Chapter 133: Chapter 204 – Perfect Match

Asterios tightened his grasp on Silvia and spun to the side. A sharp javelin of dark gray rock whooshed by them and he quickly changed directions by strongly flapping his draconic wings and twisting his body, avoiding another one. 

The giant jackal was certainly a crafty opponent with at least a bit of brain and not all just brawn. Launching a second projectile shortly after the first to catch its target in the middle of dodging was commendable. Thankfully, Asterios had been able to notice it preparing that tactic, ready to react in time.

“This will be a bit tough,” he said, watching their opponent attentively. “I can’t really let you down or it will get to you in an instant.”

Silvia sighed softly. “I really need to work harder and catch up to Father. I can’t use my magic to casually fly yet.”

“Right. He did seem to be able to hover in the air when we were dealing with the situation in Dagger’s End,” Asterios mused to himself.

“He achieved a high level of control over his spiritual energy that allows him to heat up the air around his body enough for it to uphold his weight. It’s still a bit more than I can handle at the current moment,” she explained.

“That's a quite sensitive piece of information you have shared with me, Princess. Are you really sure it’s fine to reveal your father’s potential weakness just like that, for me to potentially abuse?” He raised a brow at her.

“And will you abuse it?” Silvia turned her face to meet his eyes and smiled gently. “Because I don’t think you would. Unless the two of you entered a duel or something, I guess, but then, anything goes, really.”

“I appreciate the trust, then,” Asterios replied with a soft smile too. “I promise not to betray it ever. Now, let us focus on the task at hand. I have an idea.”

Lowering his left arm, which held Silvia’s legs, he allowed them to fall and hang down alongside his body, still holding the princess snugly to his chest. He helped her quickly turn to the front and set her heels on his shoes. Shortly after that, his clothes fluttered with dark crimson flames and Silvia let out a quiet gasp as the fire rolled up them both.

The tiny flames faded away as quickly as they had appeared and revealed a few additional pieces of clothing. Black leather belts with dark silver buckles tied Silvia to Asterios. A bunch of them locked their legs together, and three bigger ones affirmed her torso to his body, below her chest. She could still freely move everything from her shoulders up.

“Amazing. I didn’t know you could do that,” Silvia whispered in awe.

“Neither did I, but technically, I just wanted to alter my attire a bit, and it seemed to work. These clothes are made of spiritual energy, in the end.” He chuckled and made a few motions with his legs and entire body. “Is this somewhat comfortable?”

“It’s perfect. Don’t worry about me. Just do your thing and I’ll do my best to assist you with my magic,” she replied with a confident nod.

“Can you make it work without your dancing?” Asterios asked curiously, noticing that the huge monster started preparing something new.

“Dancing is just a form of casting, as you know very well, which suits me the most. I’m not completely hopeless without it. Especially with you by my side,” Silvia answered, also focused on the jackal.

“Yeah. I can feel it too. There’s nothing around that we have to worry about destroying so let’s see what our bloodlines can achieve together.”

Before their opponent had a chance to hurl something new at them—a huge piece of sharp rock that resembled a boomerang—he spun around his own axis and pushed himself forward with a small explosion of air. Silvia summoned her staff from her storage ring and gripped it strongly as they flew toward the monster. 

Successfully deceiving it with his initial direction, Asterios dove under its other armpit than he had initially aimed for, easily making it out of the way of the awkward swing coming at them. Stabbing his heated sword into the jackal’s skin, he circled the humanoid beast while heading lower and lower over its torso. 

Meanwhile, Silvia whispered an incantation of her own and blazing javelins of amber fire materialized right behind the path they made. Ast’s blade scraped against the stone armor and tough skin in turns until they reached the monster’s pelvis and had to back off before getting smacked by its big hand like an annoying insect.

The moment he got out of its reach, Silvia twirled her staff twice and raised it to the sky with a shout. The flaming spears awaiting orders finally received their instructions and they all crashed into the jackal’s figure like tens of fiery stakes. It whined in pain as a few of them hit the shallow cuts Asterios had left on its skin, scorching its vulnerable inner flesh a little.

“A good attempt but nothing more than some surface wounds,” he commented with a sigh.

“I know. It’s not easy to prepare things on the fly. Too bad we can’t share thoughts like you can with the other girls. That could be useful,” she replied calmly.

