Between a Rock and a Carapace

84. The Real Master of Magic

The second I put a leg within twenty metres of the demon, it acts. One of its dangling arms flicks in my direction and three of those red balls zoom at me!

BOOM!

Arrrgh! Pain blossoms along the side of my abdomen. I turned my body at the last moment, protecting my head. The unfortunate result is that my legs are exposed, and as the three balls detonate alongside me, my precious ant-legs are ravaged with pain.

That little beast has been acting weak this whole time! I should have known throwing one spell at a time was way too easy. I’ve fallen for his trap again. His stupid spells are so fast, I barely have a chance to start breaking them apart before they land. Not to mention he weaves them together with such speed that the moment I sense the Mana build-up, he’s almost ready to shoot. This little gremlin is giving me a headache!

[You have it. I will taaaake it! Give it to meeeeeee!]

[Get bent!]

I’ve no choice but to trigger the regeneration gland. Two legs on my left side are heavily crippled and are impeding my mobility. If I leave it like this, I’m only going to be food for more of those ridiculous explosion balls.

Just what sort of magic is this, anyway?

Once again on the defensive, I focus on dodging and moving in unpredictable patterns as the healing fluid rockets through my system, creating new tissues and connecting them at an absurd pace. To speed the process, I fire off my latest Ice Spears and begin to weave a healing spell to lay onto myself.

Of course, the little demon doesn’t want to make life easy for me. Now that the jig is up, he’s more than willing to toss multiple spells at the same time. Though with greater distance between us, I’ve got more time to dodge.

I watch the demon carefully each moment—he’s enjoying this. The sadistic little imp. Even now, I can’t be sure that he’s not toying with me. Regardless, I’ve survived long enough to get the healing spell off, and combined with the effect of my healing gland, my body is knitting itself together at a stupidly fast pace. Watching my HP climb so quickly is certainly a good feeling. Granin was right. Stacking effects on top of each other is the way to produce a better result!

With my legs back under me, I take my distance from the beast to prepare my next offensive. Sensing my defensive posture, the monster takes the pressure off and starts talking some smack.

[Come back to meeee. Is it better where you are? I want iiiit!]

[Oh, don’t worry, eyeball, I’m comin’ back over there.]

The creature’s wings do a little wriggle of glee and the eye widens even further—if that’s at all possible. I swear that eye is darkening and it looks a little… broken. As if it were a window that was starting to crack. No matter. If it means something, I don’t know what, and there’s little point guessing. I just need to focus on my next offensive.

Keeping an eye on my opponent and making sure I never stop moving, I focus my main mind and strongest sub-mind on shaping my next offensive ice spell. Handling the condensed Ice Mana is difficult and it takes quite a bit of work to put this spell together. Hopefully, it’s strong enough to make it difficult for the mini-demon to break it apart.

I finish the spell, but don’t fire it immediately. It takes about ten seconds to ready that magic, enough time for my enemy to weave any number of hideous constructs to inflict on me. I’ve no doubt he can sense the magic I’ve built up, and he’s likely ready to retaliate the second I unleash it. Thus why I’m holding onto it, closing the distance between us bit by bit.

Dashing head-on is just asking to get a death ball to the noggin, so instead, I angle my dashes to bring me a little closer after each one as the monster and I engage in a little game of chicken. If I can bait out his counter spells whilst still being at a reasonable range, then the chances of a successful dodge are much greater.

The closer I get, the less time he’ll have to break my spell apart.

My heart is right in my mandibles as the gap between us shrinks. Sand flies out from beneath me and out behind me as my legs kick up a trail while I run.

The monster finally decides to act and flicks its hand out as I close within thirty metres. The second it does, I kick my legs hard and rise into the air, unleashing my spell.

A bright, ice blue light drops onto the ground and starts to race through the sand toward the monster. I raise my legs high to keep them from the inevitable explosion. The monster unleashes four of the deadly balls of death and throws them out in an arc that would have surely caught me had I continued to run forward. Instead, they detonate beneath me, throwing me farther into the air.

The concussive force is absorbed by my carapace plating, but even so, I take some internal damage from the blast. Those spells pack a punch! Still, my spell should distract the monster long enough for me to get back onto my feet and close in for a juicy chomp!

I reorient my body and catch sight of my opponent and my spell racing through the ground toward him. To my surprise, the imp doesn’t seem concerned with the Ice Magic, though its eye glares at me even harder.

At this range, I can see that the eye isn’t broken but filled with thick, pulsing capillaries that appear like cracks in a mirror, threading their way through the iris.

Just as I make this disgusting discovery, the air beneath the flapping eyeball ripples and seems to unfold, revealing a huge, grinning mouth suspended in midair, full of gnashing teeth. Just before my spell erupts, the mouth opens wide to reveal a bright green, fleshy tongue that unfolds to taste the air as the eye flashes dangerously.

Not good!

POW! POW! POW! POW! POW!

Angling my body, I unload a barrage of acid as the eye flares dazzlingly bright. The Ice Magic gleams in the ground and a sharp pillar of ice spears upward toward the flying monster, just as a searing beam of bright green light lances out from that eye and pierces my body. The ice pillar stabs home and scrapes the side of the monster, unleashing a spray of sizzling black blood. The shock of the strike throws the monster off-balance, and the beam sears through my body, cutting a deep gash before glancing off into the stands.

OUCH! That stings!

OOMPH!

Hitting the ground stings even worse!

Desperation ignites in my mind as I take stock. I’m hurt, I’m hurt real bad. It’s only been a minute since I last used my healing gland and there’s precious little juice recharged in there, but I fire it off anyway. Every little bit helps! My legs are weak as I push them beneath myself and start to haul my body behind a rock.

Healing Mana, do your thing!