The creature, now in the form of a demonic centaur, raspily moved its body. A hole had appeared in the ceiling after the lightning strike, its body now illuminated by the numerous lights of the underground market.
Chared flesh crumbled off with every move. Its chest rising and falling, a labored sound escaped through what should be ribs.
Protruding out of its now far smoother back was a metal rod, small sparks still visibly sizzling at the spot it pierced flesh.
The second disciple, who had done most of the damage, was a few steps away from Nox, his face even paler than before, his legs shaky. The attack had taken its toll on the man, if not physical damage, then in his Notium reserves.
"How did it do so little?" He muttered, half delirious, his body barely in a state to move.
Recks and Noctis were comparatively less battered. While Recks was almost fine, at most a bit exhausted, Noctis was drenched in sweat and on his knees.
He had not exausted himself physically, nor had he drained his Notium. That brush with death, however, had moved his heart.
Taking deep breaths, Nox tried to calm himself as he stared into the air for a moment, tuning out what was happening around him, his body slack, his mind empty.
Luckily for him, the death strider had its own hurdles to overcome, as its fearsome body might have looked intimidating, but it was completely unfamiliar to the beast. The change, after all, was not of making. It had to be on the brink of death after taking such a hit, putting everything into adapting to that attack.
When Noctis finally caught himself, freed from this new sensation, Recks instantly fired a shot.
Bang!
And then another one and another one.
Bang!
Bang!
He shot shot after shot, the creature first showing little reaction, then it slipped on the verge of losing balance, its shield of flesh no longer able to simply absorb the impact.
Then…
Klick!
Klick!
Klick!
The magazine was empty.
Not hesitating in the slightest, Recks threw out the empty shells as he tried to put in new ones.
The Centaur would not stay idle. It did not give him the chance, as its legs first shook, then moved a bit quicker, then broke into a gallop.
"Shit… It might be from the change, family!" Recks yelled as he started to turn and fall into a quick sprint, the centaur in hot pursuit, gaining ground by the second.
The creature being of the change family was not good, after all, beings of the change authority were often masters of adaptation and boasted more vitality than all other families. Said simply, it meant the beast would soon adapt ot its new form, if it hadn't already.
The Deathstrider was almost in reach of Recks, its lance or sword-like arm winding up to swing and pierce through Reck's back heart at a moment's notice.
A loud explosion could not be overheard as the Hellish Centaur struck forward. Its bladed arm was just about to cut through flesh, as a red second-skin-like layer appeared over Reck's own skin and slowed down the impossibly fast strike.
His barrier was slowing down the blade, saving his skin at the last moment, but it would not last for long, as the beast further sped up, taking Recks with it.
Bit by bit, the boneblade wormed itself through the water like protective skin, as Recks Notium reserves drained at a scary speed. The moment they went empty, he'd not only end up in a defenseless state like the second disciple, but the blade would also pierce his chest and end his life in an instant.
Peculiarly enough, Reck's expression had little change throughout the entire endeavor. It was almost as if he were not the one on the brink of death.
Swip!
The Boneblade suddenly lost course as it drifted off the side, with the entire body of the Centaure drifting with it. A thick white thread was wrapped around its neck, or where its neck would be, if all the ligaments had not melted together into a sort of helmet-like structure.
A few meters behind, attached to that thick white thread was a youth with a single pronounced silver-white strand over his right eye, which was now fluttering crazily around, hitting his face repeatedly.
Pulled along as he was wildly swaying through the wind, just a bit above the Centaur's hind legs, Nox tried his best to steady himself. It was truly a difficult task, and that awful, a bit longer strand of white hair was not helping. It had grown more pronounced over the last half-year, and he had tried to cut it.
But when he used his scissors, a knife, or even heavier machinery, it all became sticky and dull as the thread-like hair got tangled up in it.
Swinging himself downward, Noctis kicked the hard, bony behind with all the might he could muster, as he pulled at the thick strands of strings wrapped around the centaur's neck.
Its torso, before leaning forward, was suddenly straightened, as Noctis' arms strained under the great pressure.
His vision, meanwhile, had been partially clouded by hundreds of black lines, tinged with a trace of red, half-translucent, on the verge of fading.
They did not interact with them directly, as they passed through metal, concrete, flesh, and bone all the same. The only thing that seemed to briefly disrupt their uncoordinated, completely chaotic movements was the noose of white threads tied around their origin's neck.
They were strings of fate!
A wave of ecstasy washed over him as he finally figured it out, a slight smile playing on his lips.
Maybe a very distorted, difficult-to-spot version of them, that made virtually no sense to him, but they were definitely strings of fate.
In a certain sense, they looked like a version of the string Noctis had seen with Elijah, shortly before his passing. Was that a good sign for them?
Would they be Victorias?
Catching himself out of his musings, Noctis realized with a chill that he had admittedly redirected his horse away from Recks, but into a direct collision course with the second disciple! Panic sparked as he tried to process the chaos, his only intention having been to protect his companions, not to trade one danger for another. In the turmoil, all he could think about was keeping the others safe, but the situation kept slipping out of his control.
As the second disciple looked up, still thoroughly exausted from his earlier attack, his already pale face, due to Notium exhaustion, was turning even paler. A shade of paleness Noctis didn't even know existed.
Trying to redirect the Colossus, Noctis became even more panicked. It was far more difficult than with Recks!
"Seems like the beast has a personal vendetta against you," Noctis spoke, half jokingly, half despair-induced, riding his steed of war.
The next moment, the second disciple's eyes shone with a determined glint, as electrical sparks arose from deep within.
Bang! A loud explosion rang out, accompanied by a yellow flash.
