Chapter 484 - From despair, hope is born [65]

Having left Victor, Rupert, and Arthur with the task of taking care of Selyra, I was finally able to shift my full attention to the colossal mushroom titan. The creature easily towered over fifty meters tall. I had never been particularly good at math, but even so, a quick glance was enough to come up with a reasonable estimate. This thing had to be at least sixty meters tall.

Seriously... where the hell did this thing put the whole “matter can’t be created or destroyed” rule? I guess when it comes to anomalies, anything goes. In the end, there wasn’t much I could do besides let out an exasperated sigh as I watched the situation become more and more absurd. As if a sixty-meter-tall titan made entirely out of mushrooms wasn’t already strange enough.

The three I had tasked with protecting Selyra were already dealing with problems of their own, firing nonstop at the fibrous tentacles advancing toward them. And to think that, just a little while ago, I had said I would handle the giant humanoid mushroom by myself... The longer I stared at this thing, the less confident I felt.

Naturally, I didn’t think I was going to lose. I just... had a feeling dealing with this thing was going to be incredibly annoying. Anyway, since the creature continued moving forward, causing constant tremors in the ground with every step, I decided it would be better not to let it get any closer.

My only concern was the Golden Field. If I brought it with me, Victor, Rupert, and Arthur would probably be torn apart by the tentacles in an instant. Fortunately, my Golden Field was no longer bound to me as its point of reference.

Naturally, I still had to choose its position carefully when activating it, but after that, I could simply move away. As long as my intention to use the Golden Field remained the same, it would stay exactly where I had placed it, regardless of where I went. That made things much more convenient.

Of course, that meant I would have to deal with everything while time continued to flow normally. Both the fibrous tentacles and the mushroom colossus would keep advancing without any temporal interference. Well... it was definitely going to be annoying, but nothing I couldn’t handle.

With that in mind, I cast one last glance behind me, more specifically toward Victor, Rupert, and Arthur. The three of them still seemed to be holding their own, keeping the tentacles at bay as they fought together. However, it was obvious they wouldn’t be able to maintain that pace forever.

As the number of tentacles continued to increase, the amount of space available to the three of them would inevitably shrink. Sooner or later, they would be surrounded and forced to give ground. That was why I needed to deal with the colossus before things reached that point. Fortunately, the mushroom Selyra was purifying also seemed to be showing increasingly obvious signs of deterioration.

Its structure no longer looked as stable as before, and judging by the rate at which the process was progressing, it would probably only take a few more minutes for our mission to be complete. So, for now, I only needed to focus on one thing. The enormous humanoid mushroom standing in front of me.

After finally getting my thoughts in order, I turned my attention back to the colossus and, without wasting any more time, dashed toward it. Unfortunately, there was one small problem I hadn’t really taken into consideration before simply charging toward the giant humanoid mushroom.

It might have been enormous. But it was also ridiculously slow. Actually, “slow” didn’t even begin to describe it. This thing was so painfully, almost offensively slow that it was starting to irritate me just watching it move.

And considering the distance still separating us... Well, let’s just say I had an annoyingly long stretch of completely open ground ahead of me, leaving me fully exposed while dozens of fibrous tentacles writhed all around me, clearly eager to get their hands on me.

Some of them had even wrapped themselves around the colossus’s own body, sliding along its arms and legs like hungry snakes. I stopped for a fraction of a second and watched the scene... Yeah. Running straight toward that giant mushroom definitely didn’t seem like a very good idea. Fortunately, I had a trick up my sleeve for situations like this.

I completely ignored one of the tentacles hurtling toward me at an alarming speed and simply let my body sink into the ground. The moment I dove beneath the surface, I found myself in a kind of suspended sea that I had come to call the Dark Sea. The familiar sensation of being surrounded by shadows enveloped me.

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I swam gently forward, gliding through the darkness until I found a vulnerable anchor point where I could emerge. It was relatively close to the humanoid mushroom, so my initial goal of getting closer would already be accomplished.

My auxiliary ability really was convenient in situations like this. As long as there was a visible shadow, it didn’t matter how far away it was. I could compress the distance between us in an instant. In other words, as long as there was a shadow I could anchor myself to, the tentacles could chase me all they wanted.

