Chapter 282: Of Monsters And Men
The bad-things were massive, even compared to most bad-things; they were dwarfed only a rare few of my former enemies, like the leviathans of the mana-water lake or the fire-water serpent that guarded the lesser Core of flame. Each was more than two not-Needles in height, with long arms stretching down to their knees and fists shaped like boulders.
But the Great Core’s Coreless did not falter.
The faithful screamed as the bad-things tossed themselves against well-sharpened fangs. Each scream carried its own meaning; here, there was [fear]; there, there was [anger]; and there again, was [defiance].
But, regardless of the meaning of the scream, there was one more thing that held itself above all others - [faith].It flooded through the connections between myself and the Great Core’s newest followers in a near-overwhelming torrent, bringing to mind the great downpour of shining mana-water that had flooded into the lake of the leviathans on my previous journey to the Death Core; like the great stream of mana-water, it was loud; like the falling liquid, it was powerful.
It was beautiful.
I hissed in glee, even as one of my faithful found himself smashed beneath the fists of a bad-thing. The bones of his shoulder fractured with a thunderous crack, forcing the Coreless’ once-readied fang to dip out of position. Yet, only an instant later - even before, I knew, the[Little Guardian’s Focus] had time to truly repair the damage - the faithful had shoved his fang forward with wild abandon, throwing his entire body into the attack.
The fang passed through the bad-thing’s flesh, driving upwards towards its heart. The bad-thing staggered, and another fang immediately joined it, passing through its flesh. And then another. And another.
The bad-thing fell - and, before it, the faithful began to roll his once-wounded shoulder, testing its restoring range of motion.
The torrent of [faith] from that particular Coreless surged, growing ever-louder, and he threw himself back into the battle, immediately taking a glancing blow to an arm that he hardly seemed to notice.