After missing another few blows trying to cut off my advance, I realized the patriarch was trying to keep me at a distance ― he wants to wear me down. As soon as I finally exhaust my mana supply, he’ll try and take me warm.
My subsequent attempts to close the gap again ended in failure. Ice arrows, rams, lightning, even the recently acquired ice spear reinforced with orbs ― nothing was working. I still had two more trump cards up my sleeve ― Incineration and Oblivion. But they could only be activated by touch. As an aside, the Heart of the Forest seeds had fallen silent and were trying not to shine too bright. Indeed, this was no weak, batty little chaos spirit. This was a somewhat more serious opponent. Although, what am I saying? They’re just kids. Sure, they’re always hungry, but they still have a self-preservation instinct.
— Attention! You have been subjected to mental magic!
― You have been dealt 2500 damage (blocked by Shield of Will)!
Pest! How much mana can you possibly have in you?! But alas, my Sixth Sense was also powerless. The beast’s energy structure might as well have been in a thick fog as far as my magic vision was concerned. The patriarch was clearly a big-league entity.
For a short while, we’d reached a stalemate. I couldn’t physically reach my adversary, nor break through his defenses. He then kept trying in vain to crack my shield of will and chaos shield. Honestly though, my position was getting weaker every second. The patriarch, unlike me, had done serious damage. The only positive aspect of the situation was that, by all appearances, he no longer had enough mana for Gorgie.
It was just then that I realized my brother was free of this villain’s control. A wave of his mixed emotions just about bowled me over. It contained everything. Indignation, fury, as well as sympathy and remorse.
The stun effect ended, and the harn’s supplies were already full again, but he was in no rush to attack. That clever little jerk was hiding! Pretending to still be incapacitated. Keeping his wits about him. Very good! Even though he’s very mad, and I get it. There’s another trump card. What matters most is using it properly.
I had just one thing left to do ― make myself stronger and faster, then get right up close to the monster and activate my most devastating spells. And though the last part sounded easy enough, the first two would be trouble.
Although…
I think I know what to do…
Letting the chaos shield take yet another crack of the whip and waving off a mental attack notification, I went racing forward. My maneuver did not go unnoticed. The patriarch raised two hands to the sky, and a set of coal black slimy tentacles shot up from underground behind me.
“Don’t even think of running away, worm!” sounded out menacingly in my head.
Swinging Spike down full force at the nasty limbs reaching out for me, I saw a thick black liquid start to seep out of the deep slashes with a disgusting hissing sound. Must be toxic.
I hurried to jump away from the nasty substance.
Time to go!
― Attention! Your Will is high enough to activate the legendary spell Avatar of Chaos!
― Attention! The magical transformation will multiply the following characteristics 5 times:
― Strength.
― Agility.
― Accuracy.
― Speed.
― Attention! Chaos Magic will increase the effect of all of your offensive spells!
― Warning! The Avatar of Chaos is dependent upon your life supply. Keep in mind that every second it exists comes at a cost of 5 life points!
― Avatar of Chaos lifespan:
― 753 seconds.
― Would you like to activate it?
“Yes!” I confirmed and the chaos magic began transforming my body.
I’m not sure if werewolves or blackbloods feel the same way when they change shape, but I can say one thing for sure — I will save this spell only for the direst of situations.
The transformation took four minutes. All that time, I had to not only withstand unbearable pain as my body changed before my very eyes, but also constantly move and dodge the now more frequent attacks of the patriarch, who could sense something was afoot.
Dodging the whips was getting easier with every second. While every blow from the black lashes hit its target before, mercilessly tearing through my defenses, after the system told me the transformation was complete, most of his attempts were missing. I was actually surprised at how clumsy and weak I had been.
“Now you’re in for a real fight!” I said with a ravenous smile, immediately shuddering at the sound of my own voice, now more reminiscent of an animal’s growl.
What had I become? I glanced down at my arms and was left momentarily speechless. My arms, now lumpy with knots of muscle, barely even looked human anymore. Spike was never especially huge before, but my massive clawed hands now made it look like a child’s toy.
Beyond the rippling arms, I could also boast of broad shoulders and a powerful ribcage. And another thing… I licked my teeth… they were now animal fangs. I could only imagine what my face looked like.
It only took me a few seconds to survey all my new appendages. But in this case, those seconds were very precious.
— Attention! You have been subjected to mental magic!
― You have been dealt 200 damage (blocked by Shield of Will)!
The patriarch’s last mental attack made me shudder. This time, he could only do two hundred points. What made that change? I looked closer at the beast’s dreadful figure and frowned. The patriarch had created a wall of black tentacles around himself.
He’s growing defenses, the creep! He must have figured out that I was going to try and tie him up in close quarters.
