Alex crouched behind a fallen tree and tried to make out the monsters V.V. had detected. Even with his improved vision, courtesy of his stats, he could only just make out movement in the distant trees. V.V.’s detection range must have leveled up because he was sure she’d not been able to discover anything at such a long range previously. While he hid, V.V. floated up into the dense foliage above them. Alex strained both his hearing and vision so that he’d be prepared for any unexpected encounters. He couldn’t see with his Orbs but he knew that he’d know if something came from a direction the Orbs were paying attention to. Several frustrating minutes went by before he almost slapped himself.
Focusing, he used Advanced Scan and he felt a wave of energy leave him and then rush back in. Information that wasn’t there a moment ago began rushing into his mind. There were three squirrels ninety feet to his left, high up in a tree. Thirty feet behind him, some small creature dug through the dirt, he wasn’t sure of its species but at least it wasn’t digging towards him. One-hundred and twenty feet to his left something about the size of a chihuahua was rummaging through bushes in search of something. Ahead of him, he felt them, five large creatures moving slowly away from him to the West. He’d never considered himself stupid but maybe that was a title he should look into. How long had he had this extremely useful ability and let it sit unused. He sighed, pulled out his Map and was glad to see that the animals he’d detected were visible as red dots. He settled into watching the little dots move around on his map as they waited for the larger monsters to move away.
After waiting patiently for about half an hour, V.V. reappeared and began heading towards the center once more. Alex hoped that her moving out meant the small pack had traveled far enough away that they wouldn’t be alerted by Alex’s small band. He could still see them at the very edge of his Map and that was still close for him to feel comfortable. Maybe she was just bored of waiting and was hoping the monsters would attack them just to get things over with. Alex was about to ask her which of the two options she’d gone with when she spoke.
“They’ve moved out of my detection range. We should not have to worry about that group for a while at least. I must say though, if we don’t take out their numbers when there aren’t very many, we’ll end up having to fight larger packs tomorrow.” V.V. said and Alex realized that his detection ability must be slightly more powerful than her own. He decided to talk to her about the different levels and ranks of abilities soon but first he needed to justify not fighting more monsters.
“…I know. The deer from earlier were at a disadvantage and I still managed to get hurt. Without the healing I received, who knows what would’ve happened to me. Now there are five monsters, and I doubt we’ll get as lucky as with the deer.”
“Your hesitancy is understandable, but it may put you in a worse situation later. I’d like you to give fighting the next group we find some consideration.”
“…Ok.” Alex said as they continued walking and getting ever closer to the center.
The trees started to become denser as they continued their march towards their goal. He wanted to ask V.V. all sorts of questions but the eerie silence of the forest made him feel like he was shouting every time he spoke. They carried on and with as little noise as Alex could manage. After some thorough brush removal, he started to hear a rushing sound. V.V. continued like nothing was out of the ordinary, so he wasn’t too concerned. Finally, after a particularly vigorous tree snapping by V.V, an opening to a large river and what looked like a wall could be seen. V.V. was the first into the open area. She scanned the surroundings and started to move towards the water.
Alex stepped out into a large open riverbank that ran against the base of a cliff. The river was about twenty feet wide and ran from East to West. The woods he’d just come out of ran along the river in both ways without any breaks. Across from him, the ground jutted up over thirty feet to form a cliff wall and it mirrored the forest opposite as it continued into the distance in either direction. He could just make out greenery at the top of the cliff but no obvious way to get up it.
“Fantastic…” Alex said, annoyed by the new development.
“I can see your not thrilled by the wall, but it’ll be a good thing for you once we’ve taken the Zone. What you find annoying will also annoy anything that wants to enter your territory later.”
“The deer came from this direction, right?”
“I believe so. They were more than capable of jumping down from this small wall and into the water, if that is what you’re wondering. They may have even been able to jump down onto solid ground, but I doubt they’d have risked it.”
“It was what I was thinking. You don’t believe they could have just jumped right back up do you?”
“Highly unlikely. They were relatively powerful beasts but to clear thirty feet in a single leap would exceed impressive. If they could do something so spectacular I’d wonder as to why they wouldn’t have leapt during our fight. The Mana Craze could explain their inability to run but it’s loose logic.”
“So, do you think they had another way up?”
“Most likely, unless they either didn’t want to stay in the center or were forced out. But the quest considered them subjects of the center Zone, so I don’t think either of those scenarios are accurate.”
“What’s the plan for us then? I’d rather not scale a cliff…”
“Climbing the cliff shouldn’t be very difficult for you, but the daylight is fading. We have less than two hours before night falls again. If you climbed up now, we may not find a decent place to bunk for the night. We can go in the opposite direction from the group of five and see if there are any easier ways up. If not, we can camp inside the tree line for the night and find a way up in the morning.”
“Ok.” Alex said, looking to the cliff face and thinking to himself that V.V. didn’t have a firm grasp on what things were actually difficult for him.
