The Monster with no Name - Ch 8 Children and Rabbits

http://www.royalroadl.com/fiction/710 - by Lv1Slime

I don't take credit on Mr. Lv1Slime's work

Author's note: So this section took an unexpectedly long time to finish. And since it was getting a bit too long for me, I've decided to make the last portions of the chapter into a sort of half chapter for next time. Maybe a chapter 8.5 instead a full on 9.

Also, I may need a Proofreader for my story. As you may have already seen, I don't have a tendency to revise and read over my work. A PR may be helpful to have. If anybody's interested PM me or write something in the comments below.

Well anyways, hope you enjoy.
*****

Children and Rabbits

“................”

The cavern was silent. Both the Boar and I held our breaths. The dust and debris that [Sniper] had stirred were blocking my vision and likewise, the Boar was too far away to see Snapper head. We waited in anticipation, whether the Sea Dragon would move or not remained to be unseen (literally).

As the dust parted, the cavern’s visibility returned to its natural splendor. I fixed my gaze towards the Dragon, and subsequently exasperated in joy as I saw the lifeless husk of a mighty monster who ceased any movement.

“Haaa~ I-It’s finally over…”

I loosened my shoulders and fell flat to my knees. I was thoroughly spent right now. I mean, you can’t expect someone who committed himself to a shut in lifestyle for half a year to not be tired after they just wrestled with a giant fish.

I broke off into a collection of shaky laughs as I leaned back and looked at the ceiling.

After a moment, I got up on shaky feet and approached the now deceased Snapper head. Seeing me move, the Boar returned from his after victory stupor and followed suit. We approached the dead body and for a moment, just stared at the thing.

It was sorta like we were paying our respects to the opponent whom we had greatly struggled with. An opponent who brought us on the very brink of death numerous times. We were giving our respects to such a mighty foe.

Then I kicked the carcass with my foot.

Seeing the enormous thing not budge after a while, I kicked it again some more before announcing,

“Yup, it’s dead alright.”

The Boar next to me snorted in response.

Rather anticlimactic after a big battle like this, all I could do was nod at the Boar who returned it with another snort.

“Welp, time to reap the rewards.”

I approached Snapper head’s left arm and reached for the broken off tusk that had lodged itself into its hide earlier. I pulled it out, admiring the unexpected sharpness of the thing before moving back to get a better view of the whole of the monster.

“Now...where should I start….”

I was planning to eat Snapper head, or at least a portion of him. After such a tremendous battle, it would honestly be a waste to not reap the benefits I’d probably get from a strong monster like this. Although I may hardly ever use the subsequent acquired ability, it still fills me with a sort of sense of satisfaction knowing I did leave a little bit stronger from this fight.

Looking over at the beast next to me, it seems like he too had the same idea. Me being someone who can understand the benefits to what a good quality ‘kill’ this one was, I could sympathize with the Boar.

I’m not sure as to the specifics on how a monster goes about gaining strength from other monsters, but for me, I only need to devour about a portion of the monster. Generally about a kilogram or two would be enough for me to gain the full benefits. And on another note, the monster doesn’t necessarily have to be dead for me to usurp a portion of their powers.

As long as I get a little bit of it down my throat, I’m in the clear.

Of course that doesn’t necessarily mean I can just eat willy nilly. In some cases, what type of body part I eat determines a large factor of what type of abilities I can acquire. This is especially true for monsters with numerous abilities like Snapper head.

You can generally tell what type of ability a certain body part will be most likely give by observing  how a monster fights, acts, or just through its general behavior. For example, in Snapper head’s case, if I were to eat a part of its tail, there’s a high possibility of receiving a self-regeneration like ability or  something that’ll let me extend my limbs. On another note, eating something like scales to acquire more durability might be a bit hard, considering its tough to chew through substance like that, although possible if I were to use physical enhancement one more time.

Though I already had a feeling as to what ability I wanted to get from this Sea Dragon.

Without warning, the Boar hobbled off towards Snapper head and began mindlessly eating. I ignored him and approached the stomach. Seeing as how this part of its body had expanded whenever it had done its fireball, I guessed that the stomach had some role in that type of ability.

By this point, I could have started eating a little bit of the stomach, but right now I wasn’t quite ready. The main reason I brought the tusk along was in order to slice open this tremendous stomach. There were actually two main reasons for why I wanted to do this. One, I got a higher chance of gaining the fireball ability rather than some other one if I were to eat the insides rather than the exterior and two, morbid curiosity. I was a little bit interested in knowing what type of body part had a role in producing those flames. Rather, I wanted to know what was so special inside that could cause something as tremendously powerful as that fireball, especially coming from a sea creature.

I gently let my free hand rest on the surface of the stomach. I could feel a pulsating heat, which I reasoned was leftover emission from when Snapper head was alive a moment ago.

I found a groove within the underbelly and wasted no time getting to work.

I plunged the tusk in and with a little bit of elbow grease, It was securely in there. I had to stick the tusk deeper up to the point where my hand disappeared into the opening due to the fact that the wall of fat and muscle was too thick.

After a couple minutes of struggling (this was a lot more difficult to do without psychical enhance) I was able to secure a good foothold. With one vertical slash down, I sliced open the stomach.

Instantly, built up, heated air left the new opening. Following it was a stream of blood, gastric acid and even more steam.

I stepped back to let the blood conjugate and colless underneath me. I contemplated whether or not I should probe deeper, but my reason was trumped by my curiosity as I widened the opening with a few more slashes,  I held my breath, and stuck my head inside the monster’s stomach.

I was met with a revolting stench. As expected of  a stomach it smelled like digestion and a little bit of gas. I squinted through the smell, as if that would help, and observed my surroundings.

Aside from a faint red glow created by the light reflecting from the opening, the pit was dark. With no vision and only the horrible stench as my guide, I probed the stomach lining with my free hand. I felt the contractions, which were slowly but surely dimming down as the body had stopped working. As I felt along the muscle made walls, I came across a rather soft portion.

It was a squishy section located deep within the wall. It’s texture reminded me of mochi, yet when I attempted to grasp it, I yelped in response. The mochi section was hot, incredibly so. It emitted an unnatural heat, which I guessed if Snapper head was still alive, this section would have done more than provide simple burns.

I avoided the mochi section for now. I could already assume that this part played a huge role in the flame production, so I was planning to extract it later, but I’ll wait on it till after I’ve completely explored the stomach.

I finished probing the stomach. I even went as far as briefly searching through the bile of gastric acids, although not much success was found here due to the sheer amount that had pooled at the bottom of the stomach.

I made my way to the mochi section, and gingerly patted it in an attempt to check the heat. Seeing as it didn’t burn my hand upon contact, I started cutting the section out. Like its texture suggested, the mochi section was easy to separate from the wall.  I quickly secured it and, prepared to make my way out of the stomach. Honestly speaking, the smell was getting to me, and I was afraid that if I stayed any longer, the stench might rub off on my clothes.

I opted to wade through the pool of stomach juice, holding my breathe while doing so.

Halfway through, a jolt within the liquid startled me. Quickly inspecting the pool, yet finding nothing, I chalked it up to after battle nerves. Truth be told, I don’t think I was in a very favorable situation for in depth analysis, seeing as how monochrome’s side effects were still affecting me. The 1.5 delay is especially taxing, it’s already caused me to trip several times and nearly slip into the acid.

Turning back, I again approached the exit. Expecting nothing to happen, I was quite startled when something latched on to my left leg, causing me to stumble and spill. Luckily I rolled into the limestone floor, rather than backwards into even more gastric acid.

“O-ow...What was that..?”

I inspected my leg. The left leg was hugged quite firmly by a light blue entity covered in the greenish mucus-like liquid of gastric acids.

As my eyes fixated on the new being, my wariness quickly dissipated after a few scrutinizing glares, which had subsequently caused a fit of whimpering when I met eyes with the new character.

A pair of cute, black eyes, with no visible whites in them met my glare. The owner of these eyes was a light blue toned, small, humanoid creature. The little fellow looked exactly like a 3 year old human child, except for the light blue hue of his skin and its sclera-less black eyes.

The creature had a mop of messy, dark, viridian colored hair, that covered his eyes and a majority of face. Ear like protrusions stuck out through the hair, and they would occasionally wiggle in visible nervousness.

Mindlessly, I reached out for an ear, and began caressing the appendage. The ear felt firm, and a little bit wet (which I guessed was due to the stomach acid). The shape was elvish, long and pointy, an uncommon characteristic that some magicians with extremely high magic capacities have.

This sudden caressment brought on a little whine from the three-year old.

“A-ah, sorry about that.”

I consoled, although more for my benefit than his. The little toddler responded with a cooing noise.

I assumed this child was a he, considering how flat his chest was (although in all honesty, I had no clue when breasts start developing). I couldn’t use his face to discern either, since it was quite androgynous, although I also chalked this up to the age.

As I continued to stare at the brat, I wondered how it had survived being in the creature's stomach for so long. Being able to withstand the combination of intense heat and gastric acids was an amazing feat in itself, especially considering that the thing in question was a toddler. Also, the fact that this child wasn’t the offspring of Snapper head was quite obvious. Just going by aesthetics, the two did not look at all alike, let along from the same species.

It was most probably swallowed at some point in time by the Sea dragon.

I  grabbed the child’s  chin gently with my left hand and brought its face closer for inspection. Apart from another discoloration of various tones of blues on its cheeks (kinda like blue freckles)m it looked exactly the same as a human. I could not see any visible discrepancies, I did observe a little bit of sleepiness in its eyes.

“He must have hibernated while inside to maintain its survival, like a water bear.....I have to say, what a pretty versatile infant.”

