Cole logged back in with a rather sour mood. It would take a few hours to get to Tokyo, and since they were falling off the grid they couldn't send any sort of message back home, especially not when it might be possible that the Night family has been compromised and someone, perhaps even his grandfather had arranged to have them killed. Their location wasn't so secret that it could be leaked.
After all The Matriarch had said that she had met with the pirates here more than a few times over the last couple of years and they could have just as easily made their own arrangements. But in the end there was someone that wanted them dead, and while Cole already had a suspect in mind, it wouldn't be wise to jump to conclusions. As soon as they got to their location their prisoners would be interrogate for answers…. Cole knew that meant torture.
Either way the journey would be a little too long than he could possible handle right in this moment, so the best thing to do right now would be to log in and finally deal with his Titus situation. That goblin was up to something really weird and strange and he had a vested interest in finding out what it was and putting a stop to it for good.
Cole woke still amongst the remains of the altar, the factory was dead silent and completely empty. For some reason it was even now that it looked more haunted than before. Morgan was laying by his side, almost as if he was dead or in an extremely deep sleep. Cole gave the Mechanoid a swift kick, the impact of his foot hitting the Mechanoid's metal shell reverberated across the entire factory, spooking Cole enough that he jumped a bit.
He had pending notifications, but he would handle those later, he really wanted to be away from this factory as soon as possible. It was making him feel a little weird and very tired. Or perhaps it was just a mental issue and the exhaustion from the fight with those pirates was still affecting him. He took a deep breath then went over Morgan's back, as the Direwolf began to pick its way outside of the factory.
Whether on purpose or just by a simple strong of luck, Cole got to the place where the body of the spirit who asked for help was hanging. But the body was missing along with the annoying voice of said spirit too. He didn't dwell on it too much as they continued forwards without having any interaction with any more spirits of the damned. And then there were out in the open, and under the light of a full moon. It was well into the night now, and the entire valley was extremely quiet.
Normally perhaps it would be for the best if Cole took a little rest, but his nerves were still a little on edge and he would rather be done with this place and far away from it as soon as possible. He observed the garden in front of him first, he really would not like to meet those hedge people…. Or something. The worst part of it was that he didn't think they were mobs, he felt that really those were really people somehow changed and twisted into such a hideous existence.
But so far everything he has faced seemed tie to a particular area of this winery. The eldritch eyeballs in the house, the spirits of the damned in the factory, and probably that serpentis dryad that has been terrorizing everyone around for quite some time. As it stands he was on the clock so it would be better to quickly find a way to handle that boss of whatever spawn it has available. And while Cole couldn't say for sure that he was ready, he didn't think he had a particular choice.
There was a straight path that would lead him past the house and straight to the front where he would be face to face with the orchards. Taking the path that brought him here would take him back through the garden, and after how annoying it had been dealing with it in the first place, Cole would very much like to just face something that wasn't spooky or ripped directly out of a scene of a horror movie…. He didn't even like horror movies.
"Come on Morgan, let's take the main path and avoid the hedge garden. However keep your weapons hot, we are probably about to get into a rather tough fight." Cole said at the Mechanoid as he rolled his shoulders a bit, getting rid of the stiffness he felt and reloading his guns. He probably had to stop in a general store soon enough, he would be running out of ammunition soon. He wouldn't want to be caught with his pants down, as that is what having less than enough ammunition would cause.
Morgan had scarcely taken a step forwards on the path when a Lamia jumped out pf the shrubbery and went straight for Cole, Claws and outstretched and aiming for his throat. Cole leaned back quickly, using [Gravity] to push high into the air as Morgan reacted by having his mini gun slid out of his body and take the creature out, firing off a short burst that shredded her to pieces.
Cole righted himself quickly, raised his rifle and fired, taking another Serpentine Dryad in the face as her body was flung backwards with much of her head missing. Cole shrugged as Morgan took off in a run. He was almost thrown off, but he quickly found his balance and righted himself. His noticed another of the serpentine keeping pace besides Morgan as they ran, it jumped into the air as Cole clocked it in the jaw with the butt of his rifle.
Morgan left no stones unturned as the mini gun swiveled back and peppered the creature with bullets, leaving it a ripped apart mess of wood. Blood and guts. Cole raise His rifle again and fired, this time directly at the massive creature that Cole knew had been watching him so far, looking for an opportunity to join into the fight. The giant Serpentine Dray hissed and blasted out of the ground that it had been hiding, jaws outstretched as it quickly crossed the distance in order to get to Cole and Morgan, however.
[Spectral Rover]
Time seemed to slow down for both Cole and Morgan as he pointed his hand in the direction of the giant snakes open mouth. Cole happily left it a present as he fired off a [Chaos Blast] straight into its gullet as time sped up once more and the snake rushed towards them. [Shadow Dance] took both Cole and his mount out of the waiting jaws of the monster and out of a shadow that was on the wall of the manor. In a feat that Cole never thought possible, Morgan scaled the entire wall until he got to the roof.
He had the vantage point, at least for a little while, and that time was effectively increased when the ball of chaos that Cole had thrown exploded in the mouth of the snake. On part of its face was blasted to pieces as it screeched out loud in pain and began to roll and writhe about, crushing its fellow dryads and a significant part of the garden as it was held hostage by the pain it was feeling. However even with all of the writhing about, Cole could still see that the bloody snake avoided hitting or bushing the tree on its head with anything, not even the ground itself.
[Double Tap] [Spiral Needle]
[Skill Combination Success! +150% Damage]
Cole took shots at the snake as it was in its painful throes. This was perhaps the only way that he could really deal with it and not have it in a good enough state to fight back once it got done crying about its blown off face. The other serpentine dryads on the other hand began to crawl up and scaled the manor, their claws helping them with that as Cole traded his rifle for his revolvers.
[Double Tap] [Sapphire Sniping]
[Double Tap] [Obsidian Shot]
There was a cacophony of sounds as bullet after bullet doubled by the double tap skill raised down. The special skills of both revolvers was powerful in the sense that they were invasive. The moment one creature had shards of obsidian or sapphire sticking out of their body, it acted like some sort of bacteria or virus as it jumped to the next person, infecting them and spreading, killing them before Cole even had the chance to attack.
By the end of the first two minutes, there was enough Sapphire and obsidian sticking to the walls of the manor that he had created a natural barrier and one that was essentially a trap, that snake would not be able to get to him without a little bit more hassle than expected. Then-
[Serpentine High Dryad Oak Has Been Slain! +7000 Exp! +5 Silver Prisms! +Dryad Seed (Corrupted)]
"Well that was anti-climatic."
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