Tower Story -- Chapter 17

Chapter 17

“There it is!  Stop it before it gets to the—” Ladrexia shouted, but the Soiled Pantherin was already gone.  She chased after it along with the rest of her Party, frantically searching her mind for the current patrol routes and which other Parties might be nearby to help take this thing down.  Because if they didn’t have help, it was unlikely that they would survive a real confrontation with the monster, given that it was twice their Level.

“Barton, what happened?” Glindir, their Party’s Resuscitator and experienced Healer, asked.  “I thought you had it!”

Barton growled in annoyance as he sprinted ahead of them, pulling away with his greater Dexterity.  “I missed with my Focused Taunt!  I need to get closer!”

“Drex – see if you can slow it down!”

Ladrexia ignored the shortening of her name as she did as Arbino asked, holding out her hand to better aim at the rapidly moving Pantherin.  When she thought she was locked into its stride, she used Explosive Decompression I to form a bubble of air approximately the size of her own torso just over the backside of the monster ahead of them, before it exploded with enough force to break bones.  Her hope was that it would be enough to shatter at least one of the Pantherin’s hind legs from the force of the blast, but the much-faster monster somehow detected her spell and dodged at the last moment.  All that was left was an explosion of powerful wind that the Air Mage saw crack a nearby tree trunk, but only ended up slightly pushing the hind end of the aside a little bit.

Needless to say, that didn’t slow it down even a little bit.

“Blasted beast!  Is there another Party nearby, Arbino?” she asked their Dwinaii Support member of the Party, who always seemed to know the current state of the Parties out on patrol or on special Tasks.  His ursine face scrunched up in contemplation as Ladrexia readied another spell, but the Pantherin was already pulling out of her range.  In addition, using the first spell had put a big hit on her Mana pool, as it required nearly a third of her total; it was a powerful spell, after all, but she was worried that she wouldn’t be able to deal enough damage if—when—they caught up to the monster. 

“Palatto’s Party should be approximately 4 miles to the northeast; no one else is close enough.  A new Task has already been sent out by the System, so I’m sure they’re already on the way.  It’ll probably take a little longer for those inside of town to reach us, too.”

4 miles?  That’s going to take entirely too much time.  If we were anywhere but near the fields outside of Lodgepoint, I’d let this thing go, but we have to do everything we can to minimize the damage it can do to our people here, even if it means our lives.

And it would likely come to that, given that she and her entire Party were only Level 14 and the Pantherin was Level 28.  They might be able to overcome a Level gap of 4 to 5 Levels if they got lucky, but 14 Levels was akin to suicide.  While she didn’t want to die, she knew that it was a distinct possibility that it might happen once she became an Adventurer; little did she suspect that it would happen so quickly.  She’d only been an Adventurer for a decade, after all.

Still, it was her duty to protect the town and the residents of it from monsters like this – even if it had been years since anything over Level 15 had approached Lodgepoint, from this side of the river.  It was why a significant portion of the Protectorate’s food was grown there, as it was typically fairly safe for the field workers there.  They still had patrols running through the nearby areas to ensure nothing slipped through to endanger them, which was what she and her Party had been doing when they detected a monster that was far outside the norm passing through their route.

Unfortunately, it was decently faster than them, and as they weren’t expecting to have something that high of a Level close to town, most of the higher-Level Adventurer Parties were to the south, across the river, where the majority of the dangerous monsters in the area could be found.  Even Palatto’s Party, if they managed to make it in time, were only Level 19 – but they were better than nothing. 

I just hope that we can occupy it for long enough for them to arrive.  She didn’t think they could kill it, but containing it – once they managed to catch it – should theoretically be possible until they received some backup.

Ahead of them, she saw the trees start to thin, and she realized that they had already chased the Pantherin all the way to the fields.  Somehow, Barton managed to use his surprisingly fast speed – for a Saroon – to catch up to the monster just enough to make it pause when he used his Focused Taunt ability again.  However, even as it turned around to attack him, Ladrexia could see that it wouldn’t last that long because of the Level difference.  Skidding to a stop once she was in range, the Air Mage used Explosive Decompression once again despite the Mana cost, knowing that it was imperative that they stop it before it got any closer to the fields.  Her spell went off right on top of its left foreleg, a direct hit that the monster didn’t seem to be able to avoid.  She watched with joy at the successful detonation, sure that it would slow it down enough that they could contain it—

—except that she didn’t hear the tell-tale sound of a bone breaking during the explosion.  In fact, all that happened was that is leg was pushed backwards, causing the monster to stumble a little bit, and she could see some of the fur on its leg was blasted away, but it seemed to be largely unharmed. 

Blasted Level 28!  It’s too strong even for my most destructive spell!

Once it regained its feet after its stumble, the Pantherin took a few steps toward the charging Barton, but just as their scaled, front-line Brawler was about to reach the monster, the Focused Taunt ability faded away, and it leapt away backwards.

“No!  Get it!”

“Come back here!”

“I’m going to Tag it!  Give me a moment!”

Arbino slid to a stop and held out his bear paw-like hands towards the Pantherin, activating one of his Trapper Class abilities.  Normally, their Support largely acted as a front-line attacker with his Strength and Endurance natural to his kind, but his Class had also been invaluable in fights with larger numbers of monsters, where controlling or denying their movements was imperative to success.  Using Tag, he could target a specific monster and then use a Root Trap spell to wrap them up with roots that sprung up from the ground.  He could even use it when his target was out of sight or too far away for a normal spell to reach, as Tag would allow the spell to reach them as long as they weren’t more than a mile away. 

