B3 Chapter 324: Crossing, pt. 3

Kaius tore through vines and brush alike as he raced through the jungle. His team was ahead of him, Porkchop acting like a plow as he used his strength and bolstered momentum to tear unheeded through the undergrowth.

A high pitched scream echoed through the canopy above. Looking up through clustered ferns, Kaius saw the faint glow of mana concentrating around a maw of needle teeth.

“Another beam coming, be ready!”

His team tensed at his words.

The gathering mana reached a fever pitch.

“Now!”

They scattered, diverging into the undergrowth. Old Thousand Eyes unleashed. Another beam of sonic energy, visible only as a bar of blurred air and potent mana, tore into the earth right where Kaius had just been standing, tearing a furrow into the earth and pelting him with sod.

It was loud — loud enough that other depthsborn had been running from the Champion in fear of becoming lunch. Kaius grunted, restraining himself from covering his ears.

The Champion ripped its head upwards, and the beam carved a path through the jungle. Oak-sized ferns were torn into chunks, their shredded fronds falling to the jungle floor like autumn leaves.

With the sub-canopy ripped open, Kaius caught a glimpse of Old Thousand Eyes racing onwards, its great wings flapping as it began to bank and turn. Then it was gone, hidden by the jungle growth as they raced away from the site of its strafing run.

They reconverged, following Porkchop once more. Kaius grit his teeth — this couldn’t continue. Those beams were strong — unblockable and bypassing most of their defences. He’d been clipped once and it felt like he’d shoved his arm into a turning mill stone as his bones cracked and muscles tore.

Dodging them wasn’t too hard — thanks to his and Kenva’s mana-sight, they had a decent window to react, and it always seemed to target the loudest noise right before it fired. Still, even if they were consistent, it was only a matter of time until one of them made a mistake, or, gods forbid, they ran out of resources.

He’d gotten the Champion’s measure by now — he was sure of it. The way it flew, with perfect control and tight adjustments that gave it a startling degree of aerial agility; its relatively frail looking body and the measured war of attrition it instinctively waged.

Kaius would have bet his blade that it was stacked high on regeneration attributes. Even its mana skills lacked the punch he would expect from a Champion a quarter of the way into the second tier.

The inconsistent delivery of its attacks, and the distance it created whenever they landed a hit pointed at one thing — it was keeping its Resources as full as possible, keeping up just enough pressure that they were forced to continue to expend theirs.

A diabolical, frustrating — and worst of all, effective hunting style.

But it meant one thing. If Old Thousand Eyes was mostly invested in its regeneration attributes, with a larger focus on Dexterity like he assumed…it was fragile and comparatively weak, both magically and physically.

If they could bring it down, and leverage their capacity to dish out overwhelming force in a short space of time…

Kaius heard the Champion shriek once more. Through a gap in the sub-canopy, he saw a physical glow emanate from the grey hairs on its stomach — absent of any mana. A skill it had used more than once.

“Needle hairs!” Kenva cried.

He was already moving, slicing through a thin bush of reddened leaves as he sprinted to the left. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Ianmus and Kenva race towards Porkchop.

The Champion shrieked again, a cutting noise that stung his ears. Kaius grunted, throwing himself behind the trunk of the nearest giant fern and covered his head as he crouched. Thousands of hand-span long glowing hairs shot through the canopy, tearing through foliage like ballista bolts to vanish into the soft jungle soil.

Kaius’s bones rattled as half a dozen hairs glanced off his armour, smashing him with the weight of a sledge hammer and battering his flesh. Three found purchase, hitting at an angle just right to blow straight through his scales. Lines of white hot fire erupted as the shots blew out through the front of his chestpiece.

A wet hacking cough sprayed red blood over the lush undergrowth. Spitting out the blood that lingered in his mouth, Kaius rose to his feet and ran — they would have time before the Champion attacked them again.

“Injuries!” Kaius called, reaching up to tear out the hairs that were still wedged halfway through the scales on his chest.

“They got to me in time! Kenva took a few hits to her leg, but they’re already healing!”

Kaius breathed a sigh of relief. The rain of needle-like hairs was one of the most troublesome of the Champion’s skills that they had encountered. It was fast, over a wide area, and absolutely devastating with its penetrative ability. The only saving grace was that the wounds each needle left were relatively small and easy to heal.

Still, it was another chip at their condition — a slow wear that would grind them down!

He needed to bring the beast down.

Kaius looked at his brother, sturdy and clad in over a tonne of stone armour. The bat had proven wily, but it had shown it was willing to come in close when there was the space for it to strafe them.

There was a tree not far from them, its titanic trunk visible through the gaps in the sub-canopy. If Porkchop could bait it in with a Bulwark’s Challenge, and he stunned it with a Stormlash right as it struck…it might just be enough to bring it down. If Kenva and Ianmus could focus on its wings, they’d be able to ground it permanently.

“Porkchop! How do you feel about taking a hit so we can bring it down?”

“That’s literally my job! What’s the plan?”

Kaius grinned — it wasn’t a certainty, but it was better than their current circumstances. They could do this.

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Bursting out of the dense ferns, Kaius raced on the heels of his team as they sprinted into the clearing that surrounded the tree.

He’d briefed his team on his plan. They’d agreed readily, not one of them was willing to let the Champion wear them down slowly over hours. They had to make a play, and this was their best bet.