His throat was clogged, and heart was beating hard. He was worried his trembling fingers would accidentally shoot the trigger before it was time.
“Fire!” Kit jerked his finger with fright. The arrow left the crossbow and hurtled towards the river of monsters. With suspended breath, Kit watched the tiny arrow descend towards a trampling thickhead.
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
Fire exploded on impact from each arrow that sailed into the group. Bright red and blue swirls bolted out from the point of collision, engulfing the surrounding monsters in flame. Screams of pain filled the air jarring Kit’s ears.
Kit watched as the monsters writhed in pain, flailing their large bodies trying to douse the flames scorching their skin. The fire didn’t seem to die down after impact. Kit watched as it spread from one trampling thick head to another. It was like fuel was coated over the goat’s skin letting the flames leap from one to another with just a brush against their fur.
Kit’s eyes rounded in wonder at the destructive force of such a tiny arrow. Kit couldn’t help pulling out another arrow and stare at the glowing tip. He was so fucking glad that they only activated when loaded. If this had gone off on his back, he would have been blown to smithereens.
The screams of pain and panic continued to erupt from the affected monsters’ mouths. Dove’s shout could barely be heard over the noise. “Load!”
Kit jerked at the shout coming from Dove, he’d been too immersed in staring at the glowing arrow to focus on his surrounding up on the hill. He slotted the arrow in his hand into the crossbow just in time for Dove to scream fire once again.
Kit fired into the mayhem down below.
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
Kit took aim further up the line of monsters this time. More agonising screams filled Kit’s ears. He could see a group of monsters twisting in pain on the ground. Some of the goats from the first impact had fallen to the ground. Kit couldn’t help watching the fire burning their flesh.
The smell started waft up the cliff and entered his nose. He started to dry reach at the gruesome sight and smell. Kit quickly stuffed a piece of cloth into each nostril to ward of the awful smell.
While he was busy blocking his nose, he watched the herd below. He could see a surge in the group of monsters that were behind the fallen ones. They rushed towards the opening of the gorge crushing the fallen trampling thickheads in their haste to get out of the range of fire.
Ding!
[Congratulations, you are now Level 30]
[Congratulations, you are now Level 31]
[Congratulations, you are now Level 32]
[Congratulations, you are now Level 33….]
Kit felt his heart rate soar with the surge in the group of goats. They needed to do more damage before they burst out of the gorge and headed towards the waiting Spartan Fire residents. Dove must have had the same idea as Kit, he was screaming for them to fire once again.
Kit had no time to read the notifications that had popped up in front of him. He pulled another arrow from his quiver. His hands were so sweaty that the arrow slipped through his hands and dropped to the ground. He quickly bent down to retrieve the arrow. Kit felt his heart lurch when he slipped forwards towards the edge of the cliff.
Fuck! How could he slip on loose stones right now! Kit cursed himself then closed his eyes and braced for his death. He was disappointed that he had only fired two arrows, he hadn’t even had time to enjoy the exploding destruction.
When a few seconds had passed, and he was still alive, he tentatively opened his eyes to see the top half of his body suspended over the cliff. His bottom half was plastered to the boulder, this was not a good position to be in! A chill went down his spine at the drop in front of him. That was a long way down!
He felt his shirt pulled tight across his body, his collar was almost choking him. He turned his head to see why he hadn’t tumbled to his death.
A black panther was locked onto the back of his shirt stopping him from falling. The white teeth glistened against the black fur. Kit had never been happier that Snowball had brought these large cats’ home with him.
The midnight guardian started to pull Kit backwards to safety. As soon as he was safely back on solid ground Kit dropped the crossbow he had held in a death grip and hugged the large panther in thanks. He wiped the sweat coating his brow and shivered at his close call.
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He then stood back up on shaky legs. He scooped up the crossbow and quickly loaded it ready to start firing once again. When he was in position, he felt a tug at the back of his shirt. He turned to see the midnight guardian latched onto his back once again.
A smile bloomed on his face, having the large cat behind him helped to make him feel safer. He turned his head to look down the line of his companions. To his delight each of his friends had a black cat sitting right behind them.
After this fight was over, he would have to think of a way to thank the Midnight guardians properly for their help today.
Now that he was feeling more secure Kit returned to the fight with a renewed vigour. His previous panic was starting to turn into excitement as he continued to watch the arrows explode into the herd down below.
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
Kit wanted to laugh in delight at the sight of more of the trampling thick heads falling to the destructive arrows. Exploding arrows were fucking awesome! Notifications were popping up regularly now as more of the trampling thickheads fell.
Ding!
