Chapter 353 - Assessing the situation (Patreon)

Blue, Leo, and Tiger were running towards the scream they had just heard. They couldn't tell if that voice came from Hera or from Alex, but it didn't sound like they were celebrating something. They moved quickly through the woods, hearing more loud noises and grunts. When they arrived, the Dream Invader was attacking someone, but they were moving so fast through the trees that they couldn't tell who was fighting against it. Leo pointed at the monster, and Tiger dashed towards it, slamming its body against the creature's back. Not wanting to give it any breathing room, Leo pulled his spear and charged at the invader as well. His spear pierced the shoulder of the monster as it shrieked. Before, it could make more noise. A pair of hands clasped around the creature's beak. Blue went after Leo, but she stepped on something that yelped and had to stop and look down.

Laying on the floor, the controller saw Hera holding her sides. There was some blood around her armor, and it seemed like the explorer was in really bad shape.

"Are you OK? What happened?" Blue kneeled by her friend's side.

"Hurts like a bitch," Hera replied while grinding her teeth. She was trying to use the healing spells to close her wounds. When the monster was about to attack Alex, Hera managed to block one of the claws. However, by doing so, the creature spun, and the second claw slammed against her armor before falling on top of her. Luckily, it wasn't enough to make a deep wound, but even so, the two longest tips of the claw broke through her armor. The blood was coming from that area, and, though Hera was sure there would be a massive bruise on her side, she didn't feel like anything was broken or that the claws hit any organs. It was mostly a flesh wound that ended up bleeding more than it should due to the monster's weight. Alex also took the creature away from Hera in just a moment, giving the explorer time to rest.

"Here, drink this," Blue shoved a small vial with red liquid inside in Hera's mouth. Anyone in the MAZE would recognize that in an instant. It was a health potion. Those things were moderately expensive and could only be used if the wound was fresh since they worked much like a battle heal. The potion would use the residual mana from the attack to help it heal the wound. The main difference was that the potions already had some magic inside them, so the effect was better than most healing spells that people would randomly pick up. The drawback was the fixed amount of mana and the lack of control over where the healing would be applied. If you have other wounds, even old ones, the base healing of the potion would try to fix everything.

"Thanks," Hera replied after downing it in a single gulp, "Ugh. This tastes like shit."

"Well, good medicine is supposed to be bitter," Blue put out her hand to help her friend up.

Leo, Alex, and Tiger were relentlessly attacking the monster. Alex was focusing on keeping the monster's mouth shut so it couldn't make more noise than what they were already making. When the creature rose one arm towards the assassin, Tiger launched his tongue to hold the monster's arm in place. Alex jumped up and pushed the invader's arm against its body with both her feet without letting go of the beak. Leo did a rapid stab on the monster's back, trying to hit its spine to cripple it. However, it didn't matter how much he stabbed. His spear didn't find any type of bone or hard material. It was almost like this creature was made of only fur, muscle, and fat. Despite that, Leo didn't let up. He kept stabbing, opening more and more holes on the back of the invader.

The monster tried to push its assailants away, but it couldn't free itself. Tiger's tongue strength was overpowering, and the way Alex was levering her body made it hard to move its arm. Adding that to the wounds on its back that messed up with the muscles it would need to use to raise its arm, and the invader didn't have enough force to get free. Alex pulled one of her daggers and, in a quick motion, stabbed the creature right between the eyes. With a heavy thud, the monster toppled over to the ground, motionless. Both Leo and Alex were used to making sure a creature was truly dead, and they continued attacking for a few seconds. Only after the invader's body dissolved into the ground leaving only a few gold coins behind that they stopped their assault.

Seeing that, Alex dashed back towards Hera, who was by Blue's side checking her wounds, "Are you OK?"

Hera turned to Alex, "Yeah, how about you? Did you get hit?"

Alex shook her head, "I'm fine. Why did you jump in like that?"

"Because you were in a bad spot, and I know you have the debuff when you get seen," Hera replied.

"So? I messed up. You didn't have to do that," Alex gasped.

"I know I didn't have to, but no offense, but my armor is much better than yours. I mean, your is just leather. Mine is made out of metal. If those claws hit you as that thing wanted, I'm sure you would be in much worse shape than I am right now," Hera rolled her eyes.

Alex started to protest again, but her complaints were quickly shut down. Even if they were going to have that discussion, this wasn't the time nor the place to do so. Hera kept going with her healing spell while they quickly talked about the fight against the Dream Invader. It was hard to give any useful feedback, but there was a possibility that they would be weak against magic. Or at least, poison. Since the creature tried to evade the attack. Usually, when something was resistant to something, they wouldn't even bother dodging the attack. That being said, this was only the case for mindless beasts. If they were smarter, it would be possible that they were dodging the attacks exactly to deceive their opponents. While the group talked about the monsters, Hera took the chance to check her [Hunter's Catalogue] to see if there was any information that could be useful.

