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

was real! There really was a place where other hunters gathered! If they lived anywhere, it had to be in that great city, right?

Gravity refused to give me a moment of peace, however, and began to take its hold of me, forcing me back down. I’d need to leap one more time, to orient myself in the right direction. Then I could head towards the mountains, leaping from treetop to treetop in order to keep my bearings.

I landed, took a deep breath, secured the torches and jumped once more, grinning like a madwoman, pleased with my discovery. As long as I kept my eyes closed, I wouldn’t be blinded with each jump.

Yet, as I sailed high out of the black fog, something screeched in the distance. Before I could find the mountains, a great shadowy beast came flying out of the darkness below, darting at me with madness in its eyes. It had the body of a lion, with the head of an eagle and great feathery wings that spanned out nine feet. In many ways, it reminded me of the manticore, with the exception that it looked noble, proud and strong. I knew this creature full well, the mighty Griffin, spoken about in great detail by Venators of old.

Most curiously, the creature was dripping wet with fluid…wait, I had seen that before. No, that couldn’t be…it was amniotic fluid? Was this thing recently hatched? It must have been hatched and then immediately came here. To me. How curious.

The Griffin had little trouble navigating towards me. Though it glistened from its recent birth, the creature was fully formed, nearly nine feet in length, with long powerful lion claws, ready to rend me to shreds. The wings flapped with precision and intensity, thrusting the beast towards me at full speed. I had barely reached the apex of my leap and the thing had already emerged from the shadows and zeroed in on me.

But this was a blessing in disguise. For an alternative form of travel had just manifested itself in front of me. I just had to be careful in how I pulled this off.

Grabbing both hand crossbows from my leg holsters, I took aim at the haunches of the Griffin, firing without hesitation. My grapple bolts fired, crashing into the beast’s buttocks as it reached me, claws up and ready to strike. I had little time to act, so I made a choice. Rather than try to protect myself, I opted to wrap the grapple cables around my arms tightly, ensuring that I could stay hooked onto the beast no matter what.

The Griffin let out an angry, ear-piercing shriek and began to slash at me with its four claws at once, bladed nails striking my midsection with incredible speed and precision. I grunted at the impact, but thankfully my armor held! Brimley had not oversold the strength of this skintight armor, for the beast’s claws could not break through, no matter how hard it struck me.

With the first attack having failed, gravity yanked me down hard, but I held onto the ropes with all my might. I fell only ten feet down, the grapple cables perfectly secured into the hindquarters of the Griffin. The extra weight did not throw off the beast’s flight, however and it sailed upwards, higher and higher, trying to throw me off, but to no avail. I held on tightly and began to climb my way up, feeling the cool wind whipping across my face as the beast flapped its mighty wings.

“Just…gotta…get…up…” I grunted as the beast spiraled in midair, trying to barrel roll me off. The cables whipped back and forth, but thankfully they were made out of sturdy monster sinew and steel combined, making them both sturdy and stable. I weathered the wild whipping of the cables easily enough, relying on my expert dexterity to pull me all the way up to its hind legs.

But just as I reached its rear, the eagle head let out a shriek and delivered a sturdy kick to my face with its hind legs. My head, unarmored, absorbed the full force of the blow and for a brief second, everything went dark. The world vanished and all I could see were flashes of light in my eyes.

When my senses returned a moment later, I found myself hanging upside down as the beast flew in circles, trying in vain to get me off. Tying the ropes to my wrists had been the only thing to save me from plummeting down into the darkness.

“Urgh,” I grunted, feeling the blood pouring down my mouth. That thing kicked me so hard that I had literally seen stars. My brain was in no state to give my body instructions. All I could do was hold on as I recovered.

The beast rose higher and higher, unsure of how to get me off of its body. It wasn’t smart enough to try and attack me; instead it continued to try and shake me off. Perhaps the benefit I had here was that even though the creature was fully grown, it didn’t have experience yet. After all, it was only a few hours old at the most.

I took a moment to catch my breath, activating my Endurance Surge ability. Pure energy rushed through me and the fogginess of the head injury faded. I grabbed the cables once more and began to scurry up, this time careful to keep my head tucked into my chin, to avoid another blow to the braincase.

The Griffin was growing winded from its repeated attempts to get free from what it couldn’t understand. Though it continued to climb upwards, higher and higher towards the sun, it stopped bucking wildly. This was my chance.

I climbed all the way up and leapt onto the creature’s back, clinging onto it with all of my might. The beast immediately grew angry and wild at this, and it began to try and slash at me, wasting even more energy. But being on the Griffin’s back more or