Not to be a stuck record but this writers block is still going on. Its starting to lift, I really enjoyed writing the fight scene in this chapter, went by in a flash. Its not late today though, unfortunately I am. I've got early morning shifts so I'm gonna post this and leave all of you. I really do need to get back into the rhythm again, give myself time to edit properly. Even if my editing isn't great haha.
As much as Ellena enjoyed a day of hanging out with Samora, she was very excited to get back into the dungeon. She now had fist to punch with, maybe even wield weaponry. Though, obviously she had no weapons yet and the rusted leftovers around the dungeon would not fare well.
There was no doubt in her mind that the Mollit boss would be the toughest of the three boss monsters. Ellena hoped to gain at least a few levels against the Rat Lord. She did worry that she was being too confident now though. For all she knew the Rat Lord was miles stronger than the Grey Wolf Matriarch, but then they wouldn’t have struck such a balance.
It looked as though the dungeon had recovered some of its population. Still, Ellena did not want to risk damaging it any further. She had but two targets on this floor now and had the capability to avoid most others now.
She made her way to the home of the Rat Lord, knocking a few weaker Monsters away, dodging others, but making sure that none died. Even if most did end up very confused, they were, at least, alive.
When the Mushman arrived at her opponent's destination, she saw the great Rat lazily swinging a leg off the edge of his perch. A few others were scattered about, hopefully not enough to damage the dungeon. None had noticed her yet, but they were about to.
Ellena took a deep breath, called out her Mushroom Shield, and grabbed it with her fancy new hands. She was quite strong, so she had to wonder. How hard could she throw this shield exactly?
A grin spread across her face as she launched the shield towards the giant Rat. It pierced the side of his oversized hide, splattering the shield with blood. The Rat screamed as he was launched into the air, knocking the other Rats around him like ragdolls.
A handful of the lesser Rats had noticed Ellena from all corners of the room now. There were ten in total. Five weaker basic Horned Rats, four guards that Ellena couldn’t identify and of course the Rat Lord.
Even with the clear difference in strength, the four weaker Rats charged forth at Ellena, three with horns down, one further back with their claws bared. Ellena, feeling confident with her defense, steadied herself and let the horns pierce her. Except only two went through, and they were not deep.
In fact, the third had broken, they had attempted to pierce her helmet. At this point it was comparable to rock, but far less brittle. The other two had caused her a bit of pain of course, but barely any damage to her health. The experiment was a success, monsters as weak as Horned Rats would have trouble harming her now.
As the broken-horned Rat reeled back in pain and fear, Ellena grasped the horns of the other two, pulling them out of her body. She lifted them off the ground, neither one able to reach her with their teeth or claws. She swung them around, using their weighty bodies to knock the fourth Rat away before it could even reach her.
At this point the Rat Lords guard had taken full notice. It would be stranger if they didn’t with their boss flung halfway across the room. Two of the beasts charged at Ellena, the other two after their Lord.
Ellena threw the Rats she was holding at the guards both hitting one of the two charging her. One was impailed on its horn, the other knocked into its body, barely slowing it down. The second guards horn began to glow a faint green light and then started leaking what looked like a gas. Ellena didn’t know what it was, but it didn’t seem worth testing her defense again.
Just before the horn connected with her tough flesh, Ellena barreled to the side, narrowly avoiding the glowing horn. The beast's momentum sent them into the wall, which they pierced with a visible crack. The area around their impact began to fizzle and erode. It seemed dodging that attack was the right call.
The second guard still had a body impailed on their horn, but that didn’t stop them from using the same attack, melting the smaller Rats body from the inside until it slowly ripped in half and fell away. It was a little disgusting.
Even as this was going on, Ellena had not forgotten about the Rat Lord himself, especially since she could feel her shield returning to her and that was definitely still stuck in the huge beast's fat.
She watched as the Lord's shadow slowly crawled forward, looming over them from the edge of his perch. One of the guards yanked at the shield in his side, whilst he merely stared down at Ellena. When the shield was finally free, he let out a pained yet intimidating roar as the four guards launched their bodies at Ellena.
All four used their strange horn powers whilst trying to tear into Ellena's flesh. Thus began a dangerous and intimate dance. Ellena did her best to dodge each incoming horn, even if it didn’t kill her, she didn’t fancy having parts of her body melt into liquid. Yet, these were not the same as the basic Rats, they were faster and smarter. Luckily for the Mushman, they never did break her shield.
All four guards were distracted, the Lord watched from above, too lazy or too proud to fight himself. So, Ellena struck. She waited for one moment, when all four were in a row, then called the shield back towards her. It wasn’t as powerful a throw as when she threw it herself, but it also wouldn’t lose momentum. The shield sliced straight through all four of the Rat guards necks and finished hovering above Ellena's head, just before shattering into light.
