The New Normal

The tree-like creatures shambled forward in their uncoordinated stumpy legs. An arrow whizzed by and struck one of them, it dug half the shaft's length into its bark skin, but there was no visible reaction from the creature.

After three more arrows found their way into the creature it finally showed signs of slowing down. A fifth arrow struck in its eye socket. The creature screeched, shook madly, pushing the others around it, and then sagged and fell flat on the floor, hampering the way forward of the ones behind it.

"Nice!" Noah shouted from behind me.

I gave him a quick glance.

"I just leveled up, mate." He said grinning.

"Good, but don't lose focus."

"Right, right…"

The first of the creatures were finally approaching the barrier. I leveled my spear to their hollowed eye cavity, maybe it was the accumulated damage from Noah that finally took it down, but I suspected it was their weak spot.

Reaching the barricade, they didn't exactly crash into it, since they were moving quite slowly. The barricade groaned, and a couple pieces of loose furniture toppled over, but that was it. They just stood there, flailing, as they tried to pass through it, as more of them arrived to the same effect.

I simply stabbed it in the eye socket, or tried to, it wasn't as easy as I thought. Despite it being nearly immobile, it still swayed constantly as it shifted in its stump legs. The spear broke through the bark skin quite easily, and when I pulled out, viscous purple ooze came out with pieces of wet, soft wood.

The sight wouldn't have been so bad, if not for the smell they came with it. A strong scent of rotten wood caught me by surprise, as the creature flailed madly. The barrier started losing off more pieces as its scraggy arms whipped in the air. Two more strikes and it finally sagged, losing all its strength.

[You have slain a Rot Bark Sapling.]

As the other creatures pushed forward, the recently killed was ground under their combined weight. It didn't take longer than a few moments for another to take its place, but I was already finishing my second one by then. Somewhere among the crowd of rot bark's I heard one of them screech their death throes.

'Seems like Noah is managing to get some kills, but I feel like he is going to lose a lot of arrows this time.'

This wave didn't feel like a battle, but more like a grind. The creatures were slow, dumb as they had ever been, but it took more a single powerful blow to take them down. My hopes of one-hit one-kill were shattered when I managed to get a good first strike deep into the eye socket of the rot bark, but it still didn't die.

By the time their combined efforts finally collapsed the barrier, my arms were starting to feel heavy, and there were still a good number of them. Weirdly enough, that was the moment that we found a lull in battle. The creatures had ground so many of their own underfoot that they slipped and fell on top of the barrier's remains.

The ones behind didn't help the ones in the front by constantly shambling forward, which made the whole situation into a huge mess of awkward nightmare trees trying to reach us, but failing miserably. I exchanged an amusing look with Noah as he continued to pepper them in arrows.

One of the rot bark's managed to break free of the impromptu Japanese comedy show they were putting on and approach me. I rewarded his commendable efforts with a quick death after three strikes.

[You have leveled up.]

I didn't have time to celebrate as another came at me a few moments later. It met the same fate as its predecessor. Rotten wood pieces covered in purple goo splashing on the ground as it sagged and fell.

The battle continued like this for a while, until more of the creatures managed to get their feet properly under them and shamble forward. Unfortunately, for them, there were already too few of them at that time.

Cleaning up the remaining rot bark felt weirdly mechanical. There had been no challenge, and consequently, no real danger. The creatures were tougher than usual, if we don't consider the bears, but other than that, they were even easier targets than the horror maws. Noah and I spoke casually as we finished the massacre we had done. Not that any of us felt guilt about it, but when it was this easy, it left a bad taste in my mouth.

'I must be going crazy. Being this easy is good, means that no one will die and that some of us will have safely leveled up.'

We left the alley and joined the others in the open area in front of the main building. Both flanks had finished their battles as well, and there wasn't anyone injured that I could see. What I saw was a lot of smiles and congratulations going around.

Johann's voice cut the celebrations short. Reminding us that there was still the last creature for us to face, and right on cue, a deep rumble came rolling from beyond the eastern barricade. The creature that emerged from it was similar, but very different than the ones we had been fighting.

It had six long and thick arm-branches with hooked metal blades sticking out of its cylindrical body. Instead of two stumpy and awkward legs, it had six jointed limbs that it walked on very steadily. The hollowed eye sockets formed a ring around the upper section of its circular shape. Similarly, what should be a mouth, was a ringed aperture filled with teeth. An exposed inner trunk was visible from within, while large gobs of green goop constantly dripped from it.

'You did ask for a challenge, you moron.'

Sarah and Ani found us and joined Noah and I in the middle of the open area. The people who had been closer to the eastern flank started to retreat behind us, while Johann barked orders to form a line. A line which was, conveniently, behind us as well.

"Be careful, its saliva has mild acidic effects." Ani warned us.

"Mild?" Sarah asked. "How mild, Ani?"

"It will give you chemical burns, but it wont chew off through you. If you don't let too much of it fall on you." Ani said in a neutral tone. "You will be fine."

"Easy for you to say."

