Dragon Tale - Chapter 5.2 (Patreon)

The Hakobe mountain range was home to a large variety of creatures. While it was the preferred habitat of the likes of Blizzardvern and Mountain Vulcans, they of course were not the only creatures lived there.

In fact, most animals Brody would think to find on snowy mountains back in his own home world, were present there was well.

The only difference was, they were super sized.

The ones that lived in hostile environments and lived on as a species to this day at least. Brody wasn't sure how they got so big, but he assumed, it had to do with the magic particles in the air. Even if they were incapable of storing and using it in most cases, just constantly living in it would have to have some effect, right?

From twenty foot tall stags, to wolf packs filled with members easily twice the size of a dire wolf. Owls that made eagle's look puny, and snow rabbits over three feet tall while on all fours.

The most dangerous atop the snowy peaks though, as far as animals went, had to be either the Polar Bears living atop them or the Snow Leopards.

Well, at least according to the books he read on the place. And he'd read quite a few. His gale force reading glasses really made speed reading through books for information so much easier.

'And they definitely weren't lying.' Brody thought to himself as he stared down at the beast laying beneath his boot, his head atop its skull.

It was a big, white furred bear. A polar bear.

An absolutely gargantuan polar bear. When standing upright, it had been at least thirty feet tall.

It wasn't a much for him as he was now, and he'd easily overwhelmed it and killed it when it attacked him when he landed beside mistaking.

…But, with its sheer size, strength and bulk. He was sure it could have killed any of the Gorian's one on one without much problem.

Brody stared down at his kill for a moment, before reaching down and placing his hand atop its head and focusing on it with his magic, "Take Over." he said.

Bright light suffused its body, before it disappeared, absorbed into the greater whole that was him. He easily squashed the remnants of its will moments later, and integrated it.

"…Yeah, about as expected." he frowned, clenching and unclenching his fist. Going by how strong it was, one would expect an increase in strength greater physically then the Gorian forest vulcans he took over.

But it didn't even come close.

"Compatibility, huh?" Brody clicked his tongue. This was the first animal he'd taken over, and he had to admit, Elfman indeed knew his stuff when it came to Take Over.

And it confirmed what he read in the book he'd gotten about Take Over magic in general.

Technically speaking, one could use Take Over on any living creature in the world, as long as they had a good understanding of the creature, heck it could even be used on non living creatures in some regards as well. The thing was, compatibility came in different flavours. There was compatibility with certain species.

And then there was soul style compatibility. Animal soul, Beast Soul, Satan Soul, Machine Soul, people didn't name their Take Over styles that just to sound cool.

It was the type of target they were most compatible soul wise. And the usage one of say the Beast Soul would get out of the Animal Soul, was minimal. And as he could confirm right now, even the base increase ability from taking them over, was minimal as well.

'If I wasn't focusing, I wouldn't have even noticed any increase at all.' Brody thought, giving a sigh.

Well, if it was that easy to gain strength, he supposed any smart Take Over mage would have mass hunted creatures like this to add to their strength. But as always, there wasn't really a super easy route to becoming unstoppable.

'Well, time to get a move on.' Brody mused, dispelling his Take Over form and letting his wings and tail recede. Usually being on a massive snowy mountain peak like this without any equipment, would be a death sentence.

Not really so for him who was massively beyond any normal human from back home and could leap thirty feet through the air and shatter stone by clenching his fist around it.

With that, he started walking, boots crunching in the snow as he did, and his thoughts wandering as he made his way toward the peaks. They were the most likely places to find a Blizzardvern after all if there were any around. They roosted in the highest and hardest places to get to for other predators.

And he kept his eyes pealed for any caverns as he went, seeing as according to the books he read Mountain Vulcans tended to live within them instead of outside.

'…Too bad about that animal soul though.' he mused. He'd seen a pack of Snow Leopards on his flight up, and yes, they did live in packs, which was what made them a match for the Polar Bears who were solitary.

But despite being behemoth's of around fifteen feet tall, they weren't really worth going after if the Polar Bear he took over just a moment ago was anything to go by.

Too bad.

'Though, going by their colour scheme and the shape of their paws, I'm pretty sure Lisanna's first take over was one of them.' he mused. Her Neko form was her main combat form, and beyond a cat-like agility, a normal cat take over wouldn't have increased her ability like, at all.

And it did line up considering Elfman's first Take Over was a bear of some kind. And from what he read, when Snow Leopard's from Mount Hakobe got kicked out of their packs, it wasn't uncommon for them to show up in the East Forest during the winter months.

Considering it was Lisanna's preferred form which she used most, she probably had a high compatibility with them.

__________

"Well…hello there." Brody grinned a savage grin an hour later as he stood in the entrance of a wide icy cavern.

The white furred mountain vulcan standing guard at the front blinked at him, before frowning, "Ew, man ugly, go away." it shood him away. Its voice was a lot more sophisticated and clear than the Gorians he'd met, if still a bit halting.

Its eyes widened as his fist found purchase in his mouth and dropped it like to the icy ground.

