The moment he entered the range of this floating eyeball, it welcomed him with a guttural cry.
It's not like a regular beast cry, but a sharp vibrational metallic cry.
Kaios instinctively covered his ears with both of his hands, not wanting to go deaf from the get-go.
Still, a thin stream of blood flowed down from both of the ears, proof that even he hadn't been fully shielded these.
Kaios then lifted his palm— stained faintly red where it used to cover his ear. He stared at it for a moment, before wiping it clean with a dismissive flick.
"Hehh… a fiesty one…" Kaios muttered his eyes narrowing at it, as he broke into a sprint.
In his left hand he held the shield of wolf spine, and in his right he wielded the rusted whip of the centipede.
Behind him floated three other weapons. Just above, the chain of crow spine, its end coiled around his waist and merged with a machete shaped from the bull's femur. Lastly, the molten, super-heated tusk of boar horror drifted at his side, hovering like a glowing blob.
Armed with all these unique alloys and weapons, Kaios charged at the Lovecraftian horror.
The nightmare who saw the charging of Kaios, didn't hover idly. Its jagged shell— cover of floating eyeball, began to vibrate violently.
Through it, the horror unleashed another guttural shriek—but it didn't stop there.
The writhing shards around its body twisted together, forming a structure like a resonating cage.
The sound reverberated through it, amplified manyfold, then focused into a single, piercing wave aimed directly at Kaios.
Kaios, still rushing towards it, tried to block the sound beam. He raised the shield in front to absorb the wave's energy while shaping the molten blob into a barrier.
But... the attempt was futile. The shield absorbed some of the sound before the wave tore through it, its surface dripping like wax.
The molten barrier also fared no better—its shape collapsed entirely, spilling down like lava across the metallic plain. The same thing happened to all his weapons, their forms collpsed, leaving them like formless liquid wax.
And yet, Kaios himself was untouched— laid bare, unarmed.
This was one of the attack technique of the shards—Fractured Howl.
The shards writhing around him, had taken the raw cry of the orb, amplified and altered it, until it resonated with the very molecules in its range.
His weapons hadn't broken due to brute force but had fallen apart from within, their bonds shattered.
Just one attack, and Kaios was stripped bare.
He stared at the molten blobs scattered across the ground, directing his palm toward them. He saw faint twitches.
Still mine… he sighed mentally.
Then he looked up at the twisting eyeball.
"You wanted me naked on our first meet? Certainly a fiesty one." He mocked, laughing.
"Haha… haha… Though you stripped me of my weapons, you forgot one thing. You just freed me from a shackle."
Yes, even though it looked like disadvantage for Kaios as he lost all his weapons, from another perspective that is not the case.
Now that Kaios stood within the field of Fractured Howl, the limitation of the thirteen-second randomization was no longer in effect, as the alloy can't take any form in the field— granting him a surge of creativity.
"Allow me to show you my imagination, when you strip me out of my limitation."
With a grin, he manipulated the blobs. The formless metal obeyed his call, enveloping him from the head to toe, while hovering around him.
He shaped the crow alloy into a platform beneath his feet, granting him and aerial footing. Then lept above, with each leap, another platform appeared below, carrying him higher and higher into the air.
As he neared the eyeball, he suddenly shifted the bull alloy into a sharp weapon, relying on its self-memory, and targeted the large eye of this nightmare.
But the horror blocked with ease using its shards, making the attack of Kaios futile. As it blocked it, he then sent another vibrational cry.
But Kaios this time didn't take it head-on. Even if the last one hadn't harmed him, he wasn't about to risk it twice. Mid-air, he slammed the wolf alloy—still resonating with remnants of the earlier sound wave—against the crow platform. The collision erupted into a violent burst, a shockwave tore outward.
Kaios using it, twisted with the recoil, letting it fling him to sideways, just as the vibrational cry split the space he had occupied a second earlier.
As he stabilized in the air, suddenly a barrage of sharp shards hurtled at him.
First, I need to deal with these shards… Kaios thought while dodging each shards coming towards him.
The gears in his brain spun, trying to find most efficient solution. Then an idea clicked.
Instead of evading, he rooted himself on the platform.
Nightmare seeing this instantly changed the directions of shards, without a second delay.
The shards neared, and just as they were about to pierce, a tide of molten alloy surged upward, washing over them. As they washed by it, their form was lost instantly, dripping away into nothing.
As this happened, another cry tore through the plain—but this one was different. This was filled with that of pain. It was the nightmare's own agony.
"Ohh… so the shards were your heel. Now it just got interesting." Kaios chuckled darkly at its reaction.
He retreated, mind already plotting how to inflict maximum pain on it using the recent weakness he detected.
Kaios, clenched his fist, as if answering the wolf alloy split into countless droplets, and darted toward the eyeball.
The nightmare, shaken, shifted shards into a barrier—some shielding its body, while most staying behind in reserve.
Kaios smirked, still pressing the attack. He slammed the droplets into the barrier again and again. Even when they were blocked, he recalled them and struck again.
He continued this, until the droplets shimmered brightly, resembling stars. Then he called them back, allowing these to float on his back.
Time for the second step… Kaios said in his mind, with a slight smirk on his face.
The nightmare, fooled, recalled its shards too, lowering its guard.
On the ground, Kaios repeated the same process— this time with the bull alloy.
Droplets formed and floated upward, towards the eyeball.
As Kaios was doing all this, the nightmare sensed something amiss. In a panic, it unleashed every shard at once, raining them on Kaios in a blinding storm—desperate to stop him from whatever he was attempting to do.
Due to this the concentration of Kaios broke, the construction— a half formed sphere, began collapsing.
But instead of frustration, the corner ofhis lips curved, forming a smile.
All according to plan…
Dodging the deadly rain of shards, Kaios pushed again, starting the construction, with all his focus.
In some seconds, he forged a sphere with the size of a yoga ball. Then filled it with the shimmering wolf-drops and fragments of rusted centipede metal.
As this completed, he hurled it at the eyeball, with all his strength.
The nightmare reacted instantly—barriers of sound and shards made in defense.
The sphere hurled by came to a stop suddenly, hovering just at the barrier's edge.
Confusion flashed in the mind of nightmare as it saw this—had it overestimated him? Or had it became over cautious?
This expression only deepened further when it noticed Kaios, who was already retreating to the back with a smirk.
Kaios after making a safe distance between him and the sphere, raised his hand and clenched the fist, as if giving a command.
"Take this you overgrown mechanical ostracod[1]."
The sphere responding to it, vibrated violently, convulsing.
Suddenly the nightmare's sense of dread increased—it instinctively reinforced the defenses, shards started wrapping tighter, while ordering the remaining in one to cover the convulsing sphere.
But would it be enough?
As the shards closed around the sphere— a sound echoed.....
BOOOOMMMM.
[1] Ostracods, or ostracodes, are small crustaceans, typically around 1 mm in size, but varying from 0.2 to 32 mm, the latter in the case of the marine Gigantocypris