NOVEL NEXT Chapter 300 - The Den
They crept through the underbrush, inching closer to the whines and snarls sounding from up ahead.
"Jul?" Kur asked.
"About eighty so far. Most of them are around the cave, with just a few on top of it," she replied. "But I can't tell how many are inside the cave, there's too much echo. I'm sorry…"
"That's alright. And the matriarch?" the party leader asked.
"Inside. I can sense her," Jul said. "She's dangerous."
"Got it. Thank you," he said. "Is everyone clear about the plan?"
Nar added his mental acknowledgement alongside the others. Now wearing his deactivated combat gear, he felt almost naked as he crouched through the wet and neck-high, thick vegetation. The rain had deigned to stop, offering them a rare, open window to fight with, and they had been quick to make the decision to don their combat gear. There were a lot of unknowns going into their first rare fight, and it would be better to do so with the combat gear's 20% physical and aspected damage reduction was not something they ought to ignore.
Beside him, Eum looked completely unbothered by his lack of gear and whatever nasty things were crawling onto his fully, regular tygaris' form. As usual, he was wearing nothing but his customary and usually tight, knee-length shorts. And if anything, there was a gleam of excitement in his glowing green eyes, his long fangs smirking from his tiger's snout.
Is the red already showing? Nar wondered. It usually did, when Eum got excited at the prospect of blood and fighting. It caused Nar to wonder if paths, rather than elements, were like affinities to aethermancers, in that they also affected one's behavior, as he increasingly suspected that affinities did for an auramancer. Granted, he wasn't sure yet if affinities truly changed people's personalities, or merely revealed and unleashed what was already there, hiding within one's soul and only revealed in varying degrees, but paths seemed to have a similar effect on the aethermancers…
Take for example everyone's passive skills. While the aethermancers didn't necessarily have more than the auramancers, their passive skills were a lot more life and personality defining that the auramancers' passives.
While Mul's fiery rage passives seemed to be a result of who he was, and the past that had forged him, Eum's [Thrill of the Hunt] and [Predator's Bloodlust] seemed to make him crave fighting and to spill the blood of the enemy, something that might not have been there originally. Thus, was his desire to shed blood a way for him to honor his patron spirit, or was it something external that had come into his life?
Similar to Mul, Viy's newest passive, [Reckless Abandon], pulled her deeper into her pre-existing guilt. In exchange for massive boosts to [Speed], [Agility], [Dexterity] and [Reflex], she traded incremental debuffs to [Hearing], [Sight], [Awareness] and [Perception]. Effectively, embracing her guilt seemed to liberate her to fight harder and more savagely, but reality darkened around her, trapping her and dragging her deeper, and deeper into the guilt that perhaps, should be resolved and left behind.
But again, [Reckless Abandon] was a skill that resulted from who she was, and of her own decision to master her guilt rather than to confront it. And while Nar did not personally agree with her choice to use it to empower her path and her future, he respected it. For now, at least…
However, by comparison, Era's [Silent Contemplation of the Night] and Mach's [Solace in the Everlasting Wind], which were both passive skills that enhanced their [Absorption] rates, didn't seem to have come from within. Era's skill boosted her [Absorption] through the love of the quiet hours of the night, and Eum's literally told him that he was to find solace in the wind, constantly driving him to yearn for the soft or harsh caresses of the capricious winds.
Granted, Nar did not really know the aethermancers that much, if at all. But reading those skill descriptions had given him the strong impression that they had been given the skills, if within "you are what you do", and that the skills had changed who they were. Perhaps even molded them into the persons they were today.
Had Era always been that sleepy and airy sounding, and in love with the night? And there was no way Nar could've forgotten how Eum's [Thrill of the Hunt] had unlocked his bloodlust path, and a desire to wreck devastation that had taken years for him to master. And now staring at the tygaris at his side, he had to wonder how controlled that bloodlust really was… And if it was him that loved to seek out and prove himself in honorable combat, or if that was the influence of his bond's aether and granted skills within him.
