Luke Everhart
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Chapter 51 - Guardian Slayer
🕑 Added 2024-11-11 14:23:33 +0000 UTCNar was starting to get the hang of it.
He was letting less and less bolts pass him by, and was even considering rushing the poisoner to attack the little guardians supplying it.
A few fights and a couple of gains later, he was now even faster, and his [Reflex] higher. Soon, he would be able to stop all of the bolts. And this was no longer just a hope of his. It was soon to be reality.
Almost time, he thought.
That fight had dragged on longer than the others. By unanimous decision, everyone had decided to try and let it go a bit further, to see if the DPS could find a way to kill the soldier guardian without Cen’s help. There had to be a weakness somewhere, on the heavily plated guardian, but so far, they hadn't found one, if it even existed.
Even examining their broken corpses had revealed nothing, except how thick the main body was underneath all that armor.
“How am I supposed to punch through all that?” Mul had said.
Nar, had nodded along. If Mul with his much higher [Strength] couldn’t do it, much less he. However, he didn’t let that discourage him. His current focus was on stopping those bolts, getting better and faster. He would eventually worry, and solve, his lacking DPS problem.
“Okay! That’s enough!” Kur shouted, from behind him. “We can’t keep dragging this on. It’s time to end it!”
“On it!” Cen said.
The now familiar light of her [Aura] grew behind Nar’s back.
Nar’s [Hearing] let him know that the next volley was ready. He had learned that the poisoner could shoot eight bolts at once, and with his improved [Hearing] he had begun counting the distinct, even if incredibly faint, click that the bolts made as they were loaded, and was prepared for when it fired.
Gad had been so proud of him when he had told her about his findings. One would think it had been her own achievement, from how happy it had made her. That was just how Gad was.
“Ready!” Cen shouted.
Nar heard the final click.
“Okay!” Gad shouted.
“Wait!” he yelled in horror.
But it was too late. The poisoner let loose, and Nar had no other option but to try and intercept them as usual.
At the same time, behind him, he heard and felt the explosion.
It knocked him off course, and the last bolt flew past him.
Nar crashed against the wall, and looked behind him.
Cen had shot her [Aura Projectile], but with Nar still in the way, she had had to fire it in a different direction. It looked like she had tried to let her [Aura Projectile] loose behind the party, but hadn't been able to turn fast enough.
The wall looked as it always did. But the shockwave had knocked the party into disarray.
Tuk was getting back up. Kur was looking up from behind his buckler, with Jul hiding under it still. Mul was down too, though Nar had no idea what had happened to him. And in that exact moment, maybe sensing its chance, the Guardian shivered, triggering his anti-aggro skill, and got loose.
Gad jumped in to cover Viy, but Nar was left to fend for himself. And from behind him, he heard the clicks.
He had not been counting.
“How is she?” Kur asked.
“I think she’s just [Dazed],” Tuk said.
“Mul’s down!” Gad shouted, from under the onslaught of legs and blades.
“Can you aggro it again? Nar is getting hit!”
“I can’t! It’s not ready yet!”
Nar weaved and flowed between the soldier's limbs, its blades swishing through the air less than an inch from his face.
“I can do it!” Tuk shouted. “I’ll do it”
“Wait! Don’!” Kur cried.
But it was too late.
Nar sensed the danger and got out of the way of the bright disc of light that burst out of the guardians back.
The deadly ring of light turned gracefully, like it was meant to, and Nar jumped out of its way as it returned to Tuk. The ring pierced through the guardian again, on its way back, and less than a second later, Nar heard Tuk cry out in pain.
“Tuk!”
The familiar warmth of Kur’s [Healing Boon] flooded him.
“Oh no…” Nar whispered as he got back up.
Whatever had happened, it was bad enough that Kur had decided to immediately trigger his boon. But he didn’t have time to look. The poisoner was attacking and he had split seconds to react.
He caught some, and suddenly, Gad was there by his side, stopping the rest with her shield.
“The soldier!” Nar shouted.
“It’s dead! Tuk got him, and he’s fine! But we need to finish this. Us four!”
Nar looked to his other side and saw that Viy was there, grim faced and pale, but her spear was held right and stable.
“I’m here too!” Jul said, from behind him.
“Let’s just focus on the poisoner,” Gad said. “If the little guys run, let them!”
“Ok!”
Together, they sprinted forward.
