Interstellar Beast Master

Chapter 69: Second Form! I

The beat of his heart was heavy.

The air was too still, the silence too loud.

The scent of charred flesh clung to his lungs, and the screams, their screams still echoed inside his head.

Lyra’s breath shuddered behind him, but all he could feel was the weight of the choice he made. The risk he took. The chaos he and Kitsuul brought!

This was them.

This was because of them.

He clenched his fists as silver light flickered across his skin. Kitsuul pulsed beneath his thoughts, her ninth tail fully blooming, power still climbing. Though she remained invisible to others, he could see her and how large her body was becoming.

But all of this... it wasn’t enough to erase what had already been lost.

He never wanted to be like them.

Never be the kind of man like the Drunken Butcher who brought ruin in his wake.

But here he stood, surrounded by ash and death and broken bodies.

He wanted blood.

He wanted carnage against ZENTHRA and the Drunken Butcher!

But he also knew others had nothing to do with his retribution.

The body of Vixor, the Trial Guardian who had just passed the ZENTHRA Beast Trials... what did this being do against Damian that he deserved to be dead, his body a charred piece of ash alongside his Beast at this moment?

"..."

His thoughts buzzed.

The weight was heavy, but he steeled himself.

He thought of his wife.

He thought of the blood.

And his eyes pulsed with a silver luster as he decided to deal with the ramifications later, because for now... it was survival!

He stared defiantly at the Lightning Drake that roared while walking toward him at this moment.

Lightning crackled around it as it decimated the half-torn body of the Flaming Eagle Archaeopteryx, a scream rising at this moment as...

"My Beast... my Archaeo!"

Guardian Flameborn had tears and an incredulous expression in her eyes as she raised her hands to conjure flames as if she wanted to burn the Lightning Drake whole.

But...

Her Flaming Eagle Archaeopteryx had just died.

She no longer had a Symbiotic Resonance Interstellar Beast bound to her.

The power her body wielded... was insignificant compared to before.

The Lightning Drake gave her only a sidelong glance before it waved its left wing, smacking Guardian Flameborn away like a ragdoll as her body slammed into the wall- blood spurting out as her life and death... was unknown.

BOOM!

Tendrils of lightning flashed all around it, cracking the red earth as Alex had his entire body buried under the shifting weight of an Interstellar Beast. Ariana was grazed by a tendril of lightning and flung away, knocked out as she lost consciousness.

Becca had her heavily injured Rosewood Hound covering her body- also knocked out, but at least alive.

As of now, only Damian, Serena and her injured Void Serpent, and Lyra remained on the red earth.

The others... were either dead or knocked out.

Lyra had tears falling from her face as she and Serena wore the same ashen, despairing expressions.

They were Initiate Interstellar Beast Masters.

What could they do against a Symbiotic Resonance Entropic Beast?

And this Lightning Drake was only the strongest- on the distant mountains, weaker Symbiotic Resonance Entropic Beasts who had been knocked away by the now-dead Flaming Eagle Archaeopteryx were rising again and coming here!

What waited for them was death.

They knew.

But they were defiant.

Lyra looked toward the body of her aunt as rage burned in her eyes.

Her Blue Slime pulsed with an angry face, but it was hectically looking around as if asking itself...

Where was the furry Kitsuul? Was she okay?

On the other side, Serena stood just as defiant in the face of death. Tears streamed down her cheeks as she screamed out.

"No. NO! I haven’t looked him in the eyes... I haven’t cut off his throat! Not yet!"

BOOM!

Black flames began to rage around her.

Her Void Serpent hesitated, as if given an order it did not want to follow, but it did so regardless. At that moment, its black serpentine tail plunged into Serena’s back...

Into her spine!

Her face contorted in pain, but she withstood and bore the unbearable agony as scales began to rise from her back, covering her body- the flames around her rising even higher.

And as this occurred...

The Lightning Drake walked over and appeared inches away from Damian.

Its eyes were glazed with some kind of influence or power that seemed to be asking.

Questioning.

Where was what drew them here?

Where was Kitsuul?

Those were the questions its eyes seemed to hold as, shockingly, the transforming Serena and defiant Lyra behind Damian... watched him stand toe-to-toe against a Symbiotic Resonance Entropic Beast.

And at that moment, the Beast seemed to have had enough- it opened its jaws and roared out.

Saliva, breath, and lightning crackled right before Damian’s face.

Inches away!

And yet against this roaring Symbiotic Resonance Entropic Beast, Damian clenched his fists- feeling the unfathomable power and feedback coursing through him from Kitsuul as his mind also burned with defiance.

Until the Drunken Butcher lay dead before him...

He would not die.

So as the Symbiotic Resonance Entropic Beast roared right in front of him... he felt his own anger rising as he opened his mouth... and roared back.

"OOOOH!"

A roar. A guttural roar filled with anger.

Filled with rage.

Incomparable.

Lyra and Serena were dazed in their own fear and defiance as they watched it happen.

A Symbiotic Resonance Entropic Beast and a Beast Master roaring fiercely at each other- why was Damian’s yell so loud?

So powerful?

They just had that question.

Before it could be answered, the massive body of the Lightning Drake roaring in front of Damian...

BOOM!

Instantly disappeared as an unfathomably heavy force- one it could not even see- smashed into it. Its body was flung so fast it felt like it had teleported!

But...

BOOM!

The impact and collapse into the red earth of a distant mountain confirmed it had been attacked.

...!

It was astonishing. Lyra and Serena looked around to see what had done it... and saw nothing.

But at that time...

[Master! Kitsuul has transformed!]

A voice echoed into Damian’s mind.

In front of him...

Something nobody else could see appeared.

And his silver-shining eyes took it all in with glory.