The three cadets were no longer in a rescue mission; they were in a at grinder.
Soren’s short sword was a blur of silver, hacking through the twitching, multi-fingered vines that lashed at them from the cracks in the street.
Beside him, Vass was a pillar of fiery fury.
His fists were soaked with blinding flas that scorched the toothy maws of the minions attacking them, even before they could snap shut.
Bloodshine on the other hand, she moved like a ghost, as her dagger parried any needle-thin fingers of the limbs with terrifying efficiency.
Even soren had to take a peek from ti to ti. She was even more fluid than him in her movent.
And use of Blackfield?
It was like she had extra eyes all over her body.
Although the mont was tense, Soren could not help but imagine how terrifying an opponent she would be if he were to fight her.
For a second, he wondered who would win in a battle between her and Li.
Yes. She was that good.
If only she had offensive powers like Vass did, maybe she would have been of a much greater threat and help in this battle.
"There!" Soren shouted, pointing toward a massive, colonial-style clock tower that seed to be anchored into a deeper, more solid rock foundation than the rest of the town.
"We need high ground! The street is becoming a freaking stomach!"
They didn’t wait for a second opinion. With a synchronized burst of soul-enhanced speed, they leaped over a pile of twitching tentacles and scaled the side of the building.
Soren reached the broad stone balcony first and gently lowered Sophia.
The girl was still a hollow shell, her eyes fixed on the red ribbon in her hand, the trauma of her father’s death and now destruction of her "ho" having finally snapped her tether to reality.
She didn’t even flinch at the screams below.
Soren sighed at this. It would help if sophia joined the fight.
But right now, she was of no use to any body the way she was.
A group of terrified citizens, seeing the cadets’ stand high on the building, scrambled up the trellises and service ladders behind them, desperate to escape the gore-slicked streets.
They huddled at the back of the balcony, sobbing and whispering prayers to the god of the Neuralink.
"Look," Bloodshine whispered, her face pale.
The center of the town—the grand square where the wedding was supposed to happen—simply ceased to exist.
The ground caved in, and from the jagged, miles-deep crater, sothing gargantuan began to rise.
The sound was like a mountain being torn in half.
The creature that erged was a nightmare of scale and ancient malice.
A head the size of a mansion, shaped like the skull of a prehistoric dinosaur but covered in a translucent, throbbing mbrane of green ectoplasm, rose into the sky.
Its "neck" was a tangled forest of the sa tree-like limbs they had been fighting, and its eyes—thousands of them—flickered open all at once, casting a sickly erald light over the ruins of Los Favorecidos.
The true master of the swamp had finally stood up, and it was unlike anything they had ever seen.
One look at it, and Soren and the others knew that what they needed right now, was a Soul cha.
They needed help. After all, no one here was going to be able to defeat that thing.
The behemoth continued its ascent, shedding layers of stone and soil like a snake shedding skin.
Amidst the destruction, Soren’s Blackfield caught a frantic, rhythmic thudding—and it was not from the beast, but against it.
He squinted, as his breath hitched in his throat.
Moving with the unstoppable montum of a bullet train was a figure he thought had definitely escaped this nightmare.
After all, her job had been to act as a distraction.
Soren assud that when the destruction began, she imdiately escaped.
But clearly, she didn’t.
Or maybe, like them, she couldn’t.
Of course, it was Cynthia.
She was a juggernaut of raw power and muscle.
Her massive fra sprinted vertically up the creature’s translucent, pulsing body.
The needle-fingered vines lashed at her, but she didn’t even bother to block the attacks.
She simply lowered her shoulder and plowed through them, snapping the Eldritch limbs like dry kindling.
A table-sized mouth lunged to swallow her whole, and she t it with a devastating knee that shattered its rows of teeth into splinters.
"Fuck!" Vass cursed. He could not help but admire.
He knew Cynthia was strong. But he had never seen her do anything within the academy.
He did not know that Soren had picked a walking breathing bulldozer as a subordinate.
