Starting out as a Dragon Slave-Chapter 56: Crystals

Chaos had become a rhythm.

A steady, brutal beat, cadenced by screams, wing beats, blade splinters, the rattle of dying insects and the cold sound of system notifications.

Isaac was in the air. Always in the air.

Ever since he had fused Shidensen with his [Flight] skill, he had left the ground like a snake abandons an old skin.

He was no longer a hunter among hunters. He was the hunter above, the hawk, the blade that fell from the sky.

A Harpie-Alpha appeared.

It swooped down on Maëlle, its silhouette more massive, its wings screeching with a strident metallic sound, and a tail studded with barbed needles.

A bastard designed to kill quickly and painfully.

Isaac, from a twisted beam twenty meters above, watched the trajectory for half a second.

He closed his eyes.

He felt the tension in his back.

The heat rising up his spine.

The release of control.

And he jumped.

No.

He dived.

- Shidensen.

The blade tore through the air.

A shockwave escaped in its wake.

The Harpy-Alpha saw nothing.

She found herself cut clean through the back of the neck.

Her head rolled in the air, only to be caught by Jonah’s fist, like a soccer.

[Ding! Enemy defeated. Absorption available:]

- Physical statistics

- Physical skill

Isaac, still in the air, uttered:

- Physical statistics.

He felt a heavier discharge this time.

A thrust through his muscles, his bones, as if his skeleton itself were becoming a weapon.

His peripheral vision sharpened.

His body adjusted.

Less friction. More precision.

Another group emerged. Three Harpies.

Less robust, but fast.

They were charging down the back line, where Leïla was constantly pulling to protect Erika and Rémi.

Isaac soared through the air, deploying the most aggressive version of his [Flight] skill.

He felt the mana swirling around him like a spiral flow.

He guided it with the precision of a surgeon, until he had stabilized a complete spin.

He melted.

His trajectory was a deadly curve.

- Shidensen.

Again.

This time, he aimed not at one.

But all three.

He cut the first in the belly.

The second lost its wings in a spray of black blood and torn membranes.

The last one tried to turn, but Isaac plunged his blade into its throat as he passed it.

He spun upwards, as if dancing with death.

[Ding! Enemy defeated x3. Absorption available:]

He closed his eyes.

- Physical skill.

[Flying skill upgraded to level 8]

Directional control in aerial combat optimized. Ability to brake suddenly and recover trajectory.

[Ding! Enemy defeated. Absorption available:]

- Physical statistics.

[Ding! Enemy defeated. Absorption available:]

- Physical skill.

[Flight] - Level 9

Passive activation possible. Your body naturally adapts to sustentation via mana. Major reduction in consumption. Partial integration into instinctive motor panel.

- I’m almost flying without thinking..., he thought as he watched the battle from above.

On the ground, tension was mounting.

Erika was coordinating the squad like a veteran general. Her armor was cracked in several places, her left arm burned from acid contact.

But she stood her ground.

Rémi, covered in foul fluids, was still pushing the larvae around with his shield, growling through his teeth.

Maëlle was on her knees, her fingers bleeding, her lips cracked by the magical effort.

Jonah, panting, kept pulling, his voice hoarse, almost absent.

- Fuck... this is endless...

Isaac, however, never touched the ground.

He twirled, cut and maneuvered like a sky dancer.

With each new attack, he alternated his choices.

[Ding! Enemy defeated. Physical stats absorbed].

- Strength +1, Dexterity +2

[Ding! Physical skill absorbed: Flight Lv10]

[Vol] has reached its evolved form.

New form unlocked: Vol Virevoltant (level 1)

Added micro-propulses via mana. Ability to "dash" in flight. Speed +20%.

Isaac felt the invisible wings on his back retract and reactivate, faster, more aggressive.

He was no longer simply a flying man.

He was becoming a predator of the air.

At last...

After almost an hour of continuous fighting, swarming corridors and aerial skirmishes, they reached the transition zone.

An organic antechamber.

A wider, rounded corridor whose walls pulsed slowly, like a gorge.

At the end... an immense organic door.

An interweaving of bone, membrane and chitinous roots, covered in luminescent insectoid glyphs.

The boss room.

Erika staggered to the door, Maëlle supporting her.

- Here we are..." she breathed. Just get ready. We’re out of potion. No plan B. What awaits us behind...

Isaac landed softly, his blade dripping black blood, his feet having not touched the ground for nearly thirty minutes.

His eyes shone with an unearthly brilliance.

His body radiated controlled tension.

And behind him, the shadow of two mana wings vibrated softly.

Jonah stared at him, breathless.

- Dude... did you see your face? You’re creepy. Seriously.

Isaac, breathless but calm, looked up at the door.

The organic door opened with a clang of torn membranes, threads of slimy slime stretching between the two doors like viscous webs. A thick, clammy heat, laden with a fetid odor, immediately escaped from the gaping chasm before them, mingled with a muffled hum, almost a beehive song, low and deep.

They advanced cautiously, one after the other, their boots sinking into the spongy ground covered with a translucent, slippery mucus, organic glue and purulent degeneration. Their footsteps made wet noises, and with every movement, the ground seemed to react, pulsing like a giant heart.

The space was gigantic, a former factory loading bay, totally transformed by the magic of the dungeon and the hive that inhabited it.

Everywhere on the walls, pillars and collapsed ducts, eggs - hundreds of them - were stuck, pulsing, gorged with whitish liquid. Some stirred slightly. Others cracked silently, dripping tepid ooze.

But what immediately caught the eye were the crystals.

Large, azure-blue structures, sparkling from within, planted like teeth in the fleshy ground.

Erika stopped dead in her tracks, her eyes widening:

- Mana crystals...

