Chapter 44
[Rex POV]
The monster before me narrowed his eyes and wrinkled his nose with disgust. I found it ironic that a sulphur-reeking mountain of red meat could have a problem with my own elegant form.
A sleek carapace that functioned as natural armour. Multiple legs with pointed ends that doubled as a set of poisoned spears. A bulbous abdomen that I could produce and store venom in and run through my bloodstream as desired.
But the best part of Vek’s soul wasn’t the physical aspects. It was the way his mind worked.
I expected to be affected in a similar way that Soot’s soul had influenced mine, but not in a way that actually benefited me.
Vek’s mind was—for lack of a better word—logical. Logical in an extreme way.
When I decided to size up my opponent, I did so far faster than usual, and there was a certain clarity I had only ever experienced when meditating in the Feral Abyss. It wouldn’t be right to say I had become more intelligent… rather, I was unbelievably . No emotions clouded my judgment, and no stray thoughts interrupted what was important.
And there was one more thing I didn’t expect before fusing with Vek.
Arach’s voice had entered my mind. More accurately, it was in Vek’s, and had been his entire life.
I locked my unblinking eyes onto the ogre and began twirling the metal wire in my hands. This was the form my axe had taken to complement this form, I assumed to act similarly to a spider’s web, which was something visceranids do not produce.
It was, in reality, a collection of numerous long wires that coiled around my entire body. Then ends of them were tipped with small hooks.
With a flick of my wrist, my wires flew forward, and the hooks dug into the ogre’s eyeball.
“Grraargh!”
He bellowed and immediately charged at me, blood streaming out from his now closed eyelid.
An axe larger than my entire body descended onto my position, but met only hard ground. Even so, the resulting fissure that formed spoke to the fate I had narrowly avoided.
Yet I felt nothing. No fear, no hesitation.
I simply moved in the most optimal way to evade the attack with minimal effort. Two more sets of wires were used to pull myself forward and between the ogre’s legs.
I made no effort to back away further, knowing I needed to be in a position to attack when the opening presented itself.
Even as the second set of arms tried to grab me, I maintained focus and twisted my body to slip through his fingers.
Gustav then stepped in, using what I assumed was aura to cut a small gash into the side of the ogre’s ribs.
The very moment that blade passed through, the wound was plugged with one of my deadly appendages. A spider leg dripping with a viscous liquid flew in, and I pumped a burst of venom into the wound before swiftly withdrawing.
“Annoying rats!”
The ogre tried to catch both of us with a backswing. My eyes caught each micro movement in his muscles, and I took immediate action.
A quick step towards the incoming attack. A near-instant withdrawal of all my wires. Wrapping and overlaying them between my fingers, and extending both arms to create a tight cat’s cradle of metal.
These were the steps I took to catch the ogre’s attack before it could truly begin.
“Go.”
I signalled to Gustav, making sure he took this time to attack, instead of evading.
The weight of the ogre’s attack was immense, but the nature of my unorthodox shield meant barely any of it travelled through to my body.
Gustav pierced straight through the wrist of one of the arms holding the axe, then, with a twist and a flourish, his aura tore the hand clean off.
Again, one of my legs dug in, and venom was injected. Then we both drew back, seeing the hand already in the process of reforming.
A third hand tried to punish our escape, acting as a shovel to scoop through the earth and fling the contents at us.
With his size, this was more akin to an explosion of shrapnel than a desperate attempt to throw rocks at us.
An attack like that couldn’t be blocked with my wires; there were too many projectiles in too wide an area. Instead, I crouched and interlocked the legs on my back as they came together in front of me.
My carapace was tougher than steel; this bombardment could be blocked with ease.
But through the gap I left for vision, I saw a large red foot rapidly approaching my position.
Block? Too much blunt force.
Evade? That will leave me open to another swing of the axe.
My best option then was to minimise damage.
I pushed back and allowed myself to move with the impact, instead of against it.
I flew through the air, but abruptly stopped my free fall by digging a pair of legs into the ground. I then pushed them down, letting my body rise up.
