Wep - Part III

The mob was a hyena that stood taller than HB, though nowhere near as wide. It had slavering jaws wide enough to bite off Wep’s head, and its spotted coat stood out around its shoulders like an enraged anorak. It would have been frightening if it hadn’t been busy spinning in circles like a pomeranian chasing its own tail.

As it spun, it yipped furiously, and every fourth or fifth cackle held the Fear debuff, causing a cascade of resistance notifications down the side of Wep’s display. He swiped it away impatiently. His resistances were well-honed, and, occasionally, very expensive. He was getting very close to complete resistance against all emotion-based attacks, and while he appreciated the opportunity to get even a small skill-up, ‘very close’ was not 100%, and he had no interest in failing one of those Fear debuffs and being forced to flee.

Raising his loaded crossbow to eye level, he peered down the stock, squinting slightly. He kept [Identify] constantly on for players and NPCs, but left it off for mobs. It didn’t happen often, but he had been attacked by swarms of monsters whose tags combined to prevent him from being able to see the creature underneath.

Greater Hyena (Bite/Howl) - Level 92. Aggressive. 552/837 health points. Weakness: Fire. Diseased.

He blinked. Something had been hitting this critter hard, so where was it? Had a player been struck with Fear and run away? Unlikely. The thin crust of snow beneath the mob’s scrabbling feet was completely destroyed by its own manic gyrations, but the area nearby showed only the hyena’s footprints. They were long, the powerful front legs digging deep into the frozen soil beneath the dirty snow. The animal had been running, but toward or away?

It snapped its jaws, teeth crunching together audibly, and Wep shook himself from his reverie. The thing wasn’t targeting him, yet, which made this the perfect time to get some free shots in on a mob that was actually high enough level to give him some decent experience.

With a harmonic twang, the crossbow released its bolts, and a moment later, all three thunked home. One stuck in the ruff of fur around the beast’s neck, but another stood solidly out of the muscle of its shoulder, while blood poured out around the third, where it quivered in the animal’s throat. That one looked like it had hit an artery.

You have dealt 12 points of damage to the Greater Hyena. The Greater Hyena is Poisoned.

You have dealt 49 points of damage to the Greater Hyena.

You have dealt 107 points of damage to the Greater Hyena. The Greater Hyena is Bleeding.

Greater Hyena takes 10 points of damage from Bleed.

Greater Hyena takes 12 points of damage from Poison.

He grinned. He’d spent the earliest part of his time playing Veritas Online in the Dwarven city of Subterrene, which was, not surprisingly, underground and inhabited almost exclusively by dwarves. As a dwarf, players drank a fermented beverage called Dwarven Kombucha regularly. The stuff was deadly poison to any other living creature, but he and most of his friends imbibed it so regularly that it somehow hadn’t clicked that it was, in fact, deadly. It had taken a simple question from young Rouge the Rogue to change his perspective, and ever since, he had been dipping his arrowheads in it.

The grin faded to a grimace of determination as the Greater Hyena turned its attention to him. It opened its slobbering maw, and something wet and sticky fell out onto the snow. He grimaced, but had no time to think about it as the mob, which probably weighed nearly as much as the half-ton Ham n’ Beans, charged straight for him. He vanished his crossbow into his inventory, and pulled out his hand axe and plucked a knife from the bandolier he kept strapped to his chest. His larger war-axe would do more damage, and keep the thing at a greater distance, but it was slow, and the hyena was not. A weapon that never made contact was worthless.

Fortunately for Wep and HB, the three debuffs stacked on the mob were still ticking down. It lost 10 points per second to Bleed, 12 to Poison, and some unknown amount to Disease, though some rapid mental math determined that it was probably in the range of 12-15. Unfortunately, the damned thing really was fast. It might lose a conservative 34 points of health per second, but it only took two seconds before it was snapping its jaws in Wep’s face.

He was fast, too, though. Far faster than a dwarf had any right to be. Dwarves got bonuses to Strength and Vitaity, but balanced that with a nerfed Dexterity. Unless, of course, they were stupidly wealthy. In that case, they could buy items to make up for their shortcomings, and Wep had been using money to make his life easier for a very long time now.

