My mind settles into a state of [Concentration] as I activate the skill and jump down from my perch on top of the obelisk. I point out where the group of oversized lizards are, hiding in the darkness, slowly creeping up on us as though they are hidden. If someone came in here without decent scouting abilities, these lizards might actually be able to get the drop, especially since they appeared without warning right after a short break in the fighting.
Corvax takes the lead in facing our new opponents, with Daniel and Stella behind him and me in the rear. I start making a big projectile out of mana, a four-foot-long rod about an inch in diameter with a point on one end, packed densely, before using [Concentration] to add extra piercing power to the tip. I start figuring out the best angle of attack next and the optimal distance to place my rifts so that they’re as close as possible to the targets without being easily detected. I have a feeling these ones might be a bit more sensitive to mana than their lesser kin.
As we stand near the wall, in between the approaching monsters and the obelisk, I hold the javelin in front of me with nothing but the power of [Mana Shaping] and use the [Gravitic Generation Array] in tandem to give it some spin in preparation for its longer flight time. After a few moments the javelin starts to whir slightly, causing Daniel and Stella to turn and look at me with curious glances. I lock in the angle and distance I want and use [Space Control] to create the rifts that will transport death to these lizards.
The big lizards, or whatever they are, are finally getting the idea that we know exactly where they are, despite them being in complete darkness, and stop sneaking towards us. The one in the lead stops trying to be sneaky and instead raises its maw to the ceiling and lets out a combination of a jet of flame and a screechy roar. The rest of the pack follow suit soon after.
I was planning on launching my attack when they took a few more steps, but this works out even better. I start building up the biggest gravity thrust I’ve done so far, feeling the cube in my left hand strain from me pushing it to its maximum, as I adjust the output rift slightly, pointing it at the now stationary and howling monsters, parallel to the floor. With just a small exertion of mana, the built-up gravity releases in an instant burst, launching the javelin faster than the speed of sound based off of the crack that echoes throughout the cavern.
The pack of lizards, and my teammates as well for that matter, all react to the sudden noise, flinching and turning in my direction. This causes most of my targets to freeze in place for just a second, long enough for my attack to land.
The javelin rips through the air, reaching its first target within moments of being fired thanks to my rifts, and slams into the first, confused, creature right in the neck, tearing through with a ruthless efficiency and continuing on to the next in line. The second lizard gets hit in the side, with the javelin tearing through its insides and exiting the other side, where it finds its third target's leg, passing through the hips and into the side of the fourth, stopping about halfway through, causing both beasts to slump to the ground, unable to get up in their wounded state.
[You have slain multiple creatures]
[Level 25 Ember-Tongue Raptor]
[Level 25 Ember-Tongue Raptor]
Wow, that worked way better than I expected it to. Like way, way better than I expected it to. Even with the high mana cost for the entire attack, it was well worth it. I did not expect the penetration to be so high, but that’s mostly thanks to the cube in my left hand, which I seem to have damaged slightly with that last shot. It’s still very usable, but I need to be more careful with it from now on if I want it to last long enough for all my plans. I store the cube away and pull out my sword hilt, not that I plan to use it to fight. I already took out four of the six raptors. I’ll leave the other two to them.
The last two unharmed raptors shriek at the sudden loss of their pack mates and charge directly toward us, leaving their injured kin behind. I take the opportunity to teleport next to my unfinished kills and finish the job as my allies engage the other two in a three-versus-two battle. I'm able to absorb about half of the mana from the javelin back before it can fully dissipate, mostly thanks to [Mana Stabilization Field]. Predictably, it ends quickly, with my friends wiping the floor with the lizards in under a minute and with minimal damage.
[You have slain multiple creatures]
[Level 25 Ember-Tongue Raptor]
[Level 25 Ember-Tongue Raptor]
The four of us group up again, as there are no more lizards for the time being. That whole fight, if you can even call it that, lasted less than three minutes if you start it when the raptors walked out of the fog, which might mean we have a short break before the next wave comes out. Stella mentioned that this whole dungeon is an hour long, and we are currently forty-eight minutes into it. She tells us that this last fifteen-minute segment is the ‘boss’ section, while the first forty-five minutes were an endurance test against a bunch of weaker enemies. When the timer hits the fifty- and then the fifty-five-minute mark, another wave will spawn, with tougher monsters. The real goal here is to be able to kill the wave before the next one spawns.
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Right at the fifty-minute mark, I notice another clawed foot peek through the fog before the rest of the creature steps out, with another three beasts closely behind it. This one looks pretty similar to the Ember-Tongue Raptor, except a few feet taller and longer, and with feathers covering much of its body. As soon as they step into the cavern, I notice something very different about them. They all have active flames in their mouths, causing them to glow with an eerie light in the pitch-black cave.
These lizards don’t bother with sneaking up on us, instead making a few chirping noises before turning to us and walking over like a group of predators hunting in their domain, standing tall and proud. Once they get close enough, I [Inspect] the closest one as the four of us get into formation.
[Level 35 Flame-Tongue Raptor]
Same type of beast, just a higher level. I wonder if these things can turn into dragons if they get strong enough. I need to learn how exactly beasts evolve and whatnot. It seems like it would be useful information for a guy who kills monsters fairly often.
