16 Picky Eater (1/2)
Dustin pushed steadily through the shifting dunes, dispatching of anything that had any designs on them.
The two following him were unfit for the long treks, especially in dunes of sand, so he was making slow progress towards the center of the desert.
From the top of one of the dunes he could spot a light flickering among some trees. There was an oasis not far from where they were, and the previous pioneers had taken refuge within.
The monsters of the dungeon lived beneath the sand, and were blind to all but movement, so the oasis was perfect. The tree mix of tree roots and sandstone blocked any movement beneath the surface, and the guards were stationed with torches around to ward off any unwanted attention.
Dustin couldn't see the man or his family inside the oasis, but it wasn't hard to figure out that if the guards were surrounding it, he was inside. James and the butler collapsed into the sand beside Dustin and spared glances down at the oasis hungrily. Both of them were cold, tired, and most importantly, thirsty.
The butler managed to look at the situation better than his master, and noticed the armed guards were none other than the business mans escort.
”It would appear Mr. O'connor is down there.”
James squinted his eyes to see the figures of the guards that stood fearfully with their torches. It made sense, after all, as their mysterious teleportation had occurred next to O'Connor's home.
They thought that O'Connor might have had some hand in it, and Dustin garbled something in his spirit language. Lei-Lei was starting to get confused why he was asking her so many random questions.
James and the butler looked at each other. Throwing themselves at a fellow neighbours mercy seemed a preferable alternative to following the cloaked man who dragged them around, killing the creatures silently.
Dustin could work out what they were thinking, and gestured for them to go. The butler stood up unsteadily and nervously thanked him, taking James down the dunes towards the lit up oasis.
He had no idea how safe the two of them were going to be, he didn't exactly want to sentence them to death. O'Connor was definitely into some shady shit, Dustin had heard rumours of him being involved in the arms trade.
By the time the two of them reached the water and looked back up the dune, Dustin was gone.
He had run along the side of the dune, hiding himself from vision, and engaged in fighting another centipede.
When it curled up into a spiral and died, Dustin spat out the mouthful of sand that had yet again collected in his mouth. He angrily opened the shop to purchase a mask. It was more for cosmetic effect, that defense, but it acted as a shield against the sand. His disguise mask, when morphed, did nothing to stop the sand from getting into any open holes.
He wondered if he needed the face paint if he was wearing an actual mask, but it wasn't bad to be cautious. As he walked along, he bought a couple of other accessories, which included some things to wrap around his chest. Strips of cloth held the cloak tightly to him, and his look began to remind him of a certain science fiction sand dwelling race.
The outfit was a lot more suited to fighting agile monsters, especially in the sand, which was their favoured terrain. He worked thoroughly to clear a path around the outskirts of the dungeon.
The sand dunes looked the same in every direction, making it difficult to track where one was going if they did not know to use the minimap.
Dustin was nearing what he suspected was the boss area, as the monsters were spread thin. Something bright was spitting fumes up into the air ahead, the smell very familiar to Dustin.
A pool of lava had laid claim to a small dip in the land, hard to see if not for the light it gave off at night. Dustin sat around the edges and waited, feeling that something was approaching.
Instead of attacking him, something shot out of the lava, sending globs of the molten liquid splattering everywhere. It was at least 15 feet tall as its body segments rattled against each other.
Dustin could tell what it was without the displays health, a Lava Centipede.
The boss arched back down towards the ground, smashing its head into the soft sand. It did not dig very far, and emerged with a scorpion in its mouth. The smaller monster was scrambling to escape, but couldn't avoid the fiery death. It was pulled into the lava by the centipede, accompanied by the hissing sound as it slowly sunk, being devoured by the boss whilst it was cooked alive.
Dustin frowned and took a couple of steps back. It was no wonder Dos had to re-adjust the dungeon calibration settings. The Lava Centipede was something guns would be useless against.
Unless the humans could bring massive armour piercing rounds, or fancy missiles, bullets would basically bounce off its shell. Even Dustin had to give pause as to how he would kill it. Its outer shell was naturally hardened by exposure to harsh environments, even the Queen Ant that he had killed couldn't compare in defense.
Its main weakness were generally the fact that it was blind, fairly stupid, and very much disliked the cold. If it was exposed to below freezing temperatures, the outer shell would grow brittle, enough to be shattered by attacks.
Dustin had his ice petals, but the boss was incredibly big. He could only attach a max of three, and the boss wasn't going to stand around and let itself freeze. The petals would be easily dislodged if it dug into the earth.
He could try putting one inside its mouth… but the Lava Centipede didn't get its name just from the environment. They could also vomit lava, which would no doubt incinerate anything he tried putting in its mouth.
Dustin bit his lip as he scouted around, but found nothing but the pool of lava, and a pile of misshapen skeletons.
They were too small and misshapen to be human, and the monsters in the dungeon didn't possess bone structures like these.
From what Dustin could tell, it was another race of pioneers. He skirted around what he could guess was the boss' aggression range, and finally saw the scrap metal that lay among the skeletons.