Serilla was undead. That’s what I chose to focus on. I couldn’t let myself fall into grief. She might be fine. She’s probably O.K… I’m sure, she’ll reanimate any second now just like a Slacker… right?

“Serilla?”

The seared flesh and bone wasn’t congealing. The blood and sinews were darkening. Her skin was cold.

I remembered her saying she was a Thrall, then a Nightmare. She’s some kind of vampire relative. She needs blood.

I lifted my stump of tattered leg over her and let the blood leak down onto her face and mouth.

“Drink this,” I whispered. “Drink this blood. It’s good for you, I think.” As long as there isn’t still quicksilver coursing through my veins…

I didn’t feel the itch of quicksilver anymore and the metallic taste had receded. My Mana and Stamina had been fully depleted in the last attack. Surge had faded. Now I was empty and useless.

The boss was pretty much unharmed. I didn’t know if I was imagining it, but he looked like he was smiling.

Despite the crushing breathlessness in my chest and the scraps of ragged skin dangling from the stump at the bottom of my leg, I climbed up to stand on one leg and faced down the bastard.

“Fuck… you,” I panted.

The big fucking eel swayed back and forth hypnotically, considering me. It’s not sure whether I have a trap prepared.

“Fine,” I said “You’re not ready to finish this?”

I hopped a few paces and rolled into the nearest pool.

Once it saw I was fleeing, instinct kicked in and the monster chased its prey. Good. Let it come.

I dipped below the bubbling, quicksilver water. I had expected it to sting my stump, but it actually felt nicer than being outside. This place really does have power to it. Serilla wasn’t completely confused.

I soaked in the water, holding my breath and letting the bubbles trickle past me. It was almost… relaxing.

A shadow moved over the surface of the water. The eel was about to plunge in after me.

I gasped and inhaled the oily water. Gross! It tastes like pennies and seawater.

My Mana trickled up much faster than before. My Stamina was ticking up slowly as usual, but my Mana was absolutely flourishing. That was partially due to my high Magic stat and the Practitioner's Robe I had gained from my new class, but it was also the power of the spring. This spring isn’t just the Quicksilver. There’s also a huge amount of Mana flowing through here.

I spammed Basic Dodge towards the edge of the pool as a wave of vibrations told me the eel had joined me.

There were tunnels between the pools of varying shapes and lengths. I squinted against the thick, bubbly liquid looking for a small one that the eel couldn’t fit through. Deep below, I spotted something that might work.

Stat Increase: Perception +1.

What the hell is water? said the young fish.

I didn’t swim. I used my Basic Dodge to dive through the water. I wasn’t moving my limbs at all. I needed my Stamina to regenerate completely if I had any hope of killing this eel and helping Serilla… If Serilla can be helped.

I dodged through the tunnel and up to the air above. My lungs were already straining against suffocation. I took a few gulps and then floated quietly.

A few pools away, the eel burst through the surface in a spray.

He spotted me floating, but didn’t charge right away. This time he shut his jagged mouth and focused. The snaking tendrils that sprouted like whiskers from its vicious face began to wiggle. Their ends came together in front of the eel’s nostril slits.

The tendril whiskers pulsated as droplets of quicksilver formed together at the tip of his snout.

The eel hummed and the quicksilver rippled and wobbled, but continued to swell in a growing sphere as more and more quicksilver formed in the air. Somehow it wasn’t collapsing and dissipating. Holy shit, it’s forming a legitimate attack with this stuff.

The ball of quicksilver grew to twice my size. The eel’s eyes were almost blocked by the sheer mass of shimmering silver floating in front of it.

There was a moment of stillness. Even the lightning seemed to be waiting as the eel took aim with its quicksilver orb and blasted.

Fucking dumbass. Obviously, I’m going to dodge.

I dipped below the surface and dived down to what I estimated was a safe distance.

A moment later, the quicksilver shot through the water and slammed against the wall of the pond. A hail of quicksilver erupted throughout the pool, squirting in every direction. A few small ones zipped past me, and behind them a flurry of snowball sized pieces whizzed at me.

I dodged one way, then another, and finally burst towards the surface.

My stamina was nearing full now, I had relied entirely on my dodges and the spring had provided all the mana I could need. I rose up to the surface and tried something different.

I formed Quicksilver from my palms and used it to push myself up in the water. This way I could maintain a constant stream and float halfway out of the water.

