Chapter 76

 

We stand getting ready with our weapons for all hell to break lose.

It’s only a matter of time...

The water pool suddenly erupted in a shower of mad fury, flowing out in all directions and in the air. The sheer force of all of that water moving outward like a bomb like huge wave got all of us wet. But it wasn’t a bomb; it was like some sheer huge gravity had tipped the ‘floor’ to the wall instead. We can feel the air is heavy here and something huge is flowing out of it. The water is pushed way outside of the pool’s range in just one violent wave that hits the opposing cavern walls. It was something big, something reckless violent strength and power, not to mention heavy in weight.

“Crap, our spare gear just got drenched,” Rina whispers after we avoided getting washed away by the massive wave. We did lose our balance though and had to get back up.

I helped Asakura stand back up, pulling her up with my hand. Then Rina tried to stand up right after that.

“Shoot, we’re going to have wet stuff all over again,” Asakura said. “Technically it’s more like junk than gear though,” she added.

Rina looks like she wants to retort, but she just shrugs instead. “Secondhand goods?”

“Oh, I sometimes forget you guys have been salvaging things you can find when I’m doing other things. I’m sorry,” I said, empathetic to both of them.

Of course the things they’d salvaged weren’t things of value, but mostly sentimental. They’d salvaged seeds to grow underground farm plants from the gnomes earlier, and scraps of cloth that they wanted to sow into more clothes, and other things. They’d just lost a whole bunch of things of sentimental and so basic a value that I felt a lot of pity right now for them. They also looked a bit teary eyed.

I can see them feeling bad not only because the stuff got all wet but because they’d gotten spilled around.

If I held the stuff for them in my item box it would make them think I’m some kind of beck and call service for them. That idea gives me a headache. I better not suggest it.

“What the fudge is that?!” Asakura is totally freaking out, pulling me back to the matter at hand. I mean the goblins had her already unnerved but now she’s like on the verge of losing it. Rina is too stunned to even say anything except her mouth is hanging open.

Tentacles? A tentacle monster of some kind like a squid? Or something else?

No wait, it’s something else. But I’m not sure what. But I can feel that its something very dangerous. Its so far the most dangerous think we’d seen on this world so far, even dwarfing the ogres we’d encountered.

Sure enough with lightning speed, one of the tentacles scoops up one of the goblins hungrily and he gets bitten in half. It happened so fast I forgot to blink! But because of the water sloshing around, we didn’t get a good look at its mouth. I only saw a brief half second of some kind of teeth at the surface of the dark water?

Then it spat out the skull against some rocks, with it awash in blood.

Then one after another with ease it gulps down several goblins, belching forth odd gas, as its acid instantly devours their flesh inside it!

Aren’t the tentacle thing and the goblins supposed to be on the same side though? Why did he get eaten? Was it some kind of punishment for cowardice?

Everyone is yelling in every direction now in full panic.

Gulp!

Then a dwarf gets grabbed lightning fast and is swallowed whole!

I hope I can forget those screams!

Then a tentacle gets another dwarf!

It then spits out the equipment that was worn a few seconds later.

Was this the same thing as before that had knocked at the gnome gate only what two days earlier or was it one day? Time underground is harder to figure out. I vaguely remember something with tentacles that had fought against the gnome snipers. Was it a water beast or some kind of earth beast or something else? How did it swim through the water tunnel? That suggested at least some partial water immersion abilities.

We should have followed up on it more but the gnomes shafting me for favor with the earth mage girl was really to blame for that not happening.

The tentacles are writhing and knocking down the dwarves like they are bowling pins. I can’t believe it. The dwarves are stout and with a good amount of muscle with really good balance. If it weren’t for the shields protecting them from the tentacle flicks they’d be dead. I see one of the shields even crack as the dwarf holding it is launched about ten feet in the air and backwards. Most of the shields get bent a bit when getting flicked but don’t cave. But still to bend solid metal like that.

It’s an impressive amount of force.

That’s when I see we’re really screwed.

