"We have company!"
Vel yelped from her position on my back as I jumped from my current platforms. Still, her reflexes kicked in and she quickly grabbed my waist to stabilize herself. With the increased speed from the wind Mystic Enhancement, I managed to easily leap away before the crocolisk could jump at us.
"Shit, a crocolisk!" Vel cursed.
Several bright spell circles appeared in front of her outstretched hand. Several clusters of wooden stakes burst in existence right behind me, the shafts grew at astonishing speeds and stabbed indiscriminately into the water and nearby trees. Through my sphere, I could see the crocolisk barreling towards the barricade with increased speed. A large wave formed behind it.
"Water magic again," I whined.
I jumped off another set of platforms with renewed celerity as the giant reptile rode the wave through the wood and shattered it like a battering ram. I threw my own spells at the oncoming water, the same combination of ice magic and dispel I had used against the frog. The front wave turned to ice in an instant but the crocolisk had managed to separate part of the water in a split second to avoid the propagating effect.
"Son of a …" I cursed in turn. "Vel, split and support!"
There was a moment of hesitation from my girlfriend. I could tell she didn't want to leave my side but at the same time, she knew being among the trees would give her much more options. A second later, she gave me a determined nod and threw her vine whip to the side. I threw myself in the opposite direction and cast a modified Stasis spell behind us.
The rain of ice shards barreling towards slowed down to a crawl. As did the crocolisk behind. When it entered the area, the spell sapped nearly all momentum from its charge. I landed on another set of platforms and created three small obsidian blades, their cores were made out of a highly mana conductive crystal to power the dozens of tiny runes on their surfaces. Several spells were loaded onto each projectile, magic suppression, arcane strikes, weakening curses, and more. In front, a column of spell circles formed.
As soon as the tip of a blade entered the circle, it broke the sound barrier with a loud crack. The first broke against the shield of water that had formed against the crocolisk, the shockwave opening a large hole through. The second followed barely an instant later and hit the monster's right shoulder. Its armor was tough enough that the impact only created a crater in the dark green scales but it was enough for the spells to unleash and weaken its defenses. The last blade flew true and embedded itself deep inside the monster's flesh, seeping cursed mana into the wound wreaking havoc from the inside.
The crocolisk roared at me as the stasis spell ended and it fell towards the water. I raised several barriers to stop the dozens of water tendrils aimed at me. Most of them were stopped but one slipped through and hit the side of my abdomen. I felt my carapace crack under the pressure and my legs buckled from the pain. Another burst of ice stopped the flow and the crocolisk was forced to relent its attack for a split second. The water of the swamp was frozen solid for several dozen meters around us. The crocolisk roughly landed on the ice, several cracks forming at the point of impact.
"Tough one," I chuckled. It had been a while since a monster had managed to hurt me that bad. More barriers appeared around me and I switched my enhancement from speed to defense. One of my mental constructs was already hard at work healing me. In addition to cracking my carapace, the impact had rattled the organs underneath.
Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.
With the crocolisk's attention on me, and easily available water denied, Vel went on the offensive. The monster had an impressive field of vision with it's side-mounted eyes but the cluster of vines that approached from directly behind it went undetected until it was too late. The hooked thorns caught on the tail and the vines grew exponentially faster, engulfing the monster's entire tail in a matter of seconds.
The crocolisk was agile and strong enough to tear the vines apart given the opportunity. I did not give it one. From within my fortress of barriers, I cast several spells and rained down a cascade of fire and electricity which forced the monster to defend itself even as the vines grew and pinned it in place.
As the monster weakened from the curse at its insides, the poison from the vines wrapping around its body, and the need to maintain a shield against the magical assault, it finally decided to flee. Mana surged and the water underneath the ice sheet broke through. An opening created, the crocolisk dropped its water shield and used all of its strength to throw itself into the hole. Vel's vines broke under the stress and the monster vanished.
Only once it had disappeared from my sphere did I drop my barriers. Vel lowered herself onto my back from her place in the canopy. We both stayed alert for several minutes but eventually the adrenaline crashed down. Vel was hugging me tight from behind and she trembled slightly.
"I … when you got hit, I …" she mumbled.
"I'm tougher than that," I held her hands and stroked her leg.
----------------------------------------
Even though we still had plenty of hours in the day, we both decided to take a break and retreated to our camp. Vel channeled her nervous energy by preparing a snack for us while I held her in my lap and stroked her hair. It was a fairly simple salad with a base of leafy greens and an assortment of cut vegetables. She sprinkled some spices, oil, and vinegar bought from the guild shops on top.
"This is great," I complimented her.
"Glad you like it," she leaned into me with a satisfied smile.
We spent an hour or two cuddling in the web after that. The fight had been another reminder that despite our high levels and tricks, we were far from invincible. Still, we managed to hold our own. That hit I had taken around a tenth of my health, not an insignificant amount, but not lethal either. Even if it had pierced through I would have survived long enough to bunker down and heal like I did.
The cursed dagger was still inside the crocolisk too. It wasn't impossible it would succumb at some point.
Once we felt better, we returned to our search for the water-bloom. This time, I spread arcane eyes and scrying sensors around to watch for any interlopers but no more crocolisks showed their snout. A few giant dragonflies in search of a meal were quickly dispatched and the occasional territorial frog was dealt with as well. With less need to preserve the ingredients we needed, they easily fell to high power lightning spells.
"We should be close," Vel said as she snatched the latest batch of flowers from their stems. "Each bottle needs about twenty mature flowers worth of seeds. If I remember right, we need only two more red, one green, and three white."
"That's what I counted as well," I confirmed as I quickly did the math in my head. "We also need three more frogs for the missing ingredients and two Kameleons."
"Let's finish the water-blooms today," Vel suggested, "we're in a very fertile area already. It shouldn't take long."
I nodded and sent my sensors in search of the next cluster which I found less than a hundred meters away. It was the affair of only a few minutes to harvest them. When Vel plucked the last bloom, I received a system notification.
Your group has defeated [Adult Swamp Crocolisk (Level 179, Rank 5)]
Experience gain reduced by 20% for fighting with a group
Experience gain increased by 20% for a dangerous encounter.
Essence Absorption collected 15 ES (5x3)
"Rest in peace big guy," I whispered.