Drake moved back to where he had set his trap and waited patiently for the group of Gnolls to arrive. He settled in a tree above two pairs of dummies that were set up in the bushes below him. They even had so of the extra swords and shields he wasn’t using.
Soon Drake heard the rustle of branches and leaves, followed by rumbles and thumps, with the slight shaking of trees.
So far so good, they haven't seed to have noticed this ti, good thing I took that bath in the river to get the blood off and rubbed myself in dirt for good asure. Now I just need to hope it stays that way and I wait. He thought. The sounds of the Gnolls marching right under him filling his ears.
Drake looked down as he saw the two rows pass right underneath him. They had poked and prodded so of the dummies he had set up. So of the dummies received a Mana Bolt and arrows, but Drake continued to wait because the one he wanted to ambush was the larger Gnoll. He was worried that without the surprise attack he wouldn’t be able to take down the beast. It was the mystery factor in this fight, and he wanted to take it down as quickly as possible if he could.
In monts the Large Gnoll passed underneath his tree as well, it almost coming close enough to clip the bottom of the branch Drake was on. Causing Drake to start nervously sweating.
Suddenly the Large Gnoll barked and the group stopped moving. It began to sniff the air trying to find the source of whatever it had just gotten a whiff of.
Drake practically shat himself as the loud bark sounded just below him, but hurriedly cald himself. But when the Gnoll began to sniff the air, he knew the jig was up and as silently as he could began reciting Mana Bolt with his free hand.
When the magic activated he pushed off the branch, swinging his sword diagonally aiming to take the Monsters head off with his Heavy Blow Skill. Drake's Mana Bolt spell fired off, flying swiftly at the back of the monster’s head.
But the Large Gnoll moved and turned its head with unimaginable speed, unbecoming its hulking figure. It quickly dodged the Bolt with a tilt and opened its huge maw welcoming Drake’s sword right into its pearly whites.
Drake’s sword sparked and creaked for a mont in the Gnoll’s clenched jaw, a second later snapping in half, to Drake’s wide-eyed surprise.
Drake hit the ground cursing, "You’ve got to be ssing with ! What the hell are you made of?!" Drake looked up at the Large Gnoll as it snickered at him, but it didn’t move to attack Drake. "Are you looking down on furball?!" he growled through gritted teeth.
The rows of Gnolls finally turned and began to fire a plethora of arrows and Mana Bolts in his direction. Drake cursed as he dodged and made a dash for the two dummies underneath the tree he had jumped off, firing Mana Bolts into the deluge of monsters on the way.
Within seconds he picked up both swords from the dummies and threw one at a mage that was in his path, trying to close in around him with the others. The sword caught this particular Gnoll Mage in mid cast of a Mana Bolt, surprising Drake that it had a staff and even had to cast, as the previous one did not. But Drake would worry about that later, as he scooped up the staff in his now free hand and dashed out of the encirclent.
Drake dodged and weaved in and out of the tree cover, trying to position himself as close to the dummies as he could, hoping to use them to obscure their vision and confuse them.
He steadily took the monsters down one by one, with the new staff he just got, his magic spells were again on another level. They were able to now cast instantly with no cooldown from the delayed cast ti. And were leaps stronger as they were now able to penetrate the Gnolls shields. Combined with Drake’s ability to move while casting, he had beco a problem that the Gnolls were in no way ready to deal with.
Drake was now a small whirlwind of death as he shouted spells back to back, diving in and out of cover to slash at the backs of mages and rangers alike as he maneuvered the battlefield. The group of Gnolls were soon whittled down in numbers to single digits and retreaded to a semi circle around the Large Gnoll.
The Large Gnoll finally decided to join the fight and pushed past the small phalanx that had ford around it. It pulled its head and arms back then leaned forward to release a guttural roar at Drake. Drake was suddenly stunned and unable to move, the next mont the Monster had seemingly teleported in front of him and launched an uppercut right into Drake’s abdon, sending him flying backwards and through a tree.
Drake grunted as he was sent flying, coughing up blood as he crashed into the tree. He flung across the ground montarily then ca to a stop, struggling to get up. He looked in the direction he had flown from to see the Large Gnoll lumber at speed towards him.
It’s not going to teleport again? Was it a skill? And what about that howl? Were they skills? How long are they down for? He tried to process, coughing as he rose.
He began quickly chanting his Mana Bolt at the incoming monster, trying to maintain distance from it. But the Monster was just shrugging off the Mana Bolts, its armor doing an frustratingly good job of protecting it.
