The Mimic in Monsterland

At some point during my run, I realized something: I hadn't put much thought into how I should enter this battle. I was still running towards that chaos, but it was still a ways off. But now that the initial emotion of seeing Len, or at least his flames, wore off, I had time to process what I was doing. I should probably have some semblance of a plan. The sounds of battle rang in my ears: shouts, explosions, and cries of agony. That mimic instinct in me was screaming at me to turn around. But I couldn’t, at least one person I know and care about is in that battle, on top of others being slaughtered by the hordes of monsters.

Not that I was entirely worried about Len. He could hold his own well enough I’m sure. I wanted to assist him the best way I could right now. And that was probably dealing with the smaller mobs surrounding him. To at least give him some support. There’s no way in hell I could do anything to the towering mass of limbs, but I have fought loads of the boars and goats and their kind. I know how they fight, and where to hurt them.

That was the best move right now, to kill as many of the creatures I know how to kill as I can. I’m entering from behind enemy lines too, giving me at least a good chance to cause some discord among the monsters. It would also relieve some of the other fighters at the front. Just as the thought about others popped into my mind, another blood curdling scream entered my ears.

My breath began to shallow. My chest felt tight. The closer I got to the fight the more and more scared I became. War was something I was so far removed from back on Earth. Sure, I studied the big wars of history, watched different war movies, and played different games depicting war. But this was something so far beyond that. And I was running to it. Planning on joining in.

I’d been fighting nonstop lately, but those conflicts were all me by myself. I have no idea how to fight with others. I’m not so naive as to think that teamwork comes naturally. It’s the culmination of effort and training. What if they hit me? Or I hit them? All of these thoughts were piling up in my head. I slowed down. Not stopping but not nearly the rate I was before. My head lowered while I walked.

“I don’t want to die.”

I stopped and looked back at the forest, where I came from. No one has seen me yet. I can pretend like I never saw this battle. I could just hide away again. Maybe that’s best. It's not like I’ll add much to this fight. Len will probably handle it just fine.

“GOD DAMN IT LIAM! GET A GRIP!” Tutor shouted along with some other obscenities. But I ignored her. That overwhelming feeling of despair clutched my heart. Telling me my end was certain if I took one more step forward.

I turned back to the battle. It was still a mile away. Still raging. The little spots I knew were people started taking actual shape. Weapons, tusks, horns, claws clashing together. I could make out one person well, because he was huge. A mountain of a man with large black horns, swinging an axe around. That’s the kind of person that belongs on this field. Not me.

I saw the platoon of soldiers fighting a whole mass of the toxic pigs. And the pigs started winning. The human’s line was being pushed back. They were going to lose.

Another scream sent a chill down my spine. It was a woman’s this time. Which kick started something in me. Those people were going to die. That whole group, dead in the next five minutes if something doesn’t change. I can be that change.

I stepped toward the battle, but that instinct from earlier gripped my heart harder. I almost felt a force pushing me away from the battle. Or more like holding me back from the battle. Like tendrils wrapped around my limbs.

“Mimics are cowards.” I said under my breath.

“Yep, but are you? Are you just another mimic? Doomed to a life of solitude and isolation. You can go back to that little cave, grow your flowers. Never taking part of this world. Being nothing but a passive observer once again.” Tutor said, no longer yelling. She paused for a moment before continuing.

“Grading papers at three in the morning. All on your lonesome. Is that the life you want?”

Her words hurt. More than I thought they should. Why bring up the past? My life wasn’t that bad. Was it? I wasn’t doing what I wanted, I think. But I wasn’t starving. I had some hope. Sure, I didn't travel and see the big beautiful world like I always wanted to, or write and craft worlds for people to lose themselves in, or make games that fully enraptured the player like the ones I played as a kid.

I felt a tear drop come out of my eye. I touched the warm water that crawled on my cheek. And looked back up at the battle.

Before another thought entered my mind I shouted at the top of my lungs,

“AGGHHHHHHHHH!”

I shoved my hand into the pouch at my side, grabbing a whole handful of the dark blue petals. I gobbled up the whole lot. The electricity ran through my veins. My entire being heated up. I shifted into Tigris form and looked up at the new buff at the top of the screen.

