Chapter 5: Assault.
I expected to have had some kind of violent nightmare involving a pack of rabid boars savagely murdering Berlioz and I, but instead I just awoke in the void mind space. There was a slight difference though, this time that darker than black orb in the distance was now larger and glowing with a bright white light. So that’s what large experience looks like, I thought also noting that the light did nothing to banish the all-encompassing darkness. My mind wondered to an even darker place, was this void what awaited me when I died, but before I could give in to my existential panic, I called up my skills list.
SKILLS:
ATHLETICS: (EXPERT) STR2
BLADES: (EXPERT) STR 2
BLUNT WEAPONS: (NOVICE)
CLIMBING: (EXPERT) STR 2
BUTCHERY: (EXPERT) DEX 2
DROP ATTACK: (EXPERT) DEX 2
DUAL WIELDING:(EXPERT) DEX 2
EVASION: (EXPERT) DEX 2
HARVESTING: (EXPERT) DEX 2
KNIFE THROWING: (EXPERT) DEX 2
POLE-ARMS: (EXPERT) DEX 2
SNEAK: (EXPERT) DEX 2
SNEAK ATTACK: (EXPERT) DEX 2
HERBOLOGY: (EXPERT) CON 2
CHEMISTRY: (EXPERT) INT 2
CARPENTRY: (EXPERT) INT 2
COOKING: (EXPERT) INT 2
FIRST AID: (EXPERT) INT 2
GATHERING (EXPERT) INT 2
TRACKING: (EXPERT) INT 2
GOD’S EYE: (UNIQUE) WIS 10
ARTIFICING: (EXPERT) WIS 2
CORE MECHANICS: (JOURNEYMAN)
HUNTING: (EXPERT) WIS 2
MEDITATION: (NOVICE)
RAINFOREST OASIS AUTHORITY: (UNIQUE) WIS 5
Seeing the two new skills there, instantly filled me with gratification, and I wished I had taken out more than just the one boar. Core mechanics was staring me in the eyes just begging to be ranked up, all that juicy knowledge of monster cores was just some experience away from being mine, but I had to be logical. A random human and his spider buddy planned to help a little cat boy wipe out a camp of villainous orcs, monster cores weren’t going to help with that and so far, the corresponding wisdom stat was already my highest. What I needed was at the top of the list. I let my mind’s eye focus on black orb that sat next to the Blunt weapons skill and a dim light glowed within it.
BLUNT WEAPONS: (NOVICE) RANK UP (APPRENTICE)
The light of the experience in the background flickered slightly but over all there was barely any change so I focused in on the skill once more and imagined pouring everything I could into it.
BLUNT WEAPONS: (APPRENTICE) RANK UP (EXPERT) STR 2
The light in the distance went dark and my hopes of getting a second skill ranked up extinguished with it. my disappointment was however short lived for with one outing I had pushed my strength stat up to eighteen. I promised myself that I would level core mechanics as soon as I had spare experience, but honestly, I needed to push my physical stats as high as I could before I went out to save Berlioz’s people. With my dexterity sitting pretty high I needed to focus on my strength and constitution but so far, the only skill I had found that contributed to the con stat was herbology, it was frustrating to think that a longer and healthier life was only a few unknown skills away. Dismissing the mindscape and coming to wake in reality I thought to myself, I’d give my left nut for a game guide right about now.
I awoke to a sharp pain in my forearm, at first, I panicked thinking some kind of venomous bug had gotten into my hammock with me, but Anansi doused my flaming frontal lobe with calming vibes, and I realised, that the bug in question was my friendly wrist hugging spider. Stretching while I let out a yawn made my hammock twist this way and that, I might have fallen out if my dexterity wasn’t as high as it was instead when I slide too much to one side, I rolled my body and landed with my feet on the ground. It wasn’t impressive but it did give me an idea of how to get the acrobatics skill.
Putting my thoughts of new skills aside, I carefully approached Berlioz’s hammock and scratched behind his ear in an attempt to gently wake him. The cat boy woke with a start, his arm lashing out towards me with his claws fully extended. I might have lost an eye if I were just an inch closer but luckily for the both of us, he quickly came to his senses.
“Oscar, I, I’m so sorry.” Said Berlioz his eyes refusing to meet mine.
I reached back in and scratched behind his ear, smiling wide. “You’ve been through a lot, buddy. Did you sleep well?”
“Forget about the sleep, I managed to rank up two skills to expert with only two kills, what level were those boars?” He practically vibrated with excitement. “After ranking up small blades and Evasion, I just stared at my character sheet in amazement. It’s crazy, I mean, four whole points in dexterity after a couple of hours out in the jungle. You know this would be impossible under normal circumstances right.”
Being that ranking up skills was pretty much the norm for me, I just shrugged and said. “How so?”
“I keep forgetting that you’re new to the system, by the way your earth sounds like a weird place.” He dropped down from his hammock and stretched before continuing. “Alright, I’ll start at the beginning. We’re born at level one, practically useless with no knowledge of skills or even any real sentience, it’s just milk from mother’s teats and mewing to be carried around. We stay like this for months, I’m not sure how many, I wasn’t around long enough to witness another litter.” His eyes went dark all of a sudden. “And then it clicks, suddenly you wake to words in the blackness of your mind, and you have knowledge of how to move through the trees with ease and how to pounce on your prey. With that knowledge comes the urge to kill, small things at first, rats, snakes, whatever critters you come across really. All of this for miniscule experience. You kill and you gain, you gain, and you kill and then the elders escort you to the contested zone.”
“Was it that bad?” I asked, shocked at the unfamiliar look of hopelessness.
The black of his pupils swallow the blue rings around them as his eyes meet mine. “For some it was easy, for most it was hard, but for us.” He blinks away a tear that loses itself in his fur. “For us it was hell. We all reached level five around the same time, that was the cap for the starter zone.”
“What are these zones?” I ask not wanting to interrupt but desperate for the ability to understand him.
With a face palm he replies. “I forgot your weird planet probably doesn’t have those, no levels no zones. It’s weird that you literally own a level one hundred zone and have no idea what it is.” He shakes his head at the ridiculous thought. “Ok, so everyone gives them different names from what I’ve found in my time outside the dungeon but where I’m from it works like this. We are born in the nesting zone, it’s a protected location and only accessible if our monarch falls. When we age up, we move to another protected place called the training grounds, where until we reach level five, we can live safely hunting creatures that could only give us superficial wounds and then it’s off to the contested zone. Being a dungeon its linear and from point A to point B the levels of the monsters are allowed to rise in multiples of ten, depending on the size of the dungeon, this could reach up to level one hundred but that’s really rare.”
“And your dungeon was raided by the orcs when you were moved to the contested zone.” I correctly assumed.
