"What is and what isn't an element is a magical grey area, with the two most popular schools of thought being the systemics and the naturals, with the distinction between them being that systemics consider anything that is buffed by the system when it refers to elements as elements, whereas the naturals only consider something an element if it has elemental energy and can be attuned to. The naturalists refer to things that are strengthened by elemental buffs but have no elemental energy of their own as subsidiary elements, as every instance of them has one, or in rare cases multiple, 'true' elements that it is strengthened by, such as gold attributed mana getting the same bonuses to control and power when attuned to metal as iron attributed mana does, or even just pure metal attributed mana."
-Excerpt from 'On Elements', by Archmagus Vor Young
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With our loot gathered, we once again set off following the stream, with the trees becoming more and more sparse and the ground becoming stonier and the vegetation less lush. The change is biomes was clear, so we raised our guard in preparation for the higher level mobs, and only an hour or two after we noticed the change, we all heard a loud clucking. After a quick pause to make sure we were hearing correctly, we slowly edged towards the noise and saw what was unmistakably a turkey drinking from the lake.
Turkey - Level 5
Our mouths watering at the thought of some actual meat in our diets, as no one was comfortable eating goblin and we never went back for the deer, we quickly had a hand-conversation to decide how and if we were going to attack, though Jackson was the only one on the fence and even he only needed the slightest nudge to change his mind. As the turkey was still level 5, underestimating it would be dumb, no matter how tasty it looked, so we decided to do the same plan that we had for if we encountered more deer. Namely, Leo would charge and distract with his shield while the rest of us attack when its stunned from its attack's momentum being cancelled by his skill.
With a determined nod and a hungry look, Leo charged towards the turkey with a vigor that I didn't know he was capable of, the sound of the charge catching the turkey's attention immediately. With a clucking battlecry the turkey started its own charge towards Leo, and as the distance between them closed, the rest of us took our positions, Jason not moving while me and Jackson followed behind Leo's path as quietly as possible while maintaining speed.
When there was only a meter or two between the turkey and Leo, it jumped in the air and angled its gleaming talons towards him. Showcasing the results of his practice, Leo quickly angled his shield in the way of the now airborne turkey, catching it on his shield before going in with a reverse-grip stab of his shortsword. Leaping off of the shield with a cluck, the turkey managed to avoid Leo's stab, but caught a glancing blow from a series of cards that were thrown by Jason. Not to be outdone, I quickly launched a bolt of lightning as the turkey landed on the ground, imbuing 40 mana into the strike, causing the turkey to let out a screeching cluck of pain, but remain unstunned as it swiveled its head towards me and charged faster than I could accurately hit it.
Leo tried to interpose himself between me and the turkey, but it was too small and fast, darting under his shield unfazed on its charge. As it passed by Leo with its gaze never leaving me, a spear emerged from the trees, barely missing its torso but causing it to stop to look at this new threat. Withdrawing his spear before starting a series of quick jabs, Jackson forced the turkey to retreat, scoring little more than a few nicks on the avian, counting those from the continued support of Jason, but managing to keep its attention.
Fortunately, the birdbrain descriptor seemed to apply to it, as it had somehow forgotten about the person that had originally confronted it. With a roar, Leo came down on the turkey, using his shield like a hammer and making the unaware bird crumple under the weight behind the strike. Not wanting to waste the opportunity, Jackson quickly went for a stab on the head while a card whistled towards its neck. I held of on attacking due to the proximity of the turkey to Leo, but I was circling my lightning so that I could quickly shoot or boost if needed, though a pleasant ding told me that it wasn't.
Congratulations, you have defeated a level 5 Turkey and gained 100 EXP
"Hell yeah! I got a level outta that."(Jason)
After congratulating Jason, we quickly pooled our butchering knowledge, which wasn't much, before decapitating the turkey and holding it upside down over the river to drain it of blood, deciding to wait for defeathering and actual butchering until we set up camp for the night. The sight of a headless turkey would have likely made us squeamish a few days ago, but consistent life or death fights has a funny way of desensitising you to gore.
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After a surprisingly long wait, the turkey had finally stopped leaking blood, so we once again set out, this time looking for a campsite as opposed to just traveling as the turkeys seemed like they would be good fodder to hunt for a while. Unfortunately, unlike the areas closer to the start where campsites were aplenty, in this stony forest clearings that had enough wood for a fire and enough flat space to sleep were few and far between, with any area too close to the river being too unsafe and loud for sleeping. And while we did not intend to go too much further out, our search for a a semi long term campsite inevitably brought us further along the river, where the ground quickly transformed into pure rock with the occasional dirt patch and a gradual incline. The sudden scarcity of trees massively increased how far we could see, with the main landmark being a mountain previously hidden by the forest canopy.
