So we made our move, Tri and I shot forwards, each taking one of the beetles closes to us for a target. I had nothing more than my natural abilities, but tri had her fangs and claws at her disposal so this might be a little bit easier on her than it would on me. But ultimately this was a fight that needed to be had, at the very least I needed to see where I stood with these bloody things, my survival depends on it.
Tri was faster, so she rushed past me, her legs leaving small indents in the tunnel as her jaws scooped up the first beetle. As a grating sound was heard across the entire tunnel, sparks escaped from where her jaws and the back of the beetle met. But it wasn't enough as the entire form of the beetle had taken on the same metallic hue as its wings. There was an increment of weight as Tri stumbled forwards, the weight in her jaws pulling her downwards as she drew the attention of the third beetle.
Its entire body seemed to shimmer as it's pincers glowed a dull silver grey, as its legs seemed to dig into the ground. Tri was still preoccupied with the first beetle, and I was just coming up upon the second that had similarly completely turned metallic grey and had its pincers glowing. "Tri watch out!" I called out as I dove sharply to the side, a giant illusory dual pincer appearing right where my neck was a few moments ago and clamping down hard on it. Tri on the other hand was not as lucky as she couldn't react in time to evade the energy attack from the beetles, my heart dropped to the pit of my stomach at what I saw, before a peculiar sound resounded.
*Clang! * *Thud*
The chewed up remains of a beetle fell to the ground as Tri's entire body frame had taken on the same dull grey metallic hue of the beetles. A single white line around her neck the only evidence that she had just been attacked. There was a shimmer as a card appeared besides the beetle, and the two that just fired energy beams wound up for another round.
[Your Compound Raptor Triumphant has ingested and Gained the Properties of Beon (Beetle Iron) Defense Has Increased by 0.3]
[Your Compound Raptor Triumphant has slain Basic Beon Beetelus Beetle: You Have gained 1-star black grade Basic Beon Beetelus Card fragment 1/100 and 2 system Credits]
There was no time to go over the notifications, we were still in the middle of the battle, and unlike myself, Tri now had a way to fight back against the beetle's defenses. She rolled round, using her tail to whip the third beetle into the wall, while I gave a swift kick to the second to interrupt the use of its skill, but there was no such luck as it barely budged and I was left with a stinging toe. I felt a disturbance in the air above me, feeling vibrations as the skill of the beetle displaced the air above my hair line, I bent down, and just in time too as the same illusory pincer skill, slashed the air above my head.
We couldn't actually see it, hence the word illusory, however the way it displaced the air gave it a shape of sorts. Which was why this attack being really dangerous. But the truth of the matter is that the damn thing wasn't really flexible, or perhaps the beetles just weren't smart enough to use it any other way. Tri rushed forwards, her powerful legs creating loud thumps on the ground, causing a displacement of soundwaves than invariably I was absorbing. She raised her foot up and smashed it down on the back of the beetle, her legs augmented with the Beon properties she had just absorbed, as her leg claws slashed through the back of the beetle before she bent down and swallowed it whole in an extremely grotesque manner, that made me shiver at the amount of fangs she was showing.
The third beetle was not dead yet as it dislodged itself from the wall and prepared to use the only other attack it seems to know. But I was waiting just for that. as I pointed my palm in its direction.
[Echo]
Visible soundwaves blasted out of my palms and smashed into the beetle, flinging it backwards into the wall once again, though not as hard as Tri when she used her tail, but enough that it gave the raptor enough time to get there and bite the beetle in half before proceeding to swallow the damn thing. I shuddered in revulsion at that as I felt my dinner threaten to come back up.
[Your Compound Raptor Triumphant Has Ingested and Gained the Properties of Beon (Beetle Iron) Defense Increased by 0.6]
[Your Compound Raptor Has Slain Two Basic Beon Beetelus Beetle: You have gained 2 1-star Black grade Basic Beon Beetelus Card Fragment 3/100 and 4 system Credits]
I took a deep breath as I sighed and started scratching at my palms. The spirals on my body always itched me something fierce whenever I used them to create vibrations or sounds. Some of them even hurt a lot in the process, however it was mainly attributed to the fact that my body was pretty much undeveloped. And not being able to speak doesn't help matter either, however at least I had a telepathic connection with Tri, so that had to count for something. But there was something bugging me, I turned to Tri.
"Is it normal for compound raptors to have stat gains whenever they ingest new properties that they can use to augment themselves. I don't remember reading about it in the description the system gave, much less in the in depth research notes made on compound raptors. Why are you gaining stat increases with each beetle you ingested?" I asked as I looked up at Tri.
{I'm doing that? I never knew master…. Seems cold though. Does that mean that I am growing stronger the more I eat?" she asked back, her excitement shown as her thick tail wagged with much more force than a tail with such heft should be able to bring to bear.
But her excitement only made me horrified, the caliphate didn't know about this, and the truth of the matter is that if she kept on getting stat increments every time she ingested something then.... "What the hell are you?"
"I am TRIUMPHANT!"