Chapter Thirty-four
Frankly, I didn’t know what to do.
Then the first of Sivera’s people died. The spear-wielding human, the one without a familiar. I was as appalled as unsurprised — I wouldn’t have let him anywhere near the evil spirit, not without a familiar. But they had, and one moment, when the dwarf wasn’t there to help him, the man just collapsed. I saw his soul dangling on one of the crab-spider’s legs, losing form, half consumed already. Poor guy.
Krissy gasped — she couldn’t see what I could, but a man freezing up for a second and then collapsing to the ground must have been a horrifying sight for her.
‘Krissy, don’t let Kenta and Tommy go anywhere near that thing!’ I told her.
She relayed my message, and it didn’t take much convincing for the two sailors to take a few steps back and stay near the trees. At the same time the rangers rushed forward to join the struggling spiritualists. It might have been bravery, or that they just didn’t see how scary the evil spirit was. Maybe it was because this was their home, and it was their duty to protect it from a monster that would eat everyone if left alone.
‘What about us?’ Krissy asked.
‘Let’s go, but don’t get closer to the wolves than ten paces!’ I told Krissy.
‘Is that how far it can reach?’ she asked.
‘Yeah,’ I said.
She shook her head, taking a deep breath. I had a feeling she had expected me to tell her to stay with the sailors. We couldn’t do that.
This wasn’t our home and we had no duty or obligation to die fighting the horrid spirit-creature, but another thing we didn’t have was a choice. It wasn’t just Wensah and her idiocy — we had to garner some goodwill with the locals, whether we wanted to stay or get on a ship and leave.
Krissy started to walk forward, her steps small and shaky — she was scared and I couldn’t blame her for that.
The five rangers joined the fight, focusing on the wolves the spirit used as spare hosts. These guys were good — what was the word? Squad tactics or something like that. They knew what they were doing.
Two of the rangers stabbed their spears into the wolf the human had been keeping at bay before he had died. Their spears were just long enough to keep them out of the evil spirit’s reach. Tovaron Ento and his two team-mates were jumping in an out, slashing and stabbing at the wolf with their swords, using some sort of evasive pattern. They couldn’t see the legs of the abomination, but their dance-like assaults were working.
For about ten seconds.
The woman, Ardeela-Erini, died as the wolf-host fell apart. The spirit’s leg that had been attached to the beast was free now, and it flung the leg at the woman. She didn’t see the invisible threat coming, and it ripped her soul out of her body. She just … collapsed. Tovaron Ento and his remaining rangers jumped back, shouting and cursing.
‘Shit!’ Krissy cursed, too, her lips trembling.
But she kept walking forward, and we were almost there: I could reach the spirit now if I stretched my tenties, but I was hesitant because I didn’t have a plan beyond trying to eat the damn thing.
‘Stop!’ I told Krissy.
She stopped, almost hyperventilating underneath her mask.
Another of Sivera’s spiritualists fell: one of the two elven men. His familiar’s two arms weren’t enough to fend off three of the spirit-beast’s legs — the elf roared as if in pain as his familiar’s body broke down, their connection severed. Then he shuddered and went silent as a new connection formed: an invisible spirit-leg pierced man’s chest, his soul. I could see the Essence wires spreading and reaching every single node in it, possessing the man in place of the wolf the spirit had just lost. Then the elf joined poor Ruennen Itora as a zombified host.
The newly minted host turned around, his limbs twitching, his eyes rolling back. He — it — lunged at his former comrades, clawing at them with Mana-covered hands, but staying near Ruennen Itora — he was the real host, I deduced. I had no doubt the remaining two spiritualist and four rangers were doomed if I didn’t do something, and if they all died, Krissy and I were going to be the next items on the menu.
‘Kevin, this isn’t looking good. Do something!’ Krissy wailed at me.
‘I know, I know,’ I said.
But what? Staying alive long enough to eat it didn’t seem feasible at all. As if to prove the point, the dwarf fell. The short, stocky, bearded man dropped his axes, both his familiar and his soul falling prey to that bloody monster.
This evil spirit was way too strong. Or was it that the familiars were especially weak? I wasn’t sure. The only advantage I had was my longer reach. Losing a few tentacles wouldn’t be huge problem, but if it got to my body, it would slice me up and eat me piece by piece. I was literally begging my Tentacle Horror instinct to come up with an idea.
And it did.
I emptied my primary Essence pool, gathering 60 EP at the tip of one tentacle. Then, with a mental sigh, I stuck a tentie out of my costume, stretching it towards the monster, making sure my body stayed out of its reach
Speed. I needed speed. I flung that single tentacle at the monstrous spirit faster than I had ever done before. The monster reacted instantly, slashing at my tentie with two of its legs, but I was faster, punching into the crab-like body before the slash could connect.
‘Breakfast is served, motherfucker!’ I yelled as I injected all 60 EP into its body.