The child stared back in wide eyed fascination. Much of the beginning nervousness was gone after he had made the decision that I wasn’t gonna hurt him.

“Daa!”

The kid stretched out its arms towards to me and babbled in a high pitched voice. He made an indication that he wanted to be carried.

I ignored his attempts to make me carry him and instead pulled out a chunk of the monster meat I recently acquired. I put the meat close to his mouth, motioning him to eat it.

What I wanted to confirm was whether or not this brat was a monster. Although he looked very similar to an ordinary human, the slight discrepancies in his appearance showed that he was something else. Not even to mention the weird circumstance I found this brat in, humanoid monsters do exist, and considering things, there was a possibility this brat was one too.

The monster meat I tried feeding him would act as a crude test. Monsters have a natural fondness to monster meat. It has to go back to the basic concept of survival of the fittest, and idea pretty much engraved in a monster’s existence. Whatever method a monster has of making itself stronger, it will do so under any means necessary. On the other side, humans or more specifically, magicians, have a natural aversion to monster meat. This aversion diminishes as a person grows older, but while in the beginning stages of development, the dislike should be plenty strong.

On a related note, apparently I had no aversion to monster meat. Its a little bit weird, but when put into the context of my physiology, then its not that remarkable.

Whether or not this brat decides to eat will give an indication as to whether he was a monster or not.

At the sight of the meat, the kid’s nose wrinkled in distrust. He shook his head furiously while turning away. If I kept this up any longer, I was certain the brat would start crying.

I shrugged and instead popped the raw meat into my own mouth.

*sigh*

“It tastes just as bland as ever….”

If you ever wanted to find out what monsters tasted like, word of advice? Don’t try it for yourself. Firstly, an ordinary person would most likely die, and secondly, it tastes really bland. It doesn’t taste good, or bad, rather it doesn’t taste like anything. Just a bland, flavorless, and in some cases, textureless substance. It’s a lot like chewing on solidified water.

While I agonized over this minor dilemma, I looked back down at the child who was sitting flat on the limestone, mere inches away from a dissected stomach and a pool of blood.. Once again, it was staring at me with curious eyes.

“Hmmm…..I’m just gonna go ahead and presume you’re not a monster.”

“...da!”

The child reached out for me again.

“Then perhaps, might you be a magical being?”

“...da?”

For a moment I saw Nanami as the child mimicked a common action she would always do. The kid tilted its head to the sideways and I could almost swear I saw a question  mark float above his head.

“Although you don’t really look like one though….then again, I’ve actually never seen a magical being in my life.”
“Da!”

“You’re acting just like a human brat too.”

“Da, da!”

“maybe you are human….or…”

“Da!”

“Considering I found you inside Snapper head’s stomach, could you possibly be from the sea?”

“Da?”

I pointed at the lake.

“You know, the sea! Ocean, water, fish.”

The toddler followed my fingers and looked over at the lake. His expression instantly changed to one of familiarity.

“Da, da!”

The child reached out for the small body of water with its stubby arms and began an awkward crawl towards it. He looked over at me once he got halfway and then looked back at the water. He looked over and over between me and the lake. It seemed like the child was making a rather arduous decision at the moment as his expression teared up and sweat began to flow down his brow.

In the end, it decided I was better of the two, and shortly after, began to crawl back. In no time, he was once again sitting in front of me.

“Welcome back brat.”

“Da!”

He raised his arm in an awkward response.

This brat might really be from the ocean. Considering a few things, his kind probably lived fairly deep down. That would actually explain his unworldly durability, considering you’d need a ton of that to stand up to all the sea pressure.

I pondered for a bit.

Well, not that it really matters to me….its not like I’m involved or anything.

The kid continued making strange cooing noises and wouldn’t stop with all the “Daas!”.

Although it’s not like I’m heartless enough to just leave a brat alone all by himself.

I sighed once more. I had decided on a decision. A rather troublesome decision.

“Well first we’re gonna need a name for you.”

“Da?”

“It’s not like I can just keep calling you brat or kid, that’d get a bit repetitive. Now, what would be good…”

I racked my brain for a good enough name. Hopefully, I hadn’t inherited my mother’s terrible naming sense.

“Ah, how about Quinn?”

“Da! Da!”

The kid made happy gestures with his hands and smiled a toothless grin.

“Oho~ It seems like you like it. Then from now on, I’ll call you Quinn.”

“Da! Da!”

I nodded to myself.

Problem solved!

I was planning to take care of Quinn, at least until I find out a little bit more about the whole situation.

I bent down and extended my hand to Quinn.

“Then, hello Quinn, its nice to meet you. My name’s Kelp. I guess for the time being, I’ll be looking after you for the time being, unless of course you want to go back to the sea right now.”

At my introduction, Quinn looked at me questioningly. As a three-year old I didn’t expect him to understand, but nevertheless he displayed a delighted expression, causing his cheeks to redden, causing a peculiar yet strangely appealing purple flush to appear on his face.

Quinn grabbed on to my arm, and like a monkey, he clambered on to my back and continued upwards until he came to sit on top of my head.

“Eh~ ….You're surprisingly acrobatic Quinn, wait, no, that’s not it, Why are you on top of my head in the first place?”

“Da!”

“Um...I see...Well, for now how about you get down?”

I reached for Quinn, but was met with surprising resistance. He yanked my hair back, causing a sharp pain in my scalp. He continued throwing a fit on top of my head, all the while screaming,

“Nuuuu!!!!”

After several minutes of this, I finally conceded, and just let the blue skinned child do whatever he wanted.

I then quickly finished up the rest of the monster meat and waited to feel the effects.

The process of acquiring a new ability is surprisingly simple. I just wait until I feel like something new’s there.  Easy as that.

It’s a weird feeling to describe. It’s similar to how you just instinctively know that putting one foot in front of another will cause you to walk. Once I’ve eaten, and I’ve felt the new ability manifest, I instinctively know what type of ability it is and as an added bonus, I also get to know the rough basics on how to use it.

Kinda like right now.

I felt the pit of my stomach tighten and a slight wave of nausea swept over me. Once it passed, I instinctively knew what the nature of my new ability was.

“Good, it’s the one I wanted after all.”

I felt a hot sensation coiling up within me. I restrained this feeling, since after all, I didn’t want a misfire of my new ability. I won’t test it out any time soon, but since I’ve already got a rough handle on how to use it, I don’t even feel like such an action is necessary.

Snapper head’s fire ball, which from now on I’ve named [Inferno], is a special flame generated from highly compressed air that originates from the stomach. Somehow or another, this ability allows me to take in air into my stomach and bypass the lungs, where the air is heated, compressed and turned into fire.

I nodded in satisfaction.

“Well, now that that’s all done with, I guess its time to head back.”

At my words, the Boar from earlier looked up from his meal and came back. His belly was noticeably bloated and he wore a rather satisfied grin on his face.

“You heading back too, Boar?”

The boar snorted in response.

“I see then...well, I guess I’ll be on my way too…”

As I began heading towards the cavern entrance, I suddenly remembered,

“Oh yeah! I almost completely forgot….I gotta take Snapper head’s body with me, can’t go on and be forgetting the real reason why I went down here in the first place.”

Although I said that, looking at the humongous carcass that filled the cavern, I doubted I could do such a task.

Hmm….it’s gonna be real hard getting that hunk of meat through the tunnel….I doubt I can get it through, even if I just bring the head…

“Da?”

Quinn made a questioning sound as my face contorted in despair.

*sigh*

“It doesn’t seem like I can take snapper head with me in this situation….”

I groaned. Although I had gotten a cool new ability, the main reason I came down here was to hunt down a monster to take back with me. I made the stupid miscalculation of not noticing that there was no way Snapper head was making it back to the forest. And the lake is definitely out of question, I’d just end up feebly drowning.

I sighed and pondered what to do. While doing so, my eyes came to rest on the monster that was conveniently next to me.

I grinned.

“Oh...looks like I’ve found my solution?”

The boar looked at me oddly. It seemed confused of the situation.

“Hey mister pig, how are ya? Since you kinda remind me of another boar I took care of a long time ago, although he wasn’t nearly as large as you, I think I’ll name you Timmothy the 2nd, or just Timmy for short. Sounds good?”

The boar paused for a minute, as if thinking, before nodding his head.

It’s convenient that Timmy over here seems to understand the human language.

“Now, although this may be sudden, but, I have a little favor to ask…”

****

Shortly after, I am back in the forest. With me are Quinn, who is sitting contently on top of my head, and Timmy. We are currently making our way back to the school. And as convenient as it may seem, Timmy has agreed to come back with me, to act as proof of the exam.

“Although I don’t know whether they’ll accept bringing a monster that’s still alive. They did say to hunt one down….”

At this thought, I looked at Timmy. He was in front of me, acting as a sort of guide to the forest since I was completely lost and the book with the map was completely destroyed back at the cavern.

I’m sure they’ll at least add bonus points for bringing back something so big and strong?

…..

“Ah, I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it, for now, I’ll focus on heading back to school! Yes, one step of a ti-”

Before I could finish my little speech, I tripped on a twisted root, causing me to facepalm the floor.

With a mouth full of twigs and leaves, I grumbled.

“Damn it! This is the third time already! Damn this lag!”

I cursed this annoying side effect. It’s been causing me pain and heartache ever since the effects kicked in. If only I had something to carry me or something to ride on…..ah.

My gaze fell on to my new found friend.

“Oi! Timmy, come here for a sec would ya?”

At my call, Timmy looked back before making his way towards me.

I patted his back and rubbed his broken tusk.