I would simply disappear beneath the ground and emerge somewhere else before they could reach me. Anyway, I emerged beside the giant humanoid made from various mushroom parts in an instant, appearing a few meters behind it. Honestly, this thing didn’t even have a face, so I had absolutely no idea whether I was looking at its back or its front.

However, considering it was moving toward the giant mushroom, the place where its face should have been had to be facing the giant mushroom, right? At least, that was the conclusion I came to. My goal was pretty simple: slice this thing apart until there was nothing left but pieces. It didn’t seem particularly difficult. After all, the target was enormous and, to top it all off, incredibly slow.

I guess this thing had never heard the saying, “size doesn’t mean everything” But, whatever... It would probably be as easy as taking candy from a baby. Or so I thought. The first thing I noticed was a high-pitched hiss, almost like the sound of wind being violently sliced apart by something.

I barely had time to turn toward the noise before I felt something incredibly hard and resilient slam violently into my torso. The impact hit me with such force that, for a moment, my mind simply went blank as I tried to figure out what exactly had hit me. My body was sent flying backward before I could even process what was happening.

Well, clearly, I didn't feel any pain. In fact, I'm pretty happy about that, because considering all the situations I've been through so far, many of them involving frankly unhealthy amounts of suffering, I think I can just be grateful that I'm incapable of feeling pain. That said... I can't exactly say being tossed around like a rag doll is particularly pleasant.

I mean, the wind rushing against my face is actually a pretty nice sensation. It would be even better if I weren't flying at several miles per hour, completely out of control and about to violently crash into something. Anyway, putting my thoughts aside, my body kept flying until I finally scraped against the ground. The next instant, I started bouncing.

Once. Twice. Three times. My body ricocheted against the ground over and over, each impact making the world around me shake for a moment. I didn't feel any pain, but that didn't mean all those impacts were particularly comfortable. After being dragged along for a few more yards, I finally managed to twist my body enough in midair to regain my balance.

The moment my feet touched the ground, however, I immediately realized the problem was far from over. My body was still moving forward at high speed, completely against my will: (Oh, come on...) I leaned my body slightly forward and, without wasting any time, slammed both arms into the ground.

BOOM!

My fists sank into the earth, carving two small trenches that stretched out in front of me as I continued being dragged backward. Dirt and rocks scattered in every direction, but my arms remained firmly planted in the ground, practically functioning as an anchor.

Even so, I was still dragged several more yards. Little by little, however, my speed began to decrease. Until, finally, I stopped. I remained motionless for a few seconds, both arms still buried in the ground, before slowly raising my head.

I looked ahead. The path I'd traveled was completely wrecked, marked by a long trail of trenches, impact marks, and chunks of dirt scattered everywhere. Well... the ground got pretty messed up in the process. But honestly, I doubt anyone's going to care.

That said, it was still surprising that this thing had managed to catch me off guard. Considering I had an almost perfect three-hundred-and-sixty-degree view of everything around me, that alone should have made it difficult. Even stranger was that, putting that aside, my other senses were exceptional as well.

The fact that those tentacles had managed to get close enough to hit me without me noticing simply didn't make any sense. I thought about it for a few moments, trying to come up with some kind of explanation, but eventually I just shook my head and pushed those thoughts aside.

Personally, dwelling on it right now wasn't going to help me in the slightest. Naturally, I had no intention of simply dismissing what happened as a coincidence, either. Something had happened, and I definitely wasn't going to let it happen twice... Definitely not.

With that in mind, I turned my attention back to the spot where I'd been hit. Yeah... it definitely wasn't a pretty sight. Normally, my body was incredibly durable, even considering that it was as soft as pudding. The problem was that, in situations like this, when I was caught completely off guard, I simply couldn't spread that "Defense" throughout my entire body in time.

The result was that the area where I'd been hit was... Well, let's just say it was pretty badly dented. It was almost as if someone had pressed a hand into a lump of dough and simply decided to leave the imprint there.

Not that it mattered much. It's not like I could feel pain, and in just a few moments, my body would already be practically good as new. Still, I can't exactly say I was willing to simply forgive that humanoid mushroom for doing this to me. I looked at the creature standing in front of me again. Yeah. It's definitely becoming stew.