The sound of a string snapping back into its taut position. A hiss as the arrow neared its target. A scream unheard by anyone but Magnus sounded in his head. He threw himself back on the ground. A thump as the arrow struck the ground, missing its intended mark. That was close. The arrows were a lot faster than the spears.
What Magnus believed to be a simple battle turned out to be anything but. The Matriarch had in fact another empowered Ent in store, waiting for the right moment to strike. Or in this case, with most of her guards dead, it was more likely she panicked ordering the archer to strike sooner than it should. Magnus executed the headless Sentinel lying on the ground by shattering its core with his club. The dismembered Ent arm was holding up especially well for what was at first a weapon gained on impulse. Despite that, it was starting to show some signs of wear and tear, the bark was starting to peel off revealing a lighter surface underneath. Small cracks littered its surface like veins, showing that not everything was as all right as it seemed at first glance. Magnus eyed the shoddy sword of the empowered Sentinel like a starving wolf. He always wondered how it felt to grasp a sword in his hands even if it looked like that and was made out of wood.
The fight was now 3 against 2. They were outnumbered but Magnus was used to that. What really worried him was the unknown position of the hidden archer. Another hiss and the scream of [Danger Sense]. Magnus stepped out of the way of the arrow and it harmlessly thunked into the earth. He examined it more closely while the archer hadn’t yet drawn the next shot. It was made as one solid branch with a sharpened point. The look of it reminded Magnus of the Ent themselves. Did the archer make it out of its body itself?
Dodging another arrow, Curt finally joined him and now stood next to him. With the hope of waiting for the archer to run out of arrows now dashed, they had to engage the elite guard while getting peppered by the archer’s arrows. Not the most ideal situation to say the least. There was no time to waste, Magnus realized as the Mage was in the process of casting yet another spell, this one looking a lot more powerful than just the normal spears. Perhaps the wave of thorns Curt cast during the Assassin fight. Either way, it wouldn’t matter what spell it was casting if they interrupted it.
After waiting for another of the archer’s attacks and dodging it, it was time to resume the fight in full. Rushing out as fast as his legs could carry him, Magnus brandished the club with both of his hands. Throwing himself into a roll and quickly getting up to his feet, he got out of the way of an arrow. The only thing that saved him from a nasty self-inflicted injury was his high Endurance. If his Endurance was any lower, he would have probably hurt himself. That Agility would need to get higher soon. If it didn’t, who knows how long he could keep dodging the attacks. His enemies were growing stronger with higher Level just like him after all. Though could anything hurt him if his Endurance grew high enough?
The Sentinel wouldn’t probably let Magnus reach its Mage comrade so their only chance to interrupt the Mage would be Curt. He would have to make an opening. Magnus was planning to try a hit-and-run tactic that would enable him to dodge the arrows as they came. Even if he was confident in taking a few of them it was wiser to minimize the amount of arrows that hit him.
After evading an arrow, [Danger Sense] changed its target and a quiet hum slowly built up centered around the casting Mage. Black veins rapidly spread from the Mage’s core to the tip of its fingers, visibly pulsing with a dark green energy. It looked as if it was pumping the vile rot into its spell. Magnus would much rather not get hit by that if it was possible even if he was somewhat resistant to the rot thanks to his [Poison Resistance]. Time to get rid of the Mage.
In the back, Magnus could see Curt shaping a spear. He would have to take advantage of that very soon. Turning his focus onto the Sentinel before him, he started slowly approaching it, reluctant to get into the striking range of the sword. From this close, Magnus could see the dark green liquid pouring down from the blade, searing the ground under it. Cursing, he realized that no arrow had come for quite a long time. Glancing back, he saw the arrow fly on course into the middle of Curt’s chest. Expertly, the Mage stretched out the spear into a shield and the arrow stopped with a thud. The archer seemed to have given up on attacking Magnus after missing all of its shots and decided to start attacking the more vulnerable Mage. With Curt otherwise occupied it was on Magnus alone to disrupt the Mage’s spell.
Not taking the risk, Magnus moved so the Sentinel stood between him and the last known location of the archer. If it wanted to shoot him now it would have to risk hitting its ally or change its position. He would have to attack, but how? Magnus never fought in a medieval battle, how was he to get through such a shield? It was easy enough when all the Ents did was punch or shoot some spears but things were really starting to suck now. After this, he would have to make sure he had a way to actually kill his enemies.
“Damn it, it’s now or never,” Magnus thought as he lunged for the Sentinel. There was no time for some complicated plan when a ticking time bomb in the form of the corrupted Mage was soon to go off. It was time for him to stop acting as if he had balanced Stats and start leveraging his high Endurance.
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The Sentinel predictably attacked with its sword, striking from above. The Ent seemed to imitate a knight with its armor-like bark, it couldn’t hide its true nature. Even to Magnus who wasn’t trained with a sword, he could see how bad its swordsmanship truly was. It didn’t put the full weight behind the strike, swinging with his hips. That only helped Magnus make this decision. Taking a deep breath, he prepared for the pain that would soon follow. Magnus let go of the club with his left hand and stretched out his arm so he could catch the blow.
