Up in the tree, the Iguana has yet to truly move from its position. Its unique eyes contract and expand as it studies the group of tier 1 humans around it. Shaking its large body, the spikes that cover its body gain an uncanny sheen. Not only does it have a line of spikes running down its spine. It also has them around its neck and joints.
Every vine that touches a spike snaps, then suddenly the iguana scurries forward. Using its claws it sticks to the tree and starts to descend. “FIRE!” Alli shouts at the people around her. They are all different mages and ranged fighters.
Along with her own construct, that burns itself away to reveal a large mana fireball, there is another mage that creates a wind blade. As the magic fireball flies toward the tree, two arrows are launched ahead. One of them strikes a spike with a “Ping!” sound that shows just how hard those spikes are. The second arrow strikes cleanly and lodges into the monster’s ribs.
Right after the arrows hit, the fireball hits the tree just behind the iguana. With a loud “BOOM!” It rocks the tree, not only lighting it on fire, but sending the Iguana careening toward the ground.
That is when the second mage also attacks. Having charged the wind blade for a few seconds, he now has a massive arc of wind held in front of his body. From his clenched teeth and the visible beads of sweat on his brow, it is difficult to contain the wind for so long. “AHHHH!” He shouts and with a hissing sound, the wind blade flies forward.
He aims at where the iguana should land. Everyone watches with great anticipation as the wind and iguana draw closer together. As the iguana hits the ground with a soft thud, it instantly reacts and starts to move.
When it is on the ground the group can finally see just what they are dealing with. The Razor Spine Iguana stands five feet tall at the shoulder and almost twenty feet long. Half the fighters take a step back in shock. This is the largest monster they have ever encountered. Just as they are about to break ranks, the wind blade lands.
The monster was too quick to land a clean hit, but as its long arms and legs start to pull it away, it doesn’t completely dodge. The wind blade cuts forward with a whistling noise and with a “SHLICK” sound, severs the tail off completely.
They all stare at the severed tail, and suddenly the monster doesn’t seem as scary. It went from twenty feet long, to about twelve. “YEHHHHH!” They cheer. Feeling a surge in strength that comes from a boost in morale, the defenders step forward.
Led by Carl, they are all wearing some kind of heavy armor and carrying a shield. “It is a pleasure to face the enemies of my mistress with you, fellow warriors!” Carl shouts as he steps in front of the group. “TAUNT!”
A red glow flashes from around Carl, a moment later the eyes of the Iguana that was running away shine the same color. Then with aggressive movement the Iguana whips around.
The people that it was charging toward flinch back. If they hadn’t already severed the tail, they would have been sent flying. That wasn’t even an attack, it was just turning around. Blood sprays out from the wound, but at the same time every can see the flesh of the tail wriggling and twisting.
Facing Carl, the Iguana lunges forward in an impressive burst of speed. But Carl stands before the monster without flinching. His body glows with a yellow light at his skill ‘Knight’s Spirit’ activates. Not only are his stats boosted because he is following Alli’s orders, but he also gets another boost because he is defending others.
Then on top of all that, the legacy skill gives him the combat knowledge of his grandfather. In a second, Carl’s stance shifts and his shield twists to the side. At the same time, he sheaths his sword and grips the shield with both hands. This is the knowledge from his grandfather, showing him how to fend off a much larger and stronger monster.
Then a second later the Iguana is looming over Carl. Its shoulder stands just below his own, and its head looms over him. “Come and get some!” Carl shouts. “Defensive Stance!”
His armor and shield glisten under the effects of the skill. Then the monster raises its massive claw. The ends of its long fingers are each tipped with a foot long curved claw. Its entire claw is large enough to cover Carl’s entire body. But he stands his ground.
The claw descends and Carl swings his shield just before he is hit. His mana is burned to reinforce his shield. But it holds and with his boosted stats he is able to parry the blow. To his left the claw slams into the ground. The ground around him shakes under the power of the blow, but Carl’s footing remains firm.
