Elias, Jamie, and Aina had found refuge behind the half-collapsed, soot-stained remains of a bakery wall, which offered a surprisingly stable view of the ongoing battle.
The fight between Sir Eddie Gable and the Apex Beast was less a duel and more a concentrated disaster zone.
The reptilian creature, now fully extended, was a mesmerizing, terrifying coil of pure muscle and rage. Its color—a deep, vibrant sapphire blue—was unsettling against the backdrop of grey stone and black smoke.
"He's so cool!" Jamie whispered, her voice a mix of awe and chaotic delight, leaning too far over the broken masonry.
"Not as cool as Papa obviously, but almost!"
Sir Eddie Gable, was a vortex of controlled motion at the center of the storm. His Phantom Blade—a silver streak against the blue scales—was moving with impossible speed, each strike creating a shockwave that cracked the already unstable ground.
The creature's severed right arm was slowly, grotesquely regenerating. Only the calcified, skeletal bone had formed so far, a white, chalky stump that grated against the stone with its sharp tip as the beast moved.
Elias observed that the knight was fighting to keep the creature contained in an open space. But he was particular about the trait Sie Eddie possed. It took a moment and while he wasnt't sure, he thought he had figured it out. It was, 'The Tower'.
'The Tower' was the reason Eddie Gable was both feared and profoundly trusted. At the Saint stage, his first two Resonants granted him hightened perception as well as immunity. Any lie, illusion, or falsehood simply failed in his presence, leaving him immune to the psychological warfare that plagued others. He did not simply disbelieve; he sensed the cracked foundation of the lie. But it was the third Resonant, which was more combat oriented, that was in play now.
Eddie lunged forward, not with his sword, but with an open palm. A colorless, silent wave of Flow emanated from his hand, washing over the immediate area surrounding the beast.
The Beast—which moments before had been tearing up the cobblestones, ready to launch itself at a nearby shop—froze. It began to shift its weight, backing away slowly, its immense bulk seeming to press against an unseen barrier.
He was imposing a new truth on its primitive mind, using his authority to momentarily make the space around the civilian areas perceptually unstable or impossible to traverse for the beast.
Eddie took advantage of this and lashed out with his sword. The creature, feeling the pressurelet out a roar and rapidly began to morph its form. Its sapphire body writhed like clay, its head temporarily flattening and elongating into the streamlined hammer-shape of a high-speed Imbued beast, perfect for a destructive charge.
Elias leaned forward, evading the swipes the beast made at him and aiming for its vital organs. Elias had wondered what was taking the Saint all that time to kill it. He seemed to be the dominant one in this entire fight so why didn't he just end the beast?
The beast seemed to have the characteristics of Clay and so could change the shape of it's body to anything it wanted. Throughout the fight, it changed its shape to immitate wood, stone and metal as well as some beasts both Imbued and Mundane using their physical characteristics in an attempt to land a hit on Eddie but with its perception being tampered with and with Eddie's martial prowess it seemed to be in more of a disadvantage.It kept on moving its organs around in its body avoiding any fatal strikes Edddie landed.
As the three observed, they heard a horrifying sound that emanated from directly behind the wall: a weak, strained bleating.
They turned to see a sheep stagger into the alley. Its front left leg was dangling, connected by only a thin shred of skin, bones sticking out, and its side had been ripped open, allowing its bloody, entrails to spill onto the ground, dragging as it moved. Worst of all, patches of the glistening,slimy blackish ooze were visible on its wool and wounds.
The infected sheep bared its fangs, driven by a corrupted instinct, lunged toward them with surprising speed.
A dense, sharp sheet of ice instantly encased the sheep, turning the wretched creature into a grotesque, crystalline sculpture mid-lunge.
Aina stepped forward, her face stern as she studied it. She noticed something and levitated a tiny, frozen shard of the black ooze away from the sheep and held it close for inspection, her expression turning grim.
"The Apex beast's venom. It must have attacked this poor thing in its rampage and infected it," Aina deduced, her voice low and sharp.
Elias's instinctsscreamed a warning. He shoved Jamie hard, sending her tumbling onto the mossy ground, and landed on top of her just as a whistling sound cut the air.
"Hey! Did you want a hug that badly, Elias?" Jamie groaned, muffled beneath his chest.
Aina walked over, her blue eyes blazing with fury, ready to verbally lacerate the two for their "indecent" behavior, when she spotted it: a crude, thick hunting arrow, its arrowhead stained black, embedded in the stone where Elias's head had been moments before.
She turned instantly and saw a Hunter Votary, his face contorted in a mask of feverish aggression, cocking another arrow. He was breathing heavily, his eyes unnaturally dilated, and his armor had patches of the black ooze clinging to it.
Aina's eyes narrowed, her Flow surging.
'Indecency can wait.'
Using the full force of her latent Gravity Manipulation, she didn't wait for the Votary to fire. With a silent, terrible command, she reversed the vector of gravity on him, slamming him instantly into the ground with the force of a falling anvil. The ground cracked beneath the impact, and the Hunter lay unconscious, the arrow harmlessly skittering away. Elias pushed himself off Jamie.They heard shouts and screams in the distance.
"The venom is infecting people."
"Thats not our problem. The hunters and the knights are here, let them handle it. Besides, we are mere Acolytes. They are higher stages than we are." Elias said turning his attention back to the fight.
"Come on Ellie, its gonna be fun. Lets do it. Besides , they're only sheep." Jamie whined tapping his shoulder with her fists. He tried ignoring but Jamies blows became heavier and heavier.
"Fine, fine." Elias gave in,catching her fists. And standing up. He wanted to get a sample of the black ooze to study. He had no intention of usinig it in his...experiments but he was just curious for some reason.
The three children moved out of the alley and onto the main street, racing past the continued din of the Flow clash.
Meanwhile, the main engagement was reaching its peak.
The Apex Beast, its morphing abilities strained by the continuous, crushing blows of the Phantom Blade, was reeling.
Eddie Gable saw his opportunity. The creature, in a desperate attempt to defend itself, had shifted its entire lower body into a defensive coil, leaving the regenerative bone stump of its right arm exposed.
With a blinding flash, Eddie slashed forward, severing the creature's remaining limb at the shoulder. He finally located it's heart and prepared to strike at its tail.
"The game is over, creature," Eddie said, his voice calm and utterly devoid of triumph, reflecting the impenetrable certainty of his mind.
The beast fell back, howling, now a massive, limbless serpent of sapphire scales and rage. Its severed stumps oozed black-blue corruption. It stared at Eddie with its massive, reptilian eyes. For a moment, the savage fury in its gaze was replaced by a flicker of cold, intelligent calculation—the ember of Apex-level cognition they were not supposed to possess.
It was defeated, but not broken.
Instead of fighting, the massive, limbless body began to rapidly dissolve, not into mist, but into a thick, pulsing mass of the corrosive black ooze. The ooze boiled and expanded, pooling in the plaza, then began to stretch, not taking the form of a reptile, but of a thousand tiny, glistening human shapes, the shape of Eddie, all screaming silently as they simultaneously lunged outward toward the nearest populated areas.