The Horned Rhino looked at the culprit who had just attacked, and uttered an enraged roar at the group. It lowered its head before charging forward at Jack and the others. The Man who stood at the front did not tolerate getting intimidated by a basic monster like that. So, he also lowered his stance before executing Charge.
Jack and the others were taken aback by his boldness. The Man and the Horned Rhino both charging at each other at high speed. Their collision produced a large impact noise, with a shockwave that flattened the grass around their point of impact.
Surprisingly, his Charge managed to stop the rhino. It stepped back with a dizzied look from the collision. The Man, however, was thrown back a few meters, with 62 damage on his head. The Horned Rhino’s charge was obviously stronger than The Man’s.
Jack was about to give a thumb up to The Man for his daring move, but his attention was distracted by the movements on his radar. The multiple red dots in their vicinity started to converge upon them.
Why? Jack had picked a route to avoid these small monsters that hid under the grass. Their distance should still be safe from their detection. He was initially planning to lure the Horned Rhino away so they could deal with it without fear of interrupting the other red dots. Could these red dots have some kind of link with the Rhino? Which triggered them to attack once the Horned Rhino was provoked?
Jack didn’t waste his time to ponder, he immediately let the others know about the approaching critters. Fierce Flame also noticed the other monsters based on the rapid swayings of the grasses. She could see somethings were coming at them underneath the grasses.
Bowler only realized about them after hearing a series of loud cawing noises from their surroundings. The creatures were making noises as they approached.
Jack put himself close to Bowler and Flame. He instructed The Man to keep the Horned Rhino busy while they dealt with these newcomers. It was unclear whether The Man heard Jack’s instruction, he didn’t glance back.
He instead charged back towards the Rhino with a furious face once he got back up to his feet. He was clearly unsatisfied to have lost that first exchange. Jack let him settle his own matter and focused on the incoming red dots. Those critters went directly at them, probably because it was Fierce Flame that had initiated the first strike.
“Stay sharp! They’ve arrived!” Jack announced.
He turned in the direction of the closest red dot. The grass in that spot suddenly split apart as a bird-like creature leaped out. The creature had a large beak for a mouth. Its body was covered by yellow featherless skin, perfectly camouflaging itself with the color of the grass. It had two featherless wings that did not appear to be able to fly, and a pair of large legs with sharp claws. It