“And why do we have to be the bait?” The question was left unanswered by my four-legged buddy, who in turn threw me a haggard, deprived of its former playfulness, look.
«Eh, poor thing! I hope we get out of this red-hot desert soon.»
I turned back, but found no living soul in sight, only dancing swirls of red dust and sand. The heat was melting my brain, and the vision got blurred - I've been walking ankle-deep in sand for ten minutes, and already had to look downwards all the time . Vadim warned me that the monsters would see me from afar, but time passed, and I kept going and going.
“Que-e-er!” A wild bird's shriek came from very close by.
«Finally, they've spotted me.»
My sole companion, just like me, looked up: six, no, seven blurry shadows were circling above us. I picked out one of them and was able to quickly read the system's notification:
Cloudglider (*)
Level 5
Red Faction
«Hmm, just a one-star. Vadim seems to have exaggerated their strength quite a bit. Time to get ready.»
I stopped and wiped my sweaty palms on the clothes.
As soon as I froze, their smooth flight in circles stopped - as if on cue, the creatures folded their wings and descent-dived towards me. When they rapidly got closer, I panicked and didn't immediately think of defending myself with the trusty turtle buckler over my head.
Mentally, I prepared myself for the incoming brutal blow. The ear-shattering clattering sound seemed to be very close, but suddenly it was drowned out by another sound. A loud, growing, intense buzz, as if an army of angry bumblebees were coming toward me, and then, a moment later, with a bluish flash, there came thunder. It was a good thing I was wearing sunglasses, or I could have lost a major portion of my eyesight.
Suddenly a falling carcass crashed into my shield. Well, it was unconscious. The whole tiding of seven nasty, vicious creatures dropped dead on the yellow sand.
“Finish them!” Shouted Yegor, but I knew what I had to do even without his advice.
Together with my boy, we quickly dealt with the unconscious monsters: I took care of five of them, and the dog managed to get only two, most likely because he was rather unwell.
“That's it?” Yegor ran up to me and, after a quick look, took a few small objects. “Shit, nothing but some capsules! We're leaving!”
«Yeah, sure, I'll just grab something.»
I leaned over the corpse. It weighed as much as an average human - these bones would come in handy at the next resting camp.
“Hey, buddy, let's move!” I shouted, and hurried to catch up with the rest of the group.
A creature was rushing toward us from the high-rise, a creature which somewhat resembled a hippopotamus. Except it had two horned heads, and an armored shell on its back, with spikes all over its body. All in all, it had nothing in common with a hippopotamus.
Suddenly a hurricane wind came up and immediately died down. But five system's notifications appeared. The second squad took care of another pack of monsters.
Group member eliminated level 5 Cloudglider, gained 2 experience.
Group member eliminated level 6 Cloudglider, gained 3 experience.
...
Cursing, I turned around, sprinting away from the eerie fantasy creature. My legs were constantly getting stuck in the sand as I ran, and my breath came out hoarsely - the lizard hopping behind kept getting closer. Within a dozen seconds of the chase monster had shortened the distance between us so much that I could see the notification:
Desert salamander (**)
Level 4
Red Faction
“Dammit,” I clicked the light step icon and instantly felt my body becoming lighter and faster.
The horns on each head of the creature glowed, and a pair of fireballs came flying toward me. One flew above my head with a roar, and the other struck the sand beneath my feet. I stumbled and tumbled, sprawling on the ground, dropping the dead winged creature and snapping my sunglasses. Someone's hand grabbed my windbreaker jacket and yanked me sharply toward them, dragging me down somewhere.
Disoriented, I got up and ran through the dusty, stuffy room. To my right, a dog limped and wheezed.
“Hurry!” The voices were insistent. Explosions rang out behind, something was burning. The acrid black smoke made me want to cough up the lungs. Small sharp grains of sand hit my eyes, ultimately robbing me of my vision.
Skimming through the basement, I got out the opposite side, and, panting, ran after the men looming in front of me. Our squad breezed into the nearest big store, and I another notification:
Group member eliminated level 3 Altered, gained 1 experience.
«Damn you.»
I slid into the empty window frame, and immediately slammed the edge of my shield into the back of the pale unclothed figure's head, spattering blood. The creature responded with a swift claw strike, shoving me away from him and ripping my chest's clothes.
