Ruthless ~ 12!

~ 12 ~

Charging attacks avoided: 36/100.

Joe was twisting in midair, having finally found an outlet for his jumping skill. “Bard, on your left!”

The stocky Skald was having the most trouble of anyone present, but he still managed to roll out of the way of the thundering hooves. “Son of a biscuit munchin’ Brit!”

“I told you to join my yoga class and get that dexterity up!” Alexis called out.

“Ah’ve been doin’ this!” Bard shouted back, though he was somewhat muffled by the grass he was attempting to spit out. “I-oof!”

A Neigh-Bear hit him from the side, it’s thick claws tearing open a wide gash along Bard’s side. His armor protected his chest from getting the same treatment, but he went tumbling away from the sheer physics of the strike. Bard rolled to his feet and charged the beast in return. “Imma eat ya, bear-brain!”

Joe landed with a flourish that halted his momentum and made another beast miss him by inches.

Charging attacks avoided: 37/100.

“Dark Lightning Strike!” Joe called out, his words instantly punctuated by thunder as everything within ten feet of him took damage. The close creature took ten damage, everything else took only five. 

Skill increase: Dark Lightning Strike (Novice II).

“That did literally nothing to them!” Jaxon called as he used Joe’s shoulders as a springboard and landed on the horse portion of a Neigh-Bear. His hands tore into the back of it's neck, and it collapsed a moment later. “Store that for me? I think you have a large storage, right? Oh! Good! Since you’re useless fighting these, you can be our loot wench!”

“Add that to the list of things not to say again, Jaxon!” Alexis called over. The Neigh-Bears around her were still, and as she passed them they fell to the ground. “Get these ones too, Joe. The poison won't hurt the meat, it just melts their brain for a second or two.”

“Another thing I can't say?” Jaxon whined. “You youngsters sure are picky about verbiage.”

“Words have power here, Jaxon, and people have enough power that making them mad can get you killed over and over.” Alexis explained for what must have been the tenth time. “Joe, these are good experience if you can manage to take them down. They are designed to be hard-countered by people with high dexterity, which means they are all strength and constitution. They hit hard and have a lot of health, careful.”

Joe nodded and got himself ready. His lightning had a six minute cooldown, so that was out for now. He was okay with that, as he had plenty to work with. The shadows of the long grass started shifting as he gathered them, and after a nerve-wracking moment he pushed the shadows into the shape of an angled spear and solidified them. The Neigh-Bear that was charging hit the spear and impaled itself, momentum halted as it hit the wide guard halfway down the shaft.

Damage dealt: 330 (300+10% armor piercing title bonus)

“These things are armored?” Joe muttered after taking an instant to read the message. “Must be their thick hide counting as natural armor? Acid Spray!”

As the acid ate into the whinnying creature, Joe once again saw the armor-piercing effect come into play. He wanted to test it more, but was trampled from the side as he stared at the first and forgot to pay attention to the remainder of the creatures. 

Debuffs activated: Risk Assessment. Calculation drain. You have fully lost focus of combat and are held until acted upon by an outside force!

Damage taken: 228 (228 damage absorbed by Exquisite Shell). 

Exquisite Shell: 482/1510.

Joe skidded across the blood-slick grass, somehow staying upright. He shook off the effects of his loss of focus, and managed to leap over the next attack. As he was coming down, another Neigh-Bear swiped at him but Joe managed to twist around it in the air and land solidly on his feet.

Charging attacks avoided: 38/100.

Skill increase: Aerial Acrobatics (Beginner II).

“Dodging swiping attacks doesn’t count?” Joe grumbled as he started working to get to the center of the area. From the start of the dungeon to the center covered about a mile, and dodging the entire way was destroying his stamina. He was down to a third, and it was only coming back slowly. But, this was one of the reasons he was here: to increase his physical stats.

“It literally says ‘charging attacks’ in the quest.” Poppy landed next to him and shoved, sending both of them out of the way of an oncoming wall of flesh.

