What is a behemoth?

A very large beast? Surely not, or every blue whale or similarly giant animal may as well be called a behemoth, yet they are not. Instead, a very specific class of powerful beings fall into this group.

The most noticeable fact is that behemoths have no innate abilities. This is not due to poor luck, but because they sacrificed the chance of having any to greatly develop their bodies and bloodlines. One may consider the behemoth chimaera which Icy and the group currently attempted to fight.

Its mana density actually sat below Jaren’s and Rebecca’s, that being a mere steel tier in comparison. And yet it actually rivals a master tier in power?

That disparity, the difference obtained through some measure, is what defined it as a behemoth. It became a thing with insanely low mana in exchange for a massive physical body containing immense physical prowess, and that is a behemoth.

That made them possible to kill too.

Icy’s Comet Blast array may lay siege to a city’s barrier… But usually, a couple dozen of these arrays are used. What is a 10 metre wide hole going to do against a barrier literally kilometres in diameter?

The same applied here, as the gigantic beast easily stood up and healed with a gaping hole through its neck’s underside all the way to its back. Not to mention how large portions of its front legs and body simply blew up in the initial collision! Yet, that all healed insanely quickly, but all of them saw dark elements vigorously force their way into those massive wounds.

The flesh of both damaged legs blackened, and soon after inflamed, pustules appeared up and down the afflicted regions and the behemoth almost collapsed as the dead cells obviously broke under such weight. This damage helped the Degeneration seep deeper, but with a regenerative ability far outstripping Icy’s array, it was just a matter of time until everything returned to normal.

Meanwhile, their attacks on its hind legs now garnered attention. Both legs kicked off the ground, and the attacks missed as the monster thrashed about. Turning, bending, rotating if possible.

The incomprehensibly large body flattened hundreds of trees and left a small pit in the dirt as it threw around soil by the ton.

Korridan withdrew a small statue, releasing the aura of a Sage all around them, but the suppression did nothing to the thrashing chimaera, and he deactivated it as the suppressive power hindered more than helped.

They all lacked any confidence in blocking a single move, and moved back as the lightning above grew redder by the second. Clouds now close to black, as though a storm rolled through during the night, they fully prepared to take whatever extreme measures were necessary to kill the behemoth if Icy’s attack left it injured but not dead.

Let alone two minutes, not even a single one passed since Mala fired the Comet Blast, and she switched to casting her own spells to add on as much damage as possible.

In particular throwing around Black Storms, a tornado formed entirely from the same dark-infused winds for a Black Windblade. However, this tornado, about 10 metres in height, and barely thicker than the behemoth’s legs, only scratched up its skin a bit to allow further seepage of dark elements into its body. While damaging and painful, it incurred no real injuries.

And to that, she repeatedly cast Solar Compression, another Intermediate true spell. This one threw out a small compressed ball of flame, mimicking a star to some degree.

The fire helped burn and destroy some flesh, but a master tier behemoth obviously regenerated faster than she dealt damage. Such attacks drew attention excellently though, and very quickly the chimaera dragged itself across the ground. It disregarded the lack of working legs to crush Mala as soon as possible.

Combined with the others safely slashing across its body as the behemoth’s focus shifted, they all bought more than enough time for every mana-recovery item to completely vanish into the dragon’s stomach. But he didn’t end the emission there, as further streams of mana erupted from his Mind palace as well, the tens of tanks in a basement now burst out on command!

He only built so many as never did he imagine needing such a ridiculous store of mana. Not to mention the tanks he built were limited, as he could put it in as he pleased, but once released, it escaped with incredible force.

Precise control and heavy effort were used to successfully close the inlets at the top once this flow began, things he lacked in troves right now.

But that didn’t matter! The streams of mana, roughly equal to several more mouthfuls of those ground up plants, made up a small percentage of the total mana, but in this case, he wanted the storm to be as powerful as possible.

Up above was his strongest creation thus far.

A blanket of black and red, ominous arcs dyed the originally green and brown landscape in a bloody glow as though to symbolise an apocalypse. Such a ceiling of black clouds engulfed all the skies around them, continuing on for at least a mile in every direction, but only above did the red lightning appear.

