Chapter 44: Pig Island
The first Primal Kite initiated its ambush, bursting out of its hiding place, launching water and sand into the air. The group wasn’t even halfway across the shallow waterway before they found their first enemy. Coop had previously readied his ethereal armor and spear to the surprise of Shane’s party, but he wasn’t the one who would be fighting this monster.
Coop wanted to observe their combat abilities and they wanted to prove all of Coop’s warnings unnecessary. Shane’s party would fight the Primal Kites during their short expedition. They had been traveling in formation with the Dragon Knight and Tomb Blade side by side in the front, and the Illusionist, holding up her robes to keep them dry, with Shane behind the frontliners. Coop followed the group from behind.
The water was merely knee height at this point and Coop thought it would be possible to high step his way to any monsters even if he couldn’t teleport. It wouldn’t be a viable strategy for repeated engagements, but for one or two combat periods he felt confident it was possible without becoming too exhausted to continue.
When the Primal Kite began casting its ranged lightning spell, the Tomb Blade slammed the flat of his black long sword into his small rectangle shield. A series of runes had appeared on the length of the blade and one of them floated in the air with the collision. The action triggered a spell that sent grasping skeletal hands forward in a trail from the shield to his target. The cascade of boney fingers was meant to immobilize the group’s target.
The grasping hands didn’t appear to disturb the ground even though they were clawing their way up and reaching through the water. They would be able to grab Coop all the way up to his knees if they were targeting him. The Primal Kite’s hanging tentacle-like arms would only barely be in reach of the hands if it remained stationary.
Before the Primal Kite was grasped by the hands, the Dragon Knight began her initiation skill, crouching down and gathering flames that swirled around her lower body, causing steam to rise from the water around her legs. She lifted her oversized shield and once the flames reached a threshold, she thrust her jagged sword up at an angle, facing forward, and leapt.
Coop was shocked by her jump, as she flew into the air in an arc toward the Primal Kite, she covered quite a bit of distance. Unfortunately for her, the monster completed its cast before it was grasped by the skeletal hands and it lunged backwards, out of the way of both initial attacks.
The Dragon Knight landed with her shield slamming into the ground and one knee bent, almost kneeling. Water splashed in all directions and flames and steam swirled upwards where she landed. The Primal Kite was well clear of the slamming attack and merely dodged a second time, returning to its maximum range to begin casting a second spell.
The first electric bolt had slammed into the Tomb Blade, and even though he blocked it with his small shield, he was still struck with the after effects of being shocked and stunned. Shane channeled his first spell, creating a dome of swirling gold energy around the remaining party members who hadn’t left their formation. Coop felt himself bolstered by the buffing fields and noticed the Tomb Blade immediately began to recover.
The Illusionist also joined the fight, abandoning the effort of keeping her robe dry and casting a series of quick spells that each summoned an identical copy of herself, wielding a wand, surrounding the Primal Kite. They were each within melee range and held the wand forward, casting a purple beam of energy that wrapped itself around the target and connected with the others. The monster wouldn’t be able to dodge in any particular direction with the simultaneous flanking attacks surrounding it. They didn’t do damage, but instead snared the Primal Kite, allowing the Dragon Knight to complete her rush forward, through the water, while the rest of the group followed, remaining inside of Shane’s dome.
The Primal Kite didn’t remain stunned by the Illusionist’s summons and instead used its melee ability, spinning with its tentacles extended like blades. The twirling attack landed right as the Dragon Knight high stepped her way back into the fight. All of the summons were destroyed as the tentacles passed through them, they shattered like pink glass, but the Dragon Knight held onto her massive shield, planting it into the ground, and blocked the monster’s ability with a series of loud cracks from the contact of each tentacle.
The monster simply dodged away at an angle once again. The party regrouped inside of Shane’s dome and behind the Dragon Knight’s shield. Coop could tell they were already stymied by the simple monster. He was really starting to believe that the factions had handicapped their Chosen by withholding professions to the point that their stats were only the equivalent of monsters half their level. It seemed like the invaders were balanced around the defenders having leveled their professions... Or maybe they weren’t balanced at all. He inspected the monster and prepared to finish the fight.