"What the hell... It has the size of a truck!!" Anik panicked beside me. Wasn't there too much of a difference between the minions and the boss? The Makara Boss itself had moss and leathery outgrowths dotting its external hide. The trunk was filled with horrific tumors and nasty flowing puss. The smell... it was nauseating, like a bunch of rats rotting for weeks.
I looked back once to see the surprised expressions on my seniors' faces which they got rid of soon, not realizing that I had already witnessed them.
"Remember the patterns of the minions. The Boss will have only a few variations other than that." Vihaan shouted from the camp. "The Surakshaks will be pivotal for this operation, so Aditi and Dweep must stay focused. If your defensive walls break, everyone will be in danger!"
That's a lot of pressure.
What can I do considering the current situation? Remember how Panna efficiently used the snakes.
Should I bind the monster? It's probably too powerful. The drill earthworms probably won't be able to penetrate through its hide, even if Anik managed to pierce its body. Should we try for the timing when it opens its mouth and send parasites inside?
The Makara gave out a sound equating to a hundred elephants blowing their trunks. The vibration shook the cave as several stalactites started falling all around. The Makara dodged them by twisting its body as well as sweeping its tail along the ground, trying to smack us away like a broom taking out trash. Our formation broke as both Aditi and Dweep turned right, covering their shields with yellow and red Kundalini respectively, and tried to stand their ground against the incoming piece of meat.
It was futile. Both of them flew back, slamming against the wall to our left.
I sent Recovery based Kundalini through my Tethers that were connected to them as I remotely inspected their condition.
Twisted arms, broken ribs, crushed pelvis... shit. I'll need time to get them back into shape.
Just when I was thinking that things were going fine, complications needed to arise.
We heard several popping sounds, as if someone was blowing plastic bags and bursting them with their palms. I felt pressure over my right thigh as I twisted my body away to dodge a spiky outgrowth that was once attached to the back of the Makara.
The Makara didn't stop and popped the tumors on its trunk, sending several worm like creatures into the water that was flowing all around us.
"Leave the water!!! Fast!!!!" I shouted and turned to see Anik with a wound on his left leg. He had somehow managed not losing it. I took his arm over my shoulder and hopped away from the water, after I saw Esha and Jhanvi scrambling away. Esha was fine, but Jhanvi was missing an arm. It was floating only a few feet away from where we were. I kept hopping to get minimum resistance from the water and swiped the floating arm up with my free hand as I left my Javelin behind. I can get it back whenever I want.
Saiyan had managed to dodge, but Shreya had a hole on the left side of her waist. He placed her on his shoulder and ran towards Dweep and Aditi, his shoulder soaking red from her dripping blood.
The seniors jumped down and engaged with the Makara trying to take away it's attention, but it was not letting up. It charged towards where Dweep and Aditi were, following right behind Saiyan and Shreya.
Yashvi sent a blue Kundalini arrow that struck against the Makara's side, where the ribs were supposed to be. She suddenly brought forth her hand and clenched her fist, as the Kundalini arrow burst, blooming into a flower of blue ether spikes, sending leather and yellow blood all around. The Makara bellowed, releasing water from the tip of its trunk, shooting water bullets at the seniors, which were stopped by Vihaan and his augmented shield.
As soon as we reached the banks, I threw Jhanvi's hand towards Esha asking her to rejoin her limbs.
"I don't know how to do it yet. I can take care of Anik's wound, so let's exchange." she instead suggested without wasting time. Good to find someone with quick thinking.
I picked up Jhanvi's severed arm and tried to feel the vessels on both her body and inside it. I have done this before already, so let's focus.
I couldn't control others' vessels yet, but I could feel them, properly sending my energy to heal them. As soon as they recovered, I pressed her arm against her shoulder, imagining her bones and flesh regrowing.
Right now Aditi, Dweep, Shreya and Jhanvi were siphoning Recovery Kundalini out of me as it soon reached 0.
Prana: 21->20
Kundalini: 0->3.5
Shreya's case was really urgent, so most of my Kundalini went to her. For Dweep and Aditi I only healed their inner wounds stopping internal bleeding for now.
