Chapter 262: Wirehair Gorilla

“North side!” Will shouted, solidifying the air so his voice only reached the Party rather than the monsters in the distance. They didn’t want to make any more noise than necessary with how close they were to the watering hole.

The creature charging them moved with a strange gait, with two front limbs that were longer and more sturdy than its shorter hind limbs, giving it an odd lope.

It had steel-grey colored fur that covered it’s entire body. It was about two-thirds the size of Aguilion, and its massive fangs were bared in a snarl as it rushed towards the vanguard of Rias.

That’s the wirehair gorilla Aguilion mentioned, isn’t it?

Braided wire snapped out of the ground and sliced into the wirehair gorilla, denting the fur, without sinking into the creature’s actual flesh.

Will swooped down and caught a better look at the creature.

Interesting.

Will hit it with half a dozen cannonballs, causing the monster to tumble backwards with an angry roar.

“My traps aren’t doing much damage,” Loth said, arriving beside him. “I have passive defense reduction, so I’m wondering why.”

“It’s the fur,” Will said, studying the creature with the Uru Drake’s Eyes. Loth’s defense bypass for her traps only worked with things that had Miasmatic structures reinforcing them. It didn’t really make the traps any more effective on things that were nonmagical. Typically that wasn’t a problem, because almost everything had a bit of defensive magic in it at this level.

“It’s fur is literally made of wire,” Will said. The wirehair’s actual miasmatic structures were tucked safely away beneath a layer of nonmagical hair grown with magical intervention. Slashing damage would be blunted by the creature’s fur, before it even reached the creature’s Resistance. It was an excellent layered defense, and Will wouldn’t be surprised to learn that there were more layers under the surface.

“Piercing weapons, then,” Loth said, following his train of thought. She pulled out a satchel full of tools and withdrew a drill bit half the width of Will’s wrist, and longer than his forearm.

“By the way, mine’s sixteen inches.” Loth said without looking away from her work, affixing a firing mechanism to the back.

Did she just make a joke? Aside from the comment, Loth was completely focused on her task and gave no sign of levity.

“…” Will stared at Loth for a moment before shaking his head and turning to Ria.

“Boar spears!” Will called to them.

Brianna’s current kit was designed to strengthen her copies and allow them to summon phantom weapons for themselves.

Ria preferred a halberd, but a boar spear was more appropriate for the opponent. The three Ria nodded, their halberds changing to extra thick spears with oversized cross-guards a couple feet back from the tip, meant to catch a massive charging monster.

“Do you have a spare one of those?” Will asked, pointing at Loth’s drill bit. He had stored a chakram and a cannonball which worked well for slashing and brute force, but he didn’t have anything great for piercing armor.

Loth grunted and tossed him another Blessed Steel drill bit before dropping the firing mechanism which was drawn into the earth in the blink of an eye by her legion of minions.

Will could vaguely follow the progress of the trap as her Draconic domain rippled through the environment, allowing her minions to move faster through the ground.

Will snatched the drill bit out of the air and stored it.

Dimensional Storage

253 Charges remaining.

Manifestation.

Focus 296 -> 240

Will manifested four of Loth’s drill bits and shot them out of Phantom hand in a rapid stream, dismissing them after they pierced the creature’s hide, to fire them again.

The Wirehair Gorilla gave a shriek of rage and pain, causing the flying birds and snakes in the canopy to startle and flutter away.

Crap. We made a bunch of noise.

They were only about a hundred yards from the watering hole. You could even see some monsters moving around in the distance between the trees if you got lucky.

The question was, would the noise of a wirehair in pain attract more enemies or would it drive them away?

In any case, it would be best to move back towards their fortified fallback regardless. Best play it safe.

“start pulling back!” Will directed Ria and Travis.

RRRRRRRR

The ground rumbled as something, or perhaps a lot of somethings charged towards them.

Crap.

Meanwhile the wirehair gorilla was thrashing wildly, moving too fast and unpredictably to get a perfect shot as it charged towards Ria and Travis.

I’ve got the Ring of Explosive Doughmaking on, so my options are limited….or maybe not?

Will took out the Clay Idol of ouroboros and smashed it against his knee.

Sourdough.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

239 Charges remaining.

My, how you’ve grown, Will thought as the Immortal Serpent manifested, big enough to swallow Aguilion, it’s coils wrapped around their Party and the Wirehair.

Form a wall, Will gave it a mental directive, and the snake moved to obey, looping over itself to create a wall of flesh isolating their battle from the rest of the forest.

The massive gorilla smashed against Ria’s boar spears. One spear snapped, but the other two held, digging long furrows into the ground and shoving the three of them violently backwards as they held on.

An instant later, the wirehair gorilla smashed the two boar spears aside and lunged towards Ria, coming face-to-face with a wall of bristling spikes, courtesy of Travis.

“Man, you suck at this!” Travis shouted from behind the wall, his voice laced with luring magic.

The wirehair’s eyes widened for an instant before it went even more feral, smashing through Travis’s illusion with minimal damage, crushing Travis into the earth with a single oversized fist.

Even if his illusions are stronger than the real thing, they’re not quite keeping pace with the monsters, are they?

Will was a bit conflicted over how much he enjoyed watching an illusion of Travis get plastered across the forest floor. It was probably an indirect side-effect of his Taunt Ability.