Stepping through the trees while avoiding the roots, I kept everyone within my line of sight, an arrow notched on my bow, as we kept walking slowly through the woods. It wasn’t difficult, but we were all on high alert, looking out for any unexpecting threats. Barring our footsteps, the surroundings were completely silent, causing the hairs on the back of my head to stand. The trees were becoming worse, the decay had caused them to fall apart, all withered and dead.
Seeing my health on the HUD, it’s covered by a blue bar that is wearing off constantly and when it reaches ten percent it would be refreshed. Melody is carefully weaving her shields to maintain her mana at full. Since we don’t regenerate mana until a minute after using a spell, she needed to time recasting her shields perfectly and though it’d been a bit tricky she manages to keep the shields up. Even if it were to wear off, her shields would heal us if we lose health at all.
“At this rate we’ll have no trees left.” Sheep whispers to himself as we enter a new section that showed even worse decay, trees badly withered to the point several had fallen apart completely, freeing up our sight.
“If this is a disease and we’ve exposed ourselves to it, we’re so fucked.” Melody whispers while grimacing at the sight around us.
“If it was airborne we would’ve been exposed a long time ago.” Replying to Melody, I kept an eye on everyone as we stepped forward more. At that moment, I noticed the shield deplete a bit faster and I wasn’t the only one who saw this, everyone else stopped.
“Shit, it’s suddenly stronger? So it’s a type of area of effect?” Sheep grimaces while looking at Melody. “At this rate of depletion, can you continue?”
“It’ll be a bit rough, but it’s only increased by about ten percent. We’re certainly on a limit though, once I’ve finished a mana potion it might be best to head back.”
Handing her one of my mana potions, I gesture to the way we’re walking. “Make it two, we want to try and find what is causing this decay. How often will you use a mana potion?”
“One every two hours? That’s if it stays at this amount of depletion.”
With that, we decided to continue at the same pace. After an hour of walking, the depletion worsened once again. Handing my other two mana potions to Melody, since I only had them in case of a future dream which should happen here, we decided to go for one more hour. As we walked, I took in the surreal surroundings, nothing remained alive here. Trees and plants were gone, the dirt and ground were grey and lifeless. It’s like…
“It’s like life has been drained from the very earth.” Winter mutters while looking around.
Deciding to use Hawkeye again, I looked around where we had been walking towards. I’d used it several times and we discovered traces of the decay spreading from a source and had slowly been tracing our steps towards ground zero. It expanded in a ring, it wasn’t directional or random, and as I looked around, I saw the signs once again and confirmed it before turning my eyes forward, zooming as much as I could.
There, in the distance, I finally saw a silhouette of something. I couldn’t make it out, but after watching the shadow for a moment, I saw it expand slightly before shrinking back to the same size.
“It’s breathing…”
“Huh? Midnight?” Sheep calls out to me as I cancel the Hawkeye. The silhouette had been on the edge of my vision, meaning it would be about two kilometres. Telling the others of what I saw while we continued to walk in the direction of it, they nodded.
“Must be a new type of Husk. Wonder how long it’s been here for, the decay has been slow to spread after all.”
“If it’s the source then perhaps its spread was initially fast then fell off? If it hasn’t moved then it makes sense.”
“Theories won’t do anything now. If it’s truly the source we need to get rid of it since our base is nearby.” Sheep puts a stop to the conversation before looking around. “Same formation as before, except we’ll hit it from range. With Midnight’s talent she can do most of the damage while we protect her. Let’s go.”
We continued and once we were within a kilometre, we stopped as I took out and notched a drill arrow. Sheep, with a sniper, planned to also shoot before taking command if required. The others waited, with Melody keeping our shields up, two of her mana potions already gone.
Breathing out, I raised the bow and pulled back with most of my strength. The bow had been made with such strength that even though I could easily lift cars I still needed a lot of power to draw the bow itself back. Taking aim, I closed an eye and zoomed in with the others, getting a very clear view of what we faced.