Jhanvi was biting her lips, trying to endure her pain as thin streams of tears flowed down her eyes.
"Just a few seconds. It will join back." I consoled her.
She nodded weakly.
"Anik is healed." Esha arrived beside me looking at Jhanvi.
Vihaan was also sent flying, as he tried to grab a hold of the Makara's trunk, as it shook him off, launching him towards the ceiling. Leeches were stuck close to his body, several in number, sucking away his blood.
Things are not looking good. Should we just return back to the Ashrama?
Laksh was on the Makara's back, somehow holding onto his spear which was plunged deep into the beast's hide. The Makara twisted, rotating its body in a full circle forcing him to jump away leaving his spear. After the rotation completed, its handle was broken into two, the other part missing somewhere below the monster.
"Heal the rest of her hand." I ordered Esha and started running towards my other four teammates.
"Wait, my energy won't be enough!" Esha cried out in frustration.
I activated Skill Share and Converted one point of her Prana to Kundalini. The conversion factor was below one, so not even a full point was recovered. I used another of her Prana points.
"Try now." I said and resumed my running.
Anik followed me, "Should we use the stalactite strategy? It's quite common for fighting enemies in caves like this in movies."
"Will it be effective against this tank?" I asked reaching my other four party mates.
"Saiyan, help the seniors. Only you won't be slowing them down. Let me know if he needs healing after checking Vihaan's condition." I suggested as he nodded and ran away, jumping over the floating dead bodies of the minions, the current strategy of our seniors to avoid the waters.
I exchanged another of my Prana points. Now it stood at 19.
Dweep was already up and moving, as he adjusted his arm back. I used some Kundalini to reduce his pain.
Aditi returned to her sense and sat up looking around. She stared at Shreya who was lying unconscious with an expression that was difficult to decipher..
"Where's Esha? She's fine right?" her increasingly worried face surprised me.
"She's healing Jhanvi back there." I said while concentrating on Shreya. She was missing parts of her organs. How am I supposed to treat those things? I can only rejoin limbs and internal wounds since they might be torn, broken or severed, but not lost like this. She was missing a whole Kidney. And some parts of her intestines... The blood loss was no joke. Let's just cover her wound for now as I have been doing. A person will be fine with a single kidney. We haven't eaten anything recently, so the intestines won't be a problem yet? Ughh... I'm not sure!!!
"Anik, try hitting one of the stalactites. See how many arrows you need to bring one down."
"I was on it already. But the damage is different for different stalactites... I'm not sure counting like that will work." he explained the situation.
The Makara was darting from one corner of the swamp to another. It was incredibly fast. The seniors had no choice other than jumping away to safety or dodge the snout or tail swipes of the monster.
Dweep was standing guard over us, while Aditi had run over to protect Jhanvi and Esha.
I heard arguments from their side, as Aditi was trying to impose herself on the other two. Are they thinking of returning back to the Ashrama?
The problem is with Shreya. If she's not conscious, she won't be able to manually activate the dungeon quitting option. Why was the system like this?
The Makara was now turning around in circles, trying to find which enemy to pursue when it suddenly locked eyes with me and Anik.
"Pick her up gently." I commanded Anik as her wound finally closed up, but her insides were still kind of empty...
Yashvi's blue arrow though after sometime, again pierced right into the same place as before, transforming into a spiky blue flower carving out more of its flesh.
It trumpeted out in pain, forcing us to again dodge the falling stalactites. One of them fell on its tail, flattening the middle part of the appendage.
Okay, so it won't be fatal for the monster.
Saiyan brought out the forbidden wormy sword from his dimensional pocket and chased after the Makara as it charged towards us.
Crocodiles can't chew. But what if Makara can? Should I jump straight into its mouth, covering myself in Wood Flesh and send out heart killer worms from inside?
Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.
I ran away for now. The Makara kept changing its trajectory to follow me and Anik. It was only a matter of time until it reached us.
"Opposite directions!!" I told Anik and Dweep and made sure to run in the same direction as before so that the beast kept following me.
