As the group paused while Joe took in the lay of the land, Mirabell appeared, “I don’t like this. I’m not sure what’s triggering my instincts, but something here is dangerous.”
“Could it be a plant monster like the ivy in the forest?” Joe asked.
Surprisingly, Bob spoke up, “There are no dangerous flora nearby.”
Joe nodded, “Okay, then we take it slow. Bella, stay close please. Bix, can you send some scouts?” Bixby barked an answer a moment later several void wolves could be seen carefully trotting down the middle of the main street. Both were wary and their hackles were up. They made it to the end of the first block and returned.
Joe waited a few more minutes and just as the children were getting restless, he motioned for the group to continue. “Everyone, eyes peeled.” He warned.
Bob, carrying the children, was in the middle of the street at the halfway point of the length of the large blue arena building on the right, with the overgrown used car lot on the left when the attack happened. A portion of the greenery in the parking lot lifted and a horde of insect creatures poured out. They were the size of small dogs, had carapaces made of moldy flesh. The bodied were an unhealthy gray that reminded Joe of the Abyssal Rock Lurkers from the mountains. The front of the bodies wielded wicked looking front legs with sharp points while the back showcased a long scorpion stinger.
Monster Horde: Abyssal Corpse Stingers (10)
HP: 100
Status: Maddened
Poison sting attack, vulnerable to crushing damage
“Aw shit! A freaking horde?” Joe exclaimed. As he assessed the situation, he knew that the insects could not hurt him, Bixby and probably Mirabella, but the children were extremely vulnerable. “Bix! You and your wolves tear these things apart. Bob and I will stay defensive and protect the children!” Before he had even spoken, Bixby charged the mass of creatures coming from the parking lot. As the wave of stingers met the charge of the void wolves, Bixby let loose a howl that caused all the visible insect monsters to freeze and scramble around blindly. He followed that with a frenzy of hasted bites and claw attacks that tore the monsters into unrecognizable parts. The void wolves were also dealing horrific amounts of damage to the stingers, but more continued to pour out of various places in the parking lot. The sheer amount began to cause the wolves to back pedal to keep from being surrounded and overrun.
As the carnage took place in front of him, Joe cast a spell that created a shroud of darkness to descend on Bob and the children. [Umbral Caul] was a protective barrier that Joe hoped was enough to keep the kids from being attacked. His spell was followed by Bob’s whiplike tendrils snaking out to begin sweeping the ground like scythes. Any corpse stinger that came close was instantly bisected. But still they came.
Remembering the wailing spiders, Joe knew this might take a while. He began planning a way to retreat towards the river when he saw a small figure darting through the ranks of the oncoming horde. Mirabella was flickering in and out of the shadows, her knives devastating anything they touched. At times it looked like some of the monsters simply fell apart into pieces as she passed. Damn! She is awesome! Joe gave an inward whistle of approval.
As he scanned the battle, he saw Ramon standing in front of Bob, sword drawn and occasionally he would swing it and what appeared to be some kind of shockwave blasted out of the edge of the blade and took out the never-ending stream of monsters in ones and twos. Okay, kids got some moves. Joe was impressed with Ramon’s bravery, even though the kid was smart enough to stay close to Bob, protected by the treant’s lawnmower moves.
Mirabella, Bixby and the wolves were annihilating the swarm, and Joe felt better about the situation as the stingers could not get near any of the kids. As he began to move to help, something in his mind halted him and he felt a sense of urgent danger. He spun as several children screamed in unison.
Something huge had landed on the top of the arena. Joe’s gaze traveled up to see a monster crouched on the edge of the roof, looking down with hunger in its eyes.
Blood Cursed Wyvern (100)
HP: 35000
Status: Enraged
The beast was enormous. Its body was over thirty feet in length, covered in murky green scales that were continually bleeding, giving it an overall, rusty look. Joe estimated that its wingspan was nearly fifty feet. It was very close in size to the dragon that had killed Gharak. It only had back legs that gripped the edge of the building, easily puncturing the stone and metal. Its wings were spread wide. Joe could also see its tail whipping about behind it, tipped with a stinger that hurled droplets of blood every time it moved. It dipped its head down towards Bob and let loose a combo shriek and roar.
“Holy fuck!” Joe was momentarily taken back to the fight with the dragon, but he was not the same guy as he was then. “Bob! Keep them safe! This fucker is mine!”
