Chapter 96: Tier 2

Chapter 96: Tier 2

Mason’s speed and jump carried him past the worm’s larger blades entirely. He sliced away as many of the smaller teeth as he could going in, but many more still raked his skin. Then he struck a kind of long, sphincter, an oval tube of skeletal muscle fibers filled with acid that sucked him down.

[Apex predator activated: elemental.]

The excruciating fluid became a mild burn, and he knew it wouldn’t kill him quickly. He squirmed and cut, helping the thing swallow him deeper and deeper. With Ranger’s Mark he could see its organs—he could see everything. The stomach was close.

With several breathless seconds of being squeezed and contorted down in a trail of blood and goo as he cut, he finally slopped to a larger space. The worm was convulsing at his attacks, clearly affected by the pain. He could barely breath, but he’d expected that and held his breath. Time to learn how long his body could endure.

He sloshed through acid and struck at the stomach lining, activating Predator’s Strike on cooldown and slashing with abandon. He had only one task—to cut straight out for air.

Blood, goo and acid washed over him, coating his sword, his arms, his face. The worm was squeezing and thrashing, turning him and rolling in agony. But he held out. And he cut.

What’s wrong? He wanted to shout. Having a little indigestion? Eat something that disagrees with you?

Ranger’s Mark told him how much flesh and hide he had yet to cut through, and it wasn’t pretty. The acid was slowly burning him alive, the air straining in his lungs. But Mason was always the stubborn type.

Let’s see who lasts longer, he wiped his eyes and kept hacking, pulling globs of worm flesh and goo away with his bare hand.

* * *

“I’ve killed things worse than big earthworms, he says,” Carl grumbled as he tried to see out from Violet’s hole. “Follow the giant purple thing. Sure. Or maybe I’ll just climb up that hundred foot sheer hole with a wolf on my shoulders. No problem, kid. Go have fun.”

The giant worm slammed against the tunnel wall and shook everything like an earthquake. Streak whined and Carl put a hand on his head to comfort him. “I know what you mean, buddy. This is fucked. I should be balls deep in Silvie right now, not...wherever the hell we are.”

The worm was roaring and screeching, coiling itself and rolling all over the tunnel.

“What in the name of God is happening out there.”

A weird bubbling, sort of tittering sound practically sent him into a spasm of alarm before Carl realized it was Violet behind him.

“Yeah I don’t speak worm like that other guy,” he said. The worm sort of grunted, then turned and started digging away.

Carl had no idea what else to do but follow.

They went on for a little while, then the damn thing curved its tunnel and went right back towards the Devourer.

“Hey!” Carl shouted over the digging. “This is the wrong way. No bueno. Very bad worm. Go the other way!”

Unsurprisingly, his words had no affect. Violet just kept on digging, and Carl followed along cursing and begging every God he could remember. He had no mana left to speak of. He could still warp and stab things, but that was about it. And stabbing the Devourer was a bit like tickling a bear.

How could anyone or anything kill that fucking worm? What on earth was Mason doing out there?

On the other hand, he’d watched the crazy kid shoot a giant insect man down like it was nothing. The amount of arrows he’d loosed in mere seconds was inhuman, and he hadn’t even flinched at the charge—like he hadn’t questioned himself at all.

But that was just a big insect man, and not remotely the same. Carl flinched as he heard the worm thrashing again, watching dirt and little rocks fall from the roof as the thrashing continued. At least that meant Mason wasn’t dead, right?

Another boom. More whining from Streak as their little tunnel shook like a leaf. God help us, Carl thought. He didn’t want to get buried like Mason had. Would Violet save him if the whole tunnel collapsed? Could he? Er, she?

Then the little tunnel broke through again into the larger one, and Violet popped out and turned to go make another tunnel somewhere else, leaving Carl and Streak to watch the madness.

The Devourer had now curled up entirely, and begun to...eat itself. It bit into its own body again and again, the same blades used to slice open rock wall spraying blood and worm goo as it tunneled into its own body.

Carl just stared with his mouth open. When he couldn’t stand to watch it anymore, he turned away then shivered when he found Mason’s wolf licking its lips. The purple worm was watching outside the tunnel now, making little sounds and practically vibrating, staring with coal black eyes. It was the craziest moment of Carl’s entire damn life. For about a second.

