Thud.
This couldn’t be good.
Jacob edged his way around the fire, his face as pale as a ghost. The boy hid behind the still-sleeping Arachnes, not wanting any part of what was to come. I couldn’t blame him. He was weaponless and still disorientated and that was discounting the fact that he was just a coward by nature.
Thud.
My grip tightened on my sword as my mouth dried up in a painful imitation of the Great Victoria Desert. Nora took a step forward, placing herself ahead of me and Stella. She twirled her brand-new axe as if it was a baton and she a girl on a stage about to perform a show. Her face was split by an enormous grin, one that barely faltered when Boopzy squeaked in fear and slid down from her shoulder to hide inside her heavy plate armor.
“Finally, a chance to try out Giselle,” Nora said in a whisper filled with all her pent-up desire to brutally destroy whatever stood in her way.
“Giselle?” I asked as I fished out a bottle of poison from my bum bag and dumped its contents over my blade.
“An axe this fine needs a name,” Nora answered as though that wasn’t a completely crazy thing to say.
Thud.
The thing, whatever it was, was moving closer still. Each step it took made the ground beneath my feet shudder. The aura pulsating off of it was growing with it, flaring in a deep maroon color. I took a moment to eye our exposed location. Our camp was in a clearing right at the edge of the ravine surrounded by dense bushland. I needed to get to a place where I could attack from the rear where I did my best work. If I moved now though the beast might follow me and then Nora and Stella couldn’t face it head on which would severely limit their attack power. I would have to wait until that first attack to make my move. I hate waiting.
Thud.
I felt like I’d downed a fresh pot of coffee and chased it up with a case of energy drinks. My body was practically vibrating with pent-up energy. Every hair I possessed was standing on end. Each time Stella deepened her growl my teeth clamped tighter together, sending an uncomfortable jolt of energy along my jawline. I hadn’t even moved yet and already I was sucking in air like it was going out of fashion.
Thud.
The shadow of the trees ahead of us shook violently and this time it wasn’t because of the wind. My ears filled with the deep rumbling growl of the monster. It knew we were here.
Sobs blue lightning was crackling over his entire body almost like magical armor. I wished he wouldn’t do that because, in the darkness of night, it made him shine like a beacon to the beast bearing down on us. It also came with the added awful side effect of lighting up the clearing and the monster along with it.
I had been prepared for a Combustion Croc, the most powerful of the ones we’d met so far, but I was wrong. This was something different altogether. Its scaly head reached high above the trees around it, its snout as long as I was tall if I had been standing on Nora’s shoulders.
Thud.
It took another slow powerful step, the bulging muscles around its clawed feet rippling from the impact. Its maw dropped open, revealing lines of jagged teeth longer than my arm. Great globs of saliva slid over its lips, dropping to the ground with a resounding splat leaving a hideous trail in its wake as it came closer again.
Thud.
I swallowed but I needn’t have. The Croc in front of me might have been dripping with mouth juices but my own was dry as a bone. My tongue felt fat and abrasive in my mouth, like a foreign object when it was anything but.
Sob’s lightning burned brighter, flashing off the thing perched precariously on the monster's flat head. I didn’t need to squint very hard to see that it was a tall skinny golden crown speckled with jewels.
Thud.
Stella growled again as her body began to glow a bright golden color. The Croc took another step before leaning forward, throwing out its muscular arms, and letting out a roar loud enough to make our ears bleed.
Nora stepped forward along with the beast, gripping her axe tightly in both hands as she let out a wild cry of her own.
A symbol appeared beside my health bar and for the briefest of moments, I thought her bellowing had somehow hurt me until I realized what it was; a little yellow horn. The moment it appeared I felt stronger and more alert. I didn’t need to look to know her warcry had somehow bolstered my fighting stats.
“Are you ready to die you great big lumbering beast?” Nora bellowed.
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Thud. Thud. Thud.
In response to Nora’s shout, the Croc started its charge. I Blinked to the side, stumbling over a shrub as I came out of it. I turned just in time to see Stella slam into the Croc’s chest at full force. The golden light surrounding her shattered like glass. The sheer power of her attack was enough to force the monster back a step but its long health bar that was now floating over its head had barely dropped an inch.
King Toilet Croc – Level 63
I Blinked again as Nora joined the fray, slamming her axe into the Croc’s leg like she was trying to fell a mighty tree. The Croc lifted its head and roared to the sky before batting her aside as if she were nothing. I tried not to look at Nora’s health bar as I slowly edged my way around the monster. The solid clang its clawed hand had made against her armor was enough to tell me she was hurt badly from a single swing.
The beast was such a high level you could have stacked mine with Nora’s and we’d still be barely higher than it. On my own, I would have been dead already.
