Suddenly it appeared right in front of the Knight, it was so instant that the Knight barely heard the warning from the grain of darkness.
You have encountered a level 135, Nared hunter. Type-Hunter.
The first arrow was to hinder its vision, cutting its depth perception, in turn making it more reliant on its sense of smell. The second arrow was to see the thickness and strength of its hide. The last arrow limited the precision in its movement.
Then it used its ability, instant teleportation, jumping to where the Knight is, and clenching its jaw on its lower torso, the feather shattered and the Knight appeared behind the Nared hunter. Which was a gambit on its own, now the Knight could not use that ability again, it seems the delay on the use of a skill is only useful to skills that need time. The monster on the other hand could freely jump around as many times as it can handle, which is what it did.
Going in for another bite, of which the Knight was prepared for, with the shield ready, the Knight shattered a few teeth before jumping out, looks like mastering the immobility was already coming in handy, even though the Knight as hoping to break the jaw, dulling the teeth was just as helpful. With the Knight having had jumped out of the mouth, the moving around of the monster became more unpredictable, it almost chewed its head off, only leaving small room to dodge.
'Not easy with one eye is it.'
The Knight then threw the knife inside the gaping jaw as it was coming in for another bite, sending it down the throat, with it being of such low level the monster let it down its throat. Only when things looked like they would go well the grain of darkness resounded, spoiling the surprise attack from the other two monsters that were ready to slaughter the Knight.
You have encountered a level 131 monster, Kingris. Type-hunter.
You have encountered a level 137 monster, Alluga. Type-soldier.
One sounded familiar, the Kingris is a higher level of the monster soul the Knight used to make the arrow, because at that moment, the bearlike arms swung, the Knight dodged the wrong way, its ability was to inverse the decisions made by the opponent. Receiving a heavy blow to the shoulder, sending the hammer arm flying. The Knight could not feel pain, but losing a limb was debilitating especially when fighting monsters of these levels. This skill was exactly why the Knight was avoiding it first.
The Alluga was being avoided because of its massive strength, this is why the Knight chose to go after the wolf like monster first. Hoping to finish off a level 135 monster so quickly was a fool's errand, but the Knight had not failed, it's just the plan went by faster than predicted. The Alluga was a whale, with fur, floating in the air like water, its fins were thin invisible film, making it look like a butterfly, and its snout was a beastly face of a vulture and wolf mix, with feathers connecting to the fur seamlessly. Its skill was illustrated in the next moment when the Knight lost its foothold, it was slowly drifting to the same altitudes as it was, thus removing any grounding force.
It would all be hopeless if it was not planned for, with a curl of the rotten lips, the Knight braced for the impact, the Nared hunter was so annoyed, at least it almost looked like it was, that its prey was being taken, to the point that it grabbed the three meter Kingris, and tossed it at the Alluga, and with the snapping of the Alluga's jaws, the Kingris was no more. The Knight sighed for the loss of that soul, even worse was that greed was chewing the Knight inside out for this plan. This sombre retreat did not last, since the Nared hunter was up and ready for its meal, with a teleportation and snapping of its jaws it had eaten the Knight? Well almost, since the Knight positioned the shield on the more solid teeth and its back on the dulled teeth which still made it through the armour.
Grabbing the knife lodged in the lower plate of the monster's mouth's flesh, which it then dragged across to the teeth, leaving a huge wound seeping with poison. The Nared hunter, spit out the Knight, as though it had accidentally chewed on faeces. The Knight did not waste any time, with a rolling landing, it proceeded to jump towards the Alluga, although not high enough to reach it, because then the feather had manifested once more, it shattered, and sent the Alluga crashing down, while it was still preoccupied with its meal. It had worked as the Knight had thought, the Alluga was using its ability on itself to stay afloat, so the Knight was hoping that using it twice would counter it, and with the landing, it spit out its meal as the Nared hunter had.
The Knight was feeling quite proud, after all it had taken two meals from two powerful monsters. No time to celebrate yet, it was risky to use the ability of the Alluga on it, the Knight thought it would float higher if it did not fall, taking it out of range, and not enough to disturb the fight with the Nared hunter. The cancelling of its ability by using it twice was a welcomed outcome, because it had given the Knight an idea about how to handle the aqua-terrestrial monster.
The Knight dropped the shield and summoned the soul of the Sygiligon, which it then proceeded to craft into a scythe, the proceeded to push it into the mouth of the Alluga. Being of a high enough level it was able to make it through the bones of the Alluga with some help from the battle monger skill helping the Knight use it effectively, and the mighty skill to push it deeper. It was then used to stab the inside of the mouth of the Alluga, and then it started to grow in size, using one last push, it shot out of the top of its head, the Knight was hoping to injure it, but it seems the scythe did the job.
