Fighting a Strange Enemy

"Crap! It got me!"

A tentacle coiled around Graham's leg and lifted him up before he could react. He quickly looked around to find its owner, but he could only see the tentacle coming from all the way behind the mansion. The purple and green slithery thing was grabbing his ankle tightly and the area where it touched felt burning.

Whack!

Using the camouflaged cane, he hit it as hard as he could. The soft octopus arm reacted to the impact as if it was rubber and the cane just bounced off. The blunt force didn't have any effect on the thing.

Smack!

This time, it was the tentacle's turn to attack. It smashed Graham into the hard wall of the mansion. He felt like the toy of a giant kid who didn't know how to play gently. Since he hit the wall face first, blood started dripping from his nose.

"I order you to let me go!"

It worked! Although he couldn't see the owner of the tentacle, his ability had forced it to loosen the grip and drop him to the ground. Again, he fell face first. Luckily, the ground was soft soil and grass, so he didn't injure his nose a second time. A patch of blood was left on the spot where he had fallen, as well as crushed grass.

The bizarre purple tentacle that was green at the bottom quickly slithered away like a scared snake, disappearing into the back of the mansion. It left behind a trail on the grass that had traces of being burnt by its touch.

"Should we follow it and take care of it now or continue on with our mission, Val? I have a feeling that if we don't deal with it now, whatever it is will come and get us later,"

Decisively, Graham readied his knife in his right hand while carefully following the trail it had left behind. Smashing didn't work on it, so he had a feeling that bullets wouldn't work all that well either unless it had a piercing property. The dagger and his abilities were the best options he had for now.

Circling around the mansion from the distance, he was gradually presented with the back view of the mansion in the middle of a large field. Over there, there was a mound on the ground with a hole the size of a motor carriage in the middle, like something had just dug itself out of the mound. The trail of burnt grass went all the way inside the hole.

"I'm not going down there, so let's summon whatever that is out,"

Flick!

He lit a fire using the lighter that he had skillfully taken out without letting go of the cane. Using Fire Manipulation, he made it burn using his stamina instead and also caused it to grow as big as an exercise ball. That rubber ball that had just been invented several years prior was the only thing he had in mind that had the perfect size for his fireball. He was unable to make it any bigger than that currently, but he was sure that when he got stronger, he would have more freedom with the way he could manipulate fire.

Floating in front of him was now a giant fireball that was burning majestically. With a command from him, the fireball entered the hole in the ground and at once, the loud sound of shrieking could be heard.

Whoosh!

"Hiss!!"

Something inside the hole was burned by his attack! The smell of charred flesh filled the air, as well as smoke that rose from the hole. Not long after that, something quickly came out, starting from its numerous tentacles until its whole body was revealed.

"What in the world is that?!"

Graham exclaimed and his jaw dropped. The creature in front of him looked so bizarre that he was left speechless.

Using its tentacles, the creature dragged itself out of the hole, exposing itself. The fire seemed to be still burning inside the hole, so it had no choice but to get out. What stood in front of Graham was now a big, thin dog with a pained expression on its face. Its long brown fur, that had burned patches here and there, wasn't glowing as normal dogs' would be, and its ribs were visible from outside because of how thin it was. It was panting heavily and its eyes were bloodshot. It wasn't looking at Graham with malice, but instead, it appeared to be giving him an expression of begging.

Attached to its stomach was an octopus-centipede-like creature with twelve long-- very long tentacles. It looked to have gorged itself into the dog's side and latched on to it with strong mandible-thingies that surrounded its 'head'-- or more precisely, a blob of mass that was more like a tumor growing out of the dog's side. The creature was dark purple with green coloration at the bottom of its body, extending all the way to its tentacles. It appeared to have no eyes, or Graham just couldn't see them.

The tentacles appeared to have suffered the most burn damage as smoke was still rising from them and the charred smell was even stronger now that the creature was out. Without even moving from its spot, it lashed its tentacles around angrily, hitting everything around it and burning the grass as it went.

"It's funny that it's also capable of burning but is weak against fire," Graham mocked while busily avoiding the attacks. He defended himself using the cane against the ones he couldn't avoid. Once he got the chance, he looked at the creature and shouted.

"I order you to stop!"

The tentacles all stopped at once, but it looked like they were struggling to regain control. Strangely, the dog was still able to move and it licked the purple and green creature on its side. Once its tongue touched the creature, Graham's Order was broken, seeing as it could move freely again.

"Val, that dog and the bizarre thing are definitely different creatures. I think the purple blob is a parasitic one that is controlling the dog, whose saliva has some kind of power? This whole thing is just too incomprehensible..."

Graham then quickly took out his revolver and aimed at the purple blob after stuffing his dagger in its sheath.

Bang!

He shot a paralysis bullet right at it. However, the bullet just bounced off after hitting its rubber-like skin. Fortunately, it was enough for the paralysis effect to take place. The tentacles were now stopped once more.

Again, the dog tried to lick the blob on its side. Graham aimed at it in order to stop it. However, when he looked at its begging and pitiful eyes, he somehow hesitated. A feeling of compassion surfaced in his heart, halting his attack and resulting in the dog successfully removing the paralysis effect from the tentacle creatures.

"That dog made me unable to shoot it, Val! What a cheater!"

A tentacle tried to grab his legs but Graham was able to avoid it. He then retaliated by attacking with his dagger that he had skillfully taken out. With a stabbing motion, he thrust his dagger down upon the tentacle. To his surprise, the creature's rubbery texture made it difficult to pierce through as well. It felt like he was trying to cut a piece of meat using a dull knife, although he was very sure that his dagger was as sharp as it could be.

