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Tutorial Rewrite 115
🕑 Added 2023-02-15 15:44:20 +0000 UTCThe witch takes a few steps back, closer to the back of the room. Oh, by the way, the whole room is full of potions and weird ingredients and a big black cauldron and everything else a witch should have. It’s a pretty fun sight because no matter where you look you’ll always see something new, but, for now, I need to focus on the chimaera.
<Chimaera Lv.59>
Well away from the two of us, the witch points at the chimaera. “Uh, go get 'em, princess!”
And go get me it does. Leaping across the room, it flaps its wings, but they aren’t especially big, so it doesn’t actually start flying or anything. The whole wing thing is still pretty intimidating though, so I’d better get out of the way. Since jumping to the sides or back is too predictable, I leap towards it, just beneath its displayed claws, rolling myself into a ball as I do.
“Princess, he’s going under you!” the witch cries, and I don’t really have time to wonder whether the chimaera can understand actual words or not before a massive shark tail smashes into my face, fin-first. My nose goes crunch and the rest of me goes flying across the floor, but since I’m still rolled up into a ball, I resist the urge to turn into a pancake in order to uphold my invisibility. “Invisibility? No, more than that, hmmm… Spot!”
<Spot.>
I stay rolled up. Did she…?
No, going by the utter confusion on her green face, she can’t tell where I am in the least. Good. But even as I lie hidden, trying to figure out some sort of strategy here, the witch carefully scans the room. In the end, her eyes fall on me. Or, rather…
“There, princess! That pile of knocked-over tomes on the best ways to cook leaplizards and other four-footed amphibians! That’s where he went!” she cries, pointing right at where I’m lying.
I expect the chimaera to jump at me again, but instead, it opens its mouth wide, a weird, hissing noise gathering in the back of its throat.
The witch turns to it, brows furrowed. “Princess, what are you waiting for? Go get—”
“HURHRGGHRHHHHRHHHRHH”
I only barely get over my bewilderment in time to throw myself out of the way of a spray of black barf shooting like a water cannon out of the chimaera’s mouth. My left foot gets caught in it, and it doesn’t even hurt, but when I look down, I find that this is because it got completely melted off, not including my bones. I’ve got a skeleton foot, and that’s it.
<You have learned:
Acid Resistance Lv.8>
Now that I also look back at where I was mere seconds ago, it’s completely covered in black goop, and everything has sort of lost its shape. Yeah, that’s corrosive as all heck.
“No! My tomes on how to best cook leaplizards and other four-footed amphibians! They’re ruined! Damn you, princess, is this your revenge for my turning your handsome prince rescuer into an outdoor heating system?” the witch shrieks, pulling down the flaps of her hat. The chimaera, being incapable of speech, merely growls in response. The witch, exhibiting amazing linguistic prowess, growls back at it. For a second or so, I almost imagine that they’re communicating through growls and snarls alone, but I easily snap out of it once I remember that I have a skill that would translate such an exchange. Since it doesn’t, I can come to the rational conclusion that this is a matter of two beings on the same level speaking without words or thought. Very interesting to watch, but I kind of want to kill them both.
The problem right now is my foot. See, it’s bleeding profusely, which isn’t too dangerous or anything, but it means that even if I go into the fetal position and start rolling, I’ll leave a trail of easily followed blood. Bummer.
So, no tricks. Well, a few tricks.
I stand up, exposing myself.
“Ah, there you are!” the witch says, speaking properly for once. However, she’s not the only one to notice me, and once the chimaera lays eyes on me, things get complicated. The witch’s eyes widen, and surprisingly, she shouts to it, “Don’t you dare—”
But it dares, and it does. Since I have amazing powers of cognition, I’m able to predict it and deftly jump out of the way as it vomits black goop at me again. The goop spreads out across the floor, absorbing half a chair and eating up part of a surprisingly comfy rug.
“Argh, my Liftan carpet! That thing cost me someone’s arm and leg!”
As I jump around like a monkey, the chimaera and its spray of goop follows closely, melting books and jewels and furniture and tools alike, all the while the witch cries out in emotional devastation. Finally, after almost a full minute of gymnastics, the chimaera barfs at her big cauldron, which actually melts completely. It seemed pretty robust at a glance, but maybe it wasn’t as high-quality as I thought.