Vihaan was running towards me in full speed following the circumference of the cave. The Makara realized that and followed Anik instead after taking a final look at me, as if it was sparing me for now.
Anik and Dweep met up with Saiyan as they kept turning the Makara away from me. This isn't what I wanted though. Do they want to give me enough time to think something up?
I pulled back my Javelin and dodged it as it clanged against the wall behind me.
"Vihaan, you okay?" I asked, inspecting his body which was now missing the leeches that were stuck onto him.
He nodded without saying anything.
Laksh and Yashvi joined up with Trisha who handed them some medicines.
"Do you guys have anything that will regenerate missing organs?" I asked Vihaan.
His eyes moved in the air for a while as he sent a message to her through Kalpa Yaal.
"She says there's some for that."
"Ask her to go to Shreya. I have only stopped her blood loss, but it won't be enough." I explained her condition which he related back to Trisha.
"Kalpa should give special permission to team leaders to eject members from the dungeon." I said as we started running towards my three teammates. I was already making a thick snake like Akshara with a slippery body, durability and elasticity as properties. The drill head was compulsory required more than usualy Kundalini to make it sharpers and harder, and all segments were connected with Tethers.
My Prana was now at 17 using up two at once. It took seven points of Kundalini only to make one such Akshara.
"What if a party kills the boss and the leader ejects all the members away to monopolize the treasures?" Vihaan gave a good counterexample against my demand.
"That was a convincing answer. Okay, If we can help this Akshara to enter the Makara's body, things can be turned around in our favour." I suggested, showing him the Akshara animal, "Either through its mouth, or through that wound Yashvi had been creating for a while. Try coming up with something."
My friends scattered away as the Makara bulldozed into the cave walls, sending cracks along the surface and dropping some more stalactites.
"Anik, Yashvi and Jhanvi!! Stick together and make the wound on its side deeper. Anik, Aditi and I will keep attracting it's attention from different sides. Saiyan and Laksh, keep it's attention away from the wound." Vihaan gave instructions.
I wrapped the Akshara snake around my neck like a scarf and again used up two points of Prana to create a duplicate Akshara, wrapping it around my arm.
I knew what I had to do and started running towards where the Dhanurdhars were meeting up, dragging my Javelin behind me.
The Rakshaks moved around with two objectives in mind. To send Shreya back to the camp where Trisha and Esha were currently, since they couldn't meet up with Anik having the Makara between them.
And carry out Vihaan's orders. I met up with Jhanvi who's arm was working good enough for now. Thankfully it was the arm which holds the bow instead of the string. Yashvi also appeared beside us.
"Shouldn't you be at the camp?" Yashvi asked.
"I have done what I could to treat Shreya. Rest depends on Trisha." I said, "But I'm required here more, you'll realize why."
Aditi jumped down from the camp leaving Esha and took position near the exit of the cave. Can't we just leave the section through there? Well all our efforts till now will be wasted if we don't get to use the blessing orb after killing the Boss. Anik and Dweep reached the camp with Shreya as Vihaan, Saiyan and Laksh kept attacking the Makara without dealing any substantial damage, but successfully garnering its attention.
Anik met up with us soon.
I created a Tether and attached it to Yashvi who shivered as it made contact.
"You'll be doing that huh?" Anik asked excitedly.
"Yeah. So all three of you can use Kundalini until your Prana reaches 5 points. Just make sure to keep track of it and let me know as soon as it reaches that number. Am I clear?" I told the Dhanurdhars.
The other two looked confused.
"Just use Kundalini arrows and keep checking your Prana. That's all." I repeated as they nodded.
This Skill Transfer skill will probably take up two Prana points leaving 13. And after they are depleted, I'll be able to provide them with 12 times 3.5 Kundalini divided among the three of them in the worst case. Ohh, I also need to keep sending energy to my Akshara snakes... Then let's keep 7 points for the Dhanurdhars and 5 for the Aksharas.
The tail of the Makara was currently in our direction. The Surakshaks are supposed to make sure that the left side of the Makara was facing us for most of the time.
