Jay swooped down over the tops of the bizarre tropical jungle trees, dive-bombing toward the individual fighting with beasts. As he flew through the air, he fought the wind shear to ready his weapons. The rushing wind tried to push the weapons out of his hand, but Jay held fast. When he drew closer, he could tell the beasts were crocodiles.

Closing on the scene, he took stock of the situation’s specifics. The lone man was fighting against the crocodiles without using any kind of weapon. The face looked young, leaving Jay to assume the young man was still a teenager. He was trying to wrestle the beasts with his bare hands.

Jay hit the ground hard since he hadn’t tried to slow his descent. He felt the impact but reached the ground with three seconds to spare on his wings. He pushed through his legs and launched forward using the final burst of his flight, extending his sword straight in an aggressive lunge.

There were enough crocodiles that Jay struggled to count them all. He readied himself to rally a defense since his aggressive attack would leave him wide open. His strike connected with a crocodile, so he inspected the nameplate data.

Dissimu Crocodile, Level: 35. Health: 478/800.

As Jay’s eyes returned to searching for enemies, he readied a Wild Strike attack with his sword and mentally commanded Cuddles to join the fight. He was prepared to chop into the first enemy to get within range. The young man was shouting something, but the words weren’t loud enough to pierce through Jay’s battle trance.

Three crocodiles charged Jay, springing from nearby puddles of water. He realized he was in one of the oasis areas he had seen from above. The land he stood on was between several different pools of water. The decisive stroke of his sword chopped the first crocodile to lunge at him. He followed up his attack, not pausing. Without taking a breath, several more strikes of his sword connected with the first crocodile. The first enemy fell as the other two lunged for Jay.

While Jay fought, Cuddles began firing laser eye beams to harass the charging crocodiles. Every time they drew close, Cuddles burned them with his attacks.

The strangely named creatures persisted forward through the burns. Jay responded to their ongoing charge with a swipe of his sword, connecting with one of the crocodiles. Leveling his repeater, he fired two muck trap bolts directly into it. The maneuver wasted traps, but the bolts still dealt direct damage. Both attacks were subject to bonuses from his Point-Blank Shot at the short distance.

Jay activated his aerial dodge ability an instant before the crocodile discovered what his legs tasted like. It propelled him backward a dozen feet through the air. The jaws of the crocodiles closed around empty air.

He fired the other three trap bolts from the current clip. One bolt went wide because of recoil, but the other two slammed into the creature. The first hit in the left side, wounding it. The second struck the crocodile in the head, dealing extra damage and finishing the beast.

The second crocodile charged Jay after taking a moment to turn. He reacted quickly, pulling Purple Haze out in front of him. One of Cuddles’s beams slammed into that crocodile. Jay capitalized on the circumstance by swinging his blade wildly in front of him, trying to force the creature to back off. It didn’t, but when it tried to bite his leg, he slammed two strikes into the top of its head, killing it.

He looked up, swiftly surveying the rest of the battlefield.

Jay was able to easily count the remaining number of crocodiles. There were four. They weren’t challenging to count anymore because all four were running away from him. The crocodiles gave up the hunt since their prey was effectively fighting back. They were ambush predators, and this time, the crocodiles were the ones to get ambushed.

The young man sheepishly cowered against a nearby tree. Despite being attacked by so many crocodiles, he seemed more afraid of Jay than the beasts. Instead of approaching him, Jay remained where he was. He didn’t want to scare a potential ally any more than necessary.

Jay inspected the other character’s info.

Lyle, Level: 25. Health: 400/550.

Lyle was an NPC. Given that information, Jay decided not to loot the crocodiles in front of him. Jay had no idea how NPCs reacted to the looting process, so it wasn’t worth the chance. He expected an opportunity to loot after conversing. The worst-case scenario was to lose out on loot, which wasn’t a problem. The crocodiles were unlikely to have anything worthwhile.

“Hey, Lyle,” Jay greeted.

The young man looked both ways, like he was expecting more crocodiles to jump out at any moment. The awkward silence hung for several seconds before Lyle finally replied.

“You scared them away.”

His voice was strained and more high-pitched than Jay expected. The fear probably wasn’t helping. The NPC looked like he was barely holding onto his wits.

“Of course,” Jay declared. “If I was attacked, I would want someone to help me. I happened to be in the area, so of course, I’m going to help.”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

The young man stared at him, stammering out a reply. “Y-you were f-flying. Like in t-the air.”

“Oh,” Jay expressed. “You saw that.”

He didn’t think anything was wrong with NPCs being aware of his abilities. He didn’t want them spreading the information around. Still, it would be strange for them to spout off such details about players unprompted. Everything would likely be fine if he avoided flying around Lyle in the future.

Lyle didn’t respond. He was physically shaking, still coming down from the panic of the recent crisis. Since he wasn’t feeling talkative, Jay started digging for information. “Those crocodiles aren’t going to come back, are they? I can fight them, but I’d rather know if I should be ready.”

Lyle shook his head. “Not right now. They’ll definitely be back, eventually. They always come back. But right now, they’re probably scared of you. That was some really impressive fighting. I was just trying to wrestle them until my call for help was answered.”

