Unusual Enemies - A LitRPG Adventure (The Whispering Crystals, #2)

by Mills, H. C.

  We creep through the underbrush in the formation we’d come up with. Kaitlynn’s at the front, using heat vision to check for danger, with Alec and me right behind her as backup. Trailing us are Dave with his bow and arrows and Jacob with his shield and sword as the rear guard. That way, Jacob can protect Dave if we get jumped, or use the first mode of his Increase Momentum Skill to quickly join us on the front lines.

  We’re taking it slow, as we still have no idea what we’re facing. The river’s roar is getting closer at least, so that’s good. Meanwhile, I’m still looking for a suitable tree to climb. It has to tower far enough over the others that I can safely climb to a suitable vantage point. Climbing shouldn’t be too hard with all these damn vines—

  Kaitlynn suddenly gasps. I turn to her to find her looking straight up through a hole in the canopy. “Oh wow, the protective grid is super-hot!” she whispers.

  “That’s... actually pretty interesting,” I concede quietly. “But please keep your eye on the forest.”

  “Right, sorry,” she says, flushing a lovely shade of pink.

  Note to self: never touch the protective grid.

  Yeah right, like that’d ever happen anyway.

  Two minutes later, Kaitlynn flinches, and raises a hand, prompting us all to stop. She points at a spot up ahead, staring at it intensely, and whispers, “There’s something there, something slightly warmer than its surroundings.”

  Thoughts race through my head. Now what? The Trial told us that we should be prepared for combat, but does that mean everything we come across is necessarily an enemy? What if this is some kind of scenario with like, warring tribes, and we have to pick a side?

  On the other hand, our goal is just to reach the end of the river...

  “What is it doing?” I whisper back.

  Kaitlynn shakes her head. “Nothing. It’s sitting still. Very still.”

  I glance back at Dave, who has an arrow nocked but not yet drawn. He raises a brow at me, and I hear his voice in my head.

 

  I turn to frown at the bushes, conflicted. To be honest, I don’t expect the makers of this place to put anything friendly on our path, so shooting first might be the rational approach, but... morally, attacking an unknown being because you fear it may be aggressive is just all kinds of wrong. I blow out a breath.

  “No,” I whisper. “Let’s see what we’re dealing with first. But just to be safe, everybody prepare for action.”

  Several Focus Crystals begin to glow around me as I pick up a rock. Satisfied that everybody’s ready, I gently lob it towards the bushes next to the ones Kaitlynn pointed out.

  “Aack!” something yells from the bushes.

  I blink in surprise as a giant frog—about the size and bulk of Jacob, really—hops out of the bushes and looks around angrily. Well, it’s not exactly like a frog. I mean, it does have green skin covered in dark stripes, a wide mouth, large eyes with horizontal pupils, and long spindly limbs ending in webbed hands and feet, but it’s not the right proportions. Its legs are too thick, and it’s standing up on them too high, like it’s about to get up and walk.

  “Appraise,” Dave mutters under his breath, before frowning. He meets my eye and shakes his head minutely, the meaning clear. He wasn’t allowed to appraise it, for whatever reason.

  Before I can delve into the why, the froggo throws me for a new loop.

  “Who threw?” it croaks loudly.

  For a split second, I freeze, surprised by the thing’s ability to speak, and what’s more, the fact that I can understand its words. Why the hell would the people who built this place teach English to giant frogs?!

  I share a flabbergasted look with the rest, then, after a moment’s hesitation, step out of the bushes, holding up my free hand. “Hey, sorry about that. I wasn’t—”

  However, the moment it spots me, its eyes go wide. “Monkey!” it bellows, barely finishing the word before it reaches into its huge gullet to pull out a wooden stick with surprisingly nimble front limbs.

  “Uh, I believe I’m technically an ape,” I manage to get out before he places one end of the stick against his lips, and his cheeks billow out almost comically. There’s nothing funny about the nasty looking blowdart that shoots out, however.

  The dart heads straight for my neck, but I dodge it at the last second. My Agility stat isn’t just for show, after all.

  Dave is the first to react. He gets up, draws, and releases in a single fluid motion.