Aqen's body blocked the paralyzing poison.
A dark shadow slid next to my leg and, stretching out in the air, leaped at the bewildered monster, knocking it to the ground. The creature's roars and groans mixed with the screams of my companions.
Alina screamed shrilly somewhere nearby. Still blinded, I rushed to the rescue. From the top down, with both hands, I struck the bone buckler's edge deep into the monster's skull. Surprisingly, the only thing I could see perfectly was the system labels - the clear letters hovering beside the blurry silhouettes. I dealt with three of the altered with minimal damage to myself: just a couple of bites and scratches. I didn't have time to deal with the last one - a powerful gust of wind hit us both and raised a whirlwind of dust. A half-second later, we crashed into overturned racks of merchandise.
Group member eliminated level 3 Altered, gained 1 experience.
I spit dry sand out of my mouth and shouted:
“Zhenya, you motherfucker! Friendly fire!”
“Help me!” A desperate scream, the sound of breaking planks and broken dishes.
I somehow got to my feet and staggered toward the groans and cries.
Group member eliminated level 4 Altered (**), gained 96 experience.
By the time I reached the place, the fight had already ended. I blinked and squeezed a few tears out of my eyes, trying to get my eyesight back.
The first thing that frightened me was that my buddy was wounded: two crooked cuts from the reptilian claws had scraped all over his body from neck to hind paws. But it was most likely nothing serious, since dog was licking Vadim's neck. Or I should rather call it an outpouring of saliva than a lick. The blood was no longer flowing from the torn neck; the wound was quickly covered with thick tree bark. Beside our leader, Alina sat in tears.
The rest of the group, with the exception of the girl sleeping in Zhenya's arms, had less severe injuries: mostly bruises and abrasions, but there were also bites. The only thing missing was our magic warrior.
“Where...?” I began saying, but was quickly interrupted by a crying lady.
“Yegor ran away. When he saw the two albinos, he used camouflage and ran away. I’m sorry... They were out of my skills range.” Tears appeared in her eyes again. She ended up resting her head on Vadim's shoulder and bursted into even more tears.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
“Alina, stop shaking me,” whispered a very quiet and husky voice - the bearded man opened his eyes.
“Vadim, my sweetheart! You're awake! Please forgive me! Thank God, you're alive!” She immediately started making excuses.
“I’m... fine... Thanks to Sasha's friend,” he held up his hand and stroked the dog on the head, who in turn growled painfully - the bearded man accidentally touched his torn ear. “...I'm sorry. And, thank you...”
The dog, no longer paying attention to him, came toward me wagging his tail. I painfully lowered myself onto the sand and examined his wounds. And indeed, nothing dangerous - there was growing a new, still quite thin, tree bark.
“Vadim, I understand you're wounded, but you won't transform into a monster, right?”
He shook his head, and Zhenya spoke for him:
“Our affinity with nature blocked the altered infection.”
“Oh, that's great!”
Of all of us, the only one standing firmly on his feet was Andrei, who got the least amount of wounds and had leveled up, becoming level two. He walked over to the dead albino and said cheerfully:
“There's a book!”
“What's sort of?” I asked without much interest.
“Necrotic flame, volume one!”
As soon as I heard the word "necrotic," I jumped up and rushed to Andrei, neglecting the pain. He backed away, frightened, and handed me the book with a shaky hand.
“Oh, yes,” I snatched up enveloped in a violet glow book and stared at it with rapt attention.
Active Skill book: Necrotic flame. Volume 1
Do you want to learn it?
“Don't you dare learn it! That's Vadim's loot,” the painfully familiar pesky squeak spoiled the moment I was so happy about.
A hoarse, powerless voice answered her in my place:
“Stop it... you know yourself that, in all fairness, the book belongs to him.”
“I disagree!” Alina resisted his take.
“I've had enough of you,” I turned to her. “What’s up with you?! I've already saved your life twice; any other would have been immensely grateful, and you grumble like an old granny! I unselfishly shared the skill book with you, followed your suicidal plans. And I did not run away, as Yegor did, at the sight of a serious threat. If it hadn't been for the dire need of this ability,” I tossed the skill in my hand. “I'd have thrown the book at your forehead. Wake up already! We're a team!”
