At Gel’s insistence, and not wanting to waste an opportunity before Mumbles came back, Sean crept up the staircase. The iron gate barring his way had been bent outward towards the stairs by whatever had struck it in the past, so it was only loosely connected to the wall. It wasn’t locked either, since there was probably little point to it, and thus Sean had little trouble pushing the entire thing open.
A high-pitched screeching sound shrieked out from the gate’s hinge. Its sound made Sean wince and Gel cackle with wild laughter, as if the skeleton had done that on purpose.
“Oh ho ho, yes! Who needs stealth when we can just make our dinner come to us? A masterful change of plan, I love everything about it!” The slime crowed happily, as every single monster in the room immediately turned their attention towards them.
Time felt like it slowed down for Sean as giant maggots reared up from their meals and turned in his direction. The two crabs both dropped their meals, raising their claws in a threatening posture, and began shuffling their crustacean bodies to better face him. Sean raised his bone ‘club’ in both hands, preparing to engage as soon as they approached–
– only to realize that simple bone alone was probably not the best solution to breaking through overgrown crab shells. No matter how ‘thick’ they were, he got the distinct feeling that neither the thigh bone nor his own hands were up to the task. Considering how long it had taken him to crack crab legs back on Earth even with specially designed tools – smashing through their shells was likely also out of the picture.
“Right. Plan.” Sean responded, dropping his club to the floor as the slime in his rib cage began doing its best to entice their opponents to charge at him by shaking his ribs like they were prison bars. “Definitely have one of those.”
“I knew you did.” Gel said, with unshakeable confidence in him. “And I, personally, can’t wait to see you crush our food with it.”
Sean’s eyes flickered away from armored crabs and towards the nearby tables where the maggots were now undulating back and forth at him as if to intimidate him from their prey. The unexpectedly sturdy tables given how much weight they were carrying. A spark of insight flashed through him, and Sean grasped onto it. He dashed forward.
Gel whooped in his mind as Sean reached the first table and swung his left hand outward in an arcing fist. Instead of smashing it into a maggot however, he ducked down and smashed one of the table’s legs near the bottom, striking it so that the force pushed the leg inward. The leg immediately cracked and bent in towards the center, causing the entire table to wobble slightly in his direction.
Sean had hoped to break the leg clean off, but apparently the table was not as poorly made as he had expected. Thankfully, his newly-reinforced bone hand hadn’t registered a single iota of pain despite him punching it directly into hand-crafted wood. A fact he appreciated nearly as much as it surprised him. Sure it hadn’t hurt when Gel had melted his face off earlier, but his bones were his body now.
A body which, apparently, could no longer feel pain.
You know what, I think I could get used to this. Sean thought, as he grabbed the broken, splintered table leg in both hands and wrenched it away with all of his might.
With a satisfying crunch, the wood of the table split and the leg broke clean off just as the two crabs began advancing towards him. looking briefly at his unhurt hand as the two crabs began advancing towards him. The now-three-legged table wobbled unsteadily under its weight as he stepped back, and the maggots atop it hissed at him. Actually hissed, before leaning their heads back as if preparing to lung for him.
In response, Sean merely slid his grip down the wooden leg as if it were a baseball bat – albeit with crude nails poking out of the top – and grinned at the flesh-gorged monsters with all of his newly polished teeth. Or, at least, made his best attempt at it. Without lips his teeth were technically always bared… but he could manage a grim sort of smile with what movement he did have. That would have to be enough.
Tapping the end of his improvised weapon against the stone floor twice and adjusting his stance to a wind-up he had learned so many years ago, Sean waited for the pitch to come.
When it did, he began swinging.
You have struck Bloated Corpsefly Maggot for 8 damage (8 total, 2 base + 2 for improvised wooden implement, multiplied by 200% due to the maggot’s weakness to physical attacks!).
Sean’s first hit belted the maggot straight through its mouth to its tail, splattering pink skin and black goo in large chunks all across the wall. The top half of its body slid off the bat onto the ground, and a ‘defeated creature’ prompt appeared in his vision. Sean minimized it immediately as the second maggot shrugged off pieces of its now-fallen comrade to leap at him.
His second swing met the creature in midair at a slightly different angle from the first, popping the maggot open like a blood-filled water balloon, and splattering himself with gore. More prompts appeared, but Sean quickly minimized those as well. Gel’s raucous hoots of laughter followed each swing, only to die off as the slime began gleefully consuming the maggot-bits that had showered them both.
Feeling for the first time since waking up like his fate was back in his own hands once again, Sean felt his jaw lower somewhat into an even more menacing expression. He locked his eyes on the third maggot, and pointed. First at the maggot, then at the wall.
“Batter up!” Sean shouted mentally, stepping forward and unleashing his best home-run drive.
