Starting out as a Dragon Slave-Chapter 57: Mana core

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

[Yes/No]

Isaac slowly raised his hand, his fingers trembling, his lungs crushed by the violent impact against the crystal column. His breath hissed, mixed with pain and a dull excitement that seeped into his chest like a forbidden flame.

He stared for a moment at the vibrant glow of the mana crystal, that pure, unearthly blue that seemed to whisper to his cells, that called to his body, as if this fragment of dungeon recognized something within him.

Then he pressed on.

- Yes.

The system made no sound.

No alarm.

No instructions.

Only... light.

And pain.

A blinding blue light exploded in his field of vision, cutting right through him. The crystal cracked open with a sinister crack, and a wave of pure energy merged with his body.

Isaac screamed.

Not a cry of physical pain. A cry of transmutation.

Raw, unfiltered magic, not adapted to humans, entered his flesh, his bones, his nerves.

It burned everything that wasn’t ready.

And rebuilt what had to be rebuilt.

He felt every cell in his body vibrate, his blood stir like molten mercury, his muscles inflame, his stomach twist.

And then...

[Ding! Absorption of mana crystals in progress...]

[Adjustment of the host’s internal structure...]

[Creation of a mana core: level 1]

[Increased mana: +80]

[Current total: Mana 130]

[High level of magical resonance. Increased mana regeneration capacity.]

[Increased sensitivity to elemental flows.]

Isaac felt the pressure in his chest change, as if a second heart had been born.

But this one wasn’t pumping blood.

It was pumping power.

Pure, molten mana, circulating in a circuit that hadn’t existed the day before.

His half-closed eyes turned blue for a second, a fleeting but supernatural glow.

A blue aura emanated from his body, crackling, disorderly... then calmed.

He caught his breath. Slowly, slowly.

Then clenched his teeth.

- What have I become...?

The Queen Mother, a few meters away, had stopped.

She had sensed the change.

And for the first time since their arrival...

She hesitated.

Isaac, still kneeling against the smoking remains of the crystal, slowly looked up.

He could feel the heat of the mana in his chest.

Like a fire ready to explode

The broken crystal was still smoking behind him.

Isaac rose slowly to his feet, his muscles stiff, his skin streaked with arcane micro-burns. But he felt alive. More alive than he’d ever felt before.

Mana... he could feel it breathing into his ribcage.

Like a second wind, an energetic echo vibrating with each beat of his heart.

His core had been born.

And with it, a new dimension opened up to his [Flight] skill - an extension of his mana wings, denser, purer, faster.

All around him, the battle resumed.

Erika was splitting the Harpies-Elites on the ground, her face covered in blood and sweat, her sword engraved with runes notching carapaces and legs. Rémi had once again taken up position, even wounded, fending off two Harpies at once, his shield riddled with fangs.

Maëlle was screaming incantations, her nose bloody, her hands trembling, maintaining a bubble of purification around Leïla, who, on her knees, was firing arrow after arrow, her right arm almost paralyzed.

But this was nothing compared to what was happening around them.

Eggs. Dozens of them. Hundreds of them.

Mother Beetle was laying them relentlessly, her abdomen disgorging a stream of mutant larvae and embryonic harpies that were already being born ready to kill. The walls were covered with them, and every minute the pressure increased.

- WE’RE GONNA GET BROKEN!" shouted Jonah, crushing the head of a newly-born harpy with a knee strike.

- Concentrate on the side cleaning! shouted Erika. ISAAC, IT’S YOUR TURN TO HIRE HIM!

He didn’t reply.

He didn’t need to.

His gaze lifted.

Mother-Scarabaea was floating in the upper reaches of the room, at the center of a cyclone of poisonous mist.

Her multiple eyes stared at him.

She’d felt it. She knew.

Isaac closed his eyes.

He gathered the mana from his core, then channeled it into his back.

The mana wings unfurled again - but they were no longer translucent.

They were an intense blue, luminous, vibrant, almost fairy-like.

Isaac growled, arms at his sides.

He expelled a torrent of mana, and the world around him became a blur.

He’d just disappeared.

- Where the hell is he?! shouted Jonah, his eyes wide.

Maëlle almost fell to her knees:

- His aura... It just pierced the density of the poison! He’s literally splitting the mist with his body!

Leïla, her lips cracked, murmured:

- He’s become a living arrow...

In the air, the Queen spun around, sensing the danger a second too late.

