Mathew

Nearly at the top, Mathew turned to Amber. "What do you plan to contribute?"

Maybe being direct here was a dick move, but between the aggressiveness from the Alpha spectrum and his desire to trust that she could handle it, he spoke freely.

With a forced ghost of a smile, she pulled her Glock free.

"I may not have much," Amber said. "But I'm going to give it all I've got. Don't worry none, I'll scoot back to the Hub as soon as I'm done throwing my weight around."

Nodding, Mathew looked to Grant. "How do you suggest we start the engagement?"

"That," Grant pointed as the slope.

"Uh... what?" Mathew asked.

"Sorry, I'm used to your uncanny ability to put things together," Grant grimaced. "That part of the slope is almost shattered. We should find the largest chunk of rock we all can move together and drop it on the beast's flimsy bones."

Let gravity do the work. Mathew liked it. How big a rock could they move?

"Ben," Grant spoke slowly. "I'm done carrying on the torch of civilization from one failed colony to another. I'm going to level up. You don't have to, but I don't think you will find a better opportunity than this."

"Why haven't you leveled so far?" Mathew asked to give Ben time to think.

"To keep our footprint off the radar of the Alphas. Any higher, and I wouldn't trust we could maintain a base of operations," Grant answered.

Trying different rocks, it didn't take long to find one that they all had to struggle to free from the spire. As Mathew's sure foot award held him to the ground, he scanned Ben.

[Ben ~ Gifted

Otherworld human

Class: Redacted level 6?]

Gratitude washed across his incensed feelings. For months, they were confident that that was a bridge they didn't want to cross. Even with the dangers they had to face and the importance of more power. Now they burnt that path of retreat.

With a grunt, Mathew clawed the boulder further from its captivity. The Alpha spectrum acknowledged others trusting and relying on him. Funneling new strength into his muscles, he set his shoulder into the burden and together, they drove it up to the base of the reinforced spikes.

Breathing heavily from the exertion, they all took a few minutes to recover their stamina.

Mathew peeked over the edge. In the bottom of the hole, he spied the other Alpha. Holding his fist out at arm's length, he blocked his vision of the monster with his hand. See, it's not that big. Mathew thought to himself.

The distance down was daunting. He'd never been a big fan of heights. Something about being big enough to get hurt when he fell even short distances made extreme heights even more threatening.

Rationally he knew that his growing resilience would make falling a lot safer than he could imagine. At some point, he'd be able to walk away from a drop at terminal velocity. Right now, that rational part of his mind could go fly a kite.

Ben double-checked the application of poisons. Nodding, Ben confirmed that their preparations were ready.

Sliding the boulder across the spikes was easier than the upward-facing slope. Ben stayed back to catch them with his net if the spikes gave way. While they trusted Harper's magic, it wouldn't hurt to have a backup plan.

Grant touched the boulder with his flat palm, and for a moment, Mathew's Pooling sense could feel something move to the boulder.

Inspired, Mathew tapped into Conditional Ambush and funneled as much power as possible into the attack. Pushing as hard as he could, the effort of his body swelled into a pool of kinetic energy. His Pooling magic gave him a new sense of his ability. Channeling Conversion, he rammed his muscles into the resistance built by his will until the pool made by his willpower wavered almost out of control. Too bad he couldn't take advantage of the prediction charges for the attack.

Together against the bulk, they pushed. With their heightened cognition, there was no worry that either would react too slowly and fall off the end with the rock.

Watching it tumble end over end, the weight of meaning Mathew put on the rock didn't seem to translate into how fast it fell. Not that he expected it to, but this was the first real test to learn what league the Night Stalker was in.

Instincts from the Carrion Beast side of himself held him back from accidentally giving away signs of the attack until it landed.

One, two, three- Mathew counted the seconds of their weapon's fall. Between three and four seconds, a burst of speed drove it down faster. Mathew could feel his ability was expended.

As the rock impacted the Night Stalker's chest, Mathew dared to hope. Feathers splintered, and shards of its plumage sprayed like rock from a meteor strike. The spray of feathers was soon mixed with that of shattering rock. Hard rock from the spire broke against the flank of this infant monster.

His ambush beast no longer held him back. Through the Alpha spectrum, Mathew roared his promise of dominance at the Night Stalker. This is mine!

Scrambling to its feet, its actions looked like an average baby crow. Sure, the injury made it move awkwardly, but it didn't seem slow despite its massive size. If it got to the surface and faced them on level ground, he'd be as slow as a worm to an actual crow.

A screech of pain shifted to rage and pounded through the air and the Alpha spectrum.

With a mighty leap, it jumped a third of the way up the hole. Digging its claws into the grooves, it ignored its injury and climbed higher. This part of the plan grated against him. There wasn't anything he could do.