She was really terrifying.
But she was not just getting rid of the minions leaking from the body of the massive creature.
She had a goal. Sothing she was hunting.
Her target was the massive, dinosaur-like skull.
As she reached the crest of its shoulder, Cynthia’s body seed to coil, her internal steam pressure building until the vents on her helt hissed with a violent, shrill scream.
She leaped into the air, her fist pulled back until the air around it began to distort.
**"SONIC IMPACT!"**
The punch didn’t just landed with detonation.
A visible ripple of white shockwaves exploded outward from the point of contact.
On their high balcony, Soren, Vass, and Bloodshine were nearly thrown off the ledge, forced to grab onto rusted iron pipes to keep from being swept away by the sheer atmospheric pressure.
The sound was a deafening, bone-cracking *crack* followed by a wet, hollow roar.
A massive hole, wide enough for a highway, was blasted clean through the creature’s head.
Ectoplasmic goo and green ichor rained down on the town like a toxic storm.
The beast screeched—a sound of tectonic agony—but layered beneath the monstrous wail was that sa, hauntingly familiar human scream.
"Is it... dead?" Vass whispered, as his soul energy trembled.
"No," Soren gritted out, his eyes widening. "Look."
Despite the massive cavity in its skull, the creature didn’t fall.
Instead, it thrashed with renewed, manic vigor, its thousands of eyes turning their erald glare toward the tiny helt wearing girl who had dared to wound it.
Then, a voice bood, vibrating the very marrow of their bones. It wasn’t coming from the air, but from the creature’s own flesh.
"You stole it... You thieves! You ruined all my plans... so many years of cultivation... gone!"
Through the gaping, smoking hole Cynthia had punched in the beast’s head, a figure began to protrude.
It was man-shaped from the waist up, but its skin was green colored, and its lower half was fused seamlessly into the Eldritch’s neural matter.
Soren’s blood turned to ice. He recognized that face. He had seen it only an hour ago, staring down from a gilded fra in the manor’s foyer.
The sharp, aquiline nose, the deep-set eyes, the look of arrogant entitlent—it was the man from the portrait.
The Old Baron. Don Alejandro’s father hadn’t died; no... instead, he had beco... no, he was the very parasite that fed on the town.
Just then, the man opened his mouth, "you imbeciles... I’ll make you pay for taking it. I’ll make you pay for..."
It opened its mouth wide and a sonic echoed rushed out, enveloping the surrounding area.
As it did, soren felt his blood roll in disgust and pain.
It was like every liquid in his body was trying its best shoot out of every hole he had.
And then.
Boom!
A loud explosion was heard as Cynthia punched the man again.
Instantly, he fell limp. Dead.
All the creatures fell limp. It was like the central nervous system had been destroyed.
Cynthia had destroyed the beast.
Soren and the others could not help but sit and breath heavy in relief.
It was over. It was finally over.
It turned out that they did not need a Soul cha.
The old Baron was the core of the Eldritch beast.
.....
Naturally, Soren and his remaining team mates made a report, and sent to the academy about their findings in this place, and the nearest outpost of Soulbound knights were inford.
A day later, they arrived.
As soon as Soren finished speaking with the lieutenant in charge, Sophia ran up to him.
She jumped into his embrace.
Soren was shocked by this. Shw leaned in and gave him a kiss on the chin.
"Thanks a lot for everything Soren." Her arm wrapped around his own, pulling closer to her chest.
Soren blushed. But then just as the feeling ca, he shook his head, pulling out of her embrace.
"I am glad you are feeling better Sophia. For a second there, I thought we might have lost you!"
Her eyes seed to glow as she smiled. "How thoughtful of you." She winked at him and then turned to leave.
Vass ca from behind him. "This trip is really good work. With such an Eldritch beast haul. The sponsors are going to be very happy. Good job, Soren."
He patted Soren’s back. And then he turned and walked away.
Soren could not help but raise a brow... "what’s happening right now?"
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