Shin scanned the pack of shugs camped outside the mine entrance from atop a tree. A large pack, he counted at a glance, a few of them likely variants, and one very different. A white furred monkey with three eyes who sat around the place like he owned it. Shin dropped down the tree and silently ran towards them taking careful cover, just close enough to cast Identify on a few then headed back to rejoin the party waiting at a distance on the eve of dusk.
“Sixty at least. Lesser lords. Three variants, one elite.”
“Way too many. Let’s just call this off.” Yen said immediately.
“It’s fine.”
“No, it’s not. Why don’t we just kill the lord and his goons?”
“It’d be easier.” Donny agreed.
Shin tilted his head. It was only a gut feeling he acted on but they might not get it if he explained it that way.
“Well, let’s hear the plan before we decide.” Donny gave him an out.
“You lure the pack and keep them busy. Mara and me take out the leader and regroup.”
“I thought it was Inari.”
A white foxed masked woman appeared in front of them with a frown, starting before turning her head way in a deeper scowl.
“Inari.” Shin introduced.
“What the fuck? How long have you had this?” Yen shouted, having inspecting his summoned partner.
“That helps.” Donny said, more open to the battle now. “But we still can’t last long against that many. 204 Strength, 268 Agility, Yen said. I can’t fight that any more than a minute.”
“I just need three. Inari will help you stall.”
Donny equipped his full gear. “Well, let’s get it done, then.”
“Fine…” Yen significantly less willing.
Kamala said nothing, her answer evident by the appearance of a malakh. With their course of action confirmed, Shin cast greater buffer on all three of the players.
“Good location to fight in over there, open’s better, avoid the trees. Inari will lure them when you’re ready.” Shin glanced at the sulking kitsune. “Protect them.”
Her expression didn’t change but the white fox turned her head down and two swords appeared in her hands. Shin vanished from his spot without another word rushing to the over side of the pack. The party started their quick trek over to the spot Shin pointed out, Donny leading the way and Inari following behind.
In front of the cave, the white furred monkey with a pitch black leathery face sneered, the third eye on its forehead glowing. It glanced down to a muscular shug with gray fur, purple face and reddish features, a more intelligent look in its eyes than the others, and a wariness directing at the mocking gaze of the leader. “You stay, when I call.”
The shug variant did not speak, but lowered its head in compliance. The leader snickered. “Thoughts, so easy. Try, if you can.”
Two on the outskirts were beheaded in a flash, grayish blue fire enveloping several more further in before the kitsune guardian retreated. A dozen or so shugs chased after her, but the rest remained.
“Go.” The white furred leader crowed and the gray shug sped off. A howl from the leader sent two dozen more barrelling after him. The moment the last of them disappeared from sight an arrow shot from the shadows straight towards the leader’s head, and sunk into the thick outstretched arms of one of the two gorilla like shugs beside it. The white furred monkey glanced directly at Shin, his sneer deepening.
[Shug Brute (rare) - Lesser Lord]
[Satori (epic) - Lesser Lord]
The shug brute ripped the arrow from its arm, letting out a brutal roar, and thirty shugs charged. A human headed bird formed in the air and screamed, the concussive force from her voice crashing into the center of the swarm knocking half a dozen away bloody. An axe and dark blue sword appeared in Shin’s hands and he burst through the path Mara made.
The satori’s eyes followed him and a thousand knives stabbed his mind, more incessant, more brutal, more unbearable than Mara’s screech had been. Shin faltered and a dozen shugs lunged at him from all angles. His smile blank from pain but his eyes focused and unwavering, Shin burst out of the encirclement back where he started, blood trickling down his eyes and nose.
Mara charged forth with vengeful fury, his screech killing several more shugs but before Shin could stop her, the satori struck her mind. A shug darted up a tree and lunged at Mara but an arrow pierced its head, and at the same time, a brute bounded into the air, grabbing hold of her wing, and tore it off. Mara screamed in pain as she started to fall and the brute reached for her neck, but her body burst into light, returning to Shin’s soul as he recalled her.
A volley of arrows as the brute fell inflicted nothing but minor wounds and it returned to its post. The satori’s expression dropped to less than pleased but held no trace of fear. The two brute guards at his side roared at the same time, the tone and pitch different, and the remaining 17 shugs barrelled towards Shin without fear.
