Rune Seeker

Hiral instinctively backpedalled as something burst out of the bush in a rush, knobby brown limbs swinging some kind of weighted club in an overhead chop. Up and over the thick end came, then thwacked into the ground where Hiral had been a second before. The creature scowled at Hiral as if it was annoyed he’d had the audacity to avoid it.

“Troblins!” Nivian shouted, more of the rough-skinned creatures charging out from both sides.

Their crude weapons wailed at the party of Growers, who seamlessly collapsed into a circle to protect each other’s backs.

A circle Hiral was on the outside of.

But he didn’t have time to worry about that—the Troblin in front of him was already recovering from where it had missed its swing, whipping the weapon around from the side for a second go at it. Some kind of guttural growl escaped its lipless mouth past teeth like thorns, its breath smelling like a pile of earthy dirt, and it stepped forward…

Directly into Hiral’s straight kick, which smashed its flat-nosed face. Wood crunched beneath his heel, and the Troblin flipped over backwards so violently, it actually landed on its chest.

This is level twelve? It’s so slow.

Hiral shook the disbelief out of his head and reversed the blade in his right hand into an upside-down grip. Then, as the Troblin pushed itself up to wobbly hands and knees, he stepped in and drove his sword into the creature’s wood-skinned back. The natural armor of the bark-like skin held for the briefest part of a second, but it apparently wasn’t nearly strong enough to deflect Hiral’sattack.

The masterwork blade punched straight through the Troblin’s back and out its chest, green blood splashing to the ground as the thing howled in pain. Howled, but didn’t die. Its right arm swung the weighted club around to try to catch Hiral in the legs. From that position, and with only one hand on the weapon, the swing was so slow, Hiral nimbly jumped back to evade it, but was forced to leave his sword embedded in the Troblin’s torso.

Growling like a feral animal and dripping blood from its face and chest, the Troblin once again took its weapon in both hands, struggled to his feet, and charged at Hiral.

The chest wound looks bad, but I must not have hit anything vital. Its End is probably a bit above average if I was able to punch through it, but not kill it, he analyzed as he dodged one swing and then the next. Out flicked his sword to parry a blow and test the creature’s Str—can’t be higher than ten—and then he stepped around the next swing and brought his sword down in a vicious arc, cleanly separating the arm at the elbow.

Another howl of pain, more spewing of green blood, and the Troblin staggered forward, but still didn’t fall. Yeah, Endmust be its highest attribute—maybe twelve. Dex is abysmal, somewhere in the range of five to eight. With enough information from the Troblin in front of him, Hiral darted in, spun past a weak punch from the creature, and grabbed the hilt of his weapon driven through the creature’s back.

Twist. Twist. Pull. He ripped the sword free and then kicked the Troblin in the ass, sending it stumbling to the ground. As green pooled around its chest, it didn’t rise again.

No way a level twelve Shaper would die this easily. Are creatures on the surface weaker, even though they’re the same level?

Hiral snapped his wrist to flick the green blood from his blade since he didn’t have an immediate answer to his own question, then turned his attention back to the melee. A dozen or so Troblins surrounded the Grower party, half that number again dead on the ground around them already.

Wooden armor, eerily similar to the Troblins’ skin, covered Nivian from head to toe, and his whip lashed out like a living thing, constantly moving. While the individual hits didn’t seem to do much damage, every Troblin caught by the thorns roared in pain and turned hate-filled eyes on the tank. Behind him, Wule and Seena glowed green, though Hiral couldn’t immediately tell what they were doing despite the small pulses of solar energy that signaled they were using abilities—or spells, or whatever they called them. Covering their backs, Yanily and Vix moved like greased lightning, darting in and out of the Troblin ranks and leaving green blood in their wakes.

While the bulk of the enemies was focused on the Grower party, another trio emerged from the woods, something about the one in the middle different from the others. Where most of the Troblins carried weighted clubs or crude blades and wore little more than a loincloth, this one had a staff similar to Seena’s and sported a wolf’s-head hat. Like Hiral had done, this strange Troblin looked from where most of the Troblins faced off against the Growers, and then turned its attention to Hiral.

Mouth twisting into a lipless, cruel smile, the Troblin lifted a hand to point at Hiral, and a blue notification appeared in front of him.

You have been afflicted with the Lesser Target debuff.

Lesser Target: Enemies will focus on you.

You have been afflicted with the Pile Ondebuff.

Pile On: Suffer slightly increased stacking damage for every creature beyond one attacking you.

Hiral blinked at the notification, then quickly dismissed it as he looked at the Troblins all suddenly turning in his direction. And it wasn’t just the ones around the Growers, but more rushing out of the trees to join them. At least twenty, including the strange Troblin that had apparently used Lesser Target on him.

