HOOOOWLLLL!
The air rushes toward the ball as it flies for Grokus’ waiting maw, creating a gale that shrieks from every direction. The light itself dims to almost nothing as the Gravity Bomb passes near, sucking away everything it can.
Bounding forward to close the gap when I launched the spell, the city lord grins wide as he sees my spell unleashed. Sensing the sheer volume of Mana packed into it, he folds himself up in a defensive curl, wrapping his arms around his head to put as much meat between the sphere and his body as he can.
I had a feeling he might do this. He wants to take the spell head on and come out standing on the other side, relying on whatever strange resistance and regeneration he has to pull through anything I can throw at him. Somehow, I get the feeling he isn’t quite expecting this…
The moment the bomb hits, time slows. The ball shrinks into a pinpoint of darkness before it expands into a raging sphere of destruction almost twenty metres in diameter. The pull is horrendous, dragging stone, ash, fire, and anything not nailed down to the centre of the bomb where it will be crushed. I can’t even see how Grokus is handling it since the sphere itself is blocking out all light at the point of impact.
HOOOOOOWWWWLLLLLL!
Far worse than before, reality itself screams as the ground shakes, the air shrieks, and light fades away. All I can do is bury my head and grip with my claws for dear life as I resist being dragged into the mass and destroyed by my own creation.
Come on. Give me the notification. Give me the experience notification! There’s no way he survives this! I don’t care how much of a chonk lord he is with a resistance to magical effects, there’s no way you can eat a Gravity Bomb this size and be standing on the other side of it. I can’t even imagine what it would be like in there for him, and frankly, I don’t want to know.
Time drags on as the spell rages. What seems like long minutes is most likely just several drawn out seconds. When the spell finally fades and the world returns to normal, I spring back to my legs, ready to continue the fight.
I don’t know how or why, but I know my opponent isn’t dead. Without the notification from Gandalf, he must have survived, and I need to be ready for anything.
What greets my eyes is not a particularly pretty picture. Grokus is alive, but he probably would rather not be. What remains of the city lord is a twitching mess with a rather large hole chewed out of the middle. I find it shocking that he’s still living in that condition. A few chomps ought to put an end to him. I approach cautiously, though without much concern. He doesn’t even have a mouth anymore, what sort of harm can he really do?
That’s when I see something truly bizarre. It happens so fast I almost can’t believe my eyes. Starting at the base, but shifting rapidly up the body, the entire form of the city lord begins to regrow, flesh and bone and sinew appearing out of thin air and stitching together faster than I can see.
[Pour it on!] I yell at my two pets. [Hit him with everything! He’ll be back to normal in a few seconds!]
Taking my own advice, I lock my mandibles into position and unleash my most powerful bite.
OMEN CHOMP COMBO!
Locking and unleashing in rapid succession, my entire face aches as my stamina rapidly depletes toward nothing. From my left comes Tiny, the big ape leaping and smashing his fists with blinding speed, the powerful concussive blasts rippling through the demon’s body every time he connects. Crinis goes all out, unleashing every limbs at once and wrapping them around the entirety of the city lord’s body, sawing and rending as fast as she can, trying to overcome this truly monstrous level of regeneration.
[That was more than I expected from you… I see that I did underestimate you in the end,] the taunting voice of Grokus rings out in my mind.
Looking up, the demon is almost whole once more. His arms are still regenerating, but his mouth has returned, along with the human torso that sits atop his bulk. A sharp pang in my gut brings with it the truth that the aura effect hasn’t gone away. The ravenous hunger that has been chewing me out from the inside is still there, worse than ever! I trigger another wave of regeneration fluid, but the relief is temporary. The moment my HP tops off, it once again starts to fall.
[Back away from him!] I order my pets, and they’re forced to obey, unable to go against my direct command.
[You are weak!] the now whole demon laughs at me, his entire body shaking with the force of his mirth. [I must admit that you gave it your best, but the time has come for you and your kind to submit to the superior monster.]
His mouth opens wide and his tongue lolls out, as if inviting me to obediently walk into his belly.
As if that’s going to happen! There’s no way he can infinitely revive himself. There’s always a cost to any ability in the Dungeon, I know that much. The trick is, what is the secret to his? Then I notice his arm… One of his claws… is it… still damaged?
143. Confronting our Demons, Part 8
The closer I look, the more certain I am. It isn’t much, a scratch under any other circumstances, but considering Grokus has managed to keep himself entirely pristine for the duration of this fight, something has definitely changed.
[You know, I don’t think I will—surrender, that is. I have a suspicion things might just be turning to my advantage.]
[Nonsense,] the huge demon scoffs. [Unless you have another of those spells in you, then it’s merely a matter of time before you are devoured from the inside out.]
[You so sure about that? Your left claw isn’t looking its normal self.]
I can almost see the massive city lord hesitate before he raises the claw to inspect it. Sure enough, the damage has not been fully healed, a split running along the topmost digit.
[Impossible!] he gasps before he can stop himself.
[Not healing as much as you’d expected, eh? Perhaps something has gone wrong?] It’s now my turn to taunt the much larger monster as my brains race to think of what could possibly have happened.
[Tiny, scorch him! Give him a blast of lightning!]
All too happy to unleash violence at the slightest provocation, the ape lets loose an arc of lightning that plays across the city lord’s flank, burning a groove in him and filling the air with the scent of sizzled Biomass. Crucially, the damage remains, still healing, but far more slowly than before. An idea begins to take shape in my mind, and I can’t help giving voice to it.
[You’ve always been eating, Grokus, eating and eating away, but where has all the Biomass gone? You really expect me to believe you’ve just been racking up thousands of Biomass points for no reason? I don’t believe it.]
I circle around the still form of Grokus, watching him through my multifaceted eyes as he stares back at me.
[You’ve got some sort of Biomass regeneration storage, don’t you? You’ve been packing it away into this regen gland for decades and then pretending you were invincible. Every time you’re damaged in any way, you heal up in an instant and pretend you were never hurt in the first place. You can depend on your impressive bulk to prevent you from having anything too critical being wounded in one shot, and your aura does the rest of the work, since you can outlast your opponents based on your bank of Biomass.]
I continue to circle the big demon as I lecture, expounding on my theory as his eyes narrow.