NOVEL NEXT Chapter 42 – The first crisis
It had been almost a week since the first, and so far only, successful raid on my fifth floor ended (there had been another attempt but it failed before even getting to the tower as all the parties ended up getting ambushed one by one until they were all dead so I still had a chance to complete my quest). I was currently in the fifth floor’s safe zone messing around with my magic trying to figure out some new spells.
My practice was interrupted when I sensed some commotion going on outside of the dungeon so I moved my attention to my surface portal. There were a bunch of people panicking and shouting something about a monster attack so I quickly scanned around to find the source. After a few moments I found a guard that was warning everyone that a pack of monsters was attacking the village.
As soon as I heard that I ran inside our home to find Val while keeping an eye on the guard so that I didn’t miss anything. We had moved here after I had finished the floor as living in a house was much nicer than essentially camping in a forest. Once I got to Val, who was currently reading a book about a hero using the power of music to save the world, I quickly explained to her what was going on at the same time as I was finding it out from the guard.
A pack of around thirty monsters called thorn wolves had managed to blend into the foliage and sneak up to the guards before ambushing them. The guard that was warning everyone was the only one that managed to get away but now that enough people were aware of the situation he had started to run back to the battlefield. A few of them were still alive and trying to stall the monsters to let everyone get geared but they wouldn’t last long so we had to hurry.
We may be very weak compared to the other adventurers but we were still part of the community and didn’t want to hide away while other people were putting their lives on the line. This pushed us to quickly gather our equipment before rushing to the guildhouse to find out where we would be most useful. If we just rushed in blindly then we might end up leaving an area with too little defence while concentrating too many adventurers in one place, leaving people to die.
Another reason we went to the guild was because both of us were ranged combatants so we needed frontline fighters to protect us, letting us focus on what we did best, dealing damage. These thorn wolves sounded strong so we would need to be at our best, luckily when we got to the guild there was a duo of melee fighters around our level that needed some good ranged backup and healing that we could provide so we were temporarily consolidated into one party.
Before we left the Guild we were assigned as backup and told to find any Thorn Wolves that weren’t already in a fight and pull them away from the battle so that they couldn’t ambush the other adventurers. As the four of us rushed to the battlefield everyone quickly introduced themselves and explained what they could do. The first to introduce himself was a tall bronze berserker dragonborn called Eskoth Bronzefang.
He wore nothing other than a pair of shorts, letting his vibrant bronze scale shine in the sunlight. Some of his scales were discoloured, most likely scars from previous battles, and his muscles rippled in a way that made it obvious that he had trained very hard to get them, if we weren’t rushing into battle I might have been quite attracted to him. He carried a longsword on his back that he unsheathed as we ran to the fight, at the same time lightning started to crackle around him.
He explained that any enemy that got too close to him would get shocked but, due to his low level, it didn’t do much damage at the moment so it would only be useful as chip damage. Any damage done in the fight would be useful though so I still thought it was a good ability. The dragonborn was the tank of the duo as he had an ability that let him cut any non-magical damage he received in half and could [Taunt] monsters.
He could also channel the lightning around him into a powerful beam but it took a lot out of him so he could only use it a max of three times a day. Finally, he had an ability that let him sense when he was in danger, making him surprisingly hard to hit. Hearing what he could do I was confident that he would be able to protect us during the fight. Our second addition was a small water genasi rogue called Sear.
She wore standard leather armour and was constantly surrounded by a thin layer of water that she could control slightly. She also had a belt around her waist that held four daggers. She was quite fit but in a toned way that gave her a bunch of muscle without hindering her movement, which was incredibly difficult to pull off. She was as attractive as her friend but, again, I was too focused on the battle coming up to think about it.
She explained that she could change her water’s temperature from being able to scald anything it touched to being able to sap away most of a creature’s body heat in seconds. She was also very proficient in hiding her presence and knowing where to strike her opponent to deal the most damage. She had very strong perception so she should have an easier time finding the Thorn Wolves if they tried to hide again.
She would also be a very good addition to our temporary party, I was starting to get nervous that I would bring the party down as I could only do a few minor spells and shoot arrows. Once she finished Val and I explained what we could do, finishing just before we arrived at the battle. The scene in front of us made me want to throw up, half of the guards were dead with large parts of their body missing, clearly bitten off, their blood pooling around them, soaking into the ground.
The other half of the guards weren’t faring much better as most of them had been wounded and didn’t seem like they would last much longer before exhaustion made them easy prey. I barely managed to stop myself from throwing up as I tried to ignore the carnage around me while looking around the battlefield for a group of unoccupied wolves. A few parties had arrived before us so most of the wolves were engaged already.
After a few seconds I saw two over by a flank that were just prowling around looking for a good opportunity to strike an unsuspecting adventurer. ‘Over there by that flank are two wolves by themselves.’ I said, just barely loud enough for the other three to hear me while pointing at the wolves,
‘We should be able to take them. Eskoth, can you try to get into position so that your [Taunt] only affects them? We need to draw them away from the battle so that we can deal with them without worrying about more joining the fight. We’ll use your [Taunt] as a signal to start our fight.’
‘Sounds like a good plan.’ Eskoth replied after finding the two thorn wolves I was talking about, ‘Just give me a minute to get into position.’ With that Eskoth started to sneak to the other side of the wolves, while he was doing that I took aim at our first target, Val started to prepare a spell and Sear melted into the foliage. While waiting I took in what the monsters looked like for the first time.