Then the giant worm pulled back and shuddered, letting out a long, slow moan that nearly made Carl cover his eyes, but slowly dropped in volume. Its huge front flopped over and smashed into the ground, leaking and spraying goo and puss and blood. Then the cavern rung with silence.

[You have slain The Great Devourer. Experience awarded (major).]

[Great Devourer’s Lair complete: Reward: Have you tried looking for a key?]

[Objective complete. Destroy the worms threatening Sanctuary. Bonus experience.]

[Level 9 reached. Please select your new power in the next sixty minutes.]

Vitality: 17

Intellect: 7

Will: 11

Presence: 5

Luck: 5

Titles: Killer, Early Lead, Soloist, Crazy like a Fox, Burnt the Boats, Patron, Progenitor, Hit the Ground Running, First Blood, Defender, Tiering it up, Front Runner, Phase Jumper

Powers: Power Shot, Crippling Strike+, Regeneration+, Predator’s Strike, *Nature Affinity, Ranger’s Claw, Endless Quiver+, Trapmaking, Aspect of the Cheetah, Blessing of Gaia, Nature’s Wrath, Duality of Life

He hadn’t been keeping exact track, but his stats didn’t look different except for getting the title bonuses. Did that man ‘tier 2’ affected them in some other way? He was trying to remember which powers exactly were ‘class powers’ and which weren’t when Carl came bounding over.

“You’re awake!” Carl leapt at him with a flask of water before he stopped and stared. “Holy shit.”

“What’s wrong?” Mason put a hand to his tender face and checked for damage. “Am I less pretty?”

“No. You’re just...you’re...pretty much healed, for Christ’s sakes.”

Mason nodded, not feeling entirely healed. “I do that. Any trouble when I was out?”

“My God. Thank Christ.” Carl leaned in for a one-armed squeeze, soon putting both around him and practically clinging on. Mason fought it for a moment, then just smiled and pat the man’s arm.

“You did pretty good back there. I thought you’d died about five times. So I guess we’re even.”

Carl’s eyes were a little watery but it faded quick. “At least now I can be honest. When I first pulled you out? You looked fucked up. Like that Deadpool guy. You know, from the Ryan Reynolds movie?”

Mason shrugged, but he could imagine. He took a long drink and closed his eyes.

“No? Oh! You remember Robocop? The original? There was this guy that got burned by a vat of acid. You looked like that.”

“Didn’t see it.” Mason took a few breaths and drained the flask. Then he looked over to see ‘Violet’ staring at him a little ways off.

“Oh. Yeah. She’s just been...over there. Kinda figured she wanted to eat your corpse, to be honest. But she’s been polite about it. I guess she’ll be disappointed Mason meat is off the menu, so to speak.”

Mason met the creature’s eyes, and it warbled and let out a scent he instantly understood as...joy? Happiness?

He activated Speak with Nature.

[Thank you again for your help. We couldn’t have done this without you.]

The happiness turned to pride—thick and pungent.

Obligation, the worm spoke through the magic. Kinslayer is destroyed. Life debt is owed.

Mason blinked. This was a shockingly articulate worm. “You want to serve me?” It warbled in the affirmative, and Mason gave a helpless shrug, no idea what to do with that. “I would be honored,” he said at last.

“I don’t know what’s happening but fyi it’s weird.” Carl was looking back and forth between the worm and Mason.

“Don’t worry about it.” Mason decided it was time to test his legs, standing with a groan as the world spun a little. Streak was at his side, whining and licking its lips as it glanced at the giant dead devourer.

“What?” Mason looked at the wolf and its obvious interest. “What is wrong with you? It’s literally filled with acid. It’s still leaking out of it. Right now.” The wolf didn’t seem to much care, and Mason rolled his eyes. “Fine, go eat the acid worm full of teeth. Be my guest.” Streak sort of barked and ran for it with tongue wagging. “Don’t come whining to me when you’re shitting fire!” Mason called.

Carl lifted the key Mason had found buried in the worm’s stomach, holding it with a grin.

“Ready to see what’s behind door number one?”

“Hell yes.” Mason grabbed it. “I worked fucking hard for this key. It was stuck in the damn thing’s heart.”

Carl’s face screwed up a little in disgust, which made Mason smile.