Animal Kingdom- Riot

by Aaron Oster

  “Yeah. You can be passing through a part of the forest and find yourself in one.”

  “How does it stop you from just turning around and running?” Arthur asked.

  Hopps gave him another odd look.

  “The trees close off your exit,” he replied, as though this were common knowledge.

  “Great. Deathtraps around every corner,” Arthur said, feeling his shoulders slump. “May as well get going, in that case.”

  “That’s the spirit, mate!” Hopps replied. “Best not to prolong the inevitable, I always say. It’s been nice knowing you.”

  Arthur rolled his eyes, ignoring the pessimistic frog, and stepping into the tunnel. He noticed immediately that it sloped gently downward and that it branched out into several directions up ahead.

  He could feel his heart rate picking up as he moved forward, imagining powerful enemies jumping from every corner. But, as he walked and didn’t encounter so much as a single mob, he began to relax.

  That didn’t mean that he dropped his guard fully. He knew better than that. He kept his Perception skill active the entire time, straining his eyes and ears for any sound or flicker of movement. Hopps had tried to strike up a conversation a couple of times, but Arthur had shushed him, not wanting to give up their position. It was only because of this that he heard the light scuff as a foot brushed over the dirt floor behind him.

  His Perception immediately went up by two whole skill levels, and Arthur reacted without even thinking.

  Spinning in place, he used Spring, launching himself down the tunnel at the thing that had been sneaking up on them. He ignored Hopps’s cry of alarm as he flew from his shoulder. There was a yowl of anger as Arthur slammed into something furry and large, slapping it with a Poison Touch before jumping back and drawing his Centipede’s Carver from his belt and examining his opponent.

  The large car was roughly three feet at the shoulder and nearly six long. Its fur was long and fluffy, and its ears ended in short tufts. Green eyes glared back at him, and the cat hissed, showing razor-sharp teeth. His eyes flicked to the HP bar above its head, and he cursed, seeing that it had only dropped by a sliver. Only then did he think to examine the cat.

  Name: Forest Lynx

  Level: 6

  HP: 196/200

  Well, that wasn’t good.

  The cat screeched at him, then its muscles bunched up as it pounced, claws extending to shred him to bloody pieces.

  He dodged to once side, slashing out with his dagger, but the lynx twisted as it landed, neatly avoiding the blow and smacking him with its tail, shaving off 10 of his HP. Arthur staggered back, narrowly avoiding a back swipe as the lynx lashed out with its rear legs to keep him from closing.

  Arthur felt his back hit the tunnel wall and spun to one side, cursing as the tail slammed into the area he’d just been occupying. This wasn’t good. He was on the back foot, and if he kept retreating, he would lose. He’d already lucked out in hearing the near-silent predator. Now, he had to kill this monster.

  He leaped to the side as the cat whirled around to face him once more. Its HP had stopped ticking down, meaning his Poison Touch had worm off. It hissed at him, crouching for another pounce when a globe of water suddenly slammed into it from behind and exploded.

  The cat screeched in surprise and pain as 20 HP was shaved off its bar, and it was soaked to the bone. Arthur didn’t waste the opportunity. Using Spring, he launched himself forward, landing his Tae-Frog-Do and knocking off another 11 HP.

  The lynx staggered back as he landed, and he slapped it with another Poison Touch, then triggered his Frog Slicer ability and began laying into the beast, stabbing and slashing with his dagger as his Stamina began draining at an alarming rate.

  He was beginning to feel the same rage he’d felt earlier threatening to take over, when the lynx finally recovered and retaliated, raking him with its foreclaws.

  -32 Damage, slashing

  Debuff: Bleeding, -2 damage per second for the next seven seconds.

  “Hopps!” Arthur yelled, feeling the pain of the cuts in his stomach as blood began running down the front of his shirt.

  The cat slashed out again, and he narrowly avoided taking another hit, but his HP continued ticking down. He dodged the next two attacks, returning with a slash of his own, before catching another massive hit as the lynx shoved its shoulder into him, slamming him into the wall.