His helpful explanation held back the overbearing emotions for a moment but with his mind reliving his experience, the pain came back all too soon. “They didn’t just raid, they invaded. They slaughtered every elder they could find and caught every Panthera that was under level twenty, it was cruel, the way they treated us. We are tree climbing creatures and they confined us to the ground, locked in covered cages and fed the scrapings from their plates. The beatings were the only thing that broke up the monotony of being deprived even light to see by. I prayed for the chance to gain some levels, maybe at level ten or twenty I could have done something.” Berlioz lost his calm and cried freely as his claws extended with the mixed emotions. “That’s why I ran yesterday, I saw my chance to get out, to get another five percent to my stats, to kill and gain and kill again. I knew the area was dangerous and that they would come after me, but I had to get out and level not just for myself but for the Panthera we had left behind, not just at the camp but back home too.”
“Berlioz, I am determined to keep you safe and if that means taking these orcs on in your dungeon then that’s what we will do.” I placed my hand upon his shoulder. “My stepdad taught me something that I’m going to teach to you. Overwhelming odds in the light of day can be just that, overwhelming. But block out the sun and suddenly the odds are up for grabs.”
The cat boy looked deep into my eyes and said. “What the fuck is that supposed to mean.”
I tried explaining the obscure saying in a few different ways but eventually gave up. To be honest, originally my stepdad had said the phrase in Nepalese and had later translated it into extremely broken English before leaving me to fend for myself, so I might not have really remembered what he said in the first place but at least I tried to inspire the little guy. After the emotional story I felt like busying my mind with the artificer skill and gaining some extra defence, the silk armour was great and all but I kind of looked like a psycho trapsing through the jungle in a onesie.
The armour I had in mind was going to look both intimidating and majestic just like the creature I was making it out of. Apart from where I had cut openings for Anansi to enter, the mantis’s body was practically untouched. I probably could have fashioned something out of the boar hides by having Anansi use thin corrosive webs to cut and shape the parts but if I was being honest, I really wanted to be the guy literally wearing the former boss of his zone. My design was pretty intricate, I took my time and cut free the segments of the blade mantis’ abdomen. Needing mobility more than anything else I pushed my blade across slicing paper-thin sheets that were as flexible as clothe but still more durable than steel.
The more I sliced the more focused I became until I had more layers of the remarkable material than I actually needed. When I was finally finished my head was pounding and I noticed that the blue bar in the corner of my vision rested at half the size it was before. I could only assume that the maintained use of the artificer skill was draining the bar somehow, but with much more work to do I threw caution to the wind and began cutting the mantis fabric into shape. There was no needle on earth that would have pierced this material, it also felt like there wouldn’t be many metals in the system that could either but luckily for me, my mind reading spider had a solution.
Anansi let out a thin line of webbing that was only an inch long but as solid as a rock and as sharp at the tip as my spear. I took the needle web from his spinneret and as I pulled it out a flexible string of webbing attached to its base flowed from the spiders back end. I spent hours of deep focus sewing away at my new outfit, attaching layer after layer cutting the required shapes and fitting the perfectly without having to measure once. By the time I was done the light of the moons above me stung my eyes and the sound of Berlioz mucking around in an attempt to gain yet another skill, made me want to stab the needle into my ears. Looking to the corner I saw that the blue bar was almost empty, and I figured that making outfits for both me and Berlioz at the same time was probably biting off more than I could chew but as I added the final touches to the collar of my coat, I gained a welcomed surprise.
Congratulations, you have successfully crafted blade Mantis light armour (Epic) and have gained the following: Tailoring.
My head hurt too much to truly appreciate the extra skill, and I groaned as I looked over at Berlioz’s unfinished armour. I struggled to finish the garment, my eyes felt heavy, and I just couldn’t keep my focus. I pricked my finger more than a few times but using every ounce of will power I had I pushed on and got the job done. When I stood it felt like I was standing on a dingy racing through rapids, my heart pounded almost as hard as my head and my vision blurred. Anansi tried his best to calm me but even his near mind control had no effect on the very real symptoms I was feeling. When I looked down, I discovered two things, firstly that the blue bar was gone and second that floor was quite quickly rushing towards my face.
“Oscar! Oscar!”
A familiar voice came from the distance within the void as I came to. In the distance lay the empty experience orb and I wished I had hunted a boar before passing out. With no gains to be had in the void space, I willed it away and regained consciousness.
“Oh, God. My fucking head.” I moaned into the grass beneath me, before rolling over to stare up at the night planets. “Berlioz you could have at least rolled me over.”
“I didn’t know what to do.” The cat boy said, kneeling down closer to me. “I was carrying the last rock over to my pile when I saw you swaying. You went down like a sack of shit, and I panicked.”
“What about your first aid skill. You should have rolled me over, checked my breathing, checked for head trauma. You might not be expert rank but that’s some pretty basic stuff.” I said remembering to check my head for cuts and bumps.
Berlioz’s tail waved to the side and his face adopted a frown. “What part of panicked don’t you understand?”
“Oh, it doesn’t matter.” I sat up rubbing my burning eyes. “I’m never letting that blue bar go empty again.”
“You drained your mana?” Berlioz looked at me as if I were stupid. “Do you know how dangerous that is?”
“Well, I do now don’t I.” I said with a huff, reaching out my hand. “Help me up please I’m still a bit woozy.” Rising to my feet I looked upon the two master pieces I had prepared and smiled. “Dude you’re going to love this.”
The outfits I had made were in three pieces, combat trousers with dimensional reed lined pockets, tunics with extra padding actress the chest and a medium length coat with a high collar to protect our necks and faux pauldrons on either shoulder because it looked intimidating, and I figured that the first fight is with the eyes. Everything was pretty much the same shade of green, only differing in colour where the fabric was made up of thicker layers.
When Berlioz slipped his gear on over the silk under armour, he danced about to test out its functionality. He abused the knowledge gifted to him by the evasion skill, leaping this way and that flipping and rolling, ducking and diving and when he was done with that, he pulled out his daggers and started flamboyantly murdering the air. I loved my outfit as much as he loved his, but my head was in such a sorry state that just bending to pull up the trousers made me feel like I was going to pass out again. looking over to that bitch of a blue bar I saw that it was still almost empty.
“Any ideas on how I can fill that bar Anansi?”
My eyes closed with the sleepy feeling the spider sent me.
“I don’t have time to sleep right now.”
My stomach growled and I felt a deep level of disappointment.
“Yeah, I could eat.” I said looking over at the stones Berlioz had gathered. “But why the disappointment?”
Existential dread made my heart skip a beat and for a moment I felt like the world was going dark.
“Are you saying I could die if I don’t get some sleep soon?”
I rolled my eyes in annoyance with the negativity he forced on me.
“What then?” The feeling lingered longer than it should have. “If I overuse my mana and don’t sleep, will I die?”
It was weird having a positive vibe about a possible brain aneurism, but I was hungry, and the fire had yet to be lit.
With the way I was feeling any manual labour was out of the question. Just going from a standing to sitting position next to the fire pit was enough to aggravate my headache and nausea, but Berlioz was happy enough to follow my instructions as he stacked stones and built a makeshift oven. We crushed some healing pears up and smeared them over a couple of fresh cuts of boar meat and the cat boy placed them above the fire to roast. The smell was tantalising as the pork chops roasted and soon enough, they were cooked through.
