The Chronicles of a Scalebound Sage

WM [105] Little Goblin Friend

The ground was like puddy 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.

“You are not going to believe me but the Chaos Scales Armor’s random effect right now is extra defence against elemental magic.” Failsafe said with enthusiasm. “We really need to study that skill more—”

Bjorn barely stopped himself from snarling. “Failsafe, kinda busy here!”

“You can multitask now.” Failsafe sounded completely unbothered. “What’s the point of developing parallel minds if all of them are just focused on running?”

Bjorn didn’t have a comeback because… Failsafe was right. 

He was already running, dodging, reacting instinctively and at the same time, he could step back, observe, and process everything separately. One part of his mind handled the immediate threat, keeping him alive. Another analyzed Failsafe’s words and the logic behind them. A third head was already considering strategies, calculating his next move. It was seamless and simultaneous. 

Was this what true parallel thought felt like?

A creeping realization settled over him. Was he turning into a hivemind? The thought was unsettling so he pushed it to the back of his minds, he had bigger problems. Which was quickly becoming his only problem as the monster gained on him. He saw the tree in the distance. Slowly creeping closer. Internally he cursed himself from going so far away from it.

The golem was on his heels now, its massive heads snapping at him like ravenous wolves, each jaw clamping down just behind him with a bone-crushing crack. Displaced air felt like shockwaves from an explosion. Bjorn galloped as fast as he could, every muscle screaming as he forced more primana into his limbs.

It was instinct, a technique he had seen Tanisha use with her Chain Breaker’s Mantle. He shouldn’t have been able to replicate it—it was a spell, and he was stuck with animal magic. It didn’t matter. He had one shot as survival and it was now or never. He kept pushing, then something clicked.

A fire ignited in his muscles, tendons burning as they coiled like springs under pressure. One of the monster’s heads lifted high, ready to slam down and crush him like an insect. Bjorn’s body reacted before his mind could even register and then he was gone.

As if loosed from a bow, he shot forward, the world stretching into a blur. He barely registered the attack that had nearly crushed him, the jaws clamping shut on empty air. Claws tore through the dirt, carving deep furrows as he launched himself again, this time moving so fast his vision twisted at the edges.

Bjorn barely had time to process it before he crashed, tumbling past the tree. His body hit the ground hard and he rolled longer than he thought he should have. The magic in his body recoiled violently back into his Tri-Core, leaving him drained.

Failsafe sounded gobsmacked. “Bjorn, did you just—”

“Later,” Bjorn gritted out.

“But—”

“Later, Failsafe!”

His body felt like lead, his limbs sluggish as his Tri-Core twisted and restructured itself. He could feel new connections forming, pathways that hadn’t existed before burning through his body and mind. He had to focus on the present situation.

The elemental was still coming. Bjorn forced his blurry vision to focus on the tree which was in fact the hollow widow. It still held the illusion of a rotting hydra corpse at its base. A lure for lesser monsters but at that time it was his only chance.

His claws scraped weakly against the dirt as he dragged himself toward it. He barely managed to position himself so that the elemental would have to pass the Hollow Widow to reach him. Then he waited, too exhausted to move.

The battle started with a crack! 

The elemental crashed into the tree, and the hollow widow sprang to life with the rage of something rudely disturbed from its slumber. The tree split apart and revealed a maw of needle-like teeth opened and spread wider than any creature had a right to. The elemental groaned a deep sound like rocks grinding against each other as its body shattered on impact. Chunks of rock and clay exploded outward as the Widow’s insectoid limbs burst from the ground, slicing and tearing into the elemental’s body.

The elemental fought back. The ground ruptured as earthen spears erupted in retaliation. Its massive appendages coiled around the hollow widow.

The hollow widow was not weak even as it was dragged from the ground, shrieking like something pulled from the darkest pits of the Infernal Planes. Its limbs hacked away at its enemy, severed parts reforming just as fast as they were destroyed.

Bjorn forced himself to move, both monsters were exposed now. Their cores were glowing with monster magic, but most importantly vulnerable. He pulled at his own core, but the magic was sluggish, his body rebelling against his commands. His lungs burned as he forced himself to open his mouths and then he breathed.

Plague Fire erupted forth. The unholy flame pierced through the monsters' tangled forms, burrowing into their cores. The elemental convulsed, its structure collapsing inward. The Hollow Widow’s screeching turned to gurgling, its body folding as the fire ate away at its insides.

Then, silence.

For just a moment, the world stood still.

Then, Jane appeared.

Bjorn's stomach twisted. His little goblin "friend"—the one he had apparently met before coming into the woods. He knew he hadn’t met a fucking goblin anywere in the chaos lands.

Jane's too-wide grin stretched across her face as she knelt beside him. 

“You did real good, Bjorn,” she whispered, her voice dripping with unnatural sweetness. “You saved us!”

Bjorn’s body refused to move as small, delicate hands gripped his face. She started dragging him with a strength a goblin should not have.