Return to Jorgaldur Volume II: the druid archer

Secret garden (II)

At 19, she had unlocked Curved Shot, which consists of imbuing the body of the arrow with wind magic, thus achieving some control of its direction, being able to even generate curved trajectories that allow hitting targets that aren't in sight. Combined with Visual Link, to be able to locate them through her sister's eyes, it was highly effective in the game, especially when the second pet was obtained, or the second sister in her case. She had it at 10.

And as a skill, she had recovered Auditive Link, similar to Visual Link, but that shares sound instead of vision. Both can be used at the same time, and were very useful in missions that required espionage, which wasn't many, so it was at 7.

The first slugs to arrive were mostly cut down by the lynx, as they wanted to avoid spending mana for as long as possible. But when more than five started to accumulate at once, it started to get complicated.

Little by little, the elf was forced to consume more mana to attract attention and reduce numbers. With this, they had temporarily stabilized the situation, but their mana pool was continuously being reduced, and the density in which they were arriving was increasingly greater.

Right now, there were about ten inside the cavern. And although they were being absorbed by the plants, the process was extremely slow. It could take months.

Their plan was to lure them aside, and take care of them little by little, by taking advantage of the vast size of the cavern, but they feared that the number of their enemies might be too big, and would end up filling it all. For now, they would try to reduce their numbers as much as possible, and for this, they should reduce their incoming, since they were beginning to be overwhelmed by their numbers.

She cast Natural Wall to block them, though she didn't quite know how much time those plants could withstand the corrosive power of their enemies. Immediately, she turned to the slugs that were harassing her and her sister, intending to reduce their numbers while they could.

Her mana was reduced considerably until there were four left, so the feline took care of them while Goldmi was recovering the spent mana and looking towards the Wall. To her surprise, it seemed to be holding up smoothly, with no signs of being corroded. She couldn't know that these plants were immune.

Undecided, she stood halfway between the Wall and her sister, watching as she was playing with her prey, killing them one by one. When the lynx returned, she looked at the archer and the Wall.

"Still holding. That's very good. Maybe we can let them pass little by little," she was pleasantly surprised.

"It seems so. These plants have to be very special. I feel that they don't fear them. I'll wait to recover a little more mana," the elf answered.

And so they did. When she was ready, she asked the plants to make way. Suddenly, about twenty slugs entered, one on top of the other, practically falling, with hundreds more crowding after them. Stupefied, she again asked the plants to close the pass, although some more ended up sneaking in, so they reached thirty-seven.

"There are many, but we can do it," assured the lynx, confident, even though they all seemed to follow her.

Goldmi decided to use Tangle, temporarily capturing about five, and used it again to imprison as many. She fired normal arrows at about twenty of them, drawing their attention, and leaving her sister to deal with the remaining seven.

But instead of doing that, she pounced to the ones that were trapped, while dodging the attacks of those seven, and while the archer was spending her mana to take down those that were followed her, slowly backing away to keep the distance.

Since she was able to attack them as she pleased, the lynx soon killed the ten that were Tangled, and began to attack the other seven. She circled them, approached by the flanks to use her claws and moved away swiftly. Although she soon changed her goal, when Goldmi suggested that she could attack those which were following her, as there were some that had fallen behind and were somewhat isolated.

She did so, by moving away from the slightly wounded ones, and not taking long to reach her target. She attacked it from behind, and continued to move around it, to tear it endlessly. It was only one, as the rest were following the elf, and it wasn't easy for them to change their target, although she was keeping an eye on the closest one. And the other seven, which were slowly approaching, were still far away.

Goldmi had taken care of six, but, with this new strategy, she could afford to reserve mana, despite feeling somewhat guilty about letting her sister overwork.

"No problem. You can compensate me later with a good meal," she had assured, almost salivating.

One by one, they took care of the slugs. Often Goldmi shot normal arrows at them. Although their damage was much lower, she wasted no mana and made sure to keep their attention, their aggro, at least until the lynx attacked them from behind. Only occasionally did she cast Ethereal Arrow, as long as she could keep here mana above 70%, and she was always keeping an eye on the Natural Wall, which at the moment seemed to hold up perfectly.

What surprised her the most was that, not only did the plants not seem to be suffering, but even the opposite. Actually, by having slugs clinging to them, they were able to better absorb their mana and strengthen themselves, but that was something the elf was only faintly sensing, and not quite understanding.

When they finished the ones that were following the archer, the other seven hadn't still reached them, which was totally predictable. It was true that they had been moving towards the feline, but she had been following the others, which were moving in the same direction, thus keeping their distance.

"Well, it's time to settle our accounts," threatened the lynx, while turning.

The two killed the seven, though they spent more time than necessary due to the need to save mana. After that, they rested to recover it before letting the next batch pass. Now they looked at them greedily, eager to use them to make themselves stronger. As long as the plants held, they had a method of dealing with them.

Furthermore, they had reached level 20, so now they had the same level as their enemies.