The Grand Weave

There was an explosion of sound, cheering and wooting from the back. I couldn't keep the smile from my face. Staring at the two severed halves of the cultist giant, it felt good.

The cultist stood around the crowd, unmoving and stiff. They stood eerily still, facing the direction of their fallen leader. The sight put my nerves on edge.

I was ready to turn and impale the nearest one on my spear, but then I heard screaming mixed in with some shouts of alarm.

I didn't want to turn around, fearing what I'd see. But then the ground started to shake, and I saw the cultists twitch before exploding into motion.

Those who had ignored the robed figures to celebrate a victory prematurely were caught off guard. More than a few people were cut and stabbed by the daggers, and the shouts and screams turned into moans of pain.

Gritting my teeth, I picked up my spear and whipped around. "Áine go, I got this. Save as many lives as you can."

She quickly squeezed in a hug before jumping off. Her tiny form blitzed through the air, flying to the nearest woman who was clutching a hand to her stomach. Bright red blood was starting to seep through, and she had a wild look in her eyes as she conjured a fist-sized rock and sent it flying into the cultist's face.

I didn't have time to see if the attack did anything to the cultist because suddenly, one of the tentacles from the fallen cultist began to slither upwards.

When I turned around, it was just as I feared. The giant tentacles were holding up the mega-cultist two halves. There was no blood and guts, just a shadowy void splitting the cultist in two.

Suddenly, the grey tentacles slapped the two halves together and began to wrap up the cultist like a cocoon. They slither and undulate into a grotesque ball as the battle raged on.

I checked the energy I had left after the attack, and it was distinctively low. Most of what I had was kinetic energy ready to be released through my claws, but I doubted that would do much good.

There was a crash behind me, and then Sereza slid into view. She had several cuts along her arms but was relatively fine. The wounds were shallow, and not much blood had seeped through her clothes.

She flashed a grin. "What's the plan?"

I pointed to the writhing cocoon. "Need to get in there."

She glanced backwards before using her skill to send spectral daggers into the back of one cultist. She knocked some stray hair out her face and turned to face the monster.

"I have enough mana to overcharge my Acid Surge. Will that work?"

"Perfectly, let's go."

We began to sprint towards the cocoon while racing past the group of people fighting off one of the tree monsters. It was surprising to see one of them still alive, but with five people, they'd have to handle it.

Three cultists sprung in our path before we could make it more than twenty meters and charged. Sereza sped up, and I joined her. There was no spoken communication, but I saw her flash a sign with her hands, and I understood.

She approached the cultist coming towards her and dived within arm's reach. Instead of trying to attack, she maneuvered behind him and pushed.

The cultist was sent flying into my spear, stopped only by the wings at the base of the head. That was fine. I sliced downwards, carrying the cultist to the ground, and trampled the cultist with my feet, unhooking the spear from their chest.

The cultist may not be dead, but was undoubtedly wounded and down for the count. If we were lucky, somebody else would finish them off before they got up.

The second cultist continued their charge, but Sereza stopped them with a preemptive strike. Her glowing green blades left an afterimage ripple through the air, barely missing the cultist's throat.

They leaned backward while their arm came at a strangle angle that should not have worked with basic anatomy. But Sereza countered it by flicking her tail, impaling the offending hand above the wrist.

By now, I was close, so she yanked back, pulling the cultist forward while I rammed my spear into their chest. My momentum carried me on, and the cultist was torn away from Sereza's tail with a crack of bones. Their dagger dropped, and I reached out to stop the other arm.

Black fist impacted crystal claws, and I absorbed the energy from the hit. Not letting the bastard attack again, I used my supernaturally sharp nails to remove an entire chunk of meaty flesh from their throat. Angling my spear downward, the cultist was forced to the ground as my spear dislodged from their chest, and I continued onward.

Sereza was only a second behind. "Good teamwork!" she shouted.

I flashed her a thumb-up while jumping over a pair of corpses. One was a robed cultist; their tattered cloth half singed through. And the other was the face of an older man, somewhere around his forties. He had muscular arms and a broad chest, but his extended gut spoke of a different life. It was a quick death as I spotted no other injuries other than the long gash across his throat.

All the more reason to end this quickly.

We were coming up on the cocoon, and it was beginning to twitch. Each tentacle was now darker in colour, more black than grey. And the air around it was starting to distort.

"Gotta hurry!" I shouted.

Sereza didn't reply and lowered her head into a full sprint. The last burst of speed allowed her to barrel through a pair of elves stumbling into our path from the left.

They cried in alarm, but Sereza ignored them, jumped, and gripped two hands on her dagger. The neon yellow haze expanded as she began to fall forward, and I felt her mana activate.

Sour stinging, burning pain, singe the nose, sting the eyes, burn the flesh.

The impressions of her mana filtered through my thoughts, my mana sense interpreting the small burst of power that flowed through the felkin's hands.

She plunged the dagger down, her blade silent as she crashed into the writhing cocoon. She twisted and screamed as the area in front of her was bathed in a wave of acid.

It shot forth and used the wound made by the dagger to blast forward in a narrow cone. There was a stutter to the mana in the area, and I saw the sky begin to spasm.

It was concerning, and my focus was on the massive hole being created as Sereza continued throwing her mana into the skill.

I could tell she was nearing her end, and when she stumbled, I gently pulled her back and drove inside. The acid hissed as it landed on my clothes, but the crystal covering my limbs began absorbing the mana the moment it made contact with the bright acid.

