The Necretized Amphibian took a shuddering step forward, even while its tadpole body began to inflate. I could feel the horrible grinding of its joints as its right foreleg was the first epicenter of expansion, the shoulder swelling as necrotic energy and bile flooded the joint.
Simultaneously, a little bump formed on the shoulder. In the next instant, it curved out into a vicious horn. I didn’t need Innate Mana Attunement to tell me that the necrotic energy around the monster experienced a metamorphosis; the cloying, clinging essence that corroded flesh shifted into another gear. The presence of necrotic energy still irritated the surrounding flesh, but the effect now included an invigorating, transformative element.
The energy went from acid to steroids. But I had a sickened feeling that, when the boost wore off, the result would appear similar.
The amphibian took another step forward, its body lopsided as its right foreleg began to twist into a very non-frog claw. Its body had fattened so you could no longer see the bulge of the swallowed River Opal in its stomach.
Yet this was a distraction. I focused on the physical to avoid a bitter truth: the necrotic energy in this being was mine.
A fleshy tongue rolled out of the tadpole’s half-open mouth. It hit the mud and the tadpole didn’t even react. On its next shuddering step, the monster just dragged the appendage forward.
I thought about the casual attribution of blame from the Kamis. I thought about left head’s wild glee at my ignorance. My squirrel hands clenched.
My own previous self-righteousness, including my soapbox about being falsely blamed for the plague, paraded itself before me. My stance was a grotesque caricature of true justice, in hindsight. My thought palace, of my actions in this second life being that of pure builder, was invaded and conquered by an unforgiving reality.
The pieces clicked together. I recalled a detail: After defeating the tortoise and achieving my evolution, I had been delirious with pain. But during one of my brief respites from the agony of the First Growth Threshold… I had vomited out a hunk of blackness.
The central head’s heavy gaze flashed to the forefront of my mind. “Remember, every choice creates ripples. You cannot escape them.”
My heart was in emotional turmoil. However-
You are a phoenix, Tallum; you endured even a brain aneurysm and discovered leisure. I gave myself a quick pep talk, even as I gathered my legs beneath me. But you are committing a cardinal sin right now! This isn’t a cut scene, this is real life; you don’t just let the foe complete their transformation. Worry about hypocrisy later.
Yet even as I prepared for a Minor Realm Step, the ground next to the amphibian erupted. Hydra Nightshade shot forward, thrusting with the heron head. The amphibian hissed and blocked the stab with its transformed right leg, which continued to twist and toughen until it more closely resembled the arm of a komodo dragon than a toad.
The array in the heron head activated as the beak pierced into flesh. With a pop, the clawed hand was obliterated. Nightshade swaggered forward, panting and swinging his squirrel-head totem.
As expected from a former Maou. You cannot simply allow foes to… My thoughts stuttered, like a record player needle failing to find a record. My eyes narrowed Wait a second. Nightshade wouldn’t do something so practical-
“Nightshade!” Sage crashed down next to the melee. The exploded hand meant the monster slipped in the mud, but its torso thickened with scales, resisting most of Nightshade’s squirrel bites. Sage’s new dragonfly tails flashed forward; each executed an immaculate glittering slash, which severed the achilles tendons in the amphibian’s back legs. “You attacked before it had assumed a new form… from whence did this uncharacteristic behavior spring? Have you no sense of pride?!”
“Indeed,” Nightshade sighed, even while activating one of his Skill’s to empower the flesh of one of his serpent heads. It shot forward and smashed aside the amphibian’s left foreleg, which had caught up to become a komodo claw. “Under normal circumstances, a trial by combat would bring me great satisfaction. Yet… when comparing the passion of the flesh with the gratification of familial bonds…”
“Ah, indeed. Brother Tallum’s stress levels are already alarming…” Sage agreed. Both of my siblings looked at me with pity in their eyes. I opened my mouth to deny it-
I paused. No, wait. Why should I apologize for being smart? Fantasy setting, I won’t fall for your tricks!
The Necretized Amphibian shrieked, dragging all our attention back to our current problem. Sage clicked her tongue and raised her tails to execute one of her tailed moves, but the Amphibian shoved a huge influx of necrotic energy into its back legs. Those limbs swelled and then exploded in a destructive blast of gore that coated Sage’s front.
It also tossed the Amphibian a short distance away, where it bounced off the edge of the gecko’s new foundation and skidded into a murky puddle.
I pivoted and looked at the gecko King and Queen, who had been watching these sudden developments with gaping jaws. My emotions might be turbulent, allowing them to distract me now would be a mistake. “Can you-” I paused in my speech to conjure a clay bolt and shoot it, smashing the Gecko Princess’s feet out from under her as she tried to scramble away. She hit the ground with a whimper, likely aggravating her shattered ribs. “-watch her, so she doesn’t use this opportunity to escape?”
