Between a Rock and a Carapace

11. Shadow Flower

[DIEEEEEE!] Crinis shrieks as she continues her furious tentacle assault, one that is matched by the dark flower in intensity.

Their conflict is practically an enormous pile of shoelaces actively tying themselves into knots. That interaction takes a darker turn as both sets of shoelaces extend differing but equally savage barbs that tear into each other with abandon.

The tunnel reverberates with the sound of buzzing and rending as the two shadow creatures slice each other apart. Their shadow flesh is curiously pliable and doesn’t offer much resistance to the cutting force as bits and pieces of both start to litter the floor.

[Crinis! Are you okay there?]

[DIE! DIE-DIE-DIE-DIE-DIEEEEEEEEEE!] is all I get in response.

Holy moly! She dove right off the deep end!

I need to assist. Not that I think Crinis will lose in this Jellymaw showdown. I just want to ensure she doesn’t get too torn up in the process. Indeed, she’s already begun sprouting new tentacles to replace those that have been lost, and those limbs whip through the air to battle alongside their brethren in the great tangle.

From my precarious position on the ceiling, I notice the shadow flower extending limbs like roots across the floor of the tunnel, burrowing into the soil, but I also manage to see the creature’s own shadow deepening to black darker than night.

At that moment, I make use of my new and improved business district to fire my sizzling product at the enemy.

POW! POW! POW!

How do you like that for an express delivery? The acidic fluid rockets fast enough to produce a piercing whistle, and the flower, not ten metres away from me, recoils as if struck by stones when my projectiles strike home. At that speed, I suppose the liquid would feel rather solid—hadn’t thought of that. Though less splashy than usual, I’m happy to see that the acid still gums up and starts burning its way through the shadow flesh of the flower at a prodigious rate.

POW! POW! POW!

Plenty more where that came from, you offensive rose of death! And I mean, plenty more. With the full weight of my new production system back there, my acid has become the potent weapon it was when I’d first been born.

Ah, the nostalgia is real. Back when I was so weak that everything I saw was a threat, and ranged combat was my only viable path to victory. The memories, the terrifying, harrowing memories. Things have come a long way since those days, thank Gandalf.

For now, let’s focus on what’s truly important: quenching the white-hot rage that burns within the heart of my poor eldritch monstrosity of infinite horror.

The flower isn’t enjoying my new and improved product by any means. It writhes in pain, a hundred tendrils coiling around itself to shield it from my wrath. Not likely, you Crinis-irritating flower. It’s way harder than that to get away from me.

My legs are still straining to hold my more impressive bulk attached to the ceiling, but I’m able to scurry forward and bring myself closer to the creature, just as Crinis completes her work with the shadows. Suddenly, a dozen ravenous, barbed limbs rise from the floor and latch onto the beast, hungrily tearing into its flesh.

Just in time for me to apply my mandibles.

Omen Chomp!

A huge chunk of stamina drains away as the nightmarish dark mandibles manifest before me and slice through the air. Shadow flesh isn’t the toughest stuff in the world to start with, and in the face of such a powerful skill, the limbs extending from the flower are shorn away like hair caught in a barber’s scissors.

A frankly disgusting amount of limbs flop to the ground, and with a psychic shriek of savage joy, Crinis bounds forward, her jaws wide open to reveal the cavernous, dark void within. I have to admit, the shadow flower puts up a valiant defence. It has a remarkable amount of shadow flesh in the tank, and if I’m not mistaken, there’s something fancy going on with those roots.

Flipping on my Mana Sense, my suspicion is confirmed. The creature has penetrated tentacles deep into the ground and is sucking Mana up at a furious rate. In fact, that might explain its prodigious capacity to create shadow flesh. If the creature had some sort of capacity to convert Mana into shadow flesh quickly, that would be an interesting solution to the problem Crinis attempted to solve with her Shadow Flesh Generation Gland. This shadow flower is an interesting design based on the original Jellymaw.

Hang on a second… design?

Suddenly suspicious, I turn my gaze at the creature itself. A powerful core blazes inside it. Probably not rare, but pushing the upper limits of special, for sure. I can’t shake the feeling this creature is a little more carefully put together than the Dungeon’s own scattershot approach.

[Hold on, Crinis!] I call.

Too late.

[FEEEASSSSSSSSTTT!] she hisses viciously as her maw opens wide.

What happens next, is not meant for mortal eyes. The process of one Jellymaw consuming another is, I can only imagine, the sort of thing dark gods whisper to each other at their evil clubs of nefariousness to make each other shiver. It was loud. It was messy. It was not quick.

Tiny and I look down at the now shrunken Crinis, who appears to be covering herself with tentacles in order to shield herself from what she must assume is our judging gaze.

[Crinis…]

[Don’t look at me! I’ve disgraced myself!]

[You really haven’t.]

[I lost control!]

[As if I haven’t. Let’s not mention Tiny.]

Tiny nods in solemn agreement.

[I am not worthy of your words, Master. Please disregard this disgusting servant.]

[That isn’t—]

Like a distant wave rushing from a kilometre away to inside my head within a second, a formless pressure builds and then explodes into my consciousness with an audible SNAP.

[Holy heck that smarts!]

[I SAY, YOU CRETIN! What in the name of BOSH have you done to my SERVANT?]

The mental contact is powerful, skilful, and as loud as a foghorn blasting within an ear canal.

[You wouldn’t happen to be a sophos, would you?]

[OH-HO! SO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU’VE DONE, YOU RAPSCALLION. I’LL STRIP OUT YOUR CORE AND MOULD YOU INTO A FOOTREST! HOW DARE YOU! HOW DARE YOU, SIR!]

Maybe you shouldn’t have left your pet out in the tunnels on its own if you cared so much?

[I COULD READ THAT, YOU TWIT! DON’T YOU EVEN START WITH ME! I’LL FEED YOU TO MY WORM AND LAUGH. LAUGH, I SAY!]

I do NOT want to be fed to one of those worms!

[Wait a second!] I interject. [Any chance you know Formo? We came looking for him. He knows me!]

C’mon, Formo. Please don’t be a recluse that nobody’s ever heard of.

[WHY DIDN’T YOU SAY SO? I’LL COME FIND YOU, OLD BOY. HOLD TIGHT!]

Thank you, Formo. Thank you from your shrivelled legs to your bulbous, eyeless head.