Chapter 35- Black Goo

With Fuzz on his shoulder Morpheus hurried through the swamp and trees.

The shouting got louder, people yelling orders and others screaming.

“Fuzz, cloak.” He said and the shadow disappeared into his cloak.

He made his way through mangrove to find ten people circling around a black bulgur, including a few guards.. A man was laying in the mud with a chunk of his torso missing, screaming in pain.

(Mutated Bulgur, Extreme Mutation, Level 155)

This bulgur was twice the size as the other ones and had three giant mouths around its body.

‘Extreme suits it.' He thought.

“You there, clear out of this area.” A guard shouted at him.

“I can heal.” He shouted back.

The guard looked over to the man and nodded.

Morpheus sprouted his wings and flew around the mutated bulgur and arrived at the man screaming in pain. A woman and another man were bent over him, trying to stop the bleeding.

(Warrior, Challenger III, Level 129)

“Move!” He shouted.

The two escaped the man's proximity and made way for Morpheus.

He put his hand over the man's stomach and Arcane Restoration flowed into him, sealing his wound. The man looked at him in confusion.

Morpheus brought the man up and hooked his arm over his own shoulder, the female went under his other and the two carried the man far away from the Bulgur.

“What the fuck is that?” He asked.

“Strong mutated one, fucker even has an extreme title.” The lady replied.

They placed the man against a tree.

“Rest for a moment, you’ve lost a lot of blood.”

Morpheus placed his hand on his shoulder and his arcane healing rushed through the man again.

“Thank you, I thought I was a goner.” He said.

“It’s fine, why did you even try to fight it?” Morpheus asked in a jokey tone.

“We didn’t, the fucking thing shot out from water.”

“Shit, have the guards called for a high level or something?”

The man shook his head. “We have to kill it, if we leave it alone the others in the swamp are at risk.”

Morpheus nodded and turned around.

“Does anyone have ice magic?” He yelled out across the swamp. If they could freeze it or the water around it they could pin in down.

A lady raised her hand in the back. “We’ve tried, his goo absorbs it. Watch!”

The lady fired an ice crystal and shot it into its body, the goo on its skin absorbed the ice crystal and the bulgur got slightly larger.

“It absorbs magic!” He shouted.

“Yeah, we don’t even know if physical attacks can harm it!"

“You’re too low level, get out of here!" A guard shouted.

“Hey fuck you I can fight.” He shouted back.

“Your fucking funeral then!”

Morpheus just shook his head and turned to the man with his back against a tree.

“Can you fight?” He asked the man.

“Yeah.” He said while getting up.

“Ok, so we have eleven people with all of us.”

Morpheus put away Brevair’s axe and pulled out Black Steel Force.

“Distract it!” Morpheus shouted.

“No stop! It has three eyes in each of its mouths.”

“Well distract each mouth.” He shouted back.

“Hey I’m not taking orders from a level eighty!” The same guard said.

“You got any other ideas?” He shouted back.

One of the tentacles shot out from its mouth and ripped the guards head off clean. It yanked the rest of the body with its other tentacle and grew slightly larger again.

“Fuck! It got Ben!” Another guard exclaimed.

“Go with my fucking plan then.”

“Just hurry the fuck up, mages pick a mouth!”

The mages each confirmed a mouth and began to fire all their magic at it, the bulgur grew in size but it was necessary to distract it.

Morpheus enhanced himself with Spartans Essence and Arcane Strike, he sprouted wings and flew up into the sky.

He dived towards the bulgur at a forty five degree angle, all while spinning around with his axe. It was hard to gain momentum while flying, and he couldn’t dodge easily so he was a sitting target. The young chimera planted the axe into one of the mouth's top lip, splitting it. He left the axe in their and flew off.

The bulrug was enraged and lashed out at him with another tentacle which caught his ankle. It’s hooks latched onto his bone and began to drag him down. Morpheus tried to fly away but the tentacle kept pulling at him, he was losing the tug of war.

A vine spear pierced the tentacle and instead of letting go, the bulgur completely tore his leg from his shin down.

“Ahhhh!” Morpheus screamed.

He tried to float down to ground but it was more of a fall, and he landed with a thud.

In seconds his leg was healed and he stood with a bare foot in the swamp.

Morpheus looked up at the bulgur, it couldn’t retract its tentacle since the vine spear was perpendicular to its mouth.

More spears of magic pierced the tentacle and it went limp, still with his leg still in the hooks. Black Steel Force was still embedded into another mouth which constricted the mouths movement making it useless.

Guards and adventures began to lunge towards the exposed back of the bulgur, slashing and stabbing at it.

