, and wind blades severed another pair’s wings. Regardless of the casualties, the bees’ strategy did not change. They flew relentlessly toward the Chira, until several lizard heads erged from its neck, spewing searing hot orange flas at the flying predators.

The flas seed to trigger sothing within the bees. More ether poured out of their bodies, and they began to writhe as their butts elongated and shifted. For a mont, they looked more like wasps, their stingers the size of my finger, protruding from their swollen butts.

Stingers cascaded toward the Chira in a heavy downpour, dozens hitting their mark. I had to leap aside, barely clinging onto a thick branch that stretched further away from the trunk and the epicenter of the battlefield. Pulling myself together, I turned to see the Chira looking like a ss. The parts struck by the stingers bulged and expanded, dark-green lines forming beneath the skin like a network of impending death and pain.

It was the bees’ poison, and it spread rapidly. The Chira ought to have a form with a healing trait–probably several–yet it panicked as more and more beasts closed in on it. The bees attacked frantically, shooting stingers at their target and ignoring the consequences to their own lives. Several bees fell half-dead to the ground as strength left their bodies, whereas others slowed down considerably, their energy drained.

No more ether poured out of the bees as soon as their stingers hurtled through the air, their threat decreasing drastically. As far as I was concerned, they were no longer Evolved beasts. If anything, the bees transford into Wild beasts as soon as their stingers were no more.

But as fun as it was to watch the Chira suffer, I couldn’t afford to stay here. Mirage fizzled out, and hundreds of bees turned to . Whether they sensed Volix’s ether on , my World…or were just angry at everything and everyone didn’t matter. They split up and attacked as well.

No thought perated my mind as I leaped from the towering tree. I smacked into the trunk and tried to hold onto it, but a branch beneath nearly poked my buttocks. One mont I was nearly violated, and in the next I was falling to the ground from a tree that towered more than a hundred ters into the air–upside down.

The Ferronox Mantis’ scythe arms shot toward the tree, carving into its tough trunk only thanks to Nullblade, and slowed my fall after a dozen branches, thick and thin, failed to. The fall ca to a sudden end a few ters above the ground, my heart palpitating like there was no tomorrow. And honestly, if I’d been a little bit unluckier, there would have been no tomorrow for .

My neck hurt, and so did my shoulders and head after sharing the brunt force of the fall. The branches had been a little too tough and way too durable for my liking, nearly winning against my neck in a bout of endurance.

But I was alive, and the last bits of Nox’s Soulfusion ended. The scythe arms dematerialized, and I fell the last few ters to the ground.

Groaning, I leaped to my feet, the cacophony of thunderous hums ringing in my ears.

The Chira was–

To be fair, I had no idea where the beast was. Hopefully dead. If not, it would die soon enough. For all that mattered, it had stopped pursuing , replaced by hundreds of very angry bees.

Stingers hurtled through the air, one lodging between my shoulder blades – too close to the spine for my liking. The poison spread instantly, the sensation in my lower body nearly fading from my grasp. Fire poured out of my back, the Major Fire Aspect as well as a trace of phoenix fire surging through and purging the poison quickly.

One stinger was simple to remove, but it grew increasingly difficult as a second, third, and fourth struck in the calf, lower back, and neck. The next was the most problematic and required imdiate attention. Ether rolled out of the core like waves, flooding the Blazing Gates as I replaced the fire-attuned ether within. Attuned ether poured through Volca’s mark before surging into the Fire Aspect. A mont later, I was wreathed in azure flas, skin lting.

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Even the soul-shared portion of fire resistance, topped with my body’s natural resistance, was not strong enough to endure the flas. I still embraced them, feet carrying further and further away from the beehive. Fireballs lobbed beautifully through the air, swallowing one bee after another, yet their number only seed to increase.

At last, the noises I was searching for rang in my ears.

As the trees whipped past , stingers zipping close enough that I knew the beasts were closing in on , the roar of a river grew closer.

No! You said you dislike water!

Volix voiced his displeasure, but it wasn’t like we had much of a choice. I didn’t like this either. The current was too strong and swift for to pass safely.

