Chương 49: Broodmother (2)

Taking a deep breath, Rowan moved to where the tunnel dropped off into the broodmother's chamber. Then, he jumped. The fall was over a dozen meters, but he barely felt the impact. Not wasting a moment, he charged at the massive blob of flesh before him. [Bloodspawn Broodmother - Level 26] The creature had gained two levels since he'd first seen it. While that was annoying, it wasn't too big a problem, at least not if Rowan's theory was correct.

Sprinting towards his target in the center of the room, one of his chains began to extend, balling up into a flail. The broodmother had four bloodspawn guarding it, three regular humanoids and a single armored one. None of them were over level eight, but they could still pose a threat. So Rowan focused on them first. Half of the mana darts he'd prepared shot forward, piercing into one of the humanoids. They stabbed into the creature's head, breaking through its skull.

[You have slain Fungal Bloodspawn - Level 7] The beast had been unmoving, making for a relatively easy shot, but Rowan was still quite proud of his marksmanship. Still, he had no time to think about it. The three other guards turned towards him, screeching in anger. Ignoring the two regular bloodspawn, he targeted the biggest threat—the armored one. He'd truly struggled to take down the last one he'd fought. This time, though, he was not only stronger but also had more tricks up his sleeve.

With a grunt of exertion, he swung his arm forward, whipping the ball of chains at his target. The bloodspawn tried to dodge, but Rowan boosted the flail with [Chain Manipulation], speeding them up even further at the last moment. The beast, unprepared for the sudden jump in speed, tried and failed to dodge. Still, it managed to get its body somewhat out of the way, meaning that instead of being crushed against the stone floor, it was sent flying back as its armor was shattered.

Disappointingly, though, there was no kill notification, but that didn't matter; the creature was, at least for the moment, out of commission. One of Rowan's mana daggers flew forward, stabbing into one of the remaining guards' open mouth. It wasn't quite enough to kill, but the blade pulled out and stabbed again, this time in the chest. As the mana construct occupied the beast, the final humanoid rushed at him, swinging its claws with reckless abandon.

But Rowan simply channeled mana into his chains, extending them and whipping them upwards. Unlike when he'd had [Bind] the chains didn't protest at all when being used as a barrier. With the bloodspawn's claws occupied with the chains, he swung a fist beneath the steel barrier, slamming it into the creature's stomach. As the bloodspawn doubled over, he moved forward and brought his knee up, slamming it into its chin.

The beast screamed out of its many mouths, but there was nothing it could do as Rowan slammed it onto its back and stabbed the mana dagger in his hand straight into its head. [You have slain Fungal Bloodspawn - Level 7] Pulling the blade back out of the creature's skull, he turned towards the final guard. It was still dealing with the mana construct he was controlling, though it was bleeding from countless wounds. He threw the mana blade in his hand forward and began controlling it with [Mana Manipulation] as well.

The two blades worked in unison, stabbing into the creature time after time. A second later, the beast collapsed. [You have slain Fungal Bloodspawn - Level 6] With it dead, Rowan finally turned his attention to his true target. The broodmother. It was a strange creature, almost like an octopus. But not only did it have no eyes, it also had dozens of thin, tube-like tentacles. The creature's main body was just a blob of flesh covered in pustules.

Now that he was so close, Rowan could see the silhouette of the bloodspawn the broodmother was cultivating inside each of the bubbling sores. Since the creature hadn't yet reacted to him, Rowan took a few seconds to prepare before attacking. Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation. But once he was ready, he went all out. As his flail flew forward, his remaining half dozen mana darts shot forward as well.

The miniature projectiles pierced deep into the broodmother's soft body, but it didn't make a sound. He'd become so used to the bloodspawn's constant screeching and roaring that it was more than a bit off-putting when the massive hunk of flesh didn't give any audible output at the strike. It made sense, though, since the beast had no mouths—unless the small holes at the end of its tentacles counted, but they were more like straws than anything else.

