Animal Kingdom- Riot

by Aaron Oster

  Despite the distance he’d put between himself and the Boss, Arthur still took some damage.

  -11 Damage, Aura Spear

  He saw Talia go flying, her HP down to nearly a sliver, as she was much closer to the blast area and turned back to run for her. She didn’t have any potions, and if Claudia reached her, she would definitely get killed.

  “Hopps!” Arthur yelled, knowing his friend always stood far enough back to avoid AOE attacks.

  “Gotchya, mate!” his companion answered and dropped another Mud Bath on the Boss as she pulled her polearm from the ground and turned to the downed ant-girl.

  Arthur skidded to a halt near Talia, fishing a couple of Health potions from his bag. Her rough clothes had been further shredded by the explosion, revealing her pale skin covered in small cuts.

  “Talia, wake up!” he yelled, slapping the dazed ant-girl a few times.

  He wasn’t strong enough to do any damage, and the chiton on her cheeks probably caused him more pain than he could dish out.

  “Wha’s goin’ on?” she asked blearily.

  Arthur pressed the potion to her lips, tilting it back and forcing her to swallow. He only had one left, so this would have to be enough. Thankfully, her vision sharpened as her HP was restored by 50 points, and she sat up, looking herself over.

  “Looks like I own you for real this time, frog-b… Arthur,” she corrected herself, giving him a weak smile.

  “Don’t thank me just yet,” Arthur said, pointing to the Boss whose body was now glowing an angry red as her muscles bulged and her armor began cracking.

  “I’ve got a feeling that the fight is about to become a whole lot harder.”

  15

  Arthur rose to his feet, not even bothering to try and help Talia up – he knew he didn’t have the Strength – and turned to face the glowing Boss. Her armor was a spiderweb of cracks as her muscles rippled and bulged.

  Finally, with a massive boom, the armor shattered, leaving Claudia dressed in nothing but cloth chest and waist wrappings. Arthur had to admit that her physique was impressive, even though she was probably about to tear them all limb from limb.

  Her entire body was covered in dark tan fur, pattered by large, cloudy spots. A tail, previously hidden by her armor, lashed out behind her. Her arms, legs, and stomach were taught with powerful muscles, and when she turned to face them, he could see that her face had taken on a more animalistic caste.

  Her eyes glowed green with malice, and her claws extended out a full ten inches from the tips of her fingers. She didn’t bother going for her polearm, which told him she was now going to be focusing on speed instead of power.

  “What’s the plan?” Talia asked as Claudia began tearing herself free of the clinging mud.

  “I guess me and Hopps will try and slow her down enough for you to get a hit,” he replied with a shrug.

  He had no better plan, and when she didn’t object, he took it to mean that she agreed.

  Claudia roared, finally pulling herself free of the clinging muck and charging them. She was noticeably faster than before, not that it was a surprise, and Arthur rushed forward to meet her.

  “Drop your poison cloud on us!” Arthur yelled, hoping Hopps would understand his plan.

  It could end up damaging him as well, but he was hoping his resistance would nullify it. He needed a way to limit her visibility. Otherwise, they would stand no chance of defeating her. He also kept in mind that she had a second AOE that she’d yet to display.

  Arthur closed the distance with the Boss and used Spring to leap over her head, attempting to get behind her, but her hand flashed out, catching his leg mid-leap. Arthur yelped as she yanked him down, slamming him into the ground hard enough to send stars dancing in his vision.

  -27 HP, blunt

  Claudia was on top of him before he knew what was happening, her weight bulk pinning him to the ground, and her sharpened claws slashing into his face and chest in rapid succession. His HP began plummeting in huge chunks, and Arthur began panicking.

  He slapped her with a Poison Touch, then stabbed her leg with his dagger, twisting and jerking it out. Pain flared in his chest as she tore bloody strips from his skin. She then plunged her claws directly into his chest, and Arthur gasped, his body locking up as his vision flashed red. He could feel the tips of her claws tickling his heart.

