(AS) B2 - Lesson 68: "This Story's Really Dragon On" - Part 2

The Kigendoro hissed and recoiled, but quickly regained its composure.

Spirit beasts were fundamentally different from Cultivators. While Cultivators refined Spirit Energy by cycling it through their meridians to fuel their growth, spirit beasts absorbed Spirit Energy into their essence, allowing it to shape both their bodies and their evolution.

In spirit beasts, the body was as much a spiritual construct as it was physical flesh. Their true strength wasn’t in their outward appearance — that was simply a shell — but in their spiritual pressure. A powerful spiritual pressure typically signified a stronger or more refined form, reflecting the creature’s true power.

Despite the Guardian’s fearsome appearance, its spiritual pressure felt… faint. To the senses of the Kigendoro, it was a lesser creature, and that fact emboldened it.

The Guardian’s insectoid wings folded into a protective shell, and its lithe form crouched like a stalking predator. Its rear legs shifted in tandem, making its next move unpredictable, while its foremost limbs stayed poised to strike or grasp.

Its glowing eyes stayed locked on the Kigendoro as the Guardian prowled to the right in a calculated attempt to circle it. The Kigendoro’s clicking rumbles as it followed the Guardian’s movements, sounding almost like laughter to the watchers on the wall.

Even as a Mud Drake, the Kigendoro had seen beasts like this, acting like base animals that used intimidation and size to scare away creatures more powerful than themselves. That might have worked against less intelligent beings, but not the Kigendoro. It was far too smart to fall for such a simple trick, even if it was not fully sapient after its transformation.

Instead, it did what it had always done against such opponents. It called their bluff.

The Kigendoro reared up and opened its mouth. A thin line formed along the Kigendoro’s upper body, and its muddy armor split. Like a snake’s jaw unhinging, the creature’s mouth opened wider…wider… even wider! Until almost a third of its body was revealed to be a gaping maw lined with thousands of black, rotating teeth, connected only by a thin membrane to the side and thick strands of sticky mud.

Alpha was instantly reminded of a pelican eel, though magnified a hundred times and far more grotesque.

The Kigendoro again roared, but more than pure sound accompanied it this time. Instead, a wave of spiritual pressure erupted from the spirit beast, blanketing the entire area in a haze. As if the light was being filtered through muddy water.

On the wall, both Robert and Bert were pushed to their knees, gasping for breath as the Kigendoro’s domain pressed down on them. Thanks to her armor, Boarslayer remained on her feet, but the built-in life support was throwing critical errors almost faster than it could correct. Alpha wasn’t sure the woman would have survived if she had been unarmored. In the forest, thumps could be heard as the bodies of dozens of hiding creatures fell from the treetop. Most were dead before they even hit the ground.

Kigendoro sneered to itself as it felt its power crush the pathetically weak creatures around it.

This was true dominance. This was the apex. This was —,

Even under the immense spiritual pressure of the Kigendoro’s domain, the Guardian moved.

With a powerful leap, the ant-dragon construct launched itself forward, its body a streak of black that barely registered to the Kigendoro’s many eyes. In an instant, it reappeared — standing right before the beast’s gaping maw.

Shock rippled through the Kigendoro. Impossible! Its eyes widened. The Guardian’s spiritual presence was so faint it was almost nonexistent. A creature like this shouldn’t even be capable of coherent thought under the Kigendoro’s power, let alone such precision and speed.

Before it could react, one of the Guardian’s middle legs slammed down on its lower jaw, forcing the massive maw open and grinding jagged black teeth beneath armored foot. The Kigendoro tried to bite down on its attacker, but the Guardian’s front limbs shot up, catching its upper jaw mid-snap.

For a breathless moment, the two titans locked in a brutal stalemate—one striving to crush, the other holding firm. The air itself trembled with the force of their clash.

The Kigendoro tried to use its long body to wrap around the Guardian while spiked pillars of earth slammed into its prey. Yet, the creature’s awkward position and enormous mouth made getting a good grip difficult, while the stone spears only broke harmlessly against the Guardian’s black armor.

Then the Guardian twisted.

The Kigendoro screeched as the thin membrane separating its upper and lower jaws tore, and either jaw was pushed in opposite directions.

Monitoring the fight, Alpha mentally grinned. Spirit Energy was a strange thing. He had observed Cultivator’s ability to suppress others several times now, first during the Deadwood event and again when dealing with Bosco’s group. Even his ants made use of the effect. Queens produced a continuous spiritual ‘aura’ that ensured no single ant could grow strong enough to overthrow them and that invaders were weakened while attacking the colony.

Countering this ‘spiritual pressure,’ as the goblins called it, had been one of the first things he had researched. Using a combination of energy shielding and counterpressure, the solution had turned out to be similar to what was used in Federation Gas Miners — ships designed to delve deep into the high-pressure interior of gas giants.

The muddy haze permeating the area flickered and died as the Kigendoro writhed on the ground.