The same thing happens with the other claw, and Carl can defend himself again. But the third strike comes from the side in a large sweep. Just before the attack starts, a red glow emits from his left and the ‘Taunt’ shift to someone else.
Carl sighs in relief as the monster’s attention shift. He doesn’t think he could keep that up much longer, but at the same time. He is aware that whoever used ‘Taunt’ can only withstand one of those strikes.
Thankfully they are not alone. Just before the large iguana can strike the man. A shout rings out through the surroundings. All at once everyone who hears it gains a momentary boost in strength. With the boost, along with some kind of shield projection, the man is able to rebuff the creature.
Before it can attack again, vines snake up from the ground and wrap the monster. A moment later ice coats its claws and freezes them to the ground. Four more ranged attacks strike down and hit the monster in the back.
“Be careful of the spikes!” Alli shouts. But her voice is drowned out as the rest of the fighters all pounce on the monster like a pack of hyenas. They are led by Gabi. She cheers and laughs as her massive axe goes to work.
There are a few instances where Helo appears wrapped in a shadow. He is holding his cub, but he still is able to grab people by their collars and pull them away before they can get killed by a spike. Claw or the massive beasts body.
A minute later the monster lies dead. Their own team is weakened. Arisah and Carl used a lot of mana to contain the creature, and four of the melee fighters are nursing puncture wounds. But within thirty minutes everyone should recover, with the use of some potions.
“Bing.” Rings in the heads of everyone that fought the Iguana.
You have slain a tier 2 level 56 Razor Spiked Iguana at tier 1.
Your exp has greatly risen due to fighting a creature above your level.
Your exp has greatly risen due to fighting a creature a tier above you.
Your exp is shared between everyone due to fighting the creature in large party combat.
That last line isn’t great, but at least it didn’t say ‘reduced’. When in a dungeon, if you fight a monster with six or less people, each fighter gains full experience. But if you fight a monster with a larger group, it is split between everyone. The bright side is that since the Iguana is a tier above, there is no penalty. Plus, for people with common classes and in the middle of tier 1. Having two very positive modifiers is a lot more than they have ever gotten. Even with the exp being split. It should be substantial.
“I gained a level!” A girl yells in joy.
“Me too!” A guy says.
“I gained two!” Someone else calls.
In only one fight, more than half the group gained a level. Everyone else is on the cusp of another one. The only people who didn’t gain much from the fight was Alli’s party. This Iguana is the kind of monster they could hunt as a normal party. It would leave a few of them almost drained of energy. But then they would gain good experience.
Alli smiles brightly as everyone cheers. They will be together for fifteen more weeks. Plus, Ria already told them that they are going to be stuck in the same group if they ever do something like this again. So, she truly is happy that everyone else is.
It doesn’t take long before the cheering shifts toward praising Alli’s party. They did most of the work, defending, restricting, and damaging the monster. Not only that, but it was also Alli that came up with the game plan.
“Alli! Alli! Alli!” Gets chanted and she laughs with a blush on her cheeks as everyone cheers for her. Some of those that are cheering are more than just happy; there is some devotion in their voices. These are the people that know that if they had a leader like Miguel or Adan, then the plan might include sacrificing the normal people. Instead, her party took the brunt of the damage and led them to a victory
“SHHHHAHAASHHHHHH” Alli tries to get everyone to quite down. They are still in the middle of a tier 2 jungle. But in the middle of shushing them, she started laughing.
“ROOOOWWWWRRRRR!” Echoes though the forest.
The cheering suddenly stops and everyone starts looking around with worry. They are still standing near the Iguana corpse. The ground around them is trampled creating a small bloody clearing between the massive tier 2 trees.
Nobody notices as Helo steps into the clearing and deposits Inka into Luna’s arms. Then he steps back into the forest. Only a few of the people have senses perceptive enough to know which directing the echo came from. But Alli and her party are all looking the same direction with wary gazes.
