Chapter 81: Eye of the Storm [pt 1]

Brandy moved.

He had been standing all the while, in that one position where he watched everything unfold with an unsettling ease. But all of a sudden, he moved. Theo did not catch him move, because as soon as he did, the whole street changed shape.

The Inheritors turned against each other and began to tear at themselves.

Theo was about to slash down on one when he watched it ignore him and claw at the face of another. Something strange happened in the middle of that process though.

The creatures did not fall apart or anything like that, they clawed and slashed at each other until they were fully merged.

Being fully merged made them look less human but at the same time, larger, stronger. They turned to another, easily swiping it off the ground and burying it into their body. The arm went in first and the shoulder followed, folding into the mass without leaving a seam.

It was revolting to watch.

’What a disturbing ability. Are these how all monsters in the Tower are?’

If this was merely entry level into floor one and he had to be experiencing grotesque, inhumane things like that, how was floor ten going to be? Suddenly, he was understanding why many refused to climb the Tower.

Theo watched the creature tumble and stagger away as it buried more corpses into its body, definitely becoming larger, but less humanoid. At some point, it lost its legs and crawled on the ground, dragging the weight of itself over the cobbles, merging with a swathe of Inheritors as it did.

This went on in several checkpoints of the flood of Inheritors, and in the frontline, many humans were being forcibly grabbed by larger Inheritors and forced into the merging, their voices getting lost as they were consumed by revolting flesh. One man went in still holding his shield. Then the shield went in too.

Theo frowned in displeasure. The space around him was clearing up, there were no Inheritors here in fact. And that was going the same for all other areas. Instead, massive fleshy amalgamations were dragging themselves across the street, leaving the stone wet behind them.

The first thing he thought to do was search for Brandy. And as he did, he noticed he could not find that particular Legatee where it had been.

At first, Theo thought it was coming for him, and he hardened his grip on his sword even though he felt a bit of tension, fear and fatigue creep into his bones.

But seconds flew by and there was no one attacking him. It was then that Theo had a vague suspicion. He turned towards the Sixth Wall.

There were still a couple of people far behind. And Captain Dunn was supporting from somewhere around that area. She had clashed with another Legatee, locked in a difficult battle with it.

But that was not what Theo was looking for. A few meters away from Captain Dunn, Theo saw someone appear out of thin air and disappear again.

It was Brandy. Or the Inheritance in particular, using Brandy’s ability which must be very tied to Teleportation.

He was about to use Genesis Eyes when the creature vanished from his line of sight again.

’It’s heading towards something...’

His vision traced towards Captain Dunn.

’Why her? Is the monster dumber than I—’

While still in the thought, Theo’s gaze trailed all the way to the far back, where a formation of soldiers appeared and there was a man with a portable forge, making a rhythmic distant noise. Two strikes, a pause, then two more.

’Oh-Oh... of course!’

He had been observing them since they came. It ought to have been Marrick.

Theo noticed how the man’s enhancement had changed the trajectory of his battles. He didn’t need to worry about finding weak points. His sword simply cut through anything due to its lethal sharpness. Bone parted the way old wood parted.

And when he used the shadows to reinforce the weapon, that was even doubled.

The same must have happened to the rest of the soldiers. Marrick must have decided to enhance their weapons, causing a great change to the battlefield.

Belatedly, realizing this, Theo was amused. He moved, diving into the shadows and hurrying over. The distance was not something he could cover in one movement as he was quite far.

So he had to commit to using Shadow Movement twice. In those two times though, was plenty enough time for the Inheritance to do its bidding.

Marrick was busy slamming the swords with razor focus, when he suddenly halted his hand mid-strike, the hammer stopped at the top of its arc. Then he glanced around.

The soldiers that formed a formation around him, glanced at him in confusion.

"Lord Marrick, does something bother you?"

He did not respond, instead observing his surroundings. When he did not see anything, he finally lowered the hammer and enhanced another weapon.

The thing was...

As the sound of the hammer striking the dagger on his anvil rang out, so did the cry of agony of two soldiers beside each other, right in front of him. In fact, the sound overlapped each other in a disturbing melody.

Brandy appeared, plunging its hand into their stomachs, literally twisting their flesh. They let out groaned cries and their mouths stayed open long after the sound had run out of them. The creature plunged out both hands, letting the two fall to their knees. Immediately it vanished as quickly as it had appeared and took the next one from behind, breaking his spinal cord with bloody hands.

The initial two that were slaughtered were already standing. And as they rose, Marrick glared, dazed. The rest attacked them immediately and the formation became a ruin. With a very atrocious monster tearing it apart.

In mere seconds, the place had come undone and the Inheritance slammed a kick on the cart, crushing the wheel and causing it to tilt downward, letting Marrick roll to the ground, right to its feet. The anvil came off after him and buried itself in the dirt a hand’s width from his head.

Then the Inheritance, Brandy raised its head, eyes gleaming viciously at Marrick.

Then a wide wicked grin spread on its face, as it raised its hand. That was when something pulled it back from behind and threw it away. The Inheritance went tumbling away and Theo spun, slicing off the head of two Inheritors with his shield and sword simultaneously.

He took a step forward and slammed the shield onto the face of the third, causing it to stagger back, as it did, he easily buried his sword into its abdomen, plunged it out, flew in the air, doing a little twirl to his back and slashing down on another through the shoulders.

He threw the spear at the fifth one, shot forward, buried his spear in the jaw of the sixth one, carrying the whole thing and throwing it onto the seventh, then Theo bolted, and slammed a kick into the two, this caused the two to crash with the eighth and were sent reeling.

He turned away. Not because the two were not already coming. As he did, arrows whistled through the air and landed in their necks.

Meanwhile as the Inheritance disappeared and appeared to cut down Marrick, Theo clashed with it and the two of them rolled forward together.