Civilization

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHhhhhhh........"

From behind me, I hear a scream. Running forward, I turn my head to the side trying to find out the source of the scream.

"Ian…?" - Kingston

Ian, who had taken the other direction, was gone. Where did he go? Wait… Is that a hole? No way. He fell into a hole. Shit. Shit. Shit. The vision Melody had over a week ago had finally happened.

I dodge to the side and run towards the group. I see them set up formation but looking at the situation I feel like it was better to leave. A total of 6 rock snakes had appeared from the ground.

Its boulder consisted of a large boulder as a head with smaller boulders connected to it until the tip of the tail was a rock the size of a fist. The whole body spun like a top as it appeared from the ground, only stopping once they had exited.

It has no eyes or mouth, just a long snake-like body of rocks.

"RETREAT!" - Kingston

"What about Ian?" - Frank

"He fell into a hole. I'm not sure how to save him but if we die we won't have a chance to do anything." - Kingston

"Kingston is right. These monsters will be difficult to face in an open area and with our current weapons." - Stellar

"Celine, Yor, run as hard as you can. Have the wolves escort you to that crevice we went through to get to this area. The rest of us SPREAD OUT! We need to draw the attention of the monsters while we slowly go through the crevice." - Kingston

Celine and Yor nod their heads, grabbing David's and Frank's basket as well as theirs before running. The goblins spread out with most of them trying to attract the attention of the rock snakes with their arrows. While the shieldbearers precede to defend any attacks the monsters attempt on the goblins.

"Solar! Take Ken and Kaede with you and run as well. Stellar, David, Frank, Gibing, Gyumi, Gopopo, and Gewari, stay with me. Let's try to defeat them one by one." - Kingston

The closest snake is still partially in the ground, slowly curling its body upwards. I activate Charge and rush at the monster, stabbing the monster in the area that connects two rocks. My spear penetrates through, separating part of the monster. A small smile spreads across my face and I quickly step out of the way, regrouping with the ones I made to stay back. However, that smile fades as quickly as it came. The rocks that I had severed from the main body slowly started to move back to the place I had cut. 

Its main body spins faster and it snakes along the ground, picking up dirt and pebbles and flinging them in all directions. The moment the two separated parts connect, it slows the spinning and starts to move towards us at a frighteningly quick pace. 

"David, take the first hit. Stellar see if you can stop its movement. Gyumi, Gopopo, and Gewari distract the other monsters that are coming close. Frank, Gibing you are with me. We are going to charge into the monster the moment David tanks the hit." - Kingston

David readies his shield as he stands firm in front of us, his eyes full of confidence. Unlike when we first set off on this journey he was no longer as afraid. The 3 hobgoblins run towards other rock snakes attacking them with some skills or weapons to draw them away from us. 

The rock snake targeting us slams into David's shield head first. Its whole body gradually spins faster as it pushes David backward. His feet make long trails in the dirt as he gets dragged away. However, it allows the rest of us to retaliate.

Stellar jumps to the right as she prepares the chant while, Frank, Gibing, and I charge in. Frank and Gibing had gone to the left side while I went to the right. Activating charge again, I blitz towards the rock snake targeting the gap between boulders, however, compared to the last attempt, the boulders are at least twice the size. My spear couldn't penetrate through and instead chipped off a bit of the boulder before bouncing off.

On the other side, I see Gibing jump upwards, slamming his ax down hard on the boulder creating large cracks on the surface. Gibing leaps off the monster while Frank follows up with Gibing's previous attack with his own. Frank pierces the crack that Gibing had just made with his spear introducing more cracks and as the monster's body slowly spins the boulder cracks further eventually breaking into small rocks. 

The body of the monster that had attacked David slowed to a stop however starts to spin faster and faster. A screeching noise could be heard as the head scraped against David's shield. David tries to push the monster back, slamming his stone ax on the spinning rock but is unable to do any damage, instead David's shield shows signs of breaking. Small cracks appear on the surface.

The rest of the monster's body starts to slowly move towards the spinning head but Stellar spell comes just in time.

".ƨƨγdɒ ɘʜɈ oɈni mɘʜɈ ϱɒɿb

ƨwobɒʜƨ ɘʜɈ ɘƨɒɘlɘɿ nooM ,ʜO

.bnɒʜ γm oɈni ƨwobɒʜƨ ɘʜɈ ϱniɿd

bnɒ ɿɘwoq ɘm Ɉnɒɿϱ nooM ɘʜɈ γɒM

SHADOW BIND!" - Stellar

Small black hands grip onto the monster's body pulling it slowly into the shadows until it all disappears. Gibing and Frank turn towards David, rushing to help him out before it becomes too late. I rush over to do the same and the moment I reach the monster, Gibing and I both activate Cleave. 