 

[Energized: 7:35]

 

I sprinted to the first boar I could see. I made it to the battle faster than I thought possible. The roaring blood in my ears blocking out all the sounds of monsters grunting and fighting. I shouted once more and hopped on the first boar I came into contact with, activating Eternal Shade. My mind had one thought in it. “Kill.”

 

——

 

Fennel blocked the oncoming tusk with his shield. He raised his sword and scored a blow. His long sword stabbed right into the side of the Tusxic’s head while his shield kept the poisonous tusk at bay. After pulling out the sword from the dead pig, he knelt down next to the body of its last victim.

Rook’s lifeless eyes stared back into Fen’s. Fen closed them with a swipe of his hands and returned back to the battle.

The battle had been raging for hours now. His team’s previous orders had been promptly thrown out the window as soon as the boss showed up. Who the hell could have known a fucking Greater Graveball would be the boss of this raid. Undead, that shit doesn’t spawn in the Forest. That’s supposed to be Dendrun’s problem, not ours.

Fennel looked around, searching for the remnants of his team. Half had already been lost in the first wave of lesser Graveballs, but he would die first before he lost another. His team was sent to the eastern flank to handle the onslaught of more regular beasts. His team wasn’t well equipped to handle undead. Not many in Laurel were. Elemental abilities, particularly fire and wind worked well. Neither of which Fennel’s team were proficient in. If it wasn’t for Len’s timely save, he was sure the entire squad would be dead by now.

Fennel checked his health and stamina. His health bar was sitting at 60%, but ticking up slowly. Gloria’s mass regen was a godsend. His stamina wasn’t doing so good, sitting at 40%. He was blessed with a great stamina recovery passive but his primary fighting ability required massive amounts of it. The two balanced each other out. Then with the added help of Rook’s stamina recovery abilities, Fennel could handle the strain and keep the ability up way longer. But that was no longer an option.

Fennel saw Zaner battling with two of the boar monsters. His axe slammed into a tusk, shattering it. His axe then met its skull. The other charged his open side. But Fennel stepped in its way, blocking with his shield. Zaner’s axe met the boar’s neck, chopping halfway through.

“Didn’t need the help,” Zaner said in a grunt.

But Fennel didn’t listen, he already saw another squadmate being shot at. The magical shots were coming from a group of Karibu. The archer had found some high ground and wanted to make use of it no doubt. Fennel stumbled on a corpse while rushing up the hill but rose quickly and continued his sprint to the human archer, Lukans, arriving just in time to block the majority of the shots. Some still got through, leaving a nasty burn on Lukan’s’ left arm and shoulder.

“Get back to Gloria!”

Lukans unfocused eyes stared at Fen, he finally nodded and turned back in the direction of the makeshift medic station. Those moose are going to be a real problem soon. They were getting closer and once that barrage begins… He closed his eyes. I’m not sure we can handle that.

Fennel checked his stamina again. 53%

“Shit.” He needed more. Lukans might not have gotten hit if I had more. But he didn’t have time for that. He looked back on the battlefield. It was a stalemate. No, they were losing. Fennel could see the line being pushed back. Fuck! Any more and we will lose the medic station.

That was their current orders, protect this medic station and push back the lower-tiered threats. The station was a checkpoint of sorts, healing splicers and returning them to the front or sending back those too far gone. Fennel’s reinforcements would come through the station also. Not that Fennel got any news if his team were going to get any.

It was one of the most important places in the battle, losing one could mean losing hundreds of troops. Fennel was not going to allow that to happen.

Just as he was going to return to the fray, Fennel’s dog ears pointed and perked up when he heard another loud shout come across the field. However, it wasn’t a voice he recognized. Must be another squad. Did the reinforcements come?

He heard the shout again, able to ascertain its location this time. But his head tilted in confusion. The scream came from the monster's side of the battle. He looked out over the battle and saw something that nearly shattered him.

He saw an orb of darkness surround a boar. It disappeared and popped up on another. Then another. Each time, the boar would slump to the ground. Shit, a shade panther.

The beast teetered at the top of tier 5. If that thing gets closer, it will paralyze the whole squad. The damn thing might as well be its own miniboss. But Fennel didn’t have time for cold feet. He would handle the beast by himself. He wasn’t going to lose this squad. He looked up at his stamina, 57%. “Good enough.”

He activated his signature ability: Leader of the Pack.