“Well, we have to work with what we have. I’d like for Umbra to remain where he is and aid the rest of our forces unless it’s completely necessary.” He shrugged lightly. “I’ll try my best to notify you ahead of time whenever I get a seemingly good idea.”

“I can try to make it trip if you are able to fly near the ground by its feet for a bit,” Silvia suggested.

Without a second thought, Asterios fueled his eyes and brain even more and shot toward their enemy again. The giant monster growled at them in annoyance and slapped its palms together with enough force to send a ripple and a loud echo through the surrounding forest. 

Silvia grunted alongside Asterios as the wave threw them off their course but he quickly corrected their path before another attack came. Dodging a downwards swipe, he flew up and slashed the monster’s cheek in the passing, diving down by its protected back next. Passing a massive canine tail, he left a cut on it too, evoking a much more apparent yelp of pain from the owner.

Meanwhile, Silvia was muttering some incantation under her breath. They reached the grass by the jackal’s feet and she began touching various spots over the ground with her black staff while Asterios flew in irregular patterns between the monster’s thick, armored legs. It didn’t take long before he had to dodge chaotic, furious stomping and kicks but he continued maneuvering near the ground until she tugged on his clothes.

Doing a flip to get out of the way of another attempt to squash them, he got away from their opponent a bit, still hiding amongst the trees, and watched how complex magical circles began to glow at the places Silvia had poked earlier. They quickly connected to each other with multiple lines and created a mesmerizing array.

In almost an instant, the ground melted and turned into literal lava. Sizzling sounds reached their ears and the canine beast howled in pain as it tried to get out of the swamp full of boiling-hot liquid rock. It burned the soles of its feet as the monster splashed through the small pond, barely keeping itself from falling in some random direction.

“I’m going for the neck,” Asterios announced just as it stumbled into the edge of Silvia’s creation while walking backward.

Not waiting for her response, he rushed up the monster’s tough front. It noticed his attempt and lowered its snarling snout even while in the middle of losing balance, ruining Ast’s hopes of sinking his artifact sword into the soft underside of its muzzle. 

Drawing his fist to the back and tensing his muscles, he smashed it into the beast's chin with incredible force, pushing it up with a loud snap and the noise of the jackal’s teeth clattering against each other. Right after he flew past it, Silvia released a spell she had been holding onto and a bright orange flash assaulted the monster’s eyes, evoking another yelp from it.

All that combined motion, paired with their opponent drawing its massive arms to its face to cover it, was much more than the giant creature could handle and it finally fell to the back with a loud thud, smashing a few trees into splinters under its heavy body. Asterios wasted no time and plunged them towards its uncovered eye.

A much more powerful howl shook the air as he stabbed his sword through the monster’s eyelid. Silvia didn’t remain still either and sank the butt of her staff in the delicate matter right next to Ast’s blade. They fueled their respective weapons with more mana and violent flames erupted under the beast’s lid, illuminating it brightly in both orange and red as the jackal kept howling.

Noticing motion, Asterios rolled them to the side before a light gray hand came down onto them and the giant beast smacked itself into its hurt eye as they increased their distance from it. Silvia cursed quietly and he glanced down at her, not finding her staff anywhere near them.

“It got stuck in something,” she explained. “Most likely in its scorched flesh.”

“We’ll get it back. It must have pushed it even deeper with that hit. How much does this inconvenience you?”

“I’m not the greatest in doing magic without a focus but it’s never too late to practice more. My spells might become a little more chaotic and out of control, though.”

“Don’t mind me and go all out,” Asterios reassured her. “You know well that fire is kind of my thing.”

She smiled warmly. “That makes us a great match.”

As much as they both wanted to continue their momentum and inflict more wounds on their injured enemy, the massive creature did its best to cover its vulnerable regions while rolling over the ground until it was somehow able to withstand the pain in one of its eye sockets. Raising itself to all fours, it locked its one remaining eye on the two flying figures and growled viciously as steaming blood flowed down the side of its muzzle.

Suddenly, it arched its back like a cat trying to intimidate its target and dug its clawed hands and feet into the ground, creating deep marks in the earth. Its growls grew louder and more booming as Asterios and Silvia watched the jagged, rock armor covering its body expand. 