We might also need to keep changing positions incase the Makara charges toward us.
The operation started as the three Surakshaks used skills to attract the aggro of the Boss, as they moved counter clockwise to open up the left side of the monster in front of us.
Two blue and one yellow Kundalini missiles bombarded against the wound of the Makara.
It shouted out, opening its jaws and squirming, allowing Saiyan and Laksh to make their way through the floating dead bodies and land onto its body. They plunged their weapons with great strength, only to find it entering just a few centimetres into the hide. The Kundalini sword probably let an earthworm inside, but I have no idea how far it went inside before losing its latent energy. That's why I made the bigger snakes, so that they can have a lot of stored latent energy that can be used for mobility.
Yashvi clenched her fist to again create that blooming spike flower carving out more and more flesh from the Makara's side. It was continuously bleeding from there currently, a stark change from before.
Saiyan and Laksh jumped away to safety as soon as it rotated again.
We continued the same arrangement three more times confusing the Boss. It had no idea where to charge anymore. But it was slowly getting used to it. The two recent times we failed as the monster got familiar with our strategy, sacrificing its tail in the bombardment by putting it as a shield between us and the wounded part.
"Change locations. We have to try from a different direction." Yashvi ordered as we followed her.
Dweep kept banging his war axe against his steel shield along with the others to keep the Makara's attention on the Surakshaks. It charged quite a few number of times to different members but they all managed to dodge away in the nick of time. The monster was certainly intelligent, but not enough I guess. That's why they wanted us to fight with the Asuras...
It suddenly stopped moving and started vibrating its body. The indentations on its back that held the outgrowths once started swelling up again.
Shit!! It's trying that attack.
Anik shot a dense Kundalini missile which struck at a stalactite up in the ceiling breaking it off and sending it down, smashing one of the Makara's legs.
Only by a few feet... so unlucky.
He clicked his tongue and again continued shooting at the wound.
Saiyan and Laksh who were jumping around till now appeared beside me to take my Akshara snakes.
They again ran away in different directions towards the other two Surakshaks, bracing themselves for the spiky outgrowth bombardment.
As the Makara stopped moving, Vihaan who was closest to us arrived, standing in front of us and activated a Kavach.
"Can you make soupy chicken curry after this?" I asked Yashvi.
"As you wish." she smiled with scrunched up eyes that were concentrating on the wound. Only one more bombardment will probably be enough.
I attached a Tether to Vihaan and converted his Prana to Kundalini as he overlapped 5 shields over one another.
Dweep and Saiyan stood together, with Aditi and Laksh on their opposite side. I also shared the Prana conversion skill with them as they put up several layers of Kavach one after another. I realised that a lot of messages were being sent from Vihaan to the others, all the while they were fighting. He might have told Saiyan and Laksh the plan about the Akshara snakes, as well as not to panic if their Prana decreased.
With hundreds of popping sounds, the outgrowths bulleted towards us, slamming against the Kavach and breaking off into smaller pieces. Three among the five layers were totally disintegrated.
The Makara suddenly rotated 90 degrees, facing its back towards us.
"Make more layers!! Fast!!!" I panicked.
Vihaan was already doing it as I kept converting his Prana into Kundalini.
Another bombardment crashed against the Kavach, breaking off four layers this time. The final one some how held on with loads of cracks on it, looking like the windshield of a wrecked car.
So it only shot out the outgrowths on its sides the first time, keeping the one on his back for a second one.
Saiyan and Laksh again approached the Boss and kept poking their weapons until it regained it's normal posture revealing the left wounded side from inside the water. Laksh's substitute Javelin glowed orange, the first one among all the Kundalini I have seen till now, as he kept plunging it down on its back. Again and again, again and again... He jumped away towards our left, bathed in yellow blood as the Boss turned towards him, opening up access to the wound right in front of us.
"Give it your all. Damage it hard enough so that it cries out loud!! We have to open up its jaws. Saiyan and Laksh have already practiced it a few times by now so let's make way for them." Vihaan shouted as three thick Kundalini missiles impacted against the wound for one last time, revealing deep yellow tender flesh and ribs of the Makara.
