Unbound

Name: Deceit of Misfortune

Type: Primordial-Spawn

Level: 61

--$(#

ERROR!

The same error plagued his Voracious Eye with Aslei as with the other. She grew, the thing inside her tearing free until little was left of the poor chorister. It fixed Felix with a sneer as it's teeth were replaced with crooked fangs.

"You knew, yet did nothing! A fool in the end, Felix Nevarre!"

Deceit of Misfortune—what a name—raised it's Human-adjacent head and let loose a sharp, ululating cry. Everyone winced, but Felix and Vess both felt its call surge with Intent. They met eyes as it blistered the air and raced into the darkness.

she signed at him.

Like a guitar string the size of a city, a low basso thrum shivered through the darkness, and an answering howl returned. Felix could sense them: Revenants racing down the tunnel, at least fifty and rising, and behind them ran several enormous Ghouls.

It's a goddamn trap.

"Monsters! Incoming!" Felix shouted, but barely got the words out when the chorister backhanded him across the room.

"HOUUUGH!"

Felix smashed through two triangular pillars, each impact a blinding flash of pain. It cut through his Song of Absolution like it wasn't even there.

"Felix!" Vess called out, but all he perceived were flashing lights and an atonal ringing in his head. The ground beneath him shook as the malformed beasts clashed with his allies. "Pit!"

Felix rolled to his feet to his Companion's piercing screech. The hate was clear, burning bright in their bond, and chorister was hit by a flurry of Frost Spears and Wingblades. The spells splashed against her scaled hide, nothing but colored lights for all they affected her. With contemptible ease, she plucked him from the air and snarled.

"Begone, rat! AAAGH!" Within her enlarged grip, Pit's entire body ignited with a virulent green flame. "AAGH!" The abomination hurled Pit down, faster than Felix could track, and the tenku's body smashed into the floor so hard it rippled the tiles for yards around it.

"NO!" Felix choked. Something in his chest cracked and the greatest agony he'd ever felt lacerated his nerves with a sharp, unending fire. "PIT!"

The monster chuckled darkly, her not-quite-Human visage marred by a ruinous maw and sneering disdain. "Praise me, Felix. Your attachment is a pathetic sickness." Her thickened foot lifted, now a claw of rust red and putrid yellow flesh. " I shall cure it!"

While the Fiend fumbled against the other, Darius Reed focused upon the Pride of Blight. Clearly the stronger of the two, the abomination was, at first glance, beyond even his Skills. He shoved that idea out of his Mind.

No. He flourished his greatsword. I will cross that divide, upon the edge of my blade.

"Mine!" The Pride of Blight stomped forward, it's claws already grasping for a distracted Felix. Reed hewed his heavy, doubled edged greatsword across it's ten-inch long talons. Sparks flew, and the Blight was brought up short. The Hand whirled his greatsword and smiled at the abomination.

"I'll take the first dance, I think."

"RRRUUUAUGGH!"

The Blight's fury was considerable, and Reed could feel it shake his core with its strength. A common tactic among the stronger monsters on the Continent; they would leverage their innate ferocity against even stronger foes, sometimes besting them. But Reed was no child from a backwater like Haarwatch. He was an officer of Pax'Vrell's military, one handpicked by the Duke himself and invested with authority far above the station he was born into. The Duke promoted those who knew the value of work, and Darius Reed's position was only below the Duke's own.

The Blight's one-two swipe was titantic, and they blasted apart the flooring and walls where they hit, but Reed dodged its attacks with ease.

Steps of the Drake!

A variation on the Duke's family style, Reed flitted within the Blight's guard while it's hands tried to pummel the empty earth. "You're a thousand years too early to catch me with that, monster!" His blade flashed with dark blue Mana, and a shower of blows deflected it's massive arm. Yet its hide remained unharmed. Reed marveled at its Vitality; the touch of a Primordial had truly driven it beyond Humanity.

"Feh!" The Blight gurgled. Unlike the other chorister, this one seemed further gone along its path of dark power. The teeth in its warping face flexed unpleasantly. "Die!"

Vile crimson clouds gathered within it's claws, and it drove forward.

"Pit!" Felix's shout grabbed Vess' attention. The monster he faced was letting loose a series of discordant whines, things she didn't understand in the least. But when it hurled Pit to the ground and went to stomp him, its intent was clear.

Vess' seven silver spears reached the monster just as it lifted its powerful leg, and she wasted no time in detonating them. Air Mana raged against the abomination's flesh, unable to penetrate it's scales. But that was never their purpose.

