Boundless Evolution: The Summoning Beast
Chapter 71: Reverse-Mechanised

Chapter 71: Reverse-Mechanised

All across the arena, the air was thick with scorched blood, shattered limbs, and the stench of death. Smoke swirled around Ash, and the aftershocks of the last detonation still rippled through the cracked earth. Sparks of loose aether flickered like dying fireflies. But he wasn’t listening to that, his focus was elsewhere.

He was listening to the rhythm underneath. Though the chaos raged on around them, his focus was needle-sharp. The pattern was clear now—the sequence of aether, the timing of the detonations. He could see it pulsing through their bodies like clockwork.

A low thrum. A pattern. A beat.

Each cultist’s death didn’t just spill blood—it completed a circuit.

Suddenly, the voice of the cult leader could be heard shouting, "He’s not ready! He can’t be ready! ZISHA!"

Just those words rang out, the focus of battle shifted.

The cultists who had been scattered around the arena, killing as much as they could turned in eerie unison.

Ash’s eyes widened as he caught the shift. The cultists, once scattered and striking at random, turned as one—like puppets whose strings had suddenly realigned.

Every gaze fell on Lucas.

Chants stopped.

Weapons dropped into ready positions.

And then the cries began anew—louder, more fevered, more desperate:

"The Boy!"

"We must kill him!"

Ash snarled, baring his fangs. "They’re all coming for him."

A wave of cultists burst from the smoke with terrifying speed, a single, unified frenzy. Their eyes burned with purpose—not toward victory, but destruction.

"Seraphina, I have a request," Ash’s pupils narrowed as he sent a message to Seraphina, "Defend yourselves and Lucas but try to buy me a little time before creating an opening."

Seraphina nodded resolutely, immediately stepped protectively in front of him, her serpent curling close like a coiled storm, its scales glowing brighter.

Without waiting for another word, Ash darted forward and vanished into the smoke—already chasing the threads of the aether pulse through the blood-soaked battlefield.

"They’re using an aether pulse—pure, refined, forced into the rune’s core," Ash said, low but audible to those beside him.

Just as he said that, the shriek of a cultist pierced through the din as he charged straight through- his eyes wild with his mouth split open into a manic scream as he made a beeline for Lucas as he threw his jagged spear.

In a heartbeat, Seraphina reacted as she waved her hand and a holy light began to coat her serpent. It lunged, intercepting the projectile midair with a brilliant flash of light and a resounding crack as the spear detonated, flinging shockwaves through the ground and throwing dust into the air again.

Seraphina pulled Lucas and the feline behind her as he barked, "Stay behind me!"

The next few minutes were a blur of motion and fury. Lucas rode hard, using the help of his feline to duck under thrown blades and attempted attacks.

Seraphina’s serpent was a storm of light, tearing through three cultists with a sweep of its coil, keeping them a distance from them once again.

"Ash!" Seraphina shouted, "There’s too many!"

And then- it came.

"Forget stopping them, send one of them in my direction!"

Seraphina didn’t hesitate upon hearing those instructions. Her eyes locked onto a charging cultist, a brute twice her size. With a sharp gesture, her serpent coiled around her arm like a ribbon of radiant light.

Vortex Coil!

In that moment, the serpent shot forward, spinning mid-air into a spiraling helix as it slammed into the cultist’s chest.

With a concussive blast of light and wind, the cultist was flung backwards, his body twisting through the smoke as if caught in a divine cyclone.

He sailed straight toward the direction Ash’s voice had come from, a perfect projectile.

A devilish smile appeared on the cultist’s face as he felt himself being struck by the snake.

’Fool...’ he thought, ’this merely prolongs your death... but... the more the prey struggles, the more satisfying it brings to the predator.’

As he flew out of a dust cloud and felt himself able to gain balance once again, he stepped down on both his feet to slow his speed.

However, just as he put his feet down, he felt himself suddenly grow to a stop, causing his vision to scramble for a split second.

’What?’

Just as his mind caught up with the sudden change, he saw Ash in front of him, paw extended towards his chest.

’Shit!’ the man screamed internally as he hurriedly tried to turn, ’Huh-’

But he could not lift his legs at all and found himself planted on the spot unable to gather any form of energy to release a counter attack or to even dodge. However, he then saw that Ash’s paw was coated with a small amount of aether... nowhere near enough to damage him.

