The walls of the cave part accompanied by a guttural growl as black claws emerge and tear a rift into what seems to be space itself.
More and more of the creature is revealed as it pushes itself out of the rift. Obsidian claws transition into matted grey fur that covers thick muscular limbs. The torso is a mix of grey fur and dark green scales.
A lionhead flanked by a goat head on either side keeps growling. The goat heads remain eerily silent but open their mouths to reveal rows upon rows of razor sharp teeth clearly not belonging to a herbivor. The tail is a snake that hisses viciously with corrosive venom dripping from its teeth and searing fist sized holes into the dungeon floor.
I instinctively use instructors assessment and my heart misses a few beats at the result.
Carrion servant chimera lv. 1000
Godly aspect of carrion
I quickly force myself to stop using instructors and close my eyes. An incredibly threatening presence looms over me, making me feel like my death is about to arrive. My heart palpitates wildly, breathing becomes hard but I keep my eyes shut and tell myself that it's not real.
I certainly can't peek at a level 1000 godly aspect's status with my skill without any repercussions. It went way to smoothly and the level is way too exaggerated.
All common logic denies the possibility of a monster equal or weaker to myself to summon a creature at the level of Vespasian. It must be an illusion…
And yet, even by shut of my senses and trying to ignore the beast that is clearly fake, the illusion doesn't break. My heart is beating like crazy, seeming intent on jumping out of my chest and running away. At this rate I'll probably die of exhaustion or have a heart attack. At least my death won't leave a corpse for that damn carrion bird to feast on.
…
Carrion bird, carrion cry, carrion servant, dying of a heart attack from a creature with an incredibly oppressive aura. And yet the creature that could probably kill us all in an instant does not attack.
Like scales falling off my eyes the illusion or whatever it is breaks apart. Cracks form on the carrion servant chimera as it looks incredibly vexed and shatters into mots of light.
The oppressive silence is suddenly replaced by continues cries from the mutated branti. The cries seem to be following a set sequence. While under the influence of its skill I couldn't hear this at all!
Have you been talking all this time?
Is there a way to wake up the others?
Kill the bird or make it stop using the carrion cry skill, got it.
I fire a rock needle at the screaming condor head but its suddenly moved aside by the scorpion tail it sits upon. The second condor head, the one attached to the body where a head should be, glares at me and gives me a furious squawk.
So the experimental branti can still move while using that skill?
I fire another three rock needles. Two at the head mounted above the tail and one at the other. The two needles headed for the condor head that can be easily moved have slightly different flight paths so they cover a larger area. They still don't hit since the head is pulled away in a rather larger swaying motion.
However, the true target, the lower head that seems to control the body, is hit just as I planned. The experimental branti must usually have two heads to coordinate its actions but now with one being fully taken up by keeping carrion cry active, the remaining one is struggling to cope.
It's priority and focus from my previous attack was the upper head. If that head was hit and carrion cry was canceled the number of enemies would increase from one back to four. So it focused on controlling it tail to keep the other head save and failed to react to the third rock needle in time.
While it did start to move to the left to evade, it only did so much too late. The rock needle pierced the side of its head close to its right eye. The rock shard didn't penetrate too deep since a sizeable length is still visibly sticking out of the head. The plumage of the condor head must have worked to soften the blow enough to stop it from getting though the skull.
Still, I did some damage and confirmed a fatal weakness. Whenever I attack the upper head that's using carrion cry, the lower head will prioritize defending it. That gives me the advantage of being able to pressure the experimental branti into a fight that favorable to me.
What should I use, ground spikes should be the most suitable spell here, yes?