Rushing outside, the screams of the people from Madison flooded my ears. It didn’t matter that we were taught not to make noise, not when an Eater had arrived. Crossing the doors, I was greeted by chaos. In front of the village’s main building, everyone was running like headless chickens. Some tried to dive inside the houses, while others just went for the river, slowly being dragged by the current. To my left, where once the gate was located, now only had broken pieces of wood were everywhere.
Thick splatters of blood covered the street, but there was no body to be found. Which wasn’t a surprise, of course. The Eaters never left any food on their plate.
One of the houses close to the former wooden gate was half destroyed, and a sickening crushing sound could be heard from inside. It was hard to see anything, especially since the only thing giving us some light was the half moon and the stars. But from the shadows, I managed to discern one large tentacle moving around, and that was enough for Sys to give me some information.
[Hunter Eater - Tier 1]
I never saw one of those before, but it was just tier 1, which meant that I could kill it. As long as it was alone. Eaters didn’t seem to follow any particular rule, sometimes they would act in a group, while other times they would go on their own. Hoping this was a situation of the latter, I yelled while dashing towards it, “Everyone run downstream! Leave the village!”
People didn’t seem to do anything as I moved, only when Gareth stepped outside, a few moments after I did and gave the same command that the village sprung into action. Everyone grabbing whoever they could and rushing out. Thankfully, I also saw Joseph carrying Pops outside.
“I’ll lure it away!” I yelled, hoping Rakeen would understand what I meant.
My shouting seemed to attract the Eater as I go closer. The monster emerged from the house, its skin more metallic looking instead of the black ichor that covered the Scavenger Eaters. Its legs were also thinner, not as twig like as the baby Eaters, but still thinner than the ones that attacked my village. However, the tentacles didn’t move as wildly. They had purpose with every movement, and a two of them were different. One had a sharp point, and the second large jagged tips that could be used like a mace.
I turned to the left and started running away from the city as the Hunter Eater followed. Thankfully, I was faster, which meant I could stay far enough away to avoid being caught, but close enough to make it seem like it could reach me. Or at least, that was the plan. In just a few moments, the creature realized that it wouldn’t be able to reach me. It turned around, ready to go after someone else. Someone who was inside a small shed by the wooden wall. From my angle, it was impossible to know who it was, but the sliver of chance that Cindy, Peter, Michael or Vanessa were there was all I needed. Without hesitating, I grabbed a rock on the ground and flung at the monster, hitting one of its legs.
The creature paused, turned towards the pebble, and crushed it with one of its tentacles. If you hit an Eater, you are asking for a fight to the death, and that’s exactly what I wanted. Without even waiting to see it moving, I bolted away from the village. I need distance, enough distance so that no one would see me killing that monster. That wasn’t a conversation I was ready for. Not yet, at least.
This time, I didn’t bother making sure the Eater was close to me. After all, it would already be chasing me, no matter what. After a couple hundred meters, I did a sharp turn right. There was a path on the hill to the side that was much flatter than the rest. It was a dried-up stream that only appeared during heavy rains as the water pooled on the other side.
While climbing that area, I glanced back, the low light barely being enough to show me the Eater. It had stopped by the foot of the hill and did a… handstand? Only two of its legs were touching the ground, while the other six were pointing in all directions. Almost like… a wheel?
As soon as that thought crossed my mind, the Eater started cartwheeling towards me. The legs digging in the dirt and pulling it forward. With each rotation, its momentum increased until it stopped losing ground and started gaining. My blood ran cold, if that thing could really move that quickly, I had no hopes of escaping it. And to make matters worse, this wasn’t a good place to fight. The terrain was too uneven for me, and I would be at a disadvantage. The only silver lining here was that the Eater didn’t seem to be able to keep itself steady properly. Each tentacle was constantly lashing out, pushing its ‘wheel form’ from one side to the other in an attempt to stop it from toppling over. This also meant it wouldn’t use its larger appendages to attack me while it spun.
The monster got closer and closer, the sounds of the metallic skin scraping against the ground echoing along the hills. It wouldn’t take long for it to reach me and then I would be in trouble. But I wasn’t that far from the top. And on the other side, I might be able to do something. The monster struggled to change directions, which meant it would be easy to dodge it, as long as it wasn’t that fast.
In fact, maybe I could even use it to my advantage. Pulling my staff, I triggered {Compression} making it as big as I could while holding on to it for dear life. The moment the butt of the pole slammed against the floor, I jumped, helping the skill propel me forward. Ever since getting to tier 1, the skill could exhibit more force during the size change. Once there was enough momentum, I triggered {Compression} once more, shifting my combined center of mass to be on the apex of the jump. That way, the force behind that push wasn’t wasted on the larger form of my staff.
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The idea worked, but it was much less effective than I expected. Instead of landing on the other side of the hill, I moved just a handful of meters ahead, with still more ground to cover before reaching the decline. It wasn’t all bad news, however, as the Eater came spinning towards my previous position a few moments after I left that area. Because of the angle of its charge, not only did the monster missed, but it would also need to either stop and start their spinning again, or to make a wide turn in order to catch me. Either way, I had more than enough time to finally go over the hill and start speeding down.