Inari sprinted through the rocky woodland, reaching the rest of the party half a minute after her ambush, sliding about face on the ground to stand vanguard. She had no desire to protect them but Shin had told her to so she would. However, he had said nothing about not joining him if all the shugs following were dead. She gripped her swords as the shug pack started to charge into the clearing.
She burst forward, cleaving two shugs instantly and jolted as a fireball sailed past, striking one of the charging shugs, flailing as it burned alive. Inari glanced back then resumed her carnage, frustration finding her face as the simultaneous attacks from all angles slowed the rate she could kill them, sometimes even forced her to settle for mere injuries instead. Another fireball shot towards the growing crowd of shugs, and was caught by a wall of grayish blue flames, enveloping and smothering it before crashing into the shugs instead.
“What the fuck, it’s messing with me!”
Inari darted from all over, slashing at every shug that drew near, preventing them from passing her to the weaklings behind. She would have taken joy in the frustration of the orange haired woman had her thoughts not been preoccupied with returning to her partner’s side. But the horde continued to grow, and finally several shugs slipped through the cracks. Inari glanced back but was unable to chase after them as the pack demanded all her focus and effort.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
The shugs barrelled towards the trio with snarling fangs and grass and roots burst up wrapping around them. They tore and ripped at the surging plants but not fast enough. Donny burst forward twice as fast as normal and a shining hack of his axe took the head of a stationery shug. Two more swings claimed the others, made helpless by the ensnaring plants. Donny darted back close to the group, his glowing earring shedding its luster.
Yen aimed her hand erratically at the frenzied fray in front, her eyes able to keep up but not her body. A mana bolt formed in her hand and shot out, missing all shugs completely. An anxious frown found her face and she shot another fireball at the crowd only for Inari’s trickfire to snuff it out again.
Yen grit her teeth, resisting the urge to curse at the supposed bodyguard obstructing her. Something gave in her mind and she lowered her hand, staring intently at the crowd and a mana bolt shot forth without any physical movement, cracking open the skull of a shug in the fray.
“Block that!” Yen vented at the fox guardian.
A gray furred shug watched from the cover of a tree in the distance, gleaning over each and every one of the five enemies before him, his gaze most wary and focused on the kitsune guardian. Three more of the pack broke through, one to the armored human, the others headed towards the women.
The armored human met his foe, merely as strong as the common grunt but none of the shug’s thrashes passed his shield and finally the axe swung down as the shug foolishly lunged, burying into its skull. The other two shugs perished even more pathetically, caught on the growing vines and burned together by a single ball of fire. The gray shug set its eyes on Yen.
A howl sounded behind them and the nearly twenty remaining shugs stopped and rushed towards it. Inari paused then flinched in realization, bursting after them with no regard for the party.
“Hey!” Yenny yelled, and before she could do more, a gray shug teleported behind her back and bite down on her neck. Its teeth stopped short by a shattering invisible force, sinking in only halfway. The shug paused for only a moment before it began to clench down.
Yenny screamed in fear and anger, fire enveloping her body, becoming her. The shug bite through her neck but found only fire in its maw. It teleported away, fire raging on its limbs and in its mouth for only a moment before the energy of the flames sapped away to nothing.
[Shug Magehunter (rare) - Lesser Lord]
The magehunter darted to the side as fireballs from the human inferno shot after it. Yen paused and a mana bolt burst out straight for its head and it shattered the magic with single casual swipe.
“Yen, stop!” Donny called out to her. “Stay like that, don’t use any skills!”
Yen snapped out of her state as Donny darted closer to Kamala, vines surrounding over her and around in a lose dome, her malakh ready at her side. Yen glanced for a moment then ran closer. The shug magehunter stalked around them, waiting, prying for weakness.
Shin cut through two shugs surrounding him and the rest retreated into the range of the satori once again. He drew his bow and loosed an arrow at the back of one’s head, who slipped under it, as though it knew exactly what Shin planned to do. He glanced at the sneering satori.
This slow deadlock had remained ever since he started fighting alone, unable to make it past the satori’s mental attacks with its underlings surrounding it. The attack itself was nothing to brush off either. He had attempted another charge from darting angles but it had caught him all the same, his fraying mind held together by force of will.
