“Man! I haven’t slept that bad in a long time,” Alex groaned while stretching and massaging his back. “I thought for sure I’d sleep good after that djinn passed through here. I wasn’t woken up one time by a hungry animal looking for a midnight snack. That’s the first time in forever. Stupid dreams.”

He put his pack on with all of his supplies, and headed back to the oasis. It was time to get some actual hunting in. Yesterday had frustrated Alex a ton. He had spent the day mostly just recovering from the one bit of action he had actually seen, and he wasn’t even aware during most of it.

He had only seen one fight, but he was more tense and hyper alert yesterday than he had been in his entire life. Starting with how that monkey had hypnotized him and only getting worse with the overpowering djinn. Now, he was ready for an actual fight. He was starting to feel powerless and he didn’t like it.

As soon as I get there, I’m going to fight the first thing I come across.

He saw another one of the bell plants and identified it.

Ravenous Bell Sprout

Level 51

Maybe I’ll keep looking. I want to fight, not die.

He searched for a few more minutes until he saw a small lizard skittering about. It was about two feet long if you included the tail. It had red leathery skin with a spiky fin that traveled down its back. On the end of its tail, a small flame was ignited. As it crawled along the ground small droplets of fire fell off and burnt tiny circles into the foliage on the ground before snuffing out. It left a wispy trail of smoke in its wake. Alex identified it.

Firetail Lizard

Level 36

Alex was a little surprised to see a creature so small being a higher level than himself. The scorpions were much larger and they were mostly lower level than he was by now.

Is it just because they have stronger enemies nearby so they get stronger faster? Or are they just that strong naturally and can only survive here because they are that strong?

Alex wasn’t sure, but he wasn’t about to underestimate the lizard either. If it was still alive in a place like this, it had to be formidable in at least some aspects. He tracked the creature for a while, and when it stopped for a second, he blasted it with his finger gun. The lizard turned around to face him with a speed Alex was not expecting. In the blink of an eye, the lizard closed the distance between them. This surprised Alex even more. They were almost fifty feet away from each other.

The lizard had already leapt up claws aimed right for Alex’s face. He deftly dodged to the side, and the lizard flew right past him. It slid a few feet, then turned around to focus on him once more. It lunged again, this time it was caught in midair by Alex’s quick hands. Alex began squeezing, but let go with a yelp. He looked down at his charred, sizzling hand with narrowed eyes.

“You stupid little…,” he trailed off as a fireball the size of a watermelon came straight for his face. Alex hit the ground so hard that the wind got knocked out of him.

Little guy packs a punch. That thing was bigger than he is.

Two more projectiles came flying at him. Alex dodged one, but wasn’t quick enough for the other one which glanced off his left shoulder. He winced in pain, but he couldn’t stop. He stomped forward towards the fiery lizard.

The lizard was already charging up another shot, but Alex had no intention of letting him finish it. He charged up a mini death ray on his palms and aimed straight for the lizard. It shot straight down the reptile’s opened mouth and down its throat. The partially charged up fireball followed suit and the lizard coughed out a cloud of smoke. It continued to wheeze for a few seconds and Alex capitalized. A few steps more and Alex was on top of it, stomping his heel down on the unprepared lizard’s head. The first heel strike only seemed to faze the lizard even more.

Holy crap! This thing is tough.

It had felt like Alex was using his foot to pound in railroad ties. Jolts of pain shot up his leg and into his hips. His leg was starting to go numb, but he continued stomping. Each step seemed to go further and further down, the reptile’s skull seeming to lose its resilience.

Alex stomped more than twenty times more before the creature stopped moving, but Alex didn’t cease his one man stampede. He took out all of his frustrations from the day before out on the poor creature in front of him. Alex only stopped when he raised his foot and lizard rose with it, a slimy blob like gum stuck to the bottom of his boot.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

“Ew!” Alex yelled in surprise.

He flung his foot out more on reflex than anything else. The lizard whipped out and straight into a tree where it splattered everywhere. The durability it once had seemingly disappearing the second it had died. Lizard bits were strewn all over the trunk of the tree. It looked like someone had nuked some leftover lasagna in the microwave.

Well, first oasis creature defeated. I feel better now. Now I just need to get some nice revenge on one of those monkeys. It would be even better to find that same one from before.

----------------------------------------

Krizzik was sitting in his council chambers. He had been thinking hard about the past days. They were losing. The awakened that had been sent was supposed to change the tide of this battle. It had cost them a lot of favors and credits to gain access to the Forge’s forces. They had scrounged up everything they could, and yet the Starbound Coalition had only sent them a single soldier.

