The Land: Predators

by Aleron Kong

  Hisako was still not intimidated by the towering monster. The Hearth Mother was the Master of three magics. Using the hidden apprentice rank bonus of Earth magic, she switched the spell from active to static. Before she did, she poured five hundred more mana points into the spell, strengthening it before tying it off. The bands of white light grew thicker and brighter, and the Labyrinth monster bellowed anew as it was bound tightly again.

  A trickle of blood ran from Hisako’s nose, but she paid it no heed. Instead, she remained focused on the battle. “Yoshi! Bring it down!”

  The sword adept didn’t hesitate. His loyalty and trust in Hisako was absolute. He rushed forward with Talent-enhanced speed and both blades held at the ready. He showed no fear as he attacked a creature that was ten times his height. Just before he entered striking distance, Hisako cast another spell of Light. She had already used nearly a thousand MPs, but the mana she could call upon was better described as a sea than a pool.

  This time her target wasn’t the mauler, it was her blade adept. Copies of Yoshi appeared in the cavern. First five, then twenty-five, then fifty. The magic she performed, Reflected Essence, was not just a stronger version of Richter’s Mirror Image spell. Each copy of Yoshi had zero defense and only one health but could cause damage that was one tenth of the max damage the adept himself could inflict. They each moved independently and began attacking the mauler, literally whittling away its health while it hurled itself against the cage of Hisako’s spell.

  The battle raged on.

  Terrod stood shoulder to shoulder with his liege, facing a chupacabra. The captain held a moonstone mace and Richter held his two blades of black and green. The monster snapped and gnashed at both of them, but even it could not ignore the strength of their enchanted weapons. Richter scored a blow on its side and the Shatter enchantment triggered. The chupacabra’s thick hide collapsed inward, revealing the tender meat beneath. Even as the monster howled, Richter followed up with a thrust attack of his elementum short sword. A quick twist worsened the wound and he jumped back, narrowly avoiding the monster’s counterattack. Terrod capitalized on its distraction to bring his mace down on its front leg with crushing force.

  The battle raged on.

  Sion continued to fire arrows at the chupacabras. He had originally targeted the mauler, but he might as well have been blowing it kisses for all the damage he’d caused. The meidon sprite had downed another mana potion and was imbuing another arrow to the max. Ulinde stood next to him firing Drill Shot arrows as quickly as he could, each spinning arrow bypassing some of the monsters’ defenses.

  Randolphus had phased into Stealth as soon as the battle began, but flashes of his enchanted knives could be seen from time to time. He would appear as he threw his magic weapons, and as soon they left his hand he would disappear again. Zarr and Quasea had both downed mana potions and were waiting for their pools to refill. Sumiko had turned her attention to the village Warriors, healing as needed. She cast an AoE buff, sending a golden light into the air. Every party member touched by the rays of the spell had their dodge increased by +18%. The sergeant stood between the monsters and the Mages, ready to lay down his life if needed.

  Alma had fired a lightning bolt at one of the chupacabras, but its Air resistance had negated the Stun effect and reduced the damage to almost nothing. After that, she focused on playing support for her master’s party and the Dungeon beasts. Her summoned Life fox was already shooting beams of healing energy at a koran tusker.

  Sion’s imbuement maxed out as his mana pool depleted. A second before he fired, the mauler raked its giant claws against the ribbons of light that held it in place. Three of the magical bonds snapped in two. One arm was now completely free, which let it counterattack against Yoshi and his copies. In one sweep of its giant arm, it destroyed twelve of the false images at once. Hisako’s heart paused until she saw the others still moving, which meant the real Yoshi was still alive. Against the mauler’s attack, even the sword adept’s armor and skills might not save him from sudden death.

  “Yoshi! Move!” Sion shouted. The half-sprite and his clones jumped away from the mauler and Richter’s Companion unleashed hell. Prior to the battle, the chaos seed had handed this arrow to Sion, affectionately dubbing it ‘the showstopper.’

