The feeling of being chewed was terrible and he would never recommend it to anyone. Both of Robert’s legs crashed before he even realized what was happening. The huge maw attempted to swallow another part of him to repeat the process of playing the role of the huge press, but the pain made Rob instinctively conjure several spikes. Steel-made, they pierced the flash of the unknown creature, causing a huge tremble. Despite that, it never stopped doing, closing its mouth again and again, which only accelerated Robert’s mind.
The predator swung his body in different directions, increasing the sense of pain even more as sharp teeth were tearing him apart by sheer pressure. Limited oxygen in his lungs only worsened his situation. Moreover, his recreation of the defensive mechanism of the hedgehog, from which he got his ability, only made the creature feel pure rage from getting injured by the prey. Still, that didn’t lead to any panic. On the contrary, somehow Rob was calmer than before, starting to act almost immediately.
Redirecting his effort from chaotic spikes into two metal beams to push apart the maw, he felt the resistance of the creature. Mental toll to not only summon steel constructs but to overcome the strength of the monster, could easily make him sweat if he was not under the water already. However, he didn’t need to keep it for long as the moment the gap between the teeth was big enough for him, Robert dispersed his improvised spacers and literally squeezed inside the throat to voluntarily stuck there.
He wasn’t stupid to fight the water creature in its natural habitat, while also being weaker, smaller, and struggling to keep himself from just drowning. Having limited time to act, he chose the best possible way he could think of – to strangle it with his own body. If it wouldn’t work – he could still inflict damage and pain from that spot, while being in a relatively safe position for some time. Therefore, after finding the narrowest spot he could, Rob once again summoned metal spikes. Focusing on making them longer, he turned into a real thorn in the throat. Not only annoying but also life-threatening.
Unfortunately, it seemed this huge fish used its gills to breathe, turning their confrontation into a race against time. Either Robert would suffocate from the lack of air, or the wounds inside the body of the creature would kill it earlier. That still left the problem of breathing, but Rob had to focus on the obstacles one by one. Right now, he was trying to get to the brain with his spike. However, after completely losing an orientation in a space under the water, he had to fully rely on his luck. That luck, which often had put him in trouble.
Oh, come on! Die already!
The inner shouts didn’t help as the unknown predator obviously had no wish to end its life in any way and kept struggling despite all Rob's efforts. The latter was already on the verge of losing consciousness, but the anger fueled him to continue. Being in the dark, squeezed from all sides, completely under the water – only this hatred helped him not to give up. Almost screaming from anxiety, Robert in the last desperate attempt unraveled the end of spikes with multiple thorns as if they were blooming flowers. Their chaotic form lessened the complexity of the task by a lot, creating a real steel network inside the monster. And it finally gave so desired result.
The creature’s body shook as if it was hit by the lighting before stopping forever. However, Robert didn’t have time to celebrate as all air was long gone from his lungs and he was keeping up only by sheer willpower and the help of his improved body. Not wasting even a single second, he unsummoned his spikes before pushing him out of the monster’s body. He was already touching the row of fist-size teeth, when the world shook again, before accelerating forward as if he was in a fighter jet that was taking off from a short runway.
In the next moment, Rob realized he was flying over the ocean while staying inside the maw of now a dead creature. Completely in confusion, Robert only managed to take a deep breath. The surroundings started to rotate at an insane speed, quickly approaching the water’s surface. Right before the impact, he managed to see through the gap in opened maw what was happening outside. The scenery almost threw him into panic, but a forceful fall immediately returned him to reality. Rob tried to leave the entrails as fast as he could, but it was again too late.
The imprinted picture of an enormous dark green lizard that bite in half the dead predator, while jumping out of the ocean sent a wave of dread over his mind. However, the giant swimming dragon, or whatever it was, had already swallowed the first piece and was clearly aiming for the second. The curses on the God, his shitty luck and injustice in this world – everything took a mere second, while Robert was conjuring the biggest hollow ball that he ever made. Filled with air, it could last for long before he would find a way out of the unknown creature. Again.