Drake didn’t want to get in close but it looked like he may not have a choice. He just wasn’t able to get an angle to deal any significant damage to the Gnoll’s exposed parts from the distance he was at.
Before he was able to get in close to the Gnoll, it teleported again right in front of him. But there was no shout this ti to stun Drake, and he turned to dodge the subsequent straight hook from the monster.
Drake then brought his sword down on the monster’s exposed elbow with his Heavy Blow but it was blocked by the Gnoll’s other gauntlet before it could connect. The two then were locked in a back and forth scuffle of dodging and striking at each other, with Drake losing out in technique.
He had more Dexterity than the monster it seed which allowed him to keep up with the monster. But he was still just a person who hadn’t had much experience in fighting. And his amateurish evasions of the blows were only enough to keep him from being hit directly. Resulting in Drake soon accumulating small wounds and cuts from the spiked gauntlets.
But Drake wasn’t just becoming a punching bag, he was slowly outlasting the Monster, as he chanted close range Mana Bolts into the monster whenever he could, slashing at its uncovered joints when possible. Small dents and holes were starting to acrew on the beast’s armor as they continued to exchange blows.
The tide of the battle abruptly changed, as the Gnoll jumped backwards, rearing its head back again. When Drake saw the motion he knew what was coming, but he was too close and unable to get out of range of the shout. Stunned, Drake looked on helplessly as the monster again teleported to him and clotheslined him into the ground.
Drake spat blood as he was slamd to the forest floor, almost losing his grip on his weapons, but he sohow still had clarity despite the blow, knowing if he lost his weapons now he was dead for sure.
He quickly slashed at the legs of the Gnoll from the ground, slashing one of its exposed calves dropping it down to one knee as it wailed in pain. The first real large amount of damage Drake was able to deal to it.
Drake hopped to his feet and kicked in the Gnoll’s other leg with all the strength he could muster, forcing it to a weird angle with a snap. Now was Drake's opportunity to unrelentingly open a can of whoop ass on the Monster. He brought down his sword on it, screaming his Heavy Blow Skill with every swing.
He had made so progress on the beast knocking off its helt and nicking its head, battering it with small cuts here and there, but couldn’t get any substantial damage as it held up the tal gauntlets in defense.
After a few seconds of Drake keeping the Gnoll on the defensive it finally swatted away Drake’s sword and in the sa motion dashed forward grabbing Drake by the throat, forcing him to drop his weapons from the abrupt shock. The monster then teleported, slamming and pinning him into a tree. Drake’s legs dangled off the ground awkwardly to the side as the Gnoll was leaning limply to the side, one of its legs broken from earlier.
The Gnoll smiled triumphantly at Drake, its left eye closed and bleeding from his earlier assault. The Gnoll brought its face closer to Drake as he scratched and clawed at the monster arm holding him, grunting and gasping for air. The monster's maw slowly opened up to bite down on Drake’s head. The monster taking an agonizingly long ti to savor the victory of its captured prey.
Drake continued to struggle as teeth drew ever closer to him, flashes of his promise to get stronger and change, vivid in his mind. He wouldn’t give up till the end this ti, until he took his last breath. Fire was still lit within his eyes. His still flailing hands touched sothing to his right, and he imdiately grabbed it, swinging it down at the beast's unprotected head.
A pained howl pierced the surroundings as the Large Gnoll lurched backward, a pickaxe in its left eye. Drake dropped to the ground, coughing for air. Then quickly taking in a deep breath before jumping onto the Large Gnoll’s lurching chest, his hands finding the pickaxe and ripping it from its skull.
Drake glared into the monster’s remaining eye and smiled, bringing down the pickaxe with a Heavy Blow as if he was prospecting for oil. And he struck gold as a fountain erupted from the monster’s skull. It fell all the way backwards in a heap with a loud thunderous crash.
From his roost on top of the felled Gnoll’s chest Drake stared at the remaining monsters from the group covered in blood, and more covering him from the temporary fountain he had created out of the Gnoll’s skull.
The Gnolls whimpered at the sight of their fallen leader, and turned to run back in the direction of the outpost they had co from.
Drake was almost completely spent and threw the pickaxe at the back of the monsters, catching one of the Rangers in the thigh. He surged forward with the last remaining dredges of his stamina and strength, catching the wounded Gnoll Ranger by the back of the head and slamming it down into the ground with a crunch.
The remaining Gnolls didn’t even stop to look back and continued to run. Drake kept chase but was unable to sprint anymore, forcing him to hobble to the end of the tree line, shooting Mana Bolts from his hand the whole ti into the backs of the fleeing monsters. Stopping at the treeline he fired at the escaping monsters until arrows began to pelt the tree he was leaning on.
