Climbing the Ranks - Chapter 15 preview (Patreon)

Arthur’s eyes grew wide as he poked his head around the corner of the tree. The sight before him was enough to chill any foolhardy thoughts about taking on the monster he had been tracking. A single babi ngepit was something he could deal with, but an entire herd? That was guaranteed to end him.

“I need a damn spear,” Arthur muttered to himself as he pulled away from the edge of the tree, intent on putting some distance between him and the grazing herd. Herd? Was that even the right term? Then again, did he care?

Nope. Herd of babi ngepit it was. Time to run away, as fast as he could.

Yet, halfways on his careful backtrack, the wind shifted. When earlier he had been downwind of the group, now, it was coming in from the side.

Terror ran through Arthur’s body, before he turned and ran for it. No need to concern himself with noise or attracting attention anymore. He did not even bother to worry about if they might smell and attack him. A herd of them? At least one would charge and then the rest would definitely follow.

He ran, crashing through the brush, pushing himself as fast as he could. Leaves and low-hanging branches slapped at his face, unseen spiderwebs caught in his mouth making him spit and cough. Unseen ivy’s gripped at his feet, and roots seemed to reach out of the ground to trip him.

Every step, a struggle.

“I’m getting a damn Agility trait when I can!” Arthur swore, pushing on.

Crashing sounds from behind began to reach his ears. It sounded more like a herd of elephants instead of pony-sized pigs, all of whom were hellbent on running him down, goring him apart and then eating him. Alive, preferably.

That thought made Arthur look back and his eyes widened, for the sight of the monsters barelling right through tiny trees, exploding their very substance was terror inducing. He stumbled, from a root he did not see and sprawled forwards.

Years of training had him turn the fall into a roll and he yanked his head back front in time to adjust the roll to the side a little, allowing him to bounce off the tree directly in his path rather than crash into it. Luck, pure luck saved him as that fall and shift in direction caught a suddenly accelerating babi ngepit smashed into the bigger tree. Shards of wood exploded outwards, one catching him on his cheek as he kept running, the monster embedded within the truck.

“Up, got to go up…” Arthur swore, looking around. The next biggest tree had no low hanging branches but he had a staff.

Five steps as he accelerated as hard as he could and then he slammed his staff into an upraised root, vaulting himself upwards. He hit the second lowest hanging branch in the stomach and arm, losing grip of his staff and crumpling around the branch as his breath was driven out of him

Hanging curled up around the branch, he felt it tremble again and again as the monsters caught up, slamming into him and the underbrush. Screams of rage as they shook the branch and the body, forcing him to slowly pull himself upwards as it shook had him shivering in fear as tiny, hungry and angry eyes stared up at him

Shivering, treed and alone, Arthur hung to the branch as he crawled towards the trunk. All the while the monsters waited for him to fall or the tree that the biggest monster was goring with its ivory tusks.

“Immortals preserve me… what have I done?” Arthur whispered as he stared down below.

***

“Monster, monster, monster below. One wants to kill me and another eat me…,” sing-songing the words, Arthur whittled the wet, green branch he had broken off. The babi ngepit had chosen to stop attacking the tree since the hardened trunk was mostly impervious to their attempts at pulling it down. “But all I got, is a little spear-o-me!”

Silence on his part, beyond the monsters still snorting, tearing up the ground and occasionally slamming into trees in an attempt to dislodge fruits and flowers to gorge themselves upon.

“Yeah, that didn’t work, did it?” Arthur said. “Now, they say you need to fire harden this. But I got no fire, got no reach. Nothing but what my teach… told me?

“I suck at this rhyming thing.”

Below, there was a drizzling, a pitter patter of water falling. The smell rose up, his nose wrinkling as the acrid stench of wild urine that made him wince. Now they were trying to fumigate him out.

“Hey! Stop that!”

Of course, the creatures did not seem to care. More importantly, they might even have understood him for they began to do what animals did, pissing and shitting all around the area.

“Seriously, your magical creatures. Why do you need to do that?”

Again, no answer. But with the branch sort of sharp, Arthur slipped his knife back into its sheath, made sure it was strapped in and stared at the monsters below. He had an idea. A dumb one. But it was only slightly less dumb than trying to run across the tree branches and jump away. So he figured that was a win.

Looping his legs around the branch, he steadied himself and went over the motions he needed in his mind. Finally ready, he shoved himself sideways, using his legs that were wrapped around the branch to force him into a circular spin.

At the same time, he pushed energy into his spear as he chanelled Focused Strike such that he swung around, extending his arms and weapons before him. The attack hit the babi ngepit directly beneath him, the soft branch bending a little before exploding through the hardened monster’s skin. It plunged deep within, almost halting Arthur’s swing entirely.

Using the now embedded crude spear as leverage, Arthur shoved on it and swung himself back upwards even as he grabbed with his other free hand the branch he was still hanging from as he bent from his waist. He pulled himself back up, the staff making a deep slurping sound as it exited the wound of the monster beneath him, moments before the entire tree shook as the herd charged it.

Holding on for dear life, Arthur waited till they stopped attacking his tree before he reset himself and looked at his results.

One monster injured, retreated away. Another one had taken its place directly beneat him, along with a few others that were goring the tree and attempting to shake it apart. Incensed, they did not seem to care that the hardwood was resisting their basic efforts anymore.

It looked like it was going to be a race between Arthur and the babi ngepit to see who would win.

“Time to swing…” Humming to himself, he watched the one below him till it was in position and swung back down, repeating his motions. “Got to get your groove on…”