Chapter 9

  With six refreshers left, and a trio of gear pups, I took on my next target. I moved out of the knee high grass, choosing to avoid fighting any more gear pups if I could, and decided to fight something a little less… cute. My team, consisting of my original gear pup, which was so, so close to level 5, my level 3 gear pup, which was halfway to level 4, and my new gear pup, which was another level 3, wasn’t the most intimidating, but damn it if they weren’t cute.

  The Mun that caught my eye was one that waited in the dark space that had been created by multiple large stones falling against each other. It was coiled up, looking very much like a rattlesnake waiting in its den. I’d first noticed it because of the red eyes watching from the den, the rest of its body completely hidden. Focusing on it caused a name to flicker to life, telling me what I needed to know.

  Springer

  Level 6

  It was a snake based Mun. That much was obvious as I neared it with my little pack of adorable fluffiness. Technically it was higher level than my Muns. And I had no doubt that trying to battle it with just one of them out, would require refresher uses to ensure we won. However, with three gear pups, against one springer, I figured my odds were a little better.

  Once we got within a certain distance, about ten feet give or take, the prompt appeared above it to initiate battle. I selected the manual battle this time, a strategy already forming in my head. No doubt this Mun was stronger than my pups. But we had the advantage of numbers, and well, my lifetime of training via other monster battlers. Might and pure strength were easily bypassed through the appropriate application of debuffs.

  The springer struck first. It lunged out of the darkness, giving me my first clear look of the creature, as it struck one of my level 3 gear pups. The poor pup let out a startled yelp, as its health pool, which was an 18, dropped down to a 10. That single bite had just hit the poor guy for 8 damage.

  The snake’s entire body was made of metal, just like the coilosus. It made me think the two could be related. Perhaps the coilosus evolved from the springer. Either way, while the coilosus had a thick, heavy metal body, the springer’s body was made of thin, wiry metal. Like an unwound slinky. It’s head was almost completely flat, and the fangs had actually popped outwards, like the artwork in a pop-up book, when it struck my poor gear pup.

  Immediately after striking, it retreated back into its den, waiting, I knew, for its next strike. Somehow, someway, the magic of this strange world, I figured, dictated that these battles were turn based, in the strangest of ways. At least, when manual battles happened. It was weird, didn’t make sense logically to me, but I wasn’t going to question it. When life ripped you painfully from the mundane world, and teleported you into a magical world governed by strange, video game rules, you didn’t question things. You just rolled with the punches, and apparently, beat up puppies until you had a little pup gang to go after snakes with.

  First up was my level 4 gear pup. He was the strongest of my three, and I ordered him to use his bite. He dashed in, bit the springer, and a health bar appeared. No numbers, once again, but gauging from the damage, he did perhaps an eighth of the creature’s health with that single bite. Fair.

  My next cog pup, the one at 10hp out of 18, I ordered to bark. He obeyed, while I tried not to take note of the missing fur on his shoulder, and the leaking oil from where the springer had bit him. The bark sent out waves of energy, and the springer hissed as it hit him. My third cog pup, I also ordered to use bark. The little guy, also level 3, but this one with only 17 max hp, let out the mightiest attempt at a bark he could. Like how Simba tried to roar in the Lion King. It was adorably pathetic, and yet, it did the trick. The springer hissed once more, obviously annoyed by the tactic, and then struck.

  If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

  Fast as a striking snake… which, well, it was, it sprung forward. It once again went for my second gear pup, sinking its teeth into the poor little guy. This time though, it only hit for four points of damage, dropping him from 10, down to six. The back to back barks had, as I’d thought, decreased the amount of damage the springer could do.

  “Our turn,” I said, grinning gleefully as I ordered my trio to all use bite, one after the other. Three little puppies dashed into the snakes den, all to bite at its metallic body, causing it to hiss in annoyance. The three attacks brought the springer down a little more than a quarter of its health, meaning after the initial gear pup attack, it was getting close to half its hp.

  Not enough, sure, since it meant I had probably two more, if not three, turns of battle. I prepared myself for another strike on my already weakened gear pup. However, the springer surprised me. It uncoiled its body, and began bouncing up and down, much like a spring. It didn’t attack, didn’t do anything else, just began bouncing up and down.

  The mental tug in my mind, implying it was my turn, was all that let me know the springer had chosen to do, well, something.

  Cautiously, I ordered my first gear pup to attack. It lunged forward, but missed, the springer’s body jumping over the attack. It then landed, pouncing atop my gear pup, hitting him for five damage, and causing him to yelp in surprise.

  “You dick,” I yelled at the springer, acting as if I wasn’t the one that chose to attack it in its home. I knew I started the hostilities, but still, I didn’t appreciate my gear pup being hurt. My second, limping and looking all the worse for wear, tugged at my heart. I ordered him to bark again, unwilling to send him into danger. Then, my third, I ordered forward. He bit the springer once more, finally making the snake’s health drop just below the fifty percent mark.

  This time, it struck, hitting my nearly defeated gear pup with another strike. Three damage this time, putting my little guy down to three. If I used another bark, would it decrease the damage to two? Could my little guy tank it and stay standing with 1hp? It was totally something I would test out if this were a video game. However, here, I wasn’t that heartless.

  I sent my level four gear pup to attack. Then, I used a refresher, healing my second gear pup back to 18, and putting me down to 5 refreshers remaining. My third gear pup I ordered to attack, figuring now was the time to just start burning it down. I didn’t know how long the debuff’s from bark lasted, and I didn’t want to prolong this battle anymore.

  Three rounds later, thanks in part to the bastard using that jumping dodge attack skill twice more to evade my level four gear pup’s bite, and it was defeated. The springer turned into a crystal, which I promptly put into my gauntlet, and the experience from its defeat was spread across my gear pups. My first grew to level 5, my second reached level 4, and my third got damn near close to reach level 4. The best part of the process though, was seeing that as they leveled, they full healed. I’d been resigned, mentally ready to use at least one more refresher on my first gear pup to bring it back to total, since tanking three of those jump attacks had taken it down from 20 to 7, the second and third jumps only doing 4 instead of five damage thanks to the additional bark. But now, well, now all three of my gear pups were full of HP, and ready to go once more.

  With a smile on my face, five refreshers in my pockets, three happy gear pups, and one extremely damaged springer added to my gauntlet just because, I moved on to my next target. Now that I knew leveling healed my gear pups, I could plan out my training of them even more. And, already, I couldn’t help but wonder just how far I could push the leveling today, before I ran out of items, and had to return to town?

  Only time would tell, and considering I had zero interest in saving the world or playing the hero, far as I could tell, I had all the time in the world.

  Perfect.