Ellena looked up at the stunned Rat Lord, left alone without his guard or minions. Locking eyes with the strangest Mushman he had likely ever met. Ellena summoned another shield, and threw a wild grin at the boss.
Suffice to say, the Rat Lord was quite bothered by this display. He growled, and roared and shook. His head began to rumble and two more horns popped out of it. He then screamed and shot liquid versions of that strange corrosive gas at Ellena. She lifted up her shield which did manage to block them, but she could only block one at a time.
The Rat Lord screamed more as bolts began to shoot from his other horns too. Three at a time, which would ordinarily be too much for the Mushman, but she had discovered something the evening before. She could now throw out two shields, but it certainly drained her mana quickly. She didn't need it for long though.
The second shield came out, shielding Ellena almost completely, she moved forward slowly, avoiding all the little splashes of the green liquid she could.A little bit of vapor rose up and spread a burning smell through the air.
She reached the edge of the perch and looked up, peaking through her two badly damaged shields. The Rat Lord was beginning to huff, the corrosive shots were beginning to wane. Until finally, he simply sat there panting.
With that, the fight was already decided. The Rat Lords head lay hanging over the perch, Ellena threw both shields, once again from her hands and each pierced straight through the beast's oversized head, dropping it effortlessly to the floor.
“Overall level has increased from [Level 01] to [Level 10]!”
“Unique skill [{Mushroom Helmet lvl 22}] has increased to [{Mushroom Helmet lvl 23}]!”
“Skill [Lesser Regeneration lvl 10] has evolved into [Intermediate Regeneration lvl 1]!”
“Skill [Unarmed Combat Journeyman lvl 8] has increased to [Unarmed Combat Journeyman lvl 9]!”
“Skill [Warriors Heart lvl 12] has increased to [Warriors Heart lvl 13]!”
“Skill [Warriors Strength lvl 1] has increased to [Warriors Strength lvl 2]!”
“Skill [Swiftfoot lvl 10] has evolved to [Kingsfoot lvl 1]!”
“Skill [Acid Resistance lvl 1] Gained!”
Name: Ellena
Age: 80 days
Species: Mushman Guardian Knight, Mushman/Dryad
Height: 4’2”
Sex: N/A
Level: 10 + 9
Health: 195/257 +18
Mana: 032/127 +13
Stamina: 101/306 +22
Energy: 211/306 +22
Attack: 201+15
Defence: 442 +31
Magic Attack: 95 +9
Magic Defence: 168 +15
Titles: Kin of Ellephwen
Skills: [Pain Resistance lvl 10(Max)] [Poison Resistance lvl 1 ] [Mind Resistance lvl 1] [Acid Resistance lvl 1]New! [Night vision lvl 10(Max)] [Amplified Vision lvl 3] [{Mushroom Helmet lvl 23}] [Tough Stomach lvl 5] [Unarmed Combat Journeyman lvl 9] +1 [Kingsfoot lvl 1] +1 [Warriors Heart lvl 13] +1 [Warriors Will lvl 8] [Warriors Strength lvl 2] +1 [Intermediate Regeneration lvl 1] +2 [Guardian lvl 9]
That was both more and less than the result she had expected. On one hand two whole skills evolved and she gained a new skill. On the other he stat gain had not increased as much as she had thought.
Still, she wasn’t expecting to gain Acid Resistance this fight. That must have been what the Rat Lord and his ilk were throwing around. A few bits did splash on her, but luckily her regeneration seemed enough to combat it.
There was also something interesting regarding her regeneration evolution. She could feel something strange with her body. The deeper injuries that had stayed on her body even over regenerations were finally starting to heal up. It was incredibly slow, but she could feel it with her hand. The huge chuck that had been taken from her helmet, she could feel it slowly mend.
Now that the Rat Lord had been defeated, there was something more important that Ellena wanted to try. Back when she was a farmer, she had learnt the basics of skinning and leatherwork. The very basics. Thankfully she had an ancient Dryads library at her disposal.
She was too late with the Grey Wolf Matriarch, the dungeon would have already reclaimed her by now. That was something she didn’t know about dungeons until recently. She had told Ellephwen and Samora about her plan and how excited she was. Samora was the one that had to tell her. Neither had spent masses of time in dungeons, but Samora had heard a few things from adventurers passing through the village. The Mushman had never really thought about why she had seen so few corpses of the Monsters around. There were a few yes, but they were likely not the residents. Monsters born in dungeons would eventually be absorbed back into it, its part of how they maintain their mana levels.
What that did mean however, was that she had to heft a very heavy and relatively smelly Rat corpse home. She wanted to try making armour, even if it was just gloves or something. Proper armour wouldn’t really fit on her body yet anyway, so gloves seemed the way to go.
Even then, no matter how strong she had become, dragging a lumbering corpse was not exactly her ideal way to spend an afternoon.