Damn, I just barely grazed it, but it seemed like I really hurt the thing! I exclaimed mentally, surprised at the mud creature’s reaction as I ducked under a second claw, this one belonging to the first creature. Forcing myself back up, I briefly caught sight of Amaranth’s blurred form rush past me, the cat wasting no time in pressing his attack.
Putting the mystery of my attack’s effectiveness to the side, I forced myself to keep moving and followed on my familiar’s heels who charged in close towards the elk skull guardian, swiping a heavy paw at what passed for its knee. Connecting solidly, I saw his claws take a large chunk out of its muddy surface and cause the creature to falter, its scream also shifting in pitch from the attack. But instead of retreating like its companion had, it instead chose to lunge forward, sweeping both of its arms in front of it, hoping to catch us with nowhere to go.
And it would have, had we not had an emergency escape route handy.
Your weapon has bypassed Damage Reduction and has dealt Bonus Damage!
You slash [Corrupted Guardian] for 104 (+25%) points of damage!
Shit! These things have damage reduction! I realized, my eyes widening in surprise as I skimmed through the rest of the log, noticing the exact same for Amaranth’s attack.
By far one of the more annoying things to deal with, damage reduction tended to make monsters impossibly tougher to deal with, forcing adventurers to grind through whatever resistances it had with either sheer brute force or have a weapon capable of bypassing it entirely. Luckily, it seemed that Amaranth and I were both fortunate to have such a weapon.
But unfortunately, I doubted that the others did.
It has to be Amaranth’s ætherwarped nature and my æthertouched weapon, I thought, my mind racing as I looked back at the battle, seeing that the two guardians that we’d fled from were twisting around in search of us, while the third was actively fighting both Lazarus and Cerril. Even with our ability to pierce through its damage reduction, there was no way the five of us would be able to do anything other than try and survive the three creatures until help arrived. Which thankfully should be any second now. I can sense them rushing this—
Of course, it was when I was in the middle of that thought that I felt Cerril die.
“Damn it!” Lazarus’s voice shouted, loud enough to be heard over the guardians’ screaming. “Cerril’s down! I’m going to need help here! Fast!”
“Oh, shit,” I whispered under my breath as my head snapped in the direction of the half-giant’s voice, seeing him now sprinting away from the alligator skull guardian, which doggedly lumbered after him. Taking a single step in the direction of the man, I prepared to rush to his aid, but a familiar voice calling out my name caused me to hesitate.
“Lyrian!” Sierra exclaimed breathing heavily as she and her scouts suddenly appeared from the camp far to my right. “What is going on? What the hell are these things?!”
“Hell if I know!” I answered, feeling a wave of relief course through me at the prospect of more help arriving. “But it’s pretty clear they’re responsible for all this!”
“Shit!” Sierra called back in disbelief, her head visibly shaking at the news. “What do you need from us now?!”
“Keep those two busy if you can! I’m going to help Lazarus!” I called back, taking another step forward and launching myself into a run, Amaranth joining me by my side. “But be careful! They hit hard and have physical damage reduction! Try magic if you can!”
“Got it!” Sierra replied, a bright flash of magic punctuating her response as someone in her group promptly followed my instructions.
Trusting that they would keep the two mud creatures occupied, I temporarily put them out of my mind and focused on reaching Lazarus, seeing the half-giant scrambling wildly to keep ahead of his guardian. But as hard-pressed as the man was, I noticed that his scrambling had a purpose as it kept the creature’s back facing towards us.
Thereby giving us a perfect target to focus on.
Receiving a mental growl in response, Amaranth and I closed with our target, the cat pulling ahead in the final stretch before leaping through the air and slamming into the guardian’s back. Caught completely unaware by the attack, there was little that a creature even of its size could do to absorb over eight hundred pounds of angry puma unexpectedly hitting it from behind, sending it crashing to the ground with a wet sounding splat. Without wasting a second, I saw Amaranth began to savage the fallen guardian, his claws raking across its muddy surface and causing a fresh wave of rot to fill the air just in time for my arrival. Holding my breath at the rancid stench, I didn’t hesitate in falling beside my familiar, leaping onto the prone body in an attempt to help keep it down. Landing onto the creature, I was surprised to find the mud feel hard and firm under my boots, my feet finding easy purchase on its back.