When Nox could see again, the second disciple was no longer at his original position.
His body was ten meters away, lying there motionlessly. Steam rose from his entire body, his skin an octave redder, his clothes a bit charred as well.
Letting out a deep breath, a visible cloud of steam rose with the escaping air. The second disciple would not be able to stand up for a while.
The centaur, losing its target, suddenly stopped in its tracks, throwing Noctis, who had been a step behind it, with the motion in front.
Suddenly, Noctis hung there, his threads caught on two arms like horns, protruding from the fleshy helmet.
Three pairs of eyes, or what was left of the disfigured mess, landed on him.
The one that once resembled a middle-aged man had lost its spark of life, its half-molten eyes resembling two small crystal balls. The other two weren't much better off.
The elderly man's pair of eyes, or more precisely, his singular eye, had taken its place at the center. The two originally distinct eyes had melted and fused together into a singular, large, misshapen one, now resembling an ever-present frown.
The third pair of eyes, the ones originally possessed by a womman seemed most intact. Their only oddity was that out of every eye that locked onto Noctis, they were the most bloodshot, as red and black liquids ran down the flesh and bone that was holding it all together.
Unlike with their earlier conflicts about what they should do with their shared body. This time they were of one mind.
They were going to slaughter this pest of a spider.
Winding up, both of their bladed arms to give Nox a hug he would never forget.
Noctis was helpless in the situation, and he had a slight suspicion that his barrier would not last under such pressure.
Bang.
The helmet twitched slightly to the side, its scythe-like arms just about ready to strike.
Bang.
Bang.
It twitched two more times.
The Centaur briefly turned its five fused-together heads towards Recks, distracted. It was all Noctis needed.
He quickly kicked off the chest of the Centaur, its body now hard and brittle, leaving a small crack where his foot met bone.
This, of course, was not his intention, as he used the force to suddenly fling himself over the giant, steadying himself at the threads that were held by the abomination.
With a sudden, uncomfortable landing, Noctis felt a stinging pain in his ass from the collision with the bony back of the centaur.
The Centaur did not give Noctis a moment's rest, when it instantly started thrashing and bashing against walls in an attempt to get Noctis off its back.
Bam! It ran through one of the giant metal vats, the metal not able to resist at all. Luckily, the large body of the beast took the brunt of the force.
It did not, however, repeat that mistake.
Jumping up and down, it tried to throw him off, and it was working! Bam!
Noctis lost his footing, crashing into a metal wall, only held by two now tightly entwined bundles of threads.
"Argh"
A suppressed groan escaped his lips. The barrier was not designed to fully protect such large areas. As he tried to regain his footing, his vision was a bit blurred after the first collision. The individual black threads that ran so chaotically, blurring together in his tear-stricken eyes, made even less sense than they had from the beginning.
Recks, meanwhile, tried to take aim, yet could not shoot. Noctis was there; then he was not. He was in the way, then suddenly he was out of sight once more.
It was simply too risky to shoot with Noctis being flung around wildly, in the process meeting every wall, very intimately, in the facility.
Noctis was flung wildly, a bit of barf coming up his throat before being forced down again.
"I'll be damed to lose my good food over you!!"
Despite his words, he had brought himself into a dire predicament. The threads that he had created extra sticky and durable—not only did they not let go of the Centaur's neck, but they also held his hands firmly.
To add on, his vision had become a mess. The black threads, which had become a total blur, had separated into three distinct groups. One was much smaller and seemed on the brink of disappearing. The other two were sort of human-shaped, each wrapping around one part of the mostly fused head and then extending along their own distinct body parts, at times overflowing.
Along those paths, the dark blur engulfed the body; from time to time, the overflowing parts either grew indistinct or became more detailed.
A particular part of the overflowing droplet of tint body became more distinct, took on a certain shape, and flew towards Noctis at frightening speed in the form of afterimages.
No, afterimages did not quite hit it. Premonitions, preimagis… not important right now?
Noctis did not dodge nor block.
He quickly moved his arm, a blue light emanating from his palm.
Skillfully throwing his arm forward, imitating the movements of a whip. A line of pure blue energy flung forward, freeing his hand as it cut through the thread, and then towards the left of the centaur's head.
Even a dullard would know that this was terribly aimed, but defying all logic, the centaur suddenly twisted its entire body at an unnatural angle. It's a razor-sharp, yet rough, bone-bladed arm flying towards Noctis.
But how could it be faster than the one Noctis had long sent out?
Before it even realized it, the blade of condensed energy cut into its neck.
It had moved its neck right into the trajectory of the moon like a cycle.
The leftmost female head realized first as it tried redirecting the strike to block, but how could it?
A contradiction in commands stopped the blade in place, yet it was too late.
A terrible scream escaped the female's disfigured, half-molten together mouth, soon replaced by that of a gurgle, then silence.
The next to notice was the elderly man, his expression too disfigured and hidden to read. One thing was clear, however, the fury and murderous intent in its one eye told all that needed to be known.
Those passion-filled eyes in the end lost track, drifting off to the side, the far too thick neck now halfway severed.
The third head stayed silent, its glacial stare unchanged.
The Centaur fell to the side with a resounding thunk, its body motionless.
Noctis, leg half-buried. He looked at the creature's torso and at the five motionless eyes staring daggers at him.
Were they dead?
Had they done it?
NO!
The threads weren't decaying fast enough!!
About to shout for Recks…
Bang!
A shot resounded through the entire factory before a single word escaped his lips
A pinkish black brain matter splattered over Noctis' face, as the elderly man's forehead exploded outward.
The creature was dead.