Mortimer, page 15
part #6 of Everybody Loves Large Chests Series
When Jones emerged from his Storage portal a few seconds later, it became apparent that the reason he went in there was to change his equipment. More specifically, to change out of his precious leather armor. It was a finely crafted set of gear that was the only memento he had left of his father, and he couldn’t help but get upset whenever it got slashed, pierced, or battered. It was a distraction he couldn’t afford, not against this opponent. Now that his prized worldly possession was safely tucked away, he could focus on the fight in earnest.
To that end, he had also completely cast off any pretense of humanity.
What emerged from that swirling abyss was without a doubt a monster, though one would be quite hard pressed to pinpoint its species. It had an overall humanoid shape with heavily distorted proportions. Its upper body and arms were much larger and thicker than its lower half, almost like a gorilla or troll. Rather than fur or leathery skin, his body was covered in dense, dull red spiky scales everywhere except his forehead, chest, forearms and shoulders. Those areas were instead protected by solid growths that resembled stone slabs. The hands and feet were tipped with sharp talons, and a bulbous black growth like a spider’s abdomen dangled from the back of his waist. His head and face looked like they belonged on a bird of prey of some kind, what with the sharp beak, piercing eyes, and bright yellow feathers covering the scalp and thick neck.
When the bizarre amalgamation landed on the ground with a heavy thud, it found itself facing a much more pleasant-looking yet equally savage creature.
“Wow! You are uuug-ly!”
Kora sneered as she belittled the thing in front of her. The archfiend hadn’t been paying much attention to the Boxxy Show prior to being summoned via her master’s woefully underused Artifact-grade staff. She had no idea where she was, what was going on, or who this weirdo was, nor did she care about any of those details. She finally had a meaty punching bag to test out her recent Rank Up on, and she was going to make the most of it. Her owner had a far less frivolous attitude to the matter at hand. Boxxy had already quick-changed into its Sandman persona and had wasted no time in preparing a Spell of its own while using the six-armed demon as cover.
“Ebonfire!”
However, Jones Alexis hadn’t become any less of a Wizard just because he had cast off his human skin.
“De-spell!”
The black flames that enveloped the bizarre amalgamation’s body were instantly dispersed by his counter-magic. Kora moved in right after, but Jones’s thick left arm deftly blocked her triple right hook. His knees buckled slightly due to the archfiend’s absurd strength, but he managed to avoid suffering any real injury. He slashed back at her with his claws, but the demon didn’t even attempt to defend against them and instead swung her other set of arms back at him. Talons cut through flesh and metal fists clashed into scales as the two monstrosities exchanged greetings.
“Now we’re talking!”
With the injured demon’s Berserker Skills kicking in, she instantly picked up the pace. Kora and Jones traded several blows at high speed. The latter made sure to position himself so that the fiend was between him and the Sandman at all times, making it much more difficult for the Warlock’s Spells to reach him. The abominable Wizard was, of course, aware that his opponent would not hesitate to blast a hole through its own familiar to get to him, but cover was still cover. All he had to do was make sure to dispel that Ebonfire until he figured out how to get that six-armed annoyance out of his way.
At least that’s what he thought.
“Delirium!”
Boxxy’s rarely used Domination magic assaulted its target’s consciousness, leaving him confused with a skull-splitting headache. Confusing visions flashed by his eyes and even his MLG was reporting bizarre shapes all around him. With his mind momentarily unable to form a coherent thought, he could only flail randomly while Kora continued tenderizing his tough hide. She was technically caught up the Spell’s area of effect, but as a demon she had near-immunity to mind-altering magic. This allowed her to remain in complete control of her senses while she relentlessly pummeled her delirious opponent. Boxxy also took this chance to reposition itself so that it had a clear shot of its target. Arcs of arcane energy crackled around it as it activated its Level 10 Power Overwhelming Skill, increasing the damage output and MP consumption of its Ruin Spells by a whopping 500%. It ordered Arms to clear out of the way and unleashed the most devastating Spell in its arsenal.
“Reality Slash!”
