“Nice work,” I said, watching as he moved the flames about. The darkness did not like the fire one bit and seemed to move out of the way. Even when Trig advanced a half step forward, it took a moment for the mist to return. As if it were hesitant to come back.
“Looks like fire is the main weakness here,” Trig muttered, raising the torch far away from his body, as far into the darkness as he could. The shadows receded quickly, though still not as fast as darkness usually did when light was present. Whatever this fog was, it was a supernatural effect for certain.
I nodded and prepared my own torch. Why hadn’t we thought of this before? Though to be fair, this was the first time we had ever seen a light stone go out. As far as we knew they would glow forever. Who knows? Maybe they’d come back when we got out of this place?
Emboldened by the fire, we moved forward, standing a few feet apart to maximize our field of view. Now, with the torches, we could see all manner of curious things around us. Little creatures hung from the trees, watching us with interest. At first, I thought they were monsters, but they seemed somewhat familiar, as if I had read about them before. Eventually, I remembered that they were called monkeys.
This specific breed was small and silent, watching us with judging eyes. Their faces were grim and cold, and they had little interest in motions. I had read that monkeys were curious and intelligent animals who were prone to all manner of funny behavior, but these beasts did not fit the description of the history books. They were still and grim. Like harbingers of the doom that was to come.
This, of course, did not stop Trig from fawning over them and immediately catching one to adopt. “I’m gonna name it Little Hig!” he said, holding the beast up with one hand. The tiny monkey didn’t seem to care that it was grabbed and merely held onto Trig’s wrist with a sluggish look. “Isn’t he cute? Way more handsome than your husband too!”
“Cuter yes, more handsome? No,” I said, paying no mind to him. His jokes were returning and while I was still uneasy, the humor was welcome.
With Little Hig placed in his hair, Trig continued to explore the area, searching for clues. The monkey nestled in its new spot without complaint or sound, grabbing hold of the hair like a branch and staring at me with the same judgmental look as its peers. What did it know that I didn’t?
“Footprint!” Trig cheered, pointing to a spot on the ground. I was quick to rush up. Indeed, it was a footprint, one belonging to a human, or humanoid at least. A humanoid wearing boots, to be exact. “I bet there’s a tribe here!”
“Or a shape changer. Or one of those infected Fungara maestro,” I warned. “No reason to get excited about a pair of human footprints.”
“And there’s no reason to be not, not excited,” he countered. “We’re not making much progress here alone, so I think a little hope is in order.”
A deep groaning sound from within the woods seemed to disagree with Trig’s words. It was like a croak, a terrible, guttural croak from something far bigger than whatever we had faced before.
Trig immediately drew a bomb and shuffled backwards, away from the footprints. We’d have to argue about human presence later.
I noticed that the little monkey atop Trig’s head had become alert, sitting up and looking around. Its eyes widened as it tilted to the right, focusing in on something in the darkness. Could it see in these conditions?
I decided to test this question, quickly aiming in the direction that Little Hig was staring and releasing an arrow.
“Grooooahhhhhhhh,” came a reply from the darkness as my arrow struck something hard. There was a splurch sound and my motion senses triggered instantly. Something huge, maybe twenty feet tall, was dead ahead of us. One moment, it was standing still, the next it was in the air, sailing upwards high over us and coming down hard.
“Clear the area!” I shouted, leaping out of the way. Trig’s reflexes weren’t as fast as mine, but my warning was enough to get him out of the danger zone. He jumped to the side as a huge, dark green mass came hurtling down from the sky, crashing into the ground.
The earth shook as the mass landed and I worked to keep my balance, aiming my arrows at the round, dark green ball, firing shot after shot.
“Groooah,” the beast roared as it stuck its head up from the ball, revealing a pair of massive black horns, curled around each side of its head. The creature was froglike in many ways with a round body, squat legs and a big bubble protruding from its neck as it croaked. Its eyes were dark yellow and they narrowed on me almost instantly as it turned to face me, maneuvering on pencil thin legs that seemed ridiculous in contrast to the thickness of its circular body.
