Luke Everhart
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Chapter 275 - Jungle Waters
🕑 Added 2025-06-17 10:30:01 +0000 UTCNar was on the move before most of them could even react to Kur’s orders, his sword slashing in deadly arcs of brilliant aura and cutting down beasts before they could gain a foothold ashore. But it was only a matter of time before the beasts went around him…
“Nar!” Tun thundered behind him. “Let me have them!”
Nar sensed the morsvar’s ponderous steps behind him as he marched right into that seething edge of razor sharp teeth and claws, and Nar didn’t question the tank. With one last slash meant to deter the enemy, rather than to inflict any damage, he leaped out of the way of the tank, and Tun rumbled through.
Sporting a new and massive, rectangular shield that covered almost the entirety of his nearly 8-foot tall, muscular body, Tun kicked through the short, but thick growth of vegetation lining the edges of the stream as though it wasn’t even there, and with a grunt, he pushed his shield into the advance of aquatic beasts. To Nar’s surprise, Tun held the enormous shield with both clawed hands, foregoing the use of a weapon. However, before he could jump back in to help the tank, unsure of Tun’s plan, a sudden flare of dark gold light brought four more shields into reality, two on either side of the tank’s real shield.
Aura… Shields? Nar thought, eyeing the translucent shields of light with his jaw dropped. These aura shields had the exact same look as Tun’s real shield, except these ones were somehow made of aura. You can make shields with… Holy damn…
The beasts surged forth once more, and they smashed against Tun’s shields with a clamor that had to be heard for miles around them, but they were held back by the tank’s great shields.
“Gad, set your [Pull of the River] to run through Tun!” Kur commanded. “Viy, Raf to the right of the shields! Nar and Teb, to the left! Tuk, suppressive fire! Jaz help him! Row, take over the others and watch our backs! We have to remember that the beasts in here will take any chance to get at us, and will join in on an ongoing fight!”
“Leave it to me!” the red haired party leader said, as people moved to obey Kur. “Jul, keep your senses up! Mul, you’re going to…”
“[Pull of the River] is down!” Gad shouted.
Tun didn’t reply as the beasts formed a v-shaped advance focused on him, thanks to Gad’s flow of aggro, however, there were so many of them, that in their desperate urge to get at the tank they began overflowing around his shields, and to come onto land. And at last, Nar was able to get a proper look at their enemy.
Just as he had warned, these beasts were tygalos. Just under 5-feet long, their sinuous bodies were covered in scales of very dark green that were dotted by spots of glowing green and blue that matched perfectly with the glow from the little creatures that had been skipping across the surface of the stream. The beasts had long, agile limbs and tails, and their snouts stretched far beyond their faces, their malevolent amber eyes set atop their skulls within protective bony structures. And when they opened their mouths to snarl and hiss at them, they revealed the rows of long, sharp, serrated teeth that Nar had glimpsed thus far.
Tun lowered his stance further, digging his heels into the quickly muddied ground to keep from being pushed back, but there were so many of the beasts that inch by inch, he was forced to yield a few feet of the shore, and allow the tygalos to get out of the water. And still, Nar saw no attempts at getting a weapon out, nor of Tun to shift into the offensive at all.
Maybe his new affinity is pure defense? He wondered, as he leapt into the fray besides Teb.
“Tygalos confirmed!” Jaz shouted, from behind them.
“Sej, just to confirm, these things don’t have any ranged or AOEs, right?” Kur asked their guide, from where the ranged, healers and leadership had formed a tight circle in between the tanks and melee, ready for anything.
“Nothing!” the blue-skinned guide replied. “What you see is what you get!”
Nar stole a glance at their guides as his weapon kept up with the grim work. Although Sej held a weapon he had never seen before, a long tube of some kind, she didn’t look as though she had any intentions of joining the fight. Instead, she stood in front of Sarke and eyed the proceedings with a judging eye.
She did say these levels were too low for her to join us, Nar thought, returning his eyes to the front line. Must not want to penalize our gains.
“Thanks! Alright people! Our first fight is here! Aggro is down, melee are in lines, ranged are laying down the DPS from the back, and our core is covered! Now it’s just a matter of dropping them until they suffer too many casualties, or their alphas join the fight,” Kur said, shouting to be heard above all the grunting, killing and snarling. “We don’t know what each party is capable of yet, so until we have a proper sit down to strategize we’ll keep things simple. So, nobody uses their special skills, especially if they’re AOE! We’re too packed together for that! Cen and Cor, hold for now, as there’s not enough space for you [Aura Projectiles] either.”
A chorus of yeses met his commands.
“Gad, widen the aggro flow a bit, and let the melee have some of it before Tun gets overwhelmed!” Kur continued, the perfect image of the capable party leader in complete control of the situation.
Gad too, had managed to make leaps and bounds in her training, and only after a few seconds of struggle, she was able to widen the flow, and suddenly, the beasts that Nar had been skewering through with ease turned their full hunger filled attention at him, salivating mouths snapping just inches from his body.
Here we go! Nar thought, as the pressure mounted and his [Instinct] began to warn him in earnest. Let’s get us some gains!
Tuk’s rings sighed through the air, arching around the front line to cut through the beasts with incredible devastation, and Jaz’s arrows found gaps in the melee line through which to dart through, helping whoever looked to be the most overwhelmed while Tun continued to stem the majority of the tide of beasts.
However…
“Crystal! These things are tough!” Teb muttered through gritted teeth.
They are! Nar thought, his brow furrowed.
Unless he scored a hit through something critical, the beasts just continued fighting, their wicked, black claws still reaching for his limbs or ankles in an attempt to pull him forward into the churning waters. And soon enough, he noticed that many of the beasts he fought sported the tell tale, narrow cuts that Tuk’s rings inflicted. Some of them even had Jaz’s arrows protruding from their scaly hides.
They must have a love more HP than whatever we faced in that forest dungeon and that easy cluster, Nar realized. Which meant that it would take more damage to exhaust the creatures’ HP before they could score proper deadly hits. Not to mention, these things have much better attributes too!
He was still faster than they were, and while they were built nimble rather than powerful, and their [Speed], [Agility] and [Reflex] was nothing to scoff at!
“Hang in there!” Kur shouted, having realized the same. “We were warned that these beasts were going to be something else! Their HP pool is bigger than anything we’ve faced thus far, and so are their attributes! But we can take them down! Nice and steady! Lim, do you think you can join the fray as well and…”
Nar tuned Kur’s commands to the background, leaving it to the part of his mind that aided by his [Awareness], kept a general focus and attention across the entire battlefield, and concentrated his immediate thoughts into slaughtering that tide of beasts.
How many are in this damned stream? He wondered, as he pierced a skull in between a beast’s yellow eyes, downing what had to be his tenth foe. The party had by now been pushed a good few feet away from the edge of the stream, and still, the beasts kept coming up from the waters, filling every inch of that shore. Just how deep does this stream go?
But his introspections were cut short by a sudden death warning coming from behind him, and he instinctively moved out of the way to let a red arrow sail into the mess of tygalos still pouring out from the water.
Rel!
He glanced back in between hits, and found the archer smiling at him, her emerald eyes twinkling with mirth even in that mess as she notched another arrow.
Remember what I can do, eh? Nar thought, allowing himself a small grin.
Kur must have ordered the alfin to join the fray, as that herd of reptilian beasts proved much larger than any of them had anticipated. Meanwhile, loud bangs echoed through the clamor of the battle, and he glimpsed Lim holding what appeared to be a tube of metal that exploded with aura flashes at regular intervals.
Oh! It must be those new guns Tuk mentioned a while back… Nar realized. Meaning that Sej uses a gun too!
“Gah!”
Quick, panicked trashing, and fingers dragging through the short vegetation, and then a splash were singled out by his [Awareness].
Was that…
With his heart rising to his mouth, Nar checked his side, looking for the green and red eyed quam. Instead, he found only dark claws and snapping teeth, and amidst the low brush, was a single, abandoned blade reflecting the multi-color glow of a nearby outgrow of large mushrooms.
Pile!
“No! Teb!” Lim cried.
Nar had split seconds to act, if he wasn’t too late already. And so, he slashed in a wide horizontal and pushed through the beasts, calling upon his [Aura Quickening]. In two massive leaps he was plunging towards the frothing waters, his blade safely stored back in his ring.
Out came a rope instead and after a quick twist around his wrist, he glanced back and threw it towards the one person he knew would be ready to grab hold of it and never let go… Already Gad was trudging through the mess of beasts as though they weren’t there, her eyes fixed on the rope sailing through the air, but Nar didn’t have time to wait to make sure she caught it. Teb’s chances were vanishing by the second.
He kicked a daring tygalos out of his way, fueled by [Strength], rage and panic, and after a quick inhale, Nar plunged into the waters, straight into where he could still see the shadows of a sapient and a beast struggling in a locked embrace.
The waters were a cool kiss after the sweltering, stifling heat of the dark jungle, and when he pushed his eyes open, fighting against the burning that caused, he almost lost his breath as he beheld the true size of the herd they faced.
Hundreds of sinuous shapes darted through the depths of the stream, which proved to go down for much deeper than he had ever expected it to. The stream even went under the shores themselves, in a reality of darkness and roots punctuated by rays of glimmering gold. However, he didn’t have time to worry too much about all of the hundreds of beasts still making ready to join the fray, and instead, his momentum plummeted him towards the twisting, bleeding struggle that was thankfully within arms reach.
The tygalos had its maw snapped shut around one of Teb’s arms, and it was rolling the quam with ease in the waters. Blood poured furiously from the wound, staining the surprisingly clear waters, and Nar grit his teeth at the horrendous damage the beast was inflicting on the poor swordsman. But in a flash, he collided against them, and keeping hold of his life line with one hand, with the other, he prepared to pull out his blade to see what he could do against the slippery creature in its natural habitat.
With the last moments of his [Aura Quickening], he noticed that in its surprise at Nar’s sudden appearance, the beast had ceased its death roll and had popped its eyes back out from the safety of its skull to see what in Creation had just collided against it. And in that moment, Nar forgoed the weapon in favor of a trick pulled straight from Tys’ nasty inventory of brutal combat.
[Aura Quicking]! He called, just as the skill loosened his grip on him, and pushing against the sudden pain that snarled within his mind, raking its claws against where his spine met his skull, he darted his hand forward.
He felt for the slippery beast’s head until he found one of the lump that indicated one of its eyes, and then pressed in with all of his [Strength].
There was a moment of resistance, and then the soft, squishy material gave way to his thumb. The beast spasmed in agony and with a quick flick of its tail it let go of Teb and plummeted to the safety of the depths, leaving Nar to quickly take hold of Teb, and to yank twice on the rope.
“It’s me, Teb! I got you!” he shouted into their domain chat. “I’m pulling you out!”
Thankfully, even in the grips of his pain, Teb heard his voice and had enough presence of mind to stop resisting against Nar’s hold. And soon, the rope dragged the two of them upwards, towards the surface.
From below, the green and blue glow on the surface of the water shone golden for some reason, and in a split moment that seemed to last forever, Nar marveled at those beams of golden light filtering in from that stark line of light above the darkness. Then his [Aura Quickening] ran its course, and pain howled into him as teeth clamped shut around his shin.
Then, reality twisted around him, just as he was suddenly yanked out of the water…
Comments
Lucas Onderwater
Ooooh! That could maybe explain why he hasn't been able to awaken his affinity yet? 🤔
Malcolm Haynes
I’m guessing his affinity is something abstract like hope?
