Interlude 3: The Beast Master's...Ascension

“So you have finally come, Destroyer.” The tall muscle-toned man stood confidently before me with nothing but ripped shorts and a blond lion’s pelt draped over his entire body. He had both hands on his firm hips, his stormy grey eyes full of excitement and pleasure. Wiley flashed a brazen smile my way, bearing his canines. The Beast Master had clearly been expecting me.

“It wasn't much trouble to get through a nation of beasts to reach your rotting temple.” I threw my arm into the air and pointed left and then right. “This Aztec-like temple won’t last much longer. Only a barbarian would call this place his home.”

I wanted to get Wiley riled up and let his emotions cloud him before we fought, but he stood his ground. He didn't seem agitated in the slightest despite looking the part of a large baboon.

“My officers informed me of you and the pathetic pet’s arrival. Don’t think you will escape this temple alive. Now!”

Two massive grey jaguars appeared from the entrance of the temple. Three black monkeys and four sickly-green snakes climbed and slithered down the myriad of obelisks that filled out the ruined room. In mere seconds, an impressive bestial army had surrounded Epsilon and I. Our chances didn’t look good. He cracked his long leather whip, a sinister sneer emanating from his face.

“Let us set an example for these intruders. No one can take on our beast nation!” he barked.

I finally used my helmet to take a look at his stats:

[Name: Beast Master Wiley]—[Class: Supreme Dominion Lord (Animalia)]—[Level: 342]

[Skills: Lord Shout (MAX), Body Augmentation: Beast (MAX), Beast Speech (MAX), Increased Regeneration (MAX), Fists of Fury (MAX), Beast Master Ascension (MAX)]

[Status: Overly Ambitious]—[Attack: 80,000 + Weapon (10,000)]—[Defense: 67,000 + Armor (Physical Immunity)]—[Magic: 100,000]

His stats were truly better than my own, but not by a long shot if you compare our levels.

[Name: Ivorn]—[Class: Destroyer]—[Level: 46]

[Skills: Blessing of the Dark God (MAX), Skill Negation (MAX), Demon Lord Metamorphosis (RANK 6), Grand Alchemy (RANK 5), Grand Transmutation (RANK 5), Grand Enchanting (RANK 5)]

[Status: Pumped Up]—[Attack: 15,000 + Weapon ( 5,000)]—[Defense: 24,000 + Armor (10,000)]—[Magic: 25,550]

The only thing that really had me concerned was his immunity to physical attacks from his lion pelt "armor". It's not something I could interact with since it's not actually his own Skill’ My best bet was to use my weapon, Hex Fiend, to quell any magic attacks that would come my way. No...that would not work.

I bit my lip and turned my attention towards on the animals that had surrounded us. “Epsilon, take care of the extras. I will confront the leader, but be ready to throw that to me when I call you.”

The short, teenage girl in a blue mage robe that she wore loosely over frilled bikini swimsuit nodded at my commands. “They should prove no trouble to me. Shall I collect any, my Lord?”

“If it makes it easier for you then go ahead. I don’t want anything but beast-kin chicks to stay inside you longer than this battle, though. Wouldn't want you to become tainted.” 

I shot into the air and used my armor's ability to grant me dragon wings from the one I had slain. It was nice that it could absorb characteristics from felled enemies. All it needed was flesh to act as material.

 A metallic tail shot out from behind me as well. I now had access to an assortment of magic abilities. This could work. All according to plan. 

“Shall I use my [Digestive Acids] to dispose of them, my Lord?” Epsilon casually sent her fist through the head of a jaguar, its skull caving in as if it was smashed with a sledge hammer. It crumpled to the floor, putting its brethren on high alert.

I soared towards Wiley while glancing at my excess Skills. “Whatever you want. Just get rid of them,” I replied to her.

“Understood.” She pulled off her mage hood to reveal a concoction of red and blue hair formed into short pigtails. Two antennas stuck out from her strange-colored hair, matching with her strawberry & blueberry swirl. She shot a glance towards two grey warthogs who charged at her from each side. If she didn't avoid the attack, she would be easily get trampled…...is what someone would say if they didn’t know her specs. My joint creation with the help of the Lord of Calamity wasn't so weak.

