15 Adventurers (1/2)
Li re-assumed human form in a flash of green and leaped out of the forest. It would be easier to explain himself if he was human, and currently, he had to throw all caution to the wind. Right now, even a single second was extremely precious.
One second would be all it took for the Myrmeke to gut one of the adventurers, and if that unlucky idiot was silver-ranked, then hordes of fans would be crying about it the next day.
Li's hood fluttered against his head as he moved, and he tore it off in annoyance. When he stopped the Myrmeke, the adventurers and knights would demand him to remove the hood anyway, and he was sick and tired of hiding his face. He had modeled it after his own features, features that his parents had honored him with, so why should he be afraid to show them?
His gargantuan physical strength kicked in as he thundered forwards, his every step blowing out squalls of wind and explosive force that dredged up dirt and foliage. He had to cross the entire lake to get to the Myrmeke, and though he could sprint around the water's edge to hide some of his speed, that wasted time.
To truly get a happy ending where blood wasn't spilled, he had to give up some secrets about his power.
Li didn't stop when his boots touched the water's surface. He kept running. For a nanosecond, he closed his eyes, wondering if what he envisioned in his head would work.
It did.
Massive geysers of water burst behind him as he sprinted across the water's surface. Running across the water slowed him down a little, but even then, he estimated just below ten seconds to reach the other side of the entire lake.
While he made his mad dash, he focused on the scene across the lake, his potent eyes zooming into the disaster.
The Myrmeke was fully awake now and screeched out a threatening roar that pierced that shook the branches of the trees in the clearing. Birds fluttered out from the treetops, sensing the danger.
Several magic circles manifested above the Myrmeke. Bolts of electrical energy and sweltering streams of fire emerged, engulfing the entire clearing in a fiery explosion wreathed with crackling shocks. Li recognized the spells. One was [Pillar of Fire] and the other [Rain of Lightning], both C and D ranked spells respectively.
Li didn't worry. The Myrmeke would take little to no damage from low ranked spells coming from beings that were twenty or more levels below it. The Myrmeke swung its massive jaw from side to side with incredible force and speed, unleashing gales that killed the blaze that had erupted around it.
The fire had been a distraction. Using the second of time it had purchased, one of the adventurers, the biggest and sturdiest looking of them all, garbed in heavy black plate-mail and wielding a silver greatshield, stood bravely in front of the Myrmeke and planted his shield into the ground.
A young woman, a Templar it seemed by her immaculate white robes and chainmail, raised a plain wooden stave and cast a defensive buff on the knight, wreathing him in an aura of golden energy.
Li understood how this was working. The adventurers weren't rushing in without a plan. As far as strategies went, this was actually quite safe. The armored adventurer, most likely a warrior with tanking specialties, would attract the Myrmeke's attention while more fragile damage dealers would attempt to deal damage from as far behind as they could, alternating between different damage types to scope out weaknesses.
The only issue with this elementary gameplay was that it relied entirely on the tank's ability to keep his defenses up.
Perhaps on a level 50 monster, this strategy was viable. Good, even.
However, at level 60, the Myrmeke simply out-statted the adventurers too much. One blow would punch through any damage reduction buff and deal massive damage to the tank. Li understood that in the game-world, you only died when your health reached 0, but here, where game mechanics meshed with elements of real life, a severe enough wound could lead to death through blood loss or straight up tear through vital organs.
The warrior steadied his stance behind the greatshield and withdrew an elixir from a belt pouch. It glowed a pearly white under the sun.
By now, Li was close enough to see a flash of silver dangling from the knight. Not good. He was one of the silvers that absolutely had to survive. Li put more power into his legs as he hurried his pace. That elixir also confirmed his suspicions: these adventurers didn't have any access to meta-spells such as [Power Sense] or [Assess Danger] which allowed players in the game to gauge the levels, strengths, and weaknesses of unknown enemies.
The elixir, a [Cave Ward], was a thrown potion that blinded most enemies, but was particularly effective on creatures used to the dark of caves, stunning them. It was reasonable to assume that the Myrmeke was a regular insect-creature that dwelled in the dark, but as a Trapjaw variant used to digging through the earth, it possessed the [Tremor Sense] passive that made it immune to blinds.
Li was very close now, just a couple of seconds away, but still late.
The Myrmeke charged and used its jaws to slam into the knight like a raging bull. The knight soared almost a dozen meters into the air before he crashed into the ground with a ringing clang as his armor collided with solid earth.
Li jumped from the water with explosive force and landed at the water's edge, a shower of ploughed up water trickling around him like rain. He reached out an arm towards the Myrmeke to issue a command as it skittered right in front of the unmoving knight, its jaws open to slice the fallen knight into two.
But Li's hand froze in the air as he witnessed the templar throw her staff behind her, roll up her white sleeves, and leap in front of the fallen knight. She too had a silver medallion hanging at her neck.
The Myrmeke's jaws closed in on her, but instead of conjuring up a barrier, she stuck her arms out to her sides and used her bare hands to grab each jaw, stopping them from snapping half-way.
The Myrmeke's jaws trembled as it channeled its might into them, but the templar stood firm, her lips pursed with heavy effort. The ground beneath her shattered as she countered the Myrmeke's strength.
The scene unfolding before Li made no sense. The Templar, even as a silver rank, was still what? Level 40? Maybe 45? He didn't even remember the exact details of her stats from when he had checked them before the adventurers roamed into the forest. She wasn't anything special, and yet she had enough brute force to contend with a monster that likely had three times as much raw power.
This was the first time that he considered that there might have been mechanics completely unique to this world.
Li, his curiosity finally piqued just a little bit, still knew he couldn't let this scene keep playing. The Myrmeke was winning against the templar, its jaws inching closer and closer to crushing her. He commanded the Myrmeke to stop and return to him, waving his hand and beckoning the creature to come by its master's side.
Almost immediately, the giant ant scurried towards Li, as if it had completely forgotten about the adventurers, and nuzzled its head into his chest.
He stroked the creature's head. It looked like it would feel smooth, but the ant's carapace had many sensory hairs lining it that didn't feel too different from fur. Now close to the creature, he could feel their summoning link.
He channeled his thoughts to the ant, 'Go underground, but stay just close enough to me so that you can hear me.'
The Myrmeke clicked its jaws in understanding before it buried them into the earth. The dirt separated almost magically around the ant as it sunk underground almost as if it fallen into fast-acting quicksand, leaving no holes or any traces that it had been aboveground.
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The adventurers hiding out in the forest growth, the mages, assassins, and rangers, stepped out into the clearing. The templar went back to the injured tank and knelt by him, placing a gentle hand on his helm and whispering out a healing spell.