Gore splattered the walls once more as his swing landed a perfect hit on the maggot’s midsection. Another prompt appeared, confirming the creature’s death. Feeling like he could spare the attention for now, Sean allowed himself a brief second to skim the message.
You have defeated a Bloated Corpsefly Maggot! You have gained 1 experience point.
A single experience point each wasn't much, but then again the maggots weren’t really putting up a fight so Sean supposed that made sense. He closed the prompt, feeling a little let down at the miniscule gain.
Hopefully the crabs are worth more. Sean eyed the pair advancing on him, both far larger than any of the maggots and armored to boot. It’d be insane if they weren’t.
One of the crustaceous exp-boosts in question had already made it halfway across the room and was clicking its pincer in his direction. The other appeared to have intercepted one of the maggots that had tried to wiggle off its table towards Sean and was now chowing down on its hapless meal. While the latter of his enemies eliminated one of his problems for him, Sean took a quick count of what he was still up against.
There were 8 maggots still left in the room, not counting the one currently being torn apart, and only the two crabs. All but the one currently eating a maggot were making their way towards him, though the maggots didn’t seem quite so willing to leap at him any more given the fate of their already-burst brethren. With the corpse-laden tables spaced at least four or five feet apart, the grubby things would have to keep risking death-by-opportunistic-crab to come at him unless Sean willingly chose to get within jumping distance.
Something Sean had no intention of doing, given that his latest weapon gave him all the extra range and splat-power he needed to take them down. All he had to do now was line up his shots before the real threats arrived.
Stepping to his right, Sean carefully aimed and swung hard at the three maggots on that table in quick succession. The first burst like an overripe melon, the second evolved into a liquid-based splatter-form on contact, and the third’s body played unwilling host to his ‘bat’ as it was lodged firmly into the maggot’s midsection. Chunks of meat and dark blood showered over him, staining his normally white bones a deep, reddish black.
Yanking backwards on the table leg, Sean felt his grip begin to slide off. Looking around for something to wipe his hands off with, he realized there was actually a better option. Sean stuffed first one hand, then the other into the slime resting within his stomach. Without any prompting, Gel immediately dissolved the mess right off each of Sean’s hands – revealing polished white bones once more.
Settling back into his wind-up position, Sean waited for the first crab to get within striking range. As he pondered how to best take the thing down, a vicious thought occurred to him.
“Gel, if I can crack this thing’s shell open and get you in there, can you kill it from the inside?” Sean asked, then clarified. “By eating what’s inside, I mean.”
Sean had absolutely no idea which parts inside the crab’s shell were vital for it to keep living, it was entirely possible crabs in this world had some kind of a segmented brain or compartmented organs to protect them from random skeletons bashing in parts of their shell. He did, however, feel reasonably safe in assuming that liquefying whatever was inside their bodies would be enough to kill them.
And if not, well, then I guess I’ll keep bashin’.
“You know, I thought I loved your last plan, but this one is definitely my new favorite.”
“I take it that’s a ‘yes’?”
“It is absolutely a ‘yes’, my brilliant and brainless friend. But you’ll have to do something about those claws first. I can’t digest the hard stuff.”
“Not a problem.” Sean said confidently, taking the same stance he’d once used to win a giant stuffed rhino from the Verdant County fair’s hammer-based strongman test. That bell hadn’t known what was coming.
And neither does this crab. Sean thought, with grim amusement.
When the large crustacean had skittered sideways across the room to roughly within range, Sean attacked. Leaping forward he brought his improved bat down with crushing force--
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-- only to smash the weapon against its raised claw instead. Wood chips sprayed into the air as the leg broke apart in his hands. Still, the attack had worked. The enormous claw protecting the creature cracked sharply down the middle and began to fall apart, revealing pinkish-white meat inside. A pained clacking sound came from the crab’s maw that quickly turned angry.
It turned towards him and scuttled forward once more, its other claw raised. Sean used the brief moment it took the creature to move to do so himself, stepping back and around the table he hadn’t broken yet – placing it between himself and the chitinous beast.
“Okay, maybe a bit of a problem.” Sean admitted, before gripping the edge of the table with both hands. “Luckily, I have a solution!”
He tried to flip the whole thing over on his foe, he really did, but the damn thing was heavy! He only managed to get it about halfway up. It wasn’t the weight of the table, but the partially-eaten corpse atop it that felt like it still somehow weighed 200+ lbs. The wood bent in the center, straining to lift with Sean’s exertions, as what had clearly been an obese man in life began slowly sliding down the table. The pear-shaped corpse of a man sounded like a bag of wet steaks slowly rolling over itself.
