'... well, at least it's not a Goblin.'
It's not a rat either. Not exactly.
It looks like what you'd think of when you hear the phrase "disease infested vermin"; rat shaped, but with all the wrong proportions and unsightly wounds covering its skin. Makes you want to put it out of its misery.
'Looks like it thinks that too.' I tell myself as the one standing continues to ravage its fallen brethren. It's got a crazed look in its eyes, something I can only tell having been a rat myself.
From my perch on the ceiling I Disgorge venom tipped arrows and fire them in rapid succession. Two hit and two miss when the rat thrashes around in search for its attacker. The red tint enters my vision and I let it load to confirm my expectations.
Your attack[s] against a [Diseased Rat] was a success!
Piercing damage has decreased its health by [one (x2)] points! [10/12]
[Advantageous Attack] has increased the effectiveness of your attack and dealt an additional [One (x2)] Damage! [08/12]
Mana Flesh has empowered your attack and inflicted additional damage of [Two (x2)] points [04/12]
Notice: [Diseased Rat] has been poisoned for [one(x2)] point of damage per minute for three minutes!
Notice: [Diseased Rat]s health has been reduced by [two] points due to poison damage! [2/16]
'I had hoped that would be enough.' I think as I Disgorge another arrow. I known I could wait a minute for the poison to finish it, but that's a minute longer than I want it to suffer.
I take aim, waiting for the moment it jerks to face the opposite direction as it mindlessly seeks a target, then let the arrow fly. I almost miss this one, barely catching it in the shoulder, but that's enough.
Your attack against a [Diseased Rat] was a success!
Piercing damage has decreased its health by [one] point! [01/12]
Mana Flesh has empowered your attack and inflicted excessive damage of [Two] points, reducing its health to zero. [00/12]
Congratulations-You have defeated a strong foe!
You have gained [One] Victory Point!
'If this thing thought to look up, it probably would have tried to climb the wall to get me.' I absentmindedly consider as I move away from the bodies on the ceiling before lowering myself to the floor via thread.
Once down I shift my form, taking on that of the Fire Roach form and begin repeated use of the Stream attack, but choosing not to catch it on fire the first few times. Once i've coated a bit of the dead rats furs in the fluid I activate the fire Infusion on a final one to ignite the bodies.
'It may be a waste.' I think as I watch the fire spread over the bodies. 'There may have been a skill I could pick up from them, but I may have gotten infected with whatever they have instead, or something come along later and get infected. Better to burn them and be safe than not and be sorry.'
I maintain my distance from the bodies and change forms again, now returning to the Giant Armored Rat form. Half way between my Mimic form and armored Rat form something hits me HARD and I'm flung across the tunnel into the side wall.
Red tints my vision as my back hits the wall followed by my head, the world swirling in my vision.
I do my best to back up away from whatever hit me, my distance limited by the burning flesh nearby, while desperately trying to get my sight to clear, and once it does– I see nothing.
Left, right, up? I jerk around to check behind me before jerking back, finding nothing standing in the hall but myself.
'What-?' My mind still reels from the impact as I stand there looking like a bald rat, but my senses are met with nothing but burning flesh.
I don't know if I could've smelled anything anyways, but the fire isn't just messing up my sense of smell: the dancing shadows from the light flickering is making it harder to see than just the darkness.
I finish my form change, hoping the damage resistance can help protect me. Speaking of which: Menu, help me out here?
Warning: You have been attacked by an [Unknown Opponent].
Force damage has decreased your health by [three] points!
[Advantageous Attack] has dealt an additional [Two] Damage!
Mana Flesh has reduced Force Damage by [two] points! [13/16]
You have been injured by Environmental Damage [Force] for [Two] points. [11/16]
'Shit, why did the environmental damage not get reduced by Mana Skin?' I question as I observe every dancing shadow cast by the flickering lights. 'So the system knows what attacked me, but won't tell me?'
