Seeing the mangled remains of my arm, I scream in horror, overcome with terror.
"GRAAAAHHHH!"
Backstepping, I hold it with my left arm, staring at the primordial.
"You… used more power than… your body could handle." It said slowly, inching itself towards me.
"It's sad. Had you been older… I'm sure you would've been quite the… promising individual." It frowned, almost sympathizing for me.
"But that is just the way of life." It said before instantly dashing towards me.
Knowing that running meant forfeiting my life, I kept pumping soul energy, thinking that even the most insane backlash was still better than dying, struggling to move my legs.
With my joints creaking with each movement, I try to dodge its kick, still getting grazed.
As it scratches my face, I gulp down a ball of sweat as I know this is a last ditch effort.
Searching the depths of my soul, I dig deep, talking to the magicules themselves.
'Please, I ask that you lend me your will!' I scream in my head, asking instead of imposing.
No response.
Ducking another blow, I beg again.
'Don't let me die here! Provide me just a bit of your strength!'
As I dove to avoid another spit ball, my legs reached their breaking point, folding in on themselves as the muscle grew too tired to further support my weight.
Grounded, I watch as my control over my soul vanished, adrenaline fading.
"Haaaahhh…" I breathe out as my power fades, pain replacing it.
Everything in my body had been destroyed, both from the primordial's attacks and the constant backlash.
Blood gushing from my eyes, I watch as the primordial rushes towards me, its mouth watering as it prepares itself for a nice meal.
'I am no longer asking… I'm ordering!'
With the last of my willpower, I asserted my desire upon my soul, being constrained in a willful deadlock.
They listened.
.
.
Tristan's POV
Fwip, fwip, fwip!
Running as fast as I can I dash forward at blistening speeds, reacting to the large sounds being heard kilometers away.
"Make it, make it!" I mutter, recognizing the soul signatures.
Nash encountered an individual on the level of an upper primordial, something even a family head like myself would have trouble with.
To my right was my wife, Tatania, struggling to keep pace with me as we rushed to the site.
After Nash had walked off from our feud, we'd been looking for him all day, incapable of sensing him because of all the different great life forces shrouding his soul, mixing together as one.
This forest was incredibly dense, being home to a multitude of creatures and beasts.
However, for a primordial to have been roaming here… it could only mean one thing.
Shaking off the thought, I continued rushing over, covering great distances in mere seconds.
As Tatania stopped to catch her breath, I deaccelerated, barely stopping myself and quickly turned around.
"We can't stop. Hurry, before it's too late!" I yelled, panic rising over me.
"Go on ~HAAAHHHHH~… without me!" She yelled, switching between gasping for air and talking.
Dashing forward again, I reach breakneck speeds as my environment folded into a menagerie of green and yellow as tunnel vision occurred.
Uncaring of whether or not I could see, I hit such high speeds that the air around me began to warp, going from clear to orange, then red, then back to orange as it fell behind me, brushing past my body as my clothes began to burn off.
Reaching the destination, I'm met with a shocking reality that I would've never believed had I not been seeing it in front of my own eyes.
Nash, brutally injured and bashed was pointing his index finger towards the Centaur, developing a black ball of pure hell-flame inches away. As it grew in size, I could only stare in astonishment.
"Necromancy at such a young age…" I said in awe.
As the centaur backed away, it raised two of its legs, intending to defend against the blast.
Light flashed as the scenery changed in an instant.
Just as suddenly as the light flashed, so too did the events, and had I been an ordinary person, I never would've seen what occurred.
Right as Nash sent the ball flying, the centaur put a majority of its energy into its front legs, hoping to deflect it.
However, what he didn't realize was that you can't defend against hell-flame as it consumes the very seams of what constitute the soul.
As soon as it realized this, it had already lost half of its front legs and so, out of desperation to save himself, dodged to the right.
However, the attack was too fast, and he moved too slow. Stealing a chunk of flesh, he looked to see that his left shoulder was gone.
Nash, now depleted of his strength, relaxed to the ground as all signs of consciousness faded, leaving him the victim of any assault he took after this point.
"Impressive child… nobody has been able to take that much of me before… but now it's your time to die." He said, holding in any signs of pain.
He raised his leg, aiming it at Nash's head with intent to kill.
As soon as he began his swing, I activated the cells in my legs, allowing me to instantly intercept his advance, blocking his leg with the sword I'd been concealing on my back the entire time.
"Did you forget who you're working for?" I asked condescendingly, expecting some form of appeasement from the primordial.
Shocked at my sudden appearance, the primordial widened its eyes in response, drooping its face as it staggered backwards to create distance.
"No… I serve no longer. You humans are… lesser!" The primordial bellowed, anger rising.
It's soul energy flared, shooting up and out as it began to speak again.
"War… is coming. It is imminent, and once we reach this new age… us primordials will hold the sovereignty… stolen from us by you humans millennia ago." Holding up the two legs that it'd lost from Nash's blast, it bubbled with intensity as the nerves, muscle, and skin spawned into existence in that order.
"High level healing, huh? Quite impressive." I added, trying to irk the creature on as I'd crossed my arms, a smirk appearing on my lips as I watched on with disinterest at its attempts to intimidate.
Zipping through the air, the primordial utlized all of its energy to send its legs flying towards me, going for my head.
With one finger I stall its attack with ease, concentrating my soul energy into the very tip, making sure to be conservative of my usage.
"That's all you've got? This is the power that's intended to rule the world?" I laughed, smacking its fist away and throwing a kick into its gut, causing it to fly into the air as I'd made impact.
Buckling my knees, I build up potential energy like a spring as I prepare to jump with all my energy and focus, flowing my soul into the cells within my legs.
As I'd retracted as much as I physically could, I released, sending my body flying in the air in a controlled manner as I flipped past the primordial, getting about 20 feet above him.
Raising my arms above my head, I ball my fists as he approaches me, our positions getting closer and closer.
Then with a wham, I slam my fists back into him, sending him flying down to the ground.
Thud!
With a massive crater from the impact, I slowly fall to the ground due to gravity's effects, air fwishing past me as my hair raises up.
Landing on the ground, I absorb the impact with my knees, buckling to account for any energy that may travel up to the rest of my body.
Then, looking over to where the centaur was, I see that he was knocked out, unable to take the onslaught of full-power attacks that I unleashed.
"That definitely served as a good warm-up after years of inactivity." I muttered to myself, not talking to anyone in specific.
Then, remembering what I was here for, I turned around to meet Nash, unconscious after his attack.
To think this boy was capable of such a feat!
Not only was this primordial strong enough to withstand my attacks, he'd even had enough soul energy to bring gramps to shame.
Yet Nash was able to burn off its shoulder and legs.
Running over to him, I called out his name.
"Nash!" I yelled, concerned about his safety.
Checking for a pulse, I'm left shocked with my findings.
He had none.
Searching again, I try a different spot, still sensing no pulse.
Then, with a last affirmation, I checked his breathing, seeing that his breath had also ceased.
He was dead.