The following days found Joe learning how to control his newfound strength. His missed spear throws made it hard to recover the spears afterwards, as they either sailed into the distance or were smashed to pieces against a rock or a tree. One spear went clean through the Elk he had aimed at and lodged itself in the ground fifty feet away. The ring was also a game changer when it came to fighting monsters.
On what Joe figured was either day twenty or twenty-one, they ran into the Greater Forest Guardian. This time though, Joe could finally see its information.
Greater Forest Guardian (40)
HP: 6500
Status: Enraged
Weak to Fire damage
This time Joe held his ground as Gharak, in his eight-foot height hurled his spear which stuck in the bestial bear’s shoulder. This caused the monstrous bear to stumble and that’s when Joe acted in concert with Bixby. Both blinked towards the bear, Bixby used his Rend ability on the bear’s hind leg, as Joe let fly a mighty swing with his axe directly into the bears forehead. The axe made a meaty thunk sound and sank into the creature’s head. The bear shook its head, ripping the axe out of Joes hand. The bear staggered forward, huffing, and clawing at the weapon stuck in its face. It lost all desire to chase Joe and he watched as its eyes crossed as it struggled to orient itself. Blood trickled out of the skull wound and soon Gharak came up and shoved his spear into the beast’s heart, ending its suffering.
“That thing scared the absolute Bejeesus out of me a few weeks ago.” Joe stated. “That fight was almost sad.” Joe studied the bear and petted the pelt for a moment. Huh. Still don’t feel bad about killing it. That sucks. It’s a beautiful creature. Joe caressed it one more time and then looted it. “You may get a nice winter coat out of that pelt.” He commented to Gharak as he grabbed his axe and yanked it out of the bear’s head. “Double fuck!” He exclaimed as the axe handle came away without the axe head. “I just broke my damned axe!” He lamented. “That was stupid.” He added as he placed the bear’s corpse in his inventory and the axe head dropped to the ground.
Bixby let out a series of small barks, and Joe replied sarcastically, “Oh, sure, your weapons are built in and don’t break. Rub it in why don’t you.”
Gharak, now used to the banter between the two grinned as he set off to continue their hunt.
That night, Joe worked to affix the axe head to a makeshift handle. While it wasn’t as sturdy as it used to be, it would still be a good weapon. He attended to his notices and checked his inventory to see that while he had gained a good chunk of experience and gold from the encounter it did not elicit an achievement. He was slightly let down about it but shrugged it off. The loot more than made up for it and he gained a new ability.
Congratulations! You have earned the Epic ability, Tireless Soul. The Stamina cost for any act that requires Stamina is permanently halved.
Staff of the Forest Guardian
This Epic staff made from heartwood of the rare Dain Tree allows the wielder to cast Wall of Thorns and Barkskin. The caster must infuse Mana into the staff before use. Each casting requires 100 Mana to cast. The staff can store up to 400 Mana per day. Note: The per day limitation is removed if the caster is of a Druid Class.
Voice of the Ent
This amulet formed of wood allows the holder to speak the language of the Ents.
“Hey Gharak, what’s an Ent?” Joe asked.
“An Ent is a noble forest guardian. My people and their kind have a long history of cooperation and respect. They are sentient trees for the lack of a better explanation.”
“Wow. That’s awesome. I just got an amulet that lets me speak their language.”
“That is a mighty treasure. I would guard that closely. The Ent do not favor the chosen for the most part.”
With his new axe being more fragile than it was before, Joe began relying more on the spears that he made while they were out hunting. This netted him another tier in the spear skill which came in handy. Combined with his growing control of his strength, he destroyed less spears each day.
Several days after the encounter with the Guardian of the Forest, the trio took a welcome day off of hunting to tidy up the campsite and tend to their tanning hides. The guardian hide was coming along nicely, and Joe thought that it was more than enough to make a winter tunic for Gharak, maybe even including short sleeves. They found themselves in a familiar habit of working alongside each other and singing songs.
At about midafternoon, after they had eaten lunch, Joe went to the pool to clean up while Bixby lounged like a king on a pile of furs just inside Gharak’s cave. Joe had removed almost all of his clothing and lounged in the pool feeling the refreshing cold water rejuvenate him. Gharak meanwhile was yawning and stretching, and he began walking towards the pool to clean himself when Joe saw something high above and behind Gharak in the air.
The shape coalesced into something with gigantic wings, and it was hurtling directly for the giant. “Gharak, behind you!” Joe shouted scrambling to his feet.
