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

reared up, several bones fell out from it, including that of a large Kinru-like skull. I guess that explained where the tracks had come from.

I rolled out of the way in time as the beast crashed onto the ground, its body splattering everywhere. Though I was able to roll clear of the impact point, I could not avoid the splotches of mud that were spraying everywhere. At first, I merely rubbed the mud out of my eyes, mildly annoyed, but that proved to be a terrible mistake on my part.

As soon as the mud made contact with my hands, it began to rapidly expand around my fingers, seizing them tightly and forcing them together.

“Ah crap!” I shouted in surprise as both of my hands became encased in mud gloves that were rapidly hardening. The mudbeast burbled with satisfaction as it began to lurch towards me, forming a series of tiny legs on its stomach, like a centipede, to allow it to crawl quickly to me.

I staggered away, trying to break my hands free of the mud, but no amount of smearing against my armor would clean the mud off. Once the dark brown substance had finished hardening on the outside, an intense pressure began to assail my fingers.

At first, the pressure was merely firm, as if someone was squeezing my hands tightly in a handshake, but as seconds passed, the pressure became like a vice grip. I let out a grunt of pain as my fingers started to succumb to the squeezing, each digit cracking one after the other.

An explosion rocked the world around me and at once, my hands became free! A wave of heat struck me and my eyes watered, but I was unaffected by the explosion.

“I reallllly hope that didn’t hit you!” Trig shouted from the trees above. He had two explosive orbs in his hands, special weapons from his advanced class, the Grenadier. The infusion grenades, as they were called, allowed him to throw bursts of elemental magic, mimicking the devastating power of dynamite, all without having to waste the blasting powder from the mines. It was quite fortunate he calculated how to hit my hands without hitting me!

“I’m good!” I shouted, leaping up into a nearby tree, avoiding the charge from the mudbeast. It slithered across the ground, almost snake-like, and then immediately flattened itself, forming another mud field across the jungle dirt. At first glance, if we had not seen this monster with our own two eyes, the mud would have looked completely believable as nothing more than wet terrain.

“How do we kill it?” Trig asked, priming another explosive.

“Your guess is as good as mine,” I replied, switching my arrows to fire type. Fire carried heat, right? So maybe I could dry out the mud? It was worth a shot.

A few flaming arrows crashed into the dense ground, but my shots merely sank down into the mud, absorbed completely. Two more grenades were thrown down, causing a bright explosion that forced me to look away for a moment. Looking back, the mud seemed undamaged.

“So…I can say without a doubt that being attacked by a large blanket of mud is the weirdest fight I’ve had,” Trig said. “And seeing how our attacks failed, er…why not just call it a day?”

“You’re giving up on a pile of mud?”

“An anatomy-less beast with no apparent weaknesses? Hardly cowardice to just pack it up, rather than get mud in between my prim and proper nails,” he replied. A solitary bubble rose from the mud, popping. We both tensed up, waiting for something to happen, but the creature merely resumed its restful state.

“Hmmm…” I said, thinking of the different types of monsters we had faced over the year. “It’s a trap monster. And didn’t seem interested in chasing once we were out of arm’s reach. This means it has a limited supply of energy.”

“It’s lazy, makes sense, probably only gets meals every now and then, by trapping whatever it can grab. So running around would cost a lot of energy,” Trig agreed. “What are you thinking?

“Why fight it in its prime?” I said, grabbing a nearby tree branch and snapping it off. The brown branch was meaty enough to get a reaction, or so I hoped. With a heave, I tossed the branch into the center of the mudbeast.

Instantly, the beast came to life, its entire body wrapping upwards, like a carpet come to life, rolling around the stick. The creature gurgled as it balled itself around the stick, slowly contracting until it was a tight sphere, perfectly round and smooth. Once it was finished contracting around the target, it relaxed and returned to its inert state.

“Your turn,” I said.

Chuckling, Trig threw a skipping stone he kept in his pouch, causing the exact same reaction from the beast. We did this a few times, and eventually, the mudbeast began to slow down. Each reaction took longer and longer; it would jerk and sputter, the perfect ball becoming looser and looser, until it eventually began to struggle to jump up at all.

“Looks like you were right,” Trig said after the last stone produced no reaction at all. “I think we burned its energy down.”

“And probably its defenses too,” I said. “Unless it has some kind of reserve.” I raised my bow and readied a multi-shot, lining four arrows on the neck at once. “Let’s throw everything we have at it. Same time.”

Trig grinned and produced two flame grenades, waiting for my order. “One…two…three!” Arrows of flame and explosive struck the creature at the same moment, causing it to let out the most hideous shriek. It blew apart in a matter of seconds, the mud splashing out everywhere, striking tree, rock and leaf. The mud dripped down onto the ground slowly, but nothing moved to reform.

“Woah!” Trig gasped, pointing down at where the mudbeast had been. Laying on the ground, inert and lifeless was a large seed, roughly the shape of a coconut. Unlike other seeds, however, this one had a glowing