by Dakota Krout
They started on an interception course for the lions, and as they closed in, the grass stopped moving. Apparently, the ambush was set. “Alexis?”
“Oh, I’m all over this.” She swept her cloak to the side, and her massive crossbow flipped over her shoulder and settled in front of her. Alexis pulled off the quarrel that was attached and slotted in a bolt that was more barrel than arrow. She fired the bolt into the area with the cats, and a huge nova of poison expanded from the impact zone.
A guttural roar destroyed any concern that the group had been wrong. A lioness bounded out toward them, then another… and another. Nine lionesses in total were coming after the humans, followed by a brute of a lion.
“I like my skin intact, yes I do! I like my skin intact, how about you?” Bard chanted into the air, and Joe was graced with a notification that he would take nine percent less slashing damage for thirty minutes.
“New song, Bard?” Jaxon beamed at the Skald, then went back to studying the cats running at them. “I really like it. I haven't had much luck with singing lately.”
“Still workin’ on this one.” Bard’s voice betrayed his embarrassment. Then the cats had arrived, and there was no more time for feelings like doubt or concern. There was only surviving and making sure that their opponent didn't.
Chapter Fourteen
Alexis was the first person to get off another attack, her hand-held crossbow’s bolts zipping through the air to plunge into the leading lioness. The huge cat roared at her and leaped nearly thirty feet forward with outstretched claws. As fast as the cat moved, Joe was still able to send out and solidify a Shadow Spike. The leap was halted only feet away from Alexis, and the lioness scrabbled at her punctured chest in an attempt to destroy whatever it was that was causing pain.
Poppy glided forward and pulled his arm back, thrusting forward with a deadly *hiss* emanating from his rapier. The lioness he was targeting forced herself down, and the rapier missed her face and instead penetrated into her shoulder. The cat snarled and retaliated with an instant paw swipe that Poppy somehow moved with, removing his rapier with a twist that sent blood and gray fluid flying.
The third cat raced between the two that were injured, going through the open space to target Joe. The humans were in a bad position, and only the fact that Bard was standing next to Joe and was eager to get into the fight kept Joe from having claws scraping his shell. The Skald waded into combat with a whirl of his axes, the metal forcing the lioness to flatten herself to avoid losing more than just a few whiskers. Jaxon moved forward on Alexis’s left, catching the next cat that was trying to attack the out-of-formation crossbow-user. He body-checked the cat, knocking it to the side and getting a slash across the ribcage for his trouble.
A second lioness reached Poppy and tried to take him to the ground, but only managed to knock the Duelist back a step. Poppy was using some kind of footwork pattern that allowed him to keep upright and mobile while he was in a fight, and it was showing its worth here. A second lioness hit Jaxon, then a third on Poppy. Another circled to Poppy’s right and came after Bard as he fought off the first, and another piled into Alexis’s area.
Now there were two lionesses on Bard, Alexis, and Jaxon; while there were three being fended off by Poppy. Joe targeted Jaxon with a healing spell, closing the gash in his side. Then he formed a Shadow Spike under the extremely poisoned lioness fighting Poppy, while at the same time, Alexis got off a shot at the lioness that had first attacked her. The bolt slamming into its head was enough to bring it down, though the bolt head only slightly penetrated the thick skull bone. The lioness had simply taken enough damage, lost enough blood, and the area poisoning had been particularly nasty.
The cost for Alexis to get her attack off was a paw to her chest that tore open her flesh to the bone as well as breaking a few of her ribs. She tumbled back, in total shock at the sudden pain. Joe’s spike had impaled and held the damaged lioness that had been fighting Poppy, allowing the man to focus on the other two as the light went out of the first’s eyes. He swiped back and forth with his wasp-stinger rapier, holding them back but dealing no damage.
“Alexis!” Joe called, realizing her predicament even as the lioness was jumping at her. Joe jumped first, covering her body with his own and using Lay on Hands to reverse the damage that had been done to her. The lioness landed on Joe, pressing him down with its body weight but clawing ineffectually at his shell. The reduction to slashing damage was showing its usefulness here, all the way until the cat got its mouth around Joe's arm and started trying to rip it off.
