Before

I pull my bowstring back, training the tip of my arrow on the leader standing at the back. It’s throwing rocks even as it exhorts its team to attack us with shrieks and chattering of its teeth. Breathing out, I release the missile, watching in satisfaction as it thunks into the monkey-like reptile, scoring a good hit in its exposed chest. Not a heart-shot, but it’s enough to distract the creature. Plus, the strike has made it drop the rock which was in its paw ready to throw. Even better, it was holding the rock above its head, so it’s now got a headache as well. Always a good moment when the enemy does your work for you.

But this is no time for me to admire my achievement: Bastet’s on the front line occupying the four melee members of the team. I need to take down the ranged before going in to help her out, if she hasn’t already won against them. In addition to the four fighting in melee, there are three more as ranged back-up, one of which is the leader I’ve already hit. Nocking another arrow to the string, I do my best to focus on hitting the creatures somewhere painful.

The creatures are a strange amalgamation of monkey and reptile. Their skin is scaly and a grey-green which blends quite well into the forest. Their heads are big and ugly, bulging eyes on either side and a groove between which runs down to a slit nose and a mouthful of sharp teeth. Along their backs they have a ridge. The leader seems to have spikes running down that ridge; the others just have the protruding bone. Whether that’s the result of some difference in social strata, or even a difference between genders, I don’t know.

They have wide shoulders and strong arms and legs on which the muscle is evident, even beneath the scales. They don’t have opposable thumbs, but that doesn’t seem to stop them grabbing stones and throwing them at us with their clawed paws. Seeming to be comfortable resting in a crouch on two legs, they bob forwards to grab stones and then push themselves back into the crouch to throw it. I know that they can move both with two legs and with four, having watched the way they ran towards Bastet.

Their tails help them when they’re on two legs, almost acting as a third leg in the way it presses against the ground. Their tails are also able to curl around branches and help them reach further than their balance would otherwise allow. In general, they reach up to my waist when in their crouched position. They can probably stand taller for a short time, but I haven’t seen it.

Bastet is hard-pressed with them grabbing at her with their claws and using their grips to bite at her with their teeth. Of course, she’s giving as good as she gets – her own claws are longer and sharper and so are her teeth. One of the attackers is already down, bleeding profusely. It’s unlikely to last much longer, which at least relieves the pressure on her a little. The threat for her is more the rocks – although the ranged fighters don’t seem to want to hit their own so they haven’t been pelting her with too many, each rock that does get thrown risks cracking one or more of her bones, changing the balance of the fight immediately. That’s where I come in.

I don’t aim for their heads, reckoning that they’re probably mostly bone and my flint arrows are more likely to bounce off than anything else, even with my increased Strength behind the missiles. Instead, I aim for their large chests. As well as hitting the leader in the chest, I manage to hit the monkile next to it, also in its chest, though a fair bit lower. I wince in sympathy when I see exactly where my arrow is sticking, the creature’s lack of clothing leaving nothing to the imagination. Though, that said, since they’re reptiles, their genitals are hidden away so perhaps it’s not as painful as I imagine it would be on me.

Still, it makes the lizard drop its rocks and bring both paws down to scrabble at the injury. Whipping off another arrow – that misses – I continue shooting. Slowly, both my rate of fire and my accuracy improve with practice. The three monkiles I’m shooting at are starting to look a bit like porcupines with at least three arrows in each. The leader, whose annoying shrieks are getting on my nerves, actually has five arrows sticking out of it – three in its chest, one in a leg, and one lucky shot in its neck. Unfortunately it doesn’t seem to have hit the carotid artery. Or whatever these creatures have instead.

Apparently I’ve annoyed them enough that they’re now searching for the source of their discomfort rather than focusing on the fight. I’m relieved – I was expecting them to get to this point a good five arrows ago. Frankly, if someone was shooting at me, I’d be on them after the first arrow. But maybe their scaly skin isn’t particularly sensitive; it certainly doesn’t seem like they’ve bled much from the hits.

Revealing myself by releasing Fade, I draw their attention.

“Hey fellas, I’m here to keep you on the straight and arrow,” I taunt. My ex would have probably groaned and smacked me for that one, but without her here, I just grin and enjoy my own joke. Either way, I’ve got the attention of the monkiles for sure. Clearly, they don’t appreciate quality humour. The leader lets out a new ear-piercing shriek and dashes towards me, actually running across the small space between us. It runs really weirdly, its upper body staying absolutely still while its hips swing and its feet pad across the ground. Its tail is key to the movement, counterbalancing the shifts from side to side.

Then it’s on me. Unfortunately for it, I’m ready; I’ve been ready since before shooting it the first time. The leader runs right into my knife. Then it withdraws and runs into my knife again. It must do it a good ten times even as I avoid blows of its claws before I manage to hit something important and it drops to the ground, its lower body suddenly limp. It tries to snap at me weakly, but I just stab it in the throat. This time I definitely manage to hit the carotid artery as blood spurts out.

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Backing a little to get out of range in case it starts twitching violently as it dies, I warily watch the other two ranged fighters. They stare at their downed leader for a moment and I wonder if they might turn tail and run. I’m not that lucky. Instead, they seem to exchange glances and then turn back to me, hissing like a pot boiling over. The next thing I know, they’ve launched themselves towards me. Quickly slotting my bow into my Inventory so I don’t risk it getting stepped on, I grab my mace with my off-hand – with two-on-one odds, I’m going to need it.