While Gustav engaged and began releasing compressed waves of aura from his blade to keep the ogre at bay, I inspected one of my legs. The end had been crushed, blocking the passage of my venom.
Useless. I had to make it functional again.
I brought it up to my mouth and bit down hard, tearing it off at the point of blockage.
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This would shorten my range for that leg, but it now served a secondary function.
I scuttled over, still keeping my body raised as I approached the ogre.
“Switch.”
Gustav heeded my command and moved away, allowing me to fight with greater recklessness.
The severed arm was already back, as was the punctured eyeball. The ogre came at me with a series of colossal swings from fist and weapon both.
But none of them could catch me. I owed my success not to my heightened speed, but to the erratic, unreadable movements I could employ with my new appendages.
There were no wounds for me to inject more venom into, and my own strength was too lacking to pierce the skin.
So instead, I did my best to anger my foe. Staying within range, yet being impossible to hit. Hooking my wires to cut up his eyes and break his fingers repeatedly. Intentionally bringing my face inches away from his in silent mockery.
These were the actions that led to the ogre’s mistake.
“Slippery insec—”
No sooner had he opened his mouth to yell abuse had I punished him. My damaged leg pointed at his mouth, and a stream of venom shot down his throat.
With a swing of that same leg, more venom sprayed into his eyes, blinding him temporarily. I took the time to disengage and let Gustav get some hits in.
“Arrrgh! My eyes!”
My venom was far more deadly than Vek’s. I could refine and alter the properties on the fly within my venom sac, and what the ogre was feeling in that moment was an acidic concoction melting the jelly from his eyes.
Since they were constantly being burned, his regeneration struggled to keep up, extending the time he was left swinging in a blind fury.
A slash from Gustav, a stab from me. A blade of wind removed a finger, and a spider’s leg fills the hole with venom. The attacks were piling up, and the effects were starting to show.
“Haaa…haaa…Bastards…”
The ogre’s movement had grown dull. Considering a normal person would be completely paralysed from just one dose of my venom, this was still an amazing show of resistance from him.
“Haaa…Finally…”
Gustav was similarly worn out, his aura blade now gone and mana reserves dried up. Still, he had little more than a few bruises and scrapes in terms of injuries.
The ogre fell to his knees, relying on his axe to keep his upper half upright. His eyes flickered with fatigue as the venom coursed through his veins.
“Let’s end this.”
Gustav released the aura that was reinforcing his body and channelled it all into his sword once again. It was clear this would be his last attack.
But as he leapt forward, my eyes caught some inconsistencies in the ogre’s movements.
He was truly affected by the venom, but not as much as he was pretending.
I didn’t bother saying anything. Instead, I wrapped Gustav’s waist with my wires and yanked him back.
Even so, the tips of the ogre’s fingers collided with his head.
He would have been crushed in that grip if not for me. But as it was, he was only dazed from the impact.
“Urgh… You need to run, Rex.”
Gustav doubled over as he landed back at my side. He glared at the ogre who rose once more with a wicked grin.
“No. I can win. You’re no longer useful, however.”
Gustav glared at me. Even I thought that came out more harshly than intended, but I spoke only objective facts.
“Fall back, I’ll finish up here.”
Not waiting for a response, I flipped over the incoming attack from the ogre and flung Gustav downhill. The fact that he couldn’t resist me was enough proof that I was right about his condition.
“Stupid move, insect. Your little pin pricks aren’t enough to hurt me.”
The ogre sneered down at me. Unfortunately for him, I had already figured a way to pierce his defense alone.
I lowered myself and scurried along the floor again, rapidly avoiding every stomp aimed at reducing me to paste.
Making my way behind a stone, I clicked my tongue twice, and Tiara appeared from thin air. I touched her once, and she vanished again.
“Quit hiding!”
The stone was pulled from the ground. The ogre was holding it above his head with his upper arms and still gripped the axe in his lower arms.
His axe forced me to leap backward, but a flying stone immediately came to crush me.
The ogre roared with satisfaction, but moments before his trap could kill me, the stone exploded into fragments, and a gaping hole appeared in his chest.
