While half of the scuttling armored crustaceans swarmed into the formations of city guards, the other half scampered into the city. Joe ran at Kendell’s heels with the chimera and RC on either side of him. The first crab they came across had two of its legs sliced off by the guilder's throwing axes. Joe’s axe jammed into the shoulder of another segmented leg. It awkwardly spun, only to receive an arrow straight into its mouth. Before Joe could pounce on it, the akhlut beat him to it. Two tons of heavy muscle cracked the hard shell, pinning it against the corner of the street and a building.
Spawn of Cauldrakon: Level 26 - Monstrosity - Soldier - Strength - HP 135/786
After several more axes and arrows, the creature stopped moving. The creature’s thick shell gave the crab moderate to major physical damage resistance depending on body location. The four of them working together were enough to take one out without much danger. Still, it took an awful lot of hits to finish one off.
“Wait, before we go after the next one,” Kendell shouted excitedly, “party up. Joe, have you tamed big boy here yet?”
Joe looked incredulously at the girl and then at the huge orca-beast before looking back at her again. “He’s a wild creature. I don’t think he is going to be housebroken any time soon, Kenda.”
Earcellwen clarified before Kendra could. “Taming is the term used when you develop a connection with an animal companion, Joe. Technically, I tamed Naenaeon, even though he is just as wild as this one.”
“Look at your scroll,” Kendell suggested. “And think about companions. If you have the option to bond with this guy, it should be there.”
Joe looked at his collection of waiting windows and thought about the akhlut. Sure enough, one window slid from the stack and opened for him.
You have tamed the Akhlut Reef-Terror Prime. Do you wish to release the creature or forge a companion bond with it?
“Does he get any say in this?” Joe asked. Through his connection with [Pack Master], Joe could sense the creature was fierce and strong-willed. He did not want to break its spirit.
“Does it say companion or something like thrall?” the elf queried. “If it’s the first, then it can refuse you, and if it accepts, you will be partners like Naenaeon and me.”
Joe nodded and chose the bond.
The creature has accepted your bond. As your companion does not have a name in the common tongue, what shall it be known as?
“Oh damn. I need to give you a name now?” he said, looking at the akhlut prime. “It sounds like you have a name, though, just not one in common.”
“Do you want me to ask him?” RC asked. “I have the [Voice of Wilds] skills.”
“Can we do this quickly, you two?” Kendell huffed loudly. “We really need to get to work here. Sorry, but those things are trying to break into houses.”
“Sorry, ok. Please, Earcellwen. Ask.”
Earcellwen stepped up to the enormous beast. The elf girl looked absolutely tiny compared to the ebon tree-trunk legs and wide white chest. She spoke a few weird, warbling, sounding words. The chimera gurgled and made a happy-looking hop. It then stood up tall and proud before garbling out a long stanza of grunts and clicks.
Joe could not help but chuckle at the beast’s antics. He tried not to look too amused in light of Kendell’s valid impatience.
The archer turned and looked a bit sheepish. “Umm. They are a very verbose race. His name is a bit long. It’s ‘Black Blade that Cuts the Waves before Harassing the Prey.’”
“I can’t call him that,” Joe exclaimed. “Is there a shorter version?”
“Yes!” the axe-hurler barked. She pointed at the chimera’s back. “Fin! Now. We. Really. Have. To. Go!”
To Joe’s surprise, the name felt perfect. He looked to the window and added the name with one slight change before joining the waiting party window.
You have joined Kendell Bracey’s party
Earcellwen Rhuival (Level 14, Ranger/Wildbow) has joined your party
Finn (Level 20, Chimera (Akhlut)) has joined your party
As soon as the party formed, Kenda dashed away, causing the three others to race after her. The first raiding crab they encountered lost all the legs on one side of its body due to a well-placed [Grit Razor] blast. A slap of Finn’s tail flipped it the rest of the way onto its back. After that, it perished quickly. The monstrosity’s armor on its undercarriage, while still formidable, was nowhere near as thick as its upper body.
It died just as a scream sounded from an alley across the street.
Confident from their first two kills, the team charged into the courtyard to find they had just made a critically terrible mistake. A single crab was hammering its way through a shuttered window, inciting the cries, but it was not alone. Four other sets of periscope-like eyes swiveled to lock onto Joe’s party. Worse yet, they had run underneath an unseen ravager high on the wall of the alley. This one dropped and landed on Finn’s tail, driving its bladed legs through the black hide.
“Form up,” Kendell shouted. “Joe, Finn covers RC. RC and Joe concentrate fire on one at a time. I’ll block for as long as I can.”