I hope that is not the beast I need to kill because that is real crap…
The surroundings went dark, cutting all unnecessary thoughts. This time the maw was so huge that there was no need to chew him properly before swallowing him together with remnants of a smaller predator. Robert was squeezed once again from the sides, putting him in an odd position. His face was pressed hardly directly to his own metal ball, not giving him even the ability to turn his neck. The sharp teeth of now dead creature kept hurting his back, cutting it constantly, while he was moving deeper into the stomach of the creature. One of the broken bones pierced his thigh and was immediately rotated after another swallowing movement of the lizard. Both broken legs hurt as hell just from simple pressure that came from everywhere.
Rob barely held his scream from the pain, but it was only the beginning when all his surroundings started to burn him alive as he was dropped in some kind of acid. The feeling of melting made him almost go insane before he managed to focus on saving his life. Pushing himself directly into his own metal ball, he focused all his acquired skills, his mental power, and effort to push him through, while leaving the acid behind. The whole world was narrowed to this crucial task, even putting his distressed state in the background.
Somehow it worked. Maybe this time Lady Luck was on his side. Or it was the extreme situation that had pushed him far beyond his skills. After an unknown time, Robert had found himself curled on the metal surface of his own creation. Barely alive, with heavy breathing, he couldn’t even check his injuries because of the absence of any light. However, he wasn’t even sure if he wanted to see it in the first place because just the feeling of after-effect was pure torture. Only by sheer willpower, he managed to calm down no to overuse the limited air.
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Now what? I am inside the stomach of the damned overgrown lizard! Yes, I’ve heard the saying that there is always a bigger fish in the ocean, but what the actual fuck? What is the chance of it happening? Of course, it is logical that one predator can hunt another one, and the best way to attack when the prey doesn’t expect it, but… Crap, it indeed can happen. Moreover, it is exactly what has happened right now. Okay, let’s think of another solution. That is what I always do – constantly searching for a way out of the new pile of shit. Calm down, Robert, and think.
Taking into account the huge size of the thing, Rob immediately threw away the idea of cutting the way out through the flesh or any wish to kill the creature from inside. Moreover, the stomach acidity appeared to be insane as he felt that his steel protection was melting. The process was much slower than it was with organics, but it seemed to be inventible. Adding the problem with oxygen reserves, which just refused to disappear, it left him with a single obvious option – to make the dragon vomit him outside.
Indigestion, it is!
Not inventing anything new, Robert focused on the creation of more spikes right on the surface of the ball. That led him to face the restriction of his magic ability for the first time. Despite all his efforts, Rob just couldn’t create more mass or volume past some point. It was like a mental block that stopped the conjuration. It just refused to follow the order. Fortunately, it didn’t replace the oldest creation with a new one, which could make a mess in his current circumstances. Still, this obstacle made Robert decrease the size of the ball, almost not leaving free space inside for himself. His tallness only added more difficulty.
However, he had no real choice as the size of the stomach appeared too big to reach the edge of it with ease. Rob had to focus solely on it to even have a chance to pierce the inner walls of it. That was his plan –the acidity liquid had to damage organs, creating an uncomfortable and hopefully even awful feeling for the creature, thus making it vomit to the stomach’s content in an attempt to stop it.
Not wasting any time or energy on healing his wounds, he was willingly redirecting all available mana to this task. Curled like a ball inside the conjured metal sphere with constantly growing spikes, Robert basically cosplayed a hedgehog. This thought made him smile, but that only broke his concentration, once again reminding him about the pitiful state of his body. He was sure that his skin had completely disappeared, making each touch as painful as a knife stabbing. But his desire to live was much bigger. Despite not experiencing it, Rob knew from the description that his new trait had granted him the ability to restore himself even after losing half of his body, and that helped him to focus on the main goal – survival. Whatever the damage he got, he would heal it. This fact had a noticeable calming effect. Moreover, his multitasked brain gave him the ability to have an inner dialogue to further peace his mind, while not stopping the summoning of steel for a single moment.
