Book 5: Chapter 15 — Menagerie (1) |
When they finally reached the Champion’s Gate, two days and eleven more encounters later, the thing loomed even larger than Noah had expected. Its blocky profile and the sheer bulk of everything else around it masked its true size until they were close, but now he stood beneath it the scale was intimidating.
Hundreds of feet of black stone rose in a triangular arch carved with glowing symbols that had to have been each taller than Noah and Aurelia combined. Filling the gate's center, a mana barrier glowed with green light, waiting for challengers worthy of what lay beyond.
They stood before it, two tiny hunters about to challenge something that had killed better fighters than them. The smart move would be to turn back. Rest. Prepare. Return when they were stronger.
But this was their ‘getting stronger’. Death Valley was no casual tourist destination and they needed to be ready to handle much worse than anything here could match.
His heart beat faster at the concentrated power emanating from beyond the threshold. His Dragon's Will stirred with anticipation, recognizing the presence of an apex predator.
"Whatever's in there," Noah said, "if things go bad..."
"They won't."
"But if they do. You should know—"
Aurelia stepped close, her finger pressing gently against his lips. Her eyes were soft, vulnerable, open in a way she rarely allowed herself to be.
Noah watched her walk toward the darkness, something warm and terrified twisting in his chest. His Dragon's Heart ached with emotions he still didn't have words for. "...That's not fair."
She didn't look back. "I never said I fight fair."
Tony approves of this motivational technique, Tony observed. Tony notes that Noah's combat performance increases a lot when protecting Aurelia. Tony recommends she threatens mutual danger for optimal results.
Tony is terrible, Noah thought back.
Tony is practical.
They stepped through the mana barrier and into a massive dome, ancient and dark. The ceiling rose hundreds of feet overhead, lost in shadows that seemed to move of their own accord. Columns of black stone ringed the perimeter and the floor was covered with the same rust-red as the Bloodsands outside.
Noah's eyes adjusted instantly, cutting through the darkness. Abyssal Awareness swept outward, mapping every corner of the massive space.
At the center of the chamber, life-force flowed through a creature that defied natural anatomy, a patchwork of stolen essences bound together. He saw parts that he recognized, an arm here, a tail there, but the overall shape didn’t quite fit anything he was expecting.
Then the creature rose and turned to face them, and ‘manticore’ was probably the closest thing he could think of to describe it. A scaled-up leonine body formed the bulk of its form, muscles rippling beneath tawny fur that shifted between gold and shadow. Its mane had crystallized into a halo of iridescent silver shards, and Noah recognized the same material as a Shimmerwolf's growths. But that was where things stopped making sense.
Two serpentine heads grew from its spine, their scales shifting red-to-black, mouths dripping with caustic ichor that hissed where it struck sand. Sanguine Hydra heads, grafted onto a body that shouldn't have been able to support them. Mismatched wings sprouted from its shoulders, one leathery and whole, the other partially replaced with bone shards that ended in several extra sets of claws.
One eye was solid amber crystal, while the other was a compound insect eye, dozens of tiny lenses seeing everything at once. Where its left forelimb should have been, ancient bronze had fused with flesh, a Gladiator Remnant's arm, corroded green, crackling with unstable mana that sparked and arced with every movement.
[The Menagerie (Unique) - lvl 580]
The creature regarded them with the silent evaluation of a hunter who’d killed so many challengers it no longer found them worth the effort of intimidation. Its amber crystal eye fixed on Noah, recognizing him as more dangerous.
Noah’s draconic blood burned in answer, eager to rise to the challenge presented before him.
This is the strongest prey Bun Bun has ever sensed. Bun Bun will give his all!
"Spread out," Noah murmured. "Don't let it corner us."
They separated, circling the chamber's perimeter. Noah started activating his abilities in rapid succession, taking advantage of the area’s dense mana saturation.
