Augmented Aspects: Chapter 172 A Pack of Problems (Patreon)

Chapter 172

A Pack of Problems

The second largest entity that I have ever seen lay before me. The first being the great turtle that was a moving tower that I convinced to move from its original spot, to a spot near the center of the Legrand empire.

There was a sky zone monster too that was roughly the same size, which I managed to kill on my first day here. But this one is just longer, and has two to three times as many levels as that zone boss did. In fact, now that I’ve had more time to think about this, I assume this will either be one of the eventual elite zone bosses for this area, or one of the major guards for a likely larger boss that should appear towards the end of this day.

Meaning, that not only is this monster ridiculously tough to handle, but we will likely have at least one or two more guards and then the main boss for the zone.

My mind processes these facts, and then begins formulating different ways to try to both mitigate losses, while also ensuring that we are capable of handling what might come later.

Personally, I’d rather just disable this creature, as fighting this creature a second time in angry spirit form would just be ridiculous, and something that I could fully see us having to do as a guild. Or rather me, something I would have to deal with as the person who is tasked with dealing with spirits.

Actually, that is a lie, I don’t think I actually have a clear set of job descriptions. Yeah, I am a teacher, but the classes that I teach and when I teach were pretty much chosen by me. Even the curriculum to get our college accredited was chosen by me. Then the treaty between our guild and the undead ancient elven inhabitants of Deolar was something I pretty much did on the fly. Something that normally would get me yelled at by most bosses, though fortunately I have Mallory who understood what was happening and then went with it.

That said, no, it is not my job to be the person responsible for hunting down the ghosts of these monsters that we kill here in the mortal realm. Though, it will likely both increase our Guild’s Standings with individual members of the Deolar empire if we do help with the inevitable release. Well every individual safe the King and the princess of Deolar, those two pretty much love the Midnight Hunter’s guild.

Enough of this, yes killing these monsters will not stop them permanently as they will just come back as ghosts. Those ghosts will likely also have to be subjugated as well, but that is future Cass’s problems. Current Cass has to deal with a monster that is over a thousand times her actual size, and capable of leveling an entire twenty-acre field if we let him, no wait her? I always have a hard time guessing the actual sexes of dragons. One would think that Zero would have helped me with this dilemma, but unfortunately no, dragon genders are tough to determine. Particularly tough when you are trying not to be crushed by said dragon when trying to identify which pronouns are suitable to describe them.

Poof.

I reflexively Teleport back to the lower middle spine of the creature, where I noticed a tightly woven clot of muscles. Apparently, this dragon is dealing with prolonged tension, which could lead to misalignment if left unadjusted.

Fortunately for this dragon, I plan on doing a bit of my own amateur spinal adjustments.

I arrive just as soon as I think about appearing on the beast’s back. Then aiming at an acupuncture point, I ball up my spiritual Qi infused fists and lash out like an angry miniature masseuse.

Silver Disruptive Palm Burst, right.

Silver Disruptive Palm Burst, left.

This time both of my hands are in unison as to which attack to do. I had been alternating when I was worried about magical attacks, but now that the beast is on the ground, the threat of wide scale magical attacks that could take out hundreds of fellow guild mates seems a bit lacking.

Peripheral blurs.

There are a lot of forces that are mobilizing towards us right now, which is good as I can use the help, but they will take time to get here, and time unfortunately is something I don’t have a lot of at the moment.

Poof.

Especially with a dragon that has a four second detection time, and one second automatic attack.

Thwack.

I am on my next target, the left wing, when the beast’s tail lands dead center of where I had just been striking. Fortunately, the dragon is less of a masseuse than I am with its tail, as the beast is clearly slowed from the self-inflicted back wound that was only exacerbated by the full on tail strike to its knotted muscles.

Even now I can see the rate of Qi flowing to the lower portion of the dragon’s body slowing down. It isn’t much, a fraction of a second slower, but that is okay, my goal is attrition.

Silver Disruptive Palm Burst, right.

Silver Disruptive Palm Burst, left.

I am on the underside of the dragon’s massive wings, and targeting the initial inside nerve cluster that the creature would use to command its massive wings to begin flapping to take off.

Claws-Strike.

As to be expected, with my now being on the under side of the dragon’s wing, and the beast no longer flying about freely in the air, it can’t whip around its tail like it did while flying. Instead, it has to try to strike at me with its theropod like appendages that are too short and stubby to fully be effective for the size of this imposing beast.

Whiff.

I can all but feel the wind as the claws of the creature swipe past me.

Wing rises.

