Chapter 103: Parasite vs Reaper Round 1
The head was the most disturbing part.
Vaguely human. With the bone structure of an exaggerated human face. With two large eyes of a solid black with no visible white. With a mouth that stretched from ear to ear, divided into sections Nathan recognized after looking for a second as five concentric jaws. Each jaw with its own teeth. All visible when the creature smiled upon entering the clearing.
And the smile.
Wide.
With satisfaction.
As if it had been waiting for exactly this invitation since the previous night.
Nathan maintained his calm posture.
Liaraen ten meters away. With regulated breathing. With her eyes fixed on the creature.
The creature stopped approximately fifteen meters from Nathan.
And spoke.
With a voice that wasn’t a voice but twenty distinct voices superimposed at the same time. The distributed consciousness of all the settlement residents speaking through the alpha creature from a distance. With the effect of a discordant choir that Nathan felt less with his ears and more directly with Soul Sense.
"Hunter Voss."
Nathan looked at it.
"Yes."
"You came back."
"I came back."
"I didn’t expect you to return so soon. I thought you’d take more time. Carry the weight for days before deciding."
Nathan smiled with his calibrated cynical smile.
"I don’t like carrying weight."
"I see."
The creature moved a step forward.
Nathan didn’t step back.
"Hunter Voss. Let’s talk before the fight. It’s appropriate. The bodies I use to speak have that convention. I maintain it."
"Alright. Talk."
"You have a companion."
"Yes."
"And a man from the settlement with you."
"Yes."
"One of those who didn’t consume my flesh. The only one."
"The only one."
"You knew that before coming here."
"I knew it."
"Interesting. You had time to plan."
Nathan nodded.
The creature moved all five jaws simultaneously in a gesture Nathan recognized as the species’ equivalent of a nod.
"Hunter Voss. I’m going to make an offer."
"Go ahead."
"The settlement bodies are mine. I use them. I feed them with meat. They mutually benefit from the relationship. The children have an anchor in the community. The adults have collective purpose. The structure works."
"You’re using them as an energy source."
"I’m using them. Yes. As any organism uses its resources. But I’m also protecting them. Without me, this settlement would have disappeared twenty years ago. The surrounding forests have fauna that would have eliminated the residents without my presence. I maintain the balance."
Nathan thought about it.
"You’re asking me to let you continue."
"Yes."
"In exchange for what."
"In exchange for you leaving this forest without returning. In exchange for your companion not reporting what she saw to anyone. In exchange for the settlement’s distributed consciousness not receiving interference from your Class. I, for my part, allow you to leave. Without pursuit. Without attacks on Greywall. Without reprisals. You can continue your career as a Hunter in other areas."
Nathan looked at it.
"And if I refuse?"
"Combat. Here. Now. In which probably one of us dies. And in which most of the settlement’s residents die as well when the colony collapses."
Nathan thought for a moment.
He looked at Liaraen ten meters away.
Liaraen returned his gaze. Without saying anything. Without moving her sword. Just waiting for him to make the decision.
Nathan turned back to the creature.
"No."
"No?"
"I don’t accept the offer."
"Hunter Voss."
"It’s no."
The creature moved all five jaws again. This time with a gesture Nathan interpreted as contained surprise.
"Why?"
"Because the residents didn’t choose to be your energy source. The children didn’t choose to be hosts. And the adults who did choose probably did so without knowing what they were accepting. The relationship isn’t mutual. It’s predation in disguise."
"Hunter Voss. That’s a human interpretation. I’m not human. My value system doesn’t match yours."
"Understood. And I’m not you. My value system says that disguised predation isn’t acceptable regardless of your opinion on the matter."
The creature stood still for a moment.
With all five jaws now closed.
With its black eyes fixed on Nathan.
And then, with the voice of twenty superimposed residents slightly louder:
"Very well, Hunter Voss."
"Very well."
"Let’s prepare, then."
And the creature moved its arms forward. The claws extended. The pulsing red lines on its skin intensified. The full aura around the creature visually manifested as a dark mist of the same red color.
Nathan felt Soul Sense react with the signature of full killing intent.
Concentrated.
Directed at him.
And at that same moment, the Class responded.
*Lethal mode.*
*Activated.*
Nathan felt the internal change.
The same change he’d felt in the dungeon when he was about to die. The same change he’d felt during the fight with the Drakain the previous afternoon, though in lesser intensity. But now complete. Without filter. Without residual suppression.