A bolt bounced off of Joe’s Shell, reducing its durability further, and Alexis growled. “Can’t get a shot, getting crushed!”
“Craw!”
“Nyah!”
The strange sounds reached Joe’s ears just before he was showered with blood and tufts of fur. He sputtered as the huge weight of the cat suddenly vanished, looking up to see Jaxon gripping the lioness and tearing chunks of flesh off of it. No… he wasn't; his hands were! T-rex heads swallowed globs of meat, and Jaxon was tackled from the side by one of the cats he was still fighting with. The Chiropractor rolled with the blow and ended up on the lioness’s back, riding her like a bucking bronco even as he continued to punch in one spot with his toothy, hungry hands.
Jaxon hopped off and seemed to concentrate, and the cat’s spine just twisted. The animal fell, and Joe realized that he was neglecting his support duties to the rest of the team in order to watch a single fight. Joe turned to help Bard, who was bleeding from several nasty wounds. The Skald had apparently not been able to land a hit on the creatures he was fighting, and like the cats they were, Bard was being toyed with in preparation for a kill.
As Joe sent a stream of healing water to Bard, he saw that Poppy’s health was dropping quickly as well, though he didn’t seem to have any massive wounds. After the spell hit Bard, Joe slammed his staff to the ground with both hands and channeled a powerful group heal to all of his party members. At the cost of about fifty-five mana per second, he healed all of them for thirty-two point five health per second. This was enough to close the wound Poppy had in an opened artery and replenished his blood enough for him to continue moving at a fast pace.
Joe only managed to cast the spell for two seconds before being taken off his feet by the lion finally joining combat. The huge creature clamped down on Joe with its teeth and shook back and forth even as it used its front paws to tear at his body. Joe could hear people shouting, but all he could do was try to form a spell to fight back against the lion. His staff fell from his hand after a particularly vicious shake, and Joe cast the only spell that he could think of. His muscle memory and the ease of the spell allowed him to dual cast Acid Spray. His extreme close range made it so that the lion was soaked by the spell, and he was able to continue channeling for a full second before he lost concentration.
Joe’s shell broke, and instantly, there were teeth tearing into his arm while claws ripped at his side and acid dripping on to him. Joe screamed in pain, his low constitution and high perception allowing him to feel every second of this agony. The lion was hit from the side, and the weight was taken off of Joe. The pain didn't end though, and the addition of rolling allowed the multi-hundred-pound creature to rip his arm off.
Joe was bleeding horrifically, and only his total shock allowed him to cast Lay on Hands on himself. This spell was so powerful now that he could heal ten more damage than he had total health, bringing him up to maximum health in an instant. The main issue was that a thick layer of scar tissue formed over the hole in his side where his arm should be, and the limb was still in the lion’s mouth.
The sudden lack of pain had set his mind whirling, and Joe could only stare as his team worked to finish off the lion. It had way more health than Joe thought that it should as only a basic creature. He slowly blinked, opening his eyes to Poppy sliding his rapier into the lion and having it roar at him while dropping a mangled arm to the ground. Blink. Jaxon was laughing maniacally
as his hands bit off the lion's tail. Blink. Bard was under the lion, his axes crossed and holding the jaws back from clamping down.
Joe blinked again, and the lion was on its side. They had defeated it. Yay.
Bard came over with an odd-shaped stick. No, that was his arm. Joe watched as Bard lifted an axe and swung it at him, a light red glow appearing around him as his axe sliced off the scar tissue that had appeared over Joe’s arm-hole. The pain shocked him again, out of whatever state of mind he had been in. Bard was speaking, “There ya goo, big guy. C’mon now, heal this up and then Cleanse yerself. I bet ye’ll get a nasty bug otherwise.”
Joe numbly cast Mend on himself and suddenly had feeling in his arm again. He screamed as new flesh formed on the demolished arm out of the healing water. Why would the nerves be the first thing to heal? The injustice of it made Joe come back to himself, and as his arm pain settled into a dull ache, he began healing his torn-to-shreds team. Strangely, it was Jaxon that had the most damage, not Bard. The bite marks… “Jaxon, what happened?”
