DD 302 Ch 40 END

It had Crimson on the ropes even as I rushed forward.

My blades danced along its back, easily cutting through the individual worms, but I didn’t so much as faze the Threadspawn mass before it twisted and kicked.

The worms that made it up spread out like a net, trying to ensnare me in a web of screeching worms.

I cut through it and swung out to the side, before coming back in and trying to deal as much damage as I could.

The Threadspawn however didn’t much care for that, striking out with swirming limbs blocking all of us at once.

“Do you have a plan?” Crimson asked as she wove in out out of its range, using both her whip and her sword.

I attempted to come up with something, realizing I had only one real solution we had found so far. The only thing we’d done to stop threadspawn besides killing them had been freezing. Both in the group we captured at the New York party and the efforts here in the lab, freezing worked to stop them in a way that was far better than trying to cut through this swarming mass.

“Yeah. Let’s put them on ice.” I turned to Penny and Felin. “Can you two do it?”

There was a brief glance between the two before they nodded. They began to work in tandem, trying to cover the Threadspawn in as much frost as they could produce. I grinned at the attack, feeling confident once again that we could pull through.

The Threadspawn wasn’t invincible. Everything had a weakness, after all.

“Focus on the floor!” Crimson shouted when their frost had little effect at first.

Penny and Felin switched their target and the moving floor stopped where their abilities passed, freezing the creeping threadspawn. Only for Crimson to jump on a pile and shatter them by the dozen.

The Orkai screeched as it continued to try and smash us all, while tendrils of worms raced out from its body, trying to snag anyone and everyone it could reach. I couldn’t help but wonder, horrified, what exactly would happen if it managed to latch one of those worms onto us successfully.

But that thought only existed for a moment before I was forced again to stay moving, lest I be caught up in the worms’ frenzy of attacks and find out the answer in a way I desperately wanted to avoid.

It was only because we outnumbered it so much, and because we had a full party plus Crimson going to town on the monster, that we were still alive. The Orkai mass was faster than Crimson, and almost too fast for me to successfully build up [Liminal Speed] stacks. Purple lightning sparked down my arm, but as my target moved about the group, I was finding it hard to stay on top of the Threadspawn mass.

Even as I caught up to it to attack again, it spun on a foot, twisting unnaturally, and nearly caved my head in. It would have been a hit if I hadn’t used [Dodge] to slip out of the way.

I panted with exertion. Even with all of my training and effort, I was feeling the strain from trying to keep up. It was simply too fast and unpredictable in how it moved.

A thousand screaming Threadspawn nearly shredded my eardrums as it spun around, this time to catch Des unaware. Even as she backpedaled and dodged backward, a ball of squirming worms detached from the Threadspawn’s hands before it hit her with a disgusting squelch. A dozen worms raced over her body, under her clothes, and Des screamed bloody murder before dousing herself in green flames.

I was next to her a second later, grabbing around Des’s waist and flinging her out of the Threadspawn’s follow-up. I could only endure the hit myself as I put my arm between me and the Threadspawn, activating [Elemental Shield] for some additional protection. It punched right through the shield, breaking my forearm and sending me hurtling backwards.

“Ken!” Des screamed, and she came to a sliding stop.

“Worry about getting those worms off yourself.” I waved a hand for her to calm down.

I needed a second to recover while I watched as Penny and Felin continued trying to freeze the Threadspawn into submission.

This wasn’t working nearly well enough to keep going as we were. In fact we might be losing this battle of attrition.

“Crimson, do you think we can get it in the freezer?” I asked her.

Crimson split away from a quick exchange with the monster, frowning at me in turn.

“All the way up to the facility? Not a chance. But maybe…” She hesitated with a look that I understood.

“Give it a shot,” I said, knowing exactly what she was thinking.

So far this thing had a bone to pick with me for killing some ridiculously distant relative.

Even with one arm disabled, I rushed back in, slashing at the Threadspawn before quickly jumping backwards, causing the monster to pursue me with two wild swings.

“Is that all you’ve got after I killed some unimportant family of yours? What was the name again?” I taunted it.

It screeched, and I was unsure if he was correcting me on the term or just angry, but that didn’t matter as it threw itself towards me with reckless abandon as I focused on dodging several swings.

Its momentum was rolling, and I smirked as I opened a portal behind me and led the Threadspawn into it.

It took the bait, charging through the portal and into the freezer without issue as mine closed behind it.

