Jason’s Feast of Blood power didn’t actually drain blood but life force to heal him and, as of bronze-rank, grew stronger for each instance of poison on the target. Since both Colin and Jason himself had left the hydra riddled with poison, one casting was enough to completely heal him.
Things became easier over time as another of Jason’s bronze-rank powers came into play. Rigor Mortis was an unholy affliction left behind when Jason made attacks using the shadow arms of his Hand of the Reaper ability. Rigor Mortis inflicted a stacking penalty to the speed and recovery attributes. It was only a small penalty, but as the afflictions built up, the hydra became easier to dodge and slower to chew through the afflictions already impeding its regeneration.
Gradually, Kylie came to sense that something was profoundly wrong with the hydra. It was slowing down and becoming sluggish, giving Asano an easier time of avoiding it. Further, there was some kind of malediction taking over its body with increasing speed. It wasn’t recovering the way it should and the magic afflicting it kept growing and growing.
What was, at first, a small collection of minor effects had escalated into a magical force that rivalled anything she had ever sensed. It was a cancer, chewing at the hydra from the inside like a carnivorous tumour. Then Asano cast a spell that she felt resonate with the afflictions. Each one enhanced the spell’s power only a little, but there were so many that the spell ravaged the hydra to the point that she was amazed it clung to life.
At this point, the fight was effectively over. The hydra struggled to move its sluggish heads in pursuit of Asano but could barely move. She expected Asano to back off, but he was not done. To her shock, he cast a spell that drained all the horrifying afflictions from the hydra.
Startlingly, Asano devoured all that terrible power, feeding on the misery and suffering of what had once been an enemy, but could now only be described as a victim. Even so, he was still not done. In the wake of the darkness drained from the hydra, Asano had left something in its place. A power, bright and terrible, appeared inside the hydra. It was unlike anything she had ever sensed, a force that felt like it could burn a hole in the universe.
A calm had come over the jungle as the hydra lay prostrate and unmoving. Her incredible hearing heard Asano’s voice in the eerie stillness, alien to his warm, joking tone from earlier. It was as cold, dark and merciless as the bottom of the ocean.
“Mine is the judgement, and the judgement is death.”
She felt something rupture the very dimensional fabric of the incursion space, right above the hydra. Power, like that now inside the hydra but far stronger, came from the dimensional rent, smashing into the hydra like the fist of god, sending a blinding glow shining up through the jungle canopy.
When Jason returned to Kylie, he found her huddled against a tree, wide-eyed and shaking with fear.
“It’s fine,” he told her. “The monster’s gone.”
He moved forward to help her to her feet, but she scuttled away like a scared insect.
“Oh,” he said, realisation dawning. “It’s not the monster you’re afraid of.”
43
LETTING HIM RUN RAMPANT
In the Network’s Sydney branch offices, several people were sat around a conference table while an image displayed on a screen. Keith, Anna, Gladys, Koen, and Nigel were all in attendance, as was Eustace Brown, the grizzled director of the Harvest Division, and Asya, the International Committee representative. The recording made by Kylie Chen was garbled nonsense to anyone without the ability to sense magic, as the true recording was of her magical perceptions. The display was simply the magitech medium used to present it.
“What exactly was that?” Keith asked as the recording came to an end. The recording was deeply immersive, allowing them to experience the recorder’s perceptions and, to a limited degree, their emotions.
“It was proof that we need to get Asano on our side,” Koen said. “Not because of his personal power but because he can teach his training methods. Two years ago, he was selling staples and making occasional appearances on a cooking show. Now he’s one of the most powerful essence users on the planet. It took two platoons to take out one of those hydras and we only avoided casualties because we have a top-flight healer. He did the same thing alone and under-ranked. If he can teach our people to do that, and without cores, our monster escalation problems are over.”
“Can we expect our people to reach that standard, though?” Anna asked.
“No,” Gladys said. “Not unless they have the right power set.”
“That’s true,” Koen said. “If we examine what we just experienced, it becomes clear that Asano’s maledictions start weak but grow exponentially more powerful until they rival what even the most powerful category three is capable of. I’ve seen this type of specialist before, although never to this extreme.”
“What about that power at the end, with the glowing light?” Keith asked. “Do we know what that was?”
“It’s an extremely rare damage type,” Gladys said. “It ignores all forms of protection and resistance. The only other essence user I’ve seen use it was in the US. He was a proper religious type. ‘Essences are god’s test to see who is worthy of the power,’ that kind of thing.”
“Because that never ends badly,” Anna muttered.
“That guy called it god fire,” Gladys said. “As for whether a god actually gave it to him, who knows?”
“We’ve yet to confirm the existence of any deific beings,” Keith said, “so I don’t think that’s a productive line of discussion.”
“I agree that we need to reach an accord with Asano,” said Eustace, head of the Harvest Division. “Rope him in, whatever it takes. That haul was like nothing we’ve ever seen. Even putting aside the incredible materials, we looted what are now some of the best magic items in our arsenal. Two category-three guns with poison effects that use mana instead of bullets for ammunition. From testing, they aren’t as mana efficient as conjured firearms, but it shows that Asano’s looting ability is a game changer. There was also some category-three leather armour that not only protects against poison but heals the wearer and repairs itself. Plus, a very rare healing and recovery focused essence.”
“Asano didn’t take any of the harvest,” Koen said. “I offered, after what he did with the hydra, but he said a deal’s a deal. The leather armour and the essence came from the hydra he killed, plus a category-three core and more than a thousand spirit coins. He even said that he was tempted to just filch the essence for himself. It’s not like we’d know, because he loots right into a storage space.”