They walked for another hour before the cliff and river started to separate away from one another. Deciding not to cross the river, they continued their quick pace beside it, making sure to keep the cliff in view. V.V. considered whether trying to defeat another patrol was the right call. If they did fight another group, it would be loud and even if they didn’t draw more the Zone’s forces, they’d have dead bodies laying around that would draw in other creatures. She was about to tell Alex they should move back into the woods for the night when she saw it. Four red dots appeared on her mini map that she’d become accustomed to having open almost constantly.
“Alex, four enemies are ahead of us, keeping close to the cliff wall.” V.V. said in her attempt at a whisper.
“Four’s better than five I guess…” Alex said, trying to resolve himself for another dangerous encounter.
“That depends on the types of monsters. If it were five squirrel’s vs four coyotes; I’d rather fight the squirrels.”
Alex didn’t say anything and just shook his head as V.V. led them to cover behind several large rocks that decorated the riverbank. It wasn’t perfect cover, but it was all they had to work with unless they wanted to retreat to the tree line and try luring the monsters inside with long range harassment. Alex didn’t have any long-range abilities yet and V.V.’s Consume wasn’t very effective after a few feet. They’d have to resort to tossing stones or yelling at the monsters and neither felt like great ideas to Alex. He got as low as he could and waited for the pack to come closer. They waited no more than a minute before they creatures could be seen moving through shrubbery at the base of the cliff. Alex could tell that they weren’t anywhere near the height of the deer but until they got a bit closer, he was unsure what he’d be facing.
“They’re shorter than the deer at least.” Alex whispered to V.V.
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“Hopefully height determines combat effectiveness then. The taller you are, the stronger you are. If that holds true though, I’m weaker than a human infant.”
“I wasn’t…” Alex trailed off as a guttural grunting noise came from the monsters. His attention immediately snapped back to the approaching threat as he’d thought he’d been discovered. Focusing on the shrubs he saw the lead animal for the first time. For a moment Alex thought he’d be fighting the largest rats to ever roam the planet but then it opened its maw, and that creepy guttural clucking noise came out again. While it wasn’t as tall or even as long as the deer, it was definitely wider. Alex estimated its length to be only about ten feet long, excluding the tail. It stood maybe five foot tall on all fours and almost the same in width. The chunky beast had a white furred face that held two blood red eyes. Much of its body was dark grey or black in spots. It looked to have clawed hands for feet, which Alex didn’t like to see. As it fully emerged from the bushes, he used Advanced Identify on the beast.
Mana Crazed Opossum
Level: 19
Sex: Male
Skills: Feign Death, Scurry
Status: Enraged
“Oh, duh… An Opossum!” Alex whispered but got a bit louder at the end of his revelation. With the river rushing past them, his small outcry wasn’t noticed. The lead Opossum turned and grunted at the bushes and three more snouts appeared. Alex had always thought most rodents and marsupials were kind of cute, but the foaming mouthed, red eyed creatures before him were anything but cute. He turned his Identify onto the new arrivals one by one.
Mana Crazed Opossum
Level: 16
Sex: Male
Skills: Feign Death, Scurry
Status: Enraged
Mana Crazed Opossum
Level: 17
Sex: Female
Skills: Feign Death, Scurry
Status: Enraged
Mana Crazed Opossum
Level: 16
Sex: Female
Skills: Feign Death, Scurry
Status: Enraged
All of their abilities were the same. The stag had a special ability that utilized the does in its small herd, but the leader of this group seemed to only be the leader due to its level. He tried to dig into what Feign Death and Scurry did, but nothing happened. He hoped as the level of his Advanced Identify leveled, it would allow for more details. V.V. may have known what the skills did, but the Opossums were close enough now that he didn’t dare to talk. They were just across the river from them now and Alex knew the time to strike was only moments away. He couldn’t attack them directly unless he attempted to swim across the twenty-foot river, but his Orbs, Sphere and V.V. would serve as a fantastic surprise attack.
Alex summoned his Healing Orblet and saw that V.V. had also summoned her Combat Orblet. The sneak attack should have happened as soon as the group walked past but the lead Opossum stopped moving right as it was level with Alex. His breath caught in his throat as the massive animal barked another strange growl and slipped into the water. Not a second went by before the other three started to slide in as well. The lead monster was so long that it was only a few seconds before the leader’s head broke the surface on Alex’s side of the river. Everything had already launched into action even before the leader had surfaced. V.V. zoomed out from behind the rock to his left and over the water where the three smaller Opossums were in the rivers center. Ruby, Opal and the Sphere dove down onto the main Opossums head as it broke the surface.
