When the stormbrew potion broke, the air on the hilltop shattered with it. A howling torrent of dark cloud vapor rushed out in every direction, enveloping the entire battlefield and a good distance beyond. Thunder rumbled out from multiple directions as bolts of angry lightning shot through the massive cloud now resting lightly on the rock they were fighting atop. The sounds were deafening, the tactile sensation of being immersed in water vapor was distracting, and visibility for those trapped in the cloud’s interior dropped to near zero.
For all save one, that is.
Tha-thump. Tha-thump. Tha-thump.
Sean kicked his black blade away from his pack and dashed forward into the impenetrable mist. There was no dodging lightning, so he didn’t even try. He just barrelled onward, heading straight for the first of the two who had dove to the side and using his pulse sense to guide him. His steps were sure, despite the mist and blood-soaked stone. His target was clear.
Tha-thump. Thump-tha-thump. Thump-tha-thump.
Each of the giants’ heartbeats were quickening now. Fear and adrenaline surging. Big Smash’s hammer crashed down behind him, smashing into the dune giant Sean and Gel had already downed – no doubt trying to hit them. In front of him, Sean could see the interlacing networks of blood tracing their way up the giant’s neck. A neck that was finally within reach as his foe scrambled to stand within the storm. Seeing his foe begin to shove himself up, the gelaton decided on a course of action he hadn’t actually considered until just now.
“I’m going to jump into his neck!” Sean informed his omnivorous friend. “Hand me an axe to open it, then I want you to dissolve as much as you can!”
“Into it?” Gel asked, sounding both curious and a little miffed he was unable to see through the fog on his own. A crimson battleaxe found its way haft-first into Sean’s right hand. “That’s a new one.”
“Yeah, well. If you’ve got the room.” Sean quipped back, bringing the crimson axe up in a high slashing arc at the giant’s exposed neck as he infused the weapon’s edge with his ability.
You have used the ability ‘Slash’ on Dune Giant for 54 damage (54 total, base 23 with held weapon plus 14 from slash, damage multiplied 200% due to a critical strike and reduced by 20 due to your target’s ability: “Sandskin”).
A shower of grey blood covered them as the weapon cleaved deeply through the unarmored and exposed flesh. A pair of lightning strikes slammed down, or maybe four Sean couldn’t tell. The constant rumbling thunder was so deafening that even here, standing just below its mouth, he almost couldn’t hear the giant roaring in pain.
“You know,” Gel commented. “This potion is really something. I wonder how expensive it wa–”
Sean leapt up and grasped at the now-visible vertebrae in the giant’s neck with his reaper’s hand. There was too much muscle for him to grip it, but that was fine. The gelaton clung to the muscles themselves with a firm grip and pulled, interrupting his friend’s battle-chatter mid-sentence. His reaper’s hand thrummed, resonating in a way Sean had begun to learn was a promise of what was to come. He took that as a good sign.
“Oohh, why hello there.” Gel cackled happily, as Sean lifted them into a cavity that was never supposed to exist in a still-living creature. “Don’t mind if I do!”
This would not have worked if his arms weren’t holding him up. The logical portion of Sean’s mind noted as the dune giant crashed back to the stone and reached for him with one massive hand, inadvertently shoving the gelaton deeper into its own neck. Sean slashed at the hand to keep it from crushing him, scoring another hit as Gel’s crimson whips shot out in multiple directions.
“Sever the head!” Sean shouted, feeling like he had to in order to be heard inside the cacophony of noise despite their communication being mental. “We have to get to the others before the potion runs out!”
“On it!” Gel responded eagerly, already sounding half-distracted from being able to gorge himself on so much meat.
Sean knew on some level that he should be horrified by what the slime did next, but in that moment all he felt was a surge of vicious, bloodthirsty delight. Sizzling crimson liquid melted its way through enough of the hapless giant’s neck to carve a clear gap that was only a few inches wide. The gap extended in a nearly 360 degree arc, severing everything but bone.
