Zhao continued the pursuit but the enemies were almost reaching their destination.
Only two followers remained, too many had fallen to the Hunter’s silver feathers.
“You,” the leader pointed to the semi-fluid being. “Intercept Zhao. We need time.”
The slime abyssal tensed visibly, its purple eyes glowing with fear. “Sir, against the Hunter…”
“Are you questioning a military order?!” the leader’s five eyes blazed with fury. “Or would you prefer your family to experience the new… laboratory procedures?”
The slime being shuddered. He knew what that meant, he had seen the results of those “procedures” on the families of deserters and traitors…
Without another word, he turned to face the approaching Hunter.
♢♢♢♢
The abyssal leader stopped beside the massive corpse of the Shadow Stalker male.
“You,” the leader addressed the tentacled one. “Prepare yourself. I’ll need your core to stabilize the process… A 50-50 chance is better than dying without achieving anything, isn’t it?”
His three mouths twisted into a grimace as he brought his hands to his chest. The black fabric fell away revealing a torso covered in purple scars.
In the center of his stomach, a creature writhed.
With a grunt of pain, he plunged his fingers into his own stomach.
“My captain…” the tentacled one watched in horror as his leader extracted something from within, a female shadow stalker, clearly having been part of him.
The creature twisted weakly before dying.
“Partial fusion is painful,” the leader dropped the now dead beast beside the male’s corpse. “But complete fusion…”
He stopped, his body trembling from the trauma of extraction. “There’s a better chance of success if you help me. But if it fails…”
“We’ll die,” the tentacled one completed.
An unnatural opening appeared in the leader’s stomach, like a huge mouth revealing entrails that moved like tiny tentacles, each ending in a small pulsing mouth.
“Connect,” ordered the leader while kneeling beside the body. “Your core must stabilize my fusion long enough. You must help me circulate the mana or I’ll explode.”
The micro-tentacles extended, connecting with the male’s corpse. The abyssal groaned when chaotic energy began flowing, it was like acid running through his veins.
“AAAGH!” the leader arched when the connection completed.
Corrupt energy flowed through all three, the enormous corpse, the subordinate’s core, and his own abyssal essence.
“Captain… we…” the tentacled one could barely speak. Each energy pulse was like a knife in his entrails. “I don’t know… how long I can…”
“Hold on!” the leader’s three mouths roared. His five eyes began glowing with a sickly purple while his body started changing. “If we fail here, everything will have been in vain!”
The corrupt energy increased.
The bodies began to merge, their essence mixing with the leader’s.
The tentacled one screamed in pain when his core began resonating with the fusion.
In the distance they could hear sounds of battle, the slime being facing the Hunter. They didn’t have much time.
“Just… a little… more…” the leader extended his arms.
His purple skin bubbled as the Shadow Stalker’s essence integrated with his being. It was pain beyond comprehension, but he couldn’t stop.
Not now.
The tentacled one fell to his knees, purple blood flowing from his eyes. His tentacles pulsed erratically, desperately trying to maintain the connection.
The complete fusion was in its final stage.
♢♢♢♢
“I just have to resist!” the slime abyssal tried convincing himself while his fluid parts expanded, creating a wider defensive zone.
“Just until the leader completes the fusion!”
A whistle in the air, silver feathers approaching from his right. His body liquefied in that area, letting the projectiles pass through harmlessly.
“Interesting defense,” Zhao’s voice came from somewhere in the darkness. “But too slow.”
More feathers, this time from three different directions. The abyssal transformed parts of his body into liquid shields, but some feathers found solid areas, drawing grunts of pain.
‘I can’t keep my entire body liquid,’ he thought frantically while scanning the shadows. ‘I need solid organs to function, and he knows it.’
A silver flash, there! The abyssal launched a wave of liquid projectiles toward where he’d seen movement.
But found only empty air.
“Too obvious,” Zhao appeared briefly in another direction, his feathers flying with deadly precision.
The abyssal turned, transforming part of his torso to liquid, but wasn’t fast enough. Two feathers found his right side, which he needed to keep solid.
He barely managed to deflect enough to avoid fatal damage.
“Damn you!” he roared while counterattacking with liquid whips. “I’m just buying time! When the leader completes the fusion…”
“You won’t live to see it.”
The abyssal’s eyes widened. The voice had come from all directions.
Turning around he saw feathers’ gleam everywhere and then understood, the feathers that had been grazing him, the ones he’d dodged…
Zhao had been creating a perimeter.
A final whisper came from behind…
“It’s over.”
Dozens of silver feathers returned to their owner simultaneously, all piercing the space where the abyssal stood.
He desperately tried to liquefy his entire body, but it was impossible, there was always a part that had to remain solid.
The abyssal’s scream cut off when the feathers pierced him from every possible angle. His purple blood splattered the ground while his body tried to stay together, liquid and solid parts mixing in his agony.
Zhao appeared again before the dying abyssal, but this time there was no energy in his posture. He leaned on one knee, his breathing heavier than it had been in years.
“A fatal… mistake…” the abyssal gurgled purple blood. “The damned Hunter… is tired of hunting…”
The abyssal’s body collapsed, its liquid parts solidifying in death.
Zhao allowed himself a moment to catch his breath.
The constant use of his abilities had drained more mana than expected.
‘I’ve never let an abyssal escape,’ he thought while standing with effort. ‘And I won’t start tonight.’
But the abyssal leader wasn’t planning to run anymore.
A movement in the darkness made him tense. His feathers, stained with purple blood, gleamed faintly as he prepared for another confrontation.
The figure that emerged from the shadows made his eyes narrow.
Where before there had been an arachnid-shaped abyssal, now rose a bone-white aberration. Hundreds of tentacles emerged from its body, some thin, others thick. But what caught Zhao’s attention was the face… or rather, the faces.
On the creature’s chest, grotesquely fused, were the features of the abyssal leader and his tentacled subordinate.