Ashley

I slowly move up towards the creature, being careful as I do so in order to avoid attracting other monsters in the process. Which proves to be a bit of a challenge, but not one that I can’t clear. And once I reach within a few floating blocks of the monster, the pyramid-shaped creature spins around and faces its point directly at me. Then it separates itself into dozens of triangles that all begin to spin, with the triangles closer to the point of the pyramid spinning faster than the larger triangles.

Guess that’s why it’s called a moledrill.

The thing launches itself directly at me, but I just stop flapping my wings, making me fall down and out of its way before I start flapping again after it’s already passed by over my head. And without any hesitation, I turn around and fly after it with my knife out and ready. But, just as I expected, my knife just pings off of the thing’s edge when I stab at it. Leaving me hurriedly – and awkwardly – backing away from it while gritting my teeth at the reverberations sent through my arm from the strike.

Not going to be an easy fight, that’s for sure.

Especially since the mole thing attracted the attention of three other mole things. Each of which is currently charging straight at me as well, turning this into a very dangerous game of tag as I avoid each one. And not very well at that, since I end up being hit once in my attempts to avoid them thanks to not being used to flying still.

I grit my teeth a little as I hold my side, where I feel blood trickling down my side. Still not soaking into my clothes, even with my clothes being damaged now.

Something that does catch my eye though is the sight of the strings of my shirt and jacket knitting themselves back together. But my attention quickly returns to the battle when the first mole thing finally turns around after having stopped its triangles from spinning. Only for the triangles to start spinning again once it locks onto me.

Looks like they’re not good at turning.

That’s good.

Gives me something to work with.

But before that, I finally activate my skill. Dark Howl.

And I immediately feel something being drained away from me as my mouth opens wider than normally possible. So wide that it dislocates my jaw and almost makes me grunt in pain.

Then a loud howling sound echoes out from my wide-open mouth, rapidly drying out both my mouth and throat in the process.

Meanwhile I manage to see the moledrills all flinching when they hear my howl. Which proves that it does have an effect on the creatures.

After their initial flinch, they try to continue moving, only to end up wobbling around as if they’re drunk.

I can’t easily study the odd sight though, because the howl is still being practically ripped out of my throat, making me feel pain in the process. And it’s not just these four moledrills that are being affected by it. Pretty much all the moledrills within several dozen meters around us are too.

Which is a lot of moledrills.

Thankfully for me, the red and blue triangular shaped turret monsters are higher up and aren’t looking this way.

But dozens of moledrills are, even if they’re wobbling. And they’re all beginning to spin their triangles, preparing to charge at me.

Then my skill finally cuts off the moment they all begin their charge. So I quickly move out of the way of the creatures, finding it easier to do than I would’ve expected. Probably because they’re all dazed still.

What I find very nice though, is the fact that many of the moledrills collide with each other in the air. And when they do, the things end up chipping off parts of their triangles, then growing angry at each other.

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Although, I have to admit, the sight of an angry pyramid is not something I expected to see here.

I narrow my eyes ever so slightly when the things begin charging at each other instead of me. For the ones that hit another pyramid, that is.

Do these things have minds or something? Rather interesting.

I quickly open up my status to look at my mana, only to find it missing five bars. Then I focus on avoiding the moledrills that didn’t hit anything before and are still after me. And as I do that, I make sure to look at my wound. Only to find it already having largely closed up.

Right when I’m about to return my attention to the moledrills, though, a segmented bar appears at the top, center of my interface. A red one with one more segment missing than the last time.

I refocus on the moledrills, not paying any mind to my loss of a single bar of health as the things charge at me again.

And just like with the previous time, a bunch of them end up hitting each other. Leaving just three that are still focused on me and not trying to kill each other.

But unlike with the last time, two of them manage to graze me. One on my shoulder, the other on a wing. And the one that hits my wing ends up being coated in that same poisonous substance that I saw before whenever something bit my wing.

Some sort of poisonous blood that’s only in my wings.

One that mutates whatever it touches, including these metal moledrills by the looks of how this one is currently crashing down towards the ground.

Before it hits the ground though, I make sure to activate Assimilate.

Then the pyramid thing shatters, falling apart into the separate segments of its body. And a notification appears the moment it does.

{You have been granted 2 Skill Points for killing a monster within the tutorial. EXP has now been allocated accordingly.}

{You have slain a being while Assimilate is active. You have now unlocked the Skill Tree: Steel Moledrill }

{You have unlocked a new Skill Tree, therefore the root skill of the Skill Tree, Resilient Structure, is now unlocked for your usage.}

Resilient Structure? What’s that?

I don’t have any time to check right now, though, because more moledrills are rushing at me without any hesitation. Leading to the air around here being filled with nothing but charging pyramids.

Throughout our little chase, I make sure to avoid as many attacks as I can. And for the attacks that I don’t manage to avoid, I make sure to take them with my wings protecting me. Because of the poisonous blood that my wings contain, along with the fact that my wings seem to heal faster than anything else.

I also don’t feel all that much pain in my wings. Which is odd.

And even when my wings are injured, it doesn’t seem to stop me from flying.

Also odd.

I never manage to actually kill any of the pyramids myself. Even when I try to attack them on the flat parts of their bodies, or when I try attacking them when they’re not spinning. None of my attacks so much as leave a dent or a scratch.

So the only way I manage to slowly kill them all off is by either having them charge at each other and break one another, or killing them with the poisonous blood on my wings making them fall down to the ground.

Eventually all of the moledrills are either dead or attacking each other, giving me a chance to make a break for it back down below. At which point I finally manage to take a breather and check out my gains. Having put my System Messages on hold during most of that battle.

And, putting aside the System Messages that are simply giving me Skill Points for the kills – none of which include the moledrills killed solely by other moledrills unfortunately – I manage to level up twice during this whole fiasco. Simply because these moledrills were all above my level by one or two levels, and I ended up killing dozens of them.

I didn’t get any new skills, though. Which is a little disappointing.

Except the first one, that is.

A skill that actually looks quite useful.

{Resilient Structure – Your body takes less damage the more health you have.}

Although I have to question how my current list of skills is leading me. Since they’re all physical skills.

Enhanced senses, perception, regeneration, skin, and now structure in general.

Am I ever going to get any magical attacks? Other than Dark Howl, that is.

And biting attacks don’t count. Because no.

There are a few in the Skill Trees I’ve unlocked, but most aren’t directly offensive attacks. They’re things like paralyzing something with my gaze or something like Dark Howl.

Meaning no fire balls.

The corners of my lips turn down slightly in the beginning of a frown as I lie down flat on my back atop a large, floating block.

Well, whatever. My health has dropped down almost to half of my capacity from that game of tag.

So after I go ahead and allocate my stat points, I silently begin to watch the moledrills continue their fight for dominance high above me. Only for a System Message to appear in my vision as I do so.

{Congratulations! You have reached over 20 points in the PHY stat! From now on, you will have two more points of health!}

Good.

And with that lovely bit of good news, I purposefully ignore the still-growing number in the corner of my vision that’s already reached the five digits by now as I focus on the moledrills. Letting my health recover while I rest.