Climbing the Ranks - Chapter 19 preview (Patreon)

Moonlight. Travel through the night was dangerous, not because of the lack of illumination. The Tower first floor had not one but three moons hanging above, with each of them providing sufficient illumination that at times, when all three were high above; it was almost like twilight again. Even when the three were moving across the horizon, it was still brightly lit enough that night time travel was viable.

No, it was the monsters that lived at night that was the issue. Normally, Arthur would have avoided travel during thie period; but he had felt the need to leave the corpse behind. Whatever had killed it was more than powerful enough to end him.

Better to run.

Step after step, he pushed onwards during the end of day. Things were moving out there, and more than once, he had to stop and keep his head down while he waited for whatever it was that was out prowling in the darkness went by him. The occasional scream of dying prey and the hacking cough of a cat or another monster had him tensing before the silence would deepen and he would move on.

Even for all the care that he took, he was unable to avoid encounters. The first was a frog-humanoid monster that came crawling out of the thus far safe river. It caught him out by surprise, forcing Arthur to strike downwards with his staff and crush head and limbs when it bit into his ankle. He found himself limping after killing the thing, the poison that been embedded in its jaws forcing him to move carefully as his leg was numbed out.

The speed of his retreat slowed even further with his new limp, forcing Arthur to debate the wisdom of his continued actions. Eventually, he chose to keep going, figuring that moving slower – forced or not – would help decrease the increased danger.

Perhaps it was because he was moving quieter, or because he was used to hunting the babi ngepit; but their presence further up the river, sleeping in a small clearing in a circle of mud and shit was spotted before he managed to stumble directly into the herd.

Crouching low, favouring his injured leg, Arthur bit his lip. The monsters were sleeping, unaware of his presence. A full herd of monsters were there for him to take full advantage of, if he dared. Of course, he risked waking them if he made a mistake. On the other hand, there were over twenty monsters there – a surplus of cores.

Looking down at his staff and then at the sword that he had found, Arthur sighed. He was not the most conversant with the weapon but he had been trained. And a sword was better than a staff, at least for slaying something that was sleeping.

Arthur lay his bag and staff down, then slowly limped forward, doing the best he could to ensure that his foot did not drag too much. It was tense work, lifting one foot after the other as he moved closer. The first was a big male pig, snoring heavy.

Forcing himself to breathe slowly, Arthur raised his sword and positioned the weapon about a foot and a half above its foreleg and then shifted the weapon again, down the torso a couple of inches. He did not know the animal’s anatomy that well, but he did assume that there it was likely where the heart was.

His hands trembled a little, eyes darting over sleeping forms all around him. None seemed to be awake, none seemed to notice the quiet killer among them. Then, pushing with everything that he had downwards, Arthur slid the blade into the monster’s body, punching heart and lung with one swift motion. The monster thrashed a little, but with his full weight bearing down on it, the creature did not move too much.

One down.

Slowly pulling his weapon out, Arthur moved over to the next body, limping forwards with each step. The next was a small baby monster. For a second, Arthur wondered what the point of having baby monsters there were, but in the end, he knew there was no point asking such questions. All that mattered to him was that the monsters gave crystals – smaller ones, perhaps, but still crystals.

Sword raised, plunged down. The pig barely even twitched as he killed it.

Then he moved to the next monster. And the one after. Breathing slowly, adrenaline coursing through his body with each second, Arthur found that his numb leg was fading. The poison was running its course, though so was his nerves.

Each twitch, each muffled snort, it made him wince.

Arthur forced himself to continue, moving from body to body. He was nearly done, working in a circle towards the center where the massive boar that led the group slept. Rather than approach it on a straight line, Arthur had been moving from monster to monster on the outer edges since they were all more spread out, among other things.

Perhaps it was the smell of blood that littered the surroundings, perhaps just the turning of the breeze that alerted the creature. Even as Arthur plunged his blade into another sow, the creature kicking and snorting lightly, the boar twitched awake. An eye opened, and then the head turned as it snuffled the air.

Tiny, evil black eyes met Arthur’s own brown ones. His eyes widening, Arthur jerked the blade out from the sow as the boar clambered to its feet, mud sucking at its body with an audible slurp. The smell of shit and blood, mud and river water washed over Arthur in sudden proximity as adrenaline, faded from the long minutes of killing rushed back into him.

Reacting first, Arthur threw himself forwards into a two-handed lunge, thrusting his sword forwards. Targetting the area between the monster’s eyes, he threw the full strength of his cultivator body behind the attack even as he triggered Focused Strike.

Surprised and still waking up, the babi ngepit managed to turn its head away, long tusks tearing at Arthur’s arms. The blade did not stop though, tearing brown skin and glancing off hardened bone in the skull to slip into an eye. His blade penetrated deep, bursting lense and boucing off the insides of the eye socket as the monster continued its turn and Arthur himself was thrown aside.

Arms throbbing, he staggered backwards as blood ran down the torn muscles along one arm. His hand spasmed a bit around the grip, forcing him to clutch tighter with his other arm.

No time to wait though, for the babi ngepit was turning back. Already too deep into the fight and with more of the herd waking up, Arthur threw himself back into the fight, swinging the blade around to cut and chop at his opponent.

A couple of good strikes which did nothing but bounce off thick hide and hair, a barely dodged goring and then Arthur was forced to flip away as the other monsters charged him. Retreating hurriedly, he twisted at the last moment to stab down at another babi ngepit, the adolescent monster that charged him only half the size of the monstrous leader. A chop took off its front leg, leaving it crippled as Arthur kept backing off into the treeline.

Fight from the trees, that was all he could do. Either that or retreat. But greed had him eyeing the monster cores left behind, the one in the lead boar. He would not give up this attempt, injured or not. Not without a try.

Weaving between the tree, monsters charging from all directions it seemed, Arthur was forced to put the full extent of his boosted attributes to use. He was stronger, faster than he had ever been – a pre-Tower Olympic athletes optimal strength, speed and flexibility. He could do this.

Or so he told himself, even as he barely managed to dodge aside attacks, was left limping and bloody as monsters bowled him over or tore into his back. An unlucky blow, unseen from a wily monster towards the end of his battle threw him out of the woods back into the small clearing, forcing him roll and clutch at his injured back.

The monstrous lead boar arrived outwards, pawing at the ground. Half-blind, it had let the others of its herd chase Arthur around in the forest, waiting until he had been cornered and thrown outwards before it made its move. Now, with the cultivator only just beginning to recover, it charged.

Still on his hands and knees, Arthur looked up to see the monster rushing him. Time seemed to slow down, even as his gaze sharpened and focused upon the monstrous boar’s open mouth that kept moving up and down as it charged. There was a small gap, a tiny space between big lips, heavy tasks and savage teeth that his attention had been arrested by.

Instinct, driven by the unusual focus that had overtaken him had Arthur stepping to the side, into the monster’s blind spot. It turned its head, legs shifting as it changed directions a little but Arthur was not planning on running too far.

No, he was going to follow the flow of movement.

Backhand powering the thrust, leadhand guiding it, he followed his gaze, timing it just right to slip through the tiny gap. Through tusks, pass lips and between teeth into the soft palate of its throat. Skin within the creature’s mouth gave no resistance, and his sword went all the way in.

Then the monster hit him, and Arthur was flying, sword left embedded in mouth.