I coughed. Sending pints of blood away from my mouth with each bark, losing my already darkened vision.
The spell I launched hit its shield again, while the orc mage retaliated against the icicle-throwing stalker.
I reached for my potion, then attempted to chug it down my throat.
My eyes widened. Horror struck. My trembling hands caused the bottle to drip; The icicle was blocking the intake of my potion.
Shit, Shit! Laying with my back against the ground, I cried from the agony when I reached over to the ends of the icicle, trying to yank it away from my throat. The icicle seemed to be lodged permanently as I just kept pulling, but my arms were weak; My hand slipped along the curvature of the icicle, slamming into the ground after losing its grip. No matter how hard I tried to get it off, it never seemed to be able to exit my esophagus.
My arms had lost their strength, and my body, paralyzed. The nerve damage was too significant. I couldn’t eke out a single word to ask for help, there wasn’t any oxygen left in the tank to do so.
“GRAY!”
Katherine…
“Fuck, Fuck!” A heaving force pulled the icicle away. It was Katherine, her white suit tattered with red splatterings of her blood and the stalkers. She pulled a red potion out of the thin air and shoved it down the holes inside my throat. “Don’t die on me!”
It was a crude solution, but it worked.
A wave of soothing pulse blasted my senses as I jolted awake, coughing, gasping for air as if I had just survived a sure death, with the taste of salt and iron on my lips.
Failing to conjure any words aloud, I fingered towards the location where my orc mage was busy distracting the icicle stalker, and she knew what I meant in an instant.
She got up, then halted just for a split second. “I’ll take care of this one.”
I tried to breathe out the words I wanted to say, but all I managed was a weak puff of air. Now’s not the time.
Her figure entered the darkness again, followed by the light given out from my orc’s bolts.
Stay focused. The fight wasn’t over yet. I had to get up and prepare just in case there were more of them. I couldn’t afford the same mistake that almost led me to my death, hunkering down behind my shield while watching my back, just in case…
I didn’t know what happened to the shielded stalker my orc was fighting before. I’d love to assume that she’d taken care of it already, but we didn’t have the time to discuss what had happened, and dealing with the ice projectile was my top priority.
Tracing my way back to where I thought the previous stalker was, I breathed relief when I saw its dead body lying still on the floor, its face beaten up to a pulp from Katherine’s fists. I reached out to it, then extracted its soul.
[Your compendium is full.]
Fuck.
If I wanted the stalker’s soul, I needed to let my orcs go. I could replace the three dead souls with these stalkers, but I wasn’t sure if they were any stronger than the orcs.
“GAAHhHHH!” Katherine’s roar jerked me in her direction, followed by the system message showing that she indeed, had won.
The darkness of the scene retreated into the dawn of day, ending the perpetual blackness that surrounded us, revealing the faces of the stalkers. My iris reflected an elongated head, and dividing its face from the middle was a line where its massive mouth hung open, eyes riddled on the sides of its mouth. If a person had a trypophobia, he or she would be-
“WHAT THE FUCK?”
Yep. Terrified.
Regardless of how it looked, the level of the stalkers was one higher than the orcs. They each stood at level 9, just the right level for me to extract their souls, and just enough numbers to replace the unusable souls residing in my compendium.
The answer is obvious.
Tendrils were ejected out of my hands as I released. Replacing the orc warriors and archer, were two shielded stalkers and the prize in this mission, the aptly named, icicle stalkers. They appeared to be related to the cold element, so I had to be wary of heat attacks against them.
Soul of The Stalwart Stalker - Poor
Rarity: Uncommon | Rank: - | Level : 9
Attributes gained 5 Strength, toughness, vitality | +3 Arcane, Arcane. Defense
Does not have any skills.
Soul of The Icicle Stalker - Poor
Rarity: Uncommon | Rank: - | Level : 9
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Attributes gained 2 Strength | 3 toughness, vitality, | +5 Arcane, Arcane.Power, Arcane. Defense
Grants skill : Icicle spear
Conjures a spear made of ice, then launch it towards the desired target.
Mana cost: 5 mana.
These are good. The stats provided are way beyond what I had been given so far.
From my fight against them, the stalkers were better at holding their lines than the shielded orcs, only losing out in raw attacking strength. The icicle stalker was a good alternative to the archer orc; Its projectiles were better at tracking its target, and it dealt elemental damage.
Satisfied, I strode past the fog and found Katherine’s still figure.
Her head tilted to where I came from, acknowledging my existence, yet avoiding my gaze in the meanwhile. From a glance, I’d say that she was remorseful of her recent bout of insane savagery, but I knew what sort of trouble she’d bring if I wanted her inside my party beforehand.
And, her strength was… undeniable. She’d used some skills here and there, but her movements weren’t clear, camouflaged within the darkness. Well, knowing her personality, I would refrain from reprimanding her too hard. But then again, I needed to be clear about her not acting so rashly, that act of hers put both our lives in danger. Let’s start off easy, “Thanks for helping me, Katherine, I-”
“Sorry. It was… my fault.”
Whoa.
I was astounded by the unexpected turn of events. To be frank, I had discredited her even before knowing her well, which was judgmental, coming from someone like me. “Y-Yeah, I mean, it worked out, so…”
“I get pissed off all the time.” She continued with her back facing me, “The secret mission from yesterday showed me why. It was… eye-opening.”
