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That seemed to mollify the man, and he stuck out a hand and introduced himself and his bonds.
“I’m Fen, and those are Bow and Arrow.” To Quill’s surprise, he then pointed off to the side. “That’s Garnet and Ruby.”
An absolutely massive porcupine trundled out from behind a hill, with a similarly oversized earthworm swimming through the earth next to it.
At the name Garnet, the porcupine nodded, which meant the earthworm was Ruby. Its red skin kinda resembled the gem, but Matt wanted to make fun of Fen’s awful naming sense.
Both creatures seemed to be earth attuned. As Garnet the porcupine moved, the very ground seemed to reach out to meet each of his steps. Ruby, on the other hand, seemed to burrow through the stony ground as if it was the loosest of loam.
With an added surprise, a small mouse with golden fur scampered out onto Fen’s shoulder and squeaked at them.
Fen obliged and said, “And this is Kenny, my Golden Mouse.”
Quill couldn’t help but whistle. “So, I assume that your Talent is your bonds?”
Fen didn’t bother to hide it. “Yeah. Only reason I’m able to bring them with me.”
Wanting confirmation, he nodded to Kenny and asked, “Golden mice have a Seeker-like Talent, right? So, he’s leading you to a treasure?”
Fen just nodded but was quick to add, “His treasure sense is only attuned to things a beast wants or needs.”
The implied ‘he can’t help you’ was obvious, but Quill ignored it. The golden mice were famous for their ability to find things of value, but they were as rare and hard to find as the treasures they sought, which was why Quill was surprised Fen had one as a bond.
Still, he didn’t press.
Torch tersely said, “Maze rift.”
Quill expanded, “Then, you should try some maze rifts. f*****g things are a puzzle, and he might be good at leading you out.”
Fen c****d his head in a larger mirror image of Kenny, still on his shoulder, and the little mouse chittered at him for a long moment.
Fen finally smiled and said, “That’s a good suggestion. Thanks.”
Before things could grow awkward, Quill gestured to the larger hill and said, “Want to watch us kill a Tier 14?”
Fen grinned a challenge. “Can the two of you do it? We were planning on clearing the area before luring the Tier 14 out and into a trap. We can still do that if you aren’t confident.”
Torch snorted, to which Quill laughed. “A Tier 14 is a challenge for sure, but not one we can’t handle.”
Bow snorted at the words, and Arrow chuffed in laughter.
Quill hip-checked the closer Arrow, who just laughed harder.
Together, the eight of them easily carved a path to the center of the area, where the largest hill seemed to be dug into to create a massive nest.
At least a dozen Tier 13 snakes and a mass of the Tier 12 variants slithered over each other in the center clearing, making it hard to get a feel for their numbers. All of them rested around a giant snake that must have been a hundred feet long, and thirteen feet thick in the middle.
Its scales were a green that seemed hewn from jade and glimmered in the light. The monster clearly sensed them, as its head rose from the ground and glared at the two teams.
Each eye was as large as a dinner plate, and as the monster took a deep breath, lightning gathered around its two large, exposed fangs.
The hiss it let out sent all the other snakes into a frenzy, and they slithered forward en masse.
Without needing to coordinate, Quill and Torch raced forward and moved to engage the Tier 14, while Fen took care of all the weaker monsters.
A lightning bolt the size of a tree lashed out at Torch, but she was already prepared, and a wash of flame intercepted the attack, rendering it useless.
Quill cursed internally as he called out, “That’s [Bolt], careful!”
[Bolt] was the Tier 14 version of [Jolt] and hit far, far harder than the Tier 8 skill they were familiar with.
Torch waved her spear, and a trio of [Fireball]s shot out and slammed into the monster’s hide.
The Tier 14s innate defenses were more than enough to defend against the attack, and only small scorch marks were left where the spell landed.
Knowing this would be a hard fight, Quill pulled out a pair of talismans.
The first he pressed to his chest, and the second he threw into the air as the movement talisman sent power into him.
The talisman was a mixture of strength, flexibility, durability, and proprioception increases, which let him fight against the higher Tier monsters that moved so much faster than them.
Thankfully, the difference wasn’t so great that they needed to use mind talismans to keep up. Increasing those attributes led to massive headaches that lingered for weeks.
He knew Torch had already used the same talisman, as a countdown indicator had appeared on his AI. They had only seven minutes to kill the Tier 14 monsters before the talismans wore off, and they would need time to recover from pushing their bodies so hard.
In theory, they could use a second talisman, but at that point, they would need serious healing afterwards.
Quill activated the second talisman as he ran up a hill and shot out an oversized [Wind Lance]. The narrow jet of air was meant to penetrate the hardest of armor by sending all its damage into a single spot. It wasn’t as strong as his fire orb, but the skill was faster to cast.
The jet of air cracked the hard scales of the monster, causing it to hiss and turn its attention to Quill and send a [Bolt] at him.
Having hoped for that exact scenario, he activated the [Earth Barrier] talisman he had prepared based on Sally’s design, along with a general [Mana Barrier].
The brown mana solidified into actual rock before the light blue mana barrier appeared behind it.
- Writer