“Good, thanks. Now, if you’ll excuse me for a second…”

I began climbing his broad back. Timmy was conveniently as big as a small car, which made his back the ideal place to ride on.

In no time I was enjoying the view from atop an AAA rank monster.

“Good, with this I don’t have to worry about tripping anymore! Now onwards!”

“Da! Da-da!”

Following my jubilated yell, Quinn imitated me. He was now resting on top of the fur next to me.

Timmy made an equally as excited snorting sound before he continued onwards. The boar had a better sense of direction than me, so I felt comfortable leaving Timmy with the task of bringing us back.

“Ah~ Finally a break. Good thing too, my lag was getting real annoying, plus my muscle have already started to ache.”

I sighed contently. The fur was surprisingly soft, almost like a furry mattress.

“mmmm….You’re back sure is comfortable Timmy, if I’m careless, I might just drift off to sleep. Isn’t that right Quinn?”

Looking down, I discovered that the toddler in question was already passed out and sleeping contently.

“Jeez, Don’t go drifting off to sleep like that all by yourself, Quinn….Actually that looks pretty good right now, maybe I’ll follow suite…”
I spread out my legs and nuzzled myself against the fur in an attempt to look for an even comfier position. In no time, I had found one, and sleep was threatening to engulf me. Before I completely drifted off, I was able to utter one last remark at Timmy.

“I’ll leave it up to you then, okay...For now, I’ll be taking a quick naaap…..zzzzz”

As the final jaws of the sandman enclosed on me, I heard a faint snort from Timmy. I fell asleep afterwards, to the sound of rhythmic tromping and gentle swaying.

*****

At the square, a young maiden can be seen fretting as she looks over the crowd of gathered students and subsequently towards the forest. The young girl in question was Nanami, Kelp’s quite precocious sister who was currently worrying about her older brother, who still had not gotten back from the forest, despite the time almost reaching 3 hours.

The time limit was approaching quickly and she still could not find a trace of her brother.

Nanami advances towards the front. She quickly passed the arm which was attached to a green toned wrist watch underneath a glowing ray. This machine (which was produced by magic) was something brought by Professor Kiryat. It had the ability to instantly record the information possessed within the wristwatches.

In front of Nanami was the student helper, Yun Hwa, who was currently taking over registrations while the Professor rested.

As Yun Hwa gazed down at her tablet, her eyebrows perked up.

“Oho~ Way to go Nanami! It looks like you’ve hunted quite a few magical beings! I’m may not be allowed to say this but, I think you’ve got the most so far! And on top of that you’re also starting at a very high rank! What a hard working student you are.”

Momentarily distracted from her distress, Nanami blushed and replied Meekly,

“A-ah, thank you….”

Upon seeing this, Yun Hwa’s face lit up and even her smile broadened. Seeing the shy Nanami’s terrible handling at praise instantly brightened Yun Hwa’s face. After all, seeing such a cute spectacle would make any man’s heart beat.

“Oh you! No need to be shy, miss Prodigy! Speaking from your records alone, it seems like you’re more than qualified to brag a little….Oh, it looks like you’ve also hunted quite a few B rankers too! Even those elusive Del Flames. I heard that they’ve got such low magic output that it’s nearly impossible to locate one! How on earth did you manage that?”

“I-I’ve always been really good at detecting magic...but thanks for the praise. I’ve got to go now, I’m looking for someone..”

Nanami scurried out like a frightened mouse before the boisterous Yun Hwa could react.

As she began her search once again, another voice called out to her from behind.

“Little sister~! Little sister~! Over here Little sister!”

Turning around, Nanami sighed in relief upon seeing the familiar face of Avril.

In truth, Nanami was a shy fellow. She was the type who was extremely bad with people and strangers in particular. Even her beloved older brother, whom she practically attaches to by the hip experienced Nanami’s shyness. When the two had met for the first time almost 10 years ago, Nanami was extremely cautious. It took Kelp the better part of 2 years plus some extreme effort on his part before he could solidify his relationship with Nanami to the extent of being able to keep a good conversation going.

Although the reason Kelp’s efforts had taken so long wasn’t due to Nanami’s caution towards strangers. If one lived with another for even a year long, it was normal to grow familiar with that individual. No, in actuality, Nanami had developed a crush, which, to the 7 year old little girl, was a difficult feeling to understand. She could not figure out why her voice would get shaky or why her palms would get sweaty at the mere sight of the young boy.

This, coupled by Nanami’s own crippling shyness was why it took so long for her to grow comfortable around Kelp.

On the plus side, Nanami’s shyness has diminished as she grew older. Now she is able to respond back when a stranger is talking to her (although her face might get as red as a tomato). And what’s more, around people she knows, Nanami can act somewhat like an ordinary person.

“A-Avril sempai, hello there.”

“Oho~ Hey there Little Sister! What have you been doing, It looks like you’re searching for someone.”

Avril approached whilst waving her arm. She showcased a broad grin as she replied back to the fidgeting Nanami.

“Oh, that’s right Sempai, have you seen my brother around?”
“Hmm? Kelp? Actually, now that you mention it, I haven’t. Is he not back yet.”

To this, Nanami shook her head. She grew even more downtrodden at the fact that not even Avril knew where her brother was.

“Oh, that’s too bad. I was sure that everyone had already made it back…..although there had been rumours that one person was keeping everyone from being dismissed...Ah! That might be your Brother then!”

The crowd of restless students had grown even rowdier. A rumor had circulated that had all students returned already, they would have already been dismissed. The fact that they hadn’t had caused a rumour to spark amongst the frenzied crowd that one person was keeping them penned in the tiny square. They pushed all their misplaced anger on this mysterious individual who just so happened was running a little bit late.

“Erm...I’m afraid if your brother doesn’t get back soon, the crowd might get a little blood thirsty…”

At Avril’s words, Nanami’s eyes opened wider in shocked dismay.

Before she could refute any of Avril’s words, a commotion gathered along the edge of the forest.

The canopies shook as a slight tremble could be felt. From out of the clearing, a Boar came striding forward.

Many of the Students recoiled in shock and gasped in fright. The boar in question was humongous, and was covered in a mixture of twigs and dried blood. Its fur was so messed up, that it was hard to make out the fur’s original brown color. Along with this and its badly damaged tusks, the beast gave off an aura of ferociousness. A bystander would have made the boar out to be a war veteran, one equally as frightening as their own Professor Kiryat.

The students all stand in blank surprise. From a distance, the Professor can be seen preparing some anti-monster defense spells.

As the initial shock fades, the Boar continues to stand imposingly in front of the crowd. Eventually, the sudden appearance caused a spark of murmurs to occur among the students.

“Oi, oi, what is that thing?”

“I’ve never seen a pig that big before!”

“Do you think it’s a monster? It looks like a monster, it looks alot like a monster!”

“Did this forest even had something like that?”

“O-oi, what do we do?”

While the murmurs reached their climax, the boar began to shake its body. The sudden action caused many students to yelp in fear. A few began to hastily prepare their magic. The commotion abruptly halted though as a black haired young man in a tattered uniform fell of the beast’s back like a flee from a dog’s back.

The student’s stared wide eyed at the newcomer. The Boar was scary in itself, but the appearance of a man who was previously on top of the beast just plain confused them. What made it more surprising was that the man himself wasn’t moving. He was currently lying face down on the dirt, legs spread out and butt poking forward. A rather disgraceful appearance.

“Y-you think he’s dead?”

“Well, he doesn’t seem to be moving…..so maybe.”

The crowd’s growing murmurs was abruptly halted by a quick snort, not from the Boar, but from the young man on the floor. All eyes turned towards him once again. The students waited for a few seconds in silence before they heard a snoring sound resonate from the man.

“Ah, he’s sleeping.”

A bystander remarked.

While all eye’s were currently focused on the snoring young man, another rustle could be heard from the back of the Boar. This time the students were more apprehensive than scared. After the young man had entered the scene, their danger senses had greatly diminished.

From up above the Boar’s back, among its longs tufts of fur, popped out a green head of hair. As the new person moved, more and more of his blue skin could be seen. Eventually a blue skinned toddler stood at the boar’s back. His hazy expression was met with another set of wide eyed expressions.

Quinn looked left and right, before his gaze landed on the sleeping young man. Once he saw the man, He began angrily smacking the top of the Boar’s head. The crowd looked with bewilderment. They not only feared what the Boar would do to the tantruming child, but also feared that it would divert its rage towards them.

But to their surprise, the Boar consented to the Quinn’s demands. It lowered its head, enough for the young child to waddle down from. The kid continued, this time crawling on the dirt floor to approach the sleeping young man.

With great effort, Quinn was able to flip the man right side up, revealing a mop of messy black hair accompanied by a stream of drool. Quinn squeezed himself between the space of the young man’s left arm and his chest. Once satisfied, he immediately drifted off to sleep, continuing his nap from before.

At this sight the crowd could only look on in utter silence and confusion. The situation itself was beyond weird, not even to mention the appearance of a giant Boar and a blue baby.

Nanami makes her way to the crowd, brought on by the students’ reactions and commotions.

“I wonder what’s going on he- ! I-is that Oniichan?”

Nanami’s eyes bulge seeing her sleeping older brother lying next to a blue child. Her eyes dart from the Boar to Kelp and then back again. She had a hard time computing what actually happened.

Just then, a group of 4 made their way to the front. The new group consisted of the teacher and his helpers. Avril was the first to comment, overtaken by her surprise she yelped,

“EH!!? Is that Kelp over there?”

Avril wore a similar expression as Nanami as she too tried to guess what went on.

George, the male helper separated to go question the crowd, whom had broken out of their stupor and started causing ruckus. He shortly came back, and reported to the others.

