Arrival: A LitRPG Series, page 17
His two beast companions were being generous, letting Leo harvest the majority of the experience while they maintained a safe distance. He had already leveled up once from the harvest and was well on his way to doing so again. With Pride focused on stopping the swarm from encroaching around him and Sparky acting as artillery support to thin the numbers, the normally perilous fight had become almost laughably easy.
Three large bolts of lightning arced past Leo’s side and slammed into the imp horde. Each bolt rocketed into a nearby imp, frying it before spreading easily through the tightly packed press of liquid-soaked bodies. Over a dozen imps fell to the ground dead from each strike, their forms a smoking mess while twice that number let out pain-filled shrieks.
He used the momentary reprieve to unleash his own Arc Bolt on the imps hugging his legs, the action sending their forms hurling through the air and crashing through the tightly packed vegetation surrounding the battleground.
Not wanting to waste a moment, Leo charged at the imps on his right side still held in place by Pride, cleaving through multiple of the immobilized monsters with each swing of his sword. He was able to tear into their ranks for several seconds before the unrelenting flood of creatures started to enclose him once more, forcing a retreat. He danced away from the incoming surge of tiny creatures, his increase in Dexterity allowing him to build up distance from the horde with ease as he nimbly covered ground twice as fast as he had before.
Leo used Aveth’s length to harry the horde just out of arm’s reach as he kept up a slow retreat. Whenever the monsters on one side threatened to block off his escape and engulf him, Pride or Sparky would intervene, giving him enough time to dart through a hastily made gap in the throng of bodies.
They continued the deadly game of cat and mouse, backing up blindly into the thick underbrush, trusting in his improved nimbleness to maintain his footing. As he stepped underneath a dense tree with leaves the color of midnight, a jolt of confusion and urgency shot through the mental connection he shared with Pride. There was just enough time to register the warning when his back struck something hard enough to send it and the object he hit toppling over.
A cry of surprise made his heart skip a beat in panic as it came from whatever, or rather whoever, he had run into. Leo shot back up to his feet, staring uncomprehendingly at the prone form next to him.
A boy who looked a few years younger than him met his dumbfounded gaze with one of his own. The boy had short-cropped dirty blonde hair, with hard blue eyes and a layer of dirt on his golden skin that hid an otherwise regal face. He was wearing an assortment of loosely fitting tattered rags that might have once been considered clothing. The garments were ripped from the wear of constant travel, revealing a lean yet muscular physique. But the most prominent feature was the white metal collar that snaked its way across the young man’s neck.
Leo was so caught up in the shock at seeing another living person besides Zeld that he failed to react when the boy shot to his feet in a blink and tackled Leo, sending both of them flying in the air a dozen feet from their current position. They skidded on the garden floor in a rolling heap, Aveth spinning out of his hands in the hard landing. He managed to lash out with a fist at his aggressor, connecting with the boy’s midsection. It felt like his hand had struck iron!
Their rolling came to a stop and he managed to find his feet a split second after the newcomer. Yanking Chilly out of its sheath, Leo set in a low defensive crouch as he prepared to deal with his surprise opponent…only to find that opponent already running in the opposite direction.
The young man charged into the swarm of imps that had enveloped their old position, and he was fluidly lashing out with a flurry of quick kicks and jabs to hold back the sea of tiny monsters. Every blow he delivered exploded whatever body part it connected with in a blast of purple goop.
He was trying to protect me, Leo realized, feeling slightly guilty from his attempt to sock the guy, no matter how ineffective it had been. After a moment of hesitation, he rushed to join the stranger in his struggle. You better keep yourselves hidden for now! he called out to Sparky and Pride, afraid that in the confusion of battle they would be attacked. They hesitated, wary about leaving him alone with the other human, before heeding his advice and withdrawing to a distance only slightly farther away.
Leo swooped down to grab Aveth from where it had landed and jumped into the fray with an overhead chop that split an imp in two, casting a quick Observation on the newcomer as he did so.
General
Name: Roy
Class: None
Level: 12
Health: 217/230
Mana: 65/65
Roy sent a quick glance his way. “Is that how you thank the guy who just saved your life?” he hissed at Leo before delivering a sweeping kick that took off the upper half of four imps in a spray of gore.
“I had it handled until you ran into me!” Leo shot back, irked by his tone and determined not to be outdone as he shot out an Arc Bolt that cooked a half-dozen imps and set another ten falling stunned to the ground. Roy’s eyes widened in surprise and he took a crude spear to the thigh, but the weapon’s shaft broke against his hardened skin. He threw an almost lazy backhand that took the poor monster’s head clean off before he returned to the fight, moving even faster than he had before.
The way the younger man fought spoke of years of experience, and Leo had to admit it was impressive. He dodged with the slightest movements and struck like a coiled snake, a shift in his weight to avoid an incoming thrust, a slight adjustment of his foot to line up three of the creatures in a row, and a punch that cracked forward like a spear thrusting through straw before snapping back into place without even a speck of purple blood on him. “You should leave,” Roy said, his voice as icy as his cold blue eyes.
