Teddy and Kyra were lying on their fronts on the roof of a mud dwelling, long ago abandoned by the desert people, the arid conditions had been too much and the entire population had shifted to more temperate climes. It was the sort of situation where you would expect them to both be using binoculars, staring down the desert towards the canyon dipping away. They didn’t need any binos as James was lying on his back at their feet, well away from the edge, his eyes were closed and body relaxed. He was deftly manipulating his aura power to envelope the rooftop without it going any further.
Ability: [Rise] (Eagle)
Aura (Spirit) (Boon)
Cost: None.
Cool-down: None.
Current rank: Iron 5 (40%)
Effect (iron): Allies within you aura have their perception and perception powers significantly increased. Allies spirit attribute will be temporarily increased. Enemies within the aura will have a sense of dread of a predator above.
Kyra and Teddy could concentrate and see much further than they otherwise should be able to. Teddy looked up, he could see a pair of vultures circling high above.
“I still think it’s creepy.” He said to Kyra.
“I know, interrupting them when they’re eating roadkill and I assume just asking them to come along for more dead things we leave behind?”
The vultures had been snacking on some kind of deceased creature on the outskirts of the delta, James had gone forward to them and held a silent conversation, neither Teddy or Kyra had understood the exchange but James explained that the desert was going to be barren of most life and it would be his last chance to convince the wild creatures to come along and help. That’s where James was now, high above his consciousness was piggybacking one of the large birds, his Birds of a Feather power allowed him to see the world through the eyes of nearby birds, the limitation at iron rank was that it took almost all of his concentration and he couldn’t use it on the move.
“It’s damn useful though.” James said sitting up.
“What did you find?” Teddy asked, rolling on his side to look back at James.
“There’s three packs of monsters in there, spread down the canyon. I have good news and bad news.”
“Bad news?” Kyra asked, not turning around, now the only one watching the canyon.
“Well the good news is that I’ve found the pack of Sicklecrows, no sign of the Raptor but there’s lots of twists and turns down the canyon they might be hidden.”
Kyra turned around just long enough to shoot him a scowl for not giving the bad news first then turned back to the canyon.
“The bad news is that they are the last pack along the canyon, the magical sandstorms we were warned about are ravaging the tops either side of the canyon so there’s no way around, we have to go through.”
“Ok, what’re we dealing with for the first two monsters?” Teddy asked, pulling out his monster reference guide.
“I recognised the first as Sand Dogs.”
None of them needed to reference the guide, it was an easy enough monster they all had regularly trained against in the mirage trainer in desert environments, low level iron rank, they manifested as a pack of a dozen or so and were subsequently low powered. They were dangerous during the monster surges as they numbered in the hundreds.
“The second group were a pair of what looked like a lizard crossed with an armadillo, about fifteen foot long, but intersecting plates of armour, looked pretty tough.”
“Here we go” Teddy said, finding the most likely culprit. “Armoured Lounge-Lizards, high end of Iron rank, normal earth affinity you would expect in this area. Highly defensive and territorial. Deal out large damage singular attacks at moderate speed. If pushed too far they will resort to curling up, dramatically increasing their defence and only strong bronze attacks will pierce the armour.”
“So take it down hard and really fast so it doesn’t clam up?” Even though Kyra was the team healer she had a penchant for violence.
“Just so, I saw eleven dogs, the two lizards and around eight Sicklecrows, but they’re small and moved fast, I’ll see if my friends can move closer when we do but I didn’t want to spook them.”
“Eleven dogs should be easy enough for the three of us, they all move pretty close, we try and bunch them together and make a coordinated attack to take them all without making any noise, then we’ll still have the element of surprise for the lizards, we probably can’t afford to take them down quickly and silently but we’ll use that to draw the last group in. I’ll take left James, centre and Kyra take right. Coord through the interface.”
They all nodded at each other and started moving, James casually strolling towards the pack, Kyra took off at a run and Teddy loped slightly slower.
The Sand dogs were hairy mis-shaped creatures, the size of large Rottweilers. Longer angled heads ended with mismatched teeth. They were shades of brown, mottled to match in with the rocks around them. Large stiff whiskers looped over their backs from their necks, these they used to whip around and fight each other for dominance in the pack.
Looking at the pack they were mostly grouped together with only two loose on the left. He concentrated and a countdown timer appeared in the corner of his vision with five seconds. The others also saw it, Kyra judged the distance and put on a burst of speed timing it so she would hit when the timer reached zero. She smashed into the flank, a rising knee snapping the neck of the small creature. Barely slowing her momentum her conjured sword glittering flashed left then right, cutting so deeply into the necks of the two more dogs they were almost decapitated. Her run finished with a lunging thrust, a perfect fencing move, striking in between the eyes of the last monster on her side.