“Ehm, It seems like the student over there came back riding atop the Boar.”

He made a cautious sideways glance at the Boar.

“Hahahaha! As expected of someone like Kelp! Doing something so crazy right off the bat! School hasn’t even started yet.”

Avril interjected with her somewhat too proud comment.

“Mmmm...Please be serious here Avril, this is quite a problem you know.”

Yun Hwa sighed.

She knew this issue was more than meets the eye. She was a very studious person, and worried more about how this situation would count against the sleeping young man.

“You know that this test was about hunting a monster down right? Not taming and bringing back one. What’s more the Boar brought back the student! For all we know, the student over there could have passed out in the middle of the forest and was brought back by the Boar in question.”

George coughed at this statement. He found such a situation hard to believe.

“I doubt there’s such a friendly monster just lying around the forest like that.”

“Well, in any case, the issue still stands. What do you think Professor?”

Yun Hwa stirred the conversation towards Professor Kiryat.

He glanced at the scene, grunted, and began to walk away before saying, “Hmph. Just handle it amongst yourselves.”

To this curt reply, the students could only sigh in response.

Being the acting vice-leader, Yun Hwa had already come to a decision even before she had asked their teacher.

“It’s regrettable, but I’ll have no choice to fail Kelp over here. It’s quite unfortunate he wasn’t able to meet the requirements. If he had only managed to hunt at least one down….”

Nanami, who had been paying close attention to the trio’s conversation, gasped in horror.

“N-no way...Onii Chan's gonna fail…”

Her eyes watered, as she wavered in front of her sleeping brother.

The Boar, Timmy, who had a slight understanding of the human language comprehended the situation to the extent where he understood what the issue was.

Without warning, the Boar sprinted back to the forest, and action that greatly surprised the Students. After two minutes, the Boar came back from the tree line, this time carrying a mass of dirty white fur with him. He made his way towards the sleeping young man before setting it down right next to him.

The students who had seen a lot of incredible things today, could only stare blankly as the scene unfolded.

George was the first to comment. He had previously been looking quite closely at the dead thing that lay next to the soon to be expelled student.

“T-that’s a horned rabbit. A rank G monster worth exactly 1 point.”

The monster carcass resembled an ordinary rabbit, with the exception of a 15 centimeter horn sticking out of its head.

Nanami who suddenly came to understand the situation confronted Yun Hwa who was still in a daze by the sudden turn of events.

“W-with this he passes, right?”

Yun Hwa displayed an uncomfortable look. The situation before her took a turn for the worst. Now it was even more disarrayed.

“Ehm...but…”

Avril interrupted the wavering Honor student with a strong pat on the back.

“Come on Yun! There’s a monster right next to the man, don’t be such a stickler and just pass him already.”

At Avril’s suggestion, Yun Hwa could only sigh. She guessed she might have been thinking a bit too hard about the situation. It was time to show a little bit of leniency.

“F-fine. I guess this young man, erm, excuse me, Kelp Kusanagi passes the entrance exam with exactly one point!”

*****

Author's note again: Hope you enjoyed the story, and also, like always, some feedback is nice. I'd ask for reviews, but I don't want to be that type of author, but I do greatly appreciate the comments you guys leave me. Its nice to see my work getting appreciated.

till next time.

The Monster with no Name - Ch 7 A fish out of Water Part 2

http://www.royalroadl.com/fiction/710 - by Lv1Slime

I don't take credit on Mr. Lv1Slime's work

Author's note:Here's the latest chapter and second half of the Fish Dragon fight.  Whew, this chapter may be the longest one I've written so far.
Please inform me if there are any mistakes that I may have made. Also, like always, I''m welcome to all forms of criticism, advice, suggestions, etc.
*******

A Fish out of Water Part 2

The sensation of heated liquid engulfed me as I drifted deeper and deeper into the depths of the underground reservoir. This sudden change of pace was calming in a sense. No violence, no flying rocks, no angry dragon, not to mention, no annoying, self-regenerating tail. It was just me and the water.

Being submerged brought on a surprisingly familiar sensation. The heated water felt like hot springs and it reminded me of all the times I've spent in the bath. To me, taking long hot baths were one of my favorite past times which I’d use to enjoy back when I lived a comfortable life in my small, yet comfortable room.  Back then, soaking in tub filled with hot water,sometimes occasionally with bubbles, was one of the only times when I could truly unwind and relax. I’d use to stay in the bathroom for long periods of time, long enough to the point where I would pass out from all the accumulated heat, and as embarrassing as it is to admit, I’d pass out often.

Like what I’d often due during my favored baths, my thoughts wandered for a moment, forgetting the dangerous and deadly monster above who, more than likely, knew how to swim.

I wondered how exactly I got into this mess.

How did I end up fighting something that resembled over sized tilapia? Why the heck was it so strong? And lastly, why does a fish looking creature puke out fire? It just doesn't make sense anymore!

Well, then again, none of the previous monsters I ended up fighting could exactly be classified as, cookie cutter archetypes of what a proper “monster” should be. All of them were weird, er… different in a sense.

Rather, asking for something so ordinary as a regular, straight-out-of-a-fantasy-novel dragon might be an impossibility in itself, simply because reality doesn't work that way.

Although in this reality, dragons did exist.

*sigh*

Without any forethought, I tried to sigh, which in retrospect was a stupid move, considering I was underwater right now. I had forgotten this fact due to the results of my reminiscing. The moment I opened my mouth, a rush of warm water to came and filled my nostrils.

*cough cough*

I quickly covered my nose and mouth with my hands in an attempt to stop anymore oxygen from leaking out and anymore water from entering.

“Damn it! I lost track of time again! How long have I been here?”

I silently thought to myself.

I looked around my surroundings. I took note of the glowing crystals I had seen when I first entered the cavern. I was correct in thinking that the crystals also expanded into the lake. The scenery created by the multi-colored glowing gems was magnificent, gloriously beautiful to say the least. One wouldn’t think such a scene could be found under such a decrepit forest.

The faint light illuminated a small portion of the lake. Looking up, I could see the border between the air and water, where what little light that came from the cave and what little light came from within the lake collided, and created a refraction which lit up the surface of the water. As the air bubbles drifted upwards and reached the peak of the water’s surface, they reflected even more light, creating tiny lenses that saw past the water’s translucency and looked on into the cavern above.

Maybe it was the lack of oxygen circulating through my brain, but for some reason, such a simple view seemed strangely mesmerizing to me.

Finishing my observations, I looked down into the depths below.

Surprisingly, the lake was pretty deep and deceptively wide. Well in retrospect, it might not be such a surprise. Since I doubt something as big as that Dragon Fish above could fit through the small entrance I came through, the only passageway it could have used was this lake. If this lake was used regularly by him, then I expect it to be able to accumulate something of his size.

Thinking about this, I was reminded that he cavern above wasn’t all that big and looked devoid of life. For Snapper head, the cave might have been something like a resting spot. Maybe it was in hibernation or something and I just came at a bad time. Although I don’t exactly know what type of creature hibernates at the end of summer…
Looking down deeper, I noticed that the water was flowing towards the bottom of the lake.

Most likely the bottom led to an underwater tunnel that led out into a wider open space or something similar. Maybe the sea.

That was probably where Snapper head came from. The ocean’s the only logical place where something that big could hide out without being noticed. Maybe Snapper head was really a deep sea underwater monster species that lived on the ocean floor, which no one’s discovered yet. It would only make sense. Despite all the magic innovation, humanity’s progress on interstellar as well as deep sea exploration remained stagnant ever since the 21st century. And in a sense, I could see why this was so. I mean, why put in the necessary effort to explore something so far out, when new things keep popping up around you? Ever since magic’s sudden inclusion to our world, strange and even stranger things have kept society’s attention preoccupied.

Things like labyrinths and dungeons, places where monsters seem to be gathered with no logical basis. There are also other “wonders” that suddenly popped up ever since, for example, the floating islands along the British isles and Australian coastlines has kept adventurers and researchers alike occupied. These islands suddenly appeared almost overnight. All attempts to enter these islands, through magic or conventional air crafts has resulted in failure, since the instant anything comes as close as 150 meters from the islands, a strong gust would suddenly appear and knock the person back.

There’s also the so called Devil’s pit, a giant sink hole that  lies dead center in the South American country of Brazil and covers about half of country’s total surface area. When it first appeared it devastated the country, both economically and geographically. Such a wide sinkhole claimed many lives as well as permanently destroyed much of the farms and cities in Brazil. Of course the situation turned around the moment magical ore with abnormally large abundance of mana was discovered inside and along the borders of the massive hole. It was also discovered that ever since the sinkhole appeared, The area’s magic output has been abnormally high. Brazil now claims a monopoly on the mana ore industry, propelling the country into superpower status.

The hole has also allowed for some cool innovations to occur. For instance, using the mana within the atmosphere as well as many of the ores, Brazil was able to make a crude imitation of the floating islands by using a constant gravity spell that consumed large amounts of mana. Such a replica could only be found in Brazil, since the Devil’s pit is the only place with sufficient amount of mana to keep such a large area spell going. Now the floating island, located within the center of the hole and stands a good 200 meters above the Amazon, has been named the new capital. New Brasilia is now one of the most magically advanced cities in the world.

Yet despite all the ore and floating cities, no one has ventured further than 20 meters deep into the chasm. The oppressing feeling of pure fear that would suddenly overwhelm a person has been too much to handle. And even with this unanswerable phenomena, it doesn’t really help that locals have circulated the rumor that a screeching wail resonates from the hole at night.

