They stayed that way another five minutes until the crowd had settled. Those that wanted to learn about the goblin king killer had already filed into the tunnel to the third stage while those who stayed behind were already heading back out to start fighting the various monsters. The safety area, now quite empty, seemed a bit lonely and Joe knew he needed to start heading out as well, acting the part of lowly adventurer. Besides… that’s what I am. Ha! Joe stood and faced the wall, putting on an act of stretching his calves as he spoke quietly to Garnedell and the siblings.
“I’m going to head out and fight a couple of the mobs… uh, monsters. Stay here. I’ll look at you when it’s time for you to come out, OK? Otherwise, rest here and watch me carefully. When I look at you and you come out to join me, don’t fight with me or come talk with me. Pretend that you are just fighting near me. I’ll make sure to protect you. Fight all three together this time, and Garnedell, try to make sure you protect the siblings. You have a better defensive weapon. I’ll stay nearby to protect you again as well. But I’m going to pretend to just be fighting alone. Alright?”
Zilnek opened his mouth to speak but Kilniara elbowed him in the side and hissed. Good head on that girl! Joe grinned at their antics, but was very grateful for Kilniara’s quick thinking. Garnedell simply nodded very shallowly then turned to start talking with the siblings, bringing up an inane topic as part of the act. Joe smiled again seeing Garnedell’s actions and nodded approvingly to himself under the hooded cloak. He then took out his two clubs, not wanting anyone to link the spear and shield to him, and because he needed to level his club skill anyway. Time to see what I can do!
Alright! Wish I could take the time to watch others to see what these things do, but I need to act the part. The goblins were simple enough, I should be alright if I’m cautious. I’ll fight a couple of them to see what we’re dealing with before I call the kids over.
Joe took a closer look at what he was fighting and felt a kind of disturbed fascination. As the previous stage, Joe could see he was dealing with a bipedal creature that seemed capable of tool use. They seemed a bit more intelligent than the goblins since they seemed to keep their weapons with them and did not simply pick up the closest thing to them. These monsters also seemed to be highly territorial, something that he had picked up easily when he saw how the monsters had reacted when the crowd had streamed across the floor towards the third floor. Several members had to stop and take out the creatures that rushed at the crowd, but they seemed easy enough for two or three to take on.
They also appeared to be amphibians, having a frog like face and slimy skin, although the face was the only frog like thing about them. The rest of their body took on more of an otter like appearance with a supple torso capable of great flexibility and movement. The legs were actually a bit on the short side, almost giving the thing a penguin like stance and movement, although they could be deceptively fast, dropping to all fours to scramble forward in sprints that were actually faster than a human. The arms, though, were long and flexibly, fully capable of using their weapons with significant deadliness.
Joe filtered through the monsters and the adventurers fighting them, moving carefully until he had reached a relatively remote corner from the other adventures opposite the room from the third floor entrance. Joe watched a little longer, even trying to call out to the creatures in greeting, but found them completely unconcerned with conversation. They did not attack one another but seemed to have no community of any kind. When he came close to one, attempting to communicate, the creature leapt at him and began fighting.
Despite the frog-thing being empty handed, Joe found the fight quite challenging as the creature used both hand, foot, and teeth. The bite actually almost caught Joe by surprise, not expecting the creature to try to bite him. Joe took his time, bringing up his clubs to parry and only attacking when he felt comfortable. The battle waged on for another couple of minute before the creature fell and Joe stood. Welp. Not intelligent; or doesn’t seem to be. There was no thought in that fight. Dangerous. Very. Wild animals always are, but…
Joe took a step towards one that was holding a staff, edging forward carefully and once again tried to communicate. But there seemed to be some invisible line that he would cross and cause the beast to simply throw itself at him. The creature waddled forward two or three steps, the short staff he had held out in front him, parallel to the ground. Suddenly, the thing leapt and flopped on its belly, landing in a sudden wave of water that washed towards Joe, swirling around his feet and seeming to almost be alive as he felt like something was tripping his ankles.
What… Where did that water come from?! And why is it so… it feels like I’m walking in syrup! Wh… Joe’s inner dialogue cut short as the creature slid across the floor on the water with astounding speed and leapt up only a meter in front of him, a small wave forming under its chest to create a ramp that swept it upward onto his legs while simultaneously bringing his staff down on the top of Joe's head. Instinct flared as years of training kicked in and one club flew above his head, horizontal to take the staff blow, and the other club snapped across his chest, smacking the beast right in the side of the head. The strike was hard and deadly. Joe winced at seeing the hit, easily recognizing the solid thud as his club hit. Despite the strong hit, Joe was surprised to feel the intensifying feeling of gaining experience; a sure sign that he had defeated the creature. In only one hit? Huh. And what was that crazy water wave out of nowhere! Right. Gotta be careful of the staff wielding ones.