I could feel it mix in with the other energy, separated but contained. Surprisingly, the new mana type didn't try to crawl toward my throat, but rather, it sank lower and joined the kinetic energy lining my arms. I let it, and I kept pushing deeper.

By now, the tentacle wall that made up the cocoon had been eaten through, and I began to see black cloth.

The tentacle had melted only partially in a narrow cone at chest height, requiring me to stop and lean forward. I pushed my arms through the last of the membrane and felt contact with a bunch of soft cloth.

With a growl, I channeled the remaining energy into my claws. The crystal covering my head was still there, so I risked watching the eight grey lines impact the shadows while two glowing yellow lines sliced the sides. I could hear the hiss of acid melting through the robes, and then I felt the kinetic impact begin to bombard the cultist's body.

It was a series of blows that looked like someone had launched cannonballs inside the hole.

All of a sudden, the tentacles around me began to move and shift. There was a high-pitched shriek that turned my mind to mush. And when the cocoon started to squeeze down, I was unable to stop it, and I felt my hip begin to creak.

Then, a large fist gripped the back of my vest and yanked me out of the tentacle's grip. My body was thrown backwards, and I smacked my head into the ground causing further pain.

Through teary eyes, I watched as Groxl threw me on his shoulder and activated his movement skill. The world began to blur as his skill coated us in a bubble of water and shadows.

But before my vision became entirely obscured, an explosion from inside the cocoon made the flesh bulge outward till the tentacles slacked, and a burst of shredded cloth and black blood pelted the campgrounds.

Then Groxl's skill ended, and I felt my body rock from the sudden stop. My head hurt a lot, the pounding making every slight jostle feel like a smack to the face.

Groxl tried to set me down on my feet, but I stumbled and fell over. He caught me and lifted me up like a baby in the giant beastkins arms.

Aaargh...fuck...you. You giant... damn saurian.

His mouth moved, but all I could hear was a vague ringing. In truth, it hurt even to have him do that, so I reached a hand out and placed my finger on his snout.

He froze, and I weakly gestured to my head and then my ears. Groxl blinked a few times before seemingly understanding. He closed his mouth and gently sat me down. I gave the big man a thumbs-up and called out to my familiars.

"Aine... where are you?"

Aine popped up from the crowd, and I closed my eyes as she flew over. She reached a hand on my face and gently placed her palm on the crystal surface.

With her healing skill beginning to soothe the hammering in my head, I relaxed and let myself sink through Zharia's memories. Surprisingly, the little bird was sitting on Sereza's shoulder, only a few feet away.

I was worried when Groxl grabbed me that Sereza would be left behind, but from what I saw from Zharia's perspective, Yurlox had used his own movement skill to grab her and shoot away on what looked like a water slide.

From there, I got to see the explosion from her perspective, and I chuckled at how silly the cocoon looked with the explosion pushing outwards.

After Groxl carried me away, the rest of the cultists were slain, and the people began celebrating. Sadly, I noticed a few dead faces mixed in with the corpses.

It was annoying, aggravating, really. But it was also inevitable there was no way to pull off the rescue without losing some of the people during the fight.

At least from what Zharia saw, all the children made it away safe and sound, guarded by three adults. The mother of the two kids was one of them, and she was busy helping the other children settle down.

Small miracles, at the very least.

Now that we were safe, I opened my eyes and pulled out a hand mirror from my inventory. I held it at an angle and examined the crystal coating my head.

It extended from the base of my neck to the top of my skull. The crystal smoothly grew over my mask, and I just realized I had somehow been able to breathe.

When I raised my chin, I found the crystal had created small holes that allowed me to pull in air. It was a remarkably intuitive feature, and I couldn't help but be surprised at the change to the transformation.

It was the first time a skill had changed, even if it was only in regard to another skill. I knew shifting the effects of a skill was possible, but it was supposed to be something that took an incredible amount of time. The odds of doing it because of a high-stress event were beyond rare.

I finished examining the changes by angling the mirror behind my head and noted the small plate that had grown to protect the back of my neck. My ears were also covered but stained with blood dripping from burst drums. The loud screech would have done more damage if I hadn't had those coverings.

With the examination finished, I waited as Sereza approached, and I turned to Groxl. "Thanks for saving me. It looks like you only owe me one favour."

I grinned to show him I was joking, but his serious face ruined the vibe. "You can hear again. A curious little spirit. Powerful skill."

Áine did a small curtsy before resuming her healing of my body. She was pretty empty after going around helping everyone, so she was pulling from my manapool to fix the latest damages.

I shrugged and nodded as Sereza stopped beside the beastkin. "Hell of a way to end the battle. I think you were right."

"About what?"

"When you said that what I listed wasn't even half the interesting things about you. You're a ball of chaos, and I'm loving it."

I smirked. "Thanks, I try my best, I swear."

She stuck out her tongue and nodded to the tent that had somehow stood untouched and undamaged throughout the battle. "You ready to go in there?"

"Yeah, we better hurry in case the people running the sacrifices come." I stood up and groaned. "There's another thing. There's no way I'm leaving without getting something from the big bastard. Do you mind helping with that?"

"You have enough mana?"

"No, but I got a potion. That will be enough if I'm only doing it once. I'll be pretty close to mana fatigue afterward."

"Alright. Let's go."

I waved to Groxl as he stared with crossed arms. "What are you doing?"

"Getting my reward. Don't worry about it."

"I'll join."

I sighed. I didn't want to show him the looting ability, but there was no getting around it. He probably suspected as much, considering I had supplied Travis and Khrem with the ghostgoop.

"Fine. But no questions."

He nodded, and I groaned.

It better be some good loot.