And (N)one Shall Remain

“How are we supposed to deal with this thing!?” yelled Alissa as she leapt aside just in time to avoid getting rushed by one of the behemoth’s “limbs”, one tipped with a boulder larger around than a person was tall. The impact of the blow caused a small crater to form where she used to be, and would have pulverized her without a doubt.

 

While the behemoth-like amalgamation of the thread-like creatures that awaited them at the end of the first cavern was no nimbler than its lesser brethren, its massive size and mass gave it a lot more power, power that it knew how to use as it attempted to crush the party beneath its gigantic limbs. So far they had discovered that only Ethan and Bronwen could even afford to block a direct hit, as Glenn was injured quite a bit from the attempt.

 

Its size also meant that the vast majority of the damage they had done to it had only been a mere drop in the ocean, as the creature kept flailing around wildly regardless of how they cut and pierced through the mass of thread-like beings that composed its “flesh” and “muscles. It was almost as if the thing was composed of an infinite amount of them, as new ones simply took over the place of the ones that the party managed to kill off.

 

The party had already used their buffs, as well as their offense skills, but it all seemed to be of no avail against the behemoth, which just took the best they had to offer and kept coming. Joshua had already withdrawn temporarily from the fight and was chugging down some foul-tasting potions that helped regenerate his mana in the back, as he had already exhausted most of his mana in a prior assault.

 

That magical barrage had been the most damaging result they had seen the behemoth suffer from thus far, as it had severed one of its limbs. As such, it was a rather despairing sight to see the beast just casually extend another part of itself and reclaim its severed limb like it was nothing, the only evidence of the damage it took was how the limb was now somewhat shorter, as well as the hundreds or more of burnt thread-like corpses strewn where it had fallen previously.

 

None of their other offensive skills did much to the beast. None of them had the right sort of skillset to deal with so many tiny, insignificant targets like what formed the body of the behemoth before them, other than Joshua to an extent, and he was already running low as it was. At the moment all the party was doing was to try to keep the behemoth under control while they whittled at it while waiting for Joshua to return.

 

Alissa herself still had one skill under her belt that she had yet to use, but she could not see any way that skill would be useful at the moment. If they were fighting one creature, even one as large as the behemoth they were fighting, as long as it had vital points then she could probably use that new skill she learned only a few hours ago to good use. Given the opponent they were saddled with, though, the skill in question did not feel that useful at the moment.

 

“Beats me!” yelled Ethan back even as he hopped backward to reduce the impact from blocking one of the behemoth’s blows so that Osmond behind him could get away in time. He had switched his shield for a sturdier one on their last return to the royal capital, which was fortunate, as his old shield would have likely shattered into pieces by now. “Maybe we just keep chipping away at it until it dies!?”

 

“Something like poison or diseases would handle these creatures easily,” volunteered Sir Inolet from the backlines where he was seated on the ground, cross-legged, while munching on some dried meat jerky as he watched the party fight. The old knight had not raised his voice, yet somehow made himself perfectly audible to them anyway. “Too bad none of you took that sort of path or prepared that sort of thing, huh?”

 

“We’ll- oof! Keep that in mind the next time!” replied Ethan as he was sent flying from a follow-up blow he failed to take perfectly. The blow wasn’t enough to injure him seriously, thanks to his powerful physique, which was an effect of his Body-focused build, but it did knock the breath out of him for a moment. “Any chance we can go back out and prepare some cyanide or rat poison or anything to take care of these things after this!?”

 

“Fat chance, Mister Greene,” said Magus Drummond in answer, though the old Magus definitely sounded amused when he said that. “If it will help relieve you, the higher level creatures of this dungeon are generally smaller in size, as the colony wove themselves tighter together at that point. Something like this is only encountered within the first two caverns, and even then rarely.”

 

“Not helping since it’s what we have to deal with!” snarled Ethan back as he tried to chop off some of the threads on one of the creature’s limbs with his pollax. His blow struck deep and severed dozens of the thread-like creatures in half, but it did not seem to bother the beast in the least.

 

Alissa could tell that the chaperones were taking it easy at the back, more amused than anything at the way the party struggled to deal with the behemoth. She somewhat understood why, as the beast was indeed a bit too cumbersome to make itself a true threat for the party’s well-being, even for the ones who were mortal. That said, she couldn’t help but feel annoyed when she looked at them relaxing while everyone was fighting hard, though.

 

“Throw us a line, Sirs,” she said after she lunged in to stab at an opening and immediately leap back to avoid a counterblow from the behemoth. Even without the buffs – all of which had expired by then – the party could keep up with the behemoth just fine, though if they were to whittle it down the way they have been doing the past hour or so, it would take them all day to finish it off. “Are there any vital parts to this thing? Otherwise we’ll be here until tomorrow!”

