Then all three of the Alphas united to attack the Marsh Mistress. They hung from the arachnid’s legs, tried to chew through the armor on her chest. The cruel arachnoscorp lost a front right leg and slowly backed off into the black water of the lake, intending to save herself in the deep water. Sergeant urged his pet on, but it was clear that the Marsh Mistress was in dire straits. She couldn’t stand up against three Alphas at once. I spent all my mana casting Weaken on the three beasts.
Curse Magic skill increased to level sixty-seven!
I was helping the cruel arachnoscorp at least a little, but it didn’t change the overall outcome of the battle. Sergeant and the Marsh Mistress were retreating and losing. But where were all the other village defenders? There had been eleven people by the ditch! Right now all I could see was the weapons they’d thrown down. Did they all just run away? And what about the gunners? There was nobody left on the watchtowers either. I couldn’t see Varya either; she’d been planning on helping Sergeant on the back of Irosaurus Regina. The defenders of Pan’s Landing had suffered a crushing defeat in two short minutes. Only Sergeant, the maimed Marsh Mistress and the little kitten remained as the final bulwark between the night beasts and the vulnerable village. And I was out of mana. The only way I could help now was to give out buffs with Soothe.
Now I saw the corpses of three defenders — they’d careered through the fire in panic right into the night beasts’ clutches. Then I saw something strange — far beyond the firewall, the sherkh Swordmaiden was running as fast as she could away from the crowd of Feelers. The girl’s thin dark clothing was torn in places, and I saw bites on her body. Avelia must have temporarily lost control of her character in thrall to the Lesser Terror’s screams. She’d come out of stealth and been detected by the pack of night beasts.
The Swordmaiden ran with incredible speed, almost as fast as the Feelers on the straight, and faster in turns. I saw a discharged crossbow in the girl’s hands, and several dead Feelers with throwing knives sticking out of them. Avelia was now in complete control, and was methodically culling the night beasts as they followed her. The girl didn’t head for the dangerous river, but weaved like a hare instead, expertly dodging the beasts and always staying on sure ground. Another Feeler fell. Only now it seemed that Avelia had run out of throwing knives and had no chance to reload her crossbow. The Swordmaiden was just playing for time. I wondered, how long did it take for the sherkh invisibility spell to cool down? Watching Avelia now would give me the answer.
ATTENTION! Magic Resistance check successful!
That must be the Lesser Terror screaming down from the night sky again, though I couldn’t hear it. Even stun effects have their perks, it turns out. The spell didn’t work on my kitten because I was still deaf and couldn’t hear the flying beast’s scream. But the others could…
The Swordmaiden suddenly threw away her crossbow and ran straight into the shallow water of the lake, where she lost her speed and mobility. The crowd of Feelers caught up to her. Avelia fell, buried under a whole pile of frenzied dark bodies. The girl had a couple of seconds to live. Hey, what if..? I’d just recovered three Magic Points, which I’d planned to use to weaken the strongest of the Alphas attacking the Marsh Mistress. But one Weaken wouldn’t do much good. It was tempting to spend it otherwise. I attacked Avelia with a Slow spell — the Swordmaiden was about to die anyway, and I could get a lot of experience for helping to kill a high-level player.
Curse Magic skill increased to level sixty-eight!
Mysticism skill increased to level twenty!
Soothe skill increased to level twenty-two!
Your character is now level nineteen!
Reward: three skill points and one mutation point (total available: eleven).
Yes! Both my health and mana fully recovered. And my deafness was gone! Time to fight! Weaken on the level 29 Alpha! Weaken! Another Weaken! Slow! Weaken on another, the level 11, which had jumped onto the Marsh Mistress’s carapace and was now trying to reach the human on her back. Sergeant saw the danger just in time. He roared, brought his heavy axe down on the head full of teeth as it yawned at him out of the bloody mist. The level 11 Alpha’s head split with a dull splat. One down, three to go!
