The red Beastly sun shone bright in the morning sky, cutting through the thick corruption overhead. Leor walked through the well tended fields of spiritual plants, growing in the rich soil around the base of the mountain fortress. His initiates blade held loosely in his hand as he casually patrolled the area.
During the day these fields needed to be protected from any wandering wild Beast or defiled Beast that might be attracted to the spiritual herbs that grew here. Normal defiled were not interested in the plants, since they only benefited those with the anatomy of a Beast, while at night the strange mutated defiled who lived around the mountain killed anything that entered this area. Ironically, the corrupted mutants were fulfilling the role of night time guards for the fields. So, thus far, the fields had been kept relatively safe, despite the inability for any of Drelk's Beasts to protect them at night.
After he ran out of high grade spiritual herbs to cleanse of defilement for Drelk, Leor had volunteered for guard duty in the fields to make himself useful and quell the mounting restlessness inside of him.
A few days had now passed since the cleansing of the young dark elf Rynn. However, the child still hadn't awakened from her unnatural slumber, and Drelk spent most of his newly freed up time during the day pacing back and forth at Rynn's bedside. He'd set up a bedroom for her in his large manor, decorating it with all manner of beautiful and colorful spiritual herbs from his personal collection. The room smelled so strongly of spirit herbs that Leor nearly grew lightheaded during his short visit, but Drelk explained that the natural spiritual aura released by the plants could aid recovery.
The reason Leor had been left to his own devices for the past few days was that Alina had locked herself in meditation. She needed to prepare her mind and body for the dangerous transformation that she would soon undergo. Ingesting such a powerful potion was anything but safe, and to make matters worse, it had never been tested on a human being. Human anatomy and Willpower could interact in strange and even dangerous ways to the incredibly potent power of the world tree potion. Choosing to undergo such a procedure was a desperate gamble indeed.
Leor himself hadn't decided on which type of Beast he would eventually decide to embody. It was a difficult and vexing choice to make, because the Beast he decided on would end up becoming an important foundation for his power going forward. If everything went well, anyway. He needed to think carefully about the ramification of each different choice, which was made doubly difficult by the unknown interactions the potion would have with his human body. Would the potion grant him all the abilities of the Beast he selected, or would it be limited? Was it better to choose a Beast with a powerful body, or maybe one with a special ability that aligned with his own unique talent, like the sphinx did for Alina?
To be honest, Leor was quite envious of Alina right now. Her choice had been made for her somehow before she was even born. It was still hard to believe that someone in her family had foreseen the need to retain a portion of the blood of the sacred Beast, and even knew that it would be needed by a daughter of the family someday. Such a thing did not seem possible to Leor. Perhaps Alina was right, and the outcome had been preordained by fate. Leor had trouble accepting that notion however. He needed to believe that living beings had the ability to choose their own futures, for good or for ill. He made peace with the subject though by just accepting the strange occurrence as the will of the light, and pushing it out of his thoughts.
Leor continued to allow his mind to drift in various directions as he circled around the far edge of the northern field, but as his boot pressed into the moist soil below to take another step forward, he suddenly halted in his tracks. A look of startled alarm filled Leor's face, as he suddenly felt the telltale stench of a Defiled Will. Then another, and another. Leor's face turned solemn as he realized it was not just a simple defiled critter, either. It was something much stronger, and there was more than one.
Turning around, Leor set forth to complete the duty to which he had volunteered. Dashing to the center of the field of herbs as quickly as his legs could carry him, he swiftly arrived at the large iron bell, resting there atop a wooden stand. Leor struck the bell with the butt of his sword with all his might, sending a series of ear splitting chimes ringing through the entire area. The Beast's tending to the fields nearby, as well as those simply moving through the area, all dropped what they had been doing to rush toward the sound of the warning bell.
Just as a few of the swifter Beast were reaching Leor's position, the young man finally caught a glimpse of the Defiled creatures that were invading the area.
Three massive pig-like Defiled came charging out of the woods all at once, like some nightmarish cavalry charge. The defiled Beasts stood a whopping five feet tall on four legs, with their bodies stretching at least double that length from snout to tail. The creatures had thin wiry hair barely covering their dark skin, with small, beadlike eyes on the sides of their ugly faces. The largest of the group of three had two large and savage looking tusks jutting out the sides of its mouth. Leor did not want to find himself on the wrong end of a charge from such a large and savage looking defiled Beast.
The pigs bodies were covered in layers of thick fat, but that could hardly conceal the rippling muscle beneath. These were powerful Defiled Beasts, there was no doubt about that. Still, they were mere Defiled, the creatures were showing no signs of becoming Twisted ones yet, and Leor could feel the limits of the creatures budding defiled Wills, so he knew he wasn't mistaking their power like he had done the first time he met a Twisted one in this realm.
He had no way of knowing what tier the bodies of the Beast were at, but he guessed, and hoped, that they were merely Feral tier Beasts. Though it was quite possible that the largest of the three, the one with the dangerous looking tusks, had already risen to the tier of Dire Beast.