"That's true."

"You can be really frustrating sometimes, you know that?"

"I do."

Sarah groaned and rolled her eyes. Noah discreetly smirked at their exchange while I felt a little surprised at their casual exchange while the creature made its way through the barricade.

"I guess this is the new normal." I whispered to myself.

"What is that, mate?" Noah asked.

I waved his question away and turned to face and focus on the approaching bigger rot bark. Or whatever that was called.

"Rot Bark Youngling." Ani said beside me.

"Huh?"

"The name of that. It's Rot Bark Youngling."

"Oh," I said as I remembered who I was speaking with. "If that is still a youngling, I don't wanna see what an adult would look like."

"You are right." Ani stated matter-of-factly. "You don't wanna see what an adult looks like."

The rot bark youngling pushed through the barricade, bringing our conversation to a forced end. It already sported a few arrows sticking out of its trunk, one had even hit an eye socket. With Noah hard at work, Sarah and I moved to meet the creature halfway.

Will and two others from his group joined us. Sarah didn't even spare them a glance, while I was happy to let them join in on the action. It didn't matter to me if this was merely posturing or not, even as a distraction they would be useful.

After a few tentative strikes, I realized this would be even harder than I thought. The creature's arms had a longer reach than my spear, and their bark skin was extremely durable. Sarah and the others had managed to land a few hits on them, but they didn't achieve much more than chip away at it.

The arms were fast, but not so fast Sarah and I couldn't keep up. Although my weapon was a poor change against them, Sarah was getting a constant stream of good hits. She had managed to work her way into a third of one of its arms.

Meanwhile, Will and his guys weren't faring so well. They did manage to get a few hits, but they were also being hit. One of them had a long, but shallow, cut across the chest. Despite their lackluster skills, they were tough nuts to crack. I even recognized one of them.

'Isn't that the guy who gave me the food when Will was making a big deal out of it?'

The battle wasn't frenetic, but I didn't have much time to spend worrying about who the guy was. I would have plenty of time for it afterwards, if we all survived.

As we worked our way through the creature's arms, the guy I didn't recognize got a bad injury on his leg. He bled profusely while being dragged away by the other dude. Their retreat was covered by Will, but the monster didn't pursue them, more worried about Sarah that was almost cutting through one of its arms.

"Johann!" Will shouted from somewhere behind me. "You have a fucking axe, why don't you join the fight for once, you piece of shit?"

I couldn't spare a glance and there was no audible answer or retort from Johann. I must admit that I was a little surprised when I saw him approach the rot bark youngling together with Will and the blood covered dude who had dragged the injured guy from earlier.

Sarah and I had fallen into a rhythm. She would hack away madly at the creature, step back to catch her breath and I would step in, deflecting the creatures blows and getting its attention. It was a slow and steady grind, but safe.

When the first arm fell, Johann had even managed a couple light hits on another of the creature's arm. Our leader fought much more conservatively than any of us, only tempting a strike when the creature was completely focused on Sarah or me. Not that the creature could truly be only focused on one enemy with its 360 view.

It was a long and drawn out battle. Sarah and I were almost completely spent by the time the fourth arm fell. But with only two limbs to attack, I was confident I could duck and weave through its strike to get some real damage in.

Noah��s arrows had stopped coming at some point. There were more than two dozen of them sticking out of the rot bark's body, but Noah had probably ran out of them after the two fights.

After a short moment of rest, I moved in the creature's range. It's arms whipped its deadly hooked blades after me, but I weaved around them with confidence. Precise strikes opened holes in its body that leaked the same rotted pieces of wood with purple ooze.

The rot bark youngling roared and his green goop saliva flew in an arc in front of me. I raised an arm to cover my face, but I smelled and heard as it sizzled through my protective clothes as if it was nothing. My skin burned as I dodged one of its arms. I pushed through the pain, using it as a motivator to finish this quick.

The other had joined me in hacking away at the creature's body, but their approach was much more subdued. They didn't have the range I had with my spear, and although Sarah had speed that was as good as mine, she was tired.

The grind finally ended with a utterly stupid move of mine. When the creature sagged in the same way the saplings had done, I got excited to finally see this end. I took a step back and launched my spear with my right hand. It flew true and struck one of its eye sockets. The creature gave an ear splitting roar and toppled. Falling to the ground with my spear buried almost entirely inside of its body.

[Your Throwing skill has upgraded from (Initiate) to (Beginner)]

[The sixth wave has been cleared.]

[Participants will be rewarded according to their contribution.]

[The contribution ranking is:

Leo - 129 Points

Sarah - 73 Points

Maccurach - 61 Points

Takeshi - 29 Points

Noah - 27 Points]

[You have been awarded 129 points.]

[You have been awarded one free stat point for being the highest contributor.]

Sarah gave me an incredulous look. I suspected she wanted to say something, but was too busy catching her breath to waste it in a witty remark. I felt the same, but I couldn't let this opportunity pass.

"Huh. I guess that worked out just fine." I said smugly.