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Energy Eater - Chapter 100 - Attempted Capture
🕑 Added 2025-04-04 20:03:09 +0000 UTC#### Author's Note ####
Sorry for the delayed chapter everyone. I had a freelance gig yesterday and by the end of it, when I was supossed to come write I just crashed on bed.
And here we have it. Triple digits! Most of the main cast has been introduced altought there are three characters I still consider the 'big pieces' of the story. Actually there are four, but the last one doesn't really count lol.
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We were rushing down the forest, following Pamela's screams. For a bunch of crabs in a human form, they were surprisingly agile. But it quickly became clear why that was. They really didn't have to worry about roots or anything that was on the way. Even if the legs that were on the ground were blocked by anything, the ones that were on the sides of its body could still be used to continue moving without stopping.
All the while, Pamela was just screaming. In the few glimpses that we were able to see, she was with her hands out, reaching for the ground, but she wasn't actually fighting against the creatures. And it just didn't make any sense. She was being kidnapped and probably about to be eaten alive, and yet she was not fighting back. I could understand if she was just frozen, but she was still screaming and moving around. Why was she acting as if just screaming would be enough?
We continued following them, at times getting closer but at times being forced to move slower due to the uneven and unfamiliar terrain. Until we reached a large bog where the crabs dragged Pamela into one of the lakes. When that happened, we were just a few meters [ft] behind and I cursed my luck as I took off the [Pelt of Frost] and jumped after the woman.
My eyes stung as I had to open them to follow Pamela. It didn't take long for me to realize where those creatures were going. There was another crab at the bottom of this lake. A crab bigger than the ones I was following, but at the same time tiny in comparison to the Flathead Emperor. Still, this was different. It was covered in mud and thick green sludge covered its body. Then again, that might actually be the bog and not just the creature.
I saw how the other crabs released Pamela near the bottom and the woman continued to flail around, not even trying to swim up. That's when I remembered that she didn't know how to. Rushing towards her, I grabbed the woman by the waist and slammed my staff on the ground, triggering {Compression} to make it as long as I could. Propelled by the increase of size of my weapon, we quickly reached the surface and then Pamela started gasping for air, trying to hold on to me. But I couldn't have her attempting to pull me underwater, so instead I just kicked her stomach to throw her towards Astrid and Michael.
Thankfully, the two of them picked her up before she hit the ground and landed badly, but I was guessing my kick would leave a mark. I didn't feel great about that, but I would feel even worse if we ended up being killed by that giant crab.
Speaking of which, just as I finished making sure the woman was out of danger, I felt something tugging at the bottom of my staff. The crab that was underwater seemed to be trying to catch me, since I stole its prey. My staff shifted again, forcing me to hold on, before it shifted and quickly approached the water surface. I tried using {Compression} again, but instead of the bottom of the staff coming towards me, I was going towards it.
Once I approached the water, I saw one of the large claws of the creature coming out of it aimed at me. I pulled my body upwards not to fall into the bog again, but the pincer was still coming. Focusing on my legs, I sent the particles towards it while activating {Formless Emperor Swipe}. A similar appendage appeared in my view, formed by countless shining dots as I kicked. My attack clashed with the large pincer and the impact was enough to make me and my staff fly backwards. I still landed on the pond, but now in an area that was not as deep. Still, I tumbled, feeling my shoulder almost pop out of its socket before getting back up and ready for the fight.
All this could have been avoided if I had kept the skill the System offered me a long time ago. One that would allow me to freeze the water as I stepped on top of it. I could have just blocked the attack instead of doing all this. Still, there was nothing I could do about that now.
The crab got out of the lake, being about as tall as Astrid.
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Mud Mire Crustacean - Tier 1 - saturated.
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I had no idea how tall crabs could grow while on tier 1, but maybe in the future, this would become as large as Emperor Flathead himself. Still, I wasn't worried about fighting this creature. Even though there were other crabs inside the lake, the moment they touched the water, they changed their shape again. No longer being those odd humanoid meat puppets.
