Chapter 116: Bora Devil (2)
The transformation finished with a final wet crack, joints locking into place along limbs too long to belong to anything human.
[Bora Devil: Kessareth]
The name alone felt wrong to read, and Mark squinted at the screen to make sure he wasn’t seeing things.
He wasn’t...
"Bora Devil?" He asked in an outrage. "Since when was that even a thing!"
[Objective: Slay The Beast.]
[Survival Probability: 24%]
"Mark." Sera called, her voice low and her blade already back in her grip. "Tell me you have a plan."
Mark blinked a few times... "...I don’t have a plan."
"You don’t—" She shot him an incredulous look. "You’re a faction leader!"
"Lucas is usually the one with plans! I’m the one who takes hits!" Mark’s gauntlets flared brighter. "That’s the arrangement! It’s worked so far!"
Kessareth slammed the ground, the force sending them back. They turned and started running, dodging other hits as Sera looked at Mark with a dull expression. "How are you even in charge of anything—"
Mark jumped over a sweeping strike, stumbled and caught himself. "I contain multitudes!"
Kessareth however, went at them. It moved faster than anything with that much mass had a right to, closing the distance in a few short strides, her jaws snapping where Mark’s head had been a second earlier.
He rolled clear, and came up already swinging a wild hook that connected with the side of its jaw and did absolutely nothing to slow it down.
"Okay," he grunted, dodging a retaliation strike. "new plan. Don’t die."
"Groundbreaking," Sera snapped, and threw herself into the fight.
[Ding!]
[Skill: Weapon’s Edge has been activated]
[Time Remaining: 15:59]
Her eyes widened, but in a pleasant way. This was the earliest that her skill had activated.
Power flowed into her blade, the weapon lengthening and humming as energy crackled along it’s blade. She darted in low, driving the enhanced sword into Kessareth’s side. The hit connected, biting deep into scaled hide, and drawing a shriek that made Mark cover his ears.
But the wound sealed almost as fast as it opened, the flesh knitting itself back together in the next instant.
Sera landed next to Mark and he shouted when he saw what happened. "Hey! That’s not fair!"
"When has anything about the Edge ever been fair?" Sera said, ducking under a swipe she would had taken her head.
They traded blows for what felt like an eternity, the two of them weaving in and out, striking and retreating, but Kessareth learned faster than either of them could adjust.
A tail that wasn’t there a second ago, hit Mark across his ribs and sent him skidding through the ground. Sera took a hit from a claw that opened a gash along her arm, blood welling against her sleeve.
"Mark!" She called, and in the next instant, she threw her blade at him.
Mark caught it out of instinct, and the moment his fingers closed around the hilt, energy crackled along the blade.
[Your weapon has been enhanced.]
The blade shimmered, mixing the powers from both Sera’s skill, and his evolved ability, and he looked up at the beast with a smile spreading across his face.
"Oh, that’s better..."
He met Kessareth’s next charge head-on, [Bastion’s Oath] protecting him against a swipe that would’ve taken his arm off.
He held his ground this time, and drove the enhanced blade into the creature’s shoulder, slashed it across its side, and forcing it back step by step.
"Now, Mark!" Sera shouted, staggering upright. "Finish it!"
He raised the blade for the final strike, gripping it so hard that his knuckles turned white... he had to end this before Kessareth adapted again...
He brought the blade down, aiming to cut off her head—
—And Kessareth’s face changed.
The scales along its skull split and receded in an instant, revealing Wisp’s face beneath, human and terrified, eyes wide and pleading up at him.
"Please," she whispered, voice cracking, "help me..."
Mark’s arm locked mid-swing....
The blade hung frozen inches from her throat, and for a moment, he wasn’t standing in the battlefield anymore.
He was somewhere else entirely—another face, another voice begging him for the same thing, a memory he’d buried so deep he had almost convinced himself it never happened.
"Mark!" Sera’s voice came from somewhere far away.
He didn’t move. He couldn’t.
Kessareth’s yellow eyes flashed again, and the moment of hesitation was all it needed. Its claws lashed out toward his exposed side.
"MARK!"
Sera slammed into him from the side, throwing them both clear as claws raked through the space he was occupying moments ago.
They hit the ground hard, rolling and she hauled him up by the collar and pushed him forward...
"Move! Now!"
They ran.
They ran all the out of the ravine and into the forest. Branches tore at their clothes, Kessareth’s furious roar chased them through the trees, but the terrain, for once, worked in their favor.
There were narrow gaps too tight for its bulk, roots it had to fight through, and leaves and branches blocking its view. Eventually the roars faded behind them, and soon it went quiet...
They stopped near a fallen tree, both of them gasping breathlessly, and Sera pressing a hand to the gash on her arm.
"What happened back there?" she asked once she’d caught her breath.
"Nothing." Mark said, stared at his own hands, still trembling faintly. "Just... lost focus."
"You froze completely, Mark. That’s not losing focus. We had her." She said this with frustration, studying his face as she did.
But when she did, every bit of frustration she felt instantly vanished...
His expression was hardened, nothing like the usual Mark she knew. And she began to feel worried...
"Mark?"
"Drop it, Sera."
"No." She sat down across from him, arms crossed but and staring at him intensely. "You don’t get to almost die and then tell me it’s nothing."
"It really—"
"Mark."
He looked up at her, listened to her steady voice, looking into her soft gaze. From what he saw, she was genuinely worried...
He looked away. "It’s... it’s kind of hard to explain...."
"I want to know though," she said, "this isn’t like you... What happened Mark."
Mark exhaled a long, shaking breath, and began to talk.