Chapter 51

From JJ- Whatever happens next, try to act normal, and uh, if you can, keep all of your exorcists’ buddies from coming around the other side of the mall, yeah?

JJ’s text came a minute after Varkoth’s attacks began. Henry had lost count of the D.E.D. that had fallen in that first minute. His Storm Crow was launching electrically charges blasts at tendrils of essence as they kept their distance. The icy mist flowed from the portal, seeming to pass unnoticed, for the most part, by all of the normal individuals. He’d seen a few of the gamer’s shiver here and there, and heard some commenting their phones were lagging, but that was it.

For the actual exorcists, he’d only seen one actually get touched by the mist. And they’d gone instantly pale and stumbled to the ground. Luckily, Caleb was by them in an instant, dragging them away as he did his best to keep his Cinder Orb safe. As JJ had mentioned, the tendrils seemed extremely interested in his D.E.D. Luckily, Fro had appeared out of nowhere with his Nekomata, and the feminine cat creature was fighting off tendrils from within the protective flames of the Cinder Orb.

“The hell does that asshole mean try to act normal.” Henry growled. JJ had mentioned he was going to get help, on behalf of Henry, to at least keep this from being a massacre. His best friend had specifically said, he was going to do this not to help the exorcists out, but to keep his best friend, aka Henry, from doing anything too stupid. In return, Henry had to promise not to do anything stupid, such as fusing with his Chimera, and the sorts.

As if in response to his question, which he’d just been saying aloud out of frustration, a deep resonating sound echoed around the mall. It was deep, and steady, such as a heartbeat, and Henry’s ears searched hard for the sound. After a few moments, he placed it as a drumbeat, and it recalled in him a memory of the Raven Dancer’s he’d observed a few years back in Denver. It was the rhythmic, resonating drumbeats that was a part of an ancient native American dance.

The sound of the beating drums intensified, and as it did, Henry noticed a form appearing high in the sky. Seemingly descending from the sky, a D.E.D. appeared, chased by what looked like hundreds of small lights. At the moment, the chaos of the fight against the tendrils, was keeping everyone else occupied. However, it was all Henry could do not to stare as the moving object continued to approach, seeming to resonate deeply with the drumming in the distance.

To JJ- Is this you?

From JJ- It’s a friend of mine. Don’t worry about. Just remember, don’t let anyone come a searching. I can’t promise to be gentle if your exorcists buddies try to start something. You’re lucky Crow owed me one.

Crow? Henry had no idea who that was. He had a feeling it was a person though, and not the approaching D.E.D. After all, the D.E.D. that had now reached the battlefield, was a large fox, its tail ablaze, a piece of bark tied around it. The fiery D.E.D. raced around the Greater Rift, while the lights chasing after it followed, blazing like embers. Their forms alone seemed to put out enough heat to keep the mist from spreading further. At the same time, the tendrils all but stopped attacking any of the other D.E.D. in the area and focused solely on that rapidly moving fox.

However, no matter how quickly the tendrils lashed out, the fox, ever running, seemed to dodge. With the beat of the drum in the distance, the fox danced lightly along the battlefield, the fireflies, dancing behind, forever giving chase. And the exorcists, whom he could tell were extremely confused over the situation, weren’t ones to pass up an opportunity. With the chilling mist halted, the exorcists grew emboldened, and more and more began utilizing close and mid ranged D.E.D. to increase their damage output on Varkoth’s tendrils.

That snake is going to investigate. Henry’s Bladed Drakeling pulled him from watching the battle, to a form moving quickly away from the fight. A figure he recognized from his orientation. The camo wearing, arrogant bastard who’d been blasted by Jonathan. At first, Henry thought the Drakeling was referring to the guy, still with his trademark ‘Vet’ hat, as a snake. But then he saw it, the serpent coiled around the man’s neck. That was right, he had a snake for his D.E.D.

“Of course he is.” Henry muttered. The snake, a separate type of D.E.D. from the flying serpent he’d killed when he’d gotten his Bladed Drakeling, didn’t have any long range or medium range attacks. And it seemed the guy had just been standing back and watching everyone else fight. Likely trying to score some easy essence. He seemed like that type of person from the little interaction Henry had experienced with him. That guy had some sort of God complex and chip on his shoulder, meaning he was dangerous. And he was doing exactly what Henry needed to stop him from doing.

“We need to distract him.” Henry grumbled. JJ had come through with his plan. It was the least Henry could do. And, as much as he personally didn’t like that snake guy, he also figured it would be better for him if Henry stopped him. He had a feeling, JJ wouldn’t have a second thought…disposing of the guy, if it was to keep his identity safe. Or more appropriately, the identity of Crow.

And how are we going to do that? His Bladed Drakeling asked. The twinkle in the level 24 Drakeling’s eye, told Henry exactly how the D.E.D. wanted to do it. After all, it was super close to leveling, and it wanted in on any and all action. The essence gained from this Varkoth fight, of course, would bounce it over no problem, but the Bladed Drakeling wasn’t patient.

“If it comes down to it, we may have to resort to violence.” Henry said, already moving through the crowd. “However,” he remembered Emelia’s response when she’d heard Jonathan had blasted the Vet with D.E.D. powers, “I would prefer if we didn’t do anything to anger the Branch Director.”