You wanna have a ranged fight? Let’s go!
When I tried to activate my ice arrow spell, an opaque light purple haze wrapped around my body. A taut ghostly bow appeared in my left hand in the blink of an eye with purple lightning travelling down its curved limbs. The arrow that appeared in my right hand looked like a long spindle pulsating with chaos energy.
With a malicious glance at the patriarch, who was becoming overgrown with tentacles at a breakneck pace, I gave a short growl and bared my teeth.
The first chaos-modified arrow dashed off with a formidable clap of the ghostly bowstring, leaving behind a trail of light purple magic.
― You have activated the enhanced spell Ice Arrow of Chaos!
― You have activated the physical skill Arrow of Wrath!
― You have attacked Blackblood Patriarch (level hidden)!
― Critical hit. You have dealt 9512 damage!
The arrow landed in the thick ball of dark tentacles, leaving behind a wide hissing blotch. The magical frostbite had triggered.
Despite the moderately high damage multiplier, the patriarch’s reaction was quite restrained. He didn’t even shudder. He just kept weaving the slimy appendages around his body.
How about this?! A new chaos arrow appeared in my hand, which I reinforced with darkness, spending fifteen orbs in one go. That yet again brought down my reputation with the order of hunters, which had taken quite the tumble over the last half hour.
Boom! The spindle, pulsating with blackness, had been transformed into something bizarre by my manipulations and was called simply Dark Arrow by the Great System. It sunk into the wall of slimy limbs.
― You have activated the enhanced spell Dark Arrow!
― You have activated the physical skill Arrow of Wrath!
― You have attacked Blackblood Patriarch (level hidden)!
― Critical hit. You have dealt 15380 damage!
― “Necrosis” has been initiated in the damaged area!
I didn’t have time to figure out what this “Necrosis” was. Based on the way the black spot my arrow left behind started to eat away at the trembling limbs before my very eyes, I seemed to have hit my adversary’s weak spot. His heart-rending roar of pain sounded like sweetest music to my ears.
Q
uickly moving from one place to the next, I kept raining down dark arrows on my adversary as the pain drove him to madness. In the meantime, I was constantly closing the gap between us.
Despite the pitiable state of his defenses, the patriarch managed to get off some powerful spells which, alas, I was not fast enough to dodge. Even in this altered state, my figures were still lower than his. I had to use one more shield crystal.
He was no longer talking to me or trying to attack mentally. Seemingly, the patriarch could no longer be bothered.
After launching another few arrows, I summoned the black armorbug spirit. I didn’t put much stock in its three thousand damage. I was using the big huge cockroach as a diversionary tactic. Right after that, I summoned the snow ghoul spirit as well.
As expected, the armorbug slammed full force into the monster’s gigantic frame without doing all that much damage. The vampire that raced in after it though took thirty-five percent of the beast’s life supply, meanwhile filling mine to the brim.
The patriarch howled in pain. Up close, his body looked like one solid wound. The necrotic tentacles were decaying before my very eyes, one hanging down limp. The bony growths were darkened by bent arrows. An unbearable stench of decay assaulted the nose.
The monster’s body started gradually shrinking. Seemingly, he got too distracted by the mental attacks and wasted all his mana. He wasn’t expecting me to catch him by surprise. But no matter. He was not the first and would not be the last. I was underestimated often.
While taking my last lunge, I noticed him casting the odd sidelong glance at the portal. He even took a step toward the lake. Think you can flee? No way. Too late. You should have considered this earlier.
After a final long jump, I found myself right up close to the monster. Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted a blurry motion to the right. It was Gorgie. Still running, I tossed him a phial of satiety potion, which still had two gulps left. The harn sharply shot upward and, with a loud snap of the teeth, swallowed the small container of elixir.
We attacked at the same time. The harn struck the patriarch in the back with his bone spike, hitting him under the left shoulder blade. I meanwhile first attacked with the Firepaw spell, then started in on his chest armor. Spike and Dragonfly, enshrouded in bright lilac flame, started hacking through the monster’s bone armor as if it were made of tissue paper.
The patriarch growled out loudly and swatted us away clumsily like bothersome wasps stinging his most vulnerable spots. His once massive carcass was now down to almost half its former size. The growl gave way to a howl. Black blood oozed from his deep wounds.
“Stop, hunter, stop!” he finally cried out. “I beg mercy! Let me escape! And I will tell you what the Steel King is so doggedly seeking!”
But I wasn’t listening. In fact, I redoubled my efforts.
“Very soon I will uncover that secret for myself!” I barked back at him. “All I have to do is finish you off!”
The patriarch tried to lunge toward the portal with the last of his strength, but I didn’t let him.
Once he was an armlength away, overcoming my disgust and squeamishness, I grabbed the brute by the shoulder and activated a chaos- and darkness-enhanced Oblivion, then added Incineration for good measure.
