Author's note here: Well, first of all, sorry for the lack of updates. I couldn't really find any motivation to do any writing over the holidays. Rather, I slacked of quite a bit  plus I also reread LMS.... but with all that out of the way, and it being a new year and all, I somehow regained my motivation and churned out a new chapter.

I had planned for the battle to finish within one chapter, but along the way, I ended up writing a bit too much. SO, I decided to split this portion into two chapters, so forgive me if this one's not as long as my previous chapters.

Anyways Enjoy.

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A Fish out of Water

The scale clad abomination exhaled and growled.

Wait no, it wasn’t him that was growling per say, rather his stomach made an unnerving rumbling noise, as if something was building up within the core of its pit. It then inhaled deeply, bloating the already bloated and quite noisy stomach beyond preposterous levels.. This action alone depleted a substantial portion of the air, enough so to make breathing slightly difficult. Steam seeped out of the monster’s nostrils, as its eyes almost glazed over, turning it’s once beady yellow eyes, red and inflamed. Going by Snapper Head’s earlier display of power, I could guess as to what exactly the monster was about to do.

I didn’t see it quite clearly last time due to all the dust in the air, but I’m sure this fish dragon made the same gestures before it fired that absurdly high powered flame of his.

I braced myself for Snapper Head’s attack. My eyes drifted towards the roof of the cavern directly above the monster. The exact spot where it had expressed its determination with its fiery resolve. The area was melted, rather, the once concrete like limestone was now molten, glowing a faint red akin to that of lava. Upon closer inspection, the flame had melted through a large portion of the ceiling, gouging out a deep crevice. If I estimated, I’d say the whole had gone through a little over 20 meters of limestone.

Hmm.. Once again, I must say, that flame of his is pretty destructive...can I survive a hit from something of that caliber?

I pondered this thought, and took remark of the charge time of his particular attack. Compared to his earlier strikes with his tail, his flames were charging at a snail’s space. Although the aggro power of it more than made up for the amount of time it took to get ready. If directed at me, or anywhere near my vicinity….well, let’s just say, my options would become greatly limited.

I had allowed it time to fire off that attack of his earlier, partly due to my curiosity, but now, I had no intention of giving this thing another freebie.

“Well then…. if you’re gonna take your sweet time, I won’t waste the opportunity.”

I spoke to myself, preparing my own preemptive attack before Snapper Head’s own turned this room any hotter.

I cracked my left knuckle, pushed off with the back of my foot. Using the whole of my body, I sent a loose straight punch flying towards Snapper Head’s direction.  Since I hadn’t moved from my earlier spot, my fist didn’t connect, instead a collection of compressed air rushed towards its direction, hitting him with an invisible, almost imperceptible force.

Normally punching at thin air wouldn’t cause such an attack to happen, no matter how great one’s punching strength was.  The air would dissipate before it could cause any significant damage. But this particular attack was special in a sort. It was a weird phenomenon produced not by magic, a particular pattern ever present with my constitution.

The compress punch (my loving nickname to my acquired move) was something I learned...er more specifically acquired while lost in Eucrete Forest before I started working at the Park as a caretaker.

There was this particular monster who lived within the bowels of Eucrete’s hot zone (the term most thrill seekers use to refer to a labyrinth’s most dangerous area). It was an odd looking creature. Like a penguin with giant wings. It’s eyes had a thin layer of transparent material, and its feather’s were dirty white with streaks of red.

Anyway, this monster was a bit strong as well, although nowhere near as strong as Snapper head. On top of its strength, the Penguin had a particularly annoying habit of swooping down and stealing my berries, which were one of the only things foragable in Eucrete’s hot zone (The lack of resources contributed to why this particular location was labeled a hot zone). It was rather annoying. It had a dirty tactic of using its ability, sending out gusts of compressed air produced by the creature’s wings (something like a whirlwind), in order to trip me up and steal my food.

Even if I was constantly on look out, the forest wears down on you, and eventually I’d reveal an opening. This particular monster had a knack for finding such openings.

I had an inkling that the thing not so much wanted my food, and more that it loved messing with me (since it always made a weird squawking sound whenever it did this to me). It would aim for my knees and once I lowered my ground, hit me from the back and shove me down to the ground. This was especially irritating whenever I had to cross over a swamp or someplace muddy.

