Chapter 658 (2/2)

After he what? After he killed Roy, the Undying Hero? The man who had been dead for several months, and returned by dint of Coppernicus, someone that Drake worked very closely with. He wondered what had motivated Sydney to request it of Copper, and why the inhuman man had accepted.

Currently, it definitely seemed like it had been a mistake.

You are my sword.

The feeling of certainty he usually had was drifting away. His mind grasped at it like fingers through morning mist. Drake slowly stood, feeling annoyed. A sword he might have been, but… he wanted more now. Truly, he was likely the only person in Sydney’s employ that was strong enough to stand a chance against the Undying Hero. But why had he been ordered to travel so far for it?

Drake raised his sword, no definitely irritated. He couldn’t tell it was due to the fact he suspected he was just grouchy at this mission repeatedly fucking him, or the Frogipede that was wriggling its way towards him. The Frogipedes didn’t generally take a very direct route towards their target but instead allowed parts of their long body and legs to carry forward, and then the front or back would flip forward, abruptly crossing a lot of distance.

But Drake’s annoyance faded away as he studied the Frogipede in front of him, which was about ⅓ a size bigger than usual, and was a pale blue color. Its body was the size of the trunk of a small tree and was slick with slime. Its two yellow eyes fixed on him as the body flopped back on top of itself, almost heedless of its approaching.

Grimacing, Drake looked up at the grey geometric shape, and then around in the surrounding area. The immediate surrounding area of the boulder was a flat grassland, and this creature had sauntered out of the large square opening in the side of the boulder. What was interesting was that Drake could see that there were other openings around the outside of the boulder, a fixed distance to either side.

But then the Frogipede flopped forward and straightened itself, throwing the front part of its body and its forelegs towards Drake with remarkable speed. Even though this was a pattern he had seen before, he was taken aback by how physically superior this version was to the others he had faced.

He sidestepped cleanly, producing his huge sword and swinging it like a baseball bat to meet the Frogipede’s advance. The thing twisted and killed its momentum. Then the front two pairs of arms punched into the ground and cracked the surface. With the leverage, its muscles heaved and the back half of its body swung around like a whip

That as new.

But it was also too slow. By the time it had stuck its legs in the ground, Drake had condensed his armor of bone. Ryx leaped upwards and settled onto his back, rapidly transforming into a wide shield of spiked bone, making Drake look like a twisted cross between a turtle and a porcupine.

The sharp shards of bone twisted ungracefully upwards into sharp points and Drake simply turned sideways rather than dodging.

The force of the whipped body knocking him off of his feet and slammed him several meters to the side. It was even far enough that when Drake crashed to the ground, it was in ankle deep water. This pissed Drake off, almost irrationally.

“Why…” Drake growled, cursing the flying, the swimming, the smells, the wetness, the vague fucking orders, his stubborn inability to ask for more clarification, “Why the fuck am I here?!?!”

The Frogipede began to scream, attempting to drag its body back away from the jagged burr that was Drake. But that simply dragged the soft, rubbery flesh deeper into the spikes, ripping its body further. The nearby legs twisted and began to smash against his armor. Small cracks began to spread, but it couldn’t get any more force than its muscles, because its body was stuck to Drake’s back.

But he wouldn’t give the Frogipede the time to break through. He raised his left hand and poured all of his burning dissatisfaction into his condensed fate. His hand burned slightly, and then a huge hand of bone exploded upwards, swelling until it was the size of a car.

With gleaming eyes, Drake glared at the squirming Frogipede. Although it was Level 57, Drake was going to turn it into mush.