With bright red scales, twin yellow horns on its head, and massive scaled wings, Tyler’s initial thoughts were screaming at him that this was a dragon. Thankfully he had remembered the guild worker telling him he wouldn’t see one of those legendary creatures during the tutorial. He racked his brain, and came to the conclusion this must be a wyvern. The problem was he couldn’t really remember the different between the 2 monsters, other than that wyverns were smaller. He ducked back around the corner, and tried to come up with a plan. There was no doubt in his head that this was the area boss. Tyler doubted his usual luck of one hit kills would stay true here, and he seriously doubted his F-1 ranked spells would even tickle the monster. Therefore he had to keep it on the ground. His sword wasn’t high quality, but Tyler was strong and could use that to great effect when needed. The question was did he try and sneak up, and make a close range attack to start the battle, or shoot an arrow from distance to see how the monster reacts. Giving it time to get in the air would be bad, but Tyler knew his own abilities. He wasn’t the sneaky type. Chances are if he attempted to tip toe up to the creature, it would hear him instantly. Knowing that, he opted for the spells. As soon as he turned the corner he began the usual hand signals, one water, one fire. Soon two arrows were hovering over his head, and he aimed them both for the closed eye exposed to him. He knew it probably wouldn’t do much damage, but nothing liked getting poked in the eye. If it could cause the wyvern to panic for even a second, that would buy him time to get in close with his sword. As soon as the arrows launched, Tyler drew his sword and sprinted after them. Sure enough, both arrows made contact with the creatures eye lid, and the roar that followed was surely heard in the guild hall down below. Tyler briefly hesitated, his body instinctively reacting in fear, before pushing on. Sadly that slight delay was enough for the wyvern to spot him, and soon a large tail was swinging round faster than he could react. It slammed into his side, sending him flying back to wards the mountain wall and impacting with a thud nearly as loud as the earlier roar. Tyler felt his bones groan as he fell to the floor. Thankfully his recovery rate was such that he could already feel his injuries repairing themselves, but he knew he couldn’t wait for it to finish. As fast as he could force himself to, he gingerly climbed to his knees, before then raising to his feet. When he finally looked up, the wyvern was glaring at him, and was now surrounded by dozens of kobolds. Tyler cursed. Of course the boss had minions, wyverns clearly weren’t challenging enough on their own. As he felt his hip suddenly pop back into place, removing a pain Tyler hadn’t even realised he was feeling, he prepared himself to charge once more. At least with its helpers around, that giant tail should be more limited. At this point kobolds weren’t much of a threat to him, but he knew the wyvern was capable of hurting him, and that would leave him exposed for the lesser monsters attacks. As soon as he felt strong enough, mere seconds after landing, Tyler charged towards the kobold spear men. He didn’t hesitate, chopping them down as he went, his improved strength now enough to render their scales meaningless. While he killed the ones in his way, they weren’t his target. Getting close enough he dodged the massive jaws that came towards him, and slashed. It didn’t so much, and Tyler really didn’t have time to celebrate, but at least he could see thick yellowish blood pour from the wound. He let his momentum take him back into the crowd of kobolds, and in doing so just barely dodged the tail that came furiously towards him. The wyvern clearly cared little for its helpers, as 3 of them were sent flying by its attack. It didn’t hesitate to attack again, mowing down kobolds as it lunged around the clearing. Tyler knew what he wanted to do, but he needed a distraction. The guilds advice about forming a party coming back to bite him once again. As soon as he had dodged yet another swing, he took off, getting as close as he could. The tail was flexible, but thick. He reasoned if he could get as close to the creatures back legs as possible, it would be the ideal place to inflict some damage. As he got within a few feet however the tail swung back round and he was forced to jump. Sailing over it, Tyler was as surprised as anyone to find himself several feet from the ground, clinging to his sword which was now embedded in the monsters flank. Clearly in pain, the wyvern began to buck, trying to throw off the lowly human. Sadly for it, this only caused the sword to tear deeper and into a wider area, and Tyler’s superhuman strength allowed him to cling on for dear life. The remaining kobolds weren’t as lucky, and soon they were all dead, destroyed by the same rampaging wyvern they served in life. Tyler, who until now had really just been holding on and trying to stay alive, finally summoned all his strength, and pushed off the creature with his legs. He could see the wound, and knew that while it was serious, it wasn’t fatal. He also knew that the longer this lasted the more likely it was he would die himself, he wouldn’t be lucky enough to keep dodging that tail every time. The creatures attacks had become constant since Tyler had leapt off, a flurry of snapping jaws and slashing tail. Tyler found himself getting further and further back as he dodged, leaving him unable to make an attack of his own. Figuring it couldn’t hurt, he shifted to a one handed sword grip, and once more began to cast with his left hand. The water arrow that hit seemed to do almost no damage, but it did at least halt the incoming jaws for this attack. This brief delay gave Tyler the opening he so desperately needed, and with every bit of strength he had, he drove the sword into the wyverns throat. Still the monster didn’t die, but unlike before, this wound would at least eventually prove fatal. The wyvern, as if sensing this very fact, upped its attacks once more. Now knowing it was dead either way, it was happy getting closer to its human prey, and Tyler was once again on the back foot, forced to abandon his sword in the monsters neck. He danced around, boxed in and unable to completely escape the clearing, but doing everything he could to avoid attacks. His epic dragon slaying fight scene descending into a poorly written comedy as he was unable to do much more than play mouse to the enormous creatures cat. Finally, the furious beast could do no more, and fell to its death. Sadly for Tyler, so used to dodging the attacks from either end of the monster, he didn’t see this one coming. As it finally keeled over, it’s huge wing shunted out, crushing Tyler into the ground as it did so. The pain was immense, and he could feel the point in which something had penetrated skin. He collapsed back to the floor, fighting back the urge to scream as whatever had stabbed him tore into more flesh as he moved. The pain was so bad he barely noticed the screens that popped up.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