James looked at the middle of the monsters, he blinked out of existence, appearing above the pack, he smashed down into them as the timer reached zero, suddenly accelerated to terminal velocity from only twenty feet high. His fist smashed a dog into the ground, crumpling it like a brown paper bag, his left leg was extended to the side, from the calf down was transfigured into a birds talon, claws rent through a second dogs head. The third dog just in front of him he bodily grabbed and pulled the head and neck apart until they were only held by one stubborn tendon.
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
Teddy saw the countdown timer reaching two seconds, he slashed the air to his left, a small rift appeared, he dashed through it and popped out of the corresponding rift near one of the outlier dogs and punch the dog before ducking back in. The dog turned, instinctively snapping at the arm that was retreating and closed its mouth around the dimensional rift, suddenly its body just ended at the neck, head completely gone. The second outlier turned to see the commotion with an open mouth, a dark sliver of shadow was thrown with extreme accuracy and curving up to hit the roof of hits mouth, up into its brain killing it instantly, the shard power wasn’t powerful but accurate and swift, only the extreme weakness of the monsters allowed it to kill it so easily. In a shadowy blur Teddy was standing next to James and Kyra, the last two monsters had crosses cut deep into their foreheads and a blue blade was casually held out to Teddy’s side.
The loudest sound was the muffled thump of James hitting the sand, all eleven Sand Dogs were dead in seconds without managing to make a sound. James had already taken a knee and had his eyes closed, after a few seconds he stood up and opened his eyes.
“All good, the lizards haven’t noticed anything. Are we waiting until we’ve dealt with all three groups before looting I assume?”
“No harm in being careful and looting them all at the end” Teddy replied, thinking ahead to the lizards. “We’re going in hard and loud, James, can you take one alone?”
“Yes, I’ve got enough tricks to tie it up for a while.”
“Have you got enough to do it without Koda? I want him and Kyra’s diamond golem to take the far end incase we’re not quick enough and we get visitors.”
Teddy looked at James nodding, he looked at Kyra who also nodded.
“Ok then, James you take the far lizard and Kyra and I will take the near one, Kyra, go hard with boulders and smash it back against the canyon wall, I’ll commit a big chunk of mana to this one to try and hold it and close in quick. Ready team? Break.”
Kyra rolled her eyes.
“Teddy we’re not an american football team, I don’t know what you mean when you say ‘break’.”
“You can get it through context!”
They all strolled calmly on the desert canyon floor, as they rounded the corner they saw the lizards, long and thick they skittered on all fours. Their backs were the height of Teddy standing. James made a ‘Break’ message appear on the interface as he teleported above the lizard, this time almost to the height of the canyon. He used the fall time to check for any sign of the Sicklecrows, nothing to be seen yet. He plummeted towards the lizard, a thick armoured hammerhead transfigured from his neck but proportionally thicker and with armoured scales like the lizard itself, he smashed headfirst into the back of the neck of the lizard, its legs giving out as it was badly stunned. As James rolled with the blow his head was already back to normal by the time he stood. He used his de-buff on the lizard.
“Hear me Roar!”
Essence power [Apex Predator] has lowered [Armoured Lounge-Lizard] defences.
[Armoured Lounge-Lizard] is more susceptible to attacks.
The sound of it trembled in every direction with the underlying threatening challenge. There was no way the Sicklecrows weren’t going to know they were there now. He released Koda who lumbered up the canyon and stood facing away from the fight. James whole body shrunk in every direction by a few inches, but he still had size to spare. Between the surprise of the attack and the damage already inflicted by his diving special attack the lizard was starting to curl into a defensive ball. Quicker than the eye can follow James used his prehensile tail, still under the boon of his Scurry power which gave him faster reflexes at the start of a fight. His tail grabbed the lounge lizards tail and his left hand grabbed it by the protruding jaw line of the lizard. He pulled it around until it was sideways in front of him and started pummelling it with his right fist. The first few blows didn’t seem to have much effect, the lizard still trying to twist and turn out of his grip. The lizards claws raking at James who deftly moved out of their way, only being clipped by weak flailing attacks. He continued to hammer away, the strength of the blows starting to cave in the lizards chest. The disparity between even his enormous size and the colossal blows was helped by two of his powers from his bear essence.
Ability: [Standing Kodak] (Bear)
Passive power
Current rank: Iron 6 (65%)
Effect (iron): 2 foot planted attacks deal 200% more damage. Absorbs 50% of incoming damage.