“Keep an eye out.” Alli says quietly. “Everyone, watch the person next to you, make sure nobody gets snatched. Pull the injured into the center.”
A few people hesitate; they don’t know and don’t care about the injured person next to them. But after a moment they start to move, Alli has yet to steer them wrong. It doesn’t take long for the injured to be in the center and everyone to form up.
They are all on edge and flinching at every new noise or movement. There was power in the roar, far more than what the Iguana had. Out there somewhere is an apex predator that is hunting them and wants to drag them into the jungle.
Above them Helo is sitting on a branch and waiting. With his aura out he will know as soon as the beast attacks. Then all he has to do is stop it, easy. With ‘Bloodline Awakening’ activated Helo is watching for any movements within the dense jungle. It is a few tense minutes as he sees a large creature flashing past.
He calls it large, but it is much smaller than the iguana. Maybe the same height as a man if it is standing on it hind legs. But as a tier 2 creature, that just makes it more deadly. It will be powerful and quick.
Then turning quickly, Helo hears the sound of a branch snapping to the left. In a tree, a branch falls to the ground with claw marks tearing it free. Before he can react, there is a “REROW!” Behind him and the scream of a man.
Spinning back around, Helo looks down to see the fangs of a large cat latched onto the shoulder of one of the young adults. The man is screaming and flailing as the cat drags him into the shrubs.
The cat’s entire body is already within the dense foliage and all he can see are its jaws on the man. Did it set a trap? Helo thinks as he considers the branch that fell earlier. He has a capsule in his mouth, and he is about to bite down on it, but before he can someone else intervenes.
Just as he is about to jump down vines and ice start to wrap the poor man. The large cat pulls through tearing the man’s shoulder apart further. But the ice and vines don’t stop. They creep up his body and almost reach the cat. With a huff, the cat releases the man and disappears into the forest.
Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.
Everyone lets out a sigh of relief, and Arisah commands her vines to drag the man back. There she starts to pour a potion on the man’s shoulder. In the end he is left whimpering on the ground with the rest of the injured.
“It isn’t over yet.” Alli says. Everyone had started to relax; they had already fended off the creature. “It might attack again.”
Before she even finishes talking there is another loud sound in the jungle. Everyone on the ground flinches, but Helo doesn’t let it distract him this time. Watching the small clearing with twenty teenagers and one giant dead iguana. Helo spots the cat on the other side of a bush preparing to jump. “Detect Weakness.”
Striped Ocelot.
A medium-sized cat with unique stripe-based magic.
Weakness: End.
Stripe magic? What is that? Helo thinks. The cat is about the size of a man, and it doesn’t even have any stripes. But just as he thinks that he can see black lines flowing through the jungle. A few of them have time to reattach themselves to the cat, just as it pounces.
Not letting it attack again. Helo bites down on the capsule. As power floods his body, he flares ‘Bloodline Awakening’. Pushing the skill past what is comfortable, he is just able to match the speed of the tier 2 cat’s pounce.
Blood Capsule.
An alchemical capsule filled with the mixed blood of a tier 1 wolf-kin and a tier 1 dryad/kitsune.
- A small amount of sealed blood.
This was something that Hinata proudly passed to Helo before they left. It took her a while to make them and she was only able to make a few, but she thought about how blood was basically a miracle cure for Helo. At the same time, it has the effect of switching his bloodline from his ‘Stealth State’ to his ‘Enhanced State’.
She found something similar on the vampires that they looted, and it gave her the idea. In this moment, Helo is thankful for Hinata’s thoughtfulness. The idea is ingenious and it is just barely allowing him to match the cat’s speed.
Another roar sounds out while a “CRACK!” is heard from above. The tier 2 tree splinters as Helo launches himself. His presence flares as his eyes change from red to gold. Then just as quickly they are red again.
In the air the effect wares off. The capsule only has a tiny amount of blood, enough for a quick heal, or a single movement. Everyone but Alli’s party looks up in freight. ‘Is another beast coming to eat us?’
