There were several other stands of trees near the squirrel clearing, and each arboreal cluster contained more of the oversized squirrels. The group easily cleared the second and third clearings, as there were only about 20 of the critters in each of those and Anika managed to prevent any more wild charges from Philip. Instead, Anika was able to determine the optimal way to kill the squirrels with the least chance of harm to themselves.

  With some more careful implementation of Philip’s area of effect spells, they snuck close enough to get in range before dropping the spell in the middle of the pack. In each group, there were only a few squirrels that managed to avoid Philip’s earth-space spells.

  Philip’s Distortion spell almost hurt Anika’s eyes if she watched it as it caused an area to look like a 40’s television with terrible reception showing a poorly done 3D effect. The image in front of her swirled and crackled in a space that was a cube roughly 10 to 15 feet per side. The squirrels didn’t initially react to the placement of the cube, so Anika assumed the distortion zone was only visible to those in Philip’s party. This was a blessing, as she absolutely did not want to walk into the creepy distortion zone after seeing it work the first time.

  As soon as the squirrels started moving in the cube, their bodies warped horribly within the space, moving in ways that skeletons should not move. Arms, legs, tails and giant buck teeth stretched and bent like seeing a straw’s image refracted in a glass of water. The entire pack of squirrels died within seconds of Philip casting the spell, unable to escape their doom.

  For the third clearing, Philip’s Warp Earth was off cooldown, and he was able to use the larger area to trap all the squirrels in place and leisurely ping them down with Dirt Disc and his trident. Anika even moved up and to the edge of the zone and cast Splash a few times on a squirrel while Philip one-hit the rest of them.

  She didn’t necessarily like being carried, but knew it was the best option for faster leveling. At least she could use this time to gather valuable information about how Philip’s spells worked, which would help her build strategies in the future. Based on the time it had taken them to chat after the first squirrels, move to and kill the second stand of squirrels, and arrive at the third set, she figured the Warp Earth spell had between a 5 and 10 minute cooldown, and guessed Distortion was similar.

  Now, they were huddled behind some dense trees in a fourth copse staring at something they hadn’t seen before. The normal oversized squirrels were there, as they expected based on their prior encounters, but this time there was something new - a squirrel whose body was the size of a St. Bernard. It was massive, with a huge, fluffy tail that had no right to look as soft as it did next to the terrifying rodent monstrosity. Where the normal oversized squirrels had cat sized claws, this one had talons that would tear through every layer of skin and muscle on Anika’s mostly unarmored right arm.

  “Okay, I’m convinced this is a dungeon now. That is absolutely a boss mob.” Anika said with a low voice.

  Leka had not mentioned boss monsters in her brief description of the dungeon. Anika assumed that they generally worked the same as regular monsters as far as their colored aura was concerned, but didn’t know if there was anything else concerning bosses that would give them additional information about the encounter. The aura on the boss was red, which meant it was much higher level than Anika was. It was probably a bad idea to take on a boss when most of the party was below level 5… but it was also probably worth a lot of experience if they defeated it. She knew Philip could handle the normal oversized squirrels around the boss without too much difficulty, though they would need to wait for his Warp Earth cooldown. Now that she thought about it, it would probably be wise to wait for both of his cooldowns against a boss.

  “Philip, what color aura does that massive squirrel have for you.” Anika asked

  “It’s blue for me.”

  “That means it is probably between level 11 and 13 and likely much harder to kill than everything else we have faced. If it hits anyone but Philip, we are probably going to be in trouble. Lily, does that big guy look the same on your Sense Monster map as the other squirrels?”

  Lily took a moment before replying “The big one just has a bigger dot. But I don’t see any more in the trees, just the ones in the clearing.”

  “Darn, I was hoping it might give us a hint about how powerful this is. We can already tell it’s bigger.” Anika thought about the situation. If they could kill the normal squirrel monsters quickly, she was fairly sure Philip could handle the giant squirrel. She wished she was able to use her bow already or had some kind of long range attack. She felt useless against the squirrels with just Splash and a dagger, especially when Philip could just kill everything instantly.

  This boss, however, was unlikely to die in a single hit from Philip. Fighting against a high-level monster that could slit her open if she went into melee range didn’t sound particularly smart… but she could go stab the smaller squirrels after Philip dropped his Distortion spell, if any survived. If Philip could focus on the boss, and he felt confident taking it on, it might be worth the risk to try.