Nar could be very, very wrong about the whole thing, and it was something he ought to check with the masters when he returned, but at least to him, and according to what the Master of Aura had briefly taught them in Aura 101, it felt as though auramancers were, while aethermancers were made to be a certain way.
Though Eum chose his spirit, right? And knowing what might happen too… So in the end, is it their choice, or not?
He shook his head. Heavy thoughts to be having as he headed into their hardest fight in the jungle, and he wasn't even sure if he was right. However, the more he learned of these aethermancers, the more he realized that perhaps being an auramancer was something to feel fortunate about, aethertech be damned.
But perhaps there really was a deeper meaning to "you are what you do", and whether that tenet behaved differently between the two, opposite energy users…
"We're in position," Tun said.
Nar blinked away the sluggish thoughts, and focused on the sleeping forms now visible beyond the dense fronds and ferns hiding them.
The loentu were feline beasts built with lithe, if powerful muscles. Their coarse fur was a sort of burned green, with several stripes of yellow and brown running the length of their backs, similar to Eum's stripes. Their backs and tails were covered in spines that they could soften or harden at will, and they could fling the even longer and more menacing ones on their tails with deadly accuracy. Fortunately, their munition was limited. Unfortunately, the beasts had loads of spikes…
The loentu's jaws were as wide as Nar's shoulders, and their mouths filled with endless rows of curved, needle-like teeth. And while their bites weren't powerful per se, they made up for it by being able to move their jaws horizontally and very quickly, to create a devastating shredding effect with their teeth.
Cruel sets of triple eyes, and short, but thick claws completed their look, and they were uncommon to the last. With the exception of their even more powerful, lower-rare ranked matriarch.
"We're also in position," Leon announced.
Nar scanned the jungle around him.
Eum, standing at his side, was ready to pounce with him when Kur gave the order. And behind him, the casters, ranged, Jasphaer, Row and Kur stood at the ready to dash in once they cleared the top of the cave where the matriarch plus a yet unknown number of beasts resided. With Nar and Eum blocking the narrow way up to the cave from the left and right, and Tuk there to block off their rear in case any of the beasts went around the jungle instead, they would ensure that the ranged could rain down their deadly DPS upon the loentu's mass below.
And from the jungle's edge opposite to them, Leon and Tun, plus the melee, were ready to spring forth and set up frontlines that would expose the loentu backs to the ranged above. This way, the ranged would also have an unimpeded view of the rare once it emerged from the cave, and the party leaders plus Calli, would have clear sight over the battle in order to command and attribute their tags with efficiency.
All in all, the leadership had come up with a solid plan for what was arguably, their toughest fight in the jungle yet.
And only the first of many to come, Nar thought. After all, their time in the jungle domain had only just begun.
He flexed his finger over the hilt of his trusty, scarred blade of purple, its red colorings still invisible to his [Sight], even after all the gains he'd made into the attribute. The core within the sword was filled to the brim with an extra 850 points of aura, ready to be reached for in the event of an emergency.
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"I think they're onto us," Medis said. "Look, several of them are looking over towards the melee, and there's that one over there staring at us."
"We were never going to be able to sneak up on them, but fortunately, these beasts stick to their nest in case of combat," Kur said. "Alright, if everyone is ready, then… Leon, Tun, go!"
Below, Leon and Tun, followed by the melee, emerged shouting at the top of their lungs from the darkened tree line, aura armors flaring to life once they were clear of the vegetation.
As planned, their noisy, if unsurprising arrival immediately drew the ire of the loentu, and in itself, it served as a taunt of sorts.
However, the beasts lounging atop the cave ignored the melee screaming from the tree line below. The loentu ahead of Nar and the others rose their feet and stared straight at them instead.
"Ranged… Now!" Kur said, and projectiles of varying types and colors exploded from behind the underbrush. "Nar, Eum, go!"
Like two blurs, Nar and the tygaris exploded from the bushes, racing towards the loentu in order to end anything that had survived that initial volley. As expected, there was a lot.
Nar activated his aura armor in between steps as soon as he was clear of the heavy vegetation, and with a split-second blink of sensory darkness when his helmet covered his eyes, he was ready to fight.
