Chapter 291: 291. The Minion

“Spread out!” Vend ordered.

All members of the party dispersed as they kept climbing the mountain at lightning speed. Like hyper goats they went up and up, not stopping for an instant, hot in the pursuit of the root. Most of them knew they couldn’t take a guardian alone, but together, they had more than a fighting chance. Only four people remained in the cave: Dallion, Agnii, and two backup guards with shields at the ready.

The adrenaline in Dallion’s veins was so much he could practically taste it. In contrast, Agnii seemed calm, almost bored with the unexpected development.

“It won’t try again,” she said after a while, breaking the silence.

“What?” Dallion blinked.

“The guardian, it won’t try again, not with so many people after it. Of course, March chose the ideal time to go off scouting,” the woman grumbled. “Always eager to do everything by herself, even when it isn’t needed. If she hadn’t bothered with that nonsense, this never would have happened.”

But it did, Dallion thought. A guardian had attacked beyond its arena. As far as he knew, they weren’t supposed to act in such fashion.

“Grab the essential and let’s get going,” Agnii said.

The two guards glanced at each other.

“Vend said we must stay and—” Dallion began.

“I know what he said,” the woman snapped. “We’re climbing to the top and we’re doing it now.”

That was the end of the conversation. Dallion hesitated a few moments more, then went on to prep his backpack and follow the rest outside onto the cliff side. All the way up, Dallion kept five instances of himself, always ready to react. From when he could see, the others did the same. Fortunately for all of them, no further attacks followed.

On a positive note, this is some good experience for you, Dallion said.

Climbing during the night? Dallion asked.

Climbing under pressure. This won’t be the first time you’ll be targeted. It’s always better to get the experience in a safe environment. This way, even if you fail, you’ll gain valuable insight on the matter.

Dallion didn’t agree, but remained silent. There was nothing especially challenging in climbing a mountain, not with the skills he had. All it was was repetitive and exhausting. There was no rest, no talk, no sight of anything out of the ordinary. By now the rest of the group had probably reached the peak, although there didn’t seem to be any indication they had engaged the guardian.

COMBAT INITIATED

 

A new rectangle appeared.

Not good! This was precisely what Dallion feared. If he was in the cave he’d have protection, if he had reached the peak—freedom of movement. Being in-between didn’t offer either, making him a sitting duck. All of his instances leapt in different directions, grabbing hold where he could on the cliff. In one of the instances, Dallion lost his grip. In two more dart-like branches hit him in the back, dealing moderate wounds.

A member of the group turned around, aiming at something in the darkness, then shot a pair of bolts. A loud pop sounded a short distance away.

“Echoes,” the awakened said.

“Pick up the pace.” Agnii sounded calmer than she should have been, as if she were dealing with a minor nuisance rather than a real threat.

In one of his instances, Dallion turned around, spotting a dryad a short distance away. The echo wasn’t attached to anything, slowly floating down what could be best described as a makeshift parachute of leaves.

Without hesitation, Dallion summoned his dartbow and fired a bolt at the target. A wooden shield formed in front of the dryad, extending so as to cover the entire upper half of its body. Dallion’s bolt hit the wooden surface, dealing no damage whatsoever. A second bolt—coming from the side—proved more lethal, hitting the echo in the shoulder and causing it to shatter into grains of light.

“Just keep going, kid,” the awakened shouted. “We’ll take care of these.”

Shield, cover my back. Dallion thought.

The armadil shield disappeared, then reappeared on his back, extending slightly to protect him better. Not too long after, several projectiles bounced off, followed by a popping sound.

“Another echo?” Dallion asked, using an instance to look back. The sky was empty as far as the eye could see. “Where are they coming from?”

“They’re just falling from the sky.” The other party member replied, just as surprised.

“We’re halfway there, so there’s no point in stopping,” Agnii said. “Our best bet is to get to the top as fast as possible.”

“How are they getting here? I thought the rest of the party were up chasing the guardian.”

He’s having his echoes jump off, the armadil shield said. It’s an old tactic. Takes a bit of timing and lots of echoes, but it’s pretty useful against invaders. It was used a lot in battles and always managed to slow the enemy down.

They’re jumping off in the hopes they’d be able to snipe me? Dallion asked. That’s absurd!

It worked, didn’t it? It’s good to create chaos and one can never tell—

MINOR WOUND

Your health has been decreased by 5%

A sharp piece of wood hit Dallion in the ankle. Dallion bit his tongue, holding firm to the cliff face. The pain was immense, though quickly vanished after a few seconds. Had his body been a few levels lower, there was every chance he would have let go. Not that it would have killed him—Lux would have rescued him way before that. Instead, it would have provided the guardian more information that Dallion was willing to give.

Lux, some help here.

The awakened quickly changed positions. One of the guards jumped next to Dallion, while the other moved next to Agnii. Every few seconds, while climbing, one would turn around, aiming broadly at the sky, but not once did anyone shoot.

“Anything?” Dallion asked, climbing up as fast as his body would allow. Fatigue kicked in, filling every action with pain. However, there was no option to give up.

“Keep climbing!”

Initially, Dallion did, but his slowness proved to be such a liability that soon enough the person guarding him grabbed him and started leaping from hold to hold with incredible ease. It was obvious that their stats and skills were at least in their thirties, if not higher.

