CHAPTER 138: LIKE THE BLOATER

Chief Varros paused only for a heartbeat before leaping back into the fray, feet sliding across the cracked stone as he studied the monstrous twin-tentacled humanoid. Every one of its movements was unpredictable and savage, but also strangely sluggish—as though its body fought against itself. Calien and Erik kept close to the walls, eyes fixed on Varros as they followed every subtle motion of his blade.

"Watch carefully," Varros told himself under his breath. "Every part of this thing is a weapon."

He surged forward again.

He struck at one of its reaching arms, feeling the impact jar up through his wrist as though he’d hit a block of iron. The blade barely left a scratch, and the monster countered instantly, slashing at him with a broad tentacle covered in sickly, pulsating suckers. He dived beneath it and kicked off a cracked pillar, twisting mid-air to carve a bright silver arc across its shoulder and down the back of its arm.

Calien and Erik nodded as they saw the blow land perfectly.

Still, the monster moved as if unfazed, as if whatever injuries he inflicted failed to register at all.

Chief Varros hit the ground and spun, lifting his blade into guard as the creature roared, tentacles lashing across the hall like whips. Sparks flew as one tentacle scraped against his knife and threw him briefly off balance. The beast towered over him, mouth gaping in a jagged sneer as its tumor-like growths glistened along its torso.

"Keep watching!" Calien urged Erik, hands tightening on his knives. "Look at how Chief moves."

"Every cut is so smooth," Erik replied breathlessly. "Even though it looks impossible to damage this thing, he’s not wasting a single strike. It’s like—"

"—he’s testing every angle," Calien agreed. "Exactly like what Nolan showed us."

And sure enough, Chief Varros moved again.

He feinted left, then pivoted sharply right as a tentacle slammed into the space where he’d been an instant before. Before the monster could fully recover its balance, he sprang up onto its limb and ran straight up its monstrous arm, twisting the blade into the joint between shoulder and neck as he leapt clear.

A sick thud followed as he landed gracefully behind it.

The creature roared and spun, massive hands clawing at empty air.

Calien and Erik nodded fiercely this time.

"Yes," Erik hissed, eyes bright with admiration. "That was perfect."

Chief Varros reset his stance as the monster regrouped, breaths measured, blade held at the ready. Every muscle in his body was coiled like a spring.

"You see it too, don’t you?" Calien whispered.

Erik nodded.

And again they watched as Varros charged in, silver edge flashing under torchlight, only for the monster to recoil and swing with monstrous strength. Every attack was measured, every cut a search for the elusive weak point that would end this fight.

And though they kept their distance, Calien and Erik felt every ounce of the tension that stretched between them and their chief.

"Chief," Calien finally called out, voice trembling with a new kind of urgency, "try going for its joints."

The chief’s head inclined a fraction as if he’d heard, and then he surged forward like a blade drawn from its sheath.

He dodged a pair of lunging tentacles by mere inches, then lunged inward under its chest. He slashed up at the hinge of its right elbow with a strike so precise it looked as if his blade had carved a perfect path in mid-air.

And this time, the monster reeled back with a guttural bellow.

"Did you see that?!" Erik exclaimed, eyes alight. "Its joints—those might actually matter!"

Calien nodded quickly, pulse racing.

Chief Varros had seen it too; his sharp gaze had tracked the small wince that had crossed the monster’s monstrous face.

And so he moved again.

He danced around its flank, one swift strike at its knee. Another at its wrist.

Each time his blade kissed those vital angles, the monster’s reactions were just a shade more sluggish, its balance a touch less sure.

And then, as the monstrous octopus-thing staggered back, Calien and Erik’s eyes were drawn to the huge sacs dotting its body—those tumor-like swellings that clung like foul fruit to its hide.

As Chief Varros pivoted back into a cautious stance, Calien grabbed Erik’s arm and pointed at them.

"Those," Calien breathed.

"Redder," Erik agreed at once, voice sharp with sudden recognition.

As if on cue, the tumor-sacks throbbed faintly in the flickering light.

The two boys stared at one another in wordless understanding.

And in that instant, they felt their thoughts snap into place.

"Erik," Calien whispered, voice trembling with awe, "isn’t this exactly like that thing Nolan showed us yesterday?"

And Erik’s eyes went very, very wide.

"Yes," he whispered back. "That ’Bloater’ from Nolan’s realm training—those creatures with tumors all over them."

Calien nodded rapidly, breath catching in his throat. "Remember what Nolan told us? That their tumors are their weak spots. If you hit them just right, the whole thing falls apart."

Suddenly breathless, they looked toward their chief as he circled the monstrous spawn.

"Chief!" Erik called, hands cupped around his mouth. "Those red sacks—it’s like yesterday’s Bloater!"

Calien stepped forward too, voice sharp. "Aim for those lumps—it’s the only way to kill them properly. Don’t waste strength on anything else."

The chief however wouldn’t react and just continued what he was doing.

For a fleeting instant, they wondered if he’d heard.

Calien and Erik realized their wrong, of course, Chief Varros wouldn’t know about it.

But then they watched Chief Varros straighten, eyes narrowing with a veteran’s focus as the truth settled into him.

That was what had been missing all along.

That was what Nolan must have been thinking too, watching this fight play out in his distant villa.

And as Chief Varros shifted his grip on his blade, preparing for what would come next, Calien and Erik exchanged one final, breathless look.

They could hardly believe it.

The monster before them—it was just like the bloater.