Kai watched as his flames slithered across the jungle bed, turning everything in its path black. A pure, pitch-black darkness of death. Soon the fire reached the trees and shot up them.
Branches fell, crumbling from just the air resistance. As death continued its march, light returned to this part of the jungle.
Kai could now see the parasites much more clearly. There were 12 of them in total, and they looked almost homogeneous. As if they were all born from 1 creature. Or manufactured by one.
The one closest to him, with its cover blown, gave a low growl as its slitted eyes tried to adapt to the sunlight.
'Lucky,' Kai thought, having not planned for them to react this negatively to sunlight. His only plan was to be able to see them more easily, but this outcome was well received.
However, there was still a problem with the beasts further in. They were still cloaked in darkness, and his flames had died down.
For the first time, Kai noticed this. Apparently, his skill couldn't be spammed. Or maybe he had used far too much of it when clearing the jungle.
Either way, the beasts in the back would have to be dealt with later. Right now, there were 5 beasts in front of him, angry from the added light. And hungry. And recovering from their temporary blindness.
The rhythmic padding of their legs and arms matched with the echo of their chatter. Each step they took seemed to push them toward and then away from Kai. As if they were playing a game to see who gets to strike first.
Meanwhile, Kai wasn't interested in playing such games. Instead, he simply adopted his traits of a Monkey's Tail and a Mountain Eagle's wing.
Kai continued watching the 4 beasts circle ahead of him, wondering when the first was going to strike. They wouldn't spend all day circling him, would they? Unless they were stalling for something else-
Kai caught the flash from the corner of his eye. Though the beast was in his line of vision, the Komodo's Eyes had turned it invisible as Kai focused on the other 4 beasts.
Snarling as the beast raised its arms, extending its hands into 4 claws, the beast jumped at Kai. Its red eyes spoke a vicious fury and its claws delivered that fury.
Knowing he wouldn't be able to raise his wing in time, Kai elected to drop and roll instead.
Tucking his body into itself moments before impact, Kai began to initiate a roll. Then he felt something tug at his back, flinging him through the air. Somehow, the parasite had caught him?
His vision turned blurry as he slammed into a tree and then slumped to the ground. Forcing himself up, he tried to find the parasite's position. Barely able to make out the grey blob, he stood with shaky legs. As he took a step forward, it felt as if his legs would buckle under his weight, but he kept going.
He had to fight, had to win. He had to kill the Bès Rap. Some little parasites couldn't stop him.
The blob rapidly approached him. An attack. This time, Kai was prepared. Raising his own wing in an attack, he felt a burning sensation in his shoulder. Simultaneously, he heard the squelch of flesh being sliced apart, following a yelp from the blob.
The blob jumped into the darkness of the trees, letting out small animal cries. Kai heard its blood splattering on the ground, followed by some sort of sizzling.
'Acidic blood? Maybe that's why my shoulder is burning?'
His vision slowly returned to him, reminding him of the monstrous form of a parasite. Actually, now that it was bleeding it looked even more disfigured.
From the spot of the wound and trailing to wherever its blood reached, its entire skin was melting away. Then, after that, its flesh was melting away, becoming a grey goo. The parasite itself was howling, and its spikes began vibrating with a bright, vivid red color that illuminated the parts of the forest that were still dark.
Chancing a glance at his shoulder, Kai saw that it suffered a similar injury. Parts of his shoulder had become a grey goo that was dripping down his arm, leaving a cool sensation. However, underneath this goo was a purple light.
'Is this similar to my flames? Is my skill giving me some kind of healing?'
'How does that work?' Kai pondered.
Another hint to the true source of Shuzen's poison...
There was no time to think of that. The parasites were making their move again. And even if his skill apparently offered protection, he was wary of it being overpowered. He wasn't confident that if all of the beasts bled their corrosive acid on him, his skill would counteract it in time.
After all, his shoulder had been burning for a few seconds before it healed. That's more than enough time for the acid of 5 parasites' blood to boil him.
Refusing to bask in the weirdly pleasant feeling of his shoulder's reparations, he gritted his teeth as the parasites howled, making their advance known.
...
The ground was coming closer, and closer, and closer.
Somewhere overhead, Shuzen heard the Chucadori screech in pain. He knew better than to gain a false sense of security from that sound. The beast would be after him shortly, even if it was dealing with poisonous air.
Even after he lands safely on the ground, he knew to be nothing short of vigilant against such a beast.
'So how am I going to get down safely?' Shuzen wondered, though not out of fear or urgency.
This type of problem was one a tamer of his level would have experienced numerous times. Instead, he simply wondered which beast he wanted to use.
He could call one of his Chicos to do their job for once, grabbing him out of the air and slowing his descent. Though, it was just as likely they wouldn't listen. After dropping the carriage, they all went their own ways to explore the jungle.
He'd have to reprimand them later. A few hours of torture would suffice.
'Hmmm. Haven't used this beast in a while.' Shuzen thought, having decided the beast he wanted to use.
His arms adopted the trait of a Drake, or miniature dragon. Though most dragons would consider that comparison offensive. A Drake was merely an A-rank beast, whereas dragons were near the pinnacle of SSS-rank beasts.
This was a fact Shuzen was constantly reminded of by his fellow nobles when talking about the conquests of Kisho. The servants knew nothing of this, as the conquest was limited to Vehshka. If any of them got an inkling of this fact, they were promptly silenced.
Shuzen didn't care about that too much right now, as the moment he landed the Chucadori came barreling from the sky, finally free of the poison. It screeched with murderous rage, with an anger that Shuzen was happy to match with malice.