Liam felt incredibly dizzy, but conscious nonetheless.
Pieces of him broke as he smashed from one spot to the next, and his skin changed into several shades of purple, covered with a coating of blood.
He crashed against Krel, who managed to grab him midair before Liam bluntly collided with the wall.
Krel grabbed at the octopus at first. His hand almost slipped with the slimy surface of the octopus’ skin, but he strengthened his grip and pulled Liam back.
Sqwelsh.
Liam’s back fell on the stone floor, landing on the jelly-like octopus.
His breath was ragged, his limbs quivered uncontrollably, and his clothes were shredded to pieces.
He had pushed himself to the brink with his usage of chaos, and its backlash made him hurl in pain.
As he advanced to the upper-tier of the third Rank, Liam’s Ashura form had also gotten stronger.
Naturally, so would its backlash when he used it for too long and too heavily.
Krel and Ruth instantly – carefully – picked the sea creature off his battered and bruised body.
To their amazement, it no longer resembled a Rank 4 creature. Quite frankly, it looked pathetic and cute compared to before.
The Shadows looked at Liam with complicated emotions.
“Boy!” Iris exclaimed as she took out a bright green pill from her ring and put it in Liam’s mouth.
A bit of strength returned to him, but Liam needed rest.
The deepest wounds were slowly starting to heal, but his complexion only grew paler.
“J-just how did he survive? And is that the Shifter?” said Adrian, his usually stoic voice now docile. “Why is it like that?”
“A chunk of rock probably smashed against its head and made it revert to… whatever that is,” Oro voiced, respect evident in his eyes. He chuckled like a madman. “This kid is just something else!”
Maeve looked regretful, caressing Liam’s face, but that only made Liam uncomfortable and strangely weirded out.
“We left an acolyte to die, dammit. We should be ashamed to call ourselves Shadows,” Ruth said with a frown. To add salt to the wound, Liam had saved her.
The Shadows were silent after that.
Grunting awake, Liam slowly sat upright. The pain that throbbed with every corner of his body helped him stay on edge.
Liam’s eyes instantly fixed to the octopus.
It squirmed its tentacles on the ground in an attempt to escape, but Adrian and Ruth’s foot pressed tightly against its squishy head.
“You good?” Krel asked with his hand on Liam’s shoulder.
No.
“Yes.”
Liam nodded after a short pause.
Everything hurt.
“We’ll have to run back to base then. Tonight was special. Two Rank 4 specimens hunted successfully, one of which was a bloody Shifter. Alive too!” Krel smiled broadly. During the fight, he sneakily stored the dead Poison Lizard in his ring.
“We’ll tell the Elders of what you’ve done tonight. You can expect to be rewarded. Now let’s get out of here before the Sectors investigate.”
Coughing a bit of blood on his fist, Liam mustered his strength and got up.
The Shadows left the dungeon one by one.
Krel held onto the Shifter, which absentmindedly coiled around his arm, dazed and limp.
Both Ruth and Maeve offered Liam a piggyback ride (for different reasons Liam assumed) to the Temple, but he respectfully declined.
‘I probably won’t be able to forge or inscribe for a good amount of time. The Elders better let me study the octopus, or else I’ve risked my life for nothing.’
It took them a couple of hours to arrive back underground.
Liam entered his home as the Shadows went to report their hunt details to Elder June.
Liam had mentioned his desire to study the specimen to Krel, who promised to mention that fact to the Elders.
With that, Liam put his head to sleep after a short session of cultivation.
‘That Shifter might be the key to combining my Ashura and Human side together. It might be a long shot, but worth a try to find out.’
Liam didn’t think the answer would come that easy. In fact, it made things even more complicated.
Combining an Ashura and a Human was one thing.
Mixing an Ashura, a Human, and a damn Octopus was something else entirely. An ambitious plan to say the least.
Liam shook his head and sighed.
The things he’d do for power.
///
The next day, Liam woke up with a loud grunt of pain that stemmed from every muscle of his body.
Sore.
Everything was sore.
He got dressed with a new pair of black-clad clothes. He didn’t train, amazingly, despite every urge to.
In his current state, that would only cause more harm.
Liam intended to leave his quarters and head towards Krel’s, but as soon as he stepped foot outside, he was greeted with Elder Jane’s sight.
She was practically invisible to his senses and mental energy.
Liam made a respectful gesture upon her arrival.
Elder Jane smiled lightly.
“Well done. You simply break every expectation we have of you.”
She said nothing else and entered his accommodation as though it was her own.
Liam limited himself to a “thank you” and kept quiet.
“I’ve got a few questions I need answering,” Elder Jane casually said.
Liam suppressed a frown.
“Don’t consider it an interrogation. You’re a valuable acolyte, and I wouldn’t want to break the trust we’ve built up till now.”
“With this out of the way, you can have your time with the Shifter. I’ve already sent you a good amount of merits to buy resources with, too.”
Silence ensued.
The Elder meant it. ．𝚌ｏ𝚖
It wasn’t a hostile questioning, and she was direct with her words.
Besides, she was basically bribing Liam for his trust.
Not to mention, he would have some alone time with the Shifter Octopus.
Firmly, Liam nodded after a short pause.
“Why do you want to study the Shifter? How did you survive when the dungeon ceiling was crashing down on you? And… who exactly are you? The Royals of Echoria were looking for a Liam Royce.”