The Notorious Misadventures of an Alchemist and a Phoenix Chapter 34
Under the power of the hidden stat of perception, Noah could see the very dark twist as if it had full body Tourette's. Noah gasped out loud which grabbed the Dwarfs attention.
"Over there, toss a peeper pulverizer over there" one of the Dwarfs pointed in the direction Noah had gasped.
A canister was flung into the darkness. The darkness quickly surrounded the container and ingluffed it. The Dwarfs hide their faces behind their overly-sized weapons like a shield. Unfortunately, Noah's eyes decide to go on a trip of pain as white light blasts from the belly of the darkness and causes Noah's perception to be overclocked. Noah's eyes rolled back and caused him to foam at the mouth. Thank all the gods he was tied up as he would have dug his own eyes out to avoid the brightness that now washed over the cave system.
The Dwarfs didn't waste any time; like a well-oiled machine, they all acted as one for the better of the group. The axe-wielding Drarf pinned part of the darkness that had spilt from the whole and had taken the shape of a racoon. The poor beast looked surprised when a meaty Dwarf fist made the cute dark racoon eat a knuckle sandwich. The dark racoon mind was literally blown away by the immensely powerful Dwarf punch. The spear Dwarf user was using a skill that spilt his weapons into spiritual copies that rushed to the enemy and automatically found their weakest point. A shadow of a bear was pulling itself away from the whole when a spear forcible made its way into his bum. If that wasn't enough for the shadow bear to think it might be fighting out of its league then the second and third spirit spear that followed the first definitely made its mind up as he melded back into the darkness thinking that he wasn't getting paid enough for this shit.
The two other Dwarfs were manhandling the mass of darkness like it was a weak little puppy. Every time the darkness tried to take form, one of the two Dwarfs would smack it with their weapons and rub the darkness face into the ground like it had just pissed on the carpet and had to be taught a lesson. The way that these four Dwarfs overwhelmingly conquered the darkness might make a non-Dwarf think that they might have a chance against the creatures of darkness. The Dwarfs dominated the darkness, they made it their bitch. A part of the darkness tried to crawl away only to get tackled and wrestled into the ground.
"You weak ass, tofu eating, swirling pig ugly......." a barrage of insults flowed out of the axe-wielding Dwarf like a strong river.
"Guys, do you think that was easier than normal? I mean.. it didn't even turn into a terror Beast. It felt..weak" explained the spear Dwarf
"They are weak because we are strong" grunted the axe Dwarf
"Ahhhh, guys, where is the extra"
"There were no raptors or giga snakes, they didn't even pull out the cute staring kittens"
"The yellow-bellied knows better than to try that on us. The kittens make the best noise when you hit them with a mace"
"GUYS.....where is the extra..."
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A long pause stretched through the darkness as four Dwarfs looked around like they had lost their keys. They couldn't find them but they also couldn't find Noah. The Darkness had taken Noah.
"Fuuuuck" screamed the axe Dwarf. It was hard to say if the Dwarfs felt like they were responsible for what had happened to Noah, as they had tied him up and left him completely defenceless. Or more likely they didn't like that their prisoner had escaped them. It was always difficult to know why Dwarfs got angry but the resulting Cluster Slug that followed was always entertaining to watch.
On the other hand, Noah was having a very interesting fourth kidnapping. He was introduced to the darkness in what he could only say was his own mind space. That was the nature of the darkness, it inseminated and forcibly took over. What was yours, the darkness would take and make its own. It had done it millions of times and it would do it a million more times but it was having a little trouble with Noah.
Noah was surrounded in this mindscape by different entities. All of them were animals, a family of wolves, moles and earthworms, a couple of thousand insects, and baby birds with their wrinkled skin but nothing super threatening.
Noah didn't even feel scared. Something was telling him that he was in charge. The creatures paced around him in a swirling whirlpool but none dared to get closer. Noah spotted a few sacrificial lambs being pushed toward him and each one was pushing back trying to get back to the whole. The darkness was testing something, testing Noah.
Shockingly, the darkness closest to Noah screamed like a goat and erupted in wisps of smoke, only to condense into Noah's shadow. And then it hit Noah. Great understanding of the darkness. Noah understood it better than the darkness itself.
Everyone knew that the darkness would take over and you would become part of the whole but no one understood why. Why did the Dwarfs have a natural defence against it, why was the darkness weak to light, why hadn't it taken over the world? Noah had done what the darkness was known for and had assimilated part of it.
The answer was all in the mind. The darkness couldn't take over the Dwarf's mind and make them part of the whole because their minds were unchanging like the mountains, they had a will of rock and couldn't be persuaded, advised, assured, cajoled, enticed, extorted or swayed. It was like talking to a brick wall. The darkness had no way to incorporate Dwarfs in. Their minds were like a colossal slick wall that held zero handholds and at the top was the Dwarf's access point. The darkness didn't even know where to start to climb, and so they didn't even try.
Noah grinned like an ork showing all of his teeth. The darkness was quite possibly the greatest evil underground, unstoppable. And yet Noah knew he wasn't weaker but greater. The darkness had kidnapped the wrong man. In the mind strength of muscle, speed of hand, constitution of heart meant nothing. It was all about the spirit of the soul, the wit of wisdom and the brilliance of intelligence.
"Two out of three isn't bad," thought Noah
Thanks to the knowledge of the shadow he had absorbed, Noah understood how the darkness worked. The darkness was separated into teams of darkness. Some of the teams were strong due to the many creatures they absorbed other teams had just formed and were weak. They took over new creatures using the combined intelligence and wisdom of all the creatures in the team. And that's where they went wrong with Noah.
For the first time, Noah felt powerful. All of his stats were piled into intelligence, wisdom and dexterity, and in the real world, he would have trouble pulling a bone out of a starving dog's mouth. But in the mindscape he was king.
His grandmaster alchemist stats made the attacking darkness weak as a wet noddle. The combined intelligence and wisdom of this grouping of darkness was no match against Noah. Each time a dark animal got close to Noah, assimilation happened in reverse.
A better understanding of the darkness flooded Noah's being. The whole thing was like a simple dirty corporate Pyramid Scheme. The creatures with the highest individual stat in intelligence commanded the group as a whole. But as an individual or as a whole they couldn't win against Noah's stats. More creatures vaporized and were added to Noah's shadow.
"The ultimate darkness of this world was an emo goth corporate style pyramid scheme," thought Noah. "...... typical"