NOVEL NEXT Chapter 106: Orcans
One week later…
Patty's sword sank into the Orcan's carapace, burying the blade all the way to the hilt. Thick purple blood splattered over her hand and clothes, making her gag with revulsion. She gritted her teeth, yanking her sword free and backing away to let the thing bleed out on the ground.
The species bore resemblance of several different creatures back on Earth. The mantis-like creatures had thick furry spider legs, a long monkey-like tail that could grab things and sharp fangs protruding from their mouths. In a word: nightmare fuel.
The only thing that made the fight doable was the ridiculous ease with which they could be killed. They were about the size of a Doberman and stupid besides. If they all rushed in at once, they would easily overwhelm the small group of players, but they were hesitant to even approach. That gave Patty and the others the advantage in a protracted battle.
Although the overwhelming number of monsters lessened that advantage by a considerable degree.
"When you said there were creepy bugs, I was picturing something smaller!" Helga snapped at Bob, holding Fluffy back from charging head-first into the fluttering horde of insects. The monsters chittered angrily about their fallen comrades—or maybe it was just the invasion of their nest that had them on edge.
"These aren't what we fought last time!" Bob said, holding a dagger ready in case the monsters decided to charge. "I've never even seen these things before."
It hadn't even been a week since they last hunted here. Patty saw no reason why they should be up against a totally new monster, but the sticky-goo spewing bugs were nowhere to be seen and these abominations had taken their place.
"Just focus on killing them," Patty said. "We can argue about it when we're out—" Patty had to cut off the end of her sentence to jump over an attack from a particularly gutsy Orcan who seemed intent on taking her legs off at the knees. The momentum from the poorly thought out attack sent its limb flying wild, digging into the stone wall and getting stuck.
"Watch out for the arms!" Patty said.
"And the teeth," Bob commented. "Can I use my spells in here? I'm not sure I could actually hit one of these things if I tried throwing my daggers."
"That's why you should have invested in Dexterity," Helga said, muttering a quick admonishment to the over-excited Fluffy. He whined, still trying to drag himself out of Helga's grip.
"You don't have to bring it up every time—shit!" He jumped back as two of the monsters reached him, attacking in opposite directions. The two Orcans impaled each other, going down in a twitching pile of limbs. "At least they're dumb."
Helga had to dodge an incoming attack, the motion making her lose her grip on Fluffy's makeshift rope collar. The wolf yipped excitedly, making it halfway across the cavern before Helga even finished her dodge.
"Fluffy! No, get back here! It's dangerous!" Helga moved to run after him but Patty grabbed her arm and dragged her backward, saving her from another attack.
"Keep your mind on the battle," Patty snapped. "You're lower level than we are, you have to be ready to dodge."
"But Fluffy—" Helga began, obviously panicking.
"He's a Dire Wolf, not a Chihuahua," Bob snapped. "He'll be fine. Focus on not getting yourself killed. We don't have a healing spell to reattach your head."
Helga growled something that Patty missed as she jumped another attack, sinking her sword into the monster's eye. Helga had her sword in hand, savagely slicing through anything that came within arm's reach.
At least she finally gain some levels… Patty killed a Level 39 Orcan and felt the slight rush of increased speed as she gained a level.
"We need to get organized," Patty said, throwing a rock at a monster that was out of reach of her sword. "Two on defense, one on flex position so we can rotate out to add free stats as we gain them, not to mention skill and spell slots if we make it that far."
"How long do you think we'll be fighting these things?" Bob asked incredulously. "Only a few of them flanked us. I say we fight our way back to the tunnel and get the hell out of here."
As if to spite him, a fluttering sound echoed down the exit tunnel. Several dozen Orcans pushed their way into the room, some of them with higher than Level 50.
"Well, that's just perfect!" Bob snapped. "Forget it. Helga and I will keep them busy, you deal with your points. This bullshit better get me a few levels or I'm going to hunt these shitheads to extinction."
Helga nodded her agreement, stabbing her sword through three Orcans at once. They shifted position, making a partial circle with Helga facing the lower-level Orcans in the cavern and Bob facing the new arrivals. Fluffy was still nowhere to be seen.
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Patty kept one ear on the battle as she pulled up her Character Sheet. At Level 46, she was getting pretty close to an Ascension, but that was only relatively speaking. Four levels wasn't a lot in the grand scheme of things, but it was enough that a single day of grinding—even grinding above your level—wasn't going to make a huge dent. The Orcans ranged from Level 30 to Level 50; not an extreme challenge, but enough to be uncomfortable.
Patty shoved her free points into Dexterity and closed her Menu. "Trade out!" She took Bob's place guarding the exit side of the group as Bob moved to the middle of the formation.
Bob opened his Menu. "I don't have much to do, but I had some free points saved up just in case. Where should I put them."
"Dexterity," Patty and Helga said in unison.
Bob sighed. "Fine! I'm bumping Dex up by 20."
"You call that a few?!" Helga snapped. "What the hell were you waiting for?"
"I was saving them for Luck," Bob grumbled. "Then we never actually got a chest. It's basically a dump stat at this point."