Although the mountain was a bit further from the safe zone than would be ideal, it was directly in the path of the river and had open terrain all around it so we decided to risk it. The main benefit of the open terrain was that we were able to see monsters from much further away, though we decided to ignore them as the sun was quickly falling and we wanted as much time as possible to find a suitably safe campsite. Thankfully, the turkeys seemed none too bright, as they were more interested in picking at the ground than their surroundings, though the fact that they were in groups of two or three more often than not was slightly unsettling.
With all of our improved endurances vastly increasing the speed we could sustainably move, we quickly reached the mountain, and continuing along the river as it snaked around its base, we quickly found what looked to be a cave, with three turkeys sleeping around its entrance. We quickly debated about whether or not to try to fight for the cave or not, but with the sun quickly setting and no other good places for a campsite nearby, our choice was mostly made for us.
That didn't mean that we would charge ahead mindlessly though, we knew from our previous fight that turkeys had low attention span and were stupid, which wasn't entirely beneficial as it meant that is was impossible for Leo to hold their attention for the fight even if Jason could be far enough away for them to not see where the cards come from. Meaning, that it was likely that me and Jackson would have to hold back a turkey each, which was not going to be easy considering how the last one managed to dodge through both Jackson and Jason attacking it simultaneously without taking any meaningful damage.
One proposed plan was for me to unload everything I had at once on them, similar to the first group of goblins that we fought, but considering how close I would need to be to do that, if even one of them survived I would probably die, so that plan was quickly shot down. As for trying to fight them one at a time, neither they nor we fought quietly enough to have any measure of confidence that the others would remain asleep past the first few seconds of a fight.
After a few minutes of planning, we finally settled on one that we thought would work, or at least not end with any of our deaths. First, Leo would get all of their attentions from a medium distance away, and when they all got their charge going, Jackson and I were supposed to go from either side and take one each, with me not bothering to conserve my mana at all and just trying to finish the fight as soon as possible while Jackson was supposed to keep his busy with a flurry of attacks while being supported by Jason. The linchpin of the plan was me finishing my turkey as quickly as possible before helping the others, with Jason manly supporting Jackson but also ready to support Leo or me if the situation called for it.
With the plan settled, Leo walked to his position while Jackson and I went a bit ahead of him on either side and hid.
"HEY TURKEY-TURKEY-TURKEY!"(Leo)
With heads raised and clucks clucked, the trio of turkeys quickly focused their beady eyes onto Leo before quickly getting up and charging at him in unison, the bloodthirsty glare that only members of the chicken family could give. Counting the distance in my head, I started to move my lightning around my body in preparation for the attack. As the turkey closed that last few meters to get in my range I let out a breath before pointing my staff at it and releasing the lightning that I had kept waiting, using 80 mana for my opening attack as a thick vein of blue streaked through the are to my unaware target.
*ZAP*
One flash of light later, the turkey stopped in its charge, spasming and falling to the ground. Not wanting to miss this chance I quickly charged another strike, this time with only 40 points as I charged towards the turkey with my staff ready in a batter's position. With the second bolt landing and setting off a new series of spasms, I managed to get within striking range of the turkey right as it finished standing up.
*CRACK*
Swinging my staff at its outstretched neck, I could see its head wrap around its diameter as I heard the crack that signified the imminent end to its life, and true to my expectations I heard the ding of the system, though I didn't check the message as there was still fighting to do. Taking a quick look at Jackson and Leo, both had a few minor cuts, but where Leo was just holding his position as the turkey repeatedly charged and jumped at him, Jackson had to maintain his flurry of jabs so he was visibly far more tired.
With my next target in mind, I ran towards it while charging my next bolt. Since 40 mana was enough for a stun on the previous turkey, even if it was only for half a second, I decided to empower my next bolt with the same amount. And with the same amount of situational awareness as we had expected, the turkey hadn't noticed me until my lightning had already struck it, at which point it was impaled by both a spear and a card, which led to its prompt demise.
Looking towards the last turkey, with the beginnings of a headache from using so much mana so quickly, me and Jackson moved towards Leo, who had been slowly retreating towards us as he warded off the turkey. Though all of us were tired from the previous fights, with me stunning the turkey using 40 more mana, leaving me with 10 plus a headache remaining, followed by a spear thrust, card throw, and sword slash, the turkey didn't last long,
With the fighting done, all of us trudged towards the cave before collapsing once we were inside, not quite tired enough to fall asleep but more than enough to forgo setting up a fire or making dinner after giving a cursory glance around the dark cave to ensure that it was unoccupied. Lacking the energy to do anything else I checked the system messages, which had thankfully consolidated into one for all three turkeys.
Congratulations, you have defeated a level 5 Turkey x3, you have gained 400 EXP
With the pleased grunts that Jason and Leo let out, I figured that they had levelled, with me still needing 300 exp for my next level. Using my remaining brainpower to imagine the turkey that we would have for breakfast, I quickly fell asleep, with everyone else following soon after.