The Queen sniffed. “Nothing would give me more pleasure. You fool girl, why must you always resist our efforts to better your life. Imagine; living here in this picturesque portion of the wetlands for the rest of your days, pumping out brood after brood of eggs…”
I felt a shiver run down my spine, but ignored the princess’s wail; she had worn out my empathy by stealing the Mantles. I kicked off the ground, activating Minor Realm Step and crossing the distance to the puddle. Nightshade and Sage crashed down on the other sides, sealing the amphibian’s escape.
It erupted out of the water, raw flesh twisting out of the stumps of the forelegs. But this time, they came back long and spindly, twisted like the branches of a dead tree. Its mouth had widened too, as it leveraged itself out of the water, so it could unleash a loud bellow-
Your Skill (Earned) Short-Term Prediction has grown to Level 25(+7).
Your Skill (Earned) Unnatural Adrenaline Rush has grown to Level 12.
I blinked and stepped to the side. A gout of black fire sizzled beside me. The attack only covered a short distance and only last a moment, but my skin prickled painfully from the heat. And Innate Mana Attunement made me very aware of all the energy inversions left in that attack’s wake.
Nightshade’s expression brightened. “I claim its head.”
“What crass peasant would covet such grotesqueries?” Sage muttered. Her tails flexed. “Three Tailed-”
“Chimera Siblings, I believe I have made the situation clear. Leave the plague progenitor to me.”
All three of us stilled. Part of it was the familiar voice, but the other part was the overflowing sense of Mana accompanying that voice. This was a world of power, so we pivoted and looked as Gymellicka hopped slowly out of the nearby reeds, her humanoid hands folded in front of her. My eyes stuck on the label above her head.
Seven Crowned Toad Lady Lvl 27
Two more Levels?
“Lady Gymellicka,” Nightshade found his voice first, sorrow in his tone. He turned to the Necretized Amphibian Zero, whose flesh continued to twist and thicken. It growled at us. “... I suppose your claim was made publicly and holds precedence. We will concede the kill to you.”
A strange smile played across Toad Lady’s face. Sage clicked her tongue but settled down from her stance with her tails extended. Beside us, the necretized amphibian howled, chastising us for ignoring it. And perhaps because I was combing through my history, reprimanding my failure to see how all this was my fault. I recalled Lady Gymellicka’s words when we had met at the Kami meeting.
“Obviously, I have been aware of the influence of the Chimera Cores… but to my surprise, I have found them to be an immense gift, even if a heavy one. I would like to extend my welcome to you who have washed up on these shores. It is not an easy thing to change fate.”
Looking at her small smile, it occurred to me that the fate she was talking about wasn’t her own.
I straightened. “...you aren’t going to kill it, are you?”
My siblings felt the hum of my jelly. My unwillingness reached them. They pivoted to examine the first being that had crossed the Second Growth Threshold in the wetlands.
If anything, the strange smile on Lady Gymellicka’s face deepened. “Chosen Tallum, I believe that is none of your concern.”
“Of course, it’s my concern,” I trembled, a little bit of that same old frustration leaking out. It was galling that this… thing had taken the necrotic energy I had expelled and caused so much harm with it. This is what I deserved, for not sparing a thought for the biological contaminants I dumped into the environment. “You… how many chances have you had to eliminate this threat? And you haven’t taken it.”
“It is my child; one of many, but this one… it reminds me too much of my own youth, struggling to escape the shackles of this world.” Gymellicka’s eyes blazed. Her dense Mana swirled around her body, half a humanoid on top of a toad base. “I must chide you, Chosen. Why are you behaving in this manner? Is not this proof of your usefulness? This child is exactly the effect you have on the wetlands.”
“It is not,” I spat out the words.
“It is. Would the Kami have allowed your existence if you could not distort its own bindings?” The Seven Crowned Toad Lady shrugged. “This is what you are. You play at building, yet that is just for your own vanity. What you do is corrode the natural order of things. You seem to believe this is a negative, but I would heap any amount of praise at your feet for this accomplishment! The role of necrotic energy is exactly that perversion. And why are you so ashamed? The natural order should be destroyed. It is cold, calculative… a broken System leftover from an ancient struggle.”
Your Skill (Earned) Unnatural Adrenaline Rush has grown to Level 13.
Your Skill (Earned) Unnatural Adrenaline Rush has grown to Level 14.
I looked at Gymellicka the Seven-Crowned Toad Lady. The gears of my mind clanged forward, more and more quickly. I felt the same sort of inflection point I had found in the Old Oaks domain. My decision here would change the course of the development of the wetlands.
Suddenly, I recalled the heaviness in my three-headed duck Kami’s gaze. Because ripples were not just effects sent out into the world; those ripples would encounter obstacles and be reflected back at you. You sourced them, but that never meant that you would always control them.
Sometimes, the tide flowing against you would be of your own making. That was life.
I could concede to the Level 27 Toad Lady in front of me. We could pass this monstrosity over to her, knowing that it would soon cross its own Second Growth Threshold and likely experience a boost in power. At that point, it seemed almost inevitable that it would escape again and cause havoc.