Yet despite its weird habits,  like I said, the creature was a strong monster who gave me a rather hard time. So, long story short, I finally snapped. In the end, rather than fighting it directly (it didn’t deserve this privilege) I laid a trap, lured it in, and I ended up beating it up.

After that I ate it.

Contrary to its appearance, the bird tasted like beef.

You can probably see where this is going. I ate the monster and gained its particular ability.

Normally, no sane person would do this.

Monster meat, any type of monster meat, was highly acidic and dangerous when consumed by humans. This was due to the magic within a human being’s body. The body of a monster lacked magic, no, its more accurate to say a monster’s body wasn’t compatible with magic. When a monster is infused with a high enough concentration of magic, the monster will start feeling a bit nauseous, but aside from that, no particular sickness or danger will occur.

In contrast to this, when a person or creature with innate magic (basically just about everyone on this planet) consumes monster meat an explosive reaction will occur, causing severe nausea, sickness, and in worse case scenarios, even death (although strangely enough, this phenomenon doesn’t apply to magical beings). Of course this didn’t apply to me either. When I said I had a constitution more like a monster than man, I wasn’t lying. This body of mine is the reason why I can’t use magic and it’s also the reason why I can eat monsters. And like other monsters, I grow a bit stronger the more monster meat I eat. Although my method of growth is where I differentiate from an ordinary monster.

Monster can be roughly divided into rankings. But these ranking only apply to the whole of a particular species. Like any human, an individual monster can also get a lot stronger than its original species. This is due to monsters’ particular trait, [devour]. Almost all monsters can eat other monster and gain a boost in their own strength. Incidentally, there is a bigger effect in strength boost when a weaker leveled monster eats a higher ranked monster. Kinda like how in an rpg, you gain more experience when you beat a higher level opponent.

That’s why a usually ranked F horned rabbit can acquire the same rank as a strong Rank A Wyrm. Although this doesn’t particularly happen often, since a monster whose naturally a higher level than another will usually stomp out these “upstarts” and stop them from getting any stronger, well, at least strong enough to move up from its original level. Of course there are always exceptions to this.

But generally, a high ranked individual from a low ranked species will be weaker than an individual from a species with the same rank as the particular individual.

In short, a monster can grow stronger through eating other monsters. My body works in a similar way. I don’t know whether if it’s due to my lack of magic, or something else in my body’s constitution, but I can gain a monster’s particular ability or trait if I eat one.  

Now normally, a monster would just get a bit stronger from eating other monsters, they don’t gain the abilities like I do, so I guess this [Ability stealing] trait of mine is something only I have.

“....”

I break my stance and look over at Snapper Head.

His face had reared back. It grimaced and looked at me. Despite my attack being almost imperceptible, it had an inkling as to what caused its pain. Rather it narrowed down the source to the only hostile party within the cave.

Compress punch wasn’t really a destructive attack, well it was still capable of doing some real damage, enough damage to break through a concrete wall or maybe dent some steel, but in terms of perspective, this type of attack wouldn’t do much in the face of Snapper head’s scaly armor.

Although with a combination of surprise and a hit to his weak spot (A.K.A his exposed stomach) it could do enough.

My preemptive strike disrupted Snapper Head’s own attack.

It coughed once as a collection of heated air escaped his throat, drastically shrinking the monster’s bloated stomach in the process.

I guessed that the flame was somehow produced using the air around him and converted to a scorching heat comparable to the sun (this was an exaggeration of course) within his body. But I couldn’t grasp exactly how it worked. How exactly did he turn air in to fire? Did this method lie in the fact that whenever he does this, his stomach bloats? Usually air goes to the lungs, but this creature’s body seemed special. His stomach was capable of storing air as well. And somehow he could turn that air in to fire, and no doubt, this was probably accomplished within his stomach.

Snapper Head scowled in anger, and opted to go for a more physical means of retaliation.

The length of its tail began to flicker in mid air as Snapper head threateningly pointed the tip directly towards me. I raised my arms in preparation but contrary to my prediction, the tail did not rocket at me and attempt to impale my chest.