The taste of the pear infused chop was something of dreams, sweet and savoury mixing effortlessly in my palette and the whole thing was moist enough that I didn’t need to take a single drink as I chomped away. As soon as the meal was done, I saw that the blue bar had gone up by half and could feel my headache starting to fade. With the decrease in pain came a modicum of clarity and my thoughts turned to reasoning, deciding that if there were healing pears perhaps there were stamina apples and mana mangoes, or something like that. We hadn’t really been looking for food on our hunts before but now with the near miss of my green bar falling earlier and the absolute fuck up of letting my blue bar deplete, rejuvenating flora were on the hunting itinerary.
“What skills did you get?” I asked Berlioz, while I shrugged on my bandolier and repositioned my spear.
The cat boy did the same and adorned his coat. “I managed to get athletics, gathering, carpentry and cooking. Although, I don’t really think I deserve carpentry for building such a shoddy contraption.”
I inspected the bird house without using god’s eye and in my opinion, it was great work for a novice carpenter. “The locking joints are a bit rough, but the system recognised it as a finished job and I’m sure there’s at least one bird in this forest desperate enough to make a home out of it.”
“it’s going in the fire when we return from our hunt. The best that death trap is good for is warming our next meal.” He picked up a long bit of wood. “Besides when we get back, I want to try making a bow out of this, do you think Anansi will be happy to help with some string?”
Positive vibes hit me, and I answered. “Yeah bud, he’s looking forward to it.”
We set off and found that the new light armour we wore actually made it harder to see each other as we passed through the tree line. Just like a mantis we blended in with the giant leaves of the colossal trees we used to traverse the forest. More than a few times I had to call out for Berlioz to make his location known, but then something in my mind clicked and with a little focus, my god’s eye skill placed a cat symbol on my compass. After that we travelled without a care, Berlioz searching for boars to kill and me searching for medicinal flora.
I found plenty of edible plants as we journeyed deeper into the Boar’s zone and stuffed my seemingly bottomless pockets with them ensuring that we could have a sustainable and balanced diet, especially if I turned my hand to planting the seeds. When we finally found a lone boar, we didn’t kill it right away instead we stalked it for a while. I wanted to know what it’s odd scraping of the trees was for and what it’s diet might consist of; I did after all have two piglets back home to care for. What we discovered was interesting.
After ramming the ridiculously tough trunk, it gnawed at the cracked bark until it revealed a sticky sap. The Boar suckled on the sap for a time before wandering off and I let Berlioz follow while I lowered myself down to investigate the sap’s properties.
DREADWOOD SAP
ALCHEMICAL BENEFITS: STAMINA RECOVERY
USES: GLUE, CHEMICAL REAGENT.
Stamina recovery was a great find, especially as the section of the forest we lived in was literally teaming with these massive versions of the redwoods back on earth, but I really wanted to find something that would help me stay on my feet after crafting something as intricate as my armour. I considered extracting some of the sap however when I saw movement in the corner of my eye, I said a mental nope and hastily zipped back up to the tree line. It took me a minute and honestly, I thought I was going crazy, but I finally saw it slithering away like a snake. Long thin and spikey with a tail end that dipped back down beneath the earth was the evil vampiric root that had gotten a taste of me and clearly wanted more. In that moment I swore to myself that I would track down whatever tree or bush it originated from and have my skull fucking vengeance.
I hadn’t spent too long investigating the sap or searching for the root, but it turned out that the Boar travelled fast and so when I set of in the direction indicated by my compass, I had to zip across the tree line with increasing speed just to catch up. The forest around me blurred as I hurried along missing out on my opportunity to search for a mana recovery source. When I caught up with Berlioz, he spotted me and raised one furred finger to his lips. In complete silence he gestured to the ground beneath him where an actual herd of iron side boars rested.
There were no piglets in sight, and I had to assume that the boars paired off and nested elsewhere to raise their young. What we did find was at least twenty fully grown boars either laying amongst the mutilated bases of the surrounding dreadwoods, scraping at the ground for grubs or play fighting to assert their standing within the herds hierarchy. Berlioz got in close for us to formulate a plan and I lowered my voice to ask what I believed was a vital question.
“Is it a herd or a pack of boars?” I asked receiving an eyeroll.
“Are you serious, right now?” The cat boy looked me up and down. “It’s a sounder, but that’s really not important, is it?”
“It’s not like they know we’re here.” I replied with a shrug. “Ok, let’s figure out how we’re going to murder an entire sounder of boars. Sounder,” I tested the word. “I don’t know, it doesn’t really sound right to me.”
“Come on focus, Oscar. Did using up all your mana cause damage to your core.”
“I don’t have a core.”
“What?”
“I’m not a monster, I have a brain.”
Berlioz looked at me incredulously. “What’s a brain?”
“I don’t know how to put it. it’s kinda like this big squishy grey thing in my head that controls my body” I laughed. “Now who’s not focused.”
“That sounds like a core to me.”
We quietly bickered about why a brain isn’t a core and how it was definitely what set monsters and people apart, which left me apologising for implying that Berlioz wasn’t a person and accepting that my brain was just a less useful and inefficient version of a core. After all that we made our plan of attack. We were massively outnumbered, and I discovered using god’s eye, that we were also disgustingly out levelled.
NAME: IRON HIDE BOAR
MONSTER TYPE: BEAST
SPECIES: ELEMENTAL BOAR
LEVEL: 52
ATTRIBUTES.
STRENGTH: 120
DEXTERITY: 20
CONSTITUTION: 200
INTELLIGENCE: 5
WISDOM: 5
CHARISMA: 0
LUCK: 0
STATUS CONDITIONS: NONE
RESISTANCE: PIERCING 100% SLASHING 100%
WEAKNESS: INTERNAL DAMAGE
CORE QUALITY: RARE
After seeing the monster’s stats laid out clearly before my eyes, I had to repeatedly tell myself that nothing had changed, the plan was still the plan, and we were going to dominate this forest for the sake of Berlioz’s people. We dropped down on opposing sides with the majority of the boars between us. I took it slow, trusting that Berlioz and Anansi would do their part while I did mine. My cat bro only had the sneak skill at novice despite his natural instinct to stalk prey, so it was up to me to dispatch as many of the oblivious boars as possible.
My heart pounded a thunderous rhythm as I crept through the underbrush, blending seamlessly with the hues of green around me. with my dagger at the ready I approached my first victim, it scrapped at the ground pointlessly searching for a meal it would never get to finish while I drew closer. Clutching the dagger in my clammy palm, I wished that I had Anansi on my wrist to fill me with confidence, alas my thundering heart, beat like a war drum as I crossed the open space moving at a steady pace. The boar let out half a grunt followed by half a squeal while my blade finished with a sucking pop as I pulled it out of the boar’s eye socket and slunk back into the greenery.
