Xavier stared at the notification he had just received.
You have trespassed on the stampede and have now been marked by the Alpha Rhinoceros Monkey.
As long as you remain upon this world, it will have the ability to track you.
The red glow around him that had just flared receded until it was gone completely, but he was being tracked now. He wouldn’t be able to use his Time Alteration spell for almost another fifteen minutes. With the ranks he’d gained, he’d reduced it by more than half down from its original thirty minutes, but that was still a good long while in the middle of a fight.
It’s an eternity.
Xavier kept running, trying to think what his next move should be. He hadn’t yet laid eyes on the Alpha Rhinoceros Monkey, but something told him that it was this alpha’s mind that was the reason he wasn’t able to use Willpower Infusion on any of the beasts in the stampede.
He hadn’t been feeling as though the stampede was a threat to him, but if he didn’t have the ability to leave it behind…
Xavier could keep running until his cooldown for Time Alteration reached zero, then he would be in a better position to fight the stampede, using the same tactic that he’d been using only a moment ago, but—even though he’d developed his patience—he wasn’t willing to simply keep running from a fight he knew he could win.
He skidded to a halt, the heels of his boots cutting a trough through the soft ground of the forest floor. He whirled around and got a good look at the stampede heading his way. There were still trees blocking his vision, and it was no less difficult to make out the enemies from this distance than it had been the first time he’d seen them.
But there was one enemy that stood out from the rest. A beast that had come to the front of the pack—or herd, whatever a group of these things was called. It was massive, far larger than the nine feet of its brethren. It wasn’t as large as many of the beasts Xavier had fought in the past, but he knew that size, uh, wasn’t everything.
This beast ran on two legs. Its horn glowed red, and so did its eyes, which were laser-focused on Xavier. It was unmistakable that this was the Alpha Rhinoceros Monkey—the beast that had marked him with the tracker.
Learning what level this beast was would help Xavier decide his next move.
He used his Identify skill on the beast.
{Alpha Rhinoceros Monkey – Level 290}
The Alpha Rhinoceros Monkey is the head of the pack, the leader of the herd. It is responsible for the safety of the entire stampede and holds a grudge like few other beasts in the Greater Universe.
If its herd has been disturbed, it will go to great lengths to seek revenge.
The Alpha Rhinoceros Monkey is immune to mental attacks and has the ability to bestow that immunity upon its brethren. It also has an incredibly high toughness, and is able to conjure defences to many different attacks.
If one is alone when they face a Rhinoceros Monkey herd, then they have made a great tactical error.
Thanks, System, for that wonderful little insight.
Xavier took in the sight of the Alpha Rhinoceros Monkey, a D Grade beast more than a hundred levels higher than himself, the highest-level beast he’d ever faced.
It was ten levels higher than the Stone Bear, and that bear… well, he’d been able to defeat it in quite an amazing way, but that was a unique situation. He’d been inside an instance, with no other enemies around…
If things had been different? He wasn’t sure what would have happened.
This must be a beast from the board, and now I won’t even get the Hunt Quest for it…
That was, of course, assuming he could defeat the beast. He was sure that if he had the beast alone, it likely wouldn’t pose a huge threat to him if he was careful.
But the Level 290 Alpha Rhinoceros Monkey was surrounded by five thousand of its closest friends, and every single one of them was headed his way.
Briefly, he rethought his strategy of simply fighting this thing. Perhaps that wasn’t the best choice that he could make in this situation.
I must always remember to be humble…
Xavier smiled. Being humble wasn’t what had gotten him this far. He may have cultivated a great deal of patience working with Liana, but his ambition had not gone away. Not in the slightest.
He tilted his head one way, then the other. He decided that he might as well deal with this beast swiftly. There was no reason to delay the inevitable. Without knowledge of just how strong this beast was, he knew it could pose a serious threat to him if he didn’t take it seriously.
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And that was why Xavier cast Soul Strike. He wasn’t being subtle, either. He didn’t start slow, by putting a dozen, or a hundred, or even five hundred souls into the spell.
He dumped two thousand souls straight into it.
It would take out a massive chunk of his reserve, but he was going to deal with the entire herd now. He’d been willing to leave it alone as he hadn’t needed any more souls from them, but now that this beast was tracking him… well, that signed the death warrants of the alpha’s entire herd-pack.
You shouldn’t have come after me.
Xavier took a step forward and angled his Midnight Scythe toward his enemy. The enemy barrelled through the forest, snapping trees straight from the ground, making a beeline for the one that had trespassed against its brethren.
A crackle of white lightning surged from Xavier’s scythe-staff. It had been some time since he’d used the spell with so much power. He certainly hadn’t attuned his Spirit attribute the last time he’d cast this spell with that many souls.
Xavier gazed at the soul apparitions that sprang into life. Among them were the dead Rhinoceros Monkeys, heading straight toward their kin to attack them. There were hundreds of other beasts, too. Wolven and boars that he’d faced in the forest, and other beasts he’d fought on previous floors. They all glowed in a silvery white light as they raged across the forest toward their enemy.
The Rhinoceros Monkeys in the stampede didn’t even flinch at the sight of the soul apparitions—neither did their alpha. If anything, it increased the speed at which the alpha was heading toward him.
Xavier stood there, watching, waiting for the soul apparitions to hit. He knew it didn’t take them long to travel to their target, but standing there it seemed like an age.
