[NR] First Wave - Chapter 541

They didn’t retreat. At least not on the first day. Though even the third wave had still been entirely composed of normal beasts. Well, normal as far as NeoRealm goes. While a badger with a snake tail and fangs would be quite an oddity irl, it wasn’t actually magical or anything.

More interesting was how the beast waves showed up. Now, normally the Deep Wilds will do what it can to avoid people seeing it change. Even going as far as to wait for someone to go behind a tree for a moment, only to change everything outside of their field of view. Though instead of any actual intent, most scholars agree that this has more to do with it being easier for the change to happen when not being locked down by a person’s active viewing. Those players who looked into it put it down to quantum physics.

The Deep Wilds did not bother waiting for the challenge, which is odd as it generally does. No, the edge of the clearing shimmered like the air was much too hot, only for the terrain to change to something new. And that something new included a collection of beasts about a hundred yards out.

All the beasts looked confused, which is fair enough. Unbeknownst to the trio, the Deep Wilds had done a tricky bit of spatial manipulation to get those beasts there. Though the most amazing part of that is the fact that the Deep Wilds is not even sentient and so this was all done with less purposeful action than a slime mold.

Of course, the beasts don’t remain confused for long. After all, there was a perfectly fine trio of people just over there to savage! They could figure out where they were later. For now, the hunt was on.

Then one of the wolfen beasts fell over dead, an arrow through the eye. An amazing shot, though it certainly helped that the beasts had all been standing still because of the sudden change in surroundings. If Rosha was to be honest, she hadn’t even been aiming for the eye, but rather the heart.

The loss of a beast, however, was enough to galvanize the wave and they all started running at the trio. The 19 remaining beasts let out a horrendous noise as each of them howled, brayed, hissed, and so on. While the collection of beasts was similar to one another, even the simple wolves tended to be crossed with something else, a theme that would carry through the rest of the challenge.

Then they arrived at the first of the three. Not Jason, but rather Courtney. While he wasn’t quite a tank, Jason had more experience in a stand up fight, so he was back at the building to defend it and Rosha. Courtney, on the other hand might not have been quite as good at group fights, she was excellent at striking from the shadows.

So, while I say they arrived at the first of the three, they don’t actually know it yet. In fact, most of the beasts howl past her location and it is only as the last couple are going by, that she strikes. Without warning, a wolf crossed with a crocodile falls to a precise dagger to the base of the skull.

A handful of other beasts notice this, but the rest continue their charge. Perfect for Courtney as this reduces the fight to something manageable. This is especially true as those are the back were the slowest of the wave and thus most vulnerable her to agility based fighting style.

Of course, this means that they left the rest of the wave to Jason. Oops, another one falls to an arrow. Because Jason isn’t alone. It is just that Rosha has taken up position on the building’s roof.

Though this isn’t as easy as some might think. After all, while the building is sturdy, it isn’t some modern construction. He made the roof out of bundles of long grass. However, Jason used wooden poles more than sturdy enough, so much so that Rosha was able to balance herself on one end of the roof’s peak.

It isn’t the most stable of positions, but for someone like Rosha? Well, as long as all she is doing is staying still besides firing off her arrows, it would be alright. The biggest downside being a reduction in accuracy, but even with that penalty, she seems to be doing just fine.

As for Jason? Well, he suffered a bit. It was kind of a blind spot, but he wasn’t some genius at fighting multiple people. Sure, he was a lot better than your average young adult. Then again, he had more years under his belt so that isn’t the fairest comparison.

Now, you might point to his previous work against the swarms and other similar gatherings of foes that he felled. Did real fine there! The thing is, especially with the swarms, those groups were too good at working together. Fighting a swarm would be better compared to fighting one creature with a bunch of bodies.

The closest to a normal mass combat would be the dungeon. Except every single monster in there was the same thing, drawing from the same combat experience. Not quite as “in each other’s heads” as a swarm, but maybe even less variety in tactics.

This though? A gathering of random creatures where the only thing they agree on is attacking the trio first. Chaotic is about the only defining feature of this fight and Jason wasn’t doing so hot.

Even Lily, who had been hiding in the roof until the fight started, was doing better. Sure, the beasts were having a hard time hurting him. A body like wood is good for something, after all. In turn, though, Jason was having a hard time actually finishing things.

The beasts would get hurt, but once that happened they would back off and let another take their place. And the longer Rosha observed things, the odder it seemed until she figured it out. “Jason! Something’s not right. There must be some force nudging the beasts.”