My Skill burned in my core array, struggling to keep up with my accelerating thoughts and due to the fact it was pushed beyond its limits of ‘short-term’. Yet even as my headache intensified, I did not cease. I looked, as frankly and honestly as possible, at what was to come.
Your Skill (Earned) Unnatural Adrenaline Rush has grown to Level 15.
Your Skill (Earned) Unnatural Adrenaline Rush has grown to Level 16.
Yet the damage this Amphibian Zero could cause was almost secondary. Because if I said yes here, I would be implicitly agreeing to Gymellicka’s other proposition; that this was our role in the wetlands. To corrupt and corrode, so the old ways to be subverted.
I would be agreeing… that my building was just play.
Even thinking the word pissed me off.
Your Skill (Earned) Unnatural Adrenaline Rush has grown to Level 17.
All the heat in my chest crystallized. I knew I should be hesitating, because of the consequences of refusing her, yet I stood next to my two siblings. Their inner jelly resonated with mine. We were three strange souls thrown together due to circumstance, who found each other in a perilous situation. But because of the uniqueness of our origins, the resulting bond became that much more valuable.
And I would be damned if I let anything but that inexplicable bond be the legacy of the Chimera Core Siblings.
“No,” I said.
Nightshade heads grinned in anticipation. His jelly communication preened. See, sister? Why quibble over a weaker prize… when Brother Tallum always guides us to the highest of endeavors.
Such commendable bloodlust, Sage giggled.
Gymellicka looked at me in confusion. “I do not understand, Chosen. What do you mean, ‘No’? Your humor is beyond me… and although I do not enjoy baring a threat… if you do not respect my claim, I will kill you.”
Her tone was almost reasonable. Like a teacher lecturing an errant pupil.
Sage cackled. “Will you, though?”
A split second too late, the Seven-Crowned Toad Lady finally realized what our bright gazes meant. But by then, I was already turning away. My beaver toes squelched in mud as my thighs exploded.
Your Skill (Earned) Minor Realm Step has grown to Level 19.
Your Skill (Earned) Innate Mana Attunement has grown to Level 21.
Your Skill (Earned) Minor Realm Step has grown to Level 20.
I moved with the whole of my focus, slamming my Mana array against existence as I shot forward. During our short talk, Necretized Amphibian Zero has morphed into a completely different existence: far from a half-grown, bloated tadpole, it had blossomed into a black-scaled reptile, horned and evil. Those scales seemed dense enough that even my Stained Fang couldn’t pierce them.
Yet I had studied the ill effects on flesh of necrotic energy these past few days. And although this energizing version of necrotic energy had more… positive aspects, the glaring weaknesses hadn’t vanished.
The distance was short: the necrotic monster couldn’t even respond before I slammed against it. Yet on impact, it wasn’t just flesh. I kept a firm grip on my Mana density… and punched with it in the same manner on impact.
Your Skill (Earned) Innate Mana Attunement has grown to Level 22.
If I spat out little sparks of torn Mana while launching, we blazed with the shredded Mana as our forms crashed together. Which was exactly what I was aiming for.
Your Skill (Earned) Unnatural Adrenaline Rush has grown to Level 18.
Your Skill (Earned) Innate Mana Attunement has grown to Level 23.
My mind blazed with clarity. It was almost as though the headache had stripped away all extra thoughts, leaving me only with a self-focused on efficacy. I reached out and grasped those disparate flames of Mana friction and stuffed them into the necrotic construct in front of me. The friction exploded randomly, empowering and destroying the energy array at the core of the monster in equal measure.
As those wild energies ravaged back and forth, I felt the loose and rotting bindings between the necrotic seed it had absorbed and its body break. It looked at me. Its eyes softened as the rage disappeared. It looked exhausted.
Your Skill (Language) Bestial Comprehension has grown to Level MAX(+5).
The monster exploded in a rush of Mana and necrotic energy, as flesh no longer kept it bound.
How’s that for shattering shackles?
A few notifications popped up as I resisted Rage and Madness Statuses, but I could barely focus on them. Of course, immediately after the dramatic event, all of my clarity deserted me; I could barely remain standing. Trembling with weakness, I used my squirrel hands to wipe rotten amphibian (probably) guts from my face. I looked down and saw a large crystal sitting in the remnant flesh.
Stained River Opal: A powerful necrotic reagent that has gone through refinement. Although the energies that birthed the original material remain, they have been twisted by the chaotic enhancement methods. Will slowly influence the environment around it. Can be absorbed.
“What… have you done? My child…!”
My skin prickled. I raised my gaze. The Seven Crowned Toad Lady seethed. Her eyes had widened, but the air around them distorted. Her green skin shimmered; where I had to slam my own Mana against existence, her anger was enough to warp reality.
Her rage scratched against my skin, an insistent promise.
She leaned forward and even then, she was double again as tall as any of us Chimera Cores. She cast a long shadow in the wetlands with her height, but it was the bulk of her toad lower body that was truly oppressive. Tears streamed down her green cheeks. “You will regret this. All three of you will die here. And you, Chosen, will die last. So you can suffer through the sight of your intimates popped before your very eyes.”