  The arrow lodges itself into the froggo’s shoulder with a solid ‘thunk.’ It lets out a pained croak, and for a moment, I expect it to flee, but it doesn’t. It simply reloads and lifts its blowpipe back to its mouth.

  I understand where its confidence comes from when three more huge froggos proceed to hop out of the bush behind it, one of whom is clutching a two-pronged spear in its mouth.

  Dave barely ducks the blowdart headed straight for his face, fumbling and dropping his next arrow in the process.

  I catch most of this only from the corner of my eye as I leap out protectively in front of Kaitlynn and face the froggo with the two-pronged spear. He—at least I think it’s a he—stands up in front of me, and the top of his head reaches to my shoulder. He seems to be the largest of the bunch, and I instinctively peg him as the leader.

  The two remaining froggos land on either side of him, facing Alec and Jacob respectively. The one in front of Alec pulls out a wooden buckler and club from his mouth, and the one facing Jacob produces a surprisingly large stone axe from his oversized gullet.

  Their leader calmly pulls his spear out of his mouth and nimbly spins it in his hands. He glances warily at the purple goop on the tip of my own spear, before he loudly croaks, “Kill the unworthy!”

  Before his command is followed, however, a flare of Heat streaks past me, hitting the surprised blowpipe-wielding froggo square in the chest, just as it was lining up another shot. The skin on his chest bursts open explosively, crackling with Heat as he’s flung backwards.

  Inwardly, I cheer. Designating taking out ranged support as the first priority of our own long-range fighters was definitely a good call on Dave’s part.

  The froggo leader facing me goes wide-eyed, but then he and his companions hop forward aggressively, giving me no more time to think.

  His spear thrusts forwards, but I slam it aside easily with my own. With Boost Physical permanently active, I have a Strength of 14 and an Agility of 16; this first engagement alone tells me he likely can’t match that.

  Still, even if the froggo leader can’t match up to me physically, he has something I lack in combat. Skill.

  I slam away the pointy ends of his two-pronged spear, but he just rolls with it, turning the motion into a twirl of his weapon which brings the blunt end careening towards my temple. The Aether stirred up in its wake brushes my nose as I barely pull back out of his reach.

  He immediately follows up with a series of jabs which, despite my superior speed, I have to fully focus on fending off due to my relatively clumsy movements.

  Before I’m even used to this new assault, he changes tacks again, catching and locking my spear between the barbed tines of his own, and twisting in an attempt to disarm me.

  Hah! Big mistake. With our weapons tangled in a contest of Strength he has little hope of winning, I finally have time to make my move. I draw upon my Qi and send it surging into the Focus Crystal hanging on my neck like a pendant from a specially made necklace.

  His gaze is drawn to the flash of purple from the hollow of my throat, as I infuse the Aether around the crystal with copious amounts of Toxic Energy, and direct it up towards my nostrils.

  Unlocking our weapons with a swift motion, he jumps away, but it’s too late. The Toxic Energy stings my nostrils as I draw it in, but down in my lungs, I firmly grasp control over it, disallowing the tendrils from burrowing into my flesh. This isn’t like the Toxic Energy that just floats around, after all, it is my Toxic Energy, f
ormed from my own Qi.

  As it mixes in with the compressed Aether already there, it does eat away some of the Lavi I normally depend on to control my breath, but since I control the Toxic Energy as well, I can use that to compensate, and it actually makes my Breath Control slightly stronger.

  Before the leader has the chance to gain more distance, I unleash a powerful jet of purple glowing Aether at him from my mouth.

  The jet comes at him dead centre.

  He skillfully twirls his spear in an attempt to defuse the attack, but unfortunately for him, it’s not enough. He’s knocked clean off his large, floppy feet and goes down, chased by an angry cloud of purple Toxin.

  I take the opportunity to quickly glance at the other fights. To my right, Alec seems to be struggling with the weight of his hammer, and I watch as his opponent calmly deflects an electrified blow with his wooden shield. His chance to counter is thankfully disrupted by a knife from Kaitlynn. The thrown projectile ends up spinning harmlessly past the froggo and disappearing into the bushes, but not before it serves its purpose, in giving Alec the chance to recover and raise his hammer once more.