Charging attacks avoided: 39/100.

“That counted!” Joe slyly made a plan to make his journey to the center of the area more efficient. First he would get everyone in position, then they would literally bounce off each- “Oof.”

Risk Assessment has activated.

Sneak attack! 510 damage taken! (482 absorbed by Exquisite Shell.)

Health: 332/350

Joe’s shield took a critical hit and shattered, leaving him unprotected against the  remaining attacks coming his way. “Ahh! Why is that activating so much? It's supposed to be ten percent!”

He started jogging toward the escape area, dodging and flipping out of the straight-line assaults. Joe was particularly proud of dodging an attack by leaping at a passing Neigh-Bear and pushing off of it, causing two of the huge beasts to collide. “Ha!”

Jaxon’s body seemed to materialize next to the two creatures, and in an instant he had sunk his hands into their necks. A spray of blood came from both as the T-Rex heads were pulled back, and Jaxon laughed maniacally as he was coated in the hot blood. Joe narrowed his eyes and aimed at the left one. “Corify!”

Skill increase: Corify (Novice II).

“Yes! That one must have worked!” Joe dashed over and thrust his hips at the beast, storing it in his codpiece. 

“Really, Joe? Teabagging is so… toxic gamer.” Jaxon *tsked* and shook his head.

“Not at all what I was doing and you know it.” Joe looked around, noticing that they had a few minutes before any other creatures would be near them. “Jaxon, how often does your threshold debuff go off?”

“My what?” Jaxon looked over from the other Neigh-Bear was being devoured by his hands to maintain their form. “Sorry Joe, no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Open up your menu and look at the active effects tab. What’s the percentage for charisma failure?” Joe was starting to get impatient.

“Nothing here but title effects, a ‘filthy’ notification, and my hands.” Jaxon shrugged and kept working his hands deeper into the flank of the downed beast. “I’ve never heard of a threshold debuff.”

Joe frowned and though through the implications. “Could this be… an effect of Tatum? Is this a ‘hidden’ stat that I can somehow see?”

Wisdom +1! Wow, that one was a long time coming. You should open up better communication channels with your people. Ya know what? You did just do that, so…

Charisma +1!

“Alright… I need to think… I have five debuffs that have a chance to activate with almost any action. So… I don't have a ten percent chance of things going wrong. I have an, um, ten plus five plus… I have a thirty-one percent chance of things going really wrong?” Joe waited for a characteristic upgrade, but shrugged when nothing appeared. “I need to test this. I need to science this. Hypothesis is formed, now comes various experimentation. Unlike other people, I can see when these activate, which means that I-”

Calculation drain!

“Joe!” Jaxon tackled Joe, and they rolled out of the way of a charge. Unfortunately, Lefty latched onto Joe and pulled off a chunk of his bicep. “I was yelling at you to move!”

Joe screamed as he grabbed at his arm. His health plummeted, reaching forty-one points remaining in only seconds. “Lay on hands!”

Health: 281/350. Bleeding debuff removed!

It was kinda trippy watching his arm regrow out of dark water, but Joe forced himself to focus. He glared at the Neigh-Bear and held out a hand. He grunted out of pure frustration and dropped his hand. “At this moment, I am realizing that I only have three ways of damaging that beast. Acid which is out of range, shaping darkness over a few long seconds, or my dark lightning which is on cooldown. I need to get some more versatile spells.”

“Here, I can bite it if that’ll make you feel better?” Jaxon offered kindly.

“You know it would?” Joe sighed. Jaxon ran at the beast as it was turning around, latching his hands into it, then chomping down on its ear with his own mouth. The Neigh-Bear roared, and Joe dropped his head into his hands. Then he started laughing, and couldn't stop.

Jaxon came back over, and grinned at Joe with bloody teeth. “Glad you feel better, Joe.”

“Let’s finish up this dungeon.” Joe healed Jaxon once just to be sure he didn’t have any hidden injuries, and they resumed dodging and weaving. Their goal was in sight.