System of the Beast Slayer [litrpg Adventure]
Copyright© 1999 by CaffeinatedTales
Chapter 69
A rootlike arm slammed through the “elf”’s chest with lightning speed and seized Roy’s swinging right hand.
The guttering torchlight picked out crimson blood, soft wet moss, and a bark-rough shell.
The boy’s stomach dropped. He snatched an arrow with his left hand and drove it at the “elf”’s ear. The monster-hand slapped his chest instead, a solid hit like a sandbag, and sent him flying ten feet.
He rolled on the ground, chest burning with a bone-deep pain, his insides feeling displaced. He forced himself up and saw the hand that had torn open the chest brace on the earth, propping the “elf” up in a grotesque, impossible way.
Pale moonlight filtered through the trees.
The “elf”’s mouth hung open toward him; from the dark maw a single pupil slid forth, burning with ghost-fire—cold, numb, without any trace of living feeling.
Then, like a flower splitting, the seated “elf” split in two. From the torn husk stepped a gaunt, deer-headed thing, whole at last.
It was smaller than the ten-foot behemoth the Witcher had fought, only five feet now.
Small antler nubs crowned its head; its long face was masked in bone, its eyes two green lanterns that turned the blood cold.
Beneath the skull, limbs and torso were woven from trunks and vines, lacquered in fresh blood and slime, as if it had just been born from some foul womb.
Ancient Leshen Age: 272 Health: 80 (Weakened) Mana: 120
Attributes: Strength: 12 ↓ Agility: 4 ↓ Constitution: 8 ↓ Perception: 5 ↓ Willpower: 7 ↓ Charisma: 12 ↓ Spirit: 12 ↓
Skills: Vine Control LV6 Consumes a small amount of mana to force plant seeds to sprout, conjuring tough, quick, powerful vines that seize and crush a target.
Earth Spikes LV6 A basic earth spell. A modest mana cost causes jagged stone spikes to erupt from the ground and impale enemies.
Beast Summoning LV7 With supernatural Charisma, the Leshen enthralls forest creatures, calling them to serve at will.
Forest Veil LV7 Within woodland terrain the Leshen melts into the foliage, becoming effectively invisible.
Parasitic Mark LV6 The Leshen brands any human who yields with a parasitic sigil. If the Leshen’s body is destroyed, it siphons life from the marked to resurrect itself.
Hidden Totem LV6 An ancient, blood-soaked rite. By sacrificing living flesh the Leshen builds a concealed totem that channels primal power and amplifies its strength.
Whispers of the Wood LV7 The Leshen sometimes lures lost travelers with murmured illusions, its Charisma planting devotion into their minds.
Child of the Forest (Passive) Ancient Leshen are guardians and favored servants of the wild. While within their forest domain, their stamina, mana recovery, and wound regeneration are doubled.
...
Roy felt himself fall into an ice pit. His face went white.
This was an ancient Leshen? Even weakened, it was grotesquely beyond imagining, the most powerful thing he’d ever seen.
What could he use to fight it?
He fumbled for an Anti-Magic Bomb, then remembered with a stab that he’d already used it against the elf sorceress.
“Damn,” he cursed under his breath, and loosed an arrow at the Leshen. As expected, the bolt stuck in that tough hide; a ribbon of green blood showed, but no real damage.
Fire, that was the Witcher’s warning.
He tossed an oil flask fast, smearing grease over the Leshen’s body. It had just reformed, its mind slow; it did not stop him in time.
But as Roy lunged for the torch fixed to the cave wall, the green lantern eyes snapped toward him. The Leshen’s rootlike hand closed, and it began to chant.
“Hoong-latha,” it intoned, almost instant.
A thick vine ripped up through the snow like a hunting python and lashed his right foot.
It pulled, and he was hoisted upside down, suspended and helpless.
Blood rushed to his head. The vine crept up his body, winding to his neck, knotting him into a vertical cocoon with only his wide eyes exposed.
He could not breathe. It conjured the old choking nightmare from his first days in Mahakam.
Was this it?
The deer-headed thing rose from its bloody husk, walking toward him on two stilted, wooden legs.
At that moment three figures burst from the trees behind the monster. Dool and Deef, the dwarves who had chased the white-haired dwarf, hauled Kelvin by the arms, dragging him like a dead hound. They froze at the sight of the terrible silhouette outside the cave and raised their weapons.
Then they saw the man hanging upside down, and they blew their cheeks, eyes wide. They dropped the captive and charged like two rhinos, hammers and axes swinging at the Leshen.
The Leshen had fixed its attention on Roy. It did not expect the flank attack; it was caught off guard. An axe and a hammer struck hard across its back.
It screamed in a sound that was at once plaintive and bestial, and like a windmill it spun a tangled arm to swipe at the dwarves.
Dwarves are short and stout, wrapped in thick padding and mail, yet their moves were catquick. They circled the Leshen as it swung, letting its momentum run out, then raised their weapons to meet and block. They adjusted the angles and slipped the hammer and axe along the branchlike arm; sparks flew as metal scraped bark, and the blows hammered into its chest and back.
Mossy skin split in two great rents; green ichor sprayed like a fountain.
Roy, bound and forced to watch, could see its HP plummet, nearly halved to 60.
He screamed in his head, but the vine muffled his voice completely.
Furious now, the Leshen chanted again, strange and dense. It cast spells with the speed of a trained sorcerer, one short phrase summoning raw power that ordinary folk could not exploit.
The two dwarves had found its weakness, its great strength paired with glacial reflexes. They kept circling, waiting like two jackals on the plain for a decisive rip.
They did not notice two silent vines burst from the snow. The plants struck, wrapping around the dwarves’ heels. The same fate fell to them and to Roy; they were hoisted upside down into writhing cocoons.
But the Leshen was not done. It glared, then lifted its withered hands and suddenly dropped the dwarves. Their bodies fell, heads slamming the snow with a bone-breaking thud.
The vines withdrew. The two brothers lay limp, out cold.
...
“Deef, Dool!” Roy mouthed soundlessly, a sting of acid behind his eyes.
“Gods damn it,” his chest tightened.
An arrow flashed from the cave mouth and slammed into its face, pinning into the carved bone mask.
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