It was obvious the wyvern had seen Bob and the children, however, it looked sharply at Joe and let loose another roar. Damn! That’s like a dinner bell going off for any other monsters nearby. Joe’s thoughts raced as he blink-stepped directly towards the enormous beast. He had cast Haste already and both his blades were in his hands. He was not going to give it the chance to get airborne. Joe thought a blitz strike would be the best opener. He needed to wound its wings to keep it earthbound. A second blink-step landed him on its back, and he stabbed his swords down into the shoulder joint. This is where the dance began.
The swords stabbed deep into the tissue eliciting a scream of pain and rage. Joe could hear the children all screaming in abject panic, but he could not take the time to check on them. As soon as he injured the monster, it went into a frenzy. Joe had set Hunter’s Mark onto the wyvern to keep track of it and to give him a slight boost in damage. He was shocked at how much damage his initial strike had done, but swiftly realized that this was considered a dragon, or close enough for his title bonuses to kick in. Along with twenty-five percent damage bonus from [Legendary Dragon Slayer], he was boosted by several other title bonuses. [Monster Bane] gave him a ten percent boost, while [First Seneschal] added an additional ten percent as they were still within the city limits. Added to that, his swords allotted him an astonishing forty-five percent armor penetrating bonus. His initial strike caused over a thousand points of damage. Unfortunately, the monster had health for days. He’d have to hit it like that over thirty more times to kill it. Fortunately for Joe, he had better ways of handling it. Too bad he didn’t get the chance right away.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
The tail came from out of nowhere. Joe was precariously straddling the scaled back of the monster and did not have solid footing. He was smashed like a baseball and sent careening several hundred feet over the rooftop of an apartment complex, to crash into the side of one of the apartments. He impacted hard enough to send him through the wall and into the apartment. He came to rest among a shattered couch and television set. Glass, concrete and dust was all around him. His [True Grit] and [Tough As Nails] abilities came in clutch as his armor dispersed a lot of the damage. Despite that, he still had a huge chunk of health taken away. He quickly scrambled to his feet and pulled a small red vial from his inventory. With his teeth, he pulled the cork from it and swallowed its contents. The effect was immediate as he saw his health shoot upwards quickly. Damn, I’m buying more of these high tier health potions! He made his way through the destroyed living room and was about to step out of the hole he had made when his Hunters Mark made him aware that the wyvern was practically on top of him.
He blink-stepped away just as the monstrous creature crashed headlong into the apartment. It thrashed and roared, blood drops and the ruins of the apartment flying everywhere. The entire complex began to fall in on itself. Joe cast a spell and held nothing back. Black pillars erupted from the wreckage followed by crossbars and finally the scales and chains of his [Justiciar’s Judgement]. The wyvern found itself impaled by eight Umbral chains. Joe burned through almost all his Mana to form the spell and it did not disappoint. The chains tore through the wyvern’s scales, spearing though the membranes of its wings and tangling its tail. Joe watched as it lost over twenty thousand health points in an instant.
The wyvern tried to rear its head back and cry out but found itself unable to do so as the chains began retracting. Joe could feel he was on the edge of Mana burn with just a few hundred Mana left in his pool, and the beast had just under ten thousand health left, so he pulled the extra mana from his amulet and decided to go for broke. At this point, the wyvern could not break the chains binding it, which gave Joe an opportunity. He blink-stepped in front of the monster. “The old me would have been terrified of you, but now?” He regarded it for a second, “Now, I kind of feel sorry for you.” He held out a hand, “Just not sorry enough to let you go.” The beast’s head was mere feet in front of him and it roared its fury. Joe cast [Dragon’s Fire].
The blast of flame engulfed the wyvern’s head, and the stream of magical fire burned its way down the creature’s throat. Joe held the spell for the entire five second duration and watched as the wyvern’s health ticked down. At the end of the spell, the thing’s head was ablaze and had dropped to the ground. Amazingly, it still had a shred of health left. Casually, Joe stepped close, placed a hand on its head and shoved one of his swords into an eye socket as far as he could. In a moment, the all too familiar tingle in the back of his head told him the creature was dead. He dismissed [Justiciar’s Judgement], looted the body and then stored it in his inventory. Without reading them, he dismissed the several notifications that had popped up and only then did he realize that he was standing in the now burning remains of the apartment building. The fire was small, but he had no way to contain it.
“Damn.” He muttered and looked around for anything to use to smother the flames, but the urgency of the fighting still going on down the street caused him to abandon the thought and he took off in a sprint down the road. He could still see Bob in the middle of the road, although the treant had managed to travel almost another block away while Bixby, Mirabella and the wolves continued to ravage the stingers.