Shin nocked an arrow attached to three uncommon talismans and loosed it at the satori. A shug jumped in its path a split second before he shot, hitting a non vital area. Shin triggered the talismans and the shug burned alive. He loosed shot after shot darting around to the same effect, accompanied by the malicious glee of the satori leader. It was inefficient, and he was losing precious mana, but he had to use that many talismans to be a threat and he had to use that threat to take out the shugs, otherwise he’d never get to the satori.
The satori’s third eye glowed and its grin deepened. Shin’s focus jolted to the side as a dozen shugs charged at him, their voices and steps silent, breaking out into howls only after he’d noticed them. Shin cleaved through two and rolled to the side, darting around and thrusting at a shug who jolted to the side, the sword merely slicing through a part of its shoulder instead of its throat.
The other dozen shugs he was already facing joined the battle fully once more. Shin blitzed around the encircling monsters, his speed allowing him to find some purchase but every move he made, every decision he chose seemed to be laid bare to the shug pack as they predicted him perfectly.
Shin lunged and thrust through the chest of a shug. Not even a split second of hesitation shown, it grabbed his hands at the same time and bite into his arm, the veil of buffer gleaning from the pressure. Shin chopped off its head with an axe and darted away from the leaping shugs from all sides, trading blows with one of them, his drawing blood and the shug’s breaking his protection.
Shin strained his body into a chaotic frenzy. Inefficient and dangerous, but he lacked another option. His mana too low to cast another protection and a straightforward fight impossible against the mind reading shug pack. Just as he contemplated investing his stored points, a white blur appeared carving through a shug before finding as limited success as Shin with a second, and burst to his side.
“Go back.” Shin’s tone subtly forceful, catching Inari a little off guard.
She paused for a bit with a hurt frown before charging forward. She knocked and slashed the shugs away, bounding towards the sneering satori and a great force struck her mind. She faltered, her limbs slackened and tensed, and suddenly spitting a surging hand of grayish blue flames.
The satori’s expression soured as he leapt back, the most injured of his brutes throwing itself on the flames, pulling and tearing it in until it burned alive. Inari paused then burst back off towards the party. The satori’s gaze lurched to Shin, standing among the dead bodies of the shugs, massacring them with abandon in the brief time the satori was forced to cease it’s mind reading aide.
A bow took the place of his bloodied sword and axe and without hesitation loosed arrows in rapid succession, darting around the satori outside of its mind fraying range. Some it could dodge, most the brute was forced to take in its stead. A desperate urge in his mind took root but still he stayed the course, whittling down the brute one arrow at a time.
The satori sneered as it darted around. “Others, dying. My best, I sent. Kill them all, he will.”
Shin burst towards them at full speed the cobalt sword and vermillian axe finding his hands again. The satori sneered. Humans were easy prey, emotional, irrational. All three of his eyes glowed and he found himself in the empty darkness of Shin’s mind. All he needed to do was find the core, manipulate it, break it. Perhaps the human would even kill itself as he had forced many others to do before him.
The satori sneered in anticipation and peered deeper. Countless eyes opened in the dark, pitch yellow with black rings encircling piercing red pupils. Sweat covered the satori’s face as his expression fell to despair, his will to fight broken. The darkness abated as the satori retreated from his mind with all haste.
His senses returned to him just in time to move the brute away from the accursed human’s attacks. Shin’s baleful gaze and the slowly whittling brute spurned desperate tactics from the arrogant satori for the first time.
“Friends, dying! Go now, may reach in time!”
Shin’s relentless assault didn’t slow in the slightest.
“Betrayer! Abandon them! They suffer, without you! Mangled! Screaming!”
The satori’s taunts fell on deaf ears as an axe sunk into the brute’s skull. The satori lunged away, slow to Shin, its terrified pleas silenced as a sword carved through the thin arms it raised in defense and its neck.
[Satori (epic) - Lesser Lord]
Strength - 222
Agility - 287
Constitution - 234
Vitality - 268
Dexterity - 281
Perception - 425
Force - 473
Spirit - 668
Control - 540
Willpower - 602
Skills:
Scrying lvl. 8, Mindfray lvl. 9, Compel lvl. 7, Mind Scour lvl. 4,
Traits:
Mind Reader (epic), Psychic Mind (epic), Charming Resistance (epic), Lesser Poison Resistance (rare), Lesser Disease Resistance (rare), Lesser Curse Resistance (rare),
Shin inspected the satori only for a moment to confirm his death before his expression flinched and he burst in the direction of the party, as fast as he could run.