“Sigh...," she muttered before unhinging her small jaw. Like that small pink ball that could absorb those he ate, her mouth expanded size many times bigger than her petite frame should've been capable of handling. Like a whirlpool, she engulfed in everything around her, dragging them towards an unending void. 

The warthogs and even a few snakes were promptly gobbled up by her massive maw, and dragged down into the black abyss. It shrunk down to normal size soon after; it was if nothing had ever changed at all. “Beginning digestive process. Standing by for further instructions,” she reported with an adorable burp.

I like how she's having more fun with her role. Now for the main fight.

[Name: Elder Negarior Dragon]—[Class: Scalelord]—[Level: 250]

[Skills: Skills: Flight (MAX), Flame Breath (MAX), Hellfire Inferno (MAX), Other Skills not available at current Level]

[Status: Burning with Hatred]—[Attack: 150,000]—[Defense: 45,000]—[Magic: 10,000]

My excess Skills were displayed on my screen, but were small enough where it wouldn't block my field of view. Wiley cracked his whip and sent it spiraling towards my spot in the air. It was fast, but at the moment—I was faster. His attack tasted the naked air instead.

His whip could extend far longer than it seemed. However, I had a plan.

These last two abilities were my main plan for defeating him. The question was if it would be enough to take him down with his high defense stat. I didn't have time to read what his Skills actually did as I zipped through the air, continuously avoiding his anti-air attacks.

“Is that all you can muster with your strength, Destroyer? You were picked by Lord Eternal, were you not?!” Wiley cackled as he sicked his whip on me once more. I jerked sideways after predicting its course, but it followed my movements quicker than before. It was inches away from capturing one my legs. And so I had to choose: to fall and fight him on the ground or take the brunt of his attack and attempt to make a quick recovery.

I chose the former and dropped to the ground right behind Wiley. My metal boots scraped across the ground enough to leave a considerable dent in the already decaying marble floor, leaving cracks in my wake.

 I drew my sword and caught a glimpse of Epsilon’s situation. The majority of the Wiley's beasts were nowhere to be found. The only ones in her vicinity were two blue-skinned rhinos and a large red vulture. Corpses of all types of beasts littered the battlefield; it truly was a massacre. 

With a the usual detached look on Epsilon's visage, she focused at her task at hand, never looking back or questioning anything. Her jaw extended once more, and this time released a large amount of toxic-looking bile with a beyond noxious smell. 

As if consumed by a radioactive wave, her enemies were completely consumed by the disgustingly-fantastic liquid. 

As expected—she's fine, I thought with a smile.

I shifted my focus back on Wiley. Epsilon would fail dealing with him. Devouring and releasing them as an acidic solvent was truly an impressive Skill for my minion, low level creatures with even lower amounts of intelligence. I couldn't use it on Wiley, even if one of those cases were true.

I lunged at him, hefting my jagged sword over my right shoulder to deliver and powerful downwards arc. Even in my heavy armor, I closed the gap between us nearly instantly. Only a true monster would be able to react, but he didn't even try.

“Clank!”

My sword harmlessly bounced off his chest like it was a plastic toy. I jumped back a few feet, expecting a counter attack.

“Ahahaha!” He crossed his arms, a smug smile growing across his face. “You won’t be able to damage me with such a weak sword, you fool! Not as long as I have the pelt of the Nemean Lion in my possession.”

I looked at the pelt more closely. It was brimming with a golden light that radiated divinity. The name also sounded rather familiar…

Nemean lion...Nemean lion….Where have I heard that before?

Wiley didn't give me any more time to mull over his words. He dropped his whip in place of something more interesting. His left hand morphed into the head and body of an emerald-colored viper while his right hand doubled in size to become as muscled and white as a albion gorilla. “Let’s make this a little more fun, shall we?”

His snake hand lunged at me with a speed far faster than I could react to. Shit!  It latched onto my chest and dug in.

"CLANK!"

Luckily, I had pretty strong armor to absorb his blow. It shouldn't be a problem as long as that kept up. 

However...

Its fangs sunk into the center of my armor and then retreated. I felt the pain almost immediately. “GAHK! …...Whaaaat!?”

