The cat-like creature's claw left three long and thin gashes on Wu Xiaoming's left shoulder and neck. He moved just enough distance at the very last moment to avoid turning into a human-shaped blood sprinkler, all at the same time swinging the freshly enchanted soapberry wood staff at the aggressive cat creature.
The creature hopped away to not get bashed in its head, but its left hind leg was still swiped by the staff tip. It let out a furious screech before bouncing on the wall landing in the corner of the room. A glimmer of golden light remained on its leg, burning away at its fur and flesh.
"You son of a bitch." Wu Xiaoming narrowed his eyes as he hovered his glowing left hand over his neck area to cleanse any traces of potential negative energy or curse left on him.
The cat-like creature hissed with all three its mouths, hunched its back and clawed the floor with its two front paws. It was ready for another attack, it was just waiting for the right opportunity.
"You son of a … " Wu Xiaoming gasped and fell back on the ground. He stopped moving, and his eyes were half closed.
The cat-like creature lowered its back and tilted its head. It hesitated for a brief moment, then inched towards Wu Xiaoming one step at a time. When it was just a few steps away, it opened its mouths, extending its long, forked tongues, seemingly ready for a few licks.
Wu Xiaoming opened his eyes and barked: "Attack!"
An energy blast landed true on the cat-like creature's face, right between two of its mouths. Two fleshy tongues were ripped from its mouths by the explosion. At the same time the soapberry wood staff, which was still glowing, landed a solid strike on its neck.
"Clunk!" Instead of flesh and bones being struck, the hit produced a sound akin to that from when glass objects broke. The body of the cat-like creature was shattered into dozens of pieces, with sharp, smooth and glowing break surfaces.
A few of the bigger pieces were still squirming and even crawling on the ground, Wu Xiaoming had to throw a few balls of golden light to actually burn them off completely.
The ground began trembling before he could even get a moment to breathe. He rushed to a window on the back to take a look outside. It seemed like an earthquake, for every building in his view was shaking as well. He had never actually experienced earthquakes before, not to mention one in the ethereal realm, so he just stayed still by the window.
Everything settled down after a while, he looked outside, everything was just like before. He circled back to the window facing the hotel and looked down - the shadows and creatures "summoned" by the explosion of cold energy were still wandering around. But the pale, slender barely human-shaped creatures poking their bodies out of the hotel building were gone.
He let out a breath of relief, before heading down to the first floor and went out the backdoor. He could probably look around for a bit before actually making a decision to go into the hotel lounge.
Current currencies: 24892 Spirit Fragments, 127 Vision Slivers.
It was not a surprise that he gained some Spirit Fragments, but the Vision Slivers were unexpected. It could be either from those shadows with glowing eyes, or that cat creature, or maybe even those Oiled Eyes of Illusions.
Experience wise, he did not get that much of an increase, which was not surprising either because neither the shadows or the cat creature was a hard fight.
A few human-shaped shadows came his way and tried to take a few bites out of him, but were easily dispatched. They dropped a few Spirit Fragments, but no Vision Slivers.
A foul stench caught his attention as he walked down a narrow alley - it was not something like chemicals in the physical realm, nor rot, which was somewhat common in this realm. It was more like the combination of greasy stove or grills, sweat, and - blood.
The smell came from a fast food restaurant to his side. Along with the smell, also came a low grumbling and chewing sound. In the background, there appeared to be a low sizzling sound as well. He snuck up on the door, held his body close to the wall and peeked inside.
It was a naked, tall and almost impossibly obese humanoid creature. It has two short but pillar-like legs covered in sores and zits, with almost hilariously small feet at the lower ends. Its upper body took the shape of a malformed pear, with fat folds on its back, waist, chest and arms. However, what caught the most of Wu Xiaoming's attention was the cysts on the creature's fat folds - they were shaped like hamburgers; crusty, slightly hardened skin as buns, while a piece of dark red, veining flesh in the middle like the meat patties.
