The roar echoed and I heard a series of thumping footsteps as several creatures rushed in our direction. The adventurer's realized something bad was coming and rallied everyone. Only those too injured to fight were left to rest while everyone moved to the frontlines. Several high ranking adventurers were yelling orders at those that were just joining the fight and making them get into some semblance of order. Off in the distance 6 ogres turned the corner, each holding something in their hands and desperately running in this direction. A second later a loud gurgling followed by a belching sound was heard and the ogre keeled over dead, a large chunk of its back and left arm sizzling away from the vomit of several Horbrot Belchers.
Right afterwards several Horbrot Belchers rounded the corner followed by a very large monstrosity. "God damnit The one thing I didn't want to fight. Why the hell is it even out of the sewers?! It's too lazy to even bother leaving he sewers normally." I muttered to myself in an annoyed tone as I kept watching the incoming monstrosity. The adventurers didn't stay still and started lobbing spells, arrows and other projectiles at the monsters approaching. The ogres that were fleeing the Horbrots were instantly wiped out while several Belchers were wiped out soon afterwards. The main attraction of the incoming horde was largely unaffected ass it kept lumbering forwards.
The Horbrot Splitter was a large monstrosity that was almost twice as large as the Belchers. It was equally as groteque as its other brethren but also had several orange orbs that pulsated with a purple glow on its back. Two of the circular protrusions on its back started glowing purple with a higher frequency and soon after fell off of the Splitter and landed on the ground with a tink resembling a marble hitting concrete. The orbs soon grew flesh and morphed before our very eyes, turning more and more into a 4 legged monstrosity. The adventurers kept firing at the monsters, with some focusing on the mounds of still forming flesh but to little avail as they kept regenerating at a faster rate and soon formed into full sized Horbrots.
"Did that thing just create more monsters? Oi Samuel we need to focus on the fugly guy near the back with orbs on its back! It can create more of these fugly things!" An adventurer yelled that information out while I was trying to figure out how to finish the Horbrot Splitter quickly. The information was quickly relayed to whoever this Samuel was and he started to bark orders out. I wasn't paying much attention as I absent-mindedly stowed the corpses of goblins and the few ogre bodies into my inventory while I formulated a plan. I heard running and looked to see Ronia and the others were making their way over to where I was while killing a few goblins that were running towards them.
"Hey, Zane what're you doing spacing out for! Get your ass together and get ready for a clash! Those things arn't going to wait for you to finish daydreaming!" yelled Herald as they made it to me. I shook my head and checked my mana and saw that it was almost full now. I had also leveled up a decent bit and was now level 23. I quickly finished checking my status over and turned my attention back to the others.
Name Zane Northwood [Age 17] Class Grand Archmage, Grand Necromancer Level 23 Health 1,020/1,500 Mana 850/900 Strength 72 Agility 32 Stamina 45 Wisdom 286 Skills Basic Elemental Magic, Mana Drain, Basic Undead Summoning, Basic Dark Magic, Incompetent and Incomplete Lesser Elemental Magic (NEW) Titles
Reincarnator [Status is Reset upon reincarnating, allowing you to reincarnate successfully]
Rapid Learner (NEW) [Strive to learn quicker. +10% efficiency to learning new skills]
I felt insulted by the Incompetent prefix for my skill but I understood that my current skill in lesser magic was indeed that bad. I really need to sit down and train my magic to a decent level. I also noticed the Rapid learner title and was surprised. "Well it looks like my one night of training paid off more than I realized. That totally clears up why it was so much easier to learn the second Lesser tier spell after learning the first one." My stats had also barely increased as well with only my wisdom seeing a large jump, probably due to me using a shit ton of magic with Strenght a close second. Using that heavy freaking sword probably contributed to that. I need to round out my stats more, I can't be so damn lopsided as I am since its a recipe for disaster later on.
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"Zane you kept saying that you wanted to avoid a Splitter at all costs. I'm assuming that that freak of nature is the Splitter you were referring to?" Ray said as he pointed at the Horbrot splitter. Ronia fired an arrow and ended the life of a goblin wandering towards us. I looked around and said "Yeah it is but we should pay more attention to our surroundings. Theres monsters everywhere and it isn't the safest place to be." We quickly moved towards other adventurers while killing off any nearby goblins with me cleaning up the corpses as we went.