They had the shape of a normal wolf except bigger, being about eight feet from head to tail, and looked as if they had been merged with a bunch of vines. Their teeth were replaced by huge thorns about fifteen centimetres long and where the mass of vines was thinnest their fur had been completely replaced by some kind of mossy bark. They each had three tails made out of long green vines that they could move like an appendage.
When they moved their feet never left the ground, instead the ground moved to their will. This made them practically silent as they would never step on anything by accident. I also saw some other wolves shift with the surrounding foliage so that they were practically indistinguishable from the surroundings until they moved. I am lucky I never bumped into them while I was exploring the forest as they would easily kill me before I even realised they were there.
By the time that Eskoth was in position I had a [Critical Shot] prepared, Val had finished casting one of her more powerful spells and Sear had managed to hide her presence so well that I completely lost where she was. The bronze dragonborn let out an ear-splitting roar as the lightning around him started to arc violently before shooting at both of the wolves, starting the fight.
Before the monsters could move even an inch four attacks struck one of the giant thorny beasts with the other one also getting hit by the lightning. The lightning was first to reach them and washed over them, dealing a bunch of damage as neither of them managed to dodge the beam, leaving electricity arcing around them and causing their muscles to spasm randomly. Next Sear jumped out of a bush that didn’t even rustle as she brought her dagger down onto the unaware monster.
It was still paralysed by the lightning so the dagger dug into one of its rear thighs, dealing huge damage as some vines were sliced away and sap started to leak out of the wound. Next my arrow flew through the air at the thorn wolf, who somehow managed to sense my attack and try to jump out of the way. It didn’t jump far enough, however, as the arrow syphoned some of my mana to correct its course.
The new course sent the arrow into the large monstrosity’s side, it didn’t do as much damage as Sear’s dagger had but it was still good enough. Next three rays of fire shot out of Val’s wand, all three hitting the monster’s flank, setting it alight as the monster howled in pain. Almost half of its vines instantly disintegrated, letting us clearly see the layer of bark that acted as its skin, and it was still on fire. I had a feeling that one or two more attacks would be enough to finish it off.
Unfortunately that seemed to have broken it out of the Taunt as it was now staring at Val as if she was a mere songbird that had tried to take on an eagle. Luckily the other one was still only paying attention to the lightning infused berserker as it started to charge him at the same time the other thorn wolf charged at Val. We took too long in getting our second attack ready so the wolf targeting Val got to her before we could finish it off.
It shifted the earth around Val, moving her closer to it as it was charging her. Luckily she managed to stay standing but it still jumped up at her while opening its massive, thorny, jaw. Val raised her arm in an effort to protect her body, it partially worked as she wasn’t hit in any vital areas, but the monster still managed to get its jaws around her arm before biting down on her.
Val kicked the thorn wolf off of her arm but it still left six huge gashes on her right arm, three on top and three on the bottom, that started to bleed profusely. Luckily it hadn’t hit an artery so Val should be able to continue fighting as her HP slowly drained in an effort to close the wound. he monster raised up its vines to try and wrap Val but before it could I used [Quick Shot] to shoot five arrows at it in a mad flurry.
The first one somehow hit it in its throat dealing a lot of damage and almost finishing it off in one go. The next three missed, two being way off target, and the third arrow going just slightly above its head. The fifth hit it in its flank and its vines that were about to wrap around Val fell to the floor, signalling that it was dead, now nothing more than a burning pile of kindling.
It seemed like Sear had trusted us to take care of the wounded thorn wolf as when I looked up I saw her thrusting her dagger into the other beast’s body before removing it, letting some kind of sap flow out of it. Val had been casting a spell but her focus had been broken by the beast gnawing on her arm so the next to act was the, now lone, plant monster. It finally reached Eskoth and tried the same trick the other one had tried on Val.
Eskoth also didn’t end up falling but it did give the wolf an opening that it used to bite the dragonborn’s left thigh. Luckily Eskoth was much more durable than Val so the beast only managed to rip away a few scales. As it pulled away an arc of electricity lept to it causing it to let out a yelp as it probably received more damage than it managed to do on Eskoth. In retaliation Eskoth channelled all of his electricity into his longsword before swinging it at the monster's head.
The longsword stabbed into its back, causing more electricity to wrap around it as it spasmed a few times. We used this opportunity to deal as much damage as we could, Sear’s dagger sunk into its flesh once again and an arrow found one of its eyes. Val tried to shoot a bolt of fire at it but she was in too much pain from the bite to concentrate and it fizzled into nothing before it touched the monster.
Before we could get another attack in the monster shook off the lightning and tried to wrap its vines around Eskoth but he just flexed his muscles and channelled a bit of lightning into the vines, destroying them and freeing him. Not deterred by its failure it once again tried to bite down on Eskoth but all it got in return was a few more scales and a jolt as lightning leapt from Eskoth and into it.
It didn’t get another chance to attack as a dagger into its throat, an arrow in its side and a bolt of fire finished it off, leaving another burning pile of vines and bark. With our targets dead and melting into mana I looked around at the larger battlefield to find that more adventurers had arrived and most of the thorn wolves were dead, only five remained and they were all engaged in combat.
Seeing that we didn’t have to continue fighting I turned to Val and helped her back to the guild where the first aid kits were before disinfecting the wound and bandaging it. As I finished treating her I noticed that the fight had levelled me up to 13. I felt kind of bittersweet about it because the same fight that had made me stronger had also killed good people. Although I guess that is the sort of world I live in now.