NOVEL NEXT Book 1 – Chapter 6: Day 23 , Proper etiquette on how to ‘meat’ your guests. (part 2)
Jonah woke up an unknown time later to a strange, pulsing blue light. His fuzzy vision swirled as the ring of blue light danced from the top of his vision to the bottom. It then appeared once more at the top and moved downward. Over and over, the light moved, pulsing, growing stronger each time. He wasn't quite sure what he was looking at; the combination dim, dancing lights, and his swimming mind made it difficult to think, let alone focus.
He shook his head and rubbed his temples as if the action could give some semblance of order to his scrambled brain when the memories returned. The quest, the portal, the Worm, being hit by something in the darkness, the memories flooded back with each pulse of light. The sound of his heartbeat grew faster as each breath brought with is a wave a searing pain. His arms shook as he tried to push himself out of the pool of acid, and he could feel several ribs scraping across the soft, yet crystalline surface of his lungs.
After a moment of struggling, Jonah managed to drag himself onto a comparatively dry fold of flesh. He raised an arm and gently stroked his chest, only to wince as a sharp pain shot through his body. Though the weak, pale blue light seemed to drain the area of any color, he could still see a large, dark bruise covered 80% of his bare chest. Luckily, there didn't seem to be any blood, though whatever had hit him had done so with enough force to crush several ribs and part of his lungs.
If he were an average human, the blow would have most likely killed him instantly. Thankfully, [Breathless] had transformed his lungs, making them quite a bit more "durable"; They'd even managed to cushion his heart and stop it from being crushed as well. With that in mind and the passive healing of [Arcane Regeneration], he wasn't sure he would call himself "normal" anymore, though.
Jonah activated his skill and let the cooling rush of mana wash through his body, mending broken flesh and bone. Even still, it took nearly half an hour before he felt well enough to move. The ability to regenerate quickly from even near-fatal injuries was great, but it was almost like his brain couldn't accept this new reality yet. Even now, though he knew he was in perfect condition, he could feel a pulsing pain in his chest and ribs, like a phantom reminding him of what happened.
His injuries healed, Jonah turned his focus to something more pressing. With his head no longer in a fog, the identity of the strange, pulsing light became apparent; the Worm. The Worm hung down from the ceiling, its head firmly embedded in the soft flesh, as its massive armored body twitched. Every few seconds, it's four dim blue eyes would flare to life, like tiny suns, lighting the surrounding darkness. A large blue ring of light would then travel from its head, down the length of its body, as the light in its eyes dimmed once more. As the circle of light moved, the Worm's body would ripple and flex along its path, before ending at the severed stub left by the portal.
Jonah's heart sank as he each pulse of light reach the stub, and a small bit of new flesh push itself forward. It was regenerating. Maybe not as quickly as himself, but the Worm was slowly but surely regaining what the portal had taken off. He didn't know how long he was out for, but he noticed that the creature was already several new sections longer than before, the new armor still soft and paler in the dim light.
It was still quite away from being able to reach him, but it was only a matter of time. And if the burning rage he could feel as the Worm followed him with its eyes said anything, he didn't want to wait around till it could. But what could he do? The thing was larger than the Snake when it swallowed him, and covered in thick armor plating to boot. Maybe if he still had his sickle, he could chip away at the still soft and growing bits, but he'd dropped it when the thing hit him, now it was floating in the dark and acid somewhere. Even if he could find it though, the things speed and power scared him.
He was an out of shape Veterinarian, not some solider or gladiator, the only "Tiger" he'd ever fought was Ms. Gurturd's large tabby. He still had the scar on his forearm from when the big bastard had swiped him after given him his vaccinations.
Now he was alone, in the dark, without a weapon, expected to kill a massive, armored abomination.
Screw whoever the sadistic author who thought this was a good plot idea was!
He started to pace around his small corner, making sure to keep one eye on the Worm at all times, wracking his brain trying to think of a solution, any solution. His heart started beating faster, as cold sweat trickled down his neck and his breath turned into shallow panting.
[Jonah] "**** it Jonah, you're smarter than this. You can't panic. Panic and you're dead. You have to think. Come on, Think! just breath! Breath and think!"
Jonah stopped his pacing and drew in a long breath, entering a semi-meditative state as he tried to calm his raging mind. After a few moments, Jonah felt his pulse start to slow, and his mind become more precise and focused. Slowly, he exhaled, releasing with it his pent up stress. He would survive; he promised himself that during those first days. He didn't know how, but he would.
As he breathed out, the cloud of "something," he exhaled, reacted with the dense mana in the air, shimmering a pale blue, reminding him of frost and embers at the same time. He reached up and waved his hand through the strange substance, catching a few of the "burning" motes of mana on his finger, and something clicked.
