All he managed to glimpse before the throng crashed into the grasping roots was the flash of a clawed hand, curled-back black lips, sharpened teeth, and splotches of ginger fur.
In less than a second, the tide surged over the root field, seemingly unhampered or delayed by the grasping roots despite the flurry of Game alerts that flashed into Kyran’s minds. He ignored all of them except the final one.
2,045 gibbons entangled.
Kyran’s grasping roots has been destroyed.
Kyran boggled at the numbers reported by the Game. Just how many gibbons are out there? he wondered, a shiver of dread rolling through him.
The shock wall would not stop the gibbons swinging through the trees, and perhaps not even those trampling over the forest floor. Dropping into the mindscape, he hurriedly gathered together tendrils of psi.
In the ‘real,’ the gibbons blew through the ice field and crashed into the shock wall, where they were brought to a near-grinding halt—those on the ground at least.
1,544 gibbons slipped.
Gaesin’s slippery ice destroyed.
2,423 gibbons have entered a shock wall (duration: 78 seconds, damage sustained: 8.4 HP per second), 2,014 gibbons stunned.
The unlucky creatures, flung up by the lightning field’s surging currents, were held in place, paralysed. Not all the gibbons were stopped by the shock wall, though.
Many of the ground-bound horde in their frenzied flight streamed around the wall—some even through—while those swinging through the trees passed over unimpeded.
Most of the gibbons ignored the party entirely, but some raced into the comparatively empty space occupied by them, and almost instinctively set upon them.
Aiken roared, frightening the creatures and causing many to flee back into the horde’s depths.
Aiken has used terrifying roar (radius: 120m), 1,302 gibbons terrified.
But the throng appeared numberless, and despite those scared off or held trapped by the party’s spells, more dropped down onto the beleaguered group.
Bent over and huddled down against the rain of falling animals, Kyran completed his spell and flung out a pulse of calm into the gibbons ranging in the trees above.
Kyran has cast calm beast (radius: 52m), 2,454 gibbons calmed.
The ceaseless din around the party quietened and the shower of gibbons slackened as the creatures in the treetops were robbed of their frenzied panic.
But Kyran’s spell failed to buy the party more than momentary respite, as yet again more of the horde replaced their calmed companions.
Beginning to despair, Kyran cast a quick glance across the party. Mirien’s blades flashed, Adra fired point blank, Aiken was covered in clinging shapes, and Gaesin, still shielded, was in the midst of another casting. As hard-pressed as they all were, none had fallen. It isn’t over yet, he thought, clinging to hope. There is still fight left in the party.
Kyran’s own magic shield was destroyed. Somehow, he seemed to have taken the brunt of the stampede’s damage. His shield had been cut to shreds by hundreds of little blows from the gibbons.
Crouching down, Kyran sheltered his head between his arms. On his back, gibbons clung, yelping and shrieking as they sought to tear through his armour. An unending torrent of damage messages scrolled through his mind.
A gibbon has hit Kyran for 1 damage (9 damage resisted). Remaining: 412 / 440 HP.
A gibbon has hit Kyran for 0 damage (11 damage resisted). Remaining: 412 / 440 HP.
A gibbon has hit Kyran for 2 damage (7 damage resisted). Remaining: 410 / 440 HP.
His mithril armour fared much better against the enraged creatures’ attacks than his shield did, resisting nearly all of the damage the gibbons attempted, so despite the numerous beasts weighing down his back, he was relatively unharmed.
Seeing that he was in no immediate danger, Kyran took a second to gather more information on the party’s attackers and cast insight on the nearest creature.
Creature: Gibbon. Type: Beast.
Level: 10. Health: 80. Rarity: Common.
Attack: 7-11 (piercing).
Defences: Physical (6), psi (11), spell (5).
Traits and abilities:
Rallying cry: This creature has a shrill scream that propagates for miles, summoning all nearby gibbons to its aid.
Description:
A simple and common forest creature.
The gibbons were no threat individually, but given their numbers, the low level meant little. With a grunt of effort, he straightened, and the gibbons clinging to his back were cut down ruthlessly by Mirien.
