Huge tree roots break through the thick soil and start attacking Silverworn, while it transforms into a nymph of sorts, presumably master Quince's transcendent form.
"damnation!" as master Quince uses her control over plants to tie with the Corrupted Terror, but the difference in control is much to vast. Sure master Quince had years of training, but the enhancement of being a terror as well as the attune you gain when using your aspect transforms beats that experience.
At most, she's like a taser spasming a muscle rather than fighting control.
Just when she loses her power, Redscales and Thornhelm join the fray. I sigh and equip [Bubbling Lust of Blood] feeling the extreme potent thirst for blood, 3 times over I try my hardest to stay in control. The others around me, are all government workers, so they feel less of the effects.
"what is this.." Lucy swallows her spit and bites her lip, trying her best to contain the blood lust.
"my charm, it's a range boost that enhances strength and blood lust." I throw most of my attention through the clones, using them as outlets for the thirst. They viciously attack, piercing and slashing away at the dense foliage of the corrupted Terror.
"LEAVE NOW" I shout out, joining on the battle, no longer knowing how much longer I can stay sane.
They leave, not knowing how much blood lust I'm feeling but knowing its sever, master Quince takes charge of the group and guide them all to Ravenheart.
I rush into battle, feeling the connection between the group and me, caused by [Benevolence of Family] grow weaker and weaker, I see that the Terror.
I grin in anticipation, my consciousness withers as my only intent becomes kill.
My clones rush in tag teaming the violently growing sprouts, now resembling whips rather than the thick branches. 'its adapting..' I dodge and weave, as I summon my transcendent long sword, cutting down the branches while Silverworn equips the black Tunic, miraged as the corrupted essence of the terror.
Meanwhile Thornhelm equips his first charm, which screams eternally while blocking the ears of its wearer, and since any charm and armor they equip gives the benefits to every me, I don't have to hear the painful screams~
It momentarily stuns the terror, allowing Silverworn to sneak up behind its body.
"boom~"
Silverworn shoves one of the exploding arrows with an essence brooch with a timer into the wooden back of the Terror and dissolves into nothingness. I grin and summon a shield.
BOOOOM
I unsummoned all of my clones, and jump using the shield to cover distance. As I land gracelessly but on my 2 feet I look at the direction of the Terror using my enchanted goggles.
"shiiiit"
Its still alive, and it multiplied into 6 other parts. Claws form, teeth sharpen, multiple eyes and arms appear.
"is that my Transcendent ability? Fucking disgusting~"
"it is your body dumbass~" the terror answered.
I summon my clones again. Making it a 4 on 7. but most of them are heavily damaged.
"you really think you have a chance against a Me Fool?" they talk in unison and start spreading out.
"I've killed more than 1~" I spread out also, the clones have a 1 on 2, while I fight the main body.
"you are impressive~ to be human and with a demon core~" we clash, Redscales equips the Azure spear on his right and the golden spear on his left hand, colliding with 2 clones at once. Thornhelm and Silverworn, do the same, as Thornhelms great sword is much larger he's able to push the cloned terrors back.
"your pretty impressive yourself~" I summon my ascended memory on my left hand and my Transcendent creation into its sword form from its band state.
'note to self, make medium size weapons of murder' I whisper under my breath and swing with all my flowing fighting style, using solely my physical capabilities. The thing is, my last solution was to create a bunch of high explosives and boom, problem solved. But now, I'm way to close combat so I'll be in big trouble.
I wish I could use [Mad Stance] but that memory has a cooldown of a month, currently only 2 weeks passed, so that's a no show. I summon a bandana, a memory that improves focus while shrouding the wearers eyes. One of the benefits is that it speeds up the users thoughts so 1 second lasts for 3, only for them. The flaw is that the memory causes excruciating migraines once it's over.
With a supercharged nervous system, I use my [Physically Gifted] attribute to its limits.
Thornhelm, dashes forward, with incredible speed for holding a great sword, cleaving at one of the clones. Is dodges but gets a large gash
The terror's other, tries to sneak him from behind, but with heightened reflexes he easily dodges. Thornhelm pours all his focus on one terror. Because whenever MY clones are destroyed the damage is reflected in my soul. So killing one of them significantly damages the clone.
As Thornhelm kills one of the clones the terror's clones begin to stagger. Allowing Silverworn to disable both of the clones he's dealing with and While Redscales can kill another.
Making it a 5 on 4, the Terror presses through the pain, all of its counterparts pull back. I try to press my advantage, taking advantage of the pain they are facing. But they use their extremely enhanced speed to dodge and break, merging back into one and then breaking apart with different hair colors and skin tones my Transcendent skill maybe.
Though with my soul seeing goggles I easily find the main body and start targeting it with my main body.
"HOW" it shouts through all clones as they all gather back to the main body.
"CAUSE I'M A GENIUS" I shout out while launching my transcendent longswords capability of telekinesis
'wait no I'm not..' I stop chasing him and pull my sword back.
'how did I forget..' I pull out my bow, unsummon my clones and take an arrow out of my storage memory that is a belt pouch wrapped around my waist.
'I have nukes..' I launch 3 arrows and consume 3 brooches worth of essence. Creating a large mushroom cloud.
Boooom
'must be because I couldn't use the, in close quarters, so I continued perceiving the match as close quarters' as the large shockwave settle I pull out another arrow since I didn't hear the voice of his death in my year.