Several other portals opened up in the freezer as the rest of my party joined us. While there wasn’t enough space for us to go all out inside the confined space, that wasn’t the goal of this move anyway. All we needed to do was keep the Threadspawn from damaging things too much, and perhaps we could get a wormsicle and end this fight

So even with one arm down, I jumped in to keep the Threadspawn busy.

Purple lightning crackling down my arms was enough to give me an edge to bob and weave through several close calls. I ducked in and out, taking hits more than once by the Threadspawn’s strength limits.

Anytime I got battered back, Crimson was there to buy me time to recover. She jumped in close with sharp, dangerous jabs that each rang out with explosive input. Worms sprayed to the side before she ducked back.

I couldn’t help but notice those worms that separated from the main mass quickly slowed down and grew still in the freezer. A far cry better than them just rejoining the body like before. A smile spread across my lips as I came back in, this time not only to keep the mass of Threadspawn busy, but to try and carve off small chunks of worms.

My steps crunched underneath me as the floor slowly covered with frozen Threadspawn gave way with each step.

The main mass ignored the death of all the others and continued to try and pin me down. It was growing increasingly erratic as we kept it busy.

Des had recovered from her ordeal and seemed even more furious as she tried to torch the Threadspawn with as much green fire as she could muster.

“Des switched back to Shadow.” I shouted, realizing it was defeating the purpose of the freezer.

She shot me an angry glare, yet listened anyway, which I was thankful for.

Some of the Threadspawn masses, as they stretched and flowed through the combat, sloughed off, slowing and falling to the floor. It wasn’t able to be as fluid as it had been earlier.

The chill was deep enough I felt it in my bones, and I shivered uncontrollably as I stepped back to examine the fight. Those worms that came off the mass were losing steam, but I was concerned that those that remained on the main mass were still very active and perhaps able to withstand the cold even better than us.

But Crimson, as usual, was already thinking ahead and assessing the situation alongside me. She came flying in, not holding back or even protecting herself. Instead, with red lightning crackling around her, she went fully on offense, shearing off large chunks of worms and leaving them to freeze on the ground.

I joined her, and for the first time it seemed the main body was actually losing mass as we pelted it from all sides while Penny and Felin did their best to turn it into a block of ice. When their spells hit the main body, a frozen chunk of threadspawn would fall off to join the growing piles on the floor.

The worm mass didn’t let up for even a moment, knowing this could very well be the end of the fight as the Orkai’s green skin started to become visible underneath.

Crimson barreled into it, with a charge before a heeled roundhouse kick to the head sent it stumbling and falling to its back.

Sure enough, the Threadspawn form suddenly lost cohesion, splattering to the ground and the individual worms crawled only a few inches before slowing to a halt.

I paused and stared at the mess before me as the Threadspawn tried to wriggle out of the way, only to slow and still in the freezer.

“Disgusting worms,” Des spat, and began stomping through the frozen worms, crushing them angrily beneath her shoes. Even Charlotte took a step forward and crushed several of them.

“Now, what was this you said about the doctor?” I turned back to Felin.

Her eyes went wide before a look of attempted innocence crossed her face. Her eyes grew large as her ears flattened against the back of her head. “It wasn’t my fault.”

Rather than argue, I lifted a hand and ripped open the portal back to his lab to see the situation for myself and I checked over myself to make sure I wasn’t carrying a worm on my clothes.

What I saw made me frown.

It was like a bomb had gone off. The steel tables were warped, the floor cracked. The epicenter of the explosion, whatever it had been, was several feet to the right of the operating table. That was exactly where the infected person who was going to be operated on next had been sedated.

“It’s not your fault, Felin,” I said. “Who could’ve expected that?” I consoled her. But while my words were reassuring, inside I was screaming. Losing the doctor meant losing our chance at restoring Selene, at least for the time being.

But as I scanned around the room, I noticed a figure to the side, laying down. It was the patient the doctor had originally started working on, who at our arrival and our conversation began to rouse, holding his head with a groan.

“Where am I?” he asked.

With a quick scan with [Eyes of Wisdom], I couldn’t help but smirk. At least the doctor had completed one successful procedure.

I turned to Charlotte with an askant glance, and she knew exactly what I was about to say.

“We can try,” Charlotte said, “but I can’t make any promises. I understand the gist of what the doctor was doing, but that’s a far cry from being able to actually do it. Not to mention we would need some very specialized equipment.” She pointed at the table and the laser, both destroyed. “Though we have the serum to sedate both the worm and the host.”

“Well, if you need to cut it out and kill it at the same time, Ken can do that,” Felin said, as if the solution were obvious.

We all frowned.

“I can?” I asked, sounding more surprised than I expected.