“Ah, perhaps you are right, Nightshade,” Sage said airly, ignoring the ominous power of the foe. “Following Brother Tallum pays dividends. How else could I hear such adorable threats?”
Gymellicka snorted and kicked off the ground. Sage flared out her tails and released a keening warcry. Nightshade’s head’s already swelled. His last remaining serpent head expanded to three times its original size, so it was roughly half the size of our Level 27 foe. Its maw opened wide and it bit-
Gymellicka kicked sideways, avoiding the snake. She landed near to the gecko’s foundations and kicked back toward us; the force of her kick threw up a wave of mud and collapsed the little construction the geckos had just finished. Those last few scaled observers who had been lingering around cried out in alarm and hurried to hide amongst the reeds.
I received a mental tug from the spiderlings, asking if I needed help, but I urged them to stay away; until I understood the threat of Gymellicka, I didn’t want them to come near.
The Seven-Horned Toad Lady seemed to glide through the mud even as she moved almost too fast for me to follow. She shifted slightly, feinting and drawing out another massive bite from Nightshade; it seemed she understood that he could only maintain the expanded flesh for a short amount of time.
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Unfortunately for me, her new adjusted vector was directly toward me.
Always with the ripples, I scowled, even as I conjured up a clay bolt and shot it toward Gymellicka’s weirdly human face. It shouldn’t matter, but her obvious sorrow and grief still gave me the slightest pause.
My clay bolt zipped forward. Yet the dense Mana that the Toad Lady exuded acted as a protective rind. The projectile neared and the shimmering energy intensified. To my immense horror, it slowed mid-air, as though caught in a forcefield. Gymellicka calmly inclined her head to the side and the sluggish hunk of clay slunk past.
“Three Tailed… Reaping.”
Your Skill (Earned) Detection has grown to Level 25(+31).
Sage scythed forward. But she impacted the Mana too. Her horrible (and beautiful) attack crashed against the barrier of Mana around Gymellicka and morphed from vicious to mundane. Even worse, the Horned Lady raised one of her massive legs and blocked the swiping tails. The combination of the natural Mana barrier and the thick, Level 27 skin meant that Sage’s reaping failed to inflict any damage.
Sage clung to the blocking leg, looking at her target in shock. Gymellicka smirked. “Do you finally understand your folly? To reach beyond the First Growth Threshold is improbable. But the Second? My life exists on a higher order than yours, blightspawn.”
Belatedly, my sister realized the danger and kicked away from the Toad Lady, but the giant Lady’s leg twisted and caught her with the foot joint. Gymellicka kicked down, slamming Sage into the ground.
Nightshade roared and charged at her back, the giant serpent biting even as I saw the scales begin to rot from the end of his Skill. Gymellicka pivoted smoothly and drew a circle in the air with her palm. Her action burned a hoop of Mana into existence. When the serpent head bit into the hoop, its skin began to flake and burn. All at once, the head collapsed and disintegrated into bits of flesh.
With burning eyes, Gymellicka stepped over Nightshade. But my body had finally obey me; I knocked him in the side to send him stumbling out of the way and raised my beaver tail. I activated my newly acquired (Temp) Skill-
Your Skill (Temp) Armored Deflection has grown to Level 2.
Your Skill (Temp) Armored Deflection has grown to Level 3.
Your Skill (Temp) Armored Deflection has grown to Level 4.
Well, shit, Even with three Levels at once, I barely managed to nudge the attack to the side. And when that stomp came down, the mud next to me seemed to evaporate: I took 8 damage just from the impact.
And as I was lowering my tail to counter-attack-
Your Skill (Earned) Short-Term Prediction has grown to Level 25(+8).
Quicker than I could react, even with the Skill activation, Gymellicka smashed me like a fourth-grader aiming for a kickball home run.
For a short stretch, I think I went unconscious; the momentum, pain, and abrupt acceleration were too much. I reunited with reality when I was obliterating an unfortunate cluster of reeds and drilling through the left side of the spiderlings web zone. Even dragging several pounds of webbing with me, it was still several meters before my momentum petered out.
Not to be a parrot… but well, shit. I looked at the top of my Status Screen, not liking my shuddering flesh or the sharp pain I felt in my internal organs.
Health: 219/305
Mana: 307/339
I had plenty of Mana, but the direct kick had cut away at least 80 Health. I had two more of those impacts in me, at best, and the fight had essentially just started.
I released a pulse from the depths of my jelly, checking in on my siblings. From the humming response from Nightshade, he was attempting to avenge the kick on me and taking his turn at being thwacked. Sage pulsed back, indicating her safety. But more than that, I felt a rising excitement from Sage.
Finally, her jelly shivered in anticipation. I couldn’t help but roll my eyes. Why was I surrounded by such insane companions?
Yet my jelly began to tremble as some of that infectious excitement percolated in my own core. Although I wanted to live this life purposefully… I had learned that you couldn’t live that way all the time. Sometimes, it was better to just toss your hands up in the air and throw all your unreasonability at the problem in front of you.
