WilburWoods
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Chapter 33 - Snoff
🕑 Added 2023-09-16 15:01:10 +0000 UTCThe Levemoth had gone as soon as it had appeared. The sky was bright blue in the early morning as Logan and the agents hunted the monsters. There were signs on the ground of crashed black droplets peppered here and there.
“We fan out twenty yards each and call out if we see something,” Logan told them.
“We don’t have to listen to you anymore,” one of the agents said.
“Shut up, fool,” Simmons told him. And that was the end of that.
Logan’s tactics worked well. They found four more monsters like this. Three scythe-fiends and a troll. The trolls were dangerous. The spears of the agents didn’t manage to fully penetrate the skin if thrown. Logan having the sole projectile weapon in the group was needed to weaken the foe enough to risk melee.
For such a little weapon, the one-handed crossbow packed a tremendous punch. It just obliterated the scythe-fiends. A single hit left a gaping hole on their body, like a fist-sized bullet hole. The problem with the scythe-fiends was that they were fast and agile. But the shield-fighters held them in place long enough for Logan to take his shots.
Logan extracted a crystal from the broken mess of a troll’s skull. It was a darker hue than the normal sky blue glow of the Numa crystals.
[E-grade Numa Crystal (+), 100%]
Huh… I guess it’s better? The trolls are certainly tougher than the scythe-fiends.
It was larger than the normal E-grader, at the size of an adult’s fist. Logan pocketed it. The other agents saw that, but said nothing.
Logan replenished a few crossbow bolt’s enchantments with it. It turned out one shot took 50% charge off the [Wooden Numacraft Bolt, 50%]. The renewal of the enchantment took only a single 1% off the E-grader plus.
They fanned out again, and Logan felt that strange watching presence again. Was it some fiend of Levemoth observing and waiting? But it did not feel like that. The watching presence felt intelligent and in no way hostile.
Logan resolved to keep a sharp eye. Once he saw one of the big green cats jump out of a bush before him, but to his surprise it went the other way, escaping from Logan.
The morning turned hot and sweaty as the sun rose to crown the sky. They encountered a few more fiends and took them down with brutal efficiency. Logan had a lot to say about the agents, certainly not all of it good. But when it came to execution, those guys were professionals.
They were fearless and didn’t get confused or let fear control them. Two of them got hurt, when fighting with a troll, and they were sent back to the camp, carrying the Numa crystals they had plundered.
After their kill score rose, Logan picked up a few crystals for himself. None of the agents openly protested, even when they saw Logan pocket the valuables, so Logan figured it was alright. He would have done it anyway, even if it wasn’t alright. He was done with his father’s shit.
After three hours of hunting, Logan called them up and they decided to return back and widen the fan, increasing distance between individuals. They all agreed, as wandering too far into the jungle could result in them getting lost, and it left the camp defenseless. Thus they turned and widened the space between an individual to twenty yards or so.
It was a risky move in case there was a troll. But they had learned that outrunning a troll was possible in the thicket. In the open they moved deadly fast, but they couldn’t run through trees.
*
Logan came across a swampy area with thick-trunked trees dipping their roots in the water like curled tendrils. The water was dark and murky, with idle bubbles of gas bubbling and giving the air a scent of rot. The watching presence was even stronger here, now it had a hint of alert. Logan wondered why he was even sensing this.
Suddenly a hoarse screech greeted him. Logan hunched down and readied his scythe-rang. He didn’t need to call for help with a scythe-fiend, but he needed to be alert. It clicked out of the bushes and snarled. However, to Logan’s great surprise, the spindly creature did not go for him. It tilted its featureless head at him, but instead went straight along the other side of the swamp line towards a bush.
There was a frightened yelp in the bush, and Logan acted on instinct to protect. There was another person in there.
He threw the scythe-rang and it guided itself vertically straight into the shoulderblades of the fiend. It cut off a front leg and chewed into the torso, where it lodged itself. It wiggled in place, eliciting a screech from the monster, before it dislodged and returned to Logan.
Watching the bush carefully, Logan circled around the swampy area, hopping on tall patches of grass, where it was obvious the ground would hold. Logan inspected the scythe-fiend and dug out the Numa-crystal. He looked at the bush. There was something in there, but it was translucent and shifty, like hot air. Carefully Logan prodded at the bush with his scythe-rang.
The bush yelped, and Logan took a quick step back.
“Who is it? Show yourself!”
A tiny meeping sound came out of the bush, followed by rustling. Gradually, the shifting air began to take form. Something white, slight and strange.
From the bush emerged a slender creature. It stood three and a half feet tall, with a creamy white porcelain skin, fully naked. The groin was covered with a strange pearly glimmer.
A magic censorship spell? Now I’ve seen it all.
It had pointy ears and a shock of green hair that fell in strands on its white forehead. The eyes were big and bright and they looked at Logan in shock and awe. The little creature closed its gaping mouth and smiled like a happy child.
Bowing, it said. “I am Snoff. Thank you for saving my life.”
“What in the fuck’s name are you?”
Comments
Gondazor
Just read all the chapters, cannot wait for the next one
Gondazor
Loving this Story! Great chapter, I hope Logan gets to stand up to his father and show him his place now.
