The Pinnacle Warrior

Without thinking, Astrid screamed and, while still pulling Christophe with her right hand, smashed the edge of her shield into the drake‘s face. It let go of the Ranger’s leg and hissed at her as, with its two front legs now solidly in the branch, it pulled itself out of the Dungeon proper. The ululating cry it screamed made Astrid’s chest shake, but in that brief moment, she could feel the difference in quality between the Steel tiered people and the drake in front of her. It probably wasn’t Bronze tier either, but Astrid counted herself lucky for the differences in how the Dungeon proper functioned and how the branches did. Different from how all monsters in the branches spawned fully grown and ready to fight, the Dungeon proper would spawn some monsters as adults, and then allow them to reproduce naturally. These newly born creatures would be born at least one tier lower than their parents.

The young drake pulled itself out and into the Dungeon branch entirely as Astrid pulled Christophe out of its direct range. With a grunt of apology, she threw him through the tent that stood between her and the rest of her party, and she called out, “Get ready! We’re going to have to fight to survive this!”

Without saying anything more, she took three steps forward as she drew her hammer and smashed it into the base of the drake‘s jaw. The horse-sized beast looked like a wingless mix of a dragon and a wolf, and while it didn’t like the hit that she gave it, Astrid could feel that the strike that took her whole strength into it failed to break any bones.

“Its Fortitude is pretty high and these scales are really tough!“ Astrid didn’t have anything else to say as, with a litany of curses, Felix activated Draw Anger, and the drake‘s face whipped away from Astrid and towards the Bodyguard. It didn’t hesitate before repeating its previous scream of rage or challenge or something else, and threw itself at him. Despite its bulk and power, it moved surprisingly quickly, and Felix immediately took a heavy blow on one bracer that cut straight through his protections and nearly chopped his hand off at the wrist. He threw himself back with the hit and rolled on his back to stand a handful of meters away from the monster as his face blanched with pain and fear.

“I can try my latest spell experiment, but I don’t know what it’s gonna do!” Skandr’s voice shook as he suggested it.

“We don’t have any other choice! Stay clear until you’re ready!“ Astrid closed back in with the monster as she gave the command, rearing back with her shield and, with all of her strength, smashing the edge into the drake’s side, just in front of its haunches. The thick mana-blessed iron made solid contact with the monster’s spine, though the monster’s back only bent without breaking. She tried to follow up with her hammer in the same location, but it danced away. Then, with the heavy hit it had taken combined with the tier of difference between itself and its attackers, it shook off Felix‘s Skill’s grasp. It turned back towards Astrid, and she barely managed to get her shield up between herself and the monster. Its claws scrabbled against her protection one, two, three times, the last one knocking her back several steps and set her scrambling to keep her feet. It continued to press the attack, but Astrid gained just enough space to continue stumbling backwards. She inwardly cursed herself for her weak stance. She’s seen the brothers stay unmoved, and though she knew that a Skill had helped them, their fundamentals were strong, and now that she was on the back foot, she couldn’t gather herself. Now, instead of being able to parry and deflect, she was stuck dodging back further and further while hoping that something would happen to turn the tables.

As she stumbled, Astrid fell prey to what she supposed was the monster’s favorite attack. It lunged forward and caught her foot in its mouth. For the first time in a long time, Astrid felt small as it effortlessly lifted her into the air and smashed her against the ground on its other side. As the breath whooshed out of her and she groaned weakly, it repeated the same thing and smashed her against the ground again on the other side. Luckily, it then let go of her foot to readjust its bite, and that was when Muti arrived. With a battle cry, the Rogue threw herself at the monster’s neck, mounting it with her legs twisted around its throat. Then, with one hand holding onto a protruding frill on the monster’s head, she lifted her short sword and stabbed it towards the scaled wolf’s right eye. The first blow skittered off its scales and cut a long thin score that lightly bled while the second had the right angle and gouged the eye out entirely. The beast squealed a basso scream of pain and threw itself to the side to crush Muti under its weight as the right side of its face erupted with blood and the remains of its eye. She threw herself free and managed to avoid being crushed entirely, but it continued to roll with its surprising speed and whipped its tail into the outside of her knee.

With a groan, Astrid struggled to her feet, the disfigured metal of her right boot crushing her ankle as she rushed to save Muti from getting ripped apart. With only one functional leg, the Rogue would meet the same fate that Astrid had been about to, if she remained without additional assistance. Felix again used Draw Anger, though this time, the drake struggled against it. It shook as it turned its body towards him, though its tail whipped towards Muti again. She turned her body enough to only take it as a glancing blow on her hip that blew her another 5 meters back. With the target of its true rage out of range, the drake rushed towards Felix. More prepared this time, he overcommitted to each dodge to keep himself clear. Even so, he continued taking incessant cuts all along his arms and shoulders that flayed open his skin and shredded his equipment, but he maintained its attention for several seconds all alone.

Benedict made himself known then, double casting Song of Healing and Quickened Step as he circled around closer to Muti and Astrid. Astrid, with limping steps, ran towards the monster’s flank as she stowed her hammer on her hip and drew her 20 centimeter long knife from its place on her belt behind her back.

“We need to get the other eye!“ She screamed.