My fiery tirade made her pale cheeks redden, but in the end, she found something to add anyway:
“Ha, shared unselfishly! You have even more powerful skills in a backpack of yours. If you'd been honest, you would have shared them right away!”
I was baffled by the total insolence of this young lady. I stood there, unable to find the words, and stared at her.
“How did you know? A skill?”
“Yeah, so what?!” She blurted out with an obvious challenge.
I looked her in the eye and took the backpack off my shoulder, pulling out three books:
“An alchemy book, if you're an alchemist - please learn it and craft some potions to help us get out of here. Or maybe one of you is a warlock? Then over here are two fantastic skills just for you! Go ahead and learn them!”
Now her whole face was crimson red:
“You should have done that in the beginning, and now it's too late! You've lost your chance to gain our trust.” She crossed her arms and turned to the side, staring at the sand-covered dusty wall.
Dead silence enveloped the room: no one else dared to interfere in our argument. Zhenya was too exhausted, Vadim was badly hurt, and Andrei was frankly afraid of me.
«No, this head of hers can't be fixed... I'll have to ignore her, just like I did before!» I thought, shoving the books back into the backpack. The last one, glowing with a violet radiance, I held in my hands and said loudly:
“Yes, learn!”
“Ha! Just as I thought: not an ounce of conscience,” Alina sniggered to the side.
«I don't care. I don't care. I don't care. Having Aqen's blessing is far better than the sight of this matron's broken head.»
I calmed myself and began to read my new ability description.
My hands burst with violet flames: this skill's cost only a unit of energy of Nihility per minute. It was the same kind of fire Yury had been using.
I walked over to the dead albino and grabbed its hand. Slowly and unhurriedly, under the effects of putrefaction and decay, the flesh began to disappear from it, leaving pure white bones; disgusting stench filled the heated air in the store.
«Somehow, I hadn't thought of that, but still had to finish the job: can't afford to lose any point of mana in vain! My comrades will have to be patient for a while.»
A minute was enough time for me to clear the shoulder and elbow, as well as one tibia bone from the flesh. In combat this skill would not be particularly effective, but for my crafting needs it suited perfectly.
At this point I began to ponder what I could make with sub-elite bones and six mana. My gut feeling was that I would only have enough for one of the consumables: a trap or a grenade. And since I hadn't experienced the latter, the choice was obvious.
The members of the little "friendly" group watched my doings with interest. To hide from the prying eyes, I had to do the last part of the crafting behind the overturned racks. In the end, the finished bone disc was stuffed in my backpack, along with the remaining white materials from the albino.
When I got back, Vadim was already able to stand, though not without Andrei's help, while the fussy matron was circling around and sighing; Zhenya was holding Rita in his arms. Apparently, the group was only waiting for me. The healed dog, wagging his tail and snorting the sand out of his nostrils, ran up to me.
“Off we go again? Vadim, are you even able to walk?” The pale look of our leader made me uncertain of our group’s future.
Alina muttered something, I do not know what, and, frankly, did not even try to listen. What good could that jackass have to say?
“It's okay, I'll get better. Sasha, take my axe for now.” He glanced at the bone weapon, smeared with blood and sand. “Alina checked the area around us - there should be no strong creatures. Hopefully we'll make it back to the camp without incident. The eastern barricade borders the reptiles, and it's only a couple of kilometers away.”
I silently picked up Vadim's weapon, and also found my turtle shield among the corpses of the altered ones.
«Ha, looks like we're in for one final dash?» Mentally tuning for a challenging walk, I squinted my eyes and walked out with the others into the scorching sun and the yellow-red dust swirling in the air.
***
You eliminated level 3 Coluber, gained 1 experience.
Next to the corpse of the two-meter snake lay loot - a small, pill-like, glowing capsule. It contained one experience. I put it in my pocket, along with a dozen others, and moved on.
The dog and I were in the vanguard again.
With each step we took, the oppressive heat receded, and nature filled with greenery and life: birds chirped; bees buzzed, flying from one flowering liana to another. Even the dog was more active, occasionally wandering off on his own and coming back with blood leaking out his mouth or carrying body parts of local fauna in his teeth.
