“Why me…?”
“Well, I mean, you could’ve just died along with the rest of the horde you were with?”
“...”
Of course my little man had already gone through with what I’d asked of him, so it was a little late to complain now.
I wasn’t sure if the monsters off in the distance would take offense to a member of their group being harmed or not, but it was worth a shot! They looked to be wolves or canines of some sort though, so I figured pack loyalty was kind of a given and… hey whaddya know!
Currently, I think that’s like… thirty of them running after Jerry? And they’re definitely gaining ground on the poor lad pretty quickly. What exactly did he do to piss them off, my dear proverbial viewers? Well you see it’s pretty simple actually! He just stabbed one of them and ran, snuck up on them real nicely!
That’s it really, no fanfare to add onto that. It was kind of boring honestly. I can’t [Recall] him until he leads them close enough to be able to fight them, but we’re certainly almost there…
“Raise your weapons!”
Aaaand, the wagon grinds to a halt. Epic gamer moment right here indeed!
—
44!
It takes about four hits to take out each of these myself, and that’s not really that difficult given they’re just wolves, Crossing’s Feng’s again, to be specific. But their aggression is… mildly off-putting. Definitely on the backfoot here, but that isn’t too much of a problem, still landing hits, just…
Weren’t they supposed to be more cautious than this? Last I saw of them they were pretty reluctant to go running in against the full forces of the wagon and its two dozen or so npcs. Maybe it’s just because the numbers are less even this time around? There are only like five or six guys here besides me…
Oh, wait a minute, 51!
+9 exp!
And another one bites the dust. Lunged in and ate a slash through the everything. Now that another one’s dead… there are like… two dozen left? Another issue that hadn’t quite settled prior dawns on me. There aren’t enough of them! And on top of there already only having been like two and a half dozen to stab, as mentioned prior, npcs from the wagon came to kill them as well!
I’m still getting the majority here, already being like… ten kills deep I think? But at the same time the npcs have eaten up a solid chunk as well… I can’t just very well tell them to go away and let me deal with it, can I? …Can I? Questions for later.
160!
+5 exp!
Well, at least Jasper can one shot with [Hunter’s Mark], but it’s also not like she can use literally any of her other abilities either. Maybe her teleport is fine, but there’s no point to that here! They’re just… it’s frustrating. I could feasibly clear out this horde myself in a few minutes if I could just go at it with full force, but all these npcs really limit me more than they help.
Well, anyways… Oh, oh dearie me, you know, I know Jasper technically isn’t wrong in her chosen offense, but if I’m not able to [Recall] her for some reason she is so going to get swarmed one of these days. Speaking of [Recall] however, [Recall]! Get the heck back here Jasper.
What remained of the fifteen or so enemies left had kind of completely encircled her after the killing blow she’d landed earlier. I know she’s individually much more powerful than any of these Feng’s combined, but the power of jumping is a scary thing. If one does not possess the ability to simply crush your enemy with stats, then coordination can always be a killer.
+7 exp!
+11 exp!
More and more feng’s go down, and it doesn’t take much longer for the horde to become a crowd. As I take a step back, expecting yet another lunging attack, the Feng before me decides to defy my expectations and actually take a step back this time around! As does the rest of the crowd in fact.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
And then another, and another, both in quick succession. This… would seem to be that prior instinct to get out of dodge I mentioned earlier. I wasn’t sure if they were just gonna keep going to their death, or like…? But hey, guess not! Always neat to see some interesting AI for the enemies. On the other hand, GET BACK HERE!
[Summon]ing Jasper in front of the retreating crowd, I slip her a command to one shot as many as possible. Which, should be two, if I’m not wrong about her MP.
And, yeah… like clockwork,
+7 exp!
+9 exp!
+7 exp!
Oh, actually three. MP must’ve recovered enough to use a sixth given she’d killed three with it. The four remaining simply continue to run, leaving the rest of their deceased group behind.
I could chase after them, but the npcs are already calling for everybody to return to the wagon, so… can’t really do that. Alright, this is damn annoying.
How best can I get experience with all these goobers looming over me twenty five hours a day? I got… how much this time around?
Exp-414/611
Just over a hundred I think. So, in order to level up once, I need to do that another two times, and for two levels, probably another seven… and that needs to happen all within the span of this trip, which is actively coming to a close.
Putting Jasper away and just leveling myself up isn’t the play either, since she’s an essential part of my offense and has higher stats and stat growth than I do. So we’re not doing that, do I just hope and pray for larger groups of monsters to fight…?
Well… ACK-Sunnuvua bitch!
Another ear piercing shriek catches me unawares, the sound screeching through my ears and pounding in my head, reverberating as my entire body twitches. It gets Jasper this time around as well, and she immediately starts rolling around on the ground, pawing at her own ears…
That bird ALREADY came back???
Rapping at the side of my head, I cast my gaze to the now slightly cloudy sky above the wagon, a large brown bird up in the distance, now flying away at top speeds.
That thing is… either stupid or very confident in something. Or whatever’s here in this wagon is just that enticing to it. Ghhhgh… dammit my ears hurt!
[Recall]
I know that attack does damage, so I’ll go ahead and let Jasper heal up for a while. Can’t imagine it’s pleasant to experience that without any reduction to pain.
For now… I need to… actually, wait a minute.
The bird, which I’m now going to dub Screech for obvious reasons for the moment, likes to do that whole shtick pretty frequently apparently. They’ve already done it three times over the course of a day, and I imagine they’d like to give it as many attempts as they can…
And fortunately enough for me, that shriek of Screech’s seems to do something quite interesting! Given as it flies away, the four feng’s that had ran away prior find themselves sprinting right back to the slaughterhouse.
Screech… you may be a fool, but I shall graciously help myself to a fool’s offerings.
—
Sun on my skin… cool breeze in my hair, yes, this is a good day out here in the Crossing’s. It’s a very good day, but I can’t imagine it’ll stay that way. After all, I imagine it’s about time for a daily visit. From whom? Well, I believe it’s quite obvious, but say hello to Screech! You can see them over there, way off in the distance, getting closer and closer as their shadow blends through the clouds.
There also just so happens to be a group of… I wanna say buffalo things, way away from here as well? So, guess we have that to look forward to.
“Everybody cover your ears!” I announce from my perch on top of the wagon. Feeling a rather genuine grin spreading to the corners of my cheeks. But, good samaritan I am, before anybody takes a look up at me, with two fingers I push my smile back into place.
Bring on the buffet!