Striga prepared her weapon, Corpse Carver and began creating pools of water all around her. Donis was still just kindling the rage within, having it ready to be unleashed at any moment is going to be of utmost importance to him.
Not knowing what to expect, Donis cut out a large chunk of the sand below his feet with Flashpoint Strikes secondary effect. He then used Dragonfire to heat the sand to create a molten pit of glass as a sort of fortification in case the Sandracons came too close to him. The molten glass would act as a deterrent and possibly give him enough time to either run away, or at the very least react to the situation.
Noticing Donis's preparations Striga nodded in approval, being unprepared was the key factor in death in their line of work. She cast her sight away from Donis for a moment and back on to the approaching targets. Something wasn't right, her gut was telling her. Since when are Sandracons this aggressive?
This might be the mutation that the Royal Informant was talking about. She had no idea, nor could she truly create a conjecture from what little she's seen, but her guts telling her these ain't normal Sandracons.
"Donis watch out, there's something wrong with them. I don't know what just yet, but I've got a case of wanting to live, so don't take too many stupid risks," belted out Striga with a far more strained voice than he's ever heard her use.
The monsters have gotten within range of Donis's [True Inspect], and what he's seen only mildly terrified him.
[Sandracon]
[Level: 43]
[Danger Rating: Deadly]
[Mana State: Breath]
[Health: 1,904]
[Mana: 646]
[Strength: 51]
[Agility: 50]
[Perception: 47]
[Intelligence: 6]
[Titles: Hive Mind, Broken Limits, Mutation – Hunger, Sand Demon]
'Weren't they supposed to be only level 30 or so? What the fuck happened for the mutation to bring them up 13 levels? Hunger? Did it force them to hunt further outside of their areas? Fuck, no wonder they're attacking us,' thought Donis rapidly.
Donis took out the Monster Logger, and let it note down what he saw. It didn't take long as there was no physical differences between the mutated versions of the monsters, and their regular counterparts. 2.3m long, flat bodied but with spikes coming out of the back; akin to a sharks fin but placed end to end reaching from head to toe. The scaly skin was golden-beige in colour, blending in with the sand quite well even at high speeds.
Donis could sense the Sandracons approaching from beneath them, his [Void Sense] not missing a thing. It looked like the surface Sandracons were a distraction, and the ones to really worry about were right below their feet. If his [Void Sense] wasn't always they just might have been ambushed for all Donis knew.
"Watch out, there's 4 underneath us coming in fast!" shouted Donis.
"Thanks lad, I was waiting for them to get closer," shouted back Striga as she leapt into the air.
Donis wasted no more time either, but unlike Striga, didn't have that insane jumping prowess.
'Wait, can I jump that high? I never even tried,' thought Donis as he leapt into the air. Much to his surprise, he easily jumped to about 6m into the air. Glee filling his lungs as he realised he could actually do this the whole time, but he didn't have too much time to celebrate, as the almighty power of gravity had threatened to bring him down to earth.
Donis quickly used his [Aura Rework] to create a square mini shield-like foothold mid-air, something he came up with after seeing Striga fight like how she did. He had no way to battle in the air, nor a way to create an advantage abusing superior ground. This was his current solution, but unfortunately for Donis, he had never tried it before, just thought about it.
When his foot landed on the foothold, it supported his weight for a second before he felt like it was going to shatter. 1 Second was enough to let off 3 Flashpoint Strikes charged with Void Mana as he dove off of the foothold out of the way of the Sandracon.
The first one breached the surface of the molten glass and immediately fell back down without gaining much air, roaring in pain as it's skin melted and fused with the glass. The second one was hot on it's tail and followed suit quickly after. Breaching the surface moments later, it flew high into the air, gnawing at the air where Donis was supposed to be.
As Donis fell back down, he looked on at the Sandracon, and all he saw was teeth in that substantial mouth. A dark crevice by which he didn't want to get bitten. The three strikes landed squarely on the head of the Sandracon, echoing and doubling the damage they caused to the healthbar.
