Chapter 8- Nightbane (2)

It was a fleeting struggle. Before his words could even reach Ytrisia, Albrian's voice resonated as he charged forward with his beast toward the Nightbanes. Drawing his sword, his beast rolled, instantly enveloping his body in a shimmering aura of beast flux.

Beast flux was a form of guardian protection—a small fraction of the beast's overall strength used to shield its host.

While their lives weren't entirely dependent on each other, the death of either would cause severe pain and backlash to the other.

"Albrian, don't be a fool!" Ytrisia, who had just made her happiest move, swiftly took a few steps forward, her voice sharp with urgency. She had seen how, one after another, the minds of other Beastmasters were being attacked.

Soon enough, more Beastmasters surged forward from either side as the first gust of wind was created. Turning her beast toward the carriage, she called out, "Young master, don't leave—"

"Huh? Did you say something?" Joseph, already aware of her warning to stay in the carriage, ignored her plea.

Even her own men weren't listening to her.

He leaped out of the carriage and made his way toward her beast, climbing onto it. Ytrisia looked at him in confusion as he placed his small hands on her shoulders and said, "Now, run."

"Huh? Yes." It took Ytrisia a moment to process why the young master had exited the carriage, especially after he had mentioned the presence of the Nightbane chief.

But as he settled behind her, she quickly realized her priority was to protect him. Her beast galloped forward, shrouding her in a protective layer of beast flux that resembled armor. Suddenly, the beast vanished in a lightning-like streak, covering a hundred meters in an instant.

It was the Lightning Jump—a speed-type beast ability.

"At full speed, Glariont!" Ytrisia commanded, using the ability that could only be activated three times a day due to the immense electric flux it consumed, which drained the beast's stamina. She pulled on the reins, which seemed to be made of a transparent rope, and her beast surged forward at a staggering speed of 100 mph. Though it was nothing in front of ability usage which had accelerated to over 800 mph, it still surpassed the speed of any supercar in the real world.

Thanks to the beast flux, there was hardly any resistance on their bodies. The front part of the flux formed a thin, white, sealed layer, providing aerodynamic efficiency. The trees blurred past like shadows, their speed making it nearly impossible to keep track of their surroundings.

"Khhhruuukkk!"

Even at such speed, the sound of amethyst glows—like small paintballs bursting at intervals—caught Joseph's attention. He could clearly see that they were being pursued by Nightbanes.

"Lady Ytrisia, you need to take a detour!" Joseph shouted, noticing that only one or two Nightbanes were following them. He guessed the others were engaged in combat with the remaining Beastmasters. The sound of explosions echoed from behind, but before he could say more, a voice resonated in his mind.

[Mind resonance activated. Foreign entity attempting to dominate the visual cortex of the brain.]

The voice from his neural engine alerted him as it ejected the sudden attack targeting the part of his brain responsible for illusions. The mind resonance activated.

'Overwrite yourself now!' Joseph commanded, realizing he had finally achieved one of the two reasons for taking this path. He ordered the neural engine to overwrite the encodings and overdrive itself.

[Overwriting...]

[10%... Neural Engine will enter deep sleep mode. Time remaining: 4 hours.]

'This is going to be tough,' Joseph thought. He hadn't expected that overwriting the data would cause the neural engine to fall into sleep mode at such a crucial moment.

However, having spent his previous life in this world focused on developing exoskeletons and navigating family politics, he had never fully mastered the martial arts or combat techniques of this world.

Still, he had trained in gun handling and close combat in his past life, which gave him some confidence in surviving.

This time, with the overdrive's ability to directly transfer skills into his brain, all he needed was to strengthen his physical body.

Focusing on the present situation, he suddenly noticed the beast flux protecting them flickering.

"Lady Ytrisia, what's happening with your flux?" he called out.

But there was no response. Despite the steady speed, the electric flux was clearly weakening, indicating that her mental control over her beast was faltering.

'No, is it...?' Joseph turned his head to the side, realizing the reason for the flux's instability. In that moment, the energy shield protecting them shattered like glass.

The sudden loss of protection sent a shockwave through their bodies, hurling Joseph into the air due to his light weight.

