71 Colosseum V

Nox's body body under the Beast's control started to shift and change, transforming into its more brutal form, the one it showed at the time its first appearance, brought upon by thirst induced madness.

Its skin blackened, turning into tough hide while the muscles underneath it swelled in size, stretching it taut before it also expanded to allow for more growth. Bones enlarged and expanded but also increasing in density, massively upping the Beast's weight.

The legs bowed backwards and the arms grow longer with sharp claws jutting out from both fingers and toes, bigger and sharper than ever. Its face elongated, treating a canine, bat like look with a huge mouth filled with long sharp fangs with the canines being veritable daggers.

It was big, bigger than before and more muscular as well, built like a solid living tank, towering over three meters tall without looking gangly at all due to its massive musculature.

The Beast's eyes though, remained unchanged and filled with the same coldness as before but with a brighter glint of even more refined bestial instincts.

Barreling forward at a speed Nox never thought possible at his current Level, the Beast struck at the Juggernaut and, what followed were multiple exchanges that resulted in the monsters have his armor partially stripped away due to multiple glancing blows while the Beast had his tough flesh goged in countless locations.

It did not matter though, the wound healed right after but more importantly, other changes were also taking place in the Beast's body.

Rather than just tough hide, scales were starting to form, still barely developed but they were indeed there. Not only that, but its body shape and features were beginning to shift slightly, but towards what end result, it was nearly impossible to tell as the changes were really minor.

Still, Nox could only see the beast getting stronger and stronger. As the scales kept forming, the Juggernaut's claws could not longer penetrate as deeply, leaving deep gashed but no longer gouging out flesh like they had before.

As its body further transformed, the Beast's physical prowess seemed to increase as well, what previously were mere glancing blows were starting to hit better and even knocking away the Juggernaut, causing much more significant damage.

The monster showed no signs of giving up though and, since its speed was still significantly greater than that of the Beast's, as speed was one of a Juggernaut's specialties, it resorted to the hit and run tactics of before, but always keeping its limbs on the ground for leverage.

This posed problem for the beast as it began getting more injuries though less serious ones and it could no longer easily counter as the Juggernaut quickly changed directions and abandoned a strike once it made any suspicious movements that might lead to a counterattack.

In the end, the Beast just balled up and let the Juggernaut attack as it pleased which left Nox worried tat it had also ran out of moves and this was an actual dead end for his journey in this new world. Thankfully though, he was wrong.

After the Beast balled up, the blood from the wounds caused by the Juggernaut started clotting even as it spilled, creating a sort of blood cocoon around the Beast's entire body.

As the monster continued its attacks, the cocoon was gradually stripped way but underneath it, were gleaming black scales, fully formed and, though the Juggernaut's claws still left deep scratches, they could no longer draw blood.

Noticing this, and sensing imminent movement from the Beast, the Juggernaut retreated and, it that moment, the Beast blew away the remnants of the cocoon to reveal its new form.

A thick, scaly tail smacked the ground with a force that generated a small earthquake, scaled, leathery wings burst from its back and four small protrusions that seemed to be the newly forming horns appeared on the back of its skull.

Finally, its original bat like features became more lizard like, with a more extended snout and a reptilian tongue.

The Beast let out a powerful roar that shook the Dungeon, causing further destruction and making the cracks in the Juggernaut's armor to spread as blood came out from within.

Then, with a burst of Mind similar but not quite like Nox's invictus and surrounded by a haze of blood that boosted all of its abilities, the Beast beat its wings and closed the distance to the Juggernaut faster than it could react, driving its claws into its chest and ending the monster's life in an instant.

It was over, the monster that had tormented Nox at the Dungeon's command and even threatened the Beast was now dead, with such ease as the Beast revelled in its new power.

A few moments later, the changes reverted and Nox's body returned to a human form as the BEast began to fall back into slumber.

Nox was thinking to himself what a close call it had been and feeling relieved when a voice suddenly sounded out, deep within his mind.

'Do not think of me as a system to take advantage off . . . I am a part of you, more than you realize . . .' The voice said.

'You're . . . The Beast?' Nox asked dumbfounded by the situation.

'That's is merely what you call me. I have no name other than Nox.' The voice replied.

'What?' Nox was even more confused.

'You think my existence is owed to your skill and, though you are partially correct, you are mostly wrong.' The voice continued.

'I have always existed, the Beast Within as you called me before, I am the instincts and primal desires of Nox, made manifest, while you are his logic and reason.' The voice explained.

'How does that work? wouldn't that mean I would have no drive or instinct when I'm in control?' Nox asked.

'We are both Nox. Parts of a single whole and, when the reason relinquished control, I fully take over while you take a back seat. Normally though, we are both fused into one, governing the thoughts and actions of Nox.' Nox's Instinct explained.

'So we are split right now but we'll be one again rather than you going to sleep as I had presumed?' Nox's Reason asked.

'That's right.' Instinct replied.

'How did this come to pass?' Reason asked.

'This is the result of Nox's skills that strengthened both of us but also created a rift allowing for separation. You are the dominant one, only receiving passive influence from me in most situations but, as you ceed control to me, we begin melding again as we recover equilibrium.' Instinct explained.

'So I need to use you more and more to get back to normal?' Reason asked.

'No. Equilibrium is what we need, ceed control too much and I'll just end up being the dominant force. The only reason I have clarity and can talk is due to your passive Influence on me. I know all of this because as Nox's primal instinct, I can simply feel it.' Instinct explained.

'I am unable to fix it though, such thinking jobs are for you to take care of. I managed to identify the problem with my more refined senses, now its up to you to figure it out with your logic filled brain . . .' Instinct said its final words.

The two parts than fused but Nox's memories of the conversation between two different parts of himself still remained, somewhat creeping him out. at least now though, he had figured out the root of his problem and only needed to fix it by restoring the balance between his two halfs.

As for how to do that exactly, he still had to think about it some more. He already had a few ideas though and, from the way his instinct had explained things to his reason, it seemed that his existence natural seeked this balance so maybe all he had to do was nudge it in the right direction.

Nox collected the corpse of the Juggernaut into his Item Box so that it wouldn't decay as he wanted to study it. It was the first time he had seem one after all.

Then, he teleported back to his hideout that was thankfully fined and, using the fact that he had already warned everyone he would be away for a while, settled down to begin thinking up ways to solve his "problem".

Oftentimes, Nox's best ideas came to him while working on something utterly unrelated for some reason. As such, he began working on some projects he had started previously or thought about as a concept while also pondering on the matter of fully unifying the divergent parts of his psyche . . .

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