Arcen dashed backwards as the Maw closed the good side of its mouth in a deafening crunch of teeth. If he were still there, he would’ve been turned to fine pieces of octopus meat with a light glazing of black Meronolith on top.
It chased after him instantly, matching his speed right away. It dragged its unhinged jaw on the floor with no regard for any pain caused by its injuries. This thing was incapable of feeling any pain.
Coming up on a pillar behind him, Arcen launched himself back in a wide arc. He landed on the stone surface with one arm, twisted his body around from under him,m and kicked off as the Maw crashed into the wall with its mouth wide open.
Landing behind it on the ground, Arcen launched himself back towards it while drawing his fist back for a deep stab with the Mirage Blade. In the split second that he flipped around mid-air, his eyes fell upon the ground under the creature.
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ CONTRACT ╰︶
????
WORM PIT
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
╰︶ACTIVATE ︶╯
It was instant. He didn’t need to target with his hands anymore. He was more than certain about targeting with his eyes. He landed on the Maw as it slid down the pillar into the Worm pit. He drove his knee into the top of its head as he landed, pushing it deeper into the worm pit as he stabbed the creature at the roof of its mouth with the Mirage Blade to anchor himself.
The Maw screamed as the worms sank into its flesh, eating all four of its legs within seconds. It wriggled and twisted, trying to drop Arcen off its back, but he persisted, balancing himself on top of it with ease.
This was a risky move, as he himself was getting pushed into the Wom Pit as the worms grazed layers away from the Maw. It lost its lower Jaw entirely and sank a foot lower into the pit. Arcen got bitten by worms on his lower legs, losing several toes and almost all of his left foot.
Realizing the danger, he pulled the Mirage Blade backwards, slicing the Maw’s head in half before launching himself off it, pushing it deeper into the pit in the process. This was the best use of Worm Pit that he’d ever made, nearly shaving a powerful creature to half its size.
I NEED TO PLAY MORE.
Maw remained in the Worm Pit until its duration ran out and the worms died, turning into vapor trails. Only a quarter of it remained, regenerating fast. Arcen had no obligation to let it.
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ CONTRACT ╰︶
????
BALL LIGHTNING
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
╰︶ACTIVATE ︶╯
Thunderbolts electrocuted the mess of flesh, slowing its regeneration each time it froze up. Maw hadn’t been as fun as King wanted it to be. It hadn’t done anything that was spectacular; it was a mindless beast with its source animal as a human.
As he watched the pitiful blob of flesh rising off the crater with two collapsing legs that were slowly assembling themselves into shape, it did something strange. The Maw’s whole body flickered, and it opened its freshly regenerated mouth like a gigantic funnel. Arcen braced for impact with another Red Court.
It had something else. The mouth unfurled back over itself, shedding one layer of skin up to the shoulder joint. It grew two more legs, and the regeneration process created a long tail at the rear end that was blunt before.
IT IS MAKING CHANGES.
The new mouth that t evolved had even more rows of teeth, and it was about a foot wider than it was before. The Maw had gone from a hell dog to something between a dog and a caterpillar with a lizard tail.
It dashed at him right away as he backed away, trying to analyze what this new form entailed. The Maw was faster, darting forward like a land missile with teeth. It dashed past Arcen’s sword arm, ripping it off from the corner of its mouth.
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ CONTRACT ╰︶
????
MIRAGE BLADE
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
╰︶ACTIVATE ︶╯
He activated it on his left arm. twisting away as his right arm started regenerating right away. The Maw changed directions towards him like a shark chasing a fish.
Arcen’s eyes darted over four eyes the Maw had trained on him.
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ SKILL ╰︶
????
DETONATE
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
╰︶ACTIVATE ︶╯
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ SKILL ╰︶
????
DETONATE
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
╰︶ACTIVATE ︶╯
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ SKILL ╰︶
????
DETONATE
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
╰︶ACTIVATE ︶╯
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ SKILL ╰︶
????
DETONATE
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
╰︶ACTIVATE ︶╯
Four activations happened lightning fast, popping its eyeballs in small, targeted strikes just Milliseconds after each other. The beast faltered, screaming as it dashed past Arcen in a blind charge.
He’d discovered chained Detonates. This hadn’t been available in this way before. He’d used something similar to save himself from a pit flower, but the rate tat whichhe could fire it was much lower. King had made it possible to activate skills with no delay in between. Arcen, now merged with him, intuitively knew it had something to do with his Trait, Multivariate.