How I wish that my so-called system could give me something like pain tolerance skill, which decreases its feeling. Because my own pain tolerance is fucking what it sounds – my ability to endure the full scale of this shitty feeling by sheer will. Where the fuck is my +1 willpower then?! Where is my achievement for being double naked – no clothes and skin? Where is the help from God, who would save me in the last moment? I demand my own deux ex machina! Wait... what is it? Abort! Abort!
The spasm that went through the stomach of the lizard almost crushed Robert’s sphere, breaking most of the spikes in the process. However, that only led to another one, which this time was even deadlier as the pressure was so strong that steel only barely managed to keep its shape. During the short pause, Rob once again reminded himself that it was his plan in the first place. He just needed to wait for the desired effect. Just to endure. Nothing too hard.
Soon, the reality showed how wrong he was. Robert had lost track of the number of spasms that attacked him. All his attention was solely focused on making his sphere tougher. And that proved to be quite a hard task. Especially, when the walls a crack under wave of pressure, which immediately led the flow of acid inside the sphere. Rob couldn’t hold his scream as his flesh was melting but still focused on repairing the damage on the wall first. By the moment he finished it, he almost lost his leg. However, before trying to get rid of the stomach liquid, the creature started to move.
Not just calmly swim, but more likely to go crazy, creating a real roller coaster for Robert inside itself. The first slide pushed acid directly into his face, blinding him. The amount of pain he got during this time finally pushed his mind beyond the edge. Everything went dark, only lightning up for short moments before once again going back to oblivion. One picture changed another where he was creating stiffening ribs to support the form of his conjured structure. Another showed that he was falling backward with insane speed before the hit in the back of his head completely blacked out him. Or when he lost his composure and focused on healing, disregarding anything else just to lessen the pain, which worked poorly. Or when he was sitting curled in a ball while struggling to take another breath. Or… There were many others and each of them was imprinted in his mind as an attempt to live.
When Robert finally found himself in consciousness state, he was lying face down on a hard surface, which appeared to be a rock. Doubting his own sanity, he touched it a few times before finally believing in the reality of its existence. Slowly breathing in, he immediately felt mixed feelings of happiness of being alive on the land and disgust from the awful smell that surrounded him. Mentally checking the state of his body, Rob noticed the absence of pain from wounds and the toll from body strain, which was barely tolerable.
There was a pressing feeling in his body as he was on the verge of falling apart, despite not having visual injuries. It was oddly everywhere, evenly spread, and was hard to focus on. As if something that glued together all cells in his body was holding on to the last straw. Any slight push, any touch, even breathe could lead to a chain reaction, where everything would break.
Okay, I guess that is my limit of restoration. Might be overtaxing, which is briefly mentioned in the description. No second chances… at least for some time. Let’s see what life has brought me this time.
Pushing his body upwards, Robert stood up tall only to find out the source of the smell. It was a huge pile of dried excrement that was mixed with half-digested remnants of unknown animals, which circled around him like a small fence. His conjured metal defense might have protected him from drowning in it, but without his focus it soon dispersed, leaving him in an empty spot right in the center of excrement.
Oh, so I wasn't puked outside but… Rob, never tell this to anyone. Not a single soul must know!
Creating improvised plugs for his nose, Robert noted how useful his ability could be in many cases because of the sheer range of usage possibilities. It indeed was very useful and not just as an ability to spend mana endlessly.
And it can help me to break through these walls of shit! But before that…
Focusing on his feet, Rob created a pair of cylindrical pillars right under them. Raising higher above the ground, he finally tried to see the land properly. However, his eyes managed to see only the rocky landscape without a single plant. Light brown stone was as dry as the surface of a stove, which wasn’t surprising under the non-moving hot sun that continued to shine as before. There was nothing more – only an endless ocean behind his back. The thunderstorm was long over, and the sky was clear as the water under it.
Here goes my tropical island… I hope it is just this place that looks like directly from Mars. Fuck, I obviously jinxed it right now! Of course, now it will be as empty as my own stomach, and I don’t have light bulbs with potatoes to fill it for months.