Chapter 9 : LV2 (2)

The smaller Taraqaks open way for the big Taraqak, the big one stride unimpeded and arrive near the Taraqaks corpses. It looks at the corpse and hisses loudly at the other Taraqaks.

The Taraqaks move in a frenzy, scouring the place. The big one also joins in the search. I stay quietly inside the tree, the layer of black sludge tremble with numerous legs crawling over it.

I focus my sight on the big Taraqak, with every step it takes, its legs pierced the ground. It is bigger than me, maybe the same size as Fist. The big Taraqak moves around. Its teeth strike each other producing a clattering sound as it moves. Its crimson eyes glow.

It moves closer to the tree I'm in. I watch it getting closer, my bone blade ready to strike. I can't shoot at it from inside the tree, I'll get out and slash at it with my bone blade. Closer, the big Taraqak move ever closer. When the big Taraqak is at a jump distance from me, I just put power in my legs, and about to burst out of the tree, the big Taraqak launch its foremost legs at me. Taken by surprise, I quickly get down to the ground. The leg easily destroys the layer of black sludge and stabs deeply just above me.

I burst out of the tree and another leg stabbed toward me. Too slow to dodge, the leg hit my shoulder. The force throws me back and hurls me to a tree. I groan in pain, blood flow from the gaping wound on my left shoulder. My back is also in pain from the crash with the tree. The big Taraqak doesn't move, it doesn't need to. Looking at the weakened me, the small Taraqaks all swarm toward me.

I can't move with all the pain and damage, I can only see the Taraqaks rush at me. I force my bone blade up to slash at the incoming Taraqaks. My tail pounce and bite the nearest Taraqak. I was about to stab a Taraqak...

PSYUUUU!

A bone needle suddenly pierces its body, killing it instantly. Vision drops in front of me and her bone blade moves in a flash. Her bone blade pinned down two Taraqaks to the ground. Using the chance she creates, I struggle to get up.

The big Taraqak hisses, it rushes toward us. I, who manages to stand up, raise my unwounded left arm and shoot at the big Taraqak. I aim for its many eyes, the big Taraqak moves its leg in front of its face like a shield. My bone needles puncture its leg but it's shallow.

"Vision, jump and target the big Taraqak's eyes!"

Vision shoots a bone needle at the big Taraqak and stabs its leg before jumping to a branch above. Quickly, another bone needle stabs the big Taraqak's leg. Enduring the pain, I slashed the Taraqaks around me while slowly putting distance between me and the big Taraqak.

On the branch, Taraqaks are crawling toward Vision. I swing my bone blade in a large arc at the Taraqaks around me as I turn around. I quickly shot two bone needles from my right arm and nailed two Taraqaks near Vision. The pain in my back already reduced a little but my left arm is still numb.

I let out black sludge, covering the open wound with it, and hardened the sludge. Closing the wound and stopping the bleeding. I really regret not evolving my black sludge into restorative black sludge like Mother.

Vision shot another bone needle at the big Taraqak. When the bone needle stabs its leg, the big Taraqak screech loudly before charging at the tree where Vision is on. Vision froze up, looking at the charging big Taraqak.

"Vision, Jump!"

Her body moved before her mind did, following my order Vision jump and landed near me. The big Taraqak doesn't stop and rammed into the tree. With loud rumbling, the tree broke down. Such power.

"Run!"

Without waiting for the big Taraqak to recover, I slash in a wide arc to open a way and we run away. We can't take this big Taraqak down with just the two of us, not to mention there is also the swarm of Taraqaks helping it. We quickly flee toward where Fist and Runner is. Because of my wound, I lag behind Vision. I can't use my other hand, I run awkwardly with just my legs and 1 hand.

The already recovered big Taraqak sees us fleeing, it screeches and the swarm of Taraqaks comes chasing us. The big Taraqak also chases us but it's slower than the other Taraqaks. I need to speed up but how? I look at my bone blade, is it possible?

Hesitating a little, I grit my teeth and try my idea. My bone blade bent and I used it to run like my arm, I almost stumbled and fell at first, but I managed to balance myself. This hard, the blade pierces the ground deeper than I thought and the bone blade is less flexible than my hand. But after a few steps, I get a little used to it. Maybe because of the threat of death, I learn it pretty fast. And because the bone blade is longer than my arm, my steps are longer and it increases the distance with the pursuing Taraqak.

Vision looked at me and tried to do the same, after a few stumbles, she managed to do it. Now that our hand is free, I look behind me and shoot a bone needle at the Taraqaks. I nailed one in front of the group and the one behind can't stop and crashed to the nailed Taraqak. One fall and the other follow. Of course, they quickly continue pursuing again but it still stalls them good.

"Vision, shot the Taraqak at the front of the group!"