Something strange happened then. The alpha Rhinoceros Monkey’s horn glowed brightly. At first, Xavier thought it was some kind of spell. A counterattack to the one that he’d just cast. But it was something else.
Every single one of the horns in the entire stampede glowed red. At least, that’s what he thought must have happened, he couldn’t discern the entire herd from here, but an eerie red glow emanated from the forest where they were, as though the very trees were bleeding. To his eyes, it could have only been made by thousands of the beasts.
Xavier took a step back, gripped his Midnight Scythe, readying himself to throw up a Soul Block. Was this some kind of joint attack? If so, he could only imagine how powerful something like that would be. Maybe the alpha was drawing energy from herd, like Goku with his spirit bomb…
It would be devastating. There’s no way that I would be able to survive something like that.
Xavier was wondering if the System’s words had some merit to them—perhaps he had made a tactical error after all.
Hopefully the Soul Strike interrupts whatever the hell this is.
The soul apparitions slammed into the Alpha Rhinoceros Monkey. Xavier waited for the kill notification to come up—
Hundreds of kill notifications crowded his vision, constantly streaming down. He instantly split his mind so he could identify what had just happened.
The Alpha Rhinoceros Monkey… it was still running toward him. It hadn’t faltered a single step in its stride.
What the hell?
It wasn’t clear to Xaver what had happened until he’d gotten a chance to look at the kill notifications, and the alpha was closing the distance faster than he’d expected.
How in the world is that thing still alive?
The kill notifications—they were all for Level 190 Rhinoceros Monkeys. But that… that shouldn’t have been possible! He hadn’t targeted the other enemies—he’d targeted their alpha. Even if the attack, somehow, hadn’t done any damage to the alpha, it shouldn’t have hurt the other enemies in the slightest.
This is strange. Very, very strange.
There were other notifications, too, after all of the dead Rhinoceros Monkeys—he’d gained a single level from his efforts, bringing him to Level 168.
And Soul Strike had gained three ranks, bringing it up to Rank 63. That was the first time the spell had gained a rank in a while.
Maybe I can get something more out of this.
Xavier didn’t hesitate to reap the souls of all the enemies that fell. He had used two thousand souls in that attack, but he hadn’t killed two thousand of the enemies. He’d only killed about a thousand of them, making his soulkeeping reserve even smaller than it had been when he’d gotten to this place.
Xavier was pretty sure he knew what had just happened. The Alpha Rhinoceros Monkey had glowed red, then so had all the other beasts under its command. Somehow, through whatever connection it held to all of them, it had been able to disperse Xavier’s attack into its brethren, not coming to any harm itself.
It would have been nice if the Identify spell had told me a little something about that…
The spell, unfortunately, had completely left that out—along with any way that this thing might be vulnerable. Though he supposed it did say that it was able to conjure up defences. Maybe this is what that description had been referring to.
The Alpha Rhinoceros Monkey appeared to grow in its rage. There was a glow about it now that hadn’t been there before. It got even faster as it ran.
The damned thing is going berserk, isn’t it?
Xavier felt like a fool. He’d expended more souls than he’d gained in this place, and he hadn’t even harmed the alpha.
He gritted his teeth. Not was not the time to feel down on himself. He needed to act. He still had the option to run, even if he didn’t want to use it. But he dismissed that. This thing could follow him wherever he went—he needed to deal with it now.
It’s strong because of its herd. Without it, it wouldn’t have been able to disperse that attack.
All Xavier would need to do was kill every single one of its brethren, perhaps before he could deal any damage to the alpha if it was able to constantly disperse his attacks.
Yeah, that sounds easy enough.
But Xavier wouldn’t know that until he had thrown a few more spells at it.
He grinned, feeling a sudden burst of energy.
There was a wonderful thing about gaining levels, and he wasn’t referring to the attribute points he got.
Gaining a level meant he restored every single one of his spells from their cooldowns—which meant not only could he use Soul Strike again if he wished, he could also use Time Alteration.
But first, he wanted to test out the new spell he’d just acquired—Time Prison.
Having thought everything through, Xavier sprinted forward to meet the Alpha Rhinoceros Monkey head on.
The gap swiftly closed. Xavier had an intuitive understanding of the spell he was about to cast. Even though the description hadn’t mentioned it, he knew he needed to physically make contact with his enemy for the spell to have an effect. Though the spell was most definitely an otherwise powerful spell from what he could tell, it certainly had its drawbacks.
He met the enemy head on—and underestimated it.
The Alpha Rhinoceros Monkey was faster than he’d expected it to be, even though he’d just seen the damned thing sprinting toward him, he hadn’t anticipated this. Before Xavier could lay a hand on it, its tail whipped out at him and grabbed for his Midnight Scythe.
The beast tugged on the shaft.
Xavier held on with all his might.
Then another tail appeared.
The damned beast had two tails!
Xavier’s Midnight Scythe was ripped from his hands—in a rage, he grabbed for one of the receding tails, trying to get a hold of it.
That’s when he cast Time Prison—trapping both the Alpha Rhinoceros Monkey in time, along with his Midnight Scythe. The beast and his scythe-staff were trapped in a pocket of time that Xavier wasn’t able to make contact with.
He didn’t have a spare weapon on him.
The stampede was upon him.