I began spamming runic shielding on the dwarves as best I can. But I have to also stay out of the tentacles way. They are running amok and the dwarves are trying to smash and cut them with everything they have. For every three runic shield spells I throw out two of them blink out pretty fast.

I just discovered how to chain cast magic formations!

I didn’t know there was such a thing. But because I’m going through the same type of movements and sequences in my mind and with my hands it’s working and made me see something interesting about spell uses.

The main problem; I’m burning mana too quickly. If it stays like this I’ll lose and so will the dwarves.

I have to deal with the problem of what will happen if that creature acknowledges me as a threat too. Right now it’s seeing other people as a threat, because the dwarves and their leaders have a lot of really good fighters.

In the future this might not always be the case with having a strong front line cover; especially when or if the dwarves aren’t around.

The dwarves are only not dying because of the runic shielding mana buff, and their heavy armors. But when goblins get hit by the same thing, they are split open and thrown several feet with their flesh torn open.

After only a minute I think I’ve lost about a tenth of my power. That’s way too fast. It doesn’t sound like much, but that’s including the shared power carry over. Over a dozen dwarves are kept buffed at any given time though.

And it was only about a minute or so, though I’m not looking at my watch to be sure…

But if I don’t keep shielding them the whole line will collapse. I put out a few more runic shield spells. The dwarves are trying to fight back. But it’s like they’ve lost their ignition switch. They’re still trying to truck through it, but I can see their desperation.

This is a monster beyond anything anyone could expect.

One of the massively huge tentacles grips a dwarf so tightly that the runic shielding starts to fragment and crumble into dust and the tentacle isn’t even tight yet. It’s a fast type of crumbling from damage over time while he’s being choked. He’s hanging onto his shield but it’s just being crushed with him.

So if the runic shielding wasn’t there he’d have been having his bones snapping into bits it seems. Of course that will still happen if I don’t manage to get him free somehow within the next minute.

Is it just me or also did my runic shielding spell get stronger? I’m trying to face evil head on. So I do hope it keeps growing.

Those tentacles are as big as small tree trunks!

What the freak is that?!

A monster of monsters!

This thing is way scarier and more monstrous than the little goblins, even with as many of them as there were. The other tentacles are trying to grab dwarves too. I also realize that this thing might not be confined solely to water. The front gate it’d attacked two days ago didn’t have water in front of it, I think.

Just then it tried to get too greedy and grabbed two dwarves at once. But the dwarves countered it by their friends protecting them from being grabbed up. They hacked at the tentacles fast enough to barely free their friends in time.

So if we have to retreat it will still kill us all. The only way to survive is to guard each others backs!

Hrogin cuts one of the tentacles off in a great swipe from a really fancy looking two handed sword made from some kind of special black metal and covered in magic runes.

Other dwarves are trying to fight off lacerating tentacle strikes!

Hmm, that raises more questions about dwarves and their ability to make good equipment. Is it a magic sword?

His other lieutenant stops a tentacle from grabbing me. He’s got good moves, strength, and polished combat techniques. He’s not that fast, but he has solid defense and good attack skills that cut through his slow moving speed. It’s almost like he’s slow but overcoming it with aggressiveness and perfect balance.

Occasionally I can see him heaving for air from his old chest. It makes his beard wisp hair flair when he does it. Surprisingly he looks better than Sunghee at martial skills. I didn’t know that was possible. Until now she was the best I’d seen. But this guy looks at least that good and probably a little bit more than that.

Hrogin has kept the line going so far. I realize I was vain to think that only my skills would do it alone. He’s single-handedly saved six or seven dwarves in the last minute easily. He’s probably as strong as about that many dwarves actually come to think of it.

Momentarily it makes me wonder how far the magic active on this planet over many years will allow someone to overcome the limits of strength of their genes and race? Does it have something to do with the guardian spirits of this world?

But others aren’t so lucky. The runic shielding will give out after probably a minute on the one being choked and anyone else it’s grabbing. But I have the feeling a human would die quicker as I see the spider webs of cracks collapsing all over the shield. It kind of looks like how a car windshield will get broken up but still hold up temporarily.