Arcane Spectres split off from him and fanned out around him, all armed with various weapons from his arsenal—three, then eight, then twelve, more than he’d ever been able to sustain at once since his ability evolved into this form. Bloodwyrm Swarm poured out to surround him, and Void Annihilation sparked to life across every weapon in his small army.
But this creature had seen every trick before, countered every strategy in one form or another. Even if his specific forms were new, it had centuries of combat experience and, worse, a sheer level of accumulated strength that Noah was just too small and flimsy to match.
The Bloodwyrms evaporated before they even got close, the pressure of its presence crushing them into nonexistence. His copies fared slightly better, but their arcane bodies began to warp around halfway toward the thing and they had to retreat.
One particularly daring spectre tried to blink closer instead, but never reappeared. Noah received a very brief, gut-twisting memory of the results a moment later. It felt like the teleportation was jerked sideways midway, which was nauseating enough in its own right, but then he got to experience firsthand what having his Arcane Body slurped up from the inside felt like. Thankfully, it was over almost instantly, but it was still enough to set his heart racing and internally swear off trying to teleport too close to the thing again.
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Then, to his horror, an aura sparked to life around its claw-wing that looked an awful lot like Void Annihilation. One hydra head held it over and examined it while the others got on with stalking Noah Prime. Its lion head even seemed to be drooling in anticipation, though that might have been Noah anthropomorphising it a bit too much.
He needed to be smarter. Faster. More unpredictable than anything it had ever faced. Preferably without letting it eat any more of his abilities in the process. Every tactic they used would only work once.
He didn’t have time to decide on an alternative, however.
The crystalline halo flared, a blinding flash that seared through Noah's eyelids. He reflexively threw himself sideways. Just in time. The bronze arm swung through the space where he'd been standing, trailing mana discharge that cracked the stone floor and sent arcs of electricity racing across the sand.
The pressure of its presence slammed down onto him in the same instant, and his nearest copy got unceremoniously snatched and crushed into oblivion. It tried stabbing its hand while it had the chance, that brief moment before its arcane body tore apart, but the weapon only slid across the metal limb without effect. Several of the others
Noah triggered Arcane Step before it could figure out which one was real, teleporting himself clear of the aftershock and well away from the monster.
Aurelia's flames answered the assault, a torrent of purifying fire. The hydra heads hissed in response—one spitting fire of its own, the other launching a stream of acid. The attacks collided mid-air, canceling each other, filling the chamber with hissing steam.
Noah emerged from the steam with his spear extended—
But the bronze arm caught his spear shaft before the strike could land, metal screeching against metal. To add insult to injury, it also discharged a pulse of raw mana directly into Noah's face in the same movement.
The shockwave threw Noah backward into a column hard enough to crack the ancient stone. He lay where he’d landed a second, dizzied and gasping for air, whole body overwarm as his healing blood worked overtime. His ribs protested the impact, but nothing seemed actually broken.
The monster was chasing down a third of his Arcane Spectres, ignoring him for the moment, but he doubted that would last once he showed he’d survived.
We must go all out! Tony suggested.
“No more holding back,” Noah called out to his spectral army. “Dragon Shift!" and even as he said it, he activated the ability himself.
With excited grins, Noah’s remaining spectres all shifted in the same moment, each one a perfect duplicate in draconic form. He’d seen it from the outside once before, but it was weirdly beautiful to watch it happen in a cascade all around him. Scales in patterns of midnight blue and void-black drinking in the chamber's dim light. His wings flared free from his back, the deep blue membrane glowing with inner stormlight as his fingertips sharpened into claws, his spine extended into a crystalline-tipped tail.
“Attack!”
His roar shook dust from the ancient ceiling. Draconoid spectres converged from all directions. Noah’s mana dipped sharply as each copy entered the thing’s domain pressure, but he was ready for it this time and none of them imploded. Also it was a lot easier to maintain eight than twelve. Quality over quantity and all that.