"That is indeed a Horbrot Splitter." I fired 4 ice shards at a Ogre coming near us, crippling its movement before continuing what I was saying. "It has those orbs on its back which it uses to create more Horbrot. It's basically the boss of the Horbrot and will create an army to defend it. It almost never leaves the sewers and is extremely rare to see in the first place. I don't know why it came to the surface in the first place. It's very unlike them." Herald piped in at this moment, saying "Wasn't it chasing a couple of Ogre's? The ogres were carrying something in their hands. Maybe they left because of the Ogres stealing something important?" I remembered that the ogres being chased were indeed carrying something but couldn't remember what it looked like.
"You think that this is also a ploy made by the corrupt mage? It could very well be something like that. Who knows, maybe he controlled the ogres and gave them something to lure the Horbrot out of the sewers." Ronia said idly while she fired several arrows in rapid succession. 2 goblins and 1 Horbrot fell to the ground, dead with massive holes in their bodies from the arrows piercing them. We were silently felling monsters and cleaning up the corpses when we heard the Samuel person yell "Focus on the Splitter! It's going to keep generating more monsters unless we stop it! Mages focus fire on it! Any B ranked or higher adventurers should head to the front lines and prep for an assault on that thing!"
While we were not B ranked adventurers, several others that were had started moving towards Samuel and formed 3 groups. Soon after Samuel's announcement, a torrent of spells were sent raining down on the Horbrot Splitter and its retinue of guards. The effect was devastating to say the least. The area near the Horbrot Splitter was scorched black with the occational spike of stone or ice protruding from the ground. Over 2 dozen Horbrot lay dead or dying. Half of them were Belchers and had spilt their corrosive liquid all over the road and walls. The Splitter remained standing although it had several burnt sections on its body. It was also missing a portion of its head.
It roared in fury, sending a small shockwave towards us. The shockwave passed by doing almost nothing other then end a few of the weaker people tumbling. The thing was regenerating its wounds at a visible pace. It roared once more as a dozen orbs fell off of its back and started forming into Horbrot. It was growing more orbs on its back, which slowed down its rate of healing tremendously. Samuel yelled "Now! all 3 groups charge forward! Middle group focus on the Horbrot that are forming. Left and right groups run around the sides and try to flank the big thing! Take it down! Don't let up on the spell barrage either! Continue providing us cover as we charge!"
That spurred everyone from their stupor and into action. The 3 groups rushed forwards to do their designated jobs while the mages continued their artillery barrage of spells. Our group kept attacking and killing goblins and any Horbrot that ran at us, while aiding any adventurers in need of our help. We wanted to help with the Splitter attack but couldn't really do much against such a monstrosity.
The attack was going ok as the 2 groups successfully attacked its left and right sides and tore at it with their weapons. The monster kept regenerating its flesh at a stupendous rate while dropped more and more orbs on the ground. A few had been destroyed before forming into Horbrot with a well placed attack on the golfball sized orb, cracking it. The crack widened until the orb exploded with a violent boom. This sent 4 adventurers flying. The one that had attacked the orb was knocked out and his armour was shattered on his left arm. He was bleeding out along with the other people sent flying. The 3 others got up and started to back up as people started to heal them but the Splitter wouldn't let such an opening go unpunished. It roared and sent its large claws forwards, swiping at some people nearby who were hit by the shockwave. They were sent flying backwards with 1 person managing to block the attack. before it could further wreak havoc.
"Try and crack the orbs on its back! Be careful of them since they explode, as we have found out." The groups attacking the Splitter were now focusing on the orbs on its back to limited success. Most of the orbs were either out of reach or simply fell off of it and started forming into Horbrot before they could be cracked. An arrow pierced an orb, shattering as the mana circling around the arrow dissipated. I looked to the source of the arrow and saw that it was Ronia. She looked at us and said "We can't let them have all the glory now can we? Let's help end things from afar." She smirked and fired off a few more arrows with the same skill as the previous cracked one exploded violently. I smiled and started to prep some Ice shards while hoping we could end the splitter's life soon.