Healer Book 4 -- Chapter 16

Chapter 16

With a name like The Ranch, one might realistically think that they might face some sort of horse monster or possibly a demonic cow or two, but this wasn’t that kind of ranch.  In fact, the name and environment of the dungeon was a little misleading, because what filled the first section of this Intermediate Raid dungeon wasn’t found on any farms or ranches that he knew of on Earth. 

But that didn’t mean it wasn’t found somewhere else.  With how many worlds were included in the Assimilation System, he was sure that creepy hippopotamus-scorpion hybrid monsters were raised for food somewhere, but it certainly wasn’t anywhere he’d ever been.

Chloratrex – Intermediate Minimal

Level 145 (Perceived Level: 189)

Each of the Chloratrex monsters was approximately 20 feet long from the tip of its scorpion-like tail to its oversized mouth filled with flat teeth, and it stood approximately 6 feet tall.  The oddest thing about the monster was how it was very wide like a hippo, and at first glance, its eight relatively thin legs spread out on its sides appeared frail enough that they would snap under the great weight of the beast.  That it was extremely fast as it skittered over the was a surprise, especially since its beige-colored, rubber-like skin was extremely dense and made up a bulk of its mass.  Thaden had been told that they were extremely resistant to physical attacks, as normal weapons simply bounced off their skin, but he wasn’t able to see that as he tore through them with his Leach combo.

Standing up from where they had been hiding among the wilted crops to either side of the dirt trail, the Chloratrex were only able to move a few steps before they were annihilated, thanks to the Leach spells not only on Thaden, but on his Mirrored Vigil and Sadia.  The giant squirrel had personally cast all the spells necessary for the process on herself, and she bounded along like another copy of himself.  Unlike the Vigil, however, she was able to think independently and was moving toward more distant monsters before he could even think about her heading for them.  She was like an extension of his mind and body that he didn’t know he was missing until now.

“It’s crazy, you know?”

After not even slowing in his jog past the first group of monsters as they fell to the ground, he looked over at Sadia as she hopped along next to him, her bushy tail bouncing up and down as she did.  “What’s crazy?”

She pointed at him in mid-hop.  “Your abilities, that’s what.  It’s one thing to know what you can do after analyzing your spells, equipment, bonuses, and achievements, but it’s something else to experience if for myself.  It’s insane; crazy.  You’re so broken that it’s almost ridiculous.”

He chuckled as another, larger group of Chloratrex appeared, before they melted to the combined deadly efforts of the three of them.  “I know, right?”

Thaden found himself enjoying himself as he continued to run without even slowing down, and his enjoyment only increased as another monster made its appearance and joined the hippo-scorpion hybrids.

Flandrin Pyke – Intermediate Minimal

Level 145 (Perceived Level: 189)

The Flandrin Pyke, which looked like a massive, spherical, beige piece of gelatin 20 feet tall and slightly larger in width, and it was covered in tentacles that hardened into spikes.  It was supposedly highly resistant to magic spells, but they didn’t last more than a second before they seemed to deflate and collapse into a puddle.  Either it wasn’t resistant to the leaching effect of his spells, or he was able to leach so much Health from the monsters that it pushed through whatever resistance it had.  He had a feeling that it had the qualities of a “Boss” such as a higher Health pool and was stronger in comparison to the Chloratrex, but that didn’t seem to matter all that much with how quickly they fell.

“How are they doing back there?” He asked after they passed through the fifth group in less than 30 seconds.  With a high bounce, Sadia spun in mid-leap as she looked behind them, before landing as if she hadn’t performed a maneuver that he was pretty sure a squirrel had never done before. 

“They are just now finishing the extraction of the first group,” she told him once she was back down.

He grunted in acknowledgement as they tore through a slightly larger assemblage of monsters that got in their way.  He was fairly certain he was going to win their little competition with ease.

The Mini Boss of this section, once he reached it, only validated his confidence.

Chloradrin Alpha (Mini Boss) – Intermediate Minimal

Level 150 (Perceived Level: 195)

While the Cloradrin Alpha was technically a unique threat, it was actually an amalgamation of the other two monsters found in this section.  Standing 15 feet tall, the hippo-like body of a Chloratrex was surrounded by a layer of Flandrin gelatin, and its legs were the size of tree trunks instead of the thin, stick-like legs of the hippo-scorpions.  The biggest difference, however, were the dozen scorpion tails that emerged from different spots on its body, all of which were three times as long as normal, giving each tail incredible reach.