“Oh, these?” Jaxon smiled nervously. “T-rex are good little babies. They just don't know how to show affection yet. We’re working on training to nuzzle, but I only get a few seconds at a time to teach them not to bite me! At least it’s only love nibbles!”
“Jaxon!” Joe was shocked at how long he needed to cast his healing for. “You took at least four hundred damage!”
“Nibbles,” Jaxon petulantly asserted.
“How’s the arm, Joe?” Alexis pointedly changed the conversation.
“Infected.” He sighed and started casting Cleanse on himself. A few seconds later, the ‘plague’ marker vanished. “I’m really glad I didn't wait to cure that. I had the plague for a moment there. I can't even imagine what would have happened if these got loose in the camp back there.”
“I can!” Jaxon raised a hand. “The humans would have likely died, a large chunk of them! Any survivors would have run to a population center and tried to find shelter, inadvertently spreading the plague to whoever was there!”
There was a long silence, and Joe shrugged. “Yeah, okay, I’m glad we killed them off. Anyone else infected? If not, let’s destroy these bodies. Acid Spray!”
They got to work, and Joe was suddenly flooded with messages.
Exp: 360 (40 * Lioness x9).
Exp: 50 (50 * Lion x1)
Zone quest complete: Plague of Pride! You managed to stop an outbreak of plague before it managed to spread to the local population! Reward: 100 experience.
Skill increase: Channeling (Beginner III)
Skill increase: Acid Spray (Beginner II). You realize that this spell was designed for cleaning out landfills, right? How little do you think of your enemies?
Skill increase: Exquisite Shell (Novice VI). You’re on your way to becoming a front-line fighter! Go you! Wait…
“Huh. Odd that there was no reward other than experience for the quest.” Then Joe remembered that he hadn't even opened the Common-item reward he had gotten a while back, and he rubbed his hands together. “I guess I can open that and pretend it's a reward for this!”
Chapter Fifteen
Joe opened his reward box after melting the lions with Acid Spay. He had sat a little apart, hoping that it would be something cool enough that he didn't want to show it off right away. As the box popped open, Joe saw what appeared to be… he had no idea. At least, until he got the notification.
Item gained: Rituarchitect Survey Grid! (Artificially Rare) No more measuring out distances for buildings by hand; this item allows you to get exact measurements for the perimeter and area of any building you plan to build and displays a soft-light building to mark out exactly where it will be placed!
“Um.” Joe looked at the item, which appeared to be a small solar light from Earth. It had a spike on the bottom—obviously designed to be pushed into the ground—and a mirrored panel on the top. All in all, a not-very-impressive tool but hopefully useful either way?
“Ready to get a move on, Joe?” Alexis called over to him. “It’s already afternoon, and I want to see if we can find a shrine before dark. I know we all brought camping gear, but if we don't need to sleep outside, I’ll be much happier in the morning!”
“Fair point!” Joe got to his feet and stood, pausing and frowning as he got a new notification.
Skill increase: Mental Manipulation Resistance (Novice V).
Where had that come from? Joe thought about his recent battle as well as searching the area. He was pretty sure he got that increase due to dwelling on his injury during combat and not shaking it off right away like he was supposed to do… but would that mean getting badly injured in the future would cause him to dwell on and remember more pain? How long would it take for this skill to break him? As much as Joe wanted to empower all of his skills, this one was certainly an exception.
Joe thought about this issue for a long while as they walked across the huge, savanna-style area they had recently entered. It was strange how suddenly and radically the landscape could shift in this world. At least they had found where the lions had come from, but Joe was finding that he preferred his spot in the northern forests. The heat was also slowly increasing, and as night came along… the area began to come alive. It seemed that most of the creatures in this area were going to end up being nocturnal, and–
“Hold up a moment.” Alexis stopped them, then took a few steps off the path and pointed. “Can anyone tell me what that looks like?”