The next boar I faced was rolling around, enjoying a vigorous back scratch and I took a risk when I rushed in with my spear. The monster exhaled with a pleasurable grunt before the sharp tip made sure it would never inhale again. Before I slunk back into the bushes, I smiled as I watched Anansi silently creep over to a slumbering boar and tie its feet together without disturbing it at all. I faintly heard the all too familiar squelch of a penetrated ocular cavity as Berlioz took care of Anansi’s captured prey, while I stalked my own.
On the move but traveling slowly, my third target checked tree after tree, finding none that hadn’t already been savaged by its kin. Either annoyed or just plain stupid the thing decided to ram the tree closest to it anyway. Birds flew out of the quivering branches and every boar that wasn’t blissfully sleeping turned their heads towards my prey. I dropped to my belly and froze, afraid even to swallow. Anansi, however, took the opportunity to bind three more boars and even Berlioz pushed his luck, sprinting to catch up with the spider.
The boars watched as my prey butted the tree again and again to no avail. Eventually another boar trotted over, huffing with what I assumed was annoyance. My assumption was validated when the slightly larger beast grunted twice and kicked its back foot. It crossed the distance in a flash and hit the tree butting boar in its side with audible force. The poor boar squealed in agony as the force of the blow took it off its feet and sent it skidding across the ground. I winced in sympathy at first but when I realised that the assaulted monster was skidding towards me my eyes went wide.
There were still too many left to fight, even with Anansi and Berlioz doing there thing. So, when it came to a halt just a small distance past me, I knew I had to act fast while it whimpered in pain, so I crawled close enough to reach out from the brush and pushed the tip of my blade close to its closed eye. Once it opened its eyes I would have less than a second to act. I kept a tight grip on my dagger and positioned my free hand over my fist for added driving power. The seconds felt like hours, the forest went still to my ears, there was only me and the boar before me. the eyes opened and the boar reacted to the sight of me with a panicked grunt but before it could roll its thick body upright, I drove my blade into its eye.
The boar thrashed for less than a moment before it fell still, and I crawled back like a viper. From the safety of my position, I looked on as the assaulting boar investigated the corpse before me. it sniffed and snorted, pushing its tusks into the corpses side, probing for life. Discovering that the thing was indeed dead, the boar acted in a way I didn’t expect. The seemingly stupid creature had a level of instinctual intelligence as it used its considerable strength to push the body further away from their camp. I followed for a while and when we were far enough away from the other boars I withdrew my corrosive club, leapt out of the bushes and put everything I had into my attack. The force of my blow to the boar’s head was concussive and the corrosive acid worked face, melting the things face. I feared the tortured sound it would have made, if it hadn’t been knocked unconscious while the acid dissolved it skin and muscle.
For a fourth time I ignored the system notification and made my way back. What I found was disturbing to say the least. The corpses that lay on the floor were nothing compared to the ones that dangled from the trees, I was gone for a few minutes at most and could not fathom how Anansi and Berlioz had managed to string up the remaining boars like big old pig pinatas.
“How?” I asked while Berlioz executed another helpless boar. “Just fucking how?”
Turning around and donning a shit eating grin, Berlioz spoke with a giddy excitement. “Oh man you missed it, I almost died like eight times. That boar by the tree woke up while I was doing my stabby thing and just went mental. By the time I had pulled my dagger out of its skull it was too late for me to run; every single one of these beasts were staring at me like I was a tasty little fish.” He pointed down at a boar with both its eyes mutilated. “That one came at me first and I timed it perfectly, flipping up and then as I landed, double stab.”
I laughed. “And then they surrounded you, didn’t they?”
He gave me a quizzical look. “Were you watching?”
“No, it’s just a bit obvious that Anansi saved your tail while you probably did your best to stay alive.”
“It was a bit more impressive than that, but yeah you got the gist of it.” my little cat bro’s excitement deflated. “Anyway, that was the last one. I guess we should start harvesting the cores and butchering the meat.”
I let Berlioz harvest the first core in the hopes that he would get the core mechanics skill as well, but we weren’t so lucky, it seemed that the skill was only awarded for harvesting the core of a much more deadly foe. The proud Panthera didn’t care about gaining the skill however as he told me he gained a much more useful skill called assassination. Personally, I believed that I deserved the skill more than him, seeing as I did the harder job of sneaking up on conscious boars while he just poked a bunch of hog-tied sleepers in the eye, but the skill probably had something to do with killing a defenceless target.
Regardless of who deserved what and why, we worked together to butcher the surrounding boars. By the time we were done exhaustion made us sluggish and I noticed that the green bar was resting at half capacity. There was no way we were going to carry any of the hides back that night, so we stashed them up in the trees and had Anansi mark them with vibrant orange webs. The two boar corpses I had left behind weren’t too far away so together we headed towards them. When we got there, we immediately turned around, made our way to the tree line and raced home without saying a word to each other.
“What the fuck was that, Oscar?” huffed Berlioz, trying to catch his breath.
I was perhaps in a worse condition despite my dexterity being higher. “I, I told you I saw it.”
Berlioz spoke over my wheezing coughs. “That wasn’t just a root, that was bigger than most snakes. It had the boars up in the air and had pushed itself into every fucking orifice.”
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“I don’t know what to say.” I said, with my eyes closed and my mind focused on breathing. “We must have been closer to the main body of whatever the root is feeding.”
“I refuse to die like that.” He started to climb the ladder to our tree house. “I don’t even want to think about that thing anymore. I’m going to rank up.”
“Wait.” I said remembering his good idea. “What about making a bow?”
“I need the carpentry skill higher for that remember.”
He might have needed the carpentry skill higher, but I didn’t need the carpentry skill at all. bows were exactly what we needed to pick off the orcs from the trees, we could even take on the ants if I could make arrows strong enough to pierce their carapaces. Thinking about the ants I wondered if I could use parts from their remains and mix them with what was left of the mantis to make a set of bows, but what parts were best. I searched for something flexible but strong and while I paced between the different piles of bug remains, I imagined what I could make. A compound bow was out, I didn’t have the tools or knowledge of engineering needed for such a complex system. I wasn’t a fan of a short bows or a standard long bow, too basic and also too difficult to actually use. That left a recurve bow, with the decision made ideas flooded my mind, it was like I just needed to find the key.
Another weird thing happened as I looked for the required parts, my hud lit up the bug piles with a kaleidoscope of colours, most were red, but a few bug parts glowed green and even less of them shone with a purple hue. In the corner of my eye another colour shimmered and when I turned to take in the golden glory of the blade mantis’ antennae, I knew exactly what I was going to do. I immediately got to work cutting the antennae to shape, using my dagger with graceful precision. While I worked, I took care to watch my mana bar as it slowly depleted. The bendy antennae were soon perfectly fashioned into the upper and lower limbs needed for our bows, but I still needed a riser and for that I revisited the soldier ant pile.
