Klaire was red-faced, staring at Carl. "Wait, I do, I won't lie, I do. I need to say this before he bites me though... Squidge said "Tell Mummy, I love her." The little guy tricked me into saying it first.
'Don't blame me because you stole my thunder.' Squidge huffed mentally before moving over to nuzzle Klaire's leg.
"Aww, thank you Squidge. Now, Carl. Why don't you say that again?" Klaire beamed, even after more than six years neither of them had said it without chickening out and it was usually Klaire.
"I love you, I do and-" the touching moment was interrupted with a blood-curdling roar in one Klaire-enraging instant.
"Hold that thought, I don't want to hear it covered in blood. I will only get us both covered in it." She growled through gritted teeth, as she produced the most devastating weapon she was capable of.
She stepped outside with the massive gattling-gun and scanned the area as it began whirring into life and then she faltered. The muzzle dipped as she saw the creature, then re-levelled and blazed into life with a dozen thunderous cracks a second. Carl rushed out but as he reached the mouth of the cave her weapon disappeared and she lunged to one side.
She barely made it clear in time as a massive clawed foot stamped down where she was standing a second before. Squidge began growing and charging forward in gelatinous, Carl froze, he wasn't much of a fighter against monsters, especially without a weapon. He didn't have attack skills or magic spells to use, not like most people, he only had Squidge.
As squidge rammed into the clawed foot, Carl was surprised with how much force he had employed. "Oh right! His stats are tied to mine and he just got a massive boost." He narrated. "If only I had a... Wait, I wonder if synthesis could make a weapon out of those materials... Klaire! Keep it occupied I'll be right back I have an idea!"
"MAKE IT QUICK!" She roared, not even trying to hold back her banshee howl as her target was between them. She must have ruptured it's ear drums or something, because several drops of purple blood hit the floor at the mouth of the cave.
Carl ran back, pulled a few materials aside. "Right now I need to synthesise a weapon, come on system help me out here!" Carl grunted with urgency.
[SYSTEM NOTICE : VALID MATERIALS SELECTED, PLEASE INFUSE DIV ]
Remembering that his use of blood was the first time that had ever dropped, he cut his hand with one of the materials, smearing it over every item he had chosen.
[ DIV INFUSED, PLEASE SELECT ITEM TYPE... ]
"Come on! Just give me a weapon I can hurt that thing with!"
[ WYVERN-SLAYER SPEAR SELECTED, DIV REDUCED TO 0 ]
"Wyvern?... Wait, if that things a wyvern, then..." Carl didn't take time to appreciate the weapon, he could do that later. He ran back as fast as he could instead, desperate to save Klaire from that monster.
[ SKILL UNLOCKED NEO SPEAR THRUST ]
[ SKILL UNLOCKED WYVERN SLAYING THRUST ]
[ SKILL UNLOCKED SPEAR PRIMORDIA ]
[ P. SKILL UNLOCKED NEO SPEAR TECHNIQUE PROFICIENCY LEVEL 1 ]
As Carl reached the mouth of the cave he saw Squidge in molten iron form, blocking the wyvern's fire breath from hurting Klaire, but he was still taking damage. The red hot molten metal that his body had shifted to, specifically to resist fire attacks, was actually being heated to the point of bubbling and Squidge was clearly hurting.
'I kept Mummy safe, Dad, but this hurts." He hissed when Carl came into view.
"Get away from them you big lizard!" Carl roared before pivoting in preparation for a spear throw.
[ ACTIVATE SINGLE-USE SKILL SPEAR PRIMORDIA? Y/N ]
'Damn! I didn't realise the thrust was a melee skill, fuck it, anything to keep them safe.' Carl thought, accepting his careless mistake. "SPEAR PRIMORDIA!" He roared aloud as he released the spear.
[ SKILL SPEAR PRIMORDIA ACTIVATING ]
The spear turned into one made of pure light doubling in every dimension, then flew toward the creature. It ripped scales and flesh from its jaw and down the length of its neck, it then punched through and completely severed the wing and then the spear finally punched through and severed a chunk of its tail before planting into the ground.
The wild gurgling howls the creature made were even more painful to endure than a full-blooded banshee's but they had no choice as the auditory assault hammered them relentlessly, stunning them as their brains were rattled and forced them to cover their ears and close their eyes despite every instinct telling them it wasn't done yet.
Then it stopped suddenly, Carl opened his eyes, Squidge had lost control of his form and shrunk back down to and assumed his preferred gelatinous body, Klaire to open her eyes then her head jerked towards him.
