Syl

Chapter 42: Earthshaker

When the bear roared, the ground shook as if answering her rage. Nez raised his shield, which flashed with light and immediately drew the attention of the matriarch. The goblins on the outskirts fired arrows at the two bears trailing behind to draw them away from the fight. Krutz raised his skull scepter, which swelled in dark glowing mist.

"[Condemnation of Sloth]!" He shouted, and the dark mist flung itself at the bear and clung to it like a miasma. The effects were immediately noticeable, as she was in midstride towards Nez and suddenly was moving in slow motion.

Caz and Garz, rather than firing a hail of arrows, both were firing single powerful shots that caused their bows to creak from the strain. They had to aim carefully, as any arrows hitting the rocky carapace seemed to bounce off harmlessly.

Despite moving at a slower pace, she barreled through the spikes and traps. Before joining the melee fight, I decided to do some sniping of my own from stealth. The combo of sticky acid and paralysis was my ammo of choice, and while I didn't think my shots could penetrate her defense, I hoped the slime would seep into the cracks and deliver the poison. I kept firing until her entire back was coated in bright purple slime, and I hoped the extra visibility would warn the goblins not to touch it.

I could already tell my [Apex Hunter] emblem was doing good work. By this point, the bear had engaged with Nez and Borz. Nez, to my disbelief, did not dodge the bear's claw attacks and instead parried the blow by slamming his shield against the claws, causing the shield to flash when they collided. Not to be outdone, Borz twirled his spear like a baton and thrust it deep into the bear, blood splattering to the ground when he yanked it out.

When I arrived at the back of the bear, I could hear the acid fizzing away as it tried to melt through the flesh. I lunged with my spear to pierce deep into the rear of the bear, finding a small spot of flesh not covered in the rocky carapace. Then I detonated the spearhead, reformed it, and stabbed again. The matriarch roared in pain, and once again, I could feel the ground tremoring. I started slashing at any gaps I could find with my dagger, replacing her normal blood with blackened rot.

I wondered if it was possible to paralyze such a large monster. I wasn't sure if it had poison resistance like the badger or just a natural resistance from evolution, levels, or something like vitality. I was internally debating swapping to only using Bloodrot since I could visibly see it having an effect when the matriarch had enough of our onesided attacks and decided to up the ante.

The earth rumbled, and when she roared, it erupted. The ground around her exploded into a shrapnel of rocks and dirt. Other than slightly losing my balance, I was unaffected, and it didn't even trigger Alpha's defense protocol, so I kept up my attack. The goblins were not so lucky, and Nez took a blow from a bear paw that sent him tumbling across the ground. Thankfully, there was no death notification, and he seemed to be slowly standing back up.

"Was that earth magic!?" Krutz shouted, then pointed his skull scepter at the bear, "[Agony]!"

Black sparks arced across the bear's body, and it roared in discomfort. I activated [Mana Sight] and could see the bear glowing in a brown aura while Krutz's was black. The bear's aura flashed a deeper brown while it slammed its paw to the ground. A stalagmite erupted from the earth towards Borz, and he tried to dodge to the side but took a grievous wound to his torso.

It looked like the slow debuff did not affect the earth powers wielded by the matriarch, and she was using less claw and more rock now. Luckily for me, she had no direct line of sight to me, so when she turned, I just followed along and kept backstabbing. She roared and fired another batch of rocky shrapnel, which I ignored and countered by firing a large [Slime Burst] to recoat her entire back.

Nez had rejoined the fight and was trying to catch the bear's attention to stop her spinning around to get to me. I must have poked the bear too many times, and it wanted me gone. Its aura grew to a massive size, and I sensed imminent danger. I formed two pseudopods, grappled to the bear, and slingshotted myself onto its back.

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"Something big is coming!" I shouted a warning.