Might have something to do with its damage reduction maybe? I thought briefly while slashing Splinter across the being’s back, using the opportunity to drain mana from it as the blade sliced deep into its muddy flesh. But instead of feeling the familiar flow of cool mana flow up my arm, I was greeted by a sharp burning sensation that caused my stomach to roil followed by a surge of nausea shooting through me.
Ugh, what the hell was that? I exclaimed mentally, my body’s unexpected reaction nearly causing me to leap off the creature. But as quickly as the sensation had appeared, it vanished, leaving the ever-present hunger within me feeling sated for the first time that I could remember. Confused beyond measure by what I’d just experienced, I forced myself to abandon my mana draining efforts until I could figure out what had happened, choosing instead to stab Splinter deep into the monster beneath me. Thrusting through the otherwise hard mud effortlessly, my blade sank several inches into the guardian’s body before suddenly coming to a stop as it scraped across something solid and rough, causing a jarring sensation to shoot up my arms.
Is there something inside of its body? I asked myself just before a familiar blood-curdling scream rose from the guardian, its body beginning to wildly buck and thrash as it began to push itself up from the ground. Struggling to keep my balance on the now-moving creature, I realized that we only had seconds before it rose to its feet, and we would be forced to jump off it. To that end, I decided to probe whatever that I had hit, thrusting Splinter’s tip deep into its body until it once again struck something hard and then threw my full weight against it.
At first, I felt whatever was inside the mud-covered torso resist, prompting me to twist my blade savagely in an attempt to bore a hole straight through whatever it was up against. As I twisted, I felt my blade slip into an unseen groove and suddenly sink deeper, plunging straight into the creature until barely a hand’s width remained between the hilt and body. Surprised by the unexpected movement, I lost my already precarious balance, falling heavily against the guardian’s back, which promptly screamed with a yet unheard before level of anguish. Scrambling to keep a hold of my weapon as the guardian’s thrashing intensified, I saw Amaranth leap off the creature from beside me, unable to maintain his b
alance any longer.
Time to go! I told myself as I hurriedly braced a leg against the creature’s back and yanked sharply on Splinter, feeling it pull free with a wet sucking sound. Anchor point gone, I found myself sliding off the guardian and landing on the ground with a heavy thump, barely getting my feet under me in time.
“Shit, thanks for the assist there, Lyrian!” I heard Lazarus’s voice call out as I rolled away from the creature and towards Amaranth, dodging under a flailing claw in the process. “I thought I was done for!”
“Happy to help!” I called back as I pushed myself back up onto my feet beside my familiar and spun to face the guardian which continued to thrash uncontrollably, causing all three of us to rapidly back away from it from our various angles.
Now, just what the hell happened earlier when I tried to drain the guardian? I asked myself, using the brief lull that we’d found ourselves in to look at my combat log in search of answers.
Your [Mana Leech] drains 78 (+25%) mana from [Corrupted Guardian]!
Your [Mana Leech] hits [Corrupted Guardian] for 78 (+25%) points of damage!
You have absorbed [Corruption]!
Your Corruption Counter has increased to 2%!
Your [Hunger] devours [Corruption], restoring 100 points of mana!
Your Corruption Counter has decreased to 0%.
There’s a corruption counter now? What on Earth is that? And what did my hunger do to it? I asked myself, the array of questions hitting me all at once as I finished skimming the log. But no sooner did they all finish forming in my mind, they were all ruthlessly pushed to the side, thanks to a loud mental shout from Amaranth.
Blood.
But before I could even comment on the revelation, it was Constantine’s voice that split the air, he and his scouts having apparently arrived sometime during the chaos.
“Bear skull guardian is getting loose!” he shouted in a panicked tone, which was abruptly followed by the sensation of two scouts dying via raid sense. “Shit! Check that! He’s completely loose! Look out!”
“Heads up, Lyr!” Sierra’s voice called out a second afterward. “It’s coming straight for you guys!”
“Oh, damn it,” I cursed, taking my eyes off my weapon and glancing to my right, seeing that our situation was about to rapidly deteriorate even further. Having broken away from both its partner and the other groups, the aforementioned monster was now charging across the length of the Dread Crew’s shattered camp, making a straight beeline for the three of us.
Realizing that I had seconds to act before it was on top of us, I twisted away from the wounded guardian and shouted out as I broke into a sprint. “I’ll try and slow him down! You two keep this guy busy!”