But all they can see is a gold and black flash, then it is gone again. A moment later there is a loud “THUD” “MEROW!”
Looking back down, this is almost too much stress for some of them. But then they finally realize what they are seeing, Helo standing between them and the now injured cat. In its shoulder there is a grey blade handle sticking out.
Helo only used one of his knives. The other has yet to be enchanted, so using it on a tier 2 beast would be less effective.
When Helo launched himself from the tree, he was able to match the cat’s speed. At the same time, his concealment ended briefly, alerting the cat to his presence. As the two met in the air, the cat was able to twist away from his blade. Helo only managed to pierce its shoulder.
Fortunately, the enchantment in his blade is deadly. “Sssssssss.” While in the air Helo poured his energy into the blade’s enchantments. It wasn’t enough to make a massive fiery explosion or superheat the metal. But it still heated the metal to a scorching degree.
Now with the blade lodged in the cat, it is burning it from the inside. The Ocelot cries out in pain, but it isn’t a powerful predator for nothing. Leaping back on three legs it growls at Helo and gets low. At the same time all the stripes finally finish returning and the Ocelot looks normal again.
Pulling out his second blade Helo wraps the knife in his aura and crouches low. Lunching himself forward he aims for the cat’s weak shoulder. Before he gets close, he gets a feeling of danger. Flipping back, he handsprings off his non-knife holding hand.
Where he was just running, one of the black stripes strike the ground with considerable force. Making a “WHACK!” sound and leaving a small crater in the ground.
Landing on his feet Helo dives left as another stripe flies past his head. Raising his blade, he deflects another. Then running forward Helo slides under three stripes.
So, they can detach from its body and attack, that is pretty cool. He thinks while constantly dodging the black stripes. Anyone else would have a hard time spotting them all. But Helo’s aura mixed with his impressive ‘Dark Sight’ makes each one easy to see.
Flipping back again, Helo plants his hand onto his shadow while dodging. This time he forms a dark blade from his shadow. Grabbing it with his planted hand Helo spins in the air and launches it with great speed.
Just as it leaves his grasp he calls out. “Dark Hand.” The black blade is wrapped in a monochrome film that seems to erase all color around it. That film slowly morphs into the shape of a hand, then the dagger is launched forward at a much faster speed than Helo’s throw.
The blade appears in the Ocelot’s other shoulder. Staggering the beast, it falls forward with both of its shoulders injured. Finishing his flip and spin, Helo lands on the ground facing the cat.
He is still between the cat and the larger group. Only he wasn’t defending them from the stripes. As he dodged and deflected them, some continued on their path and struck the people watching. After a few obtained injuries as a side effect from Helo’s fight, the defenders led by Carl stepped up to defend them.
A few people wanted to intervene, their main goal was to gain experience from the beast, not help Helo. But Alli put a quick stop to it. Helo was intensely focused and moving quickly. Far faster than anyone else at their tier could move. If they tried to get involved, they would mostly get in the way and if someone drew the beast attention, they wouldn’t survive.
Now standing between the beast and the group. Helo reaches out his hand. Clenching his fist he casts ‘Dark Hand’. He has trained the skill so it can be used non-vocally, but it requires hand movements. A dark film wraps his kukri. Pulling his fist back the blade tears its way free from the beast’s shoulder. In the same movement it cuts through its throat and the beast drops dead shortly after.
Using skill on or around someone else is almost impossible. Everyone has a natural aura and presence. It is at tier 3 that people start to control and strength their aura. But everyone has a presence. If Helo tried to use his ‘Dark Hand’ skill in a similar way against a tier 3, he would have to push their aura back until the blade was revealed.
“Bing.”
You have solo defeated a tier 2 Stripped Ocelot.
Your exp has greatly risen for defeating a creature above your level.
Your exp has greatly risen for defeating a creature above your tier.
Your exp has risen for defeating a stronger creature solo.