Twenty Troblins, each increasing damage by even a slight amount, could get pretty dangerous pretty quickly, despite his decent End.

“They used Pile On on Hiral!” Seena shouted as the mass of Troblins rushed toward him like a wave.

What do I do?

He could run—he had to be faster with his 20 Dex—but what if more came out of the woods behind him? He’d just be getting further away from the party, and he was sure going to need their help. No, running wasn’t the answer. The Pile On debuff didn’t matter if he didn’t get hit, and he’d already proven he could take a single Troblin on. So, Hiral readied his swords and instead charged at the rushing horde of creatures.

Still, this could go very poorly.

Blue notifications sprang to life out of the corner of Hiral’s eye as he met the rush of Troblins, but he didn’t have time to read them. The first swinging club went for his knees to bring him to the ground, but he pivoted on his lead foot around the attack. Trailing leg coming up at the same time, he spun it over a second weapon, then brought the back of his heel down on a third Troblin with a satisfying crunch that dropped it to the ground.

More movement to his left forced him to dive as soon as his foot touched down, dodging a chopping swing and then rolling under another so close he felt the wind across the back of his neck. Shoulder, back, roll, and he sprang to his feet, both blades lashing out as he rose in a spin. Green blood sprayed in a circle around him as the nearest Troblins fell away from the attack, but more immediately filled the gap.

Bringing his weapons back in close, Hiral moved from offense to defense, parrying aside club after club. Luckily for him, the Troblins’ low Str meant that, even two-handed, there wasn’t a lot of oomph behind the swings if he caught the attack properly. Still, there were too many, and though he parried and parried and parried, one got through.

Pain shot up through his hip as the weighted end of a club slammed into it, and a flashing blue notification popped up in front of Hiral’s eyes.

You have been afflicted with the Staggering Blow debuff.

Staggering Blow: Reduces Dex by 5 for 1 minute.

The notification vanished almost as quickly as it appeared, but the debuff lingered. The pain lanced through Hiral’s hip with every movement, slowing his reaction speed and numbing his leg. For such a small creature and the low Str Hiral estimated they had, that blow hurt.

Of course. The Pile On debuff. Stacking damage for everyone attacking me if they manage to land a blow. A couple more hits and it won’t be the Troblins dying here.

Redoubling his efforts, Hiral slashed his sword across the face of the Troblin that had hit him. The splash of blood luckily got in the eyes of its nearby comrade, allowing Hiral to mule-kick backwards. The Troblins were so tight around him, he practically couldn’t miss, but the power of his kick tossed his unfortunate target toppling straight back to the ground in a tangle with several other Troblins. With a second of breathing room at his back, Hiral launched forward.

Another swinging club came in at his right, so Hiral twisted left and snaked his sword around the attack, pushing it further out with its own momentum. Off balance from the maneuver, the attacking Troblin stumbled into the path of one of its allies and took a crude axe to the face. Green blood burst outward as the Troblin’s head nearly exploded.

Critical hit?

Hiral didn’t have time to dwell on it, already moving in the other direction as the now headless Troblin fell into the path of the rush from that side.

Stab, parry, slash. His swords worked in quick unison on the small creature directly in front of him, only scoring shallow wounds—but still enough to drive it back—and then he stepped forward on his good leg and leapt over it. Slow to react, the Troblins continued to push toward the center of the circle where he’d just been, while Hiral quick-stepped from head to head, then finally cleared the rush.

Suddenly at the back of the group, Hiral spun around and struck low, hamstringing the nearest pair of Troblins, then turned again to rush away from the mob. Pain lancing up his leg from the overuse turned the rush into more of a stumble, but Yanily and Vix passed him in a flash as he moved, hitting the pile of Troblins like whirling dervishes.

Yanily’s spear moved like a striking serpent, the shaft and blade seemingly defying the laws of being a solid object to slip around defenses in a constant stream of blood-drawing stabs. Troblin after Troblin fell in a straight line as the man pushed forward. Vix, on the other hand, danced around the outside of the ring, never slowing as he punched, kneed, and kicked his way past.

All the while, the Troblins basically ignored the two men carving them up, pushing and shoving to get past them and back after Hiral. But then Nivian was there too, his whip snapping in between Yanily and the constantly moving Vix. Glowing green eyes turned to him for the briefest heartbeat, but then the effects of Lesser Target took over, and they focused their gaze back on Hiral.

“Can’t believe you’re still alive—again,” Seena said, coming up beside Hiral and raising her staff.

Green light pulsed out of her at the same time Hiral felt a surge of solar energy, and small roots instantly grew out of the ground at the Troblins’ feet. The roots weren’t thick or tall, but they wrapped around ankles and feet, slowing or tripping the small monsters and making them even easier targets for the damage dealers.