  I glance to my left and catch the moment Jacob launches himself forward with a flash of yellow and slams into his opponent shield first. My heart jumps as I watch him go down in a tumble together with the axe-wielding froggo. However, Jacob immediately rolls off, providing Dave with the perfect—possibly Telepathically coordinated—opportunity to jump forward and let loose an arrow. The froggo hisses loudly as it strikes true, but manages to get up despite the metal arrow now sticking out of his thigh and the green goop trailing down his leg.

  Relieved that everyone seems to still be alive and relatively unhurt, I level my spear at my own foe, as he stumbles back onto his feet.

  He looks a little green behind the gills—hah!—with tendrils of purple covering his skin like a web. Seems like my Toxic Energy is doing its job. Nice.

  He moves forward unsteadily, but I’m not buying it. He seems like a crafty bastard, so he’s probably exaggerating his weakness. Still, the Toxic Energy should be affecting him, lowering his Strength and Agility. I know all too well how that feels.

  Let’s see how he fares against me now.

  I move towards him, and he feints a stab towards my face, which sees me flinching backwards before he twirls his spear around and sweeps it low, aiming to hit my knee from the side with the blunt end.

  I knew that bastard was up to something. It’s a neat trick too. He has me on the back foot, so I’m unable to block his attack properly. However, even though I may not be great at wielding my spear, I’m still easily in the best shape I’ve ever been, so I kick off the ground, and turn my back-step into a back-flip.

  The spear sweeps beneath me harmlessly.

  I land in a crouch and immediately spring forward, making use of the fact that he overextended to jab my spear into his torso.

  For a split second, we are both frozen, as green goop wells out of the relatively shallow wound. Then I quickly pull back.

  There’s no need to risk pressing the assault or to force my spear deeper. The Moonshade Sap made it into the wound, so between that and the Toxic Energy he previously received, he should be down for the count soon enough. Keeping him alive for a little longer may in fact be more useful...

  To my left, I catch Jacob finishing off his own weakened froggo with a downward slash that catches him in the neck. To my right, Kaitlynn has circled around the froggo far enough to finally get a clean shot at him. The froggo quickly raises his shield, which promptly burst apart and catches fire upon being hit by her blast of Astreum.

  Alec is quick to follow up with a swing, and finally manages to score a heavy hit on his opponent’s shoulder. Arcs of lightning jump from his hammer and send the froggo down heavily onto his long, gangly knees, twitching all the way. Sweating profusely, Alec finishes him off with a blow to the head that makes a sickening crunch.

  The froggo leader in front of me drops his two-tined spear, and flops down bonelessly on his behind, signalling the end of the battle.

  We’ve won.

  CHAPTER 8

  Blue skies and sunshine, guaranteed

  THE FROGGO LEADER GLARES at me with hate-filled eyes, but it’s hard to find him intimidating with the comical way his long legs are splayed out on the ground before him.

  Suppressing a smirk, I level my spear at him. “Now, since you can talk, you’re going to answer my questions.”

  My teammates quickly join me, brandishing their various weapons at the last surviving froggo.

  Silently, the froggo looks us over, one by one, before finally locking eyes with me. He smiles, creepily. He takes a deep breath, his body and cheeks inflating hugely.

  My eyes widen, and I jump back, my first thought being that he’s trying to blow himself up by breathing in too much Aether. Thankfully, Dave is a little smarter in his reaction. He immediately draws and releases his nocked arrow, hitting the froggo square between the eyes. He stiffens, and then deflates anticlimactically, his eyes rolling back into his head.

  Alec swears loudly, having also jumped back. Kaitlynn smacks his shoulder and shushes him.

  Dave just sighs. “That was close. Unless I misinterpreted his actions, he was about to sound the alarm, and get us swarmed by a whole bunch more of these weird things.”

  Ah. That does seem more likely. A shiver runs up my spine at the thought of what might’ve happened, and I glare at the leader’s corpse hatefully. “Stupid froggo,” I mutter. “What a sore loser.”

  Kaitlynn slaps a hand in front of her mouth to stifle her laughter, as Jacob looks up. “Froggo?” he asks, bewildered.