Isaac reappeared above her, in a full dive, blade raised.

- SHIDENSEN.

The impact made no sound.

But the blast it left threw Harpies against the walls.

The Queen screamed - a shrill, piercing cry, echoing off the crystals still standing, which vibrated with an unstable blue glow.

[Critical damage inflicted. Part of the carapace fractured.]

Isaac passed through her, puncturing her left wing.

He braked in the air with a backward thrust, pivoted and accelerated horizontally.

BOOM.

A circular wave burst around him.

A supersonic bang.

He flew at mach 1, and the Queen lost sight of him.

She spat out a cloud of poison... into space.

Isaac was already gone.

- It’s not human..." breathed Rémi, frozen, an egg in his hands, unable to break it because he was so hypnotized.

Erika pushed a harpy away with a cry of rage.

- He’s not a hunter anymore. He’s become a fucking weapon!

Isaac swooped down again, three times faster than on his first attempt.

He said nothing this time.

He just shot.

And he crossed Mother-Scarabaea at an inverted angle, this time cutting into the right side of her thorax.

Blood gushed out in an acid geyser.

The poison evaporated, unable to keep up.

She’d been caught off guard.

[Ding! Massive damage. Enemy tries to regenerate]

But Isaac wasn’t going to give her the time.

He hovered back, stabilized his position at twenty meters altitude, then cast his gaze downward.

At her.

She was panting, her wings trembling, her mist disorganized, her larvae panicked.

Her legs clattered in the void.

She understood now.

He was the ultimate hunter.

And he wasn’t done yet.

Isaac slowly raised his katana, the blue aura pulsing around him like a contained storm.

His gaze was cold. Precise.

- You’re going down, Queen

Mother-Scarabaea flapped her twisted wings frantically, her body lacerated, pierced, her carapace still steaming with mana from Isaac’s assaults. Greenish, viscous blood oozed from her wounds, mingling with the mucus already lying on the ground.

And yet... she wasn’t falling.

Not yet.

Isaac hovered over her, panting, hand clutching his katana, its mana wings still vibrating, streaked with blue pulses.

He expected a riposte, a final howl, a desperate charge...

But what he saw then, he had never faced.

Never imagined.

The Queen’s body began to swell.

Her veins, hitherto filled with green toxins, took on a crimson hue.

Her eyes reddened to the extreme, then turned incandescent crimson.

A red glow emerged from her abdomen, pulsing, vibrating, like a forge ready to burst.

- What’s she doing?" Jonah shouted, instinctively stepping back.

On the ground, Erika had just skewered a newborn harpy. She lifted her head, her eyes widening, turning pale.

She understood.

- MAËLLE!" she shouted, her voice piercing the chaos.

- BARRIER! IMMEDIATELY! EVERYONE BEHIND ME! SHE’S GOING TO GET BLOWN UP!

Maëlle, already on her knees, her magic in full flow, threw her hands on the ground in pain.

- I’ll... I’ll try! I’ve run out of catalyst!

- DO IT ANYWAY!" thundered Erika, standing in front of her and spreading her arms to cover the rest of the group.

Isaac swooped down, landing hard behind them, almost slipping on the slimy ground. He placed himself last, wings folded, breathless, but eyes still fixed on the Queen.

The creature screams.

An insectoid, psychic, strident howl that made blood jump out of Jonah’s ears, knocked Leïla to her knees, screaming in pain.

The howl couldn’t just be heard. It entered the bones.

And then...

The process accelerated.

Her body fractured from the inside out, veins of red light shooting from every joint.

Her abdomen swelled, her legs rigidified, her wings set in a frozen posture.

She was sacrificing herself.

She was becoming a heart of poisoned mana, a warhead of living toxins.

- MAËLLE!" screamed Erika.

- I’M HERE!

Maëlle struck the ground with both hands, screaming, her nose and eyes bleeding profusely.

A spherical barrier of white light shot out from her, projecting around the group.

- DON’T MOVE!" she spat, her voice trembling, her body bent in two.

And then...

The Queen exploded.

A red light engulfs everything.

Not a sharp flash, but an organic, sticky, burning expansion.

A dome of mana charged with pure poison, sharp needles, glowing shards of carapace.

A wave of toxic heat, acid deflagration, apocalyptic blast.

The dungeon walls shook, crystal pillars exploded in a shower of azure fragments, dissolving in the air.

The world was red.