He had experienced this phenomenon two times before. The first was when he found out about the death of the leaflings, under extreme grief he lost control of his body, and inadvertently made promises of claiming the entire forest.
The second time was when he first met Asclepius. Under extreme anger, he lost control of his body again and nearly killed him. And now, under extreme fear, his body was once again possessed by the unknown presence.
He was now an observer, a mere watcher, and from his standpoint, time seemed to be slowed down, everything dilated. Oddly enough, the two creatures still traveled at seemingly normal speeds.
Lucius could tell that his body was already in the process of running, that he was already twisting to gallop in the opposite direction from these beings. But it all felt too slow, like his mind was running at speeds hundreds of times faster than his body could handle.
While this was going on, he took a careful look at the creatures in front of him. Well, if he could even call them just that.
The bigger of the two stood at 4 meters tall, while the other was a few inches shorter. They had obsidian black reptilian skin, with large scales that overlapped each other like those of a fish. Not quite the 'furry' that he would've expected from the furry folk.
However, he understood where the misconception might've arisen from. The garments they wore were lined with fur, though the fur seemed more like an aesthetic add-on than anything functional, as the main material itself was made of what seemed like a pearl-blue metal.
Though the garments seemed simple, Lucius could tell at just a glance that they held technology even past that reached by humans in his old world.
It was only because he had once been a part of a world's 'greatest species' that he could even tell that what he was looking at wasn't as ordinary as it advertised itself to be.
The creatures in question were humanoid, however, if he had to give a better description, they were like a mix between a dinosaur and a human. No, a dragon and a human.
They had perfectly scaled human proportions, with claws, fangs, and reptilian eyes. Lucius could spot a tail swinging behind the larger one, and horns that curved straight forward like those of a bull.
By now he was already quite a distance away from them, though they didn't seem to be trying to chase him. They were merely conversing with each other in their weird language.
**Is it a Tarragon? I thought we didn't have those in our cluster** the larger one said to its partner.
**That is no Tarragon. Even as an infant, none of our kin are that slow. And with a mystic mantle active at that,** the other replied, an unbothered look in its eyes as it watched Lucius run.
Less than a microsecond later, Lucius felt a gust of wind swat him to the walls. And the bigger of the two beings now stood in front of him.
~Im-impossible,~ Lucius thought to himself. But he knew there was no other explanation. He wanted to believe that the creature had used magic to teleport, or had done some other trick relating to magic. But the gust of wind denounced any theories is he might've thought up.
The creature was just that fast, so fast that he could hardly register its movements even in his enhanced mental state.
**Oi, but it has a mystic mantle. So doesn't that mean it has access to the arcane? If something like that was walking around our tunnels, shouldn't we report this?** the creature in front of him spoke.
**I guess it wouldn't hurt to have it dissected and examined. But it hardly seems worthwhile. Just kill it, I'm tired of staying in these ugly tunnels,** its partner replied.
Lucius's body was already running up the walls, trying to get past the creature, but just like before, a gust of wind swatted him to the ground and the creature appeared in front of him.
**You can't be serious right? Come on, is that the limit of your speed?* the creature spoke, looking at Lucius with bored eyes. He couldn't understand what it was saying, and frankly, he couldn't care less about what it was trying to convey.
~Give me back control of my body!~ Lucius screamed internally. His body had decided that his chances of escaping were zero, so it was now preparing to fight the creature.
His crux floated out of his body, and a split second later solar burst was cast. A solar burst more powerful than any he ever could've ever managed. In fact, he felt his mind go numb from the stress of expanding that much solar energy in one go.
For a moment, it seemed to have worked. Dust clouded the tunnels, and his body took this as its chance to run. He made it five meters down the tunnel before another gust of wind swatted him to the wall.
**What kind of crux is that?** the creature asked, not so much as a bruise on its body. The solar burst did more damage to the tunnel walls than to the creature. In fact, it seemed like his spell didn't even register as an inconvenience to it.
**Deruvon, capture the creature in tact,** its partner replied, now seemingly interested.
**That's a new crux. Our arcanists will want the creature alive for their research,** it continued, before doing a hand gesture. With that, two floating orbs appeared behind it.
No, those weren't just orbs. Lucius could tell, they were cruxes.
One was blue, while the other was green. They were about the size of a large wheel but what was really impressive about them was their density. Usually, you wouldn't be able to tell the density of something at just a glance, but Lucius could feel the gravity around him being affected. The very fabric being bent around the two cruxes.
The presence controlling his body processed all the information it got in mere fractions of a second. Accessing every ounce of Lucius's knowledge, and deciding its next move accordingly.
It cast another solar burst, shoving dust into the air, before springing up at the creature's face and thrusting his tail into the creature's eye.
However before it could reach it, the creature swatted Lucius to the ground like a fly.
Before even landing, the presence controlling him was already planning its next move. He rolled to soften the landing, throwing one knife at the creature's eye, while already running up the walls. He launched himself at the creature as it deflected the blade, and tried kicking it at the side of the head with all his strength.
*Crack*
His leg snapped in two, his body unable to handle the strength it possessed.
And to make things worse, the creature didn't so much as flinch at the attack. Seeing that his attack had failed, he cast another solar burst, to allow himself to get away without worry of being targeted.
His mind switched off from using two solar bursts in succession, but before he passed out he could tell that his body would continue the fight.
*
He woke up a few minutes later, the hallways were now completely destroyed, and the creature in front of him seemed to be laughing.
~Ugh,~ a sudden pain ran from every crevice of his body.
His arms were both broken, and he felt like several of his organs had been ruptured. The creature however seemed completely unharmed. In fact, from its demeanor alone, it seemed completely unphased by the interaction.
