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

snapping me out of my intense thoughts. I had become so focused on piecing together this puzzle that I hadn’t noticed the cart had stopped moving.

Before us was a large river, full of beautiful, glistening water that seemed relatively clean-looking. From the state of the forest, I had assumed the water would be as black as coal, but close inspection with a torch revealed that it was so pure you could see the stones at the bottom. In the distance was the gentle roar of the waterfall—the source of this river.

“Is this sufficient?” Eckshaw said with an irritated little huff.

“Yes, it is,” I said. “Plenty of pure water to clean my injuries. And to restore our supplies.”

As I reached down to touch the water, in the hopes of cleaning off my gloves, my danger senses fired off instantly. Something was coming from the darkness! I found myself leaping back just in time to avoid a long, black spear that crashed into the ground where I was standing. A double take revealed it was not a spear, but rather a thick, long leg, with a shell-like quality to it.

“Ah, damn it, we can’t get peace and quiet for one minute, can we?” Trig grumbled as he leapt away from the water and threw a smooth orb towards the source of the leg. A brilliant burst of white light exploded in midair, creating a huge sphere, like a flare, that illuminated the lake that was connected to the river.

Standing in front of the great cliffside, where the waterfall ran over into the lake, was a tall, black crab-like monster, with legs as long as trees. It had two huge pincers jutting from its stomach and a pair of yellow eyes that glowed with a cruel intensity. The size of the crab monster’s body was fairly small compared to the four long legs and two pincers, perhaps only fifteen feet wide, forming more of a flat disc than a thick torso.

The crab monster raised one of its legs again, revealing a wicked point at the bottom of the leg, more of a spear than a foot. With lightning speed, the leg came crashing down on me, but I took a risk and tried to catch it. A beast of that size might seem scary, but it looked tall, not dense.

“Are you nuts?” Trig cried as I reached out and caught the spear-leg in midair, holding it back. My guess had been right, the beast was tall and intimidating, but its strength compared to mine was quite miniscule, especially considering that beasts this big qualified for my Iron Meets Steel ability.

The +5 Strength surged through me as I held onto the creature’s leg, pulling as hard as I could. The legs were heavily armored and reinforced, refusing to break off, despite my strength. Still, the beast lost its balance and staggered forward.

Trig rushed into action. He ran forward, as fast as he could, jumping on the leg that I was pulling down. The leg was at a perfect angle to run up and the young hunter rushed towards the head of the creature, two bombs in hand. The light of the flare continued to illuminate the entire area, preventing any of the darkness from encroaching upon us. This must be one of Trig’s new abilities, courtesy of the Bloodpoints I had given him. I had to admit, the investment was paying off.

The crab beast tried to swipe its nimble claws at Trig, but right before it could grab him, I yanked on the leg even harder, twisting the entire creature’s body to the right, throwing its aim off. Trig leapt easily over the claws and sailed in midair, throwing both bombs onto the beast’s face. He didn’t bother to try and recover from his fall, instead opting to just plunge towards the water, cheering as he fell.

Two explosions rocked the head of the beast, sending chunks of flesh and chitin everywhere. The creature did not make a noise whatsoever, but silently reeled back from the attack, its front leg popping off in my grip. As the limb disconnected, my ability ended and I felt the weight of the beast’s leg overtake me, dropping it to the ground.

As the smoke faded, a large, fleshy brain came into view, the armor of the crab sufficiently destroyed by Trig’s dual explosive attack. Josiah’s Storm appeared in my hands instantly, ready to shoot and kill the creature with ease. Yet, as I raised the bow, I could see something out the corner of my eye. It was Eckshaw, cowering behind a tree, trying his best to avoid notice from the beast. Trying to survive an encounter with something that would have no trouble killing an ordinary human. Killing a spy for the opposition.

A plan came to me at once. A horrific, terrible and cruel plan. But a plan, nonetheless. If we tried to knock Eckshaw out, or somehow remove him from the equation, the Eldest would undoubtedly know we were planning on killing it. But…if the man was killed by this beast. Oh…such a horrible thing to think, but…if he died here and now, we’d have time to plan our trap. Time to ready an attack that would save the rest of the village.

But the price was high, was it not? Eckshaw was still a person, wasn’t he? Somewhere, deep down, he had a mind. A personality. Letting him die here would be murder. But murder for the greater good. Was it justifiable? Would he understand? All these questions seemed to strike me at once, but I realized that I didn’t have much of a choice. An opportunity like this wasn’t going to happen again. I couldn’t pit the needs of the entire village against the survival of one man. I just hoped that he would understand.

I fired an arrow with a sloppy release, so that the shot would go wild, striking an armored part of the beast. To my credit, the shot still took a chunk of