Physical And Mental Test III

Dorian blinked slowly as the system's warning floated in front of him. His breathing was shaky, coupled with the fact that his body was beginning to heat up.

Blood dripped from his hand, forming a pool that had begun to leak off the corners of the cage. However, he barely felt weak despite how much blood he was losing.

He was in pain, sure, but normally when one loses that much blood, they'd pass out. Aside from that, everything around him felt different, the growling of the beast, the coldness of the wind, seemed far.

Overall, he could barely hear anything but his own thoughts.

He glanced down at his bleeding hand and at the screen, then smiled.

'Three… huh, what a waste.'

He wasn't sure what would happen if he tried using more. The system didn't really explain what the limit actually meant. 

Would his body give out? Would he lose control? Or maybe his abilities would turn on him?

It had to be one of those three, and while he did, he also didn't want to find out.

The air grew heavier with each passing second, and he was beginning to feel lightheaded, and hotter.

He jumped down from the cage, now standing at least a few feet away from the beast.

His shadow stretched unnaturally behind him, even though the sun hadn't moved. Then, with a loud hissing sound, the blood pouring from his left hand pulled together and solidified slightly, forming tendrils instead of thorns like last time.

The first tendril expanded and hovered in the air, surrounding him like a serpent. The second formed from the blood that had pooled on the ground, and it attached itself to that same wound.

Annoyed by how it looked, Dorian reabsorbed them back into his body. He created a small thorn and stabbed it into his arm on both sides, letting more blood flow out of his body.

The thorn merged with the tendrils that had begun forming from his bleeding arm. They finally grew long enough, at least the height of the flagpole at the top of the facility.

The trio watching him were left speechless, their eyes wide, to the point Aurora's had started burning from the wind, and she had to force herself to blink.

Dorian looked up at the tendrils, dripping blood like wet ropes, as they moved around him even without him actively controlling them.

They were his summons, or rather, as the system called them, 'external bodies.' Built not only from his blood, but his mana, emotions, and probably bones, considering how hardened they became.

His fingers twitched, and the tendrils responded, rising higher and curling, their heads pointed at the beast.

Unaffected by the foreboding aura in the air, the beast remained still, incapable of sensing the danger. Which spoke volumes, considering normal beasts acted on instincts like most animals.

In the face of danger, the typical response was flight or fight. And when the opponent looked stronger and didn't back down, they usually picked flight, but this beast was choosing the latter, which surprised Benson, who watched with focused attention.

'Why isn't that thing running?'

'Could it be... it can't see the— It can't be.'

The beast growled lowly and charged, heading headfirst as usual. One of the tendrils stretched past Dorian, moving at the same speed as the beast, if not twice as fast.

The beast paused abruptly, quickly changing direction, trying to outrun the tendril while still heading toward Dorian, but the second tendril followed, now coming in from the front, while the first looped in from behind.

It almost collided with the one coming from the front and had to stop, taking a defensive stance.

The beast stared at Dorian, breathing heavily, its yellow eyes burning with rage.

Like it had been provoked.

"You're staring at me like I'm the one at fault," Dorian scoffed, now calling the tendrils back a bit. "I don't know if you can understand me or not, but if you back down, now, then maybe I'll stop," he said, hoping the beast could at least understand English.

It wasn't like he was going to let it go, he just felt, at least, it would be a good thing to get to understand and learn what type of creature it was before killing it.

Unfortunately, the beast roared at him and prepared to charge again. 

Dorian exhaled, "I'll take that as a no then," he said, shifting his gaze to the beast's ugly yellow eyes with a frown.

It was now darkened at the corners, looking like it had a ruptured vein, and that was expected, given how often it kept slamming its head.

'Does it have shards like the other beast?'... was the first thing that came to mind, as he stared at the beasts eyes.

He found himself wondering as he began walking, taking slow, cautious steps toward the beast. He was now more concerned about the shards than the beast itself, so much so that he didn't care if it was getting ready to attack.

Closing the space between himself and the beast, barely two feet apart, one of the tendrils shot forward before the beast could react.

It drove right into the monster's right eye, causing it to jolt backward in an attempt to free itself, yet the tendril dug deeper into its skull.

Dorian felt it again, that strange tingle spreading through his palms. The same one he'd gotten when he touched the mana wall for the first time. It buzzed under his skin like tiny bits of electricity.

A grin pulled at the edge of his lips, he knew what that meant.

A spray of thick, dark ichor burst from the beast's eyes as one of his tendrils drove deep into the socket. The creature reared back with a choking roar, its massive paws flailing helplessly, trying to claw away the pain. 

Dorian didn't chase it, he didn't need to. He stood still, watching it writhe like a puppet with its strings tangled. The tendril inside it kept digging, twisting, searching for something specific.

The shards.

That's what mattered now, not his pain or exhaustion but those shards that made him feel good when he absorbed it last time.

'Just a little more,' he thought.

Then he felt it again, another stronger tingle, this time like a shock, and he could tell there was alot of it.

Without hesitation, the second tendril moved forward, slipping into the beast's gaping mouth, past the sharp cannins and down it's throat.

Dorian's breath hitched for a moment, the sight was gruesome, but necessary.

Then something else happened.

A third tendril emerged, this time from his bleeding palm. It hadn't been summoned consciously, but as soon as it latched onto the creature and coiled tightly around its massive frame, he felt that sweet warmth. 

Not just heat, but energy, raw mana-laced blood, mixed with the shard's energy, rushed into him like water through a pipe.

His body trembled for a second, then he let out a relieved breath.

From where they stood, Rose stood frozen, her eyes locked onto the scene below. Just moments ago, the wolf-beast had seemed unstoppable. But now, it looked... small, pale, completely lifeless and drained of everything but the solid organs and everything else.

"What… exactly was that?" Aurora whispered beside her.

Benson didn't respond at first, he had removed his glasses again, the lenses too fogged for this. His bare eyes glowed faintly now as he focused, tracking the tendrils. 

They weren't glowing the way ordinary mana constructs would.

"It's not a summon," he finally muttered.

Aurora glanced at him. "Huh?"

"I said, it's not a contract beast or a scroll-based summon. " His voice lowered, trying to explain it to himself as much as to her. "It's like… they're part of his body. Like his own blood vessels turned into weapons."

Aurora frowned, clearly skeptical. "That's impossible."

"Well yes," Benson said, still watching. "It's not even supposed to exist because no beast has been recorded with such an ability."

Back on the field, the beast let out one final cry, more breath than roar. 

Dorian's gaze narrowed, he raised his bleeding hand again.The tendril buried in the creature's eye twisted violently, and the beast dropped with a heavy thud that echoed across the entire floor.

He stood there in the silence that followed, blood dripping from his arm, as the tendrils slowly went back into his body.

"How much of that do I need… to activate this thing fully?"

And for the first time in a while, her voice returned.

『Go on a raid as soon as the opportunity presents itself. Drain about 75 liters of blood and gather as many mana shards as possible.』

『Let's add a bonus. If you can absorb bones too, it'll quicken the activation.』