Maybe this had to do with how the Mud Mire Crustacean saw its food. If the crabs appeared as anything other than crabs, then the largest creature might think that they were part of the menu. Or maybe they couldn't maintain their shape while swimming. Their ability had a duration to it or ran out of Energy. Either way, that wasn't really worth going over.
That didn't matter. What mattered was the large giant crab trying to kill me. The first thing I did was to try to jump away from the bog. And thankfully, my companions gave me some backup.
Astrid swung her Frosted Axe, creating a large wave of ice in front of her. That attack split the waters between me and the crab. Michael also did his best to help me. His aim was amazing. He fired what I initially thought to be an arrow at the eye of the giant crab. The projectile struck true, causing the eye to explode, sharing the surrounding area with a strange goo like substance. That gave me enough time to run away, avoiding any extra aggression from the Mud Mire Crustacean.
Once I was on solid ground, I turned around, making my staff into that club form once again. I had really enjoyed the extra range that the wider form brought. Especially since it didn't make that much difference to the actual weight of my weapon. The monster shifted, turning towards Michael. But I wasn't about to let that go unpunished. As the creature walked a bit too close to the shore, I jumped at it using {Formless Ice Devil Lunge}. My attack blasted through a couple of its legs as the particles enveloped my body, creating a powerful claw like shape on the edge of my weapon.
If it wasn't for the increased number of uses of {Compression}, and the fact that my new attacks each had more than one use, I would already be running out of Energy. But now, I had a couple more points to spare. And it was obvious I would need them.
The crab turned to Michael even after my attack and started rushing towards the Hawaiian man. It was clear that it understood who was responsible for taking out one of his eyes and it was now going after revenge.
Michael had yet to get {Body Regeneration} since that one took a lot longer to share with someone. In fact, we were halfway through the process of him getting that skill when everything started. If he was hit by the wrong attack now, he wouldn't have anything to help him recover. And depending on how severe his wounds were, we might not be able to save his life in the hours that it would take to pass the skill to him.
Astrid understood the situation well and went for the crab using {Frost Chop} on the legs of the creature. She was aiming to at same side that I already started attacking. The two of us could break enough of those legs to stop the creature from being able to move forward.
Pressing my advantage, I activated another {Formless Ice Devil Lunge}, spending the last two points of Energy I had available to do the same. Our combined attacks broke another two legs, leaving the Mud Mire Crustacean with only one leg on its right side and four on its left. It was pretty obvious that the creature was struggling to move around, but even then, it didn't stop trying to approach the Hawaiian man. Almost ignoring us completely. The rage it was feeling made it forget the existence of anything else.
Michael, instead of running away, just held his ground, pulling the string from his bow and aiming at the giant beast that was slowly but surely approaching. He waited, and waited, until it was time to fire the arrow, which now I was able to see were not the same projectiles he was using earlier. But instead he was using the legs of the very crabs that we were fighting against them.
I wasn't entirely sure if he was doing that because he had run out of arrows or if it was because the crab legs could synergize better with his {Thick Shell} skill. Either way, the moment the projectile was fired, the crab arrow shot through the sky. Making a strange whistling noise that caused the nearby creatures to freeze for a moment. In addition to that, the projectile started to spin while midair. Which might be the reason for the strange shriek. The wind passed through its pieces, creating that unique acoustic effect.
The projectile slammed against the remaining eye of the creature, causing it to shriek loudly. More than that, it seemed like the crab leg that Michael used to fire shattered on impact, causing the shards to embed themselves into the giant crab. Which inflicted even more pain.
Although, calling this a giant crab was just not fair. It didn't even reach two meters [6.5 ft] tall. Compared to Emperor Flathead this wasn't even part of the royal family.
I had to admit, Michael was a better archer than I was expecting. The System might be helping him to hit his target, but he needed some practice to be able to perform like this. Especially under those circumstances. Now that the monster couldn't see him anymore, the Hawaiian man just grabbed Pamela and started dashing away. The creature roared in pain now with both of its eyes completely destroyed by arrows. The two people who were in most danger now were making a lot of noise, but I couldn't remember if crabs could hear things properly or not.