It had actually been going rather well, too. That grub had started to shift the momentum of the battle, even if it had been rough in the beginning. He had taken the flow of battle in stride.

Then, he had ruined everything by taking that accursed object. Krizzik himself hadn’t even worried too much about it, but there were many among them that still clung to the old ways. He had to do something to remove the tension among his ranks. The only option to him was to exile the grub. He wasn’t going to execute him. That would undoubtedly bring the wrath of the coalition on them.

At least his people had seen reason. They knew that they could not maintain their semi peaceful existence with the Great One any longer. Its thirst for blood had grown at the sight of that crown. It no longer saw the Saxans as its ally. It now saw every living thing as prey.

The Great One had already attacked too many of their people for even the most zealous believers to begin to lose their faith. Most had already just started to see the Great One as an extremely powerful creature, but now even those who had worshipped it were beginning to see it more as a creature than a vengeful god. Why would the god continue to attack them once they had sent the transgressor away?

Their situation had gotten even more dire since the banishment of the grub. Now, they were facing their enemies unaided and they were continuously attacked by the Great One. There was no reprieve and Krizzik wasn’t sure how much longer they would last. They were losing ground each day and their reinforcements were beginning to dwindle.

Krizzik rubbed his forehead in exasperation.

“I hope the grub is still well. He has made my life difficult, but I did like him. He lifted my warriors spirits and every time they looked at him, they were reminded that they had not been abandoned by the coalition,” Krizzik mused to himself.

“I wonder what he is doing right now.”

----------------------------------------

All the blood was rushing Alex’s head. He was currently upside down in the grasp of one of the bell plants he had seen when he first arrived at the oasis. He had tackled a few more of the fire lizards and wanted to up his game a little.

These plants are way faster than I expected. Way stronger too.

The plant was whipping him around, smacking him against anything it could in an attempt to subdue him. It hadn’t been nearly this voracious when he had seen it attacking before, though that was likely because Alex was much bigger than most of the prey in the oasis.

Alex heated up his palms and pressed them against the slimy tendril wrapped around his torso. After a few seconds, the cord began to sizzle and pop, and the plant released him from its grasp. It didn’t relent in its assault however. Tendrils continued to shoot out, but were more focused on puncturing than binding. Alex moved his Eonsteel to form an armor around him. Most of the attacks glanced off the armor, but some had the strength to punch through and into his body. Alex was staring to feel like Swiss cheese.

He dodged as many strikes as he could, but he wasn’t nearly fast enough to avoid them all. Each time Alex struggled forward a few steps, multiple jabs pushed him back just as far. He wasn’t making any progress and he was just taking unnecessary damage at this point.

Maybe I bit off a little more than I could chew. The range in those tendrils is insane, and the plant is ridiculously fast.

As Alex pondered about what direction he should guide this fight, he continued to take blow after blow from the pointy ropes the plant sent out with reckless abandon. He stepped back to see what kind of range it had. When he got to about fifty feet away from the plant, he was no longer subject to its unceasing barrage. He counted five tendrils in total. Alex wasn’t sure if that was all the bell plant had to offer, but at least he had a number to work with for now.

Well at least I know it doesn’t have unlimited range. Fifty feet is still a lot though. I need to bring that down a little if I have any hope. I’m no good from this far away.

He shifted his Eonsteel to wield dual scimitars instead of his armor. This would leave him more exposed and he would therefore take more damage, but he needed to cut down those tendrils to decrease their effective range.

He charged forward, seeing two tendrils snake their way towards him through the trees. He slowed down, preparing to strike at the first tendril to make it to him. Unfortunately, they both arrived at the same time and Alex was at a loss. A moment of indecision left him frozen for a split second too long, and both tendrils struck into his sides.

Not my brightest moment. Alex thought, clenching his teeth.

With the vines embedded in his body, it was hard for Alex to move his arms in a way to cut them. Alex didn’t need to moves his arms however, as he was able to control the living metal as if it was a part of him. This was because it was, indeed, an extension of himself. The metal began to morph in his hands. It swung itself in a powerful arc of fluid motion, severing the cords from their host.

Nice. That was at least six inches off. Not a lot…Well I mean six inches is plenty, a lot even. Most people don’t even need that much. Here though, six inches is not much. It all depends on…

Alex continued to make himself feel better in his head while he continued his crusade to humble this well endowed plant, six inches at a time.