  An arrow tipped with a cobalt head shot through the air. Its Exquisite quality, coupled with Krom’s new Talent Enchanted Smithing, had given Richter fifty-nine enchantment slots to play with, and oh, how he’d played! The missile was enchanted with level two, rank five Sonic Damage and level one, rank three Dark Attack. That meant Sion had just fired +22 points of enchanted damage, +12 points of arrow damage, +19 points of bow damage and an insane +213 points of imbued force damage. Richter had told him that when you just absolutely, positively had to kill the biggest motherfucker in the room… you should accept no substitutes!

  The arrow split the air and homed in on the mauler’s face. It struck with a resounding BOOM that set every living creatures’ ears ringing. The mauler screamed in pain for the first time. Richter’s entire party held their breath, praying that the monster would fall or had at least been crited. Instead, the mauler activated a second hidden ability. Even as the massive crater in its face rained down blood and gore, a red aura surrounded the creature as it triggered Rage!

  The hearts of every one of the Dungeon’s defenders dropped as the creature tore through the last of its magical bonds. It would be free in seconds!

  “This enemy may be beyond us, Lord Richter!” Hisako called. “I suggest we withdraw!” She cast another spell, piercing a limping chupacabra with a beam of light that cut straight through the monster. It hacked up blood and howled, but it still refused to fall. The mauler didn’t even notice the attack on its dog as it shredded more of its bonds. One of the chupacabras was near death, but it had slain all of the Dungeon beasts attacking it and was starting to crawl on two legs towards the party. The quills on it back were still capable of claiming all of their lives.

  The one facing off against the village Warriors had been destroyed when the Freeze enchantment on the heavy spear had triggered. The monster’s front paw had frozen solid and another Warrior had used Power Strike. The blow had shattered the limb, dropping its health precipitously and causing a serious drop in its mobility. The Warriors had been able to kill it after that, but not without casualties. Wisteria had been punctured through the thigh with a four-foot quill and Cath had been knocked unconscious. Blood flowed freely from a head wound that showed his skull underneath. Both had been dragged to safety by Ygritte and had been healed by Sumiko, but not completely. Wisteria’s femur had been shattered and would require several rounds of healing to fully repair, and even Life magic could not completely heal all head wounds immediately. Both injured Warriors were out of commission.

  Richter and Terrod had managed to stab their enemy in the throat, but not before it had sunk its teeth deep into the captain’s shoulder. It had flung its head back and forth, shaking the man like a rag doll before throwing him against a shattered pillar. The monster had collapsed after that, Richter’s elementum short sword buried in its throat while it gurgled its last.

  Sumiko had been able to staunch Terrod’s bleeding, although his face was now dangerously pale from blood loss. But she could not repair the nerve or bone damage in a combat setting without a massive expenditure of mana, and when her magic might save the life of another fighter at any moment, she couldn’t risk her MPs dropping too low. As a result, Terrod’s savaged arm hung lame and limp.

  Richter looked around, his heart beating wildly. There were no more beasts to help them. Three of the chupacabras had been killed: one by Quasea’s magic, a second by the Warriors, and the third by his own hand, but it still left three of the creatures stalking them. The only reason they hadn’t used their ranged attack was that every member of the party was huddled behind a broken pillar. If they remained spread out like that though, they would become easy pickings for the high-level monsters. If they groupe
d together to fight, one chupacabra could pick them off with its deadly quills while the other two rent them with sharp fangs and eviscerating claws.

  The three snarling creatures were also the lesser threat by far. The damage Sion had wreaked upon the mauler had been severe, but it was already healing and had thousands of health left besides. Sion stood with another arrow knocked, ready to attack if his friend ordered it. The rest of the party looked to him as well, willing to follow his orders, even unto death… All except for Yoshi, who was definitely looking at him like he was a stupid gyoti who was completely to blame for everything that was happening.

  Richter gritted his teeth both in irritation and frustration. Hisako was right. He couldn’t just sacrifice these people. Even if it meant losing his Dungeon. If the chupacabras had all been killed then maybe they could chip away at the mauler’s health, but there was no way his party could oppose them all. So far, they had only managed to kill two monsters, and it had cost them every single Dungeon beast. A third of his party’s fighters were out of commission. Tasting ashes in his mouth, he prepared to order the retreat.

