Victor blinked and it felt like the entire team had been separated. Leo and Ashley were atop a mess of rocks and poking the clay monsters with sticks. Amadeus was petrifying them with his lightning blasts and Isabelle was cutting through them with her threads.
Victor shot at a hand of clay that tried to grab Lillie. The bullet passed through the monster’s body, leaving only a quickly closing hole in its wake.
“Damnit! Bullets won’t work on them!” Victor shouted to the others as he threw his pack at one of the monsters. The claymen must’ve understood him because some of them turned their malformed heads towards the man. One of them blasted out with its hand but Victor jumped backwards. He put more strength than he intended into the leap, soaring a few feet above the ground.
He landed back and crouched to sure the fall, realizing something in its wake. My hands! Another of the claymen rushed him. The ends of its hands sharpened into a blade and swiped horizontally. Victor was quicker— however— and he ducked under the slash. He punched into the face of the clayman and splashed it all over the walls. The clayman shuffled backwards and tried to reform its head, but Victor was quick on the uptake.
He picked apart the clayman with his bare hands. Surprisingly, the monster fell apart easier than Victor would’ve thought. And once it was lying in enough bits it ceased moving entirely. Another one tried to grab at Leo so Victor jumped him. He splattered the clayman over the rocks and landed on the pile.
Another of them tried to claw at him. Victor rolled away and the clayman left gashes in the stony hill. Leo and Ashley fell upon the monster and left Victor time to breathe.
A sharp crack of lightning shook Victor’s head and he saw a cloud of dust ahead of him. Amadeus flew out of it and Victor lunged in his direction. He caught the man’s flying body, but they both rolled around on the ground.
Victor’s body groaned under his bruises but he steadied his mind enough to get a look at Amadeus. One of his hands were bloody and he wasn’t moving. Panic spread through Victor and he pressed a finger to Amadeus’ body.
Then he sighed. It’s faint but it’s there.
“Victor, we need help!” Isabelle shouted at him.
She had her threads extending into a cloud of smoke. He heard heavy stomps before he saw the large figure of the monster. It was the same as the other clayman, a mess of brown and greys but this time with a rough texture and crystals strewn about its frame.
Victor heaved a breath and noticed that he’d received a new notification. When he clicked upon it, it only gave him useless information [1]. But at least he knew what the monsters were called now.
He ran over to the Metamorph and struck him with his hands. A shock reverberated through his arms and Victor’s hands shook with pain. He looked up to find the Metamorph unharmed. The giant clay monster backhanded Victor and sent him flying.
He landed back in a gathering of more glowing mushrooms. Victor had no time to rub the stains from his clothes. He placed his hands on the ground to raise himself up. That was when he noticed the split and bleeding knuckles.
Lillie was there right beside him in that instant. She was eyeing the monster with an intense focus yet helped him up all the same.
“Bullets won’t work…” she said with disappointment. Victor spat saliva to his side.
“Not even from my rifle?”
“No… we need something stronger,” Lillie told him.
As they talked, Amadeus sent another bolt of lightning towards the monster. It distracted the Metamorph long enough, but Victor knew it wouldn’t last. Amadeus looked faint and unsteady and had a hand pressed to his side.
“There, in its back!” Lillie pointed towards its back. Victor saw what looked like a sword stuck in the middle of its spine. The blade was stowed up to the hilt, leaving only it exposed for the rest to see. But Amadeus’ attacks had broken through the monster’s skin and revealed a glowing red edge.
“Lillie. Grab this and distract the monster!” Victor ordered as he threw aside his weapon. He only hoped she knew how to operate it.
Victor started running towards the beast. One of its large shifting hands tried to close around Amadeus but was restrained by Isabelle’s threads. The lightning Wielder raised his hands at the opportunity and sent one more bolt into the clayman’s chest before collapsing on the ground.
The Metamorph’s shape shook in anger and Victor took the opportunity to lunge at its back. He grabbed on with both hands onto the dagger and jumped off. He’d done it, stolen the blade right from under the monster’s nose.
And witnessing it in his hands filled the young man with a renewed sense of confidence. Nordic runes ran down the length of the red-hot dagger; giving off an aura of power. The monster noticed the theft immediately.