I sunk to my knees and gazed up. Wiley stood before me, snickering to himself as he parted his thick bangs and revealed his feral yellow eyes. “It seems you have underestimated my beasts. This right here is the Acidic Greenskin. Simply making contact with a metal will melt it nearly instantly.”

He was right. I looked down at my chest to see a large gaping hole. The acid had not penetrated my skin or I would have been a goner, but then why…..

“Why is your body not dissolving? The acid transforms into a potent poison upon contact with skin, bypassing your body's defenses and seeping into your bloodstream. Amazing, isn't it?”

Blood roared in my ears. My body felt as heavy as a boulder and my eyesight was filled with a teary fluid. Still, this was only one version of my plan. I knew something like this was possible in this world. Especially after what Morgala told me. 

“Epsilon!” I shouted at the top of my burning lungs. “Send me Antidote #63!”

I caught a glimpse from my position of Epsilon holding off a tiger with one hand and a bull in the other. Nevertheless, my loyal servant ejected a small vial out of her mouth like a the cartridge of a game and sent it flying towards my fallen body. 

Wiley was too stunned to react as the vial flew past him and exploded upon impact with my exposed torso. My vision cleared, the tension drained from my previously heavy body, and the noise in my ears faded. 

I stood up, confidence welling up in my chest. I tossed off my helmet where my glasses appeared immediately to replace them.

“Surprised, are we? Thank you, Epsilon.” She winked before crushing the skull of a hyena with her bare hands in the distance.

Wiley’s mouth hung wide open. He was too shocked to move, but spoke for the first time in what felt like an eternity. “H-h-how? No one knows of the specially bred species from my kingdom! There is no cure for such a creature because no one else knows about it but me!” He pounded his massive gorilla fist against the cracked marble floor, creating a person-sized hole. “Tell me!”, he screamed.

"Hahahaha!" I cackled. This time, I was the smug one. I adjusted my classes before crossing my arms. “Did you really think I would come into the kingdom of beasts and run straight to the king? Only a fool would fight without preparing. I was only surprised earlier because I didn't expect it to be that effective against this armor. That was an oversight on my part.”

Wiley’s eyes twitched, fully bloodshot now. He didn’t like that I had planned around his tricks. But I mean, who would? 

“Raaaaah!” He created another hole into the ground, but when he turned back to me, he was his composed and cocky former self.

“It seems I have underestimated you, Destroyer. I will have to get serious before you have another chance to avoid death. [Beast Master Ascension]!”

A golden light covered his body and blinded my view. Ever since I had come to this world, not a single enemy had ever shouted out one of their moves. It was pretty easy to get around it with just a lick of concentration. That meant he either had none left or this Skill was something special. Either way, I gripped my sword tightly and prepared for the worst—not that I was slightly intimidated, just cautious to a fault.

“Now. Let us end this.” He stood tall and strong before me now, his body completely warped into an amalgamation of many beings. He wore the face of a black lion with a golden mane that sparkled like the sun. His body was like an hard and durable like an armadillo—dark brown and covered in tough shell on both sides. Two bulging arms on either side seemed to possess enough for to kill me with a single punch. One was a white gorilla arm, the other was a red colored king cobra, the third a lobster pincer, while the last was a tiger's claw. He had four legs as well, two from an elephant and two from a bull. he towered over me, standing easily over ten feet tall and looking straight out of a D&D monster manual. It would have been a frightening thing, especially since each of his stats had tripled in number. 

Just like a hero of justice I had allowed him to power up. What a shame he was facing me. Oh, what a folly!

I didn't want him to have to wonder what awesome device did him in, so like Wiley, while placing my hand up in the air, I spoke about my ability. “[Skill Negation].” A dark cloud oozed out of my palm in the form of a black vapor. It was small and unsightly, but its skill was true. The moment it touched his shelled body, he flashed out of existence and reappeared in his original form. His expression was priceless. He was truly dumbfounded. “....Wha? What! My ultimate body????!!!!”

“Yeah….I negated that.” I said. “Didn't really wanna fight it until I have acquired more data.”

“I can’t use any of my abilities. What did you do?”

“Eh? Are you too dumb to comprehend from my actions alone? My [Skill Negation] disabled  your Skills that you used within the last five minutes for the next five minutes. Your monkey brain only resorts to using a few at a time so you wouldn’t notice the difference anyway.”

