Ray and Erith readied their weapons while staring the strange creature down.

  A haunting grin spread across several mouth-like structures on its body. “This will be fun.” It spread its arms wide, several giant merionet arms lofted into the air by several strings disappearing somewhere far above, manifested around the creature.

  Erith charged forward, her new sword igniting with a dark blue flame. Ray followed behind her, chanting an incantation while a disk of blue runes split from his right arm and began spinning. Lighting raced through his body, and he accelerated, passing Erith in a flash. Violet energy coated his blades, and he made a break toward the creature, lashing out with the weapons.

  Its left arm dropped towards the ground, and Ray was sent flying as one of the large puppet arms repeated the movement with far greater speed than Ray thought it should be capable of. A wave of fire shot from Erith, but the creature simply clapped. Again, the giant limbs repeated the action, creating a force of wind strong enough to extinguish the flames and push Erith back.

  “Weak!” the creature roared, and in a movement far quicker than its slug-like body should have been capable of, it appeared before Ray. It clapped its hands again. Horde Breaker split, and several thick steel tendrils shot from it. The massive hands came down, and Ray’s arm struggled to hold them back. It seemed like it would succeed for a few moments until the creature clapped another set of hands. Several steel tendrils began to crack from the strain, but continued to hold.

  A piece of Horde Breaker completely split off, depriving Ray of the lightning infusion. An urgent order to move passed through their link. Ray followed its direction and charged forward. The creature was caught off guard and focused on trying to crush the pair to notice his approach. Two black blades slashed two of the creature's arms from its body. It let out a scratch of pain as a pair of its puppet arms fell to the ground.

  Erith tried to run the creature through while still distracted, but many of the eyes covering its body focused on her. She dodged out of the way at the last second as a hand on its back swiped down. The ground around her exploded, and she was pelted by a few clumps of dirt and rock, but managed not to get sent flying. She growled, wiping away blood from a cut that had opened on her left cheak

  Ray slashed at the creature again, but it caught his strike, holding his left arm in a vice-like grip. He struggled, striking at the beast, but every blow was easily deflected. The pain in his wrist increased as the creature's grip grew tighter until Crack. He let out a blood-curdling scream as the bones in his wrist were ground to dust. However, the beast still was not done as several hands fell, keeping Erith away, its hand still grasping Ray’s wrist rotated 360 degrees in less than the blink of an eye, and Ray was sent flying back one hand lighter.

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  Ray gritted his teeth as pain overwhelmed his senses. He felt mana pouring into his body and watched as the wound closed, but Horde Breaker had to stop soon after, conserving its mana for anything more life-threatening. Ray blinked away the pain. He watched Ertih dodge the creature's attacks while trying to find any opening.

  She carefully considered every move, staying just out of the creature's grasp. Ray watched as she properly assessed faints, avoided falling for false openings, and slowly grew closer to her target. At this point, multiple of its puppet arms had ignited into flame, but it did not have much effect on whatever they were made of.

  With one final burst of motion, she reached her target. She slashed in a cross-cut, severing three of the creature's arms, but it did not flinch away. It leaned into her attack and slipped between Erith’s body and sword. Five hands sprang from its strange body, grasping her neck and limbs.

  “You had an 82.3% chance of trying that maneuver based on your attack patterns. You should have learned how to be unpredictable.”

  Erith let out a yelp of pain as the creature's slug-like body expanded, holding her neck in place and applying pressure to each limb.

  “I wonder how much force you'll be able to withstand.”

  Ray pushed to his feet, an incantation falling from his lips before he even knew what was happening. A cry of warning came through his mental link, but he ignored it as only one thing mattered at that moment.

  Mana poured from his body, draining over 3/4th’s of his pool in less than a second. He pointed at the creature, his chanting coming to a climax. A beam of dark purple energy shot from his finger, percing the creature's body. It seemed not to notice at first, but soon every mouth on its disgusting body harmonized in a wail of agony.

  A growing patch of dark purple spread across its body and slowly turned to dust. For the first time during the fight, its eyes flashed with fear, and it scrambled using its puppet-like arms to try ripping the growing infection away. But when it proved to be in vain, a small portion of its head split off and wiggled away on the ground.

  Its entire body disappeared in less than a moment, leaving Erith to fall to the ground. She pushed back up to a seated position, rubbing her throat with a cough. Ray forced himself to run with everything that he had in him.

  “Are you o–” He stopped and turned toward the still-wiggling piece on the ground. He grasped his head in pain as something screamed from within, demanding that he finish the job. Unable to form a clear thought, he picked up the creature.

  It squirmed within Horde Breaker's grasp. With starving eyes, he tried to activate Horde Breaker's skill, but it resisted. He glanced at his arm with rage, and dark purple lines began creeping down it until they reached the palm of his hand and forcefully activated the ability. The creature slowly dried out before turning to dust.

  “Spark consumed: Famished title upgraded. Class evolution available.”

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