  The pain was horrible, the worst he’d ever felt. Suddenly, Talia was there, slamming her hammer into the Boss and sending her flying once more. Arthur’s HP was, once again, nearly depleted. His chest looked like a mess of shredded, pulpy flesh.

  “Ooh, that does not look good.”

  He felt Talia rusting around in his bag and a second later, felt the neck of his last Health potion pressed to his lips. The bleeding immediately stopped, and his chest stitched itself partially closed.

  “Thanks,” he croaked.

  “Come on, champ. On your feet,” she said, grabbing him under the arm and pulling him to his feet.

  His body protested the movement, sending pain flaring through him in waves. He was really getting sick and tired of his constant near-death experiences. Why couldn’t a fight just go smoothly?

  Claudia was charging them once more, but he noticed that she now carried a slight limp in her left leg where he’d stabbed her, and the fur there was matted with blood. Her HP was also down to less than 35%.

  “Let’s finish this,” he said, gripping his dagger.

  He was in so much pain that he could hardly think straight. Both his and Talia’s HP were barely over 50 points and they had no Health potions left.

  “Get her, mate!” Hopps yelled, and Arthur’s HP jumped to 72, washing away some more of the pain and boosting him.

  “Use the damn poison cloud!” he yelled, charging the Boss with Talia right on his heels.

  A cloud of poison bloomed right in their path, and both he and the Boss ended up inside the green cloud. Arthur tried not to breathe, using his double kick and aiming for Claudia’s bad leg. She was distracted by a coughing fit, as she’d breathed in some of the poisonous air. This worked to Arthur’s advantage because she couldn’t get out of the way in time to dodge his attack.

  She screamed in pain as her leg buckled, snapping at the joint and shaving off another big chunk of her HP. The cloud dispersed, and Talia came barreling in, slamming her hammer into her side.

  She’d been aiming for the head, but Claudia had thrown herself to the side, avoiding the attack. Her HP dropped to 5%, and Arthur tried to follow up with a slash of his dagger, but she lashed out, raking her claws across his belly once more. He managed to jump out of the way just in time, saving him from losing his guts again.

  “You’re all dead!” she screamed, her body lighting up an angry crimson.

  Instead of running, Talia brought her hammer around in a massive swing, the head glowing before impacting with the Boss’s upraised arm.

  The limb splintered with a loud snap and dropped her HP down to 1%. Her face lit up in victory. Despite the pain she was in and her health being nearly gone, she’d survived long enough to unleash her AOE attack.

  “No!” Arthur yelled, leaping forward but already knowing he wouldn’t make it in time.

  Claudia’s body glowed brilliant for an instant, then the light faded, her eyes widening in shock, staring down at the sharpened piece of stone protruding from her chest. Then, she pitched forward, dead.

  “Woo! That was one hell of a shot, if I do say so myself!” Hopps yelled as the message flashed before his eyes.

  Boss Defeated!

  +4,130 XP!

  “Um, what just happened?” Talia asked, looking both relieved and confused.

  “I just saved your asses, is what happened!” Hopps bragged, bounding over.

  “What exactly did you do?” Arthur asked, watching as the Boss began melting into the ground.

  “I threw a rock at her.”

  “Yeah, we can see that,” Talia said, turning to the puffed-up frog. “But how?”<
br />
  “Oh, that’s easy. I just turned around and kicked some of the rubble at her with my back legs.”

  Both Talia and Arthur stared at him in incomprehension.

  “Wait,” Arthur said, trying to understand. “So, what you’re telling us, is that you risked our lives not using one of your abilities and kicked some rocks at her?!”

  “Yup!” Hopps said, seeming to be completely oblivious to their anger.

  The sound of grating stone cut off any further conversation, and they all turned to see the massive throne sliding to the side. A moment later, a piteous wail sounded from within.

  “Someone, please, help me.”

  “Space!” Talia cried out.

  Her hammer clanged to the floor as she charged across the room. Arthur wanted to follow her, but he simply didn’t have the strength. He sank to the ground as she reached into the hole and watched as she pulled another ani-human ant, presumably her cousin, from under the throne. He looked thin and malnourished, as though he hadn’t eaten in weeks. Arthur thought this might very well have been the case for the ant.

