Chương 78: 1-77 Predator to prey

"Woah, that's a big dog!" Zippa exclaimed, looking up from where he was savaging one of the boss's wormy wings. With his fire and claws on the job, that thing was likely not going to take flight ever again.

"Where did you pull that one from now?" Bezzo commented, getting out of the way of the charging hound.

"That big bad tried to eat her. So I have kinda taken her in. Or she adopted herself to me? Something like that," Josef informed them, following after his newest familiar, using her charge as cover to approach the enormous monster. Even now, downed and maimed, the devourer hadn't stopped flailing his lethal limbs, and he didn't want to find out what those tentacles wrought from worms could do to him.

As Sprout collided with her former tormentor, the mass of vines and leaves that made up her body shook violently, moving in a roiling wave, before settling down again. All things considered, there was surprisingly little force behind her attack. In hindsight, it made sense, though, as most of her body consisted of rather light plants, with only her tail and claws visibly made from wood.

If she had a skeletal structure like that inside her body, maybe she could use more mana to increase her weight by reinforcing that? Trying to tell her as much, Josef ran into a bit of an issue, as he had considerable problems getting information through their link. It felt like the pipe was blocked, barely allowing anything to pass. It was hard enough to even contact her, much less make his intentions known. Was this the difference between a familiar formed from his own mana and a tamed creature?

Hopefully, they would learn to overcome that blockage eventually, or it would probably become a liability in combat. For now, it would have to do, because even with their lack of communication, Sprout clearly understood the goal of tearing that boss apart. Continuously feeding her with more mana, her vines rippled and grew outwards as they began their assault on the devourer and its worms.

Perhaps spite guided her attacks, but she was meticulously picking apart the creature's new limbs, strangling and tearing apart the parasites in massive quantities. Even with the individual critters fighting back, consuming parts of her foliage during the encounter, she was clearly winning ground rapidly. Whatever the small parasites gained back simply paled compared to what Josef was leeching from the whole, causing the energy balance to shift towards him and Sprout by the second.

The ease with which this process was evolving was astounding, but he saw it as a confirmation of how well their approaches worked together. Much like him and Zippa, combining reckless melee and supportive healing, Sprout could complement his ability to rapidly gain mana in obscene quantities. Compared to Dusty and Pretzel, who had to spend some time converting the raw energy for use with their own affinities, the leafy dog could just guzzle the stuff raw for immediate benefits.

Most likely there were more sophisticated ways in which she could use her affinity, but right now she was using it for pure mass. And it showed, because her growing form was soon overtaking the wailing boss, which was desperately clawing at her form to little avail, as its claws were getting stuck in the sea of vines it was trying to rip apart.

Even Dusty's location was overgrown by her, though their link told him that the rabbit was doing fine underneath, even if his own size was diminishing without an active input of mana. Soon enough, Bezzo pulled away from the fight completely, having pumped enough poison into the boss, and likely not wanting to get caught in the growing brawl. His brother, on the other hand, had no such qualms, as Zippa continued to tear into the monster's exposed back.

His furious flames had already turned one wing into nothing but ash, and the other had become a work in progress. He also wasn't getting interrupted by Sprout's growing vines, as they naturally kept away from the intense heat he was emanating. Josef wasn't sure if it was only a figment of his imagination, but it did look like his friend's fire faltered for a moment when he saw the proximity of those vines. Nobody could fault the lizard if he did, considering his inhibition of letting flames spread uncontrollably.

Fortunately, his familiar's control over her own body allowed them both to effectively avoid each other. Stuck between a wrathful hound and a seething reptile, the boss could only wail as its body was gradually ground into dust. The front crumbled away into drained pieces, forcefully ripped away by sprouting vines, whereas its back turned into charcoal-like powder.

On the seam between these violent magics, a sizable serpent of water danced along the danger, the powerful coils formed of streams catching and crushing any worms that attempted an escape, or had been thrown off by the forces involved. Its gleaming wet fangs also dug into whatever muscles of the devourer still dared try to move under Pretzel's scrutiny. Meanwhile, the snake herself had taken up position around Josef's torso, squeezing him possessively as she was directing her magic from afar.

Clearly, her evolution of Water Prison was going down an entirely different line than his own, albeit one no less effective. Still, he assumes that his favourite danger noodle would have gladly joined the fray up-close, if the chance of collateral damage wasn't so high. Finally, as the devourer's form began to lose coherence, torn to shreds from the surface down, marks of decay surfaced, as if the parasite itself had been eaten from within, like an apple hollowed out by worms.

Even underneath its pinned body, rotten flesh was accumulating, as the goal of Bezzo's poison became more obvious for everyone to see. The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. It had worked both in- and downwards, cutting off the last avenue for any part of the giant organism to escape its execution, eating the devourer from within. In the end, forced into open combat, the boss had met its match in their combined assault.