But if I had to pick what I’d call the most amazing wonder, that would simply be the 8th continent. A mass of land that rose from the pacific ocean (seriously, it came from the water, there are even YouTube videos of when it happened) on the 10th day since magic appeared. A piece of land whose size lies between Africa’s and Australia’s, they ironically named it the continent Mu, after the concept of the lost continent penned by traveler Pangeon in the 19th-century. Although most people label it as the Adventurer’s continent, since explorers are scrambling to discover its secrets and countries are struggling to claim and colonize territory.

And even with all the efforts, not even a 4th of the continent has been successfully explored and mapped out. This can probably be attributed to the fact that its filled with crazy strong monsters and magical beings. Rumor has it that the lowest leveled monsters in Mu are all AA rank.

Such wonders and numerous more has occupied society’s fancy, so it’s no surprise if Deep Sea is ignored for the time being and monsters like Snapper head can roam free and stay undiscovered.
Plus, just from looking at Snapper head’s physiology, you can clearly tell it resembles a deep sea creature.

From what I could observe, that monster had some bad eyes. I think it may have used something other than visual light to “see”. It would explain why it could see through that dense fog it created. Plus, I think something as strong and odd looking like that would cause some attention if it were known, yet I haven’t heard a single thing about any sort of monster even remotely resembling a fish dragon.

That scenario also adds another question….why exactly was it here?

“...”

I thought it over and decided to ignore the whole thing. I wasn’t some scientist, and the only real thing I cared about was beating the damn thing, and not where it came from.

Shrugging, I shifted my attention back to the bottom of the lake, where the water seemed to flow out.

“It’d be bad if I got swept up in that current. I don’t think I’d have enough air to last me long enough to make it to the other side.”

With this last thought and the slight anxiety of drowning mixed with the primal fear of the darkness below, I  began swimming upwards, somewhat eager to resume my fight with the monster above.

*****

Timmy the North Tusk Boar.

He was a monster that climbed the ranks from his original rank of D to AAA. An amazing feat which started from the moment the young boar ran off with a bag of feed that  a careless amateur tamer had foolishly left in front of him. Unbeknownst to the tamer, the food he had procured was in actuality a collection of proteins which temporarily enhances a monsters strength and overall senses.  Usually such an item was used as an illegal supplement to enhance a monster tamer’s monster before contests or competition.

The boy who bought such a thing for a discount at a shady looking animal/monster pet shop had no idea of its implications.

Although a temporary increase in power may not have mattered for a rank D in the long run, for Timmy, it was all he needed. With the increase, he quickly put it into good use by challenging and eventually triumphing over normally stronger monsters. When, the protein’s effects finally wore off, Timmy had grown stronger, reaching level B as well as having developed a sense for battle.

His growth did not stop there. As he grew stronger, the boar in question grew bigger and bigger. Now as a rank AAA monster, the beast was the size of a small car, far different from his original size which resembled a big dog. Another thing the boar had cultivated was its war like shift in personality. Now as a boisterous and easily excitable monster, Timmy enjoyed battle  and had a personality which valued and appreciated challenge.

This love for a challenge and the stubbornness he naturally had was exactly why this outclassed monster had always fought with Snapper Head, a being whose real strength was comparable to an SS ranked monster’s.

Although Timmy’s current situation wasn’t due to such things. In actuality, not even Timmy knew why he had knowingly condemned himself into a battle which would have spelled defeat, and more than likely, his death.

Yet nevertheless, Timmy was here.

Seeing a blurred shape resembling a man fly past the cavern was the signal Timmy needed for his own assault. With a roar that would have rocked the heavens had they fought above ground, Timmy stampeded towards the opponent. He capitalized on Snapper Head’s moment of distraction and struck with a headbutt that ended with a tusk lodged into the Dragon Fish’s scaly left arm.

Normally, with Timmy’s speed and strength, which were both lower than the man who recently took a nose dive into the lake in the cavern, the beast normally wouldn’t have been capable of puncturing the scaled hide, which had been forged with the overwhelming water pressure from the world’s deepest oceans. Yet a tusk was clearly embedded into Snapper Head’s appendage. This was due to the sharpness of the said tusk, one forged through battle and a routine which consisted of sharpening the said tusk against hard stone and occasionally, against the bones of his enemies.

The Boar attempted to drive the tusk deeper into the Dragon, but with a simple grunt and a flail of its arm, the Dragon dislodged the mass of brown fur, breaking off the tusk in the process. It then quickly swiped down at the Boar with a collection of its 8 tails, which promptly sent Timmy a great distance from his original position.

Snapper head recognized the nuisance who had interrupted his battle. It was the annoying irritation which always bothered him whenever he attempted to sleep. To think such a lowly thing had the nerve to interfere.

Snapper head roared with a noise resembling a blend between a shriek of  a dying cat and the scratching of a black board.

Snapper head intended to warn the plebeian to leave his presence. Although he was irritated, he held no desire to kill the lowly thing, after all, he was no bully. Squashing the weak out of irritation was an action unbecoming of this prideful Deep sea monster. Despite Snapper head’s apparently kind actions though, such a display only enlightened the flame within Timmy’s heart.

The Boar had already decided to take on this challenge head on, and it responded with a roar of its own, one not as earth shaking but one that wouldn’t lose in terms of spirit. Timmy began his assault once more, rushing at the dragon with an even greater speed than last. Although this was only met with the same strike from Snapper head’s collection of tails.

Despite being repelled, Timmy again attempted another assault. This pattern continued on and Timmy’s rush would always be intercepted with the use of Snapper Head’s tails. The fish dragon extended its tail. It was now irritated to an even greater degree and had now decided to punish the stubborn nuisance. It separated its tails from each other and increased the speed of their slashes.

Although the tails held no scaled armor like Snapper Head’s original tail, its speed and sheer amount more than made up for this weakness. With the increase in speed, Snapper head turned its tails into impromptu whips, which whirred at frightening speeds and dug into the boar’s flesh and opened up numerous old wounds which had yet to heal.

Yet, despite its injuries, despite its weaknesses, Timmy continued attacking.

The boar wasn’t smart. It wasn’t fast on its feet and neither was it clever.It could not think of any ways to beat this monster. It couldn’t think of a sufficient tactic to fight against.  And being a boar, Timmy did not possess the ability to sidestep, meaning it could not dodge the tails which were clearly out of its league.

Timmy only had his perseverance and will power.

It did what it could only do and continued its straight forward rush, despite his injuries.
He was only getting progressively worse, his health nearing death’s door. The only thing Timmy could do….

...was hope for a miracle.

******
I broke through the water’s surface, the heated air I had previously grown familiar to hit me again once more as I took in the pressure. After I caught my breath, I surveyed the scene before me.

I saw a mass of fur and blood across the cavern, along with Snapper head’s tails smacking along the limestone floor.
At first I was confused as to what the brown creature was, but upon closer inspection, it came to resemble a pig.

“A pig...no more like a boar, could it be…?”

This overgrown animal was clearly injured, most probably from fighting Snapper head. Although looking at the state of things, I wouldn’t necessarily call what transpired a fight. It was more like a massacre.

I shifted my gaze to Snapper head. His expression showed one more of irritation rather than blood lust (the one he showed to me). What was more surprising was that Snapper head was injured. It had a tusk imbedded in its left arm. Knowing Snapper head’s strength first hand, I knew how much power this thing had, and exactly how tough its exterior was. To penetrate that scaly armor must have taken an equally tremendous force.

Looking over at the boar, who resembled a lower ranked monster, I found it necessary to fix my first impression.

“hmm...like I thought, this thing really is that, the AAA ranked monster of the forest...”

I looked over the scene once more, looked down and smiled.

Whether the boar knew it or not, it did me an extremely good favor.

This favor wasn’t the fact that he had managed to wound Snapper head, honestly speaking, I doubt an injury to its arm would have impended the fish too much. What I was grateful for was the boar’s efforts. Truth be told, this monster saved my life.

Had he not kept the fish dragon occupied, I would have been most likely dead. Going by the dragon’s appearance, had Snapper head followed me into the lake, it would have spelled my doom. He would have had an incredible advantage over me.

After all, a fish in water is more dangerous than a fish out of water.

The fact that Snapper head hadn’t entered the lake showed exactly how hard this bruised and battered boar fought.

I strode over the length of the cave and approached the boar. I ignored Snapper head, who had realized I had resurfaced. I blocked out his roars and furious tail snapping as I quickly approached the boar.

I rubbed its fur like one would a puppy. I didn’t have an ability that could heal him, but the least I could do was show my appreciation.

“...Thanks for the hard work.”

I leaned down and scrubbed of some of the blood that was flowing near the boar’s eye. In response the creature grunted in what I could only assume was approval.

“Leave things to me now. This thing might be tough, but I’ll make sure to return the favor.”

The boar shook and made a snorting noise from its snout. It seemed dissatisfied with me taking things into my own hands.

“Hmm, for a half dead pig, you're pretty uppity, you know that.”

I looked at the boar’s head and through a mess of blood clotted fur, I met its eyes. The boar had a defiant glare, one you wouldn’t find in a defeated animal.

We stared at each other for a minute.

After a while, I shrugged.

“Fine then. But at least take a rest and catch your breath for a sec here.”

I patted its back in reassurance. I looked at him again and smiled.

“Meanwhile, I’ll take a little bit of weight of your shoulders and keep the big guy over there occupied while you catch some r and r.”

I observed the boar’s heavy breathing shallow. I smiled in satisfaction, stood up, and glared at Snapper head.

I walked over to the fish dragon, who had satisfied himself in waiting patiently.

*Smirk*

“I appreciate you waiting there. Really, how nice of you...now”

I cracked my knuckles again.

