The Red Forest (3)
Free of that vicious pain, my mind snapped back at speed. As my thoughts settled, the bristling fur along my body calmed and lay flat again.
It still ached — I had torn the pincer-tipped tail clean off, after all — but it was nothing compared to the trauma-triggered agony.
Only once my body had recovered could I evaluate the Color of the Abyss objectively.
The risk is lethal, but….
Call it high-risk, high-reward. For all the pain it had cost me, I had gained a great deal.
The enhanced Psychic Breath and the Gaze of Horror. The former gnawed away at an enemy's flesh, dealing damage until nothing of them remained; the latter dredged up the most terrible pain buried in an opponent's memory.
But how the affected traits performed was a secondary matter. That depended entirely on how skillfully I wielded them.
What truly mattered was the Color of the Abyss itself.
Being able to decide whether to activate it at will is a huge advantage.
Being able to choose the exact moment to use it meant, in effect, getting two different effects out of a single trait.
I could, for instance, snipe at enemies with the Psychic Breath as usual, then wait for an opening and hit them with the disintegrating bubbles that would eat them alive.
The Gaze of Horror worked the same way. Unlike the original version, the Color of the Abyss version worked on multiple targets. If enemies were clustered in a narrow space, raining it down over them would be devastatingly effective.
And what if any new psychic-type traits I acquired in the future also fell under its effect? Each one would be like getting two traits for the price of one.
Maybe it'll apply to new abilities too?
For now, according to the text box, only three of my traits were currently affected by the Color of the Abyss.
Non-combat traits like Humanity and Predator Sense hadn't been affected. The Psychic Reflection Carapace did qualify, but I hadn't been able to test it since its activation conditions hadn't been met yet.
But if my newly acquired psychic traits also turned out to be subject to the Color of the Abyss? It would shore up my woefully inadequate anti-psionic combat capabilities.
I'll figure that out as I hunt.
Whether new Psychic Power traits fell under the Color of the Abyss would only become clear once I actually acquired one.
And as it happened, I was on the planet that housed the Galagon Nest — one of the easiest places in existence to pick up psychic-related traits.
Good. Now I need to get out of here.
The master of the forest was dead, but danger remained.
Hundreds of cocoons of every size still littered the area around me, and the drug slaves inside them slept on.
With the Glacier Fiend dead, their waking was now a foregone conclusion.
Before I go, though….
I looked down at the headless corpse of the Glacier Fiend.
Nearly fifteen meters of fresh meat lay sprawled across the ground waiting for me — eight meters above the surface, and the rest of it buried underground.
In Clever Underdog mode, my body couldn't exceed five meters, so hauling off the entire carcass was out of the question. But that didn't matter — thanks to the Essence Harvester's Jaw, eating just the head would yield the Genetic Essence.
I seized the Glacier Fiend's stag-beetle-like head.
I locked my combat arms around its skull, then pulled with all my strength. The last strands of flesh connecting it at the neck tore away, and the head came free.
Thanks to the Essence Harvester's Jaw trait I'd gained upon becoming a Young Adult, devouring the head alone would trigger the same full Predation Effect as consuming the entire body. The size difference made carrying the whole corpse impractical, so I intended to take just the head.
Not about to let the junkies have it.
The Glacier Fiend was a monster that possessed a wealth of useful traits. It was not a common creature — no predator that hunted across such a vast territory ever was. If I passed up this chance, who knew when I'd get another, so the head was non-negotiable.
Just as I grabbed the head and turned to leave, the cocoons around me began to writhe.
The nearest one burst open, and the creature inside came spilling out. A monster like a long-legged salamander hurled itself at me.
Its name was the Snowbanshee.
A small carnivore with skin gone past white to corpse-pale, striking for its vivid red tongue. It would flatten itself deep in the snow, and when prey drew near, it snatched them up with that thick tongue in a lightning strike.
Its real terror lies in perfect concealment, but….
The one in front of me had been marinated in narcotics so long it wasn't in its right mind. Far from fighting from cover, it simply flung its tongue at me again and again.
I caught the flying tongue with the arms along my chest.
