And all 3 beasts were very territorial.
It was probably a good thing that no matter how much they killed of their kin, the Boss monsters didn't seem eager to come out their hiding places. Cimon suspects they are in isolation to cultivate their power, completely out of touch with anything happening around them. Marques suggested it was hibernation. Jabari called them, quote, "pussies with cowardice in their filthy feline blood"... unbecoming of a prince, but Corven honestly couldn't care too much for decorum. Also, Corven could swear he meant this solely for the mountain lions, yet his ears definitely perked up on a hard, unspoken "r", which was strange.
'He must really not like cats,' Corven thought to himself in observation.
Either way, Corven was glad for the help. The longer it took for them to get the Bosses attention, the longer he had to practice his abilities.
Channeling his spatial mana through his sword, Darkstar, Corven swung, the dark blade glowing with a faint blue-violet aura as it sliced cleanly through yet another lion's neck. The cut was so unnaturally precise that not a single drop of blood was drawn before its head separated from its body. The beast collapsed before Corven, dead before its headless body even struck the ground.
"Cool," Corven muttered, mildly distracted.
Then, teleporting behind another lion, Corven did the same, clean-cut move, before choosing to try something else.
Willing frost to replace his spatial mana on his blade, Corven teleported behind a third cat, thrusting his sword into the monster's back. Immediately, its inner core began freezing over—First its spine, then its organs, and then its bones—All in real time.
Within 30 seconds, the beast was frozen solid; Corven sensed no heartbeat. This happened all the while the beast was paralyzed, unable to react.
'Though, that might be because I have the ability itself and not the affinity for Ice....'
What Corven's observed was when he takes a bite or a sample of blood from someone he absorbs the traits or abilities of it that it doesn't include affinities. He'll always have his naturalborn affinities, but, if he wanted more, he reckoned he would need a greater amount of his victim's blood—Maybe even some tissue, a heart, possibly a brain.
That last thought slightly disturbed even him!
'I've explored enough of these abilities,' Corven thought. 'I can always re-enter this Dungeon at a later date to practice more. I do, however, want to explore my darkness and shadow affinities. Maybe I could create an all-new skill through the usage of both affinities, let alone them separately.'
'Big brother Thanatos did say not to try my darkness affinity quite yet—I suppose, being the son of Erebus and the Queen of the shadow realm, my more comfortable affinity is shadow, but I also, naturally, have an impressive darkness affinity as well. How can I hope to master both, if I am only utilizing one? However high my affinity for Darkness is, even if it warrants the words of caution from my elder brother, I still have to start somewhere, don't I?'
As Corven was contemplating this, he realized that most of the lightningwind mountain lions had retreated further up the mountain face, towards the cliff.
'That's not good. If they managed to alert their leader...' Corven began, before dismissing the notion. 'It doesn't really matter, though, does it? Achlys will handle them before they get the opportunity to do so. Besides, what I intend to do requires space and peace of mind, especially if I intend to do the very thing a literal god advised against until I'm ready.'
Turning to Celeste, who had just finished killing the last of the strays left behind, Corven noted that she was hardly breathing heavy. 'Her stamina is impressive,' Corven thought, idly. 'Then again, she is a werewolf, so longevity and stamina was never not in the cards for her.'
Shaking his head, as if to clear his thoughts, Corven made his way towards the lunar princess. As he did so, she looked up from wiping the blood from her blade with a cloth she then used to clean her clawed fingers. Despite the gore and blood all over her, she had a bright smile on her face and Corven couldn't think of anyone prettier than her at that moment.
For a second, he was dazed.
Corven knew Celeste was a daughter of Hemera—the goddess primordial of life, health, daylight, hope, and renewal—Corven doesn't think he's ever seen Celeste use light magic or any of her natural-born abilities related to the element outside of the Awakening Ceremony, after getting awakened as the daughter of Hemera.
'I wonder if there's a reason to that?' Corven thought. 'Are our parents' native primary elements so powerful?'
Either way, Corven was sure, at the very least, her smile could brighten a room, at least by a couple hundred-thousand lumen.
"You wanted to talk, I take it?" Celeste tilted her head in question, veering Corven from his thoughts.
"Yeah...," Corven began. "There's something I want to try, but I'll need to go somewhere much further away to do it. Alone. Are you going to be OK here by yourself?"
'I'm not sure the range of my darkness ability, nor its reaction to me calling on it,' Corven thought, internally. 'I'll need to factor in the possibility of losing control of it—And what better place than in a Dungeon, away from those I care about?'
"I'll be fine. Achlys is just a dash away and I can take care of myself," Celeste assured. "Whatever experiment you want to try, go, do it. I'll be waiting, so don't take too long, ok Cor?"
Nodding in response, Corven teleported towards the base of the mountain before opening a portal near the center of the Dungeon, where he and his friends had entered.
There were still no monsters nearby and both Crowella and Eclipse stood lookout, guarding a sitting down Corven, his eyes closed, deep in focus.
He looked within himself, finding the dark black flame within him that signified his affinity with the element of Darkness. He didn't notice it before, but now that he looked at it, he's realized the flame held a heavier presence than any of his other affinities, as if Darkness itself were compressed within him. It felt both weighted and light within him, as if it were rightfully home within him, but, also, yearning to spread outward from him.
'Darkness cannot truly be contained...?' Corven realized, somehow innately knowing it to be right. 'It doesn't like being blocked and it hates barriers… yet it's all-consuming… all-encompassing.'
For a minute, Corven must've been going down a path to a certain enlightenment, but something must've deemed him not ready to comprehend whatever it was he was realizing, as he was suddenly hit with a headache and his nose began bleeding in rivers and blood poured from his eyes and every pore on his skin. It soaked his clothes and an unimaginable pain wracked through his body as if he had been hit with cosmic hammer a thousand times at once.
"Ahh!" grasping his head, falling to his knees and crying out as the pain spread suddenly before calming down just as quickly. He was left wih a dull ache, drenched in blood and sweat. . "What was that?"
Noting such reactions, Corven returned to his insides, where his affinities dwelled. With a will of his own, Corven reached out to the flame of Darkness, allowing the element to flow through him... Only for things to immediately go wrong.