Return of the Fallen Volume 1 Chapter 48
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Author: Blue_Rat
ch48
The Fire Beast had been on his way when he suddenly felt his brother’s power rapidly dropping. Seeing the river of lava left him with a bad feeling, and sure enough, following the river to its source, he spotted a nightmarish scene.
Down below was a boiling river of magma. One that burned at a terrifying temperature and could melt metal in seconds. Even the Fire Beast was unsure if he could withstand such heat. But as he looked down at the last location he felt his brother’s power, he knew…he knew with every fiber of his being that his brother was dead.
The Fire Beast howled in pain.
“BROTHERRRRRR!”
A great sense of sadness and anger unlike any other filled the Sky Beast.
(How could this have happened, Garn was supposed to be severely weakened from my poison so how? How did my brother fall? How did Garn catch him off guard?)
A million questions filled the Sky Beast’s head but nothing was making any sense.
Looking up, the Fire Beast and Garn made eye contact. One was filled with anguish and anger while the other held nothing but a smirk.
“I told you not to fight me. I told you to let me and my friends go but you just couldn’t allow us to leave. Now look at what’s become of your brother. He died painfully, he died stupidly, and above all, he died for nothing. Just as he died for nothing, so too will you.”
Every word was like a powerful blow to the Sky Beast. His stomach twisted in knots as his anguish warped into a mad rage. His thoughts no longer clear, he had lost himself to fury.
“I’ll Kill You, You Filthy Human!”
The Sky Beast charged forth without concern and arrived in front of Garn in less than a second. Clawing biting and sending hundreds upon hundreds of boulder-sized fireballs at point-blank range, the Fire Beast went all out. But with Garn’s barrier up and operating at 100%, he was merely knocked backward and suffered no damage whatsoever.
Garn shook his head.
Without its poisonous tail that could penetrate Garn’s barrier, and with a slower speed than its Wind Beast brother, and now its muddled mind, Garn was confident that there was no way it could now win.
“You fool.”
Garn slowly raised his staff and gathered power. The clouds above began to billow forth as thunder boomed like a war drum and lightning flashed like a blueish white sun.
The Fire Beast no longer cared and continued to throw everything it had at Garn, desperate to rip his throat out. The outcome, though, was now determined.
Garn’s eyes glowed brightly and he pointed his staff at the Sky Beast.
“Go to hell, you stupid mutt.”
A streak of lightning came crashing down and struck the Sky Beast directly in the chest.
*RAAAAAAAAA!*
*Boom*
The Sky Beast’s body expanded and exploded. Garn’s barrier was covered in chunks of meat and bone as a large gush of blood splattered on his barrier. Garn was completely unphased by all of this.
(Had they been smarter they could have taken me, but as soon as they chose to split apart, they lost. Even this Fire Beast might have had a chance to run away. I might have let it off with just an arm but it chooses to seal its fate and attack me. You two may have reached human intelligence but in the end, you don’t think like us. The wise move would probably have been to reassess the situation, instead, you both engage with no knowledge of what your opponent can do. They didn’t know I could cure their poison and they didn’t know I could recover my magic and therefore pursued me on false knowledge, Idiots.)
*Cough Cough Cough*
Garn heard coughing and with a wave of his hand the outside of his barrier was cleaned and he could now see in front of him. The sight though gave him a slight jolt of surprise.
The Fire Beast was now no more than a torso an arm and a head, yet with its magic, it remained alive.
Garn was a little angry at this sight.
“You’re still not dead.”
*Cough Cough*
“Hehe just about. Your lightning sure cleared my head.”
A cascade of blood continuously poured from the bottom half of the Fire Beasts torso. Garn raised his staff and was ready to strike but the Fire Beast pleaded with him.
“Wait! cough cough, please wait. I will die shortly I just want to ask you something. Can you grant me an answer before I die?”
Garn kept his staff at the ready but nodded to the Fire Beast.
“Why should humans exist and not my kind? Why must we be forced into these terrible lands and be caged as though we are lesser? What gives humans the right to rule the lands, the skies, and the seas?”
“Because we humans are the superior species.”
Garn smiled smugly at the Fire Beast and filled his staff with power. The Fire Beast, on the other hand, could not accept that and gathered all of its remaining power in its beast core. With an undying will and fury, the Fire Beast screamed.
