Our trail through the plain leaves a path of flattened grass as evidence of our passage, though I don’t really notice it. Instead, my eyes rove over the tops of the nearly infinite stalks shooting up around us, looking for any subtle movement to warn of an impending attack.
But, surprisingly enough, the grass does not seem to hide a horde of cunning Beasts or a crafty lone predator.
As we near the first of the small hillocks, I nearly allow myself to breathe a sigh of relief.
‘Nearly’ being the operative word….
As we get within a few dozen yards of the hill, its true nature reveals itself and boy, is it a doozy!
{Burrow Bison, Lv.29}
The great Beast lifts itself to its full 40 feet of height from its place in the earth, its pre-System furred back now a carpet of green grass, its hooves now curved handily in a manner I expect lets it dig its burrows to hide in. The eyes of the creature are a deep, dark black and nearly the size of Horus! And then, there is its massive mouth, its former herbivore teeth now replaced by terrifying looking serrated versions, perfectly suited to eviscerate meat.
Suffice it to say, this is by far the most intimidating Beast any of us have encountered, by far.
The Brutal Bears could be this thing’s babies for fuck’s sake!
With widened eyes, I take this behemoth in as it begins lumbering toward our somewhat stunned forms, my Party similarly astonished, especially Horus as he sends me an image from above. To his sight, we look like tiny ants while the Beast seems the size of a normal person, comparatively!
As the creature picks up speed, its bulk shakes the earth and if not for our attributes, would likely have thrown us from our feet.
Thankfully, the jostling wakes us from our stupor and we quickly get into position for battle!
“Do not try and block anything this thing tries.” I tell Belina severely, uncertain her shield, or body for that matter, can stand up to the sheer weight of this thing, let alone its strength or any abilities.
“Believe me, I hadn’t planned to.” She responds with a tight smile and heads toward the left of the Beast while I mentally urge Artemis to head to its right.
As they both rush off, I send to Horus: “Let us distract it, as soon as you get an opportunity, go for the eyes.”
After receiving an acknowledgement from my feathered friend, I jump in place a bit, shake out my arms and grit my teeth as I steel myself for what is to come.
And then, I charge the bastard, roaring in defiance of my fear all the while.
….
I do not, in fact, have a death wish.
Instead, as the Beast draws near and attempts to stomp down on my diminutive form, I weave between its legs, eliciting a frustrated bellow in response!
As all of its attention and fury turn on me, Belina and Artemis strike deftly at its sides.
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Their attacks draw small gouts of blood but those are just drops in the ocean as the bison merely continues chasing me, turning itself to try and get at me from my position just beneath its chest now.
Trying to strike up at the vulnerable belly, I swing out but, before I can make contact, a huge hoof swats me out from under it and sends me flying nearly 100 feet!
If not for my monumental Constitution, I have no doubt I would have been pulped.
Bell rung, I try and shake off the tiny birds circling around my head before realizing they aren’t exactly real and turn dizzily toward the once-more charging Beast.
“Fuckkkkk.”
Belina and Artemis, meanwhile, have found themselves at the Beast’s back legs and, as they keep pace with it, slash and stab and bite at the hamstrings and lower leg tendons, doing anything they can to slow it down.
Blood leaves trails behind it as their work bears fruit but the Beast doesn’t slow all the same and I realize what I have to do next…..
Hanging my head in exasperation for a moment, I lift it and, with a rueful chuckle, take off from a sprinter’s start right back at the bison!
This time though, I don’t quite have the energy, or interest, to roar.
As I approach, the Beast displays its limited, yet substantial for a former animal, intelligence by narrowing the gap between its rushing legs, blocking my ingress below it this time.
Realizing that option is it out and not liking my chances of taking it head on, I instead push all of my attributes to the max and, for the first time in a while, begin channeling my Style with everything I have to give.
The bison, seeing my trajectory, tilts back its head and opens its great jaws in preparation to swallow me up!
“NOW!” I send across my bond to Horus.
His winged form comes shooting down, talons striking the open eye of the creature and forcing it to shut its mouth unconsciously in a grimace of pain.
Eyes alight at the opening, I channel the full might of my Style into one huge attack, not of terrifying wind this time but that of indomitable rock!
My hatchet lands on the Beasts back before I do, the full weight of my being channeled into the strike as it lands home in the spine and, as my Style’s ultimate follows suit, a dozen large rocks about the size of a Smart car come striking down with the force of meteors in a straight-line arcing down the thing’s vertebrae from my hatchet!
As I catch my balance and breathe after such a powerful attack, the bison moans out in a depth of tone reminiscent of a foghorn before collapsing onto its chest, paralyzed.
As its massive lungs still rise and fall, Artemis goes into a frenzying attack on her side, disemboweling it while Belina just does the easy thing and puts her spear through its eye all the way to her bottom hand, one of which eventually sends it to the beyond.
Congratulations! You have killed a Burrow Bison, Lv. 29 for a total of 2,500,000 XP!
You have leveled up!
You have 2 free Attribute points available!
Constitution +1
My exhaustion is shocked away as I take in the massive value of XP from just a single creature, eyes wide as I take in my level-up I notice Belina looking similarly astonished, likely having leveled up as well.
Knowing the tough fights we will need to enter into to advance, I place my two free points into my physical stats, bumping Strength and Dexterity both up to 14 while my ever-climbing Constitution reaches 24.
Completing the point placement, I see a few ability level ups popping up too, although really only the ones I mainly rely on have inched upward.
Huntsman’s Athleticism(J): 25--26
Wild Rampage(J): 20--22
Natural Reinforcement(J): 27--28
Blood-Fueled(J): 22--23
Seems advancing my abilities is growing harder still, even with the wealth of conflict we find ourselves in and my helpful title’s assistance. I ponder if there will be some way to consolidate or edit my ability list at some point.
Honestly the list itself seems to be growing ever larger still and I barely use half much of the time anyway. Only time will tell if there will be a solution or not.
Ready to go, I turn to Belina just as she finishes her own advancements.
“So, what do you think?” I ask with a somewhat sheepish smile, hands on hips as I pointedly gaze at the half dozen remaining faux-hills separating us from the Marvel Mountain and our goal.
Belina, a wry smile of her own gracing her lips, answers with gleaming eyes, “Well, it would be kind of rude to just leave these ones lying around….”
“Ha-ha! Oh, of course, we wouldn’t want to be rude!” I reply, Artemis chuffing amusedly at us as she finishes her own post battle ritual: cleaning her bloody, dirty fur for the thousandth time in the last month.