Rushing away from Amaranth and Lazarus before either of them could respond, I charged towards the oncoming guardian, the bare bones of a plan coming to mind as I activated Alacrity. It was riskier than I felt comfortable doing in any other circumstance, but if it worked, I’d be able to at least break its charge and hopefully buy myself a few seconds afterward to come up with something else.
“Hopefully” being the key word there, I thought pessimistically as I watched the lumbering strides of my oncoming target and waited until the opportunity I was looking for arose. There!
Reaching for a pair of the new spells that I’d recently learned, I first triggered my newly upgraded Blink Strike, the higher-leveled spell mercifully holding together as it took shape. An instant later, I found myself reappearing at near point-blank range in front of the guardian as it planted its right foot on the ground, Splinter’s glowing edge already biting deep into it. Knowing that everything depended on my timing afterward, I promptly threw myself into a forward roll just past the mud creature’s side, ducking under a slashing claw while simultaneously casting my second spell, Arcane Chains. Targeting it towards the creature’s trailing leg, I briefly saw a length of ethereal chains materialize into existence and begin to wrap themselves around the limb before vanishing out of view, dirt completely filling my vision as I somersaulted across the rough ground.
Completing my roll, I pushed myself back up and twisted to look back at the creature and my handiwork. But before I could even turn a quarter of the way, my world exploded in pain, and my Alacrity spell abruptly ended as something impossibly heavy slammed into my side, the force of which was enough to lift me up off my feet and send me sailing through the air. Spinning uncontrollably, it was all I could do to hold onto Splinter as I flew, my flight eventually coming to a sudden stop as I crashed into a tree and then promptly fell to the ground.
Or I would have, except for what I landed on wasn’t in fact ground but the pool of fetid water that we’d seen one of the guardians rise from earlier.
Falling into the water with a loud splash, I had enough sense left to hold my breath as I landed, my body sinking down a few feet until it reached the bottom of the relatively shallow pool. Floating completely insensate for several seconds, I worked on attempting to focus past the pain that was radiating through my left side and hip, barely noticing a series of bright red notifications in my combat log.
A [Corrupted Guardian] hits you with [Sweeping Backhand] for 540 points of damage!
You have been stunned!
You have been sent flying!
You strike a [Tree] for 157 points of damage!
Ugh, how…the hell did it even hit me? I mentally groaned as I read through the log, feeling my injured side pulsing in sync with my heartbeat. I didn’t even see anything—
A heavy splash breaking the surface of the water above me suddenly interrupted my thoughts, followed closely behind by a loud mental shout.
Thankful that I could still move, I planted my feet against the muddy ground and pushed myself upwards, feeling a spike of pain shoot through my hip just before my head broke the surface. Immediately, the thunderous sound of magic flooded into my ears, followed by a series of brightly flashing lights. Blinking blindly at the unexpected assault on my vision, I didn’t even have the chance to clear my eyes before I felt something grab me roughly by the shoulder and drag me to one side.
“Thanks, Amaranth,” I told the cat as I tenderly pushed myself up from the ground, feeling a new bone on bone grinding sensation somewhere in my hip that hadn’t been there earlie
r. Grimacing at the unsettling feeling, I did my best to push it to the corner of my mind as I took a tentative step back towards the battle, trying to determine where we were most needed.
Drace and Freya look like they have the bear and elk guardians under control right now, I thought, spotting the pair, along with several groups from Virtus, swarming the two creatures. That just leaves the alligator—
“Heads up!” Constantine’s voice suddenly tore through the air, interrupting my thoughts and causing me to snap my head in its direction. “It’s starting to cast a spell or something! Look out!”
It’s starting to do what? Constantine’s words rang loudly in my ears as I looked towards the turning elk skull guardian just in time to see the swirling well of emerald magic in its jaws, which promptly exploded into a torrent of rotting filth. Spreading out in a wide cone in front of the creature, a seemingly endless wave of the toxic vomit sprayed out through the air, catching a pair of scouts from point-blank range. Vanishing under its onslaught, neither of them even had the time to cry out before I felt their presences vanish from raid sense and reappear back in the direction of Aldford.
But as if its ability hadn’t done enough damage already before it came to an end, the guardian turned, its cone of vomit following its movements and bathing more than half of the raid in the process. I managed to see a handful of Force Shields appear at the last second to partially blunt the attack, but by then the damage had already been done. In an instant, it had managed to stall the momentum of the arriving adventurers while simultaneously wounding a score of others.
Glory to the Brave (Ascend Online Book 4) Page 20