Monster Hunting 401: A LitRPG Fantasy Adventure by Andrew Karevik (book suggestions .TXT) 📗

it normally used its many tentacles to propel itself forward through the water. Instead, it was lying on its side, its enormous body jammed in between the two moderately large holes that connected to exterior tunnels. The creature seemed to be stuck on its back, though the six tentacles jutting out of its upward facing side were able to grasp at us without a problem.

“Now how come it grabs me when you’re the one who opened the damn thing?” Trig said from his safe position on the ground. In the tentacle of the L’Gara was a facsimile of Trig, a shadowy illusion made of magic. It pretended to recoil in terror as the beast swallowed it whole.

“Maybe it likes you more,” I said, firing a few shots in midair. The beast let out a groaning, huffing sound, not quite a roar, but brought its tentacles upwards to block the shots. Each arrow sank into the rubbery blue tentacle, incapable of causing any significant damage.

I landed beside my companion, watching as the horror tried to reach us, unable to see where we were. Its eyes were on each side of its massive head, but the way it was turned over meant it would have no peripheral vision. Tentacles whipped and grasped everywhere, searching for us.

“Use lightning,” I ordered as I drew out my lightning bow. Electrical energy crackled on the top of the tip of the arrows, ready to unleash their power. The L’Gara was a water creature and this one seemed to be no different. Though it didn’t seem to need water to survive, it was not adept at moving on the surface.

I fired a few electrical shots, watching as the great creature convulsed, arcs of electrical power surging through its skin. Tentacles flailed at us, uselessly swiping left to right. Trig and I were cut from the same cloth, fast movement and heightened reflexes. We had no trouble dodging the blind swipes of the beast’s protruding limbs. I fired arrows, while Trig threw a few grenades, stunning the beast so badly it was unable to do anything other than convulse and shriek.

Before I could ready for a stronger attack, there came a sharp sensation at the back of my head, a warning from my danger senses. Turning around, my eyes widened at the sight of something crawling towards us from one of the other cavern openings. There were three holes of different sizes and the smallest hole (nearly 15 feet tall!) had a strange spindly beast, pale as a corpse with all the blood drained out.

It wasn’t particularly wide, but it sure was tall. The creature was humanoid, with four sets of legs, its clawed feet pointing both forwards and backwards. Its arms were similar to the legs, with four sets of arms, nearly seven feet long. These arms swept every which way, feeling for something, clawed hands scraping the cavern floor and ceiling, making an occasional high-pitched whine with its claws—a whine that seemed to echo everywhere at once.

The head of this tallbeast was, for lack of a better word, split in half. Though the creature had a round head, like a human, there were no features upon it. The head split wide down the middle, with jagged teeth lining the interior on both sides, snapping up and down. Its flexible neck could spin in any direction and it never ceased snapping.

“Trig, handle the L’Gara,” I ordered. “We’ve got a visitor.”

“On it!” Trig said, his voice muffled by the sound of more explosions. I aimed my bow at the tallbeast’s center mass, figuring the head probably had little chance of holding anything important in there. Its cylindrical body probably held the vitals.

The tallbeast’s fingers slashed the top of the cavern roof as it lurched forward, and then suddenly, the mouth snapped shut. The arms all flew upwards and spread out into a wide stance ready to grab at me.

I wouldn’t let this abomination get a chance to even get close. I drew Josiah’s Storm and fired a few regular arrows at the creature. As soon as my arrows left the bow, the tallbeast let out a hideous screech, one that caused an influx of echoes to assail me. Fortunately, I had an ability that allowed me to draw strength from the roars of giant creatures, but behind, I could hear Trig let out a yelp in surprise and pain.

His cry distracted me, for just a moment, and before I could react, the tallbeast was charging forward. The arrows sailed into its pale forearms as they swung up to form an X, keeping its body safe. All four legs seemed to bound at high speeds, but I was ready. I dropped down onto my back and fired a power shot, burning mana to increase the speed of my arrows so I could bypass its reflexive defenses.

Yet, as I fell back to avoid its forward charge, the tallbeast suddenly changed directions. Its legs sprang up and claws flipped upwards, grabbing hold of the ceiling. It didn’t break stride as my arrows flew past, harmlessly bouncing against the cavern wall.

I tried to roll out of the way, seeing the attack coming plain as day, but my reflexes just weren’t fast enough. The tallbeast dropped from the ceiling atop me, its four arms and legs all clawing in unison. Being on the ground gave me somewhat of an advantage here, for I was able to curl into a defensive position, blocking the rending claws with my armor.

The claws cut and swiped, digging deep into my blackoak greaves, splintering the wood with ease. I held my defense for a few beats, waiting for it to show signs of tiring, but this thing never seemed to run out of energy. My armor wasn’t going to hold for much longer.

I sent the command to my suit to switch from being a mere set of light armor to the much heavier, reinforced Titanframe armor. In an instant claw met metal as the heavy suit wrapped around