The Essence spread inside the spirit, and it froze for a second, all its legs stopping whatever they were doing. That was the break the elves needed — rangers and spiritualists alike — to disengage and back away from it. But it wasn’t going to be enough: I plunged a second tentie into it, and I emptied my secondary Essency pool, pumping its contents into the evil spirit’s body. It started to bloat, the spiritual substance filling it up.
‘Choke on this!’ I yelled at it.
Concentrated, loose Essence was an obstruction when out of its pool — it clogged everything up inside a spiritual body, making it difficult for Mana or Spirit Stuff to move around. I knew it wouldn’t harm the spirit, but combined with the the element of surprise, it was a great distraction. And it worked: I had caught the evil spirit off guard. The Mana it supplied to its hosts dwindled, and it didn’t seem to know what to do or how to react to the new and sudden conditions.
Both the rangers and Sivera’s remaining people regrouped in seconds, not wasting any time. They rushed the hosts of the beast again, Mana flashing through the weapons and bodies of the spiritualist, making them faster, stronger and more lethal.
‘Kevin, what’s happening?’ Krissy squealed, unable to see beyond the material plane.
‘Not now!’ I squealed back at her. ‘Just don’t move!’
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‘Tentacle Horror!’ I heard one of the familiars scream. It sounded rather panicky.
‘Focus on the crab-spirit, idiot!’ I yelled back at it.
It was the familiar of the other elven man, and it was too late. My mere presence — or rather the revelation of what I was — had distracted it from the main villain, and it paid for it with its life. The spider-bastard swiped at the distracted familiar and its master with four of its legs, catching them and eating them both, leaving the woman the only spiritualist alive — not counting Krissy. This was going to come down to who could eat faster: the spider-crab or me.
I discarded my costume, letting it dissolve, and I shoved all six of my tentacles into evil spirit’s body. I heard it shriek for the first time as my tenties started to suck and absorb the Spirit-Stuff from its body. It instantly abandoned everything else: the pretty elf spiritualist, the rangers, and it even let go of the second wolf it was using as a spare host just to have an extra leg to hack at my tenties with.
Tovaron Ento’s people finally managed to kill the other, now abandoned wolf-host, then they backed away, probably unsure if it was safe to attack the two possessed elves.
I thought, or hoped, I could eat this bastard fast enough, but it was large and my tentacles didn’t last long. The crab-spider stabbed into one of them with a leg, and … it started eating me just as I was eating it. Fuck! It hurt like hell. Then it stabbed into a second tentie. I wanted to scream, but I gritted my metaphorical teeth and I pulled those two tenties away. They both tore off where they’d been pierced, leaving half of each for the spirit to munch on. It attacked a third of my tentacles. I pulled it out of its body and coiled it around its leg as fast as I could. Then another leg reached for another of my poor tenties, and I had to do the same again. Krissy and my little, spherical body were out of its reach, but with only two tenties left plunged into the spirit’s body, I was set to lose this eating contest.
‘Hey, you!’ I screamed at the four-armed, slightly feminine familiar of the elf girl. ‘Get its legs! Now!’
It just stared at me.
‘A Tentacle Horror that speaks?’ it asked, sounding bewildered and if I was any judge, rather terrified.
The elf woman said something in her own language as she stabbed at his former comrade-turned-host. I had to remove another tentacle to prevent it from being cut off, leaving only one inside the body of the spirit. I yelled at the familiar again,
‘What are you waiting for? A fucking standing ovation? Get to it!’
To my relief an “enemy of my enemy” type epiphany must have occurred in its mind — it spoke to the girl, telling her where to go. The woman — rage and pain distorting her pretty face — did what she was told, and the familiar finally attacked the monster’s legs, giving my tenties a chance.
The evil spirit was focused solely on me — it knew I was the bigger threat to it. I willed my one little tentie to absorb as much Spirit Stuff as fast as it could. The crab-spider screeched, trying to cut it off, but the familiar was with us now, instructing the woman where to attack while fending off the the ghostly spider-legs, protecting my tentie.
Eating the evil spirit with one tentacle was slow. Too slow. I twisted the three tenties restraining three of the monster’s legs. I just about managed to move their tips enough to pierce those legs, and I could finally begin to consume the bastard in earnest.
The monster finally realised what it needed to do. It pushed a pulse of Mana through its hosts, almost like my Mana-Blast, sending the spiritualist woman tumbling — and the familiar with her. The possessed hosts then broke into a shambling sprint for Krissy.
Krissy yelped, backing away, stumbling and falling on her ass.
‘Shit, shit, shit!’ I swore, and I opened up my Mana pool, forming Mana-Armour around Krissy as quickly as I could, and I brought Jevan’s sword out for her — it dropped to the ground just as the two twisted elf hosts jumped at my girl.
Krissy screamed, holding her hands up to defend herself. Mana flashed and flickered around her, protecting her as the zombified, possessed elves clawed at her.
‘Krissy! The sword! Stab, stab, stab!’ I shouted.
