(Three Weeks Later)
I've now been here for over a month, the base has grown, and there were many more people here. The search for the mutated mana beast still continues, nothing different has been found, still only the weapon wielding Flukets.
Our tent is located next to the Twin Horns who have been nothing but kind to me, even in these rough times, I try not to joke around with them, or say anything out of line. I don't want anyone here to think of me as a brat who thinks he is all that.
When the Twin Horns did arrive, I had to tell them about my powers, they didn't know I was a Blood Deviant. That was a fun experience, each one of them was in shock, even Adam, he has been calling me a demon ever since. It kind of fits though, with my abilities to just rip out blood.
Today, seven teams are going to be pushing deeper into the cave, this included my team and the Twin Horns, there were about thirty of us going, this was about the usual size we travel in when we thought a large group of mana beast would appear.
"You ready?" Callias asked, as we stood and waited for the teams in front of us to enter the portal Commander Xander had placed on the ground.
"Yep." I answered, the Twin Horns were already through the portal, we were in the back, so when we stepped through everyone was already running through the tunnels, to the next cavern, I activated "Blood Oath" and sensed for the enemy ahead. "I say about three hundred Flukets, and there is about ten Earth Worms circling the cavern." I spoke out loud to anyone who could hear me.
"Work on killing the worms, Veer." Victoria told me. "We'll get your back."
I could see the light of the cavern ahead, and as we entered, we got into formation, I was currently behind Callias, and to my left was some adventurer I didn't know. I sought out the Earth Worms and killed them one by one as the Flukets came growling like animals towards us.
I looked up, after I killed the last Earth Worm in the ground, and Helen smiled at me from the other side of the battlefield. I pulled my sword out of my mana ring and coalesced it with blue fire.
"Done." I said, and Callias slid his sword into a Fluket's eye, then moved over so I could join the front line. I swung my left hand into the air, conjuring ice swords at the approaching beasts, killing a couple.
Having so many conjurers here made this feel easy, the augmenters protected them, but barely any Flukets were getting through. The ones that did, I simply ripped their blood out of them. There were a lot left, so I didn't know how long the conjurers could keep this up, but they are doing a good job at the moment.
A Fluket came running at me, swinging a sword, and I waved my hand backwards pulling the blood to me. It killed the beast with ease but drenched me in yellow blood. I was getting used to it, and actually quite enjoyed it.
"Haha." Callias laughed at me, and as he killed the Fluket in front of him, I ripped the blood out of its body causing it to explode on him. "Really?" He said wiping blood out of his eyes.
"Augmenters prepare, the conjurers are about to slow down." That meant it was time to get serious. "Stay in position and protect your assigned conjurer." I stepped into the ground and caused ice to grow killing four of the approaching Flukets, and turned back to my assigned conjurer, it was Samantha.
As I turned around, I swung my sword cutting the head off of a Fluket, conjured wind behind me, and brought my sword up into another at a tremendous speed, cutting it in half. The thrill of killing coursed through my body, something that grew over the last month because of the Serpent.
I stepped out a little further from the group, no one said anything, so I continued to do my thing. I conjured water scythes and shot them right through the Flukets coming at me, then ripped the blood out of another.
The one hundred Flukets that were left came at us still, even after their forces suffered a terrible loss, they were just beasts though. A Fluket appeared in front of me, and I cut it down within a second.
I sensed for the blood in all the Flukets around me, and had them explode, killing them instantly. That's when I felt the presence of more Flukets approaching in the distance, coming out of the tunnel we didn't come from.
"What the hell?" I said out loud, turning to Callias. "There's more coming, maybe two hundred." That's not what worried me, I wouldn't get worried by more Flukets, what worried me was the larger beast in the horde traveling with them. I could feel that it had way more blood in its body than the Flukets, and it was harder to control, but I could. "Is it a new beast?" I said confused, as I turned back and brought an ice sword into a Fluket's throat.
"What is it?" Victoria asked me, then the mana beast came rushing out of the other tunnel towards us. "Ohh."
"That's not it." I turned to her, and at the same time I killed another beast by causing it to explode. "There's a new beast within the horde I haven't sensed before."
"It can't be a mutant." Victoria said, as something came running out of the tunnel, killing anything in its way with two black horns on its forhead. It was like a rhino, but this this thing stood up as it got into the cave. "Is that a Taragree?" I never heard of whatever she called it, the thing stood like a human, I would say it was around thirty feet in height, its head was close to the ceiling of the cavern. Its body was brown, but the armor around it was silver, and it was completely around it, like there were zero weak points.
