Pete and Zoey neared the larger group of raccoons, and the lights from the town illuminated the bandits. As soon as he could see them, Pete began to count them. From what he could tell, there were at least fifteen. With the invisible ones behind him and Zoey, that made seventeen.
He wondered how they were invisible, guessing it was some cloak or item. Then again, it was possible that all the raccoons in Round could turn invisible.
From what he could tell, the levels of the raccoons ranged from level five to level thirteen. Most of them carried polearms. The only exception to this was a level twenty named Rumpke.
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The level twenty wore a harness with a bronze battle skirt, a thick leather utility belt over the skirt. Rippling muscles covered the creature’s frame. He looked like He-Man…if He-Man was a four-foot-tall raccoon.
On the utility belt, Pete saw two knives strapped near the front. A pair of nunchakus hung on the right hip, a short sword on the left. A longer sword strapped at an angle on Rumpke’s back, a battleax crossed the other way to form an X.
As they drew near, Rumpke began to speak. “At last, we meet, Pete the pizzaman.” The level twenty raccoon opened the fingers on his right hand, protracting pointed claws on each of his five fingers. He drew the claw on his thumb against the one on his pointer finger, creating an unnerving, grinding sound.
“Uh…” Pete stammered, unsure how to answer as he came to a stop before Rumpke. “Meet at last…right…ummm…did you need something? Can I help you?”
Rumpke retracted his claws, examining Pete’s face before saying. “Help me?” Then Rumpke laughed. “Help me, he says. He wonders if he can help me.”
The other raccoons began to laugh, their laughter growing with each second until Rumpke held up a finger. The instant he did so, the laughter stopped.
“What do you want?” Zoey asked.
Rumpke’s eyes shifted over to Zoey. “I’m glad you asked, dear.” Rumpke opened his mouth, using a claw as a toothpick before continuing. “What I want is my brother back.”
“Your brother?” Pete sought clarification.
Rumpke hung his head, explaining. “He’s a clumsy one, always scheming but never succeeding. The other night, he went to rob you, and now he’s in the town’s jail.”
Pete’s heartbeat faster, a wave of understanding slamming into him harder than a Mike Tyson punch. Pete told the raccoon leader. “We don’t have your brother. I don’t even know where the jail is. I’m not sure how we can help you. What do you want us to do?”
“What do I want you to do? Let me tell you how this is going to work. I’m taking your friend here.” Rumpke nodded at Zoey. “Go tell the mayor I’m willing to make a trade. Your friend for my brother.”
Pete’s stomach clenched. He couldn’t let Zoey get kidnapped; he had to do something. But what happened if he fought back, and she got hurt? He couldn’t risk that. The best play—Pete felt—was to make the trade. He didn’t see any other way around it.
“Yeah,” Zoey spoke. “I’m not going with anyone.”
Rumpke winked at her. “Sorry to say it, my dear, but you don’t have a choice.” He signaled to his guards. “Take her.”
“Nope,” Zoey said, spinning and materializing her pizza fork in her right hand, her peel in her left. The peel was already in its shield mode in front of her. As the armaments appeared, she was mid-spin, arcing the fork across the invisible raccoon behind her.
Though Pete couldn’t see it, he heard the dull crack as the fork connected; the injured raccoon whimpered on the ground.
At that moment, Pete’s battle prompts activated, and he decided it was time to act. So he spun and slapped three times toward his own invisible foe. He used slap’m silly because he didn’t want to kill any of the raccoons.
Two of the three slaps connected, and he received a prompt:
You defeated raccoon raider. You received 320 experience.
Zoey gained two levels.
You received plus 3.1 slapping proficiency.
With the two invisible raccoons taken care of, Pete and Zoey spun to face the others. Knowing the raccoons outnumbered them, Pete doubted their chances. Even so, there was no going back.
He slapped left and right, using slap’m silly. He supplemented attacks with machine gun slap, the skill he’d learned from the Turkey Titan’s fingerless glove drop. His agility attribute allowed him to avoid the rusty spear tips of the raccoons.
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Zoey ducked, danced, and deflected. She’d parry to the right, block to the left, and swing and fell whenever openings presented.
All the while, the proficiency bonuses, experience, and levels climbed. Pete and Zoey grew more powerful with each defeated enemy.
As strong as they fought, they still took some damage. A glancing blow from a level twelve raider left Pete with a deep wound across his cheek. Though, he couldn’t single out when it happened. Everything was chaotic, disjointed, savage.
Pete had a considerable attack brought about from his high slapping proficiency. Even so, he caught glances of Zoey. He realized she seemed to surpass him in every area.
They couldn’t touch her. One spear swung at her head, and she ducked, sliding, avoiding the point by inches. She returned to her feet as she reached her opponent, using the force of her slide to build momentum and bash them with the flat of her shield. It stunned them. Then she wacked them with the wooden dowel part of her fork.
Another charged her, and she stepped to the side, letting it trip over her foot as it overshot. Where she seemed to dominate, she, like Pete, was careful not to kill any of them.
As the raccoon’s numbers dwindled, the injured procyonids retreated. Some hid behind Rumpke. Others ran back to the forest. Rumpke growled, shouting at those who fled. “You’re going to have toilet cleaning duty for a year!”
Pete’s confidence with the situation continued to grow until he felt a stinging pain in his side. He looked down, but he couldn’t see what harmed him, no opponent, no weapon. Even so, something had punctured his leather and padded armor. An open wound bled out…and it stung. Even worse, his HP bar had dipped to three-quarters full.
