Vivid Stars Online

I opened fire on the worm, sending plasma bolts flying into its massive side. While they struck on target, the holes they burned barely seemed significant when compared to the Beast’s size.

A larger bolt fired from next to me, flashing into the darkness and lighting up the beast’s head far to our right. The light lasted for a few moments, enough to see that it was lunging toward us.

Worried about the damage something that large could do, I began sprinting to the left to keep my distance. I continued firing as I did so, even Attuning to my gun and firing an enhanced blast.

The purple plasma this produced was far more effective and seared deeply into the worm’s flesh, yet even that failed to slow its movements in the slightest. Our only saving grace was the odd path it was taking, its body continually forming a wall in front of us as it moved more of its bulk around.

I didn’t have time to analyze why it would do so, however, I gave silent thanks for it as I continued firing. Even with this delay, however, the head of the beast continued to advance toward us as it moved more and more of its bulk around the cavern.

Worse, a glance ahead showed that I was nearly at the left wall of the cavern, cutting off one avenue of escape. Making a turn, I headed back toward the entrance to the cave, which would at least give me a few hundred feet of extra room.

Realizing that shooting its body would not have any effect, or at least none in the time we had available, I focused the light from my torch on its head instead. Despite my target being roughly the size of a car, it was still nearly a hundred feet behind me.

While my aim had improved, I was still far from an accomplished marksman, and even firing at a target that size I hit less than half the time. It was a rate low enough that I didn’t want to empower my blasts, as I was worried about the expenditure of Psi energy if I missed.

Still, my shots helped to add a little more damage to the punishing rain Linnea was already laying down on it. Luckily, the beast seemed too dumb to realize that she was the larger threat, instead going after me as the closest target.

That was fine with me, being the party’s tank had long been my role in the group. Of course, I likely wouldn’t survive if that thing struck me even with my Toughness, however, I would still prefer to allow Linnea to fire at the thing undisturbed.

Unfortunately, I lacked any points in Agility and I simply wasn’t fast enough to stay ahead of the worm forever, even if I had unlimited room to flee. By the time I was nearing the entrance, it had already reduced my lead from a hundred feet to less than twenty.

I could see lancing blasts of plasma coming from the tunnel ahead, showing that Linnea had already retreated down it. The sight caused me to grimace as I realized I couldn't lead it in that direction without risking losing most of our damage output.

That only left me one thing to try. I really hope this works, I thought as I darted to my left and turned back toward the Beast. Before I had fully turned toward its head, I lunged forward into another sprint.

This sent me running toward its right side, where the most open space remained. Since it had been chasing me down the other side of the cavern, I now had several hundred more feet before I hit the bulk of its body.

The only question was whether I would be fast enough to make it past the charging head without being swallowed. The distance between us closed as I moved forward to where I could see its terrifying maw rushing forward on my left.

It was close enough that I could see a wet sheen dripping from its fangs and something told me that exposure to it would be deadly. That ruined my backup plan of being swallowed and killing it from within.

We came closer and closer before I dove into a roll at the last moment, just barely passing to the right of the advancing maw. I wasted no time in pulling myself to my feet and continuing my advance.

While I was pretty sure it had a terrible turning range because of having to shift its body around, at the speed it was moving I had still only bought myself another minute. Soon enough it would loop around after me, filling most of the space in the cavern as it did so.

While there was a chance it would run out of body before then, leaving the path in front of me clear, it wasn’t something I could count on. Instead, I would have to try my gambit one last time.

As I reached the rapidly moving wall of flesh in front of me, I turned back to face the head of the Beast. It had already almost caught up, being less than fifty feet behind me. To my relief, however, there was still a gap to the side of it on my left.

Unfortunately, the gap was only about ten feet wide. It was more than enough for me to run through normally, but was still a space that the worm would veer through in seconds if I moved too soon.

Instead, I took another shot, aiming straight down its throat. I empowered the blast as much as I could, pouring more Psi energy into it than I ever had before. I held the shot until the beast was twenty feet away, then fired before diving to my left.

While I couldn’t see the results, I could hear the explosion as I barely ducked past its maw again. A searing pain in my leg told me I hadn’t made it unscathed this time, however, I was at least still alive.

Even better, the Beast let out a screech of pain for the first time as it dove, mouth open, into its own body. Its convulsions almost crushed me against the wall, and I only barely scrapped past as I tried to make my way to the entrance.

It looked like I’d tricked the Beast into doing more damage to itself than we had done between us, however, the lack of a Combat Report told me that the fight wasn’t over yet.

Still, we’d gained a little time, at least, as the Beast was struggling to untangle itself. Soon I had run all the way down the side of the cavern, ignoring my wound for now. Upon reaching the corner, I finally stopped and breathed a sigh of relief at having space to save me from the risk of being crushed.

