119 Watchful Waiting (2/2)
The horns of the creature shimmered, a blast of iridescent light clashing against us. As it did, my magic faltered. The elk landed onto the ground before charging towards Yawm. Yawm raised a hand, clasping his hand as it reached him. The horns crumbled against his might before he gripped the monster.
He pulled it towards him, staring at the monster’s grin,
“Is this oddity suppose to incite fear in us?”
He pulped the monster with a light squeeze, the creature’s skull crushing like a rotten tomatoe.
“It’s a laughable attempt at best.”
He lifted himself up before I raised a palm. The blood and guts of the creatures floated off him and our surroundings. I condensed it along with the corpse into a red ball. Yawm turned towards me,
“You know gravitational magics?”
I nodded my head before pulling the ball of red towards me. My helmet reformed, the malicious grin forming on it. The armor’s mouth opened up and swallowed the corpse in one bite. Yawm took a step back,
“By the name of Baldowah, what are you doing?”
I frowned, “Eating the eldritch.”
Yawm’s hands lowered, “You...you can...eat...the eldritch?”
I shrugged, “Yeah, it’s not that big a deal.”
Yawm shook his head before staring at the ground where the elk died. He grabbed his head with a mammoth hand,
“I...I’ve never seen something assimilate eldritch. Nothing, not even Old Ones.”
I peeled my armor off my face as I spread out my arms, “Come on, it’s nothing to make a big fuss over.”
Yawm shook his head while looking up from the ground. As he stood his full height, his head grazed the low lying leaves of the glass trees,
“Oh it is. No matter how benign they may seem, All eldritch carry what I call malignance. They are beings that hold no rhyme or reason. They infect life around them and turn it into disorder. That is what makes eldritch beings worthy of fearing. It’s their potential to corrupt.”
Yawm pointed at me, “This...armor of yours. It’s immune to that influence, otherwise you’d be a floundering ball of meat by now.”
Yawm shook the hand for emphasis, “I’ve seen warriors that I fear fall to splashes of eldritch blood landing in their mouths and eyes. My entire goal revolves around creating a being that creates harmony between the order of our dimension and the chaos of theirs. You already have it.”
I shook my head, “There’s no harmony here. My armor doesn’t use the eldritch energy as it is. It eats it. There’s nothing of that eldritch remaining.”
Yawm cupped his chin, “Ah...that’s disappointing. It’s not nearly as fascinating if your armor is converting eldritch energy rather than using eldritch energy...On another note of interest, you’d be considered an alpha predator to higher level, sentient eldritch. They may listen to you.”
Beside Yawm, the dungeon core still sapped energy from Yawm.
I scratched my nose, “What makes you think that? All the eldritch I’ve tried talking with are backstabbing, egomaniacal pricks.”
Yawm shrugged, “Even eldritch understand when they're no longer staring at a sheep. You’ve no doubt noticed that lower level eldritch will obey the rift keeper. That’s because they fear being eaten. You can use that same kind of fear to control them.”
Yawm raised a hand. The air around us cracked, turned green, and shifted into his hand. He placed the glowing, green energy ball above the dungeon core. A pillar of white exploded from the core, piercing into the ground and the sky. Once it reached a certain height, it rippled outwards. It looked like a normal dungeon core’s pillar of energy.
“I’ve tried using higher level eldritch as allies. Even if I can obliterate them in a moment, they still won’t listen to me. They may listen to you, given your unique situation. I’d think on it.”
I looked at my armor. Technically it was meant to be the skin of an eldritch boss, even if it turned into dimensional fabric. Maybe having a few eldritch under my command would be nice. Besides, it wouldn’t hurt to try. Alright, that’s bullshit because it could hurt really, really badly, but it was worth a shot.
I wouldn’t let Yawm know my thoughts about it, so I shrugged, “Eh, maybe one day.”
Yawm walked away from the dungeon core, “No doubt you’ve attained several dungeon cores before. Whenever you take one, it transports you back to your world. This core is different. It lacks a fixed point on your old planet. I can return us home with it, but that’s if you don’t absorb the mana from it.”
He rubbed his hands together, “So don’t touch it. Are you ready for the fighting then?”
I walked away from the dungeon core,
“What kind of fighting?”
Yawm glanced up, “Ah yes, we never agreed on the kind of learning we would be focusing on.”
We reached several hundred feet from dungeon core, a gentle wind blowing through the forest. I turned a palm towards Yawm, “I’ve been attempting to master some gravitational magic. If you’d like, I can fight with only that assisting my movements.”
Yawm looked down and nodded, “I’m rather rusty on my hand to hand combat regardless.”
He leaned towards me, his hands opening up beside him. He looked like he was going to dash and claw at me. I raised my hands in my normal stance.
“That’s an interesting stance you’ve taken. Is it to guard your head from damage?”
I shook my head, “It’s more about keeping my strikes grounded. That’s been my biggest problem since I’ve gotten...heavier I guess.”
It was at this point that I noticed just how enormous Yawm was. He was over a head taller than me. His hands were large even for his oversized frame, making his fists bigger than my head. His shoulders were broad, and the muscles under his skin looked ready to tear my arms off.
Yawm opened and closed his hands, an eagerness in his voice,
“Are you ready then, Harbinger?”
I closed my eyes and gulped. It was cliche, but it couldn’t be helped. I was about to get my ass kicked.
“I’m as ready as I’ll ever be.”
Yawm leaned towards the ground. The air sounded like it was breaking before green surrounded us. It coalesced onto Yawm as he growled,
“Let’s start slow then, shall we?”