Chapter Nineteen: Sliding

Nineteen

Dane flew through the air like a missile as Tolic roared so loud the world shook. For a brief moment Dane got to view the clear blue sky, the thin wispy white clouds, feel the cool wind on his face. Then he landed in a heap, bouncing through the snow in an explosion of white powder. He grunted and coughed as slush filled his mouth and he continued to slide further down the hill.

The backside of the hill was covered in runoff from the melting snow. Fires had been lit repeatedly to burn away the grass monster and the snow had gone with the grass monsters and had turned the back slope of the hill into a muddy sludge. Aji-Abami and natives fought with equal ferocity on the outskirts of the hill, slaughtering the monster tide that threatened to overwhelm them all.

Grass Fiend lvl. 9

The kill alert finally gave him a name for the creatures. Tolic had been hopping in and out of their bodies with growing frequency as they worked out an effective strategy. Tolic would contest them as they climbed up the hill, Dane would stab one with the dagger to weaken it. Then Tolic would swap bodies as his original body was ripped apart. With his new body he would injure them to the point that Dane could use the sacrificial dagger on them.

Dane lay there with his head nestled in cold, soft, sucking mud. The number of cores he’d collected had continued to rise. The small jackalope creatures were running about everywhere and Tolic’s new form could hold them down easily enough. Soon he’d have enough cores to level both Tolic and purchase a new class skill.

He just had to get up and out of the snow and back to the top of the hill to keep the fighting going.

“That hurt.” The simple acknowledgement was all he needed to get back to his feet and start back up the hill. His feet slipped and he belly flopped back into the mud. A hsss of parted air heralded a minor explosion of mud that splattered across his head and back. Dane tucked his arms and rolled fast as another pair of rocks impacted where he had just been.

A pair of ragged natives were running out of the woods toward him with more rocks swirling around them. Behind them were three other natives who were busy holding off the swarm of beasts that threatened to overwhelm them. All five of them were the same race as Meritorious was, the broader warrior caste. They were all bleeding from wounds and their once advanced armor was little more than scraps.

Dane’s casting arm was still bright red and trying to cast again was out of the question. He had kept his grip on the dagger when the Grass Fiend had hit him, but had lost the short sword in his flight.

The two natives only had their psionic abilities, none of them having looted the swords from dead Aji-Abami warriors. If he wasn’t about to have his head pulped into a blood mash, he’d shake it in consternation. They were relying only on their abilities rather than all of the tools that could make a warrior great.

“This is why natives never win. They can’t adapt fast enough.” Dane bounded to his feet and sprinted down the hill. The slippery slope was a challenge to navigate and repeatedly he almost lost his footing as he ran. He kept the dagger low and to his side as he got close to them. One of them stopped and focused on him, the swirling rocks around his head picking up speed like orbiting comets.

“Have to time this just right.” The native shot them out at him in a stream and Dane dropped to the ground in a slide, his momentum and slick surface helped him fly down. All three of the rocks sent bursts of mud and snow into the air.

The second native stopped in its tracks as it realized that its companion had missed. Dane was only feet away and the spinning rocks took a second to reach their full speed. His free hand hit the ground and he popped up back into a full sprint right at the native. Dane tackled the native, both of them landing hard and sliding into the legs of the second native. All three of them fell into a tangle of limbs as Dane began to stab. A glow of power started to emanate from the dagger as wounds opened up.

Both of them started to slow as the blade cut and slashed until he got the alert that they were dead. Both of them had debilitating wounds, but nothing that should have killed them. The blade was growing stronger in its abilities to suck away life force. The kills popped up in his feed, both of the natives had been weaker than the ones he and Tolic had killed earlier.

No one turned as he walked down to the three natives on the edge of the wood. They may have felt their companions' deaths, but if they turned away for even a moment they’d be overrun. It was almost easy to ram home the dagger in the closest one’s neck. It died quickly and Dane went to the next one and dropped him too. The last native was looking back and forth desperately as it launched rocks, twigs, and dead corpses at the other monsters.

Dane turned and ran back up the hill, leaving the native to be overwhelmed. Not getting the kill and experience was frustrating, but he needed to have the native to hold back the horde for a few minutes while he got away.

“Make sure to check the bodies when this is over.” He had to remind himself that even if they didn’t have apparent weapons, they might have something that could be useful in the long run. Behind him an animal snarled in victory and he risked a glance to see the native collapsing as a new wave of monsters came out of the woods.

“Eventually it’s always goblins,” Dane muttered. The small, gray-green, monsters were common weak mobs that the system often generated. They were smarter than a beast, but not by much. The System could make lots of them quickly though and in a wild mana region like this, it was probably the most cost effective thing it could do.

A trio of them were right behind the canine monster that had brought down the native. Jaws were working as it savaged the native, ripping off limbs in sprays of blood as the native ineffectual beat against its thick, coarse, coat.

“Tolic! We have company!” Dane yelled over to his companion. The spirit was still invested in a Grass Fiend, but was on the precipice of falling apart. Strands of long fibrous grass lay limp behind him like a thousand rat tails. Tolic turned to look at him just in time as a grassy fist punched straight through his ripped open chest, ejecting the core of the creature’s root system.

Tolic flew out of the destroyed corpse to float next to Dane. The edge of the hill was being overran as more and more of the Grass Fiends worked their way up and over the crest to close in on them. Dane waited as the largest of the fiends closed in on them, it was twice the width of the others and over two feet taller. Its golden eyes gleamed with power as it lifted the root core it had just ripped out of Tolic. It closed the fist and crushed the root system like it was chalk and let it dribble out of its hand.

“We’ve got goblins and wolves behind us,” Dane informed Tolic as he walked closer. He tossed the sacrificial dagger almost lazily and watched as it sank up to its hilt in the monster’s chest. It started to glow but the monster continued to walk closer and closer to him. The pommel was glowing bright, burning his eyes as it continued to get closer.

“I don’t think it’s going to work on that one,” Tolic said. The spirit drooped, exhausted as he tired to stretch as the fiend got closer. A wave of the monsters were coming behind the big one and Dane glanced back to look at the wave of goblins and wolves starting to run up the hill.

“This is a bit much,” Dane said. The ground shook under his feet as the fiend marched closer and closer.

“You should let me level up. It’ll give me the power to overwhelm the big ‘un.” Tolic looked at him and stared at him.

Dane sighed and started to scroll through his menus to look at the requirements needed to give the spirit the boost he needed. It wasn’t a large amount of cores, especially after he had collected so many. His own levels had increased again and once this was over he’d be able to go over his gains.

“Just don’t like that this ugly bastard is going to get what he wants, when he wants it.” Dane clicked the buttons needed and the cores slid out of the bank he had. Next to him Tolic began to glow. Dane looked over toward the marching Grass Fiend, his heart in his throat.

“This is going to be really close.”