'Heads!' The thought roared in its mind.
It needed to kill them, needed their essence. Without them, it couldn't reach the percentage necessary for escape.
To return to its beloved queen.
A plan began taking shape: if it could escape the crater, it could extend its control over an area large enough to make localization impossible. Then it could hunt them one by one, taking its time, choosing its prey with care.
Water continued flowing over it, and the Artromus almost wanted to laugh at the humans' naivety. Did they know nothing about elemental immunities? Earth was as immune to water as fire was to wind, or water to fire. All they were achieving was making its domain more malleable, more responsive to its will.
'What do they hope to accomplish?' it thought while feeling the mud respond to its slightest desire. 'All they've managed is to make my kingdom more perfect.'
From the depths of its muddy fortress, the Artromus waited. Patience was a virtue these parasites would learn to fear.
♢♢♢♢
A dangerous smile formed on Elio's face as he watched water accumulating in the hole.
If the artromus wanted to remain in its improvised pool, thinking water was harmless... well, it was about to receive a very unpleasant chemistry lesson.
"Zara," Elio called, his voice carrying a tone that made several of those present shudder. "Remember those... special combinations we were practicing?"
Zara's smile matched Elio's, understanding immediately. "The ones too dangerous to breathe?"
"Water can be much more than just a drink," Elio murmured, more to himself than to others. "It's a veeeery scary drink."
Elio felt proud of being able to drink such a weapon of destruction.
There was something strangely appropriate about hydrofluoric acid (which Elio simply called a fluorine-hydrogen bomb, lacking theoretical chemical knowledge) being generated by the same power that allowed them to create drinking water.
"Are you sure about this?" Mei asked, recognizing the look in both their eyes. "If that combination is as dangerous as you suggest..."
"Oh, it is," Elio confirmed, his eyes gleaming with anticipation while calculating proportions. "Fluorine and hydrogen together aren't elements you should play with."
"If common water can't flush it out of the earth," Zara added, positioning herself beside Elio, "it'll find this... this is way different."
The others instinctively backed away, recognizing they were about to witness something devastating. The Artromus, so confident in its muddy domain, had no idea of the chemical storm about to be unleashed upon it.
"Ready to show it why it shouldn't underestimate chemical magic?" Elio raised his hand, preparing for the first discharge.
The water-filled hole waited, seemingly harmless. But soon it would become the stage for a reaction the Artromus would never forget...
♢♢♢♢
As Elio had warned, the almost two hundred soldiers raised their nickel shields in unison, forming a protective barrier against the acid rain that followed. Elio's destructive power was too high to risk exposure, a single impact could claim a good portion of their resistance.
The moments that followed were tense, all eyes fixed on the bubbling muddy mass. Elio maintained his position, scythe ready, waiting to see if the chemical attack would be enough to force the monster out or if they'd need more explosions to deprive it of its earthen cover.
The answer came with a second explosion, but this time it wasn't chemical.
The mud rose as a single entity, a monstrous wave that seemed to take on a life of its own. In its center, catapulted by the force of its own transformation, emerged the artromus.
But it wasn't the creature they had briefly glimpsed before.
Where once stood an already formidable being, now rose something larger, more menacing.
Arterro Hertris Soldier of Earth (Earth Artromus)
Skills:
Frenzy
Metamorphosis (5min)
Earth Element Magic
Mana: 10/1000
Resistance: 146,580/200,000
Stamina: 85/100
Attack: 100
Magic Damage: 100
Strength: 40
Defense: 200
Magic Defense: 100
Speed: 40
Perception / Agility: 2 (A)
The metamorphosis had transformed its body into something that made its previous form seem almost fragile in comparison. Its armor, though corroded in some sections by the acid, gleamed with supernatural power.
The Artromus had played its final card, and the true battle was about to begin.