I hold my breath. I have to open up the big guns. That only leaves…

Do I dare? This skill is so risky...I can feel the danger to myself whenever I use it.

Quickly I open the item box and pull out the heavy blazing energy sword. It has enough power that it could get through that thing, whatever it is. I’m still unsure of what side effect using it will have. There has to be some kind of effect; like some people say when you shoot rifles your shoulder will be sore the next day. This thing uses so much energy that I get worried about holding it.

While pulling it out and shutting the box, I can feel its wicked energy pulsing and writhing in my hand. Then I start pouring in heat to it from my own mana. It’s getting hot. And its glow fills up the cavern with intensity, even hurting to look at.

The dwarf lieutenant is looking at me like I’m nuts. To him it looks like I’m holding a live wired glowing lightning rod. The visual effect alone looks deadly. Is this what holding a mage blow torch would feel and look like?

I don’t like this thing. It could turn on me really fast with a rebound, and I’d be sliced in half.

I swing forward and in one strike the blade instantly cuts through the tentacle holding the dwarf that’s being strangled. Large arcs of electric pulsing and black energy are shooting off the edges of the blade until the debris clears.

I almost dropped it, as the edge hits the floor in front of my feet. I struggle to pull it back up for another swing. I hadn’t expected it to only take one blow to cut through a thick tentacle like that.

Shit, this thing is heavy!

It feels like when I used the sword it got heavier? No way?

Rina and Asakura pull him away as quick as they can risk death as I go one by one over to the next dwarves.

That must mean that the mana is being sucked out of me really fast, for it to do that with just one hit. I have to end this quickly.

I’m surprised it can cut through virtually anything like butter. This kind of power feels really addicting too. I bet I won’t even last a minute now. I’m afraid of lifting it above my shoulder in case I slip or gets even heavier. I’m looking also looking ahead of me at the creature for its vital spots, but I’m still not even sure what kind of creature it is.

“Holy shit bro! Where did you get that thing?!” Rina exclaims from about ten feet from behind me.

“What…is that? It looks dangerous,” Asakura is also wondering.

“Just stay back,” I warn them again. I worry if they get in the tentacles reach, they will look like easy pickings.

But the tentacle beast has seen the danger. It throws four of the thicker tentacles at me, recognizing me as a bigger danger than Hrogin, who had severed another tentacle. I swing and pour my weight into it and two of the tentacles are dissolved into burnt ash.

But behind me I can’t swing back in time to block the other two tentacles that were coming from the other side. Shit. This is going to hurt, I’m thinking as I can’t get the blade positioned and swinging in time. I can only hope that the tentacles don’t cut off my ability to swing at them.

One of the dwarf lieutenants sacrifices himself instead and I’m saved from the crushing grip of the tentacles. He knows if I die or if Hrogin dies the team is toast. But he’s giving me a pleading look to come back for him as I see the tentacles are knocked back from me as he slams into them. In a brief second he’s grabbed instead. One of the tentacles is dislodged away from both of us, but the other grabs him instead.

He’s lucky; he’s one of the few I’d gotten a runic shield onto. He might just live if I hurry.

I swing back, and charge into the shallower part of the pool using my weight to swing the sword into a group of tentacles instead. This time the chop cuts off three whole tentacles easily, that are thicker than my waist. The two going after us were connected to this too and part of those being severed. I then proceed on the next set of tentacles.

Amazing!

This type of hit should be impossible if not for the laser effect of Fox and I’s combined mana charge effect. Of course most of the attack power in the energy sword is coming from Fox. It makes it almost like an electric knife effect. The tentacles aren’t just severed, their torn off mercilessly violent and fast while guts are flying in all directions.

I barely manage to avoid being blinded by guts and blood hitting my eyes.

I will definitely need a bath after this.

But it was risky. I’d only gotten through that because the beast had thought it was too dangerous for anyone to get close too. Now its guard had shifted and it was being more protective…with the few tentacles it had left.