  Another grinding sound echoed out as a panel of stone on the far side of the room slid to the side, revealing a winding staircase that thankfully seemed to head up.

  “Finally! Let’s get the hell out of here!” Arthur exclaimed, shooting to his feet.

  “Right you are, mate!” Hopps called from behind him. “I’ll grab the loot. Talia, you help your cousin up the stairs.”

  The ant-girl nodded, lifting Space without any visible sign of effort, then walked back to retrieve her hammer.

  The ‘quest complete’ notification flashed before Arthur’s eyes as soon as they exited the Dungeon, letting him know that he’d made it with three minutes to spare.

  Quest Completed: Frog-Scue

  Rewards: 5,000 XP, Bag of Holding, Talia will join your party

  Level Up!

  Congratulations, you have reached level 11. You now have 5 new Attribute Points to allocate.

  Arthur ignored the notifications, leaning his back against the stone wall protruding from the side of the hill where they’d exited. It had stopped raining by now and was pitch dark outside, though he didn’t have too much trouble seeing.

  “You doing alright, mate?” he heard Hopps ask.

  He could also vaguely hear Talia talking with her cousin, but he was too tired to answer. He’d been awake for nearly twenty-four hours at this point with barely any sleep at all. Add to that the terror induced by nearly dying half a dozen times, and it all combined to make him unable to move.

  “Yeah, just tired,” he replied, his voice slurring. “I think I’m just gonna take a quick nap.”

  The pain of his injuries was a distant memory now, as his HP had begun regenerating as soon as the battle had ended. His tired brain just couldn’t bother with the effort of relaying whatever was left.

  “Alright, Arthur, I think you’ve earned a rest. We’ll take care of you, don’t you worry.”

  “That’s nice,” he mumbled as consciousness fled, and he fell into a deep sleep.

  16

  “Do you think we should wake him up yet? He’s been asleep for almost an entire day.”

  “I don’t know, the poor bloke’s exhausted. You should have seen how much fighting he did. And he didn’t get to take a nap like I did, either.”

  “Didn’t you say he got two hours of sleep?”

  “Yeah, but that’s hardly enough for a growing frog. Just let him sleep a little more.”

  “I’m awake. You can stop arguing now,” Arthur said, not opening his eyes just yet.

  “Oh,” Hopps said, sounding sheepish. “Sorry about that, mate. It’s just that you’ve been asleep nearly an entire day already…” He trailed off as Arthur cracked open his eyes.

  He was lying on a bed in a dimly lit wooden room. He blinked a few times, rubbing his eyes to clear the fog of sleep, and Hopps came into focus, sitting on the end of the bed.

  “Finally awake, frog boy?”

  Arthur’s eyes swept over the room and landed on Talia, who was leaning against the back wall with a smirk quirking the corner of her mouth.

  “I have a name, you know,” Arthur grumbled, sitting up in bed and yawning widely. “How’d I get here?”

  “Hopps had to carry you,” Talia said, pushing off the wall and approaching the bed.

  The far side of the room had been shrouded in shadow, and it wasn’t until she walked into the light cast by a lantern dangling above his bed, that he noticed her change of clothes. She now wore a leather jerkin, a pair of rough spun pants, and sturdy boots. The handle of her massive hammer peeked over one of her shoulders.

  She quirked an eyebrow at him, but he chose to ignore her, turning his eyes back on Hopps.

  “What happened last night?”

  “Don’t you remember?” Hopps asked, looking worried.

  Arthur made a so-so gesture as he covered another yawn.

  “I remember fighting through the Dungeon and beating the Boss, but the details are a bit hazy. And I can’t remember anything from after we killed her.”

  “Oh, that’s perfectly understandable after all that fighting,” Hopps said, rubbing at his chin with one of his forelimbs, which was beginning to resemble an arm with actual fingers.