That didn’t afford it much leverage when facing Thaden, of course, because as his Vigil and Sadia spread out to obliterate the additional monsters that joined the Alpha, all it could do before its invulnerability shield broke was send one of its tails toward him as he approached.  When his spell combination hit the Mini Boss, its legs snapped and it collapsed into a jumble of nasty melting gelatin and beige body parts – which was definitely not anything he wanted to stick around and look at for long.  It also smelled horrible unlike the other monsters he’d slain in this section, like rotting garbage, and he was fairly certain that this freakish amalgamation wasn’t something that raised on ranches to eat.

Or if they did, he didn’t want to be anywhere near that backyard barbeque.

Thaden slowed down to a stop as they approached the front of the incredibly massive barn-like structure that the Chloradrin Alpha had been guarding.  Looking back in the distance, he could barely make out the Raid Party making their way through the corpses they had left behind. 

“Will they be fine if we push forward?  The monsters won’t respawn?”

The squirrel next to him shook her head.  “No, they only respawn if the entire section is clear of Contenders.  A common tactic for some Raid Parties as they explore a new Intermediate dungeon is to keep a single person in each section as they advance further, so that if they have to leave, the way is clear.  Of course, that doesn’t work once they get to the end, but it’s beneficial for the rest of the dungeon.”

He nodded, even as he moved to enter the now-open doors of the barn.  From what he had been told, the end sections of each Intermediate dungeon required every single Contender to be there in order to activate whatever challenge was waiting for them.  He’d seen this when he went through the Assault Waves in the Crestline Gorge dungeon, but it was also required in the two other challenges that were known to inhabit these Raid-based dungeons.  Unfortunately, he wasn’t going to experience one of those other challenges quite yet, as The Ranch also had Assault Waves at the end, yet another reason it was chosen as a test dungeon for Thaden.  Having already done it before, he would know what to expect, and the Guild could also judge his claims with a similar dungeon to the one he’d said that he’d cleared solo.

Jogging swiftly through the doors on the barn, he discovered that the inside was much larger than it appeared on the outside.  A high-ceiling building spread out like an enormous warehouse in all directions, but unlike the farm fields outside, it wasn’t a straight shot to the exit.  Instead, this was a maze, as sturdy wooden walls were set up ahead of him, making him have to choose to go to either the left or the right.  He didn’t bother to try and break the walls in order to push through to the exit without having to explore, nor did he attempt to jump or fly over them – because invisible walls reinforced the wood as well as blocking the way over.  But that didn’t mean they couldn’t take a peek at the maze from above, as there was nothing blocking Sadia from jumping up in her squirrel form, bouncing in between the invisible walls to get higher.  

It only took a few seconds for her to get high enough to see the length of the large barn, and even as she descended back to the ground, she’d already mapped out their route.  Having so much Mentality certainly helped to make a maze like this quite easy.

“Left.  I’ll direct us from there,” she said, even as she swiftly scratched an arrow in the dirt flooring of the barn, indicating where the Raid Party should go once they finally arrived.

As they advanced through the maze, which was ultimately not too hard to solve, but would’ve extended their stay in this section by at least 15 minutes or more if they hadn’t been able to see it all from above, they encountered groups of monsters along the way.  Unlike the hippo-scorpions and blobs of spiky gelatin from the first section, these particular foes were finally familiar – or at least their original forms were.

Shadow Turkey – Intermediate Minimal

Level 147 (Perceived Level: 191)

Corn Cobbler – Intermediate Minimal

Level 147 (Perceived Level: 191)

Corn Cobblers were 8-foot-tall, anthropomorphized corn cobs that stood on four legs for a stable base, looking like one of those old-school rocket toys from the 50s and 60s back on Earth, but much more deadly.  They were a ranged-based attacker that shot out fist-sized pieces of corn from its body like a sniper, and it like to appear at the end of long stretches of the maze and attack people from afar.  When someone got too close, they could also “explode” and shoot out every piece of corn in all directions like a 360-degree claymore mine.  There were a few times that neither Thaden, Sadia, or his Vigil could reach them before they started firing at a distance, and he had to utilize his Focused Cover a few times to block the shots headed toward them, but they were usually fast enough to reach them without having to block too many.  Granted, even if they were hit, he didn’t expect to be hurt at all because of his protections, as well as his Incarnation blocking at least one of the corn shots, but there was no reason to test it.  Besides, he needed some practice with his Focused Cover and even his Secure Bulwark, as he hadn’t used either of them as much as he’d probably should’ve by this point.