Sparks flew from the monster as our weapons attack the spinning rock. Cracks form in the rock and Frank finishes off the monster with a thrust into the gap where it was cracked. The momentum of the rock proceeds to crack it further until it shatters completely, spraying rubble in all directions. 

I shield my face with my arm, only removing it once I confirm it was safe. A singular grey orb was left on the ground but I didn't have time to pick it up to see what it was as I see Gyumi narrowly dodge a tail swipe.

"Good job everyone now on to the next-" - Kingston

As I was able to finish my sentence the grey orb flashes briefly before levitating before us. Immediately, we back off and prepare our shields. The grey orb flashes quicker and quicker and starts to spin in the air. Small rocks and pebbles on the ground slowly get float up, sucked towards the orb.

As the orb spins faster and faster, more and more rocks get dragged into the center. Colliding with each other and merging, until it forms a singular large boulder. 

"Damn it. We need to destroy the orb if we want to kill that monster." - Kingston

The boulder starts to spin. Slowly at first but them it quickens its pace as it lands on the ground. The boulder immediately turns towards David, spinning towards him. Once again David blocks the boulder with his shield but from the previous battle, his shield was already cracked, resulting his David's shield shattering the moment the boulder hits him.

David ends up taking the hit with his body, holding the boulder back with his arm guards but even then, it wouldn't last long. Without wasting any more time, I stab the boulder multiple times with my spear, each thrust creating small holes in the boulder, only to be filled up slowly with rocks on the ground.

Frank follows my example, stabbing the boulder in the hope it will slow down, while Gibing charges up a Concentrated Blow. The amount of friction from the boulder and David'd wooden arm guards sets it alight, leaving David no choice but to dodge out of the way, swinging his ax in an attempt to do damage to the monster. 

The moment he dodges away the boulder bursts into smaller rocks. The shattered rocks revolve around the grey orb, like Saturn's rings. It sends rocks out towards us at high speeds, cutting up Frank's skin as he barely dodges the rocks. 

With its defense down, Stellar appears behind the monster and stabs forward with her knife. However, its a trap. The rocks around the monster stop revolving and converge towards the orb trapping Stellar's arm in the monster. She screams in pain but not for long as Gibing strikes forward with his Concentrated Blow, breaking past the rocks but missing the orb. 

"Stellar, it doesn't have eyes but it can see us. It must be using some other method to detect movement around itself. I don't think you can sneak up on it." - Kingston

"I'm well aware.' - Stellar

"This monster isn't easy. I think we should retreat. We tried to defeat it however it's too strong for us right now." - Frank

"Agreed. Everyone lets move. GYUMI, GOPOPO, GEWARI! RETREAT!" - Kingston

I shout at the top of my lungs to get their attention and luckily I did. The moment my sentence finishes, they retreat towards the crevice. Following them closer was us, and looking at the 3 hobgoblins they didn't have a good time. 

They had many scrapes on their bodies and some of the shields that the shieldbearers were carrying ended up broken as well. The goblins looked the best but that was mainly because they were archers and couldn't do much but run against this monster. None of them could break the monster's defense and even see that the core of the monster is the grey orb. 

However, looking back at the monster. The grey orb is like a nucleus much like a golem which brings up the question, is it Kronos's army?

I look towards Stellar and tell her my inquiry as we run away.

"I'm not sure if that was a golem or now. I have seen lots of golems before but none that huge. The head is already bigger than David and that goes on for a couple of boulders before it only starts to decrease in size." - Stellar

"I know. I only had a thought after seeing the grey orb. The golems we fought before had blue orbs so I thought maybe they are related." - Kingston

"It's possible but we can't confirm it."  - Stellar

"It's also very strong and if only we knew that we should have crushed the orb the moment it came out of the monster, we would be facing one less monster." - Kingston

"We didn't know since it was a new monster." - Frank

"I know and it will only get more difficult since we lost so many resources." - Stellar

"For now, let us regroup with everyone at the crevice. The monsters may be following us but once they have a big body they become slow.. Wait… What is that in front of us towering over the crevice? No… It can't be. The dinosaur…" - Kingston