Chương 90: Form Of Burden

5 hours have passed since June assumed the Form of Burden to pull the caravan. The Form of Burden was an improved version of the form he took when on the trek away from the Beast. June had grown from being 5'6" to 20 feet tall. His body paled from a lack of blood flow, since the burdensome shell wasn't made from slurry but from actual viscera and boned flesh.

He had digitigrade hind legs and a second pair of hands that jutted from his long, forward-curved torso, which occasionally dropped to help with uphill climbs. He had a pair of arms that were elongated enough to nearly reach the ground, with hands at their ends and elongated fingers that were occasionally used when bipedal movement was insufficient.

Instead of flesh-vines ripping out of his forearms, this time he had grown a long tail with a jutting hook at the end where a carriage rope was hitched, and instead of having the limp, torn jaw, his face was covered in bone and jutted out into a triangular snout with a long crease running down the centre instead of a traditional horizontal mouth. Six holes were in his bone-like mask, reminiscent of a die, four to breathe and two that streamed a beautiful, glowing gold like an afterimage trail.

His long back was ribbed, and his back was a bare pale with the occasional writhing arm worming underneath its skin. This form allowed destructive power but was incredibly optimized for hauling. His overall speed had dropped slightly, but he was still able to cover 500 meters in a few seconds if on all fours; each step was meters from the last. By assuming his form of burden, June was able to let the mages rest, and if needed, he could tear enemies apart with his four arms.

The caravan's speed had greatly increased after June started taking charge of hauling the carriages. Leonard, Ann, Silvester, and Eren climbed up June's ridged spine to approach his head. Silvester whistled. Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.

"So what's the battle plan, Leonard?" June slowed down, and a thin antler sprouted out of the top of his head, allowing his companions to hold onto something and not be shaken off by accident. Leonard grasped the rail made of bone and spoke loudly.

"We're going to keep running away until sudden death begins on the twelfth month." Silvester's ear twitched, and he glanced at Leonard incredulously.

"You serious? You're either incredibly brave or even stupider than I gave you credit for… What's the challenge events prepped for this year?" June spoke using his will.

"Sudden death? Wait, the games end on the twelfth month?" Eren raised an eyebrow and coughed.

"June, everyone knows this?" June huffed in his form of burden, and the group felt the body rumble as hot steam exuded from his dice-like nostrils.

"I was dragged into these games, remember? I don't know jack shit!" Ann sighed.

"Ok, so the games don't often go this long, but in case they do, the planners have a sudden death planned for the twelfth month. Now it's been almost 30 years since the last sudden death happened, considering that the games only happen every 3 years.

During the sudden death phase, things get worse every week with each week dropping a new threat in, and if more than 300 people survive a month of sudden death, instead of duels, there will be a faction war game in a week, then duels once 300 are left, regardless of sides." June slowly nodded, shaking his friends up and down, forgetting that they were holding onto his antler.

"Ok… so like Silvester said, what are the challenges this time around?" Eren gulped.

"Well… I heard something about an imp-class nightmare…." A silence of the air rushing past them stood for a moment before June replied.

"That doesn't seem too bad. I killed one of those when I was a mundane." Ann snorted and gripped the antler, trying not to laugh. Silvester raised an eyebrow.

"Really?" June nodded once again, throwing his friends up and down. Leonard sighed.

"Even if you killed an Imp in the past, they're not all the same… We don't know the challenge order, but I know there's going to be a doomsday event and a weather event… I heard some old friends yammer about a demon class, which…. There's no way, right?"

"..." Leonard coughed after an additional momentary pause.

"Anyways, it's either our few Dreamers, mundanes, and Aspirants against their hundreds of Dreamers, mundanes, and Aspirants, even if we freed their mundane slaves and other hostages, so… unless we get the next of kin to the son of God, we aren't going to be able to fight them off."

June didn't have much of a problem with running for several months; he didn't know what the doomsday event was or how strong a Demon-class Nightmare was, but surviving the sudden death event meant that his friends would survive longer with him… with the side effect of maybe looking cool to Lilia.

"So for now, I guess I just practice until something happens."

'Guess so.' And for the foreseeable future, June would continue his training and fleeing in rotation.