Melody had watched the owner of the Kingdom as he’d quickly rode away. The very sudden appearance of the mini tank had been surprising, but she’d done a pretty good job of hiding her shock. Though as goofy as his riding on the tank had looked, she had to admit that it’d allow him to move much faster than expected.
Well, doesn’t matter at the end of the day. Fucking idiot’s probably gullible enough to waste his time searching up and down that entire river anyway. Didn’t even need to use that whole damn speech I thought of; he just trusted me and took off immediately, she thought to herself as she picked a leaf off her armor.
“Is he gone?” Joey asked from behind, making her jump a little. She turned to the Rogue, not for the first time hating the Skill that allowed him to sneak up on her like that. In his equipment as a Rogue, the overweight and balding man looked pretty goofy. Enough that it made her feel better, knowing that he didn’t have a mirror to see how dumb he looked.
“Yeah, he’s gone. Barely even had to sell it, though. I thought you said that this guy was the careful sort when you met him? Like when he wanted you to step into the light while that tank was next to him?” Melody asked with a raised brow.
Joey simply shrugged. “Sometimes people are too smart for their own good, and sometimes their brains might as well be peanuts. Especially when they get worried about other people instead of just themselves. Remember that one cop, last year?”
“Oh yeeeeah, that asshole. Can’t believe he fell for that,” Melody said with a chuckle. “Made me spend so many nights making sure that fake letter from his mom was perfect, and thinking about ever way he could check that it wasn’t. And the dumbass wasted all that time by just rushing straight to where we told him to go, all alone and half-cocked.”
“And the cops that we got teleported here with. How many did we kill before they even reacted, more than half? It’s like I always say, never underestimate how being put on the spot can short-circuit a person’s rational thinking. Anyway, he might have reached the Crab by now with how fast he drove off. Let’s get this place secure before whoever lives comes over.”
Melody just nodded. Time was limited after their hand had been forced. But now they just needed to make the best of a rushed situation.
After failing the Quest to claim the local Mandate, the System hadn’t directed them toward the next nearest. What it’d done instead, however, was grant them a new Quest. One where the parameters were rather simple, actually.
Within a time limit of ten days, they just needed to kill the current Lord and then have uncosted control of the Kingdom until the end of those ten days. They had planned to wait until the close to the end of that period to ambush the guy. That way with so little time left, they didn’t then need to worry about anyone else doing the same to them.
The sudden encounter with that Crab had expedited that process, however. But for all he lacked, Joey at least had a smart tongue when it really counted. So somehow, he’d managed to convince that beast to wait until they sent someone of a higher Level than themselves its way.
So all they had to do now was use this fort as a base while waiting it out. Because no matter who won, it didn’t matter if they had to then be on the offensive side of what would become a siege. And when that person inevitably needed to sleep at night, then they would pick them off.
However, that wasn’t even the best part. Because on top of receiving the Kingdom after the Quest’s time ran out, there was even a bonus reward. One that promised would make this rushed version of the original plan more than worth it.
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Jordan’s thoughts were moving at a thousand miles per second. He’d been getting a bad feeling, but this was entire galaxies away from anything he could ever have guessed. An ambush or something? Sure, maybe. But getting approached by what could only be described as a giant Crab with a voice that sounded like it belonged to someone who could always be complaining about the British weather? No, not in his wildest dreams.
“Do you have no response? I know for certain that we speak the same language, due to my interaction with others of your kind. Ahh, wait a moment, I understand. Just the honor of being offered to willingly be a sacrifice to the Golden Prince must come as a shock. If you need time to-” The Crab was cut off as a bolt of energy suddenly shot at it.
In the time it’d wasted talking, Jordan’s land drone had responded to an order commanding it to turn around and begin firing. At the same time that he then began to run away from the Crab, his air drone appeared in the space behind him with orders to also begin shooting while flying around.
He hadn’t even questioned his decision to shoot first. If someone talked about being a willing sacrifice to some other person or being, then the chances of them being a bad guy were pretty high.
“Ack, you savage! You reply to the Golden Prince’s generosity with such, such barbarism!” the Crab angrily roared. While tactically increasing his distance from it, Jordan only glanced back to return the earlier use of Appraise in kind.
Name: Clovis Fawns
This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.
Species: Crab (Eternal World of the Golden Prince)
Guild: N/A
Class: Natural Juggernaut
Subclass: N/A
Level: 4
Grade: E
Only one Level under me? Hell yeah, I’ll take that. Jordan hadn’t actually expected that he’d be the one to hold the advantage in terms of just pure Levels. However, he still couldn’t just let that fact get to his head. Not when his opponent quickly proved that it wouldn’t be so easily dismissed as a threat.
Despite being as large as an elephant, the Crab moved with an unexpectedly high burst of speed. From just steadily approaching closer, its legs became a blur as it moved sideways toward him. Even after suffering a few energy bolts from his drones at this point, the only signs of damage were some minor-looking burn marks on its body.
