Scyllo (Fragmented) [Elite], Level: 41. Health: 1,500/1,500.
The two creatures split their attention, with one focusing on Sarah and the other on Lester. The one fighting Sarah was closer to Jay, so he engaged it immediately. The creature was just as fast as the original.
The fragment attacking Sarah jolted forward, closing its jaws around the leg of her armor. It wasn’t any faster, but the bite damaged her heavily despite her plate legs. She also gained a poisoned debuff. Her health froze, losing the effectiveness of Jenny’s heal-over-time tags.
Jay slashed into the body, viciously hacking multiple swings into it. The sea monster reared back slightly, cautious due to the influx of hundreds of points of damage. Taking his opening, Jay blasted several bolts from his repeater, utilizing Outlaw Style to fire it one-handed. The fragment attacking Sarah pulled its head back over the waters.
Carlos could cure the poison flooding Sarah while the creature reevaluated. When he did so, her recovery started up again as the monster hissed from its position in the air.
Lester faced off against the second fragment on the other side of the battlefield. Ken, Jenny, and Taylor Lynn focused all their attacks on this creature. Ken had an easier time getting into an attacking position since Jay was no longer crowding into the same area of melee influence.
Taylor Lynn’s lightning bolts were lending support, but she needed to be careful where she aimed them. The spider web of lightning tendrils could wound allied players as readily as enemies. Jenny, surprised by the splitting snakes, activated her instant tagging ability. A cascade of tags flurried from her as she spontaneously buffed the entire battlefield in quick succession. Her attention turned to a mp potion to stay in the battle.
Carlos, after healing Sarah, was forced to turn his attention to the other tank. Despite his heavy damage-reducing weapon, Lester was more agile but took far more damage. His resistance couldn’t stand up to Sarah’s armor. The first swipe from the snake poisoned him and sent his health sailing down into the red zone below 20% remaining.
While Lester’s side of the battlefield burned the health of the sea snake down, Jay switched out his clip for the other clip with the same loadout. He stepped beside Sarah, taking in the battlefield. The fragment in front of them looked like it was waiting for something.
As Jay watched, trying to figure out the trick, Lester slammed his blade into the second snake fragment. Taylor Lynn found an opening in the momentary daze and blasted the snake in the eyes with a web of lightning. Dropping below half of its health, the fragment pulled back to join the other fragment.
Jay tried to predict what would happen but sadly lacked Bestiary information on the creatures. The split forms had already taken him by surprise. The only thing he could do was expect something unexpected.
The sea snakes started to twirl together. They could have been dancing; they could have been trying to strangle each other. Either way, it made for a bizarre sight that Jay placed under the unexpected category. Then, it started to rain acid. That was unexpected, too.
The rotating snakes started rapid-firing a torrent of acid bullets into the air. The shots arced down quickly, raining throughout the region where the party was out in the open and exposed. In most games, there would be an indication of where the projectiles would fall. There was no such thing.
The party floundered as they tried to dodge the raining acid attack. At that moment, Jay’s Speed truly started to shine. He could move out of the way, weaving a deadly dance through the acid bullets. He didn’t know where they were coming from, but he reacted as soon as he saw the trajectory of a bullet would hit him.
The rest of the party didn’t fare nearly so well. The storm of bullets took chunks out of the rocky ground and obliterated the health of the remaining party members. As the rain slowly subsided, only Jay remained unharmed. Most of the party was under half their health.
Carlos received the most damage from the storm. He tried to send waves of his healing abilities over the other party members. Stopping to cast spells made him a sitting duck for the rain. His health was rendered critically low, leaving his portrait with a blinking red bar.
One of the snakes left the safety of the water, angling its body toward Carlos.
Without thinking, Jay reacted. He dug his feet into the rocky ground, not worried about slipping, and commanded his full combat speed to push him toward Carlos. As he had intuited, the sea snake fragment lunged at the Cardinal player.
It smelled blood in the water.
The creature was taking advantage of that, but Jay beat it there. He stepped in front of Carlos with a half second to spare. The creature’s fangs caught him in the chest, draining his health bar. Luckily, the damage was not deadly, courtesy of fancy footwork.
Jay put his freshly loaded clip to good use, slamming three bolts directly into the fragment. The creature pulled back before he could fire the other two, but the damage was already done. The tiny sliver of health quickly drained away from the necrotic poison on his leading bolt.
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He whirled on the other creature, blasting the remaining two bolts. The second fragment, without the threat of the first one, fell very quickly. The most substantial difficulty was organizing a way for the party to attack without bumping into each other.
Sarah was the one to finish the second fragment with a powerful holy attack. Holding her shield aloft, she summoned a torrent of holy energy that burst like a flamethrower. The power swallowed half the sea monster’s body. It slumped from the force of the attack. No further fragments emerged.
The party was able to harvest some scales from the creature, but no one on the island possessed the Leatherworking skill. The scales would be useless until they were back on the mainland. There was also a sac of venom, which Ken laid claim to.
