Chapter 257: Giant Hunting

Chapter 257: Giant Hunting

After a moment of confusion, I tried to stand again.

In some ways, I had been prepared for this. With [Little Guardians Totem], I had already been able to ride along the perspectives of my Coreless, able to see through their eyes and hear through their ears. It meant that I wasnt taken off guard by the change in perspective; it meant that it felt natural to me, even if it was anything but. I didnt feel odd seeing through a Coreless eyes, or feeling with their flesh.

In other ways, I wasnt prepared for it at all. There was a big difference between riding along or feeling someones perspective and actively controlling it. Especially when the body that I was controlling had parts that I wasnt used to using.

All of that meant that I was able to perfectly understand what I was seeing and feeling as my legs failed me for a second time and my face plummeted towards the floor.

This time, I managed to get my arms in the way first.

I was learning.

You Skies-damned idiot, give me back my -

I cut off the Coreless thoughts again, having briefly let them escape when I lost focus. A quick flex of my will fixed that. And then I launched myself back up again, pushing hard against the ground with my arms and legs.

A little too hard.

I soared into the air, and then realized I had no idea how to land. But I couldnt let that stop me. If a Coreless could move their own body right, then surely I was smart enough to -

I landed.

On my face.

This was going to take a while. It was a good thing that I had used so much extra death essence - what should have been more than enough to heal injuries that this body took for quite a while. Apparently, I would need it.

The enemy Coreless foot came down again before I could make another attempt to stand, landing on my back and shattering the bones of my spine.

Of course he had no problems using his legs.

I was a little resentful of that.

===

I let out a hiss as my Coreless-self fell again, the sound muffled by my tail and the stone that surrounded me. And then again as its spine was shattered, forcing me to wait for the bones to put themselves back together.Vissit novelbin(.)c.om for updates

I didnt want to think about the horrifying nature of however that would have happened.

Still, looking at him, I couldnt help but want to take the giant for myself, whether through [Transient Reanimation] or [Spore Puppeteer]. I focused inwards, checking on my reserve of spores, and let out a hiss of displeasure.

They were dead. Unable to grow.

It seemed like turning the giant, possibly half-bad-thing Coreless would have to happen the hard way. If I had been able to use [Spore Puppeteer], I could have just infected him before trying to chase him away, and then let the spore-roots slowly grow and show him the glory of the Great Core. But, with my spores apparently unavailable in my undead state, the plan would have to change.

I would just have to kill him.

But that would be dangerous. The giant Coreless was strong even for his size, his every blow able to shatter the bones of my Coreless-self despite the ore-flesh that covered me. I was pretty sure my Coreless-self was feeling bits of ore-flesh inside of my body, where sections of the protective skin had broken and bent.

They werent supposed to be there, I was pretty sure!

However, despite my current worries about ore-flesh in places where ore-flesh wasnt supposed to be, as well as my absolute failure to stand on two legs - but I was getting close! - the giant Coreless was nowhere near actually defeating my Coreless-self.

The cloud of death essence that surrounded me was too thick, and too dangerous. From where my snake-self watched, I could see places where lines of black had begun to trace themselves across the giants flesh, slowly rotting away at his insides every time the Coreless forced himself to get close enough to attack my Coreless-self.

It wasnt much; the cloud of death that my Coreless-self gave off didnt have the focus of something like [Death - Venom], [Death - Wither], or even [Death - Enervating Bite]. But it was enough to make the giant hesitate, just a little.

Enough that I would be free to slither about without worry, turning his fellow blasphemers against him one by one.

And who knew? Maybe by the time I was done, I would be able to take a few steps with my own horrible, disgusting pair of legs. I would need to learn either way because when I captured the giant, I really wanted to be able to control his body myself.

There was something appealing about being so physically strong, even if the pair of legs that came with that strength were distinctly unappealing.

With a resolute hiss, I pushed my snake-self out of the wall, heading towards the nearest blasphemer. The Coreless was already struggling, desperately trying to push one of my undead away. Struggling a little too much. Even better, the wind that these Coreless ore-flesh created around themselves was fading, his more than any of the others. I could tell by how poorly it pushed away at my undead Coreless strikes, barely even managing to knock them off-course, and by the growing dimness of the ore-flesh itself. He was clearly weak, and only growing weaker. My undead had been impaled by one of the blasphemers ore-flesh-tipped rods, carrying it within his flesh, and the enemy Coreless still couldnt finish him off.

Still, even if the blasphemer was too weak to become an undead that would actually be that helpful in defeating the giant Coreless, every little bit counted.

Maybe he could stand in the way of a blow or two before he suffered a true death.

I moved closer, silent slither by silent slither, [Death - Venom] held ready behind my fangs. The barrier of wind failed to push me away as I got closer, [Clinging Grasp] letting me stick to the ground and avoid being flung away like I had been more than once before while fighting this group of blasphemous Coreless.

And then, in a brief moment of distraction that my undead created, I struck.