In Clever Underdog mode, my body shrank, but the musculature of my chest arms developed dramatically instead. They lacked the raw power of my combat arms, but against opponents my own size, they were more than useful.
Like right now.
"Kii?"
I flexed the arm gripping its tongue and hauled hard. The creature, clearly not expecting to be overpowered, pitched forward and collapsed.
I closed in on its broken posture and clamped my jaws down on the back of its neck. With a sickening crunch of snapping bone, its body went limp.
Take this one too.
I draped the creature — all a meter and a half of it — over my back alongside the Glacier Fiend's head. By then, the other cocoons were bursting open one after another.
The monsters emerging from them also crowded in to feed on the Glacier Fiend's carcass.
They knew exactly where that red substance came from. That was why.
Time to run.
While they were distracted, I slipped swiftly away from the forest's heart. The cocoons near the perimeter had all been destroyed by my Psychic Breath earlier, so nothing stood in my way.
Except one thing.
"Grrrrrrh."
Four meters of gaunt frame, grotesquely elongated arms and legs — and a pitch-black face set against that white body.
The Winter Walker burst from the trees and blocked my path.
So it's that one.
The Winter Walker that had been trailing me.
Its gaze was locked squarely on my back — on the Glacier Fiend's head.
It looked the type to chase me to the death if I ran. Better to settle things here.
Actually, this works out fine.
Mother of the Sky needed a Winter Walker's heart.
I lowered the burdens from my back to the ground. Seeing that I had no intention of retreating, the creature growled a threat.
The Winter Walker strode toward me in long, deliberate steps. Standing twice my height at the moment, it made for a genuinely imposing figure.
I drove off my four legs and launched myself at it.
Right on cue, it swung its abnormally long arms. My combat arms met its arms with a heavy collision.
"Grrrrrh."
｢Rrrrgh｣
The Winter Walker had far more joints in its arms than any ordinary animal. That gave them the flexibility to move like whips rather than limbs.
Its arm slithered over my combat arm like a serpent. Its razor-sharp claws were aiming for my eyes — trying to blind me and neutralize my vision.
True to its name as the hunter of the snowfields, it was opening with a cunning attack.
But I had anticipated exactly this.
With my weight loaded onto my hind legs, I swept my forelegs upward. Like a horse kicking out, I drove a hard strike into its lower abdomen.
"Grrkh?!"
The creature staggered, arms faltering, as the blow found its vitals. I returned my forelegs to the ground, rolled my feet, and spun in place — then whipped my tail around with the full momentum of the rotation behind it.
The pincer hadn't regenerated yet, but a tail the size of a tree trunk made a weapon on its own. The blunt, severed stump hammered into the creature's legs like a club.
"Grrrrrh."
The creature leapt straight up. My tail, sweeping low along the ground, grazed just beneath its feet.
It was nimbler than it looked — but that, too, was within my expectations. My true aim had never been the tail, but the attack that followed it.
With my body half-turned, my back was now facing the creature. And on my back were my Human-Faced Beasts.
Five faces thrust out in an instant, mouths gaping wide. A paralysis-inducing sonic wave blasted toward the target.
"!"
The Winter Walker — airborne, frozen in paralysis — dropped from the sky. My jaws split open in two halves and closed over its head.
My teeth sank into that pitch-black face by the dozen. Then I bore down with my jaws, and its skull began slowly to crumple.
"……."
Even with its head being crushed alive, the creature couldn't so much as twitch a finger. A soundless scream was the only thing it had left.
Moments later, with a crack like a walnut shell splitting, a rich liquid flooded into my mouth. A thick, velvety sweetness — enough to bring chocolate pudding to mind.
Tsk. I'd love to eat more.
My mouth was no longer mine alone these days, so I forced myself to stop. Mother of the Sky only needed the heart, but showing up with nothing but a heart would have been strange.
So I gathered up my prizes and left the Red Forest. As I reached the outermost fringe, I could see the red moss already beginning to wither.
The forest, robbed of its master, was returning to what it once was. If the beasts still fighting in its depths left as well, this place would fall quiet again, just like before.