  He managed to use Spring at the last second, and that saved him from being pinned. But even as he somersaulted over the cat’s head, he could see that he was down to less than 30% of his HP, while the lynx was still at around 70.

  Hopps’ buff hit him as soon as he landed, and he threw a quick glance over his shoulder to see the small frog hidden behind a rock that was protruding from the cave wall. His HP went up to about half, and his attributes got a small boost.

  He ran at the lynx once again, fairly certain he’d figured out its attacks. There was still no discernable pattern to follow, but he was somewhat confident that he could win. Maybe.

  Ducking under a swiping paw, he slashed at its back legs, activating his Frog Slicer for just a second to increase his damage. The cat kicked out with its back leg, just as he predicted it would, and he rolled to the side, using his Tae-Frog-Do to slam it with another double kick. The tail whipped down, and he dodged to the side again as it slammed into the ground, slapping it with a Poison Touch.

  Arthur began to breathe a little easier as he began to read the lynx’s attacks, dealing out damage as he danced around the less nimble cat. Even though there was no pattern to follow, he could predict where the attacks would be coming from, based on where he was relative to the large cat.

  “Doing great, mate!” Hopps shouted, launching another Water Bomb and taking the lynx down to 10%.

  “Just a few more hits,” he said to himself, darting in to slash at the cat.

  He was terrified that something would go horribly wrong at the last second. But, surprisingly enough, it didn’t. His dagger sank deep into the lynx’s side, and the cat let out a final screech of pain. With a heavy thump, it collapsed to the ground, dead.

  Forest Lynx dies! +450 XP

  “Holy crap, that thing gave a lot of XP!” Arthur exclaimed.

  “Yup, especially since it was split in half,” Hopps said, coming out from behind the outcropping of rock.

  “Wait…” Arthur said, his eyes going wide. “That thing gave 900 XP, total?!”

  “Yeah. Predator Zones are more dangerous, but the rewards do go up with the risks. And would you look at that? Loot!”

  Arthur turned to see that the cat was melting into the ground, leaving behind a few items. It seemed that the corpses would vanish much faster in Dungeons than they did outside. It had been a grueling fight. Checking his HP, Arthur found that it was down to 21/100 and regenerating slowly now that the fight was over.

  What really worried him most was how low his Stamina was, just 7/180. If that fight had taken just a few seconds longer, he’d have run out, and it would have cost him his life! He’d need to be more careful with how he used it if he hoped to get out of this Dungeon alive. His MP was far better off, but that was just because he didn’t use it for anything other than his Poison Touch.

  Crouching down by the item pile, he noticed three small glowing vials, one green, one yellow, and the third, blue.

  Examining them each, he discovered they were what he’d been missing most in this new, deadly world- potions! The green health potion would restore 50 HP, the yellow Stamina and blue Mana potions would restore the same amount for each.

  There was also a small pile of glittering silver coins and a small circular piece of leather that he couldn’t find any use for.

  “Armor!” Hopps cried when he saw the small brown ring.

  Arthur placed the small bit on the ground and watched with interest as Hopps wriggled into the small leather loop. His head and front legs came through, leaving his midriff protected- not that he was sure what such a small b
it of leather could do to protect the small frog.

  “How do I look? Badass, right?”

  The small frog struck what he thought of as a heroic pose, standing up on his hand legs and placing one hand against the tunnel wall. Then, he overbalanced and ended up falling onto his back, flailing his small limbs in an attempt to regain his footing, as well as his dignity.

  Arthur held back his laughter, if only just, and helped the frog get back to his feet.

  “Thanks, mate. Not that I needed it or anything,” Hopps said, making sure not to meet his eyes and brushing himself off.

  “Of course not,” Arthur agreed, sticking the trio of potions in his belt.

  I really need to get a bag for all this stuff once I get out of here.

  He hoped he’d be able to get one soon, as he was running out of space on his belt. That was, if they survived this death trap, as Hopps had put it. If the first mob they ran into was that tough, he could hardly imagine what it would look like further in.

