"A human?" Atlas bent down closer, invading most of Lucian's space. "Your human form is hideous. What's up with those human baby teeth, brother? You can't use those to bite anything." Atlas thought that his baby brother had finally evolved, except that his human form was a bit too real, but the magic he felt no doubt belonged to his brother.
Lucian gasps at the creature that had suddenly appeared before him while he was talking to his teammates about the next move they needed to make in order to stay alive.
[Warning!!! A dungeon beast that seems to have escaped its threshold]
[You have come across a poisonous beast, Achiloq]
[Beast rank: S-rank, evolved beast, has the potential to grow further to SS-rank]
Lucian broke system glitch harshly; his system wasn't the only one acting out. His teammates' system gave out warnings as well.
'How can this thing be Achiloq?' Lucian thought. He became pale as the creature stretched out its hand to poke him in the chest.
"Where is that hard skin of yours that you are always so proud of, brother? With fragile flesh like this, you only tempt me and Joel to want to kill you."
At the mention of the word 'kill,' Lucian snaps out of his frightened state. He moved backwards and broke out of the circle he had created with his teammates. The blue beast was in their center; it focused only on Lucian.
'Damn it.' Lucian thought. 'It's hell all over again.'
"I'm not your brother." Lucian glared at the beast. A beast isn't supposed to be able to talk; one that could think for itself was nothing but trouble.
Atlas laughs, his eyes shining in amusement. He could feel the powerful magic radiating off Lucian; there was an imbalance that made his magic shift from beast to human. He didn't know how his weak brother was able to achieve such a great feat, but he would be finding out soon; after all, they were relatives, regardless of what had happened between them in the past. "Don't tell me that you are still dwelling on the past? You know that killing you back then was in fact the safer choice. You were weak, and your mindless state was nothing but a burden. And as your brothers, we only wanted to give you peace."
'Brothers?' Lucian turned his sharp gaze around while thinking that there were two of them. 'Only one is here. We need to get out of here fast before the other beast arrives.'
Lucian filled the palm of his hand with lightning, creating a lightning bolt, and aimed at Atlas before his attack could reach his targets. Atlas grabs his hand and raises it up as though he were a child.
"What magic is this? Why aren't you using your magic?" He growls at Lucian's face, doubting if he was truly his brother. "Who are you?"
Lucian struggled to free himself from Atlas's grip. Atlas let Lucian's body swing in the air even at the risk of dislocating his arm in the awkward position he was in.
At full speed, Lucian bends and kicks Atlas hard in the face. Atlas groaned, loosening his grip, giving the Lucian the time he needed to forcefully break free. "Who I am is none of your business; I'm not your f*cking brother!" Lucian was starting to have an idea of who Atlas's brother is.
Atlas wiped the sand that had gotten into his eyes from Lucian's attack; he grabbed Lucian's shirt and then quickly his neck. Lucian couldn't escape him; he was too fast.
"This makes no sense." Atlas mumbles to himself, distracted by his thoughts but still refusing to let go of Lucian. Losing his brother meant losing the ability he wanted; he didn't want to believe it. The thought was too painful to accept. "One last time, who are you, and why do I sense my brother's magic within you?"
Lucian kicked his leg in the air and tried using his hands to free himself. "There's no way I'm related to an ugly, disgusting beast like you." He struggles and then smiles; he lowers the pitch of his voice. "The only reason I have your brother's magic is because I killed him."
Atlas turned red in anger. Soren jumped in the air and tried cutting Atlas's thick skin, but his blade was divided in two.
In a rush to do something, anything that could save Lucian from being crushed to death, he poked his finger in the beast's eyes, aiming to remove its eyes, but he receded his hand when he saw the beast opening its jaw to bite his hand off.
Lucian fell down and gave out a rough cough. Soren was the only one willing to move to save him; the rest of his teammates were only starting to come out of the frightened state.
"Are… are you okay?" Marta stammered, and one gentle hand was placed at Lucian's back. Her eyes widen at the redness of the skin on Lucian's neck. "Luna," she thought out loud.
"Give me your sword." Soren demanded from Marta. He didn't want to waste time summoning a new weapon from his system.
"We can't fight that thing." Lucian and Luna both said at once.
Atlas took in a deep breath too.
"Everyone cover your nose." Lucian got up to his feet; Atlas let out a poisonous breath. In an attempt to counter his poison, Lucian discreetly let out his own poison without Marta's and Soren's knowledge. They still didn't know about his extra abilities even though they had been travelling together for a while.
Even with their nose covered, the poison release made their skin pale, almost as though it was still able to penetrate their pores.
Lucian placed his hands on the ground, mixing his lightning with flames, like fast-moving thin ropes. Both magics mixed together and attacked Atlas, starting from the toes of his feet to his whole body. The beast screamed in anger; the mixture of Lucian's attack created a blast that formed enough dust to blind the beast's vision even more.
With silent hand gestures, Lucian directed his teammates to escape.
"I'm starting to get used to the trouble that comes with being teammates with you." Luna glared at Lucian.
"I'm starting to get even more sick of your old lady's complaints. Keep whatever you have to say to yourself; I don't want to hear it." Lucian wanted to deny that the incident they faced this time wasn't his fault, but he knew that wasn't true, not when the beast had sensed its brother's magic. "Who would have thought that beast had a brother?" He ran his hand through his hair.
"Stop blaming our captain for every single thing." Soren stated, annoyed with Luna. "With how annoying you are, I wonder why the captain wanted you back on the team. Healers are easily replaceable." He muttered loud enough for Luna to hear.
Luna was stunned.
Soren didn't understand why Lucian wanted Luna back on the team when they were never on good terms; the only thing Lucian and Luna did constantly was to fight and disagree. Soren hated Luna's disrespect for his captain.
"He has a point." Marta hugged her knees and rested her head on them. She glanced at the red hand marking on Lucian's throat, a bit annoyed that Luna hadn't bothered to heal him yet, and she felt even more angry with herself for not being able to do anything when Lucian had almost died. She felt useless. "Even if Lucian wasn't with you, Luna, you would still meet a dangerous beast as long as you are in Hlasked. I also find your complaints annoying when, like me, you did nothing to help. And you are so self-centered that you didn't even notice that Lucian is still wounded."
'What?' Lucian thought in confusion. He wasn't bleeding; he turned to look at his teammates and noticed the slight pain in his neck, realizing what Marta meant. He didn't see his pain as something serious and thought easily to himself that it would go away.
Luna moved from her spot in the dark, where they were all gathered together, hidden by the huge trunk of an abnormally overgrown tree. They were cold but couldn't create any fire because of the fear of alerting the beast. She placed her hands on Lucian's neck and healed him.
"I'm sorry." She mumbles out to the team. Realizing that they were right. Lucian had done a lot more than others to help her, but blaming others for her misfortune was a lot easier than accepting her mistake.
"Hearing you say that is weird." Lucian chuckled.
Soren scoffs at Luna while Marta smiles.
"Shut up!" Luna snaps in anger, "Having a captain like you is slowly turning me into a jerk. I don't want the others to get the wrong idea about me."
'With your never-ending dark clothes collection, you have already given a lot of people weird ideas about you. And you have always been a jerk; it has nothing to do with me.' Lucian thought, keeping his thoughts to himself, he felt like if he let it out, Luna would snap his neck.
Atlas growled loudly in rage; finding Lucian was difficult because of his faint magic, and now he couldn't feel Lucian's magic anymore. "I lost them." He punched the ground, the impact of his fist creating a big hollow.