“My GoodGoop(tm) Potion Brewer 6 000 Deluxe with built-in divinity channels and detachable handles! Oh, that’s the final pinch, princess! You’re going down!” the witch says, raising her hands at the chimaera and firing off a number of multi-coloured bolts of lightning. They strike the side of the chimaera, making it writhe in pain. However, with one massive stroke of its shark tail, it smashes the witch off her feet and sends her flying right at me.
I catch her only barely, setting her down beside me. Her hat went flying though, which means that I can now see her head. Her hairy head. No, I’m serious! She’s got, I think, cornrows? It’s some sort of braid, and it doesn’t look half-bad. I’m surprised, because this is the first goblin I’ve ever seen with a head of hair.
“Damn it—!” the witch cries, covering her head with one hand as she goes down on her knees and starts fumbling for her hat. The chimaera makes to attack her, swiping with its paws for once, but I’m able to take the hit instead, attaching myself to its massive foreleg. I’m not sure why I did this, actually. It’s too furry to properly scratch at, so without much else to do, I just start biting as hard as I can into its wrist. I can feel one bone break, but that’s all the damage I can get in before it lifts its paw high up and then smashes me into the floor, crushing the air out of my lungs and forcing my mouth to open, releasing it from my grip.
My ears are ringing and my head aches and all I can really do is stare up as the chimaera opens its mouth, black goop forming in the back of its throat. Ah, that’s going to blast away my skull, isn’t it? Well, I had a good run, I gue—
<Blast.>
A bolt of red lightning zaps into the side of me and I go rolling, tumbling ass over teakettle for several moments before appropriately smashing into one of the walls. O—ow.
My instincts suddenly flare up and I leap to my feet, stumbling because one of them is literally just bones, but it’s still enough to get out of the way of the charging chimaera. Standing, I’m able to see the witch on the other side of the room. So it’s a free-for-all, huh?
Though, then again…
I look back at where the chimaera had me pinned just now. Where my head was, there’s a big pile of smoking black goop. Glancing back up at the witch, I find her staring at the chimaera with an expression of pure rage, her fingers twitching and crackling with multi-coloured lightning. It could have been a coincidence that her blasting me just so happened to literally save my life. She didn’t have to know in advance that blasting me with magic has recently become pretty ineffective, and even more so that smashing into a wall wouldn’t kill me, either.
She glances at me. I meet her gaze. Understanding shines between us. Ah, I see how it is.
We share a nod as one.
Time to tag-team the chimaera.
The chimaera seems abruptly capable of reading thoughts as it leaps towards the witch, cleverly going for the long-range fighter first. However, fetal position blowover doesn’t confuse those looking for me alone. Leaping towards the witch, I briefly roll myself into a ball mid-air, distracting the attacking chimaera enough to avoid having it take out the witch. In the small opening that this presents, I’m able to get on top of it, clutching onto its back by grabbing a hold of its mane. Hm. Now that I think of it, if this is supposed to be a female chimaera, how come it has a male lion’s head? That makes no—
<Zap.>
A bolt of lightning arcs towards us at the literal speed of light, flashing my vision with WHITE and striking the chimaera—I think—headfirst. The chimaera roars loudly, rearing up onto its hind legs while massively flapping its wings. It’s like I’m on top of a bucking bull, and since I’d rather not get thrown off, my best bet is to just abandon ship. But, first…
<[Touch of Reversed Exhaustion Resistance (Lv.1)]>
<[Touch of Reversed Immobilisation Resistance (Lv.1)]>
<[Touch of Reversed Stroke Resistance (Lv.1)]>
And that’s about all the TRRs I have time to get in before the thrashing gets too intense to stay and I leap off, tumbling to the ground in a less-than-gracious fashion. It’s not exactly a superhero landing, but I didn’t die or break any bones, so it’s fine.
Even then, I am more than happy to find that the chimaera is visibly worse off thanks to the TRRs. Not by any extreme amount, but it moves with less ferocious energy than before, if that makes any sense.
Like this, I think it’s more than doable.
Comments
Diez de Groot
Trt is getting OP