Sob let out a high-pitched squeal as twin bolts of neon blue lightning arced across the distance, burning blackened holes into the Croc’s belly. Nora was already on her feet again, her axe peppering the Croc with insubstantial wounds as she danced about deflecting attacks more than she could deal them. Stella’s teeth were tearing chunks from the beast's legs. Even with her enlarged size, she couldn’t reach much higher than that.
My next Blink took me right around the back of it. My knees creaked as I shouted and bent back further than I thought I could go. The Croc’s battering ram of a tail swept over me, the blast of air that came with it enough to make my hair dance. My knees gave out, sending me to the ground. I rolled through the dirt. A heavy clawed foot landed beside my head.
I Blinked again to escape the mess I’d found myself in. The cacophony of battle was making it hard to think of anything but escape.
I glanced up as I turned back around to make my second attempt at a backstab. The Croc’s health was still barely an eighth depleted but now it had the bleeding icon beside it. Nora’s axe had done its job and left a health-gobbling status effect behind.
Smiling at that I charged forward, leaping up onto the tail that was sweeping across the open clearing again and using it as a highway to the monster's back. I could have stabbed it right there and gotten my backstab bonus but it wouldn’t have been enough. I wanted to incapacitate it as quickly as possible. If I didn’t, even with all of us fighting together, the odds of winning this fight were not great.
The Croc’s pebbled skin made scaling its broad back a simple thing. In the time it took for Sob to unleash another blast of lightning, I had reached the Croc’s neck. Gripping onto some sort of horn that protruded from the beast's neck I slammed my blade deep into what I hoped was its spine.
Critical Hit!
The Croc’s roar filled the air. Its health dropped by an impressive margin for a single strike. The necrotic poison on my blade seeped into its bloodstream, adding to the potency of the bleeding effect Nora had already inflicted upon it.
My cheeks hurt from the smile I couldn’t keep off my face. I yanked my blade free and plunged it back in even deeper. Hot blood turned the grip of my sword slick. My hand slipped on my next plunge, my fingers saved from being sliced by my glove.
The Croc was flailing now as it stumbled back the way it had come. It was trying to reach me to fling me away but the dense muscle of its shoulders kept it from reaching that far back. I drew my sword back again but before I could jam it into the Croc’s neck the beast spun in place, knocking Nora and Stella off their feet with its enormous tail. The flash of lightning burned my eyes as Sob’s wayward bolt slammed into me, pulsing through my body like fire. I convulsed as my pained scream joined the Crocs. My grip slackened and I dropped like a rock through water, crashing hard into the ground twelve feet below. Gravity is a heartless bitch.
I eyed my health bar as I tried to draw even an iota of air into my deflated lungs. It was flashing now. That can’t have been a good sign.
I reached for my sword, clutching the searing agony in my side. The Croc bellowed again and spun in place, letting out a sound closer to a warble than the roars I had become accustomed to. A marking at the base of its neck began to glow with magical energy as it lifted its arms, aiming them right at me.
I tried to Blink away but the skill failed me. I had expected a fireball or something just as deadly to burst from its clawed hands but instead, a circle of silvery symbols appeared around me. I frowned as I eyed the delicate runes carved into the earth under my ass. Nothing happened. Why was nothing happening?
My fingers clamped around the still-wet grip on my sword as I clambered to my feet, hissing past the pain the movement caused me. I tried to Blink again to get back around the beast but it failed a second time. Letting out a scream of frustration I started to run. My sword dropped to the ground again as I slammed into a wall face-first. Blood spurted from my nose as the thing broke all over again.
“No, no, no!” I bellowed.
No matter how I moved I couldn’t step past the edge of the still glowing rune. I was trapped in a circle right out in the open.
The Croc let out a triumphant roar and charged toward me. I lifted my arm, firing my loaded bolt. It sunk into the Croc’s belly but the beast didn’t so much as flinch.
“Joe!” I heard Nora scream.
She ran in between me and the Croc. Her axe swung in a wild arc, hitting the crocs foot and then the ground beneath it. Three dismembered toes scattered in the dirt followed by a gushing stream of dark blood. The Croc roared and lashed out, hitting Nora square in the chest with the full force of its gigantic arm before she even had a chance to defend herself.
Nora’s health plummeted as mine had until it was little more than a blinking slither of red. She flew through the air over my head and came to a stop right at the edge of the deep ravine. She lay there, limp and almost lifeless.
“Nora, no!” I howled, bashing my fists against the invisible wall that imprisoned me.
Nora shifted, carefully lifting her bruised body off the hard ground. Her eyes met mine. I could see fear there. An emotion she rarely seemed to feel let alone express. I could hear the Croc coming up behind me but at that moment I didn’t much care. She was alive. That’s all that mattered.
Nora got her shaky feet under her a took a single step before the ground beneath her crumbled. Her scream stung my ears as her head dropped from view over the edge.
“Boopzy!” I screamed.