I had no choice. The spray that kicked off the rapids peeked through the bushes. To my left were the depths of the forest, so I twisted my body and shot right without a second thought. Planting my foot firmly on a tree root, I pushed off. The humming in my back grew louder; several stingers hit my back, but I burned them and the poison within before it was too late.

The river’s roaring grew louder, a cacophony that almost drowned out the thunderous hums from behind. Sunlight stread through the trees, revealing the edge of the forest Volix had ntioned before. Dipping and dodging, I evaded more stingers.

Bursting onto the riverbank, walls of mist and haze confronted , obscuring my vision. Only the violent rivers before hinted at my destination, yet what the Elental Phoenix hadn’t ntioned was the river’s shape. It howled as it shot straight over a cliff’s edge, swallowing my curses as the enormity of what was about to happen unfolded before .

This was not your average river. It was a steep drop.

Even if the bottom were free of rocks, the undertow created by a river of this size was certain to drown an experienced swimr, let alone a rookie. But I clenched my jaw, stared at the sky peeking out from beyond the canopy, and sprinted straight for the edge.

A series of poison-dripping stingers shot into my legs and lower abdon. Throwing myself forward, I leaped over the edge of the waterfall.

Before , a massive forest stretched out far and wide, a river coursing its way through wild terrain like a colossal flood dragon.

Gravity reasserted itself and I plunged into the ocean-blue depths below, catching glimpses of the space around distorting as a scream ripped through my throat.

The terrors behind disappeared, the thunderous hums growing distant. Even as the beasts’ desire to end prevailed, their pursuit stopped suddenly. The implication was terrifying, but I was fortunate to be distracted by the depths before .

Pain surged through my body as I crashed into the water below. My vision turned blank and I lost my sense of direction. Yet death was generous to stay away from . I didn’t splash into a bunch of stones and wasn’t impaled either. There was no pit filled with voracious beasts.

Alas, the situation was far from great.

Overwhelming forces pulled from every direction as water surrounded from all sides. The flas coating my body were swallowed, the searing heat replaced with icy chills that stabbed into like frozen daggers. The waterfall rained down from sowhere with terrifying force, weighing down on , soaking my clothes. I tried to kick my way upward, hoping I was moving in the right direction, but my lower body was numb.

Panic rose in my chest as I failed to move my legs. My arms flailed in the torrents around instead, but it was helpless.

I was going to drown. The realization echoed in my mind.

No! Fighting to move, I tried to discern which way was up even as I was thrown around by the forces surrounding . My vision narrowed, my throat tightened, and the frozen daggers carved deeper into my flesh.

I am going to drown.

Trying to adapt to the situation, I failed to restrain the panic within . Instead, I let it go, Ether pouring through the weave like a relentless beast. Ether surged out of the Gates in a desperate plea to do sothing, yet it was to no avail. My body sank to the ground, hazy eyes tunneling in on a speck of dust. A shimr of color. Gold, the size of a coin.

Burning ache settled in my lungs and darkness closed in on my mind and body, yet the golden speck of dust at the bottom of the waterfall shone brighter. It closed in on …or did I close in on it? I couldn’t tell, nor did it matter. It was all forgotten in the desperate desire for air.

Not even the warlike drum rumbling in my chest caught my attention as the World stirred.

Suddenly, a defiant roar tore through the World and my soul, shaking thoroughly.

A pair of golden eyes fluttered open within , vigorous and demanding.

Survive.

A familiar voice reverberated in my mind.

Aureus. I thought, my consciousness fading.

SURVIVE!

The Earthheart roared, anger surging through the bond, montarily ripping through the weakness of my body’s fleeting strength.

Before I knew it, I reached out to the Earth Aspect, power surging through my veins as the bottom of the waterfall shifted at my behest.

The golden speck moved closer, revealing its true nature; it was a maelstrom. A golden swirl of energy. Ether, attuned to an elent I should be able to recall but couldn’t. It resembled sothing I’d seen a Ruler do, yet I failed to recognize it.

That didn’t stop from touching it. The maelstrom was an epito of power. It was the only thing that could help survive.

Yet, as the tips of my fingers touched upon the maelstrom, darkness closed in on . The last thing I noticed was a shift in the world around . Then…nothing.