[Congratulations, you are now Level 38]
[Congratulations, you are now Level 39]
[Congratulations, you are now Level 40]
[Congratulations, you are now Level 41…]
Kit pulse was racing in excitement. How many levels would he go up today? He could feel the changes in his body with each notification ringing in his ears. Kit looked down to the creek bed below and felt a thrill of anticipation run over him.
He was finally enjoying his first experience in a massive battle! The trampling thickheads kept raging down the gorge, they had no room to turn around and head back up the mountain path. Their only hope was to burst out into the plains.
Fire spewed from the hailing arrows turning the bottom of the gorge into a river of red and blue. If this kept up, he might make it to level 100 swordsman today!
With a pumping heart Kit unleashed more arrows. To soon his quiver was empty, he turned to see what instruction Dove had for them now.
When his gaze collided with the tall man Kit sucked in a breath. Dove had a similar glint in his eye that Mars got in a battle. Kit thought that if Cadbury was the same, he would be in trouble if all three of them got together in the future.
Kit made a mental note not to go anywhere with all three of them, Mars was bad enough at getting him in to sticky situations. He didn’t want to even imagine what all three of them together would be like.
“Don’t worry my little underlings, just because we are out of arrows doesn’t mean we are out of fun!” Kit wondered what Dove had up his sleeve. When he turned to look back down at the bottom of the gorge there was still a sea of trampling thick heads heading towards the open plains. Black smoke was rising from the burning monsters.
Kit was starting to seriously worry about the safety of his Spartan Fire residents. He had thought with the amount of damage they had already done there wouldn’t be many trampling thick heads left. However this was far from reality. With a rough guess it looked like they had only killed around 30 of the oversized goats and damaged over 100.
Kit couldn’t see the end of the train of trampling thickheads. While he had been distracted watching the large beasts Dove had gone over to one of the large boulders and was starting to roll it off the cliff. “Crackers and Kit, this is your job.”
As Dove spoke the boulder tipped over the edge and hurtled down towards the bottom of the ravine. Kit became excited once again, he could still do some damage! He grabbed Crackers hand and dragged her over to the remaining boulders.
Elation filled Kit as he and Crackers rolled the large boulders over the cliff. Each boulder smashed into a goat then burst apart sending shards of rock into other trampling thickheads. Kit wanted to let out a loud whoop every time a boulder fell, unfortunately, he was still mute.
All the fear at the start that had disappeared with his thrill of firing the arrows returned. Now he was consumed with worry about dealing enough damage, so the other participants were not overwhelmed by the large number of beasts coming their way.
Too soon the boulders ran out. Kit glanced around to see what the others in his team were up to. Dove was standing at the edge of the cliff with a bow in his hands. Kit watched as Dove knocked an arrow, the tip of the arrow started to glow a sliver white.
When Dove unleashed the arrow it split into three and hurtled towards the monsters down below. White light blinded him when the arrows collided with the goats. Kit was in awe when he could finally see the destruction the arrows had caused.
Three large holes could clearly be seen in the impacted trampling thickhead the arrows were aimed at. He watched as the goats toppled over. Splattering tomatoes! That was fucking awesome! Dove could kill three of the monsters in one shot all on his own. How powerful was his fighting strength?
Kit turned back to stare at Dove with renewed admiration. When his gaze settled on Dove, he felt like he was seeing a superhero in real life.
Dove looked like a true hero out of a book. His long hair that was tied in a ponytail was fluttering in the wind. He had an aura of majesty surrounding his tall frame. Dove was calmly securing another arrow ready to fire. Damn, he looked too cool right now!
Kit felt inadequate compared to Dove, this was the same feeling he got from Mars and Twix! Kit clenched his fist in determination. I will be awesome like this in the future! Kit turned and grabbed Crackers hand once again. They wouldn’t be missing out on causing more damage to the monsters!
He scouted the area to find some more boulders. Kit’s eyes settled on a large group of boulders closer to the mountain base that were still close to the edge of the hill cliff. He then dragged Crackers along behind him.
Snowball and two of the midnight guardians followed. As they got closer to the boulders Kit felt a change in the air. Coldness started to seep into his skin and the air became thicker. Kit started to become nervous. Was he going into the mountain area effect? He didn’t want to explode!
Kit stopped just five steps from the group of boulders. When nothing happened, he took another tentative step towards the boulders. He should be able to feel a change in his body if he was going to explode right?
Plus, Snowball was with him, and he was a magical creature. He was sure the little guy would stop him before he entered a dangerous situation. Kit glanced down to see Snowball happily standing next to him, the little dog even had his tongue lolling out of him mouth.
Besides a cold feeling settling over his skin, he still felt normal. Kit surmised it should still be safe. He finished the final steps to the group of boulders. He managed to convey to Crackers they were going to roll the boulders into the herd once again.