“Oh! Holy shit! What are those!” Alex yelled as he abruptly changed direction from heading towards the final goat and instead towards the woods that headed deeper into the island. The choice was taken completely out of his hands as a torrent of chihuahua sized worms with rows and rows of razor-sharp teeth exploded from the turkey’s corpse.
“They appear to be parasites of some kind. Continue to run, please.” V.V. said, more calmly than Alex would have liked if he’d had any time to think. The worms just kept coming! Ten, Twenty! More!
“How in the holy hells are they still coming!” Alex yelled as he looked back over his shoulder at what he could only imagine as a flood of giant deadly fish food.
“They must have been very tightly packed inside the fowl. The flow isn’t subsiding.”
Alex had reached the other side of the road and was now entering into the densely packed woods. He took a moment to look back one more time, most of the worms were latching onto the goat carcasses but more than a few of the creatures were slithering in his direction, fast. Alex looked at the dense woods in front of him and thought that it may be better to just run alongside the woods instead of entering them until he looked into the distance. The road was being overtaken by nature again, but the path was still open and inviting to any creatures that wouldn’t mind a little arm room. Alex immediately started slashing his way through the brush and tightly packed trees to make his escape. Escape from not only creepy giant worms, but also a small horde of other monsters that he could see moving in the direction of him and the corpses.
Slash, slash, slash.
“Fuck! What are all those things!?” Alex yelled again, panic deciding to visit him once more as he swung his fanged makeshift dagger through overly lush vegetation. Although he was gripped with the intense urge to flee, he took a moment to be impressed by how quickly he was hacking away at the wall of flora in front of him.
“I suppose those are predators that have detected prey now that the battle that kept them at bay has ended.” V.V. said from within the packed foliage ahead of him.
V.V. and his Orbs had already started clearing the brush even faster than Alex could. He was able to start moving into the dense greenery, but he doubted he’d get far before his ankles were torn into by grotesque noodles. Alex felt like his back was exposed for the first time in a while. His Orbs had taken to constantly moving around him so that he never felt that anything could surprise him. Now, he needed all of them to focus on creating a path forward more than he needed them covering his backside, or more specifically his precious ankles.
“Go, go, go! This has got to get thinner sooner rather than later!” Alex yelled at both his companions and himself.
“I detect a small clearing about forty feet ahead of us, but the parasites will reach us before then. You should take up a defensive position while we work to clear the escape route.” V.V. said, quickly but not overly urgently.
Alex hesitated but decided to heed V.V.’s advice, stopped hacking away and turned to fend off the quickly approaching wigglers. “Shit… I was supposed to get to learn all those skills and here I am, fighting… worms…”
“Once one is close enough, I’ll be able to at least tell you the parasites proper name.”
“…That’s the least of my worries, V.V.”
“Proper terminology and naming is important.”
“I… Yeah… Let me know what you find out. I’ll be trying to not get eaten in the meantime.” Alex was tempted to dismiss V.V.’s claims but he knew that knowing as much about his enemies as possible was never a bad thing. He only had to wait a few more seconds before the first gruesome looking opponent slithered into the opening of the tunnel they’d started to form out of the brush.
“Oh boy… Please don’t have a bunch of smaller worms that shoot of your mouth… Please, please, please.” Alex babbled to himself as the worm approached him, mouth agape. Luckily, it was only a mouth full of razor-sharp ringed teeth that Alex was met with.
The worm darted towards him, even faster now that it was on the attack. Alex crouched down, hoping to slice the little critter easier that way. Unfortunately for him, the worm decided in that moment to leave the muddy, limb covered ground and soar through the air, directly at Alex’s face!
“What the!” Alex yelled and swung his fang.
Slllck
“…” Alex, looked down at the still wriggling halves of the once very intact worm. This wasn’t the first time he’d chopped something in half, but it seemed even more gross this time.
“They’re not very durable at least…”
“That is good, but I hope you’re prepared to do that at least seventeen more times.” V.V. said, just as the next worms entered the pathway.
Alex only slightly crouched this time and awaited the next worm. Two came this time, slithering side by side together in rhythm with one-another. The one on Alex’s left launched first, followed closely by the right worm. They flew like flying fish, only for Alex to chop one and then the other directly out of the air. The worms hit the ground, split in a similar fashion to their first fallen brethren. More came. Three, four, five worms, slithering over one another into the tight path. Alex readied himself again. This time, only one worm launched itself into the air as the others continued to wriggle their way towards him.
Shllnk
Another dead worm lay in pieces at Alex’s feet. Four more were still on the ground and beyond, even more made their way behind them. Alex decided that stomping may be better than trying to slam his blade down on them, over and over. He rushed forward and drove his boot into the closest worm. While it did have the desired effect of decimating the worm, another worm managed to latch its fanged face into Alex’s boot. He jumped back and the worm came with him. A quick swipe of his knife and the worm was no more, but still more came.
