Tales of the Pearly Kingdom (Pearly Tales Vol. 2)

163. Unlocking Talents

Yamamoto shot down the hallway bouncing off the walls to avoid the plethora of unneeded trap triggers, monster lures, hanging teleportation portals, falling floors, and invisible snares.

Finally, the last trap that Yamamoto tripped was a lengthy ceiling collapsing one. It was key.

From that point Yamamoto struck the bull square on the nose with an explosion of lightning that stretched back and forth through the hallway for dozens of yards. It was the largest display of lightning Yamamoto had ever displayed since he'd begun working with Seamus. Since the time that they had met, they had never been in a serious fight.

But now Seamus had doubted him so he had to show him the might of a proper Raiju. He unleashed one of his flashiest attacks directly into the face of the Bull. Despite appearance, the potential force he was able to exert was enormous. As the ceiling was beginning to crumble the rubble was forced back into place from the shockwave produced from the force of Yamamoto directly into the bull.

The flash blinded the bull, and the slowed him down enough to be caught up in the ceiling trap. The trap would deal damage and smother some of the flames, the electric shock stalled his movement enough to get tripped up in the rubble as he shook off the attack.

But Seamus wasn't about to give him time to recover. Yamamoto had used the bull's face as a springboard when he struck and returned in a straight line back to Seamus who used his cane to bat him back at the bull with a crash of thunder. Yamamoto once again stuck the bull in the nose, only this time he had a poisoned dart covered in a still growing parasitic plant which he jammed right up its nostril as far as it would go.

Once again, he ricocheted off the bull's nose and returned to Seamus who sent him right back with another deadly dart. It wasn't the traditional way to do it, but as soon as they had expended their darts in the precious little time they had, Seamus caught Yamamoto and flipped on his heel to once again traverse his carefully laid minefield.

The bull was unable to avoid their attack and his eyes, nose, and mouth were pierced with poisoned darts. But that didn't stop him from entering a frothing rage, ferociously rekindling the fire that once coated his body.

On their way back Seamus channeled some tricks that Ophelia had taught him, and he poured his magic into the tangling plant coating his cane. It was worrisome that it had begun sprouting red barbed thorns and he was not about to lose his cane if he could control this new plant. It must have been his affinity for poison because he felt like something about that new side of it eagerly reached back in a sensation that excited him.

He had merely desired to cease its growth until he could peel it off or cultivate it, but it had a puppy like response to his magical prodding. But he didn't have time to think about that as the heat from the bull giving chase behind him.

Seamus felt the bloodthirsty predator instincts of Yamamoto as he put up a barrier to spare Seamus's back... another ability Seamus wasn't aware of. But at the same time, he felt fear coming from the roots. And something caught his attention on his map.

Seamus once again used magic to speed up his mind's ability to process information and noticed that there was not one green dot next to him there were two.

[Divine Familiar] Yamamoto Lvl. 99

[Cultivated Root] 'Raider's Baneroot' Unnamed variant. (Unclaimed)

It was the plant! It was... an ally now!?

But he didn't have time to do more than stop worrying about it. So, he focused on leading the blind bull through his own obstacle course as it began wildly spitting fireballs down the hallway. Once he passed the man-eating plant, he jumped over the original Baneroot. He braced himself as the bull ran right into his trap.