Chapter LXI: Battle Against Demonic Beasts II

Demonic Wildlands

Month of the Tortoise 33, 172 ,328 DE

With the wind against us, we can only rely on sound to find the locations of the Demonic Beasts. Time has reduce the buildings, which once stood atop this mountain to little more broken off walls scattered among piles of rubble. There is not telling what this place once was, and sounds travel and echo oddly throughout the ruins. Even in my human form, my hearing is more acute than most Beasts., but I still have trouble pinning down the locations of the Demonic Beast.

Cats, those spiteful, hate-filled, furry balls of arrogance and self-absorbed indulgence are among the few species of Beast with better hearing, and there are two among the Demonic Beasts. They move far more silently than most Beasts, as well. I do not pick up the faint padding of one Demonic Cats' paws until it is almost on top of us.

Spinning toward the sound, I see the Demonic Cat poised to spring. From its appearance, it was probably a Striped Forest Cat that was corrupted. Despite standing more than two meters tall at the shoulder, it does not appear to be a very high Rank Beast, maybe Second Rank at the most. The air of intelligence that surrounds is out of place in a Beast. Its saucer-sized eyes glow with a deep red luminescence, and hanging over its lower jaw, its fangs are longer than my knives. As it sees me staring at it, it bares its teeth in a snarl.

"The other one's coming!"

Not waiting for the Demonic Cat to move, I draw a thick flow of Trinity from my Core Realm and circulated through my Body, Mind, and Soul. My muscles swell with strength, and my Mind speeds up. At a speed several times faster that I could move without the enhancement from my Trinity, I dash forward. Before I reach it, the Demonic Cat lunges at me. It is fast, but I am just as fast. I drop beneath the swipes of its paws. Rolling across the rubble strewn ground, I spring to my feet, but the Demonic Cat has already sprung out of my reach. We pause and size one another up.

Having backed away from his original position and put his back against one of the broken walls, Vorn scans the ruins to the east. The other Demonic Cat leaps over a pile or rubble to the southeast.

Boom-Boom-Boom!

"Graaarrr!"

Blood spatters from the impacts of oversize bullets from Vorn's gun, but they look to be nothing more than big scratches for the huge Beast. With an angry roar, it leaps at Vorn. He swings his battle axe at the Beasts paw, but the Beast's claws catch it, absorbing most of the force. The axe only leaves a shallow gash in the Demonic Cat's paw, and the paw slams into Vorn's arm.

Boom-Boom-Boom!

As the impact of the Demonic Cat's paw staggers Vorn, he empties his revolver into its chest, but only leaves more shallow wounds. The Demonic Cat keeps moving forward, and its shoulder knocks Vorn to the side.

As the Demonic Cat fighting with me looks at the one fighting Vorn and snarls angrily, I realize they are not cooperating. Most cats, whether common animals or Ferocious Beasts are solitary. They only pair up with others of their species during mating season, and that is always members of the opposite sex. There are species of cats that live in packs or prides, but Forest Cats are not among them. These two Demonic Cats are both male and competitors.

I lunge at My Demonic Cat, and it spins. It catches my attacking knife with a swipe of its claws, which are nearly as long as my knives. The silver edge of my black knife slices completely through a claw, leaving a deep cut in the Demonic Cat's paw, but the wound is barely enough to slow the huge Beast down. Ducking under the still hurtling paw, I roll to the Demonic Cat's side.

As I spring to my feet, I slash the belly of the Demonic Cat with my left-hand knife. Fur, skin, and muscle part beneath the blade's midnight black edge, but with a Beast the size of a small steamer car, it does not cut deep enough to reach the organs. If I want to kill this Beast instantly, I will need to stab, and a Bowie knife still may not belong enough. Except for that herd of Demonic Cattle, I have never fought such large Beasts, and in the end, I did not kill the Demonic Cattle. With knives, the only method I can use to take down these Cats is to stack up small wound after small wound, a time consuming process.

The Demonic Cat hops backward, like a house cat with a pot of water thrown on it. With its saucer-sized eyes open wide in surprise, it stares at me, or maybe at my knives, for a moment. The Demonic Cat reveals entirely too much intelligence in its eyes for a Beast. Chaos Corruption does more than just alter the Body. It, also, changes the Mind and Soul. This Best seems to have a clear understanding of the danger my knives pose to it.

"Moooooo!"

Thu-thud! Thu-thud! Thu-thud!

The cacophonous thunder of an incoming Demonic Cow reverberates through the ruin. Vorn, the Demonic Cats, and I, all glance in the direction of the noise. The Cow and the Cats will not be friendly to one another, but more Demonic Beasts will only complicate matters.

"Smug Cat! Stop fucking around! Turn into a red pussy cat, already!"

"Asshole dog!"

The Demonic Cat attacking Vorn flicks glance in my direction, before glaring at him. Form the cold gleam of its narrowed eyes, it gives the unnatural impression of having understood the words I used.