Not letting the lack of response get to him, Rowan launched his two mana daggers forward as well, stabbing them into the creature's body. Still, as they cut across its skin, drawing sprays of blood, there was no reaction. Then, his flail landed. Rowan had put everything he had behind the blow, even lengthening the chain more than usual for maximum power. With the high ceiling of the cavern, he didn't need to constrain his swing at all. The ball of chains struck the creature's body, sinking deep.

Then, it bounced out? Rowan cursed as the flesh rebounded, sending the flail flying upward and pulling him off balance. He stumbled, but through a combination of his skill and sheer strength, he regained control of the chains before they could pull him over. Once he'd recovered, he took a closer look at where the flail had hit the creature. There had been some damage, sure, but even the two daggers that were still carving through its body had done more. With a curse, Rowan realized the problem.

Not only was the broodmother's flesh soft and shock absorbent, but it also had no bones. Or, at least, none anywhere near the surface of its body. At that moment, the bulbous blob chose to fight back. Its tentacles, which had been inching along the stone floor, harvesting mold for the entire duration of the fight, if it could even be called that, sprang into action, moving faster than ever before. Which was to say, still not very fast.

Rowan knew that the him from before the System probably wouldn't have been able to dodge even a single one of its tentacles, but things had changed. He wove and dipped his way through the broodmother's tentacles, not allowing a single one to touch him. Still, his theory had been right. Even though the creature was at such a high level, it wasn't strong. He didn't know how the stats and powers of beasts worked, but he had assumed that it would focus the majority of its strength on producing more bloodspawn.

He still couldn't underestimate it, though. The tentacles may have been slow, but he'd seen the way they drained blood from bodies. He didn't want to know what it would feel like to experience that alive. As he continued weaving his way through the tentacles, even beginning to extend his chains to use them as another means of defense, he continued manipulating the two mana daggers.

He had them cut through the beast's flesh for a few more seconds before retracting them and targeting something actually important: the bases of the tentacles. But, to his dismay, unlike the rest of the creature's body, they weren't so easily cut. He even tried cutting out the flesh around them, but the tentacles seemed to reach deep into the broodmother's body, meaning he had to actually cut through them.

With a curse, Rowan continued fending off a swarm of tentacles, beginning to retreat as he realized that, even with his chains, he could no longer hold out. But he was still making progress, as just then, his two mana daggers cut through the first of the tentacles. He immediately had them move to the next one as he fled from the broodmother's attacks. He could always wait out of the tentacles' range and just manipulate his mana constructs from there, but he chose not to.

Assuming the broodmother commanded the bloodspawn, he assumed that it was at least somewhat intelligent. So far, it had yet to recall any of its subordinates to defend it. Rowan believed that was because it thought it could deal with him, and its offspring were already occupied holding off the insect invasion. If he stepped out of its range and kept attacking, it might realize that there wasn't much that it could do and bring in some powerful beasts to come defend it.

He knew that it was bound to happen eventually, but he wanted to delay it for as long as possible. As his blades sawed through the base of yet another tentacle, Rowan realized something. And as he did, a grin crept onto his face. He could still sense the mana darts deep inside the broodmother's body. Normally, when he fought one of the bloodspawn, he couldn't move any constructs within them, and even when he could, they were blocked by bone.

Without any momentum behind the projectiles, they just weren't powerful enough to do any meaningful damage. But the broodmother… it had no bones. It was just soft flesh. Flesh that his darts could easily pierce through without any momentum at all. Still smiling, Rowan created another half dozen needles before him, ready to be fired at a moment's notice. Then, he released a burst of mana, blasting the tentacles out of his way. The darts shot forward, stabbing into the broodmother once more.

Still, he didn't enact his plan and start moving them about within the creature. No, if he did that, the massive blob would certainly call for help, so he wanted to have enough darts in there that he knew he could kill it. As a third tentacle was severed by one of his mana blades, Rowan changed things up. One of the daggers continued cutting through the tentacles, but the other moved back to damaging its main body. This time, though, it cut holes in its flesh.

Forming five more mana darts, he sprinted, outpacing the tentacles so that he had a clear shot. Then, he fired them into the broodmother's body. But, before he could do anything else, Rowan heard something above him. Glancing up, his eyes widened in terror. For, directly overhead, was a massive, three-headed hound, its claws already extended.