The silence that followed was almost religious.

- It can’t be..." gasped Maëlle. Real ones?

Isaac slowly approached one of the crystalline pillars, his inner light pulsing softly. The density of mana it emitted was unbearably pure. He could feel it infiltrating his pores, dancing on his nerves.

- They’re natural... formed by the extreme concentration of raw mana. A hive this size generates enough energy to make them grow like mushrooms," Erika explained.

Jonah hissed through his teeth. ƒrēewebnoѵёl.cσm

- They’re worth a fortune...

- And we won’t survive long enough to sell them if we drag this out," Erika cut in coldly.

For at the center of this horror was the Queen.

La Mère-Scarabée: Sovereign of the Core

A gargantuan mass, crouched on a bony outgrowth, pulsed softly to the rhythm of heavy breathing. Its entire body was covered in an oily black carapace, dotted with violet veins where poison seemed to circulate in plain sight.

Its wings were folded, but throbbing, ready to split the air at supernatural speed.

Its front legs were disproportionately long, ending in jagged blades glistening with toxins.

And her abdomen... was open, like a gigantic wound where eggs dripped slowly, sliding towards the nests around. She was still laying eggs. She had never stopped.

Her multiple, glowing eyes focused on the intruders.

She let out a high-pitched, shrill, piercing howl that shook the eardrums of the entire team. The crystals themselves seemed to resonate with the scream.

- CONTACT!" screamed Erika. FLEXIBLE ENCIRCLEMENT FORMATION!

But the Queen moved.

Quickly. Too fast.

With a single flap of her wings, she rose six meters off the ground and disappeared in a cloud of thick, oily, toxic violet mist.

- It’s a poisonous mist! Filter it out immediately! Don’t breathe it!" cried Maëlle.

She activated a purification circle, but the mist was magical, dense, intelligent. It curled around the area, bypassing the purification, looking for loopholes.

Isaac immediately rose into the air, beating space with [Vol Lv10], looking for an angle of approach, but the mist rose with him, swirling around like tentacles.

- She’s flying with the mist! She’s camouflaged in it!

And suddenly - a scream, a metallic noise. Rémi screamed:

- ARGH-

One of the Queen’s paws had just emerged from the mist and slashed his right shoulder to the bone, sending the colossus to the ground in a geyser of blood.

Isaac, furious, came spinning down, blade outstretched:

- SHIDENSEN!

He crossed the mist in a bluish line... but she was gone.

He pierced an illusion of poison, landed hard and slid to the spongy ground.

She was laughing.

Yes, she was giving off a mental vibration. A laugh.

She understood what they were doing. She was enjoying herself.

She was hunting.

Maëlle screamed:

- There she is! Upstairs, east side!

Leïla fired an explosive arrow - the Queen turned away, her wing taking the impact, but she retaliated with a green spit, a jet of acid poison that melted the railing on which the shooter was perched. The metal wept like burnt butter.

Isaac took to the air again.

This time, he climbed higher. He closed his eyes.

He breathed in.

He felt it.

A breath in the poison.

A vibration in the air.

A fracture in the magical pressure.

He melted.

Diagonally.

At an angle.

Curved lightning.

- SHIDENSEN.

This time, he touched her.

The blade cut into a wing joint. Greenish-yellow blood spurted to the ground. The Queen screamed, but not in pain.

Pleasure.

She loved it.

[Ding! Critical damage inflicted.]

[Boss partially wounded].

Isaac stepped back, flying in a spiral. He inhaled heavily.

He’d barely scratched her shell.

Jonah, at the other end, was engaged with freshly hatched Harpies-Elites. Erika was splitting the air, her orders shouted between two sword strokes.

Maëlle was sweating, her nose bloody, her magic repelled by the density of the poison.

And in the center, the Queen danced.

A cyclone of toxins, speed, blade and fear.

Isaac flew higher.

Isaac spiraled around the room, his breath ragged, his arms outstretched, katana still vibrating with energy. He’d just struck, cutting into the Queen where her carapace hinged - but the satisfaction of the blow barely lasted a second.

With an infernal roar, the Scarab Mother turned around, her wings beating so fast they formed a blurred disk, propelling a toxic gust around her. Her multiple, gleaming red eyes focused on him.

And she retaliated.

She leapt up, her wings flapping fast enough to rival her speed in flight, and hurled her forepaw at him, a twisted, poisoned blade the size of a tree trunk.

Isaac tried to dodge, turning upwards, but realized half a second too late that he couldn’t avoid the full force of the blow.

Impact.

The paw struck him in the chest.

His body was thrown like a projectile, carried through the air with animal-like violence.

His back collided violently with one of the mana crystals, one of those great pillars of pure, azure-blue energy standing like a sacred obelisk at the heart of this infernal hall.

Cracking.

The crystal cracked under the impact.

Isaac crashed to its base, breathless, blood in his mouth, his vision blurred, his left arm useless under the shockwave.

He was in pain. Pain like no other.

And yet, at that very moment, something changed.

The crystal light pulsed.

A strange vibration invaded the room.

Not in the air.

Not in the mana.

In the system.

A sharp sound, like a distant bell, echoed in his skull. Then an interface opened, red instead of the usual blue.

[Raw mana source detected]

[Possible absorption of a magic crystal].

[Do you wish to absorb the energy of mana crystals?]

[Yes / No]

Isaac, half lying against the base of the crystal, panting, pain radiating throughout his side, read the notification.

His fingers trembled.

The air vibrated with imminent danger.

The Queen had felt the shock and was already turning, trying to finish him off.

But he...

He was still staring at the screen.

His lips parted in a rictus between pain and excitement.

- What the hell...

His finger slowly approached the option.

The system was waiting.