“It’s coming!” Nar shouted.
“Cover yourself and Viy. I’ll be fine!” Gad said.
Nar did as she said, and they continued on, unharmed. Soon, they penetrated the darkness, and now, only Nar and Jul could see.
“It’s right in front of you Gad!” Nar shouted.
Gad bashed her shield forward and managed to hit the guardian as it was turning to flee. Surprisingly, that was enough to crush it against the wall.
“It’s weak! Viy, help me!” Gad shouted. “Nar, take care of the little ones!”
While Gad and Viy struggled against the tangled, squirming guardian in the dark, he focused on the little guardians.
They had dropped the bolts they carried, and were trying to help the poisoner.
No, you don’t!
With a step, Nar was there, blocking them from attacking Viy, and with two short, but brutal, downward swings, he crushed the two attendants to bits.
“I got them!”
“Help us!” Gad shouted.
She was hammering the guardian without mercy, but Viy was having trouble hitting the thing in the dark.
Nar joined in on the beat down, and a few seconds later, the guardian was broken on the floor, leaking brown goo while the three of them gasped over it.
“Jul?” Gad asked.
“I don’t sense anything else.”
The experience gains window covered his field of vision.
“It’s over!” he gasped, flicking it away so he could see.
“Crystal…” Gad said, in between breaths. “That could have gone very badly.”
Nar nodded in the dark, forgetting the tank couldn’t see him.
“Come on, let's get back,” she said.
As they walked back, Nar pulled his latest notification. He had gotten into the habit of ignoring them until Jul declared that they were safe.
-[ You have defeated one Guardian Soldier 2. 426 experience points have been awarded.
You have defeated one Guardian Poisoner 1. 3514 experience points have been awarded.
You have defeated one Guardian Attendant. 217 experience points have been awarded.
You have defeated one Guardian Attendant. 209 experience points have been awarded. ]-
The sheer quantity of experience points made him go blank for a couple steps.
That's huge! And it wasn’t enough to level up?
This was their seventh fight since they had started Climbing again. In all that time, he had only leveled two more times. And he was gaining experience like crazy.
3514, and it was still not enough… Damn, the experience needed is getting out of hand.
He had known that he would need more and more experience to keep leveling, but he hadn’t expected that requirement to grow so large and so quickly.
He pulled his stats tab open and had a quick check.
-[ NAR293457741235645XAV
Basic 12
Health Points: 149/170
Stamina: 139/200
Attributes
● Strength: 14
● Constitution: 17
● Stamina: 20
● Agility: 13
● Speed: 12
● Aura*: 48
● ???: 10
● ???: 16
● Might: 4
● Endurance: 6
● Instinct: 14
● Reflex: 14
● Hearing: 8
● Sight: 8 ]-
In the past three levels, he had gained no [Strength], and only a single valuable point in [Constitution]. In comparison, he was still making steady gains on the attributes that composed his new chosen path. He now had as much [Instinct] and [Reflex] as he did [Strength], and he had no doubt that they would soon surpass it. Same with his [Agility] and [Speed]. He still did not know what that meant for his DPS, but he was decided to not regret his choice before he had given it a proper chance to manifest the potential that Kur and Gad were convinced was there.
He had not made any more gains on [Might] or [Endurance], but he had the strange feeling that those attributes were a grade above the rest. He doubted he would make any gains in them, unless under very, very strenuous conditions. And of his two [???] unknown attributes? He had long given up on trying to figure them out. They would reveal themselves in time, and worrying about them did nothing for him.
He closed the tab as they rejoined the others.
Mul was sitting against the wall. He was shaking his head and tapping his ears.
“Are you okay?” Gad asked.
“I’m fine,” he grunted. “The explosion pushed me into the guardian and I got hit. “
Nar gasped.
“I’m okay,” Mul said, though his tone was softer this time. “It was just a brush. It took a third of my HP and [Dazed] me, but I’ll be fine.”
Nar nodded. His heart had nearly jumped out of his mouth. Mul didn’t have the [Constitution] to be taking hits from a Soldier Guardian 2!
“I’m sorry,” Nar said.
“It was not your fault,” Jul said. “The poisoner and Cen shot at the same time.”
“Oh, so that’s what happened. Yeah. Bad timing, then” Mul said. “No one’s fault.”
“It was bound to happen at some point,” Gad said. “I should have thought about it.”
