CHAPTER 109: The War Stomper
“Which do you guys want?” Adam asked casually of his group. Rahsha and Ashtala were both shaking badly, wanting to run away.
“Sorry, boss, but my illusion skills don’t work on three heads at once,” said Tom.
“Yeah, those breathes are just too difficult to dodge,” agreed Joseph.
“That’s just because you’re so slow,” teased Randall.
“Some of us don’t zip around like lightning,” agreed Alissa.
“Excuses, excuses,” mocked Andrea jokingly.
“We’ll take the giant clown, you take the puppy,” said Lucas.
“H-how can you all be joking at a time like this?!” demanded Ashtala, so scared she was no longer speaking with as much formality. “That is a War Stomper! Never has our race faced one and survived. They are terror incarnate.”
The large Bobomon laughed, shaking the ground even more.
“I see you travel with those little bunnies,” rumbled the demon. “That just shows how weak you natives are. Listen to it, for they know the true terror of the Bobomon!”
“That’s your trash talk?” asked Tom flippantly. “That’s worse dialog than an out of the way NPC.”
The large red man frowned at him. “Trash talk?” it asked, rather confused.
“Yes, trash talk. The garbage that comes out of your mouth before a fight. Of course, that was extremely bad for it. Not clever at all. Didn’t even give me a chance to retort properly. Guess it just shows how lame your race is.”
“You dare mock my race?!” roared the Bobomon. He then stood to his full height and lifted a stone club.
“He dares to mock all races, including his own,” said Andrea. “He’s just like that. Though he is telling the truth. Your dialog is poorly written.”
“Yeah, can we do the entrance again but with better dialog for the drones? I’m trying to record the epic-ness of it. You kind of ruined it,” said Ed, controlling a few drones with his laptop. He was rather concerned the heat would destroy it though.
“You insects dare think you are above me?!”
“Not when you’re that tall. Definitely not above you,” said Joseph.
“Yeah, we might be smarter, stronger, and better than you, but not above you,” added Randall.
“RAAHHHHH!!!” screamed the war stomper.
“Geez, now he isn’t even using words. Point made,” said Tom.
The den mother got to its feet while the war stomper continued to yell. Adam shrugged.
“Let’s get to it,” he said as he ran forward with his war hammer.
***
Ashtala was horrified at the scene before her. These humans, natives who were more ignorant of the [System] than a newborn baby, were taunting and enraging the nightmare before them. They had acquitted themselves well against the other Bobomon and Carthraga, better than the Leputi could have done, but the ones before them were so much more powerful than any they had faced. Their weapons wouldn’t even be able to break its skin.
The fight began when the male that her father bequeathed her to charged at the den mother. Ashtala could admit that he scared her more than a little. He fought and used two skills from a typical berserker class, which would be enough to cause fear in any race in the universe. However, he didn’t have a tag to show that he was a berserker. There was also no reaction from him when his chosen warriors applied levity at him, which was unlike the stories she had heard of berserkers.
No hostility or animosity showed and even in battle he was able to control himself, not giving into the usual battle lust that berserkers were known for. He even shared the XP instead of killing any enemy himself. Very unheard of.
Even she and Rahsha had been included. While she had changed her class to Breeder before the natives had arrived, at the behest of her father, it was unusual to gain levels in that class. Yet she had reached level 14, gaining two additional skills she had never heard of before among breeders, [Boost Vitality] and [Boost Fertility]. While there were plenty of fertility skills that could only be used on oneself, the second skill could be used on others and hadn’t been recorded before. That skill would be greatly in demand throughout the races.
Up until now, Ashtala had found the natives to be surprisingly accepting and kind. She had almost come to like them and could picture serving them as being pleasant. That was only up until now. Now she wondered how long they would really last for, and whether her race would be spared when these humans fell.
Running, hiding, submitting and servicing was how the Leputi survived. They just didn’t have the natural strength of other races and there weren’t weapons, or crafters willing to make weapons, that would allow them to grow. Adding to that, the other races wanted to keep the Leputi weak. They wanted the Leputi to stay as servants.