Next the level 29 Alpha, lit up like a Christmas tree with all kinds of curses, lost all its fire and fell into the water of the lake. A bubbling whirlpool immediately appeared in the water around it — Katy and Tick-Tock had been waiting for the weakened and slowed morsel to drop right into their mouths. Unfortunately, the creeping crocodiles didn’t manage to finish off the dangerous beast — the Alpha managed to make it to shore and… went through a gate left open by one of the defenders! It was inside Pan’s Landing! Worse, the big group of Feelers that had roamed into the shallow water of the lake in an attempt to pile on the Marsh Mistress circumvented the firewall by walking through the water. Now the entire mass of night beasts followed the main Alpha through the open gate and into the now defenseless village!
The Marsh Mistress managed to shake off the final Alpha and turned on her five good legs, with two left dragging behind her and one gone completely, to slink away from the bloody madness. Sergeant’s commands and shouts did nothing — the badly wounded arachnoscorp had stopped obeying her master.
Magic Resistance check failed!
ATTENTION! You are panicking! Character uncontrollable! Duration: 90 seconds!
That was all I needed… The Lesser Terror was still letting out piercing screams from above as it circled the river island, and the third time was the charm. Now I was no longer in control of my kitten and had no idea what was happening. All around me was black. All I could see were the multicolored bars showing my health, satiety, mana and stamina. No, another had appeared — the breath bar. My ginger Whiskers must have jumped down off Sergeant’s shoulder and sank into the water. Then… I spent mana on something. Looked like the ‘autopilot’ was working on the same algorithm as last time; as soon as it hit the water, it transformed into a fish. No, not a fish this time — the air bar didn’t disappear. So what had I spent mana on? What the hell was happening?!
My character quickly ran out of air. You’re going to drown, idiot! Get to the surface! Why are you still underwater?
It would be forty seconds before I regained control of the panicking Whiskers. In the meantime, all I could do was helplessly watch as the kitten drowned. But Whiskers didn’t suffocate — my kitten still had air when my health bar suddenly emptied. That made sense. There were plenty of predators in the lake.
Your character has died! First death of ten in this world. You will revive in fifteen minutes.
* * *
I lay on the branch of a withered tree on the opposite bank of the river and watched Pan’s Landing from a safe distance. I could see the night beasts roving between the buildings and even inside the houses, trying to reach the last humans as they lay hidden. The Alphas phased right through walls in search of survivors, jumped onto roofs, sniffed the air, cast piercing eyes back and forth. The Feelers crawled through the village, ripping at wooden doors and shutters with claws and teeth, breaking into rooms and occasionally splitting the air with screams that reverberated in the skull.
Two or three Feelers probed at Atlas, trying in vain to somehow penetrate the giga-komodo’s armor as it lay curled up in an impenetrable ball. But the creatures’ favorite spot was the respawn point just between the palisade and the big storehouse full of building materials. There the night beasts lay in wait for each reviving player and attacked at once from all sides, tearing the human apart in mere seconds. The bloodthirsty monsters ate their fill that night…
I was lucky. I wasn’t in the list of village residents, so the closest respawn point was closed to me. Maybe my tiny kitten body was too small for the night beasts to notice anyway, although I wasn’t sure. That Lesser Terror turned out to be very small, only a little larger than a seagull or raven. The black winged beast was like some kind of bat with teeth. It careered lazily above the village
, combing the area for signs of life. Once every couple of minutes, it emitted its intolerable cry, setting my teeth on edge and bringing my hackles up. The Lesser Terror certainly didn’t count as a ‘creature of large or very large size,’ so my Little Furball ability wouldn’t affect it.
I was lucky with more than my respawn point. Sure, my first death was no fun. I’d spent fifteen minutes playing that strange swim as a fish mini-game. But I’d heard so many people talk about their first death that I more or less knew what to expect, and what to pay attention to. And I had experience with transforming into other creatures, so I was in a more advantageous position than most. My little nimble fish lasted a whole fifteen minutes in shallow water full of all kinds of dangers without dying. As a result, I got the maximum possible seven mutation points, putting me at eighteen total. I planned to spend those points usefully in the near future, but for now I just lay there, watching the Lesser Terror and trying to think of a way to take down the deadly beast.
