The tree rams into the Mandaeliscopod.

Darren (thinking): Did it work…?!

The surprise trap stuns the Mandaeliscopod momentarily, but it quickly shreds apart the tree into pieces and chunks.

Darren: Dammit! It didn’t work…!

Darren darts towards the Mandaeliscopod.

Darren (thinking): But at the very least..! It should be a bit disoriented..!

Darren’s leg plants itself onto the ground. He takes one powerful leap up above the Mandaeliscopod’s head and raises his leg up.

Darren (thinking): I should take the chance to attack it…! And finish it in one fell swoop…! While it’s wide open…!

His calves tightens. He brings his leg slamming down onto the Mandaeliscopod’s head. The head rattles from the impact.

Darren winces: Guh…!

The Mandaeliscopod staggers and Darren falls to the ground but manages to land safely. He clutches his leg in pain, “Shit…! This thing’s exoskeleton is super hard…!”

The Mandaeliscopod aimlessly teeters about, – ‘At least it looks like the attack somewhat worked…But I wasted an opportunity…! I should’ve used more power…’

Preoccupied by his thoughts, Darren fails to detect one of the arms swinging towards him on time. Tatsuo grabs Darren by his hoodie and jerks him away, avoiding the scythe.

Tatsuo: You ok?

Darren: Yeah… Thanks…

The Mandaeliscopod flails its arms around in panic.

Tatsuo: So what now?

Darren: We’ll just have to escape…There’s no way we’re taking that thing down even if we were to tag team it…

Darren: Who knows? Maybe next time we’ll use two trees instead… – He says sarcastically.

The Mandaeliscopod continues its senseless thrashing, hacking up the surrounding area.

Darren: Maybe we can hope to get the same Mandaeliscopod and eventually we’ll kill it with enough trees….

Tatsuo: I don’t have time for that. My friends are probably waiting for me at Argonaut.

Tatsuo runs towards the Mandaeliscopod.

Darren: What the—!! Hold on--!!

Tatsuo charges at the Mandaeliscopod and proceeds to dodge the incoming whip-like arms. The Mandaeliscopod regains its composure and spots Tatsuo. It swings one of its arms towards Tatsuo at great velocity.

Darren (thinking): Dammit that guy…! He’s crazy…!

Darren lowers into a lunging position.

Darren: (thinking) He’s also making me go crazy too…!

Darren (thinking): Breakpoint…

His legs beef up and tighten. At a sudden twitch, Darren shoots off with an explosive burst of speed. Upon firing off, a twinkling light sparks off from Darren’s leg, making a loud “ping!” sound.

Darren (thinking): Accel!

[https://i.imgur.com/9CI5inD.png]

[https://i.imgur.com/FLjn8Ru.png]

Darren zooms. For a brief pause Darren sets off another “pinging” light, changing his trajectory. He launches himself straight into Tatsuo, tackling him away from the Manaeliscopod’s attack.

Tatsuo (thinking while being tackled by Darren):…! Fast…!

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

The two skids across the ground away from the Mandaeliscopod’s range.

Tatsuo: Wow what was that? Some sort of technique?

Darren: You brain dead retard! Are you trying to get yourself killed!?

Tatsuo: No see, I was gonna do that to Mr. Spaghetto arms over there.

Darren: If I hadn’t saved you, you would’ve ended up as that instead! You should be grateful I even bothered to save you after pulling a stunt like that!

The Mandaeliscopod turns its focus onto the two.

Darren: Look see, it’s regained its composure. Now I can’t wait to drown again today…

Darren: Listen up. If you still really want to go have at it to hack-n-slash over there I won’t stop you, nor will I save you, but I have a strategy…!

Darren: Just earlier you weren’t actually doing that bad a job dodging its attacks… Assuming you can do the same thing again and get close enough to it, you might be able to do some sort of damage if you aim for its exposed parts like its abdomen. I’ll clear away any incoming arms coming your way to make it easier for you to get close to it. I refuse to get anywhere near that monster!

