Well, magic beans were a thing. Not only they were a thing, but my uncalled-for joke gave the others the opportunity to teach me that they are in fact known for growing needlessly tall, just not as high as to be able to pierce the clouds. What surprised me the most is that they usually got desiccated and then ground to powder, and then used for some equivalent of tea or coffee; turns out that one of the teas that Rubicon would offer me, from time to time, was made from one of those ‘magic beans’, more specifically they were the Aster Beans, that, as the name might suggest, are among the tallest growing of their species, and are known for their [Space]-attuned blend of energies, which were used to ‘broaden one’s horizon’, a ver cryptic way to put it, but it just meant that it made you more perceptive, even towards what you would normally go against.
Now, this last one almost sounded like a hard drug that you’d give for brain-washing someone, but the effect was very negligible, even when the brew was prepared by a [Master Alchemist], or whatever who makes teas and such had their [Class] became one they reached a high enough [Lvl], so it only became a commonly known tool that got to be used during classes with particularly hard-headed people, which I guess does include my uncooperative ass.
Why Rubicon himself partake in the ‘magical bean’ tea was anybody’s guess, but my money was on him enjoying either the flavor, which I found to be almost sickeningly sweet, or the sensation that came with a more open mind. It was probably both, but I had no way to be sure right now.
“Has it moved, like, at all?” Sheeno whispered to me.
Because yes, we were sneaking into the Giant’s lair while I was having an inner monologue, and no, it hadn’t moved at all since I had first located its exact position and told her as much.
‘Sneaking’ was such an exaggeration that I almost snorted aloud when thinking about it: We were simply making our day down the [Monster]’s cave without making too much overt sound.
Was it technically ‘sneaking’? By the literal definition of the word, probably. In a world where [Sneaking] was a thing, in all its frustratingly glorious brackets? Absolutely not.
So yeah, we were slowly walking to where I imagine this guy liked to sleep, after devouring a healthy amount of people, and we were ever carefully shifting into a fighting formation the further down the incline of the cave seemed to go.
Not completely unwarranted, mind you, since the size of the tunnel in the blood-red rock revealed that the creature we were looking for might just be a tad bit oversized compared to the worst estimation. Either the [Scouts] that gave the [Guild] the [Information] fucked up, or it’s a teenager that suddenly had a grow spurt and was now running around pumped up with hormones, and, at this point, I’m not sure of which one might be the scarier alternative.
The weird thing is that we could clearly see in what should have been darkness, but it took no time at all to notice that every bit of natural light that we lost from the entrance was replaced at the same time by an unnatural ruby glow that seemed to permeate the rocks of the tunnels.
Also, the path was bendy as shit, so we never could see straight forwards for more than a few meters, and more than once I started questioning whether this cave was naturally formed, or had been excavated by a big-ass worm and then abandoned, for whatever reason.
Finally, we heard it: Something akin to two rocks constantly tumbling against each other in a plastic bag, but that also felt reminiscent of that weird noise very old plumbing could do when close to getting completely obstructed. The sound became much louder after every bend we passed, until it started feeling beyond uncomfortable, and at that point, I was sure that if I weren’t superhuman I would have already ruptured my eardrums.
“There.”
Two more bends and we would reach the chamber where the [Bone Giant] resided, and from this close, I could tell with 100% certainty that it was only one fully-grown exemplar, and that it was way bigger than normal.
I commanded the already summoned [Aurumons] to gently tap at everybody to make them look at me, a signal that we all agreed upon before starting our descent, and once they were all watching I started signing that in two more rights we would reach our target.
Funny stuff about sign language: I barely knew the basics back on Earth, and I never acknowledged that many of the signs were embedded into things that took for granted, like the existence of wrist-watches; so it came with more than a little surprise when Skortch told me that I would have to learn from scratch, because yes it was him that taught me in two weeks the most common signals that would useful for exactly this type of situation. He had given me a pamphlet with rough drawings of the most common sign for things like ‘danger’, ‘safe’, ‘enemy’, ‘friend’, and other simple concepts that could help not get killed when you were in a situation in which you couldn’t talk.
Everybody understood what I was telling them and they all made their preparation outside of what we hoped was the range the Giant could feel magical fluctuations.
Sheeno covered herself with an armor of ice, Cherry wielded her unwieldy cannon, and the Gnomes started floating on small [constructs] and made others from the materials they seemed to have saved somewhere on their person (probably a concealed [spatial pouch] if I were to guess), and Undine buffed everyone and created small swirls of color around herself.
I did what I could at the moment, meaning summoning [Trappers], more [Evolved Auromons], and [Kenny], but for all I had improved about my kit, I still needed to start a fight by putting stuff where I needed it when I needed it; since both [Turrets] and [Totems] where stuck where they appeared once [summoned], I had to hope that the Giant wouldn’t thrash around too much before the fight started in full, or it could make spawning stuff on the terrain difficult.