It flickered once more before it’s rainbow hued end made a beeline towards the limestone floor. The tails end burrowed under, slightly shaking up the floor beneath me. I had an idea as to what this thing was planning, the fact that the tail end spun around like a drill sort of gave that away, So I took a giant leap backwards.

I exited outside what I presumed was the tail’s range. The tail right now was completely underground, well not completely, more like a sizable portion of it. The armored end of the thing as well as half the pasty portion where below ground. I guessed this thing had planned to attack me from underground, but its tail could only go so far, seeing that it was still attached to the main body.

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But leaping out of the presumed “strike zone” was completely pointless. In the next instant the tail erupted out from underneath me. This was bad enough, but what made it worse was the fact that the tail’s speed, and intensity was seemingly unaffected by the limestone, probably the resistance was negated by the rotation..

With a well timed jump upwards, I was able to limit some of the damage, but the pressure alone was enough to send me flying. Stones flew and dust spread as I was with sufficient enough force to the point where my back collided with the ceiling (no easy feat considering the height of the cave easily exceeded 20 meters). But at this point, I was just pretty grateful I hadn't accidentally collided and impaled myself into one of the numerous hanging stalactites.

As I made my descent down from the ceiling, I looked over at Snapper head. Despite the ache in my back I still maintained a calm demeanor but I was surprised as to how the tuna was able to strike me from such a distance. I hadn’t looked very closely, but I knew I was outside the range of that tale, which didn’t even exceed 10 meters.

Looking closely, I noticed that the pasty unguarded section of its tail was stretching, kinda like taffy.The damn thing had the ability to extend its tail. That would explain how it could attack me from all the way back there.

“...How troublesome. This walking piece of sushi’s a bit tough..”

I remarked. At first I thought the thing’s size was an advantage for me. Not only was it a bigger target to hit, its movements were also restricted by the cave’s lack of space. But with that incredibly fast tail of his, it covered up for its disadvantages.

Falling down I noticed that its tail has already begun to borrow down underneath the floor. The instant I stepped foot on the ground its tail shot out at me.

This time I was lucky enough to anticipate it, I dodge rolled out of its range. A moment later, all that was left was a hole in the floor. The tail was once again underground.

This method of attack continued on. The tail would shoot out from underneath me, and would then be below ground once more, leaving behind a hole in its wake. The tail’s speed was incredible, it kept me on my feet, barely dodging, and always keeping me at a hair’s breadth away from death. In no time the room was full of holes, to the point where I now had to worry about not falling into one while dodging.

I was desperately dodging. In truth, I was afraid of getting injured. My special constitution acts like a double edged sword. Normally, my body is a bit more sturdy when compared with a regular person. I’d say, even without the one particular body strengthening ability I used to send Snapper Head flying a while ago, I was normally about twice as strong as a mage with body reinforcement spell in use. But in return for this, my body takes 4 times as long to heal. Sickness and diseases affect me normally, but any physical injury takes quadruple the normal amount of time to heal. Even normal scratches last long, and if I get so much as a broken arm, I’d need a cast for like 4 months or so.

That’s why I favored staying indoors where it was safe and lacked any life threatening situations (although year old expired ramen was pretty dangerous in itself).

That’s also why dodging this tail that looked like it could snap me in two was particular vital. Since being in hospital bed for 4 years isn’t a particularly interesting activity, speaking from experience.

“Tch! I’ve had enough of that damn tail!”

I yelled as another tail erupted out from below me. This time, it sent me flying much like the first strike did. I hurtled towards the ceiling, embracing the impact with the majority of my spinal column.

Before falling down though, I had already decided to strike back. That’s why when the tail had hit me, instead of dodging, this time I used the impact to push me up towards a hanging stalactite on the cave ceiling, using a swift kick of my own to steer me towards my goal. The majority of the impact was diverted, and despite how fast I was flying through the air, I was, more or less, uninjured.

I gripped the approaching stalactite in one hand and quickly broke it off. From this angle (high above the air), I had a clear view of the cave. I saw all the holes, Snapper Head himself, his tail, and the particularly vulnerable looking portion of it, the extendable pasty section to be specific.

While the armored portion of the tail was busy underground, I took this chance and hurled the stalactite at the weak spot while I was still in mid air.

