While the flower-like person didn’t seem all that keen on fighting, that didn’t mean it would just stand around and let him hit it.
Upon noticing his approach, vines shot out at various angles with sharp leaves on top of them. Though Kairos felt his mind was muddled, he still had enough in him to activate the harden ability, just as the various leaves were about to hit him.
Yet, to his surprise, the leaves pierced through his hardened skin. It had been slowed down, but that didn’t change how they ruthlessly pierced him. He could feel them worming around like parasites trying to enter deeper into his body.
Kairos naturally wanted to do something about this, though the wolf had none of that in mind, only wanting to get closer to the person responsible. His attempts to regain control were rewarded with nothing.
Blistering signals of pain filled his mind, as he realized that these leaves were releasing some sort of poison within him and that it was getting increasingly important to do something about them.
That was when he thought of yanking the flower-like person closer by dragging them from their vines. The moment he tried to act on that, his jaws immediately sunk into one of the nearby vines and yanked the thing towards him.
The flower-like person was caught off guard, stumbling forth. However, before it could be pulled all the way, it disconnected the vine from its own body, losing control over it. Seeing this, Kairos and the wolf were in agreement to try and tug at the other vines, which were disconnected before he could get to any of them.
Though that attempt failed, it still made Kairos feel relieved, as at least the leaves were no longer digging into his body and regularly releasing poison. But one thing that he noticed was that the people running away from him stopped.
They stopped to watch the fight from a distance, no longer as afraid of him as they once were. Instead, their eyes were filled with curiosity. They went back to their old way of doing things, observing and waiting patiently.
Kairos didn’t turn his attention away, but could smell Nyoka and the others approaching. They seemed to be getting closer, but not in the biggest rush in the world.
It would probably be a better idea to regroup with them, but he wasn’t that willing to do so. Not to mention, even if he tried the wolf wasn’t having it, so he wouldn’t be able to do so in the first place.
And so, like that, he recklessly charged in along with his wolf. The flower retaliated by creating several large blooming flowers that created a large shield. Kairos narrowed his eyes when he saw this. He wanted to use the spear that was buried deep in his own body, but wasn’t sure of exactly how to do so. Though, as that will formed in his mind, the wolf seemed to understand and act upon him. He felt the black flesh move and push the spear within him out.
From there, he opened his mouth, and the spear shot out from within like a bullet.
With a thud, the spear pierced halfway through the flower, after which a screech was promptly released. Kairos felt like he was winning this battle, and felt fairly confident.
Yet, it was at that same time the other people observing all pounced one after another. The flower person backed off and was actually attacked by a few of those people as they did so. But before they actually ended up dying, black hands came from the ground and pulled them underneath, keeping that person safe.
From there, that just left Kairos. There were still vines awkwardly sticking out from his body, but the wolf side of him couldn’t bother removing them. It was also at this point that he felt his own body was starting to slow down.
Kairos was immediately confused. He didn’t think it was because of fear, nor did he believe it was because the wolf was afraid. He could tell that it was ready to fight to the death.
But then he remembered the vines had injected something poisonous within his body earlier.
The countless transformed people began rushing towards him, fangs, claws, talons, and other things all rushing towards him. Kairos still didn’t feel helpless, as he still had something to fall back on.
Though, it was something he would’ve rather not done.
He channeled the fire spell, though it was a little awkward with his new body. A tiny fireball appeared at the end of his snout, which was bright to him but still manageable. As for everyone else, they immediately began crying out in pain, all closing their eyes and recoiling away from the bright light.
Kairos maintained that fire temporarily and rushed towards the closest transformed being, what looked like an assortment of bones put together, but was actually made out of flesh. It was completely unfocused on him, instead still in shock from the bright light, frantically but clumsily trying to get away. And now that it was closer, it seemed to be suffering from the effects more.
After canceling the fire spell, Kairos wasted no time in taking a bite out of the first bone-like piece. As his teeth dug in, he felt the black blood rush into his mouth. It felt exhilarating for some reason. In fairness, he had done something like this before, but the biggest difference was that they were all dead.