Ytrisia, gripping the reins tightly, stumbled as her beast slid and collapsed.

Boom!

Screech!

"Khuckkh!—Kurghh!"

One after another, their bodies slammed into the ground before hitting the black tree barks. The beast's body broke a few branches as it was thrown aside. Joseph felt an intense pain surge through his body, as if several bones had been fractured. The speed and recoil from the beast flux had caused enough backlash to injure him severely.

Within the rush of adrenaline, he tried to lift himself up. But as he did, "Khwackk!—drip drip."

Blood gushed from his mouth, and he clutched his chest as he fell back. He realized he was now in his 13-year-old body, which had just celebrated a birthday a few days ago.

Though the intense workouts the original Joseph had undergone in the game's plot had strengthened his muscles, reducing the severity of his injuries, he could still feel a fractured rib piercing his lung, causing excruciating pain with every movement.

"Cough, Y-young master!" Ytrisia, her head numb from the impact, shook herself and tried to stand. Seeing Joseph's condition, she wore an armor that had protected her to some extent, but he was clearly in bad shape, with injuries all over his body. She hurried toward him, but before she could reach him, a scream filled the air.

"MMEEEEIGHHHH!"

"Glariont!" Ytrisia turned to see a black creature biting into her beast's neck while An invisible white aura was getting shut away from her black horse-like beast towards that creature who had bitten it's neck. She yelled its name, stretching her hand to call it back. The beast dissolved into starlight and retreated into her body.

"You monster!" she shouted, her voice filled with rage. The moment her beast returned to beast space, she felt how its beast flux had completely depleted.

The Nightbanes were dangerous, but now, standing before her was a chief who had just drained a massive amount of beast flux from her beast, leaving it nearly dead.

Beast flux, in general, was the energy source of a beast—similar to how humans consume food.

For beasts, they accumulated beast flux by resting within their host in their beast space.

When a beast evolved, its beast flux reservoir expanded, allowing it to store more energy.

Additionally, if a beast absorbed the energy cores of other beasts, its chances of evolution increased, further enhancing the size and capacity of its beast flux reservoirs.

Everything was interconnected, but in simple terms, beast flux was a vital energy source for any beast.

It existed in three layers: the first layer was the reservoir where beast flux was stored; the second layer was the beast's muscles and physical body, where the flux had infused through evolution; and the third layer was the most vital and strongly bound—the life force itself, composed of beast flux.

Right now, this Nightbane had pierced the first layer.

While the bonding strength of the second and third layers was much stronger, making it harder to extract flux from them, reaching the second layer was already a sign of how dire the situation was for the beast.

"Kill it, Aelini!" Ytrisia clenched her jaws, swiftly clasping her hands together as she yelled.

Another burst of light erupted from her body, but this time, instead of the white aura from before, it was sapphire.

A shadowy figure of a massive cat surged out of her, landing on the ground with a thunderous roar.

"ROOOOOAR!"

'!?'

'A Level 3 Predator-class beast!?' Joseph, who had propped himself against a tree, gritted his teeth against the pain. Despite his injuries, his will kept him conscious.

The moment he saw the beast emerge from Ytrisia's body—a dark black panther-like creature with piercing blue eyes, sharp claws, and a towering 8-foot frame—he immediately recognized it as a Predator-class beast.

Beasts were naturally categorized based on their functions: transportation, speed, combat, attack, defense, and so on.

While they could be used across classes—for commoners who don't possess such facility they just use single beast for multiple work—on the other hand, noble families often maintained multiple beasts—each specilized in particualr work—to optimize performance and preserve beast flux.

Seeing Ytrisia summon a Predator-class beast—known for its attack and speed capabilities—left Joseph momentarily stunned.

'She's strong—!!' Joseph had just begun to think when a sharp, needle-like tail shot toward him from the side.

His reflexes, honed through close combat training, kicked in.

He turned his head just in time as the tail punctured the tree he was leaning against.

His eyes widened as he saw another Nightbane growling at him, its sharp, glinting eyes locked onto its prey. Before he could react, it opened its mouth and lunged towards Joseph's neck, its mouth carrying hundreds of needle-like teeth..

"YOUNG MASTER—?!"