I cast a few weak Firelight attacks toward the floor, peering over it in the process to see if there's any new shadows cast in the process. 'I don't know how invisibility works here, but if it's anything like videogames I should be able to see some kind of distortion when it moves.'
Cautiously I move forward, weak Firelight casts chasing away the shadows as I watch for movement: not actually watching for a "-thing" to move, but for the light to move in an abnormal way.
Rather than finding what I'm looking for, I get a sudden sense of vertigo as the floor moves beneath my feet as if the dungeon itself begins to twist.
And to my horror, it does.
The stone floor beneath my feet begins to twist around me, tightly wrapping itself around my body and begins to squeeze.
I let out a weak Firelight attack but hit nothing as the mass of writhing stone is too low to target. From the side of my head I see more of the floor rise up and two sections split as a pair of eyes stare me down. The creature continues to envelope me, wrapping up my body and squeezing tight like a constrictor snake.
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As a wall of stone like flesh wraps over my head and begins to crush down I let out a full Firelight attack, the blast hitting me as much as the monster around me.
A loud screech fills my ears as the monsters drops me, a black fog billowing into the air as it seeks to avoid the blast.
Warning: You have been attacked by an [Unknown Opponent].
Force damage has decreased your health by [two] points! [--/16]
Note: Damage Resistance has reduced Force Damage by [one] point. Mana Flesh has negated remaining Force Damage by [one] point! [11/16]
Your attack against an [Unknown Opponent] was a success!
Fire damage has decreased its health by [three] points! [??/??]
Fire damage has decreased your health by [three] points! [--/16]
Note: Damage Resistance has reduced Fire Damage by [one] point. [09/16]
The black fog clears after a few seconds revealing an empty hallway before my eyes. 'Not like I believe it's gone.' I think, having gotten a very close up view– its stone looking flesh explaining why I couldn't see it. 'And for how long that fog lasted, it couldn't have gotten far. So now I'm faced with a perfectly camouflaged predator and no way to tell where it is.'
I still wish I had a weapon; anything would be better than my teeth and claws.
'Wait- "my teeth and claws"? I wonder…' I've mostly just stuck with whatever form I've taken as having to swap to my default Mimic form to change between them is inconvenient. But considering how I kil– er…– killed the rat, I know I can incorporate additional features from my base form without issues.
I focus on my hands, imaging and guiding each hand to elongate into a single bone with a large sharp tooth at the end. 'Hm, maybe I should take 'Venomous' as a skill later? It'd be handy right now. Ha, handy!'
With a little difficulty I push into the rat form and change my tail, growing it into a long tongue muscled arm mixed with my base jaw to create an end section similar to an Aztec War Club– the limb ending in a bone with teeth along the edges. It's a bit awkward to move but should work as intended.
Extending one of my now longer front legs I stab the tip a foot ahead of me at the ground, feeling it impact against the stone floor. I do the same for the space to the sides before beginning to walk forward, constantly "testing" the firmness of the ground. This whole process and form makes me think about how bats are shaped and look: with the exception of the third arm and lack of flight with a little more change I could probably pass as one.
Moving is slow going, but I get used to the sound of tapping the stone and pick up the pace. After two minutes I stop and turn around; I know I've gone further than that thing had time to move and I'm leery of going on while knowing it could sneak up on me from behind.
I turn around, move closer to the wall and continue my tapping pattern while I make my way back toward the burning corpses, finding nothing in the process.
Adding in the lower section of the wall this time I continue in my original direction. 'Not sure what to do if I don't find it. Is it worth spending time to keep looking, should I cautiously move forward a ways while watching out, or just run a bit to be sure I got away from it?'
My musings come to a halt when my right leg touches the wall but doesn't provide the expected tapping sound. I test the floor in front of me with my left claw and get the standard noise as a confirmation.
I move forward a bit and repeat the process with the same results.
