With the meeting adjourned, Lanek led his party out of the monastery and to the southwest, aiming for the merchant’s guild. He had decided against it before as it was a fair distance away and the orc stronghold had been much closer. However, the orcs were a much larger force than he felt like tangling with considering the looming spider attack. Their time would come, but it would need to wait a bit.
The group moved quickly, finding that the local monsters seemed to be giving them a wide berth. Hmm, is it because of how many of us there are or something else? I don’t know how to feel about this.
Accompanying the party were Reaver, Sanguineus, and Kazuma. They had debated bringing Yuri, but decided that it would be much safer to level him up from afar as Liv fought before risking him. Liv also didn’t want to admit that she was rather nervous as to how Yuri’s mother would react to putting him in danger while he was so young.
The closer they got to the merchant’s guild, the more nervous Lanek got. They hadn’t seen signs of monsters for some time now, not even gaunts. Just as Lanek was about to pass it off as simple paranoia after being in the wilderness recently, Sanguineus growled at the road ahead. Seeing nothing, the party nevertheless drew their weapons and moved forward slowly, Liv taking the lead with her large shield and heavier armor. Meanwhile, Lanek and Kazuma took one flank while Reaver took the other. Ograch stood in the center with his bow drawn and Sanguineus covering him. Reaver had naturally wanted to protect Ograch, but the hobgoblin had convinced her that her size and ferocity were better suited for holding the flank. For his part, Sanguineus could only hope that Ograch would get everything sorted so that he could rejoin Lanek rather than babysitting the hobgoblin all the time.
As they came into view of the merchant’s guild, they found themselves coming face-to-face with a formation of all things. Spread across the road were a dozen human-sized figures in ratty armor. Despite their ragged appearance, they appeared well-versed in battle and prepared to protect this road. Lanek’s assumptions were proved correct when he spotted figures with bows perched on the road on either side of the formation.
When Lanek started to approach, it seemed like every creature in the formation hissed at him in unison. Liv reached out and blocked his path with the haft of her spear, shaking her head at him.
“Don’t bother, they belong to the dungeon. No self-respecting saurian would let themselves fall so low.”
Lanek took a closer look at the creatures, spotting scaled skin through gaps in their armor. He noticed their tails now that he was taking a closer look, although not every creature had one. With a quick mental command, he identified the one of the creatures.
Ash Saurian
lvl 28
Saurians are the architects of one of the oldest civilizations on this world. They built vast empires and warred with their hated foes, the draconids, while men, elves, and dwarves were still afraid to venture out into the night. Only the dranrid could claim to have an older civilization. Saurians come in many shapes and sizes, but even the smallest among them tend to be larger than the average human. While not known for their sorcerous abilities, their warriors are rightly feared by their foes and their priests wield great power due to their strong bond with their gods. However, these creatures have succumbed to the dungeon and lost their bond with their gods that was responsible for so much of their people’s power.
Seeing that the creature’s levels ranged from 28 all the way to 35, he took a step back and looked at his companions. “Did you guys look at their levels? Are you up for this?”
While Lanek did not doubt the prowess of his allies, he was well aware that they were not as high of a level as he was and he didn’t want to force them into a fight they couldn’t handle. However, he saw the grim determination on their faces as they assured him that they could handle it. Before they rushed in, Lanek heard a loud bellow from behind their enemies as a truly fearsome saurian pushed his way through the crowd.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
This specimen stood over three meters tall and its entire body was covered in muscle. It had foregone armor and seemed to trust in its scales, although it may not have had a choice considering armor large enough to fit it was not something that would be easily found. Its eyes locked on Lanek as it bellowed again, slamming its huge hammer into the ground.
“Yeah, yeah, you bastard. Gimme a minute.” Lanek said while he activated [Identify].
Ash Saurian Champion
lvl 45
A saurian can only evolve into a champion when it is assigned to lead a group of its fellows, at which point it becomes far larger and stronger than those it leads. This particular saurian was forcefully evolved by the dungeon to lead this group.
Huh, these should all be on their way to their third evolutions, but they all seem to be regular saurians based on the System’s descriptions. Do dungeon creatures evolve differently? Oh, well, now’s not the time to worry about it.
He looked at the behemoth before him and stepped forward. “This one’s mine. Don’t fuck with him, I don’t think you guys can take him.” With those words, Kazuma and Sanguineus sensed his intent and recalled themselves into their vessels. With [Soul Shackle] gone, he didn’t get a boost in strength from their return, but the special abilities of their vessels still took effect as Lanek became shrouded in mist and his body sped up.
The champion roared again, this time in approval and advanced. Before Lanek could begin to wonder if this was meant to be an honorable duel, the rest of the saurians charged his companions as arrows began to fall. It turned out that he was only partially correct as the champion only cared if its followers attacked Lanek, as evidenced by it smashing one of the lesser saurians into the ground when it moved toward Lanek’s flank.
As Lanek circled the champion, debating how best to approach his foe, Liv was backing away, keeping the saurians at bay with her spear and shield while Reaver did what she did best. Meanwhile, Ograch was thinning the ranks of the saurian archers with his own much more precise shots.
The champion, clearly impatient for the battle to begin, lunged forward with terrifying speed and swung its hammer. Lanek dove forward, rolling under the attack, his instincts telling him that if he had backed off, the hammer would have ended the fight right there. When he completed his roll and was back on his feet, he was standing only a short distance from the monster’s inner elbow. He brought his sabre down on the soft sport, cutting through the scales and into the tendons, causing the monster to bellow in pain.
Lanek’s instincts screamed at him to move and he heeded their warning, diving forward once more as the saurian’s jaws snapped closed where he had just been standing. However, despite his increased reaction times, he didn’t notice another of the saurian's weapons until it was too late. The creature’s tail swept his legs out from under him, forcing him to roll sideways desperately to avoid the stomping of the creature’s clawed feet. Shit, it doesn’t need claws to kill me with one of those stomps.
Scrambling to his feet, the angry dranrid launched several throwing daggers at the creature’s face, determined to at least distract it from his next attack. To his and the saurian’s surprise, one of the daggers pierced the saurian’s right eye. It roared once again before ripping the dagger out, fluid flowing from the ruptured orb. Without waiting for it to recover its momentum, Lanek launched a strike with his chain whip, aiming for its remaining eye, forcing it to flinch back and protect the last of its vision. Lanek took the opportunity to push in and begin aiming for every weak spot he could imagine on the hulking behemoth.
While he wasn’t proud of it, one of his blows struck at the monster’s loincloth, triggering a high-pitched squeal from the saurian. He moved in closer, and hacked at the monster’s wrist as it tried to position both its arm and hammer to protect its nethers. This gave Lanek the perfect opportunity to slam his sabre on the monster’s wrist, forcing it to release the hammer as its hand could no longer close properly.
Spinning to the right, Lanek aimed for its blind spot and thrust for the behemoth’s neck only to get knocked a few meters away by a backhand from the creature. Luckily, his armor absorbed much of the blow and he only had the breath knocked out of him.
However, that’s as far as his luck went. Lanek swore and readied himself for the next round. The saurian champion’s right eye had been restored.