He gripped his whip again, still egging for a fight. He really did have a strong mind, despite the lack of its contents. I’ll give him that. I readied my hellish blade in response, but truly, I had a much better plan. I shoved my free hand forward and used [Hellfire Inferno] from the deceased dragon.

“Huh?” Wiley looked above him. A large crimson vortex swirled around his body, surrounding him from head to toe in a blazing cylinder of death. 

“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!” he howled, quickly consumed by the flames. The duration of the Skill was around 10 seconds and it was at a rather weak level. I tapped my foot a few times and counted the seconds down. 8. 7. 6. 5. 4. 3. 2. 1. Showtime.

The blazing cylinder of conflagration dissipated to reveal a burning red—but alive—Wiley. The shade of his skin was as red as blood and he had joined the legion of the bald. Of course of all items, his lion pelt was in near perfect condition. I could also catch a glimpse of his privates….

“Haha! I survived! There is no way your magic will be able to kill me without a weapon and that's impossible as I am now. You lose!”

He made his advance towards me even though his whip was burned to a crisp along with his shorts. Before he could reach me, an invisible force sent him flying back into a pillar. In his place was none other than Epsilon with the same deadpan expression as usual.

“I have taken care of all the wildlife and stored the undocumented ones for analysis and testing. What now?” She tilted her head with curiosity, like a child waiting to receive a present on Christmas, but without a bright smile. How cute.

Wiley ripped his bald head out of the pillar. He hadn't actually taken any damage from Epsilon’s slam. I put a hand to my chin after sheathing my sword. I had finally remembered what had eluded me earlier in the fight.

 The Nemean Lion was killed by Hercules by being squeezed to death. That’s not really an option here so how about…

“Epsilon, give me Prototype R #4. I think this is a good chance to test it out. I have already acquired enough field data for my sword.” She quickly responded by ejecting a large weapon from her orifice. It landed into my armored hands with a light "clank".

To anyone else in this world, this metallic device seemed like a foreign artifact of the gods. It had two long rectangles of metal jutting out of it and in between were red cylinder-like coils, ready to be charged up. This weapon would have been a lot tougher to use on someone of his caliber, especially with his speed. However, now he was in an incapacitated and weakened state from my previous attack. He also couldn't use that transformation Skill to bail him out either. The kill was mine—as was planned.

With one hand I lightly tapped the trigger. I let the brunt of the gun rest in my free palm, balancing the tail of it on my right shoulder. The device roared to life, each of the red coils sizzling and blaring. A small beam spawned between the coils, attempting to be released from its metallic prison. I aimed my pristine prototype at Wiley who was still in a daze from his head-first crash into the pillar.

“This little baby was born when I was able to get my hands on some ‘divine’ material from an alluring dark goddess. Sure it isn't the same tech from my world, but it might be even superior in terms of raw power." After some tinkering I produced a weapon that utilizes the opposite type of energy that the Savior apparently had within his gear from the gods—Negative Energy. Wiley, my friend, I present to you…” I squeezed the trigger all the way down. “the Umbral Railgun!”

“Huuuh?” That was all Wiley could muster before a large red beam of dusk penetrated through his stomach and continued out the other side with even more energy and power than before. A crater had bored through Wiley's chest. With his face forever frozen in bewilderment, he fell to the ground lifeless.

I jumped up into the air, dropping my steaming gun from excitement. My hands slightly burned and my shoulder ached from the kickback, but I didn't care. “Yipeeee! It works! It only drained a quarter of my mana so it could still use a few tweaks, but it worked! It even converted his life-force and mana into negative energy. I can do it! I can finally rival the gods!” I looked down at the deceased Beast Master. “Epsilon, you know what to do. I have to make a call. That evolved form of his will have a plethora resources for us.”

I grabbed my helmet from the crumbled floor and triumphantly placed it over my head. Behind me, Epsilon let out another barrage of dissolved creatures to melt down the majority his body. I had enough to experiment with him at a later date 

“His Skills were interesting and unique enough to attempt replication.” I walked outside of the temple and took in the massive landscape starry sky of the night, my blazing beam of death carrying on its long journey in the distance.