Have I joined a team? At no point did I decided to join a team—and yet, there was a time when I was distinctly not in a team, but now? Now I clearly am. Every other option has been removed, so what can I do.
I can tell that the human pair are planning something big. Chase has been making arrows—way more than the two of them can carry. He uses a knife to carve branches from the bee caverns into shafts, and for the arrow tips he grinds bits of carrier swine bone against a large rock.
There's no way I could ever make something that intricate. I've tried copying him to make a fire—you know, so I can burn my own food one day. But it turns out, you need hands to do it. The boy makes it look easy, twirling one stick onto another to make embers. I've tried, but nothing I can do spins it fast enough. Human hands are just OP. It's obvious why so many of them make dexterity builds despite being (physique->endurance#1) on the base class and not (physique->dexterity#1): system enhances what you have naturally.
As for me, no amount of dexterity specking will ever make me that good at manipulating things. I may have made a name for myself in the arena by being the first hydra to use weapons, but compared to these two, it's clear that I'll never truly compete on the tool-use front. I could dedicate myself to it for the rest of my life and never be more than mediocre.
Getting back to our situation, there's another sign that change is coming: Vassos is training us in formations—and they're clearly not for swine hunts. It's actually feels kinda nostalgic. Formations training used to be my favorite activity back in Perlin, so I'm getting into it fairly easily. Call it a guilty pleasure.
Many of the commands are the same, but there is plenty of new bits as well. Sometimes, me and the older man do dodging drills: he makes a sound—like "ha!"—and then stabs his rapier where I'm moving towards. My job is simply to freeze or move back to avoid it. In a separate, but very similar exercise, I need to follow after him and whenever he makes that same sound, Chase fires an arrow right between us.
The sound is there to tell me to back off when one of them is about to attack. Think about it this way, it would be hard for the boy to target an enemy I'm fighting, while also trying not to hit me, if my movements are unpredictable. When I hear the signal, I know he's spotted an opportunity, and all I need to do then is not get in the way.
So why the giant stockpile of arrows? Why the formation training? It can only mean they intend to clear the jaguar chambers.
Humans are fragile things. Just taking a dip in a little piranha pond could easily end even the stronger ones. Can't say I enjoy the sting it leaves either, but at least I didn't need to spend half an hour rock-climbing around it.
The first and only six-legged jaguar that attacked me was only level 9, and I barely escaped alive. The ones in the next chamber over are even higher level, but still much lower than Vassos—and yet... he's clearly scared of them. Levels are tricky. Just because you're higher doesn't mean you win. Consider, for example, pitting a constriction specialist against an ankylosaur. Even if the constrictor is much higher level, unless it has some secondary gimmick for dealing damage, the fight would not favor it.
The six-legged jaguars are crazy fast. They can outrun all of us. I'm hoping Chase can aim fast enough to actually hit them because me and Vassos have no chance.
Jaguars chambers have their own thing going decor wise. They're narrow compared to the vast pig and bee chambers, almost tunnel-shaped, but still big enough to fit tall trees. The big cats scramble up and down their trunks easily—no doubt laughing at we who can only cling to the floor.
Here at the entrance we're still safe because the cats hate going near the piranha ponds. Once we move past the archway leading into the first jaguar passage, I imagine they'll descend on us. Well, I may have been humiliated before, but this time I brought minions! I know, I know. They brought me. Let me pretend!
When the other two finally make it past the little pond, Vassos signals for us to stay. I carefully watch him walk towards the entrance to the next chamber and—as the man sometimes does—he disappears from sight. That's his infiltrator class at work.
There's a lot of waiting now, but that's fine, it's good to know we won't be marching into this blindly.
Vassos returns, directs Chase to the rear position and me forward.
Team leader Vassos has cast ‘aggravate’ on you, giving the following status effect:
Aggravate +5: Enemies are compelled to prioritize targeting you over other team members. Effect is stronger against weak-minded opponents.
Ugh, this again... It's fine. I am not angry. Humans are fragile. I can be the bigger person. It's fine.
