A grin formed on the Red Fishkin's face as he saw that Talia had yet to make a move.

“You seem way too comfortable up there, maybe you should join us down here instead!” The Red Fishkin roared, as waves of essence began generating around its body.

‘Is that Magic…’

But, before Talia could continue to think further a scorching red projectile was flung towards her.

*Bang!*

The ledge she was standing on shook from the impact, leading her to lose her balance causing her to stumble down landing directly before the altar.

Both Tainted Fishkin standing by the side of the Red Fishkin howled noisily, as they eagerly stared at her, waiting to pounce upon her at any moment.

However, the Red Fishkin held them back as he once again seemed to be preparing to cast a spell.

Talia knew that continuing to stay still facing such a predicament would end up making her situation even worse, so she swiftly began making a move.

Speedily, Talia searched for a means of cover to protect herself from the Red Fishkin’s spell and she quickly managed to find a suitable means of protection, although short-lived as the Red Fishkin let out another fireball which blasted through the makeshift wooden barricade which she was hiding behind consisting of the junk left lying around the altar.

The Red Fishkin laughed mockingly after seeing Talia’s dishevelled appearance from dodging his attacks, yet he did not make a further move, which caused Talia to comment scornfully, “Running out of essence to fuel your spells?”

Within her Beast-Soul form Talia could similarly speak languages similar to the Red Fishkin before her, however, she would dare not to do in front of adventurers or the like, as only beasts with very high intelligence and have likely mutated can do so, at the lower tier of beasts anyways, as higher tier beasts such as Dragons were naturally creatures who have a higher intellect than most humans.

It is very unusual for a Frost Gecko to be able to do so though which would definitely result in people taking an interest in her, as the Red Fishkin was a mutated creature who had likely experienced an evolution, she had no such qualms about revealing her true nature in front of it as the Red Fishkin himself would be instantly captured becoming a slave itself or it would even be simply killed to be used by an alchemist for its body to be used as experimental material.

An expression of rage-filled the Red Fishkin’s face as it saw that Talia dared to mock it, and it said, “You dare to look down on the power granted by them! They are far stronger than you would ever imagine, world walker!”

To Talia’s shock, the Red Fishkin seemed to gather its essence to form a spell far quicker than before as a burst of flame was spent hurling towards her, without even allowing her to react.

The instantaneous cast spell gave Talia quite a fright, and she quickly braced herself for the impact, knowing that she only had one thing left to rely upon.

*Crack!*

She felt the ‘Ice Barrier’ surrounding her get destroyed by the spell as it shattered into pieces, Talia then felt a sudden burning sensation leading her to unwittingly letting out a brief whimper of pain.

However, the ‘Ice Barrier’ spell seemed to have mostly done its job, as the spell sent by the Red Fishkin energy fizzled out before it could continue to do any further damage, leaving her with only a few minor burns.

The expression on the Red Fishkin’s hideous face morphed into a look of surprise, but then a hint of laughter was let out of its lip as it said, “They said you will provide me a challenge, I didn’t quite believe it before, but now you interest me!”

Yet, Talia could tell despite the Red Fishkin's confident appearance, that the previous spell had drained him greatly going by the way its legs buckled briefly indicating it tiredness after casting such a spell.

So Talia immediately began casting a spell of its own, and the Red Fishkin soon noticed her actions, as it hurriedly began to form some type of shield which only barely managed to form in time to block the incoming spear which crashed into his makeshift defence causing him to stagger backwards slightly.

Now, the weariness of using so much essence within a short amount of time was evident for the Red Fishkin as he began to pant slightly, but there wasn’t an ounce of fear on his face, instead, there was only an arrogant sneer as he said, “We have been taught numerous tricks by them! You will not outlast us!”

Upon saying that, Talia felt that something was wrong, but before she could make a move, the Red Fishkin began casting a spell which seemed to radiate an entirely different aura to the spells he used to attack Talia earlier, as this time the essence surrounding the Red Fishkin reeked of death and decay.

Suddenly, the two Tainted Fishkin standing by the Red Fishkin’s side began wailing in agony causing her to stare in horror at the sight of the both of their bodies seeming to drain completely of life within moments, as they went from two lively large Fishkin to a pair of deformed, skeletal looking corpses.

Nonetheless, the Red Fishkin which had just murdered its own underlings in such a horrific way did not seem to notice this at all, as he seemed to be as if he was on some sort of high from the recent great power intake he has just received.

His eyes flared up like a drug addict as he screamed, “Yes! This feeling, I have not been able to experience it in a long time, but thanks to you we have received a great favour! We now promise to only tear off your arms and legs when we eat you now!”

However, contrary to Talia’s expectations the Red Fishkin didn’t seem to use the rapid essence boost to begin casting more magic, instead, it directly jumped towards her aggressively with a manic look on its unsightly face.

Talia only barely managed to get herself out of the way in time for the incoming Red Fishkin’s strike which managed to graze her scales leaving a light cut behind.

