First Blood

Only a slight upward slope differentiated the two opposing directions of the ancient road. Devoid of any other details on which to fixate, John chose his path arbitrarily and began walking uphill.

As John traveled up the ancient road, a soft, creaking groan began to echo through the tree tops behind him. He wheeled around to face the source, expecting to find his first opponent. Instead he found a gargantuan oak, healthy moments ago, rapidly withering. In seconds, its leaves browned and fell as a cascade. Bark broke off in chunks, exposing a dark rot that cut through the underlying timber like a spreading fire. The oak listed towards the road. Cracks and pops reverberated through its trunk as ancient roots snapped, unable to resist the fall. Its sprawling limbs, as thick as its neighbors, dragged them down with it. Dozens of trees fell as a giant heap across the road.

John stood in stunned silence.

‘Whatever choice I just made, I don’t think I'm supposed to unmake it.’

Rustling in the underbrush, followed closely by a clatter of sharp taps, tore John's attention back to the open road.

A reptilian creature stamped and snapped at a rat that frantically danced about its feet. Standing on its hind legs, it resembled a prehistoric raptor, though it lacked the iconic digit. Jagged, rust colored scales crowned the creature from snout to tail. Elsewhere, smooth olive green scales clad its body. A line of small round nodules, a deeper red than the surrounding scales, ran down the center of its flat, paddle-like tail.

The rat darted through the raptor’s legs and dove towards the safety of the underbrush. The reptile whipped around to give chase, but halted motionless as John entered its field of view. It tilted its head from side to side and eyed him quizzically, seemingly unable to comprehend the creature that stood before it.

Pulling his shield to his chest and preparing his spear to strike, John shuffled slowly towards the raptor. In response, the raptor backed away and assailed him with rasping barks.

‘Is this really an enemy or just a neutral mob?’

A flurry of barks responded from deeper in the woods.

John’s adrenaline surged. He charged forward and thrust at the creature, hoping to dispatch it before more threats arrived. A short, evasive hop nearly brought the raptor away from the spear’s deadly point. The edge of the blade grazed against the creature’s left flank, carving a shallow wound from shoulder to hip. The capacitor made contact there. A plume of silver, arcane fire erupted against the joint, searing the surrounding flesh. The creature screeched in agony.

Carried by momentum, John kicked at the creature, his leg crashing against its sternum, and launched it several yards down the road. It landed with a heavy thud and a deflating gasp then laid there, silent and motionless.

John watched it for a moment, looking for any sign of life. Wisps of smoke wafted up from its charred hide. Blood pooled beneath it. It remained still.

The far off barking grew closer, and harsh rustling in the thicket heralded new arrivals. In near unison, two new raptors broke through the treeline and, side by side, charged at him.
Just beyond the reach of his spear, they split and took positions on each of his flanks. They harried him with snapping jaws and screeching barks. When John would turn to face one, the other lunged for his heels.

His shield offered no protection from these creatures. Their short stature kept them comfortably below its reach. Kneeling to wield the shield against one only served to make him more **** to the other. John was **** to leap and hop about to evade the creatures. But, in a contest of agility, they were clearly dominant.

A misstep brought John too near to the spear-wise raptor who lunged at him and sunk its teeth deep into his right calf. His body clenched as horrendous pain shot through him. He tried to pivot and plunge his weapon down into the creature’s back, but a broad hard smack against his left calf unseated the limb and brought him crashing down onto his back.

The spear-wise raptor thrashed wildly, dragging its teeth deeper into his muscle, the fresh flow of blood exciting even greater frenzy in the creature. The other dove for John’s throat. He brought his shield up over his face and swung wildly with his spear to ward off the raptor at his head.

John kicked at the raptor attached to his leg. The first missed wildly. The second glanced off its shoulder. The third landed heavy on its brow with a sickening crack. Shrieking in pain, the raptor released him and flailed chaotically.

His leg freed, John swung hard with his shield, catching the raptor’s shoulder and briefly knocking it away. He rolled onto his stomach and scrambled to his knees. Too soon to stand, the raptor leapt at his throat. John pulled his shield up, blocking the ****. The raptor bounced off of it and fumbled to the ground.

Shield first, John threw himself onto the creature and buried the spear’s blade in its gut. The creature thrashed against the iron barrier between them, but the crushing weight and mortal bleed soon drained it of life. The raptor’s flailing ceased. Before John could lift himself from the creature’s lifeless body, it exploded into a cloud of crimson smoke, dropping him to the ground and scattering a collection of scales and a roll of hide.

Achievement: First Blood
Kill a creature for the first time
+1 Stat Point

‘First kill?’

As John picked himself up from the ground, he turned towards the resting place of the first raptor. A trail of blood splatter led from the drying pool into the underbrush.

‘Fuck, they play dead.’

John turned and limped towards the remaining monster. It struggled to stand, its injury having seemingly affected its balance. Its bloodied eye rolled lifelessly in its broken socket. At John’s approach, it snarled a hollow warning then fumbled to the ground.

John placed the point of his spear between two of the creature’s ribs and laid his full weight against it. The blade sank, and the creature shrieked, until its point struck the bricks below. As before, it exploded into crimson smoke scattering claws, scales, and another roll of hide.

He stood there a moment, catching his breath and collecting his thoughts.

‘They’re not particularly tough by themselves, but they are absolute bastards in a group.’

Despite the sharp pain that surged through his bloodied leg with each step, he shuffled around the battlefield and collected his loot. When finished, he found a patch of unsullied road and sat down.

“Ok, let’s see exactly how poorly that went.”

Nine HP had been lost to the raptors’ attacks. Significantly more would drain away because of the bleeding they’d inflicted.

“Huh, I expected that to be a lot worse. I mean, it’s not great. It’s going to take almost two days to recover all that HP, but this might be more manageable than I thought.”

‘I need to be more aggressive. If I focus one down, then the remaining shouldn’t be too bad. Hitting a bit harder couldn’t hurt.’ John placed his stat point in Strength. ‘The shield didn’t do much of anything, at least, not until I fell. If I have to fight more of those things, then my legs will be the most ****. I need to fix that before I go any further.’

John looked down to the shredded tatters of his jeans. Although the bleeding effect still chipped away at his HP, his wounds had already closed. Nearly hidden beneath a layer of caked blood and dirt, his tennis shoes bore fraying slashes left by the raptors’ claws.

‘Reinforcing my pants would still leave my feet and ankles ****. Boots will probably be the best solution.’

John stowed his shoes in his inventory and began their clumsy retrofit. Although he lacked any components geared towards armorcraft, he was able to manipulate his raw materials towards the task. In his preview window, he cut the raptors’ hides into rectangular panels each with a semicircular end. He wrapped the panels around his calves so that the odd ends draped over his shoes. A series of strategic cuts allowed the hide to bend and conform to the shoe’s surface. Scraps of hide haphazardly filled any gaps, and iron rivets fixed the panels in place. Finally he trimmed the higher sections of hide so that only a small gap formed between the opposed edges. His old laces would be used to pull the seam closed so the armor would sit snugly on his leg.

‘Welp, they aren’t pretty, but they’re about as good as I’m going to get,’ John mused as he confirmed his work.

John pushed himself up and equipped his reinforced boots. A quick stroll to test his new footwear revealed that the rivets, even through his socks, scratched and irritated him with every step. But, compared to a raptor’s raking teeth, it wasn’t too bad.