Rune Seeker
Chapter 10: Monkey Business

With the monkeys’ attention firmly on the group around the small child, Hiral took his time picking his targets. Small notifications blinked in the corner of his vision: one to notify him One-Man Army was active, and another with a small “1” in the corner—that one had to be the first stage of Killing Spree. On top of those strong buffs, once he’d reached D-Rank, the internal cooldown on his RHCs had dropped from one second to nine-tenths of a second. While it seemed like a small difference at first, that, along with the increased power of his modified weapons, meant he’d be doing far more damage over the course of a longer fight.

Not that he was planning to drag this out.

Targets and order picked, he calmly raised his first weapon at a monkey charging Yanily, then pulled the trigger. Searing light burst from the barrel of his gun with a kick that jerked his arm back, but the monkey fared much worse.

The blast slammed into its gut, just above the hip. The Impactportion of the blast staggered it to the side, while the new Rune of Energy component pierced deep inside. Howling in pain, the monkey missed a step and started turning its head towards Hiral—even though he was already moving on to the next target—until Yanily burst in with a flurry of strikes. His Reed Spear Stylecompletely avoided the creature’s delayed defense, tearing deep wounds across the monkey’s face and chest.

Within a second, it was over—Hiral noted his buff now had a small “2” beside it—and he pulled the trigger on his other weapon, the shot already lined up. Another bolt of searing energy slammed into a monkey trying to close in on Nivian from his blind side, hitting it square in the side of the knee. The joint not only shattered at the impact, but the energy portion actually sheared the bottom part of the limb clean off.

Not that Nivian had even needed his help. The tank pivoted cleanly and slammed his thorned shield into the monkey’s face as it pitched forward. A flare of Infernal flame at the impact, and the monkey dropped straight to the ground. With no “3” popping up on Hiral’s interface window, the monkey was still alive. That changed a heartbeat later when Right stepped over it and brought his fist down like a piledriver straight on its head.

A pillar of purple flame shot into the air, actually catching a leaping monkey mid-flight, and Hiral got the kill credit.

He fired off two quick shots aimed at the leaping—and now burning—monkey, and both shots struck home, spinning it in the air to crash unceremoniously into the side of a wall. Falling to the ground with a pained grunt, the beast started to push itself up, but another pull of his trigger put the beast down for good.

“4” blinked nicely on his notification window, then quickly turned to “5,” “6,” “7,” “8,” “9” as Seeyela’s and Seena’s abilities cleaved into the reinforcements charging down the street. Where the road had previously been a clear path straight towards Nivian and the small child he protected, a brutal wall of Spearing Roots had erupted to impale a pair of monkeys. The lucky ones who’d managed to somehow avoid the roots bursting out of the road instead found themselves face-to-face with an unforgiving Gravity Well—and the three hydra heads spitting death from within it.

Even as Hiral watched, one of the monkeys got too close, the pull snagging its arm with a bone-shattering crack. Still, even with one arm getting sucked into the black pit of the gravity well, the monkey tried to pull away. Panic and pain etched its face, and it made the mistake of looking back at its doom. The titanic gravity popped the eyes clean out of its head. That was the end of the monkey’s struggle, and its large body vanished within the watermelon-sized black hole in space.

Road is secure, Hiral thought, raising the aim of his weapon. His next blast punched into the chest of a monkey loping along the roofs to his left. Using his other weapon to hit it a second time, the creature teetered on the edge. His notification window ticked up to “10” from Left scoring a kill while he waited out the cooldown—bringing his Killing Spree attribute bonus up to a whopping 20%—then fired off both barrels.

The combined power of the two shots, empowered by his increased Dex and Atn, put a hole right through the monkey’s chest, and his notification went to “11.” Still, more of the monsters came hooting and hollering across the rooftops, like the city was swarming with them, and Hiral began firing his weapons as quickly as the cooldowns allowed.

“12,” “13,” “14.” His notification window climbed, but a mad pack of the beasts dropped down to cut off Nivian, Yanily, and Right from the others. Left, meanwhile, danced back and forth in front of Wule and the two sisters to buy them time to activate their abilities. Two totems with wooden skulls and thorned vines wrapping them burst from the ground, their jaws parting with flames dancing between the teeth, then began spitting endless streams of fiery bolts into the pack of bladed monkeys. Individually, the bolts did little damage to penetrate the monkeys’ thick fur, but they added up quickly.