Feeling the experience flood his being Helo sighs as he can feel himself push just a little closer to his next level. It takes a truly massive amount of experience for him to grow. But he is thankful that the doubling stopped when he entered tier 1. If he finds a pack of some kind, with the help of his title ‘Nature’s Alpha’ he might be able to gain a level in the next few field trips.
Behind him he can hear the murmurs of everyone talking. Turning around he starts to wipe his blade clean and he looks toward Alli. As he turns his clothing starts to slowly repair itself. There are no major tears, only small rips from where the stripes shot past. Helo only had some minor injuries, but by the time he turned around, they were already healed. Not wanting to deal with the murmuring crowd, he says. “I have to go check on the other groups.”
Then before she can say anything he steps up and grabs Inka before disappearing into the forest. The last thing he hears from the group is someone say. “He didn’t even loot the monster!”
Then backtracking Helo finds the place where he stashed Lelai. The difficult fox didn’t feel like fighting the iguana. So, she found a hollowed-out log and decided to take a nap. She wasn’t far from where they were fighting. But Helo still has to back track for a minute.
Finding the fox still sleeping he laughs. Inka is small enough to be carried easily. But Lelai gained some mass when she became a Mist Fox. Now she is on the smaller end of being a medium sized dog. About twenty-five pounds.
She is too big to fit in his hoodie like she used to. Poking her he eventually wakes her up and the two of them start running through the jungle. Sitting in a bag on his back, Inka is enjoying the ride as the scenery flashes past. At the same time Lelai glares at the cub. If it wasn’t here, she could be getting a ride instead.
It isn’t long before Helo finds the tracks of a large group of people passing through the forest. Footprints, broken twigs and a scent trail. With such an easy trail, Helo catches up to the group quickly.
This group is Hinata’s and Helo stops for a few minutes to give and get an update. Then he is off again. This continues for a few hours. He has the opportunity to hunt more solo creatures while he travels between the groups. But when he finds one that he can’t kill quickly with a stealth attack, he lets the closet group know about it.
The morning quickly turns to midday and then it slowly becomes evening. Helo hasn’t minded his job, he gets the chance to solo hunt, and he doesn’t have to deal with the large groups. They are slowly becoming closer as they face life and death battles repeatedly.
So far with careful planning and constant scouting nobody has died. There was a close call when a flock of Macaws flew over Maria’s group. But they thankfully had a scout watching the skies.
Another positive point is that nobody has mentioned any odd underground tunnels or vibrations. After a few hours of no ants in sight, the girls relaxed a lot. Helo on the other hand is just more curious. Why would there be a Behemoth Anteater when there are no giant ants?
It unfortunately isn’t a question he expects to have answered. With evening officially here the groups all stop to have dinner. They will now start making their way back. They are going to take different routes and hopefully find a few more enemies.
Each group got the chance to have between five and seven battles while traveling. With the uncommon class people leading the groups, along with careful planning, the common class users were all able to gain between 4 and 5 levels. At the same time the uncommon class users were all able to at least gain a level.
For Rurgrim, Arisah and Carl, they each gained two levels. Their work in defending and crowd control made them vital parts of containing the monsters. This role made each one gain a large portion of the shared experience.
Everyone else gained a level except for Helo and Inka. The highest level in the group is now 45. This level was obtained by Alli, Hinata and Lelai. With this burst in levels each member of the party is now above level 40. The only one below was Aiko, with her new skill choice, she chose the skill ‘Regeneration’. It is similar to ‘Restoring Light’ but it works as an effect over time.
With everyone starting to head back. They are hoping to get a few more battles in before they get back to the spatial passage. With the burst in levels, a lot of the common class users are at or reaching level thirty. Gaining a new skill would be a massive bonus for them.
As they draw closer Alli and Hinata direct their groups to slowly meet up. They both chose to head back on different routes than they entered; they shifted their groups toward each other’s. Helo let Maria know about their choice, but she didn’t mind, she is taking the same route back so she will have a safer trip.