“Hold tight!” the awakened told Dallion, then—against all odds—started running up the cliff.

It doesn’t only happen in movies, Dallion managed to say, unable to believe it. They had such skills and were hiding them all along?

Make note of this, dear boy, Nil said. You’ll need to learn to do this sooner than later.

Sooner rather than later had become the key phrase lately. Not too long ago, Nil had been grumbling at Dallion for trying to recklessly rush things more than necessary. Right now, Dallion felt he was falling behind. There was so much he had to learn, most of which he could have easily achieved if only he had focused.

However, as impressive as wall running up a mountain was, Dallion also felt down, probably as much as March had when she had used her skill. Clearly, every awakened in the party was able to do that, but they had preferred to take the slow and laborious route to hide their advantage. Now, as a result of Dallion being attacked, the advantage was revealed. The guardian had managed to get them to show part of their hand.

It took close to an hour for the group to reach the summit. To Dallion, it felt much shorter, especially as he had to fight the constant fear of being dropped.

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Several groups had already gathered there, talking amongst themselves on the ground. Upon seeing Agnii, they quickly stood up.

“Where’s March?” the woman asked.

“Not here,” someone replied. “I think she’s ahead to check the temple.”

Agnii’s expression hardened.

“And Vend?”

“He's up ahead leading the chase.”

Anger formed within Agnii, like a cluster of grapes. There were a lot of things she disapproved of, but Vend seemed to be the focus. This was a tense situation, but Agnii remained a captain. In March’s absence, it was the crafter that could take over… and based on her reaction, she did.

“Everyone, we’re heading to the temple.” She strode forward. “Keep an eye on Dallion, he's the guardian’s target.”

Half a dozen people moved closer to Dallion. In other circumstances, he would have called this overkill, but right now he knew better. It was true that each next guardian was far stronger than the last. So far, he’d only seen guardian echoes, and still he was close to getting his health reduced to zero.

Lux, heal the woman with the two backpacks, Dallion thought.

Clearly there had to have been some sort of fight here, otherwise she wouldn’t have lost ten percent of her health. The firebird was all too happy to be of use, shifting from Dallion to its next patient with a series of chirps. At least some things never changed.

No need to be so glum, the armadil shield said. I knew soldiers who used armies of echoes to defeat their opponents. Of course, most of them were copyettes.

Dallion felt like rolling his eyes.

I must say that he finds you interesting.

Who? Dallion asked.

The guardian. He sent echoes specifically for you. He must find you as a threat for some reason.

Yeah, right.

Or maybe he’s just bored beyond his skull. Being locked up in a realm tends to have that effect. After a while, you can never tell. The only thing certain is that you and Eury are the only new things that have appeared in the world for a while.

That’s wrong. Some of the others also—

COMBAT INITIATED

“Enemies!” Dallion shouted, summoning his harpsisword.

The awakened near him instantly summoned their shields, moving them above Dallion in near perfect unison. Several others summoned dartbows, aiming at the sky. This time, though, it wasn’t echoes that appeared.

GUARDIAN MINION

Species: Vine-whale

Class: Minion

Statistics: 100%

Skills:

- Levitation

- Vine Mesh

- Torrent of Leaves

Weak Spots: Eyes, Mushrooms

The new creature was as large as the name suggested, covering an entire moon in the sky like a giant blimp. Dallion had neither faced nor read about any creature such as this. Normally, it would be considered a guardian in its own right. Covered with vines and mushrooms, and kept in the air by some unknown force, the creature tilted forward.

“Scatter!” Agnii shouted as she fired at it with a crossbow.

Bolts split the air, just as the vine-whale’s mouth opened, releasing a torrent of leaves. Two opposite forces clashed with one another in a giant flameless explosion, sending shockwaves throughout the area.

Shield! Dallion thought as someone pulled him to the side.

The shield extended just in time to block the dozens of leaves that hit it with the speeds of flying daggers.

“What is that?” Dallion shouted, running away from the creature.

“Never seen it before,” Ezra said from nearby. “At least now I know why we’ve never seen a minion here.”

That also explained why there were no settlements, either. Something this big could destroy an entire city unopposed.

Don’t worry, he only has one minion, the armadil shield said.

One’s enough, Dallion thought. How am I supposed to hit its eyes?

Easily, if you let Lux carry you up. Otherwise… you have to be a very good shot and quite lucky.

More bolts flew up at the whale. This time, they were blocked by a mesh of vines that sprouted around it. The perfect attack and the perfect defense. If there was a way to defeat this monstrosity, Dallion couldn’t see it. Given enough time, maybe he could use his music skills to add weight to the vine-whale until it got crashed into the mountain, but that didn’t seem likely.

Don’t do it, Gen said, reading Dallion’s thoughts. Not yet.

Only Nox has a chance of piercing its defense, Dallion said.

It’s just a minion. Save Nox for when you need to fight the guardian.

What if I don’t make it to the guardian?

Normally, the chances of him losing all my health with so many people protecting him were low. Facing a flying creature such as this, though, they seemed more like fifty-fifty.

Just as Dallion was thinking on the best course of action, a line slash split the air, striking the minion with full force. March had arrived.

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