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Night Stalker
Ten feet of fur, scales and hunger. These beasts sleep through the day, but once the sun goes down, it’s time to hunt. Nothing satiates them more than a nice, juicy castaway.
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Level: 8
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HP: 176
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Darren shrieked and cast Twist of Fate on the closest.
By some miracle, the cast made it past the beast’s resistances, and it froze, paralysed as it continued to ark through the air, midleap, and crashed to a heap on the ground beside Darren.
The things were massive. Nearly three metres long each. They looked like a feline komodo dragon. Streaks of fur between dark, plated hide. Reptilian faces with huge maws filled with saliva-coated teeth.
Twist of Fate wore off, and the monster scrabbled to its feet, spinning to face Darren. He lost track of the other two, his attention taken by the waist-high chunk of fury next to him.
He was vaguely aware of Samantha grunting and the sound of a sword driving into flesh.
Darren danced back from the Night Stalker, which slunk towards him, snarling.
He brandished his axe. “Any ideas, Wilson?” He glanced at his shoulder.
The coconut was gone.
“Wilson?”
The Night Stalker leapt.
Darren dove to the side. He caught a glimpse of Wilson scampering down the beach, presumably toward the relative safety of the boat. Chicken…
The Night Stalker spun and charged Darren, who yelped, cursing himself for being distracted by coconuts.
He swung his axe down, catching the tail of the beast as it shot past him.
The hit didn’t even take 10% of its health down.
Its tail lashed out, catching Darren on the calf, whipping his leg out from under him.
He crashed backwards onto the sand, a solid chunk of health gone from the hit.
A claw descended towards his face.
He rolled sideways.
It clipped the back of his head, and he screamed, fresh agony coursing through his body, joining the adrenaline.
He swung his axe sideways, feeling it connect with the creature. The beast let out its horrifying scream.
Darren spared it a glance; blood oozed from a wound on its face. Yes!
He scrambled, his feet skidding in the course, coral sand as he tried to put distance between himself and the monster while it was distracted.
Twist of Fate came off cooldown.
Darren pivoted, jogging backwards.
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He went to cast Twist of Fate on the Night Stalker after him, when he saw Samantha fall beneath one of the beasts. He redirected his attention and cast Twist of Fate on her assailant instead. It tipped sideways, frozen.
The monster chasing Darren leapt.
Darren summoned his swivel gun—configured for single shot—between them, aimed straight at the monster.
The Night Stalker smashed into it, the summoned item locked solid in position and not budging. Though a bar appeared in the air above it, indicating that the gun had taken a hit to its durability.
Darren fired. Sending a cannonball crashing into the Night Stalker’s face. The inertia knocked the creature on its back, though it was still at 75% health.
He darted forward, bringing his axe down on its exposed underbelly.
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Critical hit! 3x damage to Night Stalker!
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“Woot!” He let out a laugh laced with lunacy as the Night Stalker’s health crashed to 50%.
The creature tried to roll over, but Darren fired the gun again, the shot knocking it back over.
Darren descended on it. Axe and gun pummelling the monster to a bloody pulp.
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You have defeated Night Stalker!
50XP
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Breath coming in ragged gasps, Darren staggered up the beach toward Samanatha, still at the treeline. One of the monsters was down, but her health was below half already. How had they dealt so much damage to her?
Darren inspected the final Night Stalker as he approached.
Ahh… Level 14 with 364 health and enough strength to take out a house.
A giant log rocketed through the air and slammed into the side of the Night Stalker, sending it flying.
“Eat turds!” Wilson yelled from down the beach.
Darren grinned. The cheeky coconut.
Samantha descended on the Night Stalker, cutlass flashing in the moonlight.
With a thought, Darren cast Twist of Fate as it came off cooldown.
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Cast failed!
Level 14 Night Stalker resists Twist of Fate.
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He had expected as much. He considered his cannon for a moment, but not with how close Samantha was.
One hit from that thing would nearly kill him, though. Especially with his health down a third already. He slowed to a walk, several metres away from the combat.
Samantha didn’t seem like she needed much more help since Wilson’s wood had entered the fray.
The Night Stalker had regained its feet, but its health was plunging rapidly as Samantha flowed around it, easily avoiding claws and tail, her blade finding its mark with every swing.
Fifteen seconds later, it was over for the Night Stalker.
Samantha put her hands on her hips and tipped her head back, eyes closed. Blood soaked her back, skin and gaping wounds visible through her torn jacket.
Darren winced; she’d taken a thrashing from those two. He jogged up to her. “You alright?”
“Mhmm,” she said, eyes still closed, breathing heavily.
Her health dropped a fraction.
“Bleed damage,” Darren said. “Need help bandaging the wounds?”
Samantha nodded before lowering her head and opening her eyes. “I have bandages. Let’s loot these things and get the hell off this island. I hate fighting on land.”
Darren trotted back to the Night Stalker he’d brutalised and touched its corpse, accepting the request to loot. He garnered some hide, organs and a… health potion. He shook his head. Bloody games and loot that didn’t always match the mob killed.
So far in his experience, the game mostly handed out crafting materials as loot. Sometimes potions. Maybe that would change as the game progressed and groups went up against leviathans and the like. And there was always the great loot from raiding ships, but monsters? The devs had opted for a small measure of “realism” in the loot they dropped.
Sometimes the system handed out rewards for overcoming particularly difficult situations. He wasn’t sure what exactly triggered those yet though.
That reminded him, they did need to go loot the coconuts. Maybe get some grenades for Wilson. That would be awesome, lobbing grenades with his telekinesis ability.
Right now though, the health potion was what they needed. He checked the information on it. Yup. Stopped bleeding. “How serendipitous.” He wondered briefly if the loot was tailored around current needs at all. No way of knowing right now, though.
Samantha had looted her kills, and he met up with her as they headed to Wilson on the boat.
“I got a healing potion,” he said, removing it from his inventory and handing it to her.
She glanced at it, surprise visible on her face in the moonlight. “Those are expensive, you should keep it. Bandage me, and I’ll recover soon enough.”
Darren returned it to his inventory with a nod. Fair enough.
“Thank you, though,” she said.
“Eh,” Darren said with a shrug, “we might have our differences, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to withhold a healing potion from you. We’re in this together.”
They reached the boat with Wilson standing on the prow. “Sorry, that was about all I could do at my level,” he said.
Samantha reached up and patted the coconut on the back. “You did good. Well timed.”
Darren studied the boat. “You know what?” he said. “I have the perfect name for this one.”
Samantha and Wilson both looked at Darren, concern clear on their faces. He grinned back at them. “Trust me, you’re gonna love it.”