Aiken’s healing wave has healed Kyran for 20 HP. Remaining: 430 / 440 HP.
“Thank you, brother,” he murmured, glancing at the bear.
Most of the gibbons had gravitated towards Aiken and Mirien, the most exposed of the party. Dozens of the tiny creatures clung to the bear. Even so, Aiken appeared undamaged. The bear’s jade armour seemed impervious to the gibbons’ claws and bites.
Mirien’s shield was still intact. Her form a blur, she danced light-footed between the beasts and reaped death with every strike.
Adra and Gaesin, sheltered behind the trunk of a tree, were less hard-pressed. The wolven struck out at any of the gibbons who approached too closely and made sure Gaesin was undisturbed while he completed his casting.
Gaesin has cast healing rain (radius: 61.3m, duration: 1 minute, buff: regenerating).
The party is regenerating (healed: 6.1 HP per second).
Kyran exhaled in relief. The gibbons’ assault was proving less dangerous than he had feared, and with both Aiken and Gaesin casting party-wide buffs and heals, the party should weather the stampede.
Up ahead, the shock wall was nearly swamped, and the pile of bodies that had accumulated had grown so large that the gibbons in the rear were using them to leap over the field. Unless he did something, the party would be beset by a much larger wave in a few more moments.
At a blur of motion above him, Kyran ducked his head and flung up his left hand, knocking away the screaming gibbon falling towards him. A second later, Aiken’s massive paw stepped down on the creature, putting an end to it.
Nodding a quick thanks to his companion, Kyran dipped his consciousness into the mindscape, and sent a flood of psi towards the throng of minds behind the shock wall.
Kyran has cast confusion (radius: 40.8m duration: 7 minutes), 1,423 gibbons confused.
Immediate threat seen to, Kyran dropped back into the mindscape and channelled purple threads of psi into a roiling wall that he flung forward.
Kyran has cast psi wave (wave length: 67.3m, debuffs: mind shocks).
The psi wave’s mind shocks have hit 4,213 gibbons for 67 damage each.
1,531 gibbons have died.
Given their low level, the gibbons succumbed easily to the psi wave. From the first wave alone, over a thousand of the stampeding creatures died.
Kyran flicked his attention inwards momentarily and checked his player map. It was solid red. The party was fully enveloped by the gibbons on all sides. How much longer can this go on?
Knowing he had no choice, and stomach heaving at the scale of slaughter he was about to orchestrate, Kyran set about thinning the gibbons’ numbers with more psi waves.
✽✽✽
Battle Log (Gibbon stampede)
The battle has ended.
Combat results
Creatures bonded: 0.
Hostiles killed: 12,875 gibbons.
Levels gained
Kyran: 1 level (9 SP, 2 AP). New combat level: Level 34.
Adra: 2 levels. New combat level: Level 31.
Gaesin: 2 levels. New combat level: Level 30.
Aiken: 2 levels. New combat level: Level 32.
Chapter 16
04 Novo 2603 AB
The living and reanimated dead are both alike and different. Both sub-species are undead and should not exist, but the living dead are by far the greater aberration. Whereas the reanimated dead are spiri
ts forced into undeath by circumstances, the living dead have willed themselves into an abhorrent existence through a curse of undeath. While this unnatural state grants them exceptional power, it is both short-sighted and only earned at great cost. Unless the curse of undeath is removed before a living dead is slain, its spirit will not return to the Wheel of Life and instead will be destroyed. —Johlya Seerixa, naturalist.
One minute later, the stampede finally ended. Kyran wiped the sweat from his brow as he watched the last of the crazed gibbons disappear into the forest’s depths to the south. Surprisingly, the party had weathered the stampede unscathed.
Mirien leaned heavily on her sword, her face blood spattered. “We were lucky,” she said. “If that stampede had been anything other than gibbons…”
Kyran nodded in agreement with the sentiment. Thousands of little corpses surrounded the party. What a waste of life. Adra and Gaesin seemed similarly dazed by the slaughter. None of them wanted to stay in place longer than they had to. It was time to move on. “Let’s—”
A clatter of cries and howls echoed through the forest. Cutting off what he was about to say, Kyran’s head whipped around. The calls came from the north. From the very same direction as the stampede. And they were getting closer.
