Chapter 98: Disastrous Drake
I stood on the edge of a cliff face, edging my heels back so I could keep my footing while facing off against a Green Drake as it flapped its wings to keep itself afloat and stared at me, preparing to shoot acid straight at my head.
“Arlan!” Erani called. She was a couple paces to my side and a couple below me. “I need a refresh on Expedite! It just ran out.”
“On it,” I said, trying to edge my way over to her while also looking over at the Drake. It hadn’t attacked us directly yet – just shot off warning shots with its acid. Hopefully, it’d just leave us alone–
Another glob of acid came flying at me straight from its throat.
“Fuck!” I did my best to duck below it, and managed to avoid letting the acid impact me. But even though it just splattered against the rock behind where my head used to be, the resulting splash of burning liquid covered my back.
You have been burned by acid. 58 damage.
Your Health is 272.
You have activated Regenerate. You will gain 19.9 Health over the next 10 seconds.
40.2 Stamina Cost. Your Stamina is 92.
I cried out in pain and immediately activated Regenerate to try and recover some of my lost Health, all while stumbling in an attempt to keep myself from losing my balance while on unstable footing. It was only because of Expedite that I managed to keep myself from tumbling all the way down to the rocky ground below.
As I leaned back up and used one of my hands to hastily brush off the hissing liquid, I used my other hand to tightly grip a stone to the side, keeping my balance. That acid hurt like a bitch.
Seemed like this fight was on.
I heard an explosion as one of Erani’s Firebolts impacted the midair Drake, sending it flying away and flapping its wings in a desperate attempt to keep itself from spiraling to the ground. Unfortunately, however, the thing seemed strong enough to weather the attack for the most part, and it flew back seconds later, angrier than ever. Once it got close to us, though, I hit it with a couple Spells of my own.
You have cursed Level 29 Green Drake with Crippling Chill. For the next 15 seconds, it loses 7.76 Health and 6.21 Stamina each second, and its Dexterity score is lowered by 15.5.
31.8 Mana Cost. Your Mana is 930.
You have struck Level 29 Green Drake for 61 damage using Ray of Frost.
You have cursed Level 29 Green Drake with Ray of Frost. For the next 5 seconds, its Dexterity score is lowered by 7.77.
14.2 Mana Cost. Your Mana is 916.
I was lucky to even hit with the Ray of Frost; with my hands mostly occupied with holding onto the wall behind me, I only managed to find a fraction of a second I could spare to shoot off my Spells, and even then I didn’t enjoy much accuracy.
Still, my two Dexterity debuffs applied themselves, and that was what mattered. The Drake’s wings suddenly moved a lot slower and it struggled to keep itself afloat. Unfortunately, the moment I hit it with my Spells, it moved back, out of range for me to hit it with Ray of Frost again. It was also too far for me to hit it with Gravity Well, too, which was my original plan – if it was close enough, with those Dexterity debuffs working alongside increased gravity, I could probably ruin its ability to fly and send it to the ground.
My first priority was to get to Erani so I could touch her and refresh Expedite’s effects, since they’d worn off of her. I glanced over and saw her barely staying where she was on the cliff. And I doubted she’d be able to move and dodge if the Green Drake shot acid at her, next.
I watched as she shakily held out a hand and shot off a Firebolt, but right as she did, her foot slipped and she was forced to reach out and catch herself, ruining her aim and the shot went wide, hitting nothing but air.
Now that the Drake was outside my range of effectiveness, I had nothing I could do to it other than refresh Crippling Chill once it wore off the monster. Sure, the current Dexterity debuff was delaying it a bit, but it was getting more and more used to the effects by the second, and Ray of Frost’s portion would wear off soon, too. What I needed to do was help Erani so she could regain her footing and start being able to help fight it off with her Spells.
But the Drake snarled and moved back in, readying itself to shoot off another ball of acid and looking at Erani as it did so.