In that instant, all his confidence seemed to return to him once again as he welcomed the attack.

Touch...

’Heh?’

The man was left confused once again as what he felt was not an attack but a small push of a paw pushing onto his chest.

Almost simultaneously, the aether that had coated the hyena’s paw has made its way into his body through the point of contact and as if having a fixed goal, it moved straight through his skin.

The man then felt the aether run through the rune that was implanted on his body.

’It should be fine... Zavareth assured us that it would not be able to be activated by mere attacks and aether too,’ he thought as the look of confidence did not leave his eyes.

But at that moment, the rune suddenly began to spark slightly... and in the next split second, it began to light up.

’Success!’

Ash’s eyes lit up in excitement as he saw the rune suddenly begin to grow unstable and shaky, signalling the imminent explosion that was about to happen.

The cultist immediately felt the rune go out of control and the look of disdain was replaced from his face with a look of shock and disbelief.

Turning his eyes from his chest, back to Ash, he heard a voice sound in his head as Ash’s eyes stared at him in full attention, ’Your story ends here... unfulfilled.’

The cultist’s eyes immediately widened in shock as he heard Ash, unable to believe what was happening. But that would not last long and his shock would not have a chance to change as he saw Ash suddenly dash away while his rune finally activated fully and an explosion occurred.

The sudden explosion caught almost everyone by surprise, including the cultists as they had been instructed to kill Lucas. They were now not to waste the rune on bystanders so they for a split second, turned their heads to see what had caused their fellow to explode.

But only the vague silhouette of a hyena could be seen through the smoke, its golden eyes staring straight through the smoke as if glowing, staring at them as if they were prey.

Seraphina was not going to let this chance go and in that split moment of the cultists being distracted for a fraction longer. She and her serpent struck towards a cultist that was directly in front of them.

A strong impending sense of doom fell upon the cultist and she immediately turned around to see Seraphina about to strike with a holy light coating her rapier as she swung it downwards.

’Move!’ she shouted to herself as she hurriedly attempted to dash to the side but it had been a little too late as before she could completely be out of its trajectory, Seraphina’s blade fell straight through her shoulder and out her armpit, cleanly cleaving off her left arm.

An intense burst of pain shot through her body as she howled out, clutching at the bleeding stump as she looked at Seraphina, seeing a cunning smile plastered on Seraphina’s face.

Rage filled the cultist’s face as her eyes suddenly gleamed with a fanatic fire.

"I will not die alone," she hissed, blood dripping from her missing arm.

Her rune immediately flared.

Seraphina’s eyes widened- too late.

But then, in a blur of motion, the feline leapt in front of her, shielding her with its body.

Boom!

The cultist exploded in a burst of black and crimson aether. The force of the detonation tore into the feline’s side, ripping flesh and fur, sending blood spraying across the broken ground. It almost immediately let out a strangled roar, collapsing as it tumbled across the ground.

"No!" Lucas shouted, dropping to one knee beside the beast as their connection through Synergy Veil pulsed with agonising backlash. He clutched his chest, eyes wide with pain as the shared trauma echoed through his nerves.

Seraphina’s breath caught as she saw Lucas collapse to the ground, clutching his chest, face contorted as he tried to crawl to his wounded companion.

Without hesitation, Seraphina rushed to his side, skidding to her knees beside him.

"Lucas! Stay with me!" she shouted to him, one hand gripping his shoulder as she brought her son to a slightly inclined position while her other began to emit a holy light that began to cause Lucas’s face to grow more relaxed.

Then, from the smoke- howling, blades raised, and aether burning around them, the remaining cultists proceeded to charge forth once again with an even more intense gaze of determination as they had just lost two of them without them being able to take down anyone with them.

Seraphina’s eyes sharpened, "Defend us!" she spoke to her serpent who immediately sprang into motion, a radiant wall of light and scales hurriedly dashing to meet the charging foes, stopping them from getting too close to the mother and son pair.

With a roar, it coiled and struck, knocking two cultists half a dozen steps back in a burst of holy fury. However, one- quicker, leaner- slipped through the serpent’s defense, blade draw and eyes fixed on the two of them.

Seraphina spun instantly, her heart skipping a beat. Interrupting this spell would bring a larger chance for Lucas to be permanently affected by his current injuries. But to defend them, she would have to do so...

The cultist closed in, his blade poised and raised as he prepared to descend the blade.