The Shadow Turkeys, on the other hand, were the stronger of the two monsters, and the 15-foot-tall, completely black Turkeys could camouflage themselves against the walls by altering their coloring, making them effectively invisible until you were right up on them.  Their feathers were as hard as steel and they were vicious fighters, as they were able to fly short distances and attack from above, raking their victims with their powerful talons, and emitting a *gobble gobble* that was loud enough to shatter eardrums and disorient those who heard it.  

That was all information that he’d learned from Rachel and Corinna, however, because he saw none of that.  Apparently, his spells only needed to be tangentially aware of the Turkeys before they were hit by the Leaching effects, and they died where they stood attempting to blend in with the walls and the shadows.  The first time it happened, Thaden was actually startled because a large black mass suddenly appeared ahead of him and fell to the floor of the barn. 

“Ha!  You should’ve seen your face!” Sadia sniggered when she saw him nearly trip over his feet as the dead Turkey appeared.  Thaden couldn’t help but laugh at himself, as well, because the whole situation was ridiculous; getting scared of a dead monster that he killed without even knowing it was actually there was something that he could only find hilarious.

In the end, it only took 10 minutes to get through the entire Barn maze, and he was convinced it had only taken that long because Sadia had to stop every time they took a turn in order to scratch another arrow in the ground for the Raid Party to follow.  Once they were finally free of the walls, they found themselves in a large, cleared area situated right in front of the doors leading out from the barn.  Standing in the middle of this cleared area was the Mini Boss, which was different from the other monsters, but was still on theme with the section.

Haystack Needler (Mini Boss) – Intermediate Minimal

Level 152 (Perceived Level: 198)

Standing 60 feet tall, the clumped bunches of hay that the Haystack Needler was composed of had a vaguely bipedal shape to it, though it was nearly as wide around as it was tall.  The hay inside of it shone like it had been polished, and the ends of each piece seemed to have been sharpened like little needles. 

Unfortunately, Thaden and the others with him ran into the area too swiftly, which meant that they weren’t prepared for the attack it unleashed while Shadow Turkeys and Corn Cobblers streamed in from the sides to harry them.  Thaden pulled Sadia down below a Secure Bulwark that he flung up ahead of them, and the semi-transparent, rectangular wall appeared just in time for a barrage of a thousands needles to slam into it, before bouncing off without harm.  He heard the rustle of what sounded like a million tiny needles dragging against the dirt floor of the barn as the Haystack Needler took a ponderous step in their direction, but by that time Sadia was already reacting by sprinting toward one side of the area where the adds had appeared.  Thaden was only a split-second behind as he sent his Vigil in the opposite direction, while he hid behind the Bulwark.  In less than five seconds, the squirrel and Thaden’s copy had managed to get into range of all the smaller monsters, destroying them swiftly by Leaching out all their Health, and the Needler burst into a million individual pieces a second later as its invulnerability shield dispersed and his own Leach took effect.

The sudden barrage of needles ended up hitting Sadia and his copy even though they were at least 100 feet away by that point, though he was happy to see that their protections were more than enough to mitigate any of the damage that otherwise would’ve hit them.  As they raced back to him, he jumped into the air himself, his powerful legs sending him at least 150 feet straight up, and he looked back toward the maze.  It wasn’t until his descent that he caught a glimpse of the Raid Party, which he estimated to be about 5 minutes behind them at this point.

“Looks like they’re about halfway through.  I think they’re really trying to catch up now,” he remarked, slightly impressed, as he let Sadia know what he’d seen once he landed with a flex of his legs.  Such a fall would’ve hurt him a bit a year ago, but now he only felt a slight strain as he hit the ground.

“Well, then, we better get going if we’re going to keep ahead of them.  We can’t let them get too close, can we?”

He smiled as he turned toward the exit, which was exposed as the barn doors slid open.  She was right, of course, but it wasn’t just that he didn’t want to risk killing any of them; he really wanted to win this competition and show them that he was more than capable of taking down this whole dungeon by himself at a speed that would blow their minds.

Sadia, his copy, and his Incarnation followed him as he rushed outside the barn to do just that.