Monster Hunting 401: A LitRPG Fantasy Adventure by Andrew Karevik (book suggestions .TXT) 📗

a mess. I crashed into the sea of bones and merely lay face down, gasping for air. The numbness in my leg was spreading now, throughout my feet, back and even my arms.

“What’s happening?” I grunted, trying to catch my breath. My health was still dropping, by bits and pieces. My arrows weren’t poison-tipped, nor were they enchanted with anything special. So why was my wound getting worse?

Get up! Josiah’s Storm urged me, but a wooziness was beginning to take over. I tried to reach for my potions, but my arms were growing so heavy. The spit! I realized too late that the beast’s saliva had splattered all over me. I hadn’t even bothered to wipe it off me, opting instead to rip the tongue out. As a result, I was covered in gunk. Why hadn’t I thought of this before? If the beast used a proboscis to drain its victims, chances were it used some kind of paralytic agent to get their victims to sit nice and still. It had learned that psychic attacks could not lure me in, now it was using its backup methods.

I struggled to move my arms, but it was no use. I had been too inattentive, too focused on fighting the beast to figure out the mouth spatter was a weapon unto itself. My limbs were heavy and numb. Time seemed to slow down as my mind kicked into overdrive. I didn’t know how long the paralysis would last, but the Orphine was realizing that I wasn’t moving. It ceased inching and instead switched to its normal method of crawling over to reach me.

What could I do? Change out a charm? I had a few options…but wait! I had the charm trick! My arms were useless, but…what if I used my new ring’s Telekinesis option? Perhaps the beast was now lulled into a false sense of security, thinking that I was paralyzed fully. If that were the case, it wouldn’t know what I was planning.

I focused on my new ability, feeling the hairs on the back of my neck begin to stand on end as a jolt of electrical energy surged through me, all the way to my index finger. My mana drained instantly as I selected the Telekinetic trait. 10% of my health could be burned to grant me two points of strength…6 points for 30% of my health? Or should I go for more? Or less?

What to do? The Orphine was immune to mental attacks, but did Telekinesis count? No, it couldn’t possibly count. My Iron Will had not made me immune to that trip attack it had done on me. Time was running out; the beast was now slithering over me, several proboscises all eagerly hanging out of its various mouths, ready to take me down as quickly as possible. My options were few here, so why not make the riskier play?

In the end, I burned 40% of my health, dropping me down to a meager 20. This would trigger my Blood Rage just in case my current plan didn’t work out. Though 8 points of telekinetic strength was probably more than enough.

I felt two sensations at the same time. The first was a sinking feeling, as if I were falling into nothingness, just on the verge of collapse from exhaustion. The second was a surge of power existing outside of my own body. I became incredibly aware of the world around me, not simply seeing everything, but also feeling it. As if I could simply reach out and touch anything.

I didn’t have time to test out how this type of telekinesis worked. Instead, I simply focused on the beast above me, reaching up with my invisible arms. Eight points of strength was more than just superhuman. It was possibly Titan level strength, for the snarling, gasping slugbeast floated in the air like a soap bubble on the wind. It could do nothing save rotate helplessly, wriggling and writhing around in a feeble attempt to break free of the forces that held it. Telekinesis did not count as a mental attack. Thank goodness.

Suspending the creature above me, I focused on pulling it apart. Grabbing both ends of the slug in midair, the invisible forces that I controlled obeyed without hesitation. The Orphine burst like a gruesome bag of blood and guts as it was ripped in half, torn to pieces by forces far greater than it could resist. I was drenched by a torrent of green blood, but I didn’t care. The paralytic agent had worn off thanks to the Blood Rage’s adrenaline surge, allowing me to sit up and shield my face just in time.

Uncovering my face, I saw that indeed the Orphine was dead. And what was most curious about the beast’s now scattered corpse wasn’t the sheer amount of blood, guts and organs the thing had. Rather it was the large, shimmering blue gem the size of a boulder sitting in the middle of the viscera. An octagonal gem.

Chapter 25

“So this was how that slug was able to control minds?” Trig asked as he pressed his face against the gem, trying to peer through the inside of it. The young lad had been a champ when he saw the battlefield strewn with body parts and organs, somehow managing not to empty his lunch. Instead, he became instantly transfixed on the gem and was trying to figure out how it worked.

“I guess so,” I said from my position on the ground. My regeneration had kicked in shortly after the arrow had lodged itself in my knee and now, I was in a precarious situation. The tissue had regenerated around the arrow, but the nerve could not be repaired due to the presence of the barbed arrowhead. My right leg was, more or less, in a state of complete and total disrepair. Accelerated healing wouldn’t fix this issue. Only tearing the arrowhead out and letting the wound reheal itself would fix this issue. But