The beast lifts its massive wings up, this can do multiple things, first I see the wing muscles coiling tightly or preparing to spring back down, likely throwing my weightless body down to the ground where I can be pawed at a little more easily.

Poof.

Instead, I just Teleport up to the top side of the wing and begin striking at the same patch of nerve clusters, but from the opposite side of the wing.

Once again, there is a noticeable slowing of Qi flow within the beast, as these strikes on specific acupuncture points are slowly taking their toll. At least that is what I keep telling myself, otherwise there would not be any point to trying so hard.

Even after all of these rapid Teleportations in a row, I am still over halfway full on my reserves. I do have to admit that my rate of increase is extremely fast, or at least it seems quick. Even my fully depleted Celerity is now close to a tenth filled, that wouldn’t be much, but it might be enough to deliver a few powerful blows at a given time, speaking of which.

Silver Disruptive Palm Burst, right.

Silver Disruptive Palm Burst, left.

I’m going for more of quality strikes at specific areas than anything.

As soon as I manage to land a quick four strike combo, I feel the slight movement and witness the coiling of muscles and Qi that are indicative of impending powerful strikes.

I pause, or at least that is what it feels like, even as I quickly deliver an two hit combo, then the necessary Qi manifests, the tail swipes out viciously, and I Teleport all at the same time.

I appear under the right wing, just as the tail strikes right at the nerve cluster that I had been striking at micro-seconds before.

Wham, wham.

I begin striking, though this time I grab on with my left hand after a particularly strong strike. This allows my Qi infused fingers to slightly melt into the skin, grabbing a thick braided cord of nerves that are the size of ropes in my hands and then I strike with my right hand.

Whiff.

As expected the dragon swipes at me with its paws.

I can tell that it wants to turn its massively long neck towards me, but it is clear that the damage I did at the base of the skull and on its exposed back are paying off as the creature is moving around slower than I did after my knees went out in my past lifetime.

Wing raise.

The dragon realizing that it can’t get at me by conventional means raises its wing, likely to strike at me with the tail, or hurl me towards the ground, which is when I once again disappear.

Poof.

Onto the neck, at a slightly lower section than what I used to paralyze the creature into falling to the ground.

I land where there a trickle of Qi is still able to work its way around and between the two knotted sections of nerve endings on the beast’s long back.

This is the problem with larger creatures like this that have long necks and tails, while they do allow for greater movement, and ease to pull in resources needed to sustain such a large physique. These long necks and tails also provide multiple single points of failure that run up and down the spinal column of the creatures, making them particularly vulnerable to acupuncture attacks, and similar restriction attacks.

Wham, wham.

Once again, my exploding palms land, striking nerve endings that have an immediate impact on the creature. Just like before, there is an immediate stun effect to my strikes, where the beast collapses from the strikes.

Whom.

For a second, I just float there, half expecting gravity to take over my weightless body. Only after a moment do I realize I need to fly my way down and forcefully begin striking at the creature again.

Which is good, as I land just in time to deliver a diving strike, just before the beast could regain its composure and rise up from the ground.

I strike, quickly and often. I strike until the surplus of Spirit Qi I had managed to absorb from the initial magical assault by this very beast was worn away and I was forced to pull resources from my own reserves.

Each strike infused with Spirit Qi was enough to continue the chain stunning effect. If I let up, or missed a rotation of Spirit Qi, then the beast would once again begin to move. Slowly, but it was clear that its was using the time in between stuns to gain its bearings and call forth its own Qi reserves to deliver a devastating attack.

Tired.

I am not afraid to admit that I was nearing my limits. I had been in combat for what felt like close to two to five good minutes, which going all out with every punch, needing to be perfect with every strike was a lot to ask for.

The QRF, or Quick Response Force was nearing us, which was good, as I could clearly use some help by this point.

A blur among the QRF was Mallory, I could recognize her deathly aura from anywhere by now. Just seeing her aura get so close filled me with a sense of hope.

Strike, strike.

My stunning strikes are doing next to no damage, but they are doing the most important thing, and that is buying me time to get people here who can help.

Then finally, just when I am left with nothing but regular Qi, a miracle happens, well three.

“AWOOO!”

Hearing the cry of a dire phase wolf never sounded so amazing.

Phase.

Then just like that Kujo and Ms. Kujo appeared, first next to me, then dashing out toward each wing. Kujo went to the right wing, while Ms. Kujo went left.

I was worried about her, as she was still clearly pregnant, and I knew that this was likely one the scenarios I would need to pass to make its o her thirteen pups come to full term, but right now I wasn’t going to look a gift phase wolf in the mouth. Actually, I never want to look them in the mouths, those things are terrifying.