By that point, Seena had four balls of fire hovering above her open hand, and a simple gesture sent them cascading into the growling faces turning in her direction.

The four explosions lit up the street, literally hurling monkey bodies—and pieces of them—in all directions, and opened up a path to Nivian and the others. “15,” “16,” 17,” “18.”

“Hiral,” Seena shouted, and a pulse of solar energy washed over him. Sᴇaʀch* Thᴇ Nʘvᴇl(F)ire.nᴇt website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of nøvels early and in the highest quality.

You have been buffed by: Target.

Object of the Target Debuff cannot hide from your eyes for 210 seconds

You inflict 15% more damage to object of Target Debuff for 210 seconds

Through the smoke, one of the monkeys glowed red as it leapt through the air to try and reach the child while Nivian shifted to lead the way through the newfound path.

“No, you don’t,” Hiral whispered, pulling both triggers. With all the stacking buffs from One-Man Army, Nature’s Blade,Killing Spree, and now Target, his blasts cut the monkey in half before it even knew he was aiming at it.

“19,” and the Target buff faded.

Oh, well, this damage is already getting out of hand.

More than just the number flashing in his notification window, he could feel the power pulsing through the double-helix pattern of his PIM. A 38% increase to his stats was nothing to scoff at, and that quickly climbed to 42% as two more pulls of his triggers dropped another pair of monkeys. Killing Spree was turning him into a killing machine.

And, apparently, he wasn’t the only one who noticed it. Monkeys on the roofs bypassed Nivian, Yanily, and Right as they joined up with the others to rush straight for Hiral.

Two, six, ten… no, thirteen of them were coming at him from both sides.

Two more pulls, and he dropped that thirteen to eleven, but the rest were already leaping in his direction, and the cooldown on his RHCs would never let him down them all up close.

With the sky practically darkening from the mass of monkey bodies hurling themselves at him, Hiral tossed his weapons to the sides and reached his left hand up to his right side. His Rune of Attractionactivated as he stepped back and jerked his hand back down, hauling a pair of monkeys with the gesture.

The heavy bodies thudded to the ground, bones breaking from the impact, and Hiral spun to the side, thrusting out his other hand and activating his Rune of Rejection. Two monkeys that’d almost reached him shot back before their feet even touched down, one crashing through a door of a building across the street and the other hitting the wall.

By then, the other seven were almost on top of him—but all he could do was smile.

This is it. That challenge. The push to become stronger. Better than I was yesterday.

A quick glance at his notification window showed “25” blinking, and he reached over his shoulder to grab the Emperor’s Greatsword at the same time he activated both Eloquent and Enraged, the double helix on his skin flaring like the sun.

Self-Buff: Eloquent has activated.

All mental attributes increased by 50% for 180 seconds.

Self-Buff: Enraged has activated.

All physical attributes increased by 50% for 180 seconds.

The whole world seemed to slow to a crawl around him, his stats skyrocketing from the powerful buffs. Dex rose to 130, and Atn to 114.

The monkeys seemed to hang in the air as he wrapped his hand around the hilt of the weapon over his shoulder, feeding a thread of solar energy into the sword while he drew it. The broken blade of the greatsword burst to life, energy solidifying to complete the six-foot-long sword, and Hiral activated Intimidate.

Monkey eyes widened in slow motion as his ability exploded outward like a physical pressure wave. His aura of an apex predator—of the hunter that had single-handedly crushed a zone-capping dungeon—sent splinters of fear racing through their primate brains to dull their reactions.

Without even needing to look, Hiral could feel where all his opponents were by the air shifting against his skin, the subtle sounds reaching his ears, and the vibrations coming up from the ground. His fingers tightened around the greatsword, another small trickle of energy making the massive weapon nearly weightless, and time snapped back to normal speed.

Hiral spun on his forward heel, narrowly evading a bladed-monkey forearm, then brought his sword up horizontally to parry another strike. The monkey’s blade skidded off the Emperor’s Greatsword, but Hiral was already moving, his weapon snapping down to parry one, two, three more strikes as he weaved seamlessly between the Intimidated and slowed horde. Two more steps got him clear from being surrounded, but left him with nothing but a wall in front of him and a gang of angry monkeys at his back.

