LIGHTNOVELONLINE 1.30
The four creatures fanned out, twitching snouts quickly bringing their attention to his and Elena’s position behind the trees, and yellow-veined eyes quickly found them. Curious chitters and hisses became low growls, and hackles raised as they found a target for their obvious rage.
“Something’s wrong with them,” Elena noted with a frown. “Some kind of rabies maybe? Don't let them cut you.”
He peered back at their eyes, bulbous, swollen and leaking a sickening mix of pus and blood, and couldn’t help but agree. Curious, he summoned the level display, and was interested to see a selection of new windows slide across his screen, one for each creature.
Mykesan Bushstalker [Lv. 3]
Further Information Unavailable [Skill Required]
Mykesan Bushstalker [Lv. 4]
Further Information Unavailable [Skill Required]
Mykesan Bushstalker [Lv. 3]
Further Information Unavailable [Skill Required]
Mykesan Bushstalker [Lv. 5]
Further Information Unavailable [Skill Required]
All his level or above. Damn.
“Easier said than done,” he muttered. “Plan?”
The creatures stalked closer, spreading themselves out to surround the clump of trees their newfound prey was hiding behind.
“Without bigger weapons, we’ll have to be systematic. Focus your fire on the one on the far left, we’ll either hurt it bad or bring it down completely and the break that way, forcing them to reorganise themselves and treat us with the proper caution. Use the trees to head off their charges and force them to fight slow, and pick them off one by one.”
He nodded, keeping his face as straight as he could manage, but in reality his throat was so dry he wasn’t even able to properly swallow. At the controls of a ship, he felt capable of anything. Fighting up close and personal was an entirely different kettle of fish. Too close. Too personal.
He flexed his fingers, gripping his gauntlets tighter, feeling the slight hum of celestial energy coursing through them. The creatures’ long tails swept slowly back and forth across the soil of the jungle floor, twitching like whips, stingers at the tips gleaming in the murky light. Then, as thought they were aware of their words, the creatures flew into motion, snarling and hurling themselves forward.
“Go!” Elena hissed.
Malan unleashed a volley from his gauntlets, blasts of plasma bursting from either arm, the recoil sending shockwaves through his shoulders. The pearlescent spheres lanced through the air in rapid succession, aimed at the far-left creature. It let out an ear-splitting screech as a few bolts seared into its flesh, burning through fur and skin. But it kept coming, driven by blind, feral rage.
“Shit,” Malan cursed under his breath. He expected it to fall back, injured, but it barely flinched, continuing to barrel toward them. At a thought, his drone buzzed to life, lifting off from its shoulder mount with a burst of air. Its targeting system locked onto the closest creature with an audible electronic beeping, and Malan mentally gave the order to activate its firing sequence.
The drone added its own controlled bolts of celestial energy to Elena’s own small arms fire, her energy blasts aimed carefully at its kneecaps and leg muscles, startlingly precise. Malan’s attacks had caused pain and substantial flesh wounds, but Elena’s fire had torn into leg muscles, and the first creature staggered and stumbled.
“Move!” Elena ordered, squeezing off even more shots from her pistol in quick succession.
Malan dashed from cover at Elena’s word, levelling his gauntlet at the staggering creature and firing another volley. The beast’s snout jerked as one shot connected with its face, burning through fur and peeling back skin, revealing raw, charred flesh. The creature stumbled sideways, head shaking violently, and it slumped to its bloodied knees.
Before they could finish it off, one of the others reached Elena, its stinger flashing forward over its head like a scythe.
“Elena!” Malan shouted.
She was well ahead of him. She rolled to the side with consummate grace just as the stinger slammed into the trunk of a tree, embedding itself deep into the bark with a splintering crack.
Malan’s drone swooped in at his order, focusing fire on the second creature as it tried to dislodge its tail from the tree. But before they could capitalize, the third creature lunged at it. Its massive, square snout snapped inches from the drone’s body, and it ascended barely fast enough to avoid its snarling jaws
With a savage grunt, Malan switched his gauntlets to their melee mode, and a long, serrated amber blade sprung from each. The first beast was still struggling to its feet through its injuries, but Malan refused to allow it the chance. He swung his arms back, then thrusted each blade into the creature’s head, killing instantly. Yanking the gauntlets, his face twisted in disgust as the blood dripping from his amber blades was burned away.