With a quick inhale I hold my breath, jerking my right arm back as I twist sideways to face the wall. I firmly plant my legs down as I ram both clawed arms into the wall beside me, the tips embedding themselves deep into the stone as red blood wells around them.
With a loud screech the wall comes alive, the stone around, between and above my claw tips ripples like water and begins to violently thrash against me before a pair of eyes open, followed by a wide mouth filled with sharp teeth.
Keeping the beast pinned to the wall I ignore the red tint in my vision and flex my third arm. The weight is awkward but I use my position to gain leverage, slamming the end down into the growling face in the wall.
I strike once. I strike twice. I move to strike a third time when its shaking form finally manages to wrest itself free from under one claw and twists out from under the other.
The creature, now bleeding from multiple wounds, stands before me in the hallway. Looking like a mix between a stingray and a cobra snake, its near flat head leers down at me, the mouth along the edge of its head gapes wide open as if threatening to swallow me whole.
The beast hisses at me and black fog billows forth into the space between us. I slam the "club" down in front of me, cutting through the cloud but nothing else. As I raise it back up the face emerges from beneath the fog, the look of the floor itself moving before its mouth opens wide, wider than my own body, before it slams down over my waist, sharp teeth digging into my flesh.
A loud shrill scream escapes me as the pain rings home– followed closely by anger. Anger, pain, and frustration fill me as I slam each hand tip down into the bottom of its mouth and pull them back. But that's only to help give myself leverage as I straighten my tail-arm before tightening its muscles, putting my entire body's strength into slamming the edge into the top of the creatures head.
I feel the impact as its teeth slam deeper into my back and the creature begins to thrash violently as I D-R-A-G the club away, the teeth in it ripping through the flesh of its head in the process. With a final pull the club comes free and before it can stop thrashing I slam the club back into its head, the hit against its eye socket reverberating through the creature.
For a moment it stops moving before falling sideways, it's jaws now slack.
In pain I lift its head up, working to remove myself from its teeth before maneuvering out of its mouth.
I cautiously move away before verifying it's death in the menu
Your attack against an [Unknown Opponent] was a success!
Piercing damage has decreased its health by [one(x2)] point! [??/??]
Mana Flesh has empowered your attack and inflicted additional damage of [Two(x2)] points [??/??]
-
Piercing damage has decreased its health by [One] point! [??/??]
Mana Flesh has empowered your attack and inflicted additional damage of [Two] points [??/??]
-
Piercing damage has decreased its health by [One] point! [??/??]
Mana Flesh has empowered your attack and inflicted additional damage of [Two] points [??/??]
—
Warning: You have been attacked by an [Unknown Opponent].
Piercing damage has decreased your health by [Three] points! [--/16]
Note: Damage Resistance has reduced Piercing Damage by [One] point. Mana Flesh has negated remaining Piercing Damage of [Two] points. [09/16]
Warning: You have been Poisoned for [Three] points of damage! [06/16]
—
Piercing damage has decreased [Unknown Opponent]s health by [one(x2)] point! [??/??]
Mana Flesh has empowered your attack and inflicted additional damage of [Two(x2)] points [??/??]
Piercing damage has decreased [Unknown Opponent] health by [One] point! [??/??]
Mana Flesh has empowered your attack and inflicted additional damage of [Two] points [??/??]
[Unknown Opponent] was forced to attack!
Piercing damage has decreased your health by [One] point! Note: Damage Resistance has negated Piercing Damage by [One] point. Warning: You have been Poisoned for [Three] points of damage! [03/16]
Slashing damage has decreased [Unknown Opponent]s health by [Two] points! [??/??]
Mana Flesh has empowered your attack and inflicted additional damage of [Two] points [??/??]
Piercing damage has decreased [Unknown Opponent]s health by [One] point! [??/??]
Congratulations-You have defeated a stronger foe!
Skill [Secret Identity] is no longer in effect.
* Stone Stalker [00/29]
You have gained [Two] Victory Points!