[Hyaenid Raider - Lvl 6; Marked to Die]
Vasquez’s flames struck the raider just after my skill tag activated. The boost from my skill helped the spell sear its flesh against its armor, forcing it to whimper loudly.
An axe flashed from behind, Francis appearing at its back and bringing it down to its knees. A quick burst of speed brought me in front of it and a mere slash to the back of its neck ended the creature a second later.
[You have Slain Hynaenid Raider - Lvl 6]
[Ability Activated: Soul Usher (F)...]
I dismissed the System notifications, ignoring the silvery glow of the creature’s soul as it absorbed into my body. It was the twentieth kill we had managed, and the tenth soul I had harvested. But my mind wasn’t on the possible gains I would be getting from my class ability.
Twenty kills was nothing.
Dozens upon dozens of the creatures still swarmed about. Each one that was brought down by the military’s gunfire or a Hunter’s blade just resulted in the beasts' bloodlust gaining more steam.
Yips and laughs echoed over the streets and through alleyways as the fight went on. The furry humanoid hyenas looked to enjoy even the death of their comrades, and they fought harder with every kill from either side.
“This isn’t ending, we need to close this breach,” Barry shouted behind me. He was pulling his own sword from the back of a fallen raider as well, cleaning the metal along its slick fur.
“But how? Where the fuck is this thing?” Huwett strode up behind him, Vasquez and Norton close on her heels.
“They look to mostly be coming from that way,” I pointed towards a wide alley where, sure enough, another group of a dozen beastoids were running out from.
“Then that’s where we gotta go,” Barry said as he strode toward it.
Blood splattered, blades gleamed, arrows loosed, and flames streaked as we cut our way through the raiders on our way. I had given up on making sure I got the killing blow and instead focused on keeping our momentum going.
Barry swung his shield wide, smashing a raider into the wall of a nearby building just as Francis nearly cleaved another in half with his axe. Three arrows landed in rapid succession in another raider’s torso, dropping it to the ground like a sack of goblin-shit.
A fourth caught fire from Vasquez, causing it to screech and run around frantically.
My own blade split open the throat of a fifth, and as I pulled my weapon back into proper ready position, Barry was already clashing with a sixth, Francis running headlong into a seventh not far away.
We were far more powerful than the Hynaenids, as they were called. But their sheer numbers slowed us down, making us fight for every foot of distance we travelled.
[You have Slain Hynaenid Raider - Lvl 6]
[You have Slain Hynaenid Raider - Lvl 5]
[You have Slain Hynaenid Raider - Lvl 7]
[You have Slain Hynaenid Raider - Lvl 7]
[You have Slain Hynaenid Raider - Lvl 5]
[Ability Activated: Soul Usher (F)...]
Notifications flashed and were swiped away again and again, matching the rise and fall of my sword as we fought. We entered the alley, bodies and blood making the ground slick and our footing uncertain.
“Well, you think they came from there?” Francis pointed his axe at the crumbled wall thirty feet inside the alleyway. The building was entirely exposed, showing a corporate interior that was also smeared in crimson.
“I’d bet all eleven of my levels on it,” Huwett said, her bow twanging in between breaths as she loosed arrow after arrow into the charging Hynaenids.
Upon closer inspection, it was obvious that the beasts were pouring from the opening. They ran into the alley in twos and three, some turning our way to be cut down by blade and fire, but many also ran in different directions, spreading out to sate their bloodlust and hunt other prey.
“Wait one second,” I said. Barry looked back to me and nodded. I gave a thumbs up, it was nice to have the trust of the Paladin.
The next second, I was bounding forward, jumping from a dumpster in the alley onto a fire escape. From there, I kicked off the railing, clear to the other side of the alley and caught the edge of a window sill above the blow-open entryway of the corporate building the monsters were coming from.
I peered inside, getting a full view of what was going on.
The interior looked like it used to be a large office space, but it had been mostly cleared out, cubical sectionals, desks, equipment and other furniture was packed into a far corner of the large room. Ringing around the edge instead was various equipment that I recognized. Sensors and rad-ion detection dishes, a wheeled rack of charcoal lined protective refractory suits sat behind a desk covered in rifles and ammunition.
At the very center of it all, was a dark blue dungeon rift floating above a small obsidian platform.
It looked like a common-grade dungeon had manifested inside this office building, and someone, instead of reporting it, had taken it upon themselves to study it. Somehow, someway, this had caused a breach, and there were Hynaenid Raiders now basically pouring out of the rift into Earth.
“It’s a dungeon rift!” I shouted down to the others below, “The monsters are just running straight out of it. We need to close it maybe?”
“Let’s kill all these guys and make our way in,” Barry yelled back.
I gave a mock salute, which earned me an eyeroll from Huwett and an exaggerated huff from Barry. I then let go of the window sill, dropping down directly on top of a raider that was stepping out into the alley and driving my swordtip into his skull from above.
He collapsed, dead before he even knew where I was attacking him from.
[You have slain Hynaenid Raider - Lvl 6]
An arrow flew over my shoulder as I stood crouched over the body, followed closely behind by one of Vasquez’s firebolts. Squeals and shrieks accompanied the smell of burnt flesh only a moment later, and I turned to rush inside the building, ignoring the smoke that stung at my eyes.