Ripples be damned, I want to win. I thought as spiderlings marched out of the destroyed web area around me. They used their delicate legs to extricate the threads of silk from me, allowing me to shake myself and hurry back to the fight, even as my bruised flesh knitted itself back together.
Your Skill (Species) Interstitial Body Structure has grown to Level 34.
Your Skill (Species) Interstitial Body Structure has grown to Level 35.
I skidded to a stop right as I exited the web zone, narrowly avoiding Nightshade as he was spiked to the ground. After squirming a bit, he righted himself. He didn’t bother to wipe the mud off his heads as he pivoted around and glared back toward Gymellicka.
The Seven-Crowned Toad Lady stood in the middle of a completely devastated area. While I had been demolishing a fourth of the webzone, the rest of the gecko’s construction had been leveled. We stood in a wide bowl of mud, all three Chimera Cores covered in gunk while our foe waited calmly in the center.
Gymellicka clicked her tongue. “Heh, who knew I would relish this opportunity as much as I am? It’s those eyes, I think. They burn with the belief that you can change fate freely, as you will it. And yet that is a delusion; your own weapon against this world’s order is your necrotic perversion. Otherwise, you are little more than scavengers. But I suppose everyone has their vanity.”
Meanwhile, our jellies vibrated back in forth.
Ideas?
Bite her.
Cut the tailless freak to pieces.
I sighed but didn’t disagree. I straightened my shoulders. Alright, let’s go with those ideas. Because once she begins to bleed-
The Chimera Cores grinned in unison. The second phase of the fight began.
This time, we took the offensive, while Gymellicka waited for us in the middle of the muddy arena. Nightshade rumbled forward, carrying with him a reliable surge of momentum. My own thighs propelled me forward with short hops. Sage lurked behind, watching the Toad Lady for weaknesses.
Your Skill (Earned) Innate Mana Attunement has grown to Level 24.
I get it, I get it. Weaknesses will be few and far between. I thought as I eyed the Mana barrier around our foe. Yet I still felt confident. Despite Gymellicak’s words. Despite her Level advantage. Because that was the certainty that these siblings provided for me.
Because together, we could create miracles.
I knew he meant business when Nightshade surged forward, because his squirrelhead totem arm was the target of his swelling Skill this time. Not only did the base flesh expand, but the connection point between it and the individual heads stretched into elongated necks. The squirrel heads curled and twisted away, even as they bared their bloody teeth, almost like an abominable interpretation of a hand.
Gymellicka’s hands flowed through a series of hoops, creating defensive Mana barriers that repulsed each of the swollen squirrel heads. But then she stepped forward, into the ‘grip’ of Nightshade’s squirrel hand. Arrogance rolled off of her choice, but with the Mana barrier it was hard to criticize. The Toad Lady leaned forward, one of her humanoid arms pivoting back into a cocked position, preparing to stab her fingers down into Nightshade’s flesh.
I hopped onto his back, even as I braced myself for another impact. My skin burned; for the first time, I could feel the adverse effect of that dense Mana that surrounded Gymellicka’s body. My whole body felt wrung out and heavy. If anything, I just felt a profound respect for Sage, who had managed to achieve any sort of attack while under the influence of this.
Gymellicka’s eyes dug into me as her hand carved toward Nightshade. “You will not be able to stop me.”
She stabbed. I deflected.
Your Skill (Earned) Unnatural Adrenaline Rush has grown to Level 19.
Your Skill (Earned) Short-Term Prediction has grown to Level 25(+9).
Your Skill (Earned) Body Manipulation has grown to Level 25(+25).
All the related Skills fired, struggling against the blanket of Mana that Gymellicka’s presence draped over me. I forced my body to move. My beaver tail swung around. I felt like I had to physically scoop the Mana and force it away.
Yet I did. Because to do otherwise would have let my brother down. His squirrelheads bit with every bit of rabid energy they could muster, completely ignoring defense. Because I had his back and he had absolute faith in me.
Your Skill (Temp) Armored Deflection has grown to Level 5.
…
Your Skill (Temp) Armored Deflection has grown to Level 11.
Warning! Your body part Armored Tail of the Husky Damn Builder has taken damage! If the body part is damaged further, it may be lost.
Despite the immaculate timing of the deflection, the Horned Lady used raw force to ignore it; she carved a canyon into the surface of my ‘armored’ tail. I winced, noticing she had also taken 17 more Health for the privilege of those six Skill Levels.
Yet Nightshade had restricted her mobility and I had defended the counterattack. So-
“Six-Tailed-” Sage drifted into the air, a Skyrage in her elements. Her eyes were cruel as they fixated on Gymellicka.
“Seven Jewels,” Gymellicka said easily. The seven tips at the top of her humanoid head, the seven points of her crown, glowed with power. A small star drifted up from each of them. And then-
The stars became lances, piercing up toward Sage’s immobile form in the air.
Sage grimaced. “Two-Tailed Waltz.”