Dragoon's Footwork!

Blurring across the battlefield, Vess managed to reach the former Chorister of Siva only moments after her spears exploded. She spun as she arrived, using her momentum to slam Felix's massive bone sword into the back of the beast's knee. With a surprised howl, the creature stumbled to it's side.

"Pit! Run!" Vess screamed, but that was all she managed before a clawed foot snapped outward.

Vess tried to dodge but it was too fast. The blow caught her body at an angle. The world spun wildly for a brief, nauseating moment before she hit something hard enough that she felt her leg snap.

"MMMMF!"

She muffled her pained gasp and forced herself to keep rolling. She'd hit one of the triangular pillars and spun again, this time nearer the giant glowing scale. Waves of heat boiled off the thing and nearly made her lose her breakfast, but worse than that was the howling that came from beyond. The dark, gaping tunnel behind the scale took that moment to burst alive with a rampaging horde of Revenants.

They were all in a lot of trouble.

The pain of his bond was excruciating, and Felix felt suddenly lost in the haze of emotions and reverberating sensations between him and his Companion. Thankfully, the detonating wind blasts shook Felix back to his senses.

"Pit! Run!"

Vess had somehow toppled it, but the thing's clawed foot booted her away. She flew fast and hit a pillar hard, though her Body wasn't durable enough to break through. She broke instead.

"Vess!" Felix shouted, but she didn't answer. He turned back to the piece of shit that did it, and found Pit taking flight from his crater. Pit are you okay?

Pain assurance flitted across their bond, but it hurt, like driving splinters into his eyes. The both of them hissed, and Pit's flight faltered. Felix shoved his hand out. Converge!

Light flashed and Pit vanished, instants before a thin, spike filled tail tore through his position. Felix's Spirit lurched with the addition, an ache he couldn't reach. But better protected within than out there. Better for both of them.

"Foolish child," hissed the chorister.

Felix's HUD blinked at him.

Status Condition: Spirit Damage (Minor)

Spirit Damage: -10% Efficacy of Spirit Skills

What!

"You hitched your cart to a beast," Misfortune continued with a dark chuckle. "Few know the limitations of a Companion, but I do. Hurt the beast, cripple the mage."

Felix's memory flashed back to that day, months ago, when he'd chosen to bond Pit.

A Choice Is Made.

All Choices Have Consequences.

Bear Your Burdens Well, Lost One.

"I don't need my Spirit to kill you," Felix started to say, but the monster was already charging. "Shit!"

Unfettered Volition!

Dodge is level 50!

Journeyman Tier!

You Gain:

+3 AGL

+3 DEX

+3 PER

Felix moved fast, but still he was barely ahead of the Primordial-Spawn. He slammed into the nearby wall, splintering it with his impact before rebounding sideways and just behind his target. It's tail lashed again, but Felix grabbed the thing instead. The spikes barely dented his sculpted armor, but the momentum of the whipcord appendage hurled him free, his grip foiled.

Felix landed twenty feet away, skidding on the bloodstained ground, just in time to see the wave of Revenants pour from behind the Scale.

"Shield wall! Form up! Protect the injured!" Cal's voice was amazingly loud, strident and clear over the sound of two behemoths roaring at Felix and the others. The Hand and Harn faced the Pride of Blight, while Felix was handling Misfortune all by his lonesome.

The Revenants hit the shield wall as he watched, and the chorister cackled. Sheets ice and fire sprang up around the shields, and buzzing Sparkbolts hit with unerring precision. Then the Ghouls started emerging, and the fight was truly on.

"Your people are doomed!" the twisted chorister shouted.

"Quiet, you!"

Bodie appeared behind the beast and swung his massive, enhanced hammer into the chorister's left flank. It cracked like a gunshot, and she let out a high pitched yelp of pain. Felix grinned and bolted for Vess. She was in the midst of that horde, and she was hurt.

But he had to get past the beast first, and evading it's clutches proved impossible. Each attempt had the creature recover and nearly skewer him with her bone tail, or smash him through another set of pillars. Feinting to the right just as Bodie crashed into its body and staggered the chorister, Felix almost made it. But the thing was getting stronger somehow, and it shrugged off the strongman's attack. The wound from his mace healed before their eyes, the red miasma thickening against its scales until the gashes disappeared. Even it's advancement felt greater than before, like it was just on the cusp of Master Tier.

No, we can beat her. I just—Felix paused as he saw more and more miasma swirl around the chorister. Both of them, actually, the Blight regenerating his wounds just as quickly. I just have to get close enough.