While I couldn't make it to the tunnel due to it being blocked by worm flesh, I could hear the sizzling sound of plasma fire striking it. Now that I had a few feet of safety, I opened fire as well, emptying the rest of my clip into its body.

I paused for a few seconds while reloading before opening fire again. It was unfortunate that I couldn’t see the main body past the flesh in front of me. I couldn’t even peek down the side, as it was too far to see in the dark, even with my torch.

However, I got a clue to its status a moment later when the body started moving past me again. The Beast must have untangled itself for it to have enough room for that.

Still, I had some time, at least before it could make it back here if it even could with the body blocking the space in front of me. I used the time to continue firing, even charging another empowered shot as I did so.

Not long afterward, the Beast’s solution was revealed as the body in front of me suddenly ended in a massive stump. It must have eaten right through its own body! I realized in shock. While I knew some worms could survive being cut in half, it was still a shock to see.

I could only hope that it had least caused significant damage to itself in doing so. Since the space that its body had occupied was now free, it would soon be back around to attack us again.

Worse, I realized I had to make sure that I was the closest enemy when it did so, I couldn’t afford for it to go after Linnea instead. I was now down to less than half of my Psi energy and could only fire another two of empowered shots, I would definitely need her firepower to finish this thing off.

Dashing forward, I shined my torch into the darkness, hoping to glimpse the Beast before it could surprise me. Only seconds later, I saw it moving slowly forward. It was a sharp contrast to the speed it had moved before, and I hoped that meant it was severely wounded.

Beyond biting off a significant part of its own body, it was suffering from over fifty plasma burns from Linnea and me. Because of the placement, they were all on the part of its body that was still attached as well, and many of them were on its head.

As I watched, Linnea fired another shot out of the tunnel which sailed down its open throat and exploded inside. It visibly flinched as the attack struck, another stark contrast to earlier. Emboldened by what I saw as proof of its injuries, I moved forward into my ideal range and added my own fire.

Deciding to go for broke, I empowered another shot, carefully aiming for its gaping maw. A headache sprung into being as I did so, warning me against spending any more of my energy. Still, my shot landed true and exploded with even more fury than Linnea’s sniper shot had.

It flinched again, losing even more momentum, and I began carefully stepping backward as I followed up with a barrage of normal shots. Its speed was now slow enough that as I long as I didn’t stop, I could stay ahead of its advance.

Less than a minute later it collapsed to the ground at least, its death proven by a system notification forming in front of my face.

Combat Report

Outcome

Your companion killed 1 x Grand Cane Worm level 4

Rewards

You gain 400XP

Looks like Linnea got the kill, as usual, I thought with a wry grin as I looked over the report. It was almost a given since I could only match her damage output when I was empowering attacks. Though given the massive amount I still got, I couldn’t be too annoyed.

It was enough to push me to level six, though I put that aside for a moment. While the Beast had been huge and powerful, I had seen no obvious manifestations of Psionic power like I had been expecting. While it certainly had something going on with its bite, I wasn’t sure it was enough for the power I had been sensing.

Focusing my senses confirmed this, leading me further into the cave and past the corpse of the Beast. I gestured forward as Linnea moved up next to me. “Thanks for the help, it looks like what I’m after is further into the cave rather than the Beast itself, however.”

She nodded, gesturing in turn for me to go first.

I moved to stride forward, before my leg collapsed under me. Now that the fight was over and the adrenaline had passed my fresh injury was making itself known. My other leg was still weak as well, having not fully healed after the fish attack.

Still, it just goes to show how effective my attributes are at keeping me going, I mused as I settled down to treat the deep acid burn. I barely even notice in combat anymore. It was something I would actually need to keep an eye on since it could lead to me missing extreme injuries if I wasn’t careful.

With my injury treated to the point I could at least limp forward, we continued into the cave. However, even with the worm dead, advancing was still difficult. There was no path we could take that didn’t have a corpse taller than we were in the way, and much of the cavern had two such obstacles since the worm had split itself in half.

Eventually, we pulled out the climbing supplies we had bought and simply treated the corpse like a wall to climb over, driving pitons into its flesh. It was hard, disgusting work, however, we eventually managed to bypass the corpse.

Beyond the Beast, the light from my torch landed on an area of air that shimmered oddly, looking almost like a heat wave. My Psi senses, however, were going crazy, almost to the extent they had in the Arkathian Ruin.

It was another hole in reality, this time simply floating in mid-air. “This must be why it was acting oddly at the start,” I breathed as I edged toward the anomaly. “It was protecting this, putting its body in between it and us.”

While I could make a guess at why the massive Beast had been so possessive of it, what was more important is that this anomaly could likely grant me another Psionic Ability. I would just have to figure out how to do so without the support from the ancient Arkathian setup.