A monster sat there, a non-humanoid monster, the first one I’ve seen in this world. It’s like a butterfly if it had been drawn by someone on a lot of drugs, demonic large eyes, five antennae that stuck upwards red in colour, its main body a pulsating green and its wings were massive but damaged, like something had bitten them. Relaying this to the others, including its size of a small house, they prepared themselves as I breathed out and released my arrow right at its head.
The expected explosion of flesh that I had gotten used to didn’t happen. The arrow struck true, a hole being drilled through its head, but it’s just about the size of the arrow itself. My instincts blew up, telling me I had just made a massive mistake. As if to rub it in, the System flashed up.
WARNING! YOU HAVE PROVOKED A DISASTER LEVEL MONSTER! YOU ARE NOT PREPARED FOR A BEING OF THIS LEVEL!
EMERGENCY QUEST HAS BEEN ISSUED!
RUN! ESCAPE AND YOU WILL BE PROVIDED REWARDS!
Silence rang out and I knew everyone had just received the quest. My eyes were on the disaster-level monster as its eyes snapped to us in an instant. It made no sound, but it started to get up, its wings stretching out.
“FUCK, RUN!” Sheep bellows loudly as I take out another arrow and aim carefully before firing. As it flies, I grab a drill arrow and fire another shot. Both arrows strike true, one popping the creature’s eye while the other hits its body, only slightly entering it. That’s more than enough, that arrow being a poison arrow. Turning with the others, we started to run back but a change happened.
The shields Melody had been deploying started to deplete fast. Twenty percent every five seconds now. Not only that, but as we started to run, a wall appeared…
“That wall…no, it’s not a wall, what the hell is it?!” Using my Hawkeye, I quickly found the wall to be corpses. All of them stuck together, like they were glued, but they had emerged from the ground. They didn’t move forward, only ever making grabbing motions, but it reached three stories high. Lemon and Sheep could easily clear it, but we couldn’t. Turning my head for a second, I saw the butterfly walking towards us, as if mocking us.
“Shit, we have to fight.” A bleak tone came from Sheep as I quickly turned and grabbed his sniper from him, firing at the butterfly's remaining eye. However, the butterfly tanked the hit, the bullet only hurting it slightly, the eye didn’t explode like I had expected it to. My talent could only do this much damage.
“Melody, keep Aerith and Midnight covered with a barrier while reapplying their shields! Winter protect the barrier, Lemon get into a mid range position and spray it. Dawn, distract the fucker and Ghost you lay into it.” Dawn quickly dashed forth while Lemon followed. Winter stood outside of the barrier as if to protect it. The butterfly, not exactly fast, had still closed the distance fast. Dawn met it about halfway, around two hundred metres from us.
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Handing the sniper back, I took up the bow as I watched my health start to deplete before another shield applied. I felt pain sear into my bones as I watched Dawn slam her shield into the butterfly. It didn’t even budge as my stomach tightened, only watching as the butterfly reared up and slammed two of its legs at Dawn. She raised her shield, shrinking her body behind it as the legs slammed into the shield, sending her flying back, two large dents in the shield.
I fired off the poison arrows at a fast rate, all of them landing true and sinking into its flesh. I had no idea if the poison did anything. Ghost, who had used his talent to the fullest, flanked the butterfly and started to fire at it with both pistols, green smoke emitting from his pistols. Even though his bullets penetrate its skin, they didn’t even seem to bother the monster.
The sound of the minigun starting filled the air before it fired, Lemon firing at its midsection. Aerith conjured Frozen Orb after Frozen Orb, but the magic simply just bounced off it. Melody downed her third mana potion, reapplying the mana potions. Sheep threw an incendiary grenade followed by a fragmentation grenade, both exploding as Dawn got back on her feet.
The butterfly ignored the assault as it moved towards us, the shield I had now depleting at fifty percent every ten seconds. We’ll die in less than five minutes, and the butterfly is just walking towards us, menacingly.