[Hynaenid Radier - Lvl 8 - Marked to Die]
I focused on and tagged the first monster I set my eyes on, dashing toward it. The creature was already badly burned, and was busy trying to put out its fur which was currently set ablaze. It didn’t spot my approach until it was too late, my runicblade already slicing through the smokey air and into its throat.
Spinning with the attack, I kept up my momentum and mentally transferred my skill to the raider that was standing next to it. This one was already raising its own sword preparing to attack me in gleeful revenge of its kin. My dexterity was far too high for it to handle, though, and my attack pierced its eyes and the soft orbital bones, into its brain, all in one blow.
[You have slain Hynaenid Raider - Lvl 8]
[You have slain Hynaenid Raider - Lvl 5]
[ Skill Progress, Marked to Die -> Lvl 3 Beginner ]
I smiled at the skill progress notification, but didn’t linger on it. There was still a lot more monsters to kill. And based on the silvery glowing orbs that were hovering above my most recent kills, a lot of soul essence for me to harvest.
My blade cut the air in front of me as I swung it down, flicking off the accumulated blood. Then my eyes found another raider in the room, closer to the portal than the last, and I ran towards it with a smile.
Barry, Francis and Norton came in from the alley after a minute of my having free reign to slaughter without supervision. But the rate of the monster’s deaths didn’t slow with their arrival, it quickly sped up. Huwett and Vasquez joined up not thirty seconds later, and the rate of bloodshed increased once more.
We hacked, sliced, thrust, burnt and skewered our way closer and closer to the dungeon rift. The monsters were still jumping through in two and threes, and kept coming at us to add to the mounting carnage. It almost became a sheer wall of bodies pressing against our advance. But we didn’t falter, and even as our breaths got heavier, and our arms weaker.
Eventually, I saw an opening, a moment of reprieve between the arrival of some of the dungeon monsters, and a din in the battle where I had a clear line to the rift from my position. I wasn’t certain that reaching the Dungeon Rift would close it, ending the breach event. But it seemed like a logical assumption then.
So, without hesitating, I decided I had to go for it.
“Cover me!” I yelled out.
Giving no further explanation, I leapt ahead, clearing the dead bodies of two Hynaenids I had just brought down. One seemingly saw me coming and swung out with a large saber, forcing me to duck under the weapon, sliding along the ground on my knees.
I came back to my feet and pushed even faster, slipping just past a second monster and coming within just ten feet of the rift itself.
It was only a matter of two more steps, and for me to reach out, and be able to tough the rift. If only two more raiders didn’t step out of the portal at exactly that moment, ending my attempt entirely.
I sidestepped to narrowly dodge a downward cleave from one of the two that wielded an axe almost as large as Franics’. The second monster had a spiked mace that he swung horizontally at my torso. I brought my sword up, blocking the mace by catching its shaft and pushing high, causing it to sail over my head.
“Watch it, Adam!” I heard Huwett’s voice behind me, and I didn’t even look back over my shoulder before dropping low and rolling to my right.
Just in time, as the saber wielding raider from before had followed after me and attack from behind, its weapon crashing into the ground where I had just been standing.
A sudden
fwip,
followed by a gurgling sound came from the would-be saber wielder right after, and I finally hazard a glance in time to see it fall to the floor with an arrow sticking through its throat from behind.
“Thanks, Angela!” I yelled, before refocusing on the two raiders in front of me.
The one with the axe had stepped up, its weapon raising over its head for another might downcleave. It was the same attack it had tried before. Though, no one ever said the early common-grade dungeon monsters were smart.
I rushed forward, moving inside the beast’s guard, and slammed my sword up under its armor into its stomach. It lurched, and suddenly stopped, its axe still raised. Our eyes met for a brief moment, then I wrenched my sword to the side, splitting open its torso. The Hynaenid’s eyes widened as its guts spilled out on to the floor, and they went glassy a second later.
[You have slain Hynaenid Raider - Lvl 7]
The other monster was unfazed by seeing its brethren opened like a soup can, and attacked with its mace. I shifted the dead Hynaenid still standing in front of me, and used it like a shield to take the blow on my behalf.
The spiked mace sunk deep, and then got stuck on the corpse of its kin. I shoved the corpse, and the still struggling Hynaenid that was trying to get its weapon free, off to the side. Then i took two steps, touching the dark blue rift with my hand.
The world shuddered for a moment, as if time stopped to appreciate my efforts as well. Then the rift suddenly blossomed, growing three times in size in a fraction of a second.
[Event Update Notification:
Dungeon Rift Breach Event (Common):
Defeat the Hynaenid Lord Raider!
Rewards: ?]
“Uh… what?” I looked at the notification in confusion. We had killed the monsters and I reached the rift. There was no Hynaenid Lord, at least none that I had seen.
I closed the notification in time to see a huge clawed hand suddenly burst through the rift in front of me.
It caught me bodily at full speed, and my feet left the ground the same moment that my breath left my lungs. Shortly after, my barely conscious form sailed through the air and crashed through the brick wall of the corporate building before rolling to a stop in the middle of the street.
“Oh…” I coughed, “that Hynaenid Lord…”
1.17 Be Prepared