Carefully avoiding the gaping cave mouths that dotted the mountainside, they worked their way to the top. Unfortunately for them, there was something already waiting there. This mountain’s peak was more like a plateau than anything else, with a flat area easily the size of a football field if not larger.
One of the giant goats stood at the far end, looking off into the distance. Every few minutes, it would bleat loudly into the air, and an answering bleat would soon ring out. This had probably been the source of the noises that they had heard earlier. As soon as Sam took a step onto the plateau, the goat froze, and turned around sharply. It opened its mouth and bleated at them, creating a windstorm of compressed air. Sam raised one hand in front of his face to block the small pebbles that were being accelerated by the force of the wind.
Sam took a step forwards, and screamed at the goat, imbuing his power into it. A cone of energy shot out, and the goat took a step back in surprise. Sam smiled as he saw the look of rage on its face at being forced to retreat. The goat started to paw at the earth with its back legs, and then charged them at high speeds, causing the ground to shake. Sam bolted towards the right, and the goat followed him. All of its attention was on him, which was good. The others would be able to capitalize on that.
Despite all of Sam’s speed, the goat closed in faster than he could run, and he was soon up against the edge of the mountain. The goat headed right of him, a triumphant gleam in its eyes, and lowered its head in preparation to toss him off. Sam waited until the last minute, and then he jumped straight up and over the goat’s head, leaving it with nothing in its path. Rather than go careening off the edge however, it dug its hooves in immediately, arresting its movement. As it withdrew its legs, Sam saw that there were small spikes on the bottom of them for gripping onto rock. Whatever this creature was, it was very well adapted to its climate.
As it recovered, Eduardo came down from above, slicing out with his rapier as the goat turned. A line of light raced down and left a strip of bleeding flesh across the goat’s head. The goat reared up, kicking out at Eduardo with its powerful front legs. The man weaved around them, using his rapier as a means of controlling his momentum. With its vulnerable underbelly exposed, a joint attack from Addas and Jeffrey slammed into it. Twin beams of light, one a deep red, and the other a ruddy bluish color, twisted around each other in the air and drilled a hole into the goat. Blood spurted out over the snowy ground, and the snow hissed as it melted.
The monster staggered backwards, and came flopping down to the ground, a stream of blood spilling out from its stomach. It bleated, and then jumped up into the sky, pushing off it with its feet. It raced higher and higher, and its body began to crackle with lightning. Sam started to realize what it was trying to do as it stopped midair, and he rushed for cover. The other’s followed him, getting off the plateau just in time.
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The goat angled itself downwards, and kicked off the air with all of its might, sending it down to earth like a bullet. The mountain trembled as it made contact, and a ring of lightning shot out from the top, dissipating soon after. Rock dust spilled out over the edge, and a thunderous rumble began in the depths of the mountain. Rocks began to fall from the sides, and soon the entire mountain was shaking furiously. An avalanche was starting, and they were right in the middle of it. They raced up to the top of the mountain, seeing a smear of blood and bone lying on the ground where the goat had been, and ran over the other edge, sprinting down the mountain. This was a foolhardy idea, as the odds of tripping were high, but it was better than being buried alive.
Larger chunks of rock fell off the side of the mountain as they ran, and soon pieces of stone rolled alongside them at high speeds. They reached the ground a few minutes later, and threw themselves into the gaping valley there, running into one of the caves. There was a pack of lion-wolves there already, but Sam made short work of them.
A group of monsters were drawn by their noises, but as they came out of their caves, the avalanche came crashing down. The sounds of rocks striking the ground quickly grew to a tumultuous crescendo, and Sam covered his ears eventually after they started bleeding. The sound itself was not an issue, but the vibrations within his ears were. They caused his blood vessels to burst, and only by muting the vibrations with his hands could he stop it. The others were faring far worse, and by the time that the avalanche had ceased several were on the ground. However, none of them were seriously hurt, and Sam let out a relieved sigh. Even better, the avalanche had not buried the front of the cave, and had only spilled out into the central area. A wash of blood oozed out from under the rocks, a sickly mix of reds, yellows and greens. A large population of the monster demographic in this area had been crushed by that avalanche. Unfortunately, they had not received any of the essence from it, but they had escaped with something far more valuable. Their lives. Essence could always be earned, but another life could not. Despite the many parallels with games, the world of the System lacked multiple lives. There was no respawning after death, unless you counted becoming an undead, which Sam did not. Perhaps at higher levels, such a measure would become feasible, but he still had no interest in becoming an undead. Having to feast off the energy of the living did not sit well with him, and it was a recipe that led down a short path towards evil.
“Everyone alright?” Sam asked as they got up slowly. He got a chorus of yeses and pained nods from them. Well, it was better than no response at all. “Good,” he said. “Let’s get out of this cave then.”
Sam walked out of the cave mouth, waving at the air to clear the dust still hanging there. There was a pile of rocks in the center that extended outwards across half of the entire valley, and stood about twenty feet high. It was only in this part of the canyon, but it was still quite noticeable. In fact, this might be even more useful than he had predicted. As he made his way over to the rocks, he tested their stability with his mace. When they held, he smiled.
“Let’s use this to get across. It will keep us above the monsters.”