Leor glanced around him to see who his allies would be for this fight, noting that six humanoid Beasts had already gathered around him. Though none of them appeared as strong as Bone, or even the tall female that accompanied him, Leor was glad to have the backup. This would have been an impossible fight all on his own.
Leor held his initiates blade out before him, tightly gripping it with two hands.
"Two Feral-Defiled and possibly one Dire-Defiled!" he shouted, though he wasn't sure if his Beastly allies could understand his speech.
A canine type Beast, with shaggy fur and an eerily predatory expression swiftly took charge of the hastily assembled group of humanoid Beasts. With a few waves of his clawed hands, the canine Beast split the others into three groups. A team of two was sent to intercept each of the weaker defiled, while the canine himself, Leor, and a single Ox type Beast would face the strongest one.
Leor nodded to show his understanding toward the canines' directions, then followed the two Beasts as they slowly split up and prepared to face the massive charging pig. The Beasts wasted no time, transforming into their original forms right away. The canine became a rather large grey wolf, with teeth as long as Leor's fingers, while the Ox became a massive bull, with thick horns the size of small tree limbs sticking out from the sides of his head.
The Ox Beast kicked against the soil with his front hoof before letting out a loud snort and charging directly toward the incoming pig, his massive head lowered to direct his giant horns towards his foe. The grey wolf set off running like a gust of shaggy wind, circling around the charging pig in an attempt to flank it.
Leor felt that he was hardly much help in such a fight, his frail human body made him an easy target, while his relatively low strength made it incredibly hard for him to even harm such monsters.
Still, he wouldn't allow himself to be completely outdone by the Beasts. His new talent made him incredibly useful, especially against low level defiled. Leor began to circulate a small amount of Will into his legs to empower his movement as he rushed forward. The amount of Will Leor had at his disposal was still quite small, so he had to be frugal with how he used it. Normally, empowering his body would not be much use against such creatures who outclassed him so much in pure physical prowess, except maybe to run away, but right now Leor needed all the speed he could muster to keep up with the charging Ox.
As he ran, he funneled the remainder of his dwindling Willpower into his blade, feeling the humming sheen of power filling the cool body of the blessed steel blade.
The Dire-Defiled pig and the massive Ox finally collided a few moments later with an earth shaking crack that sounded like a pair of giant boulders being broken against each other by some herculean giant. The collision shook the air so hard that Leor could feel the shuddering sound pass through his chest as he rushed forward.
His eyes went wide as he witnessed the giant Ox being knocked backwards like a tiny housepet. The mighty Beast was tossed onto its side, dragging a small trench through the soft earth below as its heavy body slid to a stop. The Ox Beast had lost the confrontation of strength, but his opponent did not come out of the collision unscathed. The defiled pig stumbled forward a few steps, shaking its fat covered head as it tried to dispel the dizzying aftereffects of the heavy hit, a small trickle of blood running down its nose. The Ox himself was having trouble rising from the ground, his thick legs trembling as he struggled to push himself up.
The Defiled pig was only stunned for an instant, however, quickly coming to his senses as a dreadful rage filled squeal escaped his toothy maw. The pig instantly seized upon the Ox's vulnerable position, rushing forward to ram his opponent's body with those deadly tusks leading the way.
Leor knew he needed to intervene, choosing that moment to make his attack. Jumping over the Ox's fallen body, Leor brought his blade down with all the might his human arms could muster. The Willpower imbued weapon cut through the air with impressive speed, just as the pig was attempting to start up another charge.
The blade struck down against the raging pig's face, dead center between the creature's beady eyes. However, the body of the Dire-Defiled pig was incredibly strong, especially its thick skull. Leor's blade bounced off with a loud twang of metal against bone, hardly leaving a scratch, as a trembling pain spread through his hands from the hard collision.
A trickle of blood seeped out of the razor thin cut that Leor's strike had left on the defiled Beast's face, nothing more, that thin line was all there was to show for his valiant efforts.
However, he never expected his attack to slay the creatures in the first place. As the Willpower from his blade was passed into the head of the pig, the effect that Leor was hoping for quickly arrived.
The Defiled Beast halted its charge, standing stunned and stupid in its tracks for a few short seconds as Leor's unique talent clashed with the defilement controlling its mind. Those few seconds were all that was needed.
A swift and brutal attack was launched on the large pig's throat by the grey wolf at that very moment. Seizing on the pigs dazed state, the grey wolf was given a clear target to sink his long teeth into. The wolf was brutally effective, making the absolute most of the sudden opportunity, he grabbed hold of the pig's throat with his mighty jaws and tore with all his strength.
The attack was made doubly effective by the fact that the pigs defiled Willpower was taken offline by Leor's attack, weakening its defensive strength by a great deal.
The outcome was immediately clear to Leor. The pigs throat was torn beyond any possible chance of survival, jets of bright red blood pouring from the Defiled Beasts throat almost instantly.
The heavy smell of iron hit his nose as the sound of liquid splashing against the grassy soil filled the young man's ears. But at the same time, a sudden warmth was spreading in his chest. Leor had greatly assisted in the grey wolf's kill, and his Willpower had clearly benefited from that fact. The burning ember of light realm Willpower in the young man's chest began to grow from the sacrifice that it had consumed.