  “Do you think you can handle it, Philip? You would need to make sure it doesn’t get to any of us. It would probably give you decent experience, unlike everything we’ve been fighting so far. If you don’t think you can handle it, we could always go back and find Leka, or just leave and find a different group of mobs.”

  “I’ve killed bigger monsters than this with my pitchforks!” Philip said confidently.

  “Epona, Lily, what do you think?”

  “I’m pretty close to leveling,” Lily answered. “If I level during the fight, I will get new skills! Everyone gets skills at level 5!”

  Anika hoped that Lily’s god granted knowledge was correct about her own ability set, in this case. She nodded at Lily and looked at Epona, who whiffed softly.

  “Epona says we can do it. She says if the big squirrel has any bad spells, you can ride her, and she’ll run away.” Philip patted Epona’s neck. “You’re smart!”

  “Okay. Let’s do it. Philip, are both your area spells off cooldown? And is Fortify off cooldown?”

  “I think they need a minute. But I can cast Fortify. I just cast it on me after the last squirrels, so I can cast it on someone else.”

  “Ok, give Fortify to me this time because I have to get close if I want to help you damage it.”

  Philip nodded, then stared at her for a few seconds. Anika felt a lightness wash over her, like she could breathe a little easier, and saw a new buff appear in the upper right next to Capy Cultivation. She focused on the new buff.

  Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

  Fortify: Grants a minor temporary boost to Vitality. Increase stat by 42%. 42-minute duration

  Anika looked at the numbers and blinked a few times to make sure she was seeing them right. Forty-two MINUTES?

  “Philip, what the heck?! The info says Fortify lasts forty-two minutes. That is way more than a ‘pretty long’ time! You should have this on everyone in the party all the time.”

  “Sorry Anika I, uh, never really looked at the info.” Philip frowned, suddenly less cheerful at Anika’s outburst.

  “It’s fine,” Anika tried to make her voice sound more comforting, “it just is really good and we should make sure to use it. When you can cast again, put it on Lily, then Epona, and always keep it on everyone in the future.” Anika patted Philip awkwardly on the shoulder, then continued giving instructions to him and the companions.

  “Lily and Epona will stay back. When your area spells are ready, tell me. We will start by using your Distortion on the group. That will hopefully kill all the smaller squirrels like it did last time, and if you miss one or two, Epona and I can handle them. You focus on the big squirrel once you cast Distortion. Start with your Dirt Discs to get it to run after you. We will move a little bit away so that it doesn’t notice us once you initiate the attack.”

  “Yeah. I can do that.” Philip replied and hefted his trident.

  “Do you want to use the shield this time? You might need to block its attacks and the shield may be better.”

  “I haven’t used shields much. But I can try it.” Philip grabbed the shield from Epona’s back as Epona nodded agreement with Anika’s words. She was likely also telling Philip telepathically what to do with the shield. The shield was a round buckler with a single handhold rather than a larger tower shield that would strap onto his arm, so it would not impact his mobility much while giving more options for blocking. And he could always drop it if he didn’t find it useful.

  “Are your spells ready yet,” Anika asked once he got settled with the shield in his left hand and the trident in his right.

  “Yeah. Want me to go?”

  “Let the rest of us move a little bit first, then start with Distortion and run in. I’ll wave at you when you can go!” Anika moved backwards through the trees, gesturing to Lily and Epona to follow as she moved to the right from where they had been watching the squirrels. She aimed for a spot near the back of the big squirrel from where Philip was preparing to charge.

  As they moved, Anika fought down the nerves in the pit of her stomach. It was like going in for the first pull of a raid boss she hadn’t read the strategy guide for, and she did not like not knowing what to expect. She could only hope that this low-level dungeon wouldn’t manifest something with any crazy abilities. The last thing she needed was to find out that the squirrel had some crazy earthquake attack that would wipe out everyone but Philip.

  Once they were in position, Anika waved at Philip and held her breath as he dropped a Distortion cube centered on the giant squirrel and his minions. He immediately followed it with three Dirt Discs to the big ugly squirrel’s face, like Anika had instructed. The boss squirrel reacted with an ear-piercing squeal of rage and started to move towards Philip, his body distorting and crackling as he did so.

  The smaller squirrels also turned toward Philip when the Dirt Discs hit their boss and started to run towards him. As their bodies also warped out of shape in the space, they were dead before they could cover half the distance. Luckily, most of the smaller squirrels in this group were green to Anika, and predictably died a lot faster to Philip’s spell.