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Joe spent the next ten or so minutes combating several of the different creatures, but found them a bit easier than the first floor. It seemed confusing that these creatures would be considered higher level, or at least on a more dangerous floor. Don’t floors get more dangerous? That would make sense? Am I wrong? Another question for Garnedell.
Joe chose another frog-thing, another staff wielding one, and he closed cautiously with it, worried about his footing if another wave came over around his feet like the last one. As before, the frog-thing leaped onto its belly, holding the staff horizontally in front of it while riding a wave of water that just suddenly appeared under it. It rushed directly towards Joe, and he settled into a stance ready for the leaping strike. The frog-thing, however, had a different plan.
It leapt into the air, similar to the first, but a good five meters away, coming to its feet before gesticulating in a strange ritualistic hand sign and pointing at him, a low hum coming from the creature. A wave of water swept across the ground towards Joe and he set his feet firmly, remembering the syrupy water attack from before. The water approached but began to rise from the ground, actually hitting him at knee height, leaving his feet dry. It swirled around his forward leg before quickly climbing up his leg, around his torso, and making its way towards his neck.
It wasn’t exactly fast, but it certainly wasn’t behaving appropriately for water and Joe recognized the danger barely in enough time to react. He holstered one club to bat away the water, but in this, it acted completely normal and merely splashed around his hand. A good amount did fall away like rain onto the floor, but it simply kept climbing his body. Before it could englobe his head, Joe took a last, desperate, deep breath.
Joe feared what it might do to his eyes, but found it to simply be water, and was able to keep his eyes open. The globe of water absolutely wrecked his vision, but he was still able to make out his opponent as a murky swaying pole in the distance. Joe didn’t have a lot of time before his breath ran out, so he burst forward quickly, hoping that the sudden moved would dislodge the globe of water, but the water only thinned slightly in front of his face, still thick enough to block any breath. He whipped his head back up as if he was head banging and found the globe of water elongating, but still firmly wrapped around his head. He spent only a second or two wildly whipping his head, almost breaking through the globe, but found it too tenacious.
He decided to give up on getting loose and simply ran forward, returning the club he had holstered to his hand. His vision cleared as the water thinned and he targeted his opponent and came forward, bringing his left hand club down in an overwhelming overhand strike. The frog-thing quickly brought his staff up in two hands to take the overhead strike. Joe allowed the strike to land hard, but was already bringing up his next strike, planting his right foot on the creatures foot before bringing his right hand and club around in a heavy strike from the side. It worked last time! He kept his left hand club pressing firmly on the staff, not allowing the creature to move its staff and the right hand club smashed into the creatures left arm before rebounding off its head.
The arm blocked enough of the strike so that it was only dazed, but it did break the left arm. Dazed and screaming in pain, the frog-thing was unable to keep his concentration going as the water bubble collapsed from around Joe’s head and Joe jabbed into the creatures belly with a quick distracting thrust with his left club before bringing his right club down in a devastating strike that crushed the creature’s skull.
Joe stepped back, gasping from holding his breath and wiped away the water from his eye’s and face before trying to wring out some of the wetness from his clothes. Welp. I think I understand why they’re on the second floor now! Sheesh! That was… that was bad! But that… that was some real magic! Ha! Flying water! Yeah! I want that!
Joe danced excitedly, see his first combat magic, although what the priest from the little village did to cover up his shrine was pretty freaking cool as well. Seemed like it was a similar kind of water magic, although the priest seemed to have something with plants, too. Sooo cool!
Joe quickly calmed himself and turned back to taking on the frog-things, fighting for another ten minutes, making sure to be cautious of the staff frogs. They seemed to be able to use water magic. Twice more, the staff frogs managed to englobe his head with water, but by that time, Joe was easily able to simply rush the frogs if they proved they wanted to fight from afar.
There were a couple of other variations on the frogs, but most seemed to just be a form of close combat with only the staff wielding frogs having magic and long range attacks. The easiest frogs turned out to be those that used clubs.
After thoroughly experiencing what each of the frogs could do, Joe stood and looked back towards the safety area and managed to catch Garnedell’s eye. He quickly stood and gathered up the siblings before heading out to his area. Joe had started fighting the monsters between him and the safety zone, heading back towards it so that the kids would have an easy time getting to him.