The Void Horse party traveled down the busy streets of Nomed. Heads turned and silence grew as they walked past the citizens of Nomed. The citizens of Nomed got out of the way of the party, making a straight path. The party traveled to the gates of the city; they had to complete the quests they had just taken. They finally got to the gates, and the guards let them out.
The party stood beside a line of creatures wanting to get into Nomed, and a similar silence grew over the creatures in that line. The party began walking towards the lush forest of Kraude. Eodum decided it was best to have a mission briefing, and started to discuss things with its party, "Alright, we're gonna need to hunt a bamboo troll and an animated vine beast; Sheila you're more experienced at this, why don't you give us a rundown of each monster."
Sheila nodded her head, "The bamboo troll is a large humanoid-plant monster. It looks like a normal troll, but has less intelligence. To make up for this, it has a stronger healing capability than a normal troll. Everything else about them is pretty similar, though the weakness to fire is enhanced in the bamboo trolls case. Because it is a plant-based monster, it's pretty hard to see in a forest like Kraude. The animated vine beast is another plant-based monster; like the bamboo troll it has pretty decent stealth and healing capability, though its healing is significantly worse than the bamboo troll or a normal troll. Because it's a plant-based monster, it's also vulnerable to fire, although again not as much as any form of troll. It's a unique monster as it has many variations. Its body is made of tough, long, sentient vines; the vines are covered in sharp thorns. Many of these vines wrap together to take on the shape of a beast: it could be a boar, bear, bird, anything. Because of the variety of shapes an animated vine beast can take on, its rank varies depending on which animal it tries to imitate. The bamboo troll will leave a trail of large human-like footprints while the animated vine beast will leave a variety of animal footprints. The way you can tell an animated vine beast's trail from their animal counterparts is if the footprints have holes in them. The thorns of the animated vine beast will leave an imprint in the ground."
"Jesus, that was a long explanation, but alright! In other words, I'll be the main fighter in these fights." Henry said.
Sheila nodded and agreed, "Pretty much."
The three nodded and made their way to the forest. They entered the shady, thick foliage of the forest and forced past it. Eodum transformed into a rat and looked at the ground, searching for anything which might lead to the monsters. Sheila and Henry kept their eyes out for any monster-like plants. After about a half hour of searching, Eodum found something. The footprint was like a boar's, but had holes in it. Eodum relayed the information to the party, and Sheila commented, "Looks like this one is taking on the form of a boar; should be around a steel rank."
"Alright, "Eodum responded, "Let's track it down." With that, they made their way down the trail, with Eodum leading the way and Sheila and Henry following closely behind. The trail winded through the woods, and eventually Henry whispered, "Hey, I see it!" The party all looked up and saw the boar-esque knot of vines drinking at a lake. They dove into a nearby set of bushes, peaking over to see the top to see the monster.
It was shaped like a boar, but was made of a tangle of wriggling vines. Each vine was covered in sharp thorns, and tendrils of vines reached out of the monster. They wriggled around searching for something to lash out at. The boar seemed alert, maybe it had heard them coming. That was when a large, lumbering giant came out from the trees on the other side of the lake. It was the bamboo troll.
The monster was shaped like a troll: it was around 7'8' in height, humanoid, had an under jaw, a round belly, muscular limbs, and its ears were slightly pointed. It was completely made of bamboo, from head to toe. It let out a loud roar, and the vine boar responded with its own roar. The vines from the vine boar started whipping around in a frenzy, some getting close to the Void Horse's hiding place.
The three dove out of their hiding place as a thick, spiked vine came crashing down at the party. The noise attracted the attention of the two monsters as three more contestants came into play. The situation became a stand-off, each party holding still in anticipation of the others' movements. The bamboo troll made the first move,
The troll let out another loud roar as it charged through the lake. The lake was closer akin to a pond as it was shallow water, however, it was still enough water to dampen the troll's movements. The vine boar roared at the incoming troll's charge, and its vines started whipping around in a frenzy once more. The vines were aware of their surroundings, and many vines found themselves whipping at the party members.
Henry dodged to the right, and he flew above the boar. Eodum dodged one of them by hopping to the right, and another right after by going to the left. More vines came down at Eodum and it was forced to move in a zigzag pattern to avoid the whips of the vines. Sheila blocked the vine whips with her shield, and used her [Holy Magic], [Holy Shield], and [Tower Shield Mastery] to deflect and damage the incoming vines.
Eodum dove into the shade of the foliage, and erased its presence. The whipping of the vines stopped, and instead they slithered across the ground, searching for Eodum. When they finally got close enough, Eodum did a small flip, and landed its tail on the vines. It pulled its tail back, and rushed at the vine boar. Vines came flying in at high speeds, but Eodum expertly dodged out of the way of each vine. It rushed in and started cutting up the boar with its [Distant Scratch].
Henry began creating floating flames, and launched all of them at the vine boar. They came down onto the beast and exploded on impact. Essentially, Henry was carpet bombing the beast. Eodum and Sheila got out of the way of his rain of fire. He kept this up, burning and withering the many vines of the monster. It cried in a shriek of pain, and turned tail and ran. It sprinted into the water, putting out the burning flames. Henry reached into his [Storage] and mumbled to himself, "That ain't gonna save."
Henry then pulled out a bottle of oil. He crushed the neck of the bottle in his hand. Doing this, he let the oil rain down on the monsters below, while lighting it within his body. The flames spread from his hand down the oil, and covered the boar below. The oil covered the surface of the water, so all it would hurt anything that came near. Then the bamboo troll rushed in, not seeing the flames falling from the sky.
Henry watched as the two monsters roared in pain while also beginning to fight each other. He laughed to himself at how easy this would be, but then noticed something. His left hand was burning intensely, and felt strangely powerful. This was the same hand he used to crush the bottle neck, so was this the result of him being a creature made of fire? Hmmm… this would need to be explored later.
Sheila used her [Holy Magic], and cursed the two monsters. They quickly began to wither away whilst burning. She got in a little closer, and just started forcing the monsters' bodies to rot while they fought. This was too slow: it was effective, but would take too long to deal any proper damage. She then had an idea, she formed her [Holy Shield], and tried to manipulate it to form a small buckler. She then wrapped her rotting aura around the shield, and threw it like a frisbee at the monsters. It hit them, cut through some vines, began toting away at their bodies, and flew back to Sheila's hand. This would be useful.
Eodum began sending claw swipe after claw swipe at the monsters. Each swipe of its paws would sever pieces of the monsters off. This was effective, no need for change. The three kept up their attacks, and eventually both monsters went down while fighting each other. As their bodies collapsed, the trio heard a familiar ring in their heads.
[Congratulations, you have met the XP requirement and leveled up!]
[All stats have been restored!]
… Neat!