I had no other choice, if Dragan was being controlled by the monster, and I controlled him when we fused, then maybe it would cancel each other out.
It was my last hope, I had to do it.
Fusion required his consent as well, but I had no choice.
I had to force it.
Without thinking it through, I expanded into a million tiny particles all around him and then covered his entire body. At first, I wasn't going in, he was rejecting me, and I had to try harder.
Still, he denied me, my body had formed into his. He was still walking towards the Graffe.
It was like he was wearing me like an ex-suite.
I wasn't going to let this happen, we weren't going out like this!
This was do or die, this was an emergency.
>Fusion Attempt Detected
Huh?! What was this now?
>Fusion Denied
>Fusion Denied
>Fusion Denied…
Sybil just kept saying those words over and over, on repeat. We were getting closer to the Graffe, it was savoring its meal, looking directly at Dragan.
The lights that had made Dragan go into a trance were shining, they were dancing in rapid succession around us. Bumping and crashing against each other.
I was panicking, was this how our adventure ended, at the fangs of this ugly bastard?
I refused to accept it!
I liked Dragan, I liked him a lot!
Finally, my adventure had begun, and now it was coming to a close?
I could see the Graffe up close now, its jaw opening up to swallow us up.
>Unauthorized Program detected.
>Taboo level has increased
>Warning!
>Exponential taboo increase
>Issuing warning
A bunch of red warning screens appeared in the info skill in front of me.
"I DON'T CARE!" I shouted. The screens broke like glass.
>New program detected
>Running program
>Running through administrator
>Accepted
>Malware injected barrier removed
>Starting fusion
Finally, my body started going deep into his skin, in a matter of milliseconds I ran through his bloodstream, and I took over him.
Finally, I had control.
The Graffe knew what was up, suddenly looking worried.
I grabbed his spear, which he carried on his back, and pointed it towards the Graffe. It was larger than Dragan's body, I had no idea how he managed to carry that all the way here.
It all moved in slow motion, I plunged it towards the Graffe while letting out a scream in Dragan's voice.
It connected, and it went through the roof of its mouth. The Graffe stood perplexed, it wasn't expecting this.
"You have a nice singing voice, but you ugly AF!" I said through Dragan with a little more sass than usual.
The spear revved up like a motorcycle, and the spell crystal at the helm started charging up.
The Graffe was frozen, it tried defending itself - but the spell had charged enough for release. At such a close counter it was surely meant to be fatal.
"GRAVE INCINERATION!" we both spoke now, Dragan was waking up. Mana flowed through us and into the spear. Then like bullets, it shot inside the Graffe mouth, one after another, going into it. Making it's tummy larger with each shot.
It slanted, confused, retracted back, seeking shelter.
The lights stopped dancing and returned to its caster, but the Graffe wasn't prepared and the magic hit hard, it made it even more confused, pushing it back. It crashed on its back, and on its belly, it let out a final beautiful scream. And then stopped.
"Ignition!" Dragan and I finished the spell while snapping our fingers.
The Graffe exploded in a beautifully controlled explosion, Its belly erupted with a thousand fires of hell.
The hunters regained consciousness from their trance and quickly shielded their way out of danger.
Lava shot out in all directions. I shielded Dragan's eyes from the blinding light. He was fully back now. No one else was hurt, but the Graffe himself.
"Is it dead?" spoke Dragan.
Lava was pouring out of its open wound, burning the ground, and towards the forest.
"Space Amplify," said Dragan, pointing his spear towards the dead Graffe. The space around it distorted and time moved faster, making the lava solidify and cool down, it stopped completely only a small patch of forest was hurt. The corpse itself didn't suffer any damage.
Dragan priority was protecting Phantom's Peak forest. Letting the Lava flow out of the Graffe could mean a large forest fire, and since this space itself was within its own self-contained bubble that would mean trouble for the people living there.
Dragan arched his back forward, there was a moment of silence, and then I let out of the fusion, thousands of slime particles filling the air, one after another.
This time he just gave out a small grimace.
