The Calling of Wrath - Chapter 26 - Monsters of the Night (Patreon)

Alright, this chapter will still be open for all Omega Sponsor and Beta tier Patrons through the 31st of July so as to let everyone who was reading the story here catch up if they wish to. However, after that, it will be moved to the new tier I will be creating soon.

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                                                                            Cassandra
                                                            Year 819 | Month 1 | Day 18
                                                                   Nearly an hour later

I lazily float down the river on my back as I contemplate what to do.

The sun goes down in less than an hour, and I’m stuck outside with nowhere to go.

Check.

My cave is now the base of an enormous living mass of flesh and blood that feeds on the scent of rot.

Check.

And the eggs that I had so painstakingly found and borrowed from that hocka-thing are now probably crushed and covered in that abomination’s blood.

Check.

I let out a sigh of defeat.

So much happening in just a single day.

But at least I should be able to reach Tier 2 tomorrow…

Actually…

I raise my head to look back down the river towards the cave that is now far away.

Would it be possible for me to kill it if I used The Calling of Wrath’s third effect?

I never really gave that any thought on account of running for my life, but would it?

Well… there might be a way. But it’ll be a problem if it doesn’t work.

If I remember correctly, the reavers are just chock full of Wrath, so if I used an empowered Wrath Infusion on them…

But that would also require me to bring them back to the cave.

Wait! I could also just bring them all to attack the abomination before using the skill once its weakened!

I lay my head back down into the water with a faint smile on my face.

Several seconds pass in a peaceful silence, with the only noise being that of the running water and the light breeze running through the trees on either side of the river.

“This is nice…” I mutter as I continue drifting down the river.

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After over half an hour passes, with the only disturbance being a single large fish that tried and failed to eat me, I finally begin to hear the familiar screeches and shrieks of the monsters of the night.

Oh, right. I kind of still need to survive the night before I can implement that plan.

With that thought, I begin to swim over towards the shore of the river.

Once I get out of the water, I do several stretches just to make sure I’m ready before pulling my knife out of my spatial pouch.

And right afterwards, two reavers begin to slowly appear from within the trees, heading in my direction.

I glance at the knife before inserting my MP into it and rushing towards the reavers once the markings begin to glow. The reavers hesitate for a moment, likely having expected me to run away at their appearance, only to continue their approach while their spiderlike limbs begin to come out to play.

One of the reavers quickly swipes out with its clawed limb, only for me to dodge it and bring my knife straight down onto its limb, ending up with the blade sawing straight through the limb with very little resistance.

The reaver in question lets out a shriek of pain while the other one immediately backs up with what I think is a hint of hesitation appearing in its eyes, but I don’t give them any more time and immediately rush forwards, driving my knife straight into the eye of the first reaver.

It lets out an even louder shriek before eventually falling to the ground dead. Meanwhile, I turn to the other reaver, who still seems to be a little shocked at how things are playing out.

“I think I like this knife,” I mutter before slamming it into the back of the other reaver’s cloaked head, surprisingly finding the blade smoothly entering and spilling blood. Despite there seemingly not being anything under the hood besides its eyes.

That’s interesting.

Guess they do have heads after all.

Out of curiosity, after the creature falls dead to the ground, I kneel next to its corpse and attempt to remove its hood, only for my hand to pass right through.

Oh, yeah. Forgot about that.

I try again, except with my knife this time, moving the hood backwards, only to find a head that literally looks like nothing. Just a pitch black empty spot with blood spilling from part of it.

Which is really weird.

I rise to my feet again as more shrieks and some odd noises that I actually haven’t heard yet echo through the forest.

Oh, almost forgot, but there are probably some new nighttime monsters that I haven’t seen yet roaming this forest.

As if on cue, a strange monster walks into the clearing. The creature looks like a large spider with limbs that turn ethereal halfway through, making it the very first time I’ve ever seen a monster that was both ethereal and not at the same time.

This thing… is probably something that was released by the System.

I narrow my eyes at the monster as it suddenly stops and looks back at me.

Yeah, even the name isn’t something I recognize. Also, why is it that almost all of the Tier 1 monsters released by the System are level 10?

I stumble backwards with my knife raised as the strange spider suddenly jumps forward without any prior signs of movement.

Right as its ethereal claw is about to strike at my knife, it suddenly stops and sends a different limb at me, slicing straight into my side.

I grunt in pain before jumping backwards with my knife brandished in front of me.

The creature just stands there frozen with one of its limbs raised as if it were attacking.

What the heck is with this monster?

Just like before, it suddenly bursts forwards and tries to swipe one of its ethereal claws towards my knife, but I move my body out of the way this time and instead bring my knife to meet one of its other legs, cutting halfway through it before it jumps backwards.

The creature then just stands perfectly still like a statue again.

Okay, seriously. What is wrong with this monster?

It proceeds to repeat this process of jumping in at a really fast speed before backing up and freezing in place a couple more times before I begin to force it back, making it unable to do this anymore.

So it switches to an even more annoying style of fighting me by making random movements before freezing and swiping at me as if it were dancing with its legs in the air. And every time I try to attack it, three of the legs immediately rush for me, which I can only block using the knife since the front half of the legs are ethereal.

My eye twitches at how irritating the creature is before I jump backwards, only to jump forwards again right as it freezes, catching it off-guard. The creature panics for a moment, sending its front two limbs to intercept me, but I just allow them to slice into my shoulders as I finally ram the knife into the stupid pest’s face, causing it to let out its first sound since we started battling.

Which almost makes me drop my knife in surprise, but I instead apply more force to it, sending it straight through the head before I reach around with one of my clawed hands and dig it straight into its mid-section so as to make use of my life steal to heal up while its dying.

Once I no longer feel the warmth flowing through my body from my claws, I yank my claws out along with my knife.

“Of all the sounds you could have made,” I ask no one in particular as I stare at the dead spider with an incredulous look on my face. “Why the fuck do you, a spider, bark?!”

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Table of Contents

For those of you who can't read the image:

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Name: N/A

Species: Phantom Arch

Level: 10

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