  I ignore him. “At least we know what we’re up against now. This could’ve gone a lot worse.”

  Alec grunts, dissatisfied. “This stupid hammer is way too heavy,” he whines.

  I roll my eye. “Maybe if you hadn’t ignored its recommended minimum Strength requirement of 14, you wouldn’t be in this predicament.”

  Alec slumps his shoulders. “I told you, I thought I could raise it by one more point during the preparations.”

  “Then you should’ve bought it after doing that,” I say, showing him no mercy. Man, but he really gets on my nerves sometimes. Looking at his forlorn appearance, I can’t help but sigh. “You should’ve told me sooner, you dunce,” I mutter. “I would’ve helped you.”

  He shrugs. “You had your hands full. It was my mess to fix.”

  “Guys, not the time or place,” Dave admonishes us as he frees his arrow from the leader’s head and proceeds to wipe the green goop that covers it off on some vegetation. “Let’s see what we can find out about these things and then move on. The appraisal info was classified earlier, but Rose says we’re good now that they’re dead.”

  “Ah, makes sense,” I say with a nod. “Let’s not waste any more time, then. Appraise!”

  “The froggos are actually called ‘Hoig,’ apparently. Not for sale?” I sputter. “Why even specify that...”

  Also, it’s called a ‘Hoplite.’ Is that a pun?

  I shake my head. “This doesn’t tell me much. Let’s see what they have on them.”

  Kaitlynn eyes me strangely. “Ehm, Emma, they’re not wearing any clothes or bags.”

  “I noticed,” I say drolly. “And yet, they managed to carry weapons.”

  I watch the cogs turn in her head for a few seconds before Dave catches my drift and starts pulling open the leader’s—or Hoplite’s, I guess—huge mouth. Her expression turns to one of disgust as Dave produces a slimy leather bag from the back of one of its cheeks. “Ewwww!”

  Dave grimaces and holds it up for me. “Guess this is yours.”

  I open it with a smirk. Upon looking inside, however, I quickly lose interest. It contains some simple tools, some pretty shells, both closed and open, and a smelly, half-eaten fish.

  Shaking my head, I put the bag down on the ground, and wipe my hands on a tree. The grass is a little sharp for that kind
of thing.

  “If anyone wants any of this, they’re free to take it. Actually, Alec, there may be some ingredients for you here.”

  I walk over to the corpse of the froggo I’m actually most interested in: The one with the blowpipe. Picking the weapon up, I turn to Kaitlynn and raise my brows at her questioningly. She waves at me, indicating that I can have it. Score!

  I quickly secure the blowpipe behind my back in my backpack’s straps. Rummaging around in the still-smouldering froggo’s gullet for a bit reveals a small slimy satchel of blowdarts, and what seems to be a more general pouch filled with more of the same stuff the other overgrown amphibian had.

  I wipe the pouch of blowdarts clean to hang it from my belt and toss the pouch next to the other one on the ground, for Alec’s perusal. He’s giving the fish a wide berth, thankfully, but seems quite intrigued by the closed shells.

  “Ooh, what do we have here? These don’t look like any shellfish I’ve prepared before. Appraise!” he exclaims just a bit too loudly, prompting a shush from Jacob. “Right, sorry. Oh, they’re cockles! I can work with this.”

  I guess I trust in his ability as a chef, at least.

  Finally, I wander back to the corpse of the Hoplite, to study his spear. Hmm, I think I’m just gonna leave this here. The two-pronged, barbed wooden weapon was handled more skilfully than it was crafted. Moreover, the barbs on the weapon may look nasty, but they wouldn’t be too useful in combat, as they could end up getting stuck in an enemy, leaving me unarmed. It seems like its main use might actually be as a fishing tool.

  We don’t find anything else of interest, just more of the same. So once Kaitlynn and Dave finish up collecting their projectiles and Alec has packed up all the shellfish, we get back in formation.

  We move carefully, now aware of our enemy, and not too keen on another battle just yet. I only used up about 5 Onkh of Qi myself, but I know Kaitlynn fired at least two fully charged shots, and I think Jacob also applied at least two of his 5-Onkh-costing uses of his ability, leaving him with a little over half of his 22 Onkh of Qi.