Mana ran dry… He laid on the ground and watched the crawling beast fearlessly attack and rage at the humans playing with it. Distracting it for every precious second possible.

Then the wrath descended.

Or rather, the cataclysm.

Steams of bloody red cut through the sky all at once, the bolts flashed once and already reached their target. They glowed much like superheated metal, but with their menacing glow, the danger hardly melted away…

A high-pitched noise exploded outwards like a spark touching metal, and all that followed was a roar which shook the world. Ground quaking, air exploding, and leaves thrown about in a flurry as they received winds like no other. Seven bolts of red hit decayed chimaera, and at each point a large chunk of flesh instantly turned to ash, its body spasmed as red sparks course through it unabated.

Flesh and bone melted, the decaying dark elements broke down to nothingness and were promptly destroyed by unwelcoming lightning.

It ripped and tore through the monster, separating it at a cellular level as well as destroying everything in its wake. But even that lightning ran out of energy when compared to the mountain-like behemoth, with gaping holes along its back and holes drilled throughout, the monster howled with red eyes whilst staring at the group, ready to charge. It failed to take a single step.

And so, the rest of the storm arrived.

One after another, streams of red light transformed the clouded battlefield into one stained with blood. Gaping wounds covered the beast, and now it merely lay in a pit. Spasms left it immobile, and immaculate lightning filled its body, rampaging as it saw fit to bring ruin to a single target. Such a storm seemed to have no limit, the endless well of lightning poured bucket after bucket onto the dying monster, yet it lived.

Half a body burnt to ash, with the rest blackened, cut through, and simply twitching from such power.

Still, it lived!

“Have to admit, it’s a really well-made one. What do we do if this doesn’t kill it?” Korridan asked the question as the situation exceeded his expectations, hoping Mala knew of a way to kill it given that physical damage seemed pointless, perhaps it worked if they burnt its whole body to a crisp?

“We find the mass of souls and destroy it… Now that it’s immobile we stand a chance. Icy?”

“Yes. Just… Give me a moment.” Barely able to stand up, his soul and heart stung as he swallowed proper restoratives for MP and souls. Neither of the two organs liked what just happened, but with their opponent still alive he had no choice but to stand. “Spirit, carry me over.” The golden-brown Auric spirit detached from his body and easily tossed Icy onto its back.

What started off as several bolts converging to a single point was now just one or two every few seconds. Along with that second Comet Blast charge, this was the last chance.

Closer to the monster, they saw how the chimaera lacked anything but flesh and bones. Not a single organ, trace of fat, or drop of blood to be seen. Fortunately, such intense lightning dug out tunnels through its fleshy body as well, allowing for some passage into the intact parts for search. Just a third of its body remained as the lightning now ran dry, and dark elements gladly took root in the empty flesh, turning massive chunks black almost instantly.

“Cut out anything healthy, we need to maximise their time.” Korridan gave the obvious order, and they got to work immediately.

Mala and Icy wandered the regenerating fleshy body and cast Soul Search, an Intermediate true spell which did as named. But as one of the simplest available, its range only extended 15 metres. If not for Mala’s library and Icy’s title the distance would’ve been so much lower too.

Ten seconds per cast, sometimes longer for him as the excessive pain left him speechless.

Whenever he released mana, the pain alone almost failed his cast on several occasions, but that stopped nothing. Cast the spell, check any located souls with his weakened control over them, and move on. With every cast, they saw dozens of fakes, dummy souls implanted throughout to reduce the effectiveness of soul spells…

“Over here! I can’t restrict it myself!” Mala called out with exhaustion, and Darak headed over to apply some suppression whilst Icy’s spirit carried him.

When both arrived, it took just a single look with glowing eyes to confirm the soul Mala spoke of. A glowing blue chain wrapped around the small disgruntled mass, its other side connected to a point in Mala, her own soul which Icy saw as well.

Without hesitation, he cast the same spell to create a blue chain which wrapped around the soul as well, now the thing could barely struggle, let alone move.

Icy spoke between heavy breaths, “Just… attack it! I can’t kill it… Yet.”

Darak used a variety of divine spells, yet they merely burnt a bit of soul power off the clump, nothing even close to an injury. Mala did better, throwing out a spell which slashed across the soul. She cut through part of the outer layer with it, but hardly destroyed it. Her confusion set in at first, but changed to worry in a moment of realisation.

