25. The Specter
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L was forced to her knees, the specter was causing more than just pain, it was affecting her perception. Everything appeared fuzzy and distorted. On the other hand, V was doing slightly better, his head was pounding and he could not shut out the specter's status information, but he was still standing. While E was gloating over his creation, V took the time to switch his constitution to A, hoping that would help. However, the pain and disorientation did not abate. He readied his sword, he doubted they would be able to flee from the specter, although with L seemingly unable to help, he also doubted they would be able to defeat the specter, but what other choice was there?

The specter slowly advanced on V. "This might be difficult. If possible, I still would like to retrieve the two of you in a usable state, but this one is a little hard to control." the specter did... something. V could not clearly make out its movements, but the effects where obvious, a slash appeared on his upper arm. It was not particularly deep, but it was bleeding. E's plan was probably to bleed him until he could easily capture both him and L. If V could not even tell what the specter was doing, it was going to be hard to defend against it. He attempted to keep a healthy distance between him and the specter, as it did in-fact, seem difficult for E to command effectively. He clearly was not in direct control like he was with the birds or abomination. There may actually be a chance to flee due to the simple nature of E's control over the specter, and his desire not to kill him. Though, L was in no position to run, and he doubted letting E transform her into a monster would end well in the long run. Another strange movement from the specter, and another slash appeared, this time across his chest. E was sitting down, watching V struggle. He was clearly straining against the specters influence.

There was only once chance V could see, killing E before the specter did enough damage to incapacitate him. There was of course, the chance that when E was dead, the specter simply killed everyone in the area, but V was hoping that due to its... wrongness, it would be unable to function correctly without directions. Another movement, another slash, this time across the face. V rushed toward E, as he neared him, a large, diamond shaped projectile launched from the specter, V was able to just barely dodge it. As it landed past him, the forest around it began to die, the trees, the grass, even the soil seemed to be drained of life in the area around the impact. "Oh! Careful now! It has a permanent command to "Defend Me" I might not be able to restrain it in time to stop you from dying.

From the ground behind him, L gasped out a simple sentence "Willpower; higher than mine...." Ah, he should have thought of that, the pain and disorientation were not coming from his body, but some esoteric source. Since defending was not helping at the moment anyway, he took a moment to switch from constitution to willpower. During this, another strange movement, another small slash across his chest. Once his willpower has switched to A, V was able to see the specter much more clearly, he could also hear it muttering. "Who am I? What am I? Who am I?" over and over. He could also now, just barely, make out what he was being attacked with. It was wielding some form of whip like weapon, it had thorns all over it. Perhaps this was the forest fairy influence on its abilities?

Now, with the specter visible, well, more visible, V could attempt to actually defend. Again, the specter attacked V, its strange whip like weapon lashing out. A master swordsman V was not; however, he was still able to block most of the strike. It was slow and not aiming to kill him, making it easy to stop. He still received a small scratch along his arm however, as the whip like object moved inconsistently, like it also was alive. He rushed toward E a second time, even if he had to risk getting hit by that projectile. It was his only option, he doubted heavily that his normal sword was going to deal much damage to the specter, not to mention he had no idea what getting close to it might do to his mind, and perhaps even his body. E sighed "You never learn, do you?" As V brought his sword down on E, intending to finish him with one strike, his sword stopped in midair, just as Ls did. This time however, he could see what happened. The specter's arm simply appeared out of thin air in front of the sword, grabbing the blade. At the same time, the specters whip like weapon grabbed V's leg, and flung him back sending him violently crashing into a tree.

As V lay there, bleeding and in pain, he wondered if there was truly nothing he could do in the situation. There was really nothing at his disposal, the middle of a forest, faced with an overwhelming foe, body exhausted, ally down. ""I'm going to die in a forest, surrounded by science equipment and shoddy furniture. What a lame way to go out." The least he could do was try to get himself killed, better for him and L to die, then to be captured by E. As he tried to pick himself off the ground, the specter threw him again, slamming into E's poorly made table, shattering it. "Oh comon!" E sighed in disappointment.

V's vision wavered, the pain in both his body and head, and the blood loss, was finally becoming too much. He was finding it difficult to pull himself up in time to avoid the specters next assault. Worse still, he must have been hallucinating as well because he swore he saw a few small white orbs floating in the treetops above him. "Well, I would say that this little rebellion is about over. The Samurai has not been able to move for a while, and you are just about done. Just come quietly. You yourself saw how amazing our work was together! Much greater still will your final transformation be." E got up, the strain still apparent on his face and walked over to V. "Are you ready to stop struggling?" In answer, V tried to lash out with his sword, missing E completely. "Tch, I suppose you will have to be totally incapacitated" the specter moved closer, it seemed as if it was about to use a new attack, V was hopeful it would accidentally kill him. However, the specter never completed its action. V focused, attempting to figure out what was going on, E was holding his shoulder with a stunned look on his face. A small metal ball, covered in blood rolled away from E.

"Waahhhh! Stop hurting them!!!" V heard Eika's voice coming from behind him. She sounded extremely sad, extremely angry, and extremely heavy. Her footfalls shook the debris of the table V was in the ruins of. That did not seem right.... V tried to clear his thoughts. "Eika is going to punish you! And Eika knows all about punishment!!" E retreated away from V, the specter taking a defensive position in front of him. The ground itself seemed to be shaking now, and through the haze of his thoughts, V swore he could hear heavy breathing, heavy enough to be from a giant. "Get em! GET EM!" Eika was yelling, her voice filled with rage. A shadow fell over top V, something massive and hairy was standing over top V. A status displayed openly.