Together, they rushed the injured beasts, Nar taking the left with his sword glowing its usual shifting aura gray, and Eum taking the right side of that rocky formation, his claws dripping glowing blood red aether from his [Blood Claws] skill. Nar had been surprised to find out that the skill was a passive one, which activated with the tygaris' bloodlust as an incredibly effective boost to the [Bleeding] capabilities of his own, natural claws.
It had been interesting to find out that Eum's path was somewhat similar to his, in that it focused on only two active skills, [Bloodline of Tygars] and [Primal Claws of Carnage], which were supported by a much larger number of passive skills.
The first of these, [Bloodline of Tygars], was the skill that granted him the ability to partially transform into a more alfin-like form, as well as the capacity to transform his fists and forearms into a much more bestial version for greatly added carnage capability through the subskill [Partial Beast Shape]. Eum was currently working on earning the next step up in the skill, which would be [Semi-Beast Shape], allowing him to fully transform his arms and transform his legs. According to the tygaris, that would be the reward for completing his hunting quest in the Den.
A sudden flare of red caught Nar's attention, and he glazed over in time to see Eum's other active skill, [Primal Claws of Carnage], erupt from one of the loentu in ten, long, vivid crimson slashes of aether and blood. The skill was a much more limited version of Nar's [Aura Blade], though it did trigger from all of Eum's claws at the same time.
His passive skills fully supported his bestial, savage and up-close fighting style, and it was even hilarious for the auramancers to watch Eum struggle to try to understand [Instinct] again and again, when he actually already had a passive skill called [Wild Instincts]. Granted, the skill was incomparable to Nar's [Instinct], and much less so to Jul's, but all the same, it felt a little on the nose for him to have a skill with the literal word "instinct" on it, and yet still be denied to hear about the attribute by the System.
As projectiles rained around him, downing beasts with impunity through the combined might of seven ranged and caster delvers, Nar's [Instinct] once again proved its superiority by allowing him to expertly dodge around all of them. As a result, he was done with his side of things well ahead of Eum, who needed to down his foes by himself.
Not that he minds though, Nar thought as he took his guard position over the left side of the rock formation. He seems to be having a blast…
True enough, in his full tygaris form, and with his hands and claws enlarged, Eum fought as though he were one of the ferocious beasts of the jungle, a smile dangling from his lips. And the more of the loentus greenish-brown blood splattered across his face and bare chest, the more his smile widened into a voracious grin.
That [Predator's Bloodlust] is scary, Nar thought. More than Mul's rage in my opinion…
"Out, now!" Kur ordered, as Eum prepared to kill his last foe.
The ranged, casters, Jasphaer and the two-party leaders and Calli, sprung from hiding and dashed forward to take positions around the edge of the high ground position, weapons primed to begin wreaking havoc upon the beasts below.
"Watch out for those spikes, ranged. Those things fly a lot further than we thought!" Tun warned.
"Yes, be careful!" Jul said from below. "And the females are starting to take aim from inside the cave!"
"We'll have to flush them out. Can you guys taunt the…"
There was a sudden high-pitched, half-wine and half growl, and suddenly, a dark cloud came whistling out from the cave's entrance. Nar followed the spikes flight upwards with his eyebrows raised, eyeing how the loentu females hand angled their attack to arch above the battlefield, avoiding any friendly fire.
"They are taunted!" Gad said, as the spikes came crashing down on them. "They're just hitting us from far away!"
Her voice was strained as she struggled to hold her wide [Pull of the River] aggro stream, leaving the frontline taunting to Tun and Leon. But Nar winced as there was nothing any of the tanks could do in order to protect the melee line from the projectiles.
Leon's barrier skill only covers him, and while Tun could have raised his [Phalanx of Safeguarding] that would have made him vulnerable to the melee loentu, Nar thought, as the volley impacted audibly in the muddy ground all around the melee below. I guess this is the kind of situation where Cen's new skill will come in handy.
At a quick glance, it looked as though only Raf had been hit, and Leta was already onto him, pushing needles into his arm even as she checked it out with her [Aura Sight].
