Arad turned, seeing the tentacles rushing at him, "What?" He gasped, swinging the quarterstaff and deflecting two.
Thud! Thud! The remaining tentacles grabbed and started dragging him to the mud. From there, two eyes flashed, "Co to !" The monster growled.
"What is this thing?" CRACK! Arad stabbed the ground with his quarterstaff, holding still.
"It's lunch!" rlin said with a smile, "Catch it!"
"No, we won't!" Amber growled, pointing her staff at the monster.
[Fire Bolt] [Fire Bolt] [Fire Bolt]
As they burned, the tentacles let go of Arad and retreated to the mud.
"Don't let your guard down," Amber shouted, "It will attack again."
SLAP! A tentacle erged from the ground and snatched her, swinging her in the air before slamming her into the mud.
"AMBER!" Arad shouted, pointing his quarterstaff at the tentacles. [Firebolt] [Fire Bolt] [Fire Bolt]
The tentacles dodged the spell. They won't get him twice.
CLAP! More several more tentacles erged from the ground, tying Arad in place. "There is a second one?" He growled.
From the mud, a third octopus monster erged, putting its eight tentacles together. CRACKLE! Lightning flashed between them, charging as the monster pointed at Arad.
"This thing can use magic?" Amber growled, waving her staff to cast a spell. CRACK! Electricity shocked her, causing the spell to fail.
"This bastard!" Arad pulled on the tentacles, trying to escape, but he got electrocuted as well.
The third octopus got ready to kill Arad. The labyrinth knew he was the most dangerous and shouldn't let him live now that he was pushing higher.
Thud! rlin stood between Arad and the monster, extending her arms, "NO! You won't harm my Arad!" She shouted.
"Get back to the stairs." Arad growled, "You can't fight!"
"I won't!" rlin scread, "Shoot ! You monster!"
"You idiot," Arad growled, trying to escape even harder.
CRACK! The monster shot his lightning bolt at her, but at the last mont, rlin's tearful and worried face shifted into a nasty evil smile.
CLAP! With her hand, she caught the lightning bolt.
The monster froze.
In the blink of an eye, the lightning bolt shattered into three pieces and turned into stone spears. BA-BA-BAM! And rlin fired them at the monsters, blasting their heads open.
"You dare hit with my own magic?" rlin stares at the dead monsters, "You sure don't know who you're ssing with,"
Thud! Thud! Arad and Amber were freed and fell down, "What did you do?" Arad stared at rlin.
"This labyrinth is built by my magic. The monsters use the sa mana wavelength as . That ans even if I don't have mana or the ability to cast magic, I can still control my magic back when they throw it at ," She approached Arad with a grin, "Am I impressive?"
"Should have told us before," Arad sighed, "I could have planned to use you as a magic shield."
Thud! Thud! rlin approached Arad, "It's a secret, but I won't be able to control powerful spells before they kill . It's better to let the labyrinth think I can control everything and shut its magic arsenal." She whispered.
She stood with a smile, "It's ti to eat, isn't it?" She looked at the monster with a smile.
"They aren't disappearing," Amber gasped, "What did you do to them?"
"I shifted the spell to bind them to reality," rlin giggled, "They won't leave a gem, but they won't disappear which makes them a valuable food source."
Arad sat on the ground, taking a deep breath. ^How she moved earlier, her hands almost matched the spell's speed.^ He looked at her, seeing that her fingers were trembling.
^I guess, her prior physical powers were a result of so spell. But now, forcing her body to reach that speed without the spell is hard.^ He smiled.
"You're capable after all," He looked at her, "I thought you were completely useless without magic,"
"Of course I'm not," rlins stared at him, "I did beat you once, didn't I?"
"I was far weaker then," He stood, "Now, how do we cook this?"
Amber stood, her legs still shaking from the electric shock, "I can ignite a fla," She pointed at the trees, "You're strong. Can you rip so branches with your hands? Can't you?"
"I'm weaker so I don't know how much I can chop, but I will try," He approached one of the swamp's trees and grabbed the nearest branch to him, pulling it apart.
"Amber. Let's ignite the fla close to the stairs door, so we can retreat if we need to." She pointed.
"I know," Amber smiled, "This isn't my first ti in a labyrinth," She looked back, "Albeit, this might be the strangest one I ever saw. Here," She pulled a small knife and handed it to her.
"Oh my," rlin stared at the knife with a smile, "I'm cutting the monster?"
"Don't pretend you never cut one before, dissection maniac,"
Arad looked at them, "You cut monsters before?"
rlin stared at him, "Both dead and alive, we did experint on a lot of them after all,"
"You say that to ?" He stared at her with a worried face.
"As much as I want to see your insides," She smiled, "It's a rule to never cut sothing that we don't have spare of,"
"Really?" He sighed.
"If we managed to catch a male and a female to breed, we can then experint on their spawn without disturbing the natural order. We did that a lot with new monsters,"
"Isn't that too cruel?"
"Not when the monsters eat and kill humans every day," She looked at him, "Humanity's only power is knowledge. If we don't take every advantage we have, monsters will keep stomping us to the end of ti," She stared at him, "You know that, right?"
Arad rembered how Vlad ate a whole city, and how his fight with Shi trampled the barbarian's land.
"You won't bla us for experinting on so vampires and dragons to protect ourselves, do you?"
"Do what you like," Arad stared at her, "It's survival of the fittest after all,"
"That's true." She smiled.
"But," Arad said with a passive face, "Do you know what it ans?"
"Don't worry, no one will co after you or those close to you. Those we experint on are mostly monsters caught attacking cities or villages."
User Comments
0 comments from readers