The Chronicles of a Scalebound Sage: Wandmaker Vol.2

WM [105] Little Goblin Friend

The ground was like putty in the area of the second monster's domain. It was hard to move as Bjorn's feet continued to sink any moment he wasn't moving. He had not seen the elusive beast but the taste of its chaotic geokinetic magic was everywhere. It didn't take long before he felt vibrations underneath him.

"Nope, not waiting to see what freaky shit is down there." Bjorn said.

He didn't hesitate. He took a deep breath—his lungs igniting with power—and unleashed Plague Fire directly into the earth beneath him. The flames started as a plume, then condensed into a searing beam of white-hot energy. The moment it touched the unstable ground, the soft clay bubbled and liquefied into molten rock, hissing violently.

The monster didn't like that. The ground shuddered. A split second later, a wave of earthen spikes erupted in Bjorn's direction, lancing toward him. The sludge beneath his feet made dodging difficult, but he kicked off hard, twisting midair to avoid being impaled.

"I think it is a clay warden," Failsafe said contemplative. "That or an elemental... but I can't tell until it reveals itself."

"How do I deal with it?" Bjorn asked.

"If it is a clay warden just keep doing what you are doing. If it's an elemental we would have to find its core and destroy it."

Bjorn jumped back just in time to keep from being speared in the gut. The creature was getting more frantic as he pumped toxic heat into the ground.

"What would an elemental core look like," Bjorn asked.

Failsafe started to answer, but he didn't need to as the ground split open. A spire of stone rose from the earth, jagged and half-melted. At its center, a glowing red gem pulsed like a beating heart. Molten rock streamed down the structure in glowing veins, the toxic energy of Bjorn's fire already eating into it. The heart was poisoned, but whatever this monster was, its vitality was fighting back.

"Well, what do you know? That's it." Failsafe said. "Elemental it is."

A body rapidly formed around the heart taking the shape of a humanoid before losing shape and instead morphing into a mirror image of Bjorn made from clay and rock. The elemental was much larger than the original. The colossal clay doppelgänger loomed over him, its four monstrous jaws snapping open and closed. The moment its body fully formed, the ground stabilized, no longer a shifting sea of clay but hardened, solid stone.

Bjorn was not idle during the transformation. His breath attack intensified, flames erupted from every head at once. His body overheated from the sheer power he was channeling, but he didn't let up. Chunks of the monster's body blackened, cracked, and shattered, falling away in clumps of scorched stone.

"I think we need to back up." Fail safe said.

Bjorn didn't argue. With a final burst of flame, he whipped around and bolted, his claws tearing into the ground as he sprinted away.

It obviously didn't know how Bjorn moved properly as its body bent and contorted unnaturally as it... well, ran would give it too much credit. Instead, it crawled, using every copied appendage to haul itself forward like a massive, multi-limbed spider. Legs. Tail. Heads. Claws. Every part of it lurched and scuttled, pulling its mountainous body forward with terrifying speed.

Despite its unusual method of movement it was quite fast which was worrying when several hundred tons of rock and clay was catching up quickly. Bjorn had to make a rapidfire decision and he chose to take his angry pursuer to the only tree in the clearing.

Spears of hardened clay erupted from the monster's many limbs, they whistled through the air like a volley of arrows. Bjorn felt the impact against his armor, the force staggering, but the plates held strong. Some projectiles slipped past, striking his Chaos Scales beneath. Pain flared but nothing pierced through.