Badump.

As they leave, a familiar object jumps off of the back of Kujo. It takes me a moment to realize that the reason why that object looks and feels so familiar, is because it is in fact my familiar.

“Zero?” I wheeze out, my mind spinning from having had to strike so fast and so often.

“Coming boss,” Zero said as it swam the way only worm like flying dragons can.

For a moment I wondered how he got here, then I remembered my commitment to doing more things with my familiar, apparently doing something stupid, like attacking a giant world or zone boss was on that list. At least, Zero seemed to think so.

Honestly, I could use all the help I could at the moment, as I needed a moment to regroup and recover.

As Zero moved past, I saw it begin to grow in size, well length. He went from being his standard svelte two-meter-long form to a size that was easily ten times that size, at least length wise. Width wise he was still skinny, but his overall body had grown, along with multiple new sections of clawed appendages.

“What the?” Is all I can manage to say, but then my senses begin taking over and I can feel the true power of a Trait coming to life within Zero.

Seeing this transformation, I realize that he had been keeping secrets. That or I had been such a bad owner of Zero that I never thought to ask if he had any amazing attack powers.

I watched as Zero dove down low, under the dragon’s neck. Zero’s small form was easily able to crawl and slither under and through the slight crevasse that was created between the beast’s massive skull and its neck. From there, I watched as Zero swam-climbed up around the base of the creature’s neck, and then proceeded to bite right where I first began striking.

Somehow Zero’s entire body was able to wrap itself around and wedge itself tightly into the loose skin crease that existed between the protective bone plating of the beast’s skull that shot out to protect the delicate portions of the neck, and the rest of the beast.

Then I watched in horror as nearly two dozen sets of Zero’s claws latched out and dug deeply into the beast’s neck.

HIISSSSS!

With that the beast began coiling about in pain.

As it tried to move, Kujo and Ms. Kujo struck out in unison, their sharp claws tearing at vulnerable and wide open wings that ripped like paper under their strikes.

The dragon tried to use its tail to strike at the creatures, only to find empty air, or worse dangling wing fragments where dire phase wolves had just been.

Yet, despite all of the coordination between the three creatures, I couldn’t help but ask.

“Zero, could you always do that?”

“Gname-kinda-bnusy-rnight-gnow…” Zero said, through his outstretched mouth that was clamping onto and devouring deeply into the dragon’s damaged nerve clusters on its neck.

“Oh right.” I said, then I realized what I needed to do. I needed to ask the question using Telepathy, that way I could ask Zero about this new power. Or at least a power that was new to me. I knew Zero leveled up when I leveled up, and that he had been on relatively equal power as I had this entire time. Also, I assume many of my accomplishments counted as his accomplishments, shared soul and all. Did that mean that he managed to get new Traits with his level ups, or had he always had these and I just never let him show them off due to my dislike of violence and want to shield him from danger.

I am thinking these things, when I realize the fact that the true answer of what I should do was right there, right in front of me the whole time.

“Well good, stay safe.” I tell Zero.

“Vvwha?” Zero asks, or at least I think he does, but I am already moving onto my next plan.

Poof.

I Teleport again, but this time, I find myself right on the long snout of the dragon. Oddly enough, the dragon can stare at me from this range, but it seems that it can somehow only manage to get one eye to look at me properly without going cross eyed, which is good to know.

Focusing on the dragon, I use Telepathy for seemingly the first time in forever. Though, unlike most times where I just listen to people’s thoughts to practice my skills, and make sure I’m not the only one who is completely crazy, this time I do so for a true purpose.

“All right, hello. I am Cassiopeia Spiritlight, it is a pleasure to meet you.” I tell it directly in its mind.

Struggle.

The beast struggles, as it curls back its lips and glares at me angrily.

“Get off of me!” The beast snarls, opening and snapping its jaws wildly as it tries to talk to me mentally, but fails.

“Sigh,” yes, I likely sound stupid, as I actually say the word sigh, but I need to get the point across. Then I begin, “this might take a while, but realize this hurts me, a lot more than it will hurt you.”

And like that, I feel the components of Grand Master Level Taming coming to life within my mind, as I realize I am about to practice one of my hardest to level up skills. Who knows, depending on how this goes, this might actually turn into a pretty good day.

“Get off me! Get off of me!” The monster begins shaking its head violently.

At that I just shake my head and hold up my hand into a fist.

“Even the dumbest of animals can understand negative reinforcement.” I tell the creature through our mental link.

“I am not dumb!”

“We will see,” I reply back mentally, as I begin the process for anger modification.