The dark gray stone crawled further over its previously exposed areas with an annoying grinding noise. Its armpits and undersides of limbs had barely any uncovered surface after the change, just enough to allow them to bend fully, even if that made it very uncomfortable as the tough plates rubbed against each other a lot.

Additionally, the rocky coating crept up its neck and covered its canine head in an awkward-looking stone helmet, protecting not just the monster’s skull but even its snout from the top and the sides. The only somewhat vulnerable part remained under its muzzle. Learning from the battle, it even created a net made of rock over both of its eyes.

“This complicates things a little bit,” Asterios commented.

“And I’m sure that this is no common stone. Your artifact blade made dents in my other battle staff during our duel, that’s how hot it could become back then. Yet, you couldn’t do anything against this creature’s armor, and you have grown a lot since that day,” Silvia added thoughtfully. “I don’t know if my fire will be of any use if even yours has a problem.”

“We’ll figure it out. Together.” He patted the princess’ head. “If not, we’ll do our best to make it even angrier and stall it until Grea and the others are done with the formation.”

Their brief conversation came to an end as the massive jackal started spinning in place like a dog chasing its tail. Unfortunately, it wasn’t playing around but clearly trying to kill them with every ounce of its power, which was definitely linked to earth or stone to some extent.

The spiky armor covering its back gained even more pointy tips and they started getting launched into the air at a rapid pace, shooting at the night sky like volleys of self-replenishing arrows. Asterios had to keep bobbing and weaving between the incredibly fast and dangerous projectiles for as long as the beast continued its weird technique. Silvia helped him out by throwing flattened mini Fireballs she had mastered thanks to him. She exploded a bunch of the stone spikes before they reached them, making sure to cover Ast’s blind spots.

For a moment, they thought that their enemy would just keep spewing more and more spikes at them indefinitely, hoping that one would finally hit them, but it stopped after about three full minutes, definitely getting at least a bit tired. It swayed on its four limbs as it regained proper balance while Asterios did his best to quickly catch his breath too. The jackal had given him quite an exhausting flying exercise.

Not wanting to let it act first again, Asterios rushed forward with a strong flap. Bringing out his Spellslinger, he slotted a crystal blue token in the black blade’s oval niche.

“Try to cover its vision for a bit after we get close,” he instructed Silvia and saw her nod with a determined expression.

Sheathing his single-edged purplish longsword on his back for now, he focused fully on the armblade in his gauntlet, filling all the possible components inside its structure to the brim with his scorching hot mana. Silvia finished preparing a spell and held her palms close to her chest with her fingers making the shape of a triangle.

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Their opponent rose to two legs in an attempt to intercept them, more confident in its reinforced defense, and Asterios paused their advance for a fraction of a second. As he had expected, the jackal tried to knock them out of the sky with another powerful clap, much stronger this time. Right after the forceful wave passed them, he resumed his flight and approached the creature at a rising angle.

Instead of taking a swing at them as usual, it did nothing with its arms, confusing Asterios for a moment. But then, he noticed some movement in its chest armor and rolled to the side barely in time to avoid a burst of small javelins of rock. A few of them grazed him and Silvia but he had saved them from more serious injuries.

The bursts continued the entire time he tried to fly up towards the monster’s snout and Asterios had to keep backing away every now and then, not wanting to risk getting hit while carrying Silvia attached to his front like a literal meat shield.

Thankfully, the fiery princess wasn’t waiting idly and kept herself ready to take matters into her own hands at the very first sight of an opportunity. When they flew close enough to the jackal’s snarling muzzle during one of Ast’s loops, she threw her hands forward while retaining the triangular shape and some sigils lit up between her fingers. 

A jet of amber fire blew right into the creature’s forehead, effectively covering its eyes. Compared to Ast’s Dragon’s Breath, it looked puny, but it did its job better than well.

Their opponent barked in frustration and brought one of its armored arms between them, blocking the flames by holding its stone-covered limb close to its skull while waving the other one blindly in an attempt to swat the princess away. Silvia kept her spell up as Asterios dodged the swipes, following the backtracking beast until he too found the perfect opportunity.

