Chapter 228: Chapter 227 – Toasty.

“No, stay away…”

An old man was trembling while a strange humanoid creature that seemed to be missing a head was approaching him. This creature’s head was a mass of squiggly tentacles with one being much larger with a sharp claw-like appendage at the tip.

“The hell are you doing just sitting there?”

The monster swung its thick rope-like tendril toward the old man that just froze in place. Luckily for the man, the attack was bounced back by a large sword that belonged to an adventurer. This man was not alone as a dwarf was right to the side and ready to pierce the monster’s head with a halberd while it was distracted.

“These shits are annoying, why are there so many of them?”

There was a third member of this small party, a large woman that was using a big axe to cleave another one of these creatures in half. These monsters had just appeared all over the place, even in the restaurant these three were staying. This event sparked widespread panic as everyone was running for their lives.

“This must be related to the cult… they look similar to that thing we saw in the village.”

Orson, who delivered another attack on the downed monster, shouted. While the humanoid creatures with tentacles for heads weren’t an exact copy of the Abyssal Abomination they had seen in the village, the structure of their floppy appendages was somewhat similar. The group of adventurers also knew about the head parasites and were able to make an informed conclusion.

“Is this whit happens whin ye git infected by they bugs?”

Darlak looked at the defeated monster and how its head started dissolving into a dark goop. This was quite similar to what happened to the monster Loreena defeated which supported his claim.

“Where did Senna and Wayland run off to and why does this shit keep happening whenever we are around him?”

Orson clicked his tongue while remembering the fiasco in the mines where he almost lost his life. Their life after that encounter wasn’t nearly as deadly until they had a run-in with Roland once more. Now after the third fiasco took place the two-handed swordsman was starting to believe that his old acquaintance was cursed.

“How ‘bout you stop whining like a little girl and kill some monsters instead?”

Grisalde shouted from the side while deflecting a bladed tentacle from another monster. All three of them had gone outside the restaurant as some patrons had turned into these strange Abyssal creatures. To not be stuck in a confined space with beings that flailed their strange appendages at high speeds they decided to jump outside through the window. Now they were fighting for their lives along with some soldiers and other closeby adventurers.

“They went tae that clocktower, tis nae far should we go thare or wait for em ‘ere?”

Dalrak used his shield to back into one of the flailing monsters. Thanks to his smaller height and large tower shield it was difficult for the monsters to get through his defenses. With the monster down on the ground, it was easy to jab his spear into its body but soon he realized that poking anything other than the head would not cause much damage.

“Let’s move, it's better than sitting here and waiting for the monsters to surround us…”

Orson replied while helping Darlak get rid of the Abyssal Spine Eater. While they had left the restaurant to not be boxed in, the outside space wasn’t that much better. There were a few options and one of them was to rendezvous with their other party members to bolster their forces.

“Have you two made up your mind? I don’t care, we can just stay here, these bastards aren’t that hard to kill.”

Their barbarian friend didn’t seem that impressed with the quality of the opponents she was facing. They were all below level one hundred and didn’t pose that much of a threat. Yet soon enough she would realize that the individual strength of these creatures was not what they should worry about.

“Wait, what are those things doing?”

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While looking towards the clock tower where Senna and Roland disappeared the group of three noticed a peculiar scene unfolding. Even though soldiers and adventurers were trying to protect the non-combatants it was impossible. Some of them were being devoured by these Abyssal Spine Eaters.

What Orson had noticed was a larger group of about ten feasting on the flesh of others. Their tentacles slid into the dead bodies which soon after started drying up as if their vitality was leaving them. The thick tendrils that were performing this absorption technique started getting bigger and wider as if the monsters gained more strength. This was followed by a visible increase in the size of those Abyssal Spine Eaters.

“Those things… Are they evolving?”

Evolution was something that happened to monsters when they reached a certain level threshold. It was a slow process that was akin to leveling classes but without the troublesome need of buying a class up a crystal or passing a trial. There were certain laws that governed them but for some reason, these creatures were breaking the logic of this world by reaching smaller evolutions.

The gruesome act continued to unfold before the group of adventurers. It was as if these monsters realized that they would not be able to win against people of the races gathered here. Instead, they all flocked to one location where the pile of corpses was increasing.

Their monstrous heads were covered with strange appendages sunk into all that meat. More and more of the strange beings appeared and practically tossed themselves into this ball of gore. They were devouring not only the dead people but each other as well, forming something more dastardly and similar to what the three adventurers remembered from their visit to the village.

“Shit… we must leave…”

“Aye…”

Dalrak and Orson were in agreement, the creature that was forming there was not something they would be able to handle. It was similar to the abomination that now haunted their nightmares. Even if it was only a lesser evolved variant it wasn’t something they could easily combat in this open street where it could absorb more people to heal itself.

“Wait, what’s that under the thing… a magic circle?”

Before they decided to jump back they noticed that there was a glowing circle with strange glowing runes under the monster. While they were not magically inclined they had seen some lesser mages perform similar feats. When aiming for a wide-area attack a mage could construct a circle from far away and it would appear on the ground before the spell took shape.

“Hey, it took you long enough, are you two done with your honeymoon?”

“Shut your trap, you drunk bastard!”

Orson smiled as he noticed a certain halfling hanging from the side of a nearby building. It was clear to him to whom the magical circle belonged. With the absence of any chants, it was obvious who the mage performing this spell was.

The magic circle that was blue in color started shifting to orange and then quickly became red. The temperature surged around the area as a pillar of condensed flames appeared from within. The flames burst upwards while quickly changing into the shape of a twister.

The creature that was not formed gave out a wail of pain that sent shivers down everyone's spine. Its tentacles started flailing around in every direction causing widespread damage but the spell continued to burn. Orson along with Dalrak had to cover their faces as the storm of fire expanded in scope while producing tremendous wind.

…

Roland stood there with his sword back in his scabbard. It was replaced by the spell staff that allowed him to perform some spells faster. Senna along with him had returned to the restaurant to search for their friends only to encounter more of those strange monsters. They didn’t pose much of a problem for them but were certainly too much for the confused guards and commoners to handle.

After taking out a few they arrived where Orson and the others were. While the group of three seemed to be fine there was a large problem. The Abyssal Spine Eaters were fusing with each other and mutating. He was able to use his identification skill to analyze the creature's name.

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