All his techniques were going to be lethal for the next few minutes.
All of them.
Without conscious control.
*Good.*
*Let’s go.*
Nathan extended both arms.
And activated Death’s Domain at maximum intensity to open the fight.
The dark wave shot out.
It reached the creature.
The creature absorbed it without visually reacting. Its signature didn’t weaken. Its movements didn’t slow. The skill, in lethal mode, had been designed to end life, but the creature’s signature was so different that the skill couldn’t find the usual anchor point.
Nathan processed it in approximately half a second.
*Death’s Domain doesn’t work completely against it.*
*Good.*
*Change.*
He activated Death Pulse.
The circular detonation expanded.
The creature stopped for half a second. As if the pulse had produced a partial paralysis effect. But the effect dissipated almost immediately. The creature began moving again.
And lunged forward.
With speed Nathan hadn’t anticipated in a four-meter creature.
Nathan activated Pale Rider by reflex.
He moved laterally.
The creature’s claws passed where he’d been with less than thirty centimeters to spare.
The air struck by the claws produced a small displacement in the vegetation of the trees at the clearing’s edge.
*Brutal force.*
*If it hits me directly, I die.*
Nathan turned in midair as Pale Rider moved him. He positioned himself ten meters away. He checked Soul Sense. The creature was already turning toward him with the same speed.
*Good.*
*It’s going to be difficult.*
*But not impossible.*
Nathan extended his hand.
He activated Soul Reap directly on the creature.
The skill activated. It encountered resistance from the distributed parasite signature. It began eating parts of the signature. The creature reacted. It emitted a sound with all five jaws that Nathan recognized as equivalent to a scream. And it stopped for two full seconds while Soul Reap continued operating.
Nathan took advantage of the two seconds.
He ran at maximum speed.
He positioned himself on the creature’s left side.
He applied Tactile Entropy to its left arm.
The skill activated. The arm’s tissues began to age. The skin dried. The muscles contracted. And in approximately three seconds, the creature’s left arm broke under its own weight.
It fell to the ground.
It separated from the shoulder with a wet sound.
The creature screamed again.
And turned toward Nathan with speed amplified by fury.
Nathan retreated with Pale Rider.
He positioned himself twenty meters away.
He checked stats mentally.
```
Nathan Voss.
Level: 9.
HP: 2,400/2,400.
Mana: 3,500/3,500 (after leveling
yesterday).
Status: Lethal mode activated.
Combat consumption so far:
Death’s Domain: 800.
Death Pulse: 500.
Soul Reap: 300.
Tactile Entropy: 400.
Pale Rider (continuous active): 200.
Total consumed: 2,200.
Remaining mana: 1,300/3,500.
```
*Good.*
*I broke one arm and ate part of its signature. It’s still alive. There’s still fight left.*
Nathan looked at Liaraen in the distance.
Liaraen returned his gaze. With her sword still drawn. Still waiting for the moment where her participation would be useful.
Nathan nodded toward her.
Liaraen nodded back.
And for the first time in the fight, Liaraen moved.
She ran toward the lateral angle opposite the one Nathan was maintaining. So the creature, with only one functional arm, would have to divide its attention between both flanks.
The creature saw Liaraen move.
All five of its jaws opened at the same time.
And with the voice of twenty coordinated residents, it shouted a word Nathan hadn’t heard before in the fight.
A word that made the clearing’s air vibrate.
And that Nathan recognized, with the efficiency of someone who’d been paying attention to Liaraen’s elven treatises over the past few months, as an invocation.
From the forest, from the surroundings.
More presences began to arrive.
Nathan checked Soul Sense.
Twelve minor creatures. Approaching from all directions. All empowered. All with the red aura of the previous afternoon’s Drakain.
*Reinforcements.*
*The alpha creature called reinforcements.*
*Good.*
*This is going to be longer than I thought.*
Nathan shouted to Liaraen.
"Sprout! Reinforcements incoming! High B-Rank!"
Liaraen maintained her position.
With her sword steady.
With the calm voice he knew.
"We’ll take them! Keep going with the alpha!"
Nathan smiled slightly.
*Sprout.*
*Alright.*
*I’ll keep going with the alpha.*
He turned back to the creature.
Which was rising again with its right arm still functional and with killing intent now emanating from it so intensely Nathan could feel it with Soul Sense without even activating the skill.
*Here we go.*
*Round two.*
Nathan activated Pale Rider and lunged.