“It’s no one’s fault,” Kur said. “It’s just another lesson that we’ve learned. Next time we’ll include it in the shooting preparations, and we’ll communicate it better.”
Tuk raised a bloody thumbs up.
“And what happened to you?” Nar asked, approaching him.
He saw in passing that Cen was still out, but since neither Kur nor Mul seemed worried, she must have been fine.
Tuk on the other hand, was a different story.
His arm and right side were completely covered in murky dark red grayish blood. He pressed his left hand against the wound, just below his shoulder, but blood was still leaking from under his fingers. Above the wound, a shirt had been tied to reduce the blood pumping out of his arm.
“I’m alright,” he said, smiling.
“Shut it!” Kur said, snapping at him. “Not a word! Not a sound! You’re lucky you’re not dead! Even with my boon, you can still die with that [Bleeding]!”
“My HP is getting better. It's not going down as fast,” Tuk said.
“It’s still going down!” Kur yelled. “And I said shut up! Nar, tie another shirt around this idiot’s arm. And use all of your [Strength]!”
“No! You’re gonna break my arm, man!”
“I swear to the Crystal! Another word and I’ll kill you myself!” Kur hissed at him.
Nar got out one of his new shirts and quickly kneeled next to Tuk. He twisted the shirt into a long, tight cord, and carefully tied it above Kur’s shirt.
“What happened?” Gad asked again. “I saw the shining ring go into the guardian.”
“It almost took my head off,” Nar said. “Twice!”
“Sorry,” Tuk said, looking down. “I just wanted to help.”
“And you did, Crystal damn it! But look at you!” Kur shouted.
“Did it hit you on the way back?” Nar asked.
“Yeah. I tried to grab it, you know, like usual, but it was too fast,” Tuk mumbled. “I didn’t expect that. I thought the [Aura] was only going to boost its damage. Give it some humph, like I need it too, you know? But it made it go faster too. A lot faster. I barely managed to get out of the way.”
“It could have gone through your head! Or your heart! You could’ve died Tuk!” Kur yelled.
“I know...”
“Do you?”
Gad approached Kur and squeezed his shoulder.
“Come on, calm down. He’s okay, Cen’s okay and Mul’s okay. We’re all okay.”
“It could’ve…”
“But it didn’t. And hey, Tuk saved us all. Nar was about to get hit from behind and that guardian wasn’t letting him go.”
“That’s true. Thanks, man,” Nar said.
“You’re welcome,” Tuk said. “Though I’m sorry I almost killed you.”
“Twice.”
Tuk sighed.
“I’m just messing, man,” Nar said, smiling at the ring tosser.
“Oh. Wow. You got me.”
Kur however, needed several deep breaths before he could even look at Tuk again.
He’s not really angry. He’s just scared, Nar thought, Scared that Tuk almost died. That we all almost died… Even after all that prep work, an accident is all it takes…
Maybe he should say something, but Gad leaned in and whispered in Kur’s ear. Finally, Kur nodded, and deflated, sagging his shoulders.
“Look,” he said. “Thank you, you saved our lives. Especially Nar’s. Even as you almost killed him twice. But next time, just be more careful, alright?”
Tuk perked up at those words.
“Next time?”
Kur nodded. “You were awesome. You killed that soldier, something that only Cen could do so far. And you’ve worked hard for it. It’s not my choice, nor my right to stop you. But as your party leader, I’m telling you, you need to be more careful. You need to practice more. And you need to be aware of where the rest of the party is.”
“I… Yes. I got it. I’ll be more careful next time,” Tuk said. “To be honest, I didn’t expect it to go like that, and break through the guardian… But I’ll know for next time, and I’ll also wait for your say so!”
Kur shook his head. “No. You need to judge the situation yourself. Sometimes it will all go according to plan, and I will tell you when to go. Other times, the pile’s gonna come crashing down on us, and you’ll need to make the call yourself. Like you rightfully did just there.”
Tuk nodded silently.
Kur heaved a heavy sigh.
“Let’s stop here today and let the wounded rest.”
Nar sat down next to Tuk, to keep an eye on him and give him some company.
“Could’ve gone better, but damn!” he said. “You punched right through all that armor!”
Tuk chuckled, and then winced in pain.
“Right? It was… Well, way more than I thought it was going to be.”
“Tuk, Guardian Slayer,” Nar said, grinning.
“Eh! I like that. I really do.”
