Wild Wood Village Dungeon Floor 1 Pt 2

We stood there for a moment, breathing heavily over the corpses of the jaguars from the exertion and adrenaline of the battle.

"Whoa," Mick said as he turned around to face the rest of the group, jaguar blood splattered across him from the half decapitation he performed, "that was intense."

"Yeah," Jenna said as she and Ren turned around to join us, not in much of a better state than Mick from the blood that sprayed out when Ren crushed the chest of the jaguar with a crazy amount of force.

"Is everyone ok?" Isabell asked

"I think I'm good."

"Same here."

"Good over here."

"They didn't get close enough to me to get me," I said.

"Just check yourselves over real quick, you may not be feeling it from the adrenaline and we may not notice it from the jaguar blood all over you guys" Isabell said as she wrinkled her nose slightly at their appearance.

'Everyone seems to be settling into their roles rather quickly, maybe it's because we've been friends for a long time and their party roles are relatively in line with the role they played in the friend group. I'm still nervous about bigger battles though. I was also pretty useless when they got closer, it's hard to shoot something that fast when also having to worry about hitting your friends, conserving ammo, and making sure they get fighting experience too. I need to get some better close range weapons than this short little hunting knife." I thought.

Everyone checked themselves over and the only person who had any injuries was Mick from when the jaguar swiped at his stomach. Isabell checked them out but there were only a few very shallow scratches that wouldn't affect his fighting ability and they weren't cause for worry so we decided we were good to continue forward.

"Before we continue down the path we should collect the Ethereal Cores from the jaguars so we can split them up when we get out of the dungeon." I said pulling out my hunting knife.

"Shouldn't you absorb their blood essence as well so you can work on getting a jaguar form as well?" Questioned Ren.

"I would but there's two things to that, first if I do that I automatically absorb the Ethereal from their Ethereal Core too which would make it more difficult to be able to split up the loot, second the description said I could absorb blood essence from creatures I kill and I don't know if that means I have to get the last blow or if I only had to be a part of killing it. Also, for unranked creatures I get 50% of the form for absorbing the first creature so I would need to absorb at least two to get the complete form."

Everyone grew quite and looked like they were thinking about the situation carefully.

"Do it, take them both." Mick said.

I looked around the group expecting to find someone who objected to what Mick said, instead seeing everyone looking at me with looks of confirmation and resolve.

"Are you all sure?"

"Just do it before we change out mind. You're the closest to leveling up and you're the leader of the group, always have been ever since our friend group got started. You can't get us out of the trouble we get in if you're not strong enough." Mick said.

"Alright." I nodded and walked over to the jaguar closest to me placing my hand on its caved in chest, focusing on feeling the connection to its blood essence. I found the connection quickly and focused on pulling the red essence into my body as I felt the corpse of the jaguar shriveling and drying up under my hand while I heard a couple of audible gasps coming from the group behind me. I moved over to the other jaguar and repeated the process absorbing the blood essence and then stood up to look at the lines of text in the top right corner of my vision notifying my of the gains I had made.

'Blood Essence of Lvl 1 Unranked Jaguar Absorbed

5 Ethereal Absorbed

50% to Form Completion

Blood Essence of Lvl 1 Unranked Jaguar Absorbed

5 Ethereal Absorbed

Congratulations you have reached Level 1

Congratulations Unranked Jaguar Form Complete.'

'Fighting Level 1 Creatures is a lot easier in a group, makes sense I suppose.'

"I just want you to know that is really gross to watch" Isabell said with her normally cute face wrinkled up after watching two corpses rapidly desiccate in front of her."

"I got the form of the jaguar and I managed to level up to level 1" I told the group.

"Hell ya!" Mick and Ren said together while Isabell still had her nose wrinkled at the corpses and Jenna nodded thoughtfully.

"Let's keep moving forward, see what else is in the dungeon." I said getting some nods and a half sarcastic "Aye, aye sir" from Mick.

We fell back into the formation that we used the last time we were moving down the overgrown path of the dungeon and moved forward as I quickly advanced to get a 50 foot lead on the rest of the party with an arrow nocked on my bow, keeping ready for any potential ambush. Once I reached about a 50 foot lead I slowed down to a normal pace and continuously scanned the area while moving forward. Suddenly, an unknow creature launched out of the overgrowth on the side of the trail next to me with a screech. I leapt out of the way as fast as I could but I felt something cut across the back of my calf. I rolled across the ground, slipping out of my backpack as I did so, and rolled up onto one knee drawing my bow back when another screech suddenly came from beside me. I rolled pushed myself forward towards the first strange looking, short, green, two legged green creature holding what looked like some kind of primitive spear, abandoning my plan to fire an arrow at it before I got seriously wounded from the second creature ambushing me. I rolled to my knee again drawing the arrow back, now caught halfway between the two creatures, I took aim at the throat of the first creature to ambush me and quickly let the arrow fly. We were to close together for it to have time to react and the arrow pierced straight through its throat, protruding from the back of its neck before it collapsed onto the ground. Suddenly four more screeches sounded in the overgrowth around me as the surrounding vegetation rustled aggressively as more creatures charged the path.