His right arm completed regeneration as the Maw crashed into a mound of vines behind him.
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ CONTRACT ╰︶
????
MIRAGE BLADE
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
╰︶ACTIVATE ︶╯
He had two Mirage Blades now, one on each arm. He hadn’t even thought of this as a possibility before. Flexing his fists, he swiped his arms to the sides, flipping around to face the creature.
He ran towards it, slashing and slicing at everything his eyes fell upon. He cut its tail into eight segments, ripped a rear leg off, and cut two deep gashes on its side. The Maw rolled around to face him, mouth wide open.
Arcen continued the assault, slicing faster than he thought was even possible. He cut the creature’s mouth, tongue, teeth,h and all in a series of cuts he performed while dashing evasively to avoid it. Red Court fell on him twice during the barrage, but he used Command to collapse it before the creature could eat her.
Ripping more and more flesh wide open, she found the organ that this creature was using, the Red Court from. He ripped it to shreds with his dual Mirage blades before jumping off, creating distance as the Maw slumped, bleeding out from the deep cuts.
╭ ╰︶?? ERITHERIA ?? ︶╯ ╮
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ ATTRIBUTE INCREASED ╰︶
????
DESTRUCTION
[12] +1
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
The Maw turned around, gnashing its teeth as its flesh regenerated.
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ CONTRACT ╰︶
????
BALL LIGHTNING
This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
╰︶ACTIVATE ︶╯
Arcen dashed away, leaving a ball of lightning behind, riddling the creature with thunderbolts.
Taking a look at it from a distance, he saw a second layer of its mouth unfurling as it regenerated a head that was larger with more rows of teeth. It grew a foot wider and a foot taller in the process and added two new arms. The tail is divided into three strands, splitting apart from the same spinal structure.
IT IS MAKING CHANGES AGAIN.
This had to have some sort of cost. It was creating material out of nowhere, changing its source animal in ways that it couldn't plausibly be. Humans had four limbs. This thing had warped itself to have eight.
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ SKILL ╰︶
????
REVEAL
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
╰︶ACTIVATE ︶╯
He wanted to see what changed about this creature.
╭ ╰︶?? ERITHERIA ?? ︶╯ ╮
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ ACTIVATION SUCCESS ╰︶
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ AURA ╰︶
????
160,377,313
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
IT IS SACRIFICING POWER TO GROW.
This creature had spent almost twice Arcen's current Aura potential on two evolutions. Judging by the amount that was already lost, it seemed to be capable of more evolutions. If the cost was the same each time, he had to do a lot before this thing ran out of Aura.
I HAVE TO KILL IT LIKE TEN TIMES.
The Maw dashed at him on eight limbs, pushing forward in a single heave. It was faster now, and he had to act while thinking ahead.
Their fight couldn't be contained to a single pillar anymore. This thing was too large and too fast to dodge and weave on a piece of land the size of a small backyard.
He jumped off the pillar as the Maw chased after him. Arcen wanted to relocate to a bigger arena, and this chamber was the worst in terms of horizontal space. The pillars didn’t create even ground, even where they were mostly aligned in height. He saw a spot as he leapt across pillars as the Maw chased after him on its eight legs.
Arcen landed in a central space surrounded by a bunch of nests. This place was spacious enough to move around.
Except for one minor problem.
The chamber’s inhabitants threw spears at him, screeching in a loud chorus as soon as he landed. Looking around, he noticed them taking cover behind other pillars, their nests, and hanging from vine bridges.
He saw younglings the size of a forearm scattering out of their nests. He’d brought the best right to them.
I SHOULD MOVE.
He dashed away in the exact direction that he arrived in. The Maw flipped right away, facing him like a heat-seeking missile. Arcen decided to change tactics. Flat ground wasn’t an option. He had to keep clashing with this thing mid-air as he jumped all around it.
He bounced off a pillar, launching himself directly at the creature with both Mirage Blades spinning in a spiral. He slashed through its underside in a single swift movement, ripping three limbs off and leaving a wide gash that immediately burst its inner organs out. The Maw crashed to the ground as Arcen crashed into a pillar, anchoring himself by stabbing the Mirage Blade into it.
He leapt back right away, his eyes again brushing over the spot the Maw fell onto. It was already regenerating the deep gash, organs and all.
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ CONTRACT ╰︶
????