I wouldn’t be able to get to her in time. And she couldn’t dodge. Could a second cast of Expedite on myself help me get to her faster?
“Don’t,” I heard Index’s voice. “You don’t have enough practice for something as finesse-intensive as mountain climbing. It’ll only send you tumbling off the cliff.”
“Then what do I–”
“That thing you’re considering in the back of your mind? Do it. The Drake’s low on Dexterity and won’t be able to move in time. And with the Dryad’s Stats and the abilities she has with her whip, she’ll be able to do it.”
“Hey!” I mentally shouted up at the Dryad without hesitation. She was watching helplessly from above, her own melee-range weapon not nearly long enough to touch the flying Drake. “You can drag people around with your whip, right?”
“Yes. Why–”
“Grab me and pull me up toward you, as fast as you can.”
“You will not be able to hold yourself to cliff face. You will fall.”
“Just do it!”
The Dryad lashed its whip down at me and it wrapped itself around my waist, the spikes retracted into its body and the vine moving unnaturally to hold onto me tightly. Then, with a great tug, I found myself yanked up all the way toward the top of the cliff. I didn’t reach the top, but I didn’t need to. Instead, once I was at the peak of the arc, I cast two more stacks of Expedite on myself, adding an immense amount of power and finesse to my movements at the cost of any amount of accuracy, and kicked off the wall behind me.
With myself now being way above the Drake and with a boosted physique, I began heading in an arc straight toward the flying monster, arms out to catch on to it. The Dryad’s whip fell off of me as she seemed to will it away from me and back to herself, allowing me to fly true, straight at my hovering target.
It looked up, distracted from its original goal of shooting Erani, and tried to move away from me so I’d miss and hit the ground, but as I got closer to it, I also got back into range of hitting it with Gravity Well, and instantly did so. Its ability to fly – or even move – was suddenly impaired even more than before, and it couldn’t maneuver itself away from me in time before I crashed straight into the monster.
You have been slammed into something. 27 damage.
Your Health is 257.
I instantly gripped my hands into the Drake’s leathery skin and activated Noxious Grasp, attempting to fight my disorientation as I felt the monster begin to spiral toward the ground now that it was cursed with a Dexterity debuff, an increase in gravity, and also had someone riding on its back. It shrieked and cried out, flapping its wings desperately to try and shake me. With that alongside the inherently disorienting effect of overusing Expedite on myself, I basically had no idea what was going on.
But I knew I was dealing damage to the monster and keeping Erani safe. Still, once I looked down and saw the ground quickly approaching, I couldn’t help but regret my actions a little bit.
You have been slammed into something. 41 damage.
Your Health is 216.
My head spun once I slammed into the hard stone ground alongside the still-spasming Drake, both from the pain and the still-cripping effects of Expedite. I tried to keep my hands gripped onto the skin of the Drake, but then I felt something sharp tear into my stomach and kick me away.
You have been sliced by claws. 54 damage.
Your Health is 162.
You have been burned by acid. 19 damage.
Your Health is 143.
You have struck Level 29 Green Drake for 87.7 damage and drained 44.1 Stamina over the course of 4.9 seconds using Noxious Grasp.
13.7 Mana Cost. Your Mana is 833.
I rolled away and coughed in pain from the Drake’s sharp claws cutting into my skin – that it was even able to slice me despite my high Health was testament to its power. I still couldn’t quite see, much less fight the monster.
“Roll left, then kick away with your legs,” Index suddenly said.
I did as it told me to, and the sound of the Drake’s snarls got a bit fainter. I coughed, managing to get my head oriented correctly and my eyes looking up at the monster which was quite disoriented, itself. Gravity Well was still in full effect, and with its lower Dexterity, it wasn’t handling the Spell very well. “Health?” I asked Index.
“Too high. Keep backing away. Expedite has a bit of time left, but try to wait it out before confronting.”
The beast stepped over to me, its mouth open to cover me in acid. I quickly reached up my hand to hit it with a Ray of Frost, but I overshot the movement and the Ray flew out into open sky, hitting nothing.
