Nut King Riffy?
Level 5 Boss?
Awakened Monster?
Everything happened so fast. Apparently, I gained XP for completing an unmarked quest involving Riffy and one of the rewards was awakening him as an optional Boss? How in the hell does that work? Was Riffy some kind of NPC all along?
Now I was trapped inside a Boss arena and the only way to escape was to defeat Riffy… This is the worst!
The ground shook as a thunderclap of energy exploded around me. I flew face first into the shimmering wall that surrounded the arena and landed on my back among the dirt and leaves. Dust and wood shrapnel filled the air. I couldn’t see a thing. My health dipped, but only by a tiny amount. My Stamina, however, was still way down. If anything or anyone hits me, I’m done for.
I rose to a crouch and squinted through the settling dust.
It looked as though the shimmering wall that surrounded us had transported the entire area to another realm. Outside of this apparent Boss Arena, a whirling vortex of blue and purple star formations stretched across an obsidian chasm. If I was a star gazer on Earth, then either I wasn’t a very good one or this was no constellation visible from our galaxy because I didn’t recognise jack shit. It’s probably just an illusion separating the combatants inside the boss fight from any external interference…
I turned my attention back to the hulking silhouette of Imber facing away from me towards the centre of the arena. He was braced for another explosion. Did he seriously stay on his feet just now?
Not far from him, Vidari was ducked behind a tree. Her eyes were closed. She looked as though she were meditating. No, I realised. Not meditating. She’s sensing. She had high Perception. She was probably using a Detect Skill to discover the Boss…
The two clerics, Sister Hest and Katri, were both rising to their feet. The elder was holding Katri by the arm. She must have been dragging her after me. Like Imber, they were both turned towards the centre of the arena.
As the last of the dust settled, I caught sight of the destruction. Nothing remained of the tree whose roots I had hidden Riffy between. The trunk and large mounds of earth around it had been eviscerated by the sudden explosion.
Out of the devastation rose a slender figure. It appeared to be a wolf or perhaps a starved bear. Long and emaciated, the spine and ribs protruded through sleek brown fur. The monster raised its long snout to the air and sniffed.
Only the whisper of the wind through the forest leaves dared make a sound. Every one of us stood motionless as the creature’s eyes slowly opened revealing two glowing white orbs. Then, a bushy brush of tail sprung up towards the sky and the Nut King pounced.
Imber swung his ridiculous stick as the Nut King soared through the air with claws outstretched. The two giants clashed in a spray of blood.
Imber fell back a few paces. Five thin claw shaped slices had penetrated his armour. A thickening redness leaked through the torn leather.
The Nut King dropped to the ground several meters back. Imber’s strike had left a bruised patch on its shoulder, but it didn’t seem to slow the Boss. It took two quick bounds in a circle to flank Imber before pouncing again.
Despite the big man’s bulk, he was able to recover in time to ward of the second attack. He brought his heavy stick up in defence, then swung as the Nut King struck with all four sets of claws before spinning through the air back to a safe distance.
The Nut King’s speed was impossible. Clearly, it shared some similarities with Riffy, but it was huge and… terrifying. What happened to you, buddy?
Vidari hurled two stones in quick succession, then darted to another tree and hid from view.
Both stones collided with the Nut King’s head and he hissed. Hissed… like a snake!
As the Nut King searched for Vidari, Imber prepared an attack. His free hand glided over the stick he held and it shone momentarily as he activated some kind of skill. As the light faded, the stick transformed into a huge mace with jagged edges and a sharp point on the tip.
He burst forward and brought the mace down on the Nut King in a flash. Damn, he can move faster than I thought… was he just pretending to lack speed earlier?
Imber had seemed to lack pace and speed when I was analysing him during our brief encounter. If that was all a show, he must also be smarter than I gave him credit for. I need to adjust my prejudices, big does not mean dumb. If our fight had continued and I hadn’t seen his true speed, I would have factored his slowness into my calculations and ended up as a bloody smear on that mace. I need to be better than this! And I need to start moving, right now!
