The shock of the cat’s wildness, its ferocious and painful attacks, the somehow extra mass it seemed to control willy-nilly, the failure for it to calm when he’d grabbed it by the nape, and finally it not regaining its feet in midair all overwhelmed him and he almost failed to respond when it immediately returned, leaping directly for his throat once again. Joe’s reaction was automatic, his brain still overloaded from all the discrepancies. He whipped out his longest blade, immediately sending a mana point into it as he flipped it up and pointed it directly at the cat where it was flying towards him, mouth snarling and ready to rip out his throat. The cat barely even reacted, without time to understand its own demise, as the blade slipped straight into its mouth and slid right through its entire torso. It attempted to yowl in pain and wriggled wildly even as it slid forward and its mouth slammed into the hilt, the blade shaking under the preternatural force it was able to add to its movement. However, doing so only hastened its demise. Immediately after, it stiffened, collapsed, then slowly slid off the blade onto the floor. Joe gulped, blinked, then took a step back. Well… ok… I don’t think I’m going to like this floor!
Joe shivered at the shock of having killed what really looked like nothing more than a pet cat. Intellectually, he knew it wasn’t. Given the power it had been able to bring to bear, this creature was deadly and he knew it could have easily killed the other two boys. Even he, without HP as a defense, would have been killed in a single swipe or bite if it hit a crucial location. Joe continued shivering as he struggled but behind him he heard cries of excitement and turned to find both the two boys shouting in enthusiasm.
“You… you caught it! You just… just reached up… grabbed it… and…” Zilnek trailed off and emulated Joe’s throw enthusiastically, throwing the imaginary cat off down the hallway.
Garnedell was grinning from ear to ear but said nothing, only looking at him with pride and awe. Joe’s shivering immediately faded as embarrassment tinged with pride and liberally sauced with frustration quickly swept across him. I don’t need more hero worship! This…
“Guys, don’t…”
Another yowl erupted from back down the hallway and Joe quickly looked back to see another cat streaking up at him. He frowned but quickly set himself. He wasn’t exactly happy, but neither was he willing to lose limbs and intestines. The cat attacked in almost the exact same way, so Joe replied with the same, although this time he wisely pulled the shield up to the side of the sword in case he needed to duck behind it again. The cat flew through the air and Joe thrust a mana point into his sword tip as rapidly as possible even as he lined up the tip of his sword with the leaping cat. Joe felt his stomach curdle a bit when the same thing happened, the cat skewering itself on his blade before it shuddered a few times then died with a slow slide off his blade as he let it dip down. OK. That’s… really gross. Not gonna really come to enjoy that!
Joe looked down at his spear then back up at his sword before concluding that his spear was not going to be useful. The cat didn’t leap until it was right at the range of the spear. If he tried to hit the cat while it was still on the ground, Joe feared he would whiff badly, the cat was incredibly quick and likely easily able to change directions rapidly, especially with its strange mass enhancing abilities. Well… not exactly mass. It didn’t get any heavier with holding it up… weight didn’t change… just… felt like a horse was jerking me around, not a little cat… so… not mass… just force? Of some kind? Really… weird, that’s… He sheathed his sword and bent down to pick up his spear while his thoughts bounced between considering any appropriate weapons and what magical shenanigans the cat was doing.
Joe’s thoughts trailed off as he stood back up with the spear in hand and heard another yowl. Man… this floor seems… really dangerous. Mobs coming fast and no breaks at all. Is this normal? Seems… well… advanced dungeon I guess? Joe realized his spear would likely be too long and wrestled with what to do before deciding he would at least try if he could get the thing before it leapt at him. If he could keep it from even getting into the air, he could do better at keeping it away from all of them. He settled to brace himself and brought his spear to bear, pointing it directly at the cat. That proved a very poor choice as the cat took the spear as an invitation and simply dodge his spear point before landing lightly on the shaft and springing up it at the same speed. Joe’s eyes widened in shock and he immediately dropped his spear as the thing came careening at him, whipping his shield into its path. The dropped spear, however, immediately began to fall and the cat lost its footing, falling another foot or so to the floor and Joe’s worry erupted. My legs!
