[Skill-Eater 2] Chapter 87: Sniper Snipped (Patreon)

When Edge poked his head outside the hollow an hour later, he broke into a broad grin.

The mist was rolling in from across the swamp—thicker than he’d ever seen it before. At this concentration, the fog would be blinding to anything that wasn’t packing Penetrate Mist. Although he was certain that every monster living in the Savage Garden had a strategy for enduring the dungeon’s environmental hazard, most would be at a severe disadvantage until it dissipated.

In short, it was a perfect occasion to resume his hunt, and Edge intended to make the most of it. Better still, he already had a target in mind. A monster he had spotted while crossing the borderlands between the jungle and swamp, which belonged to the sniper category. It had been too dangerous to approach while the air was clear, but now he should be able to close the distance before it knew he was there.

The creature in question was an actual plant this time around—a man-sized flower that produced tiny balls of corrupted energy. They only contained a fraction of the tainted magic infusing the pools in the maze, but it was sufficient to lure other monsters into the area. Whenever a creature arrived to investigate, the plant fired jagged seedlike projectiles with terrifying precision.

The seed-shots weren’t venomous as far as Edge could tell, but they were bolstered by a powerful penetrative skill. The missiles had blasted straight through both monsters he’d watched the flower kill. Since the sniper’s appearance reminded him of a gigantic lily, he decided to call it that for reference.

Once he returned to the stretch of borderlands where he had seen the sniper lily, it took him a few minutes to figure out where it was. Apparently, the plant could uproot itself and move to a new location, taking advantage of the fog to cover its advance.

When Edge’s gaze landed upon his quarry, it was positioned halfway up the trunk of a gigantic tree. The perch was high enough that most monsters would have trouble reaching it, especially while dodging a hail of ranged attacks.

At the moment, its petals were closed, and its mass was pressed against the bark to reduce its profile. He had a hunch that just like the water strider, this monster chose its prey with care. It probably targets enemies that can’t fight back, or opponents it can take out in a single shot before they realize it’s there.

Since it was insanely dangerous to approach a sniper that knew he was coming, his first goal was to make sure that the mist was affecting it. If the carnivorous plant could perceive him clearly, hunting it wouldn’t be worth the trouble.

While Edge had decent armor, Harden, and Regeneration, the demon’s horns and the flat monster’s blades had taught him that Disruption-infused attacks could pierce his skill-based defenses. Plus, if he failed to position the scales in time, a single headshot would kill him. At least my Heart-Guard is shielding my ticker.

He also needed to make sure that nothing else was lurking nearby. With that goal in mind, he kept his distance while making a slow circuit of the sniper’s tree, but he didn’t see any other predators in the area. Before he committed to his course of action, he reviewed his plan one final time.

Edge couldn’t use Intimidating Roar, since the skill didn’t work on opponents that didn’t have ears, antenna, or similar organs. Hell, plants don’t even have brains or nervous systems. He needed to run some tests to learn more about the skill’s limitations, but not while his life was on the line.

Once he was ready, he took a deep breath, Hardened his head and neck, and then tiptoed toward the sniper lily. He was ready to shift into shadows and take off the moment that it started shooting, but as he crept closer and closer, the plant didn’t react to his presence.

It finally turned toward him about fifty feet out, but didn’t fire its seeds. Now that he knew the range at which it could sense him, Edge walked back the way he had come, then got ready to make his move. He had all the information he needed, and was confident that he could win.

He waited for fifteen minutes, then approached the tree from another angle and Shadow Stepped behind the next trunk over. He Concealed his presence the moment that he resolidified. Since poking his head out to see if the sniper had sensed him was a terminally bad idea, he took out a small mirror from his kit instead. He inched it past the side of the trunk and adjusted the angle to observe his opponent. The plant was twisting from one side to the other, but it wasn’t pointing in his direction.

It knows I’m here, but not where I’m hiding. The mist is interfering with its senses after all. Edge summoned Foebinder, waiting until the chain was manifested so that it wouldn’t count as a combo when he used his other skills. Then he sprang into motion.

He flung both chirpers out in different directions, then waited for them to activate. The instant that a wet cough and the sound of an animal scrabbling through dry leaves rang out, he heard a series of pops as the flower let loose a barrage.