Luckily, the worm’s teeth only dug into his boot and not into him. He decided that he’d try his stomping method one more time before resorting to stabbing. Rushing forward yet again resulted in two more dead worms but at least seven more were undulating over one another towards him. Alex backed away, hoping that one or two would launch themselves instead of making him attack them at ground level. One may think a flying worm with teeth coming directly at your face was more intimidating than them being on the ground, but if it were just one or two, Alex preferred the arial combat. It wasn’t just one or two this time though; four of the slimy hell spawn flew at Alex this time.
Shllk Shnnk Aaaaag!
“Hel…” Alex began to scream for help, but his Orbs had already acted. He managed to kill two of the four as they came for him but one flew over his shoulder and the fourth managed to find purchase in his right wrist. Just as he went to start slinging his new wrist accessory into a tree on his right, a flaming ball slammed into the worm. Another immediately started circling his arm and a squelching noise from behind him told him that the other worm had met its end to one of his other Orbs.
“…Phew. Ok, maybe I’ll keep two of you back here…” Alex said, looking at what had to be another ten worms working their way towards him. He squished another three as Ruby killed two more and Emerald continued to heal his wrist.
“H…how many more V.V?” Alex said, starting to the exhaustion setting in.
“Twenty-three, currently.”
“Twenty-three!? I thought you said seventeen earlier. I’ve killed… *stomp* at least… *stomp* fifteen.”
“Those were the only ones I could detect at the time. I currently detect… twenty-four.”
This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.
“There’s just no way this many worms were inside that turkey…” Alex said as he returned to fending off the wave of weak but persistent monsters.
“I have a theory. Would you like me to go over it with you?” V.V. said as Alex killed more and more parasites.
“I’m… *shllck* a little… *stomp* busy... *stomp*.”
“Hmm… Some other time perhaps?”
“Sure! *stomp*” Alex said, full of sarcasm but he doubted V.V. picked up on it as he killed yet another wiggling nightmare.
Only a few minutes had past, and Alex had killed at least thirty worms, and they were still coming. At this point, he felt that he was stepping on the worms’ corpses more than he was ground, and it was starting to mess with his footing. He tried to push the slimy things to either side of him as best as he could but there was only so much space in his narrow alley. More flying teeth came at him, and he met them with his own still somewhat sharp fang. After so many encounters with the slimy, slightly acidic flesh and blood of these monsters, his fang was really taking a beating.
“Uh oh.” V.V. spoke in a somewhat cutesy type of way, which never ever made Alex feel any good emotions. The little silver ball liked to try and be cute when serious shit was happening in order to lighten the severity of the situation. Alex felt that it only enhanced his sense of dread of what was to come.
“Just tell me what’s happening V.V.!” Alex said in a rush as he sliced and smashed more and more worms.
“There are two larger creature’s that have come into range. They seem to be going after the worms that are coming after us.”
“…This sucks… *stomp* so freaking much…”
The worm slaughter continued until a shadow covered the opening that they had made into the forest. In the dim light of the moon, Alex couldn’t make out what the new monster was for a moment until it poked its head in.
“Oh, holy shit! It’s a wolf!” Alex yelled directly at the monster that was standing opposite him with a dead worm hanging out of its mouth. His heart was already hammering before the newcomer had arrived but now it was full on palpitations.
“That is in fact, a skunk, part of the Mephitis genus.” V.V.’s calm explanation came to Alex’s ears right before the skunk opened its maw and roared. In reality it was more of a hiss, but his eardrums didn’t know the difference. The sound was directed directly at Alex and was extremely loud and terrifying. Nowhere to run, he squared up against this new foe with as much confidence as he could muster.
I will remove this bold text after a few days. This is here to let people who read the first half of this chapter find the second part a bit easier.
Wolf or Skunk didn’t matter in that moment to Alex. He was facing down an enormous wolf-sized animal with very sharp teeth. In Alex’s defense, a giant skunk could easily pass for a wolf in the dark, surely. Worms continued to crawl towards Alex and there were even several attached to the wol…skunk in several different areas. Not knowing what else to do, Alex readied himself for a charge directly into the monster. Right as he made to launch himself forward, something strange happened. Multiple colors started to swirl around Alex in fog-like waves. Red, Green and Blue mist was slowly floating around him for only a moment before it rushed into him, causing him to lurch back to avoid what he assumed must be some crazy skunk spray attack.
“What the..!” Alex yelled as he was hit by the colorful display. He was caught off-guard yet again by what happened next.
Boost Attack – Duration 5 minutes
Boost Defense – Duration 5 minutes
Boost Speed – Duration 5 minutes
“Oh shit! I totally forgot you could do that Sapphire!” Alex exclaimed, his fear warping immediately to jubilation as he felt his body being enhanced by his companions’ boost skills. The little Orb had taken a moment out of its deforestation duties to buff Alex and had already gone back to clearing more of the dense brush. The buffing had only taken a moment but the skunk had already squeezed it’s large body into the pathway and was ripping out shrubbery to make room for its rather rotund body. Alex once more prepared to charge forward, only to once more be stunned as something whizzed by his head and directly into the snout of the skunk.
