Antelligent Design

144. Twisted Mind

I weave the bridge deftly and with incredible ease, the likes of which I hadn’t felt before. The extra stats flex their muscles. The Cunning allows me to comprehend and visualise the complex patterns with so much more clarity. The Will allows me to handle the Mana and direct it to my wishes far easier.

It’s so nice!

When the bridge connects, my second Gravity Bomb flickers out of existence and an extremely large, angry crocodile is staring at me with pure rage. Across her flank and toward her back leg, there are chunks of flesh missing, carved out of her by the crushing force of gravity. The blood that leaks from the wounds sizzles into vapour in an instant due to the incredible heat emanating from her body. Before I can try and speak to her, I notice her throat bulge impressively and I think it’s time to motor.

“Vibrant! You still with me?”

“Yup-Yup! Ready to roll!”

“Great, let’s move!”

DASH!

A huge gout of magma erupts from her mouth and lands behind me in my attempt to get around the massive croc. HOT! Seriously hot! Lava now? Is that the next level after flame? Weren’t happy with the super-hot coloured flames, were you? Needed to take it to the next level? Sheesh!

Garralosh twists her body with shocking speed and the pressure of her magma spray increases exponentially. Hot lava flies at my face and I have to jump. My legs push down hard and I fly into the air as the spray of magma hits the ground not seconds after I depart.

Yikes!

She’s a lot quicker than she looks. I should have expected that. She didn’t live this long and get as strong as she did without having a couple of tricks up her sleeve… scales… Whatever.

[How does it feel to get this old?] I ask her.

[KILL! HATE! CRUSH! KILL! HATE! CRUSH!] a deep and powerful voice rages in my mind.

Ooookay!

Near bottomless depths of anger, fear and thirst for killing wash back against my thoughts through the Mind Bridge. Holy moly, her mind is a freakin’ mess. I’m not sure what I expected to find in there. A former human, thrown into the Dungeon and forced to live as a crocodile monster for over a hundred years, it would mess up a lot of people. But there is chaos in there. She’s completely nuts!

[Uh… How’s crocodile life?]

[DIIIIIEEEEEEEEE!]

[Sooo… not great then?]

I’m starting to think I’m lucky to get words of any sort out of her. Thank goodness for Mind Magic. Not that I think talking her down will ever work. I’m starting to think no communication at all is going to be possible.

Instead, I divert my energy to more standard tactics. My sub-brains begin to craft horrible experiences and sensory tricks to send through the bridge, and I devote my main mind to concentrate on the fight.

“Still here, Vibrant?”

“It’s hot, but I’m fine!”

She’s way faster than me, no chance she gets hit.

“Stick with me but don’t get too close, alright? It’s going to get hairy!”

It may have been unfortunate what happened to you, Garralosh, but I’m not going to hold back just because you were once human! I gather my strength and Dash, this time I don’t head around the enormous enemy, but straight at her.

My nerves are firing on all cylinders and my antennae are blaring warnings. The glimpse of the future I can see isn’t pleasant. My enhanced nervous system fires so fast my brain barely has time to register the input before my body begins moving. So quick! I throw myself to the left just in time to avoid a powerful burst of lava from that cavernous maw.

That’s one huge mouth. She could fit Tiny in there standing up! I shiver. Good thing I told my pets to hang back. Tiny would get carried away and eaten in about five seconds. I doubt Crinis could do anything to this monster anyway. She’s just too damn tough.

My legs scrabble beneath me and I throw myself forward again, closing in on the beast. That last dodge threw me off targeting her wounded side, I’ll have to make do with the healthy side. I zip past the open maw and slip past her front leg when my antennae blare a warning.

She’s crafty!

To my mind’s eye, I can ‘see’ her middle leg rise, claws grasping to stomp down at my head. I roll left, putting myself underneath her torso just as the claw stomps down, blasting a cloud of dust into the air from the sheer force of it.

BOOM!

If I got hit by that, I’d be a pancake! I’d pop like a balloon! Just what are her stats like, anyway?

I roll myself back the other way and spin my body to properly angle my head. I sure as heck hope this Skill proves to be worth it. Rank four fused Skill. The bite of destiny! Those searing scales burn before me as I make a small prayer to the pearlescent sheen of the great Gandalf’s beard and activate my new Skill.

OMEN CHOMP!

I worked so hard for this damn Skill. Please be awesome. Please be awesome.

The moment I activate it, I feel that something is different. My stamina depletes by a massive chunk all at once, enough to make me stagger as the drain briefly leaves me lightheaded. But that doesn’t stop the Skill from executing. The jaws of light that would normally appear and extend my range do not manifest. Instead, the jaws are dark and full of foreboding. Two metres beyond the reach of my own mandibles, they extend out and appear as a horrific mash of all three of my old Bite Skills combined.

Sharp, for piercing armour. Bladed, for cutting flesh. Flat, to crush and crack. They’re a nightmare of different surfaces designed to do nasty things to places monsters would rather not have nasty things happen to. I plunge with my head and those mighty jaws close on the fearsome scales of Garralosh.

SCREEEECH!

Sparks fly as my mandibles grate along the scales, leaving behind deep trenches, before halfway through my bite motion, the ‘teeth’ find a better purchase.

CRUNCH!

It’s a special feeling. When the enemies’ defences crumble before the incredible might of your face-hands. Even if my face feels like it’s on fire, and my mandibles are starting to smoke, the sensation of the scales cracking and splintering before my might is a delight!

Not for Garralosh, though, obviously.

GROOOWWLLLL!

She ain’t happy.