The patriarch shuddered, then fell to the ground like a sack of potatoes. Then, an instant later, his body lit up with a black magic flame.
The heat emanating from him was so powerful I choked for a brief moment. Quickly coming out of a somersault to the right, away from the roaring flames, I stood on all fours like an animal and started greedily sucking air into my mouth. Gorgie appeared next to me and poked his wet nose into my cheek.
“It’s all over, brother,” I rasped. “We won…”
Before my eyes, flashed victory and loot drop messages. But I was only paying attention to the last one.
― Attention, Hunter! You have abused the power of Darkness! Your reputation with the order of monster hunters has been reduced to 0! You have been temporarily assigned Renegade status. You have 24 hours to bring up your reputation with the order of monster hunters! If you do not succeed within the allotted time, all members of the order of monster hunters will be given a mission to kill you!
Chapter 29
WITH A WICKED GROWL, I dismissed the message. I needed to turn that around right away… Heavily standing to my full height, I moved toward the portal, taking crystals out of my backpack.
Every step called back with a sharp bodily pain. Colorful spots kept appearing and disappearing before my eyes. I wanted to find a secluded little spot. Preferably some dark and warm burrow to hole up in and, curling myself into a ball, just close my eyes, which were tearing up from overexertion. If only for a short while. But rest would come later. First to business!
Every movement came at the cost of unbelievable effort and searing pain in my temples and the back of my head. For some reason, I was getting weaker at an alarming rate. My vision and hearing were also acting up. My throat stung with every breath. Obviously, something strange was happening to me.
I quickly checked all my figures. The avatar could hold out another seven minutes without endangering my health. My shield was just fine. I had another forty percent left. Regeneration, accelerated by Forest’s Blessing, was dutifully healing my bodily injuries. Just in case, I even took two sips of satiety potion.
So if everything is just fine, why do I feel like a shriveled old man?
One step, another… More stinging in my eyes and bitterness in my mouth… Bitterness? Bitterness! Ah, of course ― the portal!
I frowned, staring into the coal black surface of the lake and gasped: the slimy liquid was bubbling and foaming, sending dark gray steam cascading up into the air. It clung to the surface like a viscous blanket, gradually collecting near the edge into a shapeless night-black blob.
Suddenly, the blob reeled in my direction, but I didn’t sense any danger. I even smiled at it like an old friend. I wanted to tell Gorgie about it, but he was lying on the ground with his eyes closed ten steps away from me. His chest was rising and falling measuredly. I clicked my tongue and shook my head. Such an important moment and he’s just dozing away. Okay then, I’ll greet our old pal myself. Look, he’s waiting for me now!
The last few steps to the lakeshore were very easy to take. I was actually surprised by my recent clumsiness. My friend beckoned. My friend was waiting. He had something very important he wanted to share with me. Incidentally, he really disliked the crystals in my hand. I had to quickly hide them away. After all, I didn’t want to insult my new friend.
When the black blob was just one step away, I sensed someone shouting out to me. And in the unknown voice, I heard unhidden panic. Wait. The voice was not alone. There were two. Very insistent. Angry and at the same time very frightened.
I stopped and looked around. There was no one there. Gorgie was still dozing. The body of the creature I had just fought had almost burned completely away. I distantly thought, “there goes my loot from the patriarch.” Surely nothing had escaped that flame. In fact, my new friend disliked that I had killed the blackbloods as well. I wanted to confess to him.
The voices piped up again. Their panic was annoying. As if it wasn’t enough to have them distracting me from an important matter, they wouldn’t even show themselves. Unlike my new friend ― look how much he’s freaking out. He didn’t like the fact that I had stopped. I was about to take one more step when, suddenly, another shout sounded out in my head. The surprise made me freeze. Hm… But I recognize these voices. Somewhere I had heard them before…
The cries grew louder and crisper.
“Freeze!”
“Don’t move!”
Realization dawned instantly. It was like a giant alarm horn suddenly blared out in my head. All that time, something dark and evil was trying to coax me into the portal. That brute’s Will was many times higher than mine. In fact, so much that the Great System didn’t even bother telling me what was ha
ppening. And only the little Hearts of the Forest tried to reach out.
The fear didn’t last long. In its place came rage. I was berserk! And I was angry most of all at myself. I messed up again. I flippantly assumed that the patriarch’s death would be the end of it.
The unknown beast immediately sensed the change in its victim’s mood. We started to act at the same time. Sharply snatching up several bags of the largest crystals, I wound up and threw them right into the middle of the lake. It would have been enough to close two portals like the one in the Stone Forest.
Labyrinth of Fright (Underdog Book #5): LitRPG Series Page 31