“Ugh, that stench,” Trig gasped as the beast croaked once more, small flaps opening up around its hideous rubber skin, releasing bursts of green mist. The young hunter staggered backwards and reeled over, retching and vomiting, stuck in one place.
My eyes watered as the smell reached me; it wasn’t toxic but it was noxious enough to make me sick. Thankfully, my own filthiness from the journey had given me somewhat of a resistance to such smells and I was able to hold my breath, ignoring the terrible smell long enough to fire a shot at one of the open flaps.
The frog beast leapt out of the way as soon as my arrow flew free, moving towards me at an incredible speed. If I had not seen such a big thing move with my own eyes, I would not believe it was capable of moving at all!
I rushed forward, underneath its body, firing arrows upwards as I dodged the beast’s slam attack. The hits didn’t seem to do much, for the creature did not react to the arrows as they lodged into its body. Despite its huge size, it seemed immune to my giant-killer abilities.
“What’s going on?” I said, realizing that the bonuses I normally got weren’t kicking in. A creature of this size should absolutely be taking extra damage from my hits.
“How can…you…breathe?” Trig gasped, finishing his puking and collapsing onto the floor. Was he out of the fight already?
“Get it together,” I ordered, taking a moment to switch to my flame arrows. If fire bothered the darkness, maybe it would bother this creature.
“I’m trying,” Trig grunted, though he was still clutching his stomach, unable to do anything.
The frogbeast landed just on the edge of the darkness and began to rotate to face us. It let out another deep croak, its throat expanding into a bubble, just like a regular frog. With a shrug, I took the shot, wondering if this creature would really have such an exposed weak point. My flaming arrow moved through the air, lighting up the area as it struck true.
The large bulbous sack merely ignored the shot as the beast croaked some more. More flaps opened up and noxious gas came gushing out. I was able to quickly pour some of our water on my scarf then wrap it around my nose and mouth, to create a filter. I could still smell the gas, but the density of the soaked scarf kept the toxicity from getting in.
“It just absorbs my shots like nothing,” I grumbled. “And it’s immune to my size-modifying abilities.”
As I tried to calculate some way to fight back, a tongue shot out from the beast’s mouth, wrapping clean around me. I didn’t have a chance to react; the tongue was too quick. The long, pink appendage draped around my shoulders and began to squeeze me tightly, pulling me towards it. My feet dug into the ground, however, and I was able to resist its pull, though not enough to stop it.
“Tri—” I tried to say, but as the beast’s mouth was open, a billow of noxious fumes hit me and I was no longer able to resist it. The world spun up and down, and though my stomach held itself together, my legs buckled and I felt the tongue yank me towards the maw.
“No, not again!” I hissed. The realization that I was about to be inside another beast’s digestive tract seemed to give me a burst of energy and I snapped into action. My arms were forced at their sides, yes, but I still had use of my legs. It wanted to hold onto me? Fine, let’s see how far its tongue could go!
Using all of my strength, I s
prang backwards. My normal jump height was forty feet, so it was safe to say I generated a significant amount of force to kick off the ground. I leapt with the energy to reach my full height and in the process, forced the beast to pull me even harder with its tongue. I managed to get about six feet backwards, to where Trig was lying. He was slowly recovering, rolling over onto his side and producing a longer knife.
The tongue pulled harder, but I forced my feet even deeper into the earth, causing the ground to drag along with me. I waited a moment, letting it waste even more energy pulling me and then leapt backwards again, with all my might. The tongue jerked back even farther this time and the frogbeast let out a frustrated grunt as it began to back up with its hind legs, into the darkness.
My Quiverling, unhindered by the tongue, was quick to change out my new Glurp charm for the old L’Gara charm, granting me 2 more Strength. As soon as the charm activated, I felt a tremendous surge through my body of both sturdiness and steel. With a groan, I straightened my legs out hard into the ground, stopping instantly. The beast was strong, but so was I, far stronger than moments before. If I had been able to resist it with my regular strength, those two extra points made me more or less unstoppable.