"Fire it is then. Take this!"

After taking a step back to avoid another tentacle, he took out his lighter again and lit another fire. He didn't want to use the one that was still burning inside the hole to prevent the creature from running away.

"I ask that you shoot at the tentacle creature!"

Whoosh!

The tiny flame left the tip of the lighter and pierced through the air, successfully hitting the purple and green thing.

"Hiss!!"

It seemed to have been injured. Smoke rose from the spot where the flame had attacked it and the smell of barbecue filled Graham's nose again.

"Val, maybe we can chop off the tentacles and sell them as exotic food! Nobody would know what it's made of, right?" he then got an idea in his head as he sniffed the somewhat delicious smell, "Although, I wouldn't want to eat it myself,"

Whoosh!

Whoosh!

Since his previous attack was effective, he repeated it several times, sending numerous tiny fireballs at the creature. It tried to block using its tentacles, but it resulted in its tentacles being burned instead. More fire bullets were coming its way, and the dog suddenly stood up. It looked like it was trying to block the tiny flames using its face, but what happened was out of Graham's expectation.

The flame bullets fell to the ground and burned the grass below instead!

It was evident that the dog was somehow able to avoid being attacked through different means. However, it looked even more tired afterward and began panting heavily again while collapsing to the ground.

Now it was the tentacle creature's turn to attack while Graham was still somewhat enthralled by the sight of the pitiful dog. Nine tentacles all shot at him from different directions while the remaining one stayed out of sight.

Taken by surprise, Graham couldn't avoid all of the tentacles. His left hand and right leg were grabbed by them while his left waist was smacked hard by it. He was lucky those things were not sharp, otherwise, he would have been stabbed.

"I order you to let me go!" he shouted at the one grabbing his leg.

"I order you to let me go!" he issued one more order at the one grabbing his arm.

He was now free, but suddenly,

Smash!

The last tentacle had found a rock the size of a chair and smacked its enemy with it. Luckily, Graham was able to defend himself with the cane, or else, his head would have been scattered on the ground.

He was now pinned down on the ground, holding the rock back with the cane using all of his strength. His veins burst out of his skin and his face turned red.

"I order you to move the rock away!!"

The tentacle moved against its own will and Graham quickly retreated, avoiding a second rock smashing attack. His knuckles were bleeding and hurt a ton because it was grazed against the rock when he was defending himself.

"Hey, over here!"

Suddenly, there was a voice coming from behind him.

Hurl!

Just as he was approaching the source of the voice, the creature threw the rock at him!

"I order you to shoot back at the tentacle creature!!"

He quickly issued an order at the rock before it hit him, and in a strange and awkward motion, it stopped midair and changed its trajectory. It was now aiming for the blob of mass on the side of the dog. The dog once again blocked the attack with its head, and the rock strangely just dropped down to the ground.

The voice was coming from all the way out of the reach of the creature's tentacles, so, after seeing Graham backing away quickly, it tried to move closer by dragging itself with its long limbs. The mandibles that were latching on to the dog's side were biting even more strongly and dragged the dog along with it.

Seeing what happened, Graham got an idea and quickly issued an order.

"I order you to let--"

"Don't!!"

Someone shouted from behind him, interrupting his Order. He already knew who it was so he listened to the man and stopped his order.

Lucas Baltes then appeared behind him, completely naked since he had to use invisibility. He didn't seem to be embarrassed in any way, however.

"Why shouldn't I try to separate them?" he asked hastily and curiously; the creature was slowly approaching them.

"The tentacle monster is the one keeping the dog grounded. Once they are separated, the dog will go berserk and I'm not sure if we will even be able to scream before we die!" Lucas sounded genuinely scared as he was explaining it.

"The dog? So it's the dog that's more dangerous, Val?" he muttered, then issued another Order at the creature.

"I order you to move away from us!"

Against its will, it began pushing the ground with its tentacles, shoving itself away from the two men. It gave Graham and Lucas some time to come up with a strategy, but not that long since the dog had begun moving its head to try to lick the thing.

"What is that thing? How do we defeat it?"

"Since it's attacking you, I will assume you are also the mayor's enemy, so I'm willing to help you. It's the guardian of this place-- at least that's what I've heard. I don't know about its weakness since obviously, they would never tell me," replied Lucas.

He seemed to have been attracted by the sounds of their fight. The man must have decided to help because as long as the creature was alive, he wouldn't be able to explore the mansion safely. In Lucas's mind, he had been branded as the mayor's enemy after their previous night's encounter, so he should think that the creature would also attack him.

"So what do we do now? I cannot attack the dog for some reason and the fried squid is immune to most attacks. Control effects don't work well either because of the dog, and I cannot use control on the dog because of its ability somehow. Fire works, but the dog will get in the way,"

Lucas's expression was troubled for a split second, but something in his mind was telling him that it was nothing to think about. It was just that Graham's abilities reminded him of something. However, he trusted his own mind and let it go. Besides, for some reason, his mind was telling him to trust the man in the leather jacket in front of him.

"Have you tried beating it to a pulp?" the man said confidently.

Graham, who possessed only an ordinary Contractbound physical strength, of course, couldn't pull something like that.

"I don't have the physical strength to do it,"

"But I do," there was a proud smile on the man's face.

As an Unseen, he was indeed granted a little more strength than other Contractbounds. Combined with the strength he had got from becoming a Romancer, he should be pretty strong right now. Graham remembered the previous night how the man was easily smacking him around the room like he was a wooden bat.

"Then you do it. I'll provide cover,"

Lucas nodded.

"Just remember, don't try anything funny or you'll be the next one to get beaten into a pulp," he threatened seriously.