Chapter 86: Flash Fire
Squelch!
The tentacle whipped toward the outcropping like a giant wet hammer.
"MOVE!" Holden shouted.
Everyone scattered. The tentacle slammed into the rock where they’d been standing, sending chunks of stone flying. Acid splashed across the surface, hissing and bubbling.
The Amalgamation pulled back its arm and formed two more tentacles. They writhed in the air like angry snakes, dripping toxic sludge.
Henry drew his sword. "I’ll hold it off!"
He leaped off the outcropping and swung at the nearest tentacle.
Swish!
The blade passed clean through the slime. The tentacle didn’t even flinch. It just reformed around the cut, purple mud flowing back together like water.
"What?!" Henry stumbled backward. "My sword just went through it like nothing!"
The tentacle he’d cut whipped around and caught him across the chest.
Whap!
Henry flew backward and crashed into a tree. His armor saved his life, absorbing most of the impact, but the acid splashed across his visor, melting the polished surface.
"Henry!" his squad screamed.
One of them grabbed a handful of daggers and threw them at the monster’s body.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
Every dagger sank into the sludge and disappeared. The monster didn’t even slow down.
"Physical attacks are useless!" Emric yelled. "It’s a liquid-mass construct! You can’t cut water!"
Holden drew his Star-Forged Blade and activated Asura’s Ignition. Red-gold energy blazed along the edge. He rushed forward and slashed horizontally through the monster’s midsection.
The blade passed through the sludge like a knife through water. The cut sealed up instantly behind him, leaving the monster completely unharmed.
"It’s not working!" Lyra cried.
Squelch!
A tentacle caught Holden across the chest and flung him into the clearing. He hit the ground rolling and came up fast.
The Amalgamation loomed over him, reforming its lost mass, ready to crush him under tons of toxic slime.
Bzzt!
"STOP TRYING TO CUT IT!" Maeve’s voice screamed through the radio. "LISTEN TO ME!"
Holden yanked the radio from his belt. "I’m listening!"
"Cutting it won’t work, Holden! You have to boil it! There’s an Abyssal Seed floating inside its chest area! It’s the only thing keeping the sludge together! Hit the seed with a blast of extreme heat and the whole thing will crystallize!"
"A thermal pulse? Inside that thing?"
"Do it NOW!"
Holden dismissed his sword to his inventory with a mental command.
"Everyone back up! Get away from it!"
The Amalgamation sensed the shift in his posture. It reared up like a cobra, gathering its mass into a massive fist, ready to crush him flat.
Holden took a deep breath and channeled everything he had into his right arm.
He focused his Asura’s Ignition into his fist, squeezing the power until it was solid. The red-gold energy grew denser, brighter, hotter. His arm felt like it was submerged in molten metal. The air around his fist shimmered with heat distortion.
The fist glowed like a beacon.
The Amalgamation struck.
Squelch!
Holden ducked the descending fist and lunged forward. His glowing arm plunged straight into the monster’s chest.
The sludge tried to swallow him. It wrapped around his arm, pulling him deeper into the toxic mass. Acid burned against his Iron-Body skin, hissing and popping. The pressure was immense, trying to crush him like a vice.
He pushed deeper.
His fingers found something solid in the slime. A round core that pulsed under his touch. It was cold despite the heat radiating from his arm.
He grabbed it.
And released the pulse.
Whoosh!
The heat erupted from his fist in a blinding flash of white-orange light. The temperature spiked so fast that the sludge around his arm instantly flash-froze. The crystalization spread outward in a ring, racing through the monster’s body.
The Amalgamation froze mid-strike. Its tentacles stopped moving. Its mass stopped churning. The entire fifteen-foot tower of purple sludge transformed into solid, brittle glass.
Crack.
A fracture appeared in the glass statue’s chest.
Then another. And another.
The glass statue shattered into a million pieces.
Purple glass rained down across the clearing like deadly confetti. The pieces hit the ground and shattered again into harmless dust. The toxic sludge was gone. Only the Abyssal Seed remained, cracked and dead in Holden’s glowing palm.
[Ding!]
[Abyssal Amalgamation Defeated!]
[Base Reward: 1,500 KP]
[Boss Kill Bonus: +500 KP]
[Abyssal Corruption Purge Bonus: +500 KP]
[2x KP Booster Applied!]
[Total: +5,000 KP]
[Current Balance: 58,190 KP]
Silence fell over the clearing.
Henry pushed himself up from the tree he’d crashed into, his melted visor hanging at an awkward angle. His squad rushed to help him, pulling off the damaged armor.
He stared at the dust settling where the monster had been. Then he looked at Holden.
Holden stood at of the clearing, casually crushing the Abyssal Seed in his bare hand. His right arm still glowed faintly with residual heat.
Henry walked toward him. His squad followed, watching with wide eyes.
He stopped in front of Holden and dropped to one knee.
"You’re not a freshman," Henry said quietly. "You’re a monster."
Holden brushed purple dust off his sleeve. "Why are you being so dramatic?."
"I mean it. That thing was going to kill us. We couldn’t even scratch it. And you killed it with your bare hand." Henry’s voice trembled with awe. "House Vance officially acknowledges Team Soup as our superior squad. We answer to you now. Whatever you need, we provide. Whatever you command, we obey."
His squad dropped to their knees beside him.
Holden looked at the five kneeling nobles in their ruined armor. A while ago, Henry had tried to steal their kill and called them slum trash.
Now they were bowing.
"Just don’t steal my kills anymore, Henry."
"Yes, sir."
"And polish your own boots."
"Of course, sir."
"And stop calling me sir. It’s weird."
"Understood."
Holden sighed and tucked the crushed seed into his pouch.
"Get up. We’re heading back."
The Vance squad scrambled to their feet, falling into line behind Team Soup like ducklings following their mother.
Renna leaned close to Holden. "That was kind of fun to watch."
"Don’t let it go to your head," he said. "There’s more coming."