Ozzy took a second to recalibrate his estimates and confirm. The growth rate wasn’t exponential by a long shot but the voidling was growing. Even at a linear rate that was an alarming revelation. That fact alone wouldn’t be so terrifying if one didn’t consider the fact that four suits were doing their best to damage it, and despite the clear loss in energy from every landed attack, it was still growing. Ozzy could obviously add more suits and level the playing field. He could throw some starfish at it and let them rip out some of its innards. Actually that last one might do some good. He would have to adjust things slightly but if he could get it to work they might do even more damage than the small spurts of energy the suits were resulting in.
As quickly as he could he created a duplicate of his starfish design and began to adjust the targeting and further behavior layered into it. Copying the intent from the suits took barely a thought but if he was really going to damage it he needed a way to pull out portions of the core. Even just trying to have it target the small speck of the void he’d sectioned off was proving difficult. It wasn’t that the construct wasn’t listening or that it couldn’t locate the stuff. The failure was far earlier in the process than that. He couldn’t properly form a mental picture of what this even was. He’d called it a voidling, thought it was the embodiment of nothing, and felt the emptiness that made it up. Yet none of those stimulated a response when trying to add it to the starfish.
While wondering how he was going to get the result he needed he remembered he didn’t need to know exactly what he was dealing with. Nor did he need to target anything once the shell was breached. The starfish could simply perform a specific action once it broke through. Adding on the intent he’d settled on he also made some minor modifications to the arms and the tentacle that punctured. With the changes complete he made a few copies and threw them at the voidling.
The voidling narrowly avoided the first two that sailed into the vicinity. The third was able to adjust position enough to latch onto the protective shell. Doing so with the suckers he’d added to the underside of the arms. Without being large enough to grasp around the voidling it needed another way to get a grip. Once it had pulled itself tightly snug to the membrane it lashed out with the claws embedded in the center. The hole it produced was miniscule compared to the slashes the suits had been dishing out. Yet the starfish wasn’t done. Following the claws came the tentacle that would usually seek out the core. Instead once it penetrated the membrane it began pulling the innards up into the main body. Once there the adjustments Ozzy made sprayed the volatile substance out into the haven. Even with Immediately getting rid of the stuff the starfish wasn’t going to last. The portion inside the voidling was radiating energy from the contact and every part of the tubing ripping out portions of the void was also being eaten away rapidly. Though it turned out that wouldn’t matter.
The Voidling reacted violently once it appeared to realize what was happening. Counter intuitively it actually shot out even more of itself to dislodge the starfish which worked well enough. The starfish slipped off of the surface and flopped to the ground looking a bit like it had been hit with an acid attack with pockmarks and chunks missing out of it. The voidling sucked the closest and largest chunk of itself back inside the protective shell and sealed it back up before continuing to dodge and attack the suits around it. The other two starfish returned to attack but the voidling was incredibly wary of them. On a couple occasions Ozzy saw it choose to avoid the starfish rather than the suits allowing them to at least get a little more damage in.
Ozzy expected the first starfish to get back up but it continued to lay there with energy steaming off of it from the contact points. Reaching out to it he could feel that the voidling had somehow stripped it of intent in the wave that had washed over it. Reconstituting it to pristine condition he also reapplied the intent and then made a few more copies. The air and ground around the voidling was now choked with his constructs trying desperately to achieve the goals he had set out for them.
The battle had shifted several times over the last few minutes and Ozzy took a moment to observe the new status quo. The voidling had yet to allow another starfish to latch on. As with avoiding the first two starfish the now clouded air around it meant it was taking more and more hits from the suits instead. It appeared to be enough that the growth had at least slowed. With all of the motion going on both in front of, behind, and that of the voidling itself, it made confirming the rate quite hard. While he was quite sure the growth had slowed he was nearly as sure that it hadn’t stopped. There was also not much more room to add more to the fray. He felt a starfish or two might be able to squeeze in so he made a couple copies. He also added another suit which more often than not was sitting behind the others waiting for an opening.
Watching again he finally saw another starfish latch onto the voidling. The claws came out but as soon as they pierced the membrane the voidling shoved out a wave pushing the starfish off and retracted nearly all of what it used to do so. This starfish also flopped to the ground devoid of any intent and lay there lifeless. Ozzy frowned to himself as he restored it to a functional state and watched it return to the fray. With all of the constructs he’d brought to bear he knew the voidling in the previous weaker, twitchy state would have succumbed rather quickly. The newer smoother behavior paired with a preternatural speed and simultaneous reactions from multiple angles made it significantly harder to handle even after filling the ground and air around it with constructs. Yet those weren’t Ozzy’s only tools.