The final item was something called a Mercurian Heart. The description was vague, but the game valued the item at 3,000 gold Prints. They were super expensive, so if they weren’t necessary, the party could sell them on the mainland.
When the looting was complete, Jay turned to Carlos. He still looked a little worse for wear, though he had healed himself throughout the battle.
“How low did your health get?” Jay asked.
Carlos raised his eyebrows. “About three percent. Why?”
Jay whistled, thinking of how close they’d come to losing another healer. “Because I was losing it there. I thought we lost you. I’m glad you’re still with us.”
“That makes one of us,” he said. “I started thinking that beginning over and leveling with a sane party wouldn’t be so bad.”
“You and me both,” Taylor Lynn joked. “What’s up with these monsters? Is it impossible to have a simple monster to farm?”
“I blame Jay,” Jenny offered, with far too much cheer for him to get mad at her. “He attracts weird monsters.”
“What’s that say about me?” Jay asked.
Sarah, as usual, was immediately ready to hop onto that comment. There was no way she was going to let it hang. “We all know that already. It means you’re a weirdo. Like attracts like.”
“I don’t think that’s how it works. But on the other hand… so, back when Sarah was a baby–”
“I said cool your jets, man.”
***
After the excitement with the Scyllo creature, Jay had added the monster to his Bestiary. Unfortunately, the entry hadn’t yielded much more information than what had been learned during the fighting. The entry was exceedingly vague, which made Jay wonder more about the details of the island.
The party had decided to call it quits for the night after the fight. The experience rewards were excellent. Including a bonus for the first-time kill and fighting an over-leveled monster, the party gained five thousand experience.
The rewards meant that killing two or three of them would be enough to gain a level, given their current level. If they could find more snakes, the party would be able to power level since their weaknesses and attacks were now known. Their status as an elite implied rarity, which might make hunting them difficult.
The only person left online with Jay was Sarah. They sat together around the campfire as she diligently worked on her homework. Since she couldn’t log out, she tended to work on assignments when everyone else was offline.
“So, when do you sleep?” Jay asked. “If you’re working on all these assignments and playing with us all day, I’m not sure how you fit it in. I found out players can sleep in the game. But are you sleeping enough?”
“Since when are Medical students allowed to sleep?” Sarah asked. “I always thought it was one of those ironic things where the people who manage health run themselves ragged. Therefore, they end up having the worst health habits.”
“You’ve always been diligent and efficient,” Jay said. “I didn’t figure you’d let being trapped in a game stop you.”
Sarah chuckled, marking something on her paper. “It hasn’t, really. I’m just playing into the stereotypes. Should be able to get out of this thing in a couple more days.”
The mark was seamlessly added to the assignment, which Jay had been dubious about. The game system was capable of handling the writing.
“I’m looking forward to actually being able to visit you,” he said. He tried to tousle her hair, but she smacked his hand away.
“I’m excited, too. I’m excited to see your reaction to the facilities.”
Jay cocked his head to the side. “Why is that?”
“Because it’s super fancy, and you’re going to feel super out-of-place,” Sarah said.
It was late enough that the sun was starting to set. Jay wanted to explore before it got too dark, so he began to wind down the conversation. Sarah needed to go about her work, anyway.
“Haven’t you heard I’m rich now?” Jay joked.
Sarah yawned, which she didn’t do on purpose. The comedic timing was still right on. “You’re not rich. You’ve got a bunch of money burning a hole in your pocket. It’s way different.”
“Way to rain on my parade,” Jay said. “I was thinking about heading out for the night, anyway. You need to get some sleep.”
“Someone has to. I’m tired,” Sarah confirmed. “I’m just going to turn in soon. I’ve got to wake up early and finish assignments, anyway. Night.”
“Night.”
Even though she could sleep anywhere, Sarah went into the tent, where she kept a small mattress. It moved her out of his sight, making Jay consider the opportunity on his hands.
Even though it would be ill-advised, he could take a little scouting mission into the jungle. Best of all, he could lean on his flying ability to scout the island. Even if Sarah left her tent, it would only be his little sister. She wasn’t going to tell anyone.
Jay activated his ability. Moth-like wings sprouted from his body, though they were made of hard material. The wings would be durable in an attack. With a thought, he sent himself soaring into the air.
He made observations of the island from a bird’s eye view. It was about three miles wide and was a little bit longer than it was wide. The jungle trees only took up about half of the island since a swampy region took up the other half. It was reminiscent of the environment created by his muck trap bolts.
A few different areas made up small oasis regions for both halves. There didn’t seem to be any people around those regions, but they could be exciting places to hunt monsters. That’s where creatures would find water if Tumult Corp. had decided to include that sort of logic. Jay could never be sure when it came to them. Suddenly, something in his peripheral vision caught his attention.
He hadn’t seen the situation at first since it was happening nearby. About a thousand feet from camp, someone was being attacked by a pack of crocodiles… or alligators… or something. He needed more information, like whether the person was a player or an NPC.
Jay decided to fly down and help fight off the pack of beasts.