Looking at it closely, I started to realise why there were no damages to the monster. It wasn’t simply skin protecting its body, it’s an exoskeleton! Our bullets and arrows weren’t piercing it completely, and as we made distance from the butterfly we realised we either died to the butterfly or the corpse wall.
I stopped firing arrows, focusing my eyes completely. An exoskeleton this tough meant we couldn't harm the bastard, but surely there must be a spot we could fire into to cripple it. Even if we took out the other eye all it had to do was be there and we would die. If we could defeat it, then perhaps the decay would stop. I strained my eyes, searching, searching for a spot to exploit. I used more mana, trying my hardest to find that one spot that wasn’t exoskeleton but flesh.
I moved mana in different ways, hoping to use Hawkeye differently. I grew desperate, my health plummeting as shields were applied. I knew Melody couldn’t keep this up for longer and so I changed the way I used mana one more time. My vision changed completely, like I was viewing everything in thermal vision, but this time I saw a spot that was bright white. Ignoring the System’s new message, I realised quickly where this white spot is, it’s between the wing joints on its back!
Dawn charged forward, being blown away once more with her shield breaking into pieces. Ghost narrowly avoided a leg before being blindsided by another, a crunch resounding as he flew into the distance. My heart sped up as I watched the butterfly turn towards us. Frost crept up its legs, slowly freezing them to the ground, but it’s far too little to make a difference.
Turning to Sheep, I ripped his remaining grenades off his belt before doing the same to Melody, both of them looking at me in surprise. Without a word, I sprinted towards Rebecca. I refused to sit at the back and watch things collapse like this, and I knew she wouldn’t let me face it alone. I knew what I had seen, that white spot was a weak spot, my eyes had found it.
Exiting the barrier, I saw Rebecca look at me, not in surprise but determination. She sprinted ahead of me while I yelled to her.
“Back!”
Ripping a grenade off her belt, she threw a glance in Lemon’s direction, nodded, then turned around, ripping the pin out of the grenade with her teeth, lobbing it at the butterfly fifty metres away. Smoke emitted from it, giving us cover as she turned around, picked me up and sprinted. Lemon started firing as a wall of ice appeared in front of us, like a slide upwards.
Rebecca sprinted up it and jumped at its apex, holding me tightly as we went flying upwards at least fifty metres before Rebecca straightened her legs, dropping from the sky like a cannonball. We quickly descended as she slammed into the butterflies back, dropping it to the ground as the exoskeleton cracked, Rebecca’s right leg snapping at the shin from the impact. Hearing her pained cry made my heart speed up, but she stood right away.
“Where?!”
“There!” Pointing at the joints, I directed Rebecca quickly. She drew out her shotgun, hopping over as the butterfly moved. My health, now sitting at 40hp, quickly recovered to 60hp as the shield depleted, healing me as another shield was applied. Jamming her shotgun into the joints, Rebecca fired with a yell, holding me close.
The butterfly, for the first time, faltered and buckled. A hole opened up as the wings became disjointed, on the verge of falling off. Rebecca throws her shotgun to the side, puts me down and using both hands tore the wings off with a yell. Quickly, I threw the grenades into the shotgun hole while taking Rebecca’s from her waist. The grenades fall in and as I’m about to pick up Rebecca and jump, I realise my fatal mistake.
The grenades weren’t primed, I hadn’t pulled a pin off them. The butterfly started to regain its balance and I knew it would throw us off, I couldn’t pull a grenade out, the hole is rather deep. Looking at Rebecca, I shouted at her.
“Jump!”
“What about you?!”
“I’ll be right behind you!” Turning to the hole, I saw Rebecca stand there before shaking her head. In that moment, time slowed down as I stared at her beautiful face as I remembered why I loved her. My heart slowed down as I smiled softly at her, knowing that she wouldn’t leave me no matter what, nor would I leave her. She places her arm around my waist as I nod and aim at the hole with my right leg, standing a distance away as I motivate my mana.