At the very beginning of my journey, after the commotion in the store, I killed a couple of these same colubers, and Alina surprisingly leveled up. It was extremely timely. The matron's usefulness instantly skyrocketed to unreachable heights, and I understood why everyone tolerated her bad, moody nature. In a group, not only how much loot we might get depends on her, but our lives as well. Over the next hour, she warned five times about strong monsters nearby. In the end, thanks to her, we crossed the most dangerous section of the route safely.
After I finished gathering my loot and wiping the sweat from my forehead, I looked around. After hours of travel through the desert, the narrow streets, overrun by extravagant plants, welcomed us. Very vaguely they reminded me of the same old hometown. Somewhere in the distance a high concrete wall, behind which lay the railroad tracks, should now be seen.
“Ruff, ruff," the dog barked loudly, catching my attention.
«He usually tries not to make noise.»
I jumped up and rushed to my buddy's call. He was waiting for me in a nearby alley behind a sand-covered car. At my sight he stopped growling and jerked his muzzle, pointing to the floating in the air reptile. It was about a dozen meters away, hovering in the air, surrounded by clouds of sand and dust. It didn't stand out with its size - I'd killed bigger snakes in the past hour - but its appearance was unusual: its huge, locator-like mouth was sucking the surrounding air and sand into it nonstop. For a while, the flat, writhing body swelled, and then the many holes covering the monster's skin shot out dense streams of reddish dust and yellow steam. From this momentum, the flying reptile drifted toward us at a snail's pace:
Serpent-shaper (**)
Level 6
Red Faction
The creature had no eyes and showed no visible aggressiveness. The dog growled furiously, but didn't attack, waiting for my command. I checked my mana: two units left.
«I hope that'll be enough...»
“Okay, let's deal with this odd creature - can't waste any exp and loot.” I pressed the lightweight tread tattoo and darted toward the monster.
In about twenty seconds, we were standing over the bleeding corpse, breathing heavily. Throughout the fight, the creature hadn't reacted anyhow to our attacks, nor had it defended itself. It didn't even show any attempt to escape. The strange creature did what it had been doing all along: sucking up and recycling sand and air. The only thing it distinguished itself in combat was its reddened skin and the ultrasonic sound that scratched lightly at my eardrums.
You eliminated level 6 Serpent-shaper (**), gained 216 experience.
Like any other sub-elite, it dropped a skill book. While my buddy sated himself with the flesh of a powerful creature, I busied myself learning the ability.
The white cover of the book, glowing with pure light, was originally - an active skill book: The basics of terraforming. In my hands, however, it rapidly transformed into a completely different one, changing not only the cover color to coal-black, but also the description:
Active skill book: Create a Grave terraformer
Do you want to learn it?
“Wow,” I turned the book in my hands. “It changed just for me? Yes.”
The book quickly evaporated, and a new skill appeared in the status. The cost was insane - 30 energy of Nihility. I would only be able to try the skill at the fifth level, and that was only after resting for thirty hours with my aura turned off.
“Sasha!” Vadim's worried cry resounded.
“Hey, follow me!” Boy stopped devouring the flesh of the serpent that same moment, and we rushed to the call of our comrades. We reached them in a matter of seconds; however, the group was fine, but instead of gratitude for the extra experience from the sub-elite I got curses and insults from Alina, Andrei's indignant shriek, and even Zhenya and Vadim were looking at me with condemnation.
“Hey, what happened?” I asked the leader of the group worriedly.
“You killed the terraformer! Have you gone insane?!” Alina yelled, not giving the bearded guy a chance to speak. “Everyone knows not to touch them!”
“Is it that serious?” I ignored the furious serpentess and turned back to Vadim.
“Yep,” the bearded leader wiped the endless sweating with the edge of his shirt. “In a few minutes they'll be swarming all over the place, and then they'll be charging toward the camp in a massive wave.”
“You all don't have even two minutes!” A loud, angry voice came from behind me, and I turned sharply around. A tall girl with a very short haircut was standing in the wreckage of the ruined one-story store, with her long sword resting on the shoulder. “Only a couple of breaths away from the rapidly approaching agonizing death!”