  “After we all killed the Boss and left the Dungeon, you passed out, and we couldn’t wake you up, no matter how hard we tried. So, I carried you back to the village. Talia took care of her cousin, and now he’s recovering by the Healer’s place. Did I miss anything?” he asked, turning to Talia.

  “Uh, yeah,” she said with a huge grin. “You forgot to mention all the loot we got from beating the Boss.”

  She reached down to the side of the bed and tossed a shimmering black bag into his lap.

  “The bag is from me, but the stuff inside is from the Boss.”

  Another smaller bag landed next to this one, and the sound of clinking coins reached his ears.

  “From the Dungeon core. I swiped it on the way out. Since none of us are Alchemists, I figured I’d just sell it and split the profit three ways.”

  He nodded, feeling his fingers twitch involuntarily toward the coin pouch. He had to know how much money was in there.

  Talia laughed when she saw that and turned to head out of the room.

  “Come on, Hopps. Let’s go tell your parents he’s awake. They’ll want to thank him for saving their son. Oh, and I guess I owe you, frog boy, so I’ll be coming along with you once you leave the village. Can’t have you going and dying on me.”

  “Gee, thanks,” Arthur said dryly as she waved to him over her shoulder.

  He shared a look with Hopps, who only shrugged in response.

  “Don’t ask me, mate. But if she wants to come along, I don’t think we can stop her. Where are we going, by the way?”

  “I’m not really sure,” Arthur said after a moment of thought. “I’d like to get some training before we go anywhere. I almost died way too many times yesterday. I need to get a handle on my skills and abilities.”

  “Oh, perfect! I didn’t wanna head out right away, anyway. Getting frognapped takes a lot out of you. I’ll go now and get my mom and dad. They’ll be happy you’re awake. Besides, if anyone can help with training, it’s them.”

  Arthur nodded and watched Hopps as he left the room, closing the door behind him. As soon as the door closed, Arthur blew out a long breath and slumped in the bed.

  Had he really been asleep for an entire day? It sure didn’t feel like it.

  He was still exhausted, but the clink of coins as he shifted on the bed soon drew his attention.

  Reaching down, he pulled at the strings of the small pouch, revealing the glitter of gold. He could feel his heart racing as he upended the pouch into his lap and began counting.

  There were twelve gold coins and thirty-eight silver. Add that to the money he already had, and that made just over thirteen gold. The currency in the Animal Kingdom was 100 copper to a silv
er, 100 silver to a gold and 10 gold to a platinum. There were higher forms of currency, but almost no one bothered with them.

  Besides, thirteen gold coins was the earth equivalent of thirteen thousand dollars! That was enough money to equip himself with some truly epic armor.

  Speaking of armor, he thought, looking down at himself. Where is mine?

  He was dressed in a pair of soft-feeling pajamas. His rough-spun starter gear was nowhere to be seen, but the furry cape hung on a hook on the far side of the room. He could see a small blinking light in the corner of his vision, letting him know that he had unread notifications. He decided he’d check on those after he looked at his new gear. He examined the shimmering bag first.

  Item Found!

  Name: Bag of Holding

  Durability: 250/250

  Rarity: Epic

  Item Type: Storage

  Effect: Reduces the weight of stored items by 99%

  Arthur grinned, digging into the bag and finding several items had been stored there. There were six Health and Stamina potions, as well as a single Mana potion. They would all restore only 50 points of each, so they were standard. Nothing special.

  Next, he found his Centipede’s Carver, as well as the Epic dagger handle. After that, three new items tumbled out, and he eagerly examined them.

  Item Found!

  Name: Claudia’s Claw

  Durability: 100/100

  Rarity: Epic

  Item Type: Crafting Material

  Uses: Can be used to craft a dagger

  Item Found!

  Name: Ability Scroll

  Durability: 5/5

  Rarity: Epic

  Item Type: Information

  Effect: Teaches the Ability - Drilling Blows

  Item Found!

  Name: Claudia’s Ring

  Durability: 85/85

  Rarity: Epic

  Item Type: Buffer

  Effect: +6 to Agility & Endurance, +2 to Luck