Chapter 27 - The Deciding Battle; It’s Do Or Die

A familiar feeling of pain enveloped me. It was one I had grown used to, one that would come whenever I used a skill that affected my physical body for the first time. One that opened the infinite possibilities for the future. One that reminded me that I had power.

And it felt good.

The man backed away, that smile still plastered onto his face. He tore off the remaining pieces of armour and drew out a sword from behind his back.

A skill? There was no way. He didn’t have a profile that I could read, so he couldn't have been an L’Der or Gifted.

Meanwhile, my body had started transforming. Ten, fleshy tentacle-like limbs burst out from inside me, flailing about. They were about the size of a human arm each. Without warning, they began to grow wicked metal blades from their tips. I tried to take control of the tentacles, but it was like they had a mind of their own.

That wasn’t all. A silvery, sticky liquid of some kind spread over my body, bubbling and writhing around. I could barely recognise myself.

[You have mutated.]

[Temporary skills have been unlocked. {Xera Funnel}, {Kill Aura}, {Mould}, {Absorption}.]

[Time left until {Mutation} concludes: 20:00.]

Before I could determine what any of these skills did, the man attacked. Sword in hand, he sliced downwards, ready to cut me in two.

Clang.

One of my tentacles flicked upwards, deflecting the blow. This bought me enough time to activate ‘slow motion’. I quickly skimmed through the skill windows, excited at what mutation had unlocked for me.

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Xera Funnel

Lvl: N/A

Category: Temporary

Type: Active

Xera Cost: 100% of xera capacity

Shoot a beam of pure xera. This will disintegrate most objects, including stone and human flesh. This skill consumes 100% of your xera capacity. This beam is invisible and lasts for two seconds. This skill has a cooldown of ten minutes.

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Kill Aura

Lvl: N/A

Category: Temporary

Type: Active

Tentacles that have a mind of their own are called ‘Kill Aura’. These tentacles cannot be directly controlled but can be influenced by the user’s emotions and thoughts. They have three different settings. ‘Freeform’, which allows them to be used for maneuverability. ‘Defense’, which blocks incoming attacks the best they can. ‘Kill’, which will automatically attack anything that goes into its range.

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Mould

Lvl: N/A

Category: Temporary

Type: Active

Xera Cost: None, once only.

An escape skill meant to be used as a last resort. This skill will create a mould of your current body while ejecting your real body. This skill can only be used once.

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Absorption

Lvl: N/A

Category: Temporary

Type: Active

A liquid that takes on the properties of the objects it devours. It protects its owner and will do everything it can to prevent its owner from being harmed. When an object touches it, it will eat it and use that material to protect its owner.

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All of them. All of them were useful in combat. This was a good, good day for me.

‘Xera funnel.’ I commanded, pushing all my xera into the attack. My slow motion deactivated in the process.

Tentacles formed a cone shape in front of me, locking in on the man’s left leg. I didn’t want to kill him, after all. I wasn’t ready to be a murderer.

An invisible beam of xera shot out of my body, heading straight for his leg-

Which was no longer there.

‘Cancel!’ It was too late.

The wall exploded on impact but the beam kept going, drilling a straight hole through to the tunnel.

“Nice attack.” I heard him whisper from above me, before going for another downward slash.

That would work. My kill aura would protect me-

Shing. Splurt.

Something flashed and twisted and the next moment, a steel blade was lodged in my body. He was fast. Impossibly fast.

One of my tentacles skittered to a rest in the corner of the room, shriveled up, dead.

How had he-

Shing. Splurt.

Another tentacle lopped off, just like that.

‘S-slow motion!’ I shouted, trying to get some distance between us.

[Slow Motion is on cooldown. 4:13.]

Shit.

What other skills did I have again?

Mould and absorption.

‘Absorption!’

The glossy liquid that covered my body bubbled and swarmed over the sword’s blade. Within moments, the handle clattered to the ground and a steel shell covered me.

“Nice trick.” The man said, now hunched over the desk, completely disregarding the fact that we were in a fight. “Why not try attacking for a change?”

He turned slowly, the white powder covering his nose and face clearly visible. If it was even possible, his eyes turned even more bloodshot than before. Dangling from his finger was an iron key.

