Chapter 595: Chapter 595 - Taming the Swarm - 10

A deafening roar emerged from the ice prison when another massive crack opened, this time revealing part of what appeared to be a gigantic arm moving slowly.

"The first one is breaking free!" a soldier shouted.

There was no time to organize a concentrated attack.

The soldiers focused their fire on the opening, trying to damage the creature before it could emerge completely. Flames and various projectiles crashed against the exposed surface, tearing away pieces of corrupted flesh that kept regenerating.

It wasn’t enough.

The ice prison disintegrated with a final crack, freeing the two massive creatures that immediately began moving toward each other with a disturbing purpose.

They were quite damaged by Selphira’s freezing attack, and many of their parts also seemed to have dried up, perhaps from injecting their vital energy into the artifacts to escape.

But for the creatures, the damage wasn’t a problem, it was an opportunity.

"They’re fusing!" Zhao shouted.

The two abominations, each the size of a four-story building, extended grotesque appendages that intertwined with wet, organic sounds. The artifacts on their backs resonated with corrupt energy, creating a discordant harmony.

The fusion process was horrifying to witness, a twisted melding of corruption that defied every natural order they understood.

But more soldiers joined the attack...

The combined bombardment from the soldiers was devastating. Massive chunks of corrupted flesh tore away from the fused creature, exposing the artifact spheres gleaming within its writhing mass.

For one brilliant moment, it seemed their strategy might actually work.

Yet hundreds of small mutants continued their suicidal charge, throwing themselves into the path of destruction. The fusion process continued developing in a way that was simultaneously fascinating and nauseating to witness. Corrupted flesh reorganized itself like living clay, flowing and merging with wet, organic sounds that made even veteran soldiers grimace.

The mass threatened to never stop growing until the two creatures became a single, even more massive entity.

"All fire on the fusion zone!" Julius commanded, his voice cutting through the chaos of battle. "Now, while they’re vulnerable!"

Every tamer, every soldier, every beast concentrated their power on the transforming creature. The air filled with elemental energy so dense it was visible: fire that turned sand into molten glass, wind that cut like razor blades, earth and wood that rose in lethal spikes.

They were gaining ground.

The beasts couldn’t seem to resist the enormous magical onslaught from the ever-increasing number of soldiers crowding the wall’s summit. Their organic bodies, no matter how numerous, weren’t enough against such concentrated power.

Selphira prepared herself to freeze the artifacts that would soon be separated and exposed.

But just when victory seemed within reach in their war of attrition, Ren felt a familiar vibration that turned his stomach.

"Another energy signature," he murmured, his eyes snapping toward the northern horizon. "Another big one."

Julius followed his gaze and saw what he had feared: a massive silhouette approaching from the direction where everything had begun. The fourth artifact from this side was heading directly toward them.

As if waiting for the cruelest moment for a sick joke, fate delivered two messages to Julius simultaneously.

The first concerned the northern section of their own wall. The handwriting being exactly identical to Larissa’s already generated an enormous headache for him.

But the second wasn’t any better.

"The situation with Victor?"

The response came picturing the same battle intensity. "Two fused artifacts... new creature... more intelligent than the previous ones... 2 more approaching, they seem to be heading toward the castles and they fuse when they get close to each other..."

"So how many artifacts are there in total?" Zhao asked, his voice tight with growing dread.

"It seems four on each side," Julius crushed the reports in his fist. "Six arms and two legs. But we don’t know if more could arrive..."

"Damn," Selphira muttered, dividing her attention between maintaining the bombardment and preparing for the new threat. "Two seemed manageable. But four on each side..."

A tense silence fell over the group as they processed the information. Eight artifacts total, possibly more. And all seemed to have the same tendency: head toward population centers and fuse when they were close to each other.

"Where is Sirius?" Ren murmured, the question escaping before he could stop it. "He was supposed to take the central route to reach where that last artifact rests. Did something happen to him?"

But there was no time to speculate.

The third enemy for this zone arrived. Another arm.

The fourth and perhaps final artifact from this side impacted the battlefield like a plot twist to the victory they’d been so close to achieving. It stopped right beside the entity that was still fusing.

Not only did it serve as a shield so the first two could merge completely...

Without hesitation, it joined the process, its organic matter flowing toward the central mass like water finding its level.

The energy released by the triple fusion created a shockwave that knocked several soldiers to their knees and cracked sections of the defensive wall.

When the blinding light faded, what remained was something that defied all previous understanding of functional anatomy.

The resulting creature was approximately shaped like a bizarre giant scorpion, but built with completely unbalanced proportions. Two massive arms served as its primary ’pincers’, each one the size of a siege tower. The leg, the third appendage at the rear, functioned as a tail-stinger that curved high above its malformed body.

All three artifacts were now completely integrated into its structure, positioned at the front to provide shields that made the creature virtually indestructible.

"By all the dragons," Selphira whispered.

The scorpion-creature advanced toward the defensive wall, its multiple eyes blazing with an intelligence none of the previous versions had shown. Each step made the earth tremble, sending vibrations through the stone that the defenders could feel in their bones.

But it stopped abruptly halfway to the defensive wall.

Its multiple eyes, which had been sweeping the battlefield in search of threats, suddenly focused on a specific point: the zone where Ren stood.

"Why did it stop?" Julius muttered, unnerved by the abomination’s direct stare.

Ren felt a chill that had nothing to do with the icy wind blowing from the frozen structure that carried him. It was the same sensation he had experienced in the depths, as if something invisible had been watching him from the shadows.

Studying him.

Recognizing him.