Narrowly avoiding the antlers of a drone, Jack tried to think of a plan.
The Spell Seeker was on its way. While he hoped there was something in the dungeon that would attract its attention besides Lucy, he didn’t think he was that lucky. So to be safe, he assumed it was coming straight there.
There were waves of drones coming from god knows where heading towards the exit. In theory, they are just trying to leave, so he might be able to run away and avoid them. They may even be able to slow down the wolf. The problem was getting away while he was surrounded.
Using a few Hydraulic Leaps in quick succession would eat into his stamina quickly, but it looked like that was going to be the best plan to get out of the horde. Lucy, feeling his intent, jumped off the bear drone she was attacking and onto his back.
When he had a moment where he was not getting attacked, Jack leaped forward, aiming high so that he passed over the top of the drones.
He jumped high enough that there were a few moments where all he saw around and below himself was fog. It was unnerving not being able to see where he was going to land.
Descending through the fog, the ground came back into view as well as the four drones around the area he would land. Using the momentum of his fall, he brought his staff down on the nearest one’s head. Without waiting to see if he killed it or giving the rest a chance to attack, he jumped again. And Again. The third landing was the one absent of drones.
Without the constant attack of drones, Jack had a moment to think. The drones were heading to the exit, so he was going to try to avoid the central area.
What to do about the wolf? The pistol wasn’t fully charged, having only enough mana for one barrier currently. Plus, Lucy was still injured from their last big fight, missing a leg, and her exoskeleton was cracked. While she would be fine fighting the mindless drones, he didn’t want her near the wolf unless she was in peak condition.
Lucy responded to his thoughts with the image of her standing over a dead wolf. He was about to respond to her when he heard quick wet footsteps. It was already here.
The wolf flew out of the mist straight at them. Jack dodged and smacked its side, causing it to let out a yelp as it landed seven feet away.
It turned with a snarl and charged at him.
Jack interrupted its charge with a defensive sweep of his staff.
The wolf narrowly avoided being hit by hopping back but then continued moving forward, snapping towards Jack’s legs.
Activating Hydraulic Leap, he jumped far away from the closing jaws of the wolf.
Jack’s simple defensive maneuvers he had developed against the drones were not going to help him against the agile and thinking predator.
This exchange repeated itself a few times, each time the wolf was closer to hitting him than the last.
While Jack still hadn’t taken any damage, he could see that these exchanges were only benefiting the wolf. He still had plenty of stamina, but he was expending much more energy avoiding the wolf’s attacks than it was.
Either he needed to go on the offensive or he needed to think of a different way to take it down. The problem was the wolf was just too fast for him, a thought emphasized as the wolf easily dodged a strike from his staff.
His original plan to take it down, before the dungeon prematurely broke, was heavily reliant on Lucy and her venom. First, he would distract the wolf with a barrier, then when the barrier was almost completely drained, he would leap forward attacking while also keeping its attention. At the same time, Lucy would jump off of him and attach herself to the wolf’s back, injecting as much venom as she could until she would be forced to get off and retreat to the high trees. Jack would continue to attack it and keep it from retreating while the venom did its thing.
It had been a simple plan, but he thought they would have had a good shot. Unfortunately, it relied heavily on that initial ‘ambush’ attack. While there was probably a good chance Lucy could still get on the wolf and poison it if he shot the barrier. With her current injury though, if something were to go wrong, she could get killed. She had the Deus Ex Machina perk that should keep her from outright dying from a single attack, but going down to one health wouldn’t stop the next attack.
Jack jumped backwards out of the way of another attack, but as he was in the air, the wolf suddenly drew in a quick breath and let out a mighty howl.
The blast that came from the wolf wasn’t as powerful as the ones when it was able to take a deep breath, but it was still enough to send Jack flying back.
Since he was hit from the front, Lucy, who was still on his back, avoided taking damage from the Sonic Howl. She had to jump off of him before he crashed into the ground.
Jack tumbled across the muddy ground. Sharp pain exploded all over his body, making him aware of the hundreds of tiny cuts caused by the howl attack. His vision was blurry and his head was spinning.
While he couldn’t see her, Jack could feel that Lucy was fleeing from the wolf. She tried climbing a tree to get away from the spell seeker, but unlike the trees outside, they were not very tall making it so the wolf could easily climb them.
Quickly retrieving his staff that had fallen a few feet away, he rushed over to help her. When the wolf was within an attacking distance of Lucy she jumped out of the tree and retreated towards Jack.
Even though he could feel her location, a small wave of relief came through him as he saw the scurrying spider emerge from the fog and run towards him. Following closely, though, was the wolf.
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Jack didn’t hesitate and used his pistol to erect the magical barrier. While he was worried about Lucy’s safety, his original plan might be their best chance of killing the wolf.
As soon as it saw the golden barrier, the wolf began to absorb its mana. It normally took the wolf twenty to thirty seconds to finish the barrier, so Jack used that time to get into position. A few seconds before the wolf was done, they jumped forward and attacked.
Jack’s pole came down towards its neck while Lucy landed on the middle of its back. The moment his staff made contact with its neck, though, Jack felt some kind of force repel his attack. The staff was thrown back, wrenching itself out of his hands and flying over his shoulder.
The combination of his forward momentum and the knockback that threw his staff from his hands caused Jack to fall to the side dangerously close to the wolf’s face.
