Infinite Farmer

Whatever overpowered strike the chimera had used to disable Necia last time turned out to have a cooldown of at least a minute, and they spent that entire time whittling away at the monster's health. Necia was in charge of blocking the chimera's attempts to attack and left Tulland plenty of openings to push through with his pitchfork, poking it again and again and building up damage. The chimera barely cared about each individual hit. None of them were as deep as that first big strike, but they were adding up. The chimera was getting slower and slower.

"It's going to attack again soon. The big one." Necia puffed. "I can block it."

Tulland swallowed down any thought of telling her to avoid the attack. For all that he cared about her, he also knew that he needed time. As much of it as he could get.

"Do it," Tulland said. "I'll end things after this one. I promise."

Necia nodded, then turned back to the chimera just as it began to prepare its next huge shot. In the meantime, Tulland hit it the few final times he could sneak in, then ducked behind Necia as she took the hit, barely getting out of the way as she was thrown away from the point of impact. She hadn't taken the hit perfectly, and wasn't fully recovered from the last hit, either. The chimera had learned just enough about her shield block talent to force the point of impact off center, which generated a sick breaking-and-tearing sound in Necia that only truly ended as she hit the ground, as down for the count as he had ever seen her.

The chimera got less of the recoil this time than it had last time too. Tulland wasted no time as he launched forward onto the back of the chimera, gripping one of its wings as he reached for the Clubber Vine in the back of the chimera, the one he had left there. As expected, the vine itself hadn't done as much damage as he might have hoped, even though it was well-anchored and had a straight shot to the back of the beast's head and neck.

Tulland didn't care. The point of anchoring the Clubber Vine was never the vine itself. It was the anchor. The silver stars weren't the best weapons in the world, and he had no special skills for getting them into his enemies again and again like he did for his pitchfork or his automatically attacking plants. The counterbalance for that was that the little spiky metal seeds were as sharp as anything he had ever encountered. They'd dig through flesh like a knife through butter, so long as they were pushed.

And there's nothing better to push it than a Clubber Vine swinging on the other end. Let's see how big of a hole they both dug together.

Tulland yanked out the seed to see it had done more than he had expected. There was a cavity in the big animal's back about the size of three of Tulland's fists, ragged and bleeding from minutes of being torn apart by jagged metal. It was deep, not enough to kill the monster or even seriously hamper it, but enough. He hoped, anyway.

Reaching into his dimensional storage, he brought out the fourth plant he had packed for the fight. Originally, he and Necia had planned on using them as distractions, hoping a face full of acid would have more effect on the chimera than a lungful of weak Acheflower toxins. Now he had a different idea for where to put the acid.

He pulled out all of the new bulbs he could fit in his hand and shoved them into the hole, then brought out more. The chimera stirred, trying to stop whatever the peskier of the two humans was doing behind his back. It just didn't have the coordination to make it happen just yet, considering the aftereffects of Necia's counter. Tulland had all the time he needed to empty out his dimensional storage of the ten or so little bulbs it would let him carry.

Tulland didn't have a ton of experience with these given that they were the product of his latest dungeon, and he doubted they'd do much if they were spread on the skin of the monster directly. But inside, the acid would wreak havoc. It would burn and burn, well past all the monster's natural defenses.

Once the bulbs were in, Tulland crammed the Clubber Vine in the hole, ordering it to stay still as he pinned it down over the hole with the same Silver Star.

Explode, little bulbs. Show this guy what a farmer can do.

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With his hands pressed down hard on the vines, Tulland felt the pressure build as each of the bulbs exploded inside the monster's back. A hissing sound reached his ears, quiet but unmistakable as the acid went to work destroying everything it touched.

The chimera was starting to come out of its stun anyway, but the pain of the acid seemed to catapult it all the way back to consciousness in an instant as it started flailing around, sending Tulland flying a few steps away in the process. Claws flashed as the chimera tried and failed to dig the vine-plug out of its own back, and it roared in pain as an escape of gas from the chemical reaction left it covered in smoke.

Tulland decided to make sure the chimera's attempt to clean its back had a cost. He shot forward, brandishing his pitchfork in front of him as he tried to get every ounce of his weight lined up behind the handle. The monster reacted too slow, bringing its arms back around towards the front far less quickly than required to keep the tines of the pitchfork from penetrating its chest.

Tulland pushed up on the handle and jumped back, dragging the tines and ripping as much chimera-meat as he could on the retreat. The chimera went for a counterstrike, but winced and slowed as it involved its own acid-coated muscles in the motion and left just enough time for another shot from Tulland to its dominant shoulder.

And then things got messy.