“I can handle myself!” Leo replied, indignation seeping into his voice even as a rock smacked against his knuckles, causing him to wince in pain. It was embarrassing having someone younger than him try to protect him. Besides, he wasn’t about to let this stranger mop up all the experience when he had been the one here first.
“I’m not talking about the imps! If the others find you, you’re as good as dead! Leave! Now!” The boy spun and planted a roundhouse kick on Leo’s midsection that lifted him off the ground and flung him spinning in midair out of the dark cover of the small tree and behind the top of a bush filled with red- and purple-striped berries. A timely intervention from a nearby hidden Pride reduced the velocity of his fall just before he hit the dirt. Leo let out a whimper of pain from his most likely bruised, if not outright broken ribs. The kick had taken half his health and easily launched him twenty feet. Okay, maybe Zeld was right…I do need to spend more time training.
After a few painful gasps of air, he tried rising slowly to his feet. A wave of explosive heat washed over him, the concussive force shoving his body back to the ground. Feelings of alarm brushed his consciousness from Pride, and he carefully peeked through the leaves in the bush from his prone position to see what had happened.
“Can’t even handle a group of imps on your own? How pathetic can you be?” sneered a tall, slim man in thick red robes that kissed the garden floor. His head was bald and his skin a dark shade of tanned brown. The imps that had been swarming the area like an endless sea were nowhere in sight—a field of ash and dying flame had taken their place. The bald man stared down Roy with a look of derision marring his features.
General
Name: Malnor
Class: None
Level: 18
Health: 210/210
Mana: 413/470
“Who’s out there!” the man shouted as he spun with a seething gaze. “Someone dares to spy on me?!” he bellowed as flames began curling their way up his arms.
Roy immediately fell to his knees and raised his hands in a pleading gesture. “I’m sorry, Malnor, I meant to Observe the bush of nearby berries but I must have cast it on you instead.”
Malnor swirled back around, a look of abject fury on his face. “You dare to insult me with such a feeble excuse!” He cracked a hand outward and a whip of fire swelled into existence. Roy covered his eyes as the whip cracked cruelly down with a flick of his wrist, scorching a smoking line across the boy’s midsection. “You just wanted to see how much mana I used for that skill, didn’t you! You think I haven’t noticed the looks of disdain you send my way? You’re planning to kill me!” screamed the crazed man as he continued to leave lines of seared and smoking flesh all over Roy’s body.
Leo cursed himself at his own carelessness. He couldn’t just sit there and watch the barbaric punishment when he was the one who caused it. He brought Aveth behind him, readying a swing at the fire mage’s exposed back. Just when he was about to stand up to send the sword flying, Roy yelled out, “Stop! Please just stop. I won’t do it again. I’m sorry!” The younger boy bowed his head, kowtowing at Malnor’s feet.
The man’s hand hesitated with the whip, his expression one of clear surprise. His anger dissolved into a gleeful smile. “I see you’re finally learning your place in the hierarchy. I’ve only stopped because it would anger our master to kill you without her consent, so let this be a lesson of respect for you.” Malnor took a quick look around, his gaze passing over the berry bush that Leo had sunk back down behind, heeding the hidden warning Roy had tactfully sent his way.
“Those are Krolm Berries, fool. Although valuable, they are not what-” He was interrupted by a neon green light that flared to life near the cavern’s waterfall. It ascended rapidly before slowing and eventually hovering in place halfway to the cavern’s ceiling.
“They actually found it...” Malnor said breathlessly, licking his lips. “Come, worm!” He sent a kick at Roy’s still-groveling figure that seemed to pain him more than it did Roy, before setting a fast walk toward the light.
Roy got to his feet, his expression a blank mask, while his threadbare shirt had turned to an unrecognizable blackened mess. The boy shot a glance in Leo’s direction before leaving to follow the bald man.
Once their forms had disappeared, Leo rose hesitantly to his feet. Pride broke away from the nearby foliage she had been hiding behind and Sparky started to make her way over from a little farther out. The silent feline floated down to the scorched ground and sniffed the ashes of the imps they had been fighting before turning her head to him. “Can you follow them without being seen?” he asked.
She gave him an indignant sniff before flicking her tails through the air in what he had come to read as annoyance. Leo rolled his eyes at the cat’s egotistical personality. “Then do so, but make sure to keep a safe distance. We’ll tail you at a…less discernable distance,” he said as Sparky barreled through the underbrush with an animated chirp, her feathers glowing in excitement. Intruders had come to their home and with Zeld gone, it lay on their shoulders to deal with them.
19
Pride stalked the two ungraceful apes from above, directing just a trickle from her vast reserves of mana to empower the runic formations beneath her feet. The act, which had once required her full attention to control, was now maintained by the slightest shred of her awareness. Being paired with her own two-legged ape had been much less dreadful than she had first anticipated. He could still only speak in his guttural uncivilized tongue and was more of a newborn to this world than the deplorable fledgling, but she deigned to admit that she had grown in his company.