Theoretically I could have whittled away at any part of the ant’s carapace and made the solid component with ease but either gods eye, or the artificing skill or maybe even both of them, wanted me to use the best materials for the job. The entire pile lit up with a display of opaque colours and I had to rub my eyes to refocus. The golden glow I had hoped for came from a part of the ant that Anansi hadn’t recognised as different from the rest of its gaster and I quickly removed the part. The petiole nodes that connected the ants front to its back were apparently perfect for my design for reasons only the skills knew, honestly, I didn’t mind at all, the dark red went well with the pale green of the antennae.
Half an hour later and with judicious use of my mana bar two perfect recurve bows were crafted. My next job was crafting arrows, I let my mind summon the image of an arrow and to my surprise there was no accompanying epiphany. Nothing glowed around me and I didn’t instantly know what to do, it felt like I had been abandoned by my own brain but then I realised crafting an arrow must have been connected to a different skill.
I used my knowledge of carpentry, to shape a perfectly balanced shaft, then artificing to attach a sharpened scrap of mantis carapace and all that was left was the fletching. What was I going to make the fletching out of, I had no feathers and no way to catch a bird in the short time I had before my stamina and mana depletion forced me to sleep, then I realized that birds weren’t the only things with wings. It took considerable effort to pry open the mantis’ back, but the reward was more than worth it. the mantis wing was perfect and large enough to make more arrows than I’d ever need. Making an arrow from a vague memory from a past I’ve mostly repressed led to more failures than id willingly admit but eventually I was rewarded with clarification that I had gotten it right at least once.
Congratulations, you have successfully crafted blade mantis arrow (shoddy) and have gained the following: Fletching.
With the skill came some basic understanding of arrow making but not the amount I would need to craft anything better than what I had made already. Moving on to my next goal I corrected my failed arrows and grabbed my bow. I figured one successful shot would gain me the archery skill and I would be able to finally get some sleep and rank up. I was worse at shooting a bow than I was at making an arrow. I aimed for a tree to the east and somehow managed to miss it every time I shot. I almost gave up when I figured that I just had to get a little closer and pray that the system reprimand me for cheating.
Congratulations you have hit your target and have gained the following: Archery.
I celebrated with a pump of my fist then immediately set off for my next skill. This time I was sure to get it on the first try. A low hanging vine hung between two branches just ten feet from the ground and I was determined to take the opportunity to get the acrobatics skill. I zipped up to a branch, leapt to the vine grabbed hold and swung but when I leapt from the vine I overshot and fell on my ass. The fall was enough to leave my bottom aching, and my pride diminished, so deciding enough was enough, I ate a healing pear to soothe my sore bum and took to the tree house for a nice long nap.
The void was lit by an orb of light that was approximately four times larger than before, however regardless of the size of the bright orb in the distance it did nothing to light the surrounding darkness. I wasn’t there to wonder how much experience I would have to accrue to light the darkness of my mind, I was there for the skills.
SKILLS:
ATHLETICS: (EXPERT) STR2
BLADES: (EXPERT) STR 2
BLUNT WEAPONS: (EXPERT) STR 2
CLIMBING: (EXPERT) STR 2
ARCHERY: (NOVICE)
BUTCHERY: (EXPERT) DEX 2
DROP ATTACK: (EXPERT) DEX 2
DUAL WIELDING:(EXPERT) DEX 2
EVASION: (EXPERT) DEX 2
HARVESTING: (EXPERT) DEX 2
KNIFE THROWING: (EXPERT) DEX 2
POLE-ARMS: (EXPERT) DEX 2
SNEAK: (EXPERT) DEX 2
SNEAK ATTACK: (EXPERT) DEX 2
HERBOLOGY: (EXPERT) CON 2
CHEMISTRY: (EXPERT) INT 2
CARPENTRY: (EXPERT) INT 2
COOKING: (EXPERT) INT 2
FIRST AID: (EXPERT) INT 2
FLETCHING: (NOVICE)
GATHERING (EXPERT) INT 2
TRACKING: (EXPERT) INT 2
TAILORING: (NOVICE)
GOD’S EYE: (UNIQUE) WIS 10
ARTIFICING: (EXPERT) WIS 2
CORE MECHANICS: (JOURNEYMAN)
HUNTING: (EXPERT) WIS 2
MEDITATION: (NOVICE)
RAINFOREST OASIS AUTHORITY: (UNIQUE) WIS 5
Five skills ready to rank up and four counts of large experience to use on them, it was a hard choice but, in the end, I figured meditation could wait. Trying something new I thought about filling my four preferred skills at once and I watched as the light dimmed significantly.
ARCHERY: (NOVICE) RANK UP ARCHERY: (EXPERT) DEX 2
FLETCHING: (NOVICE) RANK UP FLETCHING: (EXPERT) INT 2
TAILORING: (NOVICE) RANK UP TAILORING: (EXPERT) INT 2
Warning prerequisites for core mechanics (skilled) not found, progression denied.
That was new. How amazing did a skill have to be to need prerequisites, or did I already meet the requirements for all my other skill, and this was the only one I hadn’t blindly stumbled into. I was disappointed but on the bright side I could always meditate on the matter.
MEDITATION: (NOVICE) RANK UP MEDITATION: (EXPERT) WIS 2
With that done the orb went black and I called up my character sheet.
NAME: OSCAR HOLLOW
RACE: HUMAN
LEVEL: 1
CLASS: NONE
LINKED FAMILIAR: ANANSI
ATTRIBUTES.
STRENGTH: 18
DEXTERITY: 30
CONSTITUTION: 12
INTELLIGENCE: 26
WISDOM: 31
CHARISMA: 10
LUCK: 2
STATUS CONDITIONS: NONE
RESISTANCE: BLADED-WEAPONS 50%
BUG-TYPE 50%
WEAKNESS: NONE
My stats were heavily unbalanced but in a good way, I couldn’t hit hard, but I could move fast and with the weapons I had at my disposal I just had to hit once. I could have done with another skill or two that rose my constitution but to be fair having the wisdom to avoid a fight will always keep me alive longer than being able to take a punch. All in I was happy with my progress and when I dismissed the void and woke to the sight of Berlioz dancing around in glee it was pretty obvious that he was too. Deciding to take a sneaky peak I activated gods eye on my cat bro.
NAME: BERLIOZ
MONSTER TYPE: SAPIENT BEAST
SPECIES: PANTHERA
LEVEL: 5
ATTRIBUTES.
STRENGTH: 16
DEXTERITY: 31
CONSTITUTION: 14
INTELLIGENCE: 20
WISDOM: 16
CHARISMA: 12
LUCK: 1
STATUS CONDITIONS: NONE
RESISTANCE: NONE
WEAKNESS: FIRE
CORE QUALITY: POOR
“You’re stats are looking good, Berlioz.” I said, rolling out of my hammock.
The Panthera was startled out of his celebratory motion. “Whoa, hey I didn’t know you were in there. Did you analyse me again?”
“Yeah,” I said with a cheeky grin. “And your numbers are high.”
“Not as high as yours would be if you hit level five now.”
“I don’t think I’ll be levelling up anytime soon, I want as many skills as I can get ranked up to expert before I start pouring experience into my level.”