  “Best get a move-on,” Arthur said, allowing Hopps to jump back to his perch on his shoulder.

  “Right on. I’ll watch our back, so no more of those furry buggers sneak up on us,” Hopps said with a shudder. “I’m not a fan of cats.”

  Arthur hadn’t really minded cats in the real world, but he was beginning to dislike them as well. And he had a feeling that by the time he made it through the Dungeon, he’d hate them just as much as Hopps did.

  “I think we’re coming up on the Boss room,” Hopps said, pointing with one of his forelegs.

  “Yeah, I think you’re right,” Arthur said, eyeing the widening tunnel with trepidation.

  It had taken them nearly six hours by Hopps’s estimation to reach this point, and they were both thoroughly exhausted. They’d fought one lynx after the next, narrowly escaping with their lives. They’d been forced to run from a fight more than once when a cat was too strong for them.

  Luckily, it seemed that his Agility was higher than theirs, as he managed to escape. There had been a real moment of terror when he’d tried to run from one, and the cat had actually caught up. This one had a lower HP than he did, and after a short and bloody fight, they’d come out on top.

  They had each leveled several times. Arthur was now level 7, and Hopps had made it to level 8. Apparently, his XP got some sort of boost that helped him grow faster at the lower levels. He’d also grown in size each time and was now a full twelve inches long, taking up his entire shoulder, even with his legs and arms holding on to his chest and back.

  Arthur suspected that it wouldn’t be too long until he could no longer hitch a ride on him, despite his best efforts at squishing himself to fit.

  “I can’t believe we’re still alive,” Hopps said as they came to a stop at the end of the tunnel.

  The room ahead opened up into a massive cavern. Large bits of stone jutted out of the walls, giving it the appearance of a massive mouth tilted on its side. At the very center of the room rested an enormous lynx. It was twice the size of the ones they’d been fighting up until now, but its fur was a stark white, dotted with a few spots of gray- the inverse of the other’s fur color.

  The massive cat didn’t stir, but Arthur suspected that if he stepped into the cavern, the Boss would be up in an instant. He tried examining the cat’s stats but found himself unable to. He would probably need to go into the cavern if he wanted to see just how strong it was. He knew there was no guarantee that it wouldn’t follow him out if he ran.

  “Do you think it’s safe to take a rest in here?” Arthur asked, stepping back from the Boss room and retreating a dozen yards back down the tunnel.

  It was mostly stone by now, having changed over from dirt the longer they descended. Arthur noted that he couldn’t see any other exits in the Boss room, which unnerved him terribly. In a Dungeon that became a Predator Zone, the exit would be closed until the Boss was defeated. That could be the reason why he couldn’t see it. But he was afraid that it was for another reason entirely- that the Dungeon had another floor and they’d be forced to challenge it to escape.

  Making their way through this floor had been hard enough. If not for the fact that he’d leveled up and been able to place more points in Constitution, Endurance and Agility, he never would have made it even this far. And he’d never be able to do it solo. Hopps had bailed him out more than once, and even using the Health potions provided by killing the mobs, it almost hadn’t been enough.

  “Maybe. Maybe not. But if we don’t, we’ll probably die in there. I mean, we’ll probably die in there anyway, but we can give the wanker a better fight if we’re sharp.”

  Arthur ignored the amphibian’s pessimism and tiredly slumped against the tunnel wall. He was exhausted. He couldn’t ever remember being this tired in his life. Even though nothing actually hurt, and he wasn’t sore, he felt as though his eyelids were made of lead.

  “You mind keeping watch for a few hours?” he asked, feeling his eyes drooping.

  “Not at all, mate! I’ll holler if I see anything.”

  But Arthur didn’t hear him. He was already fast asleep.

  9

  “Hey, mate, I think you should get up.”

  Arthur slowly came out of a troubled sleep. He couldn’t remember why he’d been so worried, but the entire time he’d slept, he’d had a distinct sense of unease.

