Chapter Twenty

Thauzo raised his shield and braced himself as the steps came closer. A second later, a snout the size of a crocodile poked out into the clearing. Its nostrils flared before bursting forward, mouth opening to reveal razor-sharp teeth. A green and brown feathered body followed as it tilted its head toward the group.

Unfortunately, before either side could react, two more, slightly smaller creatures burst into the clearing. While the larger of the creatures kept its eyes locked on Elysia’s group, the other two dropped their noses toward the blood trail. They chirped to their Alpha as they pointed their snouts in the direction the previous much larger creature escaped through. It gave their group a glare with its reptilian eyes before sniffing the air, then taking off after the blood trail, followed by its two underlings.

Several minutes passed in silence, with all four team members remaining on guard, but nothing else came out of the tunnels burrowed through the thick forest.

Elysia eyed both tunnels, lightning brimming under the surface. No wonder it was called Mezo. That first creature looked like a triceratops and the others were raptors. At least, she thought they were. Without identify she couldn’t know for sure. They looked like something straight out of Jurassic Park, but who knew what dinosaurs really looked like? She hoped something like a tyrannosaurus rex didn’t show up next. Some dinosaurs were huge. How could they fight something like that? The longer she spent here, the more she was glad she had a group. There was no way she could’ve fought three raptors on her own. She wasn’t even sure the four of them could.

While Elysia stared at the tunnels half in shock, Thauzo waved his hand, signaling Thuax forward to scout. Without a sound, the agile Chrotile shot off through the tunnel the dinosaurs came from while Thauzo remained on guard, swiveling his shield in all directions, trying to keep Elysia and Thres behind him at all times.

A few minutes later, Thuax returned, giving the all clear to proceed with another hand signal to avoid drawing attention to the group. The other three nodded their heads, even Elysia, who remembered the signals from their short practice before the ceremony.

With Thauzo in the lead, shield raised, ready to block any surprise attacks from the front and Thuax’s head on a swivel, they entered the tunnel leading away from the creatures. Like most dungeons, Elysia had been. The forest was unnaturally silent. No wind blew through the leaves, nor were there birds chirping, only adding to the tension.

Each passing minute with nothing jumping out at them only ratcheted up their guard, but as if the dungeon island was mocking them, they reached another identical clearing with a tunnel and a blood trail five minutes later.

However, before they entered, Thuax raised his hand to stop them. As they practiced, he made the hand signal saying dungeon ahead. Now knowing what was ahead, they proceeded faster, reaching a cave large enough to fit the triceratops.

Before entering, Thauzo scanned the team, waiting for each to give the ready signal, which they did before proceeding.

One by one, starting with Thauzo, the team entered the cave. Upon entering, the dark jungle vanished, replaced with an open field with several triceratops grazing on grass off in the distance.

Unlike normal dungeons, no notification came, but one step back proved a barrier blocked their exit.

Elysia remained where she was told to be next to Thres as the two other team members scanned their surroundings for threats but found none who were immediately hostile.

Unwilling to antagonize the massive beasts until they knew the layout of the dungeon, they edged around the herd of triceratops. They froze momentarily when the herd stopped eating and turned an eye toward them, but after a few nostril flares they returned to their attention to the grass to the group’s relief.

Just in case they attacked, they gave them a wide berth hoping the massive creatures weren’t the target of the dungeon, but knowing a fight with them was inevitable. After curving around the herd, they counted five triceratops but instead of engaging, they ventured further in but ran into an invisible wall a hundred meters beyond them. Still, instead of returning to the truck sized creature’s they followed the invisible wall to ensure they didn’t miss anything.

As they feared, the invisible wall created a hundred meter diameter circle with the herd at the center leaving them as the only enemies in the small dungeon.

They stopped at the dungeon entrance, or at least what they thought was the dungeon entrance, as all they could see in all directions was an endless grass field, as if the entrance had never existed. Thaux, Thres, and Elysia turned to Thauzo, their de facto leader, for their next plan of action. Instead of responding immediately, he turned to the herd with a critical eye for a minute.

He gave a look to Thuax, earning a nod before his eyes landed on their back line pair. “Do you think you two could set fire to the grass? This appears to be a dryer savanna environment. We could flush the creatures where we want them with a controlled fire.”

Elysia flashed uncertainty, but Thres nodded her head. “Yes, brother, a fire should do the trick. Do you want to single out one of them with fire or trap the entire herd?”

Despite herself, Elysia’s pride flared, wanting to show her worth. “I think I can strike down one if you can separate it from the herd. Most of my abilities are focused on single targets.”

“Could you hit them from here if we sent them into a frenzy with fire?”

Elysia eyed the herd with a frown. “I don’t know. I’ve never tried to hit something this far away.”

He fell silent for several seconds, eyes flicking between the herd and his team. “Okay, here’s the plan. I don’t think we have enough room to single out a single creature without alerting the herd, so we have to take them on all at once. First, Thuax will sneak around to the other side and strike as many of them in the back as he can. Using his distraction, I will approach with Thres and Elysia. Thres will create a ring of fire on my signal to trap them, while Elysia picks off as many as she can. If there are survivors, Thaux and I will finish them while our back line retreats here.”

With nothing to add, his team nodded their heads before proceeding forward. Thuax dashed over the grass with silent footfalls circling around the herd, drawing no attention. Roars of pain reached the remaining trio’s ears a few seconds later as the herd turned as one toward the source of their pain.