Felix unsheathed the Femur of the Envoy and fed it some of his dwindling Essence. He still had Sovereign of Flesh active and it ate Essence quicker than almost anything else. Even more now, as the Spirit Damage he'd suffered reduced the efficacy of the Skill. But as the metallic Femur grew, he only focused on moving.

Unfettered Volition!

Wild Threnody!

The distance was eaten up in moments, and Felix shoved his Mana through the swinging length of metal. Lightning crackled, discharging into a bolt of azure force when the club crashed into Misfortune's heavy shoulder. A quick follow up with Influence of the Wisp only grazed her with blue-white wispfire, and her hide fought off the sizzling effects of his Wrack and Ruin. Even with Bodie assisting her, he can't seem to hurt her much at all.

"Your magic is useless!" The chorister crowed. She spun, backhanding Bodie from his feet and using her tail to drive spikes toward Felix's chest. It missed and she growled in frustration. "Stay still!"

Felix ducked her tail, braced his feet, and swung again.

Arrow of Perdition!

Flashing the effect through his weapon Skill, the blue-gold power was both easier and more difficult to produce. Above anything, it felt weird, shoving a metaphysical, conjured arrow through the end of a club. Yet he hit true. There was a flash of blue-gold radiance as the bludgeoning weapon made contacts with the Deceit of Misfortune's abdomen. Directly above her core.

She stumbled with a pained, surprised groan.

"Wh-what?" The abomination didn't lose any Health, but its inhuman face stretched into an awful expression of mountain pain. He couldn't tell what Skill it had suddenly lost access to, but it didn't matter. "How?"

Felix didn't bother answering. He was close enough now. He flitted forward and slammed his talon outward, just piercing the weaker flesh of it's belly.

Ravenous Tithe!

Like called to like, as ever before. The red miasma from the air surged into him, a waterfall of potency that was nearly overwhelming. Essence filled him, along with the chorister's rage and shock, but he didn't stop.

Ravenous Tithe!

Again and again, Felix took chunks of the beast. Each time, he drew more. Blood and viscera, scale and sinew, all of its stolen power he in turn stole away. It hurt him, the amount, but he'd eaten Queens and Kings. One corrupted priest was nothing.

"R-release me!" She cried, her bulk deflated by his unstoppable hunger. "You—you must!" The chorister was little more than skin and bones, though still impossibly stretched by the corrosive power of the Primordial. A cadaver pushed to extreme limits, barely recognizable as Human let alone Aslei the chorister.

A large part, wanted to keep feeding until there was nothing left. Until she'd been wiped clean entirely. Yet a portion of his weakened Spirit, instinct maybe, felt the rarefied vibrations within the chorister's quaking soul. He could feel the woman, imprisoned within herself. Screaming, Body lost, Mind overwhelmed, Spirit entrapped. Still there, despite it all, still Human.

A Skill within his core space shimmered alight with a compelling song he'd never before heard. That part of him, one he did not yet fully understand, reached.

"The Ruin is not the End," Felix whispered. "Unite the Lost."

Unite the Lost!

Blessing of the Lost Title Detected...

Affects enhanced!

A massive chunk of his stolen Essence, nearly all of what he'd just acquired, was torn from his channels by the arcane forces of his Skill. A storm of Mana thundered through him as well, as his spinning core flung itself into higher gear and discharged wild lightning across his Spirit. The Essence, imbued with streamers of Mana, was turned to flesh and blood and sinew.

With a thunderclap, the both of their bodies were hurled apart. Felix rolled, nearly completely disoriented and sent plowing through the unsuspecting bodies of four Revenants. His reinforced Body was less hurt by that than by the screaming discharge of power that had his insides screaming in aching horror.

My god, he gasped. Revenants howled all around him, but he paid them little attention. My god. What was that?

Unite the Lost is level 2!

...

Unite the Lost is level 8!

Felix slashed outward, his talon ripping across Achilles tendons and hamstrings with equal measure. Revenants screeched in pain and a few even collapsed, their legs no long working correctly. It gave him enough room to stand back up and take stock.

To take in the fact that the Deceit of Misfortune was gone.

Aslei Tunn, Chorister of Siva, instead stood in its place. The woman's expression was one of utter and complete shock, before she collapsed completely.

New Title!

Save the Lost (Legendary)!

You have saved a victim of the Primordial's influence, in defiance of Fate itself! Bold of you! +10% AFI, FEL, and INT!

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