“Yeah, obviously!“ Felix said, as he took another, stronger blow on his shoulder that fortunately struck with the pad of the Drake’s paw, not its claws. On the less positive note, it instead batted him away like a cat playing with a mouse. As he rolled through the dirt, Astrid tried to do the same thing that Muti had to blind the beast. She, instead of trying to ride the beast like her more risk-oriented companion, called its attention to her as she smacked her shield into its rump again. It whipped its tail at her, which she only managed to mostly smack away with her shield. Even as she stumbled back on her screaming ankle, she maintained a firm stance as it faced her. She couldn’t hit its left eye with her right hand from behind, so now that it faced her, she feinted with her shield, hoping to pull its attention and intentions to striking more desperately at her. Her hit did the trick, and it turned its face towards her, twisting its head so that its remaining left eye was facing her. Seeing her readying to strike again, it roared again. Just after it reared back, it then launched forward with its jaws wide open to take her head off.

With the monster’s grasping jaws looking to bite her head off, Astrid pulled herself back and managed to keep the snapping jaws from killing her, instead flinching as they scraped off of the visor of her helmet without managing to destroy the helm. Then, throwing herself forward, she wrapped her left arm around the drake’s head and tried to hold it still while her right hand raised and stabbed down at its eye. It thrashed wildly, and Astrid didn’t know on which blow she threw with the knife actually managed to catch its eye. Again and again she stabbed, and while her arm pistoned like mad, the monster eventually screamed and lifted its head before smashing her lower body against the ground again and again. The first time, she rolled with the strike, but on the second, her knees buckled. On the third she felt her legs break and she wheezed in pain while her arm failed her and her pelvis smashed against the unforgiving ground. She slumped off of the monster and used Quick Recovery as some measure of feeling returned to her legs. Her knife had snapped at some point during her maddened strikes and the monster’s thrashing, but its face was a bloody mess, and more importantly, one without eyes.

Astrid tried to crawl away and gather herself, but despite its blindness, the drake’s face perked up and turned towards her. Be it sound or smell or something else entirely, it knew where she was and wanted blood for blood. It swiped with its claws to where she scrambled on the ground. As its steps thundered towards her, Astrid’s eyes filled with tears as she fought to keep from screaming at her unresponsive, weak legs. The first crushing blow from its paws went too wide, thankfully, though the claws cut deep into the earth beside Astrid’s foot and she had to fight back the involuntary scream of terror as she was confronted with certain death in front of her. Worse still, it continued to press the attack as Astrid rolled to the side and struggled to her feet with shaky knees, both from the injuries she’d sustained as well as the soul-crushing, debilitating terror that consumed her.

“Any time now, Skandr!“

“How about now?“ Came the answer. Astrid turned and looked at him, and he hauled back with his empty right hand that was suddenly filled with a crackling shaft of lightning 2 meters long. The javelin prepared, his left hand twisted into a painful looking sigil that he looked and took aim through before throwing the crackling manifestation of fury towards the monster. It flashed through the air with a boom, and the drake tried to react to it. Its eyes were gone and the attack too quick. Without any definitive vision of where the strike was coming from, it was unable to get out of the path. The lightning smashed into it hard enough to knock it back several steps, and as the lightning exploded outward, it all pulled back into the monster’s body. 

The drake shuddered where it stood as the lightning coursed through its body. Astrid, despite her legs mostly not listening to her, stood up and rushed back in. She couldn’t say how long this period of weakness would last for the higher tiered monster, and she needed to do as much as she could while she had any advantage. With a moment of clarity, she unstrapped her shield from her left arm and raised it high with both hands as she stumbled forward. Before she could get there, her Rogue arrived. Muti rushed in and stabbed towards the monster’s belly with her hands both on the straight sword’s hilt. Already she’d taken its eye out with the blade, and she sought its life. With the run up and the drake sign significantly less mobile than before, she buried the weapon, nearly up to its hilt in the monster’s side just behind its ribs. It screamed and thrashed, though Muti pulled back enough to keep from being caught in its rage. She grinned widely as she settled into a position to look for her next opportunity.

“Muti! I’m going to distract it, then I need you to stab it in the mouth!”

“Astrid! Those are just things from stories! You can’t stab something in the mouth and not get bitten!” Felix cut off her train of thought. “Muti, don’t do that or you’ll lose a hand!”

Astrid ran forward with her shield held in both hands and smashed the edge of her shield into the base of the monster’s skull. Just as every time she’d attacked it so far, there wasn’t any immediate cracking of bone or kill notification. Even so, it reeled from the hit. Scales cracked, and blood dripped from the location. It turned towards her, slashing with claws, but Skandr’s lightning still coursed inside of it. Astrid screamed as she raised her shield high again, and smashed it down in the same place. More scales cracked and fell away, exposing some skin that split under the attack. She raised her shield a third time as the beast started to shake off the stunning effects of shield and lightning. As the strike made contact, it also tossed its head in a wide circle and smashed its jaws into her ribs. Her legs, already weakened from being crushed before, gave way, and she fell to the side. The drake followed either her sound or scent and leapt on top of her. Its jaw opened to end her resistance, and that was when Muti appeared.

Again, her sword held high in both hands, she leapt atop its neck and plunged her sword down into the base of the creature’s head where spine met skull. It went limp immediately, and Muti raised her sword again to plunge it in again, though still no kill notification appeared. With a roar, she pulled the short sword free, stepped to the side, drew her messer sword, and chopped down at the monster’s spine. At this last hit, the area softened by Astrid‘s attacks and Muti’s finishing blows gave way, spraying gallons of blood onto Astrid where she lay under the corpse. Then, the blessed kill notification appeared in their eyes.

Green Drake Juvenile slain. 270 Experience gained, split among party.

Astrid felt herself lose consciousness as the Great One descended on her now that she’d finally gained enough experience to reach level 11.