Merge

"Damn! The eye used magic! They've merged!" after yelling that a small black snake whipped out from his pocket, holding the same small bead that the other snakes had eaten, and threw one into Karkov's mouth. Tens of snakes blasted from his back and charged at Rolas. She managed to avoid all the bites but it ended up flinging her away, throwing her into a wall of her materials, crashing into several vials, and breaking them as they fell to the floor. A purple-yellow swirling potion fell on her head, splashing her with the contents, and knocked her unconscious. Tens of small snakes blasted from his front end at the same time and flung him up. He ran up to Zeeth, a few of his pitch-black snakes rushing at his neck.

The eye said to Zeeth, 'there is a man attacking you. Fight back.'

Zeeth came out of his trance while talking to Black and blinked his eyes into focus. Just as the eye said, Karkov was rushing at him with snakes covering his entire torso. He stomped his foot and a wall of water splashed out between the two. He used the block to jump back and create stronger walls but before he could create a wall of gems or greystone, the snakes burst through at him, heading straight for his ribs.

It slithered past the wall before it finished so the wall caught the snake by its body, but it was all Karkov needed to jump above it. The snake was detached as more were lunging at him from above. He threw a ball of heat at the snakes from Mag, not having the time to combine it with the gems because he noticed at that second that the snake that was caught in the gems and detached was still moving, heading straight for his thighs. A powerful jet of water spurt out from one of his slimes that wrapped his thigh, killing the snake.

The eye told him, 'I'm building up another attack, stall for a bit and I can stop his movements.'

Karkov landed behind him and they both swung around at the same time to face each other, both of them swinging a fist at each other's faces. Karkov used a cluster of snakes while Zeeth had his slime wrapped and heavy punch. They clashed for a second in the air before the weight shifted in the slime, catching up with the momentum his fist carried and sent Karkovs snakes flying off, ripping from his torso and landing on the floor. There was a small, bleeding cut on his chest near the base of one of the snakes that flew off but the rest was just black. Karkov had intentionally let his snakes go before they were forcefully ripped off, his reaction speed was impressive.

Zeeth noticed his cut and said, "Karkov, your snakes aren't coming back and I just ripped off a few of your snakes that are dying. You're bleeding too."

Zeeth saw the snakes coiling around on the floor. Finding them a nuisance, he wanted to trap them somehow so he used Leaf's wind to create a colder area around them, attempting to freeze the water they were in to hold them down. A light frost developed on the thin water. It wasn't enough to trap them, they were easily breaking out of it, but the snakes were trying vehemently to get out of it. The parts in the frost were shriveling up, the cold was slowly killing them. The ones on Karkov's torso were still alive, although they seemed hurt by it too.

"And? You think I can't fight just because of that?"

"That pill you swallowed. I think it's made you far stronger, like the snake you first fed it to. But it also doesn't allow you to change or heal without some sort of external power, like the snake, right? I'm just saying, I'm in a much better position than you are. You should give u-"

But before he could finish, Karkov ran at him with a crazy look in his eye and an angry face, lunging both the snakes on his body and the ones on the floor at him. Zeeth stomped and created a large wave of water at all of them, pushing the snakes back and slowing down Karkov, who's running became messy from his anger.

"Don't you EVER tell me to give up!" Karkov lifted all the snakes and yelled, "Splash Zo-!"

Reverberations of black magic pulsed from all the heads of the snakes on him. They shot out and bounced around like sound waves, hitting Zeeth. The reverberations caused Mel to shoot wake, wrapping itself around the other slimes but still under his robes and spreading its area as much as possible in order to hungrily eat up as much of the black magic pulses as it could. Mel vivaciously jumped around under his clothes to lap up any reverberations that passed by.

But before he could finish the magic, the eye released a sharp, black ray that locked him in place while Zeeth released a large splash of water at him and applied some cold winds to freeze it, but the water was moving too much and the wind was too weak for any freezing. Page realized what Zeeth was doing, ran up, and touched the water with his fingers, freezing the large splash of water that still wrapped around Karkov. His pulses instantly stopped, much to Mel's dismay, who slithered back into its original position near his palm. The splash created a hold on Karkov that prevented any movements from any of his snakes. Rolas finally blinked awake and saw that her hands were covered in the potion, muttered something about having to put the sleeping potions in a better place. She got up and grabbed Karkov's face, one of the few parts not covered with ice, and asked, "Merge? Karkov, what do you mean merge? He didn't swallow the eye yet."

With a grin, he replied, "The eye communicates to beings it finds interesting, we talked the first time I found it. It told me I was unworthy of inheriting the power with my weak and typical body but I swore to get stronger until I was able to hold the power and control the power the eye holds, not just to be controlled by it."

"Which is why you went to all this trouble to get all this weird stuff?"

he nodded and said, "But now that the eye used the boy's magic and attached itself to him, they are bonded with a bond that cannot be separated until death and decomposition of the boy's magic."

While they were talking the eye and Zeeth were still having their telepathic conversation, 'now that I have used your magic, we are bonded until either of us dies. This isn't anything too serious, we just share some power. You can borrow some of mine and me some of yours. I still recommend you allow me to take over, we are stronger if we stick together, and being inside your body is the safest option.'

'Of course not! As I said, I don't want you to take over my mind.'

'Fascinating. How many years have I missed from this world? The general consensus seems to be so different. I wonder if other humans are like you or if there are any willing to allow me to take over. No, not worth it. The last fool was far too weak, you are likely my best chance, you had the largest pool of mana under your control in the room." the eye thought for a while and said, "How about a compromise. Ugh, even saying that grosses me out. If I wasn't so curious, I would never degrade myself so much. You will die in a hundred years at most anyways, this shame will die with you.'

he didn't like how it sounded but he said, 'What's your compromise.'

'You will let me reside within your body, viewing the world from your perspective and I won't take you over. At least not without your consent.'

'How does this help me? I'll just have some eyeball in me.'

'just some eyeball?! The gall! No, no. it seems you are unaware of my capabilities. The legends of my power have since died out, I wonder what has happened.'

'Apparently, there was a Dragon attack on humans many years ago and numerous cities and countless humans fell.'

'Really? The dragons? I always thought they were sort of docile and cute, what has happened?'

'Not sure.'

'Right, as you saw I can use rather high-grade black magic that would be undoubtedly helpful. I also have secret techniques and skills that I am certain you have not heard of, I can aid you in using them and ensure you don't die when using difficult techniques.'

'What techniques are these?'

'Hmm…' the eye thought for a moment, 'can I trust you? I guess I must in order to earn your trust. You must know however, I won't teach you the methods but I can tell you the effects. Understand that this is a matter of personal endangerment and not distrust.'