“I feel like we’re not doing anything this time…”
Argo whispers meekly in front of a reaper on the ground.
Reapers leap from the water… The lake, and fly towards their enemies. But none can reach us.
When Chris gets Rurika’s signal, she casts a Tornado that sucks reapers into it. I also fire one while using Parallel Thinking, and that’s enough to take out about ninety percent of them.
The ones that manage to escape have their wings cut by Hikari’s Projectile Slash, and come crashing down. At that point, they’re just fish on land, and all they do is jump a bit here and there.
The reapers can’t fight back anymore, and die helplessly to swords and spears.
I feel like despite us saying we’d leave them to the group fighting up close, we finished them off with long range attacks. But oh well, what matters is that we took them down safely.
After the reapers are down, we approach the lake, and three frostgators appear.
Frostgators first expose their faces from the water and attack with magic, but once we get close, they come out of the water and freeze it to slide their way towards us.
Chris and I use magic to keep them away, Hikari uses Projectile Slash, and Rurika, Sera, and Guilford throw axes and knives. But that’s not enough to break their ice armor.
“Focus on one of them!”
We focus on the one on the right, and after we attack it, the frostgators form a line while sliding, followed by creating a thick ice wall in front of them.
This ice wall acts as a shield while they charge towards us.
Once they jump from the water, they freeze the ground to create the same environment.
With the ground frozen, our movements are limited.
“Stand firm.”
Says Argo, and we really do need to plant our feet so we don’t slip.
The frostgators are throwing chunks of ice, but by blocking with my sword, I slide back. It’s breaking my balance, and I almost fall.
“Chris, can you melt this ice?”
“…No. Normal fire magic won’t melt it.”
Chris says to Rurika.
Unlike the ice wall, this can be melted temporarily, but it returns soon after.
Chris’ spirit magic might be able to deal with it, but it’s hard to use when we’re so close.
Even if it hits them directly, there’s a good chance spirit magic will ruin the materials. We need magic stones, so that will be a last resort.
The frostgators get close, and then slide the ice wall towards us as they split into different directions.
They fire ice magic while sliding, and tackle, bite, and swing their tails when they’re close enough for physical combat.
We all dodge them, but the frostgators keep sliding to attack from different directions.
Their timing is a little hard to predict, and they support each other with magic when we take distance from them. The attacks don’t slow down, and they don’t give us opportunities to attack.
I block one of their charges with my sword and brace so I’m not blown back. And as my posture wavers, another one attacks, so I’m forced into defense.
We’re on the back foot, and we attack progressively less.
Also, they’re focusing on Chris, like they know who here is a threat to them. Sera and Rurika are protecting her.
“Dammit, it wouldn’t be so hard if we weren’t on ice.”
Argo swings his sword at a chunk of ice, and slides back.
Yes, that’s the problem. But can I make footing with magic?
I create an earth wall on the ice. It’s not that tall, I’m picturing something I’d sleep on.
That makes perfect footing.
“Nice, Sora!”
Argo sounds happy as he jumps on it.
He then gets a running start and leaps to the left.
He holds his sword over his head in the air, and swings down as he lands.
The frostgator he’s targeting slides and tries to block with an ice wall, but it’s broken and the monster is bisected.
Frostgators move fast on the ice, but aren’t good at changing directions.
Another frostgator attacked Argo while he was in the air, but Rick blocked it.
I create even more footing, and Guilford and the others use it to attack and finish them off.
The only thing that made it a bit tricky is that when I made earth walls near the frostgators, they froze them.
If you slide on one of those platforms when it’s frozen, the momentum might lead you to fall.
That’s why I had to judge the distance, and cast Appraisal to see how they’re freezing them.
Appraisal tells me frostgators can’t freeze multiple ones at the same time, and prioritize whatever’s closest.
I made a lot of platforms to counter that, but now my MP is down to the double digits.
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Thanks for the treat.
Thanks for the update, & hope everybody has a good weekend. 😎👍