November 2, 2022
Day 13
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"Yes, but only so that I can give the crocodiles as painless and as quick a death as possible.", Maya defended herself.
Rahul nodded thoughtfully as he spoke.
"That could work. With all the mana concentrated in such a small area, it should be able to melt through the scales. If you aim at their brains, it might work even better than arrows."
Maya nodded, but Rahul did not wait for a reply.
"Do you want to practice that right away? We need to get to the alphas and finish the dungeon objectives quickly. Despite having full stamina, I'm feeling exhausted. It's been a long day, and I want to finish things quickly now."
The preparations to attack the avian bastion, the retreat to the castle roof, the trance, Rahul saving his teammates, the re-election of the bastion representative, revelation of Mark's treachery, fighting back the hawks and the albatrosses, the discussions with Martin, and the entire ordeal so far in the dungeon. It all happened in the last fourteen hours.
It had indeed been the longest of days, and Rahul suspected it was far from over. The stamina potions were keeping the team going, but there was deep exhaustion in their bones.
Maya spoke.
"No, I don't need to work on the bullets right away. I'm ready to fight."
Charlie and Matt were ready too.
"All right. Let's get to our first dungeon boss.", Rahul said, and led the team into the forest.
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The team had almost reached the center of the island when they saw a circular clearing ahead.
Rahul raised his hand and signaled for everyone to stop at the border of the clearing. It was completely devoid of grass, not a single stray leaf littered the ground, and the region was too perfectly circular.
Exactly like an arena meant for a boss battle in games.
"Looks like this is it. If what video games have taught us applies here, then the moment we walk in, the boss will appear and so might his minions. Just to be sure, let's circle the perimeter of the clearing and see if we find anything. "
Rahul and the team were high off their recent one-sided victories, but they were still being careful. All the crocodiles they had fought so far were level 9 or lower. Looking at the power boost the team got when they chose their classes, it wasn't a stretch to imagine a crocodile alpha with a class would be a lot more dangerous than the average level 9 reptile. And that was assuming that the boss was level 10, not higher.
Rahul wasn't taking any chances and discussed strategy with the group as they circled the clearing. Not finding anything of note, he spoke.
"We all go in together. On my count."
Everyone equipped their weapons.
"3 2 1"
Rahul entered the clearing, with Maya, Charlie, and Matt to his right. The moment he did, he felt the ground shake in front of him.
Then, a crocodile manifested out of the ground, in a manner akin to the castle's emergence from the ground when they had purchased it.
At a glance, Rahul saw a seemingly regular crocodile looking back at him, noticeably bigger than average, but not incomprehensibly so.
That disappointed Rahul, but then he noticed the crocodile's tail extending behind it and stood mesmerized as he stared at the sinuous appendage that went on and on, twice as long as the rest of the crocodile's body.
The unusual length of the tail, however, was not the reason Rahul's eyes lingered.
It was the nature of the tail that caught everyone's attention. The crocodile's tail shone with a metallic luster, sharply contrasting the dull green scales that covered the rest of its body.
The alpha either had a fully metallic tail, or a tail covered in metallic scales. In either case, it was bad news.
Rahul shook himself back to reality as he noticed the crocodile start moving in his direction, casually at first, and then with purpose. He and the group readied themselves, spreading out to surround the crocodile in all four directions.
As he moved, Rahul inspected the crocodile.
Whiptail Crocodile Alpha (Level 11)
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Matt too inspected the alpha and spoke.
"Inspect tells me it's a whiptail crocodile. But I can't see the level. Can anyone else see it?"
Maya and Charlie shook their head. Rahul spoke.
"I can see it. The alpha is level 11. Looks like the inspect skill can't tell the target's level if it's above your own."
Everyone nodded, and Rahul decided not to wait for the alpha to make the first move.
"Charlie, shoot at it."
Charlie pulled the bowstring and aimed at the crocodile's head. He released a stamina-infused shot.
The crocodile stopped moving toward Rahul and stood still as it casually watched Charlie fire at him. Only when the arrow was mere feet away from hitting its eyes did the alpha move.
To be more accurate, its tail moved.
Within a fraction of a second, the tail shifted to intercept the arrow and then got right back to its resting position. Maya and Matt didn't even realize what happened, while all Rahul and Charlie saw was a blur.
But they all felt the loud whipcrack and took an involuntary step back.
The crocodile was content to stay at a distance for now and did not move to attack Rahul again. Instead, it looked around at the four humans with contempt.
Rahul could swear the crocodile was taunting them.
He spoke.
"That tail is dangerous, keep your distance everyone. Charlie, fire a few arrows in quick succession. Maya, hit it with fireballs."
"Let's see just how fast that tail is."
Charlie fired three arrows at the crocodile. The first was aimed at its jaw, the second at its eye, and the third at its torso. Maya stood on the opposite end and threw five fireballs, equally spaced, from its jaw to the start of its tail.
