The creature took one of its limbs and threw it towards the little girl; the strike quickly intercepted by the Hero's Shield. The attack made by the Bruiser was strong enough to shatter the strongest of warrior's bones. For some reason, the little girl was able to not only stand, but slowly shift her weight off to the side so that impact directed on the shield was directed off her.
With the chance opened, she shouted her skill, "[Horned Queen Shield], [Bullrush]!"
The shield suddenly animated with green light, quickly becoming the face of a monstrous creature with a few horns upon its face. Like a bullet, our Hero went flying into the beast with the force of a truck, slightly shifting the creature backward.
Maple however smiled as another foe came right towards her. Raising her right arm, the girl barely redirected a strike. In normal circumstances, the attack would have skewered her. Instead, in the place of the target was a second Bruiser, with a giant limb going right through killing them.
There was no scream however, as these were simply plants animated by the manipulation of a higher intelligence. Even while it tries to move away from the corpse, it notices a thorn on its side and tries to grab it.
Said thorn however was already moving, a smile upon her face was all the creature saw as she opened her mouth wide, ripping a large chunk off of it. This was part of the several wounds that now dotted its surface, and soon fell without much of a fight.
"One more! [Assassin Vine Shield]!"" The Shield Hero announced while pointing the weapon upon the last one, "[Esnare]!"
Before the being could remove its extended arm from the impaled one, dozens of vines quickly sprung up from the ground. It tried to pull away from the bindings, but such was the job of the Assassin Vines in life. A technique from its old kind, the Bruiser could not escape from the embrace.
"Time to eat!" And with that cheer she basically tackled the beast. Quickly a series of bites tore into the beast, and with no way to fight the attack the Bruiser was helpless. Maple easily killed it by severing its midsection. The flesh had a jerky-like smokey taste with more chewiness as she continued to devour the section.
It was kind of weird she would admit, as when the trees became animated their bark like flesh became more like muscle. She didn't really mind it since it was that much easier to consume.
As for the Entity, it was not enjoying this at all. So much of its biomass was being consumed by the little human that its existence was starting to be threatened! As if the poisons in the newly made spawn were able to be survived by the mass consumption.
However those combat forms were the best it could use, atleast without affirmative action. Yes, such action might be needed now.
The Entity could only hope post recovery went off without a hitch. It would be troublesome if beings like her were able to come back to reclaim what it had declared as theirs.
"Oh, something is happen- KYAA!" The ground underneath Maple quickly gave, throwing the little girl deep into the watery waste. She reached over to pick herself up, but quickly the ground once more shifted as the roots were being drawn up from the ground.
She was sent from one direction to another, the ground becoming something of a thick soup of mud and old grime.
The Entity remembered the last time it had taken this form, it had been when it killed two Seven Star Heroes. Yes, they challenged it during one of those pitiful wars they always waged. And the Entity smiled remembering how their corpses tasted.
They however were not like the little one it was facing, and the Entity knew something was different about her. No army and yet she had reached this far into its region without so much as a scratch. It needs to put her down now.
[break]
"Gah!" Maple finally was able to pick her head out of the water, her head spinning as she looked up.
It was by far the biggest shrubbery that she had seen, maxing out at a height of some hundred meters. Dozens of vines started to collide into it, the form of the creature becoming hunched over. A large alligator-like snout emerged from the front of the creature, completing the look.
With a loud roar dozens of pours opened from the beast, sending thousands of acid droplets into the air.
"So cool!" Maple exclaimed as the creature steadily grew a series of major vines, "But where is the sword?"
The vines wrapped up their development, the creation of four separate mouths finished. The consolidation finished with a molten yellow core resting in the beast's belly, the glowing giving off sheer heat.
"Well, I can't just ignore the boss!" Maple exclaimed while preparing her Shield, "Well, let's get this started!"
[Vialan Lv. 50]
Maple quickly raised her Shield as one of the vines with vicious teeth went flying towards her. The attack was that of a bludgeoning, quickly sending her back a few paces with the force of a semi-truck.
While Maple could feel the pain corse through her body, she had a response already prepared, "[Devour]!"
The Shield Animated, the jaws of a monstrous beast made of wood quickly biting through the vine. However such a mouthlike vine was almost double the size of Maple, and so the Shield only removed a quarter of the things mass in retaliation.
The being roared, but such a battle cry was so deep and bellowing that instead of being audible it shook the entire core of the swamp. Its other three limbs became animated, one of them aiming a side swipe at Maple.
The Hero quickly transformed her Shield into the Horned Queen variant, receiving the attack with dozens of horns. Maple could feel her arms cry with pain as the horns pierced the plant's flesh so easily, however she was soon airborne and still attached to the vine!