“Gonna do another one of those attacks? Take out all the dinos?” Daniel asks, breaking me out of my thoughts.
“No, I overdid it with the gravity on the last one, which might have damaged the cube a bit. I’m back to swinging a sword like some kind of schmuck now.” I say as I grab my sword hilt in my right hand and the wicked sharp bone dagger in my left, skeletal arm. I didn’t plan for the bone-on-bone matchup, but this dagger is my sharpest one, and it does look pretty badass being held in my skeletal hand.
Once the raptors are about fifteen feet away from us, they stop and just stand there, snarling at us and snapping their jaws closed, puffs of fire escaping their mouths when they do so. For a few moments all of us just stand still in anticipation, until finally, Corvax makes the first move.
He activates his [Berserker Rage] skill, a visible red glow appearing on his skin, as he lets out a battle cry and charges forward with his axe powered up and in position to kill. His massive legs bring him to his target in just a couple steps, causing all four of the raptors to flinch in surprise at his speed before they all open their maw and bathe the four-armed giant in four streams of fire.
In the midst of the flames, Corvax never falters. Instead, he follows through on his swing, planting his axe in the neck and shoulder of the closest beast, causing its fire to cut off as it falls to the ground. He lets out another roar as he rips his axe free and turns to face the remaining raptors, who have all stopped spewing flames at this point and are stepping back from the now smoking Corvax, like they're afraid of him.
When Corvax takes a step toward the closest raptor, all three of them scatter in different directions, and he lets out a roaring laugh, dropping his rage skill as I notice the sunlight energy within him move to the surface and start to heal his burns. His upper torso and arms got the worst of it, with his shirt getting turned into ash, but it's a lot less severe than I would have thought. Maybe his sunlight affinity offers him some sort of resistance to fire, or he has a new skill? Either way, we have three lizards to catch.
“Ah fuck, they're scattering! Free for all, the last one to put a lizard down pays for drinks tonight!” Daniel yells out as he turns and starts sprinting in the direction one of the raptors ran off in.
I turn to Stella with the intention of asking her if it’s a good idea to split up, but she's already chasing after a different raptor, muttering something about free drinks.
I take a look at Corvax to make sure he's okay and see him walking towards the obelisk with a look of concentration on his face as he heals his burns. I've seen him recover from worse, so I leave him alone and focus on the raptor that the other two aren't chasing.
The raptors are all spread out now, running frantically like… well, like chickens with their heads cut off. I focus in on my raptor and feed mana into [Space Control], forming a teleport in the raptor's path with the intention of using its momentum against it to impale it on my sword.
As soon as the exit to my teleport starts to form, the beast screeches to a stop and opens its maw, sending a jet of flame at the spot I was about to teleport to, causing the exit rift to collapse from the flames. The beast immediately gets back to its frantic running, with even more panic now, somehow.
I repeat the process again, but this time I create a second exit rift behind the raptor when it flames the first one. The secondary rift gets torn apart by the tip of the beast's tail, which appears to have some kind of magical properties, as mundane objects don't interfere with unfinished rifts like that.
Well, this thing definitely has some kind of mana-sensing ability. I need to kill this thing soon, too. The last wave is going to spawn in less than three minutes. As several potential plans pop into my mind, I settle on one that is relatively simple and mana efficient, which is exactly what I need right now, as we still have the real boss fight after this.
Before the raptor gets a chance to get back to full speed, a rift appears in front of it, and then another behind it, and several more to the sides, all one after the other, spaced far enough apart that one is always forming while the previous one is getting destroyed. While it's distracted on the sixth and seventh decoy rifts, I put my real plan into motion and teleport forty feet in the air, directly above the beast.
It doesn't notice me, either because I'm outside of its range or because it's distracted, allowing me to silently drop on it as it mostly stays in place, taking out the last decoys. Once I'm about ten feet from hitting it, it starts to look up, probably having noticed my mana blade swiftly approaching it, but by this point, it's too late.
I crash into the back of the beast without an ounce of grace or form, my only goal being to keep the sword pointed at the beast, and while I may have knocked the wind out of myself and fractured a bone or two, I succeeded in my goal. The raptor now lies under me, writhing around, half dead due to my blade that skewers it from its back to its belly, pinning it into the ground.
I groan as I push myself off the beast and stand up, my body still in fairly good shape thanks to the mana boost I had going when I landed. I walk over to the struggling beast and pull my sword free with a mana-boosted pull, and then sink it into the dino once more, finishing it off.
[You have slain a creature]
[Level 35 Flame-Tongue Raptor]
I pull out my sword again and turn it off. I teleport back to my perch on top of the obelisk, finding that Corvax and Stella are already there, both healing his burns. I now realize that I should’ve been paying some attention to Stella's fight. How did she kill it so fast? I move my attention to Daniel so as not to repeat my mistake.
He has somehow managed to get on top of the raptor and is riding its back as it desperately tries to bite him and buck him off, but he’s firmly attached, swinging his hammer down on its neck and head with repeating blows. After a few more hits, the raptor falls to the ground, and Daniel finishes it with one last blow to the side of the head. Afterward, he walks back over to the obelisk, his face slightly disappointed as he realizes we’re all already there.
“I’m the rotten egg!” He exclaims with a laugh.