Climbing the Ranks - Chapter 14 preview

“Monsters, monsters, monsters… where are you? I’m here to stab you dead and dance on your corpse…” Arthur sung-hum as he walked through the woods. Of course, he was not completely insane, keeping his voice low as he went along, his eyes darting in search of more monsters. In the end though, he was really looking forward for the monsters and drawing them to him was easier than hoping to locate them via stalking around.

Occasionally, he’d look down and scan the ground, searching for tracks. Not that he had much experience tracking, but you did not need to be a genius to pick out the rather large deposits he was following. The fact that it was somewhat fresh meant… well. That it was somewhat fresh. It was not as though he had studied how fast excretement solified in a magical realm.

“Is there a difference? Is there a guide? And also… if they’re magical monsters made of tower energy, why do they eat?” Arthur mused, breaking off his impromptu song.

He slowed down, turning that thought over and searched the surroundings. After a second, he frowned as he looked at a slightly more yellow than normal branch. Something nagged him as he moved closer to it, the way the colouration was just a little too yellow for the brown branch it hung over, the way it swayed a little as one side drooped. A broken limb about to fall?

No. It was a little too sinous…

“Ah hell!” Arthur cursed, his hand moving without him. He shot the tip of his staff forward, grateful that he had left his bag behind during this hunting trip. The staff tip hammered into the top of the swaying creature’s body, knocking it upwards.

Its attempt at an ambush thwarted, the constrictor hissed, pulling itself further up the branch. Arthur was not stopping though, shifting his stance to brace the higher up on his chest before pushing the weapon forwards into a thrusting strike. The staff missed the curled body as the snake shifted away, dropping its body lower to swing towards him.

Staff revibrating through his hands after the failed impact, Arthur pulled backwards. A small notch where his attacks had impacted showed, even as the swinging constrictor dropped through the air towards him.

“Not so easy…” Arthur cried as he stepped backward, swirling his staff around. It struck at the falling constrictor that seemed to swim through the sky as it repositioned itself in mid-air, only to be batted aside by the staff.

Landing on the floor, the monster hissed. Another twist of his hands sent the wooden implement dropping to the ground, narrowly missing the dodging snake. Then, it hissed, its body glowing before it blurred, crossing the six feet to the cultivator in a flash.

Jerking backwards, Arthur threw himself away from the striking snake. He almost managed to do so, his body moving faster than ever but the damn thing’s ability had caught him out in surprise. His reach advantage gone, the snake had managed to wrap its head and the first coils around his lower leg and had begun the process of pulling itself towards him, crushing bone and muscle.

The ground reared up, striking his back as Arthur lost his balance from the new weight. Staff was abandoned as he grabbed the parang he had acquired from the other, using the sharp edge of the weapon to swing at the still unwrapped body of the snake.

Once, then again, the blade sliding a little on the glittering snake skin. Panting widely and kicking a little with his free foot to position the snake as it twisted and turned, he struck again and again, blade gouging deep into the body with each attack.

Even as he did so, the monster kept crawling up his body, gripping and holding as it snaked upwards. His body creaked, his muscles shrieked in agony as they were crushed, monstrous blood falling on his body. But the snakes movements grew sluggish, the attacks taking their toll.

Until, finally, the monster stopped moving, leaving itself wrapped around his lower body, its head peaking just around Arthur’s hips.

Panting, Arthur flopped onto the ground even as the body began to disperse.

“Bad monster. No cookie for you.”

***

Snakes were evil, and Arthur kept a closer eye on the sky after that. No one wanted a snake dropping on him. That didn’t mean he didn’t spot the moving catlike creature that had attempted to stalk him, its presence only given away by chance reflection of its eyes as the clouds parted high above.

Clouds in a tower. How strange, but each tower level was like that. A world in of itself. No one had any good explanation for it, though the prevailing theory was that each level was actually just a different dimension.

No, the cat had been found before it could jump at him and this time, his staff had been of use. Smacking it away each time it launched itself at him, Arthur managed to control the distance admirably, never allowing it to near him.

The kucking hitam had no ability to speed itself like the previous monster, just claws that dug into his staff and left carved divots. Annoying but a few hard strikes was enough to concuss and then kill the monster. Afterwards, he had collected the crystal as usual and moved onwards.

Searching for more trouble.

Birds – parrots and poppinjays and even a hawk or two spun through the air high above. Most of them were high above the canopy, refusing to come down. They were no danger to him; though Arthur still eyed them with some concern.

“Perhaps I should get a bow?” Arthur mused. Taking those birds down would be an easy cheat, though the question was finding the bodies afterwards. Once they broke up, he would be looking for a hand-sized crystal. “Probably not worth it.”

Shaking his head, Arthur dismissed the thought. He was hunting bigger prey anyway. His body felt good, even the bruises from the damned snake had started to disappear. The single point increase to his attributes was telling, but not to the extent that he would have liked.

Faster, stronger, healthier for certain. But not a doubling of his strength or even a third more. More like maybe a tenth better? It seemed like that was roughly what he had felt, a marginal increase that a few hard, dedicated months of exercise would see. Maybe a year.

The difference, of course, was that it had happened all at once. So some of his reactions were a little too fast, his movements jerky.

Good thing then that the bigger monsters he was hunting had yet to appear, the spoor and their broken trail still showing up once in a while to even his own untrained eyes. In the meantime, he could practise on these other monsters that kept appearing, everything from monkeys to cats to…

Giant squirrel with big, insane eyes and even bigger, sharpened front teeth.

“Aaaargh!” Giving up on his staff which the nimble squirrel kept dodging as it snuck in closer to him, Arthur dropped it and kept his arms close to his body. When the squirrel finally threw itself at him, he punched outwards. The squirrel bounced off his hand, tiny body crunching under his fist before it flopped backwards, rolling in a ball.

Shaking his hand out, glaring at the cuts the big teeth had left; Arthur kept crouched, watching the squirrel. The giant squirrel chittered at him, as it got back to its feet. Then, to Arthur’s surprise, it ran off, disappearing into the nearby undergrowth.

“What…?” Arthur muttered, eyeing his back and sides.

Long, tense minutes passed before he finally chose to believe that it was gone. Intelligent monsters. Now that was worrying. Nursing his bleeding hand, emergency bandage wrapped around it, Arthur shook his head.

Hopefully not many of the other monsters out there were that smart. Otherwise, this was going to be a problem.