Thanks to my enhanced strength (which was, surprise surprise, also due to an acquire ability), the speed of my throw was comparable to Snapper Head’s tail, although purely out of bias, I’d say I was faster.

Even before I had hit the ground, I could hear Snapper head’s convulsing shrieks.

The stalactite was big, big enough to sever the tail with a well placed strike.

I glanced over and saw the fish dragon’s tail writhe and struggle. It was now half its original size, and I made sure to sever it directly where the pasty portion began to extend past the armored portion closest to its body, hoping to stop the thing from extending.

The other portion of the tail was effectively underground and out of commission.

I grinned and began running towards the monster. I saw the grimace-like expression (or at least I thought it looked like that) on its face, but I ignored it and continued running.

As I got closer, I noticed that its stomach was bloated, and steam was seeping out of its nostril.

“wha-, that’s, when did it have time to-!!!”

I quickly lunged to the left as a half charged white flame streaked past me. This flame wasn’t nearly as destructive than earlier, presumably due to the fact that it didn’t have sufficient time to charge, but the surprise attack almost cost me an arm and a leg nonetheless.

Apparently the thing had charged that attack of his while swinging that tail around. I was too busy dodging to notice.

Although now that it had wasted the flame, and its tail was severed, the best location now was to get as close to the monster as possible. Close quarters combat would put it at a disadvantage since it would lack the speed to fight back.

I continued running towards the monster, all the while throwing a few compress punches aimed at its stomach in order to disrupt any charging it did.

I ran at my normal pace, mostly since my ability [compress punch] was in use. One drawback to my powers is that I could only use one at a time. If I exceeded this limit, my body underwent severe repercussions.

Another reason for this was since excessively using that enhanced body ability of mine took too much of a strain on me, and healing from muscle fatigue took too much time in my case.

I was thinking of the future you know. That’s why, out of all of the abilities that I've managed to acquire, the body enhancement one was the second most thing I would always regret using.

I eventually got close enough to punch the thing, and with that I activated my regrettable ability and set lose a flurry of kicks and punches.As a result, the monster roared in agony. Its eyes blazed with fury.

Although the monster wasn't completely defenseless.

It would seep out more smoke from its nostrils, enough to cause a small collection of fog to disrupt my vision. And somehow, Snapper Head’s anger caused even more steam to appear, effectively creating a wall of fog that sealed away my most relied sense.

Also, its stubby arms were surprisingly fast. From time to time it would strike at me, quite accurately to boot, which made me think that the thing could see through the fog it created. Maybe it sensed heat or something?

I blocked these attacks and continued beating the monster. Eventually, through all the fog, I saw a glimpse of a crack that began to form on its thick exterior. This was tough work but it looked like it was finally paying off.

Normally, I would have aimed for its obviously weaker and less protected stomach, but the monster was smart enough to protect that part of his body by lying down on its stomach.

Despite that, I paid it no heed and continued beating on its scales.

I didn't what happened. Whether it was my overconfidence, or the fog, but the second it happened I was too slow. A force strong enough to turn my body to mush if it weren't for my ability struck me from my blind side and hurtled my once more through the air.

I was flying high and fast, my body making a beeline towards the lake I had forgotten about in the cave. I barely caught a glimpse of the creature’s tail, which I guessed was what struck me. I had though it was out of commission, it being severed in half and all. But the Monster was wagging it like a dog, without a care in the world, side to side. It looked good as new but with a few alterations.

From where it was severed, the once pasty white complexion of the exposed skin extended, and split into seven individual extensions. Like its once rainbow toned end, these new threats counted 8 in total, and each one was dyed in one color representing a different aspect of the rainbow.

I grimaced, like a hydra, it seems like when I severed the tail more grew out. Although this time instead of just two to replace the one, seven came as a result. Although the plus side to this was that the tail didn't have any scales growing out of the newly grown portions.

I sighed, and barely caught a passing glimpse at the figure who was on all fours and emerged out of the entrance, as I submerged into the surprisingly warm water.

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Hope you enjoyed this one.

Any comments, criticisms, suggestions, pointers, or if you found any mistakes of mine, they're all welcomed.   World building is quite tough, so any help is appreciated. Also please rate or review my story if you have the time, I'd love to know what you guys think.

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