Discordant Note: Crescendo | TBATE

Chapter 259: Prodigal

Thank you to my beta reader and editor, GlassThreads!

Aurora Asclepius

My talons tore into the flesh of the monster as I fought to press it to the ground. Though my plasma burned and shredded the flesh of the venator, its claws still tore rough gouges across my bronze form.

I pinned the creature, unable to feel pain through the stark metal of this Vessel. Then I allowed the mana afforded to my brass form to build along my maw, before a beam of white plasma erupted from my beak.

It took precious few seconds for the heat to scour through the S-class mana beast's crocodilian hide–but its struggles weakened as my mana arts scoured a molten hole through its skull.

And from the watchtower-thick trees nearby, my son blurred from the canopy, using telekinetic pushes and pulls—alongside his beautiful wings—to freefall close to the ground. Wind trailed in his wake as Soulplume brightened his eyes. Feathered runes burned along his arms as he twisted supernaturally.

Half a dozen bone spears erupted along the path he'd just avoided, thunking into the underbrush as he rolled and zipped like the phoenix he was. He was covered in half a dozen cuts, each weeping blood. A few fingers on his right hand were missing, replaced by shrouded replicas. His shrouded armor struggled to rejuvenate, his heartfire pounding and heaving.

And high above him in the canopies, half a score S-class mana beasts–all part of a wretched pack–squawked and hollered down, bones stronger than steel growing supernaturally along their hides. Whenever they grew large enough, the quadrupedal creatures would grab them, snapping them off before hurling them down like ballista bolts from a godbow. And whenever they hit the ground, they exploded into a thousand storms of shrapnel that shredded nearly anything.

"They don't allow me to get close," Toren thought quickly. "I'm having a hard time focusing on just one when nine others focus in whenever I'm on the brink of tearing out their throats. I'm thinking Operation Throw-Feather?"

I felt a bit of annoyance build in my metallic chest at the title given to our team attack, but there was no time to push against it.

Very well, my bond, I thought, feeling the heartfire that linked us and gave this Vessel life. I am ready.

Over the past month of our journey through the treacherous Beast Glades, my son was not the only one to grow in his abilities. While he focused on a specific ability with heartfire, his shrouds, and put his everything into assimilation, I opted to seek deeper understanding of the energy that bound my soul.

And thus, no longer was I limited in Toren's ability to connect me to my relic. I could spread my wings as I pleased, seeking the skies at will.

I pressed my will into the long vein of heartfire that bound this Vessel to my feather, and the connection fuzzed, then dissipated. My shade floated out and away from the relic as it shrank inward on itself, becoming a feather once more.

Just in time for Toren to swoop in like a falcon on the wing, snatching the bronze brooch from the air. A dozen more spears of bone tried to strike Toren as he settled on the ground, but with a twist of his mana, a rising vortex of fire and telekinetic power diverted everything like twigs thrown into a hurricane. Some were caught in the tempestuous flow, whipping around like fish in a slipstream. A few exploded in waves of shrapnel, but those innumerable shards of bone were caught in turn.

This was another avenue Toren had sought to improve on. The synergy between his regalia and other powers allowed him a distinct avenue of growth.

The mana beasts howled in anger. More and more attacks pelted his vortex of fire and force, but that only served to fuel the white flames higher. Our minds were nearly perfectly in sync as I kept my distance, careful not to influence his soul as he drew on my common understanding of insight.