It swung its skull-headed staff in a downward diagonal arc, sending an invisible guillotine of pure force flying towards its target. It carved up the street, sliced clean through Jones, and went on to utterly demolish a row of houses and buildings behind him. Numerous screams rang out as a direct result of the devastation, as dozens of bystanders had been caught up in the destruction. There was another surge of people fleeing the area as they realized that cowering in their homes would not protect them from the battle taking place on the street.
[Your target has been split asunder. Target HP -2,494.]
The Warlock’s primary target had taken the brunt of it, and it hurt. His torso slid off his lower body and collapsed on the ground with a disgusting wet thud. The supercharged Spell went through him like a hot knife through butter. True, it depleted much of Boxxy’s magical reserves and left it with only about a thousand MP remaining – less than a quarter of its maximum. The expended magical energy had been well worth the devastating blow it produced, but it wasn’t enough. Jones was still alive. Furthermore, the horrible pain he suffered at the Warlock’s hands snapped him out of his Delirium, and he immediately retaliated with a wide-area suppression Skill.
“SKREEEEEEEEE!”
The chimera unleashed an ungodly screech, showing that its avian head wasn’t merely for show. Windows shattered, pavement rattled, and blood vessels popped as the Thunderous Screech of the aptly-named thunderbird enveloped Boxxy. The supernatural noise overwhelmed the shapeshifter, leaving it temporarily stunned and giving Jones the opportunity to reconnect to his severed lower half while he still had the chance. Kora managed to resist the suppression and tried to kick his head off as if it were a rubber ball.
Jones would have none of that. He slammed the ground with his fist, causing the already straining street to crack open and collapse, dropping the fiend into the sewers before she could react. With her out of the way, he gained the precious few seconds he needed to put himself back together while maintaining his auditory assault on Boxxy. The smaller shapeshifter was showing a profoundly adverse reaction to the harmful vibrations due to its abnormally high Perception (PER) Attribute working against it once more. It had already stifled its MLG and even gotten rid of its ears, but could still ‘hear’ the deafening screech in its blood and bones. It wasn’t until Boxxy reinforced its skin with Bouncewood once more that it was able to struggle to its feet, but it was too late. Its opponent had already reconnected with his severed half and was bearing down on it with no intention of ceasing that screech.
Just then, a pair of arrows embedded themselves in either side of the bird-headed creature’s throat, puncturing the abomination’s trachea and robbing him of his voice. He coughed and sputtered, unable to resume that infuriating noise due to the barrage of arrows now assaulting him from both flanks. Jones had done away with its own MLG to prevent sensory backlash from his Thunderous Screech Skill, which rendered him incapable of detecting the incoming hostile projectiles – just as Boxxy had hoped. The shapeshifter quickly and silently congratulated itself for having the foresight to send two of its Mirror Images away earlier. It had taken them a while to ‘procure’ some ranged weaponry to provide covering fire with, so the timing was a little off. Ideally, they would have finished Jones off while he was still half the creature he used to be, but at least they managed to silence him.
“Gragha Shilht!”
The monstrous Wizard gargle-chanted ‘Mana Shield’ as he brought his defensive barrier and MLG back online. While the plain arrows may have punctured his exposed neck muscles, they were unable to penetrate the magic bubble. The monster in front of him was already recovering while the fiend from behind leapt out of that improvised pitfall. The sword-wielding Mirror Image and the stalker demon from earlier were nowhere to be found, so they were likely preparing more traps and ambushes.
And yet, though his beak made it near impossible to tell, the abomination called Jones Alexis was smiling. He couldn’t remember the last time anyone had put up this much of a fight. Granted, he wasn’t the type of meathead that went out of their way to look for worthy opponents, nor was he a fan of getting bisected, but overall this had been a surprisingly refreshing experience. Surely, he thought, if it was against this shapeshifter, he could cut loose and go all out for the first time in a long, long while.
