"I can't make it out, does it look like it's longer than 40 feet (12m)?" Boren hesitantly asked?
"I think so," Alea replied.
"You think so? Why don't you do your scouting thing and find out?"
"You're welcome to get closer to it, you fat dwarf. I'm not taking a closer look until we get some backup."
Callum tuned out the bickering pair. He looked off to the side and saw that Osmar had lit the signal fire; he sprinkled some sort of dust on the flames and they turned blue.
Finding the enemy wasn't the only circumstance that the party on overlook duty would need to signal the castle for. Several prearranged signals had set up for some of the most common possibilities; blue flames signalled that a strong monster was entering the valley.
Callum focused on the lindwurm as it slowly slithered into the valley. It would occasionally pause for a brief moment before it continued.
"It's sniffing the air, I think it's hunting our scent," Ravi said.
The two bickering party members quieted down as everyone realized that Ravi was right. It was headed directly towards the castle. Callum realized that the lindwurm was displaying the same characteristics that Amarok did when he was hunting.
Callum glanced at the castle off in the distance, he saw that there was some activity that he hoped was the departure of several more parties. The lindwurm looked large enough that it had to be either a second tier monster, or it would be right on the cusp of if it wasn't yet there.
He also knew something that the others didn't, the reddish orange dot had been moving down the main pass. He had a sinking suspicion that the lindwurm was that dot; he had thought that it would continue to travel down the main pass, not turn into their side valley.
The Greater Steel Bear had sliced through a group of over twenty individuals without much difficulty. According to the Castle Core's color code, the lindwurm was almost as strong as that monster; they needed backup.
"They're coming. I couldn't make out who, but at least two parties are headed this way," Osmar said as he crawled into place between Ravi and Callum.
"I'll go guide them in," Callum said.
The others quickly nodded. The route that the backup force would likely take would bring them too close to the lindwurm.
_____
Half an hour later, the lindwurm stalked ever closer to the castle, unaware that its intended prey was already aware of its presence; a larger force, led by Wei Jin himself, was observing the monster from a distance.
Among many other things, lindwurms were famed for their aggression and their strong sense of smell. Most scouting attempts on them resulted in the scout being discovered by the lindwurm.
Without a strong backup nearby, any scout would be courting death. Callum knew that lindwurms could travel very fast for short distances; unless they were very fast, the scout would be wurm food.
Alea was right to refuse getting closer to the lindwurm, but, now the reinforcements had arrived, Ranger Terrel—the best scout available—slowly closed in on the monster.
Even the reinforced group could be taken out if the lindwurm was too highly leveled; they needed to know if it was a creature they could fight or not. The larger group had a better chance of safely buying time before the lindwurm's poor stamina got them out of danger.
Callum held his breath as he lost sight of Terrel.
Suddenly a loud roar reverberated through the valley, accompanied by curses from several people nearby. Terrel was soon seen racing back to their group.
"It's a level two Greater Ice Lindwurm!" Terrel shouted as he closed the distance.
"We can take it, remember the plan!" Wei Jin, the former Baron, commanded those around him. He confidently strode forward while the rest of the group hid behind trees or snow parapets they had dug when there weren't enough trees for everyone.
Terrel climbed the slight slope the group was hidden behind before he readied his bow, copying the other ranged personnel up and down the line. Suddenly, the lindwurm was at the edge of the clearing and it roared a challenge at the lone human in front of it.
Greater Ice Lindwurm [M] (Lvl 2)
HP:(2400/2400)
The monster looked even more intimidating up close. Its head had the appearance of a dragon, they were distant relatives of true dragons. The body of the monster was over 40 feet long and it slithered on the ground, helped only by two forelimbs.
Callum estimated that, lying flat on the ground, the body of the monster stood at about shoulder level. The scales were in a striking swirl of white, blue, and grey colors; they were largest on the back and chest.
Jin burst into flames and he grew into the Fire Elemental form that Callum had seen him as once before, except this time he was full of mana. The twelve foot (3.7m) tall Fire Elemental looked small compared to the monster.
Two jets of flame shot out and blasted the lindwurm in the chest, bathing it in a continuous stream of fire, and the lindwurm shrieked in pain. It responded with a roar that transformed into a deluge of icicles that peppered the Fire Elemental; the flames dampened visibly wherever the icicles struck.
"Now!" Esteban, the Aeromancer, shouted.
There were three different parties, and each of them had two or three members who had long ranged attacks. All of them opened up on the lindwurm from a distance. Callum watched as most of those attacks splashed harmlessly off of the lindwurm's natural scale armor.
The lindwurm coiled up like a snake, and then it lunged forward at Jin, quickly covering the large distance between them. The two giant figures clashed together, the Fire Elemental was sent flying.
For several minutes, the Fire Elemental, supported by the ranged attacks, fought hand to claw with the giant beast. Callum could only watch helplessly as the battle raged on; only a little over a hundred HP had been taken off of the lindwurm's 2400 HP total.
Lindwurms didn't possess all of a dragon's innate resistances, but their touch scales made it difficult to land a significant amount of damage onto them. This was a battle of endurance.
The others seemed to realize this too, many of the spellcasters started to slow down their Mana expenditure. The healers also stopped sending their weak attacks in, and solely focused on buffing the group or healing Wei Jin as he continued to clash with the lindwurm.
"Alea, go to the castle and grab anyone that can fight!" Ravi shouted. She reluctantly complied, her hand crossbow did no damage to the monster.
When the lindwurm's HP dropped below 2000 for the first time, it roared as it retreated slightly. It paused to consider the battle as the Fire Elemental once again attacked it with its twin jets of flame.
The lindwurm malevolently eyed the group on the slight rise before it made a beeline towards them. Jin interposed himself in front of the charging monster, but the large mass of the lindwurm wasn't to be denied; physics was a bitch to more than just tiny goblins.
((A/N: There's a bonus chapter today))