 

“Finally, someone asking the right questions!” praised Magus Drummond from the back. Alissa realized when the Magus said those words that the party had been trapped in a fallacy of their own making, as they had always just whittled down all the beasts they ran into and never considered if the same would have applied to this larger behemoth or not.

 

“So there are vital parts to this thing?” she asked once more as she slightly withdrew from the fighting to ensure that she did not miss out a word from the answer.

 

“Not in the sense of it dying when you hit the part, but similar enough, yes,” said Magus Drummond with a satisfied nod. “For the rare case of so many of them grouping up together to this size, their limited intelligence could not handle it, so a group of them would basically join together and function as the ‘brain’ for the entire colony. If you can damage this group enough, it would cause the beast to fall apart into several smaller beasts, which should be far easier to handle.”

 

“And where would that ‘brain’ of theirs be located?” she queried even while avoiding a wild swipe from the behemoth.

 

“Typically, it would be in the deepest and safest part of the congregation, right in the very center,” said Magus Drummond, at which point Alissa’s face fell. “It’s exactly what you think, Miss O’Connor. You would have to dig your way into the center of the beast somehow to have a chance of harming the ‘brain’, so it’s a matter easier said than done.”

 

“I can do it,” said Joshua suddenly as he stood up and looked at the beast with annoyance. “O’Connor! Can you get me right next to the bloody thing’s body? I need to be right against it for what I have in mind to work.”

 

“How certain are you, Smith?” asked Alissa back at him. It was probably the first time Joshua talked to them out of his own initiative in months, so it was something that caught her by surprise.

 

“If it’s right at the center, I should have enough power to at least disrupt that ‘brain’ master mentioned!” Joshua replied. “Can’t do it from too far, though.”

 

“Better than nothing, I guess,” admitted Alissa who ran over to where Joshua was and lowered herself. “Climb on. Worst case, we both get squished and [Respawn] anyway.”

 

“Try not to get us squished until after I fry that thing… please.”

 

Alissa had to hold back a snort at his words as she carried Joshua on her back and ran back towards the behemoth. Joshua focused heavily on his Mind stats, so he was nowhere near as physically capable as Alissa or Ethan was, who had builds that focused on their Body more. Even carrying him behind her back with his legs clinging around her waist felt like she only shrugged on a backpack for school.

 

“How are you planning to get me next to it?” she heard Joshua ask as they got close. The others naturally noticed their approach as well, and some glanced at her questioningly.

 

“Just watch,” said Alissa as she quietly mouthed the name of her new skill. “[Moment of Truth]!”

 

Immediately after the skill activated, the world all around her, as well as everyone else, seemed to suddenly slow to a crawl. Alissa herself did not move any faster, but she perceived the world so much faster that everything felt horribly slow to her senses. It gave her plenty of time to read the movements of the behemoth and make her decision.

 

With deft footsteps, she leapt on top of one of the behemoth’s limbs as it swung at her, stopping there only for a brief moment before she jumped higher and stabbed her spear into a wooden log that was part of the behemoth’s “skin”, then used it as a handhold to pull herself and Joshua higher up and closer towards the creature’s main “body”.

 

She used similarly acrobatic movements to avoid the parts of the behemoth that squirmed out and tried to grab at her or Joshua, reacting at speeds so far beyond what was normally possible to the point that she looked as if she was moving away before the behemoth even made its move. Within five seconds, she climbed up the beast’s limb and landed on top of a large boulder next to an opening that showed the behemoth’s inner body, just the sort of place Joshua asked her to bring him to earlier.

 

Her skill also expired right at that moment, which allowed her to hear Joshua rapidly chanting multiple skills in succession right next to her ear even as he slammed both of his hands against the squirming “flesh” of the behemoth.

 

“[Spell Combination]! [Mana Overload]! [Overcharge: 200%]! [Lens of Focus]! [Incarnation of Elements: Bolt of Lightning]!”

 

The next moment, a dazzling brightness made Alissa close her eyes as it nearly blinded her, the sizzling sound typical of an electrical discharge buzzing around her ears. She felt the boulder she was standing on buck like a wild horse, throwing her and Joshua into the air, but even while temporarily blinded, she managed to rely on her instincts to not only hold Joshua tightly in place against her back, but also to land on her feet.

 

It was a rather hard landing that forced Alissa to her knees, but not something that seriously bothered her. She blinked her eyes to clear the blotches of light that still covered part of it only to see the behemoth squirming like mad, with a deep hole burnt clean on its side, right where she and Joshua were standing moments ago.

 

Before long, the beast broke apart into ten smaller beasts, and the party chopped them apart as they vented their frustrations on the creatures.