Joe had a [Grit Razor] ready to go. As one of the spawn charged him, he held up his reinforced left hand to block an incoming pincer attack. Meanwhile, he swept his right hand across his body, unloading the spell. At point-blank range, the creature took the entire mass of empowered obsidian shards to its face, both stunning and blinding it. He followed the casting motion by getting his right hand up as well. The creature still retained enough momentum to hammer its spiky claws down on Joe. Even with his own major damage resistance, the parried blows hurt like hell.
His beast was not out of the fight yet, but as it was blinded and stupified, Joe had a second to follow Kenda’s orders. He sent a strong feeling of protection for Earcellwen to the prime and then moved to cover the hatchet-fighter’s back. Finn trilled an oddly fierce sound before practically standing over the elven archer.
Joe grabbed a pair of stones from his bullet bag and started a [Dual Cast] with his attack spell. With both hands full, he would have to block with his forearms or dodge until the spell reached full charge. For the first time since learning [Grit Razor], Joe understood why this skill was not well-liked. Its damage output could be devastating, but in a situation like this, he needed a much faster response. The crabs were on them, and he was far from ready to cast.
Kendell was doing a solid job of keeping two of the crabs locked on her. She tactfully maneuvered the crabs to foul up each other, allowing her to knock away any clean attacks with her weapons. While not inflicting any damage, she was tying up a third of the enemies.
Finn, while still shielding RC, was hammering the crab that had stabbed his tail with the now bloody appendage. A downward blow resulted in a bunch of loud cracking sounds. The following side swing sent the crustacean hurling into a stone wall. The creature righted itself, but its sideways shuffle was more of a staggering lurch as it moved away from the building. A pair of green fletch arrows disappeared into those cracks, tearing through the crab’s innards. As the monster’s health dropped, Joe felt a familiar swell of energy build up in his chest. He was about to level.
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Long before Joe's spell was anywhere near max damage, a pincer from out of nowhere clamped viciously around his gut. The pain was unbearably harsh. His padded gambeson softened the initial slicing clench, but the following pressure threatened to cut him in two.
Your skill [Stun Block] has increased to rank 12.
Your skill [Healing Touch] has increased to rank 50
Joe felt another quiver of expectation and glimpsed more windows being added to the stack already waiting for him, but his focus was already stretched way too thin at that moment. Juicing up the dual [Grit Razors] and power healing himself took everything he had. He knew he should just teleport free, but even that was asking more than he could juggle. He was on the cusp of being bisected.
He had to unload the attack spells even though they were undercharged. Joe swung his arms downward and sprayed the great pincer arms, the spindly spear-tipped legs, as well as the road below with the magical ebon fragments. Most of the shards shattered against the thick shell, but quite a few found joints. As the crab convulsed, Joe changed his mind and slapped his hand to the hard carapace.
Your [Deaden Flesh] skill has impaired the Spawn of Cauldrakon. It has gained the following condition: lame.
The pressure immediately vanished, dropping him to the street again.
As Joe recovered his balance, he realized [Deaden Flesh] had encountered almost no resistance at all. Instead of approaching this combat as a damage dealer, he suddenly understood he’d be far more effective as a combat controller instead. The crab’s armor was their strongest defense, but his witch curse bypassed physical defenses.
He targeted the arm of one of the spawn that Kendell was dealing with. The spell sunk home, causing the heavy limb to flop down on its swarm-mate’s head. He turned back to his attacker and numbed its other pincer as well.
There were far too many legs for Joe to be able to immobilize the crabs, but getting rid of the deadly pincers might just turn the tide of battle in their favor. He [Dual Cast] the curse on the three other healthy crabs and the heavily damaged one he had blinded.
Kendell threw him a bright smile and switched to offense.
Joe grabbed another mana potion and downed it before healing his teammates. Finn had the most damage, but even with its injuries, the chimera still had more health than the rest of the team combined. Earcellwen had a long gash across her shin, and Kendell had several slices along her arms. As Joe topped everyone's health, he heard RC shout out.
“Our fight is attracting attention, guys. I can hear more coming.”
“Ok, change of plans. We go there,” Kenda yelled, pointing to a spot under a heavy balcony. “Back to the wall. Joe, you stay in the middle. Impair and healing. RC, watch for any trying to drop on us. Finn and I take the front line.”
Without their pincers, the black and white prime was able to slam the creatures out of their way. As soon as they got under cover, Kendell dumped a handful of violet mana potions into Joe's hands.
“Can you start dishing out endurance, too?” she asked, breathing heavily.
“Will do,” Joe barked back, but he could see she was worried. “We got this,” he tried to assure.