This had become the fastest time it ever took to kill a monster, and this monster was also the strongest the Knight had faced until now. It did not even hear the grain of darkness because the Nared hunter had just chomped on the Knights leg, and with the shield lying meters away, the leg flew right off the torso. The monster had an issue chewing the leg, so it then swallowed it, the Knight collapsed to the floor and summoned its void territory, it was time to give in. The Knight was aiming to retreat to the void, but then nothing happened.
The Knight was surrounded by its non-existence, making it seem like a temporarily dark spot. It was the Knights fault really, after it had sent the Yiril back, it had always assumed it could go back any time too, choosing not to because the reason to was not valid, going to the void would be of no use and waste time. It could go to escape the monsters and recover, but the monsters might recover as well, and if the Knight did come back, it might be sent right back to the start or in the middle of an inescapable horde.
When sending the Yiril back it consumed too much time to be useful in emergencies, and there was always a risk of bringing back the monster with it too. In all the situations the Knight had found itself in, it had never had a truly compelling reason to go back, that is until now. Crippled with the loss of two limbs, fighting further was death, that is if void beings even experienced actual death. Being unable to retreat the Knight was most likely going die. The Nared hunter had already established itself as a persistent monster, going as far as to kill the others who threatened to take its prey.
Maybe it was merely taking its revenge, since a level 105 being dared to take the eye of a level 135. Whatever it was, it was driven and after taking the leg, it would properly butcher the being slowly seeing as that the monster is a hunter.
It finished eating and with a sniff it slowly began to creep towards the piece of void, it was very hesitant to enter, and I mean very hesitant. Usually, it wouldn't but with the disrespectful being hiding inside, no way, or maybe it was just a mad beast not knowing any better. It stepped inside, its fur's glow was immediately snuffed out, seems the void does not tolerate any light, or maybe the light from the monster was too weak to begin to penetrate the void.
Creeping towards the centre with the help of its snout, it found the pathetic remains of the Knight, missing an arm and a leg to kill one level 137, and a level 131 indirectly, if the monster was not mad, it would have been furious at this smug bastard. Then it felt a slight shiver run down its spine, fear slowly creeping into it, but to this level 135, it was nothing it could not handle, especially considering where its source is coming from. It was getting more frightened, slowing it down, but it was still determined to finish off this particular prey.
The Knight was still panicking, with how the void was not sending it back, it was even using the visage skill to buy time, but with there being nothing else to do, the grain of darkness would take too long to reannounce the soul taking of the Alluga, and the Nared hunter was not donating time, so it was time for the Knight to max out the power of Visage Terror, which would exhaust the Knights soul to death, and possibly kill this already injured monster.
However, there was no need, it seems the monster had stopped in its tracks entirely on its own. With that it then grew pale, the Knight could see in the void perfectly, as such it saw something strange. The monster had taken more than it could handle, and a green sludge melted right through its stomach, the monster itself slowly degenerated into a green colour, the same colour as the Knight repulsive skin. The monster then collapsed, then green sludge crawled towards the Knight, it had chunks of shaped metal flowing in it.
The Knight was too exhausted, in terms of soul will, not physical fatigue, to crawl away, it was already taking everything to keep the void from collapsing back into its soul. There was nothing to worry about though, because the sludge attached itself to the Knight and formed into bones, rotting flesh, rancid skin, and the chunks of metal covered the leg, fitting perfectly. The Knight had realised that this was its leg crawling back. The grain of darkness spoke, announcing the death of the monster, but the Knight could only think one thing.
'Truly Vile indeed.'
You have slain a level 135 monster, Nared hunter. Soul not acquired. Soul has been consumed, corrupted, and reformed. Nared hunter has evolved into Vile Hunter. Follower has acquired a vessel.
"What is that? Did they finally wake up."
That was quite a lot for a day, the death of three overpowering monsters, losing limbs and coming within an inch of losing its life. The lost limbs killing the hunter and reattaching, and now there's talk about the illusive followers making an appearance. There are other things that were just as bothersome; the lack of response from the void, meaning even if the Knight wanted to leave, it could not until mission was done. The arm was lying somewhere.
'I wonder if it's going to crawl back too.'
The Knight felt up the re-joint leg, and with both, it stood and started to properly assess the situation, it would have to move soon. Good thing it was incapable of feeling fatigue, and now it had a suspicion as to why. The Knight had to admit losing the Nared hunter's soul was eating it up, greed was literally wreaking havoc on the Knight about the soul. So, the Knight chose to deal with the follower and vessel situation, to try and appease the greed skill.
'I wonder if grain of darkness will explain?'
…consume five slaughter points to receive information?