Maybe I could weaken it so much with curses that the screaming bat would drop out of the sky and crash to the ground, becoming vulnerable to me and the humans. Only to do that, my kitten would need to be very close, within range of the Lesser Terror’s psionic magic, and survive at least one attack without going insane with terror and blacking out in panic. I’d resisted it once today when Whiskers was deafened. Maybe that was the way to do it? Block up my sensitive ears with wax, like the ancient sailors did when they saw the beckoning sirens? I wouldn’t be able to do it myself with my cat’s paws, but I could ask Varya to help!
As it happened, the Engineer’s daughter avoided death — her female chimeric megasaurus panicked and careered off, carrying the girl far away from the river island. The Scout missed most of the action. I’d seen Varya around an hour ago — the girl sat watching the distant island like I was, but from the opposite bank. She didn’t approach the night beasts, instead scurrying away into the night on Irosaurus Regina. Sergeant survived too — as his pet, I would have gotten a message if he’d died. But I had no clue where the Beast Catcher was now or what state the Marsh Mistress and the creeping crocodiles were in. All I could do was wait for dawn, the disappearance of the night beasts, and the end of this bloodbath on the island.
Chapter 36 [Sergeant]
End of an Era
THE NIGHT WAS HEAVY, the sky a blanket of stars. Julie and I sat by a small campfire on the river bank, drinking tea from my flask and boiling up some healing herbs in the kettle. My little sister, the level 14 Veterinarian, had already made some progress in Herbalism and Medicine, picking up knowledge from Anna and Shelly. Between us, we’d washed and applied healing ointment to countless wounds on the cruel arachnoscorp and the two creeping crocodiles.
My pets were in a bad way. The night beasts had given them a mauling. It was a miracle that none had died. The Marsh Mistress had less than four percent health left when I lost control of her and she ran off. Tick-Tick looked the worse for wear, too, blinded in both eyes in the fight with the fearsome level 29 Alpha. He’d lost a lot of blood. One thing lifted my spirits — the creeping crocodile didn’t need too much experience to level up, so his grievous wounds should be healed soon.
My sister had brought the creeping crocodiles out. Julie told me how frightened she and Shelly had been at the scream of the night beast, then the sight of the defenders outside the gates scattering in panic. Then a level 7 Alpha suddenly materialized in their room. The furry Huntress threw her spear at the uninvited guest, pulled the door open and ran through the house to warn the villagers of the danger. The Alpha followed her. That gave my sister time to open the window and jump out into the courtyard. In invisibility, Julie first headed for the drawbridge — one of the panicking villagers had opened the main gates, and many were running for the river. But a whole army of Feelers appeared and stopped the humans from lowering the drawbridge.
Many of the villagers jumped into the deadly water, but Julie didn’t follow them. The girl ran around the edge of the village outside the palisade and fell prey to the Lesser Terror’s psionic attack again. When she came round, she found herself on the lake shore, just by the creeping crocodiles. She jumped straight onto Tick-Tock and guided the blind creeping crocodile upstream, away from the night beasts and the chaotic slaughter in Pan’s Landing. Katy the creeping crocodile followed after them. She’d suffered the least of all my pets. Soon Julie spotted the Marsh Mistress limping along with me astride her and called out to me. She didn’t know what happened to Shelly after the house. Nor did she know what happened to most of the other villagers. She saw some corpses the night beasts were chewing up, she said, but she’d had no time to see who they were.
The more she told me, the lower my head dropped in anguish. Many non-combatants had died. I’d volunteered to protect the villagers alongside the other defenders, but I wasn’t even hurt in the night’s battle. All I got was a couple of deep scratches on the chitinous armor I wore and a slight headache from a blow by a bony leg on my helmet. The Cartographer’s ring protected me from psionic attacks, so I was the only one unaffected by the Lesser Terror. Not only had I not died, I’d even leveled up to seventeen in the battle. And I earned it; I’d drawn the ire of all three Alphas and even killed one of them. In fact, I’d done more than any other defender of the village. All the same, my conscience sneered at me. I’d abandoned the doomed village, it said, choosing to save the badly injured Marsh Mistress instead of the people.