The weight of the dune giant’s own head met up with physics then, and bone snapped. Their second opponent crashed to the floor, wholly decapitated. Arterial sprays of grey fountaining off into the mist. The resonating hum of Sean’s left hand began to die off, just as the giant’s own pulse did.
You have defeated a Dune Giant! You have gained 30 experience points.
Big Smash’s hammer came down again, and again the giant chief appeared to have grossly miscalculated his opponent’s position. Maybe the monstrously oversized humanoid was starting to get frantic, or maybe their first foe had finally bled out. Either way, another prompt appeared shortly after the last.
You have defeated a Dune Giant! You have gained 30 experience points.
Two down, two to go. Sean thought with grim satisfaction. He turned in the direction of the last non-chief giant, only to find that there was at least one foe on the rock who had a sense of self preservation.
“Holy shit. He’s actually running away.” Sean remarked, a bit of disbelief creeping into his voice. A cold disdain welled up from deep within him, and his instincts began supplying him with likely paths the giant would be taking to flee. “Can’t say I blame him, but uh… wow, alright. Makes our job easier.”
“Who-what? He ran– Who ran away?” Gel sounded confused, but then furious. “You’re kidding me. Our food is running off!? Sean, why are you just standing there? Get after him! I was promised four meals!”
“Technically, all we need is the chief right now.” Sean said, turning to face Big Smash. “We can get our to-go order filled later.”
The giant chief had stopped his tantrum for the moment, and from what the gelaton could tell it looked like he had also dropped his hammer.
Must have gotten zapped. Sean noted with dark amusement as he watched his final opponent flail around at the nothing all around him with his arms and legs. Looks like he’s fighting the wind. Going to be hard to close the gap while he’s doing that, though. Maybe he is smarter than he looks.
“‘Technically’ nothing.” Gel fumed. “I don’t care what happens, this was a fair match! Four foods entered, and none of them were supposed to leave! We’ve been robbed, Sean. Robbed!”
“Did you get a good look at him?” Sean asked his friend, only half paying attention to the conversation as he tried to figure out the best angle of approach while they still had storm to work with. Despite being able to rely on his pulse sense, the sheer amount of visual and auditory stimuli all around them was making it hard to think. “If you did, we can just hunt him down after.”
“Oh, I did.” Gel said in a low, threatening promise. “I never forget a face. Especially not one I plan to eat.”
There was no real pattern to Big Smash’s clearly defensive wild, sweeping swings. Not one Sean could discern anyway. He spent a precious minute trying to outwait his opponent’s stamina, before abandoning the idea. They needed the cover of the storm. He had to act now.
“I’m going in.” Sean announced, dashing forward as he explained what they were going into. “He’s just swinging at air, if we can time it right then we can probably sneak in another critical hit before he notices us.”
“I’m all for it!” Gel shouted, clearly also straining somewhat under the constant clashing of thunder all around them. “Battleaxe?”
“Battleaxe.”
They almost made it. At the last second, right before they got within range of one of Big Smash’s oversized-even-for-a-giant legs, the massive chieftain adjusted his stance to face them. The blow that followed came so fast, Sean didn’t have any time to react. It burst through the cloud vapor to his left, crashing into his side and sending them flying through the air.
Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.
You have been struck by an unknown ability of a Dune Giant Chief for 154 damage (154 total, 85 base multiplied by 200% due to bludgeoning damage, minus 16 due to inherent damage resistance).
Your title ‘Unstoppable III’ has activated! Damage received in excess of your minimum health has been neutralized. This effect now has a 3 month cooldown before it can activate again.
The sheer amount of damage was almost as shocking as the blow itself. Sean had no idea what ability Big Smash had used to empower his blow, but he almost hadn’t had to. The base damage alone would have been enough to kill him at full health. He might have survived one thanks to his own toughness, but his weakness to bludgeoning damage would have eclipsed even that.