But, just before the Drake could cough the burning liquid out onto me, a figure landed on the ground next to us. I looked over, barely finding myself getting used to the sensation of three Expedites, to see the Dryad having leapt all the way down from its position at the top of the cliff, landing on her feet with its long whip in hand.
The Drake looked over at her and caught a spiked vine in the face, slicing its eye with sharp thorns. I used the opportunity to shakily get to my feet and back away to a safer distance away from the Drake while it attempted to swipe its claws at the Dryad. She sidestepped back and forth, dodging the shots of acid as they came at her, but the green goo formed pools on the ground that’d no doubt be harmful to step in, and she was quickly being surrounded by it.
I tried to hold out a hand to shoot the monster with a Ray of Frost to slow it down, but Expedite was still preventing me from moving very accurately, and I couldn’t find a clean shot between the two quickly-moving figures.
“You okay?” I heard a voice from beside me and turned to see Erani stumbling over from the cliff face.
“Erani! You got down alright.”
“Barely,” she laughed. “Had to jump the last few paces. Now c’mon, let’s help our friend.”
Erani stepped forward, holding out a hand and shooting off a pair of Firebolts, both of which hit the Drake square in its center of gravity and sent it stumbling back. With the time this bought her, the Dryad was able to take a step back and leave the veritable minefield that was left by the Drake’s acid.
The monster turned and roared at us, but now that we’d forced it down to the ground – down to our territory – I liked our chances a lot more.
“Buy me some time?” I asked. “I need Expedite to wear off.”
“Sure,” she nodded. “Just keep Gravity Well active and Crippling Chill refreshed so it can’t fly away.”
So Erani and the Dryad got to work, fighting as a pair with Erani shooting Firebolts to keep the Drake off-balance and the Dryad constantly moving in to take care of the constant unsteadiness the Drake was under. While it was much too big and high-Leveled for Erani’s stun-locking method to keep it completely incapacitated, the explosions still massively inhibited its ability to fight effectively, and the Dryad was fast enough that even a slight reduction in ability could completely tip the odds in her favor.
By the time thirty seconds had passed, it was covered in cuts and burns, snarling and backing away whenever the Dryad got close.
“I’m running out of Mana to keep casting Firebolts,” Erani turned back and said to me. “You good to fight?”
I waited a second, then two, and then–
Expedite has worn off of you.
Your Dexterity is 50.1.
Expedite has worn off of you.
Your Dexterity is 19.
“Good to go,” I nodded and walked forward.
I was still in range to keep Gravity Well online, which meant I was also already in range for Ray of Frost.
“Is it low enough for Ray of Frost to be enough to take it out?” I asked Index.
“Hm, you have… 860 Mana? Yep. Putting that much into Rays of Frost will be enough.”
So once I saw an opening, I raised my hand and shot off as many of the Spell as I could, as quickly as I could.
Blue beams flew into the monster, each one coating its skin in ice and dealing its own bit of damage. The Drake tried to dash off behind cover, but the Dryad wrapped its whip around one of its legs and pulled, tripping it in its haste to escape.
And by the time I’d spent 500 Mana on the magical barrage, I got a new notification.
You have offered moderate contribution toward the slaying of Level 29 Green Drake.
You have earned 306 XP. Your XP is 312.
I looked down at the corpse of the gigantic beast. Even a single week ago, I’d have thought that the idea of me killing a Drake was ridiculous. That was something the high-Levelers did, something that’d only happen to me once I’d trained and Leveled for years, worked with an expert party, and of course, only when I was paid by some city to take one down for them.
But here was the corpse of one I’d killed today, a ragtag group of a couple Humans and a monster, slaying it because we were journeying into fucking Kingdom’s Edge to try and have an audience with a Dragon.
What a life.
“Well,” I sighed, looking down at the fresh corpse in front of me, “you up for dinner?”
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