With Vision shooting, many Taraqak fall to the ground and widen the distance again. But the Taraqak doesn't stop and keeps chasing us. The hunter and prey are now reversed. We were the hunter before and now we are the prey. I and Vision picked up our pace but then the Taraqaks shot out their webs at us.

"Vision covers your body with black sludge!"

As soon as I said that, a web landed in front of us. Unfortunately, we are too late to cover our bodies with black sludge. Vision trip into the web, I barely managed to stop just a step away from the web. This little stop is fatal.

I turned around and frantically used my energy to replenish my bone needle, while Vision starts to start oozing out black sludge to cover her body. I raise both of my arm and shoot at the foremost Taraqaks, I didn't forget to slowly cover my body with black sludge.

Two bone needles flew through the air but only one nailed a Taraqak down, the other missed the target. My left is useless like this, I lowered my left arm and focused on my right arm. I shot three bone needles in succession and hit two Taraqaks, the last one missed but halted one Taraqak in place.

I inject more energy into my arm but looking at the rushing swarm of Taraqaks and the big Taraqak behind them, it makes my blood run cold. More webs come our way, some hit me but it's all rendered useless thanks to the black sludge. Fortunately, Vision already freed herself.

"Run run!"

We run away again but now our distance with the Taraqaks is dangerously close. More webs flew toward us, even if the black sludge neutralized it, too much and our black sludge will be useless. The big Taraqak screech again. My ear picks up the sound of Taraqaks crawling toward us from afar after the roar. It is calling even more of its kind.

I and Vision run as fast as we can when we finally arrive at the place where we separate with Fist and Runner.

"Fist! Runner! Enemy!"

I scream as loud as I can. We run out of the woods, there is Fist in front of us. He is guarding a mountain of Taraqaks carcasses. Fist looks confused when we run toward him but he rushes forward when he sees the swarm of Taraqaks behind us.

"Hold them! We need to replenish our energy!"

Fist grunts before bashing a Taraqak. I and Vision gorge ourselves, rapidly replenishing our energy. My bone needles are full and my numb shoulder is slowly getting better. I look back and see Fist doing fine hammering the Taraqaks to death. There are webs on his body but he remembers to coat himself with black sludge. Some Taraqaks managed to attack his body from time to time but it all ended in light wounds for Fist.

"Vision, you stay back and attack with bone needles."

Done recovering, I dash to aid Fist. this time, I run normally as I need to attack with my bone blade. Runner is not here, I guess he is delivering the Taraqaks corpses back to the nest. The distance is too far for me to connect with Runner, I can only connect with Mother.

"Mother, please tell Runner to come back quickly! We are facing a drove of Taraqak and one huge Taraqak!"

I yelled to Mother through the mind link.

"I told him already, he is on the way! Child, are you okay? Can you handle it?"

"Don't worry, Mother! The big Taraqak is strong but we can handle it!"

"Good, but don't push yourself! Tell me if you can't hold on anymore!"

"I will, Mother!"

Done talking with Mother, I focus on killing the Taraqak.I hope Runner comes back fast, we need all the help we can get. With a flash of the two blades, I killed five Taraqaks.

I raised my right arm, a bone needle shot and nailed down a Taraqak. I shift to the side and fire two shots, the bone needles pierce the Taraqaks bodies. Taraqak jumped at me from the side, I tilted a little, my left hand aimed at the Taraqak. I may miss it if it is far but at this point-blank, I won't miss it. The bone needle pierces the body from below.

Fist swings his arm wildly and squashes Taraqaks around him, his bone club also swats the Taraqaks jumping on him. Taraqaks that tried to go around and attack him from behind were destroyed by a sweep of his tail. Vision in the rear shot the Taraqaks that slip past us or far from us. With all corpses available, it will be a while before she runs out of bone needles.

My tail bite the Taraqak behind me and I turn while lashing out my tail, the Taraqaks are blown away.

We keep killing the Taraqaks we can see but the Taraqak swarm doesn't seem to have an end. Then we heard a loud screech and from the woods, the big Taraqak rush out.

"Fist, block it!"

Fist roared and trample the small Taraqaks on his way, the big Taraqak raised his two front legs but before its leg came down, Fist already arrived in front of it. Fist catches the big Taraqak's legs with his hand. Fist pushed back a few steps by the big Taraqak but he didn't fall down and was still gripping the big Taraqak's legs firmly in his hand. The big Taraqak tried to bite Fist but his fist bone hit the big Taraqak in the face.

The big Taraqak screech loudly after being hit, the small Taraqaks freeze before rushing toward Fist. I run to Fist while killing the Taraqaks around me but they all ignore me and keep rushing to Fist.

"Vision, focus on the Taraqaks near Fist!"

Vision rush forward to take better aim and since all the Taraqaks is now focusing on Fist, it is fine for her to shorten the distance. She first shoots the Taraqak biting Fist's leg and then aims at the nearest Taraqak.