“You fucking lowly humans! Every last one of you is a snake in the grass. Greedy by nature, cruel and ugly and yet you claim to be superior. At least we Beasts don’t betray our comrades. Give my regards to your Kin…”
*Boom*
Garn’s lightning struck out and landed directly on the Fire Beast’s head, causing it to explode into several chunks. Garn had felt an ominous power gathering in the Fire Beast and decided to end things abruptly but in doing so he could have sworn he heard the Fire Beast mention his…Just as Garn’s thoughts were about to wonder, the beast core was still gathering power in front of him and was on the verge of exploding. Garn quickly extended a hand and suppressed the energy within.
The amount of magic inside of a beast core was beyond tremendous. If it were to explode then the power within could easily kill Garn. Gathering his power he held the gem-like core in one hand and waved his staff with the other. A small chain of lightning surrounded the core and wrapped itself around it, followed by another and another.
Very quickly there were dozens upon dozens of tiny chains of lightning linked around the beast core. These chains of lightning weren’t just chains though. Were one to examine it closely, you would find that the chains linked together and formed several small inscriptions. With the power of the beast core, the lightning would draw its energy away and reinforce the lightning, allowing the lightning to also suppress it.
In this way, Garn’s lightning could contain the beast core’s energy and at the same time slowly drain it away until it became inert. With a wave of his hand, the chained beast core disappeared into his ring. Letting out a heavy breath, Garn felt relieved.
*Phew*
(That was way too close. Had those Sky Beasts worked better together they might have been able to come close to killing me but this beast core almost going off, this alone brought me infinitely closer to death then them fighting me. One wonders if one of them would have simply self-destructed earlier if I’d be the victor right now and not the surviving Sky Beast.)
Garn began to relax and wonder what the Sky Beast was about to say when once more his thoughts were interrupted.
*Crack Ka-Boom!*
A few hundred miles away an unnatural amount of lightning fell from the sky. Only one other person in the Mirian Swamp could summon that much lightning.
(Alice.)
Garn threw away all useless thoughts and took off, headed in the direction of the lightning.
(I’m on my way Alice, I’ll be there soon.)
*Huff Puff Huff*
(I did it. I actually killed this stupid Scron cub.)
Alice was standing over the dead body of the Scron wolf. After Kazuki and the rest had fled, the Lodian Wasps, seeing that they could not get past the Scron cub’s earth armor nor Alice’s wind barrier, eventually gave up on them and chased after Kazuki and the rest.
Alice had only continued to fight so she could buy the young heroes some time to escape. If they could get far enough away, she figured that, eventually, her Master would finish his fight and then rescue them. She had held on for quite a while but found that both maintaining flight and keeping the Scron wolf at bay with tree spears, consumed too much energy. That’s when she spotted it.
She had been so focused and determined not to let the beast slip past her that she had completely overlooked Shin’s sword still buried in the wolf’s back. Her lightning could not penetrate the wolf’s armor but the sword in its back could be used as the perfect conduit.
*Crack Ka-Boom*
And like that, the wolf had fallen. Alice landed and felt a huge burden removed from her shoulders.
She wanted to sit down, she wanted to rest and finally relax but she knew that the young heroes were still in danger. She turned to leave when.
“Yo, you’re still alive? And even Garn didn’t die, Damn it all.”
Alice was perplexed.
“How? the Sky Beast said it killed everyone, Rust, how are you still alive?”
“Hmm, that messes up the story a bit doesn’t it?”
“Story, what story?”
Rust slowly walked up to Alice and placed both of his hands on her shoulder. Alice looked up at him in confusion.
“It doesn’t matter, it’s nothing to concern your little head over.”
Alice didn’t know why but she suddenly felt a wave a danger. Looking all around she couldn’t find it.
“Rust, we need to get out of here, something’s not right, Rust, Rust.”
Alice called out to Rust several times but he had grown completely silent. Looking up at his large figure, his eyes contained a coldness she had never seen from him. Her body began to tremble and her voice became shaky as she said.
“Ru…Rust what’s wrong with yo…”
*Boom*
Before she could finish her sentence, Rust swung his head forward like a sledgehammer and struck Alice directly in the face. Her skull cracked and caved in immediately and her entire head exploded, sending bone blood and brain matter flying in every direction. Rust dropped her limp body on the ground and wiped his face.
Rust felt no anger or hatred of any kind, there was no sadness or guilt. He felt no emotions whatsoever.
*Haaa*
Turning around, Rust simply walked into the trees and disappeared, where he was headed to, who knew.
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