Ruthless ~ 31!

~ 31 ~

Poppy was the first to point out the obvious. “We need to start moving! Even if everything in here starts at level one, we’ll only have half a day before they start catching us in level. Somehow, I doubt anything worth keeping will only be guarded by something at level one, so that means we need to move even faster!”

Please name your party.

“What?” Joe stated without thinking.

There are 27 parties attempting to use party name ‘What’. Please choose a new name.

“Extra-friendly.” Joe said firmly.

Gatherer Ladder ranking for Party Extra-friendly: 40/40.

Hunter Ladder ranking for Party Extra-friendly: 40/40.

Every five hours, all parties under the top ten in the hunter rankings will be forced to fight one other party. Gain hunter rankings by destroying monsters or members of other parties! If you defeat a party, you may take any one item they gained while in the Hallowed Land! Use the gatherer ranking to choose parties that have found good items!

“They’re giving incentives for fighting each other?” Alexis shook her head. “That’s… um… that’s really not cool.”

“Alexis! I missed you!” Bard swept her up in a huge hug and twirled the beet-red-faced woman around.

“Bard!” Alexis pouted, “We need to move!”

“I don't care! The curse is gone!” Bard squeezed her, still holding her in the air. Alexis gave up and just seemed to be trying to enjoy the affection. 

“Alright, lovebirds.” Jaxon poked Bard three times, then pulled his needles out of the areas he had struck a moment later. “There you go! That should be enough to slow your blood flow! Good for reducing bleed damage, and keeping your mind in the moment.”

“Jaxon, ah think ah might kill ya.” Bard growled, slipping back into his accent now that his elation was dissipating. The group seemed to relax as they got into formation, which was odd for a dangerous location such as this. Perhaps it was the difference in feel between them, the compatibility that seemed to be back in place. They chose one of the six paths, and started walking.

The relaxation didn't last long. Before they had gone thirty feet into the tunnel, they heard flapping wings. Oddly round balls with wings swooped at them, and the group needed to dodge by diving out of the way. Jaxon ended up driving his fist into one, and screamed as his hand started to smoke. “They’re flying slimes!”

Joe decided to take out the group of creatures all at once, “Acid Spray!”

Damage dealt: 0. Angelic Slimes are immune to acid damage!

“Oh, that’s really bad.” Joe swatted one onto the ground with his staff as it zipped at him, and the round slime splattered into a puddle before quickly reforming. Joe’s staff sizzled where it had touched the slime, and he noticed the durability drop. “And now I have no abilities that can damage these things. Guess I’m going full support!”

“My axes are doing nothing!” Bard complained loudly, his point proven by slicing an Angelic Slime in half, only for it to reform as soon as his axe was out.

“Slimes are resistant to physical damage unless there is a core for you to target!” Poppy informed them while he punched a hole through a flying creature with his rapier. That seemed to be effective, and he told them why. “Using skills that require mana make your weapons hurt them!”

Jaxon let a dozen silver needles fly, and the slimes that were struck were yanked to the ground as if ten-pound weights had been dropped on them. “Joe! Shock them!”

Joe jumped toward the fallen slimes, “Dark Lightning Strike!”

*Crack*!

Lightning struck him, washing over his shell and dissipating into the slimes on the ground. A shadowy copy of himself appeared, stared at him for a moment, then vanished. Joe swallowed. Had his passive retaliation almost hit him? It seemed like it! The dark lightning dealt forty-five damage to the pinned slimes, which when combined with the needles, finished them off. More were coming, and Joe didn't know what he could do to help now: Dark Lightning Strike had a six-minute cooldown.

Then he remembered what Poppy had said, that they were resistant to physical damage unless there was a core to aim for! He targeted the first one and barked, “Corify!”

The slime sank dropped a few feet as a portion of its innards were pulled into a cube. Joe slapped the slime with his staff and the forming core was torn out of the creature, killing it instantly and making the synthetic core solidify fully. Joe pumped his fist in the air and tried again. This time there was no core formed, and Joe had to face the fact that at Novice six… there was a good chance that the skill was going to work very infrequently. Still, it gave them options.

Joe moved back in the formation, focusing on healing his team when he needed. Over the next hour, they plowed through an unceasing trickle of slimes. The tunnel looped and twisted, but there was never a time where an offshoot or branch appeared. Then, they found the end of the tunnel and a floating conglomeration of slimes. Joe used Intrusive Scan, only getting to see the creature’s name before it started launching magical attacks at them.