Mykeser Bushstalker [Lv. 3] Killed
Celestial Energy Harvested
New Title[s] Unlocked!
The notification was small, and dismissed with barely a thought. Instead, he switched his gauntlets from their melee mode, and brought them to bear on the level five creature attempting to flank Elena as she dealt with her own beast. Another chased his drone, swiping at it in vain fury, buying him time to cover his former captain.
The volley landed true, with several direct hits to its chest. The plasma burned through its fur, blackened its skin and began to char and melt away its flesh, but the creature simply twisted around to face him, Crossing the space between them in alarmingly few strides. Malan cursed as he ducked beneath the initial swipe of its forelimbs, feeling the sharp claws just miss the top of his head.
“How can something this big be this fucking fast?” he yelled.
Elena weaved between trees as her creature attempted to stagger its way through the trees towards its prey, only to find it was being met at every turn by another round of devastating arms fire. It was limping heavily now, and its tail was damaged by the process of freeing it from the tree, but it still moving well enough to cause serious damage, its fury undiminished.
"They’re not going to let up until we kill them all--whatever's wrong with them is driving into a frenzy," she bit out, her eyes narrowing as she fired again.
Malan retreated behind another tree as the beast that had lunged at him circled around, growling low. He fired a few more quick bursts to keep it at bay, but wasn’t nearly as fast or accurate as his more experienced ally. Only one struck true as the creature darted towards him, the others merely singing its fur, and this time its taloned blow raked across his shields at his face.
They pulsed blue, and the kinetic force sent him tumbling onto his back as his shield bar at the bottom left of his display flickered down to 67%. At the same time, he felt his drone shatter, caught by its pursuer, and its component pieces and celestial energy flow slowly back toward his shoulder mount to rebuild itself.
This, however, left Elena exposed to her own problems, as the third creature joined her battle. He saw her shift and adjust her aim and fire directly at its face as it charged. Her shot connected with a sickening crunch, right between the beast’s red, oozing eyes. The creature let out a final, strangled growl, its body swaying for a moment before it collapsed to the ground, twitching.
“One down,” she said breathlessly.
But before she could regroup, the second creature let loose a vicious snarl, its bloodshot eyes locking onto Elena. Its stinger lashed forward, quicker this time. Elena twisted, narrowly avoiding the lethal point, but the spines along its curved tail scraped across her arm. She hissed in pain, staggering back as blood welled up.
Malan’s stomach clenched, but he had his own worries to contend with. The level five beast pounced, aiming its curved fangs for his throat, and was stopped only by Malan raising an arm just in time to block the blow.
His shields shimmered violent blue and red as the bushstalker's fangs closed around his arm, trying desperately to take it from him. Warnings blared across his eyes, and his shield bar began to stutter and shrink under the weight of the creature’s assault. Trembling, he raised his second gauntlet, and rifled shots into the creature’s underbelly.
It hissed and howled, but stayed latched to his arm, pushing it further and further down, each inch taking those fangs an inch closer to his neck. Malan ground his teeth and fired shot after shot, trying desperately to force it away, when an idea struck. Switch to melee mode.
The blade pulsed out from his wrist in response to his thought, searing its way up through the creature’s skull from inside the roof of its mouth, and it slumped to the side of him, beady eyes open in silent horror.
Mykeser Bushstalker [Lv. 5] Killed
Additional Celestial Energy Harvested for killing a higher levelled enemy.
New Title[s] Unlocked!
He hauled himself to his feet, raising his gauntlets and turning to aid Elena, only to find her standing over the lifeless corpses of the last two bushstalkers
Panting, Malan allowed his gauntlets to power down as Elena walked over, bleeding but upright. “Injuries?” She asked, chest heaving.
“Nope,” he muttered, his breath ragged. They stared down at the bodies, blood and fur mixing with the jungle’s thick undergrowth. Elena crouched in front of the level five one for a moment, and emerged with a small object with a needle-sharp point pinched between her figures.
“Not sick,” she said, voice tight. “Drugged.”