Chapter 470 (1/2)
Drake looked around at the surrounding 20 men and women, the cream of East End, as they smiled cockily at him.
“...You really want to fight us all at once?” Zither said, his smile long and lazy on his face.
Drake nodded solemnly, his eyes scanning the group around him. At first, he wasn’t sure what to make of the Ghosthound’s strange speech about power. When Sydney appeared to be sleeping when Drake returned, he decided to check to see how much of it was true.
Even now, as he looked at those around him, he noticed the way they were standing, with two of them close enough to Drake that, should he attack suddenly, they would likely be dead before the true fighting started. It was an easy thing, Drake supposed not to understand implicitly the range of a lunging man with a sword, or of a monster with claws, but it was something that he would see corrected, regardless of their performance against him in a group.
“Fine, fine… but do you want a half hour to get your Bone Armor ready?” Zither asked, casually moving to a peg on the wall to get training gear and a wooden sword to practice with.
Grimacing, Drake pressed down, using every ounce of Willpower to accelerate the process. Around him, out of his pores, liquid bone flowed, joining together and shaping itself almost instantly, forming gauntlets, greaves, pauldrons, and a helmet. Within 30 seconds, Drake’s entire body was covered in the Bone Armor and he let out a long breath. The 20 guards were frozen, regarding him with shock.
He supposed he shouldn’t feel too smug, most of this simply had to do with having higher Stats. But Drake couldn't deny that using the Skill, day after day, as a defense against death had sharpened his utilization to heights he would have previously considered impossible.
“No need,” Drake said simply, drawing his great sword of bone. “And don’t bother with putting the gear on, I will leave you in one piece. I will attack in 10 seconds. Ready yourselves.”
*****
Neveah delighted in her new body, but it was relatively easy for Randidly to tear her away from experimentation and towards his inner world, where Lucretia waited. Neveah seemed determined that after this, however, they would head into Donnyton, now that she ‘looked like a people’. Randidly wasn’t sure how he could break it to her that she, in fact, didn’t look much like a person at all, so he said nothing.
If anything, her transformation made her look more fearsome, as the Bone Wyrm head was pasted onto a vaguely humanoid body. But it was true that her size enabled her to move through most human doors, which had hitherto been taboo, as she could only shatter them, not go through them.
They found Lucretia floating in the sky above Randidly’s Soul Skill. When the Monster King had sacrificed his life, he had severely damaged the Creature, and her minions had lost their guidance, often attacking each other. This allowed the allied armies to crush the remnants, driving them away.
Even now, below their floating forms, the people were beginning to rebuild, fixing all the damage that the Skin Shifters and then the army that had followed had caused. Even without the Monster King, the monsters stayed in line for the rebuilding efforts, the wolf woman monster leading them to assist. It would only last for a few more weeks, as previously agreed, but for now, there was peace in his Soul.
There was more than peace, however, there was a transformation that would occur, Randidly could sense, once he had time to think it through and shape it. But for now, he turned his attention to Lucretia.
“You’ve looked through the memories already?” He asked.
She nodded. “Some of them. But they are messy and fragmented, so it’s hard. The Thief gathered them as consistently as she could, but she didn’t… want to stay in that place long. Not while… the Monster King’s body watched her, she said. She did, however, bring the body back with her.”
Randidly didn’t know what to say to that. He felt profoundly responsible for his death, in a way he never had before. He had killed, sure, but he had never convinced someone else that it was worth it to die for him. Well, perhaps he had done that to all of his Soul Skill. But with the Monster King, the convincing was a very personal thing. Randidly had come down and spoken to him, given him the tools he needed to carry out the task of burning the Creature from the inside out.
For that sacrifice, Randidly swore to himself to care more constantly for his internal world. They deserved much better than the cursory investigation he had given them previously.
Held in Lucretia’s hands was a bowl, and inside of it, there were numerous small gems. They were thick and dark things, forest green, maroon, navy blue, and when Randidly reached out to touch them, he felt them flicker and twitch, and then slide into his fingers to become a part of him.
They weren’t easy to piece apart, as Lucretia said, and they hit him in a huge wave of images and thoughts and emotions. Although they weren’t his, and they weren’t overpowering in any way, they were certainly compelling. It was almost chilling, how he could see from its- well, truly her- perspective how right she was in what she was doing.