The group appeared in an oppressive hot green land. Victor identified it as a rainforest complete with birds chirping above. They stood at the bottom of a waterfall near the river edge. The smell of the massive orange flowers across the river wafted near them almost floating them on the delightful aroma. The light above seemed to be the sun itself. They stood on a large grey rock warm to the touch. The group stood in wonder as the sites managed to inspire even Emilie. Even Cawthorn was rendered speechless by the beauty. Only Serena retained enough sense to hear the creature charging them.
A massive boar nearly hit Victor. Serena grabbed the tusks kicking Victor into the air to knocking him out of the way.
-11 Health
779/790 Health
Victor watched from above as the creature glanced off Jenoras “ Barrier Shield !”
Serena still attached tried to veer it to the side slowing it down. She was clearly bleeding and wounded. Emilie couldn’t reach her as the 10 foot tall boar tried to slam her into the wall. Jenora cast “ Shield Charge! ” bashing the creature down and taking a slice into the creature.
Serena immediately retreated to Emilie with her arm gushing blood. “ Regenerate !”
Brice extended his hand. “Fire Bolt!” His spell instantly dissipated as it left his hand. “What! No way! My magic doesn’t work here!”
Still mid air Victor grabbed a branch and aimed his hand at the boar. “ Jolt !” His spell hit the boar sizzling against it causing it to turn toward him and the tree hung off of. “Oh shit.”
The boar charged the tree. The others regrouped around Jenora healing Serena. “Jump to the next tree!” Serena called out.
Victor focused on falling right and started swinging back and forth. The boar hit the tree with a loud crash cracking it. His momentum and the falling tree gave him enough speed to reach a vine on the nearby tree. He swung boar right behind him. He knew he couldn’t stop. Any delay in his movement and the boar would gore him into paste and eat him. He grabbed Vine after Vine hearing “ Speed Boost !” shouted behind him but his momentum continued to accelerate with the boar still behind him. He had gone too far away from them.
A muddy ditch in the distance, one vine then another and it was beneath him and he changed direction flipping backward catching a vine between his legs. “ Jolt !” A straight hit angering it further. Victor tried to right himself as the boar slopped around in the mud trying to stand up he fired off spell after spell clearly irritating the creature and scorching its fur. “Fine! Try this! FROST BOLT!” The spell proved completely ineffective as though he had just thrown water at the creature. “Too far away I guess.”
The creature finally righted itself and turned around charging at the tree which held an upside down Victor aloft. Its collision could be heard by all of them. The tree fell toward the boar and this time Victor couldn’t grab a vine. “Time to improvise.” He swung forward flying through the air. He plunged his ice blade down. “Jolt!” His spell left his blade as he landed with a grip on the creatures spine. It bucked around and charged with him barely holding on. “FROST BOLT!” A massive spike of ice jutted out from the back of the boar before it crashed into the next tree cracking his ice blade. He flew forward crashing into a tree.
-43 Health
Staggered
736/790 Health
It turned to him and he felt slowed, almost dazed. He knew he couldn’t move for a moment so he pointed the Frigid Foil at the boar and formed a spear with a massive brace bar on it. “This is going to suck.”
It began charging toward him only to eat an arrow to the eye causing it to veer off course crashing into and toppling another tree. Serena dashed past and grabbed Victor who let his weapon collapse as the tree landed where he was. “You good?”
“Disoriented from the hit. I’m fine.” Victor reformed his blade.
“They’re right behind me.” Serena noted as the others arrived.
A crash as Jenora landed with her massive Barrier Shield on the creature stabbing its other eye. It flailed about as Jenora grabbed her blade in both hands screaming. Her blade fell on its neck severing it cleanly. Jenora panted. “Are all of you alright?”
Dire Boar 16: Experience Increase 9.2%
Current Exp to level 15 16.1%
“Yeah. I’ll live.” Victor coughed with a bloody nose.
Emilie rushed to heal him. “ Regenerate .”
“Thank goodness. I’m already hungry enough. We ate our rations.” She smiled turning back around. “ Barrier Shield !” She cast it just in time as the massive wall of teeth knocked her away. The creature 10 times her height flipped the boar carcass into the air crunching it swallowing it.
Victor shouted absolutely flabbergasted. “Is that a dinosaur!?” The massive T-Rex roared at them. The green creature stomped toward them knocking down the trees around it. “Uh guys? We run here right?” Serena had already grabbed both him and Brice and departed with Jenora and Emilie slowly overtaking them as the massive beast stomped after them through the jungle. The group made it back to the river and suddenly found themselves backed against the river and cornered against the waterfall.
“We ran out of road Serena.” Jenora noted putting Emilie down.
Serena turned to Jenora as the rustling of the forest indicated it still stomping toward them. “Jenora you have to knock it over. We all target the legs. Brice you’re on barrier duty for Emilie.”