Her sudden speech took me by surprise, and the contents of her sentences didn’t make much sense either. “I don’t understand…”
She shook her head, then let it rest between her arms, her knees scrunched up together. “As I said, always angry. The angrier I got… the stronger I become.”
“Oh! Like…” Could I even say it? “Like hulk?”
Katherine nodded, Shuddering. “When I am in the midst of a fight, sometimes, my fury got to a point where I just stop thinking.”
I didn’t know her power comes from anger, but hey, if it worked for her, then why the hell would I complain?
She sighed, then hoisted up, stretching. “Knowing that, do you still want to work with me? I don’t know if I can control myself when the fight dragged too long…”
Her head turned and faced mine, a clear glint of hope in her gaze.
She wanted me to say yes. I’d love to say yes right away, I did, but then…
Operating based on unpredictability was a clear disadvantage; Sure, she was competent enough to compensate for her quirk, but that only applied when she was capable of handling the enemies on her own, otherwise, she’d be a sitting duck that the rest of her friends had to cover for in the case that she went nuts.
Not to say that any of it was her fault; if she was honest, then her innate skill was the culprit of her barbaric acts.
Her shoulders tensed. She knew what I wanted to say, after all, she abandoned me, right after I’d saved her with my potion. She gets it.
“Katherine…”
I was about to say that we should part ways, but then I remembered; Where did I come from? The only reason I stood here was due to the help from Phillip and Maria, I was a bumbling idiot during our first party mission; my contributions only came during the last stretches of the fight, and then, I made the mistake too, granting the mage’s death bolt additional strength before it almost killed all of us.
And why was I judging her so harshly? If fate worked the way it should be, she should be granted her position in the council, not me.
“Let’s press on together. I trust you’d find your way around it.”
Both her eyes lit up like the sun had entered her irises. And then… She smiled. It wasn’t a beautiful one, like the girls you’d see in ads or movies, but to see someone like her smile was…
Touching. I wished I could smile like that.
She gave me a thumbs-up, and just… relaxed. “Thanks. I knew you’d say that, ahahaahaha!”
Her forced laughter aside, I was glad that I didn’t have to partake in the next mission alone. The orcs were a handful even before they evolved, and now that they were, I wondered how any of us would be able to beat it alone.
Mission Completed - (evolved) The torch of cold.
Rewards - 1: 1000 pts (Shared)
Rewards 2: 1x Stalker’s shield.
Stalker’s shield?
A hunk of wet metal dropped from the skies above, bouncing off the dirt floor as it flipped. Katherine and I were understandably startled by the loud sound, and my eyes wandered to the gargantuan shield; A message screen appeared, detailing the weapon.
Deep stalker’s shield
Rarity: Rare | Tier : 0 - not upgradeable.
A low-tier shield is used within the ranks of the stalker, providing bonuses to their Mind attributes.
Provides Spell :
Deep circle of protection | Affinity: Dark
Using your mana ( half your max mana pool), you channel a circular shield 7 meters wide, blocking projectiles and any outside attacker. Those who you consider allies will be able to come inside.
The dome will break after taking sufficient damage equal to 2x the mana given. Afterward, it will enter a 1-minute cooldown.
Attribute bonuses :
+10 health, +5 Arcane.Defense, +5 Toughness, + 3 Strength.
Katherine whistled, impressed with the look of the shield. It was far, far above mine in terms of quality, and that didn’t include the bonus spell that came with it. On the surface, the dome of protection would solve my problems when facing ranged arrows and spells, however, its efficacy against melee fighters was suspect at best.
Regardless, extra protection was nice. The mana cost, however, wasn’t. Half my mana was an exorbitant amount for any spell, really.
I was lost in my train of thought, and Katherine was having none of that. She stepped within the frame of the shield, then lifted it with one arm. The steel creaked as if she was hoisting a massive block of metal. “This thing’s… fucking heavy.”
It is…
“Try it!”
I grabbed the shield with both my hands, feeling the weight on my forearms, and this was a fact that I failed to account for before the shield rested within my grasp; The weight was an issue. It was fortunate that wielding the shield itself provided bonus strength, but even that wasn’t enough; I couldn’t see myself lifting this shield for more than 15 minutes.
She observed my worried reaction, then knocked the shield with her fist. “You don’t look too happy with it,” She said. “Why? Is it too heavy for you?”
I nodded, then attempted to hold to shield high with my left arm. It was lighter than I anticipated, yet my conclusions hadn’t changed; I needed to be stronger to wield this shied competently.
“You’re holding it just fine… Here, let me test it out for ya.”
“W-Wa-“
Being who she was, she let a punch rip and slammed the dark metal with all her might, pushing me backward, yet my stature was unchanged. “That’s great!” She beamed, shaking her fist. “See, nothing to worry about.”
I sighed. Her test proved that I was capable of holding back a few punches from someone of her caliber. Or perhaps, I could hold the assault of something even worse than her fist.
“What did you get?” I asked her after storing the shield in my inventory; Lifting the shield all the time served nothing but exhausting my limbs, “You must’ve gotten something as impressive as mine.”
She shrugged. “Nope. Just the points.”