She let herself drift gently down behind a bush for cover. The feeling of grass touching her paws irked her, but it couldn’t be helped as she quickly withdrew her mana in preparation for yet another scan to wash over her. As soon as it had passed, she leapt back into the air, not wanting to spend a moment more than necessary standing in the grass lest she sink through to the mud beneath and tarnish her pristine white fur. She felt the attention of the smaller human’s scan shift to his surroundings as he continued to survey the direction they were heading in, even as the bald one struck him for slowing.
The altercation confused her as did most every interaction when it came to this species. Her senses told her the hairless human was far weaker than the shorter one, yet the smaller one was being scolded and kicked around like an unwanted runt. She was fairly confident that if it came down to it, she could take the hairless one in a fight, assuming she still held the element of surprise, but the shorter one made her nervous. Of course, if her elder or the demon ape in white were here, they would easily squash either of these annoying pests.
She continued to stalk them. The natural stealth of her kind mixed with her budding premonition ability allowed her to predict exactly when and where she needed to hide in order to escape notice. Still, she could do nothing for the two members of her newfound herd. They blundered through the thick vegetation with about as much inelegance and grace as she had expected from them. Even staying at the farthest range their communication allowed, she was still certain the short ape had noticed their presence, although he had yet to alert the other.
The humidity in the atmosphere grew thick as they approached the hovering green light beside the waterfall, and she was faced with her greatest dilemma yet. The light from her runes would be too visible as they refracted off the cursed moisture in the air. If she didn’t want to risk detection, she had no choice but to land on the sodden mud-soaked ground, where the increase in ambient water had rendered the grass’s protection from the unsightly substance moot.
She lowered herself until she hovered just above the horrid sticky mud, already imagining the disgusting feeling of it clinging to her paws and fur. Maybe she could get away with just keeping herself afloat here?
Impertinent feelings of agitation sifted through her connection as her own ape urged her to hurry in pursuit. Don’t rush me! she snapped back, knowing that her words were wasted on his undeveloped mind. It was dreadful and unbecoming, but she knew it had to be done as she released the mana keeping her safe. A soft whimper escaped her mouth as her paws sank almost a whole half-inch into the sticky and squishy substance, staining her beautiful white fur the color of feces. Having to resist the urge to shake it off her paws with every step forward, she glumly chased their prey.
The remaining distance to cover was blessedly short but wholly miserable. The thick mist drenched her fur as she trudged along, unable to even erect a gravity field to keep the moisture away from her, lest the magic be detected. She was so caught up in her own misery that she didn’t even notice where the pursuit had taken her. It wasn’t until the rainbows shimmering in the air as sunlight danced upon the mist shifted to a deep ruby red, that she finally realized where she was.
The fur on her back stood on end as her instincts screamed she was nearing a foe that even her elder could not best. The primitive fear coiling inside her caused her to freeze in her tracks. Ahead of her drifted the sound of new voices, other intruders whose strength she needed to gauge, but to do so would require her getting dangerously close to that.
The green light they had been following winked out overhead and she knew that if she turned away now, the ball of yellow feathers would never let her live down her own cowardice. Against every instinct in her body, she walked forward a few more steps, determined to ensure the way was clear for the others’ approach.
Tense but still retaining enough wits to ensure she wasn’t seen, she circled, giving a wide berth from where she heard the voices, until she found enough foliage to offer adequate cover. Hunched low to the ground, she crept along the mud, taking just as much care to not let her soft underbelly touch the ground as she did in sensing her position was free from foreign magic. Once she determined it was safe, she peeked her head through the undergrowth.
The ground sloped down slightly into a large clearing. A group of apes stood over a hundred yards away vehemently discussing and pointing at a large vine lying between them. In the eyes of the apes, the appendage must’ve appeared motionless, but her eyes missed nothing. She could see in perfect clarity the minuscule movements the vine made as it crept closer to the warm flesh of its surrounding prey, attracted by their body heat. It wasn’t a deliberate movement by the demonic tree and based on the sluggish way the mana flowed inside the vine, the horror was mercifully deep in its slumber.
“Please, master, I’m begging you! Send me in but keep my sister out of it!” said a tatteredly dressed ape with a green metal collar around his neck. He had fallen to his knees behind the vine and appeared to be appealing to the only non-collared monkey of the whole group. “I’ll retrieve the flower for you so there’s no reason to put us both in danger!”
The ‘master’ was a female who possessed many of the features that so often flitted through Leo’s thoughts, having the slender form that he dreamt of for his future mate. This was Pride’s first time seeing a female human, and although she possessed enough elegance and grace as to not be considered an outright ape, she was still far below Pride’s acceptable standards.
“Oh, Brier…” the woman whispered gently as she knelt next to the one who had spoken, her smooth voice flowing almost too quietly to be picked up. “If I felt one dendromancer would have been enough, then I wouldn’t have purchased a second.” She hooked a finger underneath the male’s collar and brought him in closer with the sensuality of a lover.
“If you manage to pluck me a Radiant Heart, I may just consider letting the two of you go free, but if you come back in failure-” She shoved the male down hard against the ground, lips twisting in a feral smile while her voice took on an angry tone. “-I’ll force you to peel the flesh off her before feeding the both of you to that horror!”