The chimera’s eyes shifted in structure the next instant. The yellow and black concentric circles of his irises turned a putrid, muddy green with a black vertical slit. He then directed a basilisk’s Petrifying Gaze directly at the crafty shapeshifter in front of him, causing the creature’s body to steadily turn gray and solid. The progress of the petrification was horrendously slow, proving that this enemy had truly outstanding vitality. As Jones expected, the creature caught on as to what was going on and retaliated accordingly. It threw a metal capsule towards the chimera, which popped open with a blinding flash. Jones had anticipated something like this and shielded his eyes while simultaneously launching a blob of sticky thread from his arachnid posterior at the six-armed demon behind him. Kora hadn’t been able to react to her master’s mental warning quickly enough and was momentarily blinded by the flashbang, which left her unable to avoid the incoming webbing. Sure enough, it wrapped around her and left her stuck in place. The archfiend would probably force her way out of her sticky restraints, but she wasn’t going anywhere for the moment.
Jones’ next move was to combine the Liquid Mimicry, Slipstream, and Hydro Hand Skills to create a geyser-like eruption of water beneath his feet. The magically-generated aquatic pillar propelled him high into the air, twisting and turning like a living creature. Jones rode the unnatural wave closer to one of the bow-wielding body doubles. His left arm morphed into a slimy bright green blob, which he swung diagonally at his first target. This motion invoked his Water Slicer Skill, releasing a highly pressurized jet of liquid that mercilessly cut through the ill-prepared Mirror Image much like Boxxy’s Reality Slash ran through Jones. The target somehow survived it, but two more Water Slicers were enough to reduce both its HP and its conjured flesh to nothing.
Jones turned his attention towards the other bow-wielding apparition and attempted to take it down in much the same way, but he had already shown his hand. His secondary target fortified its body by covering itself in a hylt tree’s Ironbark, of all things. It was no pale imitation either, judging from how it shrugged off the Water Sliver without taking any damage. However, Jones proved he had yet more tricks up his proverbial sleeve and bathed the Mirror Image in a torrent of flaming breath one would expect from a dragon’s muzzle, not a bird’s beak. He finished the body double off by calling down a lightning bolt on top of it with his Lightning Strike Skill. It wasn’t as potent as his Wizard Spells and had a cooldown period, but he could use it instantly and without chanting so long as he was outdoors.
Down on the ground, the main target had changed weapons once more, this time wielding a bow of its own. It was a wise decision, given the long range between it and Jones. Its arrows were definitely sharper and deadlier than its imitations, but it had trouble landing a clean hit. It wasn’t just the erratic movements of the serpentine pillar of water, but also the abomination’s Wind Wall Skill. This ability kicked up sporadic gusts of air that interfered with the incoming projectiles’ trajectory. However, this howling barrier could do little to stop a three-meter-tall pile of muscle, rage, and violence.
“C’mere, cupcake!”
Jones was caught completely unawares when the fiend from earlier suddenly tackled him from the side. In a move that surprised both her master and her opponent, she ripped off that webbing and intercepted her target with a fifteen-meter leap straight up. It was a feat of strength that made it clear her archfiend Rank Up wasn’t just for show. Kora succeeded in knocking her target off of his watery perch and held onto him tight as she body slammed him into a nearby rooftop. The structure gave way under their combined weight, and they crashed into the interior of a two-story carpenter’s workshop. Jones temporarily dissolved into an amorphous blob and slithered his way out of the fiend’s hold before re-forming into a lizardman-like shape. The green-haired demon rose to her feet with a vicious smile on her face and rushed him with another storm of punches, kicks, and swears.
Her attacks shattered his scales, rattled his bones, and cut up the insides of his crocodile-like mouth, but Jones stood his ground and hit back as hard as he could. He tried to match her ferocity and savagery, but quickly realized he would not win this contest. Though they had gone more or less even earlier, that was before Kora’s missing HP had amped up her Berserker Skills. She struck faster and stronger, and her attacks bore straight through the combination of Natural Armor, Spiked Scales, and Harden Skills as if they weren’t there. They hurt even more with every chunk of red flesh that Jones ripped out of her unarmored gaps. Last but not least, the chimera’s Mend Flesh Skill hadn’t even begun to repair the damage caused by that Reality Slash earlier. The Spell had taken a huge chunk out of him, even though he didn’t show it.
