Chp.32: Sutekh

Divine power flowed from Carrion's body and rose upward, forming a great circle in the sky that quickly began to fill with strange symbols. The energy emitted by it pervaded the air making it vibrate, and the sand rose a few centimeters moving slowly forming a vortex under Haku's paws. The dragon grit his teeth in fury: that was the summoning of a greater spirit! The same one that Carrion had used in their first fight, and that Hara had used against her sisters! A growl emerged from his jaws as he realized what was really going on. Carrion hadn't summoned a greater spirit at all before the battle… he had summoned a lesser spirit!

Unlike greater spirits, which perforce required divine power to be summoned to the mortal world, and consequently could not be summoned by anyone but legendary levels, lesser spirits could be summoned simply by using summoning magic. Which meant that the summoner didn't have to use anything but his mana to do it! And even if the lesser spirits couldn't hold a candle to the greater spirits, they were still very powerful entities (although probably, Haku was sure, in a hand-to-hand fight he or his siblings would still be able to defeat them in current)... enough to momentarily fool their opponents by posing as greater spirits, and thus serving as the perfect bait and switch! And to keep them in the mortal world only a constant supply of mana was needed; consequently, since Carrion in addition to his divine power still had the mana of at least one level adamantium soldier, he could easily use this mana to summon a lesser spirit!

Basically, what his sisters were currently fighting, and who they were convinced wasn't actually a greater spirit, was actually just a fake. Carrion currently still had a chance to summon a greater spirit, but since the dragons had been convinced otherwise, they didn't mind taking little damage during their fight! Basically, Carrion could now field a strong piece, while Haku's pieces had already lost some of their strength!

Indeed, that had been Carrion's plan. He would have preferred to wait a little longer before playing that card, but after all he couldn't complain: his opponents had already been damaged enough and had lost some of their most powerful moves. One of the flying basilisks was down, and both could no longer use that technique to get shot straight at the enemy in the air. And the modified wyvern now had two large holes in its shoulders where the basilisks' heads had been earlier. While all of them were still able to fight admirably, Carrion was confident that the damage was enough to seal their defeat. And if they weren't... then he would just use the spirit he was about to summon as a shield to escape, just like Haku figured he'd want to do. Although the defeat would be bitter, once away he could recover from his wounds and think of a new plan by taking into account everything he had just discovered about the weapons that dragons could use.

"Do you think I'm stupid, Haku?" Carrion laughed as the circle of energy in the sky finished forming. "I knew this was a trap. I've learned a lot from watching you these days. You would never have strayed that far from the safety of the caravan by yourself, unless you wanted to act as bait. Besides, I always kept an eye on your camp, and I noticed certain attitudes of you and your siblings that showed you weren't planning to kill one of those giant worms at all, especially when you left. I could have just let it go and avoided falling into your trap, but why instead Don't use this opportunity to delude yourself into winning and then give you the final blow? I had to put my life on the line for this... but after all, no pain, no gain, right?"

The circle in the sky completed and sizzled. Carrion looked up satisfied and while he smiled so wide that he showed all his thirty-two teeth he yelled: "It's time to end this! Come forward, Sutekh! Squash that bug!"

The sky seemed to tear apart and something emerged from the circle of energy, surrounded by a great light; Haku couldn't see well, but before he could focus on the silhouette that had appeared on the battlefield, something came down from the sky and hit him in the exposed right shoulder. As soon as he was struck, Haku was knocked backwards and the shoulder bones, although they were reinforced with great basilisk plates and protected by rows and rows of shock absorbing muscles, snapped like snacks under the immense pressure. The dragon couldn't feel pain, since that body wasn't his own, but now he was having serious trouble moving his right wing, since the muscle connections and support of the shoulder bones had been lost. If he had already had difficulty flying before, now he was unable to. Then he heard a voice: "You managed to resist, you are clearly strong. But it doesn't matter; now you can no longer escape. Following the order of my goddess's servant, I will eliminate you"

Haku looked up and was finally able to see the spirit that had just struck him. It was almost eight feet tall and had the body of a human being; he was perfectly muscled all over and had tanned skin. His only garment were two long trousers almost similar to a toga, from which also emerged a tail that was as long as a mouse's but resembled that of a greyhound in shape and color. The spirit had his body covered in jewels, many of them even embedded in his own skin, as if someone had pierced it and inserted those precious stones inside. The skin was completely smooth and hairless, studded only with golden jewels, except for the hands and head. In the case of the hands, they were wrapped in what appeared to be two gloves made of onyx and silver, the fingers of which ended in sharp claws, but on closer inspection it was clear that they were not quanta at all, but the very shape of the hands themselves, which were entirely composed of metals. On the backs of these hands there were also short blades that emerged slightly until they reached the tip of the middle finger. The head, on the other hand, was that of an animal: it was difficult to identify, it looked like an odd mix between a jackal, a dog and a mule, and on the back of its forehead it had a headdress that seemed to be made of peacock feathers. His eyes were red and the pupils inside them seemed to swirl. In his hands he held a long forked stick, made of a silver metal interspersed with golden curlicues, the points of which sizzled and sometimes emitted blood-red sparks.

