Over the next several hours, Will encountered a wide variety of animals, from every conceivable class and, if he’d still been on Earth, every single continent. Al of whom, of course, were made out of clouds. There were, fortunately, no more flying Stormbeasts.
There seemed to be about five Cloudbeasts around for each Stormbeast, and Will ended up fighting a total of fourteen regular and one elite Cloudbeasts, and one more Crankscout before he’d finished his quest.
From those battles, he’d looted ten good quality and three excellent quality Living Clouds, a good brass cog, and lump of Crystalized Cloud. Whatever the hell that even meant.
There were, among the many battles, several which were worth noting.
The first noteworthy battle was an elite Cloudbeast rhino. The huge pachyderm actually made the cloud’s surface quake when it ran, making Will stumble. It made dodging the monster’s charging attacks a lot harder than Will would have expected, considering the monster was barely able to turn when it was running. Still, it would have been a lot more dangerous if Will wasn’t currently quadrupedal, and in possession of a very low center of gravity.
The rhino was also significantly more durable than any other Cloudbeast Will had seen, with a hide that actually blocked some of the damage from Will’s claws.
The fight very quickly devolved into the rhino charging at Will, the wombat moving away and dodging the attack, and then casting Thunder Bolt, hoping its disorient effect procced. If it did, Will would follow up by charging back at the rhino as soon as it started to stagger. He’d then attack with his claws for a few seconds, until the rhino would shake off the debuff and begin stomping its feet hard enough to make him lose his footing, which was Will’s signal to disengage and let the cycle start again.
None of which was enough to really distinguish the fight. No, the main thing that made the rhino stand out was the fact that it dropped a skill shard.
A cavalry skill shard.
Skill shard: Lance Charge
Tier: Basic
Type: cavalry
Cost: NA
Level 1
XP 0/100
When performing a charge attack at an enemy with a piercing weapon equipped, ignore 1 level of armor per level.
Just for joust, joust for justice!
Suddenly, I’m very very glad I didn’t get hit by that horn. Not sure I want to use this right now though. It’ll probably merge with Unstoppable Force, but I don’t think my teeth count as piercing weapons for a charging attack, which means it probably won’t do me any good. And it will increase the XP cost. Still a good drop, since I do want to keep boosting the cavalry skill set.
On a different cloud clearing, Will found a large hole in the middle. A bottomless hole, through which Will could see the ground far below. It was as if the clouds were a frame, waiting for a picture to be set. There was a shark swimming in it, as if it was a pool of water. For some reason, the shark was unable to get above the level of the cloud’s surface, and therefore was confined to its ‘pool’.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
A few casts of Thunder Ball took care of the shark, and Will chose not to risk getting into the hole to try and loot it.
The Stormbeasts were, of course, more difficult to kill than the Cloudbeasts. Not least because Will’s only ranged skill was almost completely useless against them.
The third one he’d fought wasn’t actually a single animal, but rather a whole swarm of ants. There must have been hundreds of them, and all of them swarmed over Will as soon as he’d entered their clearing.
Each one of the ants had a set of lightning-charged mandibles, and while each bite did even less than least damage, there were more than enough of them for the damage to accumulate far quicker than Will was comfortable with.
Fortunately, each ant had a mere one or two health, and even with the resistance they had to Will’s thunder aspect, the remaining damage was enough to kill them.
And each burst or ball Will used was enough to blast dozens of ants into nothing more than water vapor.
He still had to dig down the anthill to get at the queen before the kill actually registered for his quest.
After the ants came the emu. That one gave Will a good run for his XP, since it was just as fast as the rhino, but significantly more agile. Will, however, was heavier. And had Unstoppable Force on his side. Between those two, in a frontal collision between two charging quasi-Australian beasts, flesh and blood wombat won over black cloudstuff bird.
He still took enough kicks to the head to leave him dazed before the emu was finally defeated.
The last fight Will needed to finish his quest took place in a clearing that was very similar to the one with the shark pool. This one had a single chasm stretching from one side of the clearing to the other, which Will assumed was meant to be a river. There was even a bridge spanning it, which would let him move onward.
There weren’t any visible enemies in the clearing, leading Will to assume that whatever was there was waiting inside the river.
Shooting fish in a barrel again? Not sure it’s even worth the effort, since I won’t be getting any of the loot from it. And if it’s a Stormbeast here, fighting it while it’s in the water is going to be a major pain.
Having decided to skip the clearing, Will went directly to the bridge. Unfortunately, as soon as he’d gotten within five meters of the river, the Stormbeast decided that it wouldn’t, in fact, be skipping Will.
A very loud splashing sound was all the warning Will had, before a large black alligator exploded out of the chasm and charged at him. He had just enough time to wander what, precisely, had made the splashing sound before the monster’s jaws closed around him, trapping him completely inside its mouth.
Will immediately triggered a Thunder Burst. The skill did very little damage to the Stormbeast, but the knockback effect helped reduce the crushing pressure of the beast’s jaws. Given a little bit of space, Will started to slash the inside of the alligator’s mouth with his bronze covered claws.
The monster bit down again as soon as the skill dissipated, of course, but Will just cast it again, and kept on clawing.
Like almost all other Cloud- and Stormbeasts, the alligator was very much a glass cannon. And since Will was attacking it from inside its mouth, he was bypassing even the scant protection the monster’s scales would have give it. By the fourth Thunder Burst, the Alligator was dead, and its mouth opened to let Will out.
Which turned out to be a major problem for Will, since it let him out in the middle of the river.
While wombats are not animals that normally like to swim, they are actually capable of it. Assuming, of course, that they aren’t wearing plate armor. And that the river they’re swimming in is made out of water, rather than air.
All this to say that Will, after a very brief coyote-running-out-of-cliff moment, immediately started to fall.
And since the river didn’t actually have a bottom, the fall turned out to be a very long one.
Long enough for Will to read the message informing him that the Stormbeast was dead.
Long enough to read the follow up message, regarding the completion of the Space’s quest, the subsequent ranking up of said Space, and the fact that Will was awarded an Air aspect for his troubles.
Long enough to read the details of his new aspect.
Aspect shard: Air
Tier: Basic
Adds the Air aspect to a skill or piece of equipment. Effects vary according to the target.
Warning: aspect may have adverse effects on some targets.
Just like the one you’re currently falling through.
Long enough to grumble about the flavor text.
Long enough to consider the fact that he was one step closer to having an expert Aspect for his Mana Ball skill, assuming he could get the skill itself to expert tier.
Long enough to consider that going towards the Storm aspect was, probably, not the best idea, considering the Stormbeasts he’d spent the past half a day hunting.
Long enough to reach the conclusion that none of that would actually matter, since he was currently falling to his death from several thousand meters high in the air.
Long enough to panic at that thought. A panic which lasted long enough to see him hit the ground at terminal velocity.
There was a brief moment of pain, and then nothing but darkness.
A darkness that was, however, almost immediately illuminated by a glowing message screen.