The Fool's Freedom

The new monster moved with little care about the amount of noise it was making as its large body and the many legs attached to it made stones crumble and fall at each step. It was the same annoying color as everything else and its back and most of its body looked like a bunch of rocks glued together. If it curled and stood on the cliff, no one would be the wiser it was there.

Its legs had the same layer of armor, but it was only on the outside and as it got Alan could see parts of the flesh beneath. It looked almost like it was made of intertwined branches.

Like a woven basket. Even spiders are fucked here.

The rock-like head didn’t remove from the strangeness of it all. Unlike a spider, it had no eyes. Its mouth was nothing like a spider’s either, instead reminiscent of a lamprey – a funnel-like opening filled with large black teeth that looked oddly familiar.

Alan had no time to examine it further as it was soon too close for his liking. He stood still, hesitating whether to run or to watch the action. The passage he had come from was close enough that he could rush into it. The spider would not be able to follow if it decided to chase. Well, it would but only by going from above. Even if it moved sideways by sticking to the mountain walls it would not fit in some places.

Unless it had some even more terrifying ability than the bastard parasites.

Thankfully, he was well hidden enough that none of the monsters even glanced in his direction.

“Oh, I feel like watching monsters fight is a long-lost hobby of mine. I can’t wait.” Xil said. He sounded giddy like anytime there was violence.

“It will be informative. We might get some benefits out of it.”

“Yesss. We had these demons we called vultures who would stalk the stronger demons waiting for them to pick a fight. Afterward, they would pick the right moment to swoop in and finish the job. It’s the only way they could grow.”

“We had vultures too where I am from. The good ones lived off carrion, while the bad ones scavenged on the rotting corpses of the society that elected them.”

“Huh. Yours sound worse.”

“You bet.”

It didn’t take long for the fight to start. The spider wasted no time as it suddenly pushed off the cliff side with all eight legs and flew sideways. Then it was gone.

The parasites were on their feet, tongues back in their mouth. Alan felt tingles as multiple vortexes spun in the strange heads waiting for the spider.

It reappeared a few seconds later just behind one of the smaller parasites. A spiked ball attached to something woody and fleshy flew out of the tunnel-like mouth like a cannonball and hit the parasite in the chest sending bark flying everywhere. It quickly retracted, before flying out again and shattering the naked glassy flesh beneath with a single hit.

It took moments for all of it to transpire. Something black flew into its waiting mouth before a slew of skills going off made Alan’s [First Pathfinder] title scream.

The spider gave off a screech as fist-sized holes appeared on its body. Only one had hit the actual wooden flesh which bled with milky white liquid, while the rest made the armor of rocks crumble in pieces. It was actual rocks covering it.

A second later the spider jumped and was gone again. The parasites started moving and gathering together, the whirlwind faces now having changed direction. Even more were crawling out from the various crevices or behind the rocks littering the small valley and Alan felt his blood freeze as more than ten of the things slowly surrounded the big one.

The spider reappeared behind another of the parasites and instantly stumbled from what Alan assumed was the mana-dispersing skill.

It took the monster only a moment before the cannon tongue shot out again and crashed into another parasite breaking its armor. The second hit couldn’t go off though as a large hole appeared in space and took two of its legs and part of its body.

It had probably come from the big parasite which was walking ever so slowly toward the spider. The glow on its bark-like skin was getting stronger now. Did it have additional abilities?

And what was the spider monster’s deal? It would obviously not be winning the fight against all of the parasites. What it was doing was suicidal even if it was larger than all of them. Their abilities didn’t care for size in the slightest. Especially the big parasites. If Alan got hit by that he would be lucky if even his boots remained.

The spider disappeared again and soon after appeared on the cliff, scurrying away awkwardly on its remaining legs. The parasites turned as one and walked toward it. Chasing it seemed silly as they moved much more slowly and carefully. Only the big one stood still and soon it became apparent why.

The rock wall under the spider disappeared and so did the tips of most of its legs as space tore again. The range of the skill was many times larger than those of the regular parasites. The spider screeched as it fell and rolled down the cliff side until it landed with a thud on the ground. Alan couldn’t see anymore as the terrain curved and shifted and there were many obstacles on the way, but the large parasite didn’t move, letting the smaller ones finish the job.

This is my chance.

Alan crept up quickly and felt his pulse speed up. It was insanity what he was trying to do, but it would give him a lifeline he could not miss. The monster stood still and turned toward the direction where the spider had fallen.

Alan moved quickly under the effect of [Soundless], uncaring that the ring’s effect was being broken due to his speed. The mark was already hovering over his hand.

The parasite didn’t move once during this time and he successfully neared its leg. It had to be as tall as a two-story house. He stretched his hand and watched as the mark touched the bark. It was strange how it stopped all other skills, but not the curse. That was another thing that made little to no sense, but it probably had to do with the fact that the curse was using vital energy too.

He pushed it in and felt the resistance that threatened to extinguish the curse mark before it even managed to reach the creature. Was it the difference in level and strength? Was it the strange bark?

Alan concentrated and felt his mind grow heavy and his blood heat up. Whether it was adrenaline or a side effect of the skill he didn’t know nor care at the moment. It took a whole of thirty seconds until the mark finally turned into black smoke tendrils that crawled up the parasite’s body and soon disappeared inside of it.

Alan sighed in relief as he felt a raging river of vitality appearing in his inside perception. If the first one could be called a stream, then this one was a proper river and it churned and bubbled as it flowed on. The sensation of gazing at something so foreign and different from himself was almost overwhelming this time. It was as if his mind was not tuned correctly to understand what this life was. It lasted for a bit until it settled down as the gears shifted and he adapted.

