It took only a few moments for the group to see where the grass was falling. A darker tan color to the east. At first they couldn't even see what was coming towards them, even though the stampede was now only about 200 yards East. Then Eric saw a straggler of the herd, a dark green, six legged creature that was a mix of bug and lizard, covered in sharp spines. It scuttled forward, then reached the top of a small hillock and curled into a ball, rolling down towards the rest of the creatures. It looked to be at least 8 feet long, though at that distance Eric wasn't sure.
Eric didn't know if that was the only one or not, but the creatures were moving at least three times as fast as the humans, and the herd stretched at least 300 yards to either side. He had heard long ago from a friend, Kasidya, that the secret to surviving a stampede was moving to the edge. But they wouldn't have any chance of reaching either edge of the crowd of beasts moving towards them. They didn't have any sort of barrier to get the animals to split to both sides of them, like a large boulder or car.
Eric looked at the dry grass. This could be as bad as the stampede, but if they did nothing, they would die. “Jenkins, throw a firebolt between us and the herd! Parks, put up your barrier, lets see if it stops fire.” Eric thought 'System, now would be a good time to get a water spell.'
Water Blast ability gained.
Eric was vaguely aware that is free ability points just dropped from 3 to 2. But the skill might save their lives, so it was worth it.
As Jenkins' Fire Bolt set the grass in front of them on fire, it spread far too quickly. While the first blast only set a few stalks on fire, the flames spread like, well, wildfire. Eric used Water Blast first to soak the area near them, then to try to slow the spread, but it did nothing, and soon he was out of mana. Parks' barrier did work, at least on the flames themselves. The heat was intense, and all of them were sweating and coughing from the smoke. Soon they were surrounded by flames at least 100 feet in every direction, spreading faster every second. Eric was sure he had induced an environmental disaster.
The stampede slowed, and Eric hoped that at least the fire had worked to save their lives. The beasts closest to the fire had almost stopped, right on the edge. Even as far away as it was, through the smoke, Eric and his friends could see that something was happening. The animals continued to wrap around the fire, and Eric saw them rearing up, then slamming their bodies on the flames. Suffocating the flames with their bodies.
Eventually they moved further into the rough circle of burned grass, surrounding the group. The beasts carefully stomped every patch of embers that could flare up. A few snorted at Eric, and he looked at them up close. Their spines were like Echidnas, long, thick, but wickedly sharp. The creatures turned their sides to the group, and their spines expanded, long, spine covered tails began to wave menacingly.
“Lie down,” Eric said quietly, “Don't be a threat, those quills are defensive weapons.”
The group laid down on the ground, and the beasts snorted, and then began to move away. Tilly laughed, “Check your quests.” As the herd wondered off, Eric did.
Thin the herd successful, 300 XP gained. For using a unique and clever method, experience gain +50%!
Parks said “Ding!” Tilly looked confused, and she explained, “In video games, when you gained a level there used to be a sound, we gamers called it a 'ding' so now when someone gains a level they say 'ding.'”
“Wonderful, congratulations, did you get something good?”
“Well more hit points is always nice, but I don't use a shield so interpose shield is useless.”
Tilly asked, “Why don't you use a shield?”
Parks explained, “Bullets go right through most shields, and even shields that can stop a pistol or even rifle won't do anything about high caliber stuff.”
“Our warriors use shields against the bullets of the goblins,” Tilly pointed out.
Parks gave a 'huh' sound and seemed to think about it. “I suppose I could try a riot shield.”
As the group looked at the burnt circle, and the bodies of some of the Aurocats who had died to smoke and heat, they noticed some birdlike heads poke out of the grass and look at them. Taller than the humans, the birds had bright red feathers with green and black patterns. They didn't have beaks, instead having a long, narrow lizard-like mouth full of sharp teeth. A few stepped into the still smoking clearing, lowering their bodies to rip meat off the dead Aurocats.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Agent Jenkins said “Those are the Cultroraptors we need to kill.”
“How do you know?”
“Investigators get Identify.” Jenkins answered.
Unfortunately, there were clearly 8 Cultroraptors, not just five. No one had any illusion that if they started a fight it wouldn't involve everyone. Tilly suggested a plan. “Agent Parks, keep up your shield as long as you can. Eric, use Wind Slash so you don't start another fire, Jenkins, use your gun, and I'll use a few of my tricks, if one of them stops moving towards us, it is a low priority target, as it won't be able to attack for a bit. Everyone agree?”
Everyone did, and they prepared. “Now,” Tilly called, and Eric sent his Wind Slash at two of the big red birds. One was hit in the breast and the other in a wing, but neither went down. Jenkins shot the bird Eric had hit in the wing, which went down, and Parks put two shots into another bird.
