[SD:FS] Green Threat, Yellow Ally - Chapter 10

Without even looking, Gem fires off a wide wind blade into the treetops. They aren’t aiming for whatever is making the noise, at least not i

Without even looking, Gem fires off a wide wind blade into the treetops. They aren’t aiming for whatever is making the noise, at least not in particular. That would have been a fool’s errand. Instead, this was a bit of tricky manipulation they had idly been practicing. 

It is simply that the intent behind the spell is to clear away the branches and leaf cover. Though not to say it doesn’t hit some of this new threat. As leaves and branches fall away, savage monkey-like beings are revealed. A number of which are now bleeding.

They howl down at Gem. Their faces much too close to a human’s for comfort. Though you wouldn’t mistake them for a misshapen human. For one, they have a tail.

Of course, what people would actually point out is the legs. They had four of them. Not in a centaur like set up. Rather, the extra legs are placed above the normal set. It looked quite creepy.

This set up worked for them, though. These uncanny valley monkeys climbed around mostly with the four legs, not even needing to use their hands. Oh, and their fur was a turbid shade of gray.

And now revealed? They poured out of the trees and down upon the caravan. Guards all along the length of it jumped into action to protect the wagons. Though mostly focused on the wagons they were paid to mind.

Silverwhiskers’ wagon was actually positioned decently between a couple other wagons with sufficient guards. So while Gem and the others didn’t get much outside help, at least there weren’t any extra uncanny monkeys adding to their workload.

Gem’s focus narrowed to the space around them as June landed both of her buffs. The claws were out and it was time to Play! Uncanny monkeys came from every side but behind and below.

It was hard for Gem to keep them all away from the wagon. What with her lack of metal armor and any aggro skill. That was fine, though. While Gem didn’t have an aggro skill, without others attacking, the uncanny monkeys stayed focused on them. All it took was to get at least one hit in each of the monsters.

A task Gem found both difficult and amusing. They turned out more than capable of moving through the few monsters coming at the wagon from their side. It was a bit like dancing. The only problem is that along with this dance, they also had to actually do damage.

Under a swing, claw slicing a hamstring, two steps past. Next monster goes for a bear hug, easy to dodge back from. Target a wrist the uncanny monkeys graciously offered.

To the left, to the left, and a slice, slice, slice. Gem leaves three monsters with bleeding shoulders. Dive back to the right as they try to collapse on their position. Spin and kick, connecting across two more monsters.

Gem even has a moment to cast a cheeky wind blade that slices off a couple legs and a tail. “Hahaha! Silly monkeys! You’re not even level ten! Or if you are? Boy howdy, do you need to work on your Body stat!”

From the wagon, June yells over to them, “Yep, low-level beasts, but don’t let your guard down! The wagons with more people are facing higher level beasts.”

Merchant Silverwhiskers releases a spell that puts up a wall between them and the center of the caravan. Moments later, a blast wave passes the group. Though not a physical wave, rather, it was like someone had grabbed ahold of the environmental Mana and gave it a shake.

Silverwhiskers groans as a drip of blood escapes the corner of his mouth, whether from an injury or him biting himself is unknown. “There’s the green threat!”

Gem laughs as they pounce on a monster, “Of course! How could we miss such a fun event?!”

Then, with one hand grabbing the monster’s head, they angle it just right. Bam, they karate chop their other hand into the uncanny monkey’s neck, releasing a wind blade. The monkey’s head comes off in their hand and the blade continues on into a grouping of them behind it.

“I knew that one looked weaker! Wind Blade went right through.”, and they toss the head at a charging monkey off to their left.

On the other side Samuel, Samuel shield bashes a trio of uncanny monkeys away from the wagon. “Down to seven!”

Gem, “Lucky, got twelve.”

Samuel, “Just kill them quicker.”

Gem, “Staying light on spells. It looks like we’ll need to help elsewhere and I want more in the bag.”

Samuel, “Fair. Six.” He pulls his sword out of a monkey that tried to charge him from the side with his shield.

Gem, “I need a proper weapon.”

From the wagon, Emrys laughs, “Those claws seem decent enough. Just need to get better.”

June, “That’s partly my buffs. Good bit of synergy with claws.”

Gem laughs, “Lots of cutting edges!”

June, “Close enough.”

Samuel, “Five.”

Gem growls, “Well you better finish up quick and come help me! Down to eleven.”

Emrys hops off the wagon on Gem’s side, “Let me assist.” And he throws up a couple illusionary walls to wrangle the monkeys.

This mostly results in them trying to climb over the walls and falling through them. Not the most effective, but it gave Gem enough room to start putting the monkeys down.

Still, Samuel easily clears his side of monsters before Gem is even half done. Freed up, he makes his way to the other side of the wagon. With Emrys’ assistance, Gem had gotten through a few more. The addition of Samuel completely changed things.

To have someone who can just stand there and take it? Priceless, especially for Gem’s brand of agile fighting. After all, it is a lot easier to duck out of hiding and stab something when there is actually a thing to hide behind.

Gem finishes things at their wagon with a flurry of  blows. The last uncanny monkey attacking their wagon slices to ribbons. Gem looks around, “Huh, we cleaned things up decently quick.”

Emrys raises an eyebrow, “If by ‘decently quick’ you mean middle of the pack.”

Gem shrugs, “Sure, at least we aren’t the last ones fighting besides that monkey and the guy I presume is the caravan’s Ace in the hole. Though ‘middle of the pack’ might be generous. Seems two-thirds of the wagons have cleaned things up. Now, where can we help?”

Emrys, “Nah, only about half are actually done. I’ve been watching. There’s just a number of wagons that combined using taunts and such.”

