Jill P.O.V

Jill watched as the lightning struck the floor. It exploded into branches of power that spread towards everything in the room. She had picked up an item that would give her an extra second to react to any life-threatening attacks. She didn’t really understand how foresight magic worked but didn’t care, teleporting upwards to avoid the Lightning beneath her. Looking down at the field, she saw beams of light hit everyone else. Her screams weren’t fast enough to give anyone a real warning.

Red had taken the most damage since her back was turned. The lightning slammed into the center of her back, and she collapsed on the ground. Jill thought she was dead, but her armor of blood started swirling around her, pulsing, and beating like a heart. Luke had been restrained by strands of Red’s blood and couldn’t put up any defense against the lightning. His bigger size caused him to take more hits, his skin now crisscrossed in charred black lines. He was still struggling against those restraints, and she knew that he would be ok. Leah and Mash both took hits, but both were still moving after the attack. Mash surviving that with his armor made some sense, but how did Leah? Jill might need to go help Mash and landed facing the bandit who she was fighting.

It was the scumbag who slit her throat earlier, and she was pleasantly surprised to see him limping. She couldn’t see his injuries with the shadows cloaking his body but knew that they were bad. He had tried to go invisible, but she was prepared, using her spatial sense skill to follow his movements. The skill did a lot since it was an improvement on her enhanced senses from before. On top of boosting her physical senses it granted her a new one, she guessed it was how the fey saw the world. At first it had been jarring, but by now she realized what it had done. It let her see the truth of whatever she looked at. She only wished it was up all the time like Mash’s mana territory and expected it might happen at her next advancement. She needed to conserve her mana for her spatial spells.

She dodged a thrown dagger easily and used her spatial magic to try and rip his arm off. Before he would’ve been able to avoid it completely, but he was a lot slower now, the lightning having fried his systems. His arm got caught by her spell, it was just above his wrist, and she watched as his forearm exploded. If her spell could deal that much damage than he was much weaker now. She found herself grinning sadistically as she approached him. She didn’t think twice, and teleported directly behind him, using her poisoned dagger to slit his throat. It felt strangely right, as she ran her blade across his neck. A surge of satisfaction filled her head as the man fell clutching his throat. She watched as he died, and only than realized that she was smiling.

The satisfaction was quickly replaced with disgust. She had killed a person, and she should not be feeling happy about it. Even if he was a bandit, even if he deserved to die, she would not let herself feel joy for being the one to do it. Honestly, she didn’t even know where the feeling came from, having never killed a person before she didn’t know what to think. Perhaps, Mash would know. There was no real justice in this, she fought him and killed him for revenge. She felt tears running down her cheeks, her cheeks must have been red since she was filling with anger. It wasn’t directed at the bandits or even herself, but at this whole shitty situation.

Instead of losing herself in those thoughts, she looked over the battlefield, desperate to find something to divert her attention. It wasn’t hard to find, Mash and Leah’s fight was coming to an end and Red had managed to start moving and block one of the boss’s heads. Luke was still down, and she could go to restrain him. Red claimed that he was being controlled or manipulated by Leah, and Jill hoped that he would be ok. Deciding to help Mash finish his fight with Leah first she started to head towards them.

Honestly, Mash somehow looked more monstrous now. She didn’t know what happened, but his other eye was different too. It was black with white concentric circles, each of the white lines glowing faintly. There was also a new patch of scales around his neck. Running towards him, she saw Leah rush at him, and the boss move behind him. Arriving too late, she was only able to observe as the fight ended. She used up her mana teleporting everyone earlier and couldn’t close the distance. Mash slammed his weapon down, tearing Leah apart with a spiked weapon, but Leah had stabbed him with a dagger. Then she saw the boss’s head grow as it surged behind Mash. She tried to yell, to warn Mash, but he couldn’t hear her, and she could do nothing to help him. She watched as he was swallowed by the monster.

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Mash P.O.V

Mash didn’t know what to expect from being eaten by the creature. Honestly, he didn’t realize it could alter the size of its body and hadn’t worried about being swallowed whole. He should’ve expected the boss to have more abilities after it shot lightning at them. He didn’t immediately panic, knowing that this would only make his attacks more effective. When he had seen the overly large creatures before, he contemplated how he would even go about harming them. Entering their bodies seemed like the only effective methods to him. Now that he was inside, he started his plan.

He started funneling his energy towards his armor, trying to grow it as violently as possible. He didn’t care much for the shape and was simply trying to morph into an abomination. He would pop this thing’s neck like a bubble. Though it didn’t work, his energy seemed to dissipate as soon as he tried to use it. The creature seemed to have some way of stopping magic within its own body. Of course, he already had a skill that did something similar and would be surprised to hear that the monsters didn’t have a better version. That’s when the panic started. Struggling to come up with a viable strategy, he tried to feel for what the creature was doing to absorb his energy. He couldn’t feel it exactly, but it seemed like his body was slowly dissolving into the flesh of the creature.

