GH - 233

My last view of the Kankaratops herd was that they rearranged their defensive circle to welcome their injured member. The Saurian Hoplites tried to finish their prey, but the horns of the other Kankaratops turned them away. Coupled with the barriers of the herd, the Hoplites had to accept defeat. They followed the Saurian Hunters in exacting revenge on the handsome jerk who ruined their hunting party’s hard work—me. I’m handsome.

According to my Mum anyway.

As I ran, I trailed [Tongues of Flames] in my wake. Adding the poison clouds that I littered here and there, I slowly chipped away at the Saurians with Burn and Poison. Glancing over my shoulder, I was surprised to find that they grew in number, with three Saurian Axemen joining in.

The biggest Saurian Hunter unslung a large horn strapped to his back. He stopped and blew the horn, making an earthy buzzing sound that made my body tingle. That didn’t give me any debuffs, so it must have another purpose.

Did it call for help? I could no longer see the Hunter who stayed behind but could still hear his horn. Two Archers showed up; the Hunter was indeed signaling for reinforcements. I focused on the path ahead; I didn’t want to run face-first into a tree.

Let Saurian reinforcements come! The more, the merrier.

I weaved through the colorful forest, looking for a nice nook for me to tank my pursuers. Back when I first met the Saurians, the zombie version, two hits from an Archer put me in the red. Now, I was confident in my durability; plenty had improved since then. Also, the regular Saurians were weaker in the damage department, as well as had lower levels, than their Blighted counterparts.

There! Fallen trees leaning against a boulder formed a nice corner.

I plopped myself in my chosen tanking spot and faced the Saurians. The Hunters attacked me with curved daggers while the Hoplites hopped on the trees and poked me with their spears. The Axemen hurled axes at me from afar. Magically and stupidly, they kept summoning new axes in their hands. And, of course, the Archers had no problems shooting me. My spot wasn’t as good in minimizing incoming attacks as I thought it was.

Nonetheless, I endured the attacks even without [Greater Pyro Shell]. I didn’t wear it to test [Ice Cocoon]; its shards were building up. Hits from the Saurians weren’t negligible. My healing and regeneration had to put in the work. At maximum stacks, [Ice Cocoon] froze some of the Saurians, giving me breathing space. Fifteen seconds later, the coat of shards exploded and dealt… so-so damage to all the Saurians.

I should level up [Ice Cocoon] so it could absorb more damage to dish out. It worked in somewhat the same principle as my shell, though there were differences in actual mechanics and damage calculations. If I go this route, I should focus on health and healing instead of Armor, Resistance, and the like. Beefier and bulkier, not harder. That way, I’d take and absorb more damage. It’d be a hard balancing act to make it the core of my build.

Confirming that [Ice Cocoon] wasn’t that useful for damage, I used [Greater Pyro Shell] to speed up the process of killing the Saurians.

What did pile the hurt on the Saurians was [Blighted Cloud]. The Hunters bathed in the dark miasma, their health bars ticking down each second. Retribution added to the damage, affecting the ranged Axemen as well.

I pushed out of my corner as the Hunters burst into Essence and Gli. The Axemen and Hoplites soon followed their kin to the afterlife after an explosion of my shell. The Archers died to retribution. I obtained valuable loot such as [Saurian Scales] and [Saurian Tongue]. Once I’d found a way back to Kurghal Village, my first destination would be Chimi. We’d keep this a hush-hush for his benefit… and mine. I could already feel the number of my Artas rising!

“Any more Saurians around?” I called, continuing my way down the mountain. The trees were more spaced out with fewer boils. The colorful grass became sparser, overtaken by the usual green. The unusual phenomenon was limited to the area I had just left.

A sound made me stop.

It was the same as the horn the Saurian blew earlier. However, the sound came from somewhere further down the mountain. The surviving Saurian Hunter should be behind me unless it came down while I was taking care of its party.

Another horn answered to my far left. It sounded different from the first one. To my right, a long note echoed; yet another horn.

“Looks like the Saurians want a very big round two,” I said, craning my neck to see over the curve of the hill directly below me. Flashes of red against the green. Crudely cut red banners with strokes of black paint forming runes led groups of armed Saurians climbing to meet me. Their levels were in the late thirties to early forties. I bet they didn’t want my autograph.

Or maybe they did? I should go and ask.

I charged the group to my left. They were the furthest from the others. The Saurian parties shouldn’t be allowed to meet up or I’d have a very hard time.