"These things are smart!" Lim shouted in surprise.
"Yes, but so are we. Row. Calli. Take it away!"
"On it!" Calli said.
"Alright, people, let's get started! Jaz, let's raise some chaos!" Row said. "Cor, start charging your…"
While Kur acted as their main combat leader, the three of them had split their responsibilities and charges amongst them, and according to Kur, that was the way fights went, when more than one party was involved. Orders came from the top, yes, but it was the party leader, the lowest and closest to the action in the command chain, that issued the direct battle orders, no matter if there were only thirty delvers in the fight, or ten million.
Below, aura skills lit up the pack of loentu, and from above, projectiles began falling in controlled bursts, as Row and Calli began tagging the enemy.
Medis, Eum and Era, who acted as a debuff caster with her sleep and illusion skills during combat, had taken position on the right side of the rock formation, while opposite them, the auramancer ranged, caster, Nar, Kur and Row were agglomerated to take advantage of Cor's buffing [Gathering Tide] skill, as she charged her crazy, battle ending [High Tide] just in case things fell apart.
Assuming we survive the half an hour needed to charge it, he thought, eyeing the caster as she sat down and closed her eyes to give her [Gathering Tide] the absolute focus that it demanded from her.
A bright flash of blue caught Nar's eye, and he glanced over to the aethermancers. Eum, he had seen fighting before, and the tygaris waited, his arms transformed to that of mighty beast ones, for any of the loentu to dare and try to climb up the formation. Era's skills were invisible to Nar's eyes as always, but as for Medis, her skills were another sight to enrapture one's attention.
Her path was one of the forging paths, like Cen's. It was similarly built upon [Creativity] and [Shaping], like Cen's path, but instead of Medis creating and molding aether with her hands, she instead forged entire weapons from it. And her weapon of choice was something she called an amentum war javelin.
Nar eyed her with his usual stunned expression, as a full spear made out of dark blue aether formed within her grip, complete with a strap also composed of aether. This strap was wrapped around her index and middle fingers, as well as the shaft of her long javelin, which continued to form until it reached its full and staggering 8-feet of length.
With a focused expression, Medis pushed her right foot back, and raised the javelin above her shoulder, its long, sharp end promising a blistering quantity of piercing damage. Then, uncoiling her entire body as she leaned forward, she threw the javelin with all her considerable [Strength]. At the same time, she flicked her wrist sharply to release the javelin, which gave it an insane spinning motion, and the weapon darted through the air, whistling its deadly promise.
The leontar held her position, her arm extended before her, then she relaxed her posture and began the process anew.
Nar didn't even need to check if she had hit her mark. While Medis was slower than Tuk, Rel, Jaz or even Lim with his gun, by the Crystal, that javelin packed a horrendous amount of [Strength] and piercing damage behind it, and her [Accuracy*] was close to 80 attribute points. Thus, so far, Nar had seen few things in that jungle capable of evading her attacks, and even less the ones who could eat one of those glowing blue spears and stand back up.
Plus, Medis could change the tip of her javelins at will. Piercing was her usual choice, but she could shape the tip into a blunt end to cause significant crushing damage, or mold the amentum tips into a nightmarish, jagged and horrendous looking thorny javelin head that caused a near 100% irresistible [Bleeding].
And with her passive [Patience of the Hunter], which increased the damage and power of her throws the longer she waited for the perfect moment to strike… Plus the fact that she had [Prowl], a much more advanced form of Jul's [Stealth], and Medis was the embodiment of a deadly and terrifying prowler, a hunter who stalked and down her pre before it even knew what was happening.
Well, I mean... These aethermancers are all terrifyingly strong, Nar thought, eyeing the first loentu glance up at the formation. Guess things are about to start over here too. But none of you are going to pass.
And while he was still far from the next step of his [Aura Blade], and the [Ego] required to wield it, the control and compression he had managed to achieve already yielded him a terrific power boost… Plus, he had a lot of aura at his command now, didn't he?
His face lit up in the dark jungle, and he unleashed his aura.
[Aura Blade]. 500 points.