Haku grit his teeth and roared at the spirit. That entity was clearly very powerful and dangerous; he had to approach it very carefully. The spirit, on the contrary, remained impassive and raised his staff, and from it a new red spark shot out, pointing again at the dragon. This time Haku was able to dodge in time and the spark hit the ground, generating so much heat that the sand first turned red and yellow, then it solidified into glass.

Rhaegal, seeing his brother in distress, rushed towards the spirit with the intention of enveloping it in his coils and crushing it, or at least holding it long enough for Haku to devise a plan, but Carrion stood between the two. "Not so fast! Did you forget about me?"

Rhaegal stopped and let out a furious growl. Below him Darbi also crawled up to him. "Stand aside, Carrion!" the latter exclaimed. "It's two against one! You can't win!"

"Oh, I know. But I don't need to," Carrion said, then he looked at the spirit and yelled: "Sutekh! That dragon's real body is inside its belly! Take it out and destroy it!"

Carrion didn't care about winning against the two basilisks; all he had to do was buy time for Sutekh to destroy the belly of the wyvern and extract the true body of the dragon from it. Once Haku was dead, victory would be his; at which point, even if the two basilisks turned out to be stronger than him, he would simply flee. His aim was only to kill Haku; without him, the group of dragons would have been much less dangerous and could have slowly eliminated them one by one. It would have been a long, exhausting job, but he would certainly have succeeded. At that point he would also wipe out the beastmen and then go home. He would have accepted any punishment his ruler wanted to give him: he didn't care for such trifles, as long as the realm of humans was safe from those treacherous creatures.

Sutekh listened to his master's order and nodded; he lunged directly at the modified wyvern with his forked staff raised against it. Haku opened his jaws and erupted a gush of blue flame, but the spirit dodged easily and struck him at the base of the neck. If Haku's avatar had still been complete, he could have defended himself using the other two heads at his disposal, but since they were now no longer attached to his shoulders, there was nothing that could stop the spirit's attack. Sutekh struck it with unprecedented force, and the hard scales cracked inward, cracking slightly and revealing some of the skin underneath, but the spirit weapon went no further. Apparently, Haku's defenses were able to hold up even against a greater spirit, though not completely. Sutekh narrowed his lids slightly, his expression changing for the first time since arriving on the battlefield. "Mh. Adult dragon scales. What an abominable unnatural deformation this body is..."

He didn't have time to say anything else: Haku flexed his neck and grabbed it with his jaws. The wyvern's teeth, also reinforced with great basilisk plates and fortification runes, added to a greater jaw strength due to additional powerful muscles, shattered against the spirit with such force that they could have pulverized a block of iron. Sutekh clearly felt the teeth penetrate his flesh and could not repress a cry of pain; however he did not let himself be overwhelmed by it and grabbed the two jaws of the wyvern with his mighty arms. The metal hands gripped the hard dragon scales and exerted great force, slowly opening his mouth and allowing him to free himself from the dragon's grip. However, as soon as the mouth was opened wide enough, a violet and blue light appeared in the monster's throat and then a gush of bluish flames hit Sutekh full in the face.

When the flames died down, Sutekh's body was almost completely charred, but he regenerated within seconds; however, the spirit's expression and more careful posture showed that he still felt pain and was probably injured. "You are a mighty warrior, I admit it" he said. "But if this strength is not yours, then you are bound to fall as easily as a stone hanging over a precipice"

He lunged at Haku again, but this time even faster, and aimed not at his neck but at his exposed right shoulder; the dragon tried to grab him, but this action was completely useless as Sutekh dodged it easily. The spirit thrust his forked staff into the exposed flesh of the shoulder and then exerted an enormous force upon it, so great that the staff was driven deep into the flesh; everywhere he went, the temperature rose and the meat melted. When he was deep enough, Sutekh snapped his fingers and the staff released great energy in the form of red flashes. The entire belly of the wyvern was swept by this unusual current and lightning bolts even began to shoot out of it as the scales that protected the whole broke off one by one, pushed out by the force that was emerging within the body. Finally, the monster's belly exploded revealing a central cavity, with bones, tendons and muscles holding the sleeping body of a dragon.

"It was an interesting battle" Sutekh said. "But now it's over". And with one blow, he drove his staff into the dragon's skull, literally exploding it.

The spirit expected the wyvern's lifeless body to fall to the ground at any moment, but instead the monster stood steady on its feet. On the contrary, the dragon's body shivered as if it were made of water and then took on an entirely different shape. Sutekh was confused: "Uh? What the..."

He didn't have time to say more: the ribs inside the cavity in the belly opened and what looked like huge insect legs grabbed him and dragged him inside. Soon after, a mighty laugh, Haku's laugh, was heard there as well.