A snort of warm, moist air left Ada’s nose, condensing into mist, as he withdrew the blade from his latest victim. The [Gristle Bear] let out a wheezing, bubbling sound as arterial blood flowed over its new trachea hole.
> Ding!
>
> For killing a [Gristle Bear] (VR) (L62) [Forest Hunter] (Ra) (L62), you have earned 145,441 XP (4,377 Base * 3.1 Level Bonus * 2.0 Race Bonus * 0.5 Class Bonus * 1.00 Contribution * 10.72 XP Bonus).
It had been a rough six months for Ada ◮ since leaving Mack ◐’s place. The local powers—Celeri Empire included—had been doing a good job the last few centuries culling wild monster populations. And it showed. After four months of wandering near, but not too near, the [Eldritch] rift, Ada hightailed it north past the continent-spanning barrier mountains towards the northern boreal forests. The tundra beyond he avoided, in so much as he already knew it was an XP desert. And he avoided going within sight of the Top of the World; the dragon guard there was not something he needed to deal with.
But the boreal forests were satisfactory. Though sparse with game, what he had found in the last two months was promising. And while this [Gristle Bear] had been an unusually rich source, it was only about three-quarters of what he needed to earn today if he was going to keep on pace to finish in seven years, let alone something more aspirational like five or six years. Still, he could finish that out with a handful of weaker prey, and he might even be able to bank a little surplus.
Ada froze as he was inspecting the carcass in front of him.
He was being hunted.
A wry bit of [Playful] amusement—as well as a bit of contempt from [Prowess of the Tiger]—escaped as a chuckle from his open mouth, his hot breath misting in the cold, boreal air.
He stood and stretched languorously to his full height of two hundred and seventy-seven centimeters, his joints popping. He conspicuously turned away from the hunter, presenting his visually exposed back. He yawned and scratched an imaginary itch behind one ear.
The thick bush behind him should have exploded. Instead, the branches silently spread and separated, briefly opening into a canal. Through it flew—or rather leapt—a feathered, bipedal form, which in less than half a second crossed thirty meters in only two bounds. On the last step, both feet came forward to strike, sharpened black talons ready to draw blood.
In the last tenth of a second, Ada dropped flat to the ground, [Conjured Ice Shield] thrusting upwards with [Defender *M] to bash the beast. [Ambush Predator] was shaping this encounter nicely.
Or so he thought. To Ada’s surprise, the creature twisted midair, avoiding the hit, but rolled across the ground twice before springing back to its feet with a short cry. The bird or reptile was bipedal. Forward facing eyes with the fierce look of a predator. A short coat of feathers in the natural hues of the surrounding forest. Teeth, not a beak. Exceptionally dark and sharp talons on its hind limbs, which it walked on, but its forelimbs were almost vestigial. A long lithe tail held up behind it to balance.
[Identify]
> [Boreal Ground Raptor] (UR) (L90) [Ambushing Druid] (UR) (L90)
“Ah ha!” Ada [Taunted Enemies]. “Oh, your XP multipliers will be so sweet tonight!”
The [Raptor] cried back, and the pair leapt at each other, quickly becoming a whirling dervish of blade and claw. [Blades *M] being worked to its max as Ada sought to cut the flesh of this most agile of prey. [Nature’s Defense] working to better his footwork, as [Battlefield Nowhere *F] put him, though not his prey, where he wanted to be. [Hotblooded] speeding him up. [Elven Grace] and [Princess' Touch] just generally improving his fighting style.
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But this enemy was fast and smart. [Extra Blade Reach] only let him sneak a single cut in, but the sting of [Chaos Blades *F], [Rend], [Monster Slayer], and a half-dozen other damage multipliers was enough for it to quickly learn Ada’s attacks were not just from steel. And for all that a single strike knocked out a quarter of its HP, those damage multipliers were useless unless there was a strike. And though [Reflecting Block] and [Hung Ga] worked hard to attack swiftly in their exchanges, twenty swings since and not another connection.
[Predator’s Senses] screamed at him just a moment before [Ethereal Dodge] triggered and a second [Raptor] passed through him with a squawk.
[Identify]
> [Boreal Ground Raptor] (UR) (L90) [Ambushing Druid] (UR) (L90)
“Oh, a pair,” Ada commented to himself, as the three of them took a breather, slowly circling each other. “This might just be interesting now!” he [Taunted Enemies] again, and began hopping around, the first steps of [Weasel War Dance].
The [Raptors] paused their circling, turning to each other to squeak in confusion. With that brief break in concentration, Ada threw her sword straight at the right bird-lizard thing, then repositioned in front of the left-most one. The first one dodged the projectile, but the second couldn’t dodge the new one he conjured with [The All Edge *F], and Ada just barely managed to get a second cut in, bringing that one down to just a hair over half HP.
Still, in just a few seconds, the battle was at a whirl again. Ada damnable unable to connect her sword with either foul beast. The pair were nigh serpentine in their movements, and incredibly quick. Like a pair of whips caught up in a tornado. Full of twists and turns, strikes and snaps. And though [My Body Is My Armor *F], [Manarmor], and [Taking a Whack Against a Tree] all stood to lessen the impact, their hits were slowly whittling at her own HP.
A hundred failed exchanges since their little break, and the battlefield had shifted just as many meters through this cold forest. A cliff face rose above them, dark granite towering above the forest two or three hundred meters.
The second time [Ethereal Dodge] triggered, he didn’t even sense the attack until after the beast had passed through him (again). He broke away and backed off, his breathing heavy as he shot off another [Identify].
> [Boreal Ground Raptor] (UR) (L94) [Ambushing Druid] (UR) (L94)
Bloody hell, he thought, his back to the cliff wall—or at least about ten meters away from it. He started flipping through tactics in his mind, because clearly a sword and shield was not working out here, the monsters seemingly willing to keep a distance. A fourth one? he briefly thought before throwing caution to the wind and going with plan 7, variant B, what with his HP already down 20%.
In a flash, he [Charged] towards the one in the middle, accelerating far faster than he ever had before, albeit in just a straight line. The damnable [Raptor] though was a consummate dodger, and spun out of his way, while maintaining nearly the same position.
But, no more than a half-meter past, Ada triggered [Quick Pivot], and the [Raptor] coming back to ground soon had a faceful of [Minotaur].
Just before contact, Ada coated his whole body with a layer of mana using [Mana Fist], amplified by [Mana Brute]. Ada wrapped his arms around the squirming, squawking bastard as both predator and prey quickly accelerated away, straight towards the cliff face.
With [Full Body Contact *M] and [Body Slam], amplified by [Brutal Force], and dumping even more mana through [Mana Brute] into [Mana Fist], Ada and “Snacky” as he had dubbed it collided with the cliff-face with a thundering explosion.
As the dust settled, Ada pulled himself out from being embedded ten centimeters into the stone, as the ding of a successful kill ringed resonantly in his skull. Pebbles and even small stones continued to rain down as the dust cleared. The remaining pair of [Raptors] approached cautiously, but no less than twenty meters away.
“Come on!!” Ada taunted as the dust began to clear, not even bothering with the Skill. “Who’s next!”
The stones continued to tink and drack around them in the relative silence, the trio’s eyes meeting each other.
Suddenly, the [Raptors] looked up, squawked, and turned tail, running away back into the underbrush before Ada could even raise an eyebrow in surprise.
When that eyebrow did raise, as did the noises of the jungle—no, wait a minute—he deigned to look up, only for the first of many multi-meter wide boulders to land on him.
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