The dominant races worked together to keep all tribes of Leputi from leveling. There were frequent purges of her people, forcing them to rely on the breeder class to keep themselves useful enough. The [System] had said it was an important class. The [System] had even threatened groups that would kill breeders, though no one knew why it valued the class so strongly. So, breeders they stayed.
Being a breeder didn’t lead to a good life either. Some races would be violent in their mating rituals. Some offspring led to death of the mothers upon birth. Males who helped impregnate the females of other races would sometimes fall to jealous males or be positioned to fall by them.
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The lives of the Leputi tribes were challenging. Sometimes Ashtala wondered why they bred so much at all, bringing new life into their tribe only to have to go through all this too. Those thoughts were very un-Leputi like, and she would be scolded for having them. It wasn’t like she didn’t love her tribe and her father. All Leputi children belong to every member of the tribe, it was only due to being the daughter of the chief, responsible for producing the next chief, that she even knew who her father was.
However, now Ashtala wondered if she would even survive the next few moments. These natives were in the middle of their Tier 2 levels, most getting to level 37 during their approach to this place, however the war stomper was not only a Tier 3, but a high Tier 3. Due to the levels spent when evolving to a higher tier, its level 42 represented 45 levels higher than them, and that was if they had only leveled their class and not their bodies.
Adam had started the fight by running towards the den mother at the same time the war stomper rushed towards his warriors. He pulled back his large hammer while he was still far from her. Then his skin turned red, making Ashtala gasp that he might be a Bobomon in disguise. It was ridiculous since the Bobomon weren’t that clever, but such was the strength of her current fear.
Then Adam disappeared. When she heard his voice, he yelled, “heel, mutt!”
Ashtala located him at the back leg of the beast, where his now glowering war hammer struck the back of its knee. The force was enough to knock that leg out from under it.
Why did he announce the heel when he attacked the knee. Was it to trick the animal? Ashtala wondered, knowing that even beasts that were Tier 3 were intelligent.
The beast didn’t fall since it had three other legs, but it was clear from how the Carthraga whined that the blow had hurt the leg more than could be seen.
The group closer to her began using skills as the war stomper rapidly approached.
“Buff up, go physical,” announced Lucas, the one with a darker skin color than the rest. He looked like an entirely different tribe than some of the paler natives.
“[Bolster]!” announced Brandon, to increase their stats. “[Enhance Body], [Share Stats], on Brittney [Enhanced Vitality].”
“[Keep It Off],” Ed called, as he used a skill that increased their resistances to negative status effects.
“[Blessing of Wrath],” was used by Alissa. It increased everyone’s focus and damage slightly.
“[Inspire],” came from Abbey to buff them even further.
“[See Weakness],” was used by Carlos to identify where they should attack. “Usual places. Eyes, throat, heart, though we won’t be getting through its ribs so keep it to the face. Ears are a bad target due to the horns. Oddly, where the tail meets the butt is a weak point too. Fire is a no-go, though you shouldn’t need a skill to know that.”
“[Harden Shield], [Firm Stance],” was used by Brittney to brace herself as the giant Bobomon led with a punch of its oversized hand. The fist was almost the size of the diminutive girl.
Ashtala covered her eyes, not wanted to see her get pulped by the strength of their enemy. However, all she heard was a grunt by the girl. When she looked up with wide eyes, Brittney was still standing there, though the ground beneath her looked ready to give up, while Lucas helped her hold the, now slightly flatter, shield.
“[Counterstrike]!” used Brittney, as she turned the fist to the side and her one-handed hammer flashed red as it come down on the stomper’s wrist.
Lucas followed her strike with, “[Sturdy Weapon], [Empowered Blow], [All Weapons], [Balance].”
His class was “Quartermaster [37]” and it focused on allowing him to properly use most weapons without needing to learn them all directly. His [Sturdy Weapon] was to keep his hammer from breaking against the Bobomon while [Empower Blow] strengthened it. [All Weapons] and [Balance] were knowledge skills that allowed him to use his body better, so his regular hits would do more damage.