The crab, clearly confused as to what Sean was trying to accomplish, raised and clacked its claws menacingly toward the table. As if the thing expected the table itself to attack it.
Move already you… heavy bastard. Sean thought with a mental groan, attempting to jostle the table with his leg for further support. When that didn’t work he slammed his knee into the underside of it, hoping to dislodge the literal dead weight from whatever grime it was stuck on.
His efforts were rewarded when the corpse finally tilted off to one side and then abruptly slid down the table towards his crustacean opponent. Shuffling forward Sean managed to heave the table at the last moment and drop a truly ridiculous amount of bloated, rotting corpse onto his opponent. The crab's legs all cracked at the same time as they went from standing to flattened in less than a second.
Slamming the table back down in satisfaction, Sean let out a mental "BOOYA!" before raising his arms in a double-fisted victory pose.
One crab down, one to-- Sean's jubilance was rudely interrupted when something slammed into his right hand and dragged it down. It fell to his side with a sharp lurch. Looking down, Sean saw with horror that one of the maggots had managed to leap up and latch itself onto his arm. Its horned maw already engulfing his entire fist down to the wrist as the creature tried to eat him.
You have been bitten by Bloated Corpsefly Maggot for 0 damage (0 total, 1 base minus 1 due to toughness).
You are being eaten! The digestive fluid of the Bloated Corpsefly Maggot will deal 1 damage every five seconds (1 total, base 2 multiplied 250% due to unknown special ability, minus 4 due to toughness).
A roiling red haze settled over Sean's vision as violent anger surged forth from every corner of his being. All rational thought fled his mind as the world closed onto a single point for him. The maggot’s eyes trembled as it sensed a change in his prey, even its small mind realizing that something had gone wrong in its attack. That it was in danger, when it should have been winning.
Sean did not notice.
All he knew was that he had been hurt. Something had attacked him.
Which meant it had to die.
Sean reached down and grabbed the maggot’s entire head with his left hand while his right clenched itself tightly around the bug’s own internal organs. Then, he wrenched both hands sharply apart.
Black and red viscera spewed into the air in a wide arc. A wet chunk landed on his forehead, but Sean gave it all the heed he might a raindrop. With brutal efficiency, he began savaging the creature, systematically ripping apart any piece large enough for him to grip onto.
When the maggot was little more than shreds, the fog of rage finally began to recede and Sean’s vision began to slowly return. It was then that he heard the slime’s voice again, piercing through as if Gel had been shouting at him.
"Hey– Hey! Stop wasting all the good stuff! It's already dead, and the other crab is coming at us! Sean! On your left, he’s right there!"
Giving his head a shake, Sean cleared the last of the lingering red haze from his mind. He couldn't have said where any of that had come from – only that the surge of emotion had been immediate and overwhelming. It had shut down his ability to think the second he had been attacked, leaving no room for anything but his opponent. There had been a deeply primal aspect to it, something Sean had only ever associated with his own survival instinct.
There was no time to contemplate it further, however. The other crab had indeed finished with its meals and, looking to his left as Gel had indicated, Sean discovered it was almost on him. Both of the crab’s oversized pincers were raised for combat.
Sean had pushed the table away from him at some point, so he quickly stepped further back from it to gain some distance. A few rapid steps brought him back to the table he'd torn a leg from earlier and on the way he glanced down to check on the first crab to make sure it wasn’t getting back into the fray.
He needn’t have worried. The dying creature’s legs twitched spasmodically, and its pincers waved weakly, but its eventual fate was obvious. All that was left for the crab was a slow death.
I’ll be right back for you, little guy. Sean thought. Right after I take care of your buddy.
Instead of using his fist again Sean took careful aim and kicked the table’s adjacent leg outward, causing the whole thing to collapse. Wrenching the leg off was a bit easier this time, and he soon had a replacement ‘bat’ to replace the one he had broken. Hefting it in a similar fashion to his last, Sean turned to face his approaching foe.
The last of the two crabs crunched its way through the table he’d put between them with an ease that made Sean’s confidence in facing the creature in melee combat waiver just a bit. Its pincers had gone through that wood quick. Where thick board had been just seconds before, now lay only splinters.
Sean looked down at his improvised weapon. A nail had bent outwards at a ninety degree angle from the top, and a large, inch-deep crack ran almost halfway down the leg from where he had kicked it. If the weapon survived more than two swings against that shell, Sean would wrap it in gold leaf.
He looked back at his opponent. The two-and-a-half foot tall, nearly four-foot wide angry crustacean held a flat piece of table in just one of its pincers. Small, beady eyes locked onto Sean’s burning orbs. Then the pincer snapped shut, cracking the several-inch-thick wood in half as if it were no more than paper caught between a pair of wide, chitinous scissors.