"WHOA!" The ground from underneath Maple's feet disappeared in that instant, the girl feeling the monstrous lift of Vialan. Why, she was going so far up that the air around her was rapidly dropping in temperature.
She quickly reached forward and gripped the green flesh, the spikes on her armor slowly sinking deeper into the skin so that she would not go flying off the being. It gave a massive whip, but Maple's grip was solid. The being soon realised she would not be so casually flicked off.
Maple herself grew a small smile, yeah things were bad but she was still alive. All this was insane, probably a good bit scary, but she was going to beat this, one bite at a time!
And so Maple started a slow crawl down the vine, her maw ripping chunk after chunk of Vialan's flesh asunder along the way. Green fluids leaked from the wound, but Maple didn't notice as she was savoring the flavors hitting her tongue. This creature was a fine delicacy. If she had to compare it to something, she would say the beast tasted like sugar, though the subtle burn gave an off taste.
At the time of impact her Health tanked to about a quarter of its original amount, though within only moments of consuming the being her health had all but recovered, as well as the SP used in her earlier Devour.
As she just reached the overfilling part of her meal, Maple felt the vine suddenly shift. The direction completely opposite, she turned her head to see another limb slowly move towards her with the sound of air being ripped asunder playing.
With a quick thought, she shouted, "[Devour], [Devour], [Devour], [Devour], [Devour], [Devour]!"
It was now a more instinctual reaction, the calling of her skill six fold. Extremely wasteful was this attempt, placing her SP at where a normal being should have it. But in times like this, irrational actions were exactly what was needed.
The Shield animated with three hundred SP empowering it. The maw of the Horned Queen quickly tore into the flesh first to free itself, then two and three times to tear away the protective flesh, and the remaining easily separating the vine into two!
The Entity that inhabited Vialan felt massive amounts of pain, the first time someone had actually been able to harm its true body. It could feel its enemy impacting its other limb, dozens of metal teeth and horns sinking into its body. It knew that something needed to be done, and so with its remaining inactive limb it gave a command.
Maple meanwhile had to turn herself to meet the incoming arm. She wasted no time in nomming the limb, the taste exquisite and recharging her lifeline. If that attack had gone through she might not have been alive, but she ignored the existential crisis in favor of having a delicious meal!
She was quickly able to raise her HP back to its max and started on recovering her SP when something seemed to blot out the sky. She looked up, her eyes seeing the massive maw that could swallow three of her at once. This time, however, her mouth was filled with the enjoyable green flesh of Vialan, meaning she could not call the Shield's abilities as she was swallowed whole along with the vine she was munching on.
[break]
The Entity had its vine to constrict the enemy like a snake would to its prey. Surely such a small and weak being would not survive its interior, in which the Entity constructed all forms of poison and toxin imaginable.
Soon though it felt the sting in its gut, the little creature trying its best to devour Vialan from the inside. At first the Entity simply increased the grip mandated upon the dreadful being, but soon it had to dedicate resources into the regeneration of lost tissue.
How was this happening? The Entity had already driven the toxins inside itself to its maximum level! Any more and the vine itself would burn away as its own body would not sustain it. How is it that even though it captured the foe the Entity has not killed it already!
And within a moment the nervous system gave the Entity a notice, the amount of damage done had just multiplied threefold. It demanded an eye be made, a view in the limbs interior where the enemy was. What it saw was the little one quickly taking bites out of its flesh before her weapon of choice animated to take several bite out of Vialan's flesh!
Quickly the order was given through its nervous system, the command to expel her! The Command was received by its limb, but as the movement began the little one simply grabbed the walls. The Entity commanded the limbs to crush her, to expel the human girl with enough force to make the being into a slurpy! Still, she held her place, and as her weapon became animated the Entity lost connection.
[break]
Maple broke free of that unusual prison that she had found herself in. It was her luck that the armor Erhard gave her held up so well along with her sheer vitality to not die inside. Why she even heard the potions within her backpack shatter from the sheer force of the attack!
It was her luck however that the egg was still safe, as she pulled up its stats in the top right hand corner.
Rockjob Egg
Lv. 5
HP: 50/50
Vit: 25
Poison Resistance: High
Mutation Chance: High
'Huh, well that wasn't there before?' Maple thought for a moment, 'Okay, but thats for later.'
It definitely was, as due to the vine's destruction she was now in free fall.
The sound of wind whipping by her ears was immense as she tried to straighten out. However as she did, the sight of the two remaining limbs coming towards her was as clear as day itself.
An idea sparked in Maple's head as she pointed the Shield away from the vines, rolling herself in a ball, "[Bullrush], [Bullrush], [Bullrush], [Bullrush]!"
Her body lit with the powers of the Shield, Maple quickly went sailing across the air and out of the way of those attacks. Finally with the chance Maple looked to see the actual health of what she was facing.
