[Ghash the Kobold King is at Fort Sobaka]
[Ghaki the Kobold Sorcerer is at Fort Sobaka]
[Ghen the Kobold Knight is at Fort Sobaka]
[Eshu the White Devil is at The Two Pillars]
Monster Link – connecting the Nightmares of Alamir!
I had no words.
Of all the possibilities that ran through my mind when I contemplated what the Monster Link feature did, I did not anticipate something of this nature. An app for finding monsters? This was actually… useful.
I need allies to recruit… but… how do I go about doing that?
I could not make people fight for a cause they did not believe in. I could not make them fight for stakes they possessed no interest in. Not unless I wanted to force them – but that would be a logistic nightmare. The point of recruiting a strong group of companions was to make my task easier and not the inverse.
I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it.
I ran through the list of names and locations in the Monster Link. The names at the bottom were the ones that sounded most promising, while simultaneously sounding like the ones to avoid. Canterbury, Giggles, Grimm and Eshu – two of which were Archdemons, a species that sounded oddly terrifying, one of which was, if I was recalling my mythology correctly, some sort of half-man, half-horse abomination, and the final one was literally a devil. Some other names, Arol and Erzili seemed to be a bit more accommodating, and although I knew what a poltergeist was, I had no idea as to what was a Slithercreep, or what was a Barbeast.
Then there were the Kobolds on the list. The least likely candidates because I doubted Kobolds had anything to offer in a fight against god-killers.
[Sixth Sense]
The whistling sound of something approaching me from the forest came. I moved on instinct. My hand swept into the air, snatching an offending object aimed for my skull. The object was black, sharp and pointed in the manner of a needle… or quill.
“Map.”
Two new icons. Both icons were red. One was that of a ghost in sheets. The other resembled an inflated porcupine. Both were rushing at me from the North, before splitting up in two different directions, one clearly going left and the other approaching from the right.
Enemies.
The foliage of trees was thick enough to obscure sight, any sort of combat in this dense forest, the Hlahan Forest as it was called, would be favorable to those who could make the most of the terrain. The trees were high enough to climb and rain down projectiles from up above, but the spaces between trees were suitable enough to use as cover. This meant my ability to fire off [Diamond Bullets] was limited with the dense vegetation obstructing my line of sight, although doubling the power of the shots should compensate.
The narrow and confined spaces between trees were ill-suited for people wielding heavier weapons or riding on any sort of mount. With the darkness of the night, it also meant visibility was considerably reduced, and the advantage was in my favor, as my cloak granted me a great deal of stealth in forest environments.
[Sixth Sense – DANGER DETECTED!]
A figure burst through the foliage like a tiger in hunt of a grazing gazelle. Short, red-haired, rabbit-eared, and cloaked in withered red robes and a matching hood, there was zero hesitation between the moment of their appearance and the moment they poised to strike. Their body seemed to flicker and glitch, like a virus on a computer screen or a hologram with heavy graphical lag.
“[Diamond Bullet].”
The familiar crack of supersonic air cut into the night’s silence, the projectile marking home. The usually accompanying sound of diamond tearing into flesh did not occur. The bullet phased through my attacker, tearing haplessly into the line of trees behind it and off unto the horizon.
Incorporeal.
My attacker screeched out a battle cry, the short red-headed poltergeist summoning a weapon that almost dwarfed their form. A bloody piece of wood with dozens upon dozens of sharp black blades attached on both sides. My mind blanked for a second as I recognized the weapon. Is that… a macuahuitl?
“Golem!”
My golem swung wide. My attacker phased through unbothered. The ancient Aztec weapon with deadly obsidian blades reached me in an instant. I rose my Elvani Dagger in reflex, my Iron Gauntlets raising in caution.
The shockwave from the impact made me grit my teeth. My feet skid against the earth from the unexpected weight behind the blow, sliding me backwards and forcing my back against a tree. My gaze snapped to my Elvani Dagger, the weapon looking significantly worse for wear from withstanding the hit. The durability had gone down to the single digits from a single hit. From withstanding a single hit from my diminutive sized enemy.
“My,” I said as I locked weapons with the small red-hooded attacker. “What pretty eyes you have.” My gaze was able to peak under the hood slightly. Then above the hood, a name hung.
Arol
[Fort Zvyar Scout]
[Little Berserker]
[Sacrifice of the Aljutha]
Leporinian Poltergeist
Lv. ?
The macuahuitl wielding, red-hooded rabbit-person poltergeist was a young preteen girl. Never in my life did I believe such a nonsensical sentence would run through my mind. A snarl escaped her lips, and the pressure against my dagger increased tenfold. The Elvani Dagger in my grasp could only withstand so much damage against the obsidian blade and heavily absurd strength of the poltergeist that was beginning to irritate me.
Your [Elvani Dagger] is badly damaged.
“You’re… pretty strong for someone so small.”
“You’re pretty chatty for someone so weak.”
Your [Elvani Dagger] has broken.
Fuck –
It happened faster than I expected. My [Elvani Dagger] snapped in half like dried bamboo in a panda’s jaws. The oversized macuahuitl swung for my skull, and self-preservation instincts forced me to raise both my gauntleted hands up to catch it.
As a normal human attempting to catch a baseball bat swung horizontally at their face could testify, it was