“Trig, I got it,” I gasped as I began to walk backwards, dragging the beast along with me. The tables were turned and now it was in my snare. However, the stupid thing was too stubborn to release me and instead let me drag it along the ground, like a toddler being forced to go to bed.
“Almost up,” Trig wheezed. He was on his hands and knees now, crawling forward to try and get to me with the knife. This was an advantageous position for us, for if he were able to cut the tongue off, we’d be permanently removing the thing’s combat advantage.
Little Hig was still sitting atop his new owner, unmoving and unblinking, watching the whole scene unfold with a morbid kind of curiosity. It seemed unaffected by the noxious fumes. How very strange.
With a heft and a slash, Trig managed to get on his feet and bring the blade down hard around the tongue, slashing it off with a single blow. He then fell back to the ground, promptly passing out.
The frogbeast let out a pained roar as its tongue fell to the dirt. My arms easily broke out of the remains of the sticky tongue wrapped around my shoulders and instantly my bow was in my hands. The mouth of the frog was open wide, for it was still panicking from losing its tongue, so I fired a shot, putting a great deal of mana into increasing the damage.
The arrow burst into flames in midair and struck the monster in the back of the throat, knocking it backwards. “Eeeeighhh,” the frogbeast screamed as it began to warp and contort, slowly shrinking down. I blinked a few times, picking up the torch that Trig had dropped and holding it up to confirm what I was seeing. The damn frog was indeed shriveling up, shrinking down to a more manageable size.
I fired another shot, meeting no resistance from its natural armor. A flurry of arrows turned it into a pincushion and I tossed Trig’s torch at the thing, to ensure the beast stayed out of the shadows. By the time I was finished shooting, the creature was dead. It had shrunk down to the size of a creature no bigger than the height of a child.
“Damn thing must have had some ability to temporarily grow,” I mused, realizing why my attack advantages didn’t work. If the creature could expand itself, it might not technically count as a giant class beast. An interesting advantage.
Behind me, I heard a soft, gentle clapping. I turned around to see Little Hig, sitting atop my unconscious companion, grinning widely and clapping its little hands. For the first time, it looked like I had impressed the monkey. I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
Chapter 15
The fire crackled, as did the grease in the frying pan, thoroughly cooking the frog beast we had slain. We had left the Stabwagon back in the mountains, in the hopes that we could scout this forest out, get our bearings and then determine if the wagon should be brought in. This was a better idea than losing our extremely valuable wagon to whatever was inside of this place. Besides, if we survived the trip but lost the wagon, Dette and her engineers would almost certainly kill us when we got back home.
“I’m…sorry,” Trig mumbled as he stared into the pan, emptily poking the meat with a stick, trying to get it to cook as evenly as possible. He had a gift for turning monster meat into something more palatable. At least, far more palatable than what I could make.
“Don’t worry about it, if I hadn’t been covered in blood and guts for the last few days, I’m pretty sure that smell would have taken me down too,” I said, working on the frog charm. It was difficult working without a charm bench, but I had taken a few tools and a cutting board to make it work. One of the horns from the dead frogbeast made for a perfect little pendant. The shape of it made it easy to work into a whistle as well, so that was my current project. A whistle would be perfect for coordinating with Trig’s echolocation ability, for it could carry much farther than a voice.
“I don’t know what I’m doing out here,” he confessed.
“I thought you were valiantly protecting me,” I said with a chuckle, still working on the charm. It was just about done. All that was left was to smooth it out a bit more with a polishing stone.
“You completely ignored that noxious attack. When it grabbed you, you somehow managed to pull the frog back towards us. And what did I do? I staggered up to you and barely was able to cut the tongue before passing out. I thought I was so ready for this. But…now I’m not so sure.”
