The air thickened with the oppressive aura of spiritual power as the Doctor mobilized his, which was stronger than both Kain’s and Serena’s as a 5-star beast-tamer, to summon his contracts.
Although, he was only a 5-star beast-tamer, his strength may exceed weaker 6-star beast-tamers with not many blue-grade spiritual creatures, since 4 of his 5 contracts were all blue-grade.
The green-grade spiritual creature was a snake-like creature but instead of scales, it had a dark-red chitinous exoskeleton and mandibles. It looked kind of like a centipede, but without any legs. Its tail ended in a scorpion-like stinger that was more orange in colour, and didn’t appear to blend in naturally with the rest of the exoskeleton…almost as if it were artificially added.
Of the blue-grade contracts, one was a massive beetle with a reinforced shell and mechanical enhancements that appeared to be fused with its being, rather than just being worn like normal enchanted equipment.
The third contract looked to be a spider-scorpion hybrid also fitted with mechanical limbs.
The fourth contract was shaped like a locust, with mechanical attachments fused with its legs and the addition of sword-like forelimbs that resembled those of a praying mantis.
The final contract looked like a fusion between a giant horsefly and a mosquito, and it immediately filled the vicinity with the stench of rotting corpses upon its appearance.
Kain’s eyes flickered across the Doctor’s summoned abominations, his mind quickly assessing the threats.
The grotesque contracts stood as twisted amalgamations of an unnatural fusion between life and machine.
“Five contracts,” Serena muttered beside him, “Four blue-grades. This won’t be easy.” So she said, but she didn’t appear to have the slightest bit of tension as she summoned her Elemental Guardian, Starweaver, and even the rarely summoned Emanascion Balin. Experience more content on empire
Kain nodded, summoning Aegis with a flash of light. The rock golem’s massive frame blocked the containers holding the unconscious children, its arms spread protectively. “Aegis, don’t let anything through to those containers.”
Kain also assigned 12 of his Vespid guards—thankfully after advancing to yellow-grade he now had 24 at his disposal—to guard Cherry and the containers holding the children.
He didn’t order the guards to take them out of the containers they were suspended in just yet though, since he wasn’t sure what procedures were done to them and if the liquid was needed by them to survive.
The green-grade snake-like creature slithered forward, its segmented body gleaming under the dim light. It lashed out with its scorpion-like stinger, aiming directly at Kain. Kain immediately felt the difference between matches and real-world battles. In the real-world, it made the most sense to directly target the beast-tamer.
However, Kain wasn’t weak and helpless. Parrying the attack with his spear, he took the opportunity to also have one of Bea’s splits infect it.
Although due to the level difference, and some modifications done to it that seemed to make it more resistant to invasion, Bea was eventually able to cause its movements to become slower and more jerky.
The swarm of remaining Vespids not assigned to guard the containers descended on the creature, their sharp stingers glinting.
The opponent writhed, its mandibles snapping at the attackers while its stinger flicked back and forth. Though the Vespids had the advantage of numbers, the creature’s hardened exoskeleton made it difficult to inflict serious damage.
Since it was difficult to inflict serious damage externally, Kain chose to activate his go-to spiritual skill to boost Bea’s abilities and attack the enemy from within.
Although it was difficult to control its movements and make it attack the enemy—after all, most spiritual creatures have an instinctive, soul-deep aversion to harming or betraying their beast-tamer.
However, Bea was able to get the leg-less centipede to lie down prone and not resist as Kain and the Vespids gradually wore down its tough exoskeleton.
Meanwhile, the locust-mantis hybrid let out an ear-piercing shriek as its wings buzzed furiously, sending gusts of wind through the lab and then launched itself at Serena, its sword-like forelimbs cutting through the air with deadly precision.
At some point, thin twin swords appeared in her hands, which she used to directly defend against its attack.
Her twin blades met the creature’s in a clash of sparks. The force of the blow sent her skidding back, but she regained her footing quickly, her eyes narrowed with focus.
At the same time, the beetle lumbered forward, its mechanical enhancements whirring as it released a foul-smelling gas into the air. The gas spread quickly, forcing Kain and his contracts to back away.
It seemed to want to attack the containers directly, which Kain had feared. Whether it was to destroy any evidence of them being here or to distract Kain and Serena, or both, Kain had to admit that their need to keep the containers safe definitely restricted their actions.
However, he chose to trust that Aegis, like his name, would serve as the strongest shield for those kids.
And true to Kain’s faith, Aegis prevented the approach of the beetle while forming solid shields in front of all of the containers.
The Vespids also tasked with protecting the children remained behind the walls erected by Aegis while launching their stingers at the beetle. Similar to the other contracts of the Doctor, its exoskeleton was tougher than the average spiritual creature at the same level, and so not much damage was dealt. However, the beetle also didn’t seem to be having much luck with breaching the Aegis’ walls.
Kain didn’t think he needed to worry about that side for now, and turned his attention to the other opponents.
The spider-scorpion hybrid clicked its mechanical limbs as it fired acidic silk projectiles toward Kain’s Vespids. The corrosive strands caught several of them, dissolving their exoskeletons with horrifying efficiency.
As horrifying at the corrosive properties of its silk were, the boost in speed provided to it by the mechanical attachments to its limbs was equally as horrifying.
Kain finally understood why the Doctor seemed to prefer making these cyborg-like abominations, rather than just outfitting his spiritual creatures with enchanted equipment—Kain had never heard of a boost to speed so great being given using enchanted equipment.