WORM PIT
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
╰︶ACTIVATE ︶╯
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ CONTRACT ╰︶
????
BALL LIGHTNING
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
╰︶ACTIVATE ︶╯
He activated both contracts at once, Worm Pit below it and Ball lightning Above it. As the first thunderbolt electrocuted the creature, He landed on top of its head, pushing it deeper into the worm pit. This tactic worked exactly as well as it did before. This time, he was there to accelerate it. He made a series of cuts as he landed on its head, bursting a huge hole open at the top of its head.
He launched himself off the creature, landed backwards on a pillar, and springboarded himself back directly at it again, repeating the same series of cuts. He repeated this three times before the Worm Pit and Ball Lightning vanished, leaving behind only three large pieces of the creature clinging to each other with tendrils.
He would’ve been fooled into thinking it was defeated if he didn’t know what it was. The Maw regenerated again, growing a host of new limbs that wrapped around each other this time. It stood up on two legs, hunched over as its mouth grew out of its shattered neck.
It walked out of the Worm Pit crater on two legs, having gone through at least two iterations of changes as it regenerated from its considerable injuries.
MAYBE IT CAN PUT UP A BETTER FIGHT NOW.
Taking a closer look, it hadn’t changed the number of limbs at all. It had combined eight limbs back to four, twisting the bones and muscles together. The arms were uncannily long. It had three tails again—longer this time. A face surfaced out of the middle tale, resembling the screaming face of a man, possibly one of its victims from here earlier.
IT’S TRYING TO MIMIC TAIL MEN.
The tail curled upright like a scorpion, tail man acting on its own—observing Arcen despite what angle the Maw’s head was turned into.
The Maw rushed forth, hopping over the mounds of vines towards Arcen in a straight line. It swung its long arms—with sharpened bones sticking out like curved daggers. They bent in waves like whips, cracking against the rocks as Arcen leaned backwards, dodging them by inches. He felt the gusts of wind as the claws swept over him, as he swiftly weaved under its right arm, refreshing his contracts.
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ CONTRACT ╰︶
????
MIRAGE BLADE
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
╰︶ACTIVATE ︶╯
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ CONTRACT ╰︶
????
MIRAGE BLADE
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
╰︶ACTIVATE ︶╯
He spun as the blades protruded from his forearms, slashing the Maw under its armpit, tearing a gaping line across its lean ribs. The Maw howled and twisted its head, bending towards Arcen in one swing like a snake. Teeth clashed only inches away from Arcen’s nose.
As he slipped away under the arm towards the back, he caught a glimpse of the tailman keeping its beady eyes on his every movement.
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ SKILL ╰︶
????
DETONATE
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
╰︶ACTIVATE ︶╯
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ SKILL ╰︶
????
DETONATE
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
╰︶ACTIVATE ︶╯
He targeted the eyes, popping them out of their eye sockets like small water balloons. The tail man screamed as the Maw swung its empty tails at Arcen. He dashed along the rock wall next to the creature, slicing its tails off with two swings from his arms.
Blood burst forth from the deep cut that he made to its side as the Maw turned around, twisting its head at him. It opened its mouth, red glow bursting forth immediately as it used its stronger legs to hop ten feet into the air.
SILENCE.
The Red Court flickered out, and the creature crashed face-first onto the spot where Arcen would’ve been a split second earlier. Hopping over a mound of vines with arms outstretched, he considered his options. As things were, he would run out of Aura before this thing ran out of evolutions. He had to find a way to corner it and force all the evolutions out while draining its Aura.
THAT WOULD NOT BE FUN AS I THOUGHT.
King wasn’t pleased about his ‘playtime’, but Arcen realized what awaited them if they only did the fun things until they ran out of resources to do so. He had to pick a point where ‘play’ had to stop, and he estimated it was better to be done early than regret it later. King could always play with something else later—It wasn’t even born out of the egg yet. Meanwhile, Arcen only had one life to live. Failure here would put him directly on gray sands, eternal damnation.
I WILL TRY TO HAVE FUN EITHER WAY.
The only quick way to end the fight would be to engulf the Maw in his Red Court. In there, it didn’t matter how much Aura there was. Paired with the Trait Command, it would instantly solve all their problems. He could extend this play time to its absolute limit if he could end the fight when King was finally done with it.
THAT WILL NOT BE FUN EITHER. I WILL NOT LET YOU.
