Chapter 384: Chapter 384 – Taming the Fusion
«Ten seconds!»
The sensation was unlike anything Lin had ever experienced, suddenly, she could perceive mana flows, energy patterns, the very fabric of power that wove through the forest around them. The mushroom’s enhanced consciousness rged temporarily with hers, opening perceptions she never knew existed.
Lin casually dodged another wind gust from Kieran, who now seed more concerned with maintaining a defensive position than attacking aggressively. The approaching reinforcents gave him confidence, but also made him more cautious, survival until backup arrived had beco his primary objective.
While maneuvering between aerial attacks, Lin glanced toward where Ren continued his battle with the transford scorpion. She wasn’t particularly worried about him. She trained him almost daily and knew his capabilities perfectly.
Although Ren wasn’t yet a master of pure technique, his reflexes were extraordinary and his adaptability… Well, there were increasingly monts when he made her get completely serious, though she would never admit it aloud.
The scorpion guy was powerful, yes, but he had also lost all his human intelligence in the transformation. He was predictable, brutal, instinctive. Ren could withstand him, possibly even defeat him if he had enough ti and managed to use one of his more powerful light rays effectively.
Yet ti was exactly what they didn’t have.
The reinforcents would be here soon. Lin calculated quickly: she needed to take down both Kieran and the scorpion fast enough that they could escape before being nurically overwheld.
But the mathematics were simple and discouraging. She didn’t have sufficient power to win so quickly. Unless she fought against everyone for a while and Ren…
«Forget about that,» the mushroom’s small voice interrupted her grim thoughts. «It won’t be necessary for you to stay behind.»
«You an there’s another option?» Lin asked ntally, still dodging Kieran’s aerial attacks.
«I’m going to give your beasts the possibility of combining,» the mushroom responded with sothing that sounded suspiciously like pride. «A true fusion.»
Lin frowned, confused. The concept seed impossible, beasts simply didn’t work that way. «I don’t understand.»
«This isn’t a new ability,» the mushroom explained patiently as the ten seconds finished. «With the second ring, which unfortunately they didn’t let obtain, it can be done naturally to a single person. But now I believe I’ve learned to do it by myself, with my own magical cells… to as many as I want!»
The explanation didn’t clarify much for Lin, who continued without fully understanding while looking at the small mushroom who had an expression that suggested it wanted praise.
«The beasts must be of similar level,» the mushroom continued, its ntal voice carrying the tone of a lecturer warming to a favorite subject, «and both receive a temporary semi-evolution. Your power should increase by around 50% in total thanks to that. And the best part is that two copies of the fusion are generated, since both beasts end up combined in the sa new species.»
«Two copies?»
«One manifests in your body… convenient for you to resist the overdrive load. The other is the fusion summoned outside of you. But,» the mushroom made a significant pause, its ntal voice becoming more serious, «you must keep in mind that it’s sothing that will leave you exhausted soon. Maybe you have about five minutes before collapsing…»
Lin still didn’t completely understand the chanics of what the mushroom described. The theory sounded impressive, but practically… Was it talking about sothing like Selphira’s supposed trump card?
That weird story she had heard Liora murmur about in her conversations with Luna and Larissa? That improbable narrative that seed more like a myth Selphira made up just to ss with them?
«Why aren’t you using it already? Look,» the mushroom sighed with the patience of soone explaining sothing obvious to a child. «For this once, I’ll do it for you. Get ready.»
Before Lin could ask what she was supposed to prepare for, she felt as if liquid fire ran through her veins. It wasn’t exactly pain, but rather a deeper transformation than anything she had experienced before.
Her body began to glow with a light that was neither the red power of her panther lizard nor the pure white of her crane. It was sothing completely new, a denser radiance that seed to absorb both powers and forge them into sothing greater.
The feathers that sprouted from her arms weren’t the familiar white plus of her crane. They were black as midnight, but with a tallic sheen that made them appear forged from liquid obsidian.
The bone structure of her legs lengthened slightly and strengthened simultaneously, increasing flight lightness while enhancing terrestrial combat power. Her legs developed the powerful musculature of the panther, but maintained the extended structure that allowed her crane to reach and maneuver.
Yet most impressive was what appeared beside her.
A second figure materialized nearby, a combination between bird and panter, a creature with long feathers, with only two legs but capable of moving and gliding so fast it seed able to fly. The copy stood beside her, moving with perfect synchronization but capable of acting autonomously.
It was like her shadow had gained independent life.
Kieran stopped completely, his eyes fixed on the transformation with sothing that looked like recognition and horror.
“Impossible,” he murmured, instinctively backing away. His voice carried the tremor of soone witnessing sothing that shouldn’t exist. “It’s what happened to the creature that ate the mantis.”
His mind returned involuntarily to his reconnaissance flight, to the aberration he had seen devouring the infected Mirror Mantis. The sa fusion of species that shouldn’t be able to combine without the dium of a body adapted to corruption.
“How…?” he began to ask, but Lin was no longer interested in explanations. She had only five minutes.
The new form gave her sensations she had never experienced. She could feel the air not just around her, but as part of her. Every current, every breeze, every atmospheric disturbance was as clear as if she could see it with her eyes.
At the sa ti, the strength flowing through her transford muscles was intoxicating. It wasn’t just the sum of her two beasts; it was sothing multiplicative, synergistic.
“Reinforcents are coming,” she reminded herself, though part of her wondered if she could eliminate even them in this state.
Kieran launched a desperate wind gust, the type of attack he had been using to maintain distance effectively throughout the battle. It was his strongest technique, compressed air that had proven capable of stopping her previous approaches.
Lin and her ‘copy’ moved. They didn’t dodge the attack; they cut it. Their black feathers sliced through the compressed air like blades, dividing the gust into harmless currents that dispersed ineffectively at their sides.
The display of casual power was as beautiful as it was terrifying.
“My turn,” Lin said, her voice now carrying a dual resonance that seed to co from both her throat and the air itself.
Once again I lost so ti editing a visual scene… Did you see it?
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