Author Frank Morin
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Ch 54 - Creative Tumbling
🕑 Added 2024-10-16 16:01:01 +0000 UTCI pushed higher, still hoping my plan to find tougher monsters at higher elevations would work.
Half an hour later, I shot across a high saddle between steep mountains that had to top out at over 10000 feet. Beyond them, even taller mountains rose in tiered steps leading to the final peaks that speared up through the night sky like they were trying to scrape the stars.
Those ultimate peaks towered at least 50,000 feet above me to the east. On the top of the saddle where I rode, I’d finally climbed high enough to see that hundreds of smaller hills and mountains grew out of the flanks of that final enormous mountain. They formed a craggy maze that extended for miles all around.
I could get lost in that maze for weeks, if I had the time. Unfortunately, I didn’t. All I needed was a few high-leveled monsters and I’d happily return to Steptone to spend time with my friends.
The moons and brilliant stars bathed the landscape in a soft, silvery glow. Wolf Sight allowed me to see clearly as I scanned the area for monsters.
I was starting to find some worth my time. A 15-foot troll and a humanoid stone golem, both at level 26, were the last two I’d killed. They’d been noticeably tougher than the previous monsters, and I’d noticed a pattern.
It seemed monsters got a big power boost at level 25, just like we did. If that was right, then I bet they got another at level 50. Bristleback the hog-taur had been an entirely different tier of threat, and he’d been level 50.
I had to be close to another level. Hunting monsters above level 25 had to be the key for me. If only we had an experience bar to see how much more we needed. The monsters hadn’t given much good loot other than another potion of earth armor. Now I’d climbed higher. I had to be close to something tough. A mini boss or elite would be perfect.
A piercing cry from the sky behind caught me by surprise. Instinctively I hit the throttle and threw Switchblade into a hard right, going horizontal as the bike skidded in a turn so tight my stomach got sucked down to my boots.
An enormous winged shape plunged out of the sky, talons as long as short swords raking the air inches from my back. The air turned icy cold in a blink, then the monster swooped back into the sky, giving me a clear look at it.
“Glacierwing Griffon. Level 29. Elite. Griffons are among the strongest aerial predators in the lower mountain, striking by surprise from above. Glacierwing griffons possess powerful elemental ice abilities to slow and incapacitate their prey. Resistant to elemental attacks. Weak against arrows and spears.”
Identify was showing more information since I’d triggered the dictionary with the Lifebane Phantoms. Every bit of info helped, but I would have recognized a griffon. Again, it matched Earth mythology. The huge lion body had enormous wings and an eagle’s head.
I’d gotten my elite. I grinned with anticipation, but facing a griffon out in the open would be stupid. So I righted Switchblade and gunned it for the far peak and the slope descending into sheltering forest below.
The griffon banked around and swooped in again, this time from the side. It opened its wicked, curved beak but instead of another piercing cry, a white bolt of magic erupted from it, shooting right at me.
I wrenched Switchblade to the side and ran it into a small boulder. The bike’s thrusters shrieked as the bike pitched into the air. I gunned both throttles at the same time, maximizing the jump.
The bolt of ice passed just beneath me and slammed the ground in an explosion of snow. Ice crept over some of the farings and my breath formed a dense white cloud in the suddenly frigid air. I hit the secondary thrusters and threw the bike into a sideways spin while still airborn.
The griffon was diving right at me and the spin pointed the bike toward the monster. I triggered Shattercore Ballista.
The bolt of bright blue energy erupted from the front of the bike and shot at the griffon, but the monster tucked one wing and dodged faster than should have been possible.
I spat a curse, then remembered I was still aimed sideways as the bike dropped back to the ground.
Motors whined loudly again as I slid sideways across the hillside toward one of the steep slopes dropping away toward a canyon far below. Before I could sling the bike back around, we sideswiped a rock.
“Oh, snap.”
Switchblade lacked the right thrusters on that side to jump over the obstacle and it clipped the rock with a loud metallic crack. Instantly my smooth sideways glide turned into an out-of-control tumble as Switchblade rolled over and over in the air.
I triggered Shield Dome and a glowing green barrier snapped into place around the bike. That kept me from crashing into the hillside but upgraded my already wild tumble to a whole new level.
Like when Tomas and I climbed into a tire as kids and rolled each other down a hill, only this time I was moving 50 miles per hour when I started.
The Shield Dome kept me in the saddle and kept the bike in the center of the protective dome, so all I could do was hold on as I bounced and spun all the way down the long slope to the valley far below.
I whooped with every spin. I had to say something, but didn’t want to scream. If I pretended I was having fun, maybe I wouldn’t feel so terrified.
It didn’t work. At the bottom, I careened into the forest, pinballing between trees so many times I puked as the world spun insanely fast all around me. Finally the Shield Dome broke and the bike crashed to a halt against the side of a steep gully, overgrown with berry bushes.
Head spinning, I slid off, then fell crashing 10 feet down the gully through the bushes. The thicket was super dense and the bushes had sharp thorns that tore at my exposed skin. I closed my eyes and waited for my mind to stop spinning.
The air smelled surprisingly sweet from the ripe berries. Thankfully the smell helped settle my stomach instead of riling it up more. I almost took a minor healing potion, but my tier-1 regeneration helped me recover in seconds.
Another piercing shriek from the griffon snapped my mind into focus. The beast hadn’t give up. Identify kicked in as soon as I opened my eyes in the middle of the bushes.
“Penumbra berries. These thorny berries might have a bitter taste, but they’re still prized throughout the multiverse for the boost they give to fighters. Try them in a smoothie with star berries for even more powerful results. Effect: 25% boost to stealth for 5 minutes. 25% chance of getting a critical hit for 2 minutes.”