Her tails flicked back and forth. Hyperfast, she spun and pivoted, attempting to dodge the volley of shots from Gymellicka. But as I watched, I saw both the flesh of her torso and that of several tails burn and wither; the powerful Mana of the Toady Lady meant that the attacks just had to be near Sage to inflict harm.
Most worryingly, considering what I had learned about the effect of dense Mana on Chimera Cores from confronting Old Oak, one of the stars did pierce directly through Sage’s side.
Yet she tumbled down, smoldering and torn, but very much alive from her hisses of indignation. Beneath me, Nightshade forced his way forward. I rode him deeper into the Mana layer around this Level 27 being. My muscles trembled from the pressure. Yet how could I flinch, when Nightshade’s squirrel heads finally began gnawing directly on Gymellicka’s slimy skin?
I tensed, preparing to sacrifice my tail to defend Nightshade from the next stab. Gymellicka pivoted and looked at me. Yet all I saw in her eyes was meanness. “Seven Jewels.”
Her crown lit up again. Those stars drifted upward. Then they spiked down-
Again at Sage, who panted in the mud.
Your Skill (Earned) Unnatural Adrenaline Rush has grown to Level 20.
For a brief second, a bleak gulf opened in my heart. My awareness of being a Chimera Core, of standing on Nightshade’s back, of being covered in mud fell away. All I saw was Mimi, her body ravaged by a fungal infection, kept alive via tubes in the bare hospital room.
My heart darkened. I won’t let-
Tallum. Sage’s jelly woke me, right before something terrible and not-at-all leisurely woke within me. Trust me. I’ve got this.
I wasn’t sure if it was the stress, the tension, or the lingering effects of my Unnatural Adrenaline Rush, but I stood on the precipice as if time around me had gone still. I could have lingered there as long as I wished, choosing between two options. One, I could accept Sage’s words. I could focus on my own struggle against Gymellicka. Yet the second option was almost easier: I could give in to my own panic and lash out, trying to help Sage.
My energy sonar hummed. I felt Sage’s weakness, saw that gaping, smoking hole made in her side by the first strike. I wanted to believe her, that she would be okay.
Yet fear whispered in my ear. Could I survive if she was wrong?
Trust me! Sage vibrated again, this time with more exasperation as she felt the conflict in my own jelly.
I wanted to. Yet my fear was an enormous thing, capable of engulfing me completely.
Yet if I cannot master fear, I am doomed to repeat my past life, I grimaced. I remembered the feeling of suffocation as I died on my computer, bitter and alone. I released a breath.
Then I leaned forward, my squirrel hands flicking through handseals. To my amusement, those seals distorted the thick barrier of Mana around the Seven-Crowned Toad Lady just slightly. Nightshade roared and gnawed forward, forcing his way until we pressed against Gymellicka. I raised my Stained Fang--
I still flinched when those burning stars shot down toward Sage. Yet I didn’t panic and abandon my position. I released some poison secretions and spread them across my Stained Fang.
“Three-Tailed… Reaping.”
Sage’s tails swirled around her, thick serpent tails, squirrel tails, bird wings, and dragonfly wings all spinning together to obscure her body. Then she blossomed like a rose. Her tails became a blade that parted the world-- but rather than up toward the star lances, she ‘reaped’ sideways, sundering a stretch of mud into a wide avenue.
Her tails then acted like spider legs, adjusting her vector, so despite her speed, she cut back and forth as those horrible burning attacks shrieked around her. And through it all, my sister moved with an impossible grace.
Your Skill (Earned) Innate Mana Attunement has grown to Level 25.
My senses fed me the details of Sage’s hyper-quick reactions. Perhaps so many Unnatural Adrenaline Rushes had given me an extra edge, because I witnessed with the utmost clarity the way Sage could truly dance with existence. Her body and Mana pivoted as one, twisting and shifting just in the short distance of herself, giving her an extra edge in avoiding.
Gymellicka’s Seven Jewels seared the mud, resulting in smoking craters. Yet Sage skipped past it, cackling. Finally the Seven-Crowned Toad Lady shifted. Her lip curled. “This farce has proceeded for long enough.”
Her hand snapped forward toward Nightshade’s neck. But I had been waiting for another attempt like this; my armored tail swung forward.
Your Skill (Temp) Armored Deflection has grown to Level 12.
Your Skill (Temp) Armored Deflection has grown to Level 13.
I smacked against the hand… and barely managed to slow it down. But all those (Temp) Levels were starting to add up. Just the little impact gave Nightshade enough time to shift back. While those squirrel heads continued their gnawing, an alligator head swelled and exploded up to meet that hand.
I had to press my belly against Nightshade’s back, so the titanic impact didn’t knock me off my purchase. For the moment, the two attacks ended in a grinding, flesh-tearing draw. Leaning forward, I stabbed with my Stained Fang. The toad’s thick skin meant that my attack just skittered to the side. I cursed when my poison didn’t take.
Then two things happened simultaneously.
First, Gymellicka’s hand ripped off the bottom of the alligator’s jaw, continuing its trajectory down toward Nightshade.