“Yeah, of course. Just go whoosh—” she threw her hands out to the sides—“and do the whole time-freezy thing. I mean, if you freeze time and do it, then you should be able to do it instantaneously. Really easy. All this stuff.” She waved a hand at the equipment. “Was the doctor compensating for not being able to freeze time.” Felin bobbed her head, and Des held her chin thoughtfully.

“I can’t believe I’m about to agree with her, but… she might be right. If you use Liminal Space,” Des dragged her voice out, “I don’t see why you couldn’t achieve what the doctor was trying to do. Was there anything else, Charlotte?”

“Well, there was sedating the worm and the person,” Charlotte said, “but I suppose that was mostly to keep the subject still while they operated. This whole setup was really just to keep the worm from killing the host before they extracted it. Basically the worm kills the host if it dies inside or is forcibly extracted. If Ken wants to perform surgery in Liminal Space, then… he might not need it.”

I looked at them all as my eyebrows continued to creep up my skull. “You want me to do surgery in Liminal Space?” I repeated in disbelief.

“I mean, you’re good with knives,” Crimson said with a shrug and a smirk, which I returned with a glare.

“Scalpels and knives are very different tools.” I told her.

“Yeah, which is why you’re going to use a knife,” Crimson said. “Besides, you’re going to be in a bit of a hurry, aren’t you?”

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing, or what I was being asked to do. But at the same time, to save one of my classmates, I was willing to try.

As I was still considering my decision, Crimson’s eyes glowed blue as she looked over us all.

“What was that for?” I scowled at her, using [Eyes of Wisdom] and checking her in turn.

“What?” Crimson shrugged. “I wanted to make sure one of you didn’t swallow a worm. There were a few flying about.”

I scowled at her but did the same. There were no worms among our group, and I spent a moment lingering on Des.

“Oh, don’t worry, I’m my same plucky self,” Des grinned. “And I burned all of those worms that dared latch onto me.” She visibly shuddered. “Now, let’s go solve this mess with Selene before I take, like, twenty baths.”

Several of the ladies in my group nodded vigorously in agreement. And I couldn’t blame them. Just being touched by the Threadspawn sent shivers up and down my spine. The thought of one burrowing into me, or some other sickening attempt to take control, was revolting to a degree that was hard to put into words.

“So… how do we do this?” Penny asked, turning serious.

“Well, I need Liminal Speed stacks, so I assume we invite her to do a little bit of farming.” I glanced around our group. “Des, do you want to pretend that you're going to take another shot at the whale? So that we have the room for her to join us?”

Des nodded and looked at me. “Try not to fuck it up, but if you do, it's not your fault.”

“Don't say it like that. It almost sounds like you're planning for me to fail, and I don't fail.” I told her.

“Right,” Des said with a smile. “Go get her.” She slapped my ass encouragingly and opened up a portal back to our class, who were still resting for the night.

***

“Ha! Farming with Ken is so easy!” Selene cheered as I raced around with desperate fervor, cutting down the Koompas and building Liminal Speed. We were all tense with Selene amidst us. Even though I knew she had a worm, it was starting to be pretty clear just fighting alongside her. She was no longer flirting as she often had in the past. Instead, she wore a strange, light smile as she cheered us on.

“You’re more than welcome,” I said, flashing back to stand next to her. I couldn’t help but let a guilty expression spread across my face.

She noticed and frowned as the world around us cracked and time stopped. I was about to either save her or kill the child of one of the UG leaders. What could possibly go wrong? But I had learned to not doubt myself or my ability when the time came to perform.

I activated [Eyes of Wisdom], asking where the Threadspawn was in her body. I immediately plunged a dagger just beside her heart before carving her open and ripping the worm out. In a swift move, I crushed the worm and let time return.

Selene gasped, gagged, and fell to her knees. Charlotte was next to her instantly, working to heal her. But even with Charlotte’s magic pouring into her, Selene began vomiting and shaking uncontrollably.

“Okay, maybe we need the serum after all,” I told Charlotte, who pulled a syringe from her CID and pushed it into Selene’s arm. The shaking stopped, and her breathing steadied, only for the Harem Queen to suddenly appear in a blaze of red hair, glaring at all of us.

The Harem Queen took in the sight in front of her and gave a heavy sigh, her eyes landing on me and staying. “And what have you gotten yourself into this time?”

I shrugged, staring on as Selene convulsed in front of me. But what I could say with certainty was that the threadspawn was out of her body, and while we were far from solving our Threadspawn problem, we had at least learned a few new tools in the fight against them.