But before I could a charred abomination appears before me, 30 meters tall, with long arms and gaping maw. It claws at me before I could launch another arrow.
I dodge, trying to analyze what form the corrupted terror took in order to survive. I summon my clones once again, and start fighting the huge maw. But it's much more difficult than before, as the beast I'm facing holds more human intelligence as well as somehow wielding the principles of the flowing sword style I made!
I make Thornhelm ditch his massive cleaver and make him use my ascended long sword, since speed matters most in a battle between size.
It sweeps through the forest causing immense havoc on the surroundings. Each attack builds continual momentum, well tries too. I can barely dodge any attacks, knowing my human body, although [Demonically Gifted] would be plastered all over the place.
It roars out, trying to kill me quickly as possible, but I mimic the trick it tried on me, by combining the clones into me then launching in multiple separate areas with different armors and weapons for each.
The sole reason it didn't work for me, is because I can see souls. But when I do it, its much harder to find me since it can't see soul's and soul cores.
Even though nightmare creatures can smell the scent of human souls, my clones are too human and wield essence in their body. And my clones aren't soulless and are perceived through me, so when I look at a nightmare creature, when seeing it with my clone as well, it views both of us as 2 entities rather than single.
Its screeches in anger, trying to kill us off one by one. But my parkour skills, even though stagnated since I haven't moved that much too busy to prepare for facing the ant queen and corrupted Terror, are still beginning to get more and more effective, easily moving through the canopy of trees with a grace of a grass hopper.
I have trapped it constantly, either it runs away, taking a nuke to the back, chases my extremely agile clones until it runs out of stamina or energy, or turns into my form and splits all of its focus again, which is another improbability that will result in death. But it picks a 4th option I glossed over.
It turns into a scaley reptilian with hind-legs which is bi-pedal. "oh shit-" Redscales with Silverworn's armor gets impaled in the chest, disintegrating to essence.
I feel an immense pain in my soul, as a large portion has taken a damage! I quickly concentrate the pain into my main body, the furthest away from the ordeals. Gritting my teeth and biting my lips with enough force to bleed out.
I unsummon the rest of my clones being less than a kilometer away, I can unsummon within that distance now, as previously it was 200 meters, and lift my head up.
Seeing the reptilian Terror being a few hundred meters and closing the gap at an insane rate. I charge the arrow with a brooch and throw it full force, not having enough time to summon my bow.
It bounces of the scaley skin and explodes, the terror never felt the arrow connect as I blew it up in the vicinity of it. It thinks the arrow is a trick but blocks it violently anyway, but the it explodes against its side. Being thrashed violently to the side.
I get launched back by the explosion, as it is at least city block level, but I manage to start summoning my bow in the air and get a foothold before launching another exploding arrow.
Being encapsulated by Redscales' armor during my airtime my body is much more prepared to face a closer explosion. I launch the arrow again, now the terror only being 50 feet ahead of me, with its maw wide open, and terror in its eyes.
I grin and launch the arrow directly into its mouth piercing through the back.
BOOOM I use my transcendant sword to pierce him and hold him down, making him take the brunt force of the blast again as I way myself down extremely by using the weighted enchantment of Redscales.
---
Meanwhile:
The group continually here and see giant explosions and shockwaves occurring behind them. They even see a colossal nightmare creature and Luke's many clones jumping around it. They are flabbergasted by the sheer insanity of the fight.
"how the hell.." Eri's voice wavers, as she doesn't understand how an awakened can battle a terror this equally. She doesn't even know what or who is causing the shockwaves.
"we must stay focused on escaping!" Shiki shouts, puling the attention away from the catastrophic battle.
"we'll bring a saint here! They'll know what to do!"
---
The nuke arrow, launches us, but not by much since we put up severe resistance. We're both bloody, bruised and exhausted.
It takes on my form and spits out. "you bloody bastard.." it hobbles towards me, its back charred black, mind completely shrouded in pain and hatred. Though the mental clarity of being human is helping.
"you say that like it's a bad thing~" I unsummon the Redscale armor, as its too damaged to be used in this situation.
"you almost killed yourself along with me!" it shouts out, now duplicating as well, with maws and arms growing out from its sides.
I cackle, and summon a simple awakened armor, made out of comfy cloth and fiber. "your too thinking for a nightmare creature~" words are difficult when shrouded in pain.
though the nightmare creature of this armor had the ability originally to put a false sense of security, but now, this armor comforts the user, making them ignore the pain, Though it doesn't heal the user faster.
It charges, no longer focused on talking. The charred to a crisp, clones appear around me, but instead of dodging. I reconfigure the form of my transcendent work~
When the explosion was occurring when I pierced the Terror I transformed it into its band form, so it hid inside of it.
So when I transform it now I can blend all of its inside into human terror soup~
It realizes the weird intrusion before trying to transform into a slug like nightmare creature, but its too late.
I transform the band, into my magnificent longsword, severing its spine from its brain. Before it screeches I starts carving up its inside like a lawn mower cutting grass.
With no vocal cords, or a diaphragm to breath out air, or even lungs to hold air, it dies silently but aware.
My sword burst through its chest like a parasitic monster. Than cuts up the terrors head.
[you have slain corrupted terror, Prime Doppel, Omniform]
For some reason, I feel shards flowing into my body, similar it is when killing humans..
[your soul is overflowing with power]
"ah shit"
[you're soul is taking shape]