Thinking it over now, he realized the distant Briar Behemoth wasn't actually stupid.
Right from their opening exchanges it had used its vine-tails to intercept magic missiles, showing off rapid regeneration while also hinting that smashing those tails didn't cause it any pain.
Which, in turn, nudged Gauss to stop focusing on its tail.
If that was intentional, you could even call it sly.
Still, even after spotting a likely weak point, landing a hit on it was anything but easy.
That deadly tail was perfectly hidden among the many others; any long-range missile that drew close was neatly batted aside by the surrounding vines.
With Alia, Serandur, and the summons tying it up at the front, Gauss was able to peel away and fall back a ways.
He chewed quickly, feeling the [Energy Gland] greedily convert nutrients into surging power.
By the time most of his stamina had returned, the protective fields on Alia and Serandur were hanging by a thread. Of the four clay spiders, only the strongest white one remained; the three brown ones had been swatted apart and, with their mana spent, couldn't reform.
Gauss drew a deep breath.
His teammates had bought him the time he needed to reset.
"Alia, Serandur—good work. I'll take it from here," he said, voice steady and firm.
Hearing him, both finally let some tension go.
Serandur especially—Level 3 and blessed with his race's excellent mobility though he was—had still been staring down a giant. Even for a short stretch, that carried a real psychological load. He knew how necessary it was to buy Gauss a breather.
Gauss stepped forward.
Walking as he went, he triggered [Ghoul Form].
Crack, crack.
With each footfall, faint pops came from his bones and his frame rose by a few inches. His hair blanched to frost-white; a sharp horn split the skin at his brow; the color drained from his face—those familiar outward changes rippled across him.
Alia backed off, eyes widening as she took in the metamorphosis.
The last time he'd "transformed" against the hyena squad it had been at night and at a distance—nothing like this close-up. She'd seen orcish blood-rage berserks before, but compared to what was happening to Gauss now, they were child's play.
Even a layperson like her could feel the shift in his presence—so stark it made a longtime teammate feel a chill of estrangement. There was an uncanny, almost alluring edge to it, and something that quietly set your heart on edge…
Gauss, now in [Ghoul Form], wasted no time; every second counted.
Brute strength exploded under his feet, and his body vanished from where he'd stood.
An instant later he was at the Behemoth's front.
Boom!
A vine-tail came whipping down with a gale that seemed to tear the air.
Gauss gave a slight sway and slipped past it with precision.
The tail smashed into the floor and shattered the stone; he used the opening to press in toward the rear.
He ignored the swollen central trunk. He'd already learned that hacking at the torso did nothing. He even suspected the bulky plant body was just a decoy to cover the true core, with that special tail as the real body.
As he neared the tails, the Behemoth snapped into a level of alertness he hadn't seen yet. The special tail twisted away in a flash, trying to shed him.
He could feel the whole monster tense up.
Only taking this seriously now? flashed through his mind.
If this was ten-tenths of its power, then before it had been fighting at maybe three or four.
Too late.
Steel longsword in hand, he drove off his feet; cracks spider-webbed the ground under the force packed in his legs.
A blur was all he left behind.
In [Ghoul Form], speed and burst were his absolute edge. Shaking him off would be hard—unless they were in different leagues entirely.
Another thick vine shrieked through the air toward him.
Gauss moved like smoke, weaving through the storm of whipping vines, slipping past each lethal lash by a hair.
Shhk!
With every dodge his sword flashed out.
A thick, tough tail held for a heartbeat under the force-boosted blade, then sheared away.
Cutting down the blockers, Gauss pressed in step by step.
Dodge. Strike. Straight at the core.
After he'd severed several attacking tails in a row, that one special tail was finally laid bare before him.
By looks alone it was still indistinguishable from the rest.
The Behemoth had realized his aim and twisted frantically to evade, but Gauss was simply too fast.
In a blink he was on it, sword raised.
The other tails slammed in from all sides in a frenzy, but in that sliver of time—he cut them down.
Snik!
The steel blade carved a pure white arc and came down hard on the special tail.
Screeeeee!!!
The moment the edge bit, a needle-sharp, eardrum-piercing chitter exploded with raw pain.
Gauss frowned slightly. There was a mental bite to it—but his cold will crushed it flat.
He chopped again and again, mercilessly.
Dark green fluid spurted like a severed artery.
Look closer and it wasn't sap at all, but some kind of thick green blood.
The whole Behemoth collapsed like its spine had been pulled: the fake "torso" and other tails went limp, shuddering in spasms with every chop.
As if it couldn't bear the damage, the special tail suddenly self-severed at its base. The husk of the cut piece writhed a few times—
Splat!
A smaller, vicious-looking creature burst out of the shattered tail husk.
At last Gauss saw the impostor's true face.
Where it had joined the trunk was packed with countless pale root-threads like nerves; its head sprouted several trembling tumor-like nodules—likely sensory organs. A forest of thin, needle-sharp, steel-pin-like limbs punched through its skin.
It was a giant centipede, scaled up and radiating menace.
No sooner had it wriggled free than it skittered off on those hair-raising limbs, bolting in panic.
Gauss had already switched to his white staff.
"Magic Missile!"
Blue bolts wreathed in pale power ripped through the air and smashed into the fleeing parasite's back.
Bang bang bang bang bang!
The force blew its carapace to fragments, dark green fluid spraying.
But to his surprise, even after five empowered missiles it wasn't dead. Riddled with holes, shell shattered, it still clawed forward, those sharp limbs dragging its broken body with desperate speed—until it hit the barrier and had nowhere left to go.
Expressionless, Gauss kept firing.
Only after around twelve or thirteen missiles had landed and turned the thing into ragged chunks did the kill notification finally chime in his head.
"Parasitic Arthropod Slain ×1."
"Elite Monster Index: 7."
New entry collected—10 elite points credited.
Adding the 10 from the Hobgoblin, he was still 30 short of advancing the Reptilian Strain.
With the threat confirmed down, Gauss dropped [Ghoul Form].
The power ebbed like a receding tide and a crashing wave of weakness swept his body; his knees buckled.
Alia, already poised, rushed in, caught the faltering Gauss, eased him down, and got food and water into his hands.
Serandur followed close, chanting a soothing prayer; gentle white light washed over Gauss, easing the exhaustion tearing through him.
Boom, boom, boom!
While the three of them were catching their breath, the surroundings shifted again. The invisible barrier fell away at once; gates rumbled open. On the stands the insectfolk phantoms rose as one with a fevered cheer, and that strange wing-buzzing chitter—laden with meaning—rolled across the arena.
[Warrior's Trial Cleared. Issuing Rewards.]
In the distance the corpses of the Briar Behemoth and the parasitic arthropod unraveled into black smoke and drifted away.
Seeing that, Gauss felt a twinge. Those were his spoils. If he could bag them, they'd make excellent materials.
But his attention was quickly pulled upward.
Three softly glowing orbs of light drifted down.
So that was the trial reward the voice had mentioned?
The orbs settled in front of the three of them.
The one floating toward Gauss was the brightest—and much larger than the other two.
As if each had chosen its owner, the orbs suddenly accelerated and slammed into them before they could react.