Skill-Eater: Prison World Saga-Chapter 49: Tricky Target

Edge reached down and detached his chakram from his toolbelt.

He ignited his core and cast Elemental Blade, visualizing the magic suffusing the bladed ring instead of forming an iceblade from his palm. As the frigid mana flowed out of his hands to coat the bone-and-brass loop with a billowing layer of frost, Mel raised her throwing axe and Jumo conjured a Piercing Javelin.

When the obsidian weapon was fully manifested, Jumo gave the signal. Axe, javelin, and chakram went streaking for the freakishly large larva sleeping in the middle of the clearing. All three attacks were on target, and for a second, it looked like they would perforate the monster without resistance. Which they did… just not quite in the manner that Edge had envisioned.

A heartbeat before the weapons touched down, the grub’s pale body began to move. Not the normal movements of a living being, but flesh separating like wet clay. Its tissue parted and slid out of the way of the airborne instruments of mayhem, letting the projectiles pass through before shifting back to its original position.

“That’s new.” Jumo shrugged, raised his spear, and prepared to charge. “It looks like we go with plan Mel after all. Keep on cutting until it stops moving.”

“Now that’s a strategy I can get behind.” The warrior laughed as she advanced in time with Edge, fanning out to either side while Jumo Dashed down the middle to grab the monster’s attention. They came at the creature from three sides at once, closing half the distance in a flash.

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That was when the instincts that had been honed by Trapper’s training cried out a warning, primed by Tessa’s glance at the ground. In that moment, he was certain that something was wrong. We need to abort.

“Fall back,” Edge cried. “It’s a trap!” Everyone came to a skidding stop and then darted back… avoiding the pillars of green flame that erupted from the soil a fraction of a second later.

“Good call.” Snake nodded his approval. “That’s a potent trap skill. If you hadn’t aborted the attack, you would have taken some significant burns.”

Edge didn’t have time to pay attention to the shadowkiller’s commentary, or the bandwidth to be annoyed that the man was willing to let them walk into a trap. Every scrap of his attention was focused on the maggot monster, which had stopped pretending to be asleep and turned to face the crew. It still hadn’t moved from the spot, and three seconds later, he learned the reason why.

The series of spikes running along the surface of the maggot’s malleable body shifted. Judging by their angle, it was about to fire them off. “Watch out.” Mel mirrored his train of thought. “Ranged attack incoming. Be careful, there are probably more fire traps embedded in the ground.”

Before the trio could come up with a counter-strategy, the monster unleashed its first volley. A half dozen barbs came streaking for each of them. Having anticipated the move, Edge threw his body out of the way with inches to spare.

He raised his buckler in time to intercept a spike that would have caught him anyway, at which point he learned a critical detail. In addition to being able to reshape its flesh at will, the grub could alter its properties in other ways too. In this case, it had used its elastic tissue to fling the barbs with incredible force. The missile hit his shield hard enough to vibrate his teeth inside his jaw.

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“What are we going to do?” Jumo dodged another round of spines that had risen from the grub’s body, barely avoiding a pillar of flame in the process. “We can’t advance without setting off more traps. It can avoid our ranged attacks, while firing what seems to be an unlimited supply of its own. I’m not sure how to defeat this thing unless we can close the distance.”

By this point, an idea had come to Edge, although he wasn’t sure if it was going to work. “Keep it distracted for a few more seconds. I’ll try to create an opening.”

The others were happy to follow his lead. They let loose with a Piercing Javelin/throwing axe barrage while dodging return fire. The moment that their attacks were in the air, he reached out with his chain glove and tapped his fingers together.

While the maggot was busy separating its tissue to avoid taking damage, the chakram wobbled before flying toward his outstretched hand, still infused with the mana from Elemental Blade. The angle carried it straight into the monster’s body, and this time, it didn’t see the weapon coming.

As Edge had been hoping, the grub had to consciously control its versatile skill, rather than it automatically activating. As a result, the subzero chakram sank into its spongy tissue, pumping it full of freezing mana to inflict the first wound of the fight. The monster let out a shrill shriek, undulating while separating the stricken segment from the rest of its mass.

While it was satisfying to finally dish out some damage, he knew that it wasn’t enough to kill the grub. He used the opening to implement the second phase of his plan—clear a path to the creature by triggering the fire traps guarding the approach to its position.

He took off his toolbelt and backpack so they wouldn’t get caught in the blasts, then braced himself and started running. Edge’s other gear was either flame resistant or could repair itself, and although only Jumo knew it, he had extra resistance to fire thanks to the upgrade he’d chosen after taking Regulate Temperature to rank two.

Combined with Regeneration and the recent increases to his attributes, Edge was confident that he could withstand the damage he took along the way, although he was hoping to dodge some of the traps to limit the burns he received.

“Get ready!” he yelled while priming the Disruption Grenade he had removed from his bag. “After I clear a path, follow in my footsteps. When the grenade goes off, hit it hard.”

Edge was sure that the monster had more tricks up its sleeve. Rather than throwing the grenade and risk wasting its only use, he planned to carry it into range and make sure that the maggot got caught in the surge. The device would deactivate his own skills for a few seconds too, so he would have to rely on his weapons past that point.

He cast his senses into the ground as the monster continued to scream—the frost-rimed wound distracting it long enough to make his move. He ran straight for it, certain that he would activate several more traps along the way.

Sure enough, he felt a flash of mana congeal when his foot came down. He spun out of the way in time to avoid taking a fire pillar head-on, although it still singed his skin and burned his hair.

He was too slow to evade the next one. Edge used his buckler to cover his face as a plume of green flame washed over him. It hurt like hell, but since he had already seen the skill close up, he was confident that it wouldn’t be enough to critically injure him.

He held his breath, shut out the pain, and kept on running. As he closed the last few feet, he tossed the grenade and drew the knife that Trapper had given him.

By now, the monster had noticed his arrival and was getting ready to fire off a fresh round of spikes. He could sense another fire trap activating beneath his feet, but the grenade went off first. The device didn’t have a large radius, but it was enough to cancel the traps skills within a five-foot radius. More critically, it caught the grub in the disruptive pulse, forcibly deactivating its powers for a few seconds.

It tried to fire its spikes, but nothing happened. As Edge had hoped, it needed its skills to use that attack. Before the monster could recover, he came to a skidding stop beside it and started stabbing like mad.

He felt the satisfying resistance of blade parting tissue as Jumo and Mel arrived and let loose a frenzy of blows. They could still use their skills, and five seconds later, the oversized maggot was reduced to shredded ribbons of flesh.