Foxtails and Fairytales: Facades and Fables of the Phantom Prince

[Arc 15] Ch.3 Grappler Harvest

We finished eating and Talisa was packing up. I don't know if I'll get used to being fed. But it also seems like it would be much harder to turn Talisa down. She always looks too sad when I hesitate and too cute when I compliment how good her food is. I'm being trained and I know it.

That said, Amanda and I reacted at the same time as the black tendril arms sprouted out of the wall. I pulled Talisa into me and away from the dangerous arms that insta-killed Alpha. Meanwhile the arms scraped against a black wall that Amanda had created.

It was made from Amanda's signature magic, a Deviant element called Black Ore similar to my Illusion/Transformation based Foxfire. It was something only certain people could use due to a variety of reasons and were about as rare as demon eyes. Black ore was incredibly dense and magic-resistant, so it made a powerful shield and weapon. Part of the reason she is so fast is because she trains with it constantly.

She's basically the nearly-final form of something from an anime where the character takes off their hidden set of weights and becomes insanely fast and strong. She just skips the reveal and goes straight to crushing the enemy.

I reached out and caught one of the arms. I yank the sucker out of the wall and throw it on the ground. Without missing a beat, Kaina fired an arrow at it and pinned its arm to the ground.

I recognized this monster it was a Deephold Grappler. A shadow-dwelling assassin enemy with the body of a mangled mass of flesh with one huge mouth and a variety of arms ranging from human arms, to stretching tentacles, to spiked appendages. They wait for their target to drop their guard and pounce from the shadows. They usually try to eat you whole or take a sizeable chunk out of you as fast as they can. Usually the head.

Without needing a signal Becky and Amanda began stomping on it.

"Wait!" I said. I need to capitalize on this moment.

The dungeon was a great place to harvest supplies, not only that... but this asshole dared to target Talisa. Right now, there was a good amount of chaos but the better I deal with this guy the less his kind will show up. They were also creepy, and I didn't feel bad dissecting them like a science class frog.

I start to reach into my pack and realize that Talisa is completely latched on to me. She even began nuzzling my chest. "Um Tali?"

"Mm hmm?" she asked and then looks up at me with sparkling eyes. GAAAAH! How is she shining in this dark room. NO! I have to focus. There is only one way to make sure that no more Grapplers show up. Like how shark blood in the water scares away sharks. That's how shark repellent is made... or so I've been told. I don't really have anyone to check my sources anymore.

Time to activate my bat-shark-grappler repellent. D-don't judge me.

"Tali, I got work to do. We can snuggle later." I said. She hesitated to let me go but did and I grabbed my very special instrument from my bag.

"Is that a hatchet?" Kaina asked as she knocked another bolt.

"It's a silver headed hatchet. It's perfect for this." I said as I looked down at the battered Grappler. Technically he's already killed me once and he was aiming at Talisa. This warrants a good deal of payback. I can't have Alpha dying every mission he goes on.

"I thought you specialized in knives?" Kaina asked.

"Only when I want to be nice." I set the lantern down and look at the redundant creature. He is basically a sack of flesh with one three mismatched eyes, a huge mouth with several rows of teeth like a nightmare mix between a shark and an alligator. The mouth was on one side and it had three arms on the other. The one pinned to the ground looked like the tail of a xenomorph from the alien movies. One was a humanoid hand with two elbow joints and the third was a meaty tentacle with a beak-like hook at the end.

Luckily, the bones in its arms were smashed by the girls it is truly a gruesome sight. But not as gruesome as it is going to be.

With one hand I held down his mouth. "Such a good specimen." I said and I felt the girls take one step back from me. "Don't worry, I've harvested Grapplers before, this will be fast and painful." With three quick thuds I used the hatchet to remove the arms at their base. The monster let out a horrible screech.

"You see, flawless. My dear acquaintance, you must be doubting me. How could a brute like me be using a hatchet for such delicate work." I monologue as I looked into the grappler's eyes with a fiendish grin. I left the hatchet in the ground and pulled out jars that were partially filled with different colored liquids.

Then when I removed my hand, I placed my knee against his jaw to hold it closed. Like a crocodile or alligator, it has amazing jaw strength but only when closing its mouth.

"But you see, you need the right tools for the right jobs. And you are quite valuable to an alchemist like myself." I plucked the arrow from the limb and hovered the limb over the jar filled with greenish liquid. "They call me a doctor, you know, not because I'm good at healing people. No no no." I clicked my tongue. With one hand holding the end of the limb I used my other to squeeze downward on it and pushed out all the greenish blood into the jar with the matching blood. "I'm the monster doctor Jekyll, because I'm especially good at taking you lot apart."

I dropped the arm and did the same with the next one.

"As you see, I know that each of your arms has different blood in them. I also know that you have three hearts." I finished squeezing out the blood and tossed the arm aside. I moved on to the last one.

"But I'll take them last. Normally, I'm not into cruelty, but every technique has its place." I finished with the last arm and tossed it aside. I picked up the hatchet and spun it around. "But you targeted my girlfriend. And as much as I like harvesting monster parts, I really didn't like that. So I'm going to take your pearly whites, try not scream too loud, there are lady's present."

I used the back end of the hatchet like a hammer and...

...THUD THUD THUD THUD THUD.

THUD

THUD

THUD

THUD

THUD

sCrEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

Without a single wasted second or superfluous movement I harvested every tooth. Then with a flick of my wrist I popped out each eye and then sculpted out it's hearts which finally ended its suffering.

Three minutes, tops.

I used a little water magic to wash my hands. Then after I placed all the harvested bits in my bag, I burned the body with a chantless spell.

When I turned around, I noticed that everyone was noticeably behind Talisa.

I spun the hatchet around.

"Shall we go and find the next one?" I smiled.

Becky nudged kaina and whispered, "And you thought she was the scary one."

"I'm never going to get used to that." Amanda stifled a gag.

Talisa... well she must be focusing on the part where i tortured it on her behalf because she had hearts in her eyes.