I couldn’t stand frozen any longer. The battle was escalating quickly and I was powerless to intervene. I stumbled towards the nearest tree and took cover. Riffy was my friend, but this Nut King was practically unrecognisable. If I want to escape this arena, I need to help defeat him, but then what? These people were tracking me. They said something about visions and the All Mother. Before the Boss fight started, they had every intention to sacrifice me for their god or something insane. If I helped them, they might just turn around and slit my throat the moment the Boss was defeated... If the Boss even can be defeated. And what about that old cleric? She gives me the creeps. There was something not right about her. The way she fell down when I hit her, it felt so… fake.
That was right, I’d hit her. That meant the touch criteria was fulfilled. I’d also heard her speak and clearly I had seen her. Criteria fulfilled!
As Vidari fired two more stones at the Nut King, I cast Basic Identify on the old woman.
Name: Hest. Race: Human. Class: Sister Cleric. Lvl 3.
???. ???. ???. ???. ???.
??? turned Sister Cleric.
That proved it. There was something strange about the old lady. She’s hiding something. Apparently, she was two levels lower than Imber. But whereas I could see details about him, most of her information was obscured somehow.
Sister Hest turned to me. She had sensed me targeting her. Shit. She smiled nightmare fuel at me. Yeah, that bitch definitely wants to kill me.
Although, maybe I was just being paranoid. Maybe, it was something to do with her class that protected her from my Basic Identify. I turned to the younger cleric standing beside her —I definitely have the criteria fulfilled there… I can still taste her blood— and popped another point of Mana to cast Basic Identify.
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Name: Katri. Race: Human. Class: Junior Cleric. Lvl 2.
Standard Common. Omnivore. Violent. Sociable. Intelligent.
That’s it? Basic Identify wasn’t giving me much, but at least the information I did get wasn’t obscured that time. That proved that Sister Hest was unique. I needed to keep an eye on her. Katri was less of a threat, but I still needed to be careful because she was still a level higher than me. Wait! She isn’t!
With all that had happened I had barely noticed my level up. I had perk points to spend. It seemed I wasn’t going to be transported to the Initiation Zone this time, so maybe that only happened for big decisions. Like the class selection event at Level 5.
For now, I needed to worry about the present moment.
Vidari continued to pepper the Nut King with her stones, each hit was stacking the 50% damage increase. The Nut King didn’t look too hurt yet, but if those stones kept finding their target, they were going to start hitting like canonades. Riffy are you in there, buddy?
Whenever the Nut King attempted to charge down Vidari, Imber would intervene and deliver a huge attack with his oversized mace. But he wasn’t getting off easily. The Nut King had done more than rake his arm. He was now bleeding from several places over his body, including a huge gash on the top of his head that soaked his hair with blood. He couldn’t keep this up much longer.
Katri noticed this too. She pulled her arm out of Sister Hest’s grip and ran forward a few paces, just as Imber flew through the air bracing against another attack. He landed on his back, but immediately jumped back to his feet to block another lunging attack from the Nut King.
Katri pressed her hand to his back, gasping as an orange light seeped through her palm and outstretched fingers and permeated Imber’s injured flesh. His wounds stopped bleeding, and some of the smaller gouges entirely vanished. However, the bigger wounds remained. Instead of disappearing, their surfaces congealed into fresh scabs.
Imber grunted and stood a little straighter. “Thanks kid.”
I need to focus. I tapped my Pocket Book and swiped to the Perks page.
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Perks:
Intellect determines how many Perks you can unlock per Level up. Intellect: 6.
Unlocked Perks:
Sleep Tight (1).
Regain Health while resting.
Devour (5)
By feasting upon the corpse of a fallen foe, you may absorb one random Stat point or Skill you have not already unlocked. Devour is discovered by feasting upon a corpse of a fallen foe who had unlocked this Perk.
Standard Locked Perks:
Party Up (1).
Invite Entities to your Party and share in XP.
Point Home (1).
Creates an Icon that will point to your nearest Faction HQ.
Friendly Fire (1).
Reduces damage dealt to Party members and friendly Summons by 10%. Stackable.