Given that Arbino had to be within 10 feet of the target for him to cast the Root Trap spell normally in addition to being long cast, the Tag ability was almost always necessary to use first – just like in the current situation.  As the Pantherin leapt away, intent to get to the fields to hunt down the low-Level field workers there, Ladrexia saw the familiar glow of Tag enveloping the large, cat-like beast temporarily before it took off.  Barton chased after him, but the Air Mage could already see that the monster had already passed through the edge of the forest and had landed on the nearest field where there were people working.

Cringing as she saw a low-Level Human who froze at the sight of the Pantherin get chomped in half, she waited for Arbino’s Root Trap to finish being cast, even as she tried to plan out how to keep the disaster on four legs from rampaging all over the fields and slaughtering everyone outside the walls.  She wasn’t too worried about the town, itself, as their defensive emplacements were more than strong enough to handle even something like the Pantherin – but there was a good chance that a large portion of their field work force would be wiped out before that could happen.

Arbino completed his spell, and she looked to see the roots that would keep the monster trapped in place—but nothing seemed to happen.  Instead, her ursine Party member staggered and dropped to his knees, his paws to his head as he growled out in pain.

“Argh!  It rebounded my spell!” he said, and Ladrexia felt her eyes widen in shock.  To her knowledge, the only way that could happen is if a monster had access to the same type of spell or a very similar ability; she’d never fought a Soiled Pantherin, but she hadn’t heard that they could—

Roots suddenly sprang up from the ground around her, trapping her in place as she felt herself pulled downward by a pair that had wrapped around her arms and the feathered white wings on her back.  She immediately tried to cast Blades of Air I on another root that was trying to wrap around her neck, but it jerked out to the way and she nearly cut herself instead.  As she strained to break free, her Mana getting low, she tried again and managed to cut her neck free, followed by her right arm.  As she looked up, she watched in horror as she saw Barton and Glindir also trapped underneath tangles of roots, unable to move; Barton attempted to surge up against his bonds, but he was held tight; Glindir did her best, but her delicate wings were being crushed against her back, hindering her efforts to move. 

Worse than any of that, though, she saw the Pantherin bounding toward her, for some reason targeting her as the most worthy of killing for some reason—perhaps it likes Anjelou meat—and she redoubled her efforts to escape.  As it leapt at her, out of the corner of her eye she saw Arbino fling himself at the monster with a roar, slamming into it in mid-leap, altering its flight just enough that its jaws didn’t swallow Ladrexia up.

Instead, she felt something smash into her chest and she was flung backward, ripping out of the roots, and she rolled over and over as she felt herself struggling to breathe.  As she came to a stop, she attempted to move, but her arms didn’t seem to want to work to push herself up.  As a result, she was forced to watch as Arbino and the Pantherin landed, and even as her ursine Party member clawed at the monster’s face, it was a futile attack as it only drew a smidge of blood. 

For the monster’s part, however, it wasn’t happy about the clawing attack.  Ladrexia sobbed in terror as the monster struck like a viper and crunched its jaws into the large Dwinaii, ripping him in half and flinging Arbino’s lower half toward the Air Mage.  She grunted in pain as she was hit by her Party member’s legs, forcing her to roll slightly backwards from the impact, until she was facing the other direction.  Unable to move from the agony filling her body, tears rolled down her face as she heard the crunching sounds of the Pantherin eating her friend, knowing that her death was likely next – and she couldn’t even see it. 

Ladrexia thought that the ground would shake when she heard it take a few deliberately slow steps toward her, seemingly enjoying the torture it was putting her through, but it was surprisingly light on its feet despite its massive size.  Here I am, thinking about such stupid things when I’m about to die.

She closed her eyes, not wanting to see the struggling, face-down, remaining members of her Party as she was bit in half, knowing that they would be next – and there was nothing she could do about it.  Her Mana was essentially bottomed out, and while she had enough to cast a simple spell or two, she couldn’t even see the monster to hit it accurately – not that she thought it would do a whole lot.  I could use it to end my own life so that it doesn’t get the satisfaction of—NO!  I refuse to be so cowardly!

As the Pantherin stopped near her, she swore that she could feel its hot breath on her back as it readied to snatch her up and snuff out her life.

A sudden rustling off to her left, followed by a hollow CRACK of what sounded like bone breaking startled her, and she opened her eyes in surprise.  The next moment, she saw the Pantherin stumble past her prone form, its head practically caved in along the side with what looked like its brains oozing out of the visible bone inside its shattered skull.  It managed to step forward a few times before it collapsed on the ground, struggling to breathe for a few seconds before it stopped altogether, somehow miraculously dead.

…What?  How?

Another rustle behind and to the left of her was ignored as she saw the roots trapping Barton and Glindir against the ground wither away, freeing them.  Seeing tears streaming down both their faces as they sprang to their feet, Barton rushed toward the fallen Pantherin with murder in his eyes, only to stop in confusion when he saw that the object of his wrath wasn’t moving. 

Their healer, on the other hand, immediately sprinted toward Ladrexia and cast a spell as she slid to a stop; healing warmth spread through her torso, where she was fairly certain a good portion of her torso had been crushed when the monster ran into her.  It would take more than a few spells to bring her completely back to full Health, but she could feel that it was already easier to breathe and she felt movement coming back to her limbs.

Unfortunately, the same couldn’t be said for Arbino.  As she looked back at his legs where they had been thrown against her, finally able to move, the shock of the entire attack finally hit her and she realized that the big, furry Dwinaii wasn’t coming back. 

What are we going to do without him? she mentally wailed, still unable to comprehend that he was really gone. 

But another question intruded on her thoughts, one that was probably more important than her dead Party member and the difficulty of finding a replacement for him. 

Who or what killed the Soiled Pantherin?