The battle outside the city wall had reached a new level of intensity.
Zantem, apparently tired of losing every purely physical encounter, began channeling his remaining magical power. Elemental energy pulsed around his transformed form as he searched for an opening.
He found it when an unconscious soldier lay nearby. His transformed maw curved into a cruel smile as he released a burst of concentrated power.
But Lucien moved like lightning.
His elemental sword traced a perfect arc, cutting through the magic as if it were morning mist. The explosion dissipated into nothingness, not even grazing the soldier.
'What?' Incredulity made Zantem's jaws contract. 'Another parasite capable of countering my magic?'
Fury clouded his judgment further.
Channeling mana into his muscles, Zantem launched forward with magically enhanced speed. His claws, empowered by elemental wind, cut through the air with enough force to create visible pressure waves.
That's when he saw it, Lucien's eyes began to glow with a crystalline blue light, a radiance unsettlingly reminiscent of the artromus's own eyes.
In a movement that seemed to defy physics, Lucien slid under the attack like water flowing around a rock.
The sword found its mark once again, deepening the wound they'd already been working on Zantem's neck. Transparent blood flowed from the wound, the divine armor struggling to regenerate the accumulated damage.
'Enough.'
Zantem retreated, his body glowing with contained power.
He no longer cared about conserving mana.
He no longer cared about efficiency.
The 8 points he had left would be more than enough.
Energy began accumulating in his center, but this time it was different. Three distinct types of elemental mana intertwined in a matrix of destruction. The air itself began to distort around Zantem as the costly combination took shape.
Eight mana points.
A steep price for a single attack, but the satisfaction of seeing this parasite try to counter a massive explosion of three different elements would be worth every point spent.
'Try to cut this, usurper,' he thought as the power reached its critical point.
Zantem's tri-elemental explosion expanded like a nova of pure destruction.
But the parasite... the damned parasite was adapting to his transformed form with alarming speed.
Zantem's active perception needed mana, not "blood" like the humans...
So now each of Lucien's movements seemed more precise than the last, each strike more devastating. The sword found weak points that Zantem didn't even know he had in this new form.
The attacks became progressively more lethal. Where before they barely managed to cut through his resistance, now each impact tore away significant chunks of his vitality.
The final blow came like lightning.
Lucien's sword, charged with magical power amplified by his own transformation, traced a perfect arc.
This time there was no time to dodge, no way to deflect the attack.
The impact was devastating, 760 points of damage in a single strike.
The blade passed so close to severing his head that Zantem could feel the wind of the attack on his exposed throat.
For the first time since adopting this monstrous form, Zantem felt something he believed impossible: genuine fear.
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Zynthor floated with satisfied air as he approached the city. Discover exclusive content at empire
A single blow had been enough to eliminate that weak woman parasite he'd found running so carelessly.
'Easiest point in history,' he reflected with disdain. 'Didn't even have time to defend itself. Was it damaged by Zantem already?'
He had found more humans afterward, but something about the situation didn't add up. By now he should have seen signs of Zantem massacring parasites, but there was no trace of...
The thought froze in his mind.
There, in the distance, a figure that made his blood run cold.
The form was similar to an artromus, but distorted, mixed with humanoid features in a way that made his mind scream that something was fundamentally wrong.
The realization hit him like a physical blow.
Zantem had resorted to true metamorphosis. The horror of what this meant was just beginning to settle in his mind when the mental connection finally established.
'GET DOWN HERE, HELP ME!' Zantem's mental voice resonated with desperate urgency in his head. 'NOW!'