It’s also still continuing to scream some kind of dying wretch like sounds from so many of its being put to the knife. The monster suddenly it jumps out of the water, trying to figure out which way to go. It wants to find higher ground and I can see it panicking in its erratic movements.

It starts to head one way but is intercepted by Hrogin. It’s recognized him earlier as a primary threat though, and decides to cut back the other way it’d just come, hoping to bowl over the dwarves and flee down the tunnel we’d originally come from.

“Eh? What is that?” Asakura asks.

I can also hear Rina chanting in a nearly panicked, barely sane state, “monsters aren’t real, monsters aren’t real,” over and over again.

I’m staring at it too. The thing is trying to get away from me still. It recognizes I was going for the head. The dwarves force it back with a combined effort and now it’s back against the cavern wall.

It’s not a squid, nor a dragon, nor something else? I’m not sure what it is. But it’s like it’s a giant eyeball at least three feet across with a like several dozen eyes inside that main middle eye and a beak of some kind hiding at the bottom of where the tentacles mesh together. There are also eyes talks with individual eyes coming out of the body with the tentacles all coming out from the back and bottom of the eye. It doesn’t have a body per se, but just a fleshy mass under the eye where all the tentacles are. I’d thought the tentacles were its most dominant feature at first, but actually the giant eyeball stands out even more than that.

I’d have to ask Fox what it is later.

Its ugly that’s for sure.

“A giant eyeball with eye stalks and tentacles?” Asakura is confused, looking at it with big eyes.

“Do you have any idea what it is?” I asked her.

She just shrugs, “this thing must be what pried open the gnome colony’s heavy metal gates. It’s the only thing so far that would have that kind of strength Shun! And it’s probably also the ringleader!”

“Ah, I’d been wondering how those were bent open this while time actually,” I responded.

“Get back!” I warned. A tentacle tries to instead grab her, but I jump up and cut it off. In my desperation I think I strained my elbow. It’s like I’ve thrown a baseball too many times with side arm pitches. My arm is starting to hurt from the weight of the blazing weapon.

Thank goodness for magic laser swords, or whatever it is; Asakura is safe.

The dwarves press their attack, but the giant eye is floating in the air. Since it can’t get away from us and is surrounded, it’s trying to use its ability to …’hover’ in the air and purchase room to fight us without our ability to strike back. So they have to resort to range weaponry. There are a few dozen daggers, crossbow bolts that all sing at once trying to kill it. The main eye is pierced but not dead. The eye twitches more often now from it’s wounds but seems to have no trouble seeing. It’s just too strong. Some of the range weaponry is deflected with its few remaining tentacles.

One of the dwarves was even hit by a ricochet effect. He’s clutching at his side and falls to the ground.

Another tentacle hangs loose like its paralyzed and crippled. The crippled tentacle is dragging on the floor and full of about …not less than fifty embedded daggers and crossbow bolts. Clever…it’d used that single tentacle as a shield knowing it’d be crippled, but saving the others from also losing function from damage.

I’d underestimated how smart and cunning this thing was. Of course that didn’t account for the other tentacles at all.

But the eye stalk monster is hovering in the air just above my reach and that of the other dwarves. It’s making a clever sound like it’s laughing at us, since we can’t reach it up there. It’s also too think and rubbery for spears to do much good. We need contact with it from swords or axes.

Right now we can’t do much to it, and it’s swiping away the range weapon effect like it’s in a batting cage having fun.

But I have another idea.

If I can hold a light spell at a distance, can’t I also hold a laser sword extended from my body?

I pause to think about it quickly. It’s possible…

Awesome! It should work! It’s exciting to realize I’d just thought of something really useful.

For a brief few seconds I can feel my mana usage spiking as it works. I even hold the sword with my mind tightly as if I’m holding it in my hand, but instead it’s got an extra two feet of open air between my hand and its grip from the telekinesis skill. I’m afraid of pushing the edge of the distance too much. If I do I’ll lose control. But I can probably stretch the distance on the last part of the swing right before it impacts.