The Boss cried out loud as Saiyan sped across its snout, launching the Akshara snake right into its mouth.
Laksh used his spare Javelin to puncture a hole in the wound and helped my Akshara snake to invade the Makara's body just within a few milliseconds. I remembered that everytime the Dhanurdhars bombarded, they kept rushing towards the Makara from the same positions in the cave. They were preparing for this move all this time.
I took manual control of the snake that entered through the wound using my Tethers, and controlled it remotely, tearing my way through the reptile's left lung depending on the snake's instinct as a guide to the nearest beating organ. I used up more and more Kundalini spiralling the drill augmentation to higher rotational speeds whenever I felt the snake slowing down.
And then, I was inside the heart.
"Go crazy." I had a maniacal smile in my face that reflected my emotions. The joy of knowing that our job was done. I felt so much satisfaction as I sensed the Akshara snake puncturing and obliterating everything inside the organ that lost its beating rhythm, gradually getting slower. Soon the other snake also joined in, increasing the chaotic destruction two fold, determined not to stop until the heart stopped beating.
What if they had another heart? I prayed, hoping that was not the case.
The Makara was indeed writhing in pain, twisting its body and tattered tail. Gallons of blood flowed out from its nostrils, mouth and the side wound turning the swamp deep yellow. Its working legs kept moving frantically, as it charged in different directions, limping with one mangled leg. It was a cake walk for my teammates to dodge the attacks as the Makara got slower and weaker.
I accompanied the Dhanurdhars back to the camp and watched the truck sized boss struggling on its last legs. It slowly lost all energy and stopped moving around, nesting its body beside the pond that was probably its home. Its breathing motions dissipated gradually leaving the yellow eyes open, as they slowly yet inevitably lost their aggressive shine. It was done. We just vanquished a mighty monster.
I sat on the ground with a relieved sigh as three total level up notifications came in front of my vision.
Two for Panna. One for Kalpa.
I was now Level 16 and 12 respectively.
I turned back to see Shreya looking much better than before. Trisha's medicines must have worked.
I wondered what the ingredient for that concoction was.
Dhanurdhars were OP. No wonder all the major heroes in the epics were archers. That remote activation thing Yashvi was doing to change the shape of the arrow was fire. If I can learn that, I can order my Akshara parasites to explode like that inside my opponents' bodies.
Another thing to add in my 'to learn' list. Wait, can't I program my Aksharas like that? I'll have to experiment how much energy that property required.
The rest of the members gathered back at the camp silently.
"See, I told you." Anik smiled brightly at me, "You don't even need to get on the pitch to become the MVP. Glad you're on my team. Those juicy four level ups were awesome!!"
Ugh... As things stood, everybody would surpass my level leaving me behind.
"Good job guys." Yashvi shook hands with Vihaan and Laksh. She turned next to Trisha but found her looking away.
"Thanks Trisha, for saving Shreya. It was impossible for me alone." I complimented her to make the environment less awkward.
The three girls also joined in giving their thanks to her.
"I was lucky to have those medicines prepared beforehand. I'll try my best to heal you all with them..." she said softly, getting embarrassed.
I smiled understanding that she was trying to use better words this time. I know it's not good when you have to think twice, sweetening your words before saying them to make others happy. But we should also maintain a public face that is made up of both lies and truths so that people won't make our life any harder. If just a few different words can lessen our troubles why not just use them?
"Let's rest for a while. Then I will make some soupy chicken curry for you all, as requested by Dhruva. Look forward to it. Oh, I also need some volunteers for the prep work. Just letting you know before hand." Yashvi said lying down on the ground and curling up like a baby. Within a few seconds she was softly snoring.
"Whoa..." Vihaan checked Yashvi's face and found her truly asleep.
"I'll also take a nap then. We can show you the looting process and how to use the bags for storage when she starts cooking. Take some rest." Vihaan said and also lied down facing toward the swamps.
I also relaxed, looking up at the broken ceiling which was once beautiful. Disappointed with the scene above me, I closed my eyes dozing off to sleep.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx