Randidly followed this up with a Hasted and Empowered Phantom Thrust his spear tip hitting the seed midair and driving it forward once more ripping into the wound on the roof of the sphinx’s mouth
Eyes burning Randidly didn’t just withdraw the spear this time but drove it deeper ripping upward through the jaw and stabbing towards the skull hoping he hit something vital
The sphinx began to tremble mewing strangely and Randidly took that time to plant his feet and shove the spear forward even deeper cracking against something with a wet thump
Just when he thought the sphinx would collapse its mouth snapped shut snapping the spear into pieces As Randidly was sent stumbling backwards it raised its head and howled and Randidly could see that half of his spear was still sunk deeply into the roof of its mouth
Spitting out blood from his mouth Randidly dropped the remnants of the spear and withdrew several potions hurriedly raising himself back up to full strength He now regretted turning down Daniel’s offer of a spear from the weapons shop A spare spear would come in handy right now
Apparently realizing that it couldn’t do anything about the pain right now the sphinx turned its red rimmed eyes on Randidly Then it charged all pretense of playing gone just an extremely large angry monster
It was met by a cloud of pestilence to the face blinding it but barely slowing it at all While it couldn’t see Randidly had Spearing Roots rip into it at a sideways angle aiming mostly for the tendons of its legs seeing several satisfyingly deep gashes result
Leaping to the side Randidly felt a hint of confidence that this was in the bag
That was when it twisted midair and leaped after him its eyes glowing golden the light burning through the vicious insects and the huge body smashed into Randidly knocking the wind out of him The two of them crashed into the ground and he felt his ribs scream in protest
Although wounded the Sphinx leered down at Randidly its breath hot and hungry
Now now now wha
Using Root Manipulation Randidly grabbed the sphinx’s feet and dragged it back off of his body The sphinx turned to face the roots kicking and ripping himself free and turned back to Randidly only to be met with a Roundhouse Kick to the face
It wasn’t enough to do any damage but it fell back slightly stunned
In that moment Randidly poured all his mana into Spearing Roots again several sharp spears ripping upward into the earlier holes digging deeper into the torso of the creature ripping through its stomach and puncturing holes in its lungs
With a high pitched screech the air once more began to hum then distort and Randidly had to grit his teeth to stay standing
The back of his head throbbed and the strange pain in the air seemed to be intensifying Blackness ate at the corner of his vision and he stumbled forward his knees weak
This
Not like this
After all this time all this struggle was he going to let it end like this
Biting his lip to keep himself conscious Randidly cracked his knuckles and swayed slowly closer to the Sphinx Even if he had to rip out its spine by hand and
And at that moment the spell broke the sphinx collapsing rolling onto its back and scratching at its own face
Randidly blinked several times A long thorny bramble was sticking out of the Sphinx’s eyeball blood spurting everywhere And as soon as he saw it he felt a strange connection to it He knew that this was hatched from his soul seed
Fertile soil indeed
While it was again distracted Randidly drank more mana potions and speared it with roots again and again and again making sure to rip the muscles of its legs to shreds and then only afterwards attack towards its necessary organs
When he was close to running out of mana he drank a mana potion fueling a constant barrage of Spearing Roots flaying the flesh of the Sphinx from its bones
After several brutal spells covering the nearby ground with gore the sphinx turned to Randidly looking ridiculous its mouth propped open by the spear its left eye currently being popped and drawn back within its body by a thorn creature It was more zombie than sphinx at this point
I’ll k k kill you It whispered and then it spat something infinitely faster than a fireball Then it vomited up a gallon of blood and collapsed Notifications sprang into existence around him but
Randidly had barely enough time to twitch before the impact slammed against him spinning him around He looked uncomprehendingly down only to find a long thin pink thing like a giant leech sticking out of his body The weird part was that the thing was covered in strange markings
Blinking Randidly realized he recognized it it was the sphinx’s tongue
Just as he thought that the thing quivered and then started wiggling working itself deeper into his flesh with a malicious intensity Swearing Randidly reached over with his other arm and tried to get a grip on the thing but the reaching arm was the arm that had been struck by the sphinx’s claws The arm at first spasmed and did not listen and only after he narrowed his eyes and slowly worked his will against the failing flesh did he get the hand to move where he wanted it to
His fingers were wet with blood and by the time he grabbed at it his fingers slipped off and the wiggling pink thing vanished into his shoulder Almost non comprehending Randidly looked down at the gaping hole in his arm that it had left by its passage
He could feel its alien presence in his body and a horrible sense of wrongness spread out It began to move working its way towards his chest
Randidly began to sweat Removing it from him would be
But as he considered the problem a small vine like bramble crawled out of sphinx’s body hurrying over towards Randidly He could sense it strangely he realized and he could feel it what it was thinking just barely Worry radiated out from it It seemed to understand something was wrong
Looking down at the small vine thing only about a foot long several thorn covered tentacles Randidly felt oddly touched Then the tongue moved deeper into his chest and he grimaced Then he had another crazy idea
Crawl in Find it and stop it Go on Randidly encouraged offering the open wound the tongue had used to climb into his body pulling the gory hole open with his free hand The thing rolled around on the ground and confusion radiating off of it
Grimacing Randidly thought with all the force he could muster picturing what he wanted and projected that thought towards the vine thing Instantly it understood and it climbed into the wound wriggling after the first interloper
Honestly the vine creature was even more painful than the tongue leaving huge gouges in his flesh as it moved Randidly drank his last health potion keeping his health at safe levels and he felt the vine reach the tongue just in his upper torso The vine wrapped around it its thorns digging into the struggling tongue
He sensed from the vine’s projected impressions that it was having difficulties but Randidly could only smile grimly at least he had bought some time
He raised his head and looked at the sky The sun was rising Hopefully the village had fared well in his absence during the monster horde But Randidly assumed they would be fine The enemies they faced might be numerous but they were low leveled It was a course designed to fatten people so that the butcher could come and reap them
Randidly spared the sphinx a glance then sat down and began to brew health potions doing his best to ignore the agonizing pain caused by the constant struggle within his chest Little did Shal know but his training all of it even this part the painful high stress potion making would become relevant in the future
When he had finished he walked over the sphinx and placed it into a larger spatial storage ring that he had Daniel buy for these hunts Then he turned and began to trudge home not daring to move too fast lest the tongue slip free and rip through his heart and lungs