NOVPUB
Chapter 103: Soul Drain...
Then he kicked it in the chest, caving it’s chest in in the process and sending it flying backward.
"Is it just me," Kara whispered, "or did Zayn... become even stronger?"
Tobias didn’t respond immediately.
He was crouched beside Elisse, one hand hovering over her chest as a steady flow of soul energy passed through his palm.
Her breathing had evened out, color slowly returning to her face, but the bags under her eyes and the sheen of sweat said enough — she was still running on empty.
He couldn’t stop the worry from curling in his gut.
Their healer was down. If she dropped again, they’d be in real trouble.
Still, Kara’s words pulled his attention. He looked up.
Zayn was facing the monster again, standing still, sword lowered, as if waiting.
And Tobias adjusted his glasses with a sharp, controlled motion.
No, it wasn’t just Kara.
Something about Zayn had changed.
It wasn’t just the soul energy flaring around him — though that alone was worrying enough.
It was how calm he looked, how his stance was loose but coiled, like a predator halfway between lounging and lunging.
The pink aura from his Dreadhorn mark pulsed faintly around him, not wildly like a blast furnace, but deliberate.
Tobias swallowed.
Then the monster yowled.
It wasn’t a sound it had made before — a dry, alien screech, somewhere between metal scraping and wind being strangled.
Its head jolted back. A ripple pulsed from its core, and suddenly, the very air changed.
Kara stepped forward. "Wait, what’s it — ?"
The loose wisps of soul energy in the air — the lingering remains of everyone’s attacks, Zayn’s earlier slashes, everything... moved.
They twitched, quivered, then shot toward the monster like a thousand strands of thread being reeled back in.
"No," Tobias muttered. "It’s draining it."
The monster absorbed everything — every remnant of power from the air, from the ground, even from the cracks in the walls.
The aura around it deepened, turning from pale gray to an oily, dark sheen. The wounds Zayn had inflicted began to seal up.
Its body thickened, grotesque musculature surging across its limbs like a grotesque bloom.
"It’s healing itself," Kara hissed.
"And more," Tobias said grimly. "It’s getting stronger." 𝔫𝖔𝖛𝖕𝔲𝔟.𝔠𝖔𝖒
The monster’s eyes — or rather, the faint glowing pits where eyes should be — locked onto Zayn.
A flicker of triumph sparked in its stance. It knew it had regained the advantage. It took a single step forward.
Tobias’s hand twitched, instinct telling him to shout, to warn him, to get him out of there.
"ZAYN — !"
Too late.
A wave of pink soul energy erupted from Zayn’s body.
It wasn’t a controlled pulse. It was a blast, a concussive wave of raw force that hit them like a gale.
Kara was thrown backward with a startled yelp, tumbling over loose stones.
Tobias gritted his teeth and clutched Elisse tighter as the wind slammed into him, soul energy vibrating the very air.
He staggered back, planting one boot down, then the other, anchoring himself just enough to stop from falling.
His heart pounded in his chest.
"What the hell...?" he breathed.
Zayn stood at the epicenter of the wave.
His body was radiating that eerie pink glow now — brighter, sharper, crackling with the unmistakable hum of fear-based energy.
And on the left side of his head... a single horn had emerged though they couldn’t see that in the wind.
A sleek, jagged, obsidian-colored horn, wreathed in pink fire.
It curled slightly backward like a ram’s, and yet looked sharp enough to cut glass.
Kara, coughing as she pulled herself up, stared in disbelief. "What’s happening?"
Tobias didn’t reply. His jaw was clenched too tightly. He didn’t know...
The monster had stepped back, clearly caught off guard by the sudden spike in power.
But whatever hesitation it had felt was short-lived.
With a guttural snarl, it surged forward again — its new, bulkier form moving with terrifying speed, its remaining hand forming into a jagged blade of rotted soul energy.
Zayn didn’t move.
Not until the last second.
Then he vanished.
A flicker of pink light, a blur of motion — and suddenly he was at the monster’s side, sword arcing up in a wide slash.
The blade connected, cleaving through the outer shell of the beast with a shrieking hiss.
The monster retaliated instantly, swinging its arm down.
Zayn ducked, slid to the side, and kicked upward, catching the creature under the chin with a soul-enhanced strike that lifted it off the ground for a split second.
The clash began in earnest.
The two figures became blurs in the center of the ruined cavern — one cloaked in corrupted black soul energy, the other in vivid, pulsing pink.
Every strike sent shockwaves across the battlefield.
And through it all, Zayn moved like he was dancing.
Not perfectly — he still took hits.
A grazing swipe tore across his shoulder, staining his shirt red.
Another blow knocked the wind out of him, sending him skidding backward.
But he didn’t stop. He kept pressing forward. Each movement was sharper.
Each slash more precise. He could lose this fight... he could die and the others could die as well, the fear of that... it was making him stronger.
He began fighting harder.
The monster on the other hand fought harder as well.
The black aura around it pulsed, desperate to snuff out the pink.
But no matter how close it got, it couldn’t rot the Dreadhorn energy. The fear-based aura resisted it, like oil repelling water.
It burned brighter every time they clashed, as if Zayn’s defiance was fueling the fire.
"Elisse is waking," Tobias said quietly.
Kara turned, her eyes lighting up as she saw the healer stir. "She is?!"
Elisse’s eyelids fluttered, and she blinked up at Tobias, her lips dry.
"What... happened?"
"Zayn’s fighting the boss," he said, gently easing her up into a sitting position.
"...Of course he is," she rasped, a tired smile tugging at her lips. "You’re joking right?"
"No I’m not.."
"...How?"
Bran joined them shortly after and the ground and air shook.
Back in the battlefield, Zayn let out a roar and lunged, stabbing forward.
The blade pierced the monster’s chest — deep. So deep, the hilt nearly hit flesh.
But the monster grabbed him — tight.
It pulled him close, its mouth splitting open into a thousand jagged teeth. The soul rot swirled around its jaws.
