No More

Chapter 88: Clockwork Part 13

Jess POV

"Good job, Cassie." I complimented the Chaos Sorcerer as we both stood on the blood-soaked ground of a destroyed village.

"I've always been a fan of art," Cassie smiled back as she erected another cluster of red crystals that stretched upwards, and melted into the ground. "This red canvas that we stand on was perfect for my crystal structures, but I wish that I was the one who stained the ground red."

And so my Anchor is almost done. I had Blink teleport Cassie and me to all twenty-four destroyed villages, and the Chaos Sorcerer herself tapped into the limitless energy from Limbo to create these massive crystal clusters, but in her own unique style.

Beautiful, the only word that pops into my mind when I see her work; Cassie is an amazing artist, a passion for it even. Yet Cassie's former friends back in her world always mocked her for it; artists are so unappreciated.

We snapped out of our blissful stupor when the ground shook. A large hand burst out from the ground, with multiple layers of exoskeleton bone plates that completely cover it; big enough to easily crush two people if they were standing on one another.

The large hand pressed against the bloody ground as Cassie and me stood back, watching the hand use the ground as support for the being to drag himself out from underground. The sigh the he let out indicated that this person is a male as he took a step towards me.

The ground shook a little for every step he took due to his large body, yet his actual feet were hooves that were similar to a horse. The tainted blood from the Clockwork Fortress started to rise out of the hole he made.

He continued to walk towards me; every movement caused the layers of bone plates that cover his entire body to grind against each other, leaving specs of powdered bone in the air as some drizzled down into the snow.

It didn't matter to him as the bone plates would always regenerate, and have a melting appearance. He stopped in front of me, easily towering over my burned body, as I had to strain my neck to look at his hollow eye sockets; I can see his sunken eyes changing from within.

His head is covered in thick, melted bones that have hardened; cracks formed along his cheeks, his jaw became loose enough to speak. "... It's done."

"Good job, Slab," I nodded.

[Slab] Level 634

Class: Elementalist (x5)

Title: The Immovable Sloth

Species: Chimera [DNA: Ocelot, Wolf, Fish, Squid, Bat, Horse, Chicken, Sheep, Spider, and 99 other chimeras]

Elemental Affinities: [Miniscule] Ignis (Fire), [Miniscule] Terra (Earth), [Miniscule] Lux (Lightning), [Miniscule] Aer (Air), [Miniscule] Aqua (Water), [High] Ordo (Order), [High] Perdito (Entropy).

Sub-Elemental Affinities: [Max] Digital (Scorch), [Max] Glacies (Ice)

"Now I just need you to..." The words died in my throat as I heard something familiar.

...zzz...zzz...zzz...

A faint snore can be heard from him as Slab continued to stand; his head slouched forward. Cassie threw a crimson ball of chaos energy at his head. "Don't fall asleep here!"

The corrosive energy washed over his body, eating away at the bone plates as they regrew just as fast. It was only minutes later when Slab seemed to finally wake up.

He stretched out his massive arms, bone plates grinding against each other as he let out a deep yawn. "Did you need something?"

I pulled an orb out of my Inventory. It was soft to the touch as it was covered in grass, leafs, roots, and flowers. "Here, it's a nature elemental guardian core; your reward." I tossed him the orb; a tendril of stretched, braided muscle, tipped with a bone needle arced out of his back, over his shoulder, and pierced the guardian core.