The leader screeched in pain as Alex’s companions began to slam into it with devastating blunt force. V.V. and her Orblet had shot into the water, and he couldn’t see what they were doing. Alex rushed out from behind his cover and as the lead Opossum attempted to snap his Orbs and Sphere from the air, he struck. Stabbing the Blade of Infestation deep into its jugular was smoother than Alex thought it would be. He ripped the blade to the side to open the wound as mush as possible. The Opossum slung its entire body towards the river and Alex was sprayed with copious amounts of blood. The river darkened where the leader had gone under, so much blood had exited the creature that if it wasn’t dead, it would be soon. He turned towards V.V.’s battle and didn’t have time to react to the teeth that were suddenly imbedded in his right leg, thigh and hip.
“Aaaaagh!” Alex screamed as the leader had burst from the river and latched onto him. Not a moment had gone by before his entire body was under water. In a flash, he’d gone from an easy victory to drowning because he’d decided to expel every ounce of air in his scream of pain. His Orbs and Sphere were there beating the monsters head in, but it wouldn’t be enough if he couldn’t get any air. If the thing died latched onto him, he’d just sink to the bottom with it. He reached down to where the enormous maw had slammed shut onto his body and tried to pry it open. Even with all his enhanced attributes, he couldn’t get his hands in a position to form enough leverage. His vision started to darken, and he saw little stars float around in his vision.
Plunk
Alex’s feet hit something solid. He’d gone down feet first and was now standing with the Opossum’s teeth still firming embedded in his side. Now that he could plant himself in place, he tried again to push the snout of the creature away from him. While it was extremely painful, he managed to push upper portion of the monsters jaw away from his body, which unfortunately pushed its lower jaw more firmly into himself. He spun his body out of the beast mouth, and it snapped closed again. He could feel himself fading for the hundredth time and there were still three more creatures to fight. Pathetic… was what he felt his last thoughts were going to be before he burst out of the water. He took in enormous, ragged breaths as his Orbs and Sphere carried him to the bank. He expected to be set down gently but was surprised to be plopped down unceremoniously. Rolling on his back, Alex was forced to lay still as his entire body screamed in pain. Stars still flitted around his vision, but the darkness had begun to recede. He was about to sit up when pain that he’d never felt before erupted in his mind.
Meanwhile, V.V. had finally found herself in a situation where she was feeling pressured. Attacking the Opossum’s while they were unaware, submerged and slowed by the river seemed like the ideal plan. She hadn’t anticipated how quickly the creatures would be in the water. They would grab hold of rocks that jutted up from the riverbed and use them to propel themselves through the water. The first Opossum she’d attacked was already floating down the river, dead from an exceptionally well-placed stab through its eye and into the brain. The other two were causing her more issues than she’d comfortably admit.
She’d already been slashed several times and grabbed once. The creature immediately regretted that though as V.V. erupted in sharp and slender spikes. V.V. had felt Alex was in danger and tried to disengage from her opponents but every time she tried to surface; they were there. They’d swipe at her, forcing her to dive back down or put their entire bodies in the way of her retreat. Consume moved so slowly through the water that it was nearly worthless save the occasional graze to one of the enemies. They learned quickly to avoid the dark beams that flowed slowly from the little marble. For the first time since coming to this world, she was running low on energy and wasn’t sure what to do. She wasn’t worried about herself, but she could feel that Alex was hurt and needed to get to him but couldn’t. That was the worst part of it, she couldn’t let the scared child who had so much potential die on her watch.
But here she was, no hidden abilities to kill her enemies with, just her and the Combat Orblet. She’d used the little fellow to its fullest to distract and attack but it wasn’t enough. She’d made several attempts to get closer to the shore or even go deeper down the river, but these stupid animals were determined to keep her there. Panic started to rise in V.V. as she felt Alex’s consciousness fading and she made what the Opossum’s thought was another rush to escape. She shot up through the water while one chased behind and the other swam above her. They didn’t expect the little silver toy to elongate into a thin spike and shoot back towards one swimming below. Before it could react, V.V. added another kill to her growing list as she drove nearly sixteen inches of otherworldly metallic death into the Opossums open mouth and exposed throat. She began to retreat back into her natural shape when the other beasts’ jaws slammed closed onto its dead companions’ neck.
It wasn’t necessarily pain that she felt. She didn’t have the same kind of nerves that a body like Alex or other biologicals had, but she did feel that she was severely damaged this time. She’d stretched herself so thin that the bite from the Opossum was breaking her. Cracks ran the length of her body, and she thought how unfortunate it was that she’d die before getting see how far Alex would go and what wonders she’d not get to see in this new world. She didn’t give up but trying to reform in her true shape was agonizingly slow now that she’d received so much damage. There was no fighting back against her enemy as it bit down on again and again. The dead Opossums neck was nearly severed at this point and V.V. had been bitten multiple times as well. Chips of her body floated freely through the water and mercury-like liquid accompanied the red blood of the Opossum. She thought to herself about how stupid of her it was to fight underwater when she had so many fun poisons to use on land. Stupid…