We had high hopes for the Montosaums; killing the beast god surely meant a special reward, both for the achievement and just from the loot. And, of course, an ocean of experience—the Montosaurus’s level was too high even for me to see. Irita and Patrick should get over level one hundred at least. But while the girl was lower-level than everyone else, she had to perform a special role for which I gave her the Balancer.
We’d decided to catch the beast god with live bait. The troggs just so happened to have determined the next two unlucky ones that had lost the daily tournament, to be offered as sacrifice.
“We play our drums and the Great Reptile comes,” Movarak said, explaining the mechanism of their sacrifice. “Those wiio are to become a part of the Great One wait for him at the Place of the Final Path.
Part of the Great One… Wow, I thought. More like fertilizer for Trixie and Ryg’har. They’ll find the pile and celebrate: “Woah! This is good shit!” The gardener and kobold shaman had become fast friends, and they had a field day when the Montosaurus returned—divine fertilizer made plants grow as if on steroids.
“It is time for the Great One’s dinner,” I said authoritatively.
“But he’s already eaten!” Movarak gasped. “I don’t have anyone else to offer him today! Those declared as sacrifice need time to say goodbye to their families and spend the night with their wives. That is their sacred right!”
“We have something to offer the Montosaurus, chief,” Bomber inteijected. “Your task is to play your drums. The chosen one of the Sleeping Gods will handle the Great Reptile after that.”
The trogg looked at each of us, sighed and nodded.
“What do you plan to do?”
“We’re going to smack the reptiles ass and see how it sounds with your drums,” I answered. “None can hurt the followers of the Sleepers. The terrible Behemoth is angry. Vengeance is close.”
It took a lot of effort to hold back my smile while I rattled off all that pretentious crap, but it did the job. The trogg’s face lit up and Patrick clapped him on the shoulder.
“Come on, do what the boss says.”
“Boss?” Movarak asked, confused.
“Yeah, that’s another of the great Scyth’s titles.”
I heard Crawler and Infect tlying to mute their laughter from somewhere behind me, a safe distance away…
The Montosaurus didn’t react at all to the low thrum of the bongo drums echoing through the jungle. I anxiously watched the clock—a little over seven hours until Mogwai respawned. Yemi had messaged me not long ago to say that the White Snake was willing to meet with me, and just as I decided that we’d have to cancel our rendezvous with the dinosaur, I heard the crash of the monstrous beast’s distant footsteps. The earth shivered, vibrating through my legs.
“He’s coming! He’s coming!” Movarak shouted in ecstasy.
“Hide!” I ordered, preparing for battle.
Ten seconds later, I was alone. My group and the troggs hid in a rock crevice. I wasn’t worried about my clanmates—they could always revive—but the NPCs were dear to me.
I formed a strategy based on the skirmish I’d had with the Montosaurus when I needed to use Inscription to write Plague Fury scrolls. Let him chew on me to make Reflection kick in, create some scrolls for the future, and then, when the beast’s health dropped and he decided to run, Irita would hit him with the Balancer. At that stage, the whole team would get involved. Each had to deal at least a single point of damage. The reptile wouldn’t last five seconds against our group fire at Irita’s level twenty.
The plan was good, but it went wrong right from the start. The thick-headed reptile wasn’t as dumb as we thought. Emerging into the meadow which the troggs called the Place of the Final Path, the Montosaurus cocked its head like a bird, saw me and froze. Hesitating a moment, it roared, turned around and ran away!
“Plan B!” I shouted to my friends, turning and flying after the dinosaur.
I caught up to him, grabbed onto the back of his neck and attacked with a series of strikes, tearing into him with Reaper’s weapon. The Scythes pierced an artery, releasing a fountain of divine blood. Trees splattered with it greedily stretched their branches to the puddles, drawing in the blood and growing at a rapid pace.
The Montosaurus roared, turning its head this way and that, trying to reach me with its front legs and throw me off, but I held on fast, thrusting my left arm up to the shoulder into the creature’s back and gripping onto its spine. With my right hand, I kept dropping Hammerfists.
A mist of blood clouded my eyes, the world flickered, claws ripped against Diamond Skin. The monster ran another fifty’ yards and realized that he couldn’t pull me off. He fell to the ground and began to roll, trying to crush the pesky biting bug on his neck. Fun times…
“We’re here, Scvth!” Crawler shouted. “Be ready on the count of three!”
I stopped shouting out swear words to rasp: Okay! and started summoning pets. The swamp needlers Iggy, Watchamacallit, Little Trunk and Alien injected their larvae into the Montosaurus, reducing his health by twelve percent. Thunder roared and lightning flashed as Storm attacked the beast. My Immortality activated as Infect shredded his guitar.
“Two!” I heard Irita shout over the din.
I didn’t hear one yet! I thought, and the girl shouted:
“Three! Activating Balancer!”
Figuratively, I started to breathe easier. The Montosaurus, now lower in level, was many times smaller, now more like a velociraptor. Our weights were almost the same, and now I was the one holding him beneath me. I waited for each clanmate to deliver a strike, then fired a Crushing Hammerfist charged with both vindication and plague energy.
Incredibly, although we were fighting a mob at level twenty, and a single hit from any of us should have been enough to finish him off, he survived. His life dropped to one
