Human fortress used his [Charge] and stunned the boar for a second. Dave moved in quickly and struck down with his flamberge, chopping through the boar's hide and deep into its hump. Dave stepped away as a gush of blood spattered everywhere. The boar squealed in pain, wheeled and charged at Dave, aiming its ripping tusks at his middle.

Dave activated [Shield-Charge] and slammed the shield down pushed it toward the incoming boar. Dave and the boar collided like runaway trains. The boar bounced off the metal slab of shield and went tumbling to the side, the tip of a tusk broken off. Dave retained his footing and engaged the boar in a melee again.

Perfect fired an arrow into the boar's snout, causing it to shake its head vigorously and squeal like...well, like a stuck pig.

Dave attacked with his sword again and followed that up with [Mountain Cleaver].

***

Death Knight's Greatsword [Embrittle] activated.

-50% MA/DN

***

[-32,000]

"WHOA! Holy shit that's a lot of Damage!" Pussy Flanker said as he cast another buff, "What was that skill?"

"It was my sword, it has an armor shattering ability. Keep up the debuffs guys."

Dave sidestepped the boar's swinging head attack and thrust, shield hand pushing the pommel of his weapon. Another chunk of the boar's HP floated up in red numerals.

"Nice!" Perfect Shot commented.

The boar charged again, but Perfect Shot managed to hit the boar with an arrow to its front knee. The boar stumbled to one side, exposing it's belly. Dave whirled his sword switching his grip to an overhand grip and stabbed down on the boar's belly.

[-66,258 Critical!]

"That was a nice disabler, Perfect," Dave nodded his appreciation to the archer.

The boar had less than 40% of its HP left. It gave up any thought of defending itself and charged the players with suicidal abandon.

Dave strafed around the boar, using it as a hit and run tactic. With TNT crowd controlling the boar and healing, Dave was only down 10% of his total HP when the boar hit zero HP.

"DING! I leveled up," Pussy Flanker said.

"That kill just bumped met 60% of the way to the next level," Perfect Shot said.

"You could have gotten more EXP if you had actually dealt damage, but the supporter's exp is good for now." Dave commented.

"What about you, Fortress?" Flanker asked.

He asked again when he received no reply.

"What was that?" Fortress asked.

"I said: did you level up?"

"Yeah,"

"What were you doing?"

"I was talking with Tess,"

"Tess again, bruh? Really man, stop talking to that chick. She's probably a fat old guy named Stan that lives in his mom's garage." Pussy Flanker shook his head.

"No, she's real, bro," Fortress protested.

"Well, we've never seen her. Not even in Conquest. She's always 'busy' with something else. We'd be cool partying up and grinding with her."

Dave was curious about the interplay between the two friends.

Pussy Flanker saw the look and grinned, "This oaf is trying to impress us with 'his' Tess.

Dave shrugged, "Who knows, maybe it, or she, is real."

"Doubtful, right Perfect?"

"Bro, you talk too much. We'll know when we know," Perfect Shot replied.

"Whatever man, I am just saying, if he wants to make some hotties he should come to me, I'll turn him into a P-U-A in no time."

"P-U-A…?"

"P-U-A. Pick Up Artist, m'man."

"You? You get shot down by every girl you talk to, bro," Fortress teased his buddy.

"It's a numbers game man. Hit on everything, and you'll eventually pull one. Never let the incomplete successes get ya down," Flanker shrugged.

"C'mon, heal me up to full, we still have lots of grinding to do," Dave said.

Pussy Flanker healed Dave and they moved deeper in the forest.

Perfect Shot scouted the way ahead. He used the party chat," Guys, there is a Horned Jade Serpent up ahead. Level 450,"

"We'll detour around, we aren't ready for that mob yet," Dave said.

"So Skelly, do you have a girlfriend?" Pussy Flanker asked.

"Nah, why you asking?" Dave said as he looked around carefully for danger or opportunity.

"I just thought from your videos you were with Lone Arrow. I thought you guys were a thing."

"Nah we're just friends," Dave said.

"Guys, something isn't right," Perfect Shot said over chat in a worried tone.

"What's up, bro?" Fortress asked.

"EVERYONE GET UNDER COVER, HIDE!" Perfect Shot shouted through the voice com.

Dave felt the ground tremble, like a herd of angry giant monsters were stampeding their way.

"There," Human Fortress pointed at a large hollowed out tree.

The three squeezed themselves into the hollow of the tree.

"What's going on Perfect?" Flanker asked.

"There is a monster tide coming your way. Stay under cover."

"Are you going to be okay?" asked Flanker.

"Worry about yourselves, I'm a Ranger, we have our ways. Don't provoke any of these mob," Perfect Shot said in a low voice.

"What the fuck are they, Perfect?!"

But the sound of the stampede drowned out the archer's reply.

"Shit, this is nerve wrecking," said Flanker.

"Quiet down," Dave said, he peeked out and saw hundreds of monsters running past their hiding spot, panic stricken.

"I think something scared them."

Just as Flanker finished his thought they heard a loud trumpeting scream.

Dave recognized the sound with sinking heart.

"Fuuuuuck, it's the dragon."

Dave looked out as the dragon's shadow passed over them.

'Shit. So that's what caused the monster-tide.'

Dave looked in his inventory, the dragon egg was still there, no change apparent.

'I wonder what the dragon is flying around here for, it couldn't have sensed the egg, it's in my inventory.'

The stampede of wildlife running past them finally petered out and the dragon turned and went back in the direction it came from.

"Okay, I think the coast is clear," Perfect Shot said in the chat, "Let me check around for monsters nearby."

After a few minutes Perfect Shot said, "You can come out. There are no monsters near you guys."

The three moved out of the hollowed tree. The forest was half-destroyed, trees toppled and ground churned up.

"Shit, we were lucky none of the monsters hit our tree," Human fortress said.

"Let's find Perfect and then get the hell away from here," Dave said.

They followed the marker pointing at Perfect.

"Hey guys," Perfect called out.

He was standing on a tree branch, he jumped down to join them. Just as perfect shot landed. The three behind him broke apart, a creature emerged.

It was an oversized stag as big as an elephant, easily three times as tall as Dave with a giant rack of vicious looking antlers and carnivorous fangs in its snarling muzzle.

***

Forest Prong Fiend

Level: 450

HP: 450,000

Damage: 50,000-65,000

MA: 50,000

DN: 40,000

Tier: Mythic

Danger Level: ☠☠☠

Skills:

[Impaler] charges at a target and impales them on its antlers. The impaled target cannot fight for 10 seconds. Causes 200% base damage.

[Savagery] enters a rage mode, attack speed and base damage is doubled. MA and DN are reduced by 50%

[Call of the Forest] random monsters are summoned to aid the fiend to fight against its enemies. The summoned monster is random and may be hostile to the Fiend itself.

Bestiary:

Fiends are walking mountains of muscle capped with horned, tooth-filled heads.

When possible they avoid humans, but when not possible, they kill them, and without much difficulty.

***

"Awww crap!" Perfect shot cursed.