His eyes flashed back to the Worm's head, deeply embedded in the ceiling, and back to the slowly dying embers. Maybe? Could it work? Was the solution to his problem that simple? He didn't dare get his hopes up, yet even still, a small light sparkled in his eyes. He made his way to the farthest corner from the Worm and sat down in his meditation pose, the acid reaching halfway up to his chest. He didn't know how long he had, but he prayed it was enough.
He began to inhale slowly at first, then as time past he started to ramp it up, pulling in more mana faster and faster. He could feel the mana density around him begin to drop at an alarming rate; fast enough that he feared he might suffocate before he did what he needed to do. Despite the lack of physical substance, his lungs began to feel bloated, over-inflated, and his skill warned him that if he kept going at this rate, he would start to cause damage.
After roughly an hour of this extreme meditation, Jonah opened his eyes and noticed the Worm stretching out its body in an attempt to reach him. It had sensed what he was doing (heck, with how much the mana had dropped, maybe even the Snake had). It might not have understood what he was planning, but it didn't like it. Unfortunately for it, it was still a few segments short of reaching him. Jonah looked up at the Worm and stared it straight in its glowing eye, before giving a cruel smile and turning towards the wall behind him.
Then he exhaled.
The cloud that escaped his lungs seemed to have a physical force behind it, as it pushed him back several feet in an explosion of pale blue mist. The little mana left in the air ignited into swirling phantom-like flames, as the Snake screamed in pain. The sound wave that hit him almost turned Jonah's insides to mush as he coughed up a mouth full of blood and felt his eardrums burst. The world was thrown into silence as the acid boiled and rolled around him, tossing him around like a ship-wreaked sailor in a storm.
The Worm didn't fare much better. Perhaps learning from the last time their host had been agitated, the Worm had pulled its body into a tight ball, digging deeper into the ceiling and stabilizing itself as much as it could with its legs and barbed tentacles. Even still, Jonah could see small drops of glowing blue blood drip from its joints as the sound-wave vibrated its thick shell and scrambled its insides.
A grin split Jonah's face from ear to ear, then he looked up and spoke, his voice sounding distant and muffled as his eardrums regrew;
[Jonah] "if you thought that was all, sorry to disappoint you..."
In the next moment, the stomach began to tremble and shake, before it violent contracted, shrinking to only 1/3 of its size in less than a second. A sickening crunch sounded as the Worm's head, and part of its upper body was crushed by the massive folding, cramping muscles of the Snake's stomach. Jonah, for his part, struggled in the spinning vortex of bile and acid that formed. He might not have needed to breathe, but it wasn't any less unpleasant.
After some time braving the waves, the Snake seemed to calm down, as the churning acid slowed, and the stomach slowly expanded back to its normal size. Jonah broke the surface and promptly emptied his guts of the foul bile, both the Snake's and his own. He wiped his mouth, then stood up from his knees, before turning his eyes on the Worm to see the result of his work.
The Worm still clung to the ceiling in its wound up ball, but it remained eerily still, even as a veritable waterfall of glowing blue blood poured from its joints and cracked shell. The most notable cascade came from the creature's head, where three of four massive eyes lay crushed and bleeding profusely. Despite the shattered armor and ruined, much flatter head, however, the fourth eye still flickered with a dim blue light, and it stared down at Jonah with hatred and fire.
[Jonah] "OH, COME THE **** ON! ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! "
Jonah screened and slammed his fists into the acid. How much did they want from him?! Was the quest even real?! Or was it just a joke to get his hopes up, a dangling carrot to make sure he put up a fight instead of just letting the thing kill him out right? Jonah stared up at the thing, as if he could finish it off with his anger.
Jonah thought about trying what he did again, but he could already feel his body saturated with mana. A quick look at his status screen confirmed it.
| Health: | 86/100 |
| Mana: | 216/135 |
| 'Current Status' |
|---|
| Malnutrition (Major, Recovering). Mana Poisoning (Critical) |
He was already at his limit, if he tried to take in any more, it really would kill him, probably in some horrific manner. So that was off the table. He could wait till he recovered, but every moment he spent was one more moment the Worm did too. He needed to end this, NOW.
As if some divine being had heard his plea, Jonah watched at the Worm ball slowly lost its grip on the ceiling. Its leg's shook and skittered as if trying to regain some form of hold, but it was too weak at this point, and in one motion, it slipped and swung downward. The Worm screeched as the movement shattered the already splintering armor near the head, and with the sound of sucking flesh, the momentum pulled it free from the ceiling.
