Chapter 52 Memories Of The Fallen
The Guardsmen zoomed past Rowan, their actions were swift and precise, they drew their Swords and attacked. There was no hesitation and their cooperation was flawless.
With Captain Titus leading the foray. Like a pack of wolves circling their prey, they attacked the Abomination from all sides.
Their blades left deep wounds all over the Abomination. It angered shrieks were deafening. Rowan knew this was not enough to stop the Abomination. If it was not delivered a fatal wound by beheading, they would have to be cut into small chunks, for these creatures have a tenacious vigor.
Rowan saw the previous wounds they had dealt it, closed up and stopped bleeding. The Abomination was getting used to their abilities and patterns of attack, for they did not really threaten its life.
It suddenly lunged forward and swatted away one of the Guardsmen with its spiked tail, who did not anticipate this move from the Abomination, the guardsman grunted as his body flew towards the fog, sparks flew from the armor it was nearly torn in two.
The Guardsman was lucky, for the tail barely missed cutting through the armor, and he would have been lost to the fog, for the blow was powerful enough to fling him outside, and if not for the quick tackle of Rowan, who intercepted him in midair.
"Draw its attention away, do not bother with killing it. Lord Rowan would deliver the finishing blow." Maeve called out, and from that mystical spot she kept everything, she fished out the Great Axe from midair. Her brows were instantly dotted with sweat as her aura plunged.
The Axe gave out a shrill drone that made her teeth ache, it was clearly annoyed at her for using her ability on it, but what the Axe craved was battle and so it permitted this shift.
With sheer will, she tossed the Axe to Rowan and collapsed to her knees. She had never felt such a ravenous hunger from anything before. If she held that Axe for a few minutes, it would surely kill her.
Rowan's single eye lit up when he saw the Axe. The Axe was supposed to be extremely light for a Dominator like Maeve. Nevertheless, it seemed to weigh a ton, plus its vitality draining effects, made her throw lackluster. She missed the throw, and it was going to fall short, far from Rowan's reaching hand.
But all these were meaningless because as Rowan opened his hand, the Axe that should hit the floor veered towards his palm.
A low keening sound of excitement came from the Axe. Rowan rewarded its commitment by pouring considerable loads of vitality into the Axe. It shivered and began to emanate a golden light from the Axe head. He gave it more and the Axe Head blazed with a golden flame.
Rowan eyed the Abomination. If one head were not enough, he would cut down all three.
The Axe agreed, and seemed to fit in Rowans palm better. Rowan carefully circled the Abomination.
The next series of action happened fast and left Rowan in awe, reminding Rowan why the guardsmen were the shock troops of his family.
The Captain ran up a raised patch of earth that resulted from the earlier battle with the Abomination, he shunned gravity as he leapt forward. Twirling his sword, he cut through a section of the thick neck of the creature.
The blow pushed the head of the creature backwards only to be met by another guardsman who struck at the same wound deeply from the opposite direction, only the thick spine of the Abomination stopped the head from coming off, the Abomination cried out, and its head began to slump down, clearly stunned.
It was not over yet, as the captain fell, the last Guardsman was on his knees locking his hands together, he caught him, and with a yell, he heaved upwards against towards the falling head, the captain delivered the last blow and the head rolled down. The eyes on the head showing anger. The legs on the Abomination buckled and it fell.
Now you guys are just showing off. But by all the gods. There were a million more of such Guardsmen in his family! Rowan was now realizing how much power his family, and the rest of the Nobility as a whole, controlled. After all, they were all descendants of gods, sometimes he forgot that.
Not one to miss an opportunity, he beelined towards the last head that was snapping and hissing at the circling Guardsmen, hearing his footsteps, it shrieked at him and the Axe answered it.
Rowan had never used the Axe to cut something before, only calling on its inherent ability to create multiple phantasmal duplicates of itself. The Axe added momentum to Rowan's swing, this meant that he would hardly use any effort when he wielded the Axe. The sharpness surprised him and he used too much strength.
Rowan was aiming to cut into the skull, that was all he needed for Soul Seizer to work, but the Axe went through the head like it was an illusion. The yellow blood pumping out, however, was not.
Turning to the last head that the guardsmen had cut, Rowan was not going to be surprised again, as he saw that a new head was growing from the neck the Guardsmen had cut.
He held the Axe over the last regenerating head, it was nearly complete, and the shape was different. Rowan, feeling a bit of spite, waited for the eyes of the Abomination to open.
When it did, it was not disoriented, its new head resembled a human's face, with teeth poking through the face, its yellow eyes fixed on Rowans and the Abomination suddenly reared up, only for its head to fall moments later.
Rowan hands were still. The Axe was that sharp. When the Abomination rose, its neck passed through the Axe Rowan held up. He even suspected that it did not feel a thing.
The two waves of Soul power that flowed into him confirmed his suspicion of this creature being a sort of Frankenstein monster. Multiple Abomination had been merged, but their life-force was kept separated.
The reason for the three heads was not because he was fighting against a single Abomination but three. He did not know if these tactics were frequently used by Abominations before or if this was a clear reply to his abilities. It was all bad News to him.
Rowan knew this had to be a blatant reply to his abilities, apparently the Abomination Core must be aware of the ease in which he slaughtered Abominations, seemingly disregarding their perverse vitality and, most likely, this was an experiment to understand how it works.
This reminded Rowan again that he was not dealing with a mindless drone, but a core. An Alien intelligence that could change strategies and learn from its mistakes.
A thought occurred to Rowan, and like a madman he began hacking the Abomination apart, each of the swings cutting out massive chunks of flesh, with the Axe he could use one of the Berserker skills he had – Smash.
Smash: Berserker jumps to the target, and smashes their axe into the opponent.
Also using Combo Attack alongside it, he tore the Abomination apart. When the upper part of the body was all but destroyed, he felt a frightening wave of Soul power flood into him.
"–"
It was five times denser than what he received from each of the heads! There must have been another Abomination hidden inside.
The idea that occurred to Rowan was that if this was an analytical foe, it would attempt to keep its capabilities hidden, if it could separate the life force of the Abomination into three parts, why not four, or even five?
If he had not been careful, he may have died in an ambush he did not see coming.