All around him, arrows and ballista bolts rained down, interspersed with a few spells. None of them came anywhere near Jonathan, a testament to the skill of the archers at the top of the battlements. The other fighters were all in the process of fighting too, although none of them had been able to kill a monster yet. Both of the melee fighters seemed to be pure warriors, without any magical ability between them. Likewise, the two mages were entirely focused on magic, moving barely faster than a normal human. Nobody else had the same stat bonuses that Jonathan had, nobody normal at any rate, and as a result most people specialized heavily.
The other fighter, the man who had empowered the projectiles earlier, had an entirely unique style of fighting.He picked out rocks from his pocket, and imbued them with white light before lobbing them at the monsters. Although the rocks were barely visible, they landed with the force of grenades, blasting chunks out of their targets. Jonathan took this all in as he quickly dismantled the next Ash Prowler, his fists moving so fast that all anybody on the wall saw was a blur. Mana hissed and popped through raw flesh as he fought, leaving yet another charred corpse in his wake. He was rapidly outgrowing the basic monsters in this area, and as he moved on to one of the Fetid Oozes, he hoped that he could find a challenge in this one. This particular Fetid Ooze, as an elite, was twice the size of the one he had fought before and had two arms rather than one. Other than that, it was basically the same creature, covered in grotesque boils and with a misshapen body.
Its massive maw yawned hungrily open as Jonathan approached, and its twin fists shot out like lightning a moment later. Even with all of his speed, Jonathan was barely able to dodge the attack, and one of the arms grazed the top of his head. Wet blood ran down the sides of his scalp, and he found that a large chunk of skin was missing. Just the slightest edge of the monster’s punch had utterly devastated the top of his head, and Jonathan knew that this was not an opponent to take lightly.
He ducked under a return strike, and grabbed at the arm above him, forcing mana through his fists and into his hands. The creature burned as the mana struck it, but the rate at which skin melted away was far slower than with the other monsters. The creature chortled wetly and yanked its arm free, before backhanding Jonathan with its other arm as he unbalanced.
He went skipping twenty feet across the ground, and only came to a stop after he thrust his hands deep into the ash. His entire body felt like a slab of tenderized meat, but luckily there was nothing broken. The monster had not been able to build up enough speed to seriously injure him. Jonathan got to his feet, spotting one of the Ash Prowlers coming straight for him, taking note of his relative weakness.
With a snarl, he slammed the mana out of his core and into the world, imbuing his gauntlets with power. The monster built up fire in its throat, and Jonathan tried to tug at it with his Unravel skill. However, nothing happened. It seemed that the fiery breath was a natural ability of the monster, and had nothing at all to do with mana manipulation. Jonathan sighed, but was undeterred. He could kill the thing with his bare hands if need came to it.
The Fetid Ooze elite was trundling across the ash in the background, but there was enough time before the slow monster came near him to kill the Ash Prowler. Jonathan widened his stance and held his hands out in front of himself, getting ready to fight. The nearer of the two monsters came howling towards his neck, trying to set off its fire ability as close as it could to his face.
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Jonathan ducked underneath the creature and punched it into the underbelly, sending it off course. The ball of fire went soaring through the air, landing on one of the unidentified elites. The creature looked like some sort of giant bird, and it hissed as the fire landed on its back. The scariest thing was that the orb of glowing energy barely burnt the thing.
It turned around from its current position, which was facing off against the two melee fighters, and opened its beak wide. It flapped its wings once and then charged across the ash, using its wings to propel itself at high speeds. Jonathan grabbed the Ash Prowler and swung it into the path of the bird. It seemed that the fireball had been enough to dispel the uneasy peace between the monsters, and the bird skewered it on its razor sharp beak, before opening its jaws, tearing the monster in half.
Unfortunately, it now had its eyes locked on Jonathan. The Fetid Ooze began to turn around, knowing when it was beaten, instead heading towards the man empowering the rocks in the background.
The bird lashed out at Jonathan with its beak, spearing into the center of his chest. He knocked the beak aside at the last minute, but it still impacted his chest, knocking him back a step. There was a small dent in one of the chain links, but nothing major. The armor certainly was worth more money than the smith had asked for. Still, it felt like he had been hit by a carriage, and his chest ached from the blow. One of his ribs had splintered from the force, and he knew that it was time for him to get serious.
He sent two hundred points of mana out of his core and into his hands, condensing the resulting flares of blue energy down the smallest size that he could create. Two golf ball sized orbs of scintillating light hovered on the ends of his fists, and as the bird attacked again, he punched. Fist met beak, and the mana ate through the hard surface of the creature’s natural weapon, causing it to withdraw hastily. Jonathan nailed it in the neck with a blow from his left hand, and the monster wheezed as he sent caustic mana into its windpipe. It recovered quickly however, and swiped to the side with its now shortened beak, knocking Jonathan head over heels in the direction of the walls.
He rolled as he fell, getting back to his feet just in time to block another strike from the bird monster. It was both incredibly fast and incredibly dangerous, packing a serious punch. He grabbed its beak in both hands and twisted, causing the monster to let out a muffled screech of pain. The thing kicked out with one of its legs, lifting Jonathan off the ground and knocking the wind out of his lungs. Some of the food he had eaten recently threatened to come back up, but he kept it down with a force of will, and held on.
As he flew up and over the monster’s head, he yanked with all of his might, sending the bird skidding forward as he pulled at its beak and neck. It tried to pull him back towards the front of its body, but he was too strong for it, and instead he tore its legs out from under it, landing with the monster’s beak in his hand. With a titanic jerk of his arms, he tore the beak right off the monster in a welter of yellowish blood. The bird wriggled free of his grasp, but with its biggest weapon gone, it was now trivial to deal with.
As it came charging towards him, preparing to kick, he brought his right hand streaking towards the air and into the side of the monster’s head. There was an explosion of blue light, and the thing’s small head exploded, sending gore flying everywhere. The monster collapsed backwards, and lived no more.