The Worm crashed into the floor with a thud, sending another wave of acid washing over Jonah. The Worm bobbed to the surface, motionless, though its dimming eye still flickered in the darkness. Jonah's heart began to beat faster; this was it! A chance! That was all he needed. He couldn't stop his cheshire cat grin as the splashed his way towards the bony remains of the bristle monster. He shifted through the half-digested remains till he found what he was looking for; a long, sickle-like claw. It was in noticeably worse shape than his old one, but still in decent shape considering the state of the bones around it. The fact that the remains were even still in one piece told of their durability, considering what this place had been through recently.
His prize in hand, he made his way towards the still motionless Worm, murder in his eyes.
It was the subtle movement acid on his legs that gave him the warning as a whip-like tentacle topped with a bladed barb burst out of the water. It was the combination of the Worm's fatigue, as well as the adrenaline and overmana coursing through his veins that let him jump to the side at the last second.
Right. Death tentacles. He'd forgotten about those...
Still, where once there had been dozens, now the Worm seemed to barley muster the strength to wave three. Not that it would take more than one of those horrors jammed in his gut to end him. But there was no turning back now; it was Do or Die.
He tightened his grip on the sickle and inched his way closer, ducking under another wild swing, while deflecting a second tentacle that tried to spear him from above. As weak as the Worm was, the blow still caused him to stumble backward, narrowly avoiding a third tentacle that had tried to sneak up under him. Taking a page from the Worm's playbook, Jonah dove into the acid, using the murky bile to hide his movements as he bobbed and weaved ever closer. The Worm began to plunge its tentacles into the acid in a desperate attempt to spear him like a fish.
Jonah's random and unpredictable movement though, allowed him to avoid most of the Worm's attempts, save for a few glancing blows. Using the dim blue glow of the Worm's eye as a beacon, he made his towards the creature, before bursting out of the murky pool, sickle raised high above. In one fluid motion and a primal roar filled with all of his frustration, anger, and hate, he struck sickle deep into the rubbery membrane of the Worm's eye. Jonah gave in a sharp tug, and slip the eye from end to end, as the Worm screeched once more, its remaining tentacles flailing wildly around.
Then silence.
The Worm's tentacles flopped into the pool with a splash as the beast let out a long, deep groan, and the light began to dim from its eye. Jonah stood up, covered in glowing worm blood, and laughed. He laughed like he never laughed before, and he's eyes turned to the ceiling as he screamed out,
[Jonah] "HAHAHAHAHA! HOW DO YOU LIKE ME NOW, YOU BASTARD?! WHO'S THE COCKROACH NOW?! HOW ABOUT YOU COME FIGHT ME YOURSELF INSTEAD OF SENDING SOME WORM!?"
The adrenaline fueling him, his breaths came in huge gulps, yet he couldn't help but smile. He did it. He survived. Despite the odds and against even his own expectations, he found a way. He felt more...alive than he ever had before.
It was then that something caught his eye. He looked down and saw something pulsing in the Worm's eye. Deep in the cavity surrounded by a broken cocoon of flesh, farther than his arms could reach, sat a dimly glowing orb, the size of his fist. It pulsed with a steady, blue glow that seemed, at least in part, to be the source of Worm's glowing eyes. At least it was much brighter than the blood that surrounded it. He didn't know what it was, but his body screamed at him for it, like some primordial part of his brain had just found water after wandering a barren desert all of his life.
Without hesitation, he plunged his arm into the ruined goop of the Worm's eye, reaching for the strange orb. He didn't even question his actions, almost feeling like it would be sacrilegious to do so. As he drew closer, though, something in his brain clicked, and the oddity of the situation dawned on him. Why was he half-buried in a dying monster worm's head, trying to grab some strange glowing ball? Jonah's caution instantly spiked as warning sirens blared in his head. The orb still called to him, urging him to grab hold, to take it as his own, but his head was clear now, and he found himself wavering.
It wasn't going anywhere, and he didn't need it now. Whatever this thing was, it could wait till he knew more about it.
However, the next moment, Jonah felt something wrap around his exposed leg, and pull, yanking him a few inches out of the Worm's eye. It looked like the Worm still wasn't entirely down for the count, and it didn't appreciate a man crawling around in its head.
Jonah began to flail about in the goop, grabbing onto anything he could to try and drag himself further into the Worm's head. If he got pulled out, he didn't doubt there would be more tentacles waiting to impale him. Slowly but surely, Jonah found himself slipping out. The power in the tentacle minuscule compared to before, but it was enough. Desperate in his flailing, his finger wrapped around something cold and smooth.
Then the world went white.