Berlioz muttered something under his breath before saying. “I hate that I agree with you but levelling up now would just be a waste of potential gains.” He noticed the pair of bows next to the hatch in the floor. “Is that smaller one for me?”
Before I could say anything, he grabbed the bow and a few arrows, dropped down and started firing at the trees. He only missed twice before climbing back up and slinking into his hammock.
“Wake me up once I fall asleep.” He commanded and I meditated while I waited.
Instantly falling into a deep trance, I felt calmer than ever as I processed what was to come. We were practically ready to assault the orc camp, it had to be done but I also had to admit I was frightened. So far, I had only fought unintelligent creatures, sure the ants were capable of spitting acid that could melt my flesh in an instant and the boars could destroy me with single gore, but the orcs were as capable as me. sentient creatures that had lived long enough to reach level twenty, they had far more practical experience in the system than either me or Berlioz. Sure, I had enough skills at expert rank to match their stats, but did I have enough knowledge to out maneuverer them. Feeling my rising panic Anansi pushed a sense of confidence through our bond and in my meditative state I could feel it emanate from his core.
Giving the spider a stroke I opened my eyes and stood to shake Berlioz awake. His eyes shot open, and he smiled.
“I’m ready to kick some orc ass.” Said Berlioz dropping out of his hammock.
I had to agree I was ready too. “I’ll craft some more arrows, and you can make some spears. I want your people armed as soon as we free them.”
After our final preparations were done, we set off to where I had found Berlioz. On our way we stopped to harvest some more healing pears in case any harm fell on us or the Panthera we were trying to liberate. The journey was much longer than I had anticipated and a few times I had to question Berlioz’s directions as he frequently stopped to gain a sense of where he had been. While we travelled through the trees it became all too clear just how dangerous the forest ground was. What started as a few acid spitting ants soon became a hub of activity beneath us and we had to stop and marvel at the sheer amount of ants that busied themselves harvesting plant matter.
“If any of them see us we are cooked.” I whispered brushing sweat from my brow.
Berlioz got closer to me. “Then why are we talking? Let’s get the fuck out of here.”
I couldn’t say how far west we went but after a couple of hours we saw wafts of smoke curling through the towering trunks of the tree ridden horizon. Closing in, we found the camp. it was unimpressive, just a bunch of tents dotted around a large fire pit and what looked to be some wood working supplies. It seemed as though the orcs were having trouble sourcing materials for the border of their camp and I couldn’t blame them for their lack of progress. Felling one of the dreadwoods that Berlioz and I perched upon would take more than just a two-man hand saw, honestly, I was pretty sure that even the machines back home would struggle with how tough these huge trees are.
The lack of defensive fortifications meant that the orcs patrolled the perimeter of the camp, but you could use the term loosely, apart from a few of the more serious looking green guys, most of them were chatting amiably and drinking from large wooden mugs. We stayed together circling the camp from the branches above, our goal was to spot any weaknesses in the camps organisation to exploit and find where Berlioz’s people were being held. There was supposed to be close to thirty Panthera, however only three were out in the open. I had imagined that all of them would be similar to Berlioz, black panther cubs with varying features, I couldn’t have been more wrong.
The first we saw was a sandy furred mountain lion, ferrying vegetables from the tent closest to the fire pit and depositing them into a large by cooking pot. Its movements were sluggish indicating that it wouldn’t be partaking in any of the food it had been cooking. The next we saw was a sad sight, a tiger cub with thick stripy fur was tied to a post and around its paws were wrapped blood-soaked bandages. The third and final visible Panthera was a sight to behold, and it sadden me to think that if ever there was a lion with such brilliantly white fur, alive on earth it would surely be poached. The white lion carried a comically massive pitcher, and I would have laughed at the sight of it, the pain of her struggle wasn’t evident in her piercing blue eyes as she struggled to deliver in to the nearest orcs.
Our initial reconnaissance revealed seven large tents, three loose Panthera and twelve patrolling orcs, visible within the forest camp. The orcs we could see were mostly equipped with crossbows and heavy metal clubs, the size of my entire leg from ankle to thigh. If we had spent more time searching the forest for alchemical ingredients and less time killing boars, we might have been able to concoct a poison deadly enough to slip into their drinks or the food that the mountain lion chef was preparing. Unfortunately, we were going to have to pick the orcs off the hard way. Sniping them from the trees was an option but we would quickly be found out with the bodies just laying there. There was a chance that we could take a few of them out with drop attacks and drag the bodies back into the forest but once they were alerted, the leather clad tusk bearing bastards were going to be an overwhelming problem. A quick whispered conversation devised a solution and before we set our plan into motion, I scanned the nearest orc for a better idea of our odds.
NAME: GUROHK DURHH
RACE: ORC
LEVEL: 21
CLASS: SCOUT
ATTRIBUTES.
STRENGTH: 26
DEXTERITY: 27
CONSTITUTION: 28
INTELLIGENCE: 26
WISDOM: 26
CHARISMA: 26
LUCK: 1
STATUS CONDITIONS: TIPSY
RESISTANCE: PAIN 25%
WEAKNESS: BALANCE
Even at level twenty-one the orcs stats weren’t as high as mine, sure his strength and constitution were superior but I as sure my weapons were strong enough to bridge the gap. It also looked like he hadn’t gained many if any expert rank skills, so maybe these orcs weren’t really a problem at all. clearly not needing Anansi’s influence to gain confidence I moved into position and gave Berlioz the nod. We dropped down our spears aimed for the heads of the much larger orcs and in an instant they both fell with us.
Congratulations, you have succsefully killed an orc (scout) and have gained the following: low experience.
We chose to attack the northern most section of the camp as the scouts there were out of eye shot from any others and although we weren’t exactly quite, we were still discreet enough to drag the two orcs behind a tree. Next, we made our way back up to the branches and Berlioz took off with Anansi on his wrist, while I maintained my position with my bow at the ready in case he was caught.
I watched the Panthera as he sneaked between the tents, keeping low and using the undisturbed foliage to obscure his presence. When he neared the large central tent, he paused by the mountain lion and handed him a reed pouch before slinking back into the shadows. Even from my vantage point it was hard to keep track of Berlioz’s movements as he darted in and out of sight, but he eventually reappeared next to the barrel that the white lion was filling its pitcher from, and I could have sworn he adopted a flirtatious posture as he spoke to it.
I got that he wanted to show off, but flirting at a time like that was just damn foolish. As he slunk away, I vaguely remembered him mentioning a silence spell being cast on his people and wondered which of the orcs was capable of magic and if maybe I would be able to do the same someday. While I let myself get distracted, I also completely lost sight of my little cat bro, and I held my breath as my eyes darted this way and that in search of him. A few moments later he reappeared next to the wounded tiger, and I could finally exhale. With his foray done, he pointed his hand towards me, with his paws in the classic spiderman sign and I was proud to say that he was the Miles Morales to my Peter Parker.
“It’s done.” Said Berlioz returning to my side.
