Chapter 74: Trick Shots and nearly getting crushed

(For reference, the monster here looks like a cabbage tree emperor moth caterpillar)

"What the fuck..."

The creature howled and slammed itself onto the ground, kicking up dust and debris. It’s giant body wormed through the forest, sporting the length of an average truck.

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[A Sporm detected]

You have come across a Sporm!!!

[QUEST]

OBJECTIVE:

Eliminate (0/1) Unascended Vashki.

TARGET: Sporm

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REWARD:

+2500 EXP

+15 ATTRIBUTE POINTS

Would you like to accept this quest?

[Yes]

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There wasn’t an option to decline.

[Short Sword selected]

But that didn’t mean he didn’t have an option to run. He turned and darted back into the forest and toward the shore he came from.

It was best to save his strength and level up to access more items on the system’s shop than fight a beast he had no idea of.

K slid past a silver patch of blood, the shoreline became more and more visible with each step he took. He’d rather hunt these Unascended than fight whatever the fuck that thing was.

Or so he thought.

He had barely reached the shoreline when the Sporm began thundering towards his direction. The long stalks at the top of his head swinging wildly as it rampaged through the forest, it’s mouth filled with rows upon rows of jagged teeth spread apart in a deafening howl.

"Ah shit!"

Several Unascendeds tumbled towards him and the sound.

His system threw several interfaces at him asking him to accept quests whose objectives were killing them but he couldn’t accept them. Not with this huge freak of nature that had target locked him.

The creature howled once more and charged at him, it’s lower back raised and tiny spikes pointed in his direction.

"Fuck!"

He ducked behind an Unascended that successfully came into his path. The spike pierced through the grotesque mass and it bloated before exploding into chunky soggy bits.

One interface marked itself [Invalid] and vanished from his vision.

His head turned toward the others masses charging at him, then at the Sporm who was readying another spike attack.

The first that reached him, he swiftly dodged its attacks stalling for the Sporm to attack.

"Row row row your boat!"

Wasn’t that a rhyme popular amongst humans?

The Sporm howled and twice the number of spikes from the last time rained down.

K slid past an Unascended and lead it to where one of the spikes was supposed to land. As soon as the spike neared the calculated spot, he clicked [Yes] and slashed at it. The spike came down on the creature, piercing it square in on of its head before bloating it and bursting.

Finishing the kill.

[Quest Completed!!]

More Unascendeds charged forwards. Hurling gibberish words and slurs he didn’t bother deciphering. And with each one he crossed paths with, his peripheral vision lit up with several completion of quest alongside its rewards messages.

"Not a bad..." he kicked one into an incoming spike, "...a bad way to farm these guys huh?"

After what felt like hours to K, the last Unascended blew up behind him. Coating his back in its fluids.

"Shit."

He cursed and tried wiping it off but his attempts were interrupted by the Sporm. It howled and began to move.

Repositioning itself.

"How do I kill this shit?"

He examined the creature.

The more he looked at it the more the creature looked like an overgrown worm.

Was that where the name came from?

The creature stopped.

Its entire body compressed.

The dozens of segments bunched together, pushing against one another as the beast raised the front portion of its body several feet above the ground. The yellow markings along its sides seemed to glow brighter beneath the strange light filtering through the trees where the rest of its body lay.

K’s eyes narrowed.

"You’re definitely not something I want crawling into my sleeping area."

The creature’s feelers suddenly pointed toward him.

Its mouth opened.

A wet clicking sound escaped from deep inside its throat different from the howl it made when it sent those spikes.

K held his sword up and took a defensive stance.

The creature moved.

Despite its size, it crossed the distance frighteningly quickly. Its enormous body surged forward in a rolling motion, each segment contracting and extending with enough force to throw chunks of soil behind it.

K jumped aside.

The creature swept past him, its body dragging across the shore and knocking down several young trees before crashing against the opposite side and into the ocean.

He landed in a crouch and turned.

The creature was already recovering.

Its body twisted around itself, segments sliding over one another until the head faced him again.

"All right."

The creature lowered its head.

K shifted his stance.

"Come on, then."

The beast surged forward again, its countless legs and fleshy underside digging into the earth as it charged across the wet sand. K waited until the last possible moment before moving, when the creature’s maw was meters away from him, the his eyes following the creature’s head while his body prepared to react.

His legs dug into the ground as he sprinted toward it.

The creature leapt off its many feet, attempting to squash him with its mouth. The monster’s jaws opened.

The Matyr switched pace and slid.

His heels dug into the soil, creating ridges.

K’s sword flashed upward and clinked against the Sporm’s belly as it came down.

The metal uselessly scrapped the hard underside.

"Shit!"

He spun and thrust the sword into the soil to slow himself down while turning to escape the large body that loomed above him.

The creature landed heavily sending him a few inches off the ground.

His heels burned and when he looked down at them, red liquid soaked and caked the sand beneath him.

"Fuck."

Just when he thought he had enough to worry about, his system flashed a message across his eyes.

[Host is being exposed to a strange substance]

"Huh?"

The message blinked severally in red. He looked around for maybe a gaseous something the creature must have released that he didn’t notice but there was nothing.

No smell.

No coloring in the air.

And that was when it hit him.

A crippling pain.

It spread from his back to his arms then to his legs.

With the strength he could muster to push through the pain, he felt his back.

Something sharp pricked his fingers.