Activating [Toughen] the moment the sword was a few centimeters away. The sword struck his open hand. Surprisingly, a dull sound sounded throughout the clearing. The blow didn’t even manage to break his skin. Not letting the surprise phase him, he closed his fingers around the blade. Both he and the Ent underestimated the combination of [Toughen], [Slashing Resistance], and his high Endurance. Making use of the Ent’s confusion he let go of his club and grasped the Sentinel’s heater shield as well so it couldn’t use it to bash him. Magnus looked into the eyes of the Sentinel with a smug smile on his face. What stared back at him were only two cold flames.
He tried pulling the sword out of the Ent’s grip but was met only with a vice grip that couldn’t be broken with his Strength. [Vicious Blow] unfortunately wouldn’t work in a case like this. They were at a standstill. Or at least that was what Magnus thought until energy started gathering in its shield. Dark green familiar energy all rushing to a point in the center of the shield. His eyes grew wide and the smug expression faded from his face. He tried to push the shield away with no result. [Danger Sense] yelled at him to get away but there was no time. The shield exploded.
Darkness.
Magnus opened his eyes and found his vision swimming. Not making the situation any better was the constant high-pitched buzzing in his ear. Pain blossomed all across his torso especially bad in his stomach. He tried taking a deep breath but realized he couldn’t. Focusing his blurry vision onto his chest he saw the problem. His nearly forgotten breastplate was rent and had an ugly piece of sharp wood stuck in it. With the way it was bent, it prevented him from taking a breath. Panicking, he sat up, took hold of the top of the breastplate, and started pulling. There was no time to carefully undo the straps in the middle of a fight. Thankfully, with [Last Stand] now activated and the breastplate being probably older than his grandparents they gave way, and the breastplate cluttered down to the ground.
Trying to stand up, Magnus arrived at a slight roadblock. The giant splinter sticking out of his abdomen made it a little hard to move. While he worked on pulling it out, he observed as the corrupted Mage finally finished its spell. Preparing to minimize the damage of another devastating attack, he steeled his resolve. Unexpectedly, a spear struck the Mage square in the chest.
But that meant.
Magnus swung his head at the place where Curt formerly stood huddled behind his head. He stood there with his hand still unstretched. An arrow from the still unseen archer hit him where his core sat. The Ent dropped like a puppet with its strings cut. That could be him next. Shook awake by that fact he grits his teeth and stands up even through the blossoming pain and the dripping warmth. Spitting out a crimson glob he picks up the sword he just realized fell right next to him and walks. It’s hard to keep a straight course with the pinpricks of pain caused by the numerous splinters stuck in his body.
Nevertheless, he walks.
Even through the warnings of [Danger Sense]. He can’t stop. It was time to finish this. Stepping over the Sentinel which had drawn the short end of the stick as it was missing over half its body, he slowly approaches the Dryad Matriarch. Making sure that the Mage was properly dead, he started swinging the sword like an axe. Locating the core with [Mana Perception], he swings. It takes painful minutes to finally get through the durable wood and shatter the core. Especially when he had to dodge the arrows after the archer repositioned itself. Thankfully, only 3 of the arrows managed to hit him, and even then, they didn’t get anything too important. At least, Magnus thinks they didn’t.
As the core finally shatters, the Dryad screams but the archer’s assault finally stops. The Ents have their Souls deeply connected to their parent Dryad after all. When the Dryad dies it causes all of her spawns to get dragged back to wherever they came from as well. Not to mention, that the Ents’ equipment seems to have also left as the sword melts into a brown sludge.
Shrugging, he leans on the tree and slides into a sitting position. He thought about sleeping for a bit but falling asleep wouldn’t be easy with the dozen splinters sticking out all over his body. Instead, he turns his attention to the quiet but insistent buzzing in his head while waiting for some of his blood to replenish.
The first, most important notification appears first.
[The Dryad Matriarch – First Boss of the Rotten Grove has been defeated.]
[Distributing rewards. Rewards increased due to the solo clear.]
That was quite a mouthful for one message. Magnus’ head hurts thanks to it. Where even were the rewards, it spoke of?
Just as he thought that a heavy wooden box appeared on his lap. He was sure it wasn’t there before. At first, nothing. Then the next second it was there. Must be the System’s doing. Carefully, he picks up the box and gently sets it down next to him. Why should he trust what the System gave him? So far it seemed to only be after his neck. Dropping him into a deadly dungeon seemingly just for shits and giggles and then sending dog-sized spiders after him not 10 minutes later.
Even then, the box intrigued him. The rational him said not the open it due to the dangers it posed but the greedy him watered his mouth at the mention of loot.
“Fuck it. If the System wanted me dead it would have already done so,” Magnus gives up caution and throws the chest’s latches open.