Chapter 362: Advantage and Disadvantage
The creature stood opposite him and its humanoid arms elongated before they began sharpening. It then dashed forward swinging one of its arms forward in a slashing arc that had Jace stepping back to dodge.
As he moved back they heard an explosion and a symphony of gunfire throughout the dockyard. The creature froze for a moment while Jace grinned slightly. "Something as loud as this will definitely catch the military’s attention. Is that what you are worried about?"
"You will be dead and I will be gone long before they arrive." The creature growled up as its lower body turned from legs into a blob with tendrils coming off of it. While its upper body began raising up into the air.
Jace dashed back and then to the side as a long whip-like arm hit the spot he was at a moment before and then drew back to the creature’s body. Leaving a long cut in the floor that had sliced right through one of the dead bodies. He looked down at his knife and then up at the creature that now had four sword whip arms.
This was going to be a difficult fight and he had not even brought proper equipment. He was honestly planning to steal a weapon to kill some of these kidnappers. Then he was forced to adapt when he realized he had to lock them up with Mistress White and her people while he stayed back and watched.
But now here he was. Fighting an actually interesting opponent and he was completely under armed. Jace sighed and shook his head. Annoyed at the situation. "This might actually be tough." He had to take down this opponent without going overboard and destroying the room.
Whish! Whish!
Another whip arm slashed out followed closely by a second one. Jace side stepped the first strike and then had to kick off the wall and flip over the second strike that went horizontal. As he flipped over it he sliced through the arm of the second one. It fell to the ground in a splattering of white goo.
The creature went still for a moment almost as if it had flinched and Jace took the opportunity to throw his knife at the creature. Aiming at the round ball that was moving around its body. He had to slow his throw so it would not go through the window of the overseer’s station behind it.
Which gave the creature an opportunity to react as the knife flew through the air and went through its body. Jace watched as the creature moved the round object away from the point the knife would enter. While it did that the rest of its body went relaxed. Confirming Jace’s suspicion.
That round object was its core. Sort of like a heart and brain wrapped up in one thing. If he got a hold of that or destroyed it the fight would be over. But to do that, he would first have to get close enough that he could touch the creature’s body. Even then there might be something else that the creature could do to prevent him from touching it.
Jace grinned madly as he flipped over another strike and then gently landed on another of the creature’s blade whip arms. He used it as a bounce pad to launch himself forward. The creature flinched as Jace closed the distance between them rapidly.
The creature launched one of the arms it was keeping in reserve toward him and Jace slid across the ground under it. He was almost at the creature and its last arm was still regenerating when the tendrils by its feet suddenly launched forward. The tips hardening and forcing Jace to roll to the side away from the creature.
The ground where he was had become riddled with holes. The creature was already retracting its tendrils as Jace pushed himself up and toward the creature but out of the corner of his eye he saw four different whip-like blade arms coming at him.
Jace clicked his tongue in annoyance as he materialized his gladius. Using the blade to deflect two of the arm blades while he dodged the other two. The creature had all four of its arms working again. But he was starting to notice a weakness in the species.
They could only focus on so many things at once. This creature’s limit was on doing four things at once. Unfortunately Jace was not able to outdo it in the speed department. Especially without his armor. There was a good chance he would end up injuring himself or destroying the room.
As he was thinking this he noticed something with the arms he deflected they were shivering and frozen where he deflected them. Almost like they were electrocuted. Jace looked down at his gladius that had electricity arcing off it. Then he looked over the creature with his electrical vision.
The arms he had deflected were filled with electricity but it faded the closer to the body it got. The creature back its other blade arms as it seemed to process what had just happened. Jace realized he needed to take advantage of this before the creature found a way to counter it.
So he jumped forward, slicing through the white goo that was near him and sending an arc of electricity toward the creature. Jace watched as the arc of electricity blocked the attack. But then he realized the tendrils near the ground had gone still. Like the focus that was using them was being put elsewhere.
It was also why the other two blade arms did not chase him. It had to focus to change the composition of its body. Sort of like how it had to put all of its attention on its body to move its core.
Jace slashed forward with his gladius into the creature. Cutting it open and exposing its semi liquid insides. The electricity from his blade failed to go anywhere because it changed the composition of its body.
Jace reached forward with his free hand into the creature’s body and grasped at the creature’s core just as it moved it. Then he could feel his hand tingling and watched as the skin of his arm near the creature sizzled as it changed the composition of its body again.
It had turned its innards into acid and was trying to break down his hand. Then Jace lifted and blocked a blade arm attack with his gladius. While he flinched as he felt another blade dig into his side. Just barely making it through his skin. He tightened his muscles and let out a breath of air as he created several pulses of electricity throughout his body.
The creature screeched as the excessive amount of electricity managed to affect it. Jace took the opportunity as he could feel its grip on his arm loosen. He moved his hand and grasped the creature’s core before crushing it in his hand.
The moment he crushed it the white goo dropped to the ground. While the white goo arm that cut into his body began spilling out with a bit of his blood. He flinched in pain as he looked at his hand that had several blotches of skin melted off to reveal the veins and musculature underneath.
He waited for a moment and then realized his injuries were not being regenerated. Actually they were just at far too slow of a speed. It must be an effect of the acid or just because a living creature had directly injured him.
Jace grasped his hand and electricity visibly arced over it. He could see as it hit certain parts of his hand and an almost invisible goo fell off his hand and onto the ground. After a few seconds his hand started regenerating. But it would take a few minutes for the damage to be completely repaired so he did the same thing to the wound the creature had done to his side causing some clear liquid to seep out.
While he waited he took a moment to look at the crushed core that was in his hand. It was broken up into several pieces. He dumped most of it onto the ground where a large puddle of the goo was. But he kept a single piece as he moved to the console and leaned over it to pull his knife out of the window.
He also got a decent look at the outside area and could see several bodies on the ground. It looked like Mistress White and her group had moved inside the ship and were now clearing it of the Silver Tinge. But Jace had a feeling that the Silver Tinge was only a cover.
There might be something a bit bigger going on here. Although it was a dangerous prospect. Jace was excited to fight another of these creatures and maybe find a way to easily kill them or easily detect one. This was another new and interesting challenge that was set in front of him.