Rolling out of the way of the swinging arm, he grabbed the jackal’s massive finger and drove his Spellslinger into its palm. The blade managed to pierce the tough, leather-like skin and shone alongside the Runic Chip. 

A powerful wave of frost rushed out of the artifact, causing Asterios and Silvia to shiver from the intense cold. He kept himself latched onto the monster for about five seconds before pushing them off its hand with a strong kick just as the ominous-looking ice began crawling out of the wound. Skillfully avoiding another swing, he increased the distance and they caught their breaths, watching the jackal stare at its stinging palm in confusion.

“What’s that?” Silvia asked, squinting her eyes curiously.

“If fire doesn’t work, maybe ice will make do. I used something similar in the past. It’s like a magical poison that will freeze its blood and flesh from the inside. It works much slower than Permafrost but you can’t easily get rid of it by smashing the ice to bits before it covers you whole,” Asterios explained.

Just as he said, the crystal ice slowly crept up the monster’s arm, turning it from light gray to dark blue. It was a matter of time before the poison spread through its entire body or reached the vital organs.

Then, a bright violet flash caught their attention and they glanced to the side. A wide pillar of purple energy shone into the night sky for three more seconds before fading away. Asterios saw the trees in the distance rustle in a motion of a rolling wave and hastily turned around to shelter Silvia from what was coming.

An immense ripple of spiritual energy crashed into them and continued ahead, causing the ground to rumble as it rushed forward. In just a moment, everything was back to normal, with the exception of a slightly more noticeable presence of mana in the air.

“I assume that means Tina’s group succeeded.” Silvia smiled softly.

~We did it! The breach is no more!~ Tina’s excited voice confirmed her guess a second later. ~Hang on there! We will be there to help you in a minute!~

~No. Don’t come immediately. You should have seen what we are against through my eyes. Get rid of the remaining monsters with the others and see if you can come up with something to defeat this giant. You will only be in danger by blindly rushing here,~ Asterios instructed her.

He felt Tina’s hesitation and intent to protest but she suddenly appeared shocked and it faded quickly.

~Alright. See you after the fight. I don't think it will take much longer.~

Asterios didn’t have time to ponder over her quick change because a piercing noise of something scratching against stone reached his ears alongside a lot of growling and snarling. Refocusing on their opponent, he found the jackal gnawing on its arm around the elbow; its sharp fangs chipping away the tough stone armor and digging deeper. Then, with a loud crunch, it closed its jaws and yanked it with all its remaining strength, tearing off half of its arm. The poisoned half.

“Damn. I had no idea its fangs were sharp enough to damage the stone.” Asterios winced as the beast held its amputated limb in its muzzle; its single, yellow eye burning with even more ferocity.

“Its tenacity is worthy of admiration,” Silvia complimented it. “Even though it’s really bad for us.”

The monster spat its arm out to the side and snarled at them, clearly intent on not cutting any more corners in its pursuit of their deaths before its own demise. Thankfully, it didn’t seem like it had a way of stopping the massive bleeding.

But, before anyone made any moves, something interrupted them again.

Waves of cascading thuds echoed through the air, reaching them from the distance. Three distinct thumps happening one after another rolled through the sky at regular intervals. Even the jackal turned its snout towards the source as its thin, upright ears twitched repeatedly.

The moment Asterios spotted what caused the unusual phenomena, his eyes widened to their limits. A massive, bulky shape headed toward them by flying close to the line of trees. Its long belly almost scraped the crowns, which were flattened with each flap of its three pairs of menacing wings.

There was no doubt.

Venuzathor was flying to their aid.

Though flying might be a bit of an exaggeration. It clearly was a struggle for him to keep his humongous body in the air.

Nevertheless, the protector of Glimmervale, their friendly Dracodon was clearly making his way to them with his draconic eyes locked on the jackal. Asterios turned to their enemy to see what it was going to do and found it shaking, definitely not from excitement.

It literally turned its tail in a flash and dropped to all fours—or all threes considering its current state—and prepared itself to lunge the opposite way. But, the Storm King was not going to let it run away and Venuzathor drew his short neck up while opening his colossal jaws. An orb of azure energy quickly grew in size between them.

Just as the jackal pushed itself forward with all it had, the Dracodon swung its head down and sent the sphere of crackling blue lightning after it. The projectile shot through the air faster than Asterios and Silvia had expected it to and smashed into the monster’s body in a blink, electrocuting it to the point of complete paralysis.

