Christopher only managed to catch up with Sergeant Mason and the rest of his squad when they had already traveled halfway across the plaza. They had followed the path that was still clear of the ice and the metal spikes.
The Soul Mages appeared to be keeping a few lanes free from the ice and the sharp metal caltrops. A few regular citizens were still making their way to the Arena, and he saw quite a few of them fall on their rears due to the slippery ice. One old woman was helped along by what looked to be a ten-year-old girl, they were slowly inching their way to the relative safety of the Arena.
Sergeant Mason had already noticed Christopher catching up and continued jogging at the head of their group.
Sergeant Mason stopped them when they reached the outer edge of the plaza, narrow streets leading to the now more dangerous parts of Lumen. The Monsters of the Blight might very well be hunting people in those streets at this very moment.
“Follow my orders to the letter. We will be fighting threats wherever we find them. There is no time to learn each other’s capabilities and get any kind of cohesion out of this squad so we have to keep things simple. Try to support each other when you can, but do not use techniques that might endanger your team. Call out if you spot any enemies.”
A few of them gave out of tune and grumbled affirmation to that statement. They did not seem too happy with the situation they found themselves in, which made perfect sense.
Christopher had a chance to observe his team-mates and they were a varied bunch. There was a tall but dour-looking man with pitch-black hair. He wore a motley of differently colored armor pieces. There was also a rather old man who carried a gourd on his back. The old man also wore a strange belt on his waist that had small containers with plants growing out of them. There was one other archer like him, a young woman carrying a bow. Her bow was simpler in design, and unlike him, she carried a quiver of arrows. Another young and stocky bald man wielded a short sword that had wicked teeth along its edge. Most of the other squad members looked more ordinary with more traditional weaponry.
At least most of them looked competent and battle-ready. Christopher assumed that they had originally been stationed somewhere else like him, but there was little opportunity to ask right now.
Nobody had commented on his lack of arrow quiver in their hurry to depart. He would probably have to show his Soul-Bound arrow trick if they caught on and asked him questions. “Let’s go, try to stay quiet and watchful.” ordered Sergeant Mason.
They soon followed the Sergeant out of the plaza and into the streets beyond. Each of them was carefully looking for the potential monsters around them, moving as quietly as they could, as if speaking might summon some horror. Honestly, that might very well be the case.
They carefully navigated the streets beyond the plaza, looking for any signs of monsters. Occasionally they would encounter more people trying to reach the safety of the Arena. For them, they could do little but point them in the right direction.
They found their first unmistakable sign of a monster attack not long into their patrol. A mutilated body lay at an angle against one of the walls, signs of heavy and sharp impacts apparent on the body. They could make out that there was another body in the distance.
Christopher felt bile rise in his throat at seeing the bloody body, hopefully he would never get used to such a sight. The Sergeant carefully examined the mutilated body while Christopher tried not to look.
“Be at attention, this looks like Scaled Stompers to me, and they are probably still around. They can drop on you from anywhere, prepare to defend yourselves”
None of them moved from their current spots, instead taking up a somewhat defensible position. Some of them looked fearfully at the roofs above, much more guarded now.
‘What are Scaled Stompers again?’ Christopher tried to recollect all that he knew. He had studied the compendium on monsters of the Blight carefully, but there were a lot of different creatures to learn. He remembered that these Scaled Stompers somewhat resembled primates... and also reptiles.
‘Right, they have characteristics from both!’
From what he had learned, the Scaled Stompers moved in troops of around ten, much like themselves. They were much more dangerous than a simple malignity of Goblins.
The Sergeant must have heard something for he shouted more instruction. “These things will come at us from above, do not allow them to take you by surprise, focus on dodging.”
They immediately heard something scraping on top of one of the buildings that was paired with a very disturbing clicking noise. Christopher had his first quick glimpse of one of the creatures as it jumped from one rooftop onto another. Seeing the creature helped him to remember more of the information that he had read on them.
His quick glimpse confirmed that they were dealing with Scaled Stompers. The creature did remind him somewhat of a primate, with its thick arms and legs. However, its body was covered in scales instead of hair. The clicking sounds also very much characterized these monsters.
Christopher knew that their thick legs ended in spiked claws, which they used to stomp holes into their targets by dropping their heavy bodies from above. They also possessed long and agile arms that were ideal for moving around, vertically and horizontally.
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Worst of all was that their scales functioned as thick and natural armor, so it would require a lot of force to penetrate the flesh below the scales. They were hell to fight in forests, but Lumen would be a close mirror to such an environment, giving the creatures a possible advantage.
They might be in some trouble here since the creatures operated in larger groups and coordinated well. Their squad was already not exactly the most trained unit around.
Christopher summoned his Adenium arrow in preparation as he had his bow ready in hand. Maybe he could shoot down a Scaled Stompers as it jumped from roof to roof. As an archer, he would normally be able to hang back, but that did not mean much when the enemy could barrel down from every direction.
“They’re coming!” shouted Sergeant Mason. Christopher took a quick look at the Sergeant and noticed that the Sergeant now gripped two metal disks in his hands. Where had those come from? He quickly returned his eyes to the roofs above.