So when the Marsh Mistress came round and started obeying orders again, I decided to leave the wounded arachnoscorp under my sister’s care and head back to find and save Shelly, Varya and all the others. But when I announced my decision, Julie ran to me, hugged me tightly and tearfully begged me not to leave. She burst into tears and said there was nothing I could do alone against thirty night beasts except die. That my character was still too low-level, and my class was Beast Catcher. I wasn’t a melee fighter, and my pets were no good right now.
Her words stung, but I knew the girl was right. I stayed with her, sat down on the bank, opened my character stats and read:
Sergeant. Human. Male.
Class: Beast Catcher, level 17.
Character stats:
Strength 18 (+20% damage dealt in close combat)
Agility 18 (+20% movement speed, +20% reaction speed, +20% action accuracy)
Intellect 11 (Effect unknown)
Perception 12 (-10% range to vision, hearing, sense of smell)
Physique 21 * Your high Physique gives your character special abilities
Luck Modifier -3 * Your extremely low Luck gives your character special abilities
Character stats:
Health Points: 288 / 347
Stamina Points: 234 / 477
Magic Points: 0 / 0
Max burden: 80 lbs
Mutagens used: 1 (10 points spent)
Fame: 3
Character skills:
Hand-to-Hand Combat 11
Eagle Eye 18
Tracking 13
Sprinter 12
Item Crafting 9
Fishing 9
Taming 56 * Calming Touch specialization added.
Riding 33
Monster Riding 13
Heavy Armor 4
Attention! 3 unspent skill points available
Attention! 12 mutation points available
I wasn’t as helpless and weak as my sister said. Sure, I was no professional fighter — I didn’t have enough Strength or Agility for that, let alone the specialized weapon skills required. I didn’t have the parry and dodge skills that are so essential for a melee fighter, and my Hand-to-Hand Combat was weak. I’d overheard that Rumbler and Grip had 24 Strength, around ten leveled-up battle skills and nearly three thousand health. My Sergeant was far below such lofty heights.
But I’d managed to put down that tall level 39 Miner that had come to shove me out of my room. And I’d killed that level 11 Alpha last night, even if it was already wounded. My character had potent
ial. I just needed to help make it a reality.
I put all three unspent points into Hand-to-Hand Combat, leveling the skill up to fourteen. And then regretted it a minute later. My bitterness and grief were steadily passing, and I began to look at the situation more pragmatically. Sure, combat classes were cool, no doubt about it. But why chase an unachievable mirage? I was a Beast Catcher. I tamed monsters and used them to help people. That was my strength, my value to others. And that meant I had to stay and help my pets recover.
* * *
The female creeping crocodile spent all night catching fish and dragging their flopping bodies to the male, who couldn’t hunt for now. Tick-Tock ate as if for ten, steadily recovering his lost hitpoints. In response to my attempt to take one of the fish for myself and Julie, the creeping crocodile bared her terrible rows of teeth and growled menacingly. Got it. All yours! I made no more attempts to take Katy’s spoils.
Dawn finally came. Yawning, eyes red from fatigue and the smoke of the fire, Julie and I returned to Pan’s Landing with our recovering pets in tow. The sun hadn’t yet appeared above the trees, but the pink horizon steadily beat back the night’s gloom. Fear and hopelessness fled with the darkness. I hoped that the night beasts that had captured Pan’s Landing and slaughtered its people would disappear as well.
Best act carefully, all the same. I left my sister on her creeping crocodile and jumped down onto the bank. I saw Atlas the giga-komodo from afar, curled up into a ball. He looked fine. Then I slowly and carefully walked through the village gates, axe in hand. And lowered my weapon. We weren’t the first back. A dozen frowning and silent humans wandered around the village center, examining the houses’ broken shutters, torn thatch and smashed doors. They looked at the pools of blood on the ground too, and there were plenty of those. The dead bodies were gone, but the blood had seeped into every inch of the square. The wall by the respawn point was particularly sanguine.
I couldn’t see Shelly anywhere. Couldn’t see my cat either. All the mattresses in our room were torn apart. The shutters were broken, and I saw deep gouges in the floorboards as if the night beasts had tried to rip their way into the cellar. But there were no traces of blood. None in the corridor either, or in the other rooms — the inhabitants had managed to escape.
A Cat and His Human (League of Losers Book #1): LitRPG Series Page 30