Ank

Blood dripped from my face, as I barely avoided having my head separated from the rest of my body by the greenish, rusty two-handed copper axe that the creature before us held.

About just half a meter taller than us, the being was bipedal, and with a perfect militaristic posture, but, while its muscles were swollen, and its luminescent green eyes sharp, its skin was like leather, and its face skull-like. Over the monster’s head, in green letters shone:

[Species: Proto-Human Mummy, Level: 71

HP: 1000/1000]

“This isn’t just one of those rumored road robbers, is it?”, I asked.

“If I could avoid the trouble by just giving it money, I’d do it”, Hunah replied, sighing. And proceeded to bash her fail towards the mummy.

As I observed the monster avoiding the quick attack effortlessly and with a mere sidestep, I also sprung into action, and conjured:

“[Summon: Grey wolves]”

Immediately, five beasts jumped from my pool of [Magic], and run straight towards the mummy; it wasn’t wise to spend energy carelessly by summoning my strongest beast right from the begging for a variety of obvious reasons. This, however, didn’t mean that the lower-level summons were completely useless.

“Just focus on stopping him”, I ordered my creatures, The wolves surrounded the mummy, as Hunah pulled her weapon back, and they jumped all at the same time for the enemy’s limbs.

The shiny eyes of the Proto-Human, however, moved from one side to another with incredible speed, and the monster easily disposed the wolves attack; in an instant, it kicked one with enough strength to break its bones and kill it instantly, cut through two at the same time with its axe, and grabbed the last one still in the air with its free hand.

“Well, they did keep the monster in place”, Hunah pointed, as she threw her spiked ball against the opponent one more time.

The mummy, however, answered by throwing at her my own summon.

“Shit”, I quickly unsummoned the beast, my own wolf exploding in green particles before hitting Hunah.

It was too late, however, for the unexpected response from the mummy interrupted Hunah’s attack, making her flinch to avoid the “projectile”, giving the opponent time to approach in high speed, and burst through the still dissolving wall of green magic particles blinding my sister.

Hunah covered herself under the black clock dropped by the [Dungeon]’s 2nd boss, taking in the copper axe hit, but diminishing the received damage considerably. Still, the attack pushed her away a couple of meters, and the mummy was already going for yet another hit.

“[Summon: Megatherium]”, I materialized the common version of the previously defeated 2nd layer king; but it still was quite a considerable beast, 4 meters tall when on its hinder legs, half this size when on all fours, and with six meters in length, it deserved all of its 50 levels.

The beast I conjured just behind my sister appeared already mid-attack, and before the mummy could slash again, my summon smashed with its front paws, lifting a curtain of dust and shacking the old cobblestone road. The Proto-Human quickly retreated before it could be hit, however. It stared at the roaring massive summon. And, then, at me.

“Oh…”, maybe I’ve been too used to fight wild beasts, because it didn’t even cross my mind, while I went for Hunah’s rescue, that an intelligent enemy could pass to focus on me. Like the mummy was doing just then.

The Proto-Human was fast; in my eyes it almost looked like he was sliding over the rock, trails of agitated dust being lifted by its feet; and I had conjured my [Meghaterium] as far away from me and closer to Hunah as I could, and I didn’t even have good protective items like my sister; even as I desperately summoned a fake shield and spear, I doubted their efficiency against that creature; so I was more than just vulnerable when the mummy raised the large blade of its axe over my head.

So it was Hunah’s moment to shine and come for the rescue, my sister jumping between me and the enemy, and pushing this last one away with her weapon before it could behead me.

“I’m already missing the careless shield bearers [Dungeon] bosses…”, I said, noticing that we hadn’t even dealt a single damage point onto the monster before us.

As my summon finally reached me, the mummy was kept at bay, at least for enough time so my sister and I could quickly exchange some ideas.

The mummy wouldn’t patiently just wait for minutes on end, however, and, as I climbed over my summon and put a few meters between my sister and I, it lunged at me, jumping over the response attack of the [Megatherium]; the bigger monster digging its claws in the cobblestone road bellow; and swinging its axe blade towards me.

Still, the Proto-Human failed in its attempt against my life, for my summon’s teeth forced the mummy to re-purpose its attack, and push itself away from the bite with the butt of its long axe, retreating, falling many meters away from me. Hunah showed up just after.

My sister swung her flail all around, violently, putting all of her [Stamina] towards the offensive. Capturing the mummy’s attention and forcing it to concentrate solely on dodging her spiked ball.

When the monster finally noticed that my summon’s first paw attack hadn’t missed at all, it was already too late for the Proto-Human.

With its natural super strength, my [Megatherium] quickly raised its front paw, the same one which was used against the mummy just before, the same one who was embedded in the loose cobblestone road: dozens of rocks used to pave the path beneath were suddenly and at once hurled against the mummy pushed away and distracted by Hunah’s attacks.

When the volley of rocky projectiles hit the surprised monster, they easily broke many of the creature’s bones, its limbs ending in unnatural positions, and even tore straight through the extremities of the monster’s body. Not only this, the Proto-Human was hurled through the air by the impact, disappearing over the trees' canopies. A [System] notification told us that the monster had been defeated, just like we planned, but I complained anyway:

“Fuck, I wished I had used [Dissection]…”