Chapter 163: The Shield And The Snake

Chapter 163: The Shield And The Snake

With the stolen disciples [Little Guardians Totem] still hanging around his neck, he had been easy to track. It was a little less easy to communicate with The Grateful One and prepare her for the ambush, though I had managed that too; the stores of light held within my reservoirs ran dim, but the constant glow of the ore-flesh wrapped around me had been enough to recover. By the third time that I had tried to get my point across, she had begun to understand.

It was frustrating, but better than some of my other experiences with communication. One day, I would find a Coreless with the intelligence to understand a proper hiss. Until then, I would just have to cope.

The Great Core truly must have trusted in me, to present me with these challenges.

Fortunately, the Great Cores disciples possessed a variety of fangs and ore-flesh, so I had been able to explain which of the corrupted disciples we would be going up against. That was important, because they all had their own strengths - and Will would likely be one of the hardest to fight among them.

Alone, I even doubted that I would have had a chance to win. The fights against the flame-gaze bad-things had proven how durable the Coreless could be; many times, I had seen him take deflect blows that would have smashed me into a fine pulp - and not even stagger.

Fortunately, he seemed to rely on the other Coreless to do most of the killing. He may have been durable, but that didnt necessarily mean he was dangerous.

Just frustrating. Very, very frustrating.

With that in mind, I had prepared myself. As impressive as The Grateful One could be, I knew that she wouldnt be able to fight Will in the same way that she had the others; there would be no shattered bones and crippled limbs to keep him down. It was more likely that her own bones would shatter in the attempt.

It was a good thing that she wasnt alone.

I shunted a large amount of mana into the venom sacs that held my [Paralyzing Venom]. Each drop of blue suffused the pool of slow-venom within, pushing its potency to new heights. Eventually, though, I was forced to stop. Even having recently refilled it, my stores of mana werent large enough to treat them as if they were limitless; I knew that I would need to save quite a bit of it just in case.

The Grateful One followed the illusory light that I created to guide her way, trudging through the fields of dead spore-flesh. Her gait was heavy, as careful as ever to leave tracks behind her. Though the spore-mist tried its best to fill in the holes that she created, there were still distinct marks left behind, great gashes and scars that couldnt be healed in what little time we needed to be concerned about.

It wasnt entirely necessary; some time ago, I had realized that she was trying to leave herself a way back to the once-corrupted that we had left behind. With one of the Great Cores disciples there with them, I would be able to find them any time that I wanted. The Lesser Cores spore-mist couldnt do anything to stop that.

Still, it was good that she was focused on keeping those that the Great Core had claimed safe; it showed that she understood her duty as a disciple, that she would keep the Great Cores interests in mind even in the midst of the Lesser Cores disgusting spore-mists.

Undaunted, Will jerked his other arm forward, the giant chunk of ore-flesh that it held smashing into The Grateful One full force. She tumbled backwards, a hand dropping backwards and sending her vaulting up again. Her nose was a crumpled mess, leaking blood and I-didnt-want-to-know-what-else. The Coreless could keep knowledge of their disgusting mystery fluids for themselves; I didnt want it.

One hand came up to push it back together again, and it was on the path to mending by the time the hand moved away. Will, having finally picked up his fallen ore-flesh with an already-healing right hand, stepped forward to follow.

At the same time, my fangs pierced through his skin at last. Twin rivers of slow-poison dripped through my fangs, gushing along their hollows with an almost painful intensity as my well of poison quickly ran dry.

The thought-light flickered.

Lesser Core Skill: [Mana Venom XI] Increased.

[Mana Venom XII] Acquired.

And yet, despite that, Wills body kept moving.

Even worse, it moved towards me in a particularly awful way. Before I had time to notice, we were already halfway to the ground. Before I had time to react, the stolen disciples body had contorted itself enough to pull me further underneath it.

And then we landed.

My many ribs, small as they were, shattered like kindling under the force of Wills great weight - a great weight that was many, many times my own.

A frantic thought-hiss went out, and my pulped flesh writhed. Many-tendriled spore-roots swept up the splintered and broken pieces, holding them together as best they could. Another hiss sent me downwards, diving through the dense spore-flesh below.

For once, I didnt balk at its touch. I welcomed the green-black darkness.

Moments later, glowing ore-flesh pierced into the darkness, nearly pressing me into a pulp.

I sent out another thought-hiss, my body slithering harder.