Wish upon the Stars chapter 495

"Alright." I said as the...things, began to encircle us. "Just a bit  closer. You ready?" Callie and I were more than in sync, with the bond  in place we were basically sharing a brain. She knew what kind of  tactics I used, even without knowing my stances perfectly. She nodded  silently, a smile on her face. The wolf lizard stag things drew closer  and closer until they finally got within range.

I didn't  need to announce it was time. Callie felt my surge of adrenaline and  immediately dropped into the shadows even as I triggered Moonlit Night.  Belial came seconds later, and I stepped off the air as the monsters all  lunged at me,roaring their desire to rend me limb from limb.

Soaring  over their heads, my staff licked out rapidly, guiding the heads with  slight pressure on the antlers, steering them all to crash into each  other. Belial's corruption infused their horns, but it didn't seem to do  much sadly. They clashed in the center of the encirclement, going down  in a tangle of limbs and horns and teeth as they ripped and bit at each  other, desperate to kill something.

Callie appeared low  beneath one slunk close to the ground, a dagger slashing up, leaving a  tear in the air behind it as her Path of the Abyss split the very space  it tore through. She was already gone when the beast tried to retaliate,  ignoring its own organs spilling from its split abdomen.

Two  of the ones on either side seemed to smell it and lunged, riding it to  the ground and beginning to savage the monster, uncaring that it was one  of their brethren. I circled the outside, lashing out at joints and  gangly, misshapen limbs. I wasn't getting in the center of that  clusterfuck, so Belial's guiding abilities were a bit diminished.

On  the upside, it seemed almost easy to direct attacks that I COULD reach,  my fate sense showing me the path now that my Fatewalker Path was part  of me. I felt almost invincible, which of course was when things went  horribly wrong.

I dipped back from one of the monsters  after a quick jab to move its footing, and one of the others picked that  moment to snap sideways and managed to dig its teeth into my leg. My  leg which was currently made of corrosive evil magma, but still my leg,  and I had to muffle a scream as it dug its teeth in.

Despite  being made of molten rock, I could still feel, specifically, I could  feel the fucking venom being injected into my body and somehow mixing  with and empowering my own. Suddenly it felt like battery acid was  running through my veins, and my leg started to fucking MELT. I screamed  and bashed at the monster with my staff, shoving my staff into its jaws  to try to lever them open, but I couldn't fucking get it off me.

My  other leg collapsed, and I was left clawing at the ground trying to  drag my body free of the monster's jaws. This was so stupid. It hadn't  even known I was there. It was wild with pain and just lashing out at  the air around it fruitlessly and got lucky. Black crept in around my  vision I felt like I was about to pass out, and then, suddenly, a hand  grabbed mine.

Callie's fingers closed around my hand and  hauled, dragging me away from the monster. My leg was torn mostly open  by teeth, but honestly I was glad, it let some of the enhanced venom  spill out. The monster wasn't immune, its face was melting as it tried  to dig in, gnashing its teeth in my fucking thigh and not finding  purchase. With a sickening wrench Callie got me free, getting me clear  of the fog as quick as she could.

"Oh gods." I rasped as I  got out. "Oh gods the pain. I need to turn back so I can heal this." I  started to dismiss the skill, but to my shock, Callie somehow blocked me  from doing it through the bond.

She grabbed my face, her  hands beginning to be corrupted, and looked me in the eyes. "No! Don't  do that. Shane, listen to me, your leg is basically a pile of scrap  right now. If you solidify it's going to be stuck like that, and you  might lose it. Stay in your magma state, we'll bind the wound so the  magma is back in there. It's just rock, it can mend. You can't make your  leg flesh."

That was true. I hadn't been thinking  clearly, but if I went solid I'd black out. I had no healing charges. I  paused. I did have scan heals. I cast one. It did almost literally  nothing healing wise, being an I-rank ability, but it DID give me an  idea of what needed to be done.

"The magma is recovering.  Wrap it and let it heal like that. Don't put anything back in. The venom  supercharged the corrosion, anything you put in will melt. Hell, the  regenerating magma will melt, but it'll also dilute the shit as it comes  in. You need to go back in there and make sure they all die. I can't  but if we ignore them the skill will end and we'll be fucked. We only  have a few minutes of time on this one."

She grimaced, but  did as I said, binding the wound quickly before turning to glare at me.  "Fine. I'll go, but you don't move. Stay here and recover. I'll be  right back." She stepped back, vanishing into the shadows.

I  groaned, leaning back. This was agonizing. Not soul sublimation second  ability agonizing, but pretty fucking brutal. I'd say maybe above the  shield incident. It was nice to know my life experience gave me the  ability to make an itemized list of the times I'd been in soulshattering  agony. I was clearly doing something right. I rolled over a bit,  dragging myself toward a tree so I could sit up and lean against it.