Opening show hostiles, Kyran stared at his map. A trail of red icons, moving far faster than the gibbons, streamed south.
“Break west!” Kyran snapped. “They’re coming from the north.”
The party sprang into action. Dashing through the trees, they raced to escape the threat following on the stampede’s heels.
The incoming hostiles moved too swiftly though. Lithe and agile forms burst out of the forest foliage before the party managed to clear the gory battlefield. Darting along treetop branches and leaping across the ground, the creatures closed on the group.
Kyran stopped running and spun around. It was clear they were not going to outpace their latest group of attackers either. The creatures on their heels were green-skinned figures, each with bulging eyes, a bulbous nose, and oversized ears. Dressed in brown hide armour and equipped with skinning knives, spears, and bows, they appeared to be a hunting party.
“Forest goblins,” spat Adra as the rest of the party skidded to a halt with him. She drew her bow and nocked an arrow to it, holding it at the ready.
“They must have started the stampede,” said Mirien, echoing Kyran’s own thought.
There was no doubt the goblins had seen the party—nor did they appear happy about it. The green-skinned creatures’ shrieks trebled in volume and their faces twisted with rage. As one formless mass, they charged, rushing heedlessly through the blood-splattered battlefield towards the party.
Kyran studied the approaching threat. There had to be at least forty goblins in the hunting party. He probed the closest with insight.
Name: Somooglok. Race: Forest goblin (goblinoid).
Level: 21. Health: 200.
Stamina: 400. Will: 160. Essence: 200.
Attack: 38 (piercing).
Defences: Physical (21), psi (21), spell (21).
Class: Skirmisher (apprentice).
Traits and abilities:
Climber: exceptionally agile and able to climb even vertical walls with ease.
Hunter: +30% stealth in wilderness.
Description:
Forest goblins are an offshoot of the goblinoid race that have never advanced beyond a primitive nomadic way of life despite millennia of evolution. Seeming to prefer a simpler existence than their more warlike and civilized cousins, forest goblins are usually found in the warmer southern jungles of Myelad.
“What is the plan, Kyran?” asked Gaesin urgently.
“We fight,” he said grimly. Despite their numbers, the enemy hunting party was no true threat. “Mirien and Aiken to the fore, he ordered. “Adra, buy us some time with webbed shot.”
For whatever reason, the goblins had not drawn their bows, seemingly intent on charging into melee with the party instead. Perhaps they thought the five companions no threat? They will learn otherwise soon, he thought starkly.
“The goblins have to be from the village we passed hours back. We can’t let any escape,” Kyran said harshly. “Gaesin, drop an ice field in front of us, then shield yourself.” He turned to the others. “Mirien and Aiken, once the goblins are trapped, engage them.”
The rings the party had looted from the Reapers meant the whiesper could move unimpeded by the party’s own ice and root fields. Mirien nodded and, waiting with drawn blades, cast her protective spells.
Adra’s webbed shot thudded into the ground and spun out silken strands. Unaware of the danger, the goblins ran straight into the web.
Adra has fired a webbed shot (radius: 3m, duration: 3 seconds), 25 goblins slowed (-90% movement speed).
Kyran nodded approvingly at the sight. While the webbed shot had entangled only half of the goblins, it had sown enough confusion to slow the hunting party’s charge.
He turned his focus inwards and began his own casting. Drawing on his spirit, he wove essence in the ground, which caused green and brown shoots to appear under the startled goblins.
Gaesin has cast slippery ice (radius: 36.6m, duration: 6 minutes), 32 goblins slipped.
Kyran has cast grasping roots (radius: 51m, duration: 8 minutes), 40 goblins entangled.
The goblins’ shrieks turned to fearful mutters, and their charge ground to a halt as they suddenly found themselves beset by a quagmire of spells. Between Gaesin’s and Kyran’s castings, the entire hunting party was trapped and held near-motionless within spelled ground.