“It’s time for round two!...er, or does it make this round three now..?”

Before I could finish my banter. One of Snapper head’s tail struck at me. Barely avoiding the blow, I rolled to my left and grimaced.

If I’m not mistaken…

“...it’s faster.”

“GR OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA”

Snapper head roared back.

“tch!”

This is seriously a problem. I could barely dodge the original tail. I don’t think I can dodge 8 times that going at a much faster speed unless I do something extra special.

Snapper head’s tails reared back, and one by one struck down towards me. Quickly, the tail’s momentum and speed picked up pace, until the only thing I could discriminate were rainbow colored flashes.

It was a perfect defense. The speed alone caused tremendous damage, and despite not aiming the blows precisely, they were enough to overwhelm me. I stepped back outside the tail’s range. Luckily this time, it seems that the tail’s couldn’t extend like before. Snapper head probably had a specific amount of reusable flesh and he used it all up recreating his tails.

“hmm...This is quite a predicament. I don’t really have any long range attacks, well unless you can count compress punch, but…”

From a distance, I tried using a compress punch at snapper head, but passing through his tails, the punch quickly fizzled out before it could do any damage towards the thing’s main body. The only thing that reached him was a mild breeze.

“Hah~ Like I expected, Compress punch is useless from this distance, especially with those tails flailing about.”

The tails' speed was enough to create a torrent of air that acted as a defense towards my compress punch. The punch itself lacked enough power to get past such a tremendous gale.

“Now..what to do?”

I sighed and squatted down, going into a quick thinking position I used to do quite often when I fought monsters.

“Would dropping stalagmites on his head work? No no no, I don’t know whether his tail is fast enough to react to it, but I’m sure that armor hide of his could easily withstand something like that...  Oh! What about carrying around a rock as a shield to block the tails...but then again, seeing as how those thing cut through limestone like butter, I don’t think that would be a very good idea..”

I muttered to myself as I brainstormed various ideas. In the end it seemed like nothing I could think of was enough to  beat this thing.

“Hah~ I guess I’ve got no choice but to bring that out…”

I steeled myself. I was planning on using another one of my abilities from my assortment of usurped monster abilities.

Although I generally disliked doing this. Aside from compress punch, which my body has already adjusted to use, and maybe [physical enhance], which only brought on side effects if I overused it, the rest of my abilities brought too much strain to my body and I’d end up facing various side effects whenever I used them without care. Basically, out of the 8 abilities I had managed to acquire, I could only use 2 effectively. Really, that’s not very good. But desperate times call for desperate measures.

Another set back to this was that currently I could only use one power at a time. The last time I used two at the same time, I managed to end up in a month long coma. I had thought about training my powers, but if I ended up in a cycle of comas, I’d miss the majority of my teenage years, which was something I couldn’t stand.

I mean, you know how many episodes I’d miss doing that? That’s not even to mention all the figurine sales I wouldn’t be able to participate in…

What made this ability worse, especially in this situation was that this particular ability left me physically vulnerable, so even so much as a scratch could kill me.

“But I gotta do what’s gotta be done.”

I took a step forward and another and another until I was about a 10 centimeters away from the tails’ attack range.

I took a deep breathe and activated my next ability.

“[Monochrome]!”

I took a step forward. The surroundings slowed and my vision turned black and white. In this new grayscale world that only I could see, everything was moving at a much slower speed.

Monochrome was an ability that enhanced reflexes, senses and pretty much all forms of perception and sensation. If used effectively, monochrome could enhance all 5 aspects of my senses (i.e. vision, hearing, touch) to varying degrees of improvement and even had the bonus of activating an extrasensory perception (or in short a sixth sense). Although I could only enhance one aspect at a time right now.

I named monochrome after what it did to my color perception while the ability was active. In exchange for propelling my reaction time beyond godly measures, the extent where the once imperceptible whip like tails now seemed fixed in mid air, my vision could now only see in various tones of one color, or to be more specific, I could only see in black and white.

In this grayscale world, nothing was beyond me.

A drawback to this ability was that it left me physically vulnerable, seeing as how monochrome only affected my perception and left the physical aspect of my body alone. Right now, my reaction time and mental processing powers were beyond human measures, but my body remained in its base form. Being attacked would result in the same grievous wounds, although now the question was whether my body could keep up with my reflexes.

Since this ability didn’t enhance my physical speed, I moved through the sea of tails slowly (or at least slow in my eyes). I took careful, well-placed steps with as little movement as possible. I strived to make my actions as efficient as possible, getting rid of all unnecessary movement, and capitalizing on my new ability. The tails which were mere centimeters from my body were easily avoided and I made my way closer and closer to Snapper heads main body.

As I leisurely observed my surroundings while moving my body, my gaze fell upon the tails. I now had the perfect opportunity to observe these dastardly appendages.

The tails counted eight, and lacked any scaly armor. They were all flesh like, and resembled squid tentacles or something similar, of course with the lack of suction cups.  the tails all met together at the base where the main body of the tail was armored.

‘Oh...what’s this…?’

Looking closer, I saw that where the tails opened up, a hole was present along the base of the tail. The hole was gaped wide open, and looking at the insides of it, I could clearly see a row of sharp teeth that covered the inside walls of the hole.

In short, it resembled a mouth of a squid or octopus.

‘Heh, the tail really did look like an octopus, or more like the monster itself was like  a chimera or something similar. Not only a fish, but this dragon also had octopus like aspects.'

Like a chimera, who had a tail with the head of a snake, Snapper head had a tail with the head of an octopus. The original tail before may have been an armor like substance that protected this part of its body.

‘And if it needs protection that means it’s vulnerable!’

I changed targets and began approaching the base of the tail. The flying appendages were easy to dodge, and after what seemed like 15 minutes (although in reality it was more like 4 seconds), I was face to face with the canined hole.

‘Now comes the hard part.’

I cocked my fist back like how I usually did when ever I used compress punch.

I was planning to use compress punch to send a blast of air towards the inside of the tail, but the only problem was that I couldn’t be in monochrome mode while I was doing it.

This part relied on how fast I could activate compress punch after monochrome ended. If I was even a moment late, I’d end up taking tremendous damage from the 8 tentacle-like tails. The good thing was, at least there was no delay when it came to interchanging between abilities.

My mouth slowly widened into a smirk. I could feel my heart pounding at an incredibly slow pace.

‘Being in the face of extreme danger is quite exhilarating.’

Oops, my hedonistic side is showing.

I regained my composure, and looked at the opening. The mouth was filled with teeth that were covered, or more accurately drowned in saliva.

To ensure maximum efficiency, something that packed a more extreme punch than compress punch was needed.

After waiting for the right time, I took a deep breathe and deactivated [Monochrome].

Instantly, the once slow tails returned to their normal intensity and speed as the color in my eyes rushed forward.

Without wasting even a moment, I quickly threw a straight punch towards the direction of the mouth before the tails could react fast enough to rip  my human body to shreds.

‘[Compress punch! Variant; Gale!]’

Variant gale.

Being one of my most used abilities, Compress punch’s possibilities opened up to me. After familiarizing myself with the ability, I could change the types of wind I sent out. Currently I had three variations of Compress Punch. The normal punch I use didn’t pack a heavy blow, but it had a good enough range and quick deployment.  Gale variation sent out a much stronger punch but had an extremely short range.

Gale was best suited for close range combat. Combat like the one that I was having right now.

With the thrust of my fist, a wall of air expanded outwards. Gale variation’s air was covered in razor sharp winds that cut through the vulnerable insides of the tail. As the insides continued to sustain damages from the sharp winds, it slowly expanded while even more and more air filled the tail.

Quickly pulling my right fist back, I followed up with a second serving, throwing my left fist in unison with the retreating right hand. Another wave of pressure rushed through the creature's tail.

In an instant, the trunk of the tail exploded from all the accumulated pressure. It’s eight appendages flew outwards and the cavern walls were splattered in blue blood, scales and tail meat.

As the last chunks of tail slapped down on the floor, the room entered a quiet silence. Snapper head hadn’t uttered a single screech from the moment its tail exploded.

It looked like Snapper head was in shock. What a very human like reaction, I noted.

Even before Snapper head could do anything, I immediately retreated. The side effects of Monochrome hadn’t set in yet, but they would soon.

After I got out of Snapper head’s attack zone, and reached to where the boar was resting, I waited. The side effects weren't that dangerous, but in the middle of battle, they were life threatening.  As a drawback for using monochrome, my  reaction time would be delayed by 1.5 seconds. Basically anything that my eyes take in were things that happened 1.5 seconds earlier. Of course I could always just close my eyes and fight blind, but I’m no ninja samurai who's been trained to fight bears blindfolded.

As I waited for the side effects to set in from  a safe distance, A thundering shriek resonated from the cave and filled my ears. 1.5 seconds later, I saw Snapper head open its mouth and silently screamed at my direction.

“Ah, the lag’s finally set in.”

I sighed. I couldn’t possibly wait for the side effects to wear out since it took a whole day for that to happen. But the human body is surprisingly resilient. I was now merely waiting for my mind to adjust and adapt. For now, close combat was a no no.

Although Snapper head didn’t seem to agree to this notion. He began to stagger in my direction. He swayed clumsily, probably not used to the missing tail, which consisted of about half its body weight. But slowly and surely he was closing the gap. The out of sync stomping sounds mixed with the delayed sight of this tremendous monster lumbering closer sent chills down my spine.

“H-how do I get out of this now….”

Throwing several compress punches was useless, as Snapper head shrugged it off and continued its pace.

When all hope was seemingly lost, a once forgotten mass of brown fur began to shake. The boar steadily got on its feet. It looked at me once, and with a gallop, he rushed forward to the Sea monster.