After glaring back at the Demonic Cat for a second, Vorn takes a deep breath, and blood red light fills his eyes. "Bear Transformation!"

Like the first time I saw it, a nimbus of blood red light surrounds Vorn. The flow of Yuan Qi forms a pattern that looks more like the spell than a Martial technique. Vorn may not be a spell caster, but his technique does not fall within the boundaries of something that can called a Martial technique. The structure and complexity of the pattern can be created with a Martial Technique. It uses Vorn's own pattern as its base and serves as a key to unlock something greater that already dwells hidden within him.

As the spell pattern frees a part of Vorn's pattern that is normally locked under other parts of his pattern, it triggers changes within his Body. Red fur sprouts from all his visible skin. His muscles swell and bulge. His shoulders hunch. His pants, belt, and boots burst apart, revealing fur covered legs and clawed feet. His fingernails transform into claws. With crackling sounds, his jaw elongates, turning into a shortened bear's muzzle. In just a few seconds, the transformation completes, and he is bigger than before. His height has grown by nearly a meter, and his mass should have more than tripled.

Like the last time, as Vorn's technique progresses, Mana replaces the Yuan Qi in his Body in time with the change in his form. This time, I sense change to the Power in his Mind and Soul. Until a few weeks ago, I had thought that Cultivators were just calling Psi Mind Force and calling Ki Soul Force. In the same way the Yuan Qi looks like polluted Mana, Mind Force and Soul Force look like polluted Psi and Ki, but with Vorn's transformation, I clearly see the difference between the two pairs of Powers. As the Blood of the Great Bear awakens within him, even if only temporarily, it must be driving out the corruption created by the Daos and the Dragon Gods.

"RAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRR!"

Vorn's rage fills his roar, and both Demonic Cats tense up. They feel fear, but they do not understand what scares them. They cannot recognize what they see They do understand what lies hidden within Vorn. They only know that they fear him. They fear his heritage. The Blood of a Great Beast.

While the Demonic Cats continue to stare at Vorn, he drops his empty revolver. Reaching down, he grabs the hilt of his sword and pulls it form the scabbard. Even though his weapons are larger than would be commonly be used by human males in the Heian Kingdom, they are nowhere near big enough to him as he is now. If he was not almost the spitting image of a Bugbear, he could be mistaken for an adult holding a child's weapons. In the Jewel Kingdoms they supposedly give their children their first weapons before they turn three years old.

"RAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRR!"

As Vorn raises his arms over his head and unleashes a roar, the Demonic Cats tremble. They involuntarily crouch, and the foul stench of their fear mixes into their scents.

Return to your original shapes.

Bastard cur. Tama's always angry thought stab into my Mind. Her hate for me nears the level of my hate for cats of all types.

Gripped in my hands, both knives grow. In less than a second, I am holding the hilts of two overly long bastard swords. While the swords are extremely well-balanced, their size makes them feel awkward in my hands. Chopping and hacking with the sword and axe, he leaps at the Demonic Car he was fighting

I lunge at the Demonic Cat nearest to me and adjust the flow of Trinity though my Body to balance the mass of the swords. As my left-hand sword pierces the Demonic Cat's chest, silver Power, shot through with thread of brown and green, surrounds the blade.

The Demonic Cat springs to the side, and the odor of charred flesh fills the air. It opens its mouth, but a ragged hiss of smoke is all that comes out. After struggling for a few seconds to draw in a new breath, the Demonic spins around and disappears into the ruins to the east.

While keeping only a fraction of my awareness focused on Vorn's battle, I raise my black-edged, silver blade in front my face. The silver power has faded to barely a sheen on the blade, but it noticeably radiates heat.

What is this?

The Od exist between Life and Death, and the Light side originates from the Life. Life is the Power of creation. Through my ties to the Light Od, I can create anything that lies within the realm of my strength. Creating heat or fire is simple.

"Moooooo!"

Thu-thud! Thu-thud! Thu-thud!

While shoulders and back of the Demon Cow rise about the ruins, the ground trembles beneath its charging hooves. With every steep, its abnormally thick muscles contract and release, looking like hills and boulder moving under its skin.

"Grarrrr!"

As Vorn buries his axe in the Demonic Cat's left shoulder and plunges his sword into its chest, the Demonic Cat roars in pain. Its left leg buckles under it, and Vorn leaps onto its back. With his legs clamped around the Demonic Cat's chest, he sinks his claws into its neck and tears open the veins and arteries.

Boom!

The Demonic Cow busts through the still standing remains of a wall on the east side of the small not so rubble filled area where we are fighting. As it skids to a halt, its hooves scatter sand and more rubble. With beady eyes that are bigger than saucers, it glares at Vorn and the dying Demonic Cat. Looking at the huge pair of balls swaying between its legs, it should probably be called a Demonic Bull.

The cacophonous calls of more Demonic Beasts sound from the ruin. They closest are no more than five or six seconds away.

‎