Modesty Pants (1).
When no items are equipped, these undergarments will cover your private parts.
XP Predictor (2).
XP count in the Stat page will now show level up requirement.
Source Flow (2).
XP can be directed to and from equipped items and other specific locations.
Gold Flow (2).
Gold can be absorbed into XP. XP can be expelled as Gold. Ratio: 1 Gold Coin = 1 Experience point. (This ratio cannot be adjusted).
Stat Bump (2).
A single stat can be increased by 1 point. This Perk can be unlocked once per level up. Stackable.
“I don’t have time to read all the new perks, damn it!”
I scanned the list of new perks quickly, but couldn't make sense of them. I wanted too unlock the Geek perk, but at Level Two, I had now discovered some new standard perks… Early game perks can often be staples for quality of life and common use abilities. If I didn’t pick them up now, then I would have to wait a whole other level. I definitely needed to read and make a proper decision on those perks before I unlocked Geek.
“Damn it!”
Meanwhile the battle continued to rage before my eyes. Vidari and Imber worked well together. While she continued to pelt the Nut King with her enhanced stones, Imber held the target’s attention. Whenever the Nut King’s focus switched to Vidari, Imber swiped at him with his ridiculous log of a weapon. Those collosal swings were a nuisance, but alone they couldn’t hope to deal enough damage to stop the Boss. The real damage would come once Vidari’s Tick Targeting had stacked enough times to really unleash its mathematical power.
What a lame skill. I mean, sure I see how it’s useful, but like… yawn… boooring.
One of Vidari’s glowing red stones careened into the Nut King’s side and for the first time, he staggered on impact. His head snapped in Vidari’s direction and roared pure hatred at her. I do not want to be on the receiving end of that.
As the Nut King— I don’t want to think of him as Riffy— bunched his legs up preparing to pounce for Vidari, Imber intervened with another crunching downswing. But the Boss was prepared… He’s learning?
Without turning, the Nut King darted back with a sudden dodge, then charged forward again to tear at Imber’s throat with sharp pincer teeth. Imber brought his club up to block, but fell for the feint. Before he could react, the Nut King had leapt straight over him, bouncing from tree trunk to tree trunk in a furious charge for Vidari.
Vidari raised her arms in a cross block in front of her chest to ward off the slashing claws. Her scream of valour quickly turned to a cry of agony. She collapsed under the weight of the monster and he open his snake-like jaws for the killing bite.
I’m going to die, I thought to myself as I activated Ram Slam and rushed into the fray.
Ram Slam was obviously intended for me to use my head to thump into unsuspecting opponents, but if my head came into contact with this monster while I was moving at such speed, I would pop like a overexcited tomato. However, the fact remained all of my momentum was being harnessed right into my forehead… in other words, I was rocketing through the air headfirst without any kind of skull protection.
I did the only thing I could think of. I rolled forward.
The first successful attack I landed on a boss— of any kind whatsoever— was with my butt cheeks.
That’s right, I turned Ram Slam into some kind of… Ass Blast.
I bounced off the Nut King’s ribcage and my momentum dragged me up onto his back. I looped my arms round his neck and wrenched his gaping mouth away from Vidari’s throat just as his teeth snapped together. Then, the stamina burn hit me and my vision went black.
Imber must have committed himself to some kind of reckless supercharged attack because when my vision blinked back, he was hurtling at me with his arms raised and a look of pure terror on his face.
His mace shattered on the Nut King’s back right between my legs and my health plummeted as the fractured splinters of wood gouged into my thighs and calves.
The Nut King howled in pain and shook to rid himself of the splintered wood… and maybe the idiot still clinging to his back… I didn’t see many of the splinters come loose, but he sure as fuck managed to send me packing. I was still depleted of stamina and struggling to draw breath, otherwise I would be screaming in pain. The little air I managed to inhale was driven out of me as my back crashed into a tree.
Winded, bleeding, no stamina, vision fading, back flattened against a tree… and I think my butt is bruised.
I was in no condition to move. The Nut King turned and locked eyes with me.
R.I.P. NULL. He never stood a chance.
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