Snapper head was apparently surprised (or maybe it was still in shock?) by the sudden appearance of this past challenger as he was too slow to avoid the boar. The beast’s one good tusk impaled itself into Snapper head’s other arm.

The Sea dragon’s assault halted as the beast preoccupied him. Now without the threat of the tail, the boar was fighting a much more fair battle, although it was still severely outclassed.

“Hmmm….With the help of the boar, I can probably do that now, and attack in where this stupid lag wouldn’t matter.”

I smiled.  I couldn’t waste the Boar’s efforts, I had to put in my share too.

While the Boar diverted Snapper head’s attention, I ran as quickly as I could manage to the farthest wall of the cavern, increasing the distance between Snapper head and me as much as possible. My next attack, which fortunately, happened to be the last variation of compress punch (that meant no more pesky side effects), worked best the further away I was from my target.

Once I was as far away as possible, I prepared myself. The reason why I hadn’t used this attack before during this fight was that it had an extremely long charge time. Much longer than Snapper head’s own fire ball.

I took a deep breath and exhaled.

This time, instead of going into a fighting stance, I separated my feet until they were shoulder width apart and extended my left arm towards snapper head. I formed a gun shape with my left hand with the thumb pointing towards the ceiling and held that hand with my right hand. I aimed carefully at Snapper head’s chest, where I presumed the heart was and whispered,

“[Compress punch], Variation; Sniper”

I felt tendrils of air gather around the edge of my finger tips.

This attack was useless in close range, since the majority of its power originated from the surroundings. The further it needs to travel to reach its target, the stronger the resulting attack would be, that type of thing. That’s why it was the perfect chance to use this move while the Boar was distracting the dragon.

I gathered air before my fingertips, and began moving it in a circular motion in front of my fingers. Eventually, after a good amount of air had a gathered and a strong wind was now present, I enveloped my two extended fingers in the wind tunnel I had produced.

Now the only thing left to do was to accumulate enough wind.

While I was doing this, I turned my gaze back at Snapper head. I saw the irritated expression he produced, and his constant shift in attention as his eyes darted between the Boar and towards me. Eventually, Snapper head seemed to reach a decision, as he stopped moving altogether and ignored anymore of the Boar’s attacks. He sucked in the surrounding air (or maybe oxygen) and expanded his stomach once more.

I looked uneasily as  its stomach continued to expand. My own  attack still needed time, and although his did too, it was undoubtedly much faster than mine.

After a while, of seeing the stomach’s continued expansion, I felt the searing sensation of heat approach me.

As I saw the delayed launch of the fireball 1.5 seconds later, I pushed my left thumb down, and whispered,

“Bang.”

1.5 seconds later, I saw the air tunnel which dissected the approaching tunnel. Another 1.5 seconds pass before a medium sized hole appeared on the left side of the Sea Dragon’s chest.

“...”

I heard a crashing sound that shook the cavern like a mini earthquake.

“.....”

1.5 seconds later, Snapper head slouched onto the limestone floor.

The Monster with no Magic - Ch 6 A Fish out of Water

 http://www.royalroadl.com/fiction/710 - by Lv1Slime

I don't take credit on Mr. Lv1Slime's work

 A Fish out of Water

The scale clad abomination exhaled and growled.

Wait no, it wasn’t him that was growling per say, rather his stomach made an unnerving rumbling noise, as if something was building up within the core of its pit. It then inhaled deeply, bloating the already bloated and quite noisy stomach beyond preposterous levels.. This action alone depleted a substantial portion of the air, enough so to make breathing slightly difficult. Steam seeped out of the monster’s nostrils, as its eyes almost glazed over, turning it’s once beady yellow eyes, red and inflamed. Going by Snapper Head’s earlier display of power, I could guess as to what exactly the monster was about to do.

I didn’t see it quite clearly last time due to all the dust in the air, but I’m sure this fish dragon made the same gestures before it fired that absurdly high powered flame of his.

I braced myself for Snapper Head’s attack. My eyes drifted towards the roof of the cavern directly above the monster. The exact spot where it had expressed its determination with its fiery resolve. The area was melted, rather, the once concrete like limestone was now molten, glowing a faint red akin to that of lava. Upon closer inspection, the flame had melted through a large portion of the ceiling, gouging out a deep crevice. If I estimated, I’d say the whole had gone through a little over 20 meters of limestone.

Hmm.. Once again, I must say, that flame of his is pretty destructive...can I survive a hit from something of that caliber?

I pondered this thought, and took remark of the charge time of his particular attack. Compared to his earlier strikes with his tail, his flames were charging at a snail’s space. Although the aggro power of it more than made up for the amount of time it took to get ready. If directed at me, or anywhere near my vicinity….well, let’s just say, my options would become greatly limited.

I had allowed it time to fire off that attack of his earlier, partly due to my curiosity, but now, I had no intention of giving this thing another freebie.

“Well then…. if you’re gonna take your sweet time, I won’t waste the opportunity.”

I spoke to myself, preparing my own preemptive attack before Snapper Head’s own turned this room any hotter.

I cracked my left knuckle, pushed off with the back of my foot. Using the whole of my body, I sent a loose straight punch flying towards Snapper Head’s direction.  Since I hadn’t moved from my earlier spot, my fist didn’t connect, instead a collection of compressed air rushed towards its direction, hitting him with an invisible, almost imperceptible force.

Normally punching at thin air wouldn’t cause such an attack to happen, no matter how great one’s punching strength was.  The air would dissipate before it could cause any significant damage. But this particular attack was special in a sort. It was a weird phenomenon produced not by magic, a particular pattern ever present with my constitution.

The compress punch (my loving nickname to my acquired move) was something I learned...er more specifically acquired while lost in Eucrete Forest before I started working at the Park as a caretaker.

There was this particular monster who lived within the bowels of Eucrete’s hot zone (the term most thrill seekers use to refer to a labyrinth’s most dangerous area). It was an odd looking creature. Like a penguin with giant wings. It’s eyes had a thin layer of transparent material, and its feather’s were dirty white with streaks of red.

Anyway, this monster was a bit strong as well, although nowhere near as strong as Snapper head. On top of its strength, the Penguin had a particularly annoying habit of swooping down and stealing my berries, which were one of the only things foragable in Eucrete’s hot zone (The lack of resources contributed to why this particular location was labeled a hot zone). It was rather annoying. It had a dirty tactic of using its ability, sending out gusts of compressed air produced by the creature’s wings (something like a whirlwind), in order to trip me up and steal my food.

Even if I was constantly on look out, the forest wears down on you, and eventually I’d reveal an opening. This particular monster had a knack for finding such openings.

I had an inkling that the thing not so much wanted my food, and more that it loved messing with me (since it always made a weird squawking sound whenever it did this to me). It would aim for my knees and once I lowered my ground, hit me from the back and shove me down to the ground. This was especially irritating whenever I had to cross over a swamp or someplace muddy.

Yet despite its weird habits,  like I said, the creature was a strong monster who gave me a rather hard time. So, long story short, I finally snapped. In the end, rather than fighting it directly (it didn’t deserve this privilege) I laid a trap, lured it in, and I ended up beating it up.

After that I ate it.

Contrary to its appearance, the bird tasted like beef.

You can probably see where this is going. I ate the monster and gained its particular ability.

Normally, no sane person would do this.

Monster meat, any type of monster meat, was highly acidic and dangerous when consumed by humans. This was due to the magic within a human being’s body. The body of a monster lacked magic, no, its more accurate to say a monster’s body wasn’t compatible with magic. When a monster is infused with a high enough concentration of magic, the monster will start feeling a bit nauseous, but aside from that, no particular sickness or danger will occur.

In contrast to this, when a person or creature with innate magic (basically just about everyone on this planet) consumes monster meat an explosive reaction will occur, causing severe nausea, sickness, and in worse case scenarios, even death (although strangely enough, this phenomenon doesn’t apply to magical beings). Of course this didn’t apply to me either. When I said I had a constitution more like a monster than man, I wasn’t lying. This body of mine is the reason why I can’t use magic and it’s also the reason why I can eat monsters. And like other monsters, I grow a bit stronger the more monster meat I eat. Although my method of growth is where I differentiate from an ordinary monster.

Monster can be roughly divided into rankings. But these ranking only apply to the whole of a particular species. Like any human, an individual monster can also get a lot stronger than its original species. This is due to monsters’ particular trait, [devour]. Almost all monsters can eat other monster and gain a boost in their own strength. Incidentally, there is a bigger effect in strength boost when a weaker leveled monster eats a higher ranked monster. Kinda like how in an rpg, you gain more experience when you beat a higher level opponent.

That’s why a usually ranked F horned rabbit can acquire the same rank as a strong Rank A Wyrm. Although this doesn’t particularly happen often, since a monster whose naturally a higher level than another will usually stomp out these “upstarts” and stop them from getting any stronger, well, at least strong enough to move up from its original level. Of course there are always exceptions to this.

But generally, a high ranked individual from a low ranked species will be weaker than an individual from a species with the same rank as the particular individual.

In short, a monster can grow stronger through eating other monsters. My body works in a similar way. I don’t know whether if it’s due to my lack of magic, or something else in my body’s constitution, but I can gain a monster’s particular ability or trait if I eat one.

Now normally, a monster would just get a bit stronger from eating other monsters, they don’t gain the abilities like I do, so I guess this [Ability stealing] trait of mine is something only I have.

“....”

I break my stance and look over at Snapper Head.


His face had reared back. It grimaced and looked at me. Despite my attack being almost imperceptible, it had an inkling as to what caused its pain. Rather it narrowed down the source to the only hostile party within the cave.