Is this telekinesis? I’d used one power to uncover another, I realized. I liked this so far. But I wasn’t sure it was enough. Pushing the light’s distance had an expected yield when I’d encountered a new problem.

I swing with all my power and slash the giant eyeball in two. In the last bit of it I’d also turned on the Paladin skill I’d picked up, it puts like arc waves through the beast as its activating. It was a clever last bit of boldness I’d put into things.

Of course it doesn’t split right away, but the mana from the energy sword and the paladin holy light starts to burn it in heavy blue and red flames. But are the flame colors strange because of the mana from the word or from the monster itself? That part I’m not sure about yet.

It’s shrieking to death in eerie monstrous tones, as it burns into two in wild looking flames and sparks. The sword I left half impaled in the cavern wall and the body because it’d become too hot to hold. It’ll be hard to pull it out if I let the stone it’s sunk into harden. But it was starting to burn my hands when I’d activated the paladin light.

I guess the sword was taking on too much energy of different types.

But I shouldn’t have gotten burned? Are the influence of the demon box and the paladin holy light in conflict with one another? That could be really bad. I will need to research that more before I recklessly use the paladin skill.

I have to hold my hands; I think I got burned.

It’s not too bad though, I think but stings a little and very red. If I minimize the swelling and cool with cold water or ice it shouldn’t blister or swell up too much but I’ll have to act fast. I didn’t realize how hot it would get, and so quickly. I hold my hands against parts of my pants that aren’t gore covered.

Since the water is filthy I can’t risk cooling them down in there, from infection problems.

The dwarves are stunned as this monster of monsters dies jerking around as if in seizures. They are looking at me strangely and staring a bit. Even Hrogin is giving me strange looks, like I’m the real monster here.

I won’t be able to use that skill for a long time. The toll on the body, mind, and mana pool are too much.

Some of them are trying to ask me stuff but I can only answer in my language. They are a bit disappointed. They are also staring at the wall where my energy sword is stuck. Some of them go over to pull it out but it’s still too hot.

The monster of monsters is bleeding green and black goop onto the ground while its eye stalks are still smoking and withering. I’m thinking if that’s not a demon, what is? But what kind? How many types are there?

The odd thing is that a monster this vile, even the dwarves won’t come close to it to loot it. And they are greedy bastards. I wonder if the corpse is poisonous in some way...

But I’m totally drained. I’m lucky if I don’t get sick again. I feel like lethargic and like I’m kind of unsteady on my feet. I should have balanced my mana cost flow better. Just less than a minute of that sword cost my almost everything I have.

I’ll have to rest for awhile and get as much energy as I can, I think as I look for a place to sit down. That will be tough to do if we don’t know how many people uninjured to stand guard while we recover.

I’m intensely curious how many monster cores that giant eyeball thing is worth? It’s obviously something that’s not your everyday run of the mill orc and goblin type. Hell they shouldn’t even have contact with it. But is its influence why people were telling me the orcs and goblins have gained a lot of territory recently? Are there more of them?

Before the dwarves can inspect it too much, it starts to dissolve; or is it melting?

Weird. Is that because it’s made out of demonic energy?

That might also be why it was able to get hold of and control the goblins. At least that’s my theory. I somehow doubt that the goblins were controlling it. It would be like a mouse being a king of cats for that to occur.

How did it get control of the goblin city down here? Is there one goblin city or several? Will there be goblin reinforcements coming, and a few other questions similar to that are in the back of my head still. We don’t know how far this is going to go.

From the explosion in the cavern awhile ago alone there must have been at least a thousand goblins killed.

The dwarves let me rest while they guard the pool. They are cleaning out the bodies but we won’t be able to drink from this spot for a long time I suspect. There’s too much contamination from various bio hazards here.

Our water skins still have enough for awhile but I’ll have to be thorough from now since we don’t know when we’ll find another well or spring. This one might just be ruined by all the filth.

 

 

 

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