Second, Sage landed next to me. Her tails slithered forward and grabbed my waist. “Brother Tallum, we will immobilize this harlot! Wield heaven’s judgment!”
“What-”
Before I could respond, Sage flung me into the air.
My skin tingled as awareness and capability surged through me; I hadn’t realized how much the dense layer of Mana wrapped around our foe affected me until I left. Now I had even more respect for Nightshade, who bulldozed through it for so long.
Yet confusion filled me as I tumbled, trying to get my bearings. I pivoted around and saw the tableau below: Sage and Nightshade stacked on top of each other, still shorter in height than the monstrous being past the Second Growth Threshold. Tails and heads extended to bind Gymellicka’s limbs. Meanwhile, the Crowned Toad Lady glanced up at me, slightly wary.
…which is all well and good, but how do I- I wondered, but I felt the vibrations from my siblings. I understood my sister’s plan.
This was the same ploy Sage used against Old Oak. Emphasizing how important I was, so the enemy made the wrong decision. My heart fluttered in worry as I realized how depleted I would be after this, but again I forced myself to resist collapsing underneath the weight of my fear. I trusted Nightshade and Sage.
I sucked in a breath. I felt the air. I did my best to ignore the pounding headache, the remnant hangover from too many Unnatural Adrenaline Rushes. Then, I began concentrating all my Mana.
Due to your actions, proficiency of Launch Clay +7!
Your Skill (Earned) Innate Mana Attunement has grown to Level 25(+1).
I conjured the first hunk of clay to throw next to my head, but then I kept dumping Mana into it. The flow of air around me became chaotic and I leaned into that. Using some still nascent sense, I shifted my array in an imitation of Sage. Now, I wasn’t seeking grace here; instead, I simply crashed myself back and forth, so I shredded some of the nearby flows of Mana.
Those, I blithely stuffed into the brown seed in front of me. Because I would need more than just clay to seem a legitimate threat to hurt a Level 27 Toad Lady.
Those little sparks of Mana buzzed and bubbled as I poured all my attention into the swelling orb of clay in front of me-
Due to your actions, you have attempted to learn the Skill (Earned) Torn Mana Enhancement. Warning, no Skill (Earned) Slots available.
A Notable Achievement: For your determination to fight against the Skill Limit, +25 Max Mana.
Due to Exalted’s Due, +10 Mana.
Your Skill (Earned) Exalted’s Due has grown to Level 17.
You have completed a Notable Quest: Reach a maximum Mana of 350 before Level 25 364/350. For accomplishing this Quest, +30 Maximum Mana, +5 Wisdom.
You have received a new Quest: Notable(x2): Push a single Stat to 50 before Level 25 (Wisdom): 55/50.
You have completed a Notable Quest: Push a single Stat to 50 before Level 25. (Wisdom): 55/50. For accomplish this Quest, all Skill Levels increase by 2! (For Skills (Earned) above Level 25, those Skills will become (+’s)).
Due to Exalted’s Due, +20 Mana.
You have received a new Quest: Notable(x3): Exceed your limits! Push your (+’s) to (+50). (+118) of (+50).
Your Skill (Earned) Unnatural Adrenaline Rush has grown to Level 23.
Seriously, notifications. Not now. I’m right in the middle of something. My senses began to fray. The clay in front of me was a seed, an egg, and then a soccer ball, and then large enough to squish a Chimera Core. My Mana drained out of me in a whooshing rush, yet just as quickly, more notifications flowed in and pushed my maximum Mana higher and higher.
You have completed a Notable Quest: (+’s) raised to (+118) of (+50). For accomplishing this quest, chance of a Skill mutation has increased while experiencing the Second Growth Threshold.
Due to Exalted’s Due, Malignance and Insight +5.
Your Skill (Earned) Exalted’s Due has grown to Level 20.
Your have received a new Quest: Notable(x4): Ascend higher! Push your (+’s) to (+100). (+118) of (+100).
You have completed a Notable Quest: (+’s) raised to (+118) of (+100). For accomplishing this quest, your highest Attribute +50. Mana +50.
Due to Exalted’s Due, Mana +35.
Uh, wait, this much Mana- My jelly trembled as I felt my internal array beginning to buck underneath the rapid influx of Mana. Perhaps the only reason the pain wasn’t worse was because I spent the Mana as quickly as it came in. The strange friction released by my two [Redacted]’s began sizzling my surrounding flesh.
Warning! Please Note: If your Maximum Mana rises beyond 500, your internal array will start to degrade. Current Max Mana: 489.
“Certainly impressive, but…” Gymellicka sniffed. She raised her hands. “Did you think I would simply allow you to hold me here?”
Gotcha.
Gotcha.
Gotcha… but seriously Chimeras. My Interstitial Flesh bubbled. Now I wasn’t even attempting to wiggle my array back and forth; the instability meant I was doing so naturally and the little Mana tears were everywhere. Even inside of my own body. I don’t know how much longer-
Tallum, Sage sighed. You are insufferably melodramatic when others serve as the jewel of the plot.
