[422] 5.46 Oceandepths Manor VII

Silence is a blessed luxury that we are denied.  The fog gives us just enough cover and protection that we are not dead just yet.  But with the Master’s presence suffocating throughout this dungeon, there is no such thing as safe.  I dare not move an inch.  I stifle my breath even as my lungs burn, demanding more oxygen to fuel the muscles that are still sore after the last fight.  My heart races as it must to facilitate the delivery of energy to aching muscles and the expulsion of metabolic waste.  I suffer through it all the same, still feeling the echoes of discomfort even as I suppress the majority of the pain.

The Master has no perception Skills and does not appear to be particularly intelligent, incapable of using this incredible power that it possesses.  His attacks are clumsy and uncoordinated, the product of a beast with so much [Strength] and [Speed] and not nearly enough [Mind] to run the calculations necessary to use the former two effectively.  Because of the terrifying physical stats, his lunges and even his screams are terrorizing.

Lindsey is already halfway across the misty chamber, inch by perilous inch.  Chloe has not yet moved.  I remain in a constant state of flux, following the mist and keeping the Master’s attention focused on me as my Skills stop me from becoming disoriented or debilitated by the fumes that still remain.

Another roar, aimed straight at me, by a monster that cannot see me and hasn’t been able to hit me, but still might be able to hear me and definitely knows I am there.  An uppercut that would pulverize my head into a bloody pulp if I had delayed my teleportation a tenth of a second too long.  A kick hard enough to create a basketball-sized bullet of air that dents my armor and then slams into the wall of structurally-reinforced stone foundation and cracks it despite multiple layers of [Durability] enhancements.

I summon small spheres of light and form an array around me, lighting the area and signaling where the Master is, all in the service of drawing it toward me and buying Chloe the opportunity she needs to escape.

The beast snarls.  Its words are strained, a maw opening far too wide to look right and with a mouth and tongue that were never designed to speak English or any other tongue mankind has developed, with a brain that cannot comprehend complex and abstract thought.  It defies that seeming inability.

“I know… you are here!  Intruder!  Die!”  In the wake of this monster’s words emerges a fetid-green colored poisonous smoke to which I am not immune, forcing me further away and restricting my movement as it settles below the relatively less dense violet hallucinogenic mist.

My heart continues to thump in my chest, the scent of my fear oozing out of my pores alongside my sweat even though I am immune to having [Fear] as the status condition inflicted upon me.  It is a purely natural and human fear at a level I have not felt since… Since I had thought Renault killed Chloe, some three years ago.

My knowledge of stonecrafting is rudimentary.  My ability to conjure earthen matter through glyphs is mediocre.  Forming some effigy that could plausibly pass for humanoid shaped within the fog is still within my power.  A tenth of a second after I conjure it, it shatters into pieces that leave sonic booms in their wake.  Perfect.  The noise batters at my eardrums and makes them leak blood, but it buys Chloe the time she needs to sneak down the next hallway.

She turns back toward me.  I beckon her away.  She hesitates and I ask her to trust me, that I won’t die here, that she needs to find the rest of the orbs as quickly as possible while I stall for time here in the depths.  I tell her what I’ve deduced, that if we destroy all of them— I suspect there are seven to match the seven elements and the seven colors of the rainbow— that we will weaken this creature enough that we can face it in a head-on confrontation.

“But Sera–”

“Chloe, I know you want to stay here, and after Claudius, I’d ordinarily be right there with you.  But I can teleport to you even from within this fog, so it’s going to be safer for both of us if you are somewhere not in immediate peril while I buy the two of you the time you need.”

“Damnit, Sera!  Why does your plan have to be so… damn reasonable?”

“Hurry!  The quicker you get up there, the less time I’ll have to stall!”

“Got it.  And Sera.  You better not die here.”

“Not until after we’re married and have had a full life.  I promise.”

“You best bet your ass that I’ll hold you to that, you know!”  She departs without saying another word.

I continue making noises, taunting the Master with words I don’t know it can understand, keeping my distance and using my short-range teleportation to keep my head attached to my shoulders and my heart within my rib cage.  It is starting to learn my patterns; maybe it can sense the spatial ripples or maybe it’s not quite as dumb and brutish as I had originally assumed.

One little technique of [Wind] and a little sleight of hand have given me a modest ability to project my voice.  Coupled with my [Infernal Doppelgänger], I set up a fiery trap for our shadowed friend.

“Over here, dumbass!” I shout.  I don’t know if this ass understands what a dumbass is, or that he is one.  The tone is enough to get the sentiment across.  One fist delivered with brutal efficiency and its fist is clean through where my heart would have been had my actual body been there.

[Infernal] fire clings to whatever mucous-laden membrane comprises the Master’s skin.  For a moment, I smile with satisfaction as the fires start to spread throughout his body.  Hope sets in that I might have actually done some actual damage to this monster.  It sloughs away along with its amorphous skin as the flaming tissue falls to the ground in a puddle of ebon flame and looks none the worse for wear.

