The Scrap Tamer - Chapter 145

Chapter 145: Absorbed
‘A mind trick?’ was the first question that rose within Reid’s mind.

If not, why would his thoughts be telling him to hand his body over to the mother voidspawn?

Ignoring the voice, he continued dodging the attacks from the mother voidspawn.

Its attacks were getting aggressive by the second and they was getting harder for Reid to dodge.

The mother voidspawn’s tendrils merged again into a giant fist, aiming to crush them all in one attack.

Rusty reacted first, activating [Pause] again, but this time, the fist continued forward as if Rusty hadn’t even activated its ability.

“Damn it—!” Reid twisted his body mid-dodge, barely avoiding a tendril that sliced through the rock behind him as if it were paper.

Nyx deployed [Smoke Screen] hoping to create some cover for their attacks, but the mother voidspawn simply swept a wave of void energy across the battlefield, dispersing the cover in an instant.

“Your tricks are becoming tedious,” it sneered. “This ends now.”

Suddenly, the cave floor beneath Reid opened up, revealing rows and rows of teeth.

The void spawn had successfully baited him towards a part of the cave that it had assimilated into its body.

Luckily, Rusty was quick enough to react, it activated [Skip] as soon as Reid started falling in the maw.

He disappeared and reappeared several feet away, narrowly escaping the dark abyss that had opened beneath him.

The mother voidspawn hissed in frustration, “Why do you keep struggling? This battle is hopeless, you cannot win.”

Reid panted slightly, wiping sweat from his brow. His soul energy was running critically low. At this rate, he’ll be unable to use any attacks and his body would just shut down.

‘Think. There has to be a way to turn this around.’

That’s when the voice came again, this time, too loud to ignore.

“Let it absorb you, you idiot.”

‘Who the hell are you?’ Reid asked.

The voice scoffed, sounding almost exasperated.

“That’s not important right now. What is important is that you listen before you get yourself killed.”

Reid gritted his teeth, narrowly dodging another swipe from the mother voidspawn. He didn’t have time for this—he needed a plan, not some cryptic nonsense from a voice in his head….his own voice.

“You’re out of energy. Your attacks are useless. You know you can’t win like this. But if you let it absorb you, you’ll get an opening.”

Reid nearly stumbled at the suggestion.

“That’s the dumbest plan I’ve ever heard,” he muttered under his breath.

“And yet it’s your only option.”

It felt weird arguing with your own voice, almost crazy and that’s why Reid was having a hard time trusting it.

The mother voidspawn wasn’t waiting for him to make a decision. Its tendrils suddenly split apart into dozens of jagged, spear-like points, all aimed at Reid and his forged beasts. There was nowhere left to dodge.

Reid’s mind scrambled for ideas, any way it could come up with to escape this situation but it failed.

His thoughts were immediately drawn back to the voice in his head. Was this some kind of mental attack? A trick played by the voidspawn itself?

Or was this voice something else entirely?

“You won’t die. Trust me. Just for a second, let it happen.” His voice came again.

Something deep inside him knew that this wasn’t normal, he knew that he was taking a risk.

But he also knew that if he kept fighting like this, he’d lose.

“…Tch. F*ck it.” He resigned “let’s just hope I’m not going crazy.”

Reid let go of his sword and returned his forged beasts to his inventory, leaving them in confusion.

The approaching tendrils suddenly stopped, just a few inches from turning Reid into Swiss cheese.

The mother voidspawn pulled all its tendrils back, carefully observing Reid for any sign of trickery but when it found none, it finally spoke.

“Ah,” it started in an amused tone “so you’ve finally realized how futile it is to fight a losing battle.”

Reid said nothing, still convincing himself that he wasn’t crazy and the voice might have something to do with the watcher’s gift.

The mother voidspawn’s massive form slowly approached him,

“So you’ve chosen the inevitable,” it confirmed, “Do not worry, Reid Fletcher. Your sacrifice will not be in vain. Once I consume you, your power will be used to help primals purge this world of your kind.”

Reid took a slow breath to calm himself down. At the moment, every fiber of his being demanded he attacks the abomination before him but he restrained himself.

[What are you doing?] Evo asked, just as confused as Reid’s desummouned forged beasts.

‘Deciding to trust an unknown voice in my head’ Reid replied.

Even saying it to someone else made him sound crazy.

Evo fell silent for a moment before responding.

[That’s… probably the dumbest thing you’ve ever said.]

Reid smirked slightly, but his focus remained on the voidspawn before him.

“I commend your wisdom, mortal,” the mother voidspawn continued, its tendrils slowly coiling around him “Few accept their fate with such grace. Surrender, and become part of something greater.”

[Evo, this is insane. You said it yourself, it’s an unknown voice. This might just be a trick,] Evo warned, panic creeping into her tone.

‘Trust me, I’d take an alternative choice any day, but I’m out of options,’ Reid responded, ‘If I keep fighting like this, I’ll lose anyway.’

‘Not even the forge lab will help in this situation ‘ he sighed ‘after all, the amount of time I get to spend there depends on my soul power and I’m basically at zero right now.’

Evo immediately went quiet. If Reid died, she died with him and although she couldn’t ‘remember’, she knew that Reid was too important to die here.

Reid couldn’t say anything to reassure her, after all, even he didn’t trust this plan.

‘If this voice is wrong, I’m screwed,’ he thought bitterly.

“Don’t worry, I’ll make this as painless as possible” the mother voidspawn said and immediately started the process of taking over Reid.