The group gathered around and looked. Sure enough, there was a recognizable track in the ground. Jaxon shrugged and shook his head. “Not a clue! Dirt? Mud that dried? Sand! Is there going to be a quiz on this later?”
“Jaxon…” Alexis cracked her neck, making Jaxon quiver with anticipation. “As much as I love a guessing game, look. That’s the size and depth of an Elite Wolfman Warrior. What would they be doing around here?”
Bard offered his opinion, “Well, they ruled the majority of ta continent before we broke their spine. Likely they are gettin’ together to regroup, repopulate, try again later, yea?”
“Oh, that makes sense.” Jaxon nodded along. “They are such nice people too, when they aren't trying to tear your face off.”
“You… know some of them?” Joe cocked his head to the side as he asked this. “How do you know them, I guess would be the better question.”
“Helped a few of the young and elderly get out of the forest.” Jaxon seemed to be in earnest, and Joe certainly wasn't going to condemn someone for helping others. “They seemed nice, gave me a free pass to visit. All the fun times.”
The others exchanged a look, and Alexis asked the next question, “What way were they going when you helped them out?”
“Well, we started off going east, then we parted ways when I continued north,” Jaxon explained amiably.
“So… did they go south?” Joe prodded him.
Jaxon scratched at his chin. “Maybe?”
There was nothing else for it, so the party continued onward. They would need to be on guard, but what else was new at this point? They moved across the open area as night began to fall, and soon, all of them were attempting to stave off yawns and grumpy attitudes. When they came to a tree, Joe called out to the others, “Alright, guys, I’m calling it. Let’s set up here. I think we made it about forty miles today, and it looks like anything that's out here is going to be coming after us at night. We need to get some sleep and set a watch.”
“Why don't you just set up one of those ‘Predator Territory’ spells?” Alexis demanded, already pulling out a sleeping bag.
“Mainly because I haven’t been able to find the time to make one.” Joe got a look at that and crossed his arms defensively across his chest. “Look, every single one of those rituals takes a lot of time and concentration to set up. You’ve seen what happens when it fails or goes wrong! Also, they are expensive to use, even if I can mitigate the cost of them. If you would like to step in and cover the mana cost or even j
ust the components, we’ll go make some of them right now!”
“Joe. Chill.” Bard put an arm around Joe’s shoulders and gave him a side-hug. “Ye need some sleep, bud. Go’on. I’ll take first watch.”
Was he getting too upset? Joe didn't think so, but from the looks of the people around him… perhaps Bard had the right idea. “I… sorry, guys. We’ll talk after the inevitable attack tonight, alright?”
“Sounds good, sleep well!” Jaxon called from a hot pink, overstuffed sleeping bag that looked more like a beanbag chair than a sack. Joe decided that Jaxon must have some kind of storage device and tried not to think too hard about it. He closed his eyes and was asleep in moments. It wasn't meant to last, and it seemed that the game decided to punish him for his flippant remarks. How did it punish him?
With Giant Scorpions.
The poison-using, double-pincer-wielding bugs burrowed out of the sand around them, tossing huge geysers of sand into the night air. Joe wasted no time, grabbing his staff and releasing a spray of acid from the tip. There was some damage, but nothing like Joe expected. The acid rolled off the scorpion like it was just standard water, and Joe was forced to jump back as the stinger slithered through the air at him. His stamina reserves dropped by half, but he avoided the blow. “No soft flesh!”
“I hate these things!” Jaxon leaped at the bug in front of him, landing on it and riding the beast like a horse. His fists dropped like hammers, slamming into the weak points of the creatures’ joints. A stinger plunged at him from behind, but Jaxon straight up ignored it and kept pummeling. The stinger dug into his back, and the scorpion pumped a load of poison into the Monk.
“Ge’ up ya!” Bard joined in the fray, his axes coming down on to another of the creatures. A pincer took the blow, the bug retaliating with its other claw and tail near-simultaneously. Bard blocked the tail, but the pincer wrapped around his midsection and attempted to cut him in half.