He now could drink from it if he wanted although it would probably take some effort at first. There would be time for experiments later.

There was a sound coming from where the spider had fallen and something suddenly flew and fell some distance away from Alan and the large parasite. It was another parasite, one of the smaller ones. The bark broke and it burst into millions of tiny pieces, leaving behind only a black stone.

What the hell is going on over there?

The spider had been very badly hurt and it was a miracle if it could even walk. Alan assumed the fight would end quickly. Whatever was happening was something else that was new to him.

The big parasite started slowly moving toward the fight, making Alan’s heart skip a beat. He didn’t move though, and watched the monster carefully. As it passed by the shattered remains of the one that had been thrown it slowly bent down and took the black core, then brought it to its face. Alan couldn’t see what exactly it did – whether it threw it in its face hole or ate it, but that didn’t matter for now.

He hesitated, then followed. Not before stopping by the small pool of water and looking closer toward the single bundle of flowers. They looked normal, but the mana seemed to churn around them in an almost strange way. He quickly took a dagger and cut them at the stem. It took some effort and it was not until he cursed and activated [True Edge] that the blade managed to cut through. A few small particles of darkness rose from where the stem was cut and Alan could swear the glowing eyes of the cat skull pommel flickered. Was everything fucking with mana in this place?

Hopefully, he hadn’t poisoned himself by touching them. That would be the cherry on top.

As he moved near the fight, he saw a strange sight. The spider’s 'corpse' was scattered on the ground in strange pieces. It was more like a rock shell than anything as if it was hollowed out. Its legs were missing the intertwining wood-like flesh, and the lamprey mouth was gone too.

The remains of a few of the parasites littered the surroundings, with no trace of their black cores. Alan gaped as he saw the thing that had done all the damage. It looked like a wormy tree trunk with multiple wiggling branches growing out, whipping and throwing the parasites like ragdolls. Their skills would take chunks of the wooden monster, but the damage seemed much lesser than what the spider form had taken.

The monster was downright terrifying, and judging by the beating it was taking it was tough as hell too. Alan almost regretted not preparing more marks, and briefly considered doing so.

If the large parasite won, then he was already set. But if it lost all the work would’ve been for nothing.

It was too risky to cast the spell for the curse mark here though. He had pushed his luck enough already and decided to sit it out and just watch.

All I’m missing is a phone and a social media account.

The big parasite once again stood still and [First Pathfinder] sang with the telltale sign of strong spatial shenanigans. A big hole in reality opened right on top of the tree worm, but the strange creature twisted to dodge in a way that wood and even most living things never could be able to imitate. The skill managed to catch a part of it and he saw the strange wooden flesh resist for a second before it gave way and a chunk of the worm was torn and thrown into oblivion. The big parasite’s skill was much stronger and more dangerous.

The tree monster squirmed and the branches and roots growing out of it twisted into legs as it took a form similar to that of a spider. Without the rock shell, it looked very alien – like a felled tree given life and flesh and a funnel-like mouth.

Alan finally realized that the black teeth in its mouth were not teeth, but parasite cores. The cannon tongue shot out and hit another of the smaller parasites as the living tree trunk ignored the missing parts of itself and kept fighting. Its victim's bark skin shattered into pieces and then the wooden limbs crashed into it as if it were a fragile glass vase shattering it in pieces. The core instantly flew into the waiting tunnel.

The other parasites kept at it. They stood still, bombarding it with their skills, while the monster disappeared only to reappear close to them from time to time. It avoided the big parasite.

Was this thing representative of the trees in this place? That would make for a fucked-up adventure and he hadn’t brought a chopping axe, unfortunately.

“Think I should leave?” Alan asked in his mind. The demon was a constant companion now and he felt better having him around on a more constant basis.

“Eh, I don’t see what you can get out of this unless you plan to try and contribute to the death of one of the big ones. You lack the range to do it safely, so I say just go if you ain’t gonna fight the winner. Pussy.”

“Fuck off.”

The demon had a point though. He could wait it out and if the winner was sufficiently exhausted… that could lead to quite a few levels, with not much effort. Like the demon vultures, Xil had talked about.

Alan kept watching.

Soon the outcome was becoming more and more obvious. The wood monster stopped moving places, probably out of mana but kept using just its ability to change its body and its physical strength, which was enough to crush the parasites.

The large parasite seemed unbothered though and Alan wondered what it was thinking. If they were even capable of thought. It had stopped casting skills altogether, instead watching the slaughter of its brethren.

This is so freaking weird.

Suddenly, the remaining parasites all moved only to curl on the ground with surprising dexterity. In the next moment, Alan felt a sense of great danger. It was distant as he was not the target of the attack, but his title, skill, and intuiting warning him of what was to come despite that was a sign that it was massive.

With a buzzing sound, a beam that seemed to swallow all light shot out from the big parasite's head, and everything in its path ceased to exist. It kept going for a few seconds. Alan had to avert his gaze as he felt that the weird color of nothingness was eating at his eyes.

When it was over, all that remained of the tree monster wouldn’t be enough for a good bonfire. Its head containing the funnel mouth was gone, but Alan could see the black cores glistening on the ground.

The surviving parasites stood up and stepped away, while the big one slowly went closer and carefully picked each of the stones, placing them near the hole in its head which sucked them in.

Alan decided that the show was over, and started moving away. He could feel the river of lifeforce belonging to the large parasite grow a little bit stronger…

Wildlife was truly amazing.