Ability: [Bear (Bare) Arms] (Bear)
Passive power
Current rank: Iron 5 (15%)
Effect (iron): Unarmed attacks do 400% damage
The stacking effect of these two powers meant that he was punching eight times harder than he would normally. And for an iron ranker he was at the stronger end of the scale for adventurers. The lizard stopped struggling but James didn’t stop, the massive internal damage he was dealing would stop the lizard but it was at the top end of iron rank and would recover. He kept punching the monster feeling the flesh begin to soften. He finally punched through the armoured skin into the monster.
You have defeated [Armoured Lounge-Lizard]
Kyra had rolled her eyes at the ‘Break’ message on the interface. A mirror appeared in her hand, one of the useful advantages to her storage power was that items came out in the same manner in which they went in, as she looked at a section of the canyon floor in the mirror a circle of diamond dust appeared in a circle. She willed power into it and her diamond golem rose from the ground, the dust absorbing into the floor like sugar into a latte. The golem rumbled off to the end of the canyon and settled into a squat next to Koda. She and Teddy rushed towards their lizard. She stopped, thrusting both hands out wrists together, a large boulder appeared above her head and hurtled towards the canyon wall just behind the monster just as Teddy muttered.
“Black hole be quick”
Behind the lizard a swirling portal of darkness appeared, about the size of a baseball, powerfully dragging the lizard to the wall, it couldn’t get sucked in but suffered ongoing damage. As it was struggling with the pull of the black hole Kyra’s boulder smashed into it, it writhed in pain and confusion and surprise, as just after the boulder hit it the black hole exploded throwing the lizard forward. Kyra had been too close, as the lizard came forward she activated her armour power.
Ability: [Encased] (Diamond)
Cost: Moderate Mana
Cool-down: 2 minutes
Current rank: Iron 3 (95%)
Effect (iron): Encased in impenetrable armour for 5 seconds, cannot move whilst encased.
The lizard bounced backwards off Kyra, bounced from pillar to post. Teddy jumped in and started attacking with his dimension blade, the armoured creature snapped and swiped at him, the blade skittering off the armour. Teddy activated a power he kept in reserve to throw off tricky opponents to create openings, his Dimensional Instability power was something that their group had never felt, Outworlders and Celestines had a natural affinity to dimensional abilities and didn’t suffer the same way many others did when teleporting. The lizard in front of him appeared woozy and nauseous, it wretched, its tongue lolling out. Teddy moved to its side and with two hands bodily drove the blade into the side of the creature. The blade flashed brightly, Teddy grunted with the effort of pushing so much mana to overcome the armoured resistance. He kept the blade in, dancing with the creature to stay at the same wound. The blade was sucking the health of the lizard from the inside. But it was at the peak of iron rank. Suddenly Teddy was thrown back, his sword rejected from the flesh of the creature as it rapidly curled into a ball, armoured plated appeared to surround it, covering all vulnerable areas and making a smooth sphere. Just as Teddy was standing up Kyra’s encased power came to an end.
“Gods dammit, I’m away for literally five seconds and you can’t follow your own plan!”
James had just let go of his own lizard, resting it on the floor when he heard Koda growl.
“Hurry up you guys they’re coming!”
“Quick, Kyra, nothing we can do is going to crack that shell but we can’t leave it to heal up and come back for us while we’re busy”
Kyra quickly looked up and down the canyon thinking quickly.
“Well lets hope this idea doesn’t bring down the whole canyon.”
Knowing that the others trusted her and no time to explain she fell to her knees and slapped her hands on the floor. A shockwave rippled through the ground and the section of canyon wall they had beat the lizard against started moving backward, it created a hollow space, just big enough for the armoured ball to fit in. Teddy’s eyes opened wide in understanding.
“The void calls you” he muttered pointing at the back of the hollow.
Another swirling portal of darkness appeared at the back of the hollow, digging a furrow into the sand as it dragged the lizard under the outcropping in the wall. As it hit the black hole it skittered and sparked off the lizard’s armour, but Kyra only needed to get the lizard into position. With both hands still on the floor she raised them up and thumped her fists down, the entire column of stone of the wall above the hollow smashed downwards, thousands of tonnes of stone crushing the armoured lizard with more strength than even a bronze ranker could manage.
You have defeated [Armoured Lounge-Lizard]
“Uh guys, this doesn’t look good.”
Teddy and Kyra looked away from the wall to where James was standing with their summons. He was faced by a block of six Sicklecrows in front of him. The others rushed to join him and noticed another two packs of six on either side. They were standing silently facing the adventurers, poised ready to charge, bright coloured feathers raised and snarling. James suddenly looked up and the others heard a violent scream a second later. High against the canyon wall the Raptor had just given up its attempt to sneak at them, it had been making its way along the wall, as nimble as a mountain goat and perfectly camouflaged against the stone. The scream was like a starting pistol, the packs of Sicklecrows shot towards the adventurers.