Perfect.

One step and he leapt forward, twisting in the air to hit the wall boots-first, then activated the Rune of Rejection at his feet, shooting him back towards the monkeys like an arrow. The Emperor’s Greatsword came around in a sweeping arc at the same time he multiplied the gravity of the weapon by a factor of sixteen. The two monkeys in front of him parted like water.

The energy recharge from Killing Spree completely replaced the solar energy he’d used increasing the weight of the weapon, but a quick glance noted the blinking “25” hadn’t increased. That must be the cap on the ability. Still, like Yanily would say—overpowered.

He didn’t have time to dwell on it, though, hitting the ground in a roll as the halves of monkeys fell around him and the others moved for revenge. Not that they’d ever catch him with how slow they were moving. As soon as he completed his roll, he pushed another wave of energy into his Rune of Rejection, shooting him straight up into the air above the surprised primates. Twenty feet up in the blink of an eye, Hiral picked one monkey, cocked back his sword arm, then reached out and activated his Rune of Attraction.

Probably at least as heavy as Hiral was, the Bladed Frenzy Monkey was caught flat-footed by the unexpected pull, even lifting a few feet into the air. More importantly, it halted Hiral’s upward momentum and yanked him back down towards the group.

To speed things up a little, he tethered the greatsword to the monkey with a thread of solar energy as he began his swing, then multiplied the weight again—this time by a factor of thirty-two. The suddenly increased mass of the weapon brought Hiral crashing down like a meteor, straight through the lifted monkey, and sent up a shockwave from the impact.

Dust, stone, and monkeys flew outward from the blast, and Hiral quickly removed all weight from his sword and launched himself at the nearest pair of monsters. He reached them at the same time they hit the ground, and one powerful slash from his weapon ended both their lives. That just left two on the far side, and the ones he’d pulled down before.

A change in the movement of the air, and Hiral dodged backwards, narrowly avoiding a strike from the monkey that’d earlier gone through a door, then spun on his back foot to hurl the greatsword across the street. Hiral used a thought to tether it to one of the monkeys there, then leapt back in bare-handed at the monkey recovering from missing him.

While he didn’t have the same strength Right did, he did have one other advantage: his Rune of Impact. Glowing sigils formed in front of his closed fists, and he lashed out with a flurry of bone-breaking blows. Arm, ribs, collarbone, then chin, and the monkey flew backwards, down though not quite dead.

Movement behind him required his attention, and he spun while pulling on the greatsword with his Rune of Attraction. The weapon burst through the hanging dust, neatly cutting the rushing monkey in two from behind before the hilt slapped comfortably into his hand. Another pull with the same rune brought one of his RHCs back to him, and a quick aim and trigger pull put the final monkey down for good.

Energy still filled him, and he cast his senses out for more threats.

There weren’t any, so he slung the sword over his back and yanked his second RHC to his hand while the others worked their way through the dust to join him.

“I know what you’re going to say,” Hiral said to Seena. “I wasn’t trying to be reckless.”

“I wasn’t actually going to say that,” Seena said. “You used Eloquent and Enraged, didn’t you?”

“I did,” Hiral said. “How did you know?”

“Besides the way you were moving around?” Seena chuckled. “Your Party Interface window had some buffs pop up beside it. Guessing the one with the numbers beside it was Killing Spree, and the other one is that one that makes you stronger when you’re by yourself?”

“Yeah, One-Man Army,” Hiral said. “Are all the monkeys taken care of?”

“They are,” Nivian said. “Kid is safe, too. Aren’t you, little guy?” The tank rested his hand on the child’s head.

“I want my mommy,” the child said quietly, though they didn’t try to run away, instead looking up at Nivian through tear-filled eyes.

“Hiral is going to need a few minutes when his buffs fade,” Seena said. “Let’s make sure no more threats are coming immediately, then go find the mother.”

“We haven’t gotten a quest yet or anything for being here,” Yanily said. “Any idea where we should go?”

Seena just pointed at the child. “Quest or not, that’s what we’re doing.”

“No problem here, boss,” Yanily said quickly.

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