“I didn’t know you were into guys.” I said watching the white lion continue its duty without pause.
“That’s a girl, Oscar.” Berlioz sighed. “Why are you so easily distracted.”
“Me?” I said pressing my hands on my chest in mock offence, “you’re the one that risked getting caught so you could flirt with the lion girl.”
“What’s a lion?”
“She is. The main, the face shape, the toned muscles, that’s what a lion looks like.”
Berlioz rolled his eyes. “Is that an earth creature?”
“Yes, you’re all similar to big cats from earth.”
“And these creatures have squidgy brains right.”
“Well, yeah.” I answered with a shrug.
“We’re Panthera, not big cats and we have monster cores, not slimy balls of meat in our heads.” He gestured towards the camp. “Can we get on with this, my people are waiting.”
“They’re not balls, but yeah let’s do it.”
We made our way to the other side of the camp, closer to the tent that held the captive Panthera and Anansi shot a line between the trees. Walking across his web, the spider shot line after line until he reached the point that sat directly above the Panthera’s tent. Dangling down, he ran a rope of webbing to the entrance and cut it of before crawling in. With arrows nocked, Berlioz and I kept our sights on the closest scouts as they patrolled the perimeter. It said a lot about the treatment of the Panthera as the Orcs felt secure enough in their domination that they didn’t even bother setting guards to watch them.
I could see why the Orcs were so confident when cat after cat sidled out of the tent and climbed the rope with visible effort. Each one of the freed Panthera were emaciated and filthy, dressed in rags and not a single one of them looked fit enough to fight. Once all of them had vacated the tent and climbed up to the tree branches, a wild looking leopard handed out spears and daggers from the bottomless reed pouch that Berlioz had provided them. It seemed the Orcs where none the wiser to our efforts and if it wasn’t for the three Panthera that remained in the open, under the eye of the patrolling guards, we could have left without alerting anyone, although Berlioz made it clear that whether we could get out unseen or not he wanted revenge.
With things moving quickly and all the Panthera in position, we took our next step. Two arrows whistled through the air, embedding themselves in the skulls of the orcs closest to the Panthera tent. The sound of the slain scouts falling to the ground stirred confusion around those on ear shot and I laughed as I imagined little question marks appearing over their heads while they searched the distance instead of turning their sights towards the camp. Whatever they had come across out in the monster ridden hellscape of the forest had clearly gotten them spooked. Pushing our luck, we traversed the tree line, getting into position and knocking our arrows once more. With a click of my tongue, I signalled for Berlioz to loose his arrow and mine followed shortly after. The last two we had downed were attentively searching the distance for signs of movement, these two were chatting loudly, that was until an arrow protruded through one of their heads.
I winced and fled my position as my target yelled out in shock, before my arrow reached him and those imaginary question marks formed into big old exclamation marks. I had to remind myself that this wasn’t metal gear solid, and the Orcs weren’t algorithm based npcs that would forget their friends had been murdered the second another distraction arose. A scout from the left ran to his fallen allies and called out.
“Kilog and Gurrh are down.” His booming voice filled the camp. “Search for archers in the trees.”
From the other side of the camp another voice arose. “Amech and Frohl too. We are under attack sound the horn.”
Beneath me, a scout withdrew a horn, and I loosed an arrow just as his lips touched the brass instrument. He had raised his head to blow and as his eyes met mine my arrow penetrated his skull. The orc next to him was quick to react, pulling his cross bow up towards me and without time to think I leapt from the branch and pulled out my spear. From skull to rectum, the spear disappeared within the towering figure as I landed behind him. Four more orcs stood with their crossbows at the ready either side of me. one to left fired upon me, the bolt missed me by an inch and found its way inside the orc held up by my spear. The scout next to him went down from an arrow fired by Berlioz and out of nowhere the white lioness pounced on the orc that shot at me.
She wielded two mantis daggers, and she struck with such ferocity and speed that it looked as though she had four arms, as she made Swiss cheese out of the orc. In that moment I saw her as the demon slaying Hindu goddess Kali. My admiration of the slaughter before me almost got me killed, when another bolt hit the deceased orc shield I hid behind, and I quickly dove out and threw my dagger at the scout that still had a bolt in his crossbow. My aim was true but I could only successfully hit the orcs thigh as I rolled. The scout fell to a knee and Anansi zipped the web attached to my dagger back to my hand but before I could throw it out once more the other Orc charged me with his club held high.
The Orc roared in rage as it closed in and all I could do was withdraw my own much smaller club, hoping that it would be enough to block the powerful attack aimed at me. time froze for a second as I lay on my back looking up at the massive club that was sure to end my life. I pushed up and the two clubs collided but the force I expected wasn’t there, looking into the eyes of my foe I recognised the empty stare of dead and from behind the orc smiled the sandy furred chef.
“Yes, Chef.” I cheered before withdrawing my machetes and rushing the kneeling Orc.
My blade sliced cleanly through the scout’s neck and his head rolled until it bumped into the base of a tree. With twelve down there was sure to be only two left, but where could they be. My question was answered when the wounded tiger flew through the air from the direction of the largest tent. He landed a few feet Infront of Chef, Kali and I, before letting out a pained roar and throwing a jar towards the tent. The sight of him reminded me of a story my step-father had told me about a famous Gurkha soldier, and I smiled as I watched the jar take off. My eyes followed the flight of the jar until it landed with a shattering of glass and an eruption of flames at the feet of the largest Orc I have ever seen. Without thinking I focused on the symbol above his head.
NAME: JUGAG DURHH
RACE: ORC
LEVEL: 35
CLASS: BERSERKER
ATTRIBUTES.
STRENGTH: 68
DEXTERITY: 52
CONSTITUTION: 60
INTELLIGENCE: 25
WISDOM: 10
CHARISMA: 5
LUCK: 1
STATUS CONDITIONS: ENRAGED
RESISTANCE: ALL DAMAGE TYPES 50% PAIN 100%
WEAKNESS: BLIND RAGE.
I wasn’t sure if his stats were so imbalanced because of his class or because of his status condition, but what I was sure of was that he was a goliath of an orc. The flames that burst before him were drawn around him and a much smaller but somehow more menacing orc stepped out beside the berserker.
NAME: RAGNICH DURHH
RACE: ORC
LEVEL: 40
CLASS: SHAMAN
ATTRIBUTES.
STRENGTH: 25
DEXTERITY: 25
CONSTITUTION: 67
INTELLIGENCE: 76
WISDOM: 76
CHARISMA: 67
LUCK: 1
STATUS CONDITIONS: NONE
RESISTANCE: NONE
WEAKNESS: NONE
My second scan confirmed that classes warped stats and that regardless of that, compound interest was a bitch to deal with. The flames pulled into the skull topped cane held by the Shaman and my jaw dropped at the futility of the sandy furred Panthera’s attack.
“Chef, Kali, get behind me.” The two Panthera either side of me understood that I was talking to them and complied. “Anansi get them to safety.”
