The lord did not try to devour him again.
Across the Black Pool, it raised its chin and blasted a stream of gray slime at the spot where [Tom Pie] had just been lying. White smoke rose from the hardened Necrotic Tissue, and its surface quickly collapsed by a layer.
He scrambled onto higher ground. Just as he grabbed an old bone protruding from the earth, another spray struck beneath his feet. The bone snapped in the middle, forcing him to retreat again.
"Can't eat it, so you spit in the food?"
[Tom Pie] panted as he wiped the slime from his forehead, staring at the massive figure circling around the pool's edge.
The lord's abdomen had shriveled considerably, but its jaw lowered further, hiding its injured throat behind its bone plates. It stared at the bone shard in his hand, its long tongue never extending again.
If he tried to crawl in through its mouth again, all that would be waiting for him were two rows of teeth.
The hefty bounty on the Gray-Black Quest Panel was still flashing. He shoved the interface aside and ran along the shore toward the lord's flank.
The creature turned and sprayed at him. He ducked close to the ground to evade it, then lunged beside its jaw and drove his right claw into the gap between its bone plates.
His claw tip pierced flesh, only to be trapped by muscles tightening around it. The lord rammed sideways with the motion, and an entire bone plate crashed toward him, sending him flying.
[Tom Pie] skidded across the ground. When he climbed back up, a gaping wound had opened across his chest.
He had found the right spot, but his angle had not been good enough.
The lord did not pursue him far. It