The chimera was slowed down, and even a little weakened by the acid. Tulland could smell the sour air as it continued to do damage inside the thing. But it wasn't down for the count, and finding itself unable to halt the acid working inside its body, the monster seemed to have decided to try and take Tulland down first. Its claws flashed again and again, raking Tulland's arms and chest as he hit the conglomerate monster as much as he could through the storm of its attack.

They were both taking damage, enough so that Tulland's will broke for just a moment. He jumped back out of the range of the chimera's attacks, hoping to find a better option than simply trading blows and hoping the monster fell first. That plan fell to pieces as the chimera's took in its new tactical situation and shifted its horrible, almost-human eyes back to Necia.

"No." Tulland wasn't brave in that moment. He was scared as hell, really. But he simply wasn't going to allow what the monster appeared to have planned. "Not a chance."

Tulland dove towards the chimera, who deflected his first big stab and countered with a backhand that almost turned off the lights in Tulland's eyes. He wrenched himself back towards consciousness, got his pitchfork into play, and put another set of holes in the chimera's leg. It clawed his face, then actually stomped on his foot as it unleashed another four claw slashes before Tulland could choke up on his pitchfork and drive it back with his own rapid-fire stabs.

I expected it would be over by now. How long has it been? Tulland's arms were almost noodle-limp now. It feels like hours.

Less than a minute. Keep fighting. It's not doing any better, Tulland. You have a chance.

It was hard to believe the System in that moment, but it hardly mattered. Every time Tulland allowed the chimera any space at all, it set its sights on Necia. He would then step back up, trading damage for damage as both he and the chimera waited to see who would break first.

It turned out to be Tulland. He drove his pitchfork up one last time into the monster's gut, and then found he simply didn't have the strength left to pull it back out to make another attack. The monster sensed it too. It looked down at his face, pulled its own face into an evil grimace, and then raised its claw for the final attack.

Tulland watched as its recharged power-attack glinted across the claws, much weaker-looking now but still undoubtedly enough to end him. He tried to jump back, only to find his legs were just as ruined as his arms. There was nowhere to go. He watched as the claws started to move down to end his journey once and for all.

And then they caught on something. Tulland blinked blood away from his eyes by reflex, clearing his vision enough to see how and saw a monolith of steel poking out through its chest, sticking through just far enough to have got in the way of the strike. The chimera itself looked just as shocked and confused as Tulland felt, looking down at the chunk of metal as if it expected an explanation for its own sudden appearance.@@novelbin@@

"Wow. That hole makes this so much easier." The metal withdrew back through the chimera's chest and then came through again from another angle, piercing the other side of the monster's chest. "Sorry it took me so long to wake up."

Tulland tugged on his pitchfork again, found it was still stuck, and finally gave up on it entirely as he let go to try and figure out some other option to attack. Immediately, he fell backwards, unable to support his own weight without the benefit of the pitchfork handle.

"It's okay. I have it." Necia was slicing through the chimera like butter now. "You had it pretty much beat, somehow. What did you even do while I was out?"

"Stabbed." Tulland's mouth felt dry. "A lot."

"Well, thanks."

Necia's sword flashed one more time as the chimera's head finally detached from its body and flew away. The monster's body stood for just a few moments before crashing into the ground, which Tulland felt and heard rather than saw. Necia's heavy footsteps plodded towards him, then he felt a familiar shift as she transitioned back to her normal size, laid down next to him, and shoveled a few fruits into his mouth.

"Chew." Her hand came to the bottom of his chin, as if she was preparing to do the job for him if he couldn't get his jaw working. "Your regeneration is bottomed out. I don't want you to bleed to death."

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With great effort, Tulland managed to work his jaw a few times, then gave up. He swallowed what juice had leaked out, which gave him just enough strength to suck a bit more juice, chew, and finally get the fruits into his stomach. Necia put a few more in, and he ate those too. After a few minutes of careful care, he finally felt his regeneration close the worst of his cuts and found he was just strong enough to sit.

"That was stupid, you know. If you weren't strong enough to hold out those last few seconds, he would have sliced your head open," Necia said. "But you made it. Your melee is coming along, Tulland. More than I thought it would."

"That's me. Good old combat class Tulland." He shook his head and looked down at his pitchfork. "I should transition to a full warrior, at some point."

"Nope. It isn't that good. And given what you can do with the plants, it's more than I'd expect. It's gonna make for a bad surprise for somebody, some day."

Necia stood up and reached her hand down to Tulland. He took it and levered himself to a standing position, testing his legs to see how much of his strength he had back. Another minute or so would bring him back to full health, if the System gave them that long.

"Time to restock," Tulland said. "If we have that much time. How far is the farm?"

"Not far. Let's go."