When the vast jaws clacked shut, the knife was between them, not Wep’s head. The pointed end slid neatly through the monster’s hard palate, so the tip poked out through the patchy fur on its muzzle. Wep was aiming for the soft palate and the brain, but hadn’t been sure he’d be able to get his arm in and out quickly enough. He really didn’t want to have to find a healer who could regrow limbs, or find a way to get himself killed so he’d respawn with a new arm.

You have dealt 84 points of damage to the Greater Hyena.

Greater Hyena takes 10 points of damage from Bleed.

Greater Hyena takes 12 points of damage from Poison.

He didn’t have time for a quick squint at how much health the thing had remaining, but it couldn’t be much more than two hundred points. With his right hand, he swung the little hand axe around, burying its sharp blade in the hyena’s eye, blinding it on one side. As he did, the jaws whipped around and bit down on his forearm. Hard.

You have dealt 52 points of damage to the Greater Hyena. The Greater Hyena is Partially Blind.

Greater Hyena takes 10 points of damage from Bleed.

Greater Hyena takes 12 points of damage from Poison.

You take 74 points of damage from Greater Hyena. You are Diseased.

You take 6 points of damage from Disease.

He swore. The disease debuff was contagious! That almost never happened. Whatever had cast the debuff on the hyena was powerful, that was certain. And now he was less certain it had been a player, because any player high enough level to have a contagious Disease debuff skill would also be strong enough to resist the monster’s Fear and should have either killed it or still been fighting it.

Well, thoughts for another time. Right now he needed to avoid having his or HB’s head bitten off by the dripping jaws heading straight for him. Even though he knew better, the Disease notification had surprised him, making him lose the rhythm of the battle. Now, the beastie was about to eat Wep’s noggin for lunch.

“No you don’t,” he muttered, slapping the side of his helmet. Sad as it was to admit, this wasn’t the first time he’d been faced with a foe who seemed determined to devour him, brain first. Fortunately, he had a custom helmet for just such an occurrence. With a quiet shing, a thousand blades shot out of the smooth surface of the helm. He had no idea what hammer space they were stored in when not in use, and he didn’t really care. What mattered is that as the hyena’s muzzle snapped shut, Wep’s helmet was inside it, and his head wasn’t.

The hyena looked like it had tried to eat a porcupine. Needles stuck out of its jaw, and the hooks on the ends of the blades shredded its flesh further as the mob thrashed, trying to deploy its greatest weapon. With a whimper, it fell to its side and lay still.

You have assisted in slaying a Greater Hyena. You gain 2200 experience points.

Wep leaned forward, unexpectedly breathless as his life continued to trickle away, drained by Disease. Now that he was no longer in combat, his health regen would easily outstripthe damage he was taking, but he should avoid any further battles until he could find a priest to Cure him or the debuff went away on its own.

He caught a flicker of movement from the corner of his eye and blinked, remembering the black lump that had dripped from the Hyena’s mouth. Had that been an effect of the Disease? Was he going to start drooling black slime soon? He grimaced and slid down from HB’s back, walking over to examine the clot, which was now wriggling on the ground. He squinted at it.

Greater Onslaughter Bat (Flying/Disease) - Level 31 . Passive (unless you make her mad). 14/206 health points. Weakness: Disapproval.

Wep’s headdrew back, and his eyebrows drew together to form one shaggy caterpillar marching across his forehead. “What the hell?” He’d never seen a description anything like that before. Its weakness was disapproval?

Quest: “Silus of the Bats” available.

Silus is the familiar of a mage in Refuge. Return her, intact and unharmed, to him within 12 hours.

Success: +25 Relationship with Silus’ master. +30 Relationship with Silus. Disease cure. Variable treasure.

Failure: Silus dies. -110 Reputation with Silus’ master. Refuge is closed to you. Your Disease becomes permanent.

Accept: Yes/No?

Oh. Shit.

He turned around, tucking the small, wet, shivering creature into the depths of his thick, warm beard. “HB, time to run, my hoggy friend! Let’s go!” He threw himself onto the swine’s back and kicked his heels into his mount’s sides with far more conviction than usual. The pig attempted to throw an accusatory glance over his thick shoulder, without much success, but his sharp hooves were already tearing up the ground beneath them as he raced north.

This was the first time in years Wep hadn’t paused to loot a corpse, but even if that damned hyena was made of gold, it wouldn’t make up for permanently being banned from a new city, much less a perpetual debuff. Come hell or high water, he had a bat to take home.