"Holy shit!" Callias said, as he stared up at it, and the Taragree just stood there and stared back at us. "We need to go; they are not supposed to have black horns." He cut the head off of a Fluket and turned to me. "Veer, what are you thinking."
But before I could respond, Commander Xander shouted. "Retreat! Retreat! It's a mutated AA Rank Taragree." No, no, no, we are not retreating, the fun was just starting. "Let's go everyone move out, conjurers lay down some cover as we back away." Why aren't we fighting this thing? "We'll come back to fight it later, everyone is running low on mana, we did our job, we found a mutated beast!" He shouted, trying to reassure everyone.
The Taragree came charging at us, and as people turned to make it back to the tunnel, not all of us were going to make it if no one did anything. I plunged my sword into the ground, and caused ice swords to grow all around us, killing any Fluket that was too close, and protecting us from them for a short amount of time. The Taragree continued to charge, as people rushed out of the caver, that was until I sensed more Flukets running towards the soldiers who entered the tunnel from inside the tunnel.
We were surrounded.
I heard fighting inside the tunnel, turned back to the Taragree charging at us maybe fifty yards away. "Screw it." I started to walk away from my team.
"Veer." Helen came running over from the other side of the battlefield, as the Flukets tried to get past my ice sword barrier, which limited the amount that got through. We were now fighting a two way battle, I could feel that we lost people already. "Veer, we need to go, I can't let you die here."
All the Twin Horns were now around me, plus Callias who killed a Fluket near us. "Everyone gather around the tunnel, it's the safest spot, we'll fight there." Commander Xander shouted, and people started to fall back and fight inside the tunnel.
I shook my head at Helen. "Go, I'll handle things in here, you focus on getting everyone out of here." I told her, as I walked up to a Fluket climbing over a sword and waved my hand at it, causing blood to explode out of it. "I'll take on the Taragree, Helen, trust in me."
"Veer, that's suicidal even for you." Callias called out, as he started to back away towards the tunnel. "It's mutated which means it's even stronger than usual, it would take a whole squad to take one down."
"He's right." Adam grabbed my shoulder. "This isn't some game, listen to us, and let's get the hell out of here." I brushed Adam's arm off of me. I still had a lot of mana in me, I could fight this thing at full strength.
"Veer, there's over a hundred Fluket's and that thing, you can't stay here alone." Jasmine told me. "Not even your brother could handle this."
"Haha." I laughed. "We both know that's false." I created an illusion of a human running in the middle of the cavern causing the Taragree to lose focus. "Do we want to kill this thing or not? I can do it right now and protect everyone else from getting hurt."
I started to conjure wind under my feet, and then activated my phase two "Blood Monarch."Â I felt my power increase severely and it made me smile under my mask, snake scales started to form all over me, and two blood runes formed underneath my eyes. I cracked my neck and turned to everyone.
"Listen, I'll be fine, I promise." I said as I shot myself into the air, and stared out over the field, where Flukets ran over their allies's dead bodies. I felt for the blood in each Fluket within a twenty yard radius of me, and as I formed a fist in my hand, they all exploded.
The Taragree turned to me as I landed on the ground in the cavern, and I released my aura and blood lust, that piled up in me because of the Serpent's will for blood. The mana beast around me backed away, except for the Taragree who was now just staring at me.
It got down on all fours and got ready to charge at me with its two black horns pointed at me, that was until I heard and felt something weird going on inside the tunnel as the people there were either looking into the tunnel or at me, as I stood in front of this thing.
It sounded like spells were going off in both directions, that's when I noticed Helen waving her hands at me. I couldn't tell if she wanted me to come back or not, but I was determined to fight this thing. We didn't have enough soldiers here to fight it as a group, but I had the power of a group by myself.
I blinked my eyes as a new presence appeared, and I mumbled. "Are there more humans?" How could I not sense them before. The Taragree came charging at me, and I raised my hand and pointed it at it, then held it still using blood magic. I could see it struggling to free itself from my spell, but I decided to make my way back over to Helen, by launching myself using wind magic, and as I did, I had the blood erupt out of any Fluket that was under me.
"Roaaarrrr!" The Taragree tried to escape but couldn't.
"Veer, you need to stay back now, go fight that thing, you were right, you are the only person who can take it down." I looked at Helen confused. "Alacryans are here, and they are controlling the mana beast inside of the tunnel, everything here was planned." I looked into the tunnel as different colored spells were going off.