Brother Tallum, do you not cast the deepest shadow across us? Nightshade interjected via jello vibration, unhelpfully. Blotting out the sun, you are-
Due to your unique actions, proficiency of Launch Clay +13!
A spark of Mana discharge sizzled from my core array, causing me to twitch and lose focus. A side of my conjured Clay began to rapidly bulge, but a furious blast of concentration managed to keep the thing from just exploding in my face. The accumulated Mana tears within the clay meant that it wasn’t a bolt, but a ballistic missile. I don’t care about attribution, just-
While we Chimera Siblings bickered, Gymellicka shifted.
Mana roared in the area around her as she focused her energies. Her hands scythed back and forth, cutting through most of the stretched out squirrel heads. Even after extended opportunity, the teeth hadn’t managed to find purchase on the toad’s skin. They fell into the mud and rotted away.
Then she narrowed her eyes at Sage’s tails. She hacked through those with a bit more effort, but the difference in Mana Density was no joke. Sage’s flesh burned and, from the faltering in her jelly vibrations, she took significant damage. A pulse of wrath came from her as her precious tails fell to the ground. Nightshade?
Brother Tallum will bring down the curtain upon this foe. I am a humble messenger of the grey pilgrim-
The Horned Toad Lady hacked left and right. I twitched, barely able to control the mass of clay as my last dregs of Mana flowed into it. Before Sage could roar and tear my loyal brother to shreds, I tugged on the Blessing, finally ready to unleash it-- and found it almost too massive to move.
Usually, my Blessing propelled a bolt of clay forward. However, my ‘bolt’ had grown so large that the propeller was rendered irrelevant. I froze, hanging midair, feeling the mental strain spiking upward as I kept a grasp on the Blessing beyond the limit of my Mana.
Now, I could also trigger those Mana tears and explode the clay… essentially eradicating only myself, but at least then I would escape Sage’s wrath for the delay. My other easy option would be just to… drop the giant clay boulder, but that also-
I need to cut, I felt a strange sense of clarity come upon me. High in the sky, the wind seemed to whisper in my ear. The forefront of my mind came to be dominated by a picture of an entirely black sword. I hastily adjusted it to be brown, for accuracy. I just need to cut down-
Due to your continued actions, proficiency of Launch Clay +5!
An Interesting Achievement: For extracting an incredible amount of performance from a Blessing, +10 Mana.
If before my array had a live wire sparking around, now someone had dumped a conflagration onto me. I was a single Mana away from complete collapse. And before pain and stress made me lose focus, I threw that horrifically incendiary core array back and forth, in a pale and frantic imitation of Sage’s dancing combined with my current buzzing. My Mana hit the air and created horrific rifts of energy that burrowed into the side of my giant mudblast.
Keep the Mana tears I’ve already stuffed within… just carve the exterior to release it in a specific direction…
I released a breath, even as the wind moved through me. It felt cool on my skin, while my interior was aflame. I shivered, even as my mind somehow managed to juggle all those rifts, carving my clay into-
An enormous mahogany sword cut down. A sword of judgment, whose blade sparkles with Mana tears.
“You cretins, have you not listened?” Gymellicka almost sounded insulted. Her legs bulged as she prepared to hop to the side, but suddenly the air around her was thick with tail-limbs once more; all of Sage’s severed body parts healed and regrew. With her unique Skills, the encirclement snapped back into place. Her powerful tails tightened around Gymellicka’s body, while the Toad Lady goggled at her.
“You-” The Mana in the area shuddered as the Seven-Crowned Toad Lady ripped with all her might-- Sage’s tails frayed, but not completely. If anything this only incensed Gymellicka further. “You parasites! You are nothing! Seven Jewels-”
The brown sword sliced down, with me tumbling in its wake; I had completely released control. Small light drifted up from Gymellicka’s head, then spiked toward Sage. Sage raised her head and laughed. Cursing, the Toad Lady looked up and raised both hands. She drew rings of Mana in a last-ditch attempt to block me.
Three attacks happened in quick succession. All three landed.
I thought she had one more miracle waltz in her body, but she did not. Or she believed it wasn’t worth it. Sage didn’t dodge, she kept Gymellicka bound in place. The seven Mana-dense blasts from the Toad Lady burned seven holes through Sage’s flesh.
Meanwhile, our ace finally made his move. With Gymellicka’s attention on us, the toad didn’t notice that the last remaining squirrel ‘finger’ opened its mouth. From that throat rushed out the heron head, which had somehow crawled through Nightshade’s own flesh to disguise its attack, per the plan. The beak, burning with the small Mana Array, stabbed into Gymellicka’s back. Blood dribbled down the beak.
Then my sword crashed into Gymellicka’s defenses. The discs of Mana flashed with a brilliant light for a split second, then crumbled. The Mana tears ate through the barrier. The extra effect dimmed, but they had opened a path.
A tide of clay spiked down through Gymellicka’s left side and then exploded outward, obscuring the fates of the three individuals on the ground.