No! Mathew stepped off to the side of the spikes. He did have a ranged attack he didn't have to keep in reserve.

Breathing out a vapor of his Digestion magic, Mathew compressed it with his mind. Like what happened in the cafeteria, Alpha energy naturally funneled into the liquid magic. Targeting the Night Stalker's leg, he released the first volley. His willpower guided the attack true, and the monster's constrained ascent denied its ability to dodge.

Splattering against the crow's lower leg, the skin peeled away and Reserves poured in from the attack. Again Mathew compressed a ball of liquid hunger. With a burst of speed, it pulled its body against the wall. Mathew's magic splashed against black feathers, harmlessly flowing away from the monster's body.

Damn!

Maybe taking cover was an instinct. The other option was that it was damn clever for a newborn.

While Mathew's mind worked feverishly to provide ideas, he heard the familiar bang of Amber's Glock. One precise shot drew a new scream of rage.

Readying his magical attack again, Mathew waited for the distraction. His heart was banging a like a drum rattling his chest armor. The Night Stalker was rapidly climbing, from being a fist-size target in his vision the closer it came, the more his vision it took up. Feeling himself stutter, Mathew drew deeper on the Alpha spectrum.

The margin of error his mind had been balancing thinned more. Chunks of sanity fled just as he planned.

BANG!

Growling, Mathew willed his hunger forward.

Digging into the wound, his power exposed tendons. Monstrous elation and justified rage roared in his mind at the realistic prospect of crippling his prey.

Channeling more Digestion points into an attack, The Carrion Knight waited for his prey to expose its weakness again.

Larger and larger his magic grew as the prey ascended to nearly 80% of the way up the crude ladder.

BANG!

Patience held his attack, and he continued to power it. By reflex, it squatted against the wall again. The crow's eye on the side of the Carrion Knight was drawn shut. His Hive aided him. Blinding his foe.

Tentatively the giant bird eased off the wall. That was when he struck. The last of his magic expended in a deluge of a strike. Twisting his will into the threads of the Alpha spectrum, he sidestepped the system limits and demanded his magic attack the tendons.

How do I know this? A muffled voice of his mind asked.

Focus. He demanded of himself.

Screeching, it climbed to the fortification. Its close leg finally gave way, no longer supporting its climb. Victory!

Crippled in a hole, it was only a matter of time until the drool of his hunger would consume the prey.

With a powerful stretch of its good leg, the Night Stalker reached around the front of the spikes with its upper body. Underdeveloped wings flapping to aid its maneuver.

Willing an intelectus to unleash stored power, jagged white lances of energy erupted. Lashing out with his stored lightning, The Carrion Knight forced as many muscles to lock up as he could. For a moment, he allowed himself hope of success.

Overpowering his efforts, the bird latched its beak to a spike. Waiting out the pain and danger until his stored power was empty.

A string of gunfire rang through the spire, and blood spurt from the Crow's other eye. If it let go of the spike, it would fall, so instead, it endured.

My Hive, The Knight thought.

Looking around, he made sure he knew their status. Amber began her retreat. Grant rushed across the spikes with shield and club ready. Slamming his weapon into the crow's beak failed to dislodge its hold.

A worthy effort but not enough.

Ben's ambush tactic was not sufficient for monsters of this caliber. Instead, he operated in a support fashion. Right now, no one needed support.

Feeling that his paralyzing electricity had faded, the Night Stalker resumed its approach.

Grant fell back and disappeared from simple senses.

This was a failure by their pre-fight plan. Outside of its hole, it was a class above their ability. Shaking off the blow of the boulder proved that. Now though, they had crippled it enough to support the hope of victory.

Tapping into the intelligence of his human side, The Carrion Knight devised a plan of attack.

"Attack like wolves!" His voice growled with a trace of Alpha energy. "Take turns, one distracting, one attacking."

Drawing his plundered blade, The Carrion Knight readied for direct conflict.

Flapping its wings and forcing its prodigious weight across the sharp fortifications, gashes formed between its feathers. Envenomed, crippled and harried by superior numbers, a sense of rightness satisfied him.

Disagreeing, the Night Stalker cawed with violence that shook the distant trees. Undaunted, he dropped all the extra trappings that kept him from his core strengths.

Mental Attack sunk attacks into the prey's mind with Mental Resistance and Mental Support, building fortifications at the sights of conflict. Its very mind would become his place of strength.

The Carrion Knight used the scouted information to inform predictions into his Conditional Ambush.

Taunting it through the Alpha connection, he took the first turn as a distraction. It worked.

