Winter's hands swept blindly across the dirt, desperate, frantic. More like instinct than thought. Her eyes were wide but empty, still unfocused, her breathing ragged as she searched for what had always been her anchor in battle.
Her grip found nothing.
The hollow shock in her face lasted only a heartbeat before fury replaced it. A heat wave pulsed outward from her palm, the air crackling as the temperature surged. Even the fallen leaves shriveled instantly.
"Who...who has my blades?" she rasped, voice sharp and low.
Eric froze.
'Oh, balls.'
One of the discs hovering mid-air shimmered with a faint reddish hue, as though answering its rightful master. Winter's narrowing eyes caught it. They turned toward Eric, who realized he'd lost his grip a little on the weapons, tried the dumbest possible defense.
He smiled, nervously and with the innocence of a pickpocket caught red-handed.
"Hey…those...are yours?"
Her eyes widened fully now. "You—you're controlling—"
Before she could finish her words, the monster shrieked again, a screech that cracked the silence apart like thunder clawing through steel. It coiled its giant limbs, slamming one sword-hand deep into the earth. Pebbles flew. Dust swirled.
Bux and Summer both yelled in unison as the tremor knocked them back several feet.
Eric didn't think. He felt. The move came naturally this time, not as command or struggle but as reaction. The twin spinning sickles obeyed his command as he mentally took charge of them again, darting them toward the beast's midsection in a blazing arc.
WHOOSH!
Twin trails of orange light cut through the air, exploding as they made contact. Flames erupted from the impact, enveloping the monster in a fiery cage. The creature shrieked, its tough hide sizzling under the supernatural heat.
Winter staggered back onto her knees, her eyes bright with disbelief as she watched her own weapon dance beyond her will. The ground trembled from the monster's convulsions, but she wasn't looking at it. She was staring at Eric.
"That... shouldn't be possible."
[Host Has Achieved Temporary Soul Resonance With Infernal Twin Blades: Hellfire Orbit]
[Warning: Soul Resonance Cannot Be Sustained Without an Established Bond or Permission From Original Mage]
[Time Remaining: 3 Minutes]
'Three minutes?! That's basically two and a half more than I usually survive!'
'System, tell me I can make the fire stay longer!'
[You Can Try Not To Die. Statistically More Effective.]
'Not helping!'
Eric pushed himself upright despite the complaint from his still-healing bones. He extended his trembling hands toward the hovering discs as if manually guiding them, though by now, they were the ones guiding him.
"Burn, you crusted cockroach!"
Winter's eyes might just as well pop out their sockets.
The sickles obeyed the anger, searing white this time. They collided again, exploding against the beast's thorax, tearing through the plated scales and biting into the soft flesh beneath.
The beast wailed. Raw plasma hissed where its blood hit the ground.
"Bux!" Winter's shout sliced the chaos. "While it's down!"
That got the burly man to grunt back into motion. He dashed forward in one heavy leap, his enormous hammer flaring with a golden hue as symbols ignited along its shaft.
"About damn time!"
CRAAACK!
The mighty swing connected with the monster's chest, and the echo was like the collapse of a temple. The beast's frame bent under the strike, and with another metallic screech, it fell to its side, crushing the undergrowth beneath it.
Eric felt the resonance start to crack apart. An ache split through his temples as if molten iron was being poured straight into his veins. He screamed, grabbing his head while the sickles clattered uselessly to the ground.
[Warning: Soul Resonance Terminated Abruptly]
[Minor Neural Overload Detected. Suggest Immediate Rest]
[Or Brain Soup, Your Choice.]
[You're still a weaklikg after all. Don't know why I granted you that sneaky little ability.]
He collapsed sideways, his vision blurry. Still, even with the edges of his mind fraying, he noticed something odd about the dying monster. It wasn't fading like beasts normally should. Instead, its body twitched quietly, as though resisting an invisible force.
Not that he knew so much about the beasts in this world, but beasts should pretty much have the same behavioral pattern in their last minutes.
"Wait…" he muttered, barely a whisper. "Something's... off."
Winter staggered to her feet, wiping blood from the corner of her lips. Her white hair clung to her sweaty forehead, and her eyes glowed faintly with restrained power. She lifted her hand, conjuring a small orb of flame that hovered above her palm.
Then Eric saw it — strings. Thin, glistening strands stretching from beneath the monster's body into the dark woods behind. They pulsed faintly with reddish light.
"Winter! Don't—"
Too late. She unleashed the orb.
A heartbeat later, the forest shuddered as something vast jerked awake. Leaves exploded outward as several dark figures detached themselves from the shadows, hulking, indistinct forms of beasts that mirrored the fallen one's silhouette.
Bux's hammer slumped an inch. "Oh, bloody heavens."
Summer groaned.
"Multiple heat signatures," Winter said coldly, bracing herself, her hands lit with twin fire runes now. "At least five. A hive. It's a hive. You've read the situation wrong this time, Summer. It's not a stray beast. It's merely a puppet."
Eric slammed his palms against the ground weakly. Sweats of doom formed on his forehead.
*Chime!*
[Secondary Quest Issued: Survive The Hive]
[Reward: ???]
"System," Eric rasped, "you have got to stop treating near-death as a tutorial."
[Growth Mindset, Abyss.]
' I swear, I'm going to personally uninstall you someday.'
The beasts began to circle, eight-legged shapes weaving between the roots, their glowing eyes filling the mist. The metallic tang in the air grew thick enough to taste. Eric fought the rising nausea and scrambled for the fallen sickles beside him.
Winter turned to him suddenly. Despite all the fury from before, her voice softened just a touch. "Stay behind me. You're in no condition to fight. It's time to get myself in the game after that surprise attack I suffered."
Eric almost laughed. "Lady, I'm in no condition to breathe, but here we are."
"You're insane."
"Probably contagious."
[Maybe Focus On Not Dying, Host.]
She raised her hands, summoning massive columns of flame that snaked outward. Each hissed and twisted, becoming serpentine infernos devouring the undergrowth where the front-most beasts sprang from. The air sizzled as the red glow painted her skin gold.
She was ready to unleash...