  Then, out of nowhere, Randolphus appeared. His whip flew out and encircled the body of one of the wounded chupacabras. Putting the weight-decreasing properties of the whip to deadly use, the Spy pulled back hard and spun. The monster’s body flew through the air with an indignant squawk. As the Spy spun, the centrifugal force increased until the chupacabra’s protests ended in a crunch as it was slammed face-first into a column. Yoshi and the few remaining clones rushed forward to stab it over and over, taking away the last points of its life.

  The other two turned towards the Spy, ready to fire, but then the Harbinger finally made its presence known. Richter’s old pet shot out from the column it had been hiding against, mouth open wide and fangs dripping with chaotic poison. Its high steel scales had shifted in color to perfectly match the blood red stone of the column, showing that it still deserved its moniker, The Unseen Killer. Before the Labyrinth monster could react, the Harbinger had latched onto the chupacabra's neck and injected its poison. The fluid attack could manifest in any number of ways in accordance with its chaotic nature, but this time it transformed into a solidifying agent, turning the monster’s own blood to stone. Its scream was short-lived and it died, frozen in place, its mouth open for all time.

  The last chupacabra lashed out, its claw cutting deep into the chaotic reptile’s side. Red blood with a grey tinge gushed from the wound, but the Harbinger was not easily undone. The adder released its bite and hissed at the monster attacking it. It slithered around to the quilled monster’s right, both creatures preparing for a fight to the death. Richter’s party stared at the showdown in surprise, all of them slightly shocked at seeing a twenty-foot-long serpent seemingly appear out of nowhere and save them.

  Randolphus, with his hundred years of combat experience and great familiarity with hidden attacks, shook off his surprise first. “What are you doing?” he shouted to the rest of the party incredulously. “Fight!” So saying, he snapped his whip at the last chupacabra, scoring against its face.

  The monster drew back instinctively with a snarl, which was all the high steel adder needed. The snake shot forward quicker than the eye could follow and bit its enemy on the foreleg. The chupacabra howled as acidic poison shot into its body, but only for the four seconds it took for the adder to wrap its body once around the Labyrinth monster’s chest and start to squeeze. The dangerous quills on its back were pushed flat and the adder continued to loop its body around its foe, its coils tightening with each moment. Alma landed on the monster’s head with a savage cry and latched on with Brain Drain. For a moment, the dragonling and the chaotic reptile locked eyes, enjoying a sense of camaraderie once again.

  As Richter’s two reptiles engaged the last chupacabra, the rest of the war party had sprung into action. Before the crack of Randolphus’s whip had faded from the air, Richter responded to the man’s charge that they continue the battle. A manic smile had bloomed on the chaos seed’s face and with an unholy glee he shouted, “Well, you heard him. FIGHT!”

  Sion began firing enchanted arrows at the mauler anew, shouting, “Oh yeah!”

  Caulder and Terrod stood side-by-side, shields raised and weapons at the ready. Quasea and Zarr began to cast strong destructive spells once again. Sumiko drank a mana potion, ready to pour more healing magic into anyone that was wounded. To the surprise of all of them, two mist workers appeared to carry Wisteria and Cath out of the chamber. Richter looked around and saw that at the back of the chamber, Roswan stood apart from the fray with his arms crossed. At seeing his liege’s attention, however, the elf placed one fist over his chest.

  Even his Engineer was in the fight! Richter whooped with glee and picked up his bow again, imbuing a showstopper and targeting the mauler’s face. The monster only had two magical bands holding it in place now, both around its left leg. As he sighted on it, he called out to Hisako, “Can you hit that thing with another binding spell?”

  “That was one of the strongest that I know, and the cooldown hasn’t yet elapsed. I have two others that might slow it down, but they are both weaker than the spell I already used.”

  “Cast them,” Richter told her. “I’ll do my part!”

  “Your part?” Sion asked, still firing arrows nonstop.

