Discordant Note | TBATE

Chapter 73: Twinsoul

Toren Daen

My anger followed me like a pursuing hound. I tore my way through the Relictombs, my blades reaping vengeance on any aether beast in my way.

I felt half a beast myself. I held Oath in my hand, flourishing it against the large crocodilian that tried to gore me with its claws. Instead, my saber drew a thin line of blood through its thick, leathery hide.

The monster whirled, undeterred by my attack. It stood on two legs, towering over me with a jaw that could eat my torso in a single bite. It snapped at me with that massive maw, but I pulled myself backward. Instead of a pound of flesh, the creature's jaws closed around a grenade of sound and flame.

It burst within its mouth, making the beast rear backward with a roar. Promise streaked in from the side, the telekinetically controlled dagger ripping a jagged tear over the monster's eyes.

It thrashed its arms about wildly, spurts of blood leaking from horrific cuts across its face. Promise didn't cut cleanly anymore, not after what Mardeth did to it. The dagger ripped and tore where it cut, digging out chunks of flesh from whatever it touched.

Another crocodilian beast charged me, running on all fours like an ape. It kicked up swampy water in its wake, the marshlands around us murkily camouflaging everything in its path. The aether beast's thick, meaty tail flicked behind it. I threw a condensed fireshot at the creature, the fiery pockmarks making it tumble. Promise whirred toward the beast, drawing a jagged gash across its scaled gullet.

I then turned back to my original prey. With a snarl, I yanked on its leg with my emblem. The creature, flailing about due to its lack of eyes, tumbled face-first into the soft, marshy ground beneath my feet. I glided by, driving Oath into its throat and withdrawing with a deft flourish.

It choked to death on its own blood.

I kicked the beast's corpse towards a long, serpentine form that was moving through the nearby water. Empowered by my telekinetic shroud, the seven-foot-tall scaled monstrosity soared toward the small ripples in the water.

The snake-like aether beast, unprepared for several hundred pounds of corpse crashing into it, writhed about, splashing water and hissing.

I heard that hiss. I saw its fangs. And I thought of Mardeth.

I reached both of my hands out, sending waves of mana into my telekinetic spellform. I sent my mind outward, commanding the energy in the air to latch on and hold.

A flare of white attempted to close in on the massive serpentine beast. An outline of purple rose to meet it, fighting off my attempts at direct control.

It was extremely difficult to outright control creatures with mana or aether in their bodies. Their own innate defenses fought back, making it far more efficient to use pushes and pulls, which didn't draw that reaction.

But as the serpentine form coiled, its innate aether defenses fighting against my attempts, I felt my anger only grow. Snakes lurked in every corner of this world, whether they be people or basilisks.

I crashed my hands together, sweat beading on my forehead. With a yowl, my telekinetic emblem finally ripped away the monster's aetheric shroud, collapsing inward like an imploding star. I had control of the thirty-foot-long aether beast at last.

I snarled, raising my hands with a little strain. The aether inside the beast was trying to fight back; reclaim its control and banish my spell. But I wouldn't let it.

The beast floated through the air, then smashed through a stocky tree. I whipped the creature around, my rage guiding me as much as my reason. The creature's scaled hide cracked against another lurking bipedal crocodile, splintered through a tree, and then crashed against the water once more.