Charging across the distance, the house-sized foe struck true terror in his heart. He had more important work than his fears today. Today he would raid safety from the claws and beak of this monster. No, he thought with a chuckle, it wasn't an actual monster. It was weak. He was the monster.

Funneling that image into his Mental Attack and through the Alpha spectrum, he flexed his will against the baby bird. For a moment, when it looked at him, he knew it saw the phantom of a giant within him.

The seed of fear was transplanted from his mind to his foes. Now to survive until it bloomed into beautiful death.

As it closed over him, he split his willpower one last time. His kinetic intelectus unleashed a measure of power to throw him forward under the birds descending beak. Lashing out with Caustic Resolution, he chose not to empower it with the bonuses from his accurate predictions. Instead, he used his limited strength to draw the sharp edge across the fine feathers behind its jawline. They split into a shallow wound more painful than threatening.

An echoing slam cracked into the bird's good leg as Grant unleashed its stored power. Slashing up at its neck again, The Carrion Knight drew the other Alpha's ire.

Through his connection to its mind, he could see that it had opened the eye first injured. Its thoughts instinctually rebelled against his authority.

Grant had slipped away. Only the pain of the injury was noticed.

With two relatively small steps back, the bird shook its head. Locking one eye on him, its rapid change of mind was too fast for The Carrion Knight to respond.

Plucked from the stone of the spire, Mathew was pinned within the beak. The Night Stalker proceeded to swallow him alive. This he predicted. As soon as a world of overpowered muscles pressed in on him, he unleashed the spikes from his armor's hidden ports. Still, he was forced towards the belly of the beast, drawing lines of blood within its throat.

Information scouted from the minds showed him Grant and Ben continued to harry the enemy Alpha. Each time he could, The Carrion Knight predicted what would happen when. Tapping into the flow of combat from his allies. After all, the Hive was just an extension of himself.

Swallowed deeper, he forced the stored kinetic energy to be even more forceful while unleashing his charged Conditional Ambush. Caustic Resolution's sharp edge tore through the muscle of its throat, piercing out before cutting a third of a circle around the inside of its neck.

Surprise at how little the attack did was compounded by how much it shrugged off the attack. The Carrion Knight had severed essential channels, but it persisted as though it didn't need them.

Still within the muscular throat, he was pulled deeper. Caustic Resolution was lodged at the end of the attack and torn from his grip. The defensive power of his armor and its joint locks protected him from being crushed.

Letting go of the burden of Conditional Ambush, he activated Parasitic Touch for the first time. With his Pooling sense, the beast's Reserves were revealed. It was a massive quantity dwarfing his own many times over. Thoughtless as instinct, he funneled all his remaining passive Pooling power into a faster Parasitic Touch.

The Carrion Knight drew his armor shut as he finished his unwilling journey. Fear of suffocating prickled across his mind but he tasked the human side to answer that problem. To his beast, he tasked it to devour.

Both aspects further split the total willpower he maintained. The strain on his mind was rapidly growing.

His Carrion Beast acted first, with Conversion to turn Reserves into more Digestion magic. Eating back at the acid that was trickling between his armor and burning even his durable flesh. It wasn't long until he was eating his way out of the stomach.

Finally, his human mind had an idea. It was a bad one, but there was no better. Drawing even more willpower and some Digestion magic, he filled his own lungs. With a negative application of Digestion, new air lined his lungs. The rest of the Digestion magic ate away the gases he would have breathed out. Of course, that was a simplification but The Knight didn't care to learn more.

The rapid fabrication of magic points was heating his body. His mind was already stressed. With regret, he let go of his mental attacks. Be careful, Hive.

Tapping into the last of his Pooled magic, The Knight unleashed cold within his own body.

Lashing out with his claws of stolen design, he began to dig his way through the bird. Muscles around him contracted, trying to void its stomach. Finally realizing what was so wrong now that he wasn't befuddling its new mind.

Too late! Dug in like a parasite, he would not be removed from his goal. Clawing, eating, heating and cooling, his efforts drew him ever closer to his purpose.

Thump.

His mind was fraying from the strain. Patching the hole with Health, The Knight pressed on. It was do or die.

Thump, thump.

More Health poured from him. It became hard to tell if the heat he was fighting was his own or from the core of his new home.

Thump, thump, thump.

His clawed arms ached from digging and clawing. Finally, reaching the heart of the Night Stalker, he opened his jaws and took a bite. Funneling liquid Digestion into the bloodstream, he willed the baby Apex predator to die.

Thump, thump.

He forced himself forward, releasing the last of his stored cold. Becoming a blockage, he ate away at the heart and lifeblood of this foe.

Thump.

Pressing his authority through the Alpha spectrum, he challenged the Night Stalker.

The bird did not respond. Instead, Leternum did.