Sean looked back down at his weapon. It felt shorter somehow than it had been a moment before. Thinner, too. Gel’s voice sounded in his mind, the slime’s tone making the single word an almost academic suggestion.
“Run?”
Instead of wasting time answering, Sean simply turned and took his friend’s advice. He bolted back towards the gate they had entered through. The cranky crustacean behind him chittered in excitement, clacked its massive pincer once more, and gave chase.
Sean leapt through the iron gate and slammed it shut behind him as he passed through. It screeched the entire way along its arc and slammed into its bearings… before bouncing back open on its busted hinge.
Damnit! Sean cursed himself as he heard the high-pitched screech echo down the stairs a second time. How could he have forgotten the door was broken? He had hoped the metal would hold it, but a broken door wouldn’t stop that thing!
… Unless… unless the door didn’t have to stop it. A terrible plan began to rapidly form in Sean’s mind. The type Gel would probably approve of. Still, he decided to give it a try. The tunnel ahead of him was a deadend anyway.
Abandoning all thoughts of escape, Sean turned on his heel and jammed the end of his improvised bat into the stone. He angled the nailed tip through one of the iron grates, aiming it like a blunt spear just as the crab closed in from the other end. Hopping down two steps, the skeleton then put both of his hands on either side of his head and – lacking a tongue to stick out – waggled his jaw in as wildly mocking a manner as he could manage.
Myehhhhh! Sean thought at the creature, doing his best impression of his spoiled little cousin on her worst day.
Enraged, the creature charged forward. It slammed its full weight into the gate with one of its pincers out front, intent on annihilating the annoying set of walking bones that had dared to interrupt its meal.
A surprised gurgling sound crawled up from the creature’s mouth as, instead of a meal, it found the table leg Sean had wedged into the floor forcibly inserted under its pincer and through its own mouth. A thin nail even managed to push its way across the inside of the creature’s shell from the outside, distending the surface. The grim visual was followed by a very satisfying blood-red prompt.
You have struck Small Corpse Crab for 8 damage (8 total, 2 base + 2 for improvised wooden implement, multiplied by 200% due to a critical strike!).
Laughing soundlessly, Sean dove at the now immobile crab, eager to finish the last real threat of this fight. His eagerness cost him.
The instant he was within range of the still-living crustacean’s waiting pincer, the dying creature struck. Sean’s right arm snapped almost in half in its harsh embrace, bringing a bright blossom of pain into his mind. Midnight-black mist poured out from his broken ulna and radius the way blood might from a flesh wound. Instead of spurting out however, the dark mist faded into transparency as it rose into the air. A few inches away from the break, it vanished completely.
Well, that’s not ominous at all. Sean thought, just before a blood-red prompt appeared detailing his own damage, and an all-consuming rage took over his mind.
Your arm has been crushed by Small Corpse Crab for 2 damage (2 total, 3 base multiplied by 200% due to special ability minus 4 due to toughness).
The same fog from before overtook his every thought, and Sean’s attentioned shifted from his injury – to his enemy. Indifferent to the damage he’d just taken – despite the attack bringing him down to only two-thirds of his remaining health – Sean’s left arm lashed out at the crab’s exposed features.
Activating Slash over and over again until his mana had almost run out, Sean’s remaining hand tore the creature’s face apart. Undaunted by the loss of his arm, Sean grabbed the leg impaling the creature with his left hand and threw his entire weight into shoving it fully through the crab’s insides. White juices sprayed, and his opponent finally slumped to the floor.
You have defeated a Small Corpse Crab! You have gained 25 experience points.
With the crab’s death, its grip on Sean’s arm released. Even so, it still took some time for his logical mind and senses to return to him. When they had, Sean stared numbly at his broken arm. The sheer amount of splintered bone he now sported should have had him incapacitated with pain. He vaguely recalled there being pain when it had broken, but now there was only a dull stinging sensation. Like he had a handful of spider bites instead of a handful of cracked bones.
Must be the same response that dampens my emotions. Sean realized. Well, isn’t that handy.
He gave the broken arm a test swing from his shoulder, wincing internally at the expected spike of pain from moving it around. His arm flopped around a bit from the shoulder, somehow still attached, but the motion brought no additional pain. Sean’s eyebrows would have jumped into his hairline if he still had either.
Alright, that is definitely handy. Sean eyed the experience boost prompt he had gotten from taking out the grab. No pain and all gain! I could get used to this.
Just as he leaned down to inspect the break a bit closer – the mist had all but ceased appearing at this point – Gel’s voice interrupted Sean’s thoughts.
“I uh, don’t mean to sound ungrateful here, but… you mind dropping me in there already? Having to watch our victory feast dribble all of its delicious juices out onto the floor instead of into my mouth is making me endlessly hungry.”