  The Distortion lasted around 15 seconds, which was more than enough to kill the smaller squirrels as long as they kept moving through the space. Only one squirrel, on the very edge of the box, made it out of the Distortion without dying, and it did not look like it felt particularly good when it emerged. Philip didn’t even bother letting the rest of the party kill it as he swiped at it with the trident before bringing it back into position for the boss squirrel arriving right behind it, claws out and teeth ready to rip into Philip.

  “I leveled up!” Anika heard Lily cry as the small squirrels died. She didn’t have time to ask what Lily was able to do now that she leveled, so she nodded an acknowledgement and instead started moving toward the large squirrel as it exited the Distortion cube. She wanted to be ready to move in and out, attempting to Splash it whenever it was distracted by Philip.

  Philip hadn’t quite made it into a position at the edge of the Distortion before the monstrous squirrel made it to him and was now forced to try to push the giant rodent back into the box where it would continue to take damage for the duration of the spell. The squirrel’s first slashing attack bounced harmlessly off Philips’ shield, and he parried the bite with the metal pole of the trident. The trident gave Philip excellent defensive abilities and great reach, but when a mob was already up in melee range, it was difficult for him to land a heavily damaging blow with the sharp points of the long weapon.

  As Anika watched from the other end of the Distortion cube, Philip glowed slightly and pushed the rodent back into the Distortion field, following it up with a stab forward with the trident. He must have activated his strength power, Anika thought, as she watched the trident leave a trail of blood on the side of the rodent’s shoulder but otherwise leave it unbothered by the attack. The trident wasn’t harmed by entering the Distortion field, though it did flicker as it made contact.

  As Anika watched, Philip twirled the trident again to stab it as he closed the gap to keep the squirrel partially in the distortion field. The back half of the boss flickered and warped, but its business end was free to claw and bite at Philip. It swiped at Philip with its claws several times, and snapped its teeth at his arm, but Philip had no difficulty blocking. However, the fast paced attacks of two claws and a mouth left him little opportunities for counterattacks.

  Suddenly, the rodent crouched and quickly leapt forward, mouth open wide to bite down on Philip’s exposed head. Philip raised the shield and deflected the suspiciously fang-like rodent teeth from latching onto his head, but the left front talon scraped across his cheek as he pivoted to the side to avoid the bulk of the rodent. The rodent had again managed to escape the Distortion field, but Philip’s Dirt Discs were off cooldown again, and he lifted his trident arm to throw three more discs of earth into the face of the rodent.

  At this point, Anika had figured out that the cooldown for Dirt Discs was about 10 seconds, which meant she only had 5 seconds before the Distortion field went down. She could dart in and cast Splash. It wouldn’t do that much damage, but it made her feel more useful that way. Hopefully feeling useful didn’t get her killed or horribly maimed by squirrel talons.

  Dirt Disc allowed Philip to stab forward with the Trident again, catching the rodent across its fat belly. It bounded backwards and into the Distortion field, body warping as it crouched again. Anika assumed it was going to try to leap on Philip like it had previously and could see Philip readying his shield to block an attack.

  Instead, the giant squirrel raised his head and let out a fast-paced series of squeaks. When nothing immediately happened, Anika had a sinking feeling that she knew what was coming. Philip looked confused when the expected pounce attack failed to manifest, but otherwise the shriek didn’t seem to do damage or cause status effects. If there was one thing Anika knew from gaming, it was that bosses that spawned with a lot of other monsters often had the ability to call more monsters to them.

  “Lily, check your map for monsters!” Anika cried, hoping she was wrong, but wildly looking around.

  “Uh oh Anika I see a bunch of dots coming!”

  Anika was not pleased to hear her assumption confirmed. She did not need a bunch of adds when they only had one area damage spell left, especially if they were coming from different directions.

  “Philip, we have more monsters coming in! It’s probably more of the smaller squirrels!” Philip grunted in reply, taking the opportunity to swipe at the rodent’s face with his trident.

  “Lily, Epona, come to me. Lily, get in the middle like last time. Keep your Calming Presence up!”

  “I have a new spell Anika, want me to try it?” Lily squeaked anxiously as she ran over to Anika with Epona behind her.

  “Yes, definitely!” Anika cried, as the first wave moved in. “We need to do anything we can to control and kill the additional monsters!”