“How are you not dying right now?” Castle panted. “It’s got to be close to a hundred degrees out here.”
Aster shrugged and smiled, “Heat never really bothered me. Not that the cold does, either. But I've always liked the heat.”
They had been walking for about half an hour at this point, the dusty red earth staining their boots and kicking up around them. A tailwind made the walk easier, softly blowing the flowers in the foliage around them.
Aster had already annoyed Castle twice by stopping to inspect the plants.
[Desert Sage (Inferior)] - A plant common across deserts throughout the multiverse. Leaves and stems possess various uses.
[Bellbottom Cactus (Inferior)] - A spiny plant common across deserts throughout the multiverse. Meat and sap possess various uses.
Her Identify skill only served to confirm what she’d already figured out, but that still raised questions for her. How had these plants evolved? Had they evolved? If they had, how had that happened multiple times across multiple planets and universes?
Convergent evolution was her best guess— with environmental pressures being similar whether in one desert or another, plants and animals had to adapt to those same pressures, and there were only so many ways to adapt to passively counter droughts, intense heat, light and solar radiation exposure. Plants adapted to hold liquid for long periods of time, often coupled with spines or other deterrents to grazing animals. Animals did similar things, such as limiting the size they grew to, primarily living underground or becoming nocturnal, etc. Frogs found in the desert in one part of the world often shared traits with desert amphibians in another.
None of this was interesting to Maria, unfortunately. The only thing she seemed interested in was getting down into one of the canyons they had seen on their descent to find some shade and a path toward the oasis.
The desert around them wasn’t exactly flat, though they could still see pretty far. There was a slight incline in their path toward the center of the island also lending to visibility issues, but they were heading up a particularly large hill to scout out the area ahead of them.
Aster let Castle lead the way while she stopped to poke a cactus with her spear. Using Identify on the syrupy liquid that came out she was pleasantly surprised.
[Bellbottom Cactus Sap (Inferior)] - Sap from the Bellbottom Cactus. Can be consumed to restore a small amount of HP at the expense of some Stamina.
Gonna need some specimen vials or something… she thought, with no clue how to accomplish that goal.
“Tsss!”
Aster looked up to see Castle waving her up. The rock felt like sandstone under her palms as she climbed up to where the other woman was crouched. “What’s up?” She whispered.
Castle nodded over toward the other side of the rise. “Looks like some cool alien shit. Take a look.”
Aster’s heart sped up and she slowly raised herself up to see what Castle had seen, and she was not disappointed.
The hill descended down to a small, rocky plain with a few trees and three scaled bipedal lizards, each about three or four feet in height. They were a pale green, and a fringe of feathers ran from between their eyes all the way down to their tails. The theropods were stocky, with short, three-fingered hands and feet, all ending in claws. Their leg were heavily muscled.
Beyond the animals was a clear path down into a canyon. Aster used Identify on the animals:
[??? - lvl 2]
[??? - lvl 3]
[??? - lvl 4]
That’s weird, Aster thought. “I can see their levels, but not what species they are.”
“Those are totally dinosaurs,” Castle said.
“Those are definitely dinosaurs,” Aster agreed, barely holding in her excitement. “Holy shit! Look at the way they interact with each other, like birds scavenging. Did you notice how their eyes—”
“I already said they’re dinosaurs, you nerd,” Castle rolled her eyes. “Now what do we do about them?”
“I spent the last five years studying for a doctorate in biology. Sue me,” Aster said. “I think we’d be able to skirt around them if we want, but not if we want to get down into the canyon.”
“Maybe they’re… nice dinosaurs?” Castle asked.
Aster shrugged. “Maybe, but probably not. Everything about their appearance implies they have a carnivorous diet and likely actively hunt their prey. Like I was saying about their eyes, you can tell—”
“Okay, so mean dinosaurs. Got it,” Castle said with a straight face as Aster glared at her. “We’ve got armor and weapons, yeah? Probably not just for show. How about we get some experience and some practice swinging these things around?”
Aster considered and nodded. “How do you want to do it?”
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
“How do you think they’ll react?”
“Are you going to interrupt me again?”
“I’d never.”
“Fine,” Aster sighed and considered what she knew about birds and how these animals might react to a threat. “Let’s do this…”
--
Castle crouched behind a boulder, waiting the requested few minutes. Once she was sure Aster was in position she double checked to make sure the dinosaurs were on the other side of the clearing before making her entrance, some twenty meters away.
She walked around the boulder, acting as if she had just stumbled upon the little plain. Within a few steps something broke beneath her boot with a snap, and she was startled by how quickly the dinosaurs zeroed in on her.
The one furthest to the right, Righty, cocked its head.
“Nice dinosaurs,” Castle said, taking a crouching position. “Let’s be nice dinosaurs, yeah?”
They were, in fact, not nice dinosaurs. With a look at the other two, Righty made a motion like a cough, emitting a loud chirp, and then they moved.
Lefty bounded across the plain at an angle, while Righty quickly made to cut off any retreat. Their powerful legs propelled them forward in hyper-quick jumps, though they stayed low to the ground. Castle knew she wouldn’t be able to outrun them if she tried. Hope you’re ready, Rose, she thought as she readied her halberd.