“The fact that they’re stationary is one of the reasons why they are so cheap, but maybe I should make at least the [Turrets] into some kind of mechanical arachnid- Ugh, no! Fuck, that’s gross and creepy to think about. Just food for thought for another time then.”
I quickly realized that potentially having the capacity to summon tens of metal spiders was not something that I was ready to mentally handle just yet, for however cuboidal I could keep them, so I just momentarily forgot about that horrible mental image and decided to leave things as is, at least for now.
And sooner than anyone among us would have liked, we found ourselves at the mouth of the inner-most chamber, getting a front-row seat at the source of weird noises we had been hearing for the past dozen minutes: The [Bone Giant] was sleeping on what I think is its back, snoring louder than a greaseless chainsaw and a muscle-car modified by an asshole combined.
The noise forced me to grit my teeth, since it was so loud that it made them feel as if they were rattling inside of my mouth otherwise, and by the feeling of discomfort that I was getting from everybody else, I knew that they were going through similar experiences. Except for Sheeno, she was just built different: And by that I mean that she ‘built’ her character sheet by heavily investing in vitality and endurance, making it easier for her to shrug off this kind of stuff.
Only after assessing the situation did I really look at the thing, and I must admit that it was more grotesquely inhuman than I expected: The [Information] described as a tall, but lumpy, upright biped that was covered in bony growth, from plate-like armor to serrated spikes; what we found was instead a cactus-like sphere with a thorny crown on one side and four thick limbs jutting out of it as if they wanted to escape the main body, giving them a skeletal, yet sturdy, unnatural look.
And I didn’t want to start talking about the god-awful smell of rot and decay that filled the air, probably wafting off the more recent bones littering the floor, because there was a lot, almost as a testament to the voraciousness that comes with having such a gigantic body to feed.
Nobody dropped their guard, thankfully, but we did take the time to glance around and see if everybody was thinking the same thing.
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Such a vicious [Monster] like this [Bone Giant] would relax enough to fall asleep so heavily only if it was sure that it was safe. But we hadn’t found anything that could support such a degree of confidence, so we were understandably pretty weirded out by the situation, to say the least; actually, we were very nervous that we had missed something crucial on our way here, but nobody could think of anything.
We had even taken a moment, before descending in the cave proper, to see who had the least obvious [Inspection Ability], so that we could take a look at the [Monster] we would meet and avoid surprises: It turned out that Twad was the one with the ability to use his [Ability] the most imperceptibly among us, to the point that even I would normally miss it when not looking for it.
Obviously, he inspected it, but he shrugged once he did so, showing that he couldn’t see anything worth of note.
Still, if there seemed to be nothing, maybe there really was nothing, so Sheeno decided to gesture by pointing at the Giant, and then with the same hand, she pointed downwards while her other hand passed open and flat over the pointing one. She had signed she wanted to kill it, and nobody seemed particularly against the idea: After all, even if the thing had something hidden under its sleeve, a full-out attack from the get-go should still grievously harm it, if not kill it outright, before it even had time to sprung the trap it had ready for us.
Everybody indicated they were ready to provide support, so we got into position to have the best angle in order to attack the [Bone Giant] in the same place with our best attacks. There was no hiding the attacks, because once our actions started disturbing the [ambient Mana] there was no doubt that our target would wake up, so once we started everybody was free to blast at their leisure, as long as they didn’t disrupt the line of sight too much.
We hadn’t even finished casting when I had a terrible premonition, and I decided to throw plans in the wind and quickly [Identify] the [Monster].
Name:
Bone Giant (Hidden: Mausoleum Giant)
Affinity:
Body (Bone); [Hidden: Death; Spirit: (Soul); Tartarus (Aberrant Void)]
Danger:
Deadly
Behavior:
Territorial; Aggressive; Hostile
Info:
A Bone Giant that was artificially grown to an unreasonable degree, killed, and then reanimated. It has Evolved into a far more malefic and invasive species that should be kept away from cemeteries at all costs, but someone took extreme caution that it wasn’t so.
Not only does it maintain the vaunted resilience and regeneration of its previous form, but it now also boasts vastly improved magical abilities, both internal and external, making it unclear if ranged tactics are still the safest.
Possesses the uncanny ability to control the bones of dead creatures at its leisure, using them to heal its exteriors shell, create bone structures, and conjure suitable bodies for spirits it can call from the Void.
“OH FUCK!”
I didn’t even have the time to wonder where all that [info] had come from, because I certainly didn’t know about such a creature, I barely had enough time to look at the piles of bones littering every flat surface of the cave in growing horror, before I hastily canceled the supercharged [Bolt] in my staff, the [Aether]-filled [Betterments] on my [turrets], and instead created as many [Totems] I could, for the little time I had available.