Swinging in a back-handed swipe as they get into range, I manage to hit one with a hard blow, making it shriek in pain. Unfortunately, they’re sturdy enough that even my Strength-fueled strike loses enough momentum to make continuing the swipe pointless. Instead, I bring my knife into play, scoring a strike across the other one’s chest instead of managing to pierce through into its heart.

In return, their claws rake across me. Fortunately, my rough chitin armour is enough to turn their blows. My armour takes a beating, though, as one of them gets in a lucky strike which actually cuts through one of the ties holding my breastplate in place.

The momentum back on my side as their attacks fail, I use a strike from my mace to push me back a little, opening up enough space that I’m able to swing my weapon with enough force to crack the skull of the one on the right. It falls back, its paws going to scrabble at the wound. I think I might have damaged its eye too. The other one lunges at me, but I get in a lucky hit – instead of it managing to bite my arm, it instead bites my knife...point first.

I press my advantage as it back-pedals, grabbing its ugly mug so I can pull it further onto my knife. It hits something hard and halts, requiring a flex of my muscles to continue its journey. The pause must have been the tip of my blade piercing through its mouth and into its brain as a moment later it goes limp, the light leaving its eyes. Quickly finishing off the monkile which is still pawing at its eye and whimpering piteously with small shrieks, I look at my partner.

She’s fine. Bastet’s managed to down three of her attackers and is currently suffocating the fourth with a grip on its throat. She’s looking pretty bloody though, and I have a feeling that most of it is hers. That’s partly because of all the rents I see in her coat, but also because our attackers have green blood, and most of what’s on her is red.

Swiftly moving through the battleground, I cast a Lay-on-hands on her. As I stand with my hands literally laid on her bloody feather-fur to channel the healing, I scan the surrounding trees. Not finding what I’m looking for, I ask Bastet.

“Where did the cubs go?” They’d been following us when we were attacked by this troupe of monkey-reptiles. Bastet had sent some sort of instruction to them that was too fast for me to catch. And then she’d leapt in to grab their attention and I’d triggered Fade. None of that left enough time for me to make sure the cubs were safe.

Bastet sends me a wave of uncertainty, but tempered with reassurance. I interpret it to mean that she doesn’t know exactly where they are, but thinks they’re probably safe. Well, she should know, I suppose.

Once Bastet is in a better condition, we go looking for the cubs. Or at least, I do. The adult raptorcat just makes a few chirping sounds and suddenly – poof! The cubs appear out of nowhere! That’s how they make it seem, anyway. In fact, they just found a good spot at the base of a tree to hide in and their natural camouflage did the rest. Actually, is it just their natural camouflage? Given the new world I’m in, it could be magic. Perhaps they have the same ability that Bastet does – after all, she disappears in plain sight on a regular basis.

Either way, they’re safe. I count one, two, and three, sighing in relief. Fortunately, Trouble hasn’t lived up to his name. Probably Storm kept him in line – I’ve been seeing her take charge more and more recently. Or maybe it’s because the order came from Bastet. For whatever reason, I’m relieved.

Cubs found, I begin clearing up the battleground. Or I start doing so until I realise that my Inventory is full. Damn. With setting off after Lathani directly after exploring the cavern and gathering all that salt, I didn’t have many squares in my Inventory left over even when I started the journey. A day and multiple encounters in and it’s now completely full. I could take out my bow and sling it across my back to free up a space or… I probably have another option if the nagging sense of a message waiting for me is anything to judge by.

Opening my message box, I see a couple of new messages, not just the one I was expecting.

Congratulations!

You have worked hard on your Dexterity (Agility) and have earned a point. This has been applied to your status.

Next message? Y/N

So apparently I’ve done enough work on my Dexterity to actually earn a point outright. I’m not completely surprised – I did see a message not that long ago that offered me the point for Energy and I turned it down, wanting to save my Energy to level up. It seems that using my bow levels my Dexterity fast. It’s interesting that it’s the Agility subcategory that’s increased – I’ll need to remember that.

As for the next message, I feel anticipation grow in my belly as I open it.

Congratulations!

You have gathered enough Energy to push your body to the next level. Would you like to level up?

Y/N?

Yes! Finally! It feels like a long time since I last saw that message. I mean, I was at ninety-eight percent before even starting the fight, so it was inevitable that it would happen during it. In fact, I’d felt the nagging sense of a notification after I’d killed the leader, so in the break between that and its flunkies deciding to charge, I’d actually consciously focused on pushing new Energy towards my debt. I don’t know how I managed to remember about that in the heat of the moment, but I did. Maybe it’s my increased Intelligence working for me.

My heart actually dropped into my boots when I saw the first message was about Dexterity – until I spotted that there was another message waiting for me, that is. I’d been suddenly worried that I’d switched modes too quickly!

Fortunately, I was wrong. Well, right that I’d earned enough Energy to level up, and wrong that I’d misinterpreted the nagging notification feeling.

Welp, time to get to level three! It’s been a long time coming...