“Your call for help?” Jay asked. He immediately discerned that other people were living in the area. If there was a town of NPCs on the island, the party needed to know about it. Everyone expected they’d be unable to resupply until they left the island. Being able to acquire more healing potions or survival gear would be invaluable.

Lyle’s mouth opened and closed rapidly. Finally, he kept his mouth shut and eyed Jay with deep suspicion. It was evident that something was going through his head. He didn’t want to answer the question.

“I got lucky,” he finally proclaimed. “Cause you popped up.”

The teenager was not a very good liar. Jay wasn’t a good liar, but Lyle was horrible at it. Jay knew he needed to push past the barrier so Lyle would trust him with information. “I just saved you from being eaten by a pack of ambush predators, so you could be a little bit more grateful.”

“A group of them on land is a bask, and I could definitely have taken them,” Lyle said defiantly. He picked up a thick branch, holding it aloft like a club. He gave it a few test swings, causing the wood to whistle through the air. His message was transparent: don’t come any closer.

Jay couldn’t help but chuckle. The makeshift club wasn’t going to do anything against his sword. Still, it was amusing that Lyle didn’t grab a weapon until after the crocodiles were dealt with.

“Behind you,” Jay shouted. That was one way to dispel the NPC’s false beliefs quickly.

Lyle swung around so fast he lost his grip on the club. The branch went sailing through the air. By happenstance, it sailed directly at Jay. The Monster Hunter swatted the unintentional projectile out of the air.

“I think we can move past your admirably confident but wrong claim,” Jay said, still smirking at the NPC’s ineptitude.

“Alright, fine,” Lyle acknowledged. “I called for help because other people live in these woods. You’re not going to cause any problems, right? I don’t want any trouble.”

“What about saving you from a bunch of monsters gave you the idea I was going to cause you trouble?” Jay asked.

“T-to lure me into a false sense of security,” Lyle said, tripping over his words again. “I know y-your tricks, Dissimu.”

Jay realized he was still holding his weapons, so he stashed his sword in his belt. He was confident the crocodiles weren’t returning, at least not for the moment. Letting his guard down would make the NPC feel more comfortable. So he did.

Although it was superficial, the change put Lyle at ease. He didn’t try to retrieve another club. There was still a darting nature to his eyes like he was searching for something. Jay found it a little off-putting. Ultimately, the teenager lived in a jungle infested with crocodiles, so it wasn’t that strange.

Jay felt a little self-conscious, knowing that his crossbow clip was empty. Still, he didn’t want the anxiety to disrupt him from discovering whatever interesting quests or home this NPC might have. He tried a different tactic.

“A false sense of security wasn’t my goal, but I’ll be honest with you. I’m at a loss for what else I can do to try and earn some trust. Besides, I don’t even know what ‘Dissimu Crocodile’ means. As a Monster Hunter, killing crocodiles is pretty much what I do. It was no trouble. Do you want me to just be on my way?”

To make his point, Jay turned his back like he was going to walk away.

“No, wait!” Lyle called out. “I don’t want to seem ungrateful. It’s just that we don’t get a lot of visitors in these parts. There are no Elves on this island. I don’t recognize you, but you seem friendly enough.”

Jay turned back around. Once again, skimming a book in college paid off. He remembered very little about the particular book besides that one should always be willing to walk away from business dealings.

“You’re right,” Jay conceded. “I’m not originally from the island. My friends and I are Elves. Well, except one of us is a Human. We found a teleportation item that brought us to the island. We were dropped off here when we used it, but we don’t know much about the island. None of us even have a map.”

“Adventurers,” Lyle whispered. “The gods have forsaken us, but perhaps they are listening more than I thought.”

“What was that?” Jay questioned, not hearing the words.

“Nevermind that,” Lyle dismissed. “You do not need a map. I’ll help you understand whatever you need to know about the island in exchange for saving my life. I don’t think help would have been… fast enough.”

“Really?” Jay asked. “Getting the rundown from one of the locals would be exactly what I need. Although, honestly, if you wouldn’t mind drawing me a map, that would be awesome.”

“I don’t have tools for drawing,” Lyle said. “If you can provide them, I will try. What do you want to know? As you saw from your t-trip earlier, it is not very large.”

Jay honestly wasn’t sure if there were tools for drawing somewhere in the party’s supplies. He didn’t personally have any available in his inventory.

“We can forget about the map for now,” Jay said. “I didn’t see a lot of game on the island earlier. What do you eat?”

Lyle cleared his throat. “Oh.”

The teenager seemed to be weighing how much to let Jay in on. He was making a decision about what to divulge, so Jay just left him a few moments to make his decision.

Before Lyle responded, a true monstrosity burst out of the trees, coming right upon Jay. He hadn’t even seen it coming, so the creature was at least as fast as himself. This was not a monster in game terms so much as it was a genuine, evil-in-appearance entity.

The creature was bipedal, but that is where the humanoid comparison ended. The scaly skin was emerald green with purple spines jutting across its whole back, all the way down to the slender tail. The tail was five feet long, and the creature stood twelve feet tall. At the feet and hands were claws, each reaching six inches or more in length. Powerful legs were emblematic of the facts: this, too, was a predator. This one could care less about ambushes. It simply killed.

The living nightmare roared with all the ferocity of a dragon.