“That was a [Basilisk]?”

“Yeah, I realized when it started debuffing me. Specifically, I started feeling sluggish, and my limbs felt heavy. I was in half-mist form, so it wasn’t that big of a deal. In fact, if I was not surprised by it, and acted more tactically, I could probably contain it near indefinitely.”

Aside from my group, we -or perhaps just me- have naturally drawn quite a bit of attention (again), though with the wolves and magic and abilities being known to more, it seems to be less than yesterday. We were also practicing here less than half an hour ago, as well.

“How hard was it?”

I turn to Hilde. “How hard was what?”

“The shell, the armor.”

“No clue, I didn’t actually attack it. Was more busy not dying. I got a photo, though, and tweeted it to the police.” Sigh “On that note, by now calling the police with a photo and a warning is turning into a pattern.”

I stand up in a hurry as I remember something. “Oh! So obviously the [Basilisk] is still out there and nobody should go near its territory, wherever that is. However, it might follow us here, not sure how good it is at tracking.”

“Are you for real?” Thank you random bystander, I am quite real. I mean, I might’ve been in an accident and am in a coma dreamstate, but yes, I am for real. Probably. There’s potential for a slew of philosophical questions - but now is not the time.

“Yeah, check the police’s twitter. I have the photo on my phone as well. Anyway: Hunting Party we’re gonna do some emergency training. I have a tactic that might be able to defeat it, or at least slow it down. However! We will not engage it unless we have to.”

We send off the wolves to act as perimeter scouts/sentries, and after giving a brief overview of the plan, I have us all start practicing the {Mana Spike} spell. With our wands, of course, which we all make sure we have bound and can summon.

The plan itself is pretty simple. Phase one consists of getting the [Basilisk] into an area with lots of fog, or make some ourselves. The area should also have natural barriers, like trees, to limit its mobility.

Phase two consists of keeping it in that area using Mist illusions, while constantly bombarding it with {Mana Spikes} from the sides. This will hopefully make it unable to focus on any one of us(that is real, anyway).

Of course, we don’t know the extent of its attack(s), nor how the debuff works, nor do we know how hard its scales are, which is why we want to use the {Mana Spikes}, since they should be the best counter to armor that I know of.

In the worst case scenario, I get its attention with [Taunt], then everyone runs and while I repeat the hold-it-off-then-run-like-hell procedure from earlier. I am pretty confident I can do that, because despite not actually having [Taunt] equipped, I got a new skill level.

In other words, it seems we can use abilities even when not having them equipped, similar to before you unlock them, but they won’t give any stat bonuses, and as I’ve already found, equipped skills can make related actions so much easier.

…as for the practice, we just found rocks and dead trees. To teach each other spells, we use the magic stone trick. Turns out, Hilde is the best at handling magic(way to go, designated magician girl!), with me coming second.

Both of us can, with some preparation and charge time, shoot a new spell, the {Mana Bolt} through rocks of a couple dozen meters thickness. The spell itself does not have the explosive properties of the previous spells, but in return it continues until its mana is used up.

I tried to make a hybrid, inspired by modern artillery shells that penetrates the target and then explodes, but after a few tries I decided to improve on my current spells instead.

I also teach the group a little about the fog, and how to manipulate it and cause illusions, but only Eivind is able to do it, and then even a little bit.

When working together, thought, we can make some pretty wacky stuff, including the Death Star trench as TIE fighters whizz past, and the fight between Gandalf and the Balrog. In other words, we could get paid for this shit.

We inevitably drift towards the topic of illusory pain, and while testing we find out Hilde is a bit of a masochist, and the RESilience stat makes you more resistant to mind attacks. Probably. A sample size of one person with increased RES isn’t very scientific.

When we teased her a little about that she pointed out that I was walking around practically barefoot. I had nothing to say in my defence, so instead I put on my boots.

“Hello, Lars speaking.”

“This is the police, you called in an emergency earlier, about aaaa… giant lizard?”

“Yeah, I escaped it, but it’s still over there, somewhere.”

“A military platoon is on the way. You are in the eastern forest, by the Old Sawmill?”

“Uhh, yeah. Military?”

“You said the monster have very hard scales, and the police special troop is elsewhere. There is a number of locations around the country reporting monsters, so the army has gone into action.”

“Oh. No such luck as things only happening here, huh. Well, this is no TV show. How long until they get here?” Note to self: Tomorrow, let’s do something else.

“They are in the area and should be at your position within five minutes.”

“Roger that.”

“That was it. You will be contacted if they cannot find you, so please meet them at the road.”

“Are you Lars Eikeli?” Asks the presumed leader of the platoon. When they said platoon I thought a small group, but there is three transport trucks and one humvee-type thing with a machine gun turret.