It rushed Victor and tried to take his sword hand, but the man wouldn’t allow it. He swerved around the move and slashed at its arms. The blade cut through easily and scorched the area it left.
The clayman’s wounds instantly hardened under the heat of the numerous slashes that followed. With every strike Victor landed, he grew a bit closer to the enemy. Until he finally reached the end of its limbs and towards its chest.
Victor screamed as he tried to plunge the blade deep within the monster’s hardened chest, only to find no purchase. He was stunned to find the wounded area hardening moments before he’d had landed his blow.
Victor had no time to dodge as the monster grabbed him by the limbs. Tendrils of clay speckled with gems rose him up into the air of the cavern. He tried to resist but the monster spread his limbs apart and displayed him to the rest of the world. He let the dagger clang to the ground and struggled as his limbs were being torn apart.
Fear filled Victor’s chest. He didn’t want to die. Not here, not now. Not until Charlie and Vivian, not until his mom and dad, not until his friends were safe! He went wild within the monster’s grasp trying to leave.
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
And then the tendrils loosened. Victor opened his eyes to find bullets pelting the monster from the side. Isabelle, Lillie, Leo and Ashley were throwing whatever they could at the monster. Leo chucked a grenade at its feet. A second later the grenade exploded and Victor finally dropped to the ground.
He would’ve stuck there but realized that the monster hadn’t gone down. It was forming itself once again from chunks. Victor scrambled to pick up the dagger he’d lost and scurried behind one of the rocks.
Though he hoped against it, he knew that the others would not be able to beat the monster. That was why, even with the sounds of gunshots firing around him, Victor put his hands on the blade and started the process of his Basic Strengthening.
Nothing in the ability said he had to wait for it, however. Even with his strength being sapped by the weapon, Victor jumped over the rocks and joined the fray.
What followed were the longest ten minutes of his life. Victor dodged blasts of rock and clay, slashed where he could find purchase and guided the others away from the Metamorph. All while he grew lethargic by the minute.
When will the damn thing stop?! He thought between gasps of air. Hadn’t the time already passed? Or was it taking longer because of him? Thoughts of stopping and turning tail left Victor in the heat of battle. He couldn’t spare the time to think when he had to dodge between blasts of earth and rock that came for him.
He felt dirt in his mouth and spat it out in a moment of peace. But he also felt something else. Down by his arm, where he’d been swinging the dagger like a club. His strength had stopped feeding into it, and he was now free of the ache.
But that wasn’t all that he felt, as that woman’s voice rang in his ears once more.
[Ability Unlocked: Infuse Attack]
He felt the Weaponsmith Heart beating quicker than it ever had. Sweat fell from his face and a typhoon of clay and shouts circled Victor. And despite the cacophony of senses, he felt at peace.
The Metamorph grabbed Isabelle off the ground and forced her to scream.
“Izzy…?” Amadeus said weakly from beside him. He looked up just in time to see Victor rush past him.
The man brandished his blade one last time as an aura of blue flame encompassed it. The centre of the blade turned purple and Victor plunged it straight into the chest of the monster. He tore through skin, dirt, rocks and even the gem that served as the monster’s core.
The blast of power turned the Metamorph into nothing more than clay. Victor stood there unchanged, feeling something crack deep within his being. The blue flames extinguished themselves and he let the weapon drop.
He clutched his heart and searched deep for the Weaponsmith Heart. No… no, did I destroy it? He wondered. But a moment later he could still hear the beating of it. The engine of war that had helped him all this time. it was a fainter noise than usual but he was glad that it had remained.
“Victor!” Amadeus rushed for him. he ignored the ruby-like core of the monster and instead embraced his friend with a bloody smile.
“Your heart, are you…?”
“I’m fine, Amadeus. Just… thought I’d lost something,” Victor told his friend. The rest of the group came trickling back near them.
Leo grabbed the fire dagger off the ground and found a sheathe hidden deeper within the monster’s corpse. And Isabelle patched Lillie’s wounds up with a thread that she ran through the petite girl’s skin.
“You’ll be fine, I just need a few more stitches, okay?” she asked the girl before cleaning the wound with a bit more water.
“It’s all over then? We don’t have to fight any more of those, do we?” Victor asked.
“No, we— ugh, don’t,” Lillie replied with a wince.