Cherry’s [Light Beam] was the first attack to connect, and just after it there was a stream of grey light that grey-scaled the world when watched through it, and then there were all the other projectiles that had to actually travel through the air, like [Ice Spear], [Air Cutters], and various differently attunes discuses, together with some nets.
After the first one, which was traveling pretty much at the speed of light, none other reached its destination: The Giant roared, and the sound alone seemed enough to slow down our projectiles.
Then the bones moved, and all hell broke loose.
First were the bones directly under us, that twisted themselves into spikes as if they were made of liquid, but my [Barriers] took care of that with relative ease; then the [Mausoleum Giant]’s stomach cracked open, revealing rows upon rows of sharpened bone on both halves of the aperture.
The nightmarish version of Pac-Man seemed to revel, for just a moment, in our look of surprise and fear. Then, without even bothering to get up, it roared again, this time even louder; my eardrums ruptured, and the fight started in earnest.
The attack got through the [Barrier], and I didn’t know why- no, I knew why, though my brain felt more than rattled by the damage, I was able to put together that it wasn’t an attack, but just very loud sound, and my [Totems] weren’t made to deal with something so undirected, unfortunately.
I spared what little clarity I yet had to check on the other, and by the way, the triplets were clutching at their heads, I concluded that only we had fared poorly to the sonic blast, probably because of our low [Body Stats].
4 casts of [Repair] and we were all back in the game.
I almost slapped myself: This wasn’t a game, just like the [System] had said the danger here was deadly, and I had no time to mess around.
Bone kept on trying to skewer us from all angles imaginable, and yet my and Undine’s protections held. Unfortunately for us, it all still worked as a distraction, and before anyone one of us could spare to prevent it, the Undead Giant managed to heave itself upright, albeit as slowly as something of its stature and weight should.
“It’s Undead! Try to stall it for those with the right [Affi--!” I could finish my warning, because as soon as what I was saying had started making sense the spikes around me formed into facsimiles of hands, grabbed the [Barrier] from outside, and flung me, sending me flying toward the gaping mouth that was ready to receive me.
Sheer terror factor aside, I had, fortunately, learned my lesson with the [Ratton Foreman], and the [Barrier] was firmly anchored on my person, so, despite the Gs and uncomfortable lack of gravity, I managed to instruct a [Flying Trapped] to attach a net to the [Barrier] to swing me to safety.
“Darwin!” someone shouted at some point, but the situation was too hectic to notice who.
I couldn’t even begin to enjoy the sensation of swinging around like a certain spider-superhero that the [Mausoleum Giant] tried to grab me with one of its, only now realizing were truly skeletal, claws. Not a moment too soon, though, a golden blast struck the offending hand with a temple’s choir-like sound, sending the [Monster] reeling backward, clutching the harmed appendage with the other, in a clear sign of pain.
I followed with my eyes where the [Divine] attack had come from and I was met with the image of a floating Undine with both hands thrust forward.
“But she doesn’t have a- right, she’s a [High-Priestess], daughter to her own [Patron]: one of those probably gives her some way to channel the [Divine Mana] her mother possesses through her.”
Recognizing what was about to happen I launched a dampening [Rune] to the still open mouth, focusing on imprinting upon it my intent that it was meant to dampen sound, specifically. The roar came as expected, and my [Rune] did its job, making it hurt, but not as much as the one before.
[Kenny] then started harassing in earnest the Giant by floating out of range of the bones on the floor, and its beam ripped cries of pain out of the [Monster], but compared to Undine it didn’t leave enough of a mark to tell if it was having any long-lasting effects.
I was still dangling in the air, and I decided to remain so, since if I didn’t I would only be met with an endless wave of attacks from some random bone, and none of what I did require for me to remain grounded. Unfortunately, the same couldn’t be said for the others, with Cherry having burrowed roots and Sheeno’s land-bound fighting style, the attacks on the floor didn’t lack for targets.
The three [Sky Gnomes] took it upon themselves to resolve the problem, though, and soon any random bone around where they had decided to group up found itself blasted by a gust of wind to the edges of the cave.
Obviously, the Giant wasn’t going to take its plans being ruined by laying down, and it tried advancing towards them. Emphasis on the ‘tried’: Sheeno seemed to magically be there whenever it tried to bend its boney legs, forcing the [Monster] to its knees through repeated ponderous blows to the joints, and the best part was that it was too slow to retaliate effectively.
My [Info] had hinted at the fact that ranged attacks might not be the best for this variant, compared to the original, and now I was seeing why.
It was even slower and clumsier than its counterpart.
As soon as I began hoping for the best, the bones, now lying amassed at the edges of the cave, started assembling themselves into new and unnatural forms.
“Great, just great”, I muttered angrily under my breath, moving two [Trappers] under my feet, acting as hoverboards, and getting the one that me in its net to release me.
It seemed that it was time for another round, and this time the [Mausoleum Giant] seemed to have gotten serious.