“Fucking rogues,” Atlas muttered.
The trip continued farther from town than he’d ventured on his own. They passed a few items he could harvest, most notably a Mahogany Tree, but he didn’t think now was the time to ask to take detours.
Their trek through the forest ended at a large cave mouth in the face of a jagged rock wall. The wall rose for over one-hundred feet while the rocks stuck out like barbed wire on the cliff face.
“All right. This is our testing ground. We’re going to head into the cave and square off with monsters. This will be a test in how you handle the stress of the situation. We won’t be playing this safe. I’m not carefully pulling mobs or worrying about crowd control. Do that yourself if you see fit, but your job is to keep us alive while we do foolish things. Everyone understand?” Stomper asked the assembled candidates.
Atlas mind snapped to the stupidity of that statement. Are they planning on abandoning all reason for this test? Do they want to die?
He found himself nodding in agreement, anyway. Stomper pulled a large square shield from his bag and drew the sword on his belt. Carhein stepped up behind him and to his right while Shade was nowhere to be found. The two fighters walked at a fast clip as they entered the cave. Atlas and the other two healers followed along in hurried steps.
They rounded the first corner, and chaos greeted them. Odd looking monsters the size of Great Danes with black sandy hide and red eyes raced around the wide open cave. They bunched up in groups of three and four as they ran from one side to the other. Black fins protruded from their front shoulders and hind legs. Atlas stared at one until the name came to him. Demon Landshark - Level 16.
“What the hell?” Atlas breathed before the party truly started. Instead of doing the logical thing and trying to pull them in small groups, Stomper did exactly as he promised and ran to the center of the room, attracting the attention of all the creatures at once.
Panic gripped Atlas as he saw at least two dozen creatures racing for the two fighters. His attention snapped into place and he instinctively cast Barkskin on Stomper. The spell was quick and an aura of slightly brown power settled over the fighter.
Stomper did an amazing job of interposing his shield as the claws and teeth closed in on his body. A column of white light smashed into one beast and it sizzled in place. Atlas looked to his side to see Kangaroo standing there with his arms outstretched and power radiating from him.
Carhein swung with wild abandon at any landshark that came near.
“You’ll rue the day you crossed Carhein the Mighty! Taste my righteous axe foul demon!” His blade sunk into the skull of one monster.
Atlas could only shake his head and return his attention to Stomper. Two of the monsters got through his defense, and he now sported bleeding cuts on his leg and side. A look at the party menu showed he was still at almost 90% HP. No reason to use mana to fix him yet.
Carhein took a hit and stumbled. The creatures used this chance to jump on him, and three of them took him to the ground. Atlas took three running steps toward the man before an explosion of shadow rocked the area around Carhein.
Shade appeared from the power and dashed around so quickly Atlas had difficulty keeping track. It looked like a straight up Killing Spree in action. The area around the downed fighter cleared and Shade jerked him to his feet before the rogue disappeared in a flash.
“Fear the shadows, demons. They work with Carhein now.”
Atlas watched Stomper’s health slowly tick down and cast Harmony on the warrior. The magical power settled over him, and Atlas watched the few trickles of blood dry up. A flash of white light bathed Carhein and his health jumped up as well.
You healed Stomper for 17 HP with Harmony.
What? 17? That’s crazy. He scrambled to figure out what happened. That was more than half of his Nourish spell in one tick. His attention snapped to his staff, and he remembered he now had a large bonus to his magical power and it also had a special ability to increase his healing by 10%. Those bonuses were truly putting in the work now. It healed for more than double its normal tick.
Kangaroo unleashed another dazzling blast of power near the edge of the landsharks. His foolishness pulled the attention of the nearby monsters and a group of five broke off from Stomper and Carhein, charging for the healers.
Atlas lifted his staff and braced for the attack. Two of the creatures headed for him while another two went for Francis and the final one headed toward Roo. The first attack came fast, and he struggled to keep up with the counter. He knocked the blow off course and was about to trigger Counter when he spotted the second landshark jump to attack.
Instead of going for the damage, he dropped to a knee and crouched forward, letting the monster soar over his head. Hopping back to his feet, he squared off again.
A scream to his right drew his attention, and he watched one creature maul Francis as the man frantically swung a small mace with wild abandon. The attacks rarely connected with anything and did pretty much nothing when they did.
One landshark had a firm grip on Francis’ leg while the other clamped onto his shoulder. Knowing he couldn’t delay, Atlas took a few large strides and swung his staff at the creature latched onto the healer’s shoulder.
The landshark’s skull cracked as the metal cap on the staff smashed into its head. It released its grip and leaped backward. Atlas spun just in time to see one of his original targets