“Well, you picked a hell of a time to come to your senses, Trig. Because we’re stuck here until we can figure out where the Vessel is. Or at least find some way to get rid of this darkness.”
The young man was silent. He merely continued to cook the food, eyes filled with shame. What was I to tell him? Sometimes you get your ass handed to you in the field, it happens to everyone. But that kind of talk wouldn’t really be heard, would it? He was so embarrassed at his failings that anything I could say would just seem like it was meant to patronize him. Should I antagonize him, perhaps? Try and get him angry? Nah, that didn’t seem like either of us. He was a good kid and I wasn’t really the kind of person who insults others to get them moving.
“Tell you what,” I said, placing the whistle against my mouth and gently blowing. A smooth, gentle tune played. At once, Trig perked his head up and looked around, as if he were suddenly able to see everything nearby. “You can sulk tonight. Feel bad for yourself and feel ashamed as much as you like. But tomorrow, when we get up, you move on. Deal?”
Trig chuckled a little. “Not much of a motivating speech,” he replied, cracking a smile.
“Motivation is for big battles and for the tough times,” I said. “If that fight was the worst thing that happened to us in this adventure, I would count ourselves really lucky. So, mope around all you like. I’ll take first watch.”
Those words, or really the permission to just feel bad, seemed to lift Trig’s spirits. He sulked a little, sure, but he didn’t seem as grim about things. He finished making our dinner and played with Little Hig for a bit before returning to bed for a few hours. Hopefully in the morning, he’d be back to his old self.
While Trig rested, I stood by, watching the rest of the woods. Fighting with a torch had been quite difficult, so we jury-rigged a little set up that could accommodate my fighting style. Two long wooden poles had been attached to my backpack, with torches tied to them. Using my elemental burst power, I could light the torches with magic, so I wouldn’t need to turn them on individually. This would give me the cover of light, all the while ensuring I could move around freely without worrying about juggling my bow and my light source.
The world around us was quiet and still. Little Hig wandered over to me and climbed up my leg, gently hanging off of my belt, staring out into the darkness without making a sound. He seemed relaxed, unworried. Somehow, this creature could see in this strange fog, turning him into an excellent lookout. The fact that he was dead sil
ent at all times was a bonus, although it was still quite unnerving!
While we kept watch, I occupied myself by reading the newest charm description, seeing if it provided any benefits worth caring about. Trig had been the one to get the Bloodpoints, as it was clear he would need to rapidly catch up with me in terms of power level. If one fight was able to take him out so quickly, he’d need all the help he could get.
Aspect of the Poaruck:
Dymantic (0/3): Once per day, you may project an illusion that you are significantly larger than you actually are. Attacks to the illusion will appear to be ineffective, but will still appear like they hit. This illusion lasts for as long as you can focus.
Grappler (0/2): You gain +4 Strength when attempting to grapple a target.
Dense (0/2): Your weight increases tenfold without your agility, body shape or size being affected. You gain all the benefits of such weight without any of the drawbacks.
“Aha...” I muttered as I read the description of the charm’s powers. No wonder my attacks were so useless against that damned frog. I was only attacking an illusory ‘shell’, wasting arrows on a head that wasn’t actually there. And the density of the Poaruck must have made it so much stronger. Quite an interesting type of monster. And frankly, these abilities had some exceptional uses. Grappler not so much, but Dense? Imagine the kind of chaos I could cause by suddenly becoming a thousand pounds, all while retaining my agility. Certainly something to keep in my pocket, for sure.
Little Hig tugged on my arm, bringing me out of my thoughts and back into the bleak world of darkness surrounding us. He seemed focused on something in the distance now, head swiveling to the far left of us.
“You see something?” I whispered, aiming my bow at where he was looking. My Tremorsense wasn’t picking anything up. Yet, as I stared into the abyss, there came a deep, red light in the distance. It was soft and faint, barely visible in the shadows but certainly present.
Monster Hunting 401: A LitRPG Fantasy Adventure Page 8