“Yes.”

The leader, with three chevrons on his rank insignia, barks a few orders and soldiers file out of the trucks.

Soon we’re walking down the road, towards where I last saw the [Basilisk]. In front of my group is one of the groups from the trucks, while the other two flank on each side. The MG truck follows behind us. We have also spread out the wolves in a similar pattern, scouting ahead of the soldiers. When I see them using something like walkie-talkies, I realize that would be super useful if the group ever split up, or for hunters in an area to talk to each other, possibly warning about thing like this basilisk.

Hmm, I think I should write an open letter on ‘Monster Hunting Organization’. In video form, that is, and upload it on the channel. Given that my previous video has gotten some attention, if I post other videos, I’m sure it will get a bunch of views.

I grab the leader’s attention, now that he’s done giving orders. “Hey, do the military have any plans of integrating powers yet?”

Seeing some confusion, I elaborate. “I suspect a sufficiently high-leveled person can render conventional military useless. Especially if they know how to use guerilla or other asymmetric warfare tactics.”

He seems to think for a moment before speaking. “I don’t think so, but you make a good point. I’ll bring it up with my superior. All these monster popping up is a good argument, at least.”

A grimace adorns his face for a moment, but one of the soldiers gives a report.

“Oh yeah, that would be the [Pink Fluffy Rabbits]. Meaning the [Basilisk] should be nearby. Do you have a plan for killing it?”

“That’s what the machine gun is for, if we can’t take it down with the rifles.”

Again he gives out some orders, so I turn to my group. “We might not actually get to fight, but let’s at least get some fog going, just in case.”

“Should we get our wands?” Hilde asks, and with a flick of the wrist she summon her’s. The action is repeated by the rest of us.

As we do, Stian point out something rather important: “Won’t that make it hard for the soldiers to hit it?”

“Ah!”

“We can use the illusions to make it visible to them, right?”

“That means we’ll be in the ‘front lines’, so to speak.”

“Sergeant?” Has Eivind served in the military?

“Yes?”

“We can cover the area in fog and make illusions, but will need to be somewhat close to the target. We were discussing, and we should be able to make it unable to see us, while making it visible to you.”

Having found and drawn closer to the [Basilisk] under the cover of the fog, the soldiers have fanned out around it. We are in the middle part, a bit to the right of the U shape, and have been told to stay behind the sergeant and his squad for now.

“Do the illusions now!”

As agreed upon, we first make the illusions to distract the [Basilisk]. They are generic human shapes with red shirts, and each hold a pistol of some sort. Of course, they’re not real, but the illusory sounds and pain grabs its’ attention, as planned. Then, we make the thing lime green to our own eyes.

It turns around to chase the illusions, who quickly un to the side. Meanwhile, the soldiers start firing short burst onto its’ side.

Since we haven’t experimented with that, we can’t be sure of the effectiveness, but we try to diminish the amount of pain it feels from the bullets, not that they do much. I feel like we’re managing aggro in a raid battle, which I suppose we kinda are.

The bullets, however, are not doing much, but we slowly move towards the road, where the gunner is waiting. While it could enter the forest it would have next to no maneuverability. We’re not sure the gun can even hurt the thing, so it’s better if it can drive away.

Every now and then we take potshots with our spells - they do a good bit better than the bullets, but even the {Mana Bolts} barely penetrate its scales, and that’s after charging for two seconds. I do suspect it reduces the damage with RESilience, but it might simply be super tough. Superrrr…. tougher.

“Disengage!”

With an order from the leader, the flanking squads disengage, and only the Hunting Party and the officer’s squad stay within range of casting illusions. In other words, we’re almost to the humvee.

BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM!

It opens fire, and promptly rips the monster’s attention away. On the bright side, it clearly did damage, judging by the scales cracking and the beast’s horrible screech.

With a big, clear target it bolts after the car, which has already started moving, if slowly. Every second or so, a short burst is fired.

“Hunting party, stop the illusions and follow it!” With the illusions no longer having any visible effect, we direct our energy to where it could better be used, and both I take the half-mist form, as does Hilde, still inexperienced.

The lizard is fast, but only in comparison to walking. If I have to estimate, it does about fifteen kilometers an hour, or a brisk jog.

Of course, since the gun is the thing that actually does damage to the damn thing, we follow it from the side. Specifically, the side that has already been wounded. Most of the group has plenty to do just following it and launching an attack every now and then, but the two of us in mist-form can properly charge and aim spells.

Another screech follows one of its’ eyes taking a bullet. It’s gait becomes erratic as well, so hopefully the bullet hit the brain.

One problem becomes apparent as it turns tail, though: It has realized it’s outmatched!