The healthbar of the Sandracon dropped by 360. The level difference clearly creating an incredibly annoying problem for Donis – the thing was just too tanky. Void Mana has the property of penetrating defenses far easier, and this was a previously maxed out skill of his, yet it didn't seem to do much to Donis.
The Sandracon roared in annoyance and dove back down, casting what looked like a shimmer in the sand rather than the splash he expected to see. The loss of visual contact didn't bother Donis at all, he could always sense his targets using [Void Sense], but thankfully the Sandracon didn't know this, Donis could use this to his advantage. Donis decided to use the hit and run tactic he created using his [Aura Rework] to whittle down the healthbar of Sandracon.
Unfortunately for Donis, the second one wasn't going to stay down forever. It looked horrible, with it's skin half shattered and half looking like a horrible melted art piece in some sadists gallery. Yet alive it was, and Donis wasn't happy about that.
Striga on the other hand didn't need any fancy tactics to kill them off. She used her fancy footwork to dodge the dual launch of the Sandracons, and used the Corpse Carver to cut one of them in half using it's own momentum from the launch. The other Sandracon immediately gave up on the fight and chowed down on the body of it's fallen comrade.
Perplexed, Striga got caught up watching the event unfold in front of her. Then it struck her like a brick.
'Hunger! Their mutation must be hunger for them to be attacking them from such a distance, and why they're so aggressive,' she thought to herself.
Remembering there is another with her, she quickly spun on her heel and made a beeline for Donis, yet what she saw astounded her greatly. She saw Donis jumping high into the air, creating some sort of platform using a spell, then using two executioner style swords to shoot a near invisible projectile at either of the Sandracons currently after him.
He was clearly struggling, but not defeated. Every time the half dead looking one came too close to Donis, he would breathe fire at them. She could feel the heat waves even from here, and the power behind those flames while not much of a threat to her, seemed well timed enough that it'd cause problems for anyone on the receiving end.
Though she'd like to see Donis fight a bit more, there were more of them coming and she didn't have all day, nor did she think Donis should fight alone. Striga quickly ran to his position and cast a few distracting [Dark Lightning] at them, which ended up mortally injuring one of them, and paralyzing the other one mid dive down. Instead of sinking through the sand as if it were water, it crashed hard on it's head, breaking it's own neck.
Seeing this Donis didn't hesitate and checked their healthbars. The mortally injured one was bleeding profusely and losing HP at a rapid rate, while the one with the broken neck stopped moving, but it's health was still relatively high. High his HP might be, but moving he wont be.
"Donis, no don't kill them just yet! We can use them to distract some of the other Sandracons. You need to create more of those molten glass pits, if you still have the mana to fight!" ordered Striga.
"Yeah, I still have over half of my mana right now. My spells are cheap!" said Donis in between breaths as he cast [Dragonfire] and created pools of molten glass all around them.
Striga began creating clouds of black fog above them, entirely unmoving.
"Wait, I thought you needed to fight, and dodge or something to create that fog!" pointed out Donis as he continued creating little rifts for potential fights.
"Yeah nah, that's there so I can create an optimal fighting space for myself in large groups. I could just fill up an area with black fog, but they'd get suspicious and not fight me if they see it first. By fighting with them and releasing small amounts at a time, I can bait them in and kill them before they realise what's going on," laughed Striga, mimicking a splattering sound.
"You're really good at fighting Striga, I'm so glad you're on my side," said Donis as he took a second to breathe, and to count the upcoming numbers of Sandracons that were about to engage on them.
"You've seen nothing yet. How many and how much time?" said Striga prepping her glaive in a half squat pose.
"We've got 25 coming from below, and 12 from the sides. 10 seconds left," said Donis.
"Perfect, I'll have a shocking surprise waiting for them," Striga said as she tapped her glaive off of her boot.
"God that was Jimmy levels of shocking,"