Without hesitation the spider leapt off my wrist and onto Chef’s back, before zipping the mountain lion up into the trees. Kali stepped forward, bravely baring her daggers, ready to face the impossible odds by my side but a web hit her in the chest and pulled her up and away to safety. The tiger I had decided to call Lachhiman, finally remembering the name of the famous Gurkha, let out a rebellious roar and just as he pushed himself forward to attack, a web yanked him away too.
It was just me, the Berserker and the Shaman. The gigantic orc’s breathing was laboured, and his eyes looked wild as he stared at me. I could tell he wanted to rush in and destroy me, however with a word from the shaman, the wannabe hulk waited.
“Are you one of the humans that have recently spawned into the system?” Asked the Shaman, with a gruff yet distinguished voice.
I wasn’t sure how to react, Berlioz had no idea what I was, but this guy seemed to have vital information I could use. “I am.” I answered, reminding myself that no matter what, he had to die. “What’s it to you?”
“I am the revered Ragnich Durhh, harbinger of the great warlord himself. His eminence would gladly have you as a cherished pet.” He clicked his fingers, and the faux hulk stepped forward. “Or perhaps you would prefer to be a snack for Jugag.”
“Listen,” I said raising my arm. “I’m not really into submissive pet play, so how about you guys just kindly die.”
As I let my arm fall, spears flew from the trees. Reacting without thought the berserker sheltered the shaman with its humungous frame and was subsequently peppered with spears. What I had thought to be a quick and decisive attack, turned out to be an utter flop. One spear had hit its mark, stabbing through Jugag’s shoulder. The rest either scratched, grazed or missed the big fucker entirely and just when I thought things couldn’t get more embarrassing, a keening laughter sounded from beneath the hulking meat shield.
“You are a sneaky little monkey.” Jibed Ragnich. “Do you cherish the lives of these monsters more than your own?”
“Oscar, we fucked up.” Said Berlioz dropping down next to me. “I forgot that none of them have any skills.”
“Yeah, me to buddy.” I said patting his back. “Me too. But on the plus side, if we survive this a lot of you might get a spear chucking skill.”
Just then Jugag rose up and pulled the spear out of his shoulder. as he aimed, Ragnich laughed once more. “The skill is called javelins. Allow Jugag to demonstrate.”
The spear flew from the berserker’s meaty hands with so much force that I couldn’t even attempt to evade it. The blade couldn’t pierce my armour but that didn’t stop the impact from taking me off my feet and definitely breaking at least one rib. Peaking at my health bar, I saw that it had a chunk missing and also noticed that my stamina bar was blinking. When I tried to stand, I realised that it was indicating that I was winded, although the pain in my chest did a pretty good job of that too.
“You big bastard.” Screamed Berlioz.
Before I could say anything, he was running at the Berserker, while I was still struggling to get up. The next thing I knew there were two thick fingers lifting my chin and the most horrendous green face pushed into mine.
“Watch as that Panthera, dies for your honour.” Ragnich’s tusks caused him to spit in my face as he spoke and the smell made me gag.
“Fuck.” Closing my eyes and centring myself, causing the green bar to stop flashing. “You.”
I pulled out my dagger and thrusted upwards, aiming for the shaman’s throat, but he darted backwards and my blade merely nicked his chin. My machetes had fallen, and my spear was inside a scout, but I still had my dagger and club. I thrusted and stabbed while he tried to back up, keeping on the cane wielding shaman pushing my dexterity to its limits. He muttered something unintelligible and the skull on his cane let out a scarlet glow, seeing it I pushed to the side swapped out my dagger and slammed my club down on his outstretched arm. A blast of light careered off into the forest, the sulphuric stench of it stung my nostrils but the fumes from Ragnich’s melting forearm made my eyes water.
The Shaman’s cane fell to the ground, and I kicked it away as I rose my club. One head shot would end the battle, but as I brought the heavy weapon down, Ragnich flicked a finger and a spear flew into my shoulder, causing me to drop my corrosive club. The shock of the blunt force trauma to my shoulder made me stumble and as I regained my balance, I saw a cheater running about the camp. Too dazed to think about what it was doing; I shook off the distraction and refocused on the Shaman.
Both of us were unarmed and wounded, but when our eyes met the murderous intent between us was palpable. Ragnich had backed up, held his hand over his melting arm and a red glow evaporated the acid, leaving only the smell of burnt flesh. He smiled at me, let his injured arm hang limply and raised his hand up. I adopted a boxer’s stance and scanned my periphery for any potential projectiles. I ducked and weaved as spears flew, some scraping against my resistant armour, but most missing entirely. I got closer and closer, while the Shaman struggled to concentrate on both attacking and creating distance. A spear flew for my head, and I dropped down to my knees, rolled, thanked the system for the evasion skill and rose up with an uppercut that would have made Mike Tyson proud.
Ragnich spat blood and his hand glowed a more vibrant red than previously, but I clinched in, wrapping is arm in mine, ensuring his hand was away from my body and slammed my forehead into his fat green nose. The glow dissipated as I smashed my head into his face with headbutt after headbutt, until he cried out in dismay and my vision blurred with dizziness. A knee to the gut caused the orc to fall and I followed him down, my hands clutched around his neck and my eyes staring into his. I was lost in the moment, barely able to feel the projectiles that slammed into my back as I wrung the puke green bastard’s neck. My stamina bar plummeted but I held on, squeezing as tightly as I could, until I had to close my eyes and meditate through the nauseating effect of my dwindling green bar. I think I held my breath the entire time and only exhaled as the notification rang true in my mind.
Congratulations, you have killed an Orc (shaman) and have gained the following: medium experience, unarmed combat, endurance.
I almost swore at the system for only giving me medium experience for such a tough opponent but as I looked up towards the fire pit, I saw a sight that took what little breath I had left away.
Berlioz flipped back and the berserkers huge club smashed into the ground. Roaring, Jugag charged in for a gore but with a roll to the left the Panthera evaded. Dipping in he stabbed at the orc’s side with his dagger and darted back out. The orc felt no pain and showed no mercy as he swung his mighty club with ease. My eyes felt heavy and with every blink I missed Berlioz’s rapid movements, flips and rolls, weaves and dodges, all executed with the precision of an expert fighter, allowed Berlioz not only to survive but to orchestrate the flow of the fight.
A blur fell from the sky, then another and another. My blinks lasted longer each time I tried to focus on the battle happening before me. Berlioz was almost wiped out when Jugag spun with the force of a hurricane, but his motion stopped when another blur fell from above and I realized that it was Chef, executing a perfectly aimed drop attack to the orcs back before sprinting out of the way. With Jugag raging and swinging his club wildly, the Panthera dropped from above, over and over again until the spears they wielded turned him into a mean green incredible pincushion. The hulking figure slowed, panting with labouring breathes and Berlioz took up a fallen spear and aimed. The black furred Panthera, focused his piercing blue eyes, took one step and in true form he launched his spear. The last thing I saw before my blinking stamina bar completely depleted and I passed out, was the mantis blade spear, flying through Jugag’s ugly snot coloured face.