Chapter 42: Insert John Williams (Patreon)

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1x1i9kgN4BSThorhcfP90UozOqxsK3vxjUOguDvJWN6o/edit?usp=sharing

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“What’s that noise?” Cayden asked, looking over his shoulder into the trees. It was times like these when he wished he still had [Awareness]; he hadn’t invested that many points over the last few level-ups into perception, but the extra thirty percent boost might have been enough to make the difference.

Elise cocked her head, listening with a frown on her face. “I think…is that yelling?” she asked. Her perception was lower than Cayden’s, but not by much. “Check it out?” she asked.

Cayden thought for a moment before nodding. This was the furthest they’d ever been in the Lost Forest, closer than they were usually comfortable with to the center of the forest where monsters roamed freely, which was why Cayden had wanted to get a few miles further out before making camp for the night. But that sounded like other people, and monsters that could mimic human speech weren’t exactly common. “Let’s try and get a better vantage point,” he said, nodding to the sloping wall of a nearby gully.

It was hard to pinpoint the source of the noise with all the hills and gullies confusing things, but hopefully getting to a higher elevation would help. This far into the Lost Forest, the trees were much larger than anything on Earth aside from redwoods, so even a higher elevation was unlikely to completely clear up their view. But it would be better than where they currently were, walking near the bottom of a ravine by the dungeon entrance, and would hopefully allow them to easily move in any direction depending on what they found.

Halfway up the side of the gully they were suddenly able to more easily identify the direction of the yelling. Not because of the better vantage, but because the noise was getting closer. Cayden could make out a few individual words here and there, but not enough to get a full picture of what was going on – just a few commands and yells of pain and anger.

He picked up his pace, leaving Elise struggling to keep up, and crested the top of the gully, coming out on a ridge that overlooked a much wider gully on the other side.

His jaw dropped.

Two people sprinted through the forest along the bottom of the gully. With them dodging in and out of the massive trees and pushing through overgrown ferns, it was hard for Cayden to good look at them. And Cayden didn’t put much effort into trying to get a good look, because he was distracted.

By the herd of dinosaurs hot on their tails.

They looked like velociraptors, except were even larger than the ones that were typically portrayed in the movies. Each one was roughly the size of an SUV, with long, raptor-like bodies covered in brown scales. Two larger-than-vestigial arms were pulled against their chests as they sprinted after the presumed adventurers around the trees and through the ferns, an occasional roar escaping from mouths filled with overlapping teeth.

The two adventurers leading the chase were wearing what looked like high-quality light armor, and both had human-looking races, though Cayden couldn’t discern much in those first few seconds. Once more, it was because he was distracted – by the literal dinosaurs.

One of the velociraptors let out an angry roar and turned its head to the side as red flared up around its head. And Cayden realized that the two leading adventurers weren’t alone: another adventurer was running alongside the herd and had just blasted the velociraptor with a fireball.

The wounded dinosaur veered to the side as if to confront its attacker, but a moment later it readjusted back in line with the rest of the herd in pursuit of the first two adventurers. Two quick follow-up bursts of flame came from the forest where Cayden had glimpsed the third adventurer, and the targeted dinosaur dropped, digging up dirt and ferns as it skidded into the ground. The rest of the herd continued chasing the first two adventurers, heedless of their fallen brother or of the adventurer that continued its attacks against a different dinosaur.

“...what in the world…?” Elise mumbled, having caught up to Cayden at the top of the gully, and Cayden snapped out of his stupor.

“You know what those monsters are?” he asked, and Elise mutely shook her head. He unfortunately didn’t have a word for ‘dinosaur’ in this language, and he knew that these monsters thankfully weren’t ‘dragons.’ He’d have to just use the generic ‘monster’ for now.

Cayden watched as the chase continued. Honestly, he was surprised that it wasn’t already over. Even as he watched, one of the two leading adventurers stumbled in the undergrowth and fell to the ground, their companion helping them to their feet before resuming their sprint. Even with the third adventurer taking out another dinosaur every few seconds, there were still around a dozen of the monsters closing in fast on the two runners. Unless something changed, they would soon be trampled and eaten by the herd.

“You’ve got the BFG and shield?” Cayden asked, and Elise nodded. “Get ready to use them.” Then, after taking a second to reach into his armor and quickly chug an improved stone-skin potion, he ran down the other side of the ridge to cut off the chasing herd.