“Unless a sandbox happens to make its way to us, yeah,” Amadeus told him.
Victor took a look around himself after the fight. They’d gotten so far away from the Gate that he couldn’t even see it then. That kept him worried, as he didn’t know what other dangers lurked in the corners of the realm.
But what worried him more was the sheer power of the enemy he’d faced. He saw that his bestiary had updated once more, and this time he could actually take a closer look at what it showed him.
[[Metamorph Brute]: SIZE: M THREAT: GREAT ABILITIES: Shapechanging, Thick Armour
Metamorph Brutes are a larger variant of the original creatures. They are stronger yet slower and have a thicker armour. They develop a central gem that acts as the power source for their hardening powers which they use to defend against blows. Unlike their more basic counterparts, the Metamorph Brute is also less varied in its shapechanging abilities.
They usually form from ingesting the various gems and minerals in their area. The longer a Brute has lived, the denser this core will be and it will be all the more dangerous for it.]
A threat level of GREAT didn’t spark confidence but when Victor clicked on it, it seemed a bit easier to grasp. It was twice above the other enemies he’d faced, the normal Metamorph and Vintarics included.
“Hey! I found something else in this pile of rocks!” Leo shouted from where he was harvesting whatever he could find. He’d made a little pile of the rubies, amethysts and other gems for reasons none of them could understand.
“The jewels are mine,” he said blankly as the others stared at his pile.
“They’re no use to me, so that’s fine,” Victor said. Isabelle and Amadeus agreed but Lillie looked a bit disappointed. Leo must have noticed because he sighed in response.
“You can have one. But that’s besides the point. Look at what I found!” He said, holding out the core of the monster towards them. There in the centre he saw a glow that attracted him towards the beast.
That was it, what they’d come here for all along. In the scramble afterwards, Victor had almost forgotten. With the five of their help, they managed to pry the Seed out of the core of the beast. Surprisingly, it looked like a small gem by itself, glistening from numerous facets. It spoke of earth and hardness, which made Victor want to take it right then and there. But there were better things for him to be doing.
“You take it, Leo. We’ll rest for a bit and try to find some more for Ashley and Lillie,” Victor told him.
Almost immediately did the young Leo absorb the Seed. He didn’t dart his eyes all over, so Victor guessed he couldn’t see the screens either.
He knew he’d have to explore further, but rest came first for them. they’d need it all for what was to come the next day. Before that, however, Victor let himself indulge in a little interest of his own. He looked at the dagger he’d used and identified it, along with the new ability he’d gotten.
[[Nordic Ignistone Dagger]: STRENGTH: 90 ABILITIES: Enflamed
A dagger made of pure Ignistone and magic. It shines with a reddish glow and is engraved with runes of its originating nation. Anything the blade touches is burnt on contact, all except those that wield it from the handle.
Though the Nordic pantheon isn’t much worshipped, Odin yet roams the lands. A trickster though he is, he’s much diminished now than he was before. He could’ve become one of the Nine had he reigned in his worser habits.]
Setting aside what that gibberish really meant, Victor examined the damage of the dagger closer. When he did, he realized it was split further between something called slashing and fire damage. He grunted in annoyance. He’d never admit it to Amadeus, but maybe he had gotten a videogame Seed.
But if he had then it’d picked the wrong person for the job. Moving on from that he took a closer look at his new ability, the thing he was really excited for. It was located below his Basic Strengthening on some sort of tree of abilities.
[[Infuse Attack]: (Requirement: Use Basic Strengthening 20 times) You can infuse your next attack with a weapon with additional power with a touch. The strength of this additional power depends on your Strength stat. A single strike is often what makes the difference between life and death for humans. I like that about you people. You don’t drag out the fun part.]
He'd used it almost instinctively the first time, much like how Amadeus and Isabelle did theirs. But he was glad for it. It would let him more easily use his newfound gains from the boosts he’d been accruing.
Setting those two factors aside, he and the others began to build their camp for the night. Amadeus found a location underneath a giant deep magenta mushroom where they could rest for the night. There were plenty of places to run if they needed it and Leo kept guard for the first watch.
Better for it too since he was restless after absorbing his first Seed. Victor took to the bed and closed his eyes, succumbing to sleep before he even knew it.