Adriana couldn't leave town fast enough. She was still in her partial form, and her glimmering scales attracted even more attention. They had discussed whether they should wander about town asking about this alchemist. However, ultimately, they had decided that they had another quest they would rather follow, and it was best that they get started with the actual event at the lake.
There wasn't much information about each of the events. Yet the one piece of information that everybody knew was that each event was on a timer. The timer began as soon as people entered after a reset until the end of the month, at which point the dungeon would reset once again. In some zones, an event could not be joined after a certain amount of time had passed, while in others, the event could be joined at any time. One of the things people knew about the lake area was that once the event truly got started, it was already too late to join. Of course, the party did not know how they would join the event, but they knew they had to enter the lake at the very least.
Therefore, the fact that they already had a request to enter the lake and interact with its inhabitants placed them on a direct path to also attempt to initiate the event. With that in mind, they rushed out of town. They were delayed by a quick combat encounter on the way out of the town zone. Two Earthen Fist Gorillas attacked them along with what were called Lightning Cheetahs. Of course, considering it was the town zone, they had quickly dispatched the attackers.
Now, they weren't sure if it was bad luck, but once again, when they crossed the threshold toward the lake, they ran into another combat opportunity. Obviously, the combat part of the issue wasn't the problem. It was just that they were delayed yet again.
Two Earthen Bears ran at them. The two monsters were not stealthy, and the party quickly noticed them and got ready for combat. The trio had enhanced themselves to the max to quickly eliminate the bears. As such, they had been able to just barely react in time to the attack from above. And by react, it was more like they were able to take the incoming attack without taking even more damage than if they had been taken by surprise.
Three blurs of green burst through the canopies of the trees in front and right above the charging bears. They were basically arrows of energy by the time they slammed into the trio. Each party member having to handle the attack in their own way, as they were unable to dodge.
Arctur took the blow the easiest, the bird slamming into his crossed arms but finding itself unable to make the big man stumble and fall. The attack did cause damage to his arms, causing green blood to spurt, but due to his strength, Arctur was able to dig his feet into the ground, leaving shallow furrows in the dirt as he was slightly pushed back.
On the opposite side of things. Adriana was the one who took her blow the worst. As she currently was, she was more suited to using magic at range, and since they had expected a very one-sided massacre, she had decided to enhance herself instead of using her shield. Luckily, she had been able to switch over to her shield right before the attack struck. However, that hadn't been enough time for the magic to stabilize, and the blur of green slammed into her, breaking her shield and tossing her back a fair distance, the bird disappearing upwards after the hit.
Out of everyone in their party, Alexion had the highest reaction time. Sadly, it hadn’t let him dodge the incoming attack, but it did let him prepare something else. The bird was coming for his chest, and he instinctively crossed his arms to block the incoming attack. That being said, his strength wasn't as high as Arcturs, and when the attack struck him, he was sent flying back. However, the bird's mistake was following the attack through, rather than instantly letting the force carry push him off. So, even though his arms and chest hurt like hell and his shirt was torn, he was still in contact with the monster. And that's when he turned the lightning up to eleven.
Arctur was unable to stop the bird from flying away after it had slammed into him. The monster was rather fast, and it hadn't stuck around. However, now he was mad and imagined his companions were too. Admittedly, some might think that they were mad at being hurt, but that was utterly wrong. Like anyone else, they were mad at being ambushed.
Therefore, it was time to get serious, at least for a little bit. He felt power surge through him as his eyes transformed into orbs of green energy. Glowing green eyes shining with increased intensity, Arctur tapped into the forest and partially became one with it as he floated mana into the plants nearby. At that point, he heard the two charging bears roar and felt a very weak mental attack hit him. Shrugging off the attack, he called for his roots, and a wall sprang in the path of the two bears.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
Adriana fumbled through the air for a second or two before landing roughly on the ground. She came to a stop after rolling a few times and took a deep breath. The attack had knocked the air out of her, but more importantly, it had left a huge hole in her chest, causing her breasts to basically be left out in the open. Granted, she didn’t care if her breasts were on full display, and if anything, it excited her a bit. What made her mad was getting her dress destroyed. That hole would take a while to self-repair, and she would have to switch clothes.