“We need a real tank. Your big beast is a huge help, but he is a fighter, not a defender. We have zero margin of error with this group. I should never have gotten us stuck in here,” she growled, clearly furious with herself.
The next few minutes were exhausting and painful. A dozen more crabs skittered into the courtyard. His three allies managed to keep the swarm off Joe, but doing so meant they took damage. A lot of damage. He was able to mitigate a decent amount of the damage with his [Warding Heal], but it was burning through mana to do so.
[Warding Heal] You can impart a ward on a creature against damage for 15 seconds after each use of a healing skill on that target. Damage done to the targets while the ward is in effect is reduced by 26% (15% plus 1% for each skill rank you have with this skill). Cost: Modest Mana.
The monstrosities were attacking ferociously, crushing if they could, stabbing out with their carapaced legs if their pincers were numbed. The most terrifying moment was when a pincer Joe had not seen nearly cut Earcelwen’s head off. Had he not been healing her at that second, she would have died.
Joe ran through the mana potions Kenda had given him, buffing, healing, and warding his allies while numbing the crab’s primary weapons. When he saw RC cock her head to listen to something coming from above them, his stomach fell. If more were coming down the wall, the three humanoids would have to break into the building behind them. That would mean leaving Finn with the slim hope the bruiser could escape the horde of giant crustaceans on his own.
Thankfully, it was not more enemies.
A set of humanish legs swung over the balcony's edge, dropping a man down in front of the archer. The angular-jawed archon immediately swung a heavy shield in front of them both, repelling a trio of lancing attacks.
Tezeno Rhal (Level 19, Sentinel/Justicar) has joined your party
“About time you got here, Tez. Where the hells have ya been,” Kenda shouted joyously.
“Looking for him,” the archon responded with his flat-toned voice, pointing an elbow at Joe. “One minute, we are healing folks, and the next, he flies off with some manticore, leaving me to do his job alone.” The nature of his monotone speech made it hard to tell what the emotion was behind these words. He sounded angry but then the sentinel threw Joe a sympathetic look. “I thought you were done for, man. Don’t do that again.”
“It wasn’t my idea, but I sure am glad to see you too,” Joe yelled back through the brawl.
Kendell tossed him a horrified look. “You didn’t think to mention …. Never mind. Stories for later. Ok. We have a good chance now. RC, switch to penetrating shots. We need damage that will get through those shells even if the shots are slow. Joe, let Finn know he can go crazy on these guys, but he needs to stay with us. How are your mana stores holding up?”
“I stocked up on potions, but I’ve gone through at least half of them, including what you gave me.”
“Has anyone leveled?” the archon asked.
All three of them confirmed they had; Joe was actually not far from leveling a second time. “Great. The next time you need to refill a resource, level instead. Just shout it out, and I can cover you.”
One by one, the team accepted their new levels.
You have reached level 15. You do not gain an attribute point on this level.
Your party-mate Kendell Bracey has leveled to 18
Your party-mate Earcellwen Rhuival has leveled to 15
While they did not have time or the appropriate levels to add new skills to the battle, just the boost of being fully restored, as well as the empowering feeling of leveling, rejuvenated the warriors. Joe could tell that he was not far from another level. Finn was closing on one as well. Tezeno had announced he had leveled shortly before reaching them.
When they were down to the last three crabs in the courtyard, Joe felt the wave building a second time. He spammed out as many spells as possible before letting the crescendo wash through him again.
You have reached level 16. You have gained 1 unassigned attribute point and a trait and skill for one of your classes.
When the last crab fell, and no new ones joined the fray, the party flopped down onto a nearby set of stairs, except the akhlut. Finn was bounding around the small cobbled plaza, smashing his feet into shells and biting the legs off the dead enemies.
“Well, that almost went horribly,” Earcellwen scoffed, wiping perspiration and crab goop off her face. “My father says “They who charge the unknown fill the fields of the hereafter.’ We got ahead of ourselves that time.”
Joe saw the face of the girl sitting next to him fall. As she was about to speak, RC cut her off. “Don’t you take that all to yourself, Kendell. We all heard that scream and charged in here without thinking. It is just as much my fault. As the party’s scout, I should have been the one to know what we were engaging. Let’s call that a joint blunder and thank Tezeno for his timely rescue.”
“We can skip that too,” the archon intoned. “After this breather, we should get back out there. But,” he began with a pointed look at Joe, “when this is over, I very much want to hear how Joe left in the claws of one chimera and returned with another as an ally.”
All eyes turned to Joe, even Finn’s as the akhlut must have sensed Joe was thinking about him. He could only shrug. “You’re right. That’s a story for later. I think even trying to explain storm-skin-zorbing is going to require way more time and drinks than we have here.”