His energy was acting as a barrier that the creature was trying to punch through. He didn’t know if it would ever get through with his persist skill, but since he wasn’t able to move, he might just pass out as soon as it activated. No, he couldn’t wait for that, he needed to start replenishing his energy now. Meditation might work, but it would never give him the capacity to break free and only supply the monster with more energy. A thought came to him, and he bit into the inside flesh of the creature, tearing off a chunk and swallowing it. He tried not to think about what he was doing or eating, instead focusing on the feeling of his energy being drained away. It didn’t work, the creatures raw bloodied flesh tasted oddly sweet, and its blood made his mouth and throat tingle as it went down. It reminded him of alcohol but had a strong metallic taste.

Every bite he took strengthened his connection to the creature, its thoughts coming more naturally into his mind. The connection went both ways though, and it was receiving his own thoughts in return.

“Accept your fate. You are merely another part of me.”

The voice was enchanting, but he also felt a sense of desperation from the creature. Whatever was happening outside was certainly inconveniencing it, and it was still trying to deal with him. he willed his own thoughts to disrupt it, to give those outside a better chance.

“No! I will! Kill you!”

He yelled the words aloud, even if he didn’t need to. Each word firming his own resolve, he continued to eat through the creature. As he was devouring his next bite, he realized that his stats had improved significantly, making the process even easier. He tried to move his arms to tear apart the creature, but his stats were still not high enough for that. Energy falling dangerously low, he started using his inhuman hibernation skill. With his boosted stats, he hoped that it would improve the skills efficiency, letting him heal and recover energy faster than the creature could drain it.

“Stop resisting! It is futile, your fate is inevitable.”

Feeling his energy return faster than the creature could steal it, filled him with confidence. He responded to the creature thinking about his events with the World Carrier and trying to send the image to it like he had done with the behemoth. The images were followed by words, each defining his superiority despite the situation.

“Even fate cannot control my future. I won’t let you do it!”

He was in the creature’s body, in the process of being eaten, but he knew that he would win. His stats were rising, energy recovering, and wounds healing. Eventually he would win, and the creature would die.

His eyes snapped open as he felt the creatures attempts to drain him end. It was a pointless gesture, it was far too dark for him to see anything, and he had been relying on his mana territory for a while. All it did was get some blood in his eyes, causing him to shut them again, tears building behind closed eyelids.

Thinking about it, he didn’t know how long he had been inside the creature. The drastic improvements to his stats, meant that the fight was dragging on. He knew that his buffs would start to wear off in about an hour, so it must not have been that long. He wondered why the creature had stopped draining him, perhaps Red or Jill managed to kill it. He could still feel the connection though and noticed that the creature seemed to be whimpering. It spoke, a surprising amount of fear coming through the connection, and he could feel the creature’s body rumble as it let out a low hiss.

“You have been marked. I had not known; I will of course follow one of the chosen.”

He couldn’t even begin to process what was happening, and the monster’s statements only created new questions. He guessed that being marked was special but didn’t believe that he was the only person to receive one. What did it mean to be chosen? How many other chosen were there? Why him? As he thought of the questions, he tried to send them to the monster, hoping for any response. Having become surprisingly subservient, it replied to his question.

“It means, the owner of this world is interested in you. I do not know why…”

Its voice trailed off, and he could feel that the creature was thinking about something. Mash didn’t bother paying any more attention to its thoughts. He started meditating again, perhaps with its guard down, he could break through the creature now. He just needed to recover his energy. Starting the meditations, he noticed the creature begin to do something on its own. He didn’t understand what, until it spoke. Its voice sounded serene again, and the connection seemed to set itself between them.

“I will help you recover. I will grant us power. We will be free.”

Mash felt the creature’s words become more solid within his mind and accepted them. Becoming free was his utmost priority, and if the creature was willing to grant him power, he would not refuse. Thinking on the strange wording, he wondered what it meant by “we”.

He felt it, it was like the rush of leveling, but felt more physical than that experience. The creature was giving him its mana. Within his mana territory he could see the creature shrinking on the outside, its wolfish body cast aside, the four heads merging and shrinking towards him. Seeing it now, he realized that the snake like portions of the creatures were the real bodies. They were controlling the beast bodies somehow, and he could feel their mana spreading through those bodies like parasites. There was plenty of its mana inside himself, and it kept growing. Eventually everything cleared away, and he found himself lying on the ground.

His armor was dissolved in places, but all the skin on his body was unharmed. The creature must’ve healed him when it gave him it’s mana. He could feel it still swirling inside his body. It was distinctly separate from his energy, moving around his body like parasites. He looked over his surroundings, and saw Red and Jill staring him down, weapons poised to strike, uncertain glances passing between the two of them.