Okay, now to bait some cats. Considering how quickly I imagine their slashing attacks could sever all of my heads, I'm very much mentally prepared to abandon my teammates and flee if needed. But let's not fool ourselves here, they run much faster than me. In the event of a tactical retreat, I will be the lizard's severed tail.
I'm scanning all directions at once but see no enemies, only trees, underbrush, and vines. Doesn't matter: Chase's eyes are clearly locked onto something, and judging by their course, that something is coming straight for me!
Vassos dashes towards me from his position midway between me and our archer. That can only mean one thing. And sure enough, out of seemingly nowhere, a mob drops to the ground next to me.
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Six-Legged Jaguar (labyrinth mob), level 25
base class: six-legged jaguar (motion->speed#1, biology->mutation#1, projections->illusions#1), level 15
primary class: luminescent chameleon (biology->mutation#2, projection->illusions#2), level 10
It looks wrong, like there's a copy of it leaping out of its own body. The copy lands just out of my reach while the original, which was going straight for my head, disappears. I hear the signal from Vassos and freeze. His rapier stabs the air just above me, right where the fake jaguar had been a split second ago. It seems the human had been fooled as well.
By now, the real jaguar is sprinting towards our sharpshooter. I might be the least informed member of this team, but even I know this is exactly what we were supposed to avoid. The boy was probably worried about accidentally hitting one of us before because that landing had been the best moment for a shot. Now Chase is letting off arrows faster than I can follow, but the mob doges them with ease.
I move to close in, but will not make it in time. Vassos waves his arm and I can see he's using some active. There's a brief glow around the big cat and just as its close enough to slice the young human open, an arrow finally hits its target. The jaguar goes down quick and a second arrow pierces its skull by the time it hits the ground.
I can feel an influx of XP even though I didn't land the kill myself. I've experienced this before in an arena with team fights—shared XP that is—it's weaker if you do less. One more like that and I should level up—speaking of which, Chase is wearing that look. You know, the one where you're deciding how to allocate a new ability point.
Vassos isn't celebrating. Wait... let me rephrase: Vassos is throwing a fit. He's yelling at the sky using all the words humans use when things don't go their way. But why? Perhaps I can figure this out... The cat was much lower level than him, our party was much bigger—and somehow we nearly lost Chase. Yeah, okay. If there had been two jaguars we'd be done. We are not ready for this chamber.
The aggravate thing had no effect on that mob. It even faked targeting me and tricked Vassos. He should've rushed to cover Chase, not me. His plan had failed. He personally made a mistake and was outsmarted by a mob. Will we retreat now? or will we continue and commit suicide?
Another day has passed and we're back at the jaguar chamber entrance. We've been practicing an entirely new set of drills. The old man's not giving up yet.
The plan now seems to be for all three of us to stick close together. If you're wondering why we hadn't started with that, just think about it: Vassos had clearly hoped to have the jaguars focus on me while Chase shot at them from further back. Chase is our hardest hitter. Having a front-line to slow the enemy down gives him more time to shoot.
With our whole team bunched together, the enemy will close in fast, and once they do, our ranged DPS will have to focus on evasion. This new tactic is not ideal, but with the big cats being able to just run through the front line, there's no other option.
The plants here have intense colors. That, combined with the potent aroma of strange flowers, is causing a slight disorienting feeling. Chase's eyes are following something. Closer, closer... Vassos slashes at something. What? There was nothing there. I saw nothing there.
A streak of light. A slight breeze whisking against my skin. Briefly, a dazzling light shines straight into my eyes. Where is it?!
Arrows are flying in all directions and the old man's rapier is slashing at the air. Nothing connects. At least those two can sense enough to attempt attacking. Me, I haven't spotted the enemy once but the cuts across my body make it clear that the fight has well and truly started.
Vassos kneels, hes about to use one of his slow-to-cast buffs on Chase. This makes him vulnerable. If I were the enemy, I would target his back right now. I throw myself against our leader's back and spread my necks like a net around his flanks.