It took another five minutes for the horde to deplete its monsters. Mirabella found a world chest and looted it. During that time, Joe continued to escort Bob and the children away from the horde and the recent wyvern attack. Ramon began talking a mile a minute, “Holy crap dude! That was epic! You killed a freaking dragon! And did you see how much experience I got? Eight freaking levels man! Eight!”
Joe, still in fight mode, chugged a Mana potion, “Yeah that’s great kid. We need to get moving.” He approached the treant, “Bob, are you and the children alright?”
The sentient tree answered without turning as his roots continued to drag him along the ground at a slow pace, “Hhhhrrmmmm. Yes. None of your younglings were harmed. I deduce that you slew the beast?”
“Yeah. But I may have started a fire. It’s too soon to tell how bad it might end up being, but we need to get a move on. The fight and fire are sure to attract something, and we need to put some distance between us and whatever may come along.” Joe’s head was on a swivel as he tried to take in all his surroundings. Bixby caught up to him and trotted alongside. The wolves had fanned out to flank the group. Bixby woofed, growled, and barked a few times. “Dude, I know. You don’t have to yell at me. Did I run off and fight a level one hundred monster? Yes.” He turned to look Bixby in the eye, “And did I kill the freaking thing? Yes. Yes, I did.” Bixby glared at Joe. Joe glared back, then burst into laughter, “I sound like a petulant child, don’t I?” Bixby cocked his head in agreement. “And, I get it. The dwarves, now you. I’m hot headed and tend to rush into things. Does it help to say I’m sorry?” Bixby sighed and licked Joe’s face. “Thanks buddy.”
From her place in Bob’s branches, Rebecca looked down at the exchange. “You can understand him?”
Bixby barked which made Joe chuckle, “He says, of course he can understand me.”
The teen girl looked momentarily confused then chided, “I meant… wait did he make a joke?”
Joe looked up at the girl, “Yep. He’s pretty funny when he wants to be.”
Ramon interrupted, “He’s freaking cool is what he is. You see him fight?” He asked Joe, “Any chance you got more like him at your base?”
Joe smiled, “Nope. He is one of a kind.” He quickly added, “That’s not to say you can’t get yourself a beast companion, just not one like Bixby.”
Rebecca added excitedly, “We can get companion animals?”
“Pretty sure there is a wide range of options, although it’s my understanding that not all classes have access, but if you want a better chance at one, you may want to look at the druid classes or the beast lord classes.”
“My class can get one.” Ramon said proudly.
Joe raised an eyebrow, “Really?”
“Oh yeah, bro. I’m a Corsair, that’s like a pirate, so I can get like a parrot or a monkey. Like in the pirate movies with Johhny Depp.”
“Huh. You’ll probably have to consult the Class Room or the Shoppe, cause I ‘don’t think I’ve seen either of those animals around here yet, but I also don’t really understand how all that works anyway.”
Mirabella chose that moment to drop her invisibility next to Ramon and Joe, startling Ramon. “Sorry.” she said softly. To Joe, “The way seems clear across the bridge.”
Joe saw that they were at the intersection that connected the bridge to their side of the river. It was a four-lane wide avenue, and the bridge proper was only a block away. “Thanks Bella.” Joe could hear the rush of the river. “Better to be cautious though. Can you keep on watch ahead while we escort the kids over?”
“Absolutely. If you’d like, once you are across, I could go ahead of the group and let the city guard know you’re coming?”
“That’s a great idea. I’d hate for someone to fire at Bob thinking he was coming to attack.”
The diminutive woman nodded at Joe, patted Bixby and disappeared.
Ramon let out a soft, “Whoa.”
It only took a few moments for Joe to get Bob on the move in the center of the wide street. Joe took the left flank and Bixby the right. Anything that came from the river would encounter one of them first. A group of wolves took the lead and another group brought up the rear. They were as protected as Joe could make them. Fortunately, the group encountered no obstacles to their crossing and after a few minutes, they were half a block past the river and moving uncontested through the streets. There was a small tree enveloped strip of land running along the roadway on the left and a neighborhood of older homes on the right. A month prior, Joe would have had no problem walking alone along the street in the early hours of the morning. Now though, any kind of horror could be lurking among the foliage or crumbling homes. Joe realized the analogy was kind of off as he was now much closer to the new city center and this area had been patrolled earlier for survivors and any left-over monsters, plus he and Bixby had passed through just a short time ago as well. Still, he kept his guard up.