Versatile: Alternate World

I know that the Tormentor is capable of controlling the Scourge as that was his main way to corrupt and bring his powers back to life in the world but I didn't expect him to use it to power up himself. He didn't heal himself and removed the debuffs that were cast but he became more menacing and looked more dangerous altogether already.

It didn't make me prepared as the Tormentor clapped his hands and multiple tentacles popped out from the ground without warning. I was unfortunate enough to not see the tentacle spring up as it didn't even show any indication of where it was going to appear. They just pop out and I was toppled in the air. I immediately fly around before falling and dying and pulled out a potion when the Tormentor didn't give me a break and started attacking me with his long tentacles.

I managed to dodge one and two strikes but he immediately followed up with a third attack which I didn't get to see immediately causing me to topple further into the air. And slammed to the ground with barely any HP left. Thankfully, I have a bigger pool of HP in me, or else, that third strike of a tentacle in the air would have definitely killed me already.

Instead of pulling out a potion, I just activated my [Heal] and made myself a distance from the Tormentor before pulling out an actual potion to drink. I thought I was already out of range but when the Tormentor raised his hands that are now made of tentacles, they turned into something similar to a whip. Long enough to reach me from the end of the map. Then, it slams down the whip-like tentacle down on me.

To reduce its danger, I performed [Decapitation] on the tentacle. The skill doesn't necessarily need to be aimed at a neck of an enemy to work. It works on other parts of the body or anything in general. It was like dropping the blade of the guillotine on something else other than the neck and effectively slicing them. And since [Decapitation] is an effective way to slice down something, the tentacle was cut off. However, it didn't do any damage to the Tormentor, he just retracted the arm that got severed. As for the one that got severed, it wilted like it was a plant that didn't get any sunlight or water for a very long time then it decayed and disappeared.

As for the Tormentor, it just raised its severed hand and a new tentacle hand regrown it in just a blink of an eye. It's not uncommon for bosses to have this kind of stuff in them but to see it to the Tormentor that didn't have any sort of healing abilities, to begin with, is something that I have not expected at all.

However, as someone who has experienced countless mishaps in battles, the only thing I can do is adapt, read the movements of this f*cker and see whether this guy has new movesets aside from using those new tentacle appendages.

Considering that getting far from the Tormentor literally didn't make me avoid most of his attacks, it's better to just come close to it. I started running and as I run, I changed the Versatile Weapon into a cannon and started blasting the Tormentor with cannonballs. I don't have any Cannoneer skills at the moment that I learned so I only do basic attacks for now.

The tentacles once again started to sprout out of the ground like roots that act like spikes. This time around, I already predicted most of it though some of them still managed to hit me but thankfully, I grazed through it and continue getting close.

Compared to most of his battle styles, this version of the Tormentor is just utilizing the Tentacle form of him and completely neglected his half that has not been corrupted by the Scourge. Therefore, I want to test out whether the Tormentor does not use the other side no matter what and will continue to use the tentacle form.

However, my assumption was incorrect. The moment I go near the other half of the Tormentor that didn't get corrupted by the Scourge, his eyes glow and his 3 arms that didn't get corrupted emit a dark force of corruption and punch the area I was standing in.

"F*CK!"

I immediately dodge away as the other two hands also rain down on me so I have to keep dodging until I managed to escape all three but that doesn't mean I am free to go since the moment I was no longer in his sight, tentacles started to sprout out from the ground and they are about to dive down to impale me.

This time around, I am through dodging sh*t and let's go my way and the usual way I fight since in the past timeline. My Versatile Weapon is already in its Magic Sword form so all I have to do is ignite it to flames and swing it.

FWOOOOM!

Flames explode every time I swing and every tentacle that gets in contact immediately disintegrated to pieces I was surprised as this was not what I was expecting to see however, it all makes sense as I keep on burning all scourges and it was proven to be the most effective way to get rid of them to no longer spread any further.

Since the sword isn't just enough to burn something to ashes like a huge f*cking tentacle hentai monster born out of nowhere to the ground without adding fuel to the fire.

"Master. Are you going to need my flames to increase the firepower?"

"I welcome the gesture but I think I will need that in the finale. Not at the moment though."

Seeing that it's working to some extent, I decided to keep fighting the boss this way since it's working.

"Master, the area is starting to have a concentration of dark energy all around the place. I think you need to be careful about it, there might be something that might appear and you just don't have to crash through it," Atlas reminded me.

"Thanks, Atlas."

I didn't just take Atlas's reminder to me lightly. While the Tormentor keeps on releasing that tentacle stuff all around, I continue to pay attention to the surroundings and one thing that I noticed is that the Tormentor's tentacle hand had some sort of eyeball thingie on the forearm area. I didn't notice it at first since it was located below the arm but now that I am near the Tormentor and this guy is constantly attacking me with his tentacles and hands that are also tentacles, I immediately noticed it.

Observing it at first didn't do much but soon enough, I realized one thing this feature that I have seen does anything. Every time a tentacle power is activated, the eye thingie opens up and blinks a few times before it closes once more. It was fast enough so anyone who is not paying attention to the details would obviously miss out on the details.

I continue to check out whether it was coincidental stuff that was being done by coincidence. However, this was not a coincidence. It never opens up whenever it didn't attack using the tentacle-appearing stuff or anything that would involve the tentacle at all. But whenever it did, the eye thingie also opens up and blinks before it closes again.

All of that observation leads me to one thing. That eye must be the scourge itself.

Yes. It is the Scourge and every time the Tormentor uses its power, the Scourge would activate it hence opening its eyes. That's when I have something in my mind to stop this f*cker to use the tentacle stuff and although I know that the Tormentor will just use it again, later on, I think this might help me out.

Since I went far from the side of the Tormentor that wasn't possessed by the Scourge, it became passive again and the other half that is still aggressive to me is the one that is now attacking me. I took the advantage of baiting this guy to smash down the tentacle whip that regrows the moment I cut it off.

At first, it was just doing the same floor tentacle stuff again and again and although too unpredictable, I slowly adapt to it, and dodging it slowly feels normal after a while. I still sometimes get hit and I have to heal back my health after doing so at times but it wasn't as severe as before and I can easily cut off any upcoming tentacle attacks now.

Then, once the tentacles appearing on the floor stopped, The Tormentor decided to throw the whip-like tentacle down to me again. Instead of dodging it, I waited for it. When it was about to fall down to me, I run away from it and fly towards the flesh and landing on it like how I did before when I was attacking it by climbing up into his shoulders. Seeing me doing the same thing as before, it seems the Tormentor already knew what I will be doing, and instead of letting me just go and run, it started to create spikes using the scourge already on its body.

It's clear that the Tormentor is no longer controlling its body but the scourge is already doing the control.