King’s words sounded rather final in his head. He could only negate the Red Court. He wasn’t allowed to use it and hamper the ‘fun’.
Running towards a mound ramp to launch himself at a distant pillar, he dodged and zig-zagged as the Maw kept leaping at him from behind. It was much faster on its bipedal form, legs stretching as it ran, feet stabbing on the ground for a better grip. In this form, it had evolved to chain small bursts of jumps in between running, making itself much faster.
A new course of action occurred to Arcen as he dodged a vicious charge by the Maw by front flipping and rolling towards the ramp he was running towards. He threw himself off the ramp towards the pillar straight ahead.
The new plan came out of a single observation—the creature had grown each time it evolved. It started as something that was roughly human-sized. Now it was at least five times that.
He had to find a choke point to trap it in and then throw everything that he had at it until it was forced to evolve again and again. It would be impossible to find such a perfect choke point to trap it for good. He’d likely have to do it a couple of times as the creature grew in size, speed, and ferocity.
Thinking about the perfect choke points, a lightbulb went off in his head.
I KNOW WHERE TO TRAP IT.
“Wow. That’s a great idea,” Arcen spoke, Red Court leaking out of him as he spelled each word. He didn’t intend to make it happen that way, since King didn’t want to use it. The domain pulsing out from him with each word engulfed the Maw, freezing it up mid-air as it jumped towards the same pillar he jumped onto. It crashed into the pillar face-first and slid to the bottom.
Arcen paused, shutting his mouth. He’d just come up with a great idea. He didn’t know if he came up with it on his own or if the King came up with it for him. Their fused thought processes simply converged on the same idea right away.
I WANT TO SEE IF IT WORKS.
Peeking over the edge, he looked at the Maw.
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ SKILL ╰︶
????
REVEAL
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
╰︶ACTIVATE ︶╯
He wanted to know how much Aura he had to deal with.
╭ ╰︶?? ERITHERIA ?? ︶╯ ╮
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ ACTIVATION SUCCESS ╰︶
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ AURA ╰︶
????
121,540,327
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
He jumped off the pillar, landing right before the Maw, which was shaking its broken head as its flesh recovered from the crash landing. For his plan to work, he had to get this thing towards the chamber wall as fast as possible.
He clapped his hands and used a Skill that he’d never used before.
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ SKILL ╰︶
????
ENRAGE
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
╰︶ACTIVATE ︶╯
The first one made the Maw jolt a little. For the plan to work, he wanted this thing to chase after him faster.
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ SKILL ╰︶
????
ENRAGE
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
╰︶ACTIVATE ︶╯
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ SKILL ╰︶
????
ENRAGE
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
╰︶ACTIVATE ︶╯
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ SKILL ╰︶
????
ENRAGE
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ SKILL ╰︶
????
ENRAGE
????
ENRAGE
????
ENRAGE
????
ENRAGE
????
ENRAGE
ENRAGE
ENRAGE
ENRAGE
ENRAGE
ENRAGE
ENRAGE
….(1083)
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
╰︶ACTIVATE ︶╯
The skill activations came directly from the King. Although it was proven to him only a few minutes ago, Arcen never thought he could use his skills faster than the firing rate of an assault rifle. King was activating the skill in batches of hundreds of activations each. The Rootsong hum that he whispered sounded like a single hush noise in his ears, happening before the gold veins could even weave it in his eyes. All the skills were activated in under a second.
╭ ╰︶?? ERITHERIA ?? ︶╯ ╮
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ ATTRIBUTE INCREASED ╰︶
????
HATE
[10] +1
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
It seemed there was no upper limit to stacking Enrage on a target. He didn’t get the time to speculate on it because the Maw reached whatever limit there was within the next two seconds.
It moved erratically, running on all fours on its new bipedal form, dashing through rocks and pillars with no regard for self-preservation. It kept its mouth fully open, red glow bursting forth like a searchlight.
It caught him mid-jump, freezing him before his feet touched the ground.
SILENCE.
King saved him in nearly the same split second, negating the Maw’s Red Court right away.
The Maw leapt at him, extending its long arms towards him. It flared its mouth wide open, screaming at him from the depths of its throat. Arcen leapt back, hopping through a maze of vine mounds and rocks as he dodged and weaved in the gaps between the pillars.
NOW THIS IS FUN.
Next chapter on Friday.
Regular reminder to rate/review if you’re enjoying the ride!
Advance chapters on
