The screeching raptor horde curved away after the fleeing illusions as the real Chariot snuck away from under a veiled cover, wasting no time on them. They travelled carefully in tight formation, dealing with every lunging threat as efficiently as possible. It was not the forest they headed to this second time, but the wide open meadow of flowing grass.
They crouched under the cover of some trees just away from the field and Dante conjured two sets of illusions, just three nondescript players each and veiled one group. The illusions sprinted out over the field as fast A the party itself could move, and creatures from the sky struck down like lightning, their beaks spearing the unveiled illusions at a speed far too dangerous to risk. Massive birds with long necks and huge narrow beaks, standing taller than a troll as they walked on their clawed wings like bats. They glanced around with beady eyes before taking back to the air again, the veiled illusions left untouched.
The party gave each other silent looks of approval, and Dante cast shawl over them this time. Carefully and swiftly they crossed over the grassland, Dante taking measures to hide even the ruffles of grass, and soon they reached the other side without issue. Through the shrubbery and smaller trees they snuck, coming to the large river that flowed through the whole of the valley. A mile across the river stretched, a chain of large stones flat enough to jump across lining before them, same as two other sets off in the distance to their sides.
“Fish in the water.” Basem reported.
“Are the rocks the trap or is it a double bluff?” Yen wondered out loud. “Flying over feels too easy…”
Dante conjured two more people one burst over the rock path and the other taking the sky. In the blink of an eye a giant piranha shredding the running illusion and faster still a pelican like bird with huge fanged beak snapped through the flying one.
“I hate this place…” Yen grumbled, danger abundant at every opportunity on the sadistic island.
Shin cast a ward over the path and flickered across. A piranha shattered the barrier in an instant but Shin burst to the next rock in time and again and again, just barely avoiding the lunging fish. He stepped on the next stone and a longer, slicker piranha stretched its jaws around him.
Shin blinked away from the prehistoric fish too fast to avoid, and the jaws of another snapped around him midway from his destination, propelling him off the stone path. He tried to blink again but the skill failed between creatures jaw. His hair reddened and regal green and blue feathers adorned his body as he flew himself as the fish higher in the air.
A snapping flash tore the fish out of the sky along with most of his body, and he blinked back consecutively to the party. Instant regeneration restoring his body whole in a moment, at a substantial mana cost.
“Too fast to dodge, can’t teleport… They don’t jump high but the birds are worse. What’s the move here?” Donny asked.
Basem darted across the stones without a word, slower than Shin but not a single piranha appeared. He stepped on the bank of the other side and inspected the area before turning around.
“They only come from the right.” Basem pointed to his left. “Sometimes there’s nothing there. Only for a moment. I’ll tell you when.”
“Me, Jean, Kamala, and Dante aren’t fast enough.” Donny argued. Shin hopped next to Kamala with a smile and Ashley hugged Jean from behind.
“You carry Donny, I can’t lift all that armor.” Yen told Karla as she walked over to Dante, but the charlatan wagged his finger with three clicks of his tongue as he walked to the stone path, orange glowing runic symbols spreading across his body.
Basem understood the implication and turned his focus completely to the river, waiting patiently. “Now.”
Dante flickered across the stones as quickly as Basem had, reaching the other side safely. Mujin stepped up next, waiting on the signal and sped across even faster. Ashley dragged Jean over and even carrying him outpaced all the others. Yen glanced around and steeled her nerves with a sigh, soaring over low the moment Basem gave the clear, her relief apparent upon her success.
“So how-” Karla slung Donny over her shoulders like a sack and burst over the stone setting him down on bank to Yen’s snickers.
Shin picked Kamala up upon her silent permission and stepped to the starting line.
“N-”
Shin stepped on the first stone the moment sound left Basem’s mouth and the river rushed more violently. He darted back immediately just barely avoiding a lunging piranha.
“Fish everywhere!” He informed the remaining duo.
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
“Should we just wait it out?” Yen suggested.
“How long will this last though?”
“Raptors!” Basem shouted at them, and charging behind were a horde of the red scaled reptiles, bounding straight for Shin and Kamala.
Shin took only an instant to decide, invoking Inari and overshadowing with the swirl of greater haste. He held Kamala perfectly still, and stepped on the bank of the other side, leaving behind a stream of leaping piranhas in his wake. Some of the raptors tried to follow and were snatched away, devoured beneath the bloodied waters.
“Let’s not waste any time.”
The party carried on, sneaking through the sparse tropical forest on the other side of the valley, clusters of large fern leaved trees the most common scattered haphazardly among patches of empty grassland, the towering mountain range still in the distance. It didn’t take long for them to come across a large lake within a clearing, and more importantly a thin small tree bearing three red fruit.
“Looks real.” Donny mused.
“Then it’s bait. You can’t see what’s in the lake?” Yen asked Basem and silence was his answer.
