Chapter 208: Chapter 193 – Parasitic Lifeforms

"Most larger creatures have some sort of creatures that live in a parasitic relationship to them. Even people like you and I have them. Parasites don't have to be things like worms that cause you indigestion. They could easily be far smaller, and life off us without us never noticing their presence.

 

After all, could you even see the hundreds of tiny mites that lived in the roots of your eyelashes?" - Jana Zakharia, Soulweaver and Biologist from Ptolodecca, Dean of the Levain Institute for Higher Learning from 512-527 FP.

A few moments later Aideen saw the source of the noises. Creatures that looked like an unholy bastard between a centipede and a crab, with a long, segmented body like the former and the carapace-like frame and pincers of the latter.

 

At least a hundred or so of such creatures - each nearly as thick around as her thigh and nearly twice as long as she was tall - scrambled out from behind the organ. She peered closer and noticed how the surface of the organ seemed to have many bite marks, clearly what the things ate to sustain themselves.

 

Yet the massive monstrosity they were in likely never even noticed it. The organ in question itself was larger than a galleon, the amount the creatures ate amounted to nothing more than literal pinpricks on its surface.

 

One thing Aideen was certain of however, was these these creatures seemed to treat the abdominal cavity of the massive beast as their home, and they frowned upon intruders. They surged at her from every direction like a wave.

 

Aideen quickly held the lantern in her mouth, as she needed both hands free to use her weapon properly. She split the staff into its three-sectioned form but kept the blades in, as judging from their carapace bludgeoning might be more effective against these critters.

 

It was somewhat difficult to stand steadily on top of the pulsing organ, between the moving "ground" beneath her feet and the rather slippery outer layer of the organ itself, so Aideen carved a couple footholds with her weapons and dug her toes into them, ignoring the sizzling pain as the wounds started to secrete digestive acids.

 

She struck out with her weapon at full extension when the first of the centipede-crab-things skittered up the side of the stomach to where she was. Her heavy adamant staff struck the thing's head and shattered the carapace, sending pieces of whatever was inside its head splattering all around.

 

Another four creatures fell to her strikes, before more of them came at once. Aideen held her staff close, then waited for them to approach before she swept the area around her. The move dislodged nearly half a dozen of the things and sent them plummeting down, but she was uncertain if that would be enough to kill them.

 

It probably was not enough, as more and more of the creatures kept climbing up to where she stood. Some of them bore damage on their carapace, or broken legs from a previous strike, yet came back for more anyway.

 

Aideen held her ground against the creatures for a good ten minutes, sweeping them down whenever they get too close, which occasionally killed a few of the ones she dropped. Not enough to reduce their number noticeably, but slowly whittling them down.

 

She thought if she could keep holding her own like that, she'd have the beasts cleared after some time. Unfortunately, she was proven wrong shortly after the thought, as five of the creatures fell on her from above.

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Pincers bit into her flesh, legs with spike-like ends punctured deep into her organs, and mandibles started to chew on her even as she tried to pry the creatures off her body. Even worse, the distraction meant more of the creatures were freed to close in and further swarm her.

 

For what felt like an eternity Aideen struggled against the creatures which by now had fully enveloped her form, to no avail. There were just far too many of them, that if she removed one another three would take its place a mere moment later.

 

So Aideen resorted to a more desperate measure. She stored back her weapon, and in its place, grasped a vial of Dragonfire Brew in each hand. Then she smashed the vials down right at her own feet.

 

The vials shattered, and the brew reacted explosively as she had expected. Aideen allowed herself to be bodily thrown away - her magic regenerating her torn flesh all the while - and felt a couple of her ribs crack as she landed back-first on what she thought looked like a pile of intestines.

 

All around her, pieces of the centipede-crab monstrosities burned with the residual flames from the explosion, which helped light the cavity she was inside. Even so, not all of the creatures were gone. She saw how another cluster of twenty, maybe thirty gathered further away.

 

When that cluster headed towards her, Aideen just tossed another vial of the brew at them. The blast annihilated those creatures that were close to it, and broke others into segments. Some of the further ones survived, only to be put down by Aideen's staff, perhaps a little vengefully.

 

After all, the sensation of being chewed on by tens of mandibles was definitely not a pleasant one, even if she could just heal it off.

 

Satisfied that most of the creatures seemed to either be dead or were driven off, Aideen painstakingly climbed towards the organ with protruding blood vessels she noticed earlier.

 

Once she reached a place where she could stand on the organ, she lit a new lantern and inspected the blood vessels - each easily twice as large around as she was tall - closely. It took her a while before she finally pinpointed her target and went to work.

 

With her adamant weapons, Aideen slowly carved a hole in the walls of the blood vessel, ignoring the viscous wine-colored blood that splattered all over herself. It took her most of an hour before she finally carved a hole large enough for her to pass through, a small hole, compared to the prodigious size of the blood vessel.

 

Then Aideen squirmed into the hole she made and disappeared into the blood vessel.

 

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