On the other side, there was a thicker forest, but also some open areas with large rocks and a small lake just a 10 meters [32 ft] wide. There was a story about a bottomless lake near Madison, could this be it? Then again, I had no clue if Eaters knew how to swim. While I was sliding down the hill, the Eater crossed the path behind me one more time. Missing the target again. Yeah, it couldn’t control that move properly. It was likely not even a proper skill, just something it was trying to do.
Its third attempt was different. It learned from its mistakes and now was following the exact path I took. Even if I tried to change the course, it would be able to follow me. Unless I only jumped away at the last second. But that wasn’t the plan. I rushed ahead, running as fast as I could towards a large pine tree. My feet hit the trunk, allowing me to take a few steps up and jumping back in a spin just as the Eater passed under me.
{Formless Nodus Swipe} was triggered, and the tail like constellation appeared on my staff. At the same time, another cast of {Compression} made my weapon grow just before I slammed the Hunter Eater right on top of its mouth. The impact sent the monster to the side, making it tumble twice. However, its legs quickly shifted backwards for it to regain its footing and the mace tentacle came flying towards me. On a first glance that didn’t seem like a good idea, as the tentacle was too short, but it quickly grew, gaining even more speed as I landed on the ground.
Diving to the side, I escaped the mace by a hair, but I failed to notice another tentacle incoming. Going for a wide arc, the tip of the appendage growing a thin blade. There was no time to escape to the side and its trajectory was too easy to move up or down in case I tried to jump or duck. Instead, I did the only thing that came to mind. Using {Compression} one more time to make my staff smaller, and hoping that this would make it harder for it to be cut, I blocked.
The impact sent me flying back, hitting a tree face first as the blow made spun me in the air. At least my staff was able to hold on without breaking. If that didn’t happen, I wasn’t sure I wouldn’t have been cut in half. The Eater wasn’t about to let me go, its mace tentacle came flying towards me like a bullet. With a jump to the left, I evaded the blow, only to see the bladed tentacle coming back as the mace was retracted. It seemed like the creature could only attack with one at a time. And the mace was much slower.
Instead of trying to dodge, I bolted towards the monster. If the Eater was using {Compression} to make its tentacles grow, I could make it spend more Energy if I forced it to use it repeatedly. Not to mention it would make it harder for the larger tentacles to reach me.
Its swing went wide, cutting a couple of trees in the process. The loud crashes echoed in the area as the trunks started to land, a few were caught by other trees which were able to hold on. But a couple of the older, more brittle pines broke down with the weight, causing a domino effect.
Once I reached the monster’s body, I slammed my staff underneath it and triggered {Compression} one more time, spending the 5th charge of the skill. This time, my idea was just to push the creature to the side, as it was close to the lake. The sudden eruption of a large metal pole made the Eater flip, its legs going backwards once more to steady its footing. However, now a couple of them were already in the water.
The mace came swinging down, and I tumbled underneath the monster. The smaller tendrils that were hiding so far lashed out, all of them trying to grab or cut me. Once I came out on the other side, my body was covered in small wounds, but I didn’t care. With a spin, {Formless Nodus Swipe} made another appearance. This time aimed at the creature’s legs. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to break it, but it was enough to push the monster even more towards the lake. Now half its body was already inside.
Not even attempting to change its position. The Eater sent out the bladed tentacle in a thrust. My body shifted to the right, but I wasn’t fast enough. The appendage opened a large gash on the side of my shoulder, to the point where the bone became expose. But at the same time, its attack slammed against a tree behind me, making it fall on top of the monster.
As the trunk crashed on the creature, it was pushed deeper into the lake, all its limbs vanishing underwater. I had no idea if that could kill an Eater, but it was worth a shot. As {Body Regeneration} did its magic to start fixing my arm, I rolled more trunks into the water using every ounce of strength I still had. In times like this Burst of Strength would have been a massive help, but thresh was no use crying over spilled milk.
I saw the appendages shoot up from the water, lashing out at the trees and trying to find purchase on the ground. Eventually, it did. The bladed tentacle was able to carve into the ground and the Eater started to slowly pull itself out of the water. Without missing a beat, I rushed over to the tentacle and struck it with another {Formless Nodus Swipe}. The attack wasn’t able to break the limb, but it made the blade lose its hold on the dirt and fall back into the water. The motion worsened the wound in my arm which forced another cast of {Body Regeneration}. Emptying out my Energy reserves.
More tentacles shot up as I took a quick sip of the Eater blood that was in my waterskin, refilling my Energy back to 4. Another cast of {Compression} intercepted a second attempt of the bladed tentacle to find something to hold on to. All the while I continued rolling the broken trees into the water. Even if some weren’t able to help hold the monster down, as its tentacles tried to grab at anything, the wood would break under the strain, making it waste time and fall back into the depths.
The whole process took a good five minutes, and by the end of it there were no more trees to push into the lake. But finally, I felt the SP getting inside my body.
[Congratulations user Cassandra for the level up. Current level 4. 1 attribute point available. 1 skill available.]