Screaming and flailing, she looked around and found the sword on the ground next to her. She picked it up, kicking out at the one of the hosts, then tried to stab it. It was not working and we were well within the reach of the moster now. It lifted every one of its free legs, readying itself to attack Krissy’s soul and my body. Shit!
With all my tentacles occupied, I had nothing to protect us, nothing to attack the spirit with. The spiritualist was clambering to her feet a couple of meters to our side, looking wobbly. No help from host or familiar. Then it dawned on me: the hosts! I could push the possessed host away and the evil spirit with it. I emptied my Mana Pool in a split second, adding 20 MP to the Mana-Armour in front of Krissy.
‘Back away, Krissy, back away!’ I screamed at her, then I yelled, ‘Mana Blast!’
More than 20 MP washed over the evil spirit’s hosts with the speed of an explosion … pushing them ... back? No. I didn’t push them back: the bodies of the possessed elves vanished, chunks of flesh, guts and bones, even grass and soil, flying away from us, all but vapourised. I felt an invisible smile forming somewhere in my soul as the memory of a similar incident during a certain ant-war flashed through my mind.
The evil spirit flew back at least a meter, but stopped dead on account of its hosts’ disintegration, as if inertia wasn’t a thing for spirits. Actually, it wasn’t.
Krissy was pushing herself backwards furiously, using her arms and legs, screaming, and we were out of the spirit’s reach.
‘Stop! Krissy, stop!’ I yelled at her before we got too far away from our foe to keep eating it. Krissy stopped, panting and crying.
‘What the fuck, Kevin, what the fuck?’ she wailed, tears flowing down on her face, matching the misery mask she was wearing.
‘I’ll explain later. Try to calm down for now,’ I said and I turned my full attention to the damned crab-spider.
I wasn’t sure what was going on with it — it might have been in shock because of the sudden loss of its hosts, or maybe something else, but for a couple of seconds it didn’t move a leg. That suited me just fine: it was stuck now, unable to go anywhere, and I kept eating it. Perhaps that was it: I’d been eating it this whole time. Its legs were losing form, even parts of its body were looking weird. So I ate and ate and ate. And I grew. The spirit tried to move its legs, but it was slow now, and it seemed to have lost its strength. And I ate some more, until there was nothing left of the bastard.
***
I grew my lost tenties back as I reached Level 30. Not only that, they all grew longer, from five to five and a half meters. And not only that, I grew an eighth tentacle. Then, as I kept eating, I reached Level 31, and the diameter of my body was now at least thirty centimeters if not more — larger than a basketball. My primary Essence Pool’s capacity increased from 62 to 68, my Mana Pool from 35 to 40.
Two levels. This bloody monster of a spirit had given me well over 2000 EXP.
A shiver ran down my imaginary spine: this had been close. This had been a true monster. Levels be damned, I could have lost everything here — Krissy, and even my life. I had to sit down and think about the lessons I needed to learn from this encounter — I didn’t want any more close calls in the future. But that had to wait.
Tovaron Ento and his rangers, standing a good ten meters from us, were also just gawking, their shock and disbelief painted on their faces.
The single, surviving spiritualist stood a few meters away from us, shaking. She had dropped her sword, and was just gawking at the place where her possessed comrade had been five seconds ago, her eyes wide, sunshine glinting off the gathering tears in the corners of them.
‘Get moving, Kitala Iwani! It will kill us! The Tentacle Horror will kill us!’ the familiar screamed at the woman, but she just stuttered something and didn’t move. I guessed she really was in shock. Well, Mana-Blast was an impactful skill in more than one way.
‘Krissy, stand up! It’s not over,’ I said to her.
She clambered to her feet, trembling and crying, gripping Jevan’s sword so hard her hand was turning white. I felt bad for asking her to do anything, considering the state she was in, but I had no choice. She turned to the spiritualist as I instructed her, and she took a step towards her.
‘Hey, listen …’ I addressed the four-armed spirit.
Having fought the crab-spider together, I was hoping it would be at least willing to talk a little before deciding that I didn’t have the right to exist. I should have known better.
The spiritualist was just standing there, shaking like a leaf in the wind, probably still processing, or maybe unable to process what had just happened. The spirit gave up on urging her to run and lifted one of its four arms. I watched, completely baffled, as it pulled a small, black cube out from its own body.
‘Stop!’ I said, both to Krissy and to the spirit.
Krissy stopped, the spirit didn’t. The familiar pinched the cube between two, clawed fingers and put it inside the left soul-arm of the woman. The cube dissolved into a swirling, black miasma in an instant. The woman tensed immediately, then a second later she began to squirm as she stood. Whatever that black thing was, it started spreading and tainting the bronze coloured soul-arm like an ink-stain in water. The woman’s eyes widened, and she screamed as her own familiar stuck a hand into the tainted soul-arm and began to absorb it.
‘What the hell?’ I said.