  Hopps’s face slowly came into focus as he cracked his eyes open. The frog was sitting on his chest and had been hopping up and down to get him to wake up.

  “What’s going on? How long have I been asleep?” Arthur asked, blearily.

  It didn’t feel like he’d been asleep for very long, and Hopps’s next words confirmed that.

  “Only about a couple of hours, mate.”

  “Why’d you wake me up then?” he asked grumpily, sitting up and forcing Hopps to hop off him.

  “We’ve got incoming.”

  Arthur opened his mouth to ask the frog what he was talking about when a sound drifted down the tunnel.

  “…bunch of weaklings. Didn’t stand a chance against the patrol.”

  “You can say that again. Claudia will be very happy.”

  Arthur shot to his feet, his eyes flicking down the tunnel where the voices were growing louder. He had no idea who they were, but his instincts were screaming at him to run and hide. And he wasn’t about to argue with his intuition.

  “Let’s go!” he hissed, snatching Hopps onto his shoulder and taking off down the tunnel.

  There was an intersection a few hundred feet away. If he could manage to reach it in time, he’d be able to hide. He could feel his heart pounding as the voices grew ever louder. By the time he made it to one of the side tunnels and dove in, their shadows had become visible around a bend in the tunnel, projected onto the walls.

  He immediately pressed his back to the wall, pushing himself as hard as he could to the stone surface and working to calm his racing heart. Hopps was silent as well, sitting absolutely still on his shoulder as the figures became visible.

  Two ani-human Felines dressed in plate armor walked around the corner. They seemed oddly relaxed for people in a Dungeon, which immediately set off alarm bells in his head. Were they part of the Dungeon?

  Thankfully, the two were occupied with their conversation and didn’t look as they passed their hiding spot. Arthur inspected one of them, getting a read on what they were dealing with.

  Name: Ocelot Guard (Humanoid)

  Level: 11

  HP: 275/275

  Holy crap!

  At their levels, these two could tear them apart with their bare paws. And it wasn’t as though they were unarmed, either. The pair each had a heavy-looking spiked mace dangling from their belts.

  Arthur would have been content to stay hidden until they were out of sight, but something one of them said caught his attention.

  “…new shipment in a couple of days.”

  “You really think they’ll fall for it again?”

  “They’re a
bunch of inbred villagers. You think they won’t?”

  The other guard laughed at that.

  “Yeah, you’re probably right. But do you think Claudia will go along with it?”

  “Please. She has no choice. This order comes all the way from the top. She couldn’t refuse, even if she wanted to.”

  Arthur had no idea what they were talking about as he’d missed a good deal of the conversation. From what he heard, he inferred that they were plotting something against Hopps’s village.

  Turning his head, he saw that Hopps looked very worried. That was enough to make his mind up for him. Pressing a finger to his lips, Arthur slunk out of the tunnel and began following the pair of guards.

  “Just don’t let her hear you talking like that. She’s got a nasty temper.”

  “You don’t have to tell me twice. You see what she did to that ant girl?”

  Both guards shuddered and went silent, continuing on their way into the Boss room.

  Arthur followed as closely as he could. He wasn’t sure why these two were here. But, if it was to clear the Dungeon, then they could piggyback off their success. With their high levels, they could easily take the Boss and clear the way out for them. He was pretty sure they weren’t part of the Dungeon by the way they were talking.

  However, he received the shock of his life when they strode purposefully into the Boss room, and the massive cat didn’t so much as stir. A section of stone in the far wall slid aside, revealing a winding staircase leading deeper into the Dungeon and confirming his fears of a second floor. As soon as the door ground shut, an unexpected notification flashed before his eyes.

  Quest Completed: Frog-Sploration

  Reward: 2,000 XP

  “What? That’s it, just XP?”

  Arthur was surprised. Hadn’t the original quest said there would be a variable reward at the end as well?

  “Arthur, I don’t know what’s going on, but those freaky Felines are clearly going after my village. It also looks like they’re the ones in charge of this Dungeon, which explains where they’ve been taking all their prisoners.”