Son of a bitch, of course you’d head straight for me, huh?! Jordan cursed to himself. A sapient enemy would have to be stupid to for the summons instead of the one controlling them if said controller was within sight. But even so, it was still annoying as the Crab moved far faster than he could possibly run.
The land drone managed to get off one last shot from behind before it disappeared. In its place, a new one appeared directly in front of Jordan. In the same action, he leaped onto it while ordering the summon to immediately begin driving forward at max speed.
At the edge of his vision, Jordan could keep track of his current Tech Points.
Tech Points: 20.1/26
With both drones summoned, he was only spending just barely more than 1 TP per minute. So as long as he didn’t use any more Skills and only worried about their upkeep, his resource pool would last for just about twenty minutes. In a perfect world, that would have been more than enough.
Yet even as the drone had quickly accelerated up to its top speed, the Crab was still gaining on him. A lot more slowly now than when he was just using his own two feet, but still, it was steadily inching closer. As it moved, the Crab named Clovis snapped its claws like they were tongs being customarily tested before a barbeque.
“Well, fuck me then!” Jordan swore under his breath as he had no choice but to cast a use of Overcharge into his drone for a speed boost.
As the surge of acceleration let him temporarily outpace the Crab, his faithful air drone was still following the target. Yet even as it continued to fire at the Crab every couple of seconds, the giant creature just ignored the energy bolts as they slammed into its shell. Clovis clearly knew that his drones were only capable of doing so much damage, which clearly wasn’t much as its shell had yet to even be pierced. So it just continued to shrug off the hits as they came, clearly not worried about the little burn marks they were still inflicting.
Just how tough is this thing?! It’s not even wearing any armor, for fuck’s sake! Jordan wasn’t sure if a Crab like it would have even received equipment from the System. But it had a Class and clearly appeared to be sapient like him, so was there any reason why it wouldn’t have been given any fit for its body?
Its Class… Jordan thought back to the name for it his Appraise had presented. Natural Juggernaut sounded rather identical to what Mike had been as an Iron Juggernaut. But while the latter had worn heavy armor from head to tie, would the Natural part of the name indicate that armor would be unnatural?
Maybe instead, whoever had that Class would just rely on their own body’s toughness or receive a different kind of equipment that he couldn’t see on the Crab? Jordan barely had any time to consider the theory as he used Overcharge again, but it would at least make sense at first glance. The question was: even if he were right, would knowing that now do him any good?
Jordan felt stuck. His ideal goal of being able to flee a fight and let his drones handle all the work from afar wasn’t really going as hoped.
Having to hold on to the land drone with both hands, he couldn’t shoot at the chasing Crab with his Energy Pistol unless he wanted to risk falling off with the next bump in the ground. And since the land drone wasn’t capable of flipping its guns backward, it couldn’t exactly fire while facing away from the target. Which left just his poor air drone to try and singlehandedly shoulder the burden of being on the offensive.
“Stop at once, you cur! In the name of the laws of the Golden Prince, your blasphemous response to his generosity shall not be forgiven!” Clovis declared with while shaking one of its claws at him like a fist. If it weren’t for the fact that it was actively chasing with the intent to kill him, then Jordan would have found the idea of a British Crab saying such things with such passionate seriousness to be rather funny.
As his heart was still beating furiously in his chest, however, Jordan took a deep breath. In the time it’d spent running after him while yelling, Clovis could have been using ranged attacks instead. The fact that it hadn’t was a pretty strong indicator that it didn’t have any. The Crab was clearly tanky as Hell with the fact that the consistent blasts from his air drone hadn’t even managed to slow it down.
However, it didn’t seem to have much going for it beyond so tough, huh? It was fast; that much couldn’t be questioned. Without the combo of Overcharge and Summon Land Drone working well together, he’d have been caught by its claws more than a dozen times over now.
With another use of the Skill, the gap between them continued to only steadily increase in his favor now. If Jordan used it at the same rate as he rushed to the river, that gap would only keep increasing without risking his drone being pushed too far. And even if the shots from his air drone didn’t seem to be doing much, they were doing something.
So, with enough time, the game of chase should turn into a war of attrition that’d be in his favor. Plus by the time the TP cost added up from the upkeep and repeated uses of Overcharge, he could just desummon the air drone and let it build back up for a while.
“Again, I say stop, you’ve violated the law!” With a voice so enraged that it became a high-pitched shrill, the Crab screamed at him. Jordan looked back and saw an object so tiny compared to the massive claw pinching it, it was almost comical. Yet there was nothing comedic about it when he looked it for a second longer and realized what the item actually was.
A red gem.
Oh! Son of a-
With a quiet crack, the Advance Crystal shattered in the claw. And as the gem disappeared, the single-use Skill within it was unleashed.