"I love you, So, so much..." She mouthed to him, knowing, that like her, he was still deaf.
Then fire engulfed them both before his eyes.
Without any thought or hesitation he charged towards them. 'Maybe I can use synthesis to restore their bodies if i'm quick? Maybe they pulled a trick out of their sleeves?' He thought as he scrambled towards them reaching for them to get them in range even a fraction of a second sooner.
The stream of unnaturally hot fire then swept towards him, it didn't even reach before his finger tips combusted from simply being in the flames presence. The fire then crept up his arm, skin blistered, bubbled, burst and blackened, then peeled away and then there was nothing, he couldn't see, couldn't hear, couldn't feel.
In the black only one thought crossed his mind. 'I have to reach them.' Singular, infinite and endlessly repeating, then finally.
[ ACTIVATION COMPLETE ]
Outside the infinite maddening oblivion Carl was experiencing, Squidge was barely alive himself and Klaire was the particle's width from the other side as well. They were all on death's door and had already knocked twice.
The wyvern refused to finish what it had started, not from loss of interest, or weakness from its injuries, but fear was creeping into it. Not the everyday fear that we experience in the face of a mortal threat, no... This was something deeper, something written into the very fabric of its being, something primordial.
The sky turned black, swirling and cresting like the start of a tornado, but then from the vortex came a massive singular lightning strike that found the spear still lodged in the ground and doubled in size.
The wyvern got to its feet and began to slowly retreat, in one final desperate attempt. Then the sound of a man striking the ground with a heavy metal cane stopped it dead in its tracks and drew its attention back.
There on the ground of the forests edge was a realm gate, big enough for but a single human sized individual and standing at the edge of his own realm was a man holding the spear which had now returned to normal like a walking-stick.
With a single, impossible step forward he rotated from the hole in the ground to the ground on our side as though it were completely flat. "Don't run off just yet chick, wait... Are ya a chick? Dove maybe? Yes let's go with that shall we, the boy's a chick of mine ya see and you're bigger than him, so dove it is..."
The moment he stepped into our realm, the entire landscape began to warp and mutate, as though it were being forced to evolve simply to endure his presence. "What brings a Deus here?" The wyvern asked.
"Oh boy! The dove talks! Though he seems deaf, coulda swarn I told you the boy was a chick of mine, well not mine, ours, ours? Maybe not ours, but he is definitely enjoying the benefits of my work... OR! Maybe he isn't? he seems kinda dumb for a genius sometimes."
"Then apolo-"
"NO! NO NO! NO!... No apologies, twould be but a waste of breath little dove. Look at the boy! The chick! Boy-chick? Look at him and his little love and their little baby, or, nope that's weird... How'd they even make that, sure the system can't make that.... Oh right! Never-mind, now's not the time, well it is, but not for that... It's time for the dove to die, then all heroic like, I'll pluck his feathers, give them to my chick and his, HAHA! See what I did there!" Then with a simple wave of his hand the wyvern burst into confetti, then into flames, then into snow.
It changed forms several times, as the figure couldn't decide on what would set the mood better, then he heard the slight weak dragging of a body and turned his head, then half-skipped toward the source. "Well! Well! Well! Look at you boy-chick, sad to say you won't make it in time and mine's running short it seems... So! Let's get a look at ya!"
He kicked the charred remnants of Carl onto his back, but even that didn't stop him from trying to reach them. "My word, with determination like that you'd make a doozy of a Deus. Let's hope you aren't as demented as me. Now... My me! The dove drained ya dry, juiced you like a lemon... Utterly juice-less... Don't worry though, I'll juice you up and you'll be right as rain."
[ SYSTEM NOTICE : DIV RESTORED, HP AND MP RESTORED ]
With a loud gasping breath Carl lurched forward, completely healed. "You are a spry chick aren't ya!" The man laughed. "Don't worry. I juiced up your little love and the weird baby you two made, I don't wanna know how... Okay I lied, I wanna know, but now's not the time to know, so instead I'll go little chick, here ya are, take your stick.... HAHA! I rhymed! Did ya hear that HAHAHA! Anyway ta ta for now,"
Carl was frozen, something deep in his core screamed at him not to move or make a sound in the man's presence. "Ah, yes forgot about that bit, never fear, I'll go from here. HAHAHA! I done it again, I am on a roll today. See you later Carl, no, boy-chick is better." With those final words he dropped the spear and walked to the realm gate, then turned on heel and repeated his entrance perfectly in reverse to exit.