"I'm here!"

Good, finally Runner is here!

"Runner, kill the Taraqaks near Fist!"

"Yes!"

Runner runs past Vision, with all the Taraqaks now focused on Fist and ignoring everything, Runner can easily kill them. Now that I don't have to worry about the small Taraqaks, I can focus on the big Taraqaks. I run toward the big Taraqak from behind Fist, I jump and use Fist back as a stepping stone and lung at the big Taraqak. While the big Taraqak is held down by Fist, I'll use this chance to attack it.

The big Taraqak and fist is locked in a stalemate. The big Taraqak is trying to push Fist down or bite him, but Fist keeps hitting it with his fist bone. The head of the big Taraqak is bloodied but it is still fierce without weakening at all.

But while it is looking like Fist has the big Taraqak under control, I know Fist is losing. While he doesn't get pushed down, Fist is being pushed back and he is weakening faster than the big Taraqak. He can't keep this for long. If it weren't for the small Taraqaks are handled by Runner and Vision, Fist would have been defeated quickly after he hit the big Taraqak.

But attacking it from above seems to be a mistake. The big Taraqak behind suddenly moved and bent toward me, I quickly crossed my hands and covered my whole body with black sludge. A big white web shot out and hit me in the air. I'm not worried since I know it won't be effective because of the black sludge but I was wrong. The web is thick and heavy, I fell to the ground with it. When I tried to stand, I found the web was preventing me and it glued me to the ground. I was careless, I should've known that the big Taraqak's web would be different.

I struggle but it is futile, the web barely moved. I quickly pour energy to my bone blade to cut the web. I have to help Fist and kill the big Taraqak fast or the situation will turn for the worst. I swung my blade and while there was a resistance, I managed to cut the web apart. I run toward the big Taraqak again but this time I will try attacking from the side since attacking from above is impossible. The big Taraqak sees me and tries to attack me with its leg but its head is pummeled again by Fist. I swing my energy-infused blade at one of its legs, I can't cut it off cleanly but my blade cuts deep into its leg.

The big Taraqak screech loudly and struggle fiercely, Fist holds it down desperately but he is nearing his limit. The small Taraqaks also began moving frantically. Runner and Vision tries their best to kill them but it won't last. Some of it is already attacking Fist. We need to finish this fast!

I swing my other blade and cut the big Taraqak's leg off, with a screech the big Taraqak struggle becomes even more frantic. It shot out its web all over the place, not minding if it hits the small Taraqaks.

"Runner, Vision, back off! Don't get hit by the web!"

Runner and Vision run away quickly, while I can cut the web, I don't think they can do it. As for Fist, he should be able to pull it apart with some effort. I run toward the big Taraqak behind, since it's thrashing around, I'll use the chance to deal a heavy damage to it. I carefully approach the big Taraqak's behind while dodging stray web shots, when I'm near it, I dash to it with both my blades charged with energy.

I stabbed the big Taraqak's behind, it pierced deep and it is not hard like the leg. Before the big Taraqak has any chance to move, I swing my blade and tear apart the big Taraqak's behind and quickly jump back. I also took the chance to bite a piece of the big Taraqak's behind.

With a screech, the big Taraqak fling away Fist and thrashing frantically. From its torn behind, a mix of white and green pour out. Fist already stood back up and looked at the big Taraqak. The small Taraqaks are all stood still and silent. While I stood frozen. Why? Because when I eat a piece of the big Taraqak, I don't get stats or information about it but a notification.

[Your core level is lower than the target]

[You can't see the target's stats and information until you kill the target and consumed it]

…..This big Taraqak is a level 2.

No wonder it was so tough!

But still…

In the end, it still fell. And its flesh and core will be a great nutrition for the Brood!

The big Taraqak, consumed with pain and rage, rushed toward Fist with abandon. It seems it wants to bring Fist down with it in desperation. But it won't be doing that.

"Fist, hold it down for me!"

I rush toward the big Taraqak. Fist roars and raises his hand and fist bone high, when the big Taraqak arrives in front of him, Fist slams his hand and fist bone down at the big Taraqak head. The big Taraqak drop to the ground and stop in its track but still alive. I jump and stab both my energy at the big Taraqak's head. My blade pierce through its head. I didn't stop and shoot all my bone needles at its head. The big Taraqak jerk for a few times before it falls silent.

[You have slain LV2 Great Taraqak, you gain EXP!]

Me and Fist drop to our knees, we are exhausted. The small Taraqaks run away into the forest in trepidation the moment the Great Taraqak dies. Runner and Vision is stunned a little before they rush and kill the small Taraqaks that have yet to enter the forest.

Me and Fist don't move, we just stay still.

Rejoicing that the tough fight finally ended.