Not a moment later the first Scaled Stomper launched itself down very suddenly and rapidly upon one of his squad mates, a middle-aged woman wielding a mace. The monster’s speed was luckily not enough for Sergeant Mason. The Scaled Stomper never had a chance as Sergeant Mason threw one of the metal disks with enormous speed and power.
The disk entered the Scaled Stomper from its lower body and shot out somewhere out of its shoulder, tearing through the entirety of its torso. The now dead Scaled Stomper hit the wooden boardwalk with a heavy crash, falling only half a meter away from his mace-wielding team member, who looked rather startled.
Christopher did not dare look too long at the dead creature, keeping his focus on the rooftops above. This proved to be a wise decision, as three more Scaled Stomper launched themselves simultaneously from above, and one of them had chosen Christopher as a target.
Christopher quickly decided that it would be unwise to get a shot off with his bow, instead, he needed to move right away to dodge the claws hurtling towards him. Shooting it would not stop the Scaled Stomper from turning Christopher into a paste. Christopher intentionally dropped his bow to speed up his dodge.
His reflexes proved just enough, as both legs of the creature sank deep within the wooden planking of the road, sending splinters flying. His loop would have been over if he had gotten hit by the monster’s full weight.
Right now the Scaled Stomper towered half a meter over him, its yellow-slitted eyes radiating rage. Christopher managed to dodge the wild swing of one of its arms as it tried to send him flying. The Stomper clicked disturbingly while it looked at him with its enraged eyes.
Christopher had already remembered the weak point being an organ in its thick neck and swung his now materialized Adeline dagger for the organ that was highlighted by [Dagger’s Flow]. The skill proved its value again after some time of disuse, he precisely guided the blade straight towards the organ.
image [https://i.imgur.com/VERAeAZ.png]
He infused his Soul Force into the blade early, not caring for the timing at the moment. He would rather waste some of his reserves than be dead.
The Blue sheen of the Adeline dagger easily penetrated deep into the Scaled Stomper's thick neck thanks to the Soul Force infusion. He swiped hard to completely shear through the organ, however the other arm of the Scaled Stomper was simultaneously bearing down at him.
Christopher managed to obliterate the vital organ, but due to the Scaled Stomper's momentum, the arm hit him at close to full force, sending Christopher crashing against the base of a home to his right.
Christopher had remained conscious and he managed to quickly recover, possibly due to his stat growth. A notification told him that he had at least killed his powerful attacker.
[You have defeated a minion of entropy; 240 soul points have been acquired.]
A glance told him that the rest of the squad was still grappling with the remaining attackers. Not all had fended off the attack like Christopher.
It shocked him to see that one of his fellow squad mates now lay dead in the street, her head turned into mulch.
Christopher also counted seven dead Scaled Stompers scattered around their group. One of them was frozen solid, while another had been torn in half. It still had only been moments since the descent of the first Scaled Stomper. Various stab wounds could also be seen on many of their enemies. Three Stompers were still alive and fighting aggressively against his allies. That Christopher had completely missed all of this in his fight against the Scaled Stomper was concerning. ‘What if another had attacked me from above?’ He would need to work on his situational awareness in the future.
Christopher quickly dispersed the bow before summoning both the bow and arrow into his hands. Retrieving them in this way was a lot quicker than gathering them from the ground. He aimed for a Scaled Stomper that was keeping two of his squad mates at bay by spinning its arms. The monster made that creepy clicking sound as it swung.
The Stomper was a mostly stationary target and Christopher’s Adenium arrow penetrated only just below the vital organ in its neck. ‘Damn, so close.’
It was not enough to fatally injure the Scaled Stomper, but his squad mates used the opportunity of distraction to hack into the monster with gusto. The dour-looking squad member with the mismatched armor finished off the Stomper with a final powerful swing.
[You have contributed to killing a minion of entropy; 40 Soul Points have been acquired]
The Sergeant meanwhile finished one of the other two remaining creatures with his spinning disk weapon. Christopher wondered how many the sergeant had killed by himself of those already dead.
The final Scaled Stomper was also about to die. The old man with the gourd and plant belt proceeded to kill it strangely. He had grown some kind of vine out of the ground under the monster while two others kept it at bay. The vine penetrated through its scales and just kept growing inside, shooting out at numerous locations along its body, killing it after some moments.
After that they all kept looking at the rooftops for a few minutes, expecting more to show up at any second.
“That should be it.” Sergeant Mason called out. “Not bad, only one death. Those Scaled Stompers would have wreaked a lot of havoc; of that, I have no doubt.” He said with some cheer.
Christopher felt some rage at the flippant attitude regarding the woman who had died. A few of them grouped around their dead teammate.
“What was her name, Christopher asked.”
They looked at each other but nobody seemed to know. “There was not much time for introductions,” said the old man with the plants apologetically.
Sergeant Mason spoke up. “Stop fiddling your thumbs. This is what you dimwits signed up for!” Christopher saw some anger cross over the faces of the people there with him, but the sergeant ignored it.
“Let’s go, there will be more monsters to fight.”