“Fireball!”
In total, I had thrown in four fragmentation grenades, six incendiary, three sonic and two smoke grenades. The moment the Fireball formed and shot out, Rebecca kicked off the back with her left leg, but the blast of all of those grenades hit us, the shockwave and flames covering us as we were blown off its back. We flew off, slamming into the ground, holding each other as we skipped along the ground, bouncing hard.
I felt my right arm break from the impact, each bounce taking the wind out of me. My health plummeted from 80hp down to 10hp by the time we stopped rolling. A shield was quickly applied to me as my consciousness drifted in and out. More System messages came up as I groaned in pain, my sight covered by Rebecca’s chest.
I saw her breathing, relief spreading as I pulled my head away, meeting her eyes, her face pale, a pained expression covering it as she panted heavily. We both quickly, and painfully, looked at the direction we had been blown away from, towards the butterfly. There, the burning body of the butterfly became apparent, it had been blown into several pieces and remained unmoving.
I saw the shield on my HUD and it had not dropped at all, which only meant one thing. The bastard is dead, and with its death the decay has stopped. I heard voices screaming, all of them muffled as I realised my hearing had been lost, hopefully temporarily. I could only hear a ringing noise and the voices heavily muffled. I turned my head to see Rebecca also looking at me before we embraced each other.
My heart skipped a beat as I realised that at that moment I may have very well lost her, or she lost me. Pulling her into the tightest hug I could, I kissed her deeply as she returned it, as if we both never wanted to be separated ever again. I don’t know how long we were like this, my heart and mind only flooding with the emotion that we’d survived and that she’s okay, the love for her spilling out completely.
My hearing started to return slowly as I heard a muffled voice approaching us, but I didn’t care, we didn’t care. A sigh sounded out close by and this time, though muffled, I heard a voice that belonged to one annoyed man.
“God damnit, find a room, you two.”
Finally separating from Rebecca, I looked at Sheep for a moment before realisation hit me. I had been so focused on Rebecca I had forgotten those last few moments where Ghost had been sent flying. Moving to get up, Sheep quickly moved to help me up.
“Don’t worry, everyone else is okay. Ghost is badly injured but Melody is treating him. He’s fine and even cracking jokes, you two however are far worse than him. Quick, drink a healing draught.” Bringing a potion to my mouth, I grabbed it with my free arm and poured the contents down. Thankfully, it wasn’t a ‘fruity’ potion. Rebecca also quickly drank one as I saw my health slowly recover.
Looking at my broken arm, I checked the rest of my body. Minor wounds were healing visibly, but my arms, chest, legs and neck were all severely burnt. The pain from them all started to hit me as I hissed, holding back a scream. Including my broken arm, my right knee is dislocated and I had shrapnel wounds all over my body, thankfully none hitting anything vital.
Rebecca is in a similar state, except along with her broken leg her left arm had also broken. We were both in terrible states, if the decay had stuck around we would’ve been in massive trouble.
“Sheep, how is everyone else?”
“Dawn is banged up but okay, she has a broken arm and a few scratches. Ghost is as I said. Everyone else is okay, the decay caused us all pain for a bit. The wall is gone, it seems like it was a spell by that butterfly. We need to discuss what the hell we fought when we get back.”
“Let’s do that. Sorry, by the way.”
“For dashing out on your own? It’s fine, we would’ve been dead either way. I failed us by not realising the danger ahead of time. Come on, we’re making camp here until you’re all treated, at least until we can make sure those burns are all treated.”
Getting up, Sheep helped both of us up and with both of us leaning on either side of him, I chuckled. “Man, who’d have thought Sheep would just walk around with two girls in his arms like this. Diana would throw a fit.”
Rebecca and Sheep both chuckle as the three of us slowly make our way back to our comrades, each of us realising that we had just overcome an impossible task.