[Battle Complete]

[33 x Kobolds Lvl.6 defeated]

[1 x Lesser Wyvern Lvl. 10 defeated]

[2130xp gained]

[6640xp remaining to reach Level 11]

Tyler assumed he had blacked out, as when he came back round he felt a fair bit better, although he noticed he still had the wing sticking into him. Pulling himself free, he saw the wound had healed around the impact point, and now that he pulled it free it was starting to try and heal once more, but he knew the damage was done. Even with his healing, the fact he had left it in for so long would leave him with one hell of a scar. He could actually see it forming as the skin knit back together. He gingerly climbed to his feet. As always with his healing, he felt fine, but knew he should be in much worse shape. As he walked over and retrieved his sword, he did the quick mental maths and cursed. He was 3 short of his quest target. 3 short and he had no idea on how much time he had after his unplanned nap. He quickly scooped up bodies, with the wyverns body taking up one ring all by itself. That done, he didn’t see anything else in the area, so he took off. His best bet for fresh monsters would be another of the trails from the mountain base. If he ran, it would take him about an hour to descend the mountain, so he didn’t hesitate pushing himself to give everything he had while scanning for any straggling harpies or kobolds as he did so. Tyler understood monsters spawned daily, but he had no idea what time they appeared. Or how it even worked. Sadly he wasn’t in luck, with the trail back down completely clear. As soon as he touched the base he spun to ascend another, and was shocked to see other people there. They were maybe 300 feet into the trail, cautiously making their way along the rocky path. That sight filled Tyler with hope. If people were still hunting, then there had to be some time left before the end. Rather than disturb them, he took the third trail, and was instantly rewarded. A harpy swooped down, screeching as it did so. Tyler didn’t hesitate, swinging his blade and impaling the monster before sticking it in his ring with 1 swift movement. He carried on his run, clearing the screen that appeared without even reading it. He was several kilometres up the mountain before another harpy descended, and he soon killed it as well. That left one more for his target, and Tyler was determined not to fall into that trope. He also wanted to get back in time to hand over the quests. Sadly as he raced along there was no sign of anything. Eventually he gave up, and stormed back down. Reaching the base once more, he knew he had a choice. Up the third path, where he would be following that other group, or to one of the other areas. But which one? Tyler had spent hours in the forest just to find a single goblin. But was that because he had gone off to the side? Eventually, still no knowing how long he had, Tyler took off towards the town. He stopped at the guild hall and asked, only to find out he still had 3 hours. Rather than waste time with anything now, he spun and headed straight to the forest, this time following the well worn path that hundreds of other people had taken over the last week. As he arrived in the forest he wasn’t surprised to see dozens of what he guessed were formed parties. Some were trudging back from the deeper areas, some heading out to take their place, but most were sitting around outside camping areas, laughing and joking with their friends. It was a nice sight, and one that instantly raised the question of why so many people, like himself, had just accepted this new world? There really should have been more panic, or at least resistance. You couldn’t get most people to change their lunch order without a fight, so why were they all so happy to be told their world was now a magical place filled with monsters. He once more forced the thoughts to the back of his head. They wouldn’t help him now.

“Excuse me” he approached one of the parties having an campfire further in. When they looked up he continued. “I need just 1 monster kill to finish a quest up, could you please offer any thoughts on the best direction to go?”

The group all looked at each other before one man stood up. The guy was clad in a light metal armour. And when he stood Tyler saw the large wooden shield he had been sitting on.

“If you just need the one, then head straight from the towns path. Most people avoid it because there’s only level 1 stragglers, so it’s not worth their time. Unless you need them to be a certain level?” He waited until Tyler shook his head before continuing “that’s your best bet then lad, best of luck to you” he slapped his hand against Tyler’s shoulder as he said it. Tyler thanked him and took off, determined to find his prey.