He darted out from around the tree, took aim, and Leapt high into the air. As he soared into range, he issued Foebinder a mental command. As he’d expected, the flower had sensed him moving below. Its seed-spitting side was turning toward him, but it hadn’t realized the danger in time.

Half a heartbeat later, the end of the black chain wrapped around its stalk and pulled tight. While its coils weren’t strong enough to crush the plant monster on their own, it was another story with Edge’s mass added to the mix.

The monster’s tendrils almost came free from the trunk when the weight of the hunter and his gear hit it. Although it struggled and strained, the lily managed to hold on, firing at random while trying to orient on his position. It had trouble turning while bracing against his bulk but was gradually twisting to face him.

He wasn’t about to let it center him in its sights. He reeled Foebinder in to pull himself up, with the point of his polearm leading the way. The moment that he could reach the monster, he started swinging like mad, cutting though the stem with a few well-aimed Double Slashes.

Edge fell to the ground, dragging the sniper lily along for the ride. It wasn’t dead yet, but it wasn’t nearly as mobile without its roots to ground it. He trapped the blossom beneath his boots to keep the monster from turning to face him, then kept on cutting until its struggles grew weak. Before it died, he reached out and used his final charge of Extraction.

He didn’t have time to explore its core, since by this point, the lily was hanging on by a thread. But through the link he shared with the chains of oblivion, he sensed a duplicate of one of his skills. The plant had a copy of Regulate Temperature to protect it from fire-based attacks. It was only rank two, but it was enough to fill his copy’s cup a fair amount when he Absorbed the skill’s experience.

Before he called it a day, he plucked the plant’s petals, stored them in his pack, and then walked back to his island—ready to kill another monster early the next day.

After setting his alarm traps and making a thorough sweep of his surroundings, he ducked inside his cave. Edge still had an hour or so until he was ready to pass out, so he decided to review his performance while testing a few ideas he had come up with while crossing the marsh.

Manifest Chain was an amazing skill, and some aspects of using Foebinder felt astonishingly natural. Even so, it was a brand-new tool, and a weapon unlike anything that he’d wielded before. It would be a while before he truly understood what it could do, let alone discern its best use in any given circumstance.

Those details went beyond the instincts that learning a skill imparted—knowledge that could only be obtained through experimentation and diligent, daily practice. It was one aspect of a hunter’s skillset that wasn’t listed anywhere on their profile, and the difference between a novice skill-wielder and an expert was just as stark as the gulf between a blademaster and someone holding a knife for the first time.

Some ideas that Edge needed to test could only be performed in battle, and others would draw too much attention to his location. But there were some competencies that he could work on developing here and now.

To begin, he had some ideas on how he might use the living links more offensively, such as using leverage and support to impede enemies that were too bulky to bind. He also wanted to try throwing rocks, and eventually teach the chain to fling knives, bombs, and a range of other consumables. Maybe I can use weapon oil on the end if I’m careful, although mixing electricity and metal seems like a bad idea. I’ll try asking Foebinder and Chibime later and see what they think.

With that goal in mind, he ignited his core and summoned the black chain, barely even noticing the pinch as the end emerged from his wrist. Over the last few minutes, he had distributed a diverse range of objects across the ground, including sticks, feathers, and stones.

The goal of tonight’s training was to see how precisely his chain could interact with various items. Test Foebinder’s accuracy and fine-motor control. He wanted to learn how to use it to manipulate objects that were beyond his reach—everything from opening doors and probing for traps, to plucking items from an enemy’s kit.

Half an hour later, he called it a night, immensely pleased with how things had gone. While Edge had a long way to go with controlling it manually, Foebinder was remarkably agile when left to its own devices.

It could toss a rock into the air and then catch it on its coils. It could even throw items with moderate force, which might work well with a dagger, although the rocks it could lift wouldn’t do more than serve as a distraction. It was great at pulling small objects toward him, but since his body was the anchor point, he had to be careful not to fall over when tugging on anything heavy.

All in all, it was a highly productive session, and Edge was looking forward to learning more about his new power over the days ahead. When he looked at his updates to make sure that killing the lily had counted toward his evolution requirements, he found a bonus waiting for him.

By conditioning the connection between your body and brain, your Perception has increased by 1.

He went to bed with a smile on his face, ready to hunt the final monster the next day. He wound up sleeping later than he intended. Not because he was particularly exhausted, but because the dawn was so dark that he’d thought it was night.