Zwoom! Thwack! Graaaa!
Alex watched as the skunk was hit by what he could now see as a large marble. “The Combat Marble! Nice, V.V!” Alex yelled back to his companion who had not even taken a moment to stop their clearing duties.
“Combat Orblet, Alex.” V.V. corrected without so much as pausing in her deforestation conquest.
“Tomato, tomato, V.V!” Alex yelled as he finally charged towards the skunk.
“If you were to spell out what you just said, it would make no sense.”
“Good thing we’re talking out loud then!” Alex yelled back just as he stabbed his fanged dagger into the skunk’s muzzle.
The skunk hissed in pain and anger at Alex’s attack. Before it could retaliate, however, it was hit again by Ruby’s flaming body to the side of its head. Alex had to pull away from the monster as its sharp maw snapped at him. The skunk’s body was too large to maneuver through the extremely dense foliage in any reasonable direction. Its choices consisted of slightly forward or slightly backward steps. Had the creature been a bit more intelligent, it may have decided to do everything it could to back out of the death trap it had put itself into. The skunk was fortunately not very smart.
Another flaming bonk from Ruby came down on top of the skunk’s head. Hit after hit landed on the monster’s jaw, head and neck from the tiny Combat Orblet. Powerful but somewhat dull knife strikes continued to land on any soft part Alex could reach. Even though the creature was being wailed on from multiple angles, it continued to snap relentlessly at Alex, hoping that the next bite would yield delicious flesh. It never came though; after Alex felt that his arms were finally going to fully detach and fall off, the skunk fell instead.
Panting and exhausted beyond anything he’d felt so far, Alex slumped against the head of the fallen monster. He wouldn’t have dreamt of doing so if not for the message that had popped into his field of view after his final stab into the animal’s skull.
System Alert.
Combat initiated with Mana Infused Hookworm Level 1 x 47.
Combat initiated with Mana Engorged Striped Skunk Level 14 x 1.
Combat finished. User defeated 47 Mana Infused Hookworm Level 1.
Combat finished. User defeated 1 Mana Engorged Striped Skunk Level 14.
System experience has been acquired.
System rewards are awaiting retrieval.
Alex breathed heavily as he read over the new message. He looked behind him at the sea of dead worms and watched as the Combat Orblet and Ruby smashed a few that were still twitching. The dead monster was still warm and leaning against it was more comfortable than Alex would ever admit to anyone. He tried to fight off his tiredness, but he was so damn tired and he’d beaten all the monsters hadn’t he? It was time for a well-deserved nap as far as he was concerned.
Bonk!
“Alex, now is not the time to sleep! The other creature that I detected is still on the other side of this plump skunk. It is currently preoccupied while it consumes the parasites but once it has finished, it will come for you. The way forward is almost cleared, loot and join us at the rear.” V.V. spoke to Alex as if they were floating right beside him but instead it was the little Combat Orblet that V.V. spoke through. It was also the cause of the knot that was quickly growing on Alex’s head.
“Uuuuuuuug…” Alex complained as he slowly pushed himself off of the extremely comfortable fur pillow that he’d just made for himself. He looted the skunk before trudging towards the back of the path. V.V. and the others had made quick work of the woods. Although the battle felt like it had lasted hours; in reality it had only lasted a few minutes at most. The makeshift tunnel they had created went back almost one-hundred feet at this point and they were still clearing even more. As Alex moved over the squishy death field and looted the little monsters with his feet instead of his hands.
“…That’s convenient.” Alex said to himself as tiny loot notifications popped up as he walked. Ruby was still diving into the corpses as Alex moved past and he got another small surprise. A new full-sized window appeared in front of his face.
Temporary Loot Holdings – Ruby
Parasitic Sac – x19
Goopy Membrane – x7
Sharp Denticle – x63
Tiny Mana Shard – x12
“Temporary Loot Holdings?” Alex asked to himself as he continued to walk towards V.V.
“V.V, what’ a…”
“Your Orbs can loot for you and if they’re not right beside you, the loot will be held in a temporary sub-space. As they don’t have storage spaces of their own, they must maintain this space with Mana. If they run out of Mana, the items will be ejected.” V.V. answered Alex’s question with her customary nonchalant way of speaking.
“You heard me from way over there?” Alex asked, eyebrow raised.
“Hmm? Heard what?”
“My question about Temporary Loot Holdings.”
“Ah, I didn’t hear you say that.”
“But you answered my question.”
“Did I? Interesting. I was just informing you of something that your Orbs are capable of doing.”
“Uh, the timing… Whatever. Just add it to the pile of questions for some other time. How far until the clearing?” Alex asked and started to try to help cut and pull as much shrubbery as his noodle arms could muster.