End of an Era (Project Chrysalis Book 2) by John Gold (always you kirsty moseley .TXT) 📗

Two-thirds of them are dead, though killing the rest won’t be as easy. The hydra sent a second wave of newts. These ones are still alive.

“Fem, jump.”

This time, I aim for the center of the clump of bots heading toward me instead of going for the hydra. A fountain of water bursts out from the force of the charge. It’s scary to see how powerful my lightning is, and a bunch of bodies is all that remains on the surface. None of them survive.

My imp eye is screaming at me that something enormous is about to attack. Damn it! I completely forgot about the hydra, and one of its heads is about to come down on top of me. Its mouth gapes, and I jump when I see the double row of sharp teeth. I’ll never give in!

“Shield, maximum!”

The hydra’s head topples down on me, but it isn’t biting. All it does is push me and my shield down into the water. That’s when I notice that it’s no longer connected to the body.

Achievement received: Titanbane. Twentieth rank.

Kill an opponent 1000 levels higher than you.

Reward: +100 to all attributes

Level 212 unlocked

Available for distribution: 70 attribute points

 

Wait, so we killed the hydra? Just then, I notice that everything around me has changed. From where I am underwater, I can see everything, and it’s beautiful - eleven hydra heads connected to their long necks and a bunch of small bots are floating on the surface. There’s blood staining the waves, the water is boiling in places, and the hydra’s body looks like a whole island.

You can swim up. I chopped off all the heads.

It’s a glorious vision: Fem is standing astride the hydra corpse, her sword buried in the hulk. Fire and the bodies of our enemies surround us… I take a screenshot to remember it by, especially since I know she’ll ask me to take one anyway.

“Come on down, Valkyrie! We have a ton of loot to collect, and that storm is almost here.”

By the time we got to my parents’ I was at Level 198, and Femida was up at Level 318. That meant that she only got the eighteenth rank for titanbane. It’s a good thing that was just a monster, and not a raid boss. The fact that I’m not ready for aquatic combat means it would have squashed us.

I’ve never seen Fem so proud of herself.

“What are you so happy about? Come on! We don’t know who else is out there looking to attack us.”

“Sagie,” she replies, having a hard time picking the right words, what with all the excitement. “That…that…that hydra was 1000 levels stronger than us!” Her arms wave wildly. “I got a fifty-point bump to all of my attributes! I never would’ve been able to do that alone! And what a great tool.”

“Agreed. Your dissection ability is crazy.” Femida just lopped off all the hydra’s heads before it could grow new ones. She even got a critical hit on the last head that finished the thing off just before it could eat me.

“Dissection along with amplifying my armor is such a great combination. I almost died, too. The last time I activated my armor just about did me in. I had to use quintuple amplification, otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to take off that head with one swing. The cuts I made healed almost instantly.”

After quickly gathering the loot, we run off in the direction of Radaam. We still have three days left before we get to the continent.

I got the hydra’s skin, a legendary crafting ingredient, and a rare sword. I’m going to sell both of them. I don’t need the skin, and I need a much stronger sword.

As soon as the death aura dies away and we’re no longer under threat of being attacked, we go back to swimming. There’s no reason to hurry, so we figure it’s a good idea to work on survival skills. It takes us a whole week to get to the continent that way but Fem and I enjoy the swim.

We’re both able to use amplification, and Fem quickly learns how to do a dolphin kick. The ocean is beautiful - the sunlight playing on the water, the wonderful-looking fish swimming in schools, the corals and their fauna, and even the colorful octopi. Sunken ships litter the bottom next to the skeletons of enormous animals, shells, and crustaceans. We even find ourselves swimming next to whales at one point, their singing pod stretching out for a kilometer. The giant, peaceful mammals are enjoying their natural environment. There’s even a moment when they herd a school of fish to feed on them.

It’s late at night when we get to the continent. We figure it isn’t ideal to push on toward the dwarves in the dark given all the undead wandering around, so we decide to get some rest and get going again in the morning. With that in mind, we head over to spend the night on an island not far from the bank that’s free of undead. There are other aggressive bots in the tropical forest, however, that aren’t looking to let us enjoy a good night’s sleep.

“Are you kidding me? Sagie, kill them before I have to bury myself in the sand.”

We’ve killed a hydra, taken out Level-500 raid bosses, and even fought with a fallen god but in all that time, I’ve never seen Fem as angry as she is now at the hordes of giant mosquitos flying around. They’re as big as a fist and always attack in groups of three or four.

Insect, Dead Man’s Mosquito, Level 41

 

A cloud of them buzzes above us, not letting us leave the game.

Fem has to pull up a maximum shield. The insects can’t touch me.

“Fire storm! Fire storm!”

The two whirlwinds send bodies