“...Huh?”
I was on him before he could process what happened, inserting my entire body into the chest cavity and pushing out in all directions with my legs. Naturally, venom was being injected simultaneously.
But the wound was already healing. Muscle grew over my body, threatening to crush me as the hole was sealed.
I had no choice but to evacuate.
“You… what… are…”
The ogre fell flat on his front. It seemed genuine this time.
Still, he was breathing, and I didn’t trust him not to stall for time for a second wind.
I took a stance as if I were about to throw an invisible javelin, and planted my feet for stability. My opponent was unable to dodge, so I was in a position to commit fully to this attack.
Each of my legs turned to face the ground and pierced the earth. I was well and truly anchored.
First, ‘spear’: A swirling mass of shadowy magic formed in my hand, compliments of the mana I took from Tiara during the fight.
Second, ‘force’: My previous approach was short-sighted; all I needed was to understand the concept of force, not to create a specific mental image of what force looks like. This revelation came to me when the ogre kicked me through the air, and I felt the concept of ‘force’ not by sight, but by feeling.
The spear became tangible, a light yet powerful mass suddenly dropped into my hand.
Finally, ‘velocity’: This was the rune that would give its speed once released.
But Vek’s mind presented an alternative method. Why bother relying on the innate speed coded into the spell when I could physically throw this spear much faster?
The process took only a second. This would be my second time using the spell; the first was done instinctively to break through the stone thrown my way moments ago.
The ogre looked up at the scene before him.
“Haha… Seriously… at least tell me your name… I’m Arg—”
He was not given time to finish his sentence. I did not care about the name of a dead man.
My burst forward, blowing the ogre’s head and half his upper torso to tiny pieces. Strangely, I observed an interesting side-effect to the spell that shouldn’t have been there.
Green flames engulfed the damaged area and greedily consumed the flesh. With the brain destroyed, the ogre’s body could not regenerate regardless, but this mysterious blaze consumed everything with such speed I imagine it would have outpaced any healing.
held no such properties. Thus, it must be something innate in the mana used to form the spell, like how Lily’s fire attacks always carried oddly coloured flames and a shadowy haze.
I knew for a fact that this wasn’t from Tiara's mana, though…
A faint tug at my chest immediately answered my question. If not for my altered mental state, I would be wearing a satisfied smile at that moment.
The parasite implanted in my heart served a purpose after all. This was certainly worth investigating further…
If only I knew more than one spell to try it out on.
“
Arach's voice resounded in my mind, and my body moved automatically. One horn would be enough. It would have to be, seeing as I wanted one for my own purposes.
“
When Arach claimed to be able to see through the eyes of her brood, she left out the part where she could also read their thoughts. So long as I was fused with Vek, I would be unable to hide anything from her.
I collected the two horns that survived my attack unscathed.
My fusion deactivated automatically due to Arach’s command. Vek had one horn in his pincers and awkwardly mimicked a wave with his foreleg before scurrying out of sight.
I was somewhat worried at the idea of him travelling back to Arach’s lair alone, but I trusted she wouldn’t let him come to any harm from a frightened traveller.
“...Interesting…”
With my eyes closed, I took a moment to compare the subtle changes to my mental state now that my mind was my own again. Honestly, I sometimes worried about my subdued emotions since being returned to life, but at the same time, that sense of perfect efficiency was liberating in its own way.
Emotions may get in the way of objectivity, but removing them completely would reduce me to a sociopath.
This taught me a valuable lesson.
Vek was too emotive for this mindset to have come from him. Therefore, it must be because of Arach’s influence.
I carved this into my mind for future dealings with her.
Arach was only my ally for as long as it benefited her goals.
The earth shook, and a pillar of violet light rose from a short distance, piercing the clouds and clearing the sky.
Tiara was still with me, and even after two fusions in a single day, I felt fine. I might not be much use against undead, but I should still see if there is anything I can do to help over there.
I took my mask back out from my cloak and returned it to my face. Now that there were no longer pincers in the way, it could sit comfortably against my skin once more.
Then, I made my way to rejoin Meztili.