If it hadn’t been for the boost the death plume potion had given them, Sean and Gel’s journey would have ended right there. They would have died. Splattered across the hilltop stone like the chieftain’s own cadre were. As it was, they ended up only mostly dead.
And mostly dead, was still partially alive.
Sean crashed bodily to the ground, tumbling over an unmoving set of fingers the size of logs. He felt the reinforcements given to his body by the death plume crack in more than a dozen places, and new fissures extended in places he already had them. Black mist rose up from his bones as Gel cried out in anguish of his own – the slime clearly having not escaped some damage of his own from the blow.
The gelaton stood up on a pair of shaky feet, splinters of his shattered bone shield falling from his arm to the stone. He glanced at his HUD to check how much health he had left, already feeling a familiar and moderately terrifying rage rise up from within him.
No, no no….
Current Health: 1 / 27
In just one blow, Big Smash had broken through Sean’s entire cushion of temporary health, and would have killed him already had it not been for his title. A title that couldn’t stop the cold fury washing over his mind.
Sean locked eyes with the giant chieftain. The gelaton may not have died outright from that blow…
… but with it, their fates had been all but sealed.
No, no no… not right now!
It was too late. Sean felt the world around him swirl away as if down a wide drain. The cacophony of thunder and sounds dialed down as if someone had turned the volume knob to 0. All that remained was a single, rapid heartbeat. His vision focused onto a single point, the beating red heart of his opponent and the network of pulsating veins branching out from it.
A tidal wave of fury eclipsed Sean’s conscious thoughts, and he charged forward at a dead sprint. This interloper had dared to hurt him. It had challenged him for territory that was rightfully his. It had hurt his other half, and now it would pay.
A distant, locked portion of Sean’s mind tried to fight its way free. To retake control. But that part of the gelaton was caged now. It could not stop what was about to happen any more than it could hold back the ocean. Oddly enough, its other half was in agreement with this locked portion of its mind. But the gelaton did not heed the concerns of its stomach. It would cease its complaints once it was fed.
It always did.
—--------------------
Gel felt the moment when Sean lost control. When his best friend in the world succumbed to the relentless fury that always seemed to well up within him whenever he took real damage. The ‘fugue state’, as Sean had started calling it, didn’t seem to affect him as often ever since they had beaten back Bancroft’s attempt at reasserting control. If Sean’s ridiculous toughness negated the damage, then it might not happen at all.
This did not appear to be one of those times.
“Sean? Sean!” Gel called, hoping to bring his friend back with the soothing, vibrant tones of his mental voice. He did his best to keep his own pain from that ludicrously overpowered blow out of his voice, and he thought he mostly succeeded. “Now isn’t a great time for this!”
Impossibly, that entirely rational argument fell on deaf ears. Or non-existent ones.
His ears were tasty…
Gel tried a few more times, but experience had taught him how futile the attempt was. Still, he had faith in his friend, so he tried anyway… and when that didn’t work, the slime took matters into his own wobble. It was up to him to save them both now. As it usually was in the final moment of crucial fights. Gel was used to the pressure. He lived for pressure like this.
Okay, that wasn’t accurate. He lived for food. But also his friend, and he wouldn’t be living for either for long if he didn’t do something. Sean was charging in without even trying to be careful now, and the slime couldn’t trust the furious version of his best bud in the whole world to make that work.
So as the gelaton carried them both towards another blow and certain death, Gel surveyed his options. Ooze Echo was a great ability, but doubling something Sean was likely to use right now wouldn’t help.
I could switch to ‘Impact Shell’. That would save us from the next hit, but not the one after that. Hmmm… The slime considered their abilities with all the gravity and swiftness this moment deserved, before an idea came to him.
Oh, that might work. Gel cackled internally, already loving his latest and greatest idea. Let’s do that.