——————
Guardian of the Elgorian Forest
Occupation: Elite Monster
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A massive gorilla, at-least seven or eight feet tall stood overtop V. Eika was setting on top of it, alongside of her were forest fairies. "Everyone is very angry at you!" Eika aggressively berated E, who responded calmly "Well, this is all very interesting, and I'll congratulate you on breaking my shoulder, that was surprising. Although I suspect it was the fairies that let it pass through the specter, rather than your own abilities. However. Even an amazing specimen like that is not going to be enough to deal with my creation." E made a cutting motion with his hand, and the specter pulled a strange sword out of the air. As E and Eika had been facing off, V had noticed that the constant projection of the specter’s status had lessened in its intensity. With his ability to concentrate greatly improved, he noticed one of the more mature fairies, the ones with small arms and legs, waving at him in a friendly manner from the forest floor. Confused he waved back, almost automatically. It trundled away back into the forest after saluting him.

"You made many gorillas angry!  You took their children and stuff!" Eika was almost screaming at this point. V wondered if something was wrong with her, he supposed he never saw her in a position to be extremely angry, but her screams sounded primal and violent. Out of the trees a large number of smaller, gorillas appeared. Well, small in comparison to the guardian anyway. V figured that the closest thing in his old world to these would have been silverback gorillas. E's face lost his air of supreme confidence "Hum, I might need to re-assess the situation" he muttered to himself. However, none of the gorillas seemed willing to wait. One launched itself toward E, it was blocked by the specter, who was also fighting the Guardian, but E was grabbed from behind by a second one, who threw E hard enough that when he collided with a tree, a sickening wet cracking noise could be heard. This proved to be a mistake however.

The moment E collided with the tree; the air grew cold, frigid even. The specter stopped its assault on the gorilla and looked at its own hands in confusion. "What am I? WHAT I AM? WHATTTTTTTT-" The specter started screaming. Screaming in a way V would never be able to put into words. Screaming into all of their minds, screaming into the forest, screaming into their very bones. The trees started to wilt, frost crept along the ground, and all hell broke loose. The gorillas started fighting each other, and themselves, driven to absolute madness by the voice of the specter. The forest fairies seemed stunned, falling off the trees, gazing into the sky. Eika slumped off the Guardian hitting the ground hard, L was completely unconscious. The Guardian for its part, seemed to be handling the situation rather well, it was clearly pained, but was attempting to silence the specter. V was conscious, but just barely. Though the chaos, he spotted E trying to crawl off into the forest. It looked as if his legs were not working correctly.

E could not be allowed to escape. V crawled after him, also unable to stand upright. The damage, blood loss, and specter's mental damage had taken its toll. E must have noticed that V was following him, as once they were far enough away from the battlefield, E called out "It does not have to be this way!" E's usual calmness was gone, his voice sounded wet and panicky. "We could be allies! Don't you understand? We could use my power to become god's ourselves!" V was worried he would lose E in the trees, but that did not seem likely now, between the blood trail and his attempts to "reason" with him. "We can work together sure! Just let me do a few experiments of my own first!" V called out, the memory of all of the pain and suffering over the last few weeks had risen to the surface of his mind. V's determination and now, desire for revenge, urged him forward. "Look don’t be like that. You know it was for a worthy cause! Science must always come first!" By the sound of his voice, E was close, very close. "I doubt what you were doing could be called science, it was certainly magic." a few seconds after he responded, E came into view. "Magic is just science we don’t understand yet!" E was setting with his back up against a cage.

Before V was a row of six cages, all containing mantises. "To be honest, I was only keeping these around until I decided to try and merge all of them at once, but then you came along and I got distracted. I hate to do this, as it will certainly make the future difficult. However, so will being dead." E activated his ability, merging with the mantis in the cage behind him. From his own experience, V knew that at the very least this would restore E's vitality. Meanwhile, he was still unable to stand up, he was too dizzy and unsteady. A white light shone for a few seconds before fading. Where he once sat, a new creature was born. However, for the first time since arriving in this world, E had activated his ability while in pain, while distracted, while panicking. The fusion was a failure. Even after everything had had seen E do and create, the result revolted V. His face was half mantis and half E. His body was... well, he had two bodies connected at the neck, but then fused back together and the waist. His legs were fused into one massive... thing. V held back his own bile as he spoke "Poetic. Awful, but poetic." V had to leave his sword when he first started crawling, picking up a nearby rock, he approached E. It appeared as if E now lacked the components to create proper human speech, instead a strange string of sounds emanating from his mangled face.

As V crawled over, ready to smash the things head to pieces, no pity shown in his eyes. Even as tears streamed from the single human eye still remaining on E's face. One. The rock collided with the mantis part of his head, creating a sloshing wet sort of noise. The human side of E's face pleaded for mercy, V has seen that look before in his past life, in-fact he vaguely remembered making that face as a child. Two. The rock came down on the human side of his head, cracking his nose and breaking teeth. Still not good enough. Pathetic sounds and guttural noises came from E. V switched to strength, before bringing the rock down again. Three. The human side of E's face finally gave in. Silencing the sobs for mercy. It was finished. With the immediate threat over, the blood loss, and the mental exhaustion all tugging at his mind, V passed out as he read the new status message.

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Your level in "Divine Champion" has increased!
2 => 3
Ability Acquired:
Master of One

Congratulations! You have killed a rival champion!
Please Choose Your Reward!
1) E's Blessing
2) E's Divine Class
3) E's Name, "E"
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