“Lunge” Lucas snarled as he rushed his opponent. The dryad, however, was quick and with flap of its wing soared in the air before his sword could land a hit. She sent a quick spectral beak toward Lucas, forcing him into quick double spin to the right, using that as a distraction to close the distance between them. Lucas barely managed to lift his sword to parry her quick swing, sparks flying as they weapon made contact. Lucas felt fatigue flaring up, his stats not matching prolonged bouts like this one was. He quickly activated “Dodge”, leaping backwards into the air once again creating distance. He was starting to get visibly frustrated, cursing his lack of skills for swordsmanship. He could perfectly fine parry and riposte using just his native skills, but his Strength was not up to par and it showed when faced with skilled opponent.

Meanwhile, battle raged all around them. Michael’s rifle was in nonstop rhythmic staccato, laying storm of bullets on all opponents, slowing them and forcing repositions. He already saved Lucas’s hide twice during this battle, once using his frag grenade-like ability to delay the she dryad when Lucas lost his balance during one of his dodges and second time showering Ent with bullets and slowing it down when the creature surprised everyone, disengaging from the large gorilla, leaving it entangled in roots and charging toward party. This allowed everyone to get out of its way. By that time, Hannah managed to get Maraya back on her feet and the burly woman, with liberal support of Hannah’s healing spells, then took on the Ent, stopping it from laying waste on the battlefield. John definitely was doing the best, pinning the male dryad druid, managing to hit him twice, once in the shoulder and other time smashing his tibia, essentially making him immobile and knocking him out of the battle. The final blow to the druid was constantly delayed, however, as the knight made use of her spectral divebombs and beaks to keep everyone from him.

“Lucas, keep her occupied”, Michael shouted “I’m moving in for the kill”. Lucas gritted his teeth, focusing on his strategy. She had range and she had close combat. His only advantage was extreme mobility, but she was playing conservatively, flying up as soon as she lost sight of him. That gave him an idea.

“Michael, tag team switch” he yelled back to his friend. Michael looked confused for a second before flash of understanding showed on his face. He nodded head and started moving toward the druid and at the same time Lucas lunged toward the knight. She once again soared into the air, launching beak – divebomb combo on Michael. Spectral bird crashed into earth where Michael was a second ago, making a deep crater. He stopped and laid fire on the knight. Slowed down, she launched another divebomb at the Michael, breaking his fire. And then, she looked around for Lucas, ready to finally break his guard. Realization dawned on her face, as she saw the trap Lucas and Michael sprung on her. Jumping over the stone that the druid used as a cover, Lucas aimed his sword and yelled “Pierce”. A blink before the sword connected, giant roots entangled him whole.

“You are rooted. You will not be able to move until roots are dispelled or you take damage”

Ent saved his companion at the last moment, but at the great personal cost. Maraya put all her weight into her cudgel, striking at the roots and literally smashing them whole, leaving the giant three of balance. She capitalized on its lack of balance, connecting with her shield and sending Ent flying.

Although a great victory, Ent fate didn’t help Lucas out of his predicament. Already a beak was launched and it currently was on a crash course to his head. Druid below him, , covered in blood and dirt which muted his silver shine and dyed his once white hair into thick mix of red and brown, shuffled meekly and prepared his spell. A giant sphere of pure moonlight materialized on his hand, ready to strike him as soon as beak connected. “Not that it would be necessary” Lucas grimly thought “beak will probably spill my brain all over the floor”.

As life started flashing in front of Lucas’s eye, salvation came in form of overweight cudgel slamming into his femur.

“You took 47 points of damage”

Roots were dispelled a moment later and Lucas activated “Dodge” in a painful groan, avoiding both the beak and moonlight ball.

“Yo, garbage bin Montoya, do try to give me satisfaction again” Maraya shouted at him, her voice filled with unrestrained pleasure to finally have an excuse to hit him.

“Fuck off” he answered her, turning once again to the druid, his bloodlust showing on his face. The dryad was now in a total state of panic, trying and failing spectacularly at getting up. Bit, once again, killing blow didn’t land, as the female knight with an exasperated shout launched herself into her spectral bird pile driver attack, the same one that got her on the death door last time.

“Mistake” Lucas thought to himself as the smile was slowly spreading on his face. Activating “Dodge” with a quick mental command, he slid under the knight, deactivating it as he reached sufficient momentum.

“Stinging cut” he simply stated as his sword glowed and his point made contact with the blurred knight. As his momentum carried him, splashes of blood collided with his face, restricting his view. As soon as he passed the full length of the female dryad body, he sprang to the feet and wiped his face to see the effect of his attack.

The scene was grim. There was an afterimage of red in the air where Corvid knight passed. The ground beneath the visage was awash with blood. Like some sickening imitation of the school geography project, that trail snaked towards not a pool, but a lake, of blood. In the middle of it, Lucas’s nemesis was thrashing wildly, searing pain coursing through her whole body. With every move, her wound, which went from her chin all the way to the knee, sprayed even more blood. Lucas wasn’t squeamish by any means, but this looking on this scene he gagged and almost vomited. Swallowing the foul tasting bile, he quicken his pace and with a quick thrust of his sword, not even bothering to activate his skill, he ended the torment of the unlucky knight.

“You have slain Dryad, Corvid knight level 30”

“Rest in peace” Lucas murmured.

Still visibly shaken, he diverted his attention to the druid. He was even more shell shocked than Lucas, his gaze fixed on the spot where the defeated female dryad lay. Not giving him time to recover, Lucas activated “Pierce”, showing his sword in the eye of entranced druid, piercing all the way to the back of his head. Druid collapsed like a puppet with all his string cut and Lucas pulled his sword from the corpse, wiping it from the massive amount of blood layered on it.

Taking a moment to recover, he scanned the battlefield. His team was on the defensive, content to let the now freed gorilla to pommel the Ent, whose wounds from the beatdown it received from Maraya showed. Left side of his roots were completely smashed, leaving him to precariously balance on his left side, severely limiting his mobility and preventing him from facing Big Kong face to face. On the other hand, the gorilla, sensing its prey was nearly beaten, run laps around him, trying to maneuver into the position for the killing strike. Michael, not content to let gorilla simply win, chugged his frag grenade skill onto its path, every explosion sending shards of mana into the creature and forcing it to change route. In front of Michael, Maraya stood with her “Cordon line” skill, her transparent barrier of tactical shields sparkling and protecting Michael from stray hit from the visibly irritated gorilla. Ent, on his part, pounced every time Big Kong shifted his attention to the annoying humans impending him, lashing with its massive branches, always managing to land at least one hit.

“What’s the game plan” Lucas asked, finally reaching his teammates.

“We are trying to wear both of them down, hopefully creating a potentially fatal hit at the same time” Hannah responded him. As she turned to regard him, Lucas could see her eyes were still sparkling with anger

“You look like shit” she said

“Well, somebody forgot to heal me after that scrape with the Birdy and our three friend over there” Lucas responded with a big smile

“That’s what you get when you ran off to play hero, especially after that put all of us into danger” Hannah voice was laced with anger. She looked at him again, sighed and cast her magical healing.

“You are healed for 300 points”

Dismissing the System prompt, Lucas hopefully watched at Hannah.

“My mana is low, I must hold something in reserve” she said to him with a coy smile that told him that was a lie.

“Fair enough” he mused to himself.

For next 15 minutes, Lucas watched as the two massive creatures battled, with pesky humans providing annoying distractions. Big Kong was getting angrier with its every foiled strike and when another branch, coated into some green light, hit him in the leg, the creature let out a massive angry roar.

“You are frightened for 5 second”

Existential dread filled Lucas, all his instincts telling him to flee to the fartherst corner of the world. His legs started moving by themselves, and he ran a good 20 meters before he managed to get himself under control.

“I really hate terror effects” Lucas angrily thought to himself. He located the rest of his team, noticing that all of them ran in one direction or another. Meanwhile, Big Kong, no longer impeded, was undergoing transformation. His muscles bulged, veins on them looking like they will burst at any moment. All of his wounds were quickly closing, aided by very bright red light. His eyes were also glowing with the same bright red. Visibly bigger, he moved his massive form with impossible speed toward the Ent, scooping the tree in one hand. Ent struggled, but there was no way from iron grip of the oversized monkey. He smashed him into the earth first, and then on the stone that lay on the ground. After the first hit, Ent groaned and after the second it went still.

“You assisted in slaying Ent, Guardian of the groove level 33”

“Congratulations! You are level 25 Duelist”

“Quest updated ”Scout’s find”: As you near the dungeon that plague Camp Hearth, you start to see telltale sign of something brewing in the forest. Found what that something is or maybe it will find you.

You found the vanguard from the dungeon. On further inspection, you found out that they captured a specimen of local wildlife and mutated it to height of the beasts fury and stability. They planned to unleash it on Camp Hearth, as a precursor for invasion. With the vanguard dead, it’s up to you to stop this monstrosity.

EXP reward updated

Credits Updated

Hidden award updated

Rewards:

7000 EXP

2000 Credits

1 piece of random gear

Hidden award: Title “Monster slayer”

Quickly turning toward the humans that were the source of massive irritation, Big Kong swiped with corpse of the Ent, making contact with Maraya’s barrier. Their first line of defense was shattered like it was never there. Feedback from the shattered barrier dropped the big woman on her knees while the Big Kong prepared another swipe.