#039 – Why would you have teleporting tentacles? Aren’t regular tentacles enough?!
I belatedly realized that the tentacle was probably the boss of this floor.
Sure, it wasn’t all big and imposing like the other bosses, but it was damn persistent and really hard to damage in any aningful way. Not to ntion, I’d found it inside a large open room, just like the other two bosses.
So yes, probably the boss.
I should have gone with the kiddy slide first, ugh.
The damn pink plush tentacle erged right next to once more, interrupting my inner monologue, and I imdiately slashed at it with my key sword, lopping a huge chunk of it off.
Of course, it didn’t really do anything. The tentacle quickly regenerated and the cut off bit began wiggling in my direction like an eel, making swear under my breath before incinerating it with Fire Breath.
At this rate, I would run out of Ether before I managed to get out of here. Should I just risk it and try to kill the thing instead? How would I even kill it, though? Nothing I tried did any lasting damage. Did I need to find the thing’s main body?
Too many unknowns. Too much risk trying to go all in.
Instead of trying to fight an enemy I knew next to nothing about, I opted to retreat for now.
I activated Bullet Ti and, while the tentacle slowed down to a crawl, swam as far away as possible. Once I saw the currents further away from – the water close to was also sped up, that was why it had caught off guard back there – return to normal speed, I reached into my backpack, fished out the fused Ether and Tempor drink, took a swig, and imdiately reactivated Bullet Ti to get even more distance.
Rinse and repeat until I completely ran out of my drink.
By then, the water currents had gone still and I was no longer being constantly dragged back into the boss room. It was also shallow enough for my feet to reach the bottom while leaving subrged up to my waist now.
I only got about a minute of reprieve before the stupid tentacle ca back. It suddenly burst into the tunnel from the direction I was walking in and went straight for a jab in my face.
I managed to swerve to the side to narrowly avoid it and then went to grab it with both arms to wrestle it down.
The tentacle reacted by jerking upwards, lifting with it and making yelp. I lit my arms and it on fire in response.
The thing jerked more violently at that, yanking itself out of my grip before slamming itself into the water and putting the fire out with a sizzle.
I growled in frustration as I recovered from the fall and awkwardly pulled out the naginata from the backpack on my back.
By the ti I had my grip on it, the tentacle was ready for another round.
Slash, dodge, breathe fire.
We kept exchanging blows and I had no ti to even think about continuing to run. For whatever reason, the tentacle was even more relentless than before I’d ditched it with Bullet Ti.
Then I managed to cut off a bit of the tentacle once more and grit my teeth in preparation for having to deal with those detached tentacles again.
In the heat of the mont, I also had a really stupid idea and acted on it without hesitation.
I jabbed my naginata into the exposed fluff inside the plush tentacle revealed by the cut and poured as much Ether as I could into it to create lightning.
Everything around lit up and I felt even my own muscles seize as the electricity ran through .
Oh, shit! I fucked up!
I dropped into the water face first, my muscles twitching, and nearly drowned before I regained so semblance of control over my muscles and I could stand again. I coughed out the water that had gotten into my lungs and wiped my eyes with my twitching hand.
I really hadn’t thought that one through, had I? Who used electric attacks when subrged in water?
The only saving grace was that my dumb attack had accomplished what I’d set out to do. The charred tentacle was floating on the water’s surface, still twitching.
Before it could recover, I pushed through the pain and continued running along the tentacle’s length where I’d been running before.
It didn’t take long for to reach the spot from where the tentacle was ultimately sticking out of.
I narrowed my eyes in suspicion.
The water here was still very shallow and it was easy to see the bottom. It should be easy to see the rest of the tentacle and where it ca from.
Except it wasn’t there. It seed to just… start existing at the point where it erged from the water’s surface.
Was it warping space? Using the water’s surface as so kind of portal to get around? Was the water itself the boss and the tentacle just an extension of it?
I didn’t let my bewildernt freeze in my tracks though. I quickly pulled my naginata, spun it around, stood next to where the tentacle’s base appeared out of the water, lit my weapon on fire, and jamd it down at it, sharp end first, hoping to stab through whatever portal this thing was abusing.
The thing twitched for the final ti before the blade of my weapon ripped through it. To my surprise though, as soon as the blade reached the spot where the tentacle was sticking out of the surface, it kept going and I nearly fell over before the blade hit the bottom of the tunnel.
“Wah?!”
In the anti, the tentacle flopped over, as if severed by whatever portal it was sticking out of, splashed into the water, and stopped moving.
“What the…”
I stepped back and carefully watched the thing for a few seconds, expecting it to co to life at any second. It continued to uselessly lay there underwater without moving, though.
I kept my eye on it, but proceeded to carefully walk around it and continued down the tunnel again.
“Okay… Okay… That obviously wasn’t it yet. No chest. There’s more. It’s probably coming back,” I rambled under my breath as I waded through the water that luckily kept getting increasingly shallower, making believe that I was going in the right direction.
But I was still on edge because of the stupid tentacle. After all, the previous two bosses had relentlessly co after without stopping. There was no way the tentacle wouldn’t co back the mont it regenerated enough to do so.
Or maybe it hadn’t been the boss at all and I’d completely misunderstood?