  “Yeah,” Richter responded grimly, not elaborating any further. Hisako cast her weaker binding spell and more magical bonds appeared. They were noticeably thinner than the ribbons of force her first spell had conjured. They also seemed to enrage the mauler even further. The red aura around its body intensified and it ripped through these new bonds as if they were no stronger than yarn. Still, it gained the party valuable seconds.

  Five hundred mana flowed into Richter’s arrow before he released his shot. It flew to the same spot Sion’s had, reopening the closing wound. A note of pain entered the mauler’s screaming roar as the wound opened even wider than before. It stole away hundreds of health, but the mauler was almost free again and it had over three thousand health remaining. Steeling himself for what was about to come, Richter took off his quiver and dropped it at his best friend’s feet. “You might need these,” he shouted over the din of battle.

  “What are you doing?” Sion repeated, never lightening up on his rate of fire.

  Richter paused for a single moment, affixing his friend with a smile. He cast Weak Haste and downed his last mana potion. Sion spared him a concerned glance, a troubled realization growing in his eyes, but it was too late. Richer was gone. As the chaos seed sprinted towards their enemy, he called out, “Don’t worry! Depending on your perspective, this is the easy part!”

  He started Cloud Running.

  Richter’s first jump got him five feet off the ground. From there he just kept skating forward. Sion shouted after him, but both the sprite and Ulinde kept firing unabated. Both struck the mauler with well-placed arrows, drawing its ire. Hisako finished her second casting. This time green light surrounded her hands as she accessed her Earth magic. Five towers of stone shot up around the mauler. The rock began to flow over the boss, encasing it in stone, but the Hearth Mother had been right.

  The simple stone was even less of an impediment than her second spell of binding. The mauler knocked the sludgy rock away like it was shaking off mud, but, combined with the second Light spell, its arms were bound again, at least for a few moments. The red glow around the monster surged brighter as its rage at being constrained soared into madness. Its rocky tomb quivered in response. Cracks appeared in the stone and pieces fell to the ground.

  Richter ran faster.

  Every passing second gave the mauler a chance to escape. He only had one chance, possibly even a fool’s chance, but he would take it. If he didn’t kill it before it broke free, that was it. The chupacabras had been fearsome, but he and his party had handled them. This thing… now that it was enraged… it would slaughter them all.

  Richter circled around slightly to the left so he
could approach the mauler from behind. Downing a stamina potion on the run, he started jumping. Each time he did, he gained another four to six feet in height, but the stamina demands increased massively as well. There was a cost in pain as that happened. Richter’s face grew red and his jaw ached from clenching his teeth. He couldn’t scream. The only advantage he had was that the mauler was so focused on breaking free that it hadn’t noticed him. He had to make his first strike count!

  Quasea and Zarr had both changed their plans of attack after seeing Hisako cast her spells. The voluptuous gnome cursed herself for what she was about to do, but it didn’t stop her. She ran even closer to the giant monster, Caulder cursing and chasing after, so that she could get within range to use an actual curse. Black light surrounded her hands as she dual cast Fathomless Night. The mauler’s malignant eyes turned pure black as the spell took hold. The spell was designed to take away not only its sight, but also its sense of smell, touch and hearing. The monster was blinded, but the other effects were completely resisted. Even its visual impairment started fading almost immediately as its high spell resistance began eating at the Dark magic. Quasea couldn’t know it, but an effect that should have lasted twenty minutes would last less than one. She dashed away after a glance at Richter racing towards the behemoth. Caulder followed, his war door shield held high, doing what he could to protect their retreat.

  Zarr finished his casting as well, targeting not the mauler, but Hisako’s own magic. A Glyph of Solidity appeared on the stone walls of the mauler’s prison. The magic was originally designed to strengthen city walls during a siege, but it served the same purpose here. Some of the cracks in the monster’s tomb disappeared as the rock’s durability was repaired and its defense was increased.

  It wasn’t enough. Even as Richter crossed the final yards between himself and the mauler, more cracks appeared and the glowing light of the glyph began to flicker. All the while, the red aura of the monster’s rage deepened to a more malevolent vermilion hue. To make matters worse, even Hisako’s mana was bottoming out from casting so many high-level spells in quick succession.