Gharak spun while grabbing his club from the wall it was leaning on and in a sweeping motion brought it around. The dragon impacted Gharak as his club found its target on the side of the dragon’s head. They both were slammed to the ground with tremendous force, causing the stones to shudder and knocking Joe off his feet. The dragon was on top of Gharak, and his free hand grasped the dragon’s throat just below its jaws.
The beast roared and scratched at Gharak with its claws and beat its wings trying to dislodge itself from him. Joe marveled at the site. The dragon had dark red skin the color of dried blood. It was almost black but with a metallic sheen. It had large plate-like scales covering most of it and where there were joints, the pebbled, leathery skin looked tough and impervious. The yellowed teeth stood out in stark relief from the dark coloration of its body.
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As they struggled, Gharak managed to bring his club into play and smashed it against the shoulder joint where the wing met its body. The dragon shrieked its rage and Joe watched in horror as the inside of its mouth lit up. There was a slight hissing sound and a gout of fire that would put any man-made flamethrower to shame came pouring out in a pyre of death, directly at Joe.
Joe took the only option his mind could manage to conjure, and he dove into the pool. The dragon flame scorched over the surface of the water causing it to boil instantly. Caught partially in the blast, Joe felt his left side from his foot to his torso erupt into agony. His true Grit and Tough as Nails abilities might as well have been nonexistent with the damage and amount of pain he felt. The burning trail of dragon’s fire eventually stopped, and Joe surfaced before his breath gave out. Immediately a swarm of notifications appeared which he shut down. He dragged himself out of the pool, hearing the titanic struggle between the two massive creatures. He looked at his side and saw that his skin had blistered all up his body, but even as he watched, they began to fade. Joe had managed to dive into the part of the pool surrounded by the Cleric Moss. The healing water was the only way he had survived that barrage of fire.
As he watched helplessly, Gharak held the dragon’s head up and away from him so that it could not bite him or aim its devastating breath weapon at him. The ground around Joe was still burning in a line from the dragon to the pool. Joe was surrounded by steam, and he tried to move closer to the edge of the cliff face to see the fight better, waving his hands to clear the air.
Both combatants were roaring and thrashing about. The dragon’s tail whipped around and shattered the bonfire, sending an avalanche of flaming debris over the side of the mountain. Suddenly, Bixby appeared on the dragon’s flank, biting into the membranous wing, trying to tear the skin, but his bite was having no effect. He switched tactics and tried to gnaw at the dragon’s foot, but he was too slow to move away from the great beasts’ movements and a rear foot bodily smacked Bixby. With a hideous cracking sound, he went flying into the pile of hides in various stages of the tanning process and a mountain of them fell upon him. In a flash, he was completely buried.
“BIXBY!” Joe yelled and blinked across the clearing heedless of the two colossal monsters rolling on the ground. His attempt at unearthing Bixby was brought short at the Dragon’s tail again slashed through the air and he was forced to blink into the cave.
Gharak, who had heard Joe’s cry of dismay doubled his efforts and with a second blow from his club, shattered the shoulder joint of the dragon’s wing. This caused the dragon to go into a frenzy of motion, slashing and clawing with its font and hind legs, drawing huge wounds across Gharaks body. Gharak dropped his club and with his arm like a piston, repeatedly punched the dragon in the head, all while having a death grip on its throat. The dragon was dazed after several punches, and it was panting hard. Joe noticed it and with a bravery born of absolute fear, he blinked in front of the monster. He slid on a pool of Gharak’s blood and steadied himself just in time to see the dragon cast one baleful eye at him and the light in its throat appeared again. Ignoring the overwhelming desire to flee, Joe fired a void bolt directly into the dragon’s mouth, just as the hissing sound appeared. The dragon gagged and blinked as its breath weapon shorted out and fire erupted from its nostrils and curled out of its mouth.
This distraction allowed Gharak to roll off his back and straddle the dragon. He pummeled the dragon’s head again and then with his free hand he grabbed at the large plates of scales on the dragon’s chest. He bellowed, “JOE! YOU NEED A MAGIC WEAPON TO HARM IT!”
“Where the fuck am I supposed to get a magic weapon?!” Joe shouted back. “It’s not like I can just pull one out of my ass!” Oh snap! Joe thought. I do have a magic weapon! He pulled the Sword of Urchak out of his inventory and blinked next to Gharak. He activated his mantle spell and tried to yell over all the roaring and sputtering the two titans were making, “Where do I stick this?”
