109: Narapazu (Patreon)

A part of Vir’s mind told him to run. To flee with all haste. To get as far away from the thing that emitted that bloodcurdling roar as possible.

But another part spurred him on. He ran neither for glory nor Brotherhood karma. He ran because he’d heard another cry—a human cry—and one that sounded awfully familiar.

With Neel in his arms, Vir Leaped through the incredibly tall and wide Imperium hallways, all illuminated by crystal chandeliers that hung from the ceiling, burning with blue-white fire. Chandeliers that had stayed lit for millennia, fueled by prana.

When he saw the enormously long hall before him, he despaired. The distance would cost him several precious seconds. Resolving himself, he stepped into the hall.

Except the ground he stepped on was no mere stone. The moment he entered, the ground beneath him shone bright white. Blazing to life, the plate jerked upward, hovering a pace off the ground and nearly throwing Vir off balance.

Then it shot forth at several times Vir’s prior speed, whisking him across the long hallway with incredible speed. Unwittingly, he’d stepped onto a lift—one that moved sideways instead of up and down. And one that ran off of pure prana, rather than men hauling ropes.

The beast roared again, and this time, the sound was much closer. Braced for it, Vir resisted the impulse to freeze up.

Where have I heard that sound before?

It was familiar, yet Vir couldn’t place it. Until he jumped off the moving platform and rounded the final bend.

At first, he couldn’t quite place what he was seeing. Two thick tree trunks stood before him. The sight was highly unusual, seeing as he was in a passage of stone—there wasn’t a single tree around.

Then he looked up… and up. And realized that those weren’t trunks at all, but the rather enormously thick legs of a colossal bipedal beast.

A beast that stood forty paces in height, nearly touching the vast ceiling. When Vir saw its head, he immediately understood why its roar had felt familiar—its head was that of an elephant’s.

An enormous, oversized elephant. Twin ivory tusks ten paces long jutted from its massive trunk, which came nearly to the floor.

That head was attached to a very human-like body, except its legs were that of an elephant’s. Its four giant, burly arms were each as thick as tree trunks. A three-fingered hand gripped an oversized ax and the other a noose. The lower two arms remained free to pummel the tiny peons it fought.

Prana Vision showed an immense amount of Ash prana coursing through the beast. And no weaknesses he could exploit. At least, nothing he could get to—its neck and head were far out of reach.

“Param!?” Tia shouted, spear and Ember orb in hand, fighting side by side with Vason. Haymi stood several paces back, charging her next spell. All looked haggard and pale.

How… How did they get here? Why were they fighting this beast alone instead of retreating? A dozen questions sped through Vir’s mind, but this was not the time.

Vir scooped Neel up and Leaped over to Tia.

“What’s the situation?” he asked.

“Thank Vera, you’re here!” Tia shouted, rolling out of the way of the beast’s hoof swipe. “We could really use your help.”

She fired off an Ember spell, but the magic merely dissipated against the beast’s leathery gray hide.

“What is that thing?” Vir shouted back, Leaping to avoid the creature’s enormous elephant trunk. Not only was the trunk a danger, but its tusks reached nearly as low. A blow against that—even a glancing one—one be fatal.

Only Neel was safe; his low stature protected him from most of the beast’s attacks, but even then, the thought of putting his friend in such danger terrified him.

“A Narapazu! Param, listen. The only way to take it down is—gah!” Tia screamed, activating Haste to barely avoiding a tusk. “Is to attack its legs! If we can bring it down, we can kill it.”

Things were happening too quickly for Vir to process it all. His perspective on the ground was extremely limited; devising a strategy while dodging for his life turned out to be harder than expected.

Vir drew a deep breath and immediately sank into the Shadow Realm. Tia’s eyes bulged, but hiding his powers now would only get them all killed. Thankfully, Vason and Haymi were too occupied with the beast to have noticed.

Instead of stopping time completely, Vir extended his arms out, allowing events to proceed at a fraction of their normal speed. In this way, Vir could stay an entire minute inside the shadows if he chose to.

Fundamentally, Vir lacked information about this new enemy. What were its powers? What were its weaknesses? All he had was a name: Narapazu. It wasn’t one that had appeared in Daha’s bestiary book, but this creature was clearly in a league of its own compared to the beasts he’d encountered. Attempting to fight such a foe without prior knowledge was suicide. Luckily, Dance of the Shadow Demon allowed him to gain that exact knowledge.

The first thing he noticed was how the Narapazu struggled with its size. The hallway, while tall, wasn’t nearly wide enough to allow the creature to freely wield its ax. It was likely why Spear’s Edge was still alive.

That, and it didn’t seem to be too bright. Or rather, it behaved as if addled, unable to concentrate on a single task. It would strike with its ax, only for its arm to graze the stone, making it cry in pain. It’d then stomp around, attempting to squash Tia’s party, before trying again with its ax—seemingly forgetting its prior failure just moments before.

Unfortunately, that didn’t make the beast any less lethal.

Vir watched as Haymi fired off a C Grade Water Dart, which splashed harmlessly upon the beast’s face.

That was a waste of an orb, Vir thought, until she fired a C Grade Arc spell right after it. The lightning collided in the same spot the water had. This one did have an effect.

The beast jolted and squeezed its head with its two free hands.

Is that why it’s behaving like that? Because Haymi keeps shocking it?

If so, it was an incredibly clever ploy on her part.

Vason jumped in, swiping with his blade. Vir hadn’t seen the warrior use any offensive Talents—it seemed like Parry, Leap, and Bulwark were his only Talents. That said, Prana Vision showed Vir that his blade was anything but ordinary. It glowed with Haymi’s support magic, and while a normal cut would’ve bounced off the elephant creature’s thick hide, his sword actually sliced into its legs.

