Pioneer of the Abyss - Book 3 - Chapter 19 (Patreon)

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Table of Contents

Click the following link for the 1375 word chapter 19:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1WHBBOEuEz1Fip5ifo8xWD2e9dJj7akH_IrJbuc13-gk/edit?usp=sharing

Or you can read the unformatted version below:

Aqua

Days begin to flash by as I struggle for my life, just constantly spreading ink and plague throughout the water until I run out of mana before running away until midnight. Only to repeat the process the next day.

Over and over again.

Although it gets a lot easier after three days pass, and the boss begins to grow slower with its movements. Clearly being affected by the ink and plague.

And the closer it gets to seven days, the slower the monster gets. All the way until it’s finally acting sluggish and showing discoloring across various parts of its body.

It even has some areas that are rotting off or just dying from necrosis.

Of course, these areas are still considered small for a monster of this starfish’s size. But still.

Said ‘areas’ are larger than me.

I can’t help but glance at my left arm, which was previously completely torn off by the Special Boss along with my right foot. Both of which have regrown almost completely at this point. With my arm just missing the tips of my fingers right now. And even those are visibly growing back before my gaze.

My focus turns back to the sluggish and screeching starfish.

There were numerous times over the past seven days that I almost died. With the worst instance being when the thing almost managed to draw me into its mouth before just chomping down somehow, nabbing my entire left arm in the process.

It would’ve been more of me if I hadn’t managed to fill its mouth with abyssal servants to clog up the suction force it was drawing me in with before pushing myself away with as many skills as I could.

And I lost my foot when the thing almost got me with one of its crab claws. The thing clipped down on me, just barely giving me enough time to move away.

[Go Aqua! Go Aqua! Go Aqua!!!]

[YOU CAN DO IT!!!]

[I can’t believe she’s managed to survive until now… and this is just the start.]

[The real battle will begin soon.]

[Are the ink and plague enough to bring the boss down to her level?]

[Maybe? I hope so]

I can’t help the faint smile that forms on my face at the sight of the support in the chat. But my focus doesn’t waver long before the Special Boss suddenly smashes its different limbs into the ground and flings itself at me. All while creating a suction force drawing everything into said mouth.

Despite me barely managing to escape from said suction force, I can’t help but grin. Specifically at the sight of the ink and plague filling this massive place being drawn into the Special Boss’ mouth.

Looks like someone’s hungry.

Of course, after I dodge, the thing stops that immediately. Likely noticing what’s going on when even more dead and rotting spots appear across its body at an even faster rate.

That’s another thing I’ve learned over the past several days.

This Special boss is surprisingly smart, with great senses too. Somehow it can easily track me through the ink and jump directly at me, and it knows when to give up on a plan of action.

Albeit not until it’s tried said action at least once.

So it’s not a genius, but it is still surprisingly smart.

After dodging it, I swim around to its other side as it tries to stop its leap before bursting forward and striking at its underside with my harpoon. Piercing directly into one of the suction cups on the creature.

Another thing I’ve learned about it during the battle is that its weakness is the creature’s underside. The side covered in suction cups that keep it attached to the ground.

This is actually how I managed to get most of the ink and plague into it. Simply by opening up numerous wounds across the suction cups and letting the plague and ink soak in through said wounds.

It’s a pretty effective method, without as much danger. Seeing as this is underneath the creature, and the only times it exposes this side is when it jumps upwards like this.

Which doesn’t happen often, unfortunately.

The starfish suddenly swings numerous tentacles down to hit me, but thanks to its sluggish actions, I manage to dodge them without too much issue. Unlike earlier. Then I rush in and attack various rotting and dying parts of said tentacles. Slicing through the flesh and into the creature.

I feel the faint grin on my face growing wider by the second as I finally slow down the ink and plague I’m spreading to focus on fighting. Of course, I still continue to spread some of it into the area, but I focus more on the battle than that.

And the difference between now and the start of the fight is massive.

If I had to guess, the starfish is now at around a third of its original speed, and about half of its original strength. Bringing it down to a tolerable level for me to fight.

The starfish turns around and begins doing something rather odd that I’ve seen it do numerous times over the course of the battle. So I react right away, rushing as far to the side of the cavern as possible before the thing uses its mouthed tentacles as propellers to push it through the water. All while the claws and bladed tentacles as a spinning set of blades in front of it during its rapid push through the water.

This attack almost got me the first time I saw it, but despite its threat, the thing is actually pretty easy to dodge.

The biggest issue was its size. But that balanced out thanks to how slow it was, even when propelling like this.

It’s not exactly easy to move at a rapid speed with a body over a kilometer long, after all.

After dodging it, I begin a brief game of chase where I rush in to attack it before backing away again and dodging all of its attacks. Just letting it soak in the ink and plagues while waiting for my mana to reset again at midnight.

And when my mana does finally reset again, I begin to summon vast armies of abyssal servants. Ones of all sorts, whether humanoid or monstrous non-humanoids. Whether human sized, dog sized, or even hundreds of meters long.

Of course, these things individually are easily crushed even by the boss’ weakened attacks. But as a massive army like this?

I order the army of abyssal servants to attack the Special Boss while watching from a distance. And the maneuver proves quite effective as I see the abyssal servants beginning to take advantage of the rotten and dying parts of the Special Boss to dig their way inside.

The Special Boss tries to stop them by crushing them with its limbs, but more abyssal servants just go in after the first ones.

Even when the Special Boss lets loose a powerful sonic attack that wipes out hundreds of abyssal servants at once, more of them just come flooding in afterwards.

Now, the actual damage the abyssal servants are doing to the Special Boss right now isn’t actually that significant. Especially since the larger abyssal servants are generally my weaker ones in terms of level. Leaving just the small human-sized ones to deal the most damage.

And size really does matter.

Although I guess the larger ones don’t really matter much in the long run, since none of my abyssal servants can actually damage the Special Boss’ outer layer. And the rotten and decaying parts of it aren’t large enough for the larger abyssal servants to enter and dig through.

So the larger abyssal servants are mostly just covers for the smaller ones.

But the abyssal servants act as a very good distraction, giving me the chance to rush in and pierce straight through a decaying part of its underside. Piercing into the creature’s flesh and beginning to dig my way through it amidst the monster’s screeches of pain.

Time to begin making a comeback.

And getting some sweet revenge for the arm and foot this thing chomped off and ate.