Gharak’s eyes went wide at the sight of the goblin blade, but he yelled, “HERE!” as he yanked hard at a scale and lifted it away from the dragon’s body. The dragon lost its mind at this and raked and clawed hideous wounds in Gharak as the giant stoically held the scale open. Joe saw that the flesh underneath was a dark pink and looked soft. Using every ounce of his now beyond human agility, he dodged claws and the flapping, broken wing, stepped close to the dragon and shoved the sword into its chest with everything he had. The dragon screamed and trashed. Gharak’s blood flew in torrents. Joe gritted his teeth and wrenched the sword back and forth.
The dragon voided its bowels in a vile miasma of offal. Joe continued to leverage the sword until he felt something inside the dragon give and a second later, scalding hot hearts blood spewed from the wound. The blood caught Joe off guard, and he was immersed in a wave of it. It splashed painfully in his eyes, and he swallowed what felt like a liter of it. He gagged and choked and fell back from the fight. A stray blow from the dragon’s arm sent Joe flying into the air to land several yards away, his head lolling over the edge of the cliff. He rolled to his side away from the cliff’s edge trying desperately to breathe.
I took him precious minutes to clear his vision and to stop vomiting up the dragon’s blood. When he could finally stand, he felt an enormous pressure in the back of his mind that dropped him to his knees. He had never felt the death of any creature like he felt this one. Once the pain cleared, he knew that the dragon was dead. He stumbled over to Gharak who was sitting, leaning against the wall of the mountain. His torso and legs were pouring blood from the deep furrows of damage that the dragon’s claws inflicted. Joe slipped in the mingled blood of dragon and giant as he made his way to his friend.
Gharak opened pain filled eyes and looked at Joe, “Double fuck.” He whispered.
Joe almost lost it right then and there. Tears threatened to spill from his eyes as he pulled his flask from storage and liberally drenched his friend in its water. He watched for long moments as nothing happened. “I don’t understand. Why aren’t you healing?” Joe worried.
“Perhaps because I am not chosen.” Gharak raised his tired hand and pointed behind Joe. “Bigsbee.”
Joe spun around and blinked back to where Bixby had been slammed into the hides. He began tossing hides aside and then found it far faster to just add them to his inventory. The hides disappeared in the dozens finally revealing Bixby laying on his side, panting painfully. His ribs were crushed, and both of his back legs were broken in multiple places. Joe’s tears finally spilled over the edge of his eyelashes and streamed down his face. “Oh, Bix. You stupid, wonderful idiot.” Joe began pouring the healing water over Bixby and checked his Status. Sixty health left? And he had an internal bleeding status. Joe furiously poured water on the most obvious wounds then scooped Bixby in his arms and flew across the clearing with him. He set Bixby down in the pool and watched as the water had a war with the internal bleeding. Bixby’s health ticked down to just five before the status disappeared and Joe watched as his health began to climb. “Oh, Holy Shit that was close!” He stroked Bixby’s head, “Bix, stay here, I have to see what I can do for Gharak.” Bixby blinked and lay still; his head lay on the edge of the pool with the rest of his body submerged.
Joe ran back to Gharak. He could hear the giant’s breathing coming in gasps and wheezes. “Gharak, I’m here.” He applied more water from the flask, but it did not seem to be working. He screamed, “C’mon! Work damn it!”
Gharak opened his eyes, and took a few labored breathes, “Stairs.”
“What? Stairs?”
Gharak, with half lidded eyes said, “You need to go back to the stairs. The dragon’s lair will be at the top. You must clear it within four days, or it will spawn another.”
“Fuck that! I don’t care if it spawns another of those things! Right now, I need to save you! Stop talking and let me help you!” Joe yelled in frustration.
“No. The spawn will remember. It will… hunt you. You must clear the lair.” Gharak’s breath came in wheezing rasps. “Promise.”
Joe hesitated and then relented, “Fine. I promise. Now shut up so I can think.”
Gharak’s hand rose, and he tapped weakly on Joe’s chest, his eyes almost closed, his mouth flecked with blood and in a strained whisper he said, “My family. My brother.” A gust of air left his lungs, and he slumped over, his eyes closed, and his head canted to the side.
Joe could not see any rise and fall in his chest. He frantically poured more water and screamed Gharaks name until his voice shredded. At last, he fell against the giant, huge sobs wracking his body. He heard a mournful howl and then felt Bixby lean against him. He fell to his knees, holding Bixby tightly.