The cut was superficial, and only angered the beast, which swept its enormous trunk at Vason, sending him flying like a rag doll. Vir glimpsed Earth affinity prana fire just before he was sent flying. The man crashed heavily into a far wall before slumping down.

Without Bulwark, he’d be a dead man, even in his full plate armor. With it, Vir suspected he’d live, albeit with a few broken bones.

Vir had to disagree with Tia’s assessment. Maybe they could get the Narapazu to fall to its knees if they crippled its legs, but at what cost? They were as likely to be trampled as they were to hurt the thing.

No, he had a better plan.

In all this time, the beast hadn’t used any other attacks. It was dangerous to assume it had none, but Vir could work with what he saw. He only hoped his katar was up to the task.

Vir slipped back out of the shadow, and time returned to normal. Vason had just about recovered from his blow, but as Vir feared, the man cradled his left arm.

Losing no time, Vir Leaped into a shadow, then Leaped out, flinging a chakram at the beast’s face. Only his chakrams had the momentum to reach the Narapazu’s face—its only real vulnerability. Chakris were too small. The problem was, Vir only had three chakrams. He had to conserve each one.

The Narapazu predictably guarded against the flying disk, deflecting it without issue.

But its moment of distraction was all Vir needed. Leveraging his momentum, he dove in, attacking its hooves. This was Tia’s strategy, but it was merely Vir’s opener. A distraction to allow him to execute his true attack.

At the last moment, Vir flared prana out of his arm, cutting into the Narapazu’s thick hide. Unfortunately, this beast’s hide was even tougher than the Phantomblade’s. His attack failed to penetrate. Vir followed up with a swipe of his katar, but that did even less damage.

Vir clucked in irritation, Leaping away just before the Narapazu crushed him to death. Despite having avoided the attack, the tremor of its hooves nearly sent Vir tumbling.

If only the shadows were longer… Vir cursed the bright illumination of the room. The chandeliers cast their light up and down, illuminating the ceiling and the ground.

The most optimal strategy would be to attack the Narapazu’s head. There was no shortage of weak spots in that area—from its large, floppy ears to its eyes. Even its neck would be a target. But getting up there was difficult. High Jump, in conjunction with Dance’s momentum trick, might get him up that high, but to land on the beast’s shoulders? That would be tricky.

He’d hoped to rely on a ceiling shadow to drop onto the Narapazu, or barring that, to get the thing to its knees so he could run up its arms.

Could use a little help here, Shardul. Ekanai.

But of course, true to their statement, his ancestors’ voices remained silent. There would be no help from either of them until he entered the Ashen Realm.

Instead, help came in a different form, with Neel bounding into the fray. His friend darted in between the Narapazu's legs, confounding the beast, but all Neel could do was buy time.

Just when Vir prepared for his next attack, the tides turned against them.

“Haymi, look out!” Vason roared, pushing the mejai aside as she was charging another spell. Haymi went tumbling, her orbs spilling out onto the ground… and Vason went flying as the Narapazu’s tusk slammed into him.

“Vason!” Tia shrieked, activating Haste and running off to tend to him. With Haymi down and Vason out of the fight, only Vir and Neel were left to distract the beast.

Vir immediately dove in between the giant’s legs, discharging prana hoping to penetrate that thick hide.

But it was of no use. He needed more power.

“Param!” Haymi shrieked. The Narapazu steadily moved toward the injured party. Haymi still hadn’t collected her orbs, and Vason was unconscious.

This is bad… Grak it! What can I do? Vir thought frantically.

“Neel!” he shouted, an idea forming in his head. He clapped his hands together and pointed back at Vason. “Protect!“

The bandy barked and retreated to the downed warrior. This way, he'd be out of harm's way.

The Narapazu was only ten paces away—a single step would put it right at Tia and her group. Just as it was about to take that last step, Vir hurled a chakram as hard as he could, Empowering his throwing arm.

The extra power came at a cost of accuracy, but all he needed here was a distraction.

The great beast stumbled, trying to swat the disk away from its face to no avail. Vir's chakram bounced harmlessly off the Narapazu's elephant face. While it caused no damage, it did force the Narapazu to step back, away from Tia.

Vir entered the shadows, then extended his katar arm, allowing time to progress at a snail's pace. Just moments earlier, he'd been a hair’s breadth away from panicking, but he wrestled his thoughts under control. Panicking would only spell Spear’s Edge’s doom.

As his emotions faded away, he focused his mind on the task at hand.

The issue with his prana blade was that it wasn’t a blade at all—it was merely a prana discharge. It lacked anything to latch onto. Vir’s will only went so far—will augmented by a physical blade would deal far more damage.

Or so he believed. This time, instead of allowing his prana discharge to float away, he willed the prana to perfectly contour to his katar’s blade, wreathing the blade with prana.

His first strike failed—guiding the prana after it left his body was useless, as always.

So instead, he angled the prana before it left his body, while he still had control over it. Instead of willing it to do damage, he willed it to augment the metal on his katar blade.

And then he made the opening even smaller, forcing a tiny trickle of prana out of his body at high speed.

The prana stuck to his blade like glue, caressing it in a layer of deadly magic.

Vir swiped… and felt his blade penetrate the thick hide as easily as cutting paper.

He could hardly believe it—for so long, he’d striven to unlock Prana Blade, and now, fighting a monster of the Ash, he finally had.

But when Haymi screamed, all of his elation evaporated into thin air.

From the shadows, Vir stared in horror as the Narapazu reached down and grabbed the mejai in its massive hand.

Then it squeezed, crushing her.

Haymi’s wail sent shivers down Vir’s back.

She’s going to die.