Gem nods, but seems distracted, “Huh, what’s happening over by the noble guy?”

The others look over, and there is clearly a problem going down.

Gem, “Wait! That’s that insect gal I talked to earlier! Come on!” And they rush towards the kerfuffle.

The other three glance at each other and follow behind. As they get closer to the ongoing fight, the problem becomes obvious. The antfolk and her people are desperately fighting against some higher level uncanny monkeys. Fair enough.

Except they’re placed next to the noble and it seems that Se’llium had his guards push the monsters that attacked them off onto the wagons next to them. So the antfolk wagon is being overwhelmed, all while Se’llium’s guards are standing by without assisting.

Worse, any monsters that do head towards them are being purposefully pushed at the neighboring wagons. Which is crummy in general, but worse when Se’llium is ordering them to specifically do this.

Gem fumes as they run up to the fight and join in. Not that they let this keep her quiet. “Not very noble! Then again, not much of one either!”

“Afraid of a few monkeys to the point of having your guards dance around like them?”

“There might be a green threat, but we’ve got a yellow ally.”

And on and on. Se’llium did not like this at all. Though to do something about it right now would be very unwise. Not just because it would divert his guards from protecting him, but cause him to completely fall out with the rest of the caravan.

Besides, it wasn’t like Gem was only spitting fire. They were also throwing wind and taking names. While the monkeys attacking the antkin’s wagon were white threats, there were E rank guards holding aggro.

So despite the wind blades not dealing the most damage, clever placement allowed Gem to provide valuable assistance. All it took was a blade to the elbow to throw an attack off or open up a weakness.

Despite the assistance though, the antkin’s wagon is the second to last fight, only faster to finish than the green threat monkey fighting the D rank guard. And of course, by that point, a lot of the guards had gathered at the antkin’s wagon and so Se’llium’s hands were tied. Left to stew after Gem’s barrage of insults.

Not that it was only Gem that ended up mouthing off. The other guards and even some of the merchants hadn’t taken too kindly to the noble brat’s selfishness. After all, it wasn’t a normal sort of self interest.

If Se’llium had simply ordered his guards to only defend him and his wagon, that would be one thing. But no, Se’llium went out of his way to shirk responsibility and dump his troubles on others. Suffice it to say, even those who stayed quiet had quite the tainted opinion of Se’llium at this point.

But whatever might come of that was for later. Right now, everyone has turned their attention to the last fight. Not that either of the combatants was above the others by a magnitude.

Rather, both the guard and the beast were using skills one after another. The D rank guard was swinging around a spiked mace and practically every swing had the spikes coated in fire. On the other side, the uncanny four-legged monkey had plates of stone constantly reforming as they’re smashed.

Now, admittedly, besides those two skills the combatants weren’t quite as free with throwing around the special effects laden abilities. It was mostly the monkey raising stone spikes and throwing boulders. The guard rationed his Mana, dodging the monster’s rougher skill activation.

Gem couldn’t see it, maybe because of distance, but at some point Silverwhiskers had made his way over and explained. “That guard has some sort of ability to see Mana. I won’t say it is required at higher levels, but I also won’t say you shouldn’t strive for such an ability. The guard is using such an ability to see where the monster is about to activate a skill.

“Now, that won’t work on an opponent with a decently leveled skill or actual skill with said skill. The better you are, the less mana will be needed to activate the skill. Oh, it will still need just as much Mana. You just get better at putting the Mana in as it activates without any buildup. Though it can vary by skill.”

Emrys, “You don’t seem that concerned? Like, I assume the guard will win, but I don’t believe either is too much stronger than the other.”

Silverwhiskers strokes one of said whiskers, “Yes, the fight isn’t obviously weighted in one direction or another. But my mention of skill wasn’t out of nowhere. That man right there has likely been a D rank guard for quite a while. He isn’t stringing the monkey along or anything, but he is conserving his Mana. Our worries is now making sure we don’t suffer any stray shots.”

Gem frowns, “Why would someone be in a rank for a long while? Now, as travellers, we probably have a warped sense of advancement. What with not having to worry about death all that much, but still.”

Silverwhiskers shrugs, “The death thing isn’t as big a deal. You travellers aren’t the only ones who get to come back. Though I do find that you all tend to either not know or forget it. Seems that you’re used to places and games where the locals don’t get to come back on the regular.”

Emrys, “Wait, locals get revives?”

Silverwhiskers gestures at Emrys, “See? Anyway, we don’t get infinite revives, but it isn’t enough to hold back anyone that really wants to level.”

Gem, “So what does hold locals back? As far as I can tell, travellers don’t really have anything holding us back.”

Silverwhiskers shrugs, “Eh, laziness and pain tolerance. Just because you come back, doesn’t erase the pain. Nor does it make people want to strive for more after they get a comfortable life. Someone like that?”

And Silverwhiskers points at the D rank guard, “They probably had a bad experience and decided to live a comfortable life instead of continuing. Though it is always possible that they’re one of those sorts that D rank was always the goal. And unless they are regularly hunting green rank monsters, it could take years to gain even a single level, if not longer. I mean, look, the fight is about to end, but not in death.”

The group focuses on the fight again, just in time to see the green rank uncanny monkey running away.

Silverwhiskers nods, “To be expected. Green threat monsters tend to be hard to kill one on one. The system likes to give them something to allow an escape. Though this seems more like the guard pushing the monster to run. Not like they’re paid to kill the beast.”

Emrys, “Why wouldn’t they be? I would figure you’d want to clear the road?”

Silverwhiskers shrugs, “We’d rather a known threat that is wary of our caravans than an unknown threat that doesn’t fear us yet.”

Squirrels - Chapter 9

Red Card - Chapter 11