I put them all back together and formed my body again. The hunters looked at us with ooohs and aaahs. It didn't hurt Dragan at all this time around. And the un-fusion process was much faster.
>Fusion Separation Complete
spoke Sybil.
The Moonlight Brothers started coming towards us, I sensed no hostility this time around.
"Eni Traka Getaa!" spoke a voice behind us, I recognized the mask as the one who had placed a spear at our throats before the fight started.
"Ma Ma, like miga nobi nega agu trenta" spoke Dragan in their dialect.
>Analyzing…
Sybil was already hard at work trying to decipher their language.
"Oh?! Treina milinga phampleta compa," said the masked person. The rest of the hunters seemed to see him as their leader.
"Homde, treina gi Phantom's Peak - ilugnia meta?"
>Complete
There was a silence now. The Moonlight Brothers all started removing their masks, to my surprise, they were not human but had big eyes, whiskers, sharp fangs, fur all over their face, calico color, and two cat-like ears. Now that I look at them properly, all of them had tails.
They were a race of cat people!
I was in shock.
"We'll get you there," finally spoke the leader of the group. He wasn't a he at all, he was a she. The words of the world translated in real time.
"Get us where?" I spoke to Dragan, incidentally in the Moonlighter tongue.
"Eh, little one, I didn't know you spoke Grimalkin!"
"I don't..."
"You're speaking it perfectly right now, and with the accent of our people," said the female hunter.
"It's Sybil's doing, we can't tell them that," I whispered.
"Oh right."
"YES! Of course, I remember now, little one, no wonder you speak Grimalkin with a perfect tongue," we both laughed awkwardly. The female hunter looked at us with a brooding expression. We laughed it off even more. The rest of the hunters titled their faces in confusion. They were oblivious. For a cat person, she was rather pretty.
"As I've said, we're travelers, we seek no qualms with the Grimalkins, can you please let us through, we need only get to the top of Phantom's Peak,"
The lady hunter sighed.
"Our people value introductions first,"
"Oh, right of course!" Dragan suddenly seemed apologetic. He was even bowing his head.
"We're from Tarragon Village, my name is Dragan and this here is my little one,"
I nodded with a smile trying to get them on our side.
"My name's Emi Hozee, I'm the current leader of the Moonlight Brothers, and why do you want to get to Phantom's Peak? There's nothing but the end of the bubble there, and there's no air beyond that wasteland "
"We're trying to get to Veldoran City," I said
"That's a 10-day walk from Phantom's Peak, even so, the climb to Phantom's Peak is formidable from our Village,"
"Your Village?" I asked
"Black Crystal Silverkeep, it's hidden by the moonlight's glow, you'd need a Grimalkin to show you the way,"
"Well we're just passing through so we'd be out of your way," said Dragan.
"And leave you in the Phantom's Forest, you must think I'm heartless," spoke Emi.
"Not at all," I said.
She sighed, again.
"Ah, what the hell, follow us, and we'll lead to you Black Crystal, you can rest your bones, and bath in our hot springs, I see you mean no harm, and you did save us from being Graffe food, so we are in your dept, but once repaid, you must be one your way. Even visitors start to rot, you understand?"
We both nodded frantically yes and for some reason stood sharply in her presence.
"Good, I like the lot of you, now follow us, don't fret," she turned around with a dignified military grace I had never seen before.
"We part men!" she said and started walking back from the grove towards the forest.
"Ho!" the other Grimlakin shouted in unison.
The hunters started yipping a happy chant, some of them sneaked close to us and started inspecting us, circling us, taunting us with their allure. Their heads moved in weird directions.
There was a soft laughter behind their step, whisper, but maniacal.
And just like that, they lost interest and headed back to join the fray.
I guess they are crazy cats.
Then just as Emi walked off the clearing, she cast magic from her paws, by blowing a soft gentle breeze, magic floated in the air, and moved upwards with the wind, it extended and formed a red flag towering over Emi. She looked back at us.
"Don't lose your way," she said with the utmost grievance. And so we started following them.