Then the birds ran towards them, wings flapping in a bid to look larger. The birds also lowered their heads when charging, looking very different from the way they looked when not aggressive. One of the birds just stopped, then another. The five remaining birds were almost on top of the group.
Eric used both Wind Slash attacks on one bird, cutting off a foot and then slicing through its neck, killing it. Parks finished off the bird she hit before, and Jenkins shot the one Eric hit in the breast, taking it down. The last two slammed into Park's shield and stopped, but shattered the shield. Then Tilly used an ability called Multiply on her spear, and hit both of the birds at once, killing them. It was easy for the group to kill the two birds who had been forced to stop by Tilly's other ability, Binding Word. Eric put a bird in his storage to cook later, then thought about selling them and put a second in. Tilly got the two agents to also fill their storages with birds, saying they were likely worth more than the Aurocats, though they did grab a bunch of quills.
Eric looked around, “I still have a quest for eggs, should we do it?”
The others shrugged, “I don't see why not,” Parks said.
Eric tried Locate Animal, and to his surprise Cultroraptors were a valid target. The group moved through the tall grass, watching closely for movement that could indicate another foe. They were moving into an area with occasional trees and bushes, the latter were hard to push through, so they ended up going around. As they moved through the grass, they noticed it was becoming harder to push through that as well.
Jenkins noticed “The grass is wrapped around my foot!” As he tried to yank his foot free, grass quickly looped around the ankles of everyone else.
Tilly knelt, slashing the grass with her knife, and Eric used Water Blast. The latter turned out to be a mistake as the ground turned to goopy mud, while the grass vines were unaffected. Jenkins managed to yank free and said “To the tree!”
Tilly was slashing as fast as she could, but the ropes of grass were faster. Eric switched to using Wind Slash and with his help everyone got free and ran to the tree. The grass seemed to stop grabbing once they were closer to the tree, and as they reached the trunk the group stopped, panting.
“Anyone know what that was?” Parks asked.
“My identify said it was a Whisper Tree,” Jenkins answered.
“Wait, the tree, why did we run towards it then?”
“So I don't miss.” Jenkins said as he used Fire Bolt on the roots of the tree.
The grass all around them lashed inwards, and Parks threw up her shield just in time. It shattered after just a few seconds, but that let Eric send a Sun Bolt into the tree and let Jenkins use another Fire Bolt.
A limb of the tree swung down, slamming into Eric from the side, and Tilly smashed it with a hand ax, lopping it off. Grass lashed the group but Parks got another shield up. Jenkins sent another Fire Bolt into the tree, then was smashed in the head and knocked out by another branch.
Tilly looked at the tree, then her ax, “Multiply,” she said, slamming the ax into the tree, each time hitting in four places. Eric used Lesser Heal on Jenkins, who sent a fire bolt into one of the wedge shaped holes in the tree's trunk Tilly had cut.
The tree screamed, then the lashing grass stopped. Eric and Jenkins sent fire into the tree and Tilly chopped until they cut through the trunk and it fell over. It had stopped attacking but none of them wanted to take the chance.
Eric realized something, and checked his messages:
Level gained! HP increased 34>41, MP increased 42>51, 1 free attribute point-error, allocated to Cha due to hidden trait, 4 free skill points, 2 free ability points, merchant skill 0 gained due to player choices, Shelter ability gained, can affect up to 6 allies.
“Ding!” The others congratulated him.
The group spent another 15 minutes following the big ugly green arrow. What they found was four large, steep hills. The hills looked like they had been made, probably by the birds to divert stampedes. Inside each hill was a hollowed out area, holding carefully woven grass nests. There were three eggs in each of the four nests, and Eric considered taking all of them, but only took 5, leaving the other 7 to replenish the local population. He knew they likely wouldn't survive with their parents dead, but he would give them a chance.
On the way back they carefully avoided going near any of the trees, not knowing if they all were Whisper Trees. They also were lucky regarding the local animal life, and made it to the gate without any more fighting. Of course, Eric thought, since they were trying to get XP maybe that was a bad thing.
When they got back to Earth they had to sign out of the base, and gave a report to the Major, especially about the Whisper Trees and the risk of fire. The Corporal taking notes circled 'no fires' a few times. Major Sanz asked if they wanted to rest but they all wanted to get home (well the FBI office anyway) and rest. Parks and Jenkins had decided to stay with Eric in case of another attack.
They got in the car and started to drive, but saw something odd after a quarter mile. There were two cars blocking the road, one very similar to their FBI vehicle, and the other a police car, lights on but not sirens. As they got closer, they saw two police officers and someone in a suit and large cowboy hat behind the vehicles, guns out, pointed at the car Eric was in. Parks said “Wait, is that?”
The man in the suit was the FBI agent who had died that morning.