For a moment I see the glint of a predator in its eyes.  It looks toward me with something I read as a mixture of curiosity and hesitation.  It must be recalibrating its assessment of my abilities; it knows that I am not going to be quite the easy morsel so long as this fog remains in effect.

It crouches down.  Even more energy gathers around it.  I brace myself, silently watching, waiting, buying Chloe and Lindsey as much time as I can get.

The roar is deafening.  My [Health] diminishes substantially just from the sonic force upon my tearing skin even through my exoskeleton.  I’m forced to close my eyes to prevent my corneas from being shredded from the impact through the nostril holes.  My heart drops into my stomach as all the fog is thrown against the walls, leaving me completely exposed.

The Master’s eyes meet mine underneath my mask.  Vaguely humanoid in appearance, its skin and the underlying flesh on its appendages constantly undulating.  Its hair coils on its own appearance, its fingers are long and sinuous, more like tentacles than digits in the human sense.  Most disturbing of all is the mouth that spans its entire torso that I couldn’t make out in the fog before.  A giant jaw with teeth which appear in places they ought not to be, followed by a rumbling laughter that reverberates through its entire body.

“Found you,” it says.  And then it moves with such unnatural quickness that I barely have the twentieth of a second I need to reflexively teleport to the other side of the chamber.

“Tricksy…”  It speaks the word with an exaggerated hiss.  “Shall we… play?”

The finger-tendrils expand outward into a webbing of flesh that stretches for tens of feet.  A single flick of the wrist causes hypersonic movement that cuts through my armor and slashes my skin and leaves a welt faster than I can dodge.

The next one comes even faster still, but at least I’m prepared.  The blade of air that precedes the strike grazes me even as I spin out of the way of the main attack.  I get no pause before the next attack comes from the other side.  The Master doesn’t yet quite understand my teleportation.  I’ll play his game and suffer his pain a little longer to buy Chloe more time.

She’s standing still, looking around, curiosity on her mind.  I have no time to inquire further; I’m struck in the knee and the impact force knocks me off balance.  Another strike hits my ass from behind, and another grazes my right calf.  I’m being toyed with.  I suffer the indignity silently; this is good for us.  He’s not attacking with intent to kill.  I’ve humiliated him and embarrassed him and he wants me to suffer.  With my pain suppressed to nearly nothing, I will not give him the satisfaction.

More attacks come.  I block and dodge the ones I can.  Those I cannot, I deflect away from my core and toward my arms and my legs where my [Health] will fall by smaller amounts.  The Master does not encroach, does not go for a killing blow.  The laughter does not abate; it comes from the fog that is seeping back into the room and the Master itself.  And it comes from me as well, taunting the Master, keeping it angry, keeping its attention focused on me, away from Chloe and Lindsey who have nearly found the fourth stone.

“Why do you… laugh at me?”  The attacks pause.

“Because you are a damn fool.  All of that incredible power and you are too stupid to know how to use it.  I almost feel bad for you.”  I laugh some more.

“How dare you laugh!  I–  I–”

“Why shouldn’t I laugh, Tough Guy?  It’s funny, in a sad and pathetic sort of way!  Haha!”

The tentacles surge toward me, this time a killing blow should they land.  It’s all been timed perfectly.  Enough fog is now covering me that I can slip back and to my left with my teleportation and escape the strike that would have pierced my heart and the other that would have removed my head from my shoulders.

“Stop mocking me!  My house!  My castle!  My city!  All… Mine!”  The attacks are even faster this time.

But they stop just before they would have hit me.  The Master crumples down to his knees.  His body grows a bit more solid, and his strength takes another qualitative plunge.  Still in the fourth ascension.  Still a boss monster too powerful to fight head-on.  We’ll still need the rest of the orbs.

Another drop in power.  Chloe must have just remembered the other orb that she had that I didn’t shatter yet.  Now four of them are broken.  If I were to use my [Overlimit] state here, I might be able to hold this beast off, if only briefly.  Still, I’ve done what I came here to do.  Chloe and Lindsey are already out of their current room and onto the next one, and it’s time for me to make an expeditious retreat.

“Well, it’s been fun,” I say.  “At least, that’s what I’d like to say, Big Guy.  Except no, it really wasn’t fun at all.  Take care of yourself, and we’ll play again in a little bit, once we’ve stripped you of the rest of your power.  Try not to die before then.  I wouldn’t want you to croak and surrender all of those juicy Experience Points!”

I vanish with a single-fingered wave of my right hand.  Even as I traverse through subspace to reconnect with Chloe, the echoes of the scream and the accompanying malice still reach.  Hopefully that rage will serve to our advantage when the final confrontation arrives.