November 3, 2022
Day 14 / Dungeon Day 0
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"HELP!!!"
I hope everyone heard that.
Rahul thought.
Then he noticed that the sudden scream had startled the birds closest to him, causing a few of them to slow down. As a result, the second wave that was approaching from behind had to slow down and try to avoid colliding with the vanguard. Not all of the guardians managed to get out of the way on time, and two pairs of birds crashed.
Hard.
Not willing to waste the opportunity, Rahul chose one particularly dazed duo. In a single burst of intent, he closed the distance and beheaded the first guardian. For the second guardian, he had a clean angle, and before the bird could react, he attacked with an unempowered strike that did the job.
You have killed a Level 22 Talon Guardian. 2200 experience earned.
You have killed a Level 21 Talon Guardian. 2100 experience earned.
2 down.
19 to go.
Rahul thought, a feral part of him taking control now that he was alone and cornered.
Checking his intent points, he was pleased to find that he had lost only a fifth of the accumulated intent, and was still above 3 points threshold.
That was quite efficient, but I won't get another opportunity like this again. Still, even if my next targets aren't sitting ducks like the last two, I should be able to kill three more, leaving only 16 enemies alive. Better than I had hoped for.
With the battle music of momentum ringing in his ears, Rahul readied his blades.
If only I had accumulated 4 intent points. A single kinetic cleave would have killed them all.
Rahul salivated at the thought as he looked at the neat semicircle in which the enemies were flying toward him.
As things stand, the cleave will injure them all, but only kill the unlucky few whose necks lie in the path of the attack.
Deciding not to obsess over what could have been, Rahul waited for the birds to start attacking. That's when he realized his blunder.
Fuck... I left the protection of the tree trunk.
I'll have to spend some intent to get back there. It's not ideal, but the alternative is fighting while exposed on all sides. I need to get back right away.
Rahul was about to do just that, when he heard a bird screeching in pain.
What was that? I didn't do anything.
He was confused at first, but then he noticed where the screech came from.
That's the alcove in which my friends were hiding. Ivan must have ended the Immutability effect, and they are now killing the bird.
That meant only one thing.
They are coming. And they have given me another opportunity to do some damage.
Rahul thought as he spotted a guardian that had turned around to look toward the alcove, and made a split-second decision to take advantage.
He expended some intent to close the distance to the distracted bird, but instead of attacking it, he executed three consecutive jumps and strikes, beheading the three guardians closest to it, and expending all his intent.
You have killed a Level 22 Talon Guardian. 2200 experience earned.
You have killed a Level 22 Talon Guardian. 2200 experience earned.
You have killed a Level 21 Talon Guardian. 2100 experience earned.
Then Rahul pounced on the distracted and now completely isolated bird, repeatedly stabbing his blade into its neck, killing it the old-fashioned way, and jumping away before its brethren could arrive.
You have killed a Level 23 Talon Guardian. 2300 experience earned.
15 to go.
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Rahul thought with satisfaction, but his happiness was short-lived, as he now found himself out in the open, with not even a speck of intent left to facilitate his retreat to the tree.
Shit, I can't go back now.
The birds had seen their brethren fall, and came to attack him in force.
What's taking them so long? I can't block attacks from all directions at once.
Rahul thought, both his knuckles turning pale as he gripped his blades tighter.
But fighting against merciless opponents like Shahid and the alpha had beaten battle instincts into him, and he smoothly ducked the first attack that came at him. Then he sidestepped to the left to avoid the second while parrying the third strike with his blade.
The first attacks were dealt with but there was no respite as more quickly followed. And this time, the attacks weren't sequential.
Three birds attacked all at once. Rahul ducked to dodge the attack coming straight at his face and parried the remaining two with his blade. A fourth attack followed right after, and Rahul stepped slightly to his left, the talon only managing to tear his shirt.
The screeching of that bird stopped, so my friends should be here anytime now. The five points of dexterity surely made a difference. Without that, I wouldn't have managed to get out of the way of that one.
Rahul had celebrated too soon. That last sidestep had left his feet in an awkward position, and before he had time to regain his balance, four more attacks came. With his feet crossed, all he could manage was to deflect two talon strikes with his blades. The remaining two talons tore open his back and right shoulder.
Rahul winced in pain, but couldn't even spare a glance to see how much HP he had left, as five birds swooped in for another attack.
A week ago, faced with such overwhelming odds, he might have given up, falling to his knees and hoping for a quick death. But the past week had changed him, and he wasn't about to quit this early.
Executing an awkward roll to the left, Rahul completely evaded three of the coming strikes, but two of the birds altered their trajectory enough to manage gashes along his arms and shoulders.