Bringing the claw which left the wound on Talia’s body to its mouth, the Red Fishkin licked the droplet of blood left behind on its claw as it mouthed, “Delicious! I am going to barbecue your limbs as we eat to our satisfaction, it will truly prove difficult to leave you in one piece”

Talia grew increasingly serious as she finally realised how formidable the Red Fishkin is, leading her to believe that he was using body reinforcement magic.

Body reinforcement magic was another discipline of spells and can be used to elevate an individual attribute temporarily, however it does have a con in that it would constantly drain essence, and the essence expenditure increases depending on how much of a boost towards an individuals base attributes is provided.

This makes it seem like a weaker form of magic in comparison to others, as not only does the essence needed to provide such body reinforcement magic is steep, but it is also rather limited in terms of the amount of destruction it can cause in comparison to other magic such as fire can inflict far more damage with a lesser cost.

However, no one would doubt that it was an imposing form of magic in the scenario that someone does have the essence capacity required to provide themselves with a sizeable boost, especially for a Warrior who already has an impressive physique, such magic would make a similar level enemy suddenly became far weaker than them.

And this is what seems to happen now, as even if the Red Fishkin was higher levelled than Talia, and likely experienced an evolution from his race, the gap between their attributes did not have such a sizeable gap before.

The Red Fishkin moved like a blur as he approached her, Talia managed to barely defend herself as the creature began to rain blows on her leading to wounds of various sizes starting to appear on her body in only a short period of time since then battle started.

Talia knew that she could not let this continue, as sooner or later the Red Fishkin is going to wear her down, in fact, the Red Fishkin seemed to purposely allow her to stay in this fight as if he wanted to prolong the battle to take satisfaction in her slowly falling to despair the sooner she realises that she could not win.

Nonetheless, as she tried to come up with a solution to her problems, she realised that there was none she could think of, at the moment she was to outmatched against the Red Fishkin who seemed to be playing with her at this point, so she would have no such chance to once again cast a spell which would be her only hope in landing a damaging enough blow to severely injury the Red Fishkin.

In fact, the Fishkin seemed to realise this, which was precisely why he was using body reinforcement magic instead of other forms of magic like previously, as he knew that in such a scenario she would be unable to cast spells greatly limiting her threat level towards it.

Right when she was starting to believe she was in a hopeless situation, she saw a gleaming object in the corner of her eye.

Observing the object closely, she finally realised it was something which could get herself out of this difficult scenario.

Looking back at the Red Fishkin, she realised he was staring at her with a mocking gaze as he continued to pummel her repeatedly as she was beaten back seemingly taking pleasure in her misfortune.

Thinking on how she could lure the Red Fishkin to the item which may be her saviour, she noticed that she could perhaps use the Red Fishkin perverseness against him.

Therefore, she began making movements as if she was attempting to flee away from the Red Fishkin as if she was trying to escape.

The Red Fishkin took up the bait immediately, as he laughed with a predatory glint in his eyes as he stalked her appearing to allow her to appear as if she has the possibility of outrunning him, but he would always be a step away as he teasingly landed strikes.

However, the Red Fishkin soon noticed something wrong, as Talia stopped acting like she was a frightened prey making a getaway, and instead looked at the contemptuously as she said, “Got ya”

Before the Red Fishkin could make a move after realising that Talia was up to something, a silver blur flashed towards the Red Fishkin causing him to snicker as he caught the silvery object easily between his fingers, but before he could tease Talia at her failed attempt he failed to notice that the first attack was merely a decoy as he suddenly felt a sharp item pierced into his flesh.

This led to the Red Fishkin to look down at the object as he pulled it out without even batting an eyelid, not even a whimper of pain left its lips as it smiled, “Is that your big plan? A little cut, we experienced far worse and laughed!”

Talia still stared at him in amusement as she said, “That’s because you didn’t identify what item this is, and I presume whatever gave you that power must not know about it either, otherwise it would off told you about it straight away. I’m not sure if your extremely lucky or unfortunate to find such an object as this thing is what is known as a ‘Mage Killer’ and it is a banned, outlawed weapon precisely because of one reason, its particularly lethal against Mages as it would drain their essence completely for a period of time.”

The Red Fishkin soon noticed something was wrong, as the great amount of essence which it gained from the bodies of the two Tainted Fishkin earlier was rapidly drained away as it suddenly felt weakness fill its body causing it to roar in denial, “No! Impossible, how could something escape their attention, this must be a deception, you are fooling me!”

It threw a punch at Talia in an attempt to prove its point, but with the complete loss of essence from its body, the Red Fishkin was far weaker before, allowing Talia to evade easily and this time she struck back.

Attacking the Red Fishkin directly, she began to inflict numerous wounds, as the previous invincible Red Fishkin was reduced to a pathetic state as Talia made sure to inflict twice the amount of damage the creature did to her from before.

Eventually, the Red Fishkin finally could take it no more, and fell to the ground in a bloody heap, its eyes slowly becoming lifeless as it stared at Talia one last time full of grievance towards her as it said, “You cannot escape! It is your fate to become their puppet, no one in this world will be safe.”

The Red Fishkin then finally breathed its last, as Talia made sure to approach it to ensure that it was dead.