The war stomper looked as surprised as Ashtala felt at the initial engagement. It wasn’t even aware that Randall had used [Flash Foot] to get behind him. The yell of the Bobomon when Randall thrust his spear to the side of its tail and butt connection while using [Lightning Tip] and [Blitz Thrust] once more shook the air. The giant swatted at Randall, but he was already out of reach after using [Flash Foot] once again.
Joseph had been slowly running towards the same area and was hit indirectly by the swing. As he was thrown backwards, he used, “[Reap What you Sow],” causing the tip of his long spear blade to glow. He slowly walked forward to try and strike when, to Ashtala’s surprise, the ground underneath him slid to speed on Joseph’s slow movements.
“[Landslide],” announced Elias, as he used the spell to slide not only Joseph forward, but also Alissa from the other side.
The Bobomon wasn’t sure where to focus until Brittney arrived at his knee and used [Shield Bash]. The attack wasn’t strong enough to throw the giant off balance, but it did get his attention long enough for Jospeh to jump at his neck from the right, using the skill [Headhunt] to do additional damage to the enemy’s neck, [Deadly Penetration] to get deeper into the tough skin, and [Reap What You Sow] to return a portion of the damage that the Bobomon had caused when he hit Joseph.
From the left also came Alissa, with the class “Crushing Cherub [36]” that had come from the appointment title of Avenging Angel. She used some of the abilities she received from her previous mage class. [Increase Power] boosted her magical damage, followed by the basic [Water Ball]. The water struck the Bobomon’s jaw, hissing as it made contact. The coolness of the water striking the hot skin caused a puff of pressure and pain.
The war stomper jerked his head to the side, away from the water ball and right into Joseph’s strike, slow but unyielding, like his “Reaper [37]” class, that came from his Executioner appointment title. The spear bit in deeply, drawing blood. Unfortunately, the handle broke which caused Joseph to fall to the ground out of balance.
As Joseph fell, the club of the Bobomon struck and threw him far to the side of the room. Ashtala gasped, certain that he would have popped from the force of the blow. However, he stood up, bloody and holding his shoulder, but muttering words that indicated he was most definitely alive.
While the Bobomon was dealing with the attacks from the side, suddenly lightning discharged from Andrea’s hands as she announced, “[Lightning Spread].” The bolts hit him in the eyes. The heat of the lightning didn’t hurt his skin, but they did something to its eyes, and dark scorch lines appeared on them.
The Bobomon bellowed once more in pain and frustration, flashing red with the use of a skill, with its head pointed toward the sky. The skill was used and Ashtala huddled on the floor, Rahsha right behind her. Even the group in front of her was shaken, as they backed off, their grip on their weapons wavering.
“You call that a roar?” asked Adam, walking over casually, though smoke was rising from his burned away skin. Then he opened his mouth and bellowed. There was no red flash, no use of skill that Ashtala felt. Yet Adam’s roar had an intensity to it that had been lacking in the war stomper’s. The sound made Ashtala, not only want to huddle in fear, but also to burrow into the ground.
“Oi, boss,” said Tom, not bothered by Adam’s roar. “Don’t horn in on our fight. We’re busy over here.”
“Then get it done before Rover, over there, croaks,” Adam said, indicating the den mother splayed out on the group, panting heavily while struggling to breathe. He crossed his arms and watched.
Ashtala couldn’t believe it. Where had Adam’s power come from? How was that even possible?
As the Bobomon looked in shock from Adam to the Carthraga, Ed cast, “[Clear Mind].” All those, including Ashtala, were no longer frightened. She stood, looking at the group. Even if the humans had lasted this long, the war stomper hadn’t even used skills yet. They were still at a disadvantage. At least, that was what she thought until she looked over at Adam, arms crossed and smiling. Not a vicious smile or a smile of concern.
Then both the Bobomon and the group of warriors once more faced each other.