But then why was it significantly more dangerous than any other monster from this floor, just like the other bosses? Was it so kind of… elite monster? A mini-boss or sothing? What would its purpose be, then?
With these thoughts, I rounded the corner and finally saw light hitting the side of the tunnel. I couldn’t help but gasp and reflexively relax before rushing forward to my salvation.
I rounded another corner and saw exactly what I’d expected – the end of the tunnel, leading to the sa exact spot the last tunnel had deposited at.
I breathed a sigh of relief as I left the tunnel and the fake sun’s rays began to warm up my drenched body again.
“Alright, now -- Oh, fuck no!” I breathed as I spotted the damn pink tentacle erge from one of the pools on the surface, wiggle in the air, and then head straight for once again.
Luckily, since I wasn’t subrged anymore, I easily dodged its jab while slashing at it.
I missed. The tentacle was too thin and was moving too erratically.
But it didn’t matter. With no water to hinder my movents, I wouldn’t let it get an upper hand – upper tentacle? – anymore. Even if it moved quickly and constantly tried to flank , I could easily keep up with a single enemy at this point.
Speaking of which… why was there just a single tentacle? Whatever octopus or squid-type of monster this was, shouldn’t it have more than just one?
Well, it didn’t really matter, so I put that thought out of my head and refocused on the fight as I made my way back to the golden gate.
I cut off a big chunk of the tentacle and imdiately incinerated it with Fire Breath before it could snake its way to again. As I did, my eyes swiped over the pool where the tentacle erged from and I had a thought.
I barely hesitated before breathing in and firing off a Fla Bullet at the spot where the tentacle was sticking from.
But I was too far away and I missed my shot.
I tried again, but to my surprise, the rest of the tentacle – still not done regenerating yet – bent and purposefully got itself hit by my projectile in order to protect its base.
My surprise only lasted a split second before my expression turned into a grin.
“Oh, what’s this?! Did I find your weakness?!” I jeered.
With that in mind, I finally went on the offensive, shooting one Fla Bullet after another. The tentacle kept trying to block the shots, but was getting burned more and more and at so point could barely even move.
Then one of my shots finally hit the tentacle’s base and the change was instant. The whole thing went limp and proceeded to flop over like a felled tree.
I grinned even wider at finally knowing how to deal with the tentacle whenever it ca back.
…And it would co back, wouldn’t it?
My grin turned into a pout.
“Still no idea where its main body is…”
But I could figure that out later. Right now, I was kinda low on Ether, out of ooze in my bucket, and I had completely used up my ‘mana potion’ to power the bracelet’s Bullet TI.
“Ti to go back for today,” I mumbled before finally looking at chat again after ignoring it during that whole ordeal. I’d been doing that a lot, but to be fair, it was hard to focus on chat while having a deathmatch with monsters.
Jeofffff: all I’m saying that the boss is probably sowhere in that room
KaiEbikoOfficial: good idea Nana
GonguuH: agreed
Jeofffff: maybe it’s invisible
repeaeaeat: I’ll try to rewatch and see if I spot anything
I made a face.
“Ugh, yeah. The main body probably is sowhere in that room. Dammit, I never even thought to check. I just panicked and tried to run,” I grumbled, feeling kind of stupid now.
KaiEbikoOfficial: no that’s totally understandable Nana
GonguuH: anyone would panic in that situation
Jeofffff: how much does your bracelet have left btw?
I smiled.
Now that was the kind of emotional support I wanted from chat. Not whatever George was doing.
I humd and looked at my bracelet before grimacing.
It read 29%.
“Aw, man. That sucks. I almost completely wasted my trump card…” I whined.
Jeofffff: I wouldn’t say wasted
Jeofffff: just used so of it to gather info on the enemy
“Gather info? You an about the tentacle’s weakness? I an, I guess… Could have figured it out without it, though,” I argued as I walked through the golden gate and prepared myself to clean up the zombies I’d ‘kidnapped’ from floor three to here.
The first zombie tumbled into my way and I quickly decapitated it with a quick slash of my weapon. A second one tried to flank by climbing over a window to my right, but a quick twirl and my naginata’s blade found its way into the zombie’s skull.
I was getting quite good with this thing. It was still a bit impractical in tight spaces, but I liked it.
“Can’t believe I was afraid of these guys just earlier today…” I mumbled as I made my way back to the entrance.
Granted, that had been a massive horde back then, but still.
In no ti at all, I made it out of the dungeon and let the feeling of relief wash over . I looked behind one last ti, just to check whether the tentacle had regenerated and wanted more revenge, but seeing floor one devoid of anything, I let out a sigh of relief and finally relaxed.
“Well, the coin bosses waited for , so the tentacle boss will wait too,” I declared and began walking to the life ooze lake to refill my bucket.
The sun was shining and the grass around was only mildly damp despite the rain yesterday. The sll of nature and the warm rays of the sun definitely improved my mood.
Don’t get wrong, the fake sun felt real enough, but… Well, you couldn’t beat the real one, could you?
When I finally made it to the ooze lake, I stopped and narrowed my eyes.
There was a… small sapling right by the lake in the grass.
That hadn’t been there before.
What the heck?
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