Instead of mauling him right then though, it turned its head faster than he could react and with surprising flexibility, it snapped at Lucy.
Lucy was able to jump away and avoid having her torso crushed in the wolf’s powerful jaws, but not without a cost. Sticking out of its closed mouth were three of Lucy’s right legs. The same side where she had already been missing one, leaving her with none and without a way to walk.
The wolf greedily chomped down on its small snack.
The momentum of Lucy’s jump was enough to carry her a few feet away, where she landed with a wet plop.
Jack was without his weapon, but he knew he had to do something as the wolf turned towards the helpless spider. Doing the only thing he could think of at the moment, he locked his arms around the wolf’s neck and activated Hydraulic Leap.
There was a pop in his left shoulder and an excruciating amount of pain in the area, but he kept his arms locked around the wolf.
While at his current level Hydraulic Leap could send him around forty-five feet, that was when it was just him and Lucy. That distance didn’t take into account carrying a five-foot-tall, nearly four-hundred pound wolf.
The leap didn’t pull them off the ground very much, but did knock the wolf over and send them both tumbling ten feet.
When they stopped tumbling, Jack was on his right side still hugged around the wolf’s neck. Its muzzle inches away from Jack’s face. He unlocked his arms and tried to get up, but his right arm was pinned under the dazed wolf.
The wolf’s eyes were going in and out of focus as it stared at him. A deep growl vibrated from its chest.
With his left arm dislocated and his right arm pinned under the wolf, he made a desperate move when the wolf opened its mouth to attack his face.
Using Hair Manipulation, he moved the end of his braided hair and shot it straight into the wolf’s mouth and down its throat.
The wolf’s eyes went wide and it let out a strangled cough as the hair blocked its airway. Its jaws snapped shut, scratching the tip of his nose and cutting his hair off.
It rolled away from him with more haggard coughs. More importantly, its rolling away freed his arm.
The wolf stood, continuing to cough like a cat trying to rid itself of a hairball. Which was exactly what it was doing.
Jack scrambled to his feet and ran to Lucy, who was desperately trying to move with her four remaining legs.
Scooping her up with his good arm, he glanced back at the wolf who seemed to have almost finished clearing its throat of his hair. Not bothering to retrieve his staff, Jack sprinted deeper into the dungeon.
It wasn’t very long before Jack could hear the wolf behind them. It didn’t matter though; he had a plan, he only hoped he could keep ahead of the wolf for a little longer.
The wolf was gradually gaining on them.
Not wanting to risk slowing down by looking back, Jack had to guess how close it was.
Nine feet, it should be able to see him through the fog now.
Six feet, he could hear its labored panting.
Three feet, he could practically feel its furious breath on his back.
Just then, the fog revealed what he had been waiting for, the edge of the first area and the river of leeches.
Jack used Hydraulic Leap at the edge, soaring over the river for a short while before splashing into the ice-cold water. He held Lucy high up to keep her out of the water.
He heard a yelp and splash behind him as the wolf fell into the water. Lowering his head under the water, Jack let out an Empowered Howl then continued towards the second area of the dungeon.
The wolf was still coming after them. The water didn’t slow it too much relative to how much it slowed Jack. With how much time Jack had spent crossing the river, he knew where the large patches of soft earth that he could easily get stuck in were. Instead of avoiding those areas though, he made sure to pass right next to them to slow down the wolf more.
Every few minutes, Jack would dunk his head and let out another Empowered Howl.
When he made it to the other side of the river, he could hear the wolf far behind him. Emerging from the water, he was happy to see a few leeches on his legs.
Working as quickly as possible Jack moved Lucy to each leech so she could inject them with her venom, getting them off his legs.
Knowing he didn’t have much time before the wolf made it out of the river, he rushed into the fog. He only hoped that not all of the drones were leaving the dungeon.
Jack searched the area to no avail. He might just be screwed.
It wasn’t until he heard the distant thumping of the wolf closing in that he found one.
A blooming drone. It was only a deer, but it should work. The deer took notice of him instantly, its extra vine limbs spreading out like living whips.
It shot out a few needles hitting him in the chest, but the damage wasn’t enough to worry him in the slightest. He just had to make sure he didn’t get grappled.
As Jack was dancing around the attacking vines, the wolf emerged from the mist. Jack had circled around the deer, making sure that it would be between them when the wolf showed up.
Dozens of leeches covered its legs.
The wolf practically ignored the drone as it ran around it going after them.
The deer attempted to gore the wolf, but it easily avoided the attack. What it couldn’t avoid were the handful of needles that burst out of one of the flowers.
When the wolf got close to them, Jack leapt over it and the drone. Putting the drone in between them.
He was able to repeat this half a dozen times; the wolf getting a little slower each time. After that, the wolf seemed to get frustrated with the interference of the drone and quickly snapped its neck. But the damage was already done; there were tons of needles all over it and it was losing a decent amount of blood from the leeches.
After another five minutes of dodging the gradually slower wolf’s attacks, it finally collapsed. Jack waited until it stopped struggling completely to go and kick it in the head.
When it didn’t react at all, he placed Lucy on its side so that she could start biting it while Jack pressed down on its windpipe. It didn’t take long before it was finally over.
Your party has slain a Spell Seeker Level: 19
Your contribution 70%
You are awarded 44 Experience.