Compress punch wasn’t really a destructive attack, well it was still capable of doing some real damage, enough damage to break through a concrete wall or maybe dent some steel, but in terms of perspective, this type of attack wouldn’t do much in the face of Snapper head’s scaly armor.

Although with a combination of surprise and a hit to his weak spot (A.K.A his exposed stomach) it could do enough.

My preemptive strike disrupted Snapper Head’s own attack.

It coughed once as a collection of heated air escaped his throat, drastically shrinking the monster’s bloated stomach in the process.

I guessed that the flame was somehow produced using the air around him and converted to a scorching heat comparable to the sun (this was an exaggeration of course) within his body. But I couldn’t grasp exactly how it worked. How exactly did he turn air in to fire? Did this method lie in the fact that whenever he does this, his stomach bloats? Usually air goes to the lungs, but this creature’s body seemed special. His stomach was capable of storing air as well. And somehow he could turn that air in to fire, and no doubt, this was probably accomplished within his stomach.

Snapper Head scowled in anger, and opted to go for a more physical means of retaliation.

The length of its tail began to flicker in mid air as Snapper head threateningly pointed the tip directly towards me. I raised my arms in preparation but contrary to my prediction, the tail did not rocket at me and attempt to impale my chest.

It flickered once more before it’s rainbow hued end made a beeline towards the limestone floor. The tails end burrowed under, slightly shaking up the floor beneath me. I had an idea as to what this thing was planning, the fact that the tail end spun around like a drill sort of gave that away, So I took a giant leap backwards.

I exited outside what I presumed was the tail’s range. The tail right now was completely underground, well not completely, more like a sizable portion of it. The armored end of the thing as well as half the pasty portion where below ground. I guessed this thing had planned to attack me from underground, but its tail could only go so far, seeing that it was still attached to the main body.

But leaping out of the presumed “strike zone” was completely pointless. In the next instant the tail erupted out from underneath me. This was bad enough, but what made it worse was the fact that the tail’s speed, and intensity was seemingly unaffected by the limestone, probably the resistance was negated by the rotation..

With a well timed jump upwards, I was able to limit some of the damage, but the pressure alone was enough to send me flying. Stones flew and dust spread as I was with sufficient enough force to the point where my back collided with the ceiling (no easy feat considering the height of the cave easily exceeded 20 meters). But at this point, I was just pretty grateful I hadn't accidentally collided and impaled myself into one of the numerous hanging stalactites.

As I made my descent down from the ceiling, I looked over at Snapper head. Despite the ache in my back I still maintained a calm demeanor but I was surprised as to how the tuna was able to strike me from such a distance. I hadn’t looked very closely, but I knew I was outside the range of that tale, which didn’t even exceed 10 meters.

Looking closely, I noticed that the pasty unguarded section of its tail was stretching, kinda like taffy.The damn thing had the ability to extend its tail. That would explain how it could attack me from all the way back there.

“...How troublesome. This walking piece of sushi’s a bit tough..”

I remarked. At first I thought the thing’s size was an advantage for me. Not only was it a bigger target to hit, its movements were also restricted by the cave’s lack of space. But with that incredibly fast tail of his, it covered up for its disadvantages.

Falling down I noticed that its tail has already begun to borrow down underneath the floor. The instant I stepped foot on the ground its tail shot out at me.

This time I was lucky enough to anticipate it, I dodge rolled out of its range. A moment later, all that was left was a hole in the floor. The tail was once again underground.

This method of attack continued on. The tail would shoot out from underneath me, and would then be below ground once more, leaving behind a hole in its wake. The tail’s speed was incredible, it kept me on my feet, barely dodging, and always keeping me at a hair’s breadth away from death. In no time the room was full of holes, to the point where I now had to worry about not falling into one while dodging.

I was desperately dodging. In truth, I was afraid of getting injured. My special constitution acts like a double edged sword. Normally, my body is a bit more sturdy when compared with a regular person. I’d say, even without the one particular body strengthening ability I used to send Snapper Head flying a while ago, I was normally about twice as strong as a mage with body reinforcement spell in use. But in return for this, my body takes 4 times as long to heal. Sickness and diseases affect me normally, but any physical injury takes quadruple the normal amount of time to heal. Even normal scratches last long, and if I get so much as a broken arm, I’d need a cast for like 4 months or so.

That’s why I favored staying indoors where it was safe and lacked any life threatening situations (although year old expired ramen was pretty dangerous in itself).

That’s also why dodging this tail that looked like it could snap me in two was particular vital. Since being in hospital bed for 4 years isn’t a particularly interesting activity, speaking from experience.

“Tch! I’ve had enough of that damn tail!”

I yelled as another tail erupted out from below me. This time, it sent me flying much like the first strike did. I hurtled towards the ceiling, embracing the impact with the majority of my spinal column.

Before falling down though, I had already decided to strike back. That’s why when the tail had hit me, instead of dodging, this time I used the impact to push me up towards a hanging stalactite on the cave ceiling, using a swift kick of my own to steer me towards my goal. The majority of the impact was diverted, and despite how fast I was flying through the air, I was, more or less, uninjured.

I gripped the approaching stalactite in one hand and quickly broke it off. From this angle (high above the air), I had a clear view of the cave. I saw all the holes, Snapper Head himself, his tail, and the particularly vulnerable looking portion of it, the extendable pasty section to be specific.

While the armored portion of the tail was busy underground, I took this chance and hurled the stalactite at the weak spot while I was still in mid air.

Thanks to my enhanced strength (which was, surprise surprise, also due to an acquire ability), the speed of my throw was comparable to Snapper Head’s tail, although purely out of bias, I’d say I was faster.

Even before I had hit the ground, I could hear Snapper head’s convulsing shrieks.

The stalactite was big, big enough to sever the tail with a well placed strike.

I glanced over and saw the fish dragon’s tail writhe and struggle. It was now half its original size, and I made sure to sever it directly where the pasty portion began to extend past the armored portion closest to its body, hoping to stop the thing from extending.

The other portion of the tail was effectively underground and out of commission.

I grinned and began running towards the monster. I saw the grimace-like expression (or at least I thought it looked like that) on its face, but I ignored it and continued running.

As I got closer, I noticed that its stomach was bloated, and steam was seeping out of its nostril.

“wha-, that’s, when did it have time to-!!!”

I quickly lunged to the left as a half charged white flame streaked past me. This flame wasn’t nearly as destructive than earlier, presumably due to the fact that it didn’t have sufficient time to charge, but the surprise attack almost cost me an arm and a leg nonetheless.

Apparently the thing had charged that attack of his while swinging that tail around. I was too busy dodging to notice.

Although now that it had wasted the flame, and its tail was severed, the best location now was to get as close to the monster as possible. Close quarters combat would put it at a disadvantage since it would lack the speed to fight back.

I continued running towards the monster, all the while throwing a few compress punches aimed at its stomach in order to disrupt any charging it did.

I ran at my normal pace, mostly since my ability [compress punch] was in use. One drawback to my powers is that I could only use one at a time. If I exceeded this limit, my body underwent severe repercussions.

Another reason for this was since excessively using that enhanced body ability of mine took too much of a strain on me, and healing from muscle fatigue took too much time in my case.

I was thinking of the future you know. That’s why, out of all of the abilities that I've managed to acquire, the body enhancement one was the second most thing I would always regret using.

I eventually got close enough to punch the thing, and with that I activated my regrettable ability and set lose a flurry of kicks and punches.As a result, the monster roared in agony. Its eyes blazed with fury.

Although the monster wasn't completely defenseless.

It would seep out more smoke from its nostrils, enough to cause a small collection of fog to disrupt my vision. And somehow, Snapper Head’s anger caused even more steam to appear, effectively creating a wall of fog that sealed away my most relied sense.

Also, its stubby arms were surprisingly fast. From time to time it would strike at me, quite accurately to boot, which made me think that the thing could see through the fog it created. Maybe it sensed heat or something?

I blocked these attacks and continued beating the monster. Eventually, through all the fog, I saw a glimpse of a crack that began to form on its thick exterior. This was tough work but it looked like it was finally paying off.

Normally, I would have aimed for its obviously weaker and less protected stomach, but the monster was smart enough to protect that part of his body by lying down on its stomach.

Despite that, I paid it no heed and continued beating on its scales.

I didn't what happened. Whether it was my overconfidence, or the fog, but the second it happened I was too slow. A force strong enough to turn my body to mush if it weren't for my ability struck me from my blind side and hurtled my once more through the air.

I was flying high and fast, my body making a beeline towards the lake I had forgotten about in the cave. I barely caught a glimpse of the creature’s tail, which I guessed was what struck me. I had though it was out of commission, it being severed in half and all. But the Monster was wagging it like a dog, without a care in the world, side to side. It looked good as new but with a few alterations.

From where it was severed, the once pasty white complexion of the exposed skin extended, and split into seven individual extensions. Like its once rainbow toned end, these new threats counted 8 in total, and each one was dyed in one color representing a different aspect of the rainbow.

I grimaced, like a hydra, it seems like when I severed the tail more grew out. Although this time instead of just two to replace the one, seven came as a result. Although the plus side to this was that the tail didn't have any scales growing out of the newly grown portions.

I sighed, and barely caught a passing glimpse at the figure who was on all fours and emerged out of the entrance, as I submerged into the surprisingly warm water.

*******

"Hope you enjoyed this one.

Any comments, criticisms, suggestions, pointers, or if you found any mistakes of mine, they're all welcomed.   World building is quite tough, so any help is appreciated. Also please rate or review my story if you have the time, I'd love to know what you guys think." - Author


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