Shin crept around the lake at an angle, overshadowed kitsune form blitzes straight towards the fruit, and the massive jaws of a giant crocodile snapped up from the lake. Shin appeared by the party out of his blink, instantly regeneration replacing his missing arm.
“Make a shadow over there~” Ashley told Dante.
Dante walked over to a stone and rested his hand on it, the stone teleporting just to the side of the plant, casting a short shadow. Ashley sank between her own and a hand reached out from the dark beside the fruit. A lash of a claw of some sort struck out and Ashley re-emerged behind the party with a bleeding hand.
“Ha ha~ What even is that~?” The blood draining down her hand reabsorbed back into her and her hand regenerated.
“If it’s not a speed thing, it has to be a stealth check.” Yen said.
“I’ll try…”
“You sure?”
“No.” Jean withdrew a simple puppet, almost like a training dummy, and dumping it on the ground.
“Don’t die~”
Jean’s presence disappeared and he turned invisible to all but four of the party. Carefully he crept over to the blood fruit, closer and closer, with no sign of the monster lurking beneath the water. Jean plucked the plant and the green scaled jaws snapped over him. The party glanced over to Jean crouching where his puppet had been. The apathetic puppeteer rose to his feet and handed Shin the plant.
“Wow, that was actually cool.” Yen half teased.
“Just need to do that three more times now.” Donny said as Shin ate a medium blood fruit.
Three vicious snaps rang throughout the valley in quick succession as the party found three more lakes, each with a single plant and each stolen by Jean employing the same method to the same success. Shin fused them into a large fruit and finally upgraded.
[Greater Curse Resistance has become Curse Immunity.]
Shin waited for a few moments, the black splotch across his eyes shifting just slightly but quickly settled to nothing further.
“Didn’t work.”
“What? This doesn’t make any sense, it’s mythic immunity.”
“Just means the curse is above mythic, innit.”
“But…” Yen glanced over at invoker. “Did you piss off a god or something? I thought they couldn’t interfere with us here.”
“Don’t know.”
“Fairy kind are often ascribed incomprehensible powers in mythology. That only Shin has been affected and in this way lends credence to some sort of spirit god behind it.” Kamala suggested.
“Oi, didn’t you say something about demons too?” Donny asked.
“Yeah. Not sure. Felt weird.”
“Well.. fuck, we have to keep playing on hard mode…” Yen moaned.
“No point complaining. Made it this far, just gotta keep going.”
“Yeah, yeah, I know…”
The party moved on, as Shin thought silently about the cold yellow eyes he had seen in the world of colors.
---
In the late stages of dusk, Chariot crossed the grassy meadows under the cover of Shawl. It had been a mildly productive day. There weren’t too many lakes to be found but blood fruit seemed to bloom in random places as well, although most harbored some sort of danger. Each had managed to gain three more fruit each, aside from Shin who had already monopolized twelve from before.
“Not worth the risk.” Yen grumbled as they crossed through the cliff chasm. “What kind of asshole stage design is this…”
“Yeah, not looking good at this pace.” Donny agreed.
“Should we try the mountains?”
“Probably best to stick-”
The rumbling of an avalanche jolted their sights up to massive stones and boulders falling all over from above. Shin channeled a quake in his palm and sent a rippling wave up, shattering all to pieces. Mara appeared at his side and erected a ward over them as they ran. A hail of rocks peppered the ward and then arrows and spells, breaking through only to find a second and third layer beneath.
Ashley slipped away and Dante blinked Karla up the cliff side with him, both soon appearing amongst the mob of players for a slaughter. Basem shot an arrow ahead exploding some sort of invisible explosive and Jean dismantled the traps remaining, allowing the rest of the party to escape the chasm.
Yen turned to fire and soared up above the sky, two bolts of fire swirling in her hands the intense flames concentrated even further, and fired. The massive explosions wiped out large swathes of the the enemy players furthest from the two women wrecking havoc among their ranks.
Soon the rest scattered, by fear or prudence, one of the latter a tanned man with black hair and a thin beard, unbothered by the carnage. The man recognizable from his Great Perception victory over Rama gave only an look of interest as he slipped away with a group that seemed more capable than the rank and file. Karla lost interest at the quality of her opponents, while Ashley singled out one of the fleeing players at random to kill for no particular reason.
“Fucking bandits now…” Donny commented as Chariot regrouped and headed into the jungle.
“You did not just say that…”
“Nah, nah, we’re self employed mercenaries. There’s a professionalism to it, yeah.” Basem glanced over at something the knight said but kept silent. “Either way, we can handle the valley like this. Just need to keep raiding in until we get lucky.”
“Fuck luck. We need to find where they’re hiding the fruit and find some clues about the boss so we can win this thing.”
“That works too.”
---
Attila emerged from the deep waters onto the island, dragging a giant serpent’s head behind out of nothing but spite for the hours he spent captive within, his arrogant detached expression replaced with simmering rage. Rage he would inflict on all who dared deny him.