The eel watched me from the other pool. It’s piss-yellow eyes were angry.

I glanced to where Serilla lay in a heap on the ground. You think you’re angry now? I’ll make you taste fucking rage.

He seemed to be waiting for me to hit him with an attack of my own.

I just shook my head.

“Well, come on then.” I raised a hand and beckoned it towards me. “Lets finish this.”

The movement lost me my balance and I splashed down into the pool.

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The eel’s neck jerked back, it’s eyes contracted, and then it snapped forward. The huge jaws opened wide as it streaked towards me and I… welcomed it.

Having this tiny body really sucked. I couldn’t put much power into my attacks. I was hugely limited in speed and adaptability. I couldn’t intimidate anything. In fact, most things either treated me as a succulent meal or acted like I was a cute little baby. It’s annoying to admit that of those two options, I prefer the latter.

But my point was, being small really sucked… Except for at this exact moment.

I tucked into a ball and rolled into the oncoming bite. Rather than being sliced apart by rows of jagged teeth, I tumbled into a gulping throat.

I wriggled through a muscular neck into some kind of digestive system. It smelled like a rotten tuna sandwich rolled up inside a sweaty sock and left to ferment.

But I didn’t have time to think about that. I activated Surge and felt my Mana and Stamina start to drain as I slashed Quicksilver shards at every possible target.

I sprayed a torrent of quicksilver into this fucker’s gut and hardened it and sharpened it to puncture whatever I could.

If Serilla couldn’t find a weak spot on the outside, I will find one inside.

I thrashed and threw everything I had at the thick stomach lining… and it was hopeless. The monster’s quicksilver resistance was complete. I just couldn’t hurt it with this stuff.

“No,” I screamed. “Damn you!”

I hurled more shards into the rolling wall of flesh as it tightened around me. I stabbed and sliced, but the quicksilver bounced harmlessly off the eel’s hardened skin. I pressed my face into it and bit down. Tough, chewy meat resisted my teeth, but I refused to let up. Lips ripped, gums numb, I clamped down and tore away a chunk of flesh.

Beneath a spurt of blood, there was a small slit in the stomach lining. I thrust my palm up against it and blasted quicksilver into the serration.

The wall of muscles below me contracted and I was knocked off balance. The flesh around the cut tightened and twisted to seal itself.

I was knocked around by the jostling and momentarily lost sight of my target as my head sunk below a puddle of quicksilver. There’s a puddle of this stuff? It’s not dissipating?

I scooped up a handful of quicksilver. It was coated in an oily substance, stomach acid?. But it remained. Of course! He has a quicksilver affinity. He can form this stuff himself, so it’s not dissolving and fading away.

I knew what I had to do, but I didn’t see how I could survive long enough to do it.

I didn’t have time to come up with a solution. Now or never, Null.

I sprayed quicksilver out of my palms, foot, and stump. I sprayed it in every direction from every part of me and simultaneously formed more, more than before, more than ever. I need more.

Soon the quicksilver was splashing up to my waist. I surged with everything I had.

I knew my stats were increasing, but I didn’t have time to keep track of that. All I need is more Magic to boost my Mana recovery.

With surge, I was blasting my Stamina and Mana directly into quicksilver and because of the Boss’s innate quicksilver affinity and resistance, there was nowhere for it all to go.

The eel’s stomach was filling up with a substance it couldn’t digest and by now, it was feeling it.

The wriggling intensified. I didn’t even try to keep in mind which way was up. I was flipped and knocked around in every direction, but the huge pooling quicksilver cushioned my falls. The metallic fluid was everywhere now.

I tried to time my breathing for the few moments when I wasn’t entirely submerged, but even then I still swallowed more gunk than air. The air that I did manage to inhale was acidic and burned my throat. My eyes felt like they were coated in sand. Even with them shut, I wanted to scream against the stabbing itch.

I channeled it all into quicksilver. All the pain. All the anger. Take it all.

The stomach walls began to convulse in a more directed way than before. Jerking pulses sent shock waves through the quicksilver. He’s trying to vomit.

This is what I had been waiting for.

I spread my arms and legs, even the shattered one, out to the sides. I stopped forming quicksilver and instead focused on the pool of it that surrounded me. I could feel it on every side, sloshing against my chest, trickling up and down my spine.