Thauzo took off in a sprint at this moment, followed by their back line, stopping a dozen meters away from the herd before raising his sword hand, then dropping into a defensive stance.

At the signal, Thres widened her stance as she focused her entire attention on the herd. She made a circling motion with her right hand, which had a glowing ruby ring on her thumb barely visible on her crimson scales. A fire spring to life in a perfect circle surrounding the herd a moment later. Thres continued her hand circling, causing the ring to glow brighter as the flames exploded upward several meters.

Fortunately, just as the flames shot upward, Thaux leaped back out of the circle of fire. He returned to back up Thauzo as they stood in front of the girls, watching the creatures enter a frenzy. Horns impacted bodies as the creatures flailed within the spreading flames scorching in their feet.

The smell of burned flesh reached Elysia’s nose, causing her face to scrunch in distaste. She raised her hand adorned with her ring like Thres before casting a smite. Without her trying to empower it, a thick strand of lightning siphoned off her core before through her veins to her hand. Her ring glowed as static and ozone filled the surrounding air. Then, with a deafening crack, the lightning shot from her hand into the air, then down onto the nearest triceratops.

-500 Charge.

Already weakened from the flames, the charred creature instantly collapsed, seizing on the inflamed ground only exacerbating its burns. Still, despite its grievous injuries, the spasming passed within seconds, allowing its blackened limbs to push it back to its feet. This time, its eyes were no longer frenzied. Deep brown eyes filled with hatred zeroed in on Elysia, but before it could act on its hatred, Elysia released another smite, hoping to finish at least one creature.

-500 Charge.

This time, it struck home. Directly on its shield like skull, the creature froze before collapsing onto its side, unmoving.

Killed Savanna Triceratops Level 98.

Experience Shared.

Experience reduced for group kill with Solo Adventuring.

A scowl formed as she stared at the notifications. She should have gotten a level. That thing was forty levels higher. Even her shared kill with Thrazk gave her a ton more.

She shook her head to clear her frustration as she refocused on the situation, finding another triceratops on the verge of collapse. To expedite its trip to the grave, she sent a targeted lightning strike directed at its front horn only for the strike to miss, hitting the leg of another creature to the right.

With a growl, she released another smite again, aiming for the horn, but it hit its back instead. Though even with her iffy accuracy, the triceratops spasmed and collapsed to the infernal, cooking the creatures to death.

-500 Charge.

This time the warm signifying a level came but in order to focus on the remaining three triceratops and to not ruin her mood further, she waved away the following notifications for later.

Out of the corner of her eyes, she caught Thres swaying. Her formerly perfect circle with her hand looked more like a misshapen oval as her eyes became unfocused. The previously controlled Inferno sputtered but at least for the moment remained in control of the remaining triceratops cooking within.

Another triceratops collapsed to the ground, earning itself a smite.

Before launching the next smite, she glanced at Thres, who stumbled to the side, barely catching herself from falling. Elysia turned to support her, but before she could take a step, Thuax blurred to Thres’s side. “Keep up the lightning. I’ll take her to the retreat point.”

Elysia nodded and returned her focus to the now much weaker fire. Fortunately, even without Thres powering it, the fire continued to burn and even if it weren’t the two remaining triceratops were in no condition to fight back. Both were whimpering on the ground, skin charred black. After a glance at her charge to find she had enough for two smites despite not leveling up from the last kill, she released the killing blows to both.

While reveling in the warmth, she scanned the field expecting another creature to pop up, but upon spotting familiar crystals glowing just outside the smoldering ring, her shoulders relaxed.

That was a bit too easy. Though all she did was deliver the killing blows. Having a team to group them up and guard her was handy.

Any good thoughts died upon pulling up the notifications.

Killed Savanna triceratops Level 98 x 4

Experience Shared.

Experience reduced for group kill with Solo Adventuring.

Level up! Path of Lightning Level 11.

Level up! Path of Lightning Level 12.

The lack of levels from creatures thirty plus levels higher dampened her enthusiasm. Even if she lost out on a ton of experience, the advantaged of safety was huge. No way could she fight five triceratopses on her own. At least she didn’t think she could. She hadn’t tried chain lightning. Maybe it had a stunning effect. Though a regular lightning strike did nothing.

Instead of dwelling, Elysia joined Thauzo in examining the crystals. For the first time, no skill crystals dropped, but a dozen medium-sized mana crystals sat in a pile at his feet. Unsure of protocols didn’t move to grab them.

With one hand, Thauzo scooped them up, then glanced at Elysia’s backpack. “Do you mind carrying our loot?”

She turned her back to Thauzo, presenting him with the backpack. “Put them in the middle pocket.”

After stashing the crystals, they turned back to the five corpses, but Thauzo shook his head upon scanning them. “Not worth scavenging anything this early. Besides, after Thres’s fire, most materials worth taking are ruined.”

Even Ione who had been hiding in some grass took one sniff and the burned corpses before turning away and taking her place by Elysia’s side.

Elysia glanced down at her ring, but the blackened horns and charred and cracked skin of the triceratops quelled any desire to take anything.

Minds made up, they walked back to the other half of their team standing near a cave-like opening in the endless savanna.

With a worried gaze, Thauzo examined Thres only to earn a reassuring smile. The first time Elysia saw any emotion from the stoic Chrotile.

“Good job everyone. We will rest here for a few minutes. It’s too early to stay any longer.”