"How rude." Brody snorted, reaching down to grab it by the face and a moment later, it was consumed in a flash of magic as he took it over and consumed it fully.

Hmm, neat.

He noticed almost immediately as he integrated it, that it connected to the forest vulcans within him as well. Meaning, just as he thought. Mountain vulcans and forest vulcans were part of the same genus.

He grinned, "Beast Soul: Vulcan!" he declared, and pulled upon the power of the beast within. His muscle mass increased, white fur sprouting over his body, his hair turning white and a long white monkey tail sprouted from his backside.

Hmm, toasty. The cold that was nipping his fingers until just a moment ago, all but disappeared.

They really had adapted to living in this environment huh?

'Maybe I'll keep this up for a bit.' he mused with a laugh. It certainly would make travelling more comfortable on him.

With that done, he swaggered his way into the icy cavern and found over a dozen white furred mountain vulcans lazing around in various states of consciousness.

Most of them were asleep, but a few were awake. Even still though, they glanced at him, before shrugging and going back to doing whatever they were doing.

…They hadn't noticed he wasn't one of them despite the fact he was over a foot shorter than any of, didn't have black skin where his fur didn't cover, and didn't have a pencil shaped head.

Dumb monkeys, were dumb monkeys, huh? Even the smart ones, were still dumb monkeys in the end.

"I'm about to go Frieza on your asses." Brody laughed and launched forward towards one of the few awake ones, best to take care of the ones that were awake and alert, ready to react first.

His fist smashed into its face, bodily lifted it up, carried it along, and smashed it through a glacial pillar.

And then he sprang along to the next, driving his knee into its face and crunching bone with a spray of blood while the other awake ones stared gobmsacked.

Only then did they react.

"Race Traitor!"

"Devourer!"

"Gay boy!"

They whooped and hollered in anger, shooting to their feat and screeching as they did, rousing the others into wakefulness.

'Gay boy?' Brody blinked as he shot forward towards the ones rushing him, spinning around ones punch and driving his elbow into its temple, grabbing another by the neck and breaking it with a jerk of his arm and then leading him to the one that just accused him of being gay.

He headbutted it.

It hit the floor unconscious with a busted nose. He then stomped on its skull for good measure. And kicked it in the crotch hard enough to shatter a boulder.

'Is that a tactic of theirs?' he wondered. The one thing they shared with forest vulcans, beyond looks and intelligence, and body odour…well they shared a lot with forest vulcans really. But they especially shared the lust for human women.

Did they gaslight shame each other out of trying to take each other over, by calling whoever did it, gay?

'Literal homophobic, women raping monkeys.' Brody couldn't help but snort at the absurdity of it all.

By now, the ones sleeping had been fully roused and seen what was going on, and with similar rage filled shrieks and howls, they rushed him.

Eighteen of them left by his account, they rushed him from all sides.

That was fine though.

Reaching down, Brody grasped the pencil headed homophobe monkey by the tail and bodily lifted its body that had to weigh over five hundred pounds at least into the air, before spinning around and swinging it like a chain mace or flail.

Monkeys went flying as their own monkey brother was used as a weapon to smash them around. Bone crunched, cuts ran with blood and lives were lost all too quickly.

Letting go of the mountain vulcan and sending it launching like a cannonball, it slammed into another and carried it along to smash it into the wall twenty feet away.

And then Brody sprang into action one again, springing into the air with a simian grace and spinning around one white furred vulcan, his tail wrapping around its throat and bodily lifting it into the air and squeezing, while he landed and continued on to bury his knee into the stomach of another, dropping it to its own knees, before his fist caved its skull in.

And as he throttled one with his tail, he continued on, a blur of motion and violence that broke bone and crushed skulls.

And before long, a whole group of mountain vulcans lay strewn around the icy cavern. Many dead, most of the rest unconscious, and the only one still awake, couldn't move at all.

Due to the fact Brody had broken both of its knees.

"Disgusting….traitorous, gay!" it snarled, spitting insults at him as he went around and took over its brethren one by one.

He took over twenty one of them, not including the one standing guard, before his attention turned to the final remaining one.

"You gay, suck penis!" it howled at him as he made his way over, an amused smirk on his face, "Butt boy! Rectum licker! Ball shiner! Penis slurper!"

"No you." Brody laughed, he couldn't help it. It was just so funny having a literal monkey slinging insults like that at him.

It blinked, before outrage shone in its eyes to go along with the general rage over what he'd done to the pack of them, "ME NO GAY! YOU G-!" it began howling at him, but it was cut off by him slapping it across the face with his tail, before wrapping it around its throat and lifting it into the air.

"Whine more, virgin," he taunted it, "Take Over!" he declared, and ended things then and there.

Just before it was consumed in a flash of light, it had enough strength to glare into his eyes and raise one hand.

And give him the middle finger.

Brody laughed again, "Well, I'll give you that." he nodded in respect, even as he felt it howl within him and batter against his mind with its own, to no effect.

He could respect it refusing to give in to the very end.

It was kind of funny though how better their vocabulary was when it came to slinging gay insults as well.