Dragon Fear rolled over the monster in an augmented wave from all directions as Noah and all his copies echoed their communal draconic power into a terrifying crescendo.
[Dragon Fear] has been resisted.
The Menagerie didn't flinch, only answered his roar with a low growl and bared its teeth as it stomped another spectre into the ground. The ancient predator’s undamaged wing flared up as if to say I could use another to finish off the set.
The spear-wielding spectre struck first, driving the Crimson End toward the junction where the hydra heads met the main body. The monster twisted to intercept and two more spectres hit its flanks. Noah darted in and lashed out with his chains to wrap around the bronze arm, restricting its movement and hopefully nullifying its magic attacks. A fourth dove from above, targeting the crystalline crown. A fifth circled behind, going for the vulnerable wing-joints.
[Spear of Crimson End] has inflicted [Crimson Rot-IV] on [The Menagerie]
But the monster was far from finished. Its intact wing flared with astral energy, and suddenly it blinked across the chamber, leaving a damaging rift in its wake. Two of Noah's spectres were too close to evade and he quickly learned how it felt to die of spatial backlash, both copies shredded by conflicting astral forces.
But there was no time for gracefully absorbing the information from his deceased spectres. The Menagerie landed next to Aurelia.
She dove away, but the hydra heads were faster. One caught her leg, fangs sinking through armor, caustic ichor burning flesh. She screamed.
Noah's world narrowed to a point. He moved.
Arcane Step. He appeared between Aurelia and the monster, his remaining spectres converging simultaneously. The one with the spear drove toward the junction where the hydra heads met the main body while another targeted the bronze arm's weakened shoulder joint with Void Annihilation.
Reality cracked.
The spatial instability spread through the creature’s composite flesh, finding the seams where stolen parts had been grafted together. The bronze arm spasmed, mana discharge going wild, arcs of energy scorching the chamber floor.
Tony formed a barrier around Aurelia, the symbiote flowing from Noah's body to create a protective shell while she recovered. Bun Bun materialized from Noah's shadow, launching himself at the monster's compound eye with claws extended.
Bun Bun removes the eye that sees all, the familiar announced as he bounded away, ichor dripping from his claws. Now it sees less!
The Menagerie backed up a step, suddenly blind on one side. Noah pressed the advantage, his remaining spectres harrying its flanks while he drove for vital targets.
But it wasn't enough. The creature stopped trying to track every threat, instead flooding the area with attacks that didn't require precision. Crystal shards erupted from its crown in a spherical burst, making the air itself hazardous. The hydra heads sprayed fire and acid in sweeping arcs, covering entire zones rather than targeting individuals.
Noah's spectres couldn't survive the saturation assault. One by one they fell, dissolved by acid or shredded by crystal, until only he remained. The fight was becoming a war of attrition and they were the ones running out of resources as their already stronger enemy adapted to everything they tried to throw at it.
"It's reading us," Noah gasped, blood running from a gash on his forehead where crystal had found flesh. "Everything we do, it's adapting faster than we can change."
Aurelia stood beside him, favoring her bitten leg, flames guttering as her mana reserves dwindled. “Stop being predictable!”
"How?"
"We stop planning." Her eyes met his, burning with determination despite her exhaustion. "We move on instinct. Let our bodies do what our minds can't."
It was insane. Against a creature this intelligent, abandoning strategy should have been suicide.
But they'd been fighting together for months. Training together. Bleeding together. They knew each other's movements better than they knew their own. And at this point, every moment of thinking only slowed them down, not gave them an advantage.
Tony supports this approach, Tony added unexpectedly. Let’s trust in us!
Bun Bun will follow, Bun Bun agreed. Where Noah strikes, Bun Bun will strike. Where Aurelia burns, Bun Bun will hunt. We are pack.
"Okay." Noah drew his claw across his scaled palm, dragon blood welling up dark and potent. "Let’s go wild."