[Vialan] HP: 70%
The Vines seemed to be the large amounts of its health, she could guess, but at this rate she would be fighting the giant until the sun went down! There just had to be a weak spot, something that if Maple crashed into it-
'Maybe the big yellow spot is a weak point?'
With a target in mind, Maple angled the Horned Queen Shield toward it, the Shield acting as an air breaker. The Air quickly shattered around her, allowing the speed she was going to be even greater.
However the Entity was not a fool, the sudden change in her direction easily causing it to guess. Its remaining vines started towards her like a lineman attempting an interception, but as they neared the subject it somehow glowed with green light and started going even faster! The Entity roared with immense rage as it narrowly missed it!
As for Maple, the area around her the Shield had begun to heat up, a shield of heat covering her. It was getting pretty hard to keep the Shield pointed in the right direction, especially as she kept using [Bullrush] to speed herself up. However, she had only a few more seconds to brace as impact was imminent!
She grew a smile: she still had plenty of SP to spare.
"[Bullrush], [Bullrush], [Bullrush], [Bullrush], [Bullrush]!"
KABOOM!
And like that Maple slammed into the core of the beast, the sound of earth shattering proportions quaked through the air. The moment of impact even seemed to shake the air itself, causing a ripple that carried over the swamp.
The impact Maple made was quite something, and while not comparable to the atomic bomb relativity becomes your friend. Maple had of course broken the sound barrier, as she does which impacted the stationary object known as Vialan. The average size of a bullet going that speed is only .02 kilograms, compared to Maple's now 100 kilograms. That means a person Maple's size is doing about 34300 newtons of force, or about 5,000 times more damage that a bullet.
When it comes to certain things in this world, Level is simply the performance one can do. A gun in this world performs much worse than a duplicate on earth, as does a skilled craftsman can outperform an industrial factory at high enough levels.
So, when the Shield (who should only do quite the abysmal amount of attack) is in an extraordinary circumstance, things like level don't matter with raw output. If we were to put this attack into Level terms, she had just performed a level 85's empowered melee strike against the Entity in its weak spot.
So it was no surprise that the core popped like a water balloon.
The shaking of the realm did not stop with just the impact, for the roar of the Entity could be heard once the core was struck. It was where the multitude of organs were located in order to maintain such a massive form. Now it was reduced to that of lukewarm, golden water that could not maintain its form.
It tried to give orders to repair the damage, but shock was already settling into its system. So much damage could not be censored, and the nervous system that allowed the Entity control broke down immediately. All systems were shattering, and as the form was balancing a thin line when it came to its toxins the entire being could not be stopped from melting.
The Entity would have gone into a panic, if it was not that it died the moment all the cells that made up its mind melted into green plasma.
As for Maple, she laid in the bulk of golden water and plasma. With a small motion she took out the only remaining Health Pot, downing its contents to restore her health. It raised her to the middle part of her health bar, enough that traversing the now ruined corpse wouldn't accidentally kill her.
"... yamata…" She threw her hand in a small celebration, "I beat the boss."
[Level Up]
Now Level 33
Skills Gain: [Biological Monstrosity Eater], [Genetic Manipulation: Max], [Blood of Toxins], [Blood of Plant Life], [Growth Correction of Monstrosity: High], [Personal Growth Correction: High]
Shields Unlocked, [Meteorite Shield Unlocked]: Ability: Meteor Crash
"Yea…" Was about all she could say as the girl picked herself out of the sludge, steadily making her way out of the corpse while feeding the Shield some of the goop.
[Vialan Shield Unlocked]: Ability [Summon Plant Monster], [Biohazard Shield Unlocked], [Genetic Manipulation Shield]: Ability [Genetic Table].
However that was not what she needed, no in her tired state Maple was looking for something in particular. The Sword of the Melromarcian King who sent her here. She searched for what must have been an hour, each step becoming more tiring as she begrudgingly looked for the weapon. Well, she was able to find a weird looking purple stone but there was no sword.
"Wait a second…" A thought finally hit her, and with a flick of her hand the loot menu came up. She read through it for only a moment until her eyes saw the item.
[Sword of the Faubley Prince]
Once lost by a Prince who wished to avenge his family, it was dissolved by the Swamps he was forcibly disarmed by. The item itself remembers what it was, so it became whole once more.
And like that she collapsed with a smile upon her face. Even as her SP was full and her body beyond human, there was a need for sleep. Changes needed to be made and lost progress to be made up for. Bathed in the literal lifeblood of a great foe, Maple slept.
~Editor Corner~
Calculation of Impact
Speed of Maple: 343 m/s
Time duration (max to 0): 1 sec.
Mass: 100kg
Acceleration Calc
a=dv/dt = (343m/s)/1s = 343m/s^2
Force Calc
F=ma
F= (100kg) (343m/s^2) =34,300 N