“Maybe you need a little motivation. Will this do?”

‘Let’s get him.’ I said coldly.

The tentacles seemed to agree.

I darted forward, ready to pin him against the table, but once again, he disappeared.

I looked up and there he was, casually hanging from the ceiling by a vine. That must’ve been where he was hiding when I came into the room.

“I forgot to mention that you’ll have to catch me first.”

This guy really knew how to piss someone off.

‘Get… down here!’

I flew up to him and slashed the vines with my tentacles. He drew out a sword from behind him again and swung.

Here it came.

I watched closely as the blade bent around the tentacles at astonishing speeds and accuracy, only to bounce off my armoured shell with a mellow clang. Was this metal magic?

But that wasn’t all.

His arm bent like the sword, evading my tentacles and grabbing my metal body without a care in the world. The tentacles zipped forward and sliced the man’s arm, but couldn’t cut through. He didn’t bleed. Was he even human?

“You lose.” He said confidently, and that was when I noticed the small runestone pinned to my body. When he drew out another sword and completely sliced his arm off, I knew.

Whatever this runestone did, it wasn’t good.

‘Mould!’

BOOM.

An ear splitting explosion rocked the cave, and I was thrown into the back wall.

Mould had saved my life. If I hadn’t used it in time, I would’ve been turned into ashes by now. The remains of his arm and my outer shell drifted slowly to the floor.

I had lost another two tentacles in the attack, meaning I had only three left.

And only five minutes left on the clock.

“Still alive, I see.” A voice whispered behind me.

I spun around, kill aura ready to chop him into little pieces, but he’d already grappled up to the roof. However, with only one arm left, he was noticeably slower than before. At this point, it was really do or die.

‘I’m juts getting started.’

I bounded up to meet him, but he dodged and dropped back to the floor. When I chased after him, he continued to escape by narrow margins.

The both of us continued like this for a few more minutes. Neither of us seemed to get tired.

I needed to change things up. I only had one minute left before I reverted back to my original form.

‘Kill aura setting change.’ I whispered. It’d only been on freeform and defense before.

‘Kill.’

I hadn’t wanted to use that setting. Ever.

But it looked like I had no choice.

Now the moment he came near me, he would die. The last thing to do was bait him.

‘Xera funnel.’

This time, my tentacles didn’t form the cone shape. It didn’t matter anymore, since he was going to die either way. I looked up to where he hung. If he didn’t dodge, he would be burned to a crisp. If he tried to counterattack, he’d be sliced up.

The only way for him to survive would be to run away. And for someone as cocky as him, that would probably be the last thing he’d ever do.

Whoomp.

Boom.

Shink. Shink. Shink.

So that was the path he chose.

“Heh.”

Limbless, hairless, and injured all over, the man fell into a crumpled heap on the floor, leaning against the cold stone wall.

It was over.

‘Hey.’ I prodded him with the side of my tentacle. ‘You still alive?’

“Should… you really be asking me that?” He replied in between wracking coughs.

‘I have just one question for you. How did you know I wasn’t a normal potato?’

“Because…” His voice turned into an unintelligible mumble.

‘What?’ I asked, but before I could get an answer, a line of text appeared before me.

[{Steal The Key} has been failed.]

That was the quest I set for Cherry. A cold feeling seeped into my heart just as the timer for mutation ran out.

[Skill: Mutation has concluded.]

I felt my tentacles disappear and the sticky liquid slide off my body into a pool on the floor. I couldn’t care less. I needed to find Cherry.

“Hey…” The man’s head lolled backwards, revealing glassy eyes.

‘What do you want?’ I asked irritably. My child was in danger. I needed to go.

“I knew you weren’t just a normal potato because… I’m just like you. Artificial.”

As he said that, his chest split open with a sickening crack. Vines slithered out of that gap, widening it to reveal something that surely wasn’t a heart.

It was red, but tainted black and looked to be rotting.

It was a tomato.

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Elric Hanson

Level: 23

Type: Gifted

Class: None

Path: N/A

Applied Faith: None

Combat Power: 9102%

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[Potato Body is on cooldown. 0:00:03]