Sara emerged dressed and determined and carrying a belt full of potions. She looked to Kaden and back down. “It’s not Trella’s. I bought one on her advice. While you were in Vichor, we had a standard routine. She’d load us up on potions and we could use Eve’s Life Transfusion offensively.”
Kaden’s own belt had hooks for the flasks. “Any thoughts on what we should look for?”
“We didn’t come close to obliterating the Kalarak herd. I have something I want to try. How strong is your [Stealth]?” Sara set off into the night with Trinity and Kaden at her side.
“Not that great. I’m not a [Rogue] or something derived from it, but I can get close to most monsters.”
“Good.” Sara said, practically purring with delight. “We kill what gets in our way, if we can handle it. But we’re heading for the Kalaraks.”
The next few hours were a slow, meandering hunt as Kaden took his old role of [Not-Quite-Shield], drawing monsters to attack and ambushing them with Trinity and Sara.
“I’m barely gaining,” Sara said.
“Barely is still gaining.” Kaden held them back. In the distance, the outline of a [Flexivor] had caught his attention. With three of them and four legs, it wasn’t the kind of battle he wanted, even if the monster was a simple night spawn.
Without doubt the most shocking moment was leaping into a pack of Gloom Wolves—and having them scatter, running from his attack even though Kaden was only matching their level. There was a ranking among predators after all.
“Kaden!” Sara called. “The Kalaraks aren’t at the pond.”
He sprinted for her, willing Trinity to stay close and not ambush. A wide and shallow stream meandered between the hills, fed by the storms that passed over daily. And among them, golden lights meandered. “How do you want to kill them?”
“Watch. The Herd is moving slowly toward the pond, down stream. If we get there first, and you use [Stealth] we can set an ambush.” Sara looked west toward the pond. “Can we beat them there? Will your [Stealth] hold up?”
“Yes and maybe.” Kaden took off at a run, sprinting parallel through the darkness, focusing on [Stealth] as he made his way. Twin beams of red light shot skyward to the west, wandering bosses, but since the Surge wave wasn’t here, they’d be lower level and far less common.
Kaden made it to the shallow pool and ambushed a [Frost Spider] with [BackSlash], taking off two legs before it could even respond, then dragged it up the hill for Sara to damage. Second tier made these monsters easy prey. “I’m going to set up. What’s the plan?”
“I don’t know it will work. But you are going to use [Stealth] and I am going to use [Lightning Bolt]. On you.”
Mana Channel. It was worth a shot. “Sounds good. Don’t rush, pick your time. I’ll be patient.”
Kaden didn’t need [Stealth] as he headed to the pond. The Kalarak herd was still a few hundred yards away, trusting their perimeter aura to warn them.
But as his feet sank a foot into the shallow pond, he began to focus. [Stealth] activated, and his breathing slowed. His heartbeat slowed. His skill wouldn’t make him invisible, just unimportant. Easily overlooked.
Sara crouched, then crawled through the tall grass, stopping a good fifteen yards from the pond edge. She wouldn’t be near the herd’s aura, but could likely hit him with lightning bolt. The way Kaden understood it, the spell would arc to him and then out.
Every moment, every heartbeat, he channeled his focus on [Stealth] until a calm settled over him. The Kalaraks splashed closer, and their golden aura drifted out onto the water. It brushed his leg.
The herd stopped, every head pointing his way.
For thirty seconds, the herd waited—then the aura passed by, enveloping him as the Kalaraks moved closer and closer, so close Kaden could touch one if he wanted. If he were foolish.
Sara Scylla requests permission to use [Mana Conduit]. Allow? [Y/N]
Kaden chose yes, still terrified that even thinking might alert the herd.
The smell of ozone drifted on the wind, and the herd raised their heads and began making clicking noises like they were chomping their teeth.
The hair on Kaden’s arms rose and his hair began to stand up off his head.
Every Kalarak’s attention lay on the bank where Sara hid.
Lightning didn’t arc out from Sara. It exploded from Kaden, blazing out from his chest, his fingers. And his skin began to crack and burn.
You have channeled [Lightning Bolt].
Chance Procedure Activiates! [Lightning Bolt] strikes as [Chain Lightning].
Environmental modifiers provide damage bonus!
[MultiTasker] provides targeting bonus!
You have suffered 300 points Shock Damage.
You have suffered 300 points Shock Damage.