That last-ditch maneuver had saved Rahul this time, but it left him crouched on his knees with no time to reposition or even get to his feet as the next wave was already upon him.
Once again, he parried two talons with his two blades, leaving the remaining three guardians with unfettered access to his exposed back and torso.
I can't survive another round of attacks. What the fuck are those guys waiting for.
Rahul thought as he felt stinging pain from several deep wounds across his body. Seeing the blood gushing out of the open wounds, he couldn't help but wonder if he'd simply bleed out even if the guardians stopped attacking him.
I've got to check my HP, maybe I'm just being a wuss and have a lot of health left.
With that thought, Rahul checked and found out he had 53 HP left.
I might be able to survive one more round of attacks.
As he kept looking at his stat screen, he noticed something else.
I have also accumulated just under two intent points. I can buy myself some more time. Or maybe I can take another one of these birds down and give my friends a fighting chance...
Before Rahul could go any further down the path of despair, help arrived.
And boy did it arrive in style.
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"That's more than enough. We need to go in now."
Maya said as she added three more weak fireballs to the massive stock that Daniel had collected.
The manager shook his head.
"Rahul can hold out a bit longer. Going to his rescue means nothing if we can't make any difference. Just let Ivan and I empty our mana pools."
You have already emptied your mana pools twice.
Maya wanted to protest but held her tongue. She drank another mana potion and started handing off more fireballs to Daniel, which he promptly added to the 5x5x5 cube behind him.
Ivan was doing the same, and Daniel was simultaneously creating fireballs and adding them to the mix.
It's quite impressive, creating new fireballs of his own while also directing and managing the ones we are giving him, stacking them into a neat matrix of destruction.
Maya observed.
Then she noticed that Rahul was now on his knees, and sustaining a lot of injuries.
Daniel immediately spoke.
"Our time is up. I wanted to fill out the cube, but 80 will have to do."
Without waiting for any acknowledgment, he pulled out the first 5x5 cross-section of the cube and launched 25 fireballs at once toward the enemy.
Ivan was already running toward Rahul, and Maya started creating her mana bullets. Daniel had tried adding those bullets to his matrix but had failed to keep them stable.
Looking at the confusion and havoc the eruptions were causing, Maya realized that it wouldn't have made a difference even if he could add the mana bullets.
The opening attack is a distraction after all. We will get the damage output going now.
Maya thought as she started firing her mana bullets, targeting the wings of the Talon Guardians closest to Rahul. Daniel unleashed two more 5x5 fireball arrays, this time more targeted, as he wanted to soften up the cluster of birds in the direction where he saw Matt climbing up the trees.
He unleashed the last five fireballs ahead of Ivan, causing just enough havoc for Ivan to join up with Rahul.
Maya noticed an exchange of words between the two of them, and then, they both disappeared.
Ivan reappeared immediately, his sword halfway through the neck of a still struggling guardian. As he started to pull his weapon free, Rahul appeared a short distance away, and two birds fell lifelessly to the ground around him, no longer in possession of their heads.
Ivan finished pulling his sword out, and the bird fell to the ground, convulsing for a few seconds before dying.
Maya watched this entire sequence of events, which had taken barely a few seconds, with bated breath, before she remembered that their situation was still quite precarious, and continued firing her mana bullets.
"Help Matt!"
Came a shout from Daniel, and Maya realized with horror that three birds had surrounded Matt and were attacking him, completely ignoring the weak fireballs that Daniel was hurling now that his stock of 80 prefabs was exhausted.
Rahul and Ivan were fighting back to back, with nine of the twelve remaining birds circling them. Ivan had wisely chosen not to exhaust all his intent in the previous attack, so the pair was safe for now.
Maya focused all her attention on Matt, and instead of scattering her attacks across multiple birds as she had been doing so far, decided to focus on one.
Eight mana bullets later, the bird lost the use of one of its wings, and its flight turned into a circling motion until it crashed into the ground. It wasn't dead but wasn't a danger to anyone anymore. The remaining two birds had caught on to the threat that Maya posed and tried to evade her bullets.
They soon made another discovery. The bullets were too fast to evade. So they decided to deal with the problem more directly.
Shit.
Was the only thought that came to Maya as the two birds started flying in her direction. She fired a few more mana bullets toward the birds but realized that she could ground them both in time.
There's just one option left.
Maya thought as she started running away from the birds.
But where will I go? This branch doesn't go much further.
Maya thought as she saw the edge of the branch approaching.
Maybe I can jump, and then launch fireballs downward to thrust myself up in the air.
Like a rocket engine.
She thought, debating the merits of that idea.
That's when a pebble crashed into the back of her head.