I felt its weight pressing down from above and its rising waves crashing up from below. I was a part of it. I flowed with the quicksilver and the quicksilver flowed with me.

As a rolling pulse passed through us, I willed the quicksilver to stillness. Instead of picturing a flowing liquid, I imagined a quiet stone at the bottom of a river.

The water races. The stone sinks. The water rises. The stone sits. The water rushes. The stone remains still.

The boss thrashed and retched, trying violently to expell the quicksilver and myself from inside it. He wanted us out.

Be the stone.

The quicksilver hardened, clamping into place within the eel’s stomach and throat.

The eel thrashed with his lower half while his top half locked solid in a metallic brace.

I am stillness. I am the stone.

I sensed the boss resisting. He willed the quicksilver to flow.

Our minds were linked. The quicksilver was the bridge between us, encapsulating me and ensnaring him.

I could feel the rising drum of his pulse, the screaming rage and pain in his lungs. The blood whistled in his ears as it throbbed through quicksilver clotted veins. Everywhere the metal was hardening, clumping together.

He thrashed and charged. The heat of his panic was rising. He willed the quicksilver to melt and pour. He demanded it to stream and float.

I dreamed of sinking and waiting. I felt his fear. I smiled at his wailing terror.

What’s the rush? The stone has all the time in the world.

Neither of us could breathe. He sensed my own aching lungs and I felt a glint of hope spark within him.

I knew I had to stamp him out.

I summoned the memory of Serilla lying motionless on the ground, her skin torn to shreds by molten quicksilver, her skull shining white beneath blackening sores. My heart stilled. I will not be budged.

And he knew it.

Whatever triumph he felt at the vision of Serilla defeated was quickly swept away by the knowledge of my certainty.

I will join her in death before I let you escape with your life.

He thrashed again, churning to expel the quicksilver. But the stone would not be moved.

My lungs were screaming at me. They burned from the inside, desperate for air.

I reminded myself that the stone doesn’t need air.

It was becoming harder to keep believing.

Another booming shake jostled me as the boss struck the ground, trying desperately to break us. His movements were slowing now. His thoughts sluggish.

I could feel a pleading note to his screams now. He wanted to be free. He willed the quicksilver to flee with him.

I willed it to stay. Even as my lungs begged for release, my heart thumped softly. Wait.

And finally, I felt his light go out. He collapsed with a shattering crash and his mind was blank. The connection was severed. My resolve collapsed and so did the quicksilver. I was swept along in a tide of it. We were liquid once more, flowing out towards the light.

The quicksilver poured up and out of his stomach and still I could find no air. There was a gentle sliding, a trickling. My mind was a haze. I felt distantly that if I could pull myself up, I could draw breath. But I didn’t have the strength.

My arms hung by my sides, they were limp and useless. My legs hurt. They really hurt. I couldn’t remember why it hurt so much. It was something important, but I couldn’t think.

My lungs tasted strange like the aftermath of a coughing fit. I wanted to breath, but I couldn’t feel beyond the water.

No, I thought. Not water, quicksilver. I formed this quicksilver. I'm holding it still.

I released the Surge skill and like that, the quicksilver dissipated.

The stamina depletion that I hadn’t even realised I was feeling, suddenly burst up in my consciousness and with a full-bodied spasm, I sucked air into my lungs.

Boss Defeated:

Sengamura. Level 5. XP Gain: 1035.

Perk Discovered: Strangled Strangler.

You strangled a foe to death while you yourself were strangled.

Stat increase: Mind +1.

You defeated a foe in an elemental battle of will.

LEVEL UP +1.

NULL, Human, Level Two.

New Perks Available.

LEVEL UP +1.

NULL, Human, Level Three.

New Perks Available.

LEVEL UP +1

NULL, Human, Level Four.

New Perks Available.

“Holy shit…” I looked down at my body. I was bleeding from multiple places. Stomach acid had eaten through my skin, leaving a bumpy red rash all over me. My new Robe was torn. My red onesie was nowhere to be seen. My right leg was still sticking into the mouth of the eel boss, I could feel sharp teeth sticking up in my thigh. My left leg was severed just below the knee. I could see bone. But most importantly… “I’m tall!”

Levelling up three times had advanced my already insane growth rate and now I was tall enough to be a young adult or at least a late teenager.

I balled my hand into a fist and punched the air. “I’m a fucking grown up!”

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