As Righty got into position, Lefty let out a sound between a squawk and a hiss and stood tall before making large steps in Castle’s direction. This, of course, served as a wonderful distraction from Center dinosaur, which had crouched low in the grass and waited for this signal before beelining it for the armored warrior.
It raced across the twenty meter gap in five steps, making no noise and without a sign of its movement save for shifting grass, before suddenly erupting from the vegetation at an incredible speed. Its jaws opened wide and its sturdy neck locked up like a battering ram as it attacked like an arrow shot from a bow.
But like an arrow, once it got moving it kept moving.
The grass in front of her rustled before a figure rose into a crouch just as the dinosaur passed the halfway point to Castle, and a moment later a glint of metal reflected the sun as Aster raised her spear, its butt braced against the ground.
The dinosaur had no means to stop, no way to change direction, and nothing to protect itself with as it launched itself into the spear that had risen from nowhere.
—
Aster slid back a few feet before the limp body of the dinosaur traversed the length of her spear and knocked into her, sending her sprawling and dazed.
*You have slain [Hatchling Springclaw Raptor - lvl 3] - Bonus experience earned for killing an enemy above your level. 4 TP Earned.
*’DING!’ Class [Warrior (Medium)] has reached Level 1 - Stat points allocated, +1 free point*
The notifications flashed before her eyes as she blinked to clear them. She was halfway to her feet when a hand gripped her collar and hauled her the rest of the way.
“My turn,” Castle said, stepping forward with her halberd gripped tightly in both hands. “Like we planned.”
“Yep.” Aster went to retrieve her spear from the fallen dinosaur, Springclaw Raptor, and barely yanked it free of the corpse before she had to run to stand side to side with Castle, the boulder at their backs. “Righty’s on the move.”
This raptor didn’t sprint like the center one had, but instead approached more carefully. It looked back and forth between her and Lefty, who was also approaching. Righty hissed as it closed in.
“We have to keep them at a distance,” Aster panted out.
“My armor’ll hold up better than yours,” Castle said. “First one that comes, I’ll try and hold their attention while you finish them off.”
Aster didn’t have time to even nod as Lefty charged, only to slide to a halt just out of Castle’s reach. No! Don’t overextend! But Castle had already brought her halberd down in a hammer swing, having to turn away from Righty to do so. Aster kept her spear held tight against her body, the tip following Righty as it ran past her and lunged for Castle, hitting her in the back like a wrecking ball.
Aster ran to help as Castle landed on her knees, halberd still gripped in one hand but only barely. Afraid of accidentally stabbing her new adventuring partner, Aster instead reversed her spear and whipped it in an arc. The weighted butt of the spear thunked into Righty’s hip, dislodging it from Castle’s back and leaving it limping as it stood back up.
Thinking fast, Aster moved her spear into her left hand and tucked it under her arm, again tracking the sharp end to Righty’s movements. Her right hand she kept free.
In the meantime, Lefty wasn’t waiting around. It leapt for Castle’s head, mouth open and saliva dripping down its jaws and neck. Castle had to drop her halberd entirely to catch the raptor before it rearranged her face like someone smashing a cake. She yelled out in pain as its jaws clamped down on her forearm, not quite able to pierce the solid metal armor but definitely able to put enough pressure on her arm to threaten a broken bone.
She’ll be fine, Aster thought to herself as she focused on her own raptor, who had just tried to get past her to reinforce its kin. “No you don’t,” Aster snarled, her blood burning. “You’re mine.”
She hadn’t felt this alive since getting sick—and honestly probably not even before that. As a volleyball player and an athlete in general, she had learned how to sense the flow of a game. There was a time when your opponent got desperate, and you had to be careful. Desperate opponents would break pattern, try trick plays, or straight up cheat, and the sign of a true champion was when even none of that could take them down.
Which is why when Righty tried to bowl her over like it had done to Castle, Aster was ready for the feint. It approached her as quickly as its injured leg would allow, dodging past the spear tip and trying to escape, but Aster had expected this. What the raptor hadn’t expected was the tomahawk she’d planted in its chest as she’d stepped out of the way of its charge.
The beast crumbled to the ground, the tomahawk still buried in its chest as it took its last breaths. She finished it off with her spear, quickly stabbing where she thought its heart should be.
*You have slain [Hatchling Springclaw Raptor - lvl 4] - Bonus experience earned for killing an enemy above your level. 6 TP Earned.
*’DING!’ Class [Warrior (Medium)] has reached Level 2 - Stat points allocated, +1 free point*
*’DING!’ Race Human - G has reached Level 1 - Stat points allocated, +1 free point*
Upon seeing the confirmation of her kill, Aster turned back to help Castle, only to find the heavily armored woman had rolled on top of her raptor, stabbing Lefty in the side repeatedly with a knife.
*You have slain [Hatchling Springclaw Raptor - lvl 2] - Bonus experience earned for killing an enemy above your level. 3 TP Earned.
*’DING!’ Class [Warrior (Medium)] has reached Level 3 - Stat points allocated, +1 free point*
“Hell yeah!” Aster cheered, pumping her spear in the air.
Castle returned her smile with a pained one of her own, prying her dented armor out of the raptor’s teeth and offering a thumbs up.
They had won their first fight together.