The final portion of the trip goes by with nothing bad happening. Alli and Hinata’s groups met up about halfway to the spatial passage. From there they only fought one last beast before finally arriving.
Seeing the rift up ahead the combined group starts to exit into earth’s normal reality. The passage is not large, so they must go back one at a time. On the other side Ria, Isabella, Miguel and the four Teacher Assistants are waiting for the groups to return. They stayed at the exit so they wouldn’t get in the way of any gained exp.
Alli and Hinata are waiting in the tier 2 reality as their groups exit. Each member of their combined party is searching for any ambushes. At the same time Hinata sent Bibbin to go and check on Maria’s party. They expected her to get back first, instead they haven’t even seen her yet.
“Do you think she is okay?” Alli asks she is fidgeting with her staff showing off just how worried she is.
“I bet she just got lucky.” Hinata says. “She probably had a few extra monsters to fight on the way back.”
“Yeah… I guess that makes sense.” Alli says. Looking over she can see that almost everyone is through the passage. There are only about twenty people left in the tier 2 reality. “Well, it looks like we can head…”
Before she can finish, she hears a distant explosion. The sound seems like it came from far away. It had a weird effect where she has no idea where to look. A second later and the passage between realities starts to waver.
The man that was traveling though starts to scream out in fear and pain. A second later his severed hand falls to the ground with a wet plop. At the same time the passage collapses in on itself. Before it can fully close it opens slightly, then fully collapses.
To make matters worse, just as Alli is starting to get her surprise under control. Little Bibbin appears from a bush shouting, “They are under attack!”
Outside the rift Isabella has been waiting patiently. She has been struggling for hours. After everything that has happened to her daughter, she wants to keep her close. But now she is in a tier 2 layer. She wants to enter the layer and keep an eye on her daughter, but she knows that if she does that, the experience they gain will be less.
So, after hours of agonizing, she is caught completely unaware as a loud explosion comes from the direction of Tikuna Village. Flying up into the air she looks over the trees. Above the tree line smoke is starting to billow out.
Ria stands on a mana platform next to her. “Do you think it is some kind of alchemical accident? Maybe a Shaman ritual that went bad? You know how those two groups are, always experimenting.”
“Or an attack.” Isabella says. But she can’t think of anyone that would attack such a small village like that.
“AHHH!” The two tier 3’s hear from the air. Looking down a man is falling from a collapsing spatial passage. The ritual stakes are starting to fail as one of them appears to be faulty. His left hand is severed; at the same time both his legs are cut off from the knees.
“What?” Isabella says as she appears beside the man. “How did this happen?” Before she can start to check on the man, she looks up. She was moving so quickly that passage has yet to fully collapse.
Lunging forward she wraps herself in her aura and digs her bare hands into the fabric of reality. She might be one of the only people on earth that can do something like this. Grabbing space with your bare hands is an impressive feat.
But even she is only tier 3. The ritual creates weight in space that locks the two realities together. In the past they would only merge for a moment, then you would appear somewhere else. But now they have a much more stable passage. While that also means that once the ritual ends, the two realities that were forcefully locked together will separate with just as much force.
Screaming in exertion, she is able to pull the two realities back together and open a hole about the size of her head. She only has a moment but looking through, she can see Alli staring in shock, then reality is forcefully pulled apart.
Cuts appear on her hands where they were digging into the two layers of reality. But almost as soon as blood starts to seep from the wounds, they heal. Turning back, she looks at her son. He doesn’t appear worried, if anything he seems smug.
“What did you do?” She asks. Her voice carries like a thunder cloud that has yet to decide if the world should face its wrath.
“Mother?” Miguel has the gall to look surprised. He truly is surprised; he made plans with his team members to use a separate passage to enter into the tier 2 reality. How was he supposed to know that some of the elders that approved of his plan would hijack it, and make it even better.
Trying to look surprised to convince his mother he had no part in the attack; he is having trouble due to how happy he is that someone obviously is trying to help. Haha! That will show them not to disrespect me!