Ashinaro was having trouble sitting still.
The paunthum flower petal was bitter against his tongue, growing more and more intense as its effect increased. It only served to amplify the overwhelming excitement for the new ability he was about to receive.
What it didn’t serve was making this task easy. He had to be cautious that he didn’t breathe so rapidly he lost focus.
He sat on the floor of his room, counting his breaths, guiding the Blade Rush relic toward his battleform.
“This is boring,” Zanas complained.
“Stop distracting me,” he said mentally, then went back to counting his breaths.
Zanas began exploring the room.
Ashinaro ignored him, focusing solely on the binding. A hundred and three breaths down, two thousand and ninety-seven to go.
When he reached five hundred and thirteen, there was a clatter and Ashinaro opened his eyes to see Zanas studying a bottle sitting on one of his shelves. It was a rot draught that Akaris had left behind.
He closed his eyes again, focusing on the relic.
He heard a sniff, then the sound of a cork popping.
When he opened his eyes, he saw Zanas had the bottle to his face.
“No don’t drink that! It’s poison!”
Zanas was already tipping the contents back into his mouth.
The mouth of his mask. It was so expressive that Ashinaro forgot it was just a mask.
Except, it wasn’t just a mask. Because while it seemed like the contents should spill over the painted surface, instead the grinning lips parted to accept the liquid.
Where it went inside the shabbily clothed skeleton, Ashinaro didn’t know.
The mask smacked its lips and Zanas let out a sigh. “Oh, that’s not the stuff.”
“Are you okay?”
“I feel fine. But I am not okay. That tasted dreadful.”
“Like I said, it’s poison.”
“Well you should have warned me.”
“I did.”
“Before I was already drinking it. Cutting off a drink midstream is bad for the constitution, not to mention bad luck.”
“You shouldn’t go around drinking random things.”
“I get the feeling you have weird social norms.”
“How did you even drink that?”
“I’m very skilled.”
“I mean, you’re a skeleton. You don’t have a mouth. Or innards.”
“My form does not define me.”
He stared at Zanas’s clothes, but the liquid didn’t look to have leaked out. “I guess as a skeleton, you wouldn’t be affected by poisons in any case.”
“I’m just a devourer. Stomach of iron, me.” He patted his gaunt midsection. Ashinaro was pretty sure the hand went all the way to his spine.
“How about you stop devouring my potions.”
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
“Well, I used to be called the devourer, but I was apparently too dour in that form. Now I’m lively and full of verve!”
“You used to have a different form?” That was interesting. Ashinaro had heard of other familiars that could shift their forms, and some that even worked like Beastkins. “Can you still take it?”
“Nope. And good riddance. I don’t even remember what I was like. I’m practically a new man.” He eyed the empty bottle. “Do you have any more of that? It’s dreadful, but it does have a nice bite.”
Ashinaro sighed, popped another paunthum petal into his mouth, and returned to his counting. Starting back at zero.
By the time he reached twenty-two hundred and ten breaths, his muscles were spasming uncontrollably and sweat was pouring from him in his effort to keep still.
Another twenty or so breaths and he reached a point where if he didn’t bind the Blade Rush relic now, he was going to lose it entirely, so he let the binding with his battleform and the amalgam with his Flesh’s Frenzy relic complete.
Then he leaped up and cheered, punching at the air.
He began running around his small room.
“It went well, then?” Zanas asked. “I’m assuming this is an expression of joy.”
“Not joy. Excitement!” He peered into himself as he continued jogging around the room, then remembered to spit out the paunthum petal. He rinsed his mouth out for good measure. He wanted to have some chance of sleeping tonight.
Then he examined the relic to see how the binding had altered it.
[Whirling Rush (Flawless)]
Amalgamated with [Flesh’s Frenzy].
Fly forward while exhaling breath, causing any wielded empowered weapons to spin about you. While in flight, any damage you take is absorbed by your weapons.
Alternately, while [Flesh’s Frenzy] is active, draw yourself toward your golem, creating a cloud of blood which blinds and weakens enemies. Any damage taken while in flight is transferred to your golem.
“Yes! Not only did it change to let me use my staff, I can use any empowered weapon now! And I can fly! And I can poison enemies! Let’s go test it out!”
He rushed to the door, then stopped. Testing it outside risked being spotted. He wasn’t exactly keeping his relics a secret, but no need to go putting on a display. Telermin knowing he reached Defender was bad enough; the news would spread.
At least he wouldn’t be known as the Cursed Initiate anymore.
He cleared away an area of his apartment. It was small, but large enough to test out the new ability.
He activated Flesh’s Frenzy. His flesh peeled away from his body and reformed in front of him.
“That really is disgusting,” Zanas said. “A lack of flesh suits me much better than it does you.”
Ashinaro ignored him, keeping his breath held, and used Whirling Rush’s secondary effect.
A thick mist of blood bloomed around him as he was yanked forward. He slammed into his golem and then an instant later his flesh tore free again and launched forward, hitting the wall.
He cut off the effect just as he was about to crash into it. He wouldn’t damage the flamestone, but it would damage him.
The pull instantly cut off, all his momentum canceled out, and he dropped to the floor, feeling the impact only as a phantom sensation as it was transferred to his flesh golem, which staggered slightly.
He popped to his feet, laughing, his flesh returning to him as he took in a breath. “It lets me keep going forward, I don’t even need to reactivate it. I think I can even direct the golem in a certain direction. And it’s not limited by exhaling like the primary effect is, so I’ll keep flying forward as long as Flesh’s Frenzy is active.” It only lasted for a single breath, but he could hold his breath for a decent amount of time.
“Yes, quite the disgusting way to travel.” Zanas stood a ways back, staring at the blood splotch on the floor Ashinaro had left when he’d dropped from the air.
At least the mist of blood returned to him. If not, he’d have had a real mess on his hands.
He would have to do more testing, but it would definitely let him traverse areas quickly. And he desperately needed to catch up on his breathwork.
“How is that going to help us disrupt the ritual again? Does it take place in a very large chamber that you need to travel across in a most disgusting manner?”
Ashinaro realized he didn’t even know where the ritual took place. He assumed it was at Joy’s temple, but he wasn’t sure how to confirm that.
He deflated, his artificial excitement not enough to keep the dread at bay. The new ability was exciting and useful, but it wouldn’t help with the task that lay ahead of him. Well, it might help disrupt the ritual, but it wouldn’t allow him to kill Vershik.
“I don’t know. It’s still impossible.”
“We’ve already established that you’ve done impossible things, so don’t let that get in your way.”
Ashinaro shook his head. “This is different. I can think of a bunch of ways to disrupt the ritual, but I can’t think of a single one to kill Vershik. He’s so much more powerful than I am.”
“Right, you’ve repeatedly established you’re not strong enough to kill him. Which brings me back to the molten metal idea. You don’t have to be the one whose power kills him.”
“What’s with you and molten metal? There’s not going to be any molten metal. And even molten metal probably wouldn’t do the trick. About the only thing he has to worry about is…” Ashinaro trailed off, his eyes widening.
He wasn’t sure if it was the artificial excitement from the paunthum flower, or if the idea really could work. It would all depend on just how resistant Zanas was. “We need to visit the Festering Fen!”