Upon its death she also received a notification to again indicate she had levelled up to Lvl 10, leading to Talia to again feel the wondrous sensation of being revitalised by the energy which pours into her body during levelling up.

She then walked over to the capsule which led to the death of the Red Fishkin in the end, picking up the ‘Mage Killer’ she found that the capsule inside the weapon was empty.

This was one of the downsides of the weapon as it was not the silver dart which dealt the lethal blow to a Mage but was the capsule inside which contained a type of poison which was extremely rare and expensive, it was one of the few means of leaving a Mage defenceless in a battle if managed to be administered into their body, which means it is a one-time use weapon.

That was also the reason why it was an outlawed and banned substance, in fact, Talia was greatly shocked that it had somehow ended up in the den of the Red Fishkin chucked onto the side as if it was junk.

Talia believed that the Red Fishkin must have thought the outer shell of the weapon made it appear valuable and shiny, so it must have collected it as it thought it was a treasure but didn’t know the particular use of it.

It still doesn’t explain how such a valuable item ended up here, but Talia just assumed that the Red Fishkin was just fortuitous, well if it can be called that as the item did lead to its death in the end after all.

Nevertheless, now that Talia had dealt with the Red Fishkin it was time to retrieve the source of the taint described by the Priest Omar, which Talia knew was presumably the orb on the altar.

Walking towards the altar, she couldn’t help but feel that the orb placed upon there was extremely dangerous as she felt as if an aura of darkness and the need to corrupt surrounded the orb.

Deciding to just grab the orb, and present it to Priest Omar as quick as possible so she could be separated from the thing as soon as possible, she moved her hand toward the orb to place it into her pouch, but as her palm touched the orb, she felt a great deal of pain as she felt as if something was attempting to invade her mind.

All of a sudden she found herself in a dark space in complete silence, right when she was beginning to get a grasp of her surroundings, she began to hear voices which seem to pierce into her mind.

‘Accept us.’

’Take our power.’

‘Become one of us, take our blessing into your body.’

‘We are your destiny, follow your fate to become us, allow us to become one, only then will you receive true power.’

The voices sounded like whispers at first, but they grew louder and louder, increasingly becoming more frequent as if they filled her mind.

‘We can bring you home.’

‘The truth of the World will be revealed all to you if you give in.’

‘JUST GIVE IN’

Talia began seeing visions of the multiple different worlds, all filled to the brim of life and filled with numerous powerful beings.

Each world was similar to this one they began experiencing an emergence of ‘corrupted creatures’, slowly these creatures became more increasingly powerful until eventually they no longer were able to resist the surge of the corrupted.

Then these different worlds were devoured, everything was consumed by darkness but the hunger didn’t stop at just then, more and more worlds were destroyed one by one, each one having different strengths, some incredibly strong, some weaker, but each one had different levels of powerhouses, yet they all fell eventually.

‘Nothing can resist us.’

’No one will be able to prevent the fall of their World, we will consume everything, WE WILL DEVOUR.’

‘It’s futile to resist. JOIN US.’

She felt her mind become cloudy as she began to think, ‘Maybe I should just give in, wouldn’t I be able to finally return home?’

‘What's the point of my resistance, so many better people than me, and so-called world travellers like me failed, what could I do any differently?’

However, as she began to feel down, the stubbornness deep within her seem to emerge as she began to recall her childhood.

Throughout her life, there was one thing which Talia always had, and that was perseverance.

She never gave up when things got tough, although she failed and experienced many hardships she was always proud at her ability to build herself back up again, now she was going to give up at the first hurdle?

‘No. I will not join you, I will not become one of you. I have seen what you do to the world around you, if I accept you, yes I will gain power, but in return, I will lose myself, a cost which I will not accept!’

The pressure seemed to increase even further, as the voices began to pressure in an attempt to break her conviction.

‘You will not win.’

‘It is hopeless. You will not be able to stop us.’

However, Talia ignored the voices attempts in trying to make her summit as she greatly resisted the mental pressure, as she pushed herself to stay firm in her belief, eventually, the voices grew quiet and quieter until only one remained.

‘We will find you, you have only delayed the inevitable. You will be consumed similarly to everyone who came before you! No matter where you hide, you will not escape from us.’

After the sound of the voice disappeared, the dark space around her seems to crack as a bright light filled her vision, as she felt she suddenly awoken from being trapped in the strange space.

Looking around her surroundings, she realised that she was back in the altar, and nothing had changed, she would have wondered if everything that just happened was just a figment of her imagination if not for the following notifications she received.

*Player has destroyed Corrupted Source Orb (Minor). All attributes increased by +5. All skills increased by +1. You have received a new spell ‘Cleansing Aura’. Following the destruction of the orb, your soul strength has slightly increased.*

Upon the sound of the notification, she realised that the orb at the altar before her immediately began to disintegrate into nothingness after the system indicated that she had destroyed the orb.

Staring at the remains of all that’s left of the orb, and recalling the terrifying experience in the dark space, she mumbled silently, ‘What have I gotten myself into?’