“Me neither,” Hiral said, glancing at the three small red icons beside the blue one he could still see in the corner of his eyes. Are those because of Pile On,Lesser Target, and Staggering Blow?

“Wule, can you…?” Seena asked as the other man stepped up beside Hiral as well.

“Are you sure?” he asked.

“Yes, I’m sure. He’s part of our party, treat him like one. Please.” Another pulse of Seena’s green light caused dozens of small… splinters… to appear in the air before her.

“Fine,” Wule said as the splinters shot out to embed themselves in any soft Troblin parts they could find. “I’m going to heal you now. Do you have any debuffs other than Pile On?”

“Something called Lesser Target and Staggering Blow,” Hiral said, swords still at the ready, though Nivian, Yanily, and Vix had things well in hand. “Seena, there was a Troblin dressed differently than the others. It was the one who gave me that Pile On debuff.”

“What did it…?” she started to ask. “Oh, wolf’s head for a hat? Got it. Vix, new target.” She pulsed again with green light.

Vix’s head immediately turned to look at the strange Troblin, and then the man practically vanished from sight. Appearing beside the Troblin a heartbeat later, Vix ignored the two guards it had with it and laid into it with a vicious combo of punches and knees. The poor monster didn’t have a chance, and it dropped to the ground in a bloody mess before its allies even had a chance to react—but even that didn’t save them from Vix’s follow up.

Whatever the strange Troblin was, its death had an immediate effect on the battle. Two of the red icons vanished from Hiral’s vision, and the remaining Troblins all paused and stumbled, like somebody had punched them in the face. Already getting routed by the party, the creatures’ sudden stupor spelled the end of the attack, and the last bark-skinned creature quickly fell.

At the same time, there was a pulse of solar energy from Wule, and warmth flowed into Hiral’s body, quickly sweeping down and gathering at his hip.

You have been healed by Nature’s Mending.

Nature’s Mending: Recovers minor injuries, and removes minor debuffs.

Staggering Blow has been removed.

Hiral let out a breath as the pain in his side faded, then shifted a little back and forth to make sure it was completely gone.

“Thanks, Wule,” Hiral said. “That’s a great ability. Er, spell. Whatever.”

“It’s a mid-Rank spell, and it has a cooldown of ten seconds, so try not to swim in Troblins again,” Wule said. “It also doesn’t mend broken bones.”

“That cooldown isn’t too bad,” Hiral said. “Some tattoos have much longer cooldowns between abilities.”

“You two can talk shop later,” Seena said. “How’d we do?” she called ahead to the other three sweeping through the Troblins to make sure they were all dead.

“Didn’t quite hit nineteen,” Yanily said. “Maybe one Troblin short.”

Seena rolled her eyes but didn’t comment. “Anybody injured? Vix? Nivian? Okay, Wule, can you see to them too? Great. Yanily, you check the bodies for anything valuable; Hiral, you’re with me. Two minutes and we’re heading to the dungeon.” She gestured for Hiral to follow her over to the strange Troblin.

Hiral almost missed the gesture; his eyes were on some flashing notifications that had started popping up during the fight, but had stayed oddly out of the way. He felt like he could pull them out and look at them if he wanted to, but…

“You’re probably seeing experience notifications,” Seena said. “This is your first real fight, right?”

“Oh, is that what those are?” Hiral asked.

“Yeah. Our PIMs automatically keep them minimized during combat so they don’t distract us. You only see the important notifications, and I’m not sure if you noticed or not, but you don’t even really need to read them. They pop up, yeah, but somehow your mind knows what they say without taking the time for your eyes to really register all the words.” Seena crouched down at the strange Troblin as they got to it.

“So much I don’t know about the PIM,” Hiral said, “but I can ask those questions later. What was this guy?”

“No idea,” Seena said. “First time I’ve seen one of these. Let’s see, based on the experience notification, this was a Troblin Shaman. You said it debuffed you?”

“Yeah, two debuffs. Lesser Target and Pile On. I think one may have caused the other.”

“Something like that. I have a Target spell myself—no Lesser part, though. It’s what I used to let Vix know what I wanted him to kill. It probably combines with Pile Onto make the Troblins frenzy like they did. By the way, seriously, good job staying alive. I’ve only ever seen Vix move like you do. You have some kind of movement-based class?”

“Uh…” Hiral started.

“Nothing of value at all on these guys, and no way I’m doing more than looking,” Yanily said, coming over to join them. “From a distance. If they keep their stuff under their loincloths, well, they can keep keeping it.”

“That’s fair—they don’t usually have much,” Seena said, but grabbed the wolf’s-head hat. “Taking this, though. Okay,” she called, turning back to the rest of the group, “let’s get to that dungeon. We’ve wasted enough time here.”

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