There was just something different about taking a bite out of something that was still alive. That still had its blood pumping.
Something that was actively struggling to resist him.
Or maybe he was just feeling the instincts of the wolf, but either way, he couldn’t really stop himself from continuing to chew down on, swallowing more and more of the entire thing.
The assortment of bone-like structures attempted to free itself and run away, however, it wasn’t able to do so properly, almost as though it was a baby stumbling everywhere it walked.
As he continued to chew down, he eventually felt himself getting closer to something. The blood flow in certain areas was more intense, like a game of hot and cold. He instinctively felt himself getting closer to the cores. He proceeded to enthusiastically push forth continuing to eat away, feeling himself get closer and closer.
Soon enough, he did actually visually see the beating heart, which was gushing out blood violently. Kairos’ jaws opened wide in an attempt to swallow it whole, but before he got to it the heart spontaneously exploded while the several bones of the disassembled creature sharpened to become countless blades. Without warning, they suddenly rushed towards him from every angle, almost like he was surrounded by swordsmen from every angle, just the swords themselves were both strange and larger than normal.
Kairos naturally saw this coming from his future vision, which made him want to back off. However, he also noticed that despite him communicating this will, he couldn’t do so. The wolf was so engrossed in eating, that it didn’t even realize the danger.
Feeling the impending pain in his future vision, he used the harden ability to cover the majority of his body to fight off the blades.
He then grit his teeth as his future vision warped.
Soon after, the blades all slammed into his body, piercing in deeply. It didn’t even seem as though the harden ability had done anything as his flesh was dug through. The force was so strong, that his very body contorted under the force, twisting at an awkward angle like someone that was hugged far too tightly.
The wolf in his mind was actively panicking, attempting to resist the force by pushing back, but realistically all that accomplished was further maiming them. Kairos clearly showed his will to stop doing that, and even yelled in his own mind his reasoning, explaining that it should die soon anyway because its heart had exploded.
It was at that point, to his surprise, that it really did stop.
The deadly bear hug of the transformed person continued for a few moments longer, which made Kairos a little nervous. However, it eventually did relax like a person dying, after which the blades naturally peeled off of his body.
Black blood poured from several large gashes spread across his body, however, they healed surprisingly fast.
After making it out, Kairos internally cursed. When things were on the verge of death, they really didn’t let up at all, trying to drag others down with them. Kairos looked around and noticed that almost all of the transformed people were either gone or in the process of being dragged underneath the ground by black hands.
Seeing this, Kairos instead just focused on finishing off the corpse on the ground, taking big bites. The stomach came in handy here, digesting everything he ate nearly immediately, allowing him to eat as though he was a snake that swallowed things whole. At the same time, he was using his reserve ability to turn all of the black blood into orbs, which he got a total of four from.
After finishing, his transformation seemed to naturally wear off, causing his body to shrink considerably from his roughly ten-meter long body, into one that was only three meters long. The wolf avatar appeared behind him, shaking its head with sleepy eyes before disappearing entirely.
Kairos also felt a decent amount of fatigue, but his body still had quite a bit of black blood left over that was being processed, and not wanting to carry any more debts, he created an additional four black orbs so he would have a total of eight, enough to repay Nyoka. Though it took a little bit of red blood from the conversion spell, it worked nonetheless.
Nyoka and the others approached, though their expressions were a little bitter while they squinted. Kairos quickly realized what happened and bowed his head down in apology.
“Sorry for using that spell again, I saw no other option.”
He found his voice was more scruffy and deep, but didn’t focus on that.
Jeff pursed his lips together.
“I’m more offended that you did it despite saying you wouldn’t than the actual act.”
Sara gave a small bow.
“Please don’t do it unless you really need to! I suppose there was no helping this time.”
Nyoka gave a small nod in response as a bitter smile formed on his face.
“Yeah, that certainly wasn’t pleasant. I never knew you could already merge with your avatar. How did that even happen? I don’t recall you getting a source of black blood from anywhere.”
His eyes narrowed slightly in suspicion.