Slice, slice, slice!
Three heads severed, two remaining, but the cast is done. Chase dashes several steps backwards and lets loose an arrow. A six-legged jaguar materializes right in front of us and drops dead to ground.
Level 19! Finally!
I check on the other two to see if it's over. Vassos isn't yelling at himself like before, so I guess this went close enough to plan. Meanwhile, Chase moves to sit down, there probably aren't more enemies nearby.
I let System do its thing and show its screens. There isn't anything new on offer, so I decide to raise rapid regeneration to +3. It's been a long time since I touched that one, but considering how fast that cat dispatched three of my heads, I have a feeling it may save my life at least once before the day is done.
Back when I hit level 10, I got my primary class. Later, at level 15, I had the option to change it. There were no new classes available then, so I didn't, but system did say I would get my next chance at level 20. I'm eager to keep going. Considering the new domains I got from those pearl things master had fed me, there will definitely be new classes on offer.
The two humans sit down and discuss something. I look down at the jaguar corpse. It's fur had been a patchwork of bright green and blue, but now that's slowly fading to gray.
Another day and our third attempt begins. Vassos has several bags strapped to himself, each filled with ash. Considering what we practiced this morning, he clearly intends to throw it at the mobs. The ash won't do any damage, obviously, but it might interfere with the jaguar's illusions, so the plan has my approval.
Area of effect attacks are a good counter to fast but fragile opponents like the six-legged jaguars. I've often wished system would offer me some AOE active, but it never has.
When I think about it, really, that air-pulse active Widdowmaker had would be perfect against these things. These cats may be big, but I've had two of them for dinner now, and I can tell you, they're surprisingly light. It would take very little force to disrupt their movement, and Widdowmaker's active had a fast cool-down.
Once again, its clear that some classes just counter others hard, regardless of level. And with that in mind, I'm beginning to see how my own leveling strategy has been poisoned by the time I've spent in the arena. Arena fighting forces you to try and cover all bases. It forces you to generalize because you never know what type of opponent you will have to face next, or who will be in your team, or if you'll even have a team.
This labyrinth delve is different. Here each team member has a role. I can tell both of these humans have carefully specked into playing very specific roles. Perhaps a bit too much, considering it was only the two of them before—but, I wonder... was it really just the two of them from the start?
The more I think about it, the more a disturbing possibility nags at me. When I entered the sector, the portal said 1 out of 6 uses were left. If that means what I think it means, then 5 individuals must have entered before me. Sure, there are probably lots of possibilities I haven't thought of here. But then there's point of evidence number two: the extra gear. Back at base-camp, they have a pile of equipment and armor which seems too heavy to have been carried in here by these two humans alone. And finally, consider this: Would they come here without front-liners when the two of them alone are so clearly unbalanced.
No. There must have been others. That I am certain of. And, well... there-in lies my concern. When a team fight turns ugly, who dies first? When people start deserting, like I had back in Perlin, who gets sacrificed? It had been hydra generation seven who delayed the enemy with their dying while I made my escape. So very likely, whoever occupied the role which I now have, probably met a similar fate shortly before I joined.
As the two humans rock-climb along the sides of the chamber walls—again avoiding the piranha pond—I once again wonder, what will my escape plan be? Should I have killed them in their sleep? That would have solved the food shortage problem at least. But for some reason, I just haven't been putting as much thought into that plan as I should have.
Am I being lazy? No. I know my reason. I want to reach level 20. If I kill and eat these two now—assuming I could somehow pull that off—I will spend the rest of my days eating low level carrier swine and never level up again.
Back in Perlin, after gaining understanding +2, I ended up spending years working on one escape plan after another. I did it because I knew that the way I was living was unnatural. I don't know how natural it is for a uplifted hydra to live in a place like this, but I want to move on.
I want to eat new things! I want more levels! And I won't be able to do any of that staying here. Even though I don't know where to—a least for now—I need these two to escape this place. So— parasites—consider yourselves honored! Today I accept you as my teammates.