You have used the ability Knowledge Swap to exchange Sean’s Momentum Shift ability with your Scent Solvent ability. Uses of these abilities whose mana costs have already been paid will remain in effect. Despite your mutual lack of the prerequisites to use the exchanged abilities, you will be able to use them due to your bond. Additionally, due to your symbiotic structure and mutual morphic traits, exchanging these abilities has changed their intrinsic functions!
Momentum Shift has become Bounce Back!
Scent Solvent has become Grave Sense!
‘Grave Sense’? Gel resolved to check the description of the ability Sean had just gained after the battle. Right now, he had a much more interesting one to read.
BOUNCE BACK
Description: Gain the ‘Bounce Back’ ability.
Effect: Allows the user to repulse the force of the next object or blow that strikes them back at its originator. The potential damage and force that can be repulsed is capped by the amount of mana invested in this ability when activated. Lasts 10 seconds. Ability fails if the user is struck by a higher potential force or damage than they can repulse.
Mana Aspect: Chaos
Gel’s already manic cackling took on a tone of savage glee as he immediately activated his new ability, dumping all 75 points of mana he had left from what death plume had granted them into it. He couldn’t see what was going on, and without Sean ‘around’ enough to tell him what was going on the slime couldn’t even guess at the timing they would need.
But he did know his friend, and having consumed the memories of several giants who had seen Big Smash fight, Gel had a pretty good idea of what the chieftain was going to try next. He would try to end the fight as quickly as possible, hoping to capitalize on the success of his last blow and afraid that the storm might zap him again. The chieftain obviously had some way to sense them through the mist, and Sean was still barrelling headlong towards him.
The stage was set, and as Gel felt the ability flow out of him to cover all of Sean’s bones in semi-solid crimson ooze, he was pleased to find all the players now were, too. A second later, the chieftain’s cerulean blue hammer came crashing down through the cloud, directly atop them. It smashed into the gelaton’s head with enough force to crush Gel’s best friend into bone paste…
… only for the crimson liquid covering them to ripple like his ooze usually did in the wind. A peal of thunder louder than the storm gathered all around them cracked through the air, and the hammer ricocheted back at its owner. Gel’s self-satisfaction grew as the cloud around them vanished, revealing Big Smash standing above them with both of his massive hands clenched hard against his own face.
Where the chieftain’s precious hammer was now firmly embedded, nearly to the other side of his skull. The slime noted with dismay that a great deal of grey matter had been forcibly ejected out of the chieftain’s ears and newly-created facial-cavity, but to his great relief Sean was already on it. The gelaton took off immediately, climbing up Big Smash’s legs with such grace that the slime wondered if Sean had somehow swapped back for spider climb already.
I knew we were friends for a reason. Gel thought to himself, pride at having saved both their lives filling every ounce of his being. The slime helped his friend climb by anchoring his whips in at various portions of the giant’s body, confident that Sean was aiming to feed him the prize he had just earned. Doesn’t waste any time, just goes straight for the brain so we can feast!
The slime hardly noticed that Big Smash wasn’t moving as they climbed up towards his crushed cranium. He dismissed the experience notification from the giant chieftain’s death, his mind already focused on – and practically salivating for – the mind he was about to eat.
Gel did notice when the chieftain began to fall backwards. By then however, Sean had already reached the top. His best friend was still locked in that furious fugue state, so there was nothing left to do but hold on. The slime reluctantly held off on feasting, opting instead to anchor them to the giant’s shoulders with his two whips.
That should keep us saf–. Gel’s train of thought was interrupted as he spied something below them.
The slime did some quick mental calculations, using the combined mathematical prowess granted him by the memories of those whom he had consumed – which is to say, he guessed as hard as he could, trying to predict where they would fall. He wasn’t sure at first, but as their downward arc continued, Gel’s faith in all of existence and the goodwill of the great slimes of the past was forever renewed.
“Hahahahah, ohhh YESS!!” The slime shouted.
As both he and Sean rode Big Smash’s crushed skull down and fell…
… right into the encampment’s massive cooking pot.