Axes, spears, and arrows flew my way. I sped up with [Horde Stampede]. Most of the projectiles fell behind me. This was the weakness of the Saurians. If one was fast enough, the projectiles could be dodged. That was what I did when I ‘tanked’ them before—I simply ran circles around Axemen and Archers until they died to my poison. The same tactic wouldn’t work against their melee fighters though, like the Hunters and Hoplites. The Axemen would also switch to close combat. I wanted them to hit me for the retribution damage but only on my terms.

I cut through the middle of the Saurian pack. Blades clanged against my shields and armor. Axemen switched to melee. I cast taunt to bunch them up as I continued to run. The melee-ranged Saurians chased me; their long-ranged kin stayed behind, continuing to shoot. But as I moved away, the ranged Saurians had to move as well, and they ended up clumping together. With this method, I cleanly separated this Saurian hunting party into two groups.

I didn’t gallop fast, allowing the Saurians to attack me. I’d kill them while keeping them away from their allied groups. Since I was facing away from them and couldn’t block with shields the attacks coming from behind, the damage was immense. I had to rely on my debuffs, such as Freeze or Confusing them, to survive.  

“This should be far enough,” I said, turning around. Shields up, health potion chugged. I took the entire Saurian hunting party head-on.

I chucked a poison bottle at the ranged Saurians. After the cooldown of [Poison Bottle Cast], I also spread a poison cloud around me, engulfing the melee Saurians. The Hunters, Axemen who chose to come up close and personal, and the Hoplites got shredded by [Blighted Cloud] even though they were tankier than the Archers. Most of the Saurians I fought died before the next party arrived.

The Saurians were relentless and very numerous. I was appreciative of the loot coming to me. I employed the same tactics with every group that came. If there were too many, I’d disengage and flee far, returning once they’ve broken up enough. Rinse and repeat all over the mountain.  

As the battle dragged on, special Saurian units came such as the [Lvl 47 Saurian Brute] and [Lvl 48 Saurian Shaman]. Thankfully, there were only a few of them interspersed among the horde. I didn’t dare take them head-on, which was very difficult to do as night fell. The Shaman had glowing fireballs to signal where it was, but the Brute charging out of the darkness stunned me a couple of times.

An hour passed and then another. Kezo followed up on me, wondering what was taking me so long to reunite with them. I told him I was on the verge of a world quest and to keep it a secret. The rest of the party was excited to know what I had stumbled but I didn’t elaborate on it yet.

Paritor, I could trust. Melonomi… not so much. I should probably fight against my suspicious instincts and risk it. I still couldn’t.

In the third hour, my sister messaged me with questions about business matters. I conversed with her while dodging four Brutes trying to stunlock me. After Nelly, there was a businessman acquaintance who wanted advice. Following that, an organization invited me to be a speaker for their seminar. Herald Stone the Multi-Tasking God did all that while decimating hordes of Saurians!

“Yes, I’m still in Egret on that date,” I said. “I’ll be happy to—woah!” I tripped on a rock and tumbled into darkness. Saurians fell after me, screeching and snapping their jaws.

I apologized to the person I was talking to, explaining that I slid on the floor because of a puddle. Ending the call, I refreshed my buffs and scrambled to stand up. Fall damage killed the Saurians already in the red and heavily damaged the rest. A detonation of [Ice Cocoon]—it absorbed fall damage—wiped them out.   

“Let’s continue!” I shouted.

The Saurians didn’t agree. Horns resounded deep in the forest and the Saurians began to retreat, their torches slinking into the darkness. At first, I thought it was some sort of feint so I chased after them. They didn’t turn around to attack me.

Was it over? Too dark for them to continue?

A rumbling grumble shook the forest floor. Thudding like the footfalls of a giant. There were shrieks of Saurians. Weapons clanging, trees crashing down.

I stopped. What the hell was going on?

The night became day as a hurricane of fire ripped through the forest. I instinctively hid behind a tree, shields raised by my sides, immediately wearing my [Greater Pyro Shell]. It was only the residual flames that torched the tree in front of me, but I still got damaged pretty badly. My shell popped and [Healing Touch] almost didn’t catch my falling health bar.

The flames subsided and I peeked from behind the charred remains of the trunk to check the smoldering forest. Emerging from the smoke was a six-legged reptile with gleaming emerald scales and sails on its back—[Lvl 66 Guardian Monitor: Vanushra]. It was large enough to swallow a Saurian. Judging by its name, it was likely a sibling of Karnon. The giant reptile stomped through the embers, in a hurry to up the mountain.

Was it… running away?

Curiously, Vanushra had a very low health bar. Not sure who in this forest could’ve done that. Could I kill it?

And then the answers showed themselves.

“Mardukryons!” I gasped. There they were, a huge party chasing after Vanushra. “Hello! Over here!” I shouted with all my might as I galloped toward them.