Eating up 45% percent of his stamina, he could provide up to twenty people he deemed allies a 20% increase to all damage done, and reduce damage received by the same amount for 5 minutes as long as he was a higher level than the allies. It was the main reason he was placed as the head of the squad, these types of mass buffs were rare and valued. It came with a massive 10 minute cooldown. In a fight that matters. He could fight somewhat proficiently as long as he stayed above 10% stamina. Any lower and his natural stamina recovery would weaken and he’d pass out right there. A worse case scenario.

He felt the aura leave his body, a glow appeared on his teammates, confirming that the ability was working. Fennel dropped down to one knee. The ability came with a huge fatigue backlash. With the correct stamina recovery setup, one Rook provided, it wouldn’t bother Fennel all that much, but he felt it right now.

Fennel shoved off the fatigue as best he could and made his way toward the cat monster. But pausing when he saw something wild. A line of dead tusxics and other monsters splitting right down the monsters’ side of the battlefield. Fennel looked on and saw that same orb of darkness hopping around the field, it left a dead body in its wake whenever it moved.

Is it killing the monsters? It looks like it's moving toward the Karibu.

Fennel shook his head. “Doesn’t matter. I can’t let it or the moose get close to the squad.”

He tore off in the direction of the cat monster.

 

——

 

Len blasted some more of the annoying adds. Disgusting lesser graveballs kept getting closer, distracting him from the actual threat of this raid. The Greater Graveball. One Len was more than suited to handle. He just needed some time to prepare an attack that would cripple the writhing mass. But its little offspring were making that impossible.

He shot into the sky after propelling himself up with flames from his feet. He made a quick scan of the battle. Jaren’s main force was fighting on the western side, slowly making its way toward the boss. Jaren was a fierce fighter but his mobility wasn’t even remotely close to Len’s. Len sent a few flame blasts Jaren’s way, in the hopes it would get the lug here faster. He’d keep the lesser graveballs off Len’s back. But that was minutes away from happening.

He looked off to the east side of the battle. Herman was the main head there. Fennel was one of the squad leaders among them. He slightly envied the boy's ridiculous mass buff. If only he were given one, his plans could have come to fruition years ago. But no sense in thinking about that. Another pillar of flame executed a group of gexen that moved just a little too close. Len despised the slime they threw. Hell to clean.

Len was already aware that Liam had joined the battle. He put a tracking sigil on the lad’s sword, under the pommel. He knew the boy wouldn’t ever leave the sword behind, even if none of his forms suited it well. Including his base form. He wanted to put it on his clothes but figured it would be found too easily or damaged. Only problem with the tracking sigil is that it breaks when the caster gets within a certain range to the target. It was dumb, but Len was terrible at that sort of magic, not enough damage dealing for his tastes. It broke when Liam entered the battle.

Len hoped the boy would turn and run from the fight. He wasn’t properly trained in raid strategy and tactics. But surprisingly, he leapt right into the conflict.

He sent three more graveballs to their doom before extending his search for his wayward pupil. The three were replaced almost instantly by the Greater one spitting them out. Yet Len burned those new ones away as well. It took some time before the boss could spawn them. Must build them up in its body.

Len rocketed back up and sent a beam of heat into what he gathered was the raid boss’s eye. If a ball of dead corpses had eyes. The flames seared through it, leaving a dark hole in the tissue. Until a few of its spawn clambered up and fused back with the creature.

“Shit. Jaren, get here already.”

Len could only slow down the boss, but he needed more prep to actually kill it. At least without causing massive casualties.

He looked once more and something caught his eye. It was a dark orb moving around the battlefield, killing monsters. Most would assume it was a shade panther. Nasty little buggers, at least for the common splicer. However, Len could see it was a human hopping around and turning the ability on and off.

To Len’s knowledge, there weren’t any panther splicers in Laurelhaven, which left only one person.

“Liam, did you actually manage to kill a shade panther?” Len said with a grin while nodding in approval, blasting another group of gexen in the process. But there was no way that strategy would last long term. Another body was moving toward Liam’s line of destruction. Len recognized the blonde hair and ears. But he was moving through the enemies at half the rate Liam was.

He amusingly breathed out of his nostrils. “Might as well have you two meet here. Actually, there’s no better place.”

With a snap of his fingers, he sent a fireball in their direction.