Emilie put her hand on Jenora. “ Strength Boost. Speed Boost .”
The trees crashed to the ground as it barreled toward them roaring so loud their ears bled.
Deafened
Bleeding: 10 damage per minute of movement.
None of them could hear save for the ringing. The stomps reverberated toward them as Jenora took off. She shouted something as a barrier shield appeared and she crashed into the leg staggering it’s charge. The T-Rex managed to wrap its jaw around Jenora. She held it open struggling for a moment before it flung her up in the air above its open maw. The roar couldn’t be heard but Jenora was able to see it crash to the ground as a bolt of lightning and both Serena and Victor barrel past it with blood trailing behind them. The dinosaur knelt down on a knee as it lost its footing.
Jenora plunged her sword into its skull. A clank as she hit its skull drew blood but could not penetrate it. She took a swing at its eye scarring it before it shook her off. She crashed to the ground sliding back to the edge of the water. The T-Rex got back on its feet bleeding but still moving. Serena and Victor darted toward it only to be swiped away by its whip of a tail crashing into the bushes in the distance.
-31 Health
695/790 Health
Jenora looked up at the massive maw suddenly pushing down on her barrier. A crack formed, then another. No one could hear the sound coming toward them as an axe whirled into the blind side of the T-Rex’s head knocking it off Jenora. A dwarf with a black beard slammed into the axe knocking the massive creature down. The dwarf something that no one could hear as the ground reverberated behind them. A massive spinosaurus towering over them blotted out the light with its fin as it bit into the neck of the T-Rex. The entire group backed off as the Dwarf pulled his axe out and the two titans flailed before the spinosaurus flipped the T-Rex snapping its neck.
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T-Rex 40: Experience Increase 52.2%
Current Exp to level 15 68.3%
The spinosaurus put its foot on the head of the T-Rex and roared at them. All of them ran following the Dwarf into a small cave near the waterfall as he motioned for them to follow. None of them could hear still as they passed into a smooth cave with trickling water. Finally their hearing came back. Emilie began regenerating them. Finally Victor looked at him and hugged the dwarf. “Gargrim! It’s so good to see you again! How did you get here?”
He put his hand up to his mouth. “Shush lad. The beastie that ate the other beastie is still outside. It knows we are in here but we’re too small to make a meal of, and annoying to reach. As long as we are quiet and just wait here we’ll be fine. Do any of you have any food?”
Victor looked around. “Anyone?” They all shook their heads. “I think we are out of rations Gargrim.”
He sighed. “I’ve not eaten in 6 days. In this place everything is food for something else and if you kill something you have to protect your kill aggressively. Even just cleaving off a piece will cause a bunch of the big creepy crawlies to come and get you. Cooking is basically impossible you have to eat it raw. I’ve been stuck here since I fell into a room that had a magic circle on the ground that activated almost immediately as I fell on it.” Victor quickly described the room they fell into asking if it was that room. “Nay lad there was no rug in my room. I think we arrived here from different places.”
Serena slapped his back. “It is good to see you again. Are your entrances always this dynamic?”
He smirked. “I’m just a dynamic dwarf. Introduce me why don’t you?”
“This is Jenora. She’s a cleric and holy warrior. This is her partner Emilie, a priest. Lastly this is Brice.” Victor motioned toward him.
“It’s a pleasure to meet the two ladies. I spy some elven ears on Brice over there.” Gargrim frowned.
Brice insisted. “I’m just a half-elf! I’m definitely not an elf!”
Gargrim frowned at him angrily furling his beard. “Nay lad you’re an elf.” Brice gulped and nodded. “I’d consider killing you if I had the energy and if we weren’t already dead here. Don’t betray us and I’ll leave you be. For now.”
Brice backed up behind Jenora. “I’ll be quiet.”
Emilie stared him dead in the eyes. “If you mess with Brice I won’t heal you.”
Gargrim raised one of his bushy black eyebrows. “Quite the feisty young priest you’ve found Victor.”
“You’re damn right.” Emilie crossed her arms scoffing at him.
Jenora nodded to Gargrim smiling warmly. “I’m grateful for the help. Sorry we couldn’t kill it on our own.”
“You kidding young lady? That thing should have flattened all of you. It is slow but it’s really tough and strong. Your quick reinforce kept you alive just long enough for me to arrive.” Gargrim extended his hand and shook her hand.
“I appreciate that but please leave Brice alone. We already had one group try to kill him this week.” Jenora noted.
“Lad how did you manage to find 3 other people who tolerate an elf?” Gargrim stroked his beard.
“Who said we all do?” Serena shook her head. “I still hate elves but he convinced me to give him a chance.”
“I hated elves but Victor changed my mind.” Emilie leaned back on Jenora further obscuring Brice.
Jenora simply noted. “I prefer not to comment on that particular topic.”