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Joe crouched to give his legs cover but also to keep the majority of his torso protect as well. Luckily, the shiny shield and lack of a throat gave the cat poor choices and it simply leapt at the biggest brightest thing it could find. Unluckily, Joe was now very low to the ground and he’d forgotten the special power the cat had exhibited. The cat hit him hard, the shield ringing like a bell and Joe struggled to hold his stance. In crouching, he’d failed to move his bracing foot back, a foolish and costly mistake that had him tumbling backwards as the force the cat brought to bear proved to overwhelm his balance. The cat yowled and wildly swiped at the shield attempting to get to him. Sadly, the cat didn’t prove dumb, and largely ignored the shield for the most part and scrambled towards Joe’s head. Joe’s tumble back, despite initiated by his own folly, was textbook, protecting his head and keeping him in the game. He immediately recognized the danger and flung his shield away from himself. The cat yowled as it was whipped away, but it clung to the shield well enough despite Joe’s wild flailing. Joe scuttled backward while shaking his shield and it proved futile as the cat was still able to scramble up the shield towards his head.
Joe grew desperate and swiped at the cat with his right hand, attempting to swipe the cat off his shield but the cat took the hand as nothing more than a free meal, shredding his hand and arm with ease, deep knuckle deep cuts slicing through his arm before rapidly healing up from his HP pool. He gave up trying to swipe it off and immediately grabbed at it before grimacing with a grunt while fighting to keep his scream in when the cat bit at the meat between his thumb and index finger. He ignored the pain as the fangs grated and chewed through his flesh and simply wrapped his fist around the cat’s head and whipped it off the shield wildly, hoping to snap its neck. It continued to chew on him as he whipped it around and quickly noticed that the body didn’t really follow behind the head properly and he couldn’t get the body to whip correctly or put any dangerous force open the neck. He growled as he stopped whipping the cat around and stared at it as it growled and chewed at the web between his thumb and forefinger. That proved a mistake as it quickly curled its body up onto his wrist and arm and began shredding his wrist and arm with its claws. That proved too much and Joe howled in pain himself and grabbed the things body with his left hand and then savagely twisted the head and body in opposite directions.
The cat immediately went limp and Joe huffed in pain as he threw the corpse to the ground, staring at his wrist and arm which was drenched in blood suddenly flashing clear once again as his HP dropped precipitously. He breathed with a sigh of relief when his arm healed although he felt a bit of an ache with his HP dropping so quickly. The ache was an odd feeling, like a painful punch to the gut but centered in his chest but not a pain in his body. The pain ached from … Joe wasn’t sure where it was centered. He huffed a few times before standing back up and retrieving his spear once more. Right… not the spear! Got it.
He sheathed the spear on his back and pulled out his sword, ready for any new attacks. His gaze skittered across the corridor and the various entrances carefully before he finally stood and relaxed. So… very aggressive! Man! Joe took a deep breath and glanced at the layout of the map before finding what seemed like the maze layout and turning towards one of the turns. Don’t like the cats on this level… maybe see what’s on four? Less… stressful!
The guys had begun chatting excitedly with the ending of the fight, but they mostly talked amongst themselves so Joe left them to it. The journey on this floor became much easier as he was now effortlessly able to dispatch the yowling cats. Still, they seemed hyper aggressive and came at him in waves of three or four, although seemingly spread out and easy enough for Joe. Joe grew in skill in mana and mana point manipulation, alternating between injected the mana tornado and a mana point when fighting the things, but learned to do it after the cats had left the ground, leaving them easy to deal with.
As Joe traveled across the floor, he narrowed down the next floor entrance and soon was able to locate it easily enough, having already explored the entire floor. There was only one last spot, assuming there were no small jaunts off the obvious edges, which turned out to be in the middle of the maze for this floor. That brought a hint of surprise but Joe didn’t really care one way or another and spun around having seen the dead end. Well… back the way we came, I guess! It was going to be a long walk as the way back was a long winding path. Joe stifled his sigh and turned around, already hearing the yowl of a crazed cat off down the way. Respawned quick! His attempt to stifle the sigh proved inadequate and wasn’t able to stifle it at all and shook his head, ready for its swift charge.
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<Chapter 96 Continued>