Laura, the Angelic Slime Hive Queen.

“Boss monster!” Joe called as the others retaliated or dodged acidic icicles. There were a few grunts of acknowledgement, but no more words were spoken. The battle was very straightforward: don't let the slime engulf you, dodge the attacks, hit back with the most powerful attacks you can.

“Dehydration powder! Don’t breathe this in!” Alexis called as she whipped a canister at the slime. It entered the body, then the powerful corrosive effect of the slime came into play and destroyed the canister, releasing a burst of pressurized powder. The powder seemed to foam, absorbing liquid from all angles, before it became too heavy and fell out of the floating slime.

The next few attacks hit semi-solid surfaces, and a huge amount of damage was dealt to the queen. It roiled, and condensed; dropping portions that were badly dehydrated onto the ground. It was still over six feet in diameter, but progress was being made! It flew into the air, paused, then zipped toward the ground. When it hit, it turned into a giant puddle that washed over their feet before sucking back into a giant ball. This inflicted acid damage on all of them, and knocked the lighter members to the ground. 

A dark mirror of Joe slapped the queen, and Bard used the distraction to bellow a chant, then dove at the creature as it reformed. His axes were glowing, and he managed to split a large chunk off of the main body.

The chunk seemed to have no will, and splashed against the ground like regular water; deforming completely. The queen seemed upset by this, and managed to engulf Bard entirely. The group could see him start to dissolve along with his equipment. Joe targeted the queen, “Corify!”

Failure. The team started attacking with all their might, but they could see the area around Bard filling with blood. Five seconds passed, and Joe tried again. “Corify!”

This time, there was a clear disturbance. Joe targeted the center of the movement, then used everything he had to jump at that spot. He dove into the queen, emerging on the other side with a large cube in his hands; which he swiftly stored it in his codpiece. The slime queen stopped flying and splashed onto the ground like a water balloon. Bard didn't move.

“Mend! Lay on Hands!” Joe saw Bard’s skin reforming where the Mend had landed, so he knew that the man was still alive at the minimum. When he could stand again, the group looked around the room and found several items that they couldn’t identify. Almost all of it seemed to be an accessory of some kind: rings, necklaces, bracelets and bangles. There was sure to be a use for them, but right now… they had no idea what that could be.

Zone cleared! For party ‘Extra-friendly’, current Hunter ladder ranking: 12/38. Gatherer ladder ranking: 8/38. Time elapsed: 1:38:56. Returning to safe zone in three… two…

In a moment, the team was back on the couch. The lights on the path that they had finished started winking out, leaving the hall in murky darkness. Joe nodded excitedly as the group got off the couch and started down another hall. Over the next two and a half hours, they cleared another path. This one had many small rooms that branched off the tunnel, which could either hold treasure or monsters. These ones were mainly sanctified skeletons, which sent Jaxon into fits of joy. The final boss barely needed any help from the other team members to fall, abut Jaxon did claim most of the loot. 

As the loot was holy bones, the team didn't fight against him very hard. They were back on the couch, and only had a short while before the they would find out if they would be forced to fight another group. At the end of the tunnel, their group managed to take number ten on the hunter list, but stayed at number eight on the gatherer list. While they recuperated, their hunter rank dropped to eleven. They rushed down the third hall and started crushing small pixies that zapped them with holy light and lightning. 

The group didn't bother to collect any remains, focusing entirely on destroying monsters as fast as possible. Their rank went back to ten, then down to eleven, over and over again. As the final seconds ticked away, they held onto position number ten.

Hunter / Gatherer results at the end of five hours: 10/34, 15/34. Keep working hard to stay ahead! All groups below position ten on the hunter ladder will now be forced to battle another group!

“Take a breather!” Joe gave a very welcome order. Thanks to stamina and mana regen, they were able to keep going. Still, Joe could see that small debuffs were starting to appear due to the strain and required endurance. They could easily be cleared with a long break or nap, but until then they were slowly decreasing the very regeneration that was keeping them going. “We need to start collecting stuff again, or this will turn into a giant waste.”

Their pace slowed, and the group felt much better for a short while. About twenty minutes later, a new message appeared that made them wince. 

Battles concluded! Current Hunter / Gatherer rank for party ‘Extra-friendly’: 23/23, 22/23.

Jaxon succinctly summed up the thoughts all of them were having. “Well that backfired.”