Josef wondered if the battle had been all but decided the moment he pulled Sprout's core from its jaws, robbing it of its handy energy source. Forced out into the open, the parasite's lack of combat capabilities had become its weakness. This, he suspected, was the result of gaining a large level and massive attributes from draining other lifeforms, without ever having to get into a proper fight. He didn't want to imagine, though, how strong this creature could have been with Zippa's ferocity or Aifreed's skill.

That would have been a veritable nightmare. Finally, as the boss stilled under their assault, Sprout pretty much dragged herself on top of the monster, covering it completely in her expanding form. She was so eager to do so, Zippa had to pull away hastily to prevent scorching her vines. Surprisingly, even after he had to stop sending her more mana, her enormous form remained the same. He figured the reason was pretty clear, as there were only so many things a plant could be doing on top of a fresh body.

And she was most likely not engaging in the ancient tradition of teabagging her opponent. There was no way local culture had developed a similar thing, right? That left the most likely explanation to be absorption, as her equivalent of roots probably took care of whatever remained of their encounter. In the end, the predator had become the prey, or something like that.

"Please leave the core for us!" Josef pleaded out loud, since he couldn't rely on their link to get the message across. She had shown the capacity to follow his words before, so hopefully she would hear him out. Considering her rather canine behaviour, there was a chance she would ignore him for the sake of a treat, though. By the way her tail, now the size of a small tree, swayed, she was very much enjoying her feast. Meanwhile, Dusty had made himself scarce after his position in the fight had become obsolete.

Which happened once the added mana in his body had run out, causing his size and shape to return to normal. He had mostly hung back by his summoner's side after that. However, because of some stray thoughts shared through the link, accompanied by a flicker of worry, the bunny had set off once the fighting was dying down. His goal was to find their two missing elves, and he at least knew the position of one of them.

All of which meant that Josef was now alone with three reptiles that were still none too happy about his reckless behaviour, and no life-threatening danger to delay further talks. He already brought up his hands in a placating gesture, while also bracing himself, expecting to receive that punch he somewhat deserved. It never came, as the larger reptile silently pulled him into a hug that lifted his feet off the ground, squeezing the air from his lungs.

However, the latter could have been caused by Pretzel, who was adding her own coils to the embrace. Together, they maintained a concerning amount of force around his ribs. On second thought, a punch might not have been that bad.

"You did well, I suppose. But you better not repeat this stupidity. You're too damn important to die like a fool." Only Bezzo excused himself from any physical shows of affection, choosing to stand close by instead, fixing the human with a meaningful gaze.

"Exactly!" Zippa cried out, a noise that was supported by Pretzel.

"I can't be losing my best friend. We only just met!" The serpent vehemently nodded her head along with his statement.

"That's not what I… you know what? Nevermind. Just don't die on us." Bezzo sighed, visibly exasperated.

"Well, if you ask like that, then I will have no choice but to comply." Josef told them with feigned heaviness.

"Though I'm not making any promises to sit still and twiddle my thumbs. I'm more of a… proactive healer."

"You've made that pretty clear by now." Zippa pulled back, smiling.

"It's what makes you the best, especially compared to all of those other pricks hiding in Sanctum. I just wish you didn't give me any more heart attacks."

"Don't worry, I'm confident I can fix those," the human joked.

"My hero." A slow and heavy eye-roll followed.

"Guess I'll just have to jump right after you next time."

"Next time? Also, that's the spirit!" Josef cheered, quite liking the idea. What if they had all jumped down together, leaving nobody in the upper area? Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, they would never know.

"Still, I'm sorry. Seriously," he finally admitted, not wanting to let the moment pass without apologizing to his friends.

"I know," Pretzel hissed, pressing her head into his palm for affection. Zippa nodded at that, while Bezzo turned his head away, signalling how he was done with the topic.

"Awoo!" Sprout's howl drew everyone's attention as the green dog came bounding towards them. She was notably smaller now, and shrinking further by the second. Clutched in her jaws was a big, round object, a sphere as red as blood. However, her expression was not that of a canine rushing back with a ball, looking for praise. No, instead, she looked rather upset, with her steps more hasty than energetic, as if under duress.

"What's wrong, girl?" Josef welcomed her, trying to calm her down. With a quick mental command, he pulled the orb she carried into his hoard, just in case it was to blame for this behaviour. She, however, was having none of that and refused to calm down. Pushing and pulling him with her head and vines, the plant-like familiar was trying to maneuver him toward the closest cliff. Surprised by her behaviour, he eventually complied, letting her lead the way.

Unfortunately, it turned out that their reaction came way too late, as cracks spread across the ground below them. Had the death of the boss destabilized this room to the point of complete collapse? Sending a warning to Dusty, Josef tried to sprint to the closest wall, and even attempted to ready his teleportation. He never made it that far, as the ground broke open just before he could take more than a dozen steps, with his spell unfinished and no target to blink to.

Within moments, an expanse of darkness just beneath the floor had swallowed them all up, leaving the boss room as a distant shimmer far above.