Lord Of Beasts

It was instantly clear that Elara was no longer using the Blood Demon’s abilities, and without them...

Well, they were screwed.

"Hey! Where’s that power gone?" Seraphina shouted, her voice cutting through the air as she darted past in a streak of pink, barely avoiding a slicing strike from one of the cicadas.

Rowan, standing behind a series of hastily formed plant constructs, glanced over with a rare hint of concern.

"You good?"

He was a man of few words, but even he couldn’t stay silent after Elara suddenly went from a crimson powerhouse to completely powerless.

The red-eyed woman didn’t respond immediately.

Her hands moved slightly, unconsciously, as if arguing with herself.

That was exactly what she was doing.

’This isn’t the time,’ she thought desperately.

They were struggling in a matter of seconds since the demon inside her no longer granted her access to its abilities.

Seraphina was pushing herself to her limits, constantly moving, constantly dodging, barely keeping the aphid distracted. Meanwhile, Rowan was reinforcing barriers, launching vines and hardened constructs to keep the cicadas grounded, but even he was being pushed back.

They needed her, or more correctly, they needed that power.

But the Blood Demon didn’t seem like the type to just hand it over, and Elara had no intention of handing over control of her body either.

’What would Ethan do?’

The thought came suddenly, and with it, an unexpected clarity.

Elara’s expression hardened.

Her voice rose, not outwardly, but inside her mind, directed straight at the thing hiding deep within her body somewhere she didn’t quite understand.

’Hey, you fucking Demon,’ she snapped internally, her tone sharp and uncharacteristically aggressive.

There was a pause.

Even the entity within her seemed caught off guard.

’You’ve been living in my body for this long - it’s only right you pay rent.’

It didn’t respond, though she could tell it was amused and intrigued.

’And if you don’t pay up with your energy... I’ll, I’ll just kill myself!’ she continued, doubling down, her thoughts raw, reckless, but unwavering. ’And then we’ll both be dead.’

Her heart pounded, and she was quite obviously bluffing, but there was one thing she wasn’t lying about.

’No matter what, you aren’t taking control of my body.’

It felt stupid, since the demon was definitely more skilled than she was and could deal with things much quicker than she could. But be it because she was just being stubborn or wanted to prove something to herself, she wasn’t going to change her mind.

There was still no response, and that just made her more nervous.

But very quickly her strong front began to crumble.

’I mean, I won’t lie, I’ll probably need you at some point. But I don’t want to feel like a loser anymore.’

For a moment, nothing happened even after she spoke honestly, making Elara start to get frustrated.

Then, a low laugh echoed through her mind.

"You’re insane, kid."

The presence shifted again, different this time.

"You know what?"

A pulse of energy surged, somehow even stronger than before.

"Screw it."

The crimson power returned, not overwhelming, but smooth and controlled.

"You can have it," the voice said, almost amused. "More energy than you could ever need, and you can even ask for my help when you need it. After all, I did promise to lend you my power if you stuck by that vessel."

It paused as something darker slipped through.

"But remember this. One day, this body will truly be mine, just like the rest of your kind."

Elara didn’t fully understand, but she didn’t question it or even care.

Because the moment the energy returned, she was back in the game, instantly vanishing, even more smoothly than before. It was effortless, and as infinite as her power had felt before, it felt even more so, which went against the very concept of infinity.

She reappeared behind one of the cicadas mid-flight.

’Crimson Flash!’

This time, it was a direct hit.

The attack tore clean through the creature’s body, splitting it apart as it fell lifelessly from the sky.

"She’s back!" Seraphina called out, grinning as she pivoted mid-air, redirecting the aphid’s charge.

Rowan wasted no time, his constructs shifting, vines snapping upward to entangle the second cicada, which Elara had clipped with an earlier attack. He dragged it down just enough, holding it with his conjured plants.

"Elara!" he called out.

She nodded and blinked forward again and again, closing the distance in bursts, mimicking flight through a series of spatial displacements.

With each use, it was becoming more natural.

Then her hand shot forward, crimson energy condensing tightly.

Another Crimson Flash at point-blank range.

The second cicada didn’t stand a chance; it collapsed instantly with a giant hole burned straight through its body.

’Two down.’

Now, the real fight.

But just before it was about to begin, something suddenly happened that made everyone freeze and marked the end of Kaela’s one-on-one battle.

BOOOOOM!

An explosion rang throughout the entire gate, one so powerful that it made everyone and everything freeze, as an insane shockwave spread throughout.

Elara, Seraphina, Rowan, and the remaining A Rank beast all stopped in place, pausing their exchange momentarily. Meanwhile, as they were hiding and recovering within a concealment barrier, Liora and Darius also felt the shock.

As for Ethan, he snapped out of his Beast Recovery and sprang to his feet, with Dave and the Bulldozer also being jolted by it.

’The Riot Valkyrie,’ they all thought to themselves.

Who else could it have been?

And yet, as curious as they all were about what had happened, their focus quickly returned to themselves. Ethan, Dave, and Liora’s priority was to recover their mana. As for the Bulldozer and Darius, well, they were trying to rest their bodies as well as they could for what was coming.

But Elara and co didn’t have the luxury of relaxing just yet, still having an A Rank beast to deal with. And unlike Liora, there was no special solution they could use. Not that it mattered to the red-eyed woman, who had a smile on her face, one oddly similar to Ethan’s while engaged in combat.

’It really is quite fun when you’ve got this much power.’

But even with that power, defeating an A Rank beast wasn’t going to be easy...