The creature was standing in the kitchen, in front of a metal grill. With its slow hands and arms with shaking fat, it ripped off two cyst "hamburgers" and put them onto the grill. These cysts sizzled, just like real hamburger patties would.
Wu Xiaoming almost wretched, because other than the two new ones, there were three more on the grill. And the tiny bald head of the creature was chewing - on a hamburger.
While he was debating whether he should let this creature be, the creature sniffled a few times, then turned its head at Wu Xiaoming.
Following a gurgling roar, the creature shot itself at Wu Xiaoming's position. Wu Xiaoming darted out of the way, while the creature broke through the wall and landed on the ground. Its fat folds and cyst hamburgers burst from the impact, spilling dark yellow fat and pus everywhere.
Wu Xiaoming took a few steps back just to dodge the disgusting liquid droplets. But he was not able to get away from everything - his left forearm, his left abdomen and his right leg all caught a drop or two.
Itchiness crawled and circled in the areas surrounding the skin that felt the droplet. He jumped into a building behind him, hid behind a wall and took a look at his left forearm - the entire forearm grew bigger, puffier, with enlarged, sore-covered skin and excess flesh sagging from weight. In other words, his body became unnaturally fat.
"Motherf - " Wu Xiaoming almost cursed out loud before he gathered himself. Part of his anger was due to the sheer disgust, and part of it was due to how surprising the "curse" or "debuff" ended up being - he expected corrosion, disease, even things like necrosis and heavy sores. He just never expected this.
The creature roared again and charged at his position once more. He shot out of the window and hid behind another wall in another building. The additional weight on his body made it noticeably more difficult. But still, he managed.
"Slash!" Wu Xiaoming hopped out from behind the wall and yelled at the creature's behind. The energy slash cut into its butt cheeks, its waist and its legs. Three grievous wounds were left on the creature's body. Blood, pus and fat and other disgusting substances gushed out, as if the obese body was a container whose seal just broke.
The creature yelled and began rolling on the ground, trying to cover up all the wounds or at least stop its "bleeding".
"Slash! Slash! Slash!" Wu Xiaoming hopped onto the roof of the building in which he had been hiding and unleashed repeated attacks at the creature. More gashes appeared on the obese body, and its size dwindled visibly as the revolting inner content poured out.
The head of the creature turned to Wu Xiaoming, its small eyes and greasy face were full of anger and hunger for carnage. With a gurgling roar, its head flew off its shoulders and shot at Wu Xiaoming, pulling along a rather short and straight spine and a stomach.
"Shit - shield!" Wu Xiaoming conjured a shield to cover himself, just in time to block a stream of foul, dark yellow liquid jetted from the creature's mouth.
It was no heavy attack, and the shield still stood after contact. But the same kind of itchiness still creeped through the shield and began acting upon his body, albeit much slower than before.
"Fuck you!" Wu Xiaoming sidestepped to get away from the stream and shot from the roof and at the creature's head. His right hand swung the soapberry wood staff, while electric energy gathered in his left palm.
The creature's mouth opened wider, redirecting the foul stream at Wu Xiaoming. Wu Xiaoming's right arm got a heavy splash, and puffed up visibly. This caused his swing to slow down and miss its target, barely scraping the face of the creature.
"Stop!" Wu Xiaoming barked at his own body, while swinging his left arm up. His fall halted for a brief moment, just enough for him to land a palm strike at a section of the creature's spine.
"Crack!" Sparks and electric arks exploded from the contact point, the creature's head, spine and stomach spun in the air as its fleshy parts burst into flames.
Wu Xiaoming's hefty, bulked up body landed on the ground. Meaty shockwaves bounced back and forth between his back and stomach, and between his chest and shoulders. He tried to sit up, but the growing size of his body made it much more difficult. His back hurt, his waist hurt, his heartbeat was elevated and he was out of breath in but a second.
"Boom!" The burning head hit a wall, then exploded. The spine and the stomach also went up in flames.
Chills ran through Wu Xiaoming's entire body - the excess flesh began cracking up and turning into foul liquid and smoke.
But the fatigue and stress on his body remained, even when his body went back to its normal state.