Then he realized. It’s another one of the invisible raccoons. Panic gripped him. How could he fight something which he couldn’t see? In desperation, he slapped in that direction. The only thing he caught was air.
A sharp pain pierced his other side, his HP dipped another full quarter, and he fell to a knee. Realizing he couldn’t see his enemy, he became still. It hurt to move, but that wasn’t why he became still. Rather, he wanted to listen, hear the next attack coming.
“Pete,” Zoey warned, still occupied with two of her own enemies. “To your left, now.”
Pete activated slap’m silly and steel hands, then he swung with all his might. His palm landed solid against the face of his invisible enemy. Even though he couldn’t see his attacker, he saw dust puff up on the ground where the raccoon fell. A prompt appeared:
You defeated raccoon raider. You received 290 experience.
Congratulations! You gained a level.
Along with the level increase, Pete regained all his HP. The wounds in his side disappeared along with the pain sensation. “Thanks,” he shouted to Zoey, wondering how she knew where the enemy was. He’d have to ask her later. He hoped her answer wouldn’t be that she smelled Pete’s blood on the enemy’s weapon or something like that.
While Pete returned to his feet, Zoey finished off the remainder of the raccoon raiders. With the underlings defeated, Pete and Zoey turned to face Rumpke.
The raccoon warlord stood alone, now. Regardless, he was as intimidating as ever. If not for the muscles, the level twenty indicator next to his name was an objective reminder of his strength…even if he was only four feet tall.
During the battle with the other raccoons, Pete had gained four levels. He knew Zoey had gained at least that, but at best, she had raised to level seven. A level seven and a level eleven versus a level twenty. For all intents and purposes, it was a boss fight.
Before they clashed, Rumpke spoke, looking Zoey over, trying to understand how she was so strong. “I’ve never seen a level one with that kind of power, not a human, anyway. What are you?”
“I’m a vampire.” She admitted.
“That makes sense.” Rumpke nodded, pulling the two knives from his belt. “It won’t save you, though.”
In a flash, Rumpke was on them, swinging the blades at Zoey in an unrelenting storm. The pattern of it reminded Pete of the time he’d watched people doing Arnis drills. Right-hand swipe, left-hand swipe, left-hand reverse swipe, right-hand reverse. Then it would repeat. Right, left, left, right. Again…and again…and again…
Zoey contested the blows, using her shield and her polearm, but Pete noticed the panic on her face. She wouldn’t be able to keep up with the attacks forever, and Rumpke didn’t seem like he would let up any time soon.
Pete used the opportunity to run behind Rumpke, slapping him from behind. Rumpke ducked away from it without breaking rhythm, still unleashing his deadly volley against Zoey.
Pete swung again.
This time Rumpke countered, bringing his shoulder up to deflect the slap. Then the warlord spun in a full circle, catching Pete across the face with an elbow. It opened a cut under Pete’s left eye and sent him rolling to the side.
Even so, Zoey took advantage of the break in Rumpke’s movements. She used the pronged end of her fork to catch one of the knives and twist, prying the weapon from Rumpke’s hand and sending it through the air.
As it landed against the soft grass of the field, Zoey used the back of her fork to knock the second knife away from Rumpke. She lifted her foot and kicked him in the chest.
The attack didn’t cause much damage, but it knocked the raccoon off balance. The small mammal rolled backward, returning to his feet. Somewhere during his roll, he had removed the battleax from his back.
Rumpke uses Earthshatter. You received 112 damage.
Rumpke didn’t give Zoey time to recover; he ran toward her, ax overhead, ready to finish her off. Pete rolled forward, returning to his feet in a run and activating machine gun slap.
The shockwave of Pete’s attack knocked Rumpke to the side, and his grip on the ax loosened. Pete took the chance to slap the broad side of the weapon, tearing it from Rumpke:
You used Machine Gun Slap. You caused 115 damage.
An unarmed, off-balance Rumpke’s momentum carried him toward Zoey.
She lifted both of her feet and kicked him straight in the gut:
Zoey attacked Rumpke. Zoey caused 315 damage.
Rumpke let out an UUUFFF as he continued beyond Zoey, falling to the ground. There he rolled another three times, his arms over his stomach.
Though, he didn’t stay like that for long, standing as he coughed twice and reach for the nunchakus. Like Michelangelo, Rumpke began to spin the weapon. Twisting it over this shoulder, going from a figure-eight pattern to an inverted version of it, switching the weapon from hand to hand.
Instead of trying to do something fancy like intercept or deflect the weapon, Zoey punched it—and Rumpke—with the flat of her peel. The attack knocked the weapon—and Rumpke—to the ground:
Zoey used Peel bash. Rumpke received 100 damage.
Rumpke crawled back with a stumble before finding his footing. As he stood, he pulled the gigantic sword from its sheath on his back. “You two are troublesome.” He smiled. “But I must admit. I haven’t had this much fun in a long time.”
Pete didn’t answer with his words. Instead, he used his fire ability, summoning a small ball of flame into his right hand. He could feel it, tangible like a baseball, so he held it like a baseball, aimed at Rumpke’s face, and threw.
The small ball of fire found its mark, disarming Rumpke and knocking him to the ground. Rumpke remained there, arms out to each side. Then he spoke, “I give up.”
You defeated Rumpke. You received 2,000 experience points.
Congratulations! You gained a level.