Nez seemed to take my warning seriously and backed off with his shield raised. Borz decided he knew better; rather than retreating, he started to stab rapidly at the bear, which had now begun to roar and stand on her hind legs. I was thankful goblins didn't use footwear and simply activated [Adhesive Slime] to keep my grip on its back, trying to find gaps in the rocky shell to stab at. The ground resonated with its roar, and multiple spires of earth erupted in a ring.

One of the rocky spikes had emerged directly under Borz, skewering him. Nez looked horrified and was probably very grateful he retreated. The matriarch, however, was not done. She slammed both paws to the ground, and the rocky spires shattered into multiple shards and flew directly forward from her.

While my normal vision couldn't see through the back of my fake head, [Mana Sight] could, and each shard was visible thanks to the contained earth mana. Either the bear didn't care if it hit itself, or it knew I was on its back and wanted to include me in its spray of shards. Alpha reacted before even I was aware, already triggering a defensive reaction. Two tendrils formed and mimicked two shields, and I heard the shards shattering against them.

While I was glad [Chroma Shift] got that final level, I couldn't believe that [Shapeshifting Mimicry] was such a perfectionist that it even took the effort to color an emergency defense correctly. I didn't have the luxury to think of a new trait to mimic in the fight, so I quickly upgraded my existing combo of enhanced strength, dexterity, and agility to four.

I kept stabbing and detonating spears in any gaps I spotted on the bear. I really hoped the paralysis would take hold. The bear thrashed wildly, desperately trying to get me off its back. The goblins did not look good after taking the brunt of the rock shards, and Krutz was now firing black energy bolts at the bear from his skull scepter.

Caz scored a critical hit and landed a direct shot into one of the bear's eyes. Meanwhile, Garz had stopped shooting, and it looked like he was trying to extract Nez from the fight, whose legs were shredded by rock shards. With another roar, the bear flung a boulder created from the earth towards Nez and Garz, then another at Krutz. Krutz easily dodged and countered with another black energy bolt, but Nez could not move, and Garz had to abandon him and dodge to the side.

After detonating one more spear, I abandoned it for another Bloodrot dagger and started running along the back of the bear and cutting wherever possible. I ran up to the back of its head and made cut upon cut, blackened blood leaking out of the creature.

I could see it powering up with another surge of earth mana, and I worried for Garz, who was now the only member on the frontline. I was about to abandon my disguise and go full tentacle slime monstrosity when the bear suddenly stopped moving. It collapsed to the ground, but there was no notification, so it was still alive. The buildup of earth mana released another burst of dust and gravel all around, Garz taking the brunt of it but not taking any life-threatening injuries.

Krutz was panting heavily, barely holding onto his skull scepter, and his black aura looked like a sputtering candle. Garz looked like he had been to hell and back, covered in dirt, cuts and bruises, and the blood of Nez. Caz looked surprisingly fine, only taking some minor cuts and bruises. The goblins all stared at the unmoving bear with relief and confusion. I hopped off its back and approached its head.

"I'm going to finish it off from the inside." I declared and thrust a fist inside the bear's mouth before anyone could respond.

The bear tried to growl at me, but all that came out was a gurgle, and I could see the hatred in its remaining eye. I poured slime mass down its throat and told both Alpha and Beta to go wild. Both sub-cores immediately took control over portions of slime inside the creature, and I could sense them making all sorts of tools to cut, puncture, and spread the Bloodrot acidic slime.

I was hoping for Beta to get another level, but the matriarch didn't have enough life left in it to hold out that long. The goblins looked like they wanted answers from me, but most were too tired to complain. Krutz's mana was dangerously low, from my visual estimation.

All of the goblin's eyes suddenly went wide. They likely had all received their own notifications as well. There wasn't much left of the bear between the Bloodrot and acid, but [Dissection] wanted the rocky carapace. I put it in the back of my mind and frowned at the notifications I had received. Why did I only gain a single level despite my [Apex Hunter] emblem? I would have expected two or even three levels from this fight. Something smelled wrong, and it wasn't the rotting bear.