Suddenly the bulrug started to shake and convulse. The main body exploded, spewing black goo over everyone.

Amazing! You have slain (Mutated Bulgur, Extreme Mutation, Level 155) For killing an enemy 60 levels above your own additional experience has been added. Experience shared.

Everyone around the bulgur began screaming in pain.

“It’s corrosive, get in the water!” He screamed.

He ran over to the people and began to splash water on their faces and heal them, the mages followed as well.

It was a scene of chaos but thankfully no one died from the suicidal attack. The only person who died was the guard.

Morpheus sat halfway shin deep in the water while he healed an adventurer's face.

“You healed my hair!” He exclaimed.

“It’s regeneration not basic healing.” Morpheus responded.

The man laid back down in the dirty water and let out a deep breath.

A few guards seemed to be mourning over their fallen and others were just sitting down in exhaustion.

“What’s gonna happen with the body?” Morpheus asked the guy.

The man looked puzzled.

“Well the legs of it.”

“I don’t want to even loook at it." He responded.

“Do they mutate often?” Morpheus asked.

The man nodded. “I’ve been farming this place for a year, I’ve encountered a lot of mutated but this one's level and features were fucking ridiculous.”

The man’s rant carried on. "I mean three fucking mouths, absorption fucking goo and a suicide attack? Like what… “

Morpheus just half listened as the man continued spewing vile lines about the monster and what was his whole life story. But the young chimera was heavily focused on the two missing legs which were still standing. If he could get Fuzz to absorb them it might work.

His eyes were drawn to a guard who walked over and popped the two legs in his pouch.

Morpheus quickly sprung up and bristly walked over to them.

“Hey, I was wondering if I could take those legs?” Morpheus asked.

The guard turned around.

“My uncle does experiments on unique creatures.” He lied. Morpheus didn’t want to seem that interested in them.

The guard lifted his fingers and rubbed them.

“How much?” Morpheus asked.

The guard turned to the rest of them.

“Five silver.” The soldier said, thinking Morpheus couldn’t afford it.

"Five? For a pair of legs!”

“Fine four then.” The guard quickly said.

Morpheus acted like it was still a lot and sighed.

“Fine.” He said and handed the man the coin.

The guard rudely dropped the legs on the ground and walked away.

Morpheus quickly put them in his pouch and turned around.

“Does anyone need anymore healing!” He shouted.

Thankfully, no one raised their hand and the young chimera began to walk away.

“Hey, you not going back out there?” The man laying in the water said.

“I got some money to make up for.” He shouted back.

“Good luck!” He shouted, to which Morpheus waved.

Seeing that Morpheus paid the guards, the adventurer just nodded to him and he was on his way again.

Morpheus suddenly remembered he left his axe and boot, he quickly ran back.

“Did anyone see my axe or my boot? The one I planted in its mouth.”

“I saw it fly off with the corrosion on it, and your boot is long gone.” A lady said.

Morpheus sighed, but still felt around the water with his feet. He found something hard and pulled it out of the water, it was just the shaft.

“Fucks sake.” He muttered to himself, it was the first axe he bought. Even though it was eight silvers the axe still had sentimental value to him.

He didn’t dwell on it since he was still excited for Fuzz to try and absorb the bulgur’s legs.

He walked away for a second time and found a few large flat stones far away from the other adventurers. He pulled out the disgusting legs, which were still dripping with goo.

“Hey Fuzz.”

Fuzz shot out from his cloak and eagerly bounced over to the legs. The shadow looked back at Morpheus and he nodded.

The shadow engulfed the legs, but nothing happened for a moment. But then a mutated bulgur appeared from the shadow, but with only two mouths.

(Mutated Bulgur, Level 79)

“So the extreme title gave him an extra head.” Morpheus said to himself intrigued. “You levelled up. Nice job Fuzz.”

The bulgur in front of him made a strange gurgling noise.

“Ok bird form now.”

Fuzz transformed into a bird.

“Now bulgur form.” He said and Fuzz transformed into the green bulgur.

“No Fuzz, the other Bulgur.”

Fuzz gurgled.

“Other one bud.”

Morpheus tried to imitate the mutated bulgur but Fuzz just chirped away in amusement at his human. The young chimera just slumped on the ground and lit a cigarette, he could swear Fuzz liked to make fun of him.

“I give up.”

Fuzz then transformed into the black bulgur.

“I didn’t realise you had a sense of humour.” Morpheus said with a smile.

“This one is bulgur, got it?”

Fuzz gurgled back.

“Take that as yes then.” He said while throwing away half his cigarette.