So much for it being ‘fragile’.

Without any options, she threw out the same weak attacks without end, as did Darak, their damage stripped the soul of power, but as the white outer layer slowly vanished, its true defences appeared.

An elemental wall which blocked Mala’s attacks like nothing.

None of them cared though, all that mattered was breaking through, not that Mala’s spells did anything. Darak’s at least left marks on the wall, such power worked differently from their attacks. Icy couldn’t do much to help, intensely focused within his mental space as dozens of burning souls released their nourishing fumes. His mind desperately breathed in every last wisp of smoke and built up the layer of white around his soul. Almost enough for a single cast.

However, the flesh beneath their feet suddenly flexed and turned, trying to throw off its assailants. Icy’s spirit stood on air, disregarding aura costs, and allowed him to focus on recovery. But Mala and the rest jumped off as they saw the body regrowing exceptionally.

With this third now recovered, it could focus all energy on regrowth.

Icy, oblivious of the outside world for now, did not see the mass of flesh slowly grow around him as though building a cage. It required time just as much as he did.

Others notice this immediately, and Korridan almost rushed forth to pull him away, but Mala stopped him, saying, “Its legs.” Immediately returning to the large barrier nearby, they understood her intentions and followed through. Its attempts to regrow both legs closest to the ground failed as the five working together lopped off flesh as fast as it regrew, Raccelline and Korridan playing the biggest roles.

Runes flew around Mala, quickly setting into place as she knew their positions in advance, and once more a stream of mana activated the Comet Blast.

It appeared just as before, a great spearhead of mana launched with heavy momentum. As it struck near the behemoth’s legs, it hollowed out a huge section at that point, but more important was the mass within. It continued forth through the partial body at length, turning a long cylinder down its length to a meaty paste. Such damage destroyed some hundreds of muscles, weakening its ability to move momentarily.

She didn’t even wait to see the damage and moved out to continue attacks. Another Solar Compression appeared which she launched immediately, striking the growths around Icy in his delicate state.

The dragon woke up, for a moment confused as his spirit hovered above the flesh and flames heated him up. But mana sight understood the situation well enough, and he gave the spirit an order, “Dig.”

It understood what he wanted, and dropped him on the regrowing, fleshy body. Both auric claws and a set of teeth slashed through flesh over and over while tearing out layers of the tough material. Tougher than most mithril tier bodies, it poured aura into each attack just to dig out a mere foot of flesh.

Mala dropped beside him, immediately throwing out a new chain to restrain the soul once more. With only one more trick up his sleeve, Icy recited a spell, one learned especially in case he ever fought an enemy who could only be attacked through their soul.

Not purposely for this situation… But a single spell is what gave Mala her confidence right now.

As Icy recited the words, she noticed bits of soul power flake off once more, powering the unusual magic. At the same time, he knew his desires and pulled on a soul armament. Whether it helped or not, he had to try…

Just as fast as he pulled it out, a small, pink crystal dart flew towards the wall of elements and jammed against it. The tip easily penetrated part of it, but did not go all the way through, not that it even could. Behind the dart’s tip was a small container made of the same pink crystal, a small cluster of blue crystals at the back even acted as ‘decoration’. Just a single thought from Icy as well as a release of mana, filled the small pink chamber with a strangely thick gas made of brown and red.

And at the dart’s tip he just barely saw the wall of elements weaken. Icy spoke the final word and smiled. In front of him, the spell completed and drew upon a wealth of soul power, leaving a thin film to cover his soul. He released every bit of stored aura for his spirit to enhance the spell with, and promptly fell unconscious. The dart and gas-filled container reduced to a bundle of white light and returned to his soul.

Icy’s spell formed into a simple white arc, no different from a curved line drawn in mid-air, but with a thin edge of gold on one side. A final attack to end the battle.

A single cut straight through a single weak point.

The golden-edged arc slashed once, filled with every last drop of power drawn on by a dragon.

And the arc shattered to fine dust… As did the wall of elements. The behemoth died, its soul collapsed and returned to nothing in moments. And yet, Icy didn’t feel victory as he fell asleep, unable to see his success.

He only felt the horrendous storm which awaited them next.