(I have a humble request. If you are reading this and you do not have it saved in your library, please save it so that I can know you are there and alive)
Mark planned to follow the yellow beep on his foot. The green zone would expire as soon as they went out but that would still have less risk of losing their vehicle than to travel on it toward their location.
It was at a distance of a few hundred meters which could easily be covered on foot and that had been the plan. But there was a silver lining in all this which made everything possible to achieve - if someone stayed behind at the safe spot, then it would not expire.
It only worked for parties but luckily, it did include pets. He could leave the kitten behind with the car as insurance. He had expected the kitten to make a fuss when he put her onto the driver seat but the kitten had just curled up over herself and lazily stretched her body.
"Kuro, listen to me. Stay here and take care of things here. I'll be back soon" the kitten seemed to reply back in agreement which made him.
"You're really smart. Please wait for us here" Alan was petting the kitten and Mark found it funny that the teen thought this was really a cat and not a monster in pet form. The kitten purred out in pleasure and settled down.
Now that they had one point sorted, it was time to do the difficult part of the day - to fight the boss. The texture of the dessert part of the canyon was interesting and beautiful. On an ordinary day, Mark might have stopped to admire it in leisure. For now though? Now he took in everything with sharp eyes as he made his way through.
He had the grade B gun Alan had used yesterday while he allowed Alan to use the precious Grade A one. Since Mark was responsible for the kid, he felt as if he should give him the better option between the two.
Besides, the teen had a better aim than him and as much as he was loathed to admit it, it was the safer option.
Not that he would tell the teen that to his face. He did not want to be seen as incompetent by him at all. He was the responsible figure here and he really needed to make a lasting good impression on the teen.
He was sure the teen would be great in the future when he was already phenomenal right now.
The yellow dot leads them to a valley-like place. It was a huge space with sandy hills as its perimeter check, making it a somewhat closed area. It made Mark nervous to walk into such danger.
They would not have a place to run away to if the situation got deicer. Even the natural obstacle was limited which further complicated the whole situation.
But there were two of them which made it somewhat better in a sense.
The box was lying innocently in the middle of the place and Mark knew once he picked it up the danger would come crawling. He was walking into it willingly this time and he was prepared.
"Take cover. We don't know what our opponent is" Mark warned the teen who nodded and hid behind the nearest rock available. Mark walked closer to the box and scanned it. Once it was inside his inventory, he made his way back to hide behind a boulder.
1,2,3,4… he counted inside his mind and once he reached 60 he saw a shadow move fast between the boulders from one place to another.
It was tiny and fast - a combination that Mark had not been expecting and it left him in a stump about what to do. He wanted to aim his system toward its body to get more information but the body was too fast to get a reading.
"Should I shoot?" Alan shouted toward him and the blur changed directions toward the teen. The shadow was still not clearly visible but Mark felt that he had no choice but to engage with it under these circumstances.
It was too quick to get a reading anyway, so compromises would have to be made instead.
"Shoot. Don't ask - just shoot" Mark commanded as he held his gun up at ready. His shots did not make any contact with the fast body.
The monster was nearer to them now, its body clearly shaped like a desert fox but the fur was much denser and the face too mutated.
The saliva that escaped that mouth was red and clearly not normal. The place it fell eroded away faster than Mark could keep up with and it was clear that it was a threat to them.
Alan was trying his best to shoot the creature but it was clear that it was not so successful and the problem was the gun itself. It was heavier than the normal model he had given the teen to use; the new one had been a sudden change.
Alan was not used to the new gun at all so his aim was off.
Mark shot at the fox-hybrid to get it to pay attention toward him and it worked when the monster turned toward him with glowing red eyes. The paws were sharp enough to leave marks on the stones in the vicinity.
The fox drew near as he kept shooting. One or two of them made contact but they were not critical enough to even slow the fix down. The monster made a sweep at him and he heard a screen of his name from Alan before he allowed his body's reflex to take over.
He ducked below the claw and raised his arm to fire the shot right at the monster's face. It was a close shot with no chance of missing and the body disintegrated into light particles before he could right himself.
"Are you alright? Was that it?" the teen asked in a nervous voice. Mark was not sure since none of the previous fights had been that simple. They had a twist involved to them and this did not feel anything like those.
"I'm not sure? Let me check" Mark opened the system screen to check. There had been no notification that indicated that they had defeated the boss and no extra reward.
If that was not the boss, then what had that monster been? A minion? A mini-boss?
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Type: Hidden Boss - Conqueror of Sands - rock
The ruins of nature had been taken over by the vicious clan head who lost itself to its lust for vengeance. The once peaceful clan of foxes fell onto depravity due to human deeds.
Weakness: Its belly, eyes
Beware: The monster will not appear till you defeat its minions first. It will become fiercer as it approaches critical health. Once it reaches red health it will spawn two minions.
Conditions met: 1/3
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Oh god, that was a mini-boss. They would need to defeat two more of those things? Suddenly, things were not looking that great to him at all.
"That was not the monster we have to defeat but it's subordinate. If we want to force the boss out, we will need to defeat two more of those things" Mark cautioned the teen and signed him to take cover.
There were two more shadows that could be spotted in the far end of the place - the other two mini-boss were here and this time together. He had never been more grateful to have a companion with him than this moment.
"Two? We barely took out one" Alan's voice was filled with disbelief and yet his eyes shone with a challenge. The kid was looking forward to this? What kind of kid was this? Was he going insane out here because of all this fighting?
"We will need a plan. We can't deal with them both as we did with the previous one. Let's get a little high ground first" The good thing was that these were desert foxes and not grey foxes who could climb up the trees and cliffs.
The higher ground would provide them with an advantage that they needed to have.
Mark shot a few shots to distract the foxes as he silently made his way toward the sidewall. Alan followed him with his own silent walk and soon they were near the wall.
It was difficult to scale up but the rough texture and uneven surface helped them greatly with it. The monsters were still looking at the palace he had shot before, their feet making noise as they ground against the ground.
They were still fast, faster now that there were two of them to look and divert their attention. Mark took this time to catch on his breath once he felt he had reached a suitable height then pulled Allan up with him.
The moment caught the eyes of the monsters down below and there was a bark their way followed by the blurs making their way toward them. But it was too late for them to be able to get to the humans.
They had the high ground and favourable positioning between the two groups after all. For once in the whole face-off, Mark actually felt himself in an advantageous position overall.