Either way, the Mud Mire Crustacean didn't follow instead just continued charging at the location where Michael previously was. This was great for Astrid and me, since the creature was still struggling to move and ended up body slamming far away from our newest companion.
As the creature fell, Astrid went in for a {Frost Chop} attack while I used the remaining charge I had for {Formless Emperor Swipe}. Delivering two strikes with my staff on the sides of the creature's body. Its shell was nowhere near as hard as the Flathead Emperor's. As a matter of fact, even the strange flesh puppets created by the other crabs had a sturdier defense, but by themselves, they were still easier to damage than this creature.
Even then, the combination of attacks was too much, and the shell cracked with the weight behind our blows. It was clear the monster was still alive after that, but couldn't move anymore. Letting Astrid and I to deal the finishing blows even if it took us a couple of strikes to make sure the creature was truly dead.
Once we were sure this monster was no longer a problem, we saw more of the crabs emerging from the lake. Those were the same ones that were fighting us and the same ones that brought Pamela here. Despite not having more Energy, I still decided to start attacking them. They didn't seem to care about our presence, but instead we're going after the meat of the Mud Mire Crustacean. Which gave us an even better chance to wipe them all out.
Astrid and Michael understood my idea without me even saying anything and started following along. Hitting every single one of the crabs that emerged from the lakes and making sure they were dead and gone. During that entire time, Pamela just stayed frozen, hugging a tree. Looking at what we were doing without saying anything or helping. Not that I was expecting anything from her. In fact, it was probably better that she didn't help us. That way, we wouldn't need to split our particles with the girl. If that could happen.
After that, we left the bog, and Michael stopped us just as we were reaching a road.
"We should go back to the village. To let them know about the crabs."
I glanced up. We still had some sunlight, but if we were going back there, it was pretty obvious we wouldn't reach it before sundown. And I wasn't really sure if I liked the idea of walking near all those lakes in the middle of the night. Then again, continuing heading down, we would need to search for a house or a place to rest for tonight. Maybe going back to the village was the smart choice.
After a very brief discussing, we started walking north, back to the Polson Bay village.
I could see the System had a lot of things to say. A bunch of notifications had appeared after our little rampage, but I asked it to wait until we were in a safe location before it started showing everything. After just a couple of minutes, a horse appeared on the road, being ridden by Genevieve.
"Are you all ok?" the woman shouted once she approached.
"We are," I replied while looking around, worried that something might be attracted by her voice.
"What about you? We saw a bunch of crabs. We need to warn the village!" Michael spoke up, rushing to her side.
"That's exactly why I came here. We saw a couple of crabs trying to attack us, but then they turned around and headed south. Everybody was relieved, but they remembered that all of you should be moving down here too, so I came to check if you were okay."
"We're fine. We were about to head back to the village to warn you about other crabs that we saw coming out of the lakes."
"Oh, come on," Genevieve gasped. Clearly annoyed that in the end, she came all the way here for nothing, "Thank you. You know. Now I feel silly for coming here."
"No, thank you," Michael smiled. "It's really appreciated that you were worried about us."
"Yeah, I guess I should head out now." Genevieve turned back, looking at the sky. "Then again, it's kind of late. I don't know if I can make it back to the village in time. And Bessie here is a bit tired." She tapped the horse.
"You named her Bessie?" I asked.
"I wasn't the one who named her, but yes. It's Bessie. Do you have a problem with that?" Genevieve frowned.
"No, it's just sounds more like a cow's name than a horse," I admitted.
"Well, her name is Bessie. I don't know what to tell you. Either way, I pushed her really hard to get here. I don't think she can handle the trip back. Probably have to stay in the house that's up ahead."
"There's a house nearby?" I asked.
Genevieve nodded, "If you are not going to travel through the night, we could all stay there. It's probably better than being out in the open with a bunch of crabs that could try to attack us."
I turned to the rest of the group, and everybody nodded in agreement.
"Okay then, we'll gladly take up that offer. And if we need to eat, we have crab." I gestured to Astrid, who was carrying two of the large dog size crabs on a stick.
