045 MOTHER
Eryn pulled a bulky stand from her pack and planted it between them. Her fingers raced across the control pad, activating the device.
The frame unfolded like a great metallic umbrella, and with a sudden pulse, a shimmering dome of energy surrounded them.
"You're carrying a portable force field?" Damen asked, stunned.
"Yes, but this is the last one I've got. The others are already destroyed," she said breathlessly.
"Then let's hope it holds."
A deafening crash cut through his words as something massive slammed against the dome. The barrier rippled violently, but held—barely.
Then they saw it.
A towering female form emerged from the dark, muscles plated with a steel-like carapace that gleamed in the glow of the force field. Her body was almost human—except for the jackal's head that snarled above her shoulders, jaws dripping with blue ichor.
Damen froze. "How the hell does a Blue Blood have a human body?"
Eryn's face drained of color. "She's no ordinary blue blood. She's one of the Deacon of Annubis… the leader of the Shadow Hounds."
"So, we've stumbled onto the boss," Damen muttered grimly.
The Deacon struck again, her claws hammering the barrier. The field groaned under the impact, its glow stuttering. One more hit and it would collapse.
"The shield won't last…what do we do now?" Eryn cried hopelessly.
Eryn was a kind of irony to Damen. For someone who dared to venture into a dangerous alien world five times knowing fully that it was dangerous and fatal… in the end she still fears.
"Stay inside," Damen ordered. "I'll handle her."
"No, you'll be killed if you go outside!"
"If I don't, you'll die when the barrier breaks. Keep it running as long as you can."
With no choice, she opened a gap in the shield. Damen slipped through, his Fist Form Blade extending from his hand with a metallic scrape.
He dashed forward, his strike aimed at the Deacon's throat. The Deacon twisted aside with fluid speed, his blades missing her by mere inches.
"You're fast," he growled, circling her with boxer's footwork.
Her jackal eyes gleamed with cruel amusement. Then she lunged. Her claws raked across his chest and shoulder, sending him crashing into the stone wall.
Damen's bones cracked and his blood sprayed around.
"Damen!" Eryn screamed in horror.
"Dammit… she broke my shoulder," he snarled, forcing himself upright. His left arm hung useless. He realized with dread that his human body couldn't match the blue blood's strength.
The Deacon stalked closer but didn't finish him. She was toying with him like a cat playing with a mouse.
"You think I'll die here?!" Damen roared through clenched teeth. "I survived the gangs. I survived the hounds. I'm not dying to you!"
The Deacon lunged again, her strike shattering his conjured shield and tearing into his other shoulder. He collapsed to the ground, the pain he felt was blinding.
"Damnit, she's got both my arms," Damen cried.
But then—something inside him snapped.
The tattoo of the eye on his chest flared with a blinding light covering the dark cavern in daylight.
The Deacon scrambled to the back, her eyes scorched by the light.
"What is this meta skill?" Eryn asked surprised.
Damen didn't answer her. His body convulsed with a guttural growl not entirely his own. His wounds seared shut as muscle and sinew surged, his frame swelling with unnatural strength, his body covered with unnatural armor.
"What… am I becoming?" Damen gasped, his voice half-human, half-beast.
The Deacon paused, for the first time looking uncertain.
"Focus on the fight! Think about this after," Eryn shouted from within the dome.
Damen rose with strange dark flames licking from his skin, and his eyes burning with a godlike fury. For the first time, he didn't just look like a man facing death.
He looked like something that could kill a Deacon of Annubis.
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The empowered Damen drove forward, his blades flashing. His speed now matched the Deacon's—her strikes no longer found him so easily, though his counters couldn't land cleanly either.
They circled each other like predators, sparks scattering each time bone blade met claw or carapace.
"Think, Don't just brawl around," Damen forced himself to recall the simulations hoping that his training could help him win the fight.
The Deacon looked like a woman, but her movements carried the instincts of a Shadow Hound. That gave him an angle- something that he honed from the shadow hound fighting simulations.
When she lunged with her jaws snapping forth, Damen sidestepped and rolled into a somersault. He sprang upward, his claws slashing for her throat—
—but his aim slipped.
His strike tore into her chest instead of her neck.
"Dammit, I missed!" he spat, frustration flashing on his face.
The Deacon snarled and leapt backward.
She'd tested his strength, and she knew continuing a straight fight would only drag her into danger. Slowly, she raised one clawed hand—and conjured a weapon.
A long black staff appeared, its head crowned with a curved blade that shimmered with malevolent energy.
"What the hell is that?" Damen demanded.
Eryn's eyes widened in terror. "That's Annubis' Staff—be careful!"
"Be careful of what?!" he shouted back, but her warning came too late.
The Deacon slammed the staff into the ground.
A blinding surge of light erupted from its blade and shot straight at him. The heat crushed him before the beam even landed. His body froze in place, his muscles locked under its searing radiance.
"Damn it—I… I can't move!"
The blast struck as alien fire was engulfing him. Any normal human would've been vaporized instantly. But Damen remained standing, his body enduring even as flames ate at his flesh.
"This body… it can withstand even this," he gritted out.
His skin peeled, muscle smoked, and yet he still lived. But every second tore more from him. "I can't… take it much longer!"
Eryn's heart pounded as she watched helplessly from inside the shield. She was no fighter, but she was no fool either.
"Think. There has to be a way", she told herself.
The beam lit the chamber like day. In that blinding glare, she saw the Deacon clearly…and froze. Something in her beastly face, her presence, her very aura felt familiar.
Motherly.
"No, no—don't think about her, not now!" she hissed to herself, shaking her head.
She was thinking about her mother.
"Come on, if you've got any ideas, use them now!" Damen shouted through the roar of fire.
"I'm thinking!" Eryn screamed back, her mind racing.
Then her eyes widened. Her eyes kept drifting back to the creature, searching and analyzing. Until she saw a detail. A familiarity too sharp to ignore.
The deacon of Annubis wore an amulet.
She screamed—and the Deacon stopped. Just like that, her staff lowered, and the beam was cut off. Damen collapsed to the ground, smoking, and gasping.
"What… what the hell just happened? How'd you make her stop?" he coughed.
Eryn's voice broke as she shouted again, louder, and desperate:
"Mother… stop!"
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