WilburWoods
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Chapter 58 - Facing the Dragon
🕑 Added 2023-10-08 14:56:14 +0000 UTCThe disgusting black maw of the giant octopus monster groaned. It was a giant gaping circle with a carousel of teeth promising laceration. One large black eye peeked inside from between a gap in the rubble. At least a dozen tentacles were flailing around, pushing rubble aside. Grabbing onto it and pulling. Two of the tendrils reached towards Logan, but he was on the other side of the death trap, looking at the grotesque sight with grim determination.
The Armor around him felt good. It weighed no more than a cotton jumpsuit. It had a snugness to it, like lycra. It was also shifting. That was Tumor doing its thing. The AI was really enjoying its new capacity. Logan couldn’t imagine what it was like to have sensations for the first time.
The idea had worked. They now had liquid armor, controlled by AI. Tumor could predict enemy attacks with superhuman reflexes and bolster the armor where the attack would land, both in hardness and pure mass. Tumor could also create appendages such as shields, swords, hammers, axes, whatever Logan wanted to use.
A long thing blade for cutting, but mostly stabbing was their agreed upon choice. It was something like a rapier, but far too long, almost like a short spear in length. Any weapon that required heft to do its job like a mace or an axe wasn’t ideal for now. The Armor enveloped Logan’s body sufficiently and after Logan had repeatedly thrown himself head, shoulder and butt first at the cave wall, it was clear it could absorb moderately hard impact perfectly.
But that didn’t leave much slack to it, and thus with the material that was reasonable to recruit for offense, a thin stabbing weapon was ideal. Tumor could strengthen the material, despite the thinness, so that it would not snap.
The tentacle monster broke through. It let out another eerie groan and locked its black, merciless eyes on Logan. A dozen tentacles shot at Logan as another dozen pushed the great beast forward.
“Slash!” Logan urgently said as he started running, dodging the few tentacles that reached him.
Tumor knew what to do. On Logan’s right hand formed a shortsword, one and a half feet in length. Logan swung the black metal and noticed that at the end of his cut, the arm took on a life of its own, cutting down at an attacking tentacle at a ridiculous speed.
The blade cut the pale flesh like soft butter. But there were so many tentacles. Two wrapped around Logan, one around his waist, and another one around his leg. No cold pain of toxin, only strain. Logan fought back, cutting at the tentacles, but the creature was strong, even against Logan’s enhanced strength. Logan was being pulled forward.
But as the creature lumbered forward, pushing its blobulous mass forward, it fell into the pit. The groans emitted from its round gaping mouth turned into a screech of agony. It trashed around and every tentacle whipped wildly, slashing at Logan. One of them struck true and Logan fell.
He managed to cut in a wide arc when the tentacles swarmed him. He rolled around, dodged and danced, trusting that Tumor would keep his left leg going. The black sword cut deep, but the tentacles kept attacking, even if they got shorter.
Logan was panting with exhaustion, but the great monster was slowing down. It was clearly enduring Logan’s concoction better than the beetles had, but the poison was potent. The sharp whips became lashes, and the lashes came at Logan for a while, who cut them down one by one, gasping and wheezing for breath. The lashes slowed down until they were reduced to lazy swats.
That’s when triumph swelled within Logan’s heart. He surged forward, driven by second wind and yelled victoriously.
“Pierce!”
The sword in his hand turned into the rapier-spear. Logan stabbed at the great bulbous mass of a monster. Cheek, mouth, stomach. It was all the same. He was making a swiss-cheese sushi out of this thing until it ceased its disgusting groans.
It did take some time, but finally the tentacles stopped moving and the black eyes lost their predatory gleam. It was as if someone pushed a button and turned the giant creature down. Between its wounds was a dim blue gleam. From its body oozed out black sludge. This was clearly some spawn of Levemoth. How did it end up here, miles underneath the earth, no story would ever tell. But now there was one less fiend to pester the world, and that was good.
Logan sat down and sighed deeply. He had survived. Sure, he wasn’t out of the hot water yet, but he felt badass. They had a super cool armor, and they had just beaten a goddamn dragon in its lair. The treasure was still mostly spent behind Logan and there was a princess waiting at home.
Logan chuckled to himself.
Life’s sweet. It smells like shit and oily fish right now, but damn, do I feel alive.
“You know what we’re going to do next, right?”
[I would assume you will want to consume some of this beast we have just killed.]
“Want is a strong word… But yeah, I have to eat.”
[Indeed you require sustenance. I assume afterwards you would be interested in exhausting the [S-grade Natural Numa Crystal]. We should look into all and every possibility of augmenting the Armor, and providing it with a sustainable power source. Right now it seems that the passive ambient Numa collection that the Armor gets is worth a D-grade crystal per day. That will sustain your current enchantments and create a surplus.]
“How do you know all this suddenly?”
[Logan I AM the Armor. How do you know if the crevice between your buttocks is itchy? You get information, which your brain processes and interprets to you in a way that you can understand.]
“Can we please never talk about the crevice between my buttocks again?”
[Very well. I shall reserve the right to use it strategically, if I need you flustered. That is my prerogative as a person.]
Logan chuckled and facepalmed. He got up. Tumor immediately helped him with his left leg. “So you’re saying the Armor can currently hold another enchantment?”
[It can hold an enchantment or two, depending on the potency and complexity of the enchantment. You could also attempt to increase the potency of the current enchantments. To exhaust the Numa reserve in the crystal, you will likely end up doing both. It might be possible, that by the end of this, the Armor can hold a larger Numa charge as well. On top of that, the last Enchantment you should give to it, would be the ambient Numa collection with the highest Potency modifier we can reach.]
“Well then,” Logan said, suddenly re-energized. “What are we waiting for?”