Through the pain and confusion, the Kigendoro barely noticed the frontmost of the Guardian’s wings lift from its back and strike. The Kigendoro instincts saved it as the creature pulled away at the last second. It barely avoided the razor-thin energy membrane of the Guardian’s wing as it cut a deep grove in the earth where the Kigendoro’s neck had just been.

The Guardian followed through, its energy-infused wing retracting and folding seamlessly into its carapace. The Kigendoro hissed, retreating a few meters as thick streams of mud leaked from its torn jaws, quickly hardening into more makeshift armor. Its many eyes darted around, calculating, seeking an opening. This was no mindless brawl; it was survival against a foe it hadn’t fully understood until now.

With a pulse of energy, the surrounding earth liquefied, and the Kigendoro slithered through the mud with fluid grace. The ground beneath the Guardian trembled as tendrils of sludge erupted upward, wrapping around its legs and pulling with immense force. At the same time, pillars of water shot down from the trees, hammering against its carapace in an attempt to disorient the construct.

The Guardian didn’t falter. With mechanical precision, its limbs flexed, breaking free of the muddy restraints. A faint hum rose from its core as glowing, cyan patterns briefly illuminated its black shell. The water attacks dispersed, repelled by an unseen energy shield that shimmered in the murky light. The construct leaped high into the air, its insectoid wings unfurling mid-jump to keep it aloft.

From above, the Guardian analyzed the battlefield. Its glowing eyes locked onto a swirling patch of mud — unnaturally dense and teeming with Spirit Energy. The Kigendoro was hiding, but couldn’t fully mask its presence from the Guardian’s advanced sensors.

The construct descended like a spear, its sharp forelimbs aimed at the center of the swirling mud. At the last second, the Kigendoro burst forth, its massive maw snapping shut just shy of the Guardian’s descending frame. The Guardian twisted mid-air, narrowly avoiding the trap, and slammed one of its middle legs into the Kigendoro’s flank. The impact sent the spirit beast skidding across the swamp. 

Black scales splintering under the force, and blood mixed with mud. 

A breath later, Kigendoro retaliated. Streams of mud shot from its body, not toward the Guardian, but toward the surrounding trees. In moments, the swamp transformed into a chaotic battlefield as the mud swirled and formed into towering Kigendoro clones with dozens of jagged, bladed legs. They charged, some moving in for a direct assault while others circled to surround the Guardian.

The draconic construct shifted its stance, wings spreading wide to create a protective barrier as its legs and limbs moved with blinding speed. Each strike was precise, shattering the mud golems before they could land a blow. But for each one it destroyed, two more rose in its place. The Kigendoro slithered through the chaos, using its creations as cover while it gathered Spirit Energy for a more devastating attack.

Alpha observed from the dungeon’s control room, his virtual mind racing. “Impressive tactics, but predictable. Kigendoro relies too much on controlling its environment. It’s time to change the terrain.”

The Guardian’s head tilted slightly as it received Alpha’s command. Without hesitation, it drove its hind legs deep into the ground, releasing a pulse of energy that radiated outward. Steam escaped as the swamp quaked violently, and the mud began to harden, solidifying into jagged stone. The Kigendoro’s golems froze mid-motion, their flexibility stolen, and crumbled back into lifeless dirt.

The spirit beast let out a guttural roar, its body writhing as it struggled to adapt to the shifting battlefield. But the Guardian didn’t wait. It surged forward, its insectoid wings buzzing with energy, and collided with the Kigendoro in a bone-shaking impact. One of its forelimbs pierced through the hardened scales on the Kigendoro’s chest, sending cracks spider-webbing across its armor.

The Kigendoro screeched in fury. Its long body lashed out, wrapping the Guardian in thick coils and pinning the cutting wings to its back. It then used its limbs to grab the Guardian’s free arm and held it in place.

The Kigendoro opened its maw, and deep in its throat, a swirling vortex of black, muddy energy gathered.

On the wall, Bert’s eyes widened. Still recovering from the Kigendoro’s spiritual domain, he pulled himself to the edge of the wall and cried out, “MOVE! THAT’S DRAGONBREATH!”

But the beast had thrown away all sense of self-preservation for this one attack, even as its body stretched beyond natural limits against the Guardian’s struggle. Even if Kigendoro was torn to pieces, it would survive and heal, given time.

The energy vortex grew larger, brighter, and faster until all six of the Kigendoro’s eyes flashed purple.

BOOM!

In that instant, the Guardian’s tail whipped around, and the massive hammer at the end slammed into the Kigendoro’s head. The spirit beast’s head jerked to the side, just as a pillar of black energy erupted from its maw. The energy beam swept past the Guardian, slagging nearly a quarter of the armor on its head and neck before shooting past and over the dungeon wall.

As the Kigendoro’s eyes rolled to the back of its head, the beam swept upward, reaching as high as the ceiling and cutting a deep grove into the vast mat of lumoss illuminating the cavern. The cavern shook, and an enormous chunk fell and crashed somewhere in the distance.

When the beam finally ended, the Kigendoro hung limp, its wide mouth still hanging open. A quick vital scan told Alpha the creature was still alive,

“… but it was going to have one hell of a headache when it wakes up,” Alpha muttered.