Draimon: Fracture: Erasend- Book 1: Deascension

Chapter 37: Hunger

Heads came from the Monster's chest. Its limbs turned to maws and shot towards me. I flapped back, my tail swaying in front of me with one of the many mouths biting into it and dragging me down. I separated the limbs from my body to free myself. Even though I was free, my flying became unsteady until a new one regenerated.

Heads came to my side, with more coming from below and above. This form was failing anyway. I left my surged body behind, taking some of the mass to return to my standard size and flew in a burst of speed.

The discarded flesh still had my enhanced core fragments. As the maws neared, I detonated the shards. The blast was weak, only the remaining embers of a once raging fire. However, it still did some damage, even if it was regenerated in moments.

The Devourer stopped to configure its form and rose above me. It's new body, nothing but necks and heads. I saw it had eight thick, long limbs with great maws. Each was connected to a mass of flesh, and below were more heads. It stood like a Scylla with those heads below, and I also saw that it had bladed legs for added mobility. I needed my average size to not be eaten and to wait until I could core-surge again, which I needed to finish it, but those neck-legs would make it hard to get to the ground.

The Monster roared and began its assault, every head stretching towards me. I flew out of the first, but another came from above, and another from the side. I flew downwards, my body increasing in speed.

One came forward with me opening my wings and rushed past its bite and then alongside the neck. As I sped alongside the limb, mouths crashed down from above. A wall of smaller ones emerged right in front of me from the neck, their maws snapping wildly. I formed bark over my head and slammed through the wall, them exploding with the impact. I knew flying along the neck was risky, but now it has to attack its own body when it went in to bite.

Of course, it would not deal any real damage, I thought as I flew past yet another snapping neck. Suddenly two jaws formed around me and snapped shut, but I still had speed, so I smashed through it, but that move slowed me down, and two necks were coming at my sides. I coated my feet in bark and then, for the briefest of moments, landed on its flesh and shot the bark down. I was sent high into the sky with the blast and a simultaneously charged wing-flap, and the heads clashed below. Mouths came from all sides. Each had a wall of flesh between them, creating a web within which I was trapped.

I was in a prison of jaws, and tendril-like tongues came from all directions. My elemental energy was still near full, so just like the first time, I formed a barrier of raw elemental energy around myself and flew straight. The field disintegrated all it touched. Using a beam attack was useless, so it put me in a position where it forced me to use around a third of my energy on a core art. It was either that or die.

As I flew out, the heads swarmed after waiting for my barrier to dissipate. Once it did, they stuck again though I noticed that they were slower. It had reached its breaking point just like I had, so now it was desperate.

That made it dangerous. As I flew through the air dodging each bite, I noticed that I may not be able to sense its attacks, but they still gave off an elemental presence. Each time the heads moved, so did the air, and with my soft vine skin, I could feel that air brush against my skin. It had saved me when I could not see them coming.