Gargrim smirked. “Not a fan of elves. That’s fine. Consider me a kindred spirit.”
Serena irritated changed the topic. “How do we get out of here?”
“Well the cave has the one exit only.” Gargrim explained.
“No I meant this realm of the abyssal labyrinth.” Serena corrected him.
“That’s where we are? Ah then we’re goners.” Gargrim nodded.
Serena shook her head. “We need to find a glowing green portal. It will take us from this realm to another at an easier level. If we do that 3 times we should be transported back to Verdan.”
“Green portal? Does it look like a magic circle but huge?” Gargrim asked.
“Yes. We have to stand in it for 15 seconds and it will transport us somewhere else.” Serena leaned forward as the water trickled down.
Gargrim went silent and his shoulder slumped. “We’re dead then.”
Victor wistfully asked. “Why? Please do tell.”
Gargrim explained. “There is a ziggurat west of here in a valley. I saw it when I was looking out from the top of a tree. It’s surrounded by hundreds of huge apes with stone weapons. I was able to kill 1 of them. Just 1. Then I had to retreat as I was hurt and exhausted. I’m still so hungry desperately trying to find food because tomorrow I will gain the starving debuff.”
Victor asked. “What does that do?”
Brice poked his head over Jenora. “He won’t be able to regain health from sources other than food. His stamina regeneration will be low. He’ll slowly waste away as he takes a small amount of damage every time he sleeps. There are other side effects too. He needs a full meal to avoid that.”
“We could eat the elf.” Gargrim noted half joking. The faces of the four glared at him irritated. “I’m kidding. Mostly. We need to catch something and get a good night sleep.”
“When that creature goes away we can hunt.” Serena agreed.
“Young lady you have no idea how hard that is here. These creatures may be simple and have extremely simple combat behaviors they are higher level than wildlife on Verdan. They are dangerous even if we kill something there is a good chance it gets eaten by something else, as you’ve seen. I haven’t been able to catch anything and actually keep it. I snatched a piece of meat from a dead creature a while ago.” Gargrim slumped down.
“Can we create a trap?” Victor asked.
“With what?” Serena tilted her head. “No the best thing we can do is hunt together. We’re all tired and no matter what we do we’re going to suffer hunger tomorrow and we’ve only got an hour, possibly 2 before we need to sleep. Is that dinosaur out there?”
Jenora stood up and peaked out. “Yes, it’s still eating the smaller one. There is no way we can go out past it.” She moved back and sat in front of Brice.
Gargrim sighed and began cursing in dwarven before taking a deep breath. “Let’s just sleep. We can try and hunt something tomorrow.”
“We have water at least.” Brice noted. “We’ll only go hungry.”
“Aye long ears. We’ll only go hungry but after 7 days you won’t be able to be healed anymore. If the young lady would heal me I’d appreciate it. I won’t be able to be healed starting tomorrow.” Gargrim grimaced.
Emilie laid her hand on him and cast “ Regenerate .” She left it running while the conversed. “You stink you know.”
“Bathing in this hell isn’t safe. The water looks safe but you’ll be killed if you go much beyond the edge of the river.” Gargrim noted.
Victor turned to Serena. “This is pretty bad but it seems a lot less horrible than the previous situation. Should I?”
“Save it Victor. We’ll need at least that to get through the apes after we’ve eaten. Even if we want to leave we need to hunt and actually succeed or we WILL die be it from hunger or from monsters.” Serena nodded. “We’re in deep but this isn’t the same at all as before.”
Emilie looked at her hands and shook for a moment. “I can’t believe I learned the truth about the Golden Goddess today.” She opened and closed her hands repeatedly trying to feel if she was really awake and alive. “It’s so depressing and unbelievable. I’ve not had time to think about it.”
Jenora wrapped an arm around her. “We’ll figure something out. I promise.”
Gargrim raised an eyebrow. “The Golden Goddess?”
“She’s dead.” Emilie closed and opened her hands again. “She died in the siege of heaven long ago and only the angels remain of her.”
Swordie spoke up. “Like me. Just believe in Hope and have faith. You’ve had faith your whole life. Don’t let this break it.”
Gargrim looked at the book. “It talks? I don’t recall that last time we met.”
“His name is Swordie. He’s an angel and he gave me my angelic knight title.” Victor smiled patting Swordie.
“An angelic knight? Well quite the important kid here.” He heartily chuckled slapping his shoulder. “It shouldn’t surprise me. You seemed different from the moment I met you.”
“We should sleep.” Brice noted. “In a place like this waking up as the sun comes up is the best time to hunt as nocturnal animals will have poor vision and be heading to bed and other animals will either be asleep or just waking up. Serena are you going to take watch?”
Serena nodded as the rest took edges of the cave and began to sleep with the sound of trickling water in trickling in their cave as night fell.