Molting the Mortal Coil

Chapter 38: Soul Battle

Two souls collided. The head of the Twin Soul darted towards Sage and skillfully dodged his leading hand, avoiding the sacrificial limb and instead circling around behind. Knowing Sage would try to rotate to keep head on with the snake, its tail whipped forward in its wake, snapping hard against Sages spine. Disrupting his concentration and creating an opening for the Ghostly Serpent to strike at him. Darting under Sages extended hand, the snake lunges behind his back and then twines around his waist. Rapidly coiling and climbing around his body like a tree, the snake waves its head around quickly to avoid a counterattack as it wraps around him.

Souls did not breathe, nor did they have any other bodily functions like internal organs or even eyes that could be used as weaknesses. Instead the soul was merely in the form most comfortable to them and was more like a solidified form of energy. Their attacks could only hope to smash and shatter the other soul, causing it to scatter apart and therefore lose energy. The Snake aimed to squeeze and grind its scales against Sages soul until it ground itself to nothing. At the same time, Sage had put all his hopes on using a thin blade of spirit power like an ice pick in order to chip off large chunks of the snake.

The arm of Sages soul brought the blade down, stabbing it fiercely into the body of the snake. The length of it had already wrapped about his waist two times and was curling a times around his thigh. Sage stabbed the blade down near his hip, stabbing into the snake and causing it to hiss with pain. With only a couple more stabs he was sure he could shear the snake clean in two, but unfortunately the snake was always moving. Coiling tighter around him and shifting the position of his attack point. All he could do was start to stab wildly, one hand flailing up and down, while the other pushed at and wrestled with the head of the snake that was trying to encircle his shoulders to pin down that stabbing hand.

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He knew that as soon as all his limbs were wrapped up, it would mean the snake had completely suppressed his soul. With the lacking state of Sages spirit power attacks and defenses, he knew he would be helpless at that point, so he fought with everything he had in order to keep it back and injure it heavily. Not one to be outdone, the snake switched its target to the hand that was batting it away. Snapping its fangs down on a hand, Sage immediately lost a few fingers.

The sudden shock to his soul and the loss of function changed the stalemate instantly, Sages arm getting trapped and leaving him with only the one hand open. Knowing things were really bad now, Sage began to struggle intensely. Trying to wriggle and writhe out of his bonds, the floating soul starting to drift around over the spiritual sea. He could only stab towards the snakes and twist around rapidly to dodge its strike. With a loud hiss, it dodged one of his stabs and suddenly encircled Sages throat. Even without needing to breathe, Sage felt like he was being smothered. The constant pressure surrounding him had started to shatter the outer layers of his soul, scattering tiny motes of incorporeal light into the area.

Without any warning, the pressure lessened. Sage managed to pry both his arms and neck free again before he realized what was going on. His struggles had caused them both to float into the bright light being given off by the Seed of Life that floated over his Spiritual Sea. The light that calmed the sea and brightened the clouds seemed to burn the Twin Soul. The light was like acid, causing the Twin Ringed Soul Serpents Twin Soul to slowly dissolve, corroding in the vitality of that bright light. Sage was surprised, his own Soul actually seeming to grow stronger as it basked in that green light. The Twin Soul finally uncoiled and darted away, passing out of range of the Seed of Life and hissing threateningly at Sages soul form. Watching him like a stalking tiger and floating in slow circles around the perimeter of the light.

Seems like weve reached a stalemate.

With the Twin Soul held at bay, for now, Sage returned his consciousness to his physical body only to find that it looks like a bomb went off. The small carcasses of Silverbees were scattered everywhere, small ditches and craters had appeared all over the place. There was even small puddles of blood along with ripped and torn scales littering the ground. Sage was just in time to see that the Silverbee Queen along with a few thousand Silverbees, the last few that remained, were locked in battle with the Twin Ringed Soul Serpent.

The Queen had already had half its legs either ripped off or twisted in an unnatural way, yet it was still able to fight. It was of equal rank to Sage himself, even if it didnt have anywhere near the weight or strength of his physical body, it still had quite formidable combat abilities. The Serpent similarly looked like it had fought a war, its body was covered in welts from stings and blood from the torn off scales. Its body no longer looked so mysterious and terrifying, yet one look at its eyes said otherwise. The Serpent still seemed filled with vigor, staring down Silverbee Queen. Its body was coiling up behind it to prepare for a powerful strike while its head hovered over the ground, swaying slightly back and forth to hypnotize the Queen.

Sage had previously sunk his consciousness into his own body which left him lying defenseless on the ground. At that time the Queen had sensed his weakness and flew out on her own to defend him. Buying him the time he needed to recover, Sage was grateful as he rolled around to recover his footing. Picking himself up off the ground and starting to rapidly spin his rope dart again to build momentum. The battle between the Twin Ringed Serpent and the Silverbee Queen rose to a crescendo as Sage ordered the Queen in to create an opening.

Pouncing upon the Serpent, the Queen stabbed its stinger directly into its neck, stabbing deep and releasing her venom. At the same time, Sage leaped into the air, using the body of the Queen to obstruct the Snakes vision and striking with his rope dart through the air where the Queen just passed. The silver blade embedding itself into the Twin Ringed Soul Serpents back just below the head. Aiming to sever the spine or at least heavily injure it. At the same time, the Serpent struck and sunk its fangs into the Silverbee Queens body, closing its jaws to separate the Bees head from its body. The dart sunk in deeply, blood spurting out as the Serpents body started to shudder and then fell lifelessly to the ground.

In time with the Serpents death, the Twin Soul inside Sages spiritual sea suddenly struck again. Diving into the light of the Seed of Life and snapping at Sages soul before darting back out of the light to recover again. Starting to rapidly dart in and out to harass Sages soul. Why is the Twin Soul still attacking me if the main body is dead