> Lay down some ranged knifing on the fleshy mass.
>Three knives phase into existance between your clenched fingers and you flick them out while diving behind another pillar for cover.
>To your satisfaction, the sound of three squishy impacts reach your ear. To your annoyance, it doesn't seem to have done anything. To your shock, a number of tendrils wrap reach around the pillar you're braced up against at a breakneck speed and barely miss you, wrapping around it before crushing it into pieces.
>The tremors of the room, no doubt from the loss of support, shake your feet.
>A quick glance at it while you take cover somewhere else confirms your thoughts. It's a mass of tentacles, really, in a vaguely humanoid shape. Your projectiles have embedded into it, yes, but there aren't any vitals to pierce. It's hardy enough that the knives were just deflected into the gaps.
>It's like some kind of demented Tangela, jeez.
>Damn, that doesn't leave you with a lot of options. Stabbing is your modus operandi, and this thing's more or less immune.
>Slashes...iffy. You'd have to get close, and that's pretty dangerous. You could time stop, but you're not quite sure when or if it'd actually bite it; if you gave yourself enough time to get away, then it might not kill it, and if you committed to a full assault, that might not kill it either and you'd be left vulnerable and on cooldown.
>Well, your item construction powers aren't limited to knives after all...
>You dive from the cover of one pillar to another, focusing on formation of your new projectiles...
>Search alternate timelines. Facilitate realization into this one. Form. Apply alternate conditions.
>A series of swords form in your wake, then fire off in quick succession. You sprout out from under cover, using the hail of larger blades as cover, with knife drawn and power infused within.
>If you can pull off the same energy slash trick you used against the High Lady...
>The larger projectiles prove worth it. The extra second it takes to deflect them gives you more than enough time to
get in.>You leap over it, flip, and release your attack.
>The wave of concentrated energy hits it like a train, pushing it into the ground with tremendous force. It lets out a terrible screech of pain, from where you do not know, as you land and skid across the floor, more knives flying at it with each moment.
>But you're unpleasantly surprised yet again when it manages to deflect your projectiles again, seemingly unharmed, and attacks you once more. You're forced to use a little
extra to get out of the way.
>Dammit, this thing is tough...and that energy slash was more taxing than you figured it'd be.
>Your body is streamlined towards direct time manipulation, not round-a-bout methods like this. But said round-a-bout methods are the only means of heavy firepower you have; you're human after all.
>You tsk in annoyance. What to do, what to do...
