Chapter 40: Crush
When Adam made it back to where his two comrades should have been he found them gone. No signs of struggle, so that was good. He would track them. He had no real direction to head in, all roads lead to Rome and all that. But he seemed to be starting to get a real following. Around him the ground shook. Another bore?
Actually it was seven, magnificent nope, colossal yep. What to do? It seemed probable that they had tracked him from using his shadow bolts. He thought through his options. He didn’t have many. He could escape them in the shadow realm or do the opposite and draw more in using his shadow bolts.
But even with his beefed up mana pool, he could only use nine of his deadliest shadow bolts, as they were four thousand a pop. He needed a better way of killing them. He thought back to the way he had slaughtered to Ore beasts. Would it work with these beasts? And did they have the SP to spare on such a rash stunt? He had no idea how much SP the extreme mana field had used. He only knew it again had finite uses but in a worse way than the shadow bolts as there was no SP regen that would recoup the loss.
Leaving only one option, run or be crushed.
But he unlike his AI counterparts who could make decisions in less than split seconds , had left it too late. The beasts converged on him. He could see them all to clearly but could see no way to get out of the way.
He jumped, or tried to, over the nearest beast that came at him but he had misjudged his trajectory. Well there was a surprise and got clipped by one of its giant protruding discs of stone. He went tumbling through the air, hitting a few of the remaining trees. Coming to rest under the next beast.
It ploughed over him, crushing him like a wet meat patty under a griddle. He didn’t feel much better as his bones were shattered and his flesh torn, as the gargantuan beast trampled him.
Libby and the rest panicked as usual. They had taken their respective eyes of the ball as it were.
A mana field bloomed into existence around Adam and the nearest beast, another unsuspecting boar, was no more. Wiped from existence to fuel Acclimatize, as Libby pumped more SP into it than ever before.
His armour was crap. They had realised and prompted by statements the kids had made they sought to reshape Adam, inside and out.
Meca and Trey having removed anything they considered undesirable to throw into the mix, for Acclimatize to use. Their method of safely utilising the ability was to choose one part of the beast to acclimatize at a time. First the tendons and other tissues, trying to create greater protection for his internal organs and of course strengthening his physic before add more muscle mass and a denser skeletal structure.
Obviously protecting Adam’s brain they reasoned with greater bone density was a priority. They had not tried this before but after the pounding he had just taken they were to worried not to.
They used some of the toughened outer shell of the beast to create armour for Adam while acclimatize did its thing. They took some of his weapons, the sword given to him by the Kitsune and gave them a reworking, trying to strengthen them the best they could. They presumed he was to worried about breaking them to use them, they needed to fix that. They also fashioned a nice spear as the kids really wanted to see him using one, as it was still their weapon of choice.
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The beasts were still in some kind of mana induced frenzy so they had to bury Adam quite a few metres underground. This worked a bit and the creatures eventually seemed to stop. That is a lie they continued feverishly destroying the ground above with their monstrous tusks but now he was way to far down for them to get him. Hide n seek winner, Adam.
Adam didn’t feel great when he awoke. Looking around he could see perfectly. He was in a cave or something? WTF he didn’t know. He just knew it was nice and quiet and those stupid beasts were no were around. Until he looked upwards and saw the bastards with his energy sight.
At least his new stats screen cheered him up a bit, courtesy of Libby and the rest:
[https://images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/f/e8cb5e90-72ff-487d-a0a4-fb7cd7f81c26/dfup82j-2b33179e-676f-4b0a-b440-d243bf42c6dd.png?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOjdlMGQxODg5ODIyNjQzNzNhNWYwZDQxNWVhMGQyNmUwIiwiaXNzIjoidXJuOmFwcDo3ZTBkMTg4OTgyMjY0MzczYTVmMGQ0MTVlYTBkMjZlMCIsIm9iaiI6W1t7InBhdGgiOiJcL2ZcL2U4Y2I1ZTkwLTcyZmYtNDg3ZC1hMGE0LWZiN2NkN2Y4MWMyNlwvZGZ1cDgyai0yYjMzMTc5ZS02NzZmLTRiMGEtYjQ0MC1kMjQzYmY0MmM2ZGQucG5nIn1dXSwiYXVkIjpbInVybjpzZXJ2aWNlOmZpbGUuZG93bmxvYWQiXX0.kgkGTT1dHX1-8G-laPTh8QuQmcRPJxdPpk2mzRN8IFY]
Um ok, he didn’t like to besmirch there designs but he felt like some kind of shiny bone knight. Whatever, his stats had gone up and his boots had been streamlined, no more clumping through the mud. He would glide through the mud, now.
Mostly though his head hurt, a lot. Wasn’t he healed? His stats implied he was at full health.
“Can you get me out of here?” he said to no one in particular.
“It’s still dangerous, up there Adam” Libby said hesitantly.
“You’ve made me tougher haven’t you? Surely I need to live test this otherwise how can we tell it’s going to work the next time some big mob comes to squish me.” He knew he had them there.
“Ok.” Libby said tentatively, after triple checking it with the others.
He shot up out of the ground like a graveyard zombie on steroids. Showering the surroundings with earth and making the boars temporarily step back.
He tried out his swords first. Though it wasn’t really fair there seemed like there were more like a dozen boars and a few other things thrown into the mix. They of course came at him from all angles.
He went into slo-mo, brandishing both sleek now-bone coated swords, he wasn’t sure. He just hoped they wouldn’t break.
The first sword got stuck, after hacking a few inches into the first boars tusk, and sticking there. He should have dodged and slashed at its less tough hide but he just had to play with his new shiny didn’t he. He moved to the side then had the choice of being dragged or losing yet another sword.
He was dragged, like some bizarre water skier, waving the other sword in an attempt to injury his target. The boar bashed him against many, many trees. New ones as they were going on a sightseeing tour with the rest of the herd. Before the beast decided to throw its head up in an attempt to chuck him off. It worked and yet again he went sailing through the wide blue yonder, to land in a heap after hitting another boar. Slo-mo just seemed to make things even more prolonged and tiresome. And with his head still pounding even acclimatize seemed to be failing to keep his cool.
He was getting more and more fucked off with how weak he was. The beasts were throwing him around like a beach ball, or maybe a coconut. It was a forest after all. He was going coconuts that was for sure. The beasts were annoying as hell.
If he ran fast enough maybe they would lose his scent. He changed direction and ran like fuck.
Inside the PD, the kids were puzzled. Questions were coming thick and thick. What was Adam doing? Why didn’t he use the spear? Plenty of juicy prey for him to hack, slash, pummel and blast. Was he leading them into a trap?
“Adam, the kids want to know what you’re doing?” came Huba’s, voice. That made a change.
“What does it look like? I’m running” replied Adam, still pissed off. “Are you leading the beasts into a trap?” they’re asking.
Adam wasn’t sure what it was but the AI seemed to give a lot of credence to anyone who was a non-AI, some kind of inferiority complex, anyway they were taking those kids way too seriously. He had the outfit to prove it.
Though a trap did sound like a good idea.