He pooled his domain inside of the squares under the voidling leaving nearly nothing around himself. He wasn’t sure if the subterfuge was even accomplishing anything, but the voidling at least didn’t seem to be reacting. Preparing himself he pushed the entire mass of energy and particles up in a bid to grapple with the enemy. The voidling reacted immediately and as fluidly as ever. Sliding to the side and taking another hit from the suits. The thing apparently not wanting to chance whatever damage he might be able to mete out with the new avenue of attack.
If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
For the next few minutes Ozzy used his experience fighting to the extent he could muster in order to give the voidling a run for its money. Like the starfish he wasn’t able to get in hits at first. Mainly choosing moments where the voidling would need to choose between allowing his domain to touch it, getting slashed by a spear tipped tentacle, or having to handle a starfish latching onto its shell. In nearly every case the choice was to be slashed. Though on two occasions Ozzy was able to nudge the decision into resulting in another starfish getting ahold of its carapace. Which resulted in the same nullified state as with the others. Though Ozzy simply restored them and sent them back into the ring.
It was when Ozzy was about to force the third starfish contact that the voidling surprised him by finally choosing to allow his domain through instead. Ozzy faltered in his attack with the unexpected turn of events. Thankfully he had been planning what he would do in such an event. With every attack he’d targeted the points where spears had previously left gashes in the protective membrane. Following through with that plan he rammed a cylinder of domain into the already damaged portion and was ecstatic when he saw the sides of the gash fold inward like a tin can. Not letting up on the pressure for a moment he pushed more and more of his domain through like a feight train entering a tunnel with tremendous momentum.
As he did so the voidling reacted with the same wave as it had with the starfish. Although he felt a bit of a static popping coming from that portion of his domain it didn’t disconnect from him or disintegrate other than at the surface. He had worried that more could happen. With the way the trips he’d stolen and watched the imp steal had been converted. Maybe it was because they were all still connected together, either way he didn’t have time to test or examine the reaction. Instead he expanded out his domain on the inside to form a lock so the voidling couldn’t simply shove his extension out, like it had the starfish.
As more and more of his domain filled the inside the other gashes began to bow outward, forcing the voidling into contact with the air over a large portion of the protective membrane. The roiling energy spewing off of it spurred it on in retaliation. A ripple passed through the voidling as it rebounded and rushed toward the invasion point of Ozzy’s domain. The compression wave neared the contact point and Ozzy tensed for the impact. No impact came. Instead the fuzzing and popping sensation sunk deep into his invading domain and continued out of the membrane as the voidling shifted itself to allow a reverse invasion. Which expanded to encompass more of his domain every moment.
Ozzy was blindsided and disoriented from the ever growing sensation of conflict on a sub microscopic level. It felt a bit like a limb after a nerve had been pinched. Pins and needles, but not simply to alert you of non-existent damage, but to inform you that it had decided you were no longer the owner of said limb. The sensation was accompanied with an intense bout of vertigo and an uncertainty of self which only grew as the voidling burrowed deeper into his domain. The further into his domain the voidling encroached the less this felt like a limb resisting his ownership, and more like the invasion of his own mind. The less his domain felt like a part of him, and simply felt like he was being taken over.
He was vaguely aware of the suits and starfish ineffectually slashing into and latching onto the membranous shell that the voidling was now leaving behind. That realization allowed a portion of himself, his physical self, to reinject a fighting spirit into the domain. While the domain had grown and expanded to encompass much of what he was now, it wasn't the whole, and he used that physical portion of himself to his advantage as well. Reasserting the domain as a limb he was able to shift it into a tight ball. As tight of one as you can get with something that could span a couple meters easily. The close quarters seemed to help each part of his domain cope a little better with the invader and allow his mind to focus on what was happening. The voidling had reverted into the nearly undetectable form it had taken in his shack. Merging into and hiding within his domain. At the same time it was striking out mentally and metaphysically.
While his domain was physically popping and fizzing as it warred with the void Ozzy’s mind was still under assault as well. The intent and desire roiling out of the nothing was singularly focused on the goal of tearing down every belief Ozzy had ever held and his very consciousness with them. He felt a bit like he’d signed into social media and everyone on every app, in every forum, and on every page, was entirely convinced even his presence was a disgrace. An imagined chorus of voices crying out in a mix of terror and hatred at his affront to nonexistence for simply living rang in his head, and throughout his being.
Weathering the storm Ozzy reached out to the surrounding starfish and suits, pulling them into and amalgamating them with the rest of his domain. He felt a small relief as their presence steadied his mind and calmed his soul. Reaching out further to each of the havens touching his own. Connecting to each and every starfish, exchanger, tube, or other portion of domain or membrane he’d left and dismantled them. A wave of domain washed back into his haven and melded with the rest. The voices screeched out again at the audacity with which he dared to continue to fight. Though this wasn’t the same space warping screech from before. Nor even the chorus of self righteous indignation, and absolute certainty of his failure. Instead this was the whimpering wail of one who knew they’d lost.