You have suffered 300 points Shock Damage.
You have suffered 300 points Shock Damage.
All around Kaden, the Kalaraks bucked as a storm blazed through the herd. Kaden’s health had plumeted to less than two hundred, but now was the time to strike. Trinity charged in, while Kaden attacked with Remembrance, aiming for legs.
Aiming for [Crippling Strikes] and [Brutal Blows] so the Beasts couldn’t escape. With every notification, he moved faster and faster. All his skills had reset to second tier, level one, but he wasn’t gaining levels like he had at tier one. “No more lightning,” Kaden shouted through cracked, bloody lips.
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Sara charged in, joining the madness as they worked their way through.
Trinity’s desire was always to fight to the death of her enemy, but she allowed his directive, and moved on with stabs for hearts, bitting at knees with her bone head, or crushing spines.
“Those two are getting away,” Sara said, as two Kalaraks with broken legs scrambled up the hill.
In a flash, Kaden had Thorn Caster drawn, and [Mana Arrow] activated. He loosed the shot, grateful that their direction gave him a larger target.
Thorn Caster has inflicted 1x Poison.
The Kalarak he’d struck stumbled, and Kaden followed up with another arrow—and another—then returned to his bloody work. Trinity’s worry hit him, and he sent her after the wounded Kalarak which had made it over the hill. She was clear to kill it as dead as she wanted.
The poisoned one wasn’t dead but lay in the grass, bleeding.
Sara began to slay, focusing her attacks on one at a time, while Kaden circled, keeping them contained. As Sara killed, he pulled them into Inventory. Last time, they’d killed three. This time, seventeen, with two missing and presumed mangled by Trinity.
Kaden had given up on his system notifications. The XP was pitiful. He’d need to find level twenty seven, twenty eight, maybe thirty monsters to make meaningful gains. Or Demon Lords. Demon Lords were excellent XP, if he had a Centurion around to actually kill them.
“Why don’t they just die?” Sara said as she stabbed over and over, while her horrors each mangled separate Kalaraks. Her swords had the advantage of being faster, being both defensive and offensive, more targeted, but for sheer damage, Remembrance was the clear winner.
“You’re level twenty four. You do less damage, they have more health.”
Each of her strikes increased in force, in sheer rage.
Sara stepped back as one died, her focus gone. “I just gained a skill. [Crippling Strikes.]”
“Good. Aim for vulnerable areas.” Kaden tackled a Kalarak trying to escape, careful not to kill it. Beast by beast, she ended them. Her title slowly increased his health, healing the blisters and blackened skin, and Kaden held off on the health potion.
When the last Kalarak lay dead, Kaden collected it and led Sara up the hill. “I think that one died of poison, but it wouldn’t hurt to stab it anyway.”
Sara cut the head off. “It wasn’t dead. That’s fixed.”
Just over the hilltop, Trinity looked up with three times the amount of guilt as she feasted on a Kalarak.
“It’s ok. You got it. Given how many you wounded for us, that one’s yours.” Kaden looked to Sara. “Well?”
“No level. Killing those last two Adventureres, I swear, I thought I’d reach twenty five. This was good hunting and yet it didn’t do the trick. And your skin! I’m sorry, I didn’t think it would arc back to you.”
Kaden took out a health potion and drank deeply. “Skin grows back. You know what—”
Trinity’s heads whipped up, one after the other, and she let out a low rumble. *Fear*
“Where are the wandering bosses?” Kaden asked. One column of red shone in the distance.
Sara tracked the horizon. “One may have been killed.”
Trinity screamed.
Not in rage, but in agony.
A swarm of beetles, each as large as Rocky, covered Trinity, chomping, chewing. Kaden wanted to pull her into his soul, but the grass everywhere around them moved. They couldn’t see the Boss’s warning column because they’d been surrounded by it. Kaden grabbed Sara and flung her over his shoulder, then sprinted back toward the pond. As he ran, he pulled a gravely wounded Trinity into his soul.
The grass rippled in a wave as Kaden splashed into the water.
[Identify] activated.
[ScaraStorm - Boss Monster]
The ScaraStorm moves across the sands, devouring all in its path. For those caught, there is no return, there is only death. The swarm can reduce its count to increase HP for individual members, or increase count at a significant penalty to HP.