In short, Jones had no hope of facing Kora on equal footing, and he was a fool to even try. Having realized his folly, he gave up and collapsed on the ground into a pale of bright-green goop and tried to wrap around the demon’s legs. She attempted to counter with a War Stomp, but the slime at her feet made a hole so that her heel would miss it completely. The Martial Art instead connected with the floorboards underneath, which instantly shattered and splintered. Both combatants fell through the ensuing hole into the workshop’s first floor and crashed straight into the building’s basement.
When her body collided with the ground once again, Kora found herself lying on her face and already halfway enveloped by her opponent’s goopy form. She reflexively started thrashing about in an effort to shake it off. She rolled on the floor, slammed herself into the walls, and even punched at her own body, but her opponent took very little damage. Throughout it all, she felt pain stab into her goo-covered skin as Jones used a combination of Corrosive Touch and Deadly Poison Skills to flood her injured body with toxins.
It was only natural she was outmatched. Without really realizing it, Kora was attempting to fight a queen slime through pure physical force. It was an exercise in futility akin to trying to put out a forest fire by peeing on it. Her master realized what was going on much quicker than the fiendish blockhead, having crept into the ruined building and watched the two of them go at it. Boxxy couldn’t help but feel envious of the other shapeshifter’s abilities as they were far more versatile than its own. No matter how hard a doppelganger tried, it couldn’t transform into a slime and take advantage of its near-imperviousness to physical injuries. Though, as with any monster, slimes too had their weaknesses, and a self-taught shapeshifting expert like Boxxy was well aware of their vulnerability to magic. Its opponent seemed to sense its intent and erected a Mana Shield around himself and the fiend he was attempting to subdue. Punching through that barrier wouldn’t be easy, especially with Boxxy’s depleted MP, but the creature didn’t necessarily need to do that.
After all, Mr. Alexis wasn’t the only one with a formidable bag of tricks.
“Demonate!”
At the Warlock’s behest, Kora’s red skin momentarily glowed with an intense green light as the demonic energies suffusing her flesh her were ignited. The archfiend exploded violently the next instant in a flash of bright green flames. The force of the explosion blasted the Sandman-shaped shapeshifter out of the workshop, across the street, and into the house on the opposite side. It crashed through a window on the second floor and found itself in a small, dingy bedroom. It quickly rose to its feet and somewhat groggily ran to the windowsill, watching in stunned silence as an emerald-colored inferno steadily turned the site of Kora and Jones’s brief duel into an ash pile.
The crap was that?! it screamed internally. It’s way too strong!
The sheer amount of energy released by Arms’ forced self-destruct was well beyond anything it expected. It was at least twice as potent as the last time it tried that Spell. The lingering flames rapidly spreading to other buildings were an entirely new aspect of it. Was it because Arms was an archfiend now? Punchy seemed to have a natural aptitude for fire and that girl was supposedly related to him, so a propensity for arson could simply ‘run in the family’ as it were. It was a flimsy explanation at best, but it was the only one Boxxy could muster at the moment.
Still, as far as surprises went, this was a welcome one. The other shapeshifter was wrapped up tight around the demon, so it probably took the full brunt of that explosion and was scattered to bits. It was regretful that he had to be destroyed, but Boxxy deemed it impossible to capture a threat of that magnitude alive. At the very least, the XP gained from killing a tough opponent was bound to be tasty. And then the shapeshifter realized it hadn’t gotten any such thing. In other words, its target wasn’t quite dead yet.
“SKREEEEEK!”
Boxxy’s reflexes sharpened to a point upon hearing the dreadfully familiar screech. A huge, hawk-like bird flew upward out of the blazing inferno, the green flames clinging to its golden plumage giving it an almost ethereal presence. It dove straight at the Sandman with wings tucked in like an oversized arrow, threatening to pierce the humanoid creature’s large torso with his beak. Boxxy tapped into its Phytokinesis Skill and threw the wooden bed in the room at its opponent, but the bull-sized thunderbird smashed it to bits without even slowing down.