That being said, she was also annoyed at getting ambushed, but what really pushed her over the edge was when she felt a mental attack hit her. How dare they use a mental attack on her, her! In a flash, she was up, and it didn't take her long to find the two creatures who had attempted the attack. It was obvious that the bear's roar had carried the magic, and looking over the two monsters, they were in the process of tearing down Arcturs wall of roots.
Alexion had already started the lightning current through his body right before the bird struck him. Then, due to the bird's eagerness to push through the attack in an attempt to cause him a larger injury, it allowed him to feed more mana to the technique. So right as the bird was looking to disengage, there was a flash of lightning as Alexion's whole body was enveloped in electricity. The lightning caused the bird's body to seize up, and the monster dropped to the ground. In contrast, Alexion had perfect control of his body, and, using some more mana, he used wind to stabilize himself and land without issue.
Of course, his chest still hurt, and he was bleeding from the large cut on his arm, but it wasn’t something that would be a problem. As such, he quickly shot a powerful lightning bolt at the bird, frying the creature instantly before he turned to look at the bears.
Arctur was not worried about the bears. He could feel Adriana’s anger and annoyance through their mental link. It wasn't something that usually happened, since she kept a tight rein on the link to ensure that no errant feelings bled through, but sometimes things slipped through. Additionally, he could tell Alexion had just demolished his attacker, which meant Arctur could focus on what he was doing.
So far, they had let too many birds go, and this time that was simply unacceptable, not after the ambush. As such, he was currently sensing things through the nearby trees while waiting for the birds to come back down.
The bears had made short work of Arctur’s wall of roots with their special glowing slam attacks and were now beginning their charge at the party once again. However, Adriana had no plans to let the two monsters get anywhere near her friend. She spent a good chunk of mana, causing thousands of water droplets to appear all around her. Usually, that would have used all the mana she had in her normal form, but she wasn’t in her normal form, so she launched the attack.
Alexion watched as Adri summoned thousands of water droplets and unleashed them on the bears. The droplets wheezed as they flew at speed, causing him to get a slight chill down his spine. Then they hit, and the bears became riddled with holes, as blood and water sprayed everywhere.
Arctur felt two birds pierce the canopies of the nearby trees. They weren't flying as fast as they had been during their initial attack, but were still coming down fast, looking to target him and Alexion. Obviously, he wouldn't let that happen, and he flexed his will, causing more mana to spew forth.
Arctur imagined it was quite a surprise when the very trees themselves turned against the birds. Branches moved with speed, and though the birds managed to dodge the first few, it was only a matter of time before both birds were knocked out of the sky by the swinging branches of the tree.
Still alive, the birds landed on the ground, and roots shot up from the ground, wrapping around them and twisting their bodies, bringing the combat to an end.
After the fight, the party picked up a bundle of feathers that had transformed from the corpse of one of the birds. They imagined a fletcher might be able to produce some good arrows with them. Again, they didn't need the items, but rather it was something neat to have and something they didn't want to leave behind.
Not getting interrupted with any more fights, it didn't take them long to arrive back at the lake. From there, they followed the shore back to the fisherman's cabin. They arrived at the cabin late in the afternoon.
At the cabin, they had to make a decision. Night would arrive in an hour or two, and they weren't sure if they wanted to spend the night underwater. Of course, that was mainly an issue for Alexion and Arctur, since Adriana was fine with the idea. Ultimately, they decided it was best to spend the night above water, rather than in a semi-new environment that they had yet to fully explore.
On that note, they could camp near the cabin, but could not actually stay with Rob. His cabin was too small to hold them comfortably. As such, the trio began setting up their camp, looking forward to their first night in the dungeon.