Skills: Swarm Tactics, Numbing Bite, Destroying Jaws
Talents: MultiTasker
Level: 25
HP: 4,000
Mana: 40
A swarm boss. He set Sara down in the water as the boss surrounted them, dividing into beetles the size of Vip, probably forty of them. “We’re in trouble.”
“Understatement of the year. I love being swept off my feet as much as the next woman, but that was distinctly unpleasant, though not unappreciated.”
Kaden had no question if the beetles could swim. “They’re going to need to close in, and when they do, we need to punch through and get out, then run and keep running.”
“That is making two critical assumptions. First, they aren’t faster on foot. Second, they don’t fly. How’s your health?”
“Eight hundred and rising.” More potion wouldn’t change the rate. “What is it waiting for?”
The swarm could have charged in already, but as Kaden watched, beetles merged, reducing their count but increasing in size.
“I think it’s calculating the fewest number it can overwhelm us with. That gives it the greatest amount of HP. Remember Swarma? The individual vipers were laughably easy to deal with.”
“Poison will make larger beetles a disadvantage, but the moment I shoot, it’ll attack.” Kaden summoned Thorn Caster and drew back.
“The moment they hit the water, I’m going to use [Lightning Bolt]. It’s our best hope.” Sara drew her bow as well, targeting a beetle near her. Her arrows crackled with lightning.
Kaden let loose.
Thorn Caster has inflicted 1x poison
He drew again in the moment of shock the Boss showed, hitting another. The beetles divided twice and plunged forward. And Kaden’s world descended into agony as Sara struck him with [Lightning Bolt]. It arced outward, chaining to a dozen beetles—and again—and again.
Kaden swung Remembrance’s hammer head, smashing one beetle, then groaned even through [Fortress of Stone] as two more latched on, driving their jaws into his arms. He summoned Trinity, though her blood swirled into the pool.
To one side, Sara’s horror gagged and forced itself to swallow a beetle whole, and another, while she stabbed and sliced.
Kaden tore the beetles off his arms and threw them back, then pulled one off Sara’s back with only a small clump of her hair. “Which way do we run?”
“One more lightning, then east. My Mana’s dropping, I won’t be able to strike at full force.” Sara leaped onto his back and screamed out “[Lightning Bolt]!”
You have channeled [Lightning Bolt].
Chance Procedure Activiates! [Lightning Bolt] strikes as [Chain Lightning].
Environmental modifiers provide damage bonus!
[MultiTasker] provides targeting bonus!
You have suffered 50 points Shock Damage.
You have suffered 50 points Shock Damage.
You have suffered 50 points Shock Damage.
….
The notifications rolled on as his health collapsed to sixty two.
Trinity was dead, her heads gnawed off long before lightning struck. Dead beetles floated all around them, and [ScaraStorm] struggled to recall the remaining live ones, even as Kaden siphoned up dead ones. He didn’t know if ScaraStorm could heal from the dead ones but he wouldn’t take a chance.
As a larger one collected, Kaden summoned Thorn Caster from Inventory and met it with a poison arrow—and then one on the other. Kaden’s voice came out cracked and broken. “Six hundred HP for both, both poisoned.”
He pulled Trinity’s corpse into his soul and held Remembrance in a guard position. Every second worked in their favor, since poison drained a percentage of health, and Herald of Life would heal. Of course, if they combined into a single beetle, the result would be death for everyone.
“Can you kill both of them?” Sara asked. “One bite from the big ones and I’ll be dead.”
There were good plans. There were terrible plans.
There were ones like Kaden’s. “I’m going to hit them both. Hit them hard. They’re going to split up.” He released [Mana Well], flooding Sara with mana. “When they do, you fry them, or we both die.”
Kaden triggered [Moment of Speed] and struck with Remembrance’s hammer head. The first beetle’s chitin cracked, and Remembrance sang out. In the heartbeat that followed, he pivoted, bringing the axe head down on the other beetle and unleashing Remembrance to drive the axe deep into the beetle’s carapace, splitting its thorax.
The moment he pulled Remembrance into Inventory, it dissolved into a dozen smaller ones. “Now! Now!”
Sara’s Horror scooped two up, crunching and choking. She struck at two more, and another two—then pivoted, terror in her eyes. “[Lighting Bolt!]”
The world became pain. The world became agony.
[Resilient Constitution] would keep him alive as long as he still had one HP. And that was the moment he realized his miscalculation. Trinity was dead. Resilient Consitution wasn’t available. And the world went black.