That gave Adra and Mirien easy targets.
Adra has killed a goblin with a vital strike.
Mirien has shadow stepped.
Adra has killed a goblin with a vital strike.
Mirien has activated esper’s fury.
Adra has critically hit a goblin for 32 piercing damage. Remaining: 168 / 200 HP.
Mirien’s dual strikes has hit a goblin for 212 piercing damage. A forest goblin has died.
Aiken growled ferociously and charged forward to join the fray. Once they realised their predicament, some of the goblins hacked at the roots. The smarter ones, though, made no effort to get free. Unclipping their bows, they fired upon the party.
“Adra, target the archers!” shouted Kyran as arrows began to pepper the party. More goblins were following their companion’s examples and unshouldering their bows.
“On it,” Adra said.
While the goblins’ fire was still sporadic, that wouldn’t last. Realising he had to stop the enemy from regrouping, he drew on his essence again. The goblins were too dispersed to target easily with either shock wall or psi wave, and setting the roots on fire in a forest was not wise, so he turned to yet another earth magic spell.
Deftly weaving strands of brown essence, Kyran sent them burrowing into the ground, causing the earth to rupture and shake.
Kyran has cast earth tremor (radius: 26m, damage: 26 HP per target), 25 goblins knocked down.
The forest floor heaved and bucked, which sent hapless goblins crashing to the ground. Kyran had been careful to place the spell well away from where Mirien slipped between the goblins, and while that meant some goblins escaped the spell’s effect, the earth tremor put an end to the hunting party’s budding arrow storm.
Glancing downfield, Kyran saw that Aiken had reached the goblins. It was time to pour on the damage. “Gaesin, ranged attacks now!” he ordered.
Adra has killed a goblin with a vital strike.
Gaesin’s ice bolt has hit a forest goblin for 57 damage. Remaining: 123 / 200 HP.
Mirien has killed a goblin with a vital strike.
Mirien has killed a goblin with a vital strike.
Aiken has hit a forest goblin for 70 damage. Remaining: 130 / 200 HP.
The party laid into the goblins with blade, bow, claws, and spells, and despite the disparity in numbers, the hunting party was sorely beset and unable to rally themselves t
o order. Swapping to ranged attacks himself, Kyran sent slews of shock bolts into the goblins.
Kyran’s shock bolt has hit a goblin for 84 air damage. Remaining: 116 / 200 HP.
Kyran’s shock bolt has killed a goblin.
Kyran’s shock bolt has hit a goblin for 81 air damage. Remaining: 119 / 200 HP.
The party’s relentless attacks were too much for the disoriented goblins. Many attempted to turn and flee, but since they were trapped in the ice and root field, and with both Aiken and Mirien keeping a wary eye for any that looked close to escape, the battle quickly wound down to its inevitable conclusion.
✽✽✽
Battle Log (Goblin hunting party)
The battle has ended.
Combat results
Creatures bonded: 0.
Hostiles killed: 42 of 42 forest goblins.
Levels gained
Kyran: none.
Adra: 1 level. New combat level: Level 32.
Gaesin: 1 level. New combat level: Level 31.
Aiken: 1 level. New combat level: Level 33.
✽✽✽
None of the goblins escaped.
After countless volleys from Kyran, Adra, and Gaesin, not to mention Mirien’s bladework, the goblin hunting party was eradicated and their corpses were left to soak the ground alongside the gibbons.
Kyran bit back bile at the sight of the newly drenched ground and turned to the others. “Adra, Mirien, scout out the perimeter, and make sure no more goblins are lurking about. We can’t afford any more surprises.”
The women nodded curtly, and after a short-whispered conversation to coordinate their reconnaissance, the two separated and vanished into the forest.
They had been fortunate that the hunting party hadn’t been larger, thought Kyran. Given their turn of good fortune, he was not about to make the mistake of assuming there weren’t more goblins in the vicinity. On top of the other dangers in the Elder Forest, the party couldn’t afford being pursued by an entire goblin village.
Sovereign (The Gods' Game, Volume IV) Page 24