Chapter 80 - A Demon Beast (1/2)

The now large wolf looked over at Laz and smiled, at least he thought it was a smile. After all, when a large wolf looks at you and smiles, it either means it is happy or it is about to eat you. Although the monster like creature was still roaring in pain a bit away from them, Laz just foolishly looked at Vivi who had suddenly grown massive.

Vivi, after smiling, just leaned over and rubbed her head against Laz's, as though she was telling him that yes, it was her. Laz, for his own part, reached up and petted the now huge head before smiling.

'Well, this is a surprise,' he thought to himself.

Vivi then turned back to look at the nightmarish creature before growling again. The creature, although in pain and angry, wasn't moving. Upon a closer look, Laz noticed the arm which Vivi had ripped off, was starting to regrow at a visible rate. In just a few breaths of time, the arm was back to normal. After looking over, Laz realized that the ripped off arm had noticeably withered and looked like a dead tree branch.

”Uh... ok,” was the only thing Laz could think to say. The monster was now eyeing them with a bit more caution, but it didn't seem to show any fear. For the moment, no one was about to do anything. It was a classic style standoff.

”Demon beast??” Aqua muttered, almost to himself. Although he was really quiet, the surrounding atmosphere was so silent you could hear a pin drop, so everyone actually heard him. Vivi didn't show a reaction, but Laz turned back for a moment to look at the little sprite who actually had a sword drawn.

Looking closer, the sword looked at most to be about as long as Aqua was tall which couldn't have been more than five or six inches. Strangely though, Laz felt a bit weird about it. He had his sense going the whole time, so he could see that Aqua was a being made up of pure source essence while the sword seemed to be like a tiny black hole. There was absolutely no energy visible around it but it didn't look fake either.

At the same time, Laz looked back a Malene and noticed a similar item in her hand, except it was about a foot long. When he looked at the strange blade without his sense, he was startled to realize that it was invisible to the naked eye. This just lead him to questions that couldn't be asked right now.

”What are demon beasts?” Laz asked, turning around to face the monster.

”You have the sight, don't you? Look at the creature and focus on it.” Aqua didn't say anything more but just hovered in front of Malene as though he was going to protect her.

Laz, once more facing the strange bear/tree like creature, focused in on it and noticed a strange purple glow coming from it's chest area. It looked like source energy, but the color was far different than anything else he had see. Most energy was greenish in color and floated along as though going with the breeze. Other energy, like the blue near the strangely cold lake and the gold that was around the weird plant, seemed vibrant and lively in nature. But the purple energy coming off of this demon beast looked sinister and a bit dirty, as though black specks were merged into the dark purple light.

”What the hell is that?” Laz asked, after noticing it.

”It's the demon's core. As long as that thing still has energy, the creature won't die no matter how many times you rip it apart. It can regrow, basically from that tiny crystal. Any damage done to it will result in the core losing energy. Drain enough energy and it will shut down. Break or damage the core enough and it will also cause the creature to die,” Aqua responded while basically telling everyone what they had to do.

”So, it's like a battery huh?” Laz said, trying to rationalize things.

Aqua looked at Laz like he was stupid.

”You know what? Sure kid. It's a battery. A glowing evil battery that makes the damn thing immortal. Battery is definitely the right term for it.”

Despite the heavy sarcasm, Laz didn't respond back. He knew he was just dumbing things down, but he did't care. He was just trying to get things to a point he understood. No matter how profound this core was, it was just a battery. Once you took out the battery or caused too much of a drain, the thing would stop working.

'Why not just call a spade a spade?' Laz thought to himself.

”By the way midget, how do you know all this?” Laz finally asked what was on his mind.

”Tell you later, if we live that long,” Aqua promised.