"Shit! Guys, get up here! I need your help!" I yelled, jumping to my feet and backing up slowly in the direction of the rest of the party as I quickly nocked another arrow. I drew the arrow back and took aim at the chest of the second creature so fast I was relying on muscle memory and instinct, hoping to take it out before the other creatures made it to the path to help even the odds. I let the arrow fly as I could hear my friends running footsteps coming up quickly behind me. The arrow crossed the twenty feet between me and the creature in an instant piercing its chest causing the creature to look down at the sudden protrusion in disbelief before collapsing just as its comrades burst onto the path. The creatures looked at their suddenly deceased brethren and screeched angrily before turning to glare at me with hatred just as the rest of the party arrived. Their faces turned grim and they quickly readied themselves for battle when they realized this would be much different then facing the leopards. We were facing four opponents and they were nothing like any of us had ever seen before. They were roughly three feet tall, green, and incredibly ugly, all while standing on two feet and wielding primitive looking weapons and wearing primitive and dirty clothing. Of the four we were facing one wielded a spear looking weapon, one wielded a sword only while another held a sword and shield, and another held a weird staff looking thing and wore a different set of primitive looking clothes than the others. Everyone was in the same position as the previous battle and it was a good thing to as the two sword wielding creatures charged at us with an ear piercing screech as the creature holding the spear followed behind them.

"Here they come!" yelled Jenna as Isabell and I both shot projectiles at the sword and shield wielding creature who was leading the charge. To our dismay, instead of catching it off guard like we had hoped, it managed to block both of our attacks with its shield. Ren swung his sledgehammer at the creature with as much strength as he could, and since the creature still had its shield up he had no way to see the attack coming. Ren's sledgehammer slammed into the shield of the creature sending it flying to the side and it tumbled on the ground in front of Mick like the jaguar. Mick leapt forward to and brought both of his machetes down to stab the creature through its back and impale it to the ground, and at the same time the creature wielding only a sword leapt high into the air with its sword raised over head trying to deal a fatal blow to Ren while he was off balance from swinging his sledgehammer.

"Ren, lookout!" Jenna yelled, distracting Mick from finishing off the creature in front of him while he watched the event in front of him to far away to help. I drew the arrow back on my bow and took aim just as Jenna leapt forward and rammed the end of her staff into the stomach of the creature, stopping it in midair. I let the arrow fly, striking the creature through its neck causing droplets of blood to rain down on Ren and Jenna as Ren stared up at the creature with wide eyes. Just as I was beginning to think we might be able to win without to much of a fight Mick yelled out as he was knocked to the ground by the creature he was standing over at the same time that Jenna screamed as a crude spear pierced through her thigh.

"Jenna! No!" Ren yelled as he was brought out of his shock from her scream and just as he brought his sledgehammer over his head an explosion occurred right in front of him, sending Ren, Jenna, and I all tumbling backwards. I struggled to my feet seeing the creature with the staff look like it was laughing but it was hard to tell with the ringing in my ears. I saw my bow on the ground close by and I hurried to pick it up and nock an arrow. Mick was still on the ground doing his best to fend off the attacks of the creature standing over him, but Isabell was just standing there quivering, clearly in shock as the spear wielding creature made its way over to her. I quickly sent an arrow at the spear wielding creature which struck it in the chest causing it to collapse and slide across the ground. I nocked another arrow and aimed at the creature standing over Mick when suddenly Mick yelled out-

"Get off of me you pest!"

Mick nocked the creature to the ground and leapt to his feet, bloodied from a few small wounds but seemingly ok. Mick hacked at the shield of the creature like a feral beast, slowly breaking the shield until it finally splintered to pieces after five strong blows where he then proceeded to decapitate the creature. At this point Mick's body was turning red and was starting to visibly emit steam as he picked up the bloodied head of the creature and hurled it at the creature holding the staff.

"You don't get to hurt my friends and get away with it, and now no one can protect you!" Mick let out a guttural roar as he charged the creature tackling it to the ground and repeatedly stabbing it in the chest before slowly calming down.

"Isabell," I said since Mick's outburst seemed to have brought her back to reality, "come check on these two the blast knocked them both out cold. I'll go check on Mick."

"R-Right.." she stammered clearly still shaken after the much more disastrous fight.

'I can't tell if we should be ashamed at having performed so poorly or if we should be proud to have gotten out alive..'