I focused on my auxiliary organs and retraced my path. Where we had stayed until morning, there would be traces of their passage.
Once out of the Red Forest, I ran without rest for hours through the dark woodland. The canopy let in almost no sunlight, and the trees all looked alike — a recipe for getting lost. But that didn't apply to me. Amorph's innate Super Sense was pointing the way.
As I traveled on, I found myself at the pit we had dug yesterday. I stopped nearby, bent down, and pressed my auxiliary organ close to the ground.
The faint scent they had left behind registered. It led sparsely away in a single direction.
I followed the faint trail. Along the way there were marks that looked deliberately made — a small cairn of stones, claw gouges on tree trunks. Left behind, no doubt, in case I failed to follow.
After a long stretch of crawling with my auxiliary organ pressed to the ground, I arrived before a certain burrow.
Hm.
The entrance itself was narrow, and the surrounding trees grew so thick it was nearly invisible. It was hidden well enough that even I might have missed it without my auxiliary organ.
Looks good.
With all I was carrying, I wasn't going to fit through like this. I tossed my burdens inside one by one, then entered the burrow myself.
Inside, instead of an earthy smell hung something musty and stale — presumably left over from whatever animal had used the place before.
As I inspected the area around the entrance, someone emerged from within.
｢You're back sooner than I expected?｣
A griffin's form — the head of an eagle and the body of a lion cloaked in golden fur. Mother of the Sky greeted me, her amber eyes gleaming.
｢And here I thought it'd take you all day.｣
[Zzz-zzz zzz-zzz zzz-zzz zzz-zzz (I got all the information I needed)]
I handed over the Winter Walker's body.
｢What's this? A Winter Walker?｣
[Zzz zzz-zzz zzz-zzz-zzz-zzz (Yep. You need the heart, don't you?)]
｢Oh. Ah, right. Thanks.｣
[Zzz-zzz zzz-zzz zzz-zzz zzz-zzz (Nice work finding a spot this good)]
｢Can't say I did much of anything, but…｣
[Zzz-zzz (Hm?)]
｢You'll see when you go in.｣
We split the load between us and headed into the burrow.
Inside, it turned out to be surprisingly spacious. Gourd-shaped, perhaps? The passage near the entrance ran long and narrow, but the interior widened the deeper you went.
｢Big Baby!｣
Just then, No. 26's thought-wave came flying at me. She had been waiting in the inner chamber, and she shimmered pink as she hurried over. The shrunken little thing bounced up and perched on top of my head.
[Zzz-zzz-zzz (Were you good while I was gone?)]
｢Yep. House-hunting was fun.｣
Seeing her welcome me like that lifted my spirits before I knew it. As I stroked her, something odd caught my eye in the darkness of the burrow.
Hm?
My auxiliary organs detected some unidentifiable creature lying in a corner of the chamber. I'd assumed the musty smell was just from the old burrow — I'd been wrong.
The smell was coming from that creature.
With no heartbeat and no movement of muscle to be felt, it was unmistakably a corpse. And lying beside the carcass of something very large was PS-111.
"Sub-Controller Amorph. You have arrived."
"What is that beside you?"
｢A Sharkbear. We thought the cave was empty. We were wrong.｣
Hearing Mother of the Sky's explanation, I was slightly taken aback. The Sharkbear wasn't classified as APEX, but it was still a formidable monster.
A chimera with the head of a shark and the body of a bear, it excelled at raw physical combat. Its one weakness was a complete lack of resistance to psychic power.
Wait. Don't tell me.
Come to think of it, the Sharkbear's corpse did look strange. As I recalled, the creature was quite large — standing on its hind legs, it would be about the size of a Winter Walker.
Yet the body my auxiliary organ registered was nowhere near that size. It looked as if it had been fed into a hydraulic press and crushed.
｢We were resting in the cave and it just walked in. No. 26 handled it.｣
｢This is a house where Little Baby and I live, so I scolded the bad person who came in. I did good, right?｣
The very culprit who had turned that shark-headed bear into cube steak.
Sea Demon No. 26 beamed down at me from atop my head, utterly delighted with herself.