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Hunter's catalogue

Dream Invader– Level range: 15

Caniform – Strength affinity

Bonus effects: 1%

A bear-like creature with a hooked beak and hardened, immovable claws. The Invader hunts the Sleep Sprites or any other creature in the forest to eat it. They are capable of even turning the illusions created by the sprites into reality, as long as they are ready to feast on their flesh. The Dream Invaders don't have a bone structure and are being made only of flesh and magic.

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"So… apparently they don't have bones, and they can make the nightmares that the sprites create become realm but only to use them as food," Hera said.

"How do you know all that?" Blue turned to her.

"My version of the hunter skill. It tells me what I already found out about the monsters and gives some insights that I might not have been able to figure out."

"Oh right. I can check mine too," Leo stopped for a moment and opened his own catalogue. From what Hera could tell, that part of her skill was the same as the one hunters had. There wouldn't be any glaring differences in the information available when she knew as much about the monster as Leo did. This was confirmed as he talked about what his catalogue had to say. Aside from some extra information about how it felt to attack them and how the spear pierced through them, everything was the same, just explained in a different way.

"The plan is to attack with spells then?" Blue asked.

"Yeah, or magical attacks. Things are starting to get more specialized now. It would be great if we found another monster on its own, and I think we should all attack it at once. That way, Alex might even get her sneak attack off more easily," Leo nodded.

"OK, then. Let's get going. I still haven't punched anything," Blue took the lead this time, and they kept going towards the area they had seen. It didn't take long for another Dream Invader to appear. This one was already looking in the direction of the group, which meant that it saw them at the same time they saw it.

Blue dashed towards it at the same time the monster started running at them. Using her clouds as a footing, Blue jumped over the monster and delivered a charged electric punch to the back of its head. The monster fell to the ground, flailing around because of the electricity. Its claws were destroying some of the surrounding trees, making it impossible for anyone to get too close. Hera and Alex took the chance to cast their spells aimed at the beast. Wind blades and poison needles flew towards it, repeatedly impacting. Feeling that the poison took hold, Hera activated her poison control to make the ailment even more deadly, but there was barely any effect. It was weird since she could feel the poison spreading and clogging up some parts of the monster's body, but it was still moving without any issues.

Suddenly, the invader jumped up a few meters off the ground and grabbed on to a tree, pulling itself and using the trunk as leverage to spin around. Its feet also had claws, but unlike the hands that were completely solid, the feet seemed more malleable. Each nail was individual, and the monster could move it at will, even changing the sides where the claws were pointing. Watching that was almost like seeing someone bend their fingers backward and make them touch their wrists. Hera created a stone wall in front of the monster, hoping that it would disrupt the creature's movements. Unfortunately, that didn't work. The Dream Invader was so nimble that it easily jumped over the wall, even using it as a foothold to jump behind Leo.

As the creature was about to strike, Tiger head-butted the monster with all its strength. Even after the impact, the frog didn't change trajectory. Its legs were strong enough not just to push the invader away but also to keep going and slam it against one of the nearby trees. With a roar, the monster borough down its claws on Tiger's back while it was being pushed towards the tree. The frog kept pressing the invader against the tree, pinning it down and letting out a loud squeak that disoriented the creature, that was just in time to make the invader lose some of the strength on its arms, making the claw only draw blood from Tiger instead of something much worse. Hera and the others were also affected by the sound. Leo was the only one who didn't feel the effects. He dashed after his pet, surrounding his spear with fire, and pierced the monster's head. Both the tree and the creature quickly started to burn, the smell of burnt hair spreading through the entire area. However, the strike quickly killed the monster, and Leo began to tend to the frog's wounds.

Hera was holding back in using her fire spells because she was terrified about the idea of causing a forest fire in the middle of this dungeon. Luckily, the fog on the ground made the area too damp to allow the tree to burn just with a strike like that. With a sigh of relief, Hera went to help Leo. Her healing spells could be very weak, but it was better than nothing.

"How is he?" Hera asked.

"Hurt, but it didn't get too deep. If I didn't use my loyalty skill, I'm not sure he would've kept going with the monster. I should've trusted him," Leo was also using a healing spell. He had learned a lot of ways to help his pet, but they could only be used on his pet. Such a harsh drawback meant that the buffs and heals he could use were much more powerful than expected. Seeing the difference between the power between spells, Hera stopped wasting mana and just tried to calm Tiger by petting its head.

"You know… I think we need a better plan to deal with those things," Blue sighed.

"Yeah. Like it's one thing to get a bit hurt if they are many, but we've been getting hit when it's five versus one, and it's not just by stray punches or something. Those attacks could've done some serious damage," Alex nodded.

"We might need to approach this in a different way. Maybe making a trap or using something to scare them," Leo suggested.

"Say, Hera? Doesn't your relic lets you cut some of the strings?" Alex turned to the explorer.

"Yeah. What do you have in mind?"

"Remember that old movie with the kid that gets left at home during the holidays and some thieves try to go inside?"

Hera smiled, "I think I know where you are getting at."