Venuzathor reached their position and dropped to the ground with an earth-shaking thud.

“Since the main threat to the town has been taken care of, I decided to see what was giving you this much trouble. I would have never expected to see a Terrackal here,” he said in his usual, booming voice. “It would have been nothing more than a snack for you in your full True Dragon form but you have certainly wounded it heavily even without it. I’m impressed.”

“Does flying come hard to you because of your size?” Silvia asked what Asterios was wondering about too.

A deep chuckle echoed around them. “Unfortunately, I am not a Dragon, nor a True Dragon, but a Dracodon. My place is not in the sky but on the ground. My wings aren’t capable of absorbing spiritual energy to support my flight as the mentioned entities do. I can’t fly for extended periods of time.”

“That’s really unfortunate,” Asterios agreed. “You look much more magnificent and worthy of such a feat than the True Dragon we have met.”

“I’m overjoyed to hear such flattery. But, we have unfinished business to take care of. The paralysis won’t last forever.” Venuzathor glanced at the twitching Terrackal. “And it might take a moment for me to tear through all that irritating armor.”

“I was just going to try something out so if you would let me.” Asterios made a polite request.

The Dracodon nodded and walked to the monster. If it was standing, the two massive creatures would certainly see head to head, but the Storm King’s body was many times more enormous than the jackal’s frame and it could definitely do a lot of damage even just dropping onto the poor giant canine.

Venuzathor placed one of his claws on the Terrackal’s back and Asterios flew closer. He hid his Spellslinger and brought forth his artifact blade once more. Holding it in two hands in front of him, he focused his mind and fueled it with lots of spiritual energy just like when they had walked through the city with Imadil and Cynthia.

Soon, he sensed the same weird change in his weapon and allowed it to take the form of a giant crimson blade of polished flames, with small tongues of fire poking out of its surface. The blade was as wide as his body and long for a few meters.

Positioning himself above the Terrackal, Asterios raised the sword into the air and aimed at the monster’s neck. The poor beast could only watch with its single eye as he brought the blade down with a shout. A scarlet trail remained after the weapon as it crashed into the armor protecting the jackal’s spine, turning it red hot in an instant.

The creature yelped in pain but Asterios didn’t manage to break through the tough surface yet. So, he raised the sword again and repeated the motion. The blade pushed through the heated stone with some resistance and sank a little bit into the Terrackal’s neck as it let out a pained whine.

It was not enough to kill it, so Asterios went at it again. The sword sliced into the monster’s spine much further this time but stopped on the even tougher bone. The Terrackal was truly a terrifying enemy with unimaginable endurance and toughness.

Before the next blow, Silvia raised her hands to lay them on Ast’s around the sword’s hilt. He glanced down at her and she smiled warmly, giving him a delicate nod. As she turned her face forward, they both closed their eyes and took a deep breath, focusing on that very faint connection between their spiritual energies, letting them mix and intermingle.

Then, tiny tongues of amber fire joined the small crimson flames licking the air around the sword’s enlarged edge. A moment later, they exploded all at the same time and multiple spots of violent, orange fire burned all over the red blade. The sword hummed with power much louder, fiercer, and definitely prouder. It illuminated the surroundings in a warm mix of red and orange, overshadowing the natural colors of the forest.

Asterios and Silvia reaffirmed their grip on the pommel and shouted together as they brought the artifact down with their combined might. The blade whooshed loudly, leaving streaks of crimson-amber glow behind it, and slashed through the Terrackal’s entire neck in one swing. Not even the ground stopped it as they easily traced half a circle with their swing, stopping at a perfect right angle.

Opening their eyes, they were completely shocked to see the deep gash in the earth, and the completely decapitated head of the monster they had fought. Giving the mesmerizing, dual-colored blade an admiring look, they exchanged glances with joyful smiles. After they had enough, Asterios dismissed his technique, and their combined spiritual energy beautifully dissipated into the air.

“It looks like you would have handled the situation perfectly well even without my interruption.” Venuzathor’s rumbling chuckle echoed through the sky once more.

“I guess we really are a good match,” Asterios repeated Silvia’s earlier words and she chuckled quietly too.

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