Chương 77: Bait

Seeing our pint-sized berserker completely disrupt their toxic cloud party, one of the offended Shamblers decided to retaliate. The bulky quadruped shifted its heavy trunk-like legs in the bubbling purple goo, lowered its hardened wood skull, and tried to launch a full-body tackle straight into Aiko's flank. Up on my comfortable wooden branch, I caught the entire movement through the swirling layers of purple smoke.

I quickly adjusted the iron sights of my Standard Issue Matchlock, pivoting the long metal barrel to line up a beautiful trajectory on the charging monster. I pulled the smooth trigger to let loose a single basic attack. A high-velocity blue mana bullet cut right through the hazy atmosphere with a sharp whistle, tracking a straight line before embedding itself deeply into the center of the beast's log-filled torso.

The physical impact did not empty its massive health pool, but the sudden magical sting was just enough to throw the creature off its balance and completely ruin its forward momentum. With the monster's tackle successfully slowed down to a pathetic stumble, Aiko did not waste a single microsecond of the opening. She pivots her stance in the dirt, hoists the massive weight of her black-iron Spine-Breaker's Reaver, and swings the weapon sideways.

Instead of using the jagged step-blade to cut, she violently slams the absolute flat side of her giant sword directly across the dark gaping maw of the Shambler. It was an incredible sight to behold. The massive iron impact echoed through the treeline like a thunderclap, delivering a spectacular, monumental bitch slap that sent the entire heavy log-beast staggering backward into the brush. Down below on the messy ground, June decided it was time to unleash her next massive display of theatrical property damage.

She began channeling her magical skill, standing tall in the bubbling purple goo as a vibrant, crimson aura erupted around her linen tunic, the swirling heat waves distorting the air to signal her impending arcane dominance. Right beside June, Fiona was entirely preoccupied with her own unique operational duties, her delicate nose twitching at top speed as she sniffed the toxic purple smoke. Our favorite druid abruptly snapped her gaze straight up to lock onto my high wooden branch, nodding her head vigorously.

This was the exact survival hint I had been patiently waiting for.

"Finally," I whispered, a thoroughly amused grin spreading across my mouth.

"Our sneaky little uninvited guests have finally decided to get close enough for a personal meeting." Thanks to the prickling sensation in my intelligence department, I rapidly shifted my torso to scan the immediate foliage surrounding my perch. A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation. My observation capabilities pierced through the hazy corruption just in time to catch a fast, blurry movement tearing straight out of the upper canopy.

A rogue Creeper had bypassed our entire frontline defense, scaling the bark in absolute silence to catch me completely off guard. The nasty little menace was already soaring directly through the mid air, its sharp claws extended and ready to aggressively slice my unprotected back into ribbons before I could even drop out of the tree.

With a rapid mental command, I let my Standard Issue Matchlock dissolve back into a cloud of stray pixels, instantly replacing the long infantry rifle with a dual wielding setup of pure training range magnificence. My bulky Training Prototype-7 revolver settled into my right palm wrap while my scuffed Practice Piece flintlock materialized in my left, the weighted grip of the revolver and the smooth trigger of the pistol giving me the exact handling boost I needed for a tight close range situation.

"You should try eating a heavy breakfast of mana bullets instead of my unprotected skull, you overgrown houseplant," I barked right into the air, twisting my torso backward to face the incoming aerial assault. I squeezed both trigger mechanisms simultaneously, letting loose two basic attacks directly into the face of the leaping monster. The high-velocity projectile from my right hand revolver cut through the purple smoke and punched a massive hole straight through the center of its bulbous violet flower face.

Because the Rot-Vine Creeper possessed incredibly light physical defenses, the standard mana bullet easily tore clean through its neural wood center and erupted out of the back of its vine-wrapped head in a spray of black necrotic ichor. At the exact same microsecond, the projectile from my left hand training flintlock made absolute contact with the monster's main torso, immediately triggering a mini explosion upon impact that completely shattered its spindly, blackened vine frame.

The tiny concussive blast wave seared the remaining rot within its chest cavity, sending a shower of burning splinters into the leaves. The entire threat was thoroughly neutralized in the blink of an eye. The completely headless, mangled body of the plant assassin lost all its forward momentum and dropped out of the air, crashing onto the messy dirt below like a discarded sack of rotting garden trimmings.

Just as I was about to celebrate my spectacular double pistol victory, a second aggressive houseplant decided to crash the party, leaping straight out of the dense upper canopy with its wooden talons extended toward my beautiful face. I executed a dramatic, mid-air leap off my branch to successfully dodge the initial slash, but before my boots could even find a safe landing area on the lower boughs, my high intelligence statistics picked up a third little menace waiting exactly where I was about to drop.

This third Creeper was enthusiastically waving its razor-sharp claws in a wide pattern, perfectly prepared to scratch my unprotected features into a modern art masterpiece the second I touched down. With a fast mental command, I let my dual pistol setup vanish into digital pixels, instantly replacing them with the rugged, short-ranged mass of my Deck Sweeper blunderbuss.

Using the reinforced iron band of my weapon's Heavy Stock, I aggressively brought the firearm up to block the incoming attack, forcing the monster's wooden talons upward to throw off its momentum. I quickly tried to pivot the wide barrel to line up a devastating point-blank blast, but these plant assassins possessed extreme agility ratings. Before I could even finish aligning my trajectory, the creature used its incredible reflexes to bound away into the shadows of the leaves.

The exact instant after that narrow escape, the fourth and final hidden stalker materialized out of the thick purple smoke directly behind my neck, aiming a vicious slash at my vulnerable blind spot. I rapidly swapped weapons again, summoning the heavy, cumbersome iron handle of my Field Lobber hand mortar into my grip. I did not bother trying to aim, simply squeezing the trigger mechanism to let loose a frantic, point-blank basic attack to blow the creature out of my personal bubble.

Unfortunately, the agile critter utilized its insane movement speed to perform a high-speed dodge, twisting its vine-wrapped torso completely out of the blast radius just as the primitive tube let out a deafening roar.