The alpha took the attacks seriously this time, moving its head out of the way to evade some attacks, and swatting away the rest with its tail. Same as last time, the arrows did not affect the metallic tail, and the fireballs too exploded harmlessly at its surface.
Even though the crocodile was undamaged, Rahul smiled.
Now that he knew to look, he had been able to see the tail move. He hadn't seen it clearly, but it wasn't completely a blur either this time around. It was only a matter of time before his senses would be able to catch up to that speed. Just a bit more practice.
"Could you guys see the tail this time?"
They all could, to different extents. Rahul spoke again.
"Let's see how long it can keep this up."
Then he sheathed his sword and equipped his bow, and motioned for Matt to do the same.
"All four of us will attack this time. On my count."
The alpha realized the danger it would be in if attacked from all four directions and decided that it had toyed with its prey long enough. The reptile's casual demeanor instantly turned into something chilly and predatory as it started galloping toward Maya at a speed that belied its form.
Everyone shouted for her to run, and she did, but the crocodile was fast. Maya didn't have long before it caught up.
Rahul snapped.
"Charlie, don't let it run about unmolested, distract it with arrows."
"Matt, with me. Take out your sword and be ready to drink a health potion if you get hit."
"Maya, keep running even after it stops chasing you. Get to a safe distance, and then immediately start firing at him. Small-radius explosions only."
Charlie immediately started firing arrow after arrow at the crocodile, forcing it to defend itself. That slowed it down enough for Rahul and Matt to catch up. Unwilling to leave himself open to stabs while it chased Maya, the crocodile grudgingly shifted its focus to the pair at its heels.
The melee duo for their part decided not to engage. Instead, they warily circled the crocodile, taking extreme care to stay out of its tail's reach.
The crocodile on its part was no longer humoring the humans and immediately prepared to pounce at Rahul.
Rahul saw the crocodile's knees bend slightly and took a tentative step back. Then he noticed the reptile's entire body go into a deep crouch, its underbelly touching the ground, and its muscles tense.
He immediately started running backwards as fast as he could, and then the crocodile jumped and covered half the distance between itself and Rahul in a second.
The moment before the crocodile hit the ground, time came to a halt.
Rahul knew the crocodile's tail would strike the instant it landed. The neutral position of the tail gave nothing away, and he had no idea whether he would be struck from the left or the right.
Rahul did not know where to raise his sword to defend itself.
Time unfroze and he ducked.
The tail flew right over his head and brushed his hair as it passed. The loud sonic boom that followed made his ears ring. But he had no time to think about any of that.
Rahul predicted the next blow would come from above, and rolled to the side.
He couldn't hear the whipcrack over the ringing in his ears, but Rahul felt the vibrations, both in the air and below his feet, as the tail cracked the ground where he stood only moments ago.
What now.
Rahul didn't know, and he couldn't guess. The next attack could come from anywhere.
He did not have the time to look up, but he had no other choice.
Rahul raised his sword to guard his left as he looked up. He saw the crocodile's tail swiftly approaching his right shoulder and was hit before he had a chance to rectify his sword positioning.
On the bright side, Rahul had seen the tail moving as clear as day. There was no blur this time around.
On the not-so-bright side, Rahul was flung into the air and fell fifteen feet away. He rolled for another five feet before coming to a stop.
The moment he did stop, panic and pain drove him to pull out a health potion and drink it entirely in one gulp.
The pain in his shoulder subsided instantly, and Rahul's head cleared again, making way for regret. He had thoughtlessly wasted an entire bottle of health potion on an injury that would have been fixed up with less than half the bottle.
But there was little time to spare for the regret. Rahul got up, breathing heavily, and looked for the crocodile.
Rahul found the alpha standing exactly where it had landed after the jump. It had not moved to follow him.
The three arrows sticking out of its torso and the constant barrage of arrows from Charlie and fireballs from Maya likely had something to do with that.
The crocodile had managed to land a hit on Rahul, but his team had made sure it paid the price for that reckless attack.
While it attacked Rahul, the alpha couldn't defend itself and must have prioritized deflecting the arrows aimed at its head. The arrows aimed elsewhere inevitably slipped through.
And after Maya's fireballs joined the fray, the crocodile could no longer afford to attack Rahul.
Not unless it was willing to risk more than just a few arrows sticking out of its torso.
As so the battle shifted and the five were at an impasse again.
The crocodile stood at the center and stared at Rahul with cold eyes. Matt was at its tail, keeping his distance. Charlie and Maya were a ways away, firing arrows and spells that the crocodile flicked away with much less contempt and a lot more panic now that the duo was giving it their all.
Realizing that the immediate threat to his life was gone, he ordered the two to take it down a notch and conserve stamina and mana.
They wordlessly complied, and Rahul stretched his newly healed shoulder as he retrospected the battle so far and considered his next steps.