Despite  being unable to stand, I wasn't out of the fight. I could still see  through the fog and watch Callie's back from where I was. My Danger  Sense could be shared through the bond tooI watched my girlfriend  resolve from the shadows and lash out with her abyssally infused  daggers, tearing a large gash open on the flank of one of the monsters. I  spotted another moving for her, and she sensed my alarm, Danger Sense  giving her an impression of where it would be coming from.

She  rolled smoothly sideways, down onto a shoulder and then back up as one  of the monsters somehow dove through her location. They were detecting  her somehow, I wasn't sure how, but I needed to distract them. I  triggered Pit of Despair in the center of the encirclement where there  were several of the things tearing at each other. One dropped right in,  and two slipped as the ground disintegrated, felling backwards onto it.

Envenomed  horns drove into the chest of one beast, while another's claws opened  the eye of the first one. The long linbs stuck out past the edge of the  Pit, tagging and enraging the others. Combined with the stealth that was  still partially working, Callie was able to slowly pick them off, until  they were all dead and I was able to drop the fog bank. We stared at  the multitude of grotesque forms in disgust.

"This  was our worst date ever." Callie said bluntly. "Remind me never to  agree to a romantic getaway in the forest in the future."

I  groaned, dragging myself up the tree. "I'd rather take one of those  bites to the eye socket than willingly enter a forest for any reason  beyond great personal profit or potential catastrophic injury, so I  think you're safe." I paused. "Should I be taking you on romantic  getaways? We do a lot of traveling. That counts right?"

"Nothing where something tries to eat my face is romantic." She said sweetly. "So that majority of our trips don't count."

I  was actually kind of offended by that. "What about the spider cave?  That was romantic. You got all that loot and there was a pretty spider  web."

"Nope."  She said popping the P. "Not romantic. Scenic, but not romantic." She  smiled fondly at me. "It's ok honey, you're just not a candy and flowers  kind of guy. We do other things. Fun things. Not every girl wants a  romantic boat rider under the starlight."

I  narrowed my eyes at her. "That was an oddly specific example. Are you  hinting at something? Because if you want to go on a boat ride we can do  that. I bet we could find a lake nearby. Probably even one where  nothing will try to eat your face. Which I'm against by the way. I like  your face quite a bit. Wish I could have Zeke make you a mask to protect  it, but given your reaction to what mine can do I assume that's off the  table."

She grimaced. "Off the table, out of the dining room, it's not even allowed near the house. No people eating masks for me."

"Well  I'll try to be more romantic. Find moments for us to have time together  outside crises and combat." I said softly. "You deserve that." I went  silent, and after a minute of not talking to me she gave me a suspicious  glance. "Sorry, I'm trying to think of a segue that will make asking  you to collect the corpses of the lizard wolf monsters so we can get  back to looking for Jessie."

She  pinched the bridge of her nose. "Why do I keep you around again?"  Despite the words, I could feel her genuine fondness and adoration  through the bond, as she could feel mine. Having an empathic connection  with your significant other was a great life hack for avoiding  misunderstandings. Even if it was also sometimes inconvenient when a  pretty girl walked by.

Grumbling,  she walked around the clearing, snagging the bodies and storing them in  her ring. Magical creatures and monsters could be parted out and sold  or used for crafting. I also wanted to try and get some of that venom  for my Belial form. It had an interesting reaction to my corrosion, and I  wanted to see if I could build a tolerance and maybe even integrate it  into my ability.

It  wasn't something I'd ever tried before, but if it worked it would be a  huge boost to my destructive potential in that form. Once those were  collected, Callie came over and offered me her shoulder, which I draped  myself over and used as a crutch so I could walk. I was still in Belial  form, but her coat was F-rank, and I was able to hold back enough to  prevent the corrosion from leaching through it too quickly.

We  had to stop a few times so she could purge it, but eventually we seemed  to get on the trail of a group of people the compass led us toward,  hopefully where Jessie was, and we got into a good rhythm trying to  catch up. State of Grace was a huge help for our progress, otherwise I  wasn't sure we could have caught them.

Eventually  though we came upon a small clearing where someone had made camp, and  as we approached we called out for our friends. There was a small pause  before Benny and Jessie poked their heads out, followed surprisingly by  Callen, and I breathed a long sigh of relief. "Oh thank the gods you're  alright." I breathed happily.

Benny  bolted forward to check on me as Randall emerged from the trees on the  other side of the clearing, having confirmed we were the ones coming  near. I stopped my best friend as he approached, and he looked me over  worriedly. "Holy shit man, what the hell happened? Also where ARE we?"  Right. They didn't know about the academy transport protocol. Guess I  had some explaining to do. Oddly, I couldn't bring myself to mind too  much.