He wasn’t sure of the adventurers’ exact stats, but from the way they were running at least one of them had a lower agility than his own. The one who had helped up their friend seemed to be about on par with Cayden, if not a little faster, but from their equipment it didn’t look like either of them were frontline fighters: the adventurer who tripped had a bow slung over their shoulder, while the faster one was holding a stick that Cayden guessed was a focus he’d heard mage adventurers often carried.

Regardless, he doubted either of them would do very well if the dinosaurs were allowed to catch up. He wasn’t sure he’d do very well against the herd of terrifying monsters, but he was sure it would be better than either of them.

This was the moment he’d been training so hard for. Everything else, all his previous delves to kill monsters and clear dungeons, had only tangentially protected people from potential dungeon breaks. This, though – throwing himself between dangerous monsters and those in need of protection – was exactly what he’d been working towards.

Plus, it was a chance to fight claw-to-claw against literal dinosaurs. Cayden had zero intention of missing that opportunity.

He laughed in excitement as he sprinted headlong down the side of the ridge, aiming to intercept the monsters before they caught up. The two adventurers looked up at Cayden upon hearing his laugh, but Cayden didn’t have the time nor focus to register the looks on their faces. With his spear in his right hand and claws bared in his left, he charged towards the leading dinosaur, activating [Taunt] once he was in range.

The heads of the dinosaurs, which had before been focused on the two fleeing adventurers, locked onto Cayden instead, and he gulped as a wave of unnatural terror swept over him. But by this point, he was used to the strange effects some monsters had, and with the help of [Unflinching] and [Resistance], he pushed through the effects. He readied himself to protect against the – he paused to count the number of dinosaurs that were left after the third adventurer’s kills – eleven remaining dinosaurs.

But he was surprised to see that, for the first time since he had gotten the skill, [Taunt] wasn’t completely successful. Five of the monsters kept their focus on Cayden, but the other six, after a moment of hesitation and a stutter in their run, returned their focus to the two adventurers, who Cayden noticed were no longer fleeing, instead readying their weapons against the approaching herd.

Cayden reactivated [Taunt], and the six other monsters looked at him again. But once again, two of the monsters turned back to the adventurers and resumed their chase. Cayden frowned. The adventurer with the bow was unleashing arrows at the dinosaurs at a furious pace, and though they all were hitting their targets and piercing through the scaly skin of the monsters, the dinosaurs didn’t seem particularly bothered by being turned into pincushions. The faster adventurer was waving their wand around in a way that made it look like they were casting a spell, but Cayden couldn’t see any effects.

Though they stood their ground, neither of the adventurers looked ready or able to withstand the approaching charge. Cayden made his decision.

Ignoring the nine dinosaurs that were now fully focused on him as their target – actually, it seemed that the third adventurer had taken out another one with their fiery attacks, leaving only eight – Cayden charged the two dinosaurs that were still focused on the adventurers. Thankfully, switching their focus from the adventurers to Cayden had slightly slowed down the rest of the herd, giving him a few precious seconds to intercept the final two monsters. And, in a headlong sprint that terminated only a few yards in front of the pair of adventurers, intercept them he did.

With his spear aimed center of mass at the further dinosaur, Cayden ran into the side of the closer monster. Unfortunately, physics wasn’t on his side, and his spear was wrenched from his hand as he bounced off the much larger dinosaur’s side.

He offhandedly noticed a blue notification flashing in his vision, but dismissed it without further thought. No matter how good it might be, the middle of a battle wasn’t the time nor the place to review a potential new skill, especially when he had no empty or non-combat slots to place it in.

He barely managed to land on his feet in the ferns after his ungraceful attack and activated [Taunt] for the third time a second later. This time, thankfully, it took, and the final two dinosaurs turned to him.

He had the focus of all ten of the remaining dinosaurs. Now he just had to figure out what to do with it.

A smile returned to his face as the dinosaur closest to him swung out at him with one of its short arms. Though it was short compared to the rest of its body, it was still longer and almost as thick as Cayden’s torso, and the dinosaur clearly expected to easily push away the gnat that had come to bother it.

Cayden had already used three taunts, leaving him at barely under half his total mana. Thankfully, that was just enough for a single activation of [Hold the Line].

The monster’s arm swung down at Cayden’s much smaller form, meeting his upraised claws – and was stopped.

In a move that would give a physics teacher from Earth an aneurism, Cayden held against the swing powered by something that had to weigh at least a ton. Then, with a laugh reforming in his throat, Cayden swiped back at the monster with his own claws.

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