Darren: And if you get struck I’m ditching your ass, got it?

Tatsuo: That’s fine by me.

The Mandaeliscopod screeches and charges at the two.

Darren: Here it comes!

The two brace themselves for the incoming monster. They charge towards the Mandaeliscopod.

Darren kicks away any incoming arms coming towards Tatsuo while Tatsuo dodges the ones Darren couldn’t cover and he makes a beeline for the Mandaeliscopod.

Darren glances over to Tatsuo.

Darren (thinking): Well I’ll be damned…!

Darren (thinking): He actually made it…!

The Mandaeliscopod retracts one of its arms. The course of action startles Darren. Using the shortened arm it swings it at Tatsuo.

Darren (thinking): Dammit! He’s gonna die…!

Darren (yelling): WATCH OUT…!!!

The arm inches closer to Tatsuo’s head.

Darren: From above…!

Tatsuo sneaks a glare at the Mandaeliscopod.

The Mandaeliscopod flinches and freezes in fear. The falling arm falls short in its momentum, right above Tatsuo’s head.

Darren (thinking): Huh…? Is it just me…or did it just stop just now…?

Tatsuo prepares a punch and aims for the chest of the Mandaeliscopod.

Darren: Wait--! No! Aim for the exposed part—don’t hit the chest!!!

Darren: You’re gonna hit the exoskel—

Ignoring Darren, Tatsuo smashes right into the flesh of the Mandaeliscopod, breaking through its outer armor.

Darren: --elton…

Tatsuo brings out his arm and the Mandaeliscopod staggers backwards. He grabs the Mandaeliscopod by its antennae and slams it into the ground.

Tatsuo then proceeds to repeatedly punch the Mandaeliscopod as Darren just stands there watching speechlessly disturbed. With each punch, Tatsuo’s body is dyed more of the spurting purple blood coming from the monster.

Tatsuo: Hm. You’re right. This thing is pretty hard.

Darren continues to simply watch.

[https://i.imgur.com/DrvzPE7.png]

Darren: I think I need to reevaluate the definition of what a monster is…Along with a sizable amount of therapy… – He says traumatized.

*Some time later…

Tatsuo: Well, that was very messy….

Tatsuo holds the Mandaeliscopod’s head in his blood stained arms.

Tatsuo: But we’ve got the head and the arms to turn in. – Tatsuo holsters up two of the Mandaeliscopod’s scythe-like arms.

Darren: Y-yeah…

Tatsuo: Hm? Why are you standing away from me? Is it because I smell?

Darren: ……

Darren:…Sure…

After mentally catching up with everything that has happened, Darren eventually takes the arms to hold onto while Tatsuo holds the head.

Darren: Thanks for helping me out…Things took an unexpected turn in more ways than one…

Tatsuo: No Problem! That being said, have you thought about coming with me to Argonaut?

Darren: Sure, I’ll join you.

Tatsuo’s face lights up: That’s great then!

Darren: Yeah…I’m still a long way off from making enough to go to another region anyways…(And I also don’t want to get killed by you) So I can show you guys around the town…Plus I owe you.

Tatsuo: But the problem now is getting there, none of us has a map.

Darren: That’s true…We’re probably gonna end up walking in circles for a couple of days before we make any real progress…

Tatsuo: If only there was a way to pinpoint exactly where we are in accordance to the region or find out which way is north. Then maybe I could somewhat get an idea on how to get to Argonaut.

Darren turns to Tatsuo confused: …What do you mean?

Tatsuo: My friend Sharon showed me the regional map as well as how to read one. I’ve memorized everything during that time.

Darren: …You can do that? Do you have perfect memory…?!

Tatsuo: Well…I wouldn’t call it perfect, but it’s pretty close…Well in the end I’ll slowly memorize the entire forest and through the process of elimination, I can more or less deduce where we are and where we should go.

Darren: Ok cool (Honestly, I don’t even care anymore…Next thing I know this guy is going to tell me he could teleport and walk on water).

Tatsuo: Alrighty then~! Let’s go! To Argonaut!