"You waited until the middle of a battle to acknowledge that fact?" Helga asked.
"Oh, just switch out. You can berate me later."
Helga and Bob switched places. Patty sliced an Level 51 Orcan in half, kicking the body out of the way and swiping her sword at the remaining monsters to force them all to take a step back. Several of them gathered in a group, getting much too close for Patty's comfort.
"Breaking formation to deal with an extra threat, defend," Patty warned, waiting for Helga's acknowledgement before jumping away from their circle to mow down the five mid-level Orcans before they got any ideas. She danced back into place and nodded. "Okay, you're good."
"Thanks," Helga said, pulling up her Menu. "I haven't killed that many monsters so I shouldn't—what?!"
Patty nearly missed a dodge looking back at Helga. She whirled back to the fight, bringing her sword down to block the monster's arm. The attacking limb fell to the ground as it screamed in pain and staggered away.
Patty flicked the blood off her sword and stabbed another Orcan through the forehead. "What the hell had you yelling like that in the middle of a fight?! I almost lost a leg."
"Sorry," Helga said. "I just wasn't expecting… how much Experience are these things giving?"
"Haven't had a chance to look," Patty said. "Why?"
"I just hit Level 35."
"Definitely not giving that much!" Bob exclaimed. "Did you kill a golden one while we weren't looking?"
"I don't know," Helga said. "Let me check my notifications… Fluffy!"
Patty looked around quickly, but she didn't see the wolf anywhere. "Did he get hurt?"
"No, he's a menace!" Helga said gleefully. "The System considers him a contract beast so I'm getting half the Experience he earns. Should we party up and split the Experience?"
Patty didn't even bother doing the math. She figured the wolf would be lethal, but he must have killed hundreds of these things already—maybe more—to give Helga that kind of level jump.
"Wait until you hit the forties," Bob said in a rare moment of strategic thinking. "I'm getting enough from—" He jumped an arm and stabbed the monster in the throat with a dagger. "—my own kills."
Patty agreed with Bob and focused on cutting through the attacking horde. They seemed hesitant to come at them more than one or two at a time, but there were just so many of them that Patty wasn't sure how long it would be before they actually got a break. A few more hours of this and they might collapse from exhaustion.
"Get a little closer, I want to try out a new spell," Helga said.
Patty took a step back from the monsters, swinging her blade a few times to keep the Orcans at a distance.
A shiny barrier appeared less than a foot in front of Patty. She held her sword ready, but she didn't attack, waiting to see if the barrier would hold. One of the monsters threw an attack at the barrier and Patty moved her sword to defend. It was a good thing she did. The monster slammed straight through the barrier, breaking it and slicing its limb off on Patty's sword.
"Damn it, too weak!" Helga said. "Hold on, I'll invest in Intelligence."
"A warning next time," Bob snapped.
Patty risked a glance back to see Bob fighting with one hand as blood dripped down his other sleeve. Patty cast Basic Heal to help it stop bleeding as she stabbed a Level 40 Orcan through the stomach.
"I said it was a test!" Helga said. "You should have blocked anyway."
"Okay, okay, just focus on getting one up that actually works."
Bob seemed to have the rest of the healing handled, so Patty focused on fighting. She decapitated a mid-level Orcan and cut the front legs off of another one, sending it flopping to the floor and tripping two others to make them easy targets.
"Okay, I'm gonna try again," Helga said. "This time block just in case."
Patty moved back and the barrier returned. It didn't look any different from the first one, but this time, when a monster threw a punch, the shield didn't shatter immediately. Patty pressed her hand against the barrier, finding a solid wall with the texture of frosted glass.
"Sending a party invite," Helga said.
"You're at forty already?!" Bob asked, a hint of awe in his voice.
"No," Helga said quickly. "But party members can move through the barrier. You can attack like it's not even there and retreat whenever you need a breather."
"Oh, sweet!" Bob said.
Patty accepted the invite. She was immediately bombarded by a steady inflow of kill notifications from Fluffy. Level 48… Level 32… Level 74… just how high a level could Fluffy kill? She ignored the notifications and aimed her next attack at the closest Orcan. Her sword passed effortlessly through the barrier, decapitating the monster and forcing the one next to it to back off.
"Works like a charm," Patty said. "What's the uptime on the shield?"
"It's a spell, so infinite uptime if I have enough Mana," Helga said. "But there's a 1% HP drain per cast. If I could get a heal every few minutes, that would be great. The shield will last ten minutes or until shattered."
"How long do you think it'll take the thing to break?" Bob asked, throwing a dagger through the shield. It bounced off, nearly stabbing him in the face but he caught it with his newly raised Dexterity stat. "All right, I admit it, Dexterity isn't useless. I thought you said party members could go through the shield."
"Switch to melee," Helga said. "The weapon has to be touching you to go through."
"Figures," Bob snapped. "Patty, you got an extra spear?"
"I have a pike," Patty said, pulling the weapon out of her Inventory. "Or another sword if you prefer."
"Give me the pike," Bob said. "I wanna keep these things at a distance."
Patty tossed him the weapon, feeling the rush of another level. "Let's pick up the pace. The faster we can kill these things, the better."