Drake spat a mouthful of blood in the direction of the outpost, "Bring more next ti! I’ll be here all day!!" he guffawed, smiling with a red-tinted grin.
The motes of lights around her finally dissipated, allowing her to blink trying to focus her vision. After a few seconds, the sight of a clear lush forest was spread out in front of her.
At first, it was quiet as she turned her head going from the greenery to the people around her, but it quickly devolved into screaming, shouts, and wails of confusion in several different languages she didn't understand or recognize.
Soone suddenly grabbed her arm.
“Claire! Are you ok?!” the voice asked, her head snapping to it.
“Jared!” she shouted nearly whimpering, “W-where are we?! The room, the man, he… He said so many confusing things!”
Jared had a difficult expression on his face, clearly wanting to say sothing but held back.
“I know, I know. Don’t worry, I'll take care of it. First, we need to find a safe place,” he said firmly, his eyes darting around the area.
A mont later another scream rang out, different from the others. Not a shout of confusion or despair but a real guttural scream of pain and desperation.
Both of their heads turned to the voice, their faces paling at what they saw.
A man. No an animal, an ape was digging into a body while the person was still alive. They no longer scread but gurgled as they reached out, their eyes begging for help but it was obviously too late.
Claire gasped covering her mouth as she shook in fear, Jared gritting his teeth as his hand quickly went to the sword at his waist as he got in front of Claire.
“Stay behind and back up slowly. Claire,” he whispered, “Get up, we need to go.”
But Claire’s legs wouldn’t listen after she saw the grotesque scene. She began crying and whimpering while her hands gripped at the back of her brother's shirt.
Jared tried his best to calm her while keeping his eyes on the strange wild animal making sure it didn’t do anything but their luck wasn’t in their favor today.
The ape snapped it’s head to the pair, a beastly grin on its bloodied face exposing its long fags and smushed face. With a howl they could only compare to so ghastly horror movie animal the ape rushed forward on all fours toward them.
Jared cursed holding his sword in a shaky grip as he yelled, “Bring it on damn it!”
“Jared!” Claire shouted, trying to will power into her jello-like leg but couldn’t muster any strength.
The animal collided with her brother as they tumbled past her in a tangled ss, grunts and a scream of pain coming from the two.
Claire looked on in horror as she was unsure who had scread between the two, finally able to bring herself up to rush over putting a white knuckled grip around the staff she was given by the man in the room.
Reaching the unmoving animal and her brother she raised it above her head ready to swing it down with all the power she could muster.
“W-wait!” Jared gasped, pushing the monster off himself, “I-I’m ok. I managed to get lucky and it just ran into the sword.”
Jared looked at his shaking hands as he seed to be in elation. In a few monts his eyes went distant then returned to normal a second later as a huge smile crept across his face.
“J-jared?” Claire asked confused and concerned for her brother.
“The lady. She didn’t lie, this is like a ga. Claire, I got a level up from killing that thing!” he shouted.
The people that had previously run away began to peek out from behind trees and bushes as they noticed the danger had been taken care of. So began talking amongst one another as they pointed at the felled creature.
“What do you an you got a level up?” soone asked.
Jared pointed to the monster, “Just inspect the thing, it's called a Vampiric Ape and it gives a quest!” he said, forgetting that he was covered in the thing’s blood.
After a round of questioning and the rest of the people around them eventually forming groups, Jared and Claire had ford their own small party.
Jared killing the monster had boded well for them as they got so very enthusiastic people asking to join them once things had cald down from the hectic start they all had.
Claire could only go with the flow for now. She was still frightened and confused for the most part. She wasn’t accustod to gas and these types of things like her brother was. She had been planning on studying in college like their parents wanted them to, being a good daughter. Going to church every sunday, studying hard, never getting into trouble.
She and her brother briefly talked about what was going on before they set out. Both wondering where their parents were, what they were doing here. They exchanged what had happened in their respective rooms in their ‘introductions’ eventually asking the others in the group they had ford.
But it seed that no one had a clear idea of what was happening and their experiences varied wildly from one person to the next. So having detailed explanations of certain aspects while others had been stonewalled by their ‘helper’.
Unable to glean anything they had no choice but to follow the quests that they had. One for their next class upgrade and the Vampiric Ape Subjugation Quest.
Claire gripped her staff as she walked in the back part of the group, unsure of their future. But she relaxed slightly as she saw the back of her older brother courageously walking in front.
Maybe it won’t be so scary. As long as I have Jared here… She thought warily.
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