I hadn’t bothered to look at the many berries I’d passed all night. That might have been a stupid decision. The penumbra berries were grainy and black, sort of like depressed blackberries.
I picked half a dozen and popped them into my mouth. They were bitter, but not too bad. I immediately got a message with the promised boosts. I’d need to pick more later, but for now I had to deal with the stupid griffon.
Climbing out of the bushes turned out to be a major hassle. The only cutting weapon I had was my sabre-toothed dagger. Soulrend couldn’t cut physical materials and most of my other weapons were too long to wield in the middle of a berry bramble.
By the time I hacked my way back to Switchblade, the griffon cried again, closer this time. Somehow it had tracked me down. I caught glimpses of its huge wings through breaks in the trees.
Scratched and bruised and grumpy, I climbed back on Switchblade. It was tough with the bike leaning at an awkward angle like it was, but I managed it with an acrobatic flip that would have been impossible even for Olympic gymnasts back on Earth.
My bike turned on instantly, but Shield Dome was spent and the main power level was in the red. The bike showed minor damage, but was still operational.
With a bit of throttle, the bike hovered and shot out of the gully, leaping into the forest and between giant trees. I kept the speed slow as I scouted for a good spot to deal with the griffon.
There. A clearing big enough for it to swoop down at me but small enough to make maneuvering for the monster tricky. I banished Switchblade and walked into the clearing, hefting one of the energy rifles.
Seconds later, I spotted the griffon circling overhead. It was proving far more relentless than I would have believed. Hopefully that meant I’d get tons more experience from the kill. I shouldered the rifle and fired.
I missed, but the bolt drew the griffon’s attention. It winged over, diving right at me, opening its mouth for another freeze blast.
I dumped my rifle into my inventory and pulled out my flashlight, Torch of the Mirrored Moon. I pointed it at the diving griffon and flipped it on.
A beam of blinding light split the darkness, catching the monster right in the face. It shrieked, its ice death beam canceled, but it couldn’t swerve away. It had already dived below the tops of the huge trees, so plunged toward the ground, taloned claws extended.
I pulled a spear from my inventory and slammed the haft into the ground at my feet, then sprinted three steps to the side and activated mirror cloak. The world turned mononchrome as light bent around me, turning me invisible.
The blinded griffon crashed to the ground on the spot I’d just left, tearing the earth to ribbons but also impaling its chest on the spear. It screamed as blood erupted from the deep wound.
Huge wings extended wide to lift it away, but I was so close, one wing reached well past me. I pulled out Soulrend and slashed through the wing. The movement was so small, my cloaking barely rippled.
The griffon screamed again, this time mixed with the angry roar of a lion as it spun toward me, beak gaping open to fire an ice blast, even though it couldn’t see me.
A stun gun dropped into my hands and I fired point blank into the monster’s face.
The blast rocked it back so hard it toppled to its side, twitching. It was too big for a stun gun to disable it for long, but I only needed seconds.
I rushed in and slashed down once with Soulrend, severing its spirit right through the neck.
“Congratulations, Lucas! You have defeated Glacierwing Griffon. Level 29. Bonus experience gained for defeating a higher-level enemy.”
“Wait for it,” I breathed as I triggered Soul Feed, then looted the monster, retreating from the stench as its body dissolved into black smoke.
I did not get the hoped-for level-up announcement. Instead, I got a new achievement.
“Congratulations, Lucas. You’ve defeated your first aerial monster. You receive a gold Crosby loot box.”
“Crosby? As in Bing Crosby? Was he a duck hunter?”
“Indeed he was,” Cyrus answered.
Huh. Who knew?
The loot box contained 2 scrolls of ice blast. Looting the monster also gave me some uncommon gryffon feathers that could be used to craft thaw potions, several talons, and a dozen jumbo-sized duck roasts. That was random, but okay.
Still no level, though. By my count, I should have earned at least 7 or 8 levels for anyone else. That should have been plenty. Cyrus would only chide me for whining if I asked him about it, though.
As I leaned against a tree and munched on a bucket of waffle fries, a dark suspicion grew. Could Cyrus be fiddling with my experience points? He’d already said he canceled most of the experience from monsters he didn’t deem hard enough for me.
Could he be blocking my level advancement? Sure he could, but why? What game might he be playing?
I wasn’t sure, and I didn’t dare ask him about it with no proof. I couldn’t do anything but fight through anyway, but the question worried me. What would he make me do to get to level 10?
I could have ridden Switchblade back up the steep slope, but its power was nearly spent. The forest at the base of the slope was a lot thicker, with smaller trees. I’d have trouble riding through it, so I left my bike in my inventory to recharge and self-repair.
I jogged through the trees with steep slopes rising all around, moving at an easy pace going about 30 miles per hour. I soon found a canyon cutting through the mountains. I followed it for 2 miles and killed a level 32 Mammoth Lion just like the one that dragged me up to the second stage.
Still no level, but the lion reminded me of the little lion cubs I’d left in the cave. They were probably dead, eaten by other monsters, but I hoped not. That one cub had been really cute.
Half an hour later, I reached a large clearing near a 500 foot waterfall. On the banks of the pond beneath the waterfall was another walled fort. This one was larger than the one with the tourists.
“Maybe that fall was lucky after all.” I never would have found the secluded compound otherwise.
I didn’t see anyone, not even a sentry. That was a bit weird. Hopefully the people inside weren’t as useless as the last group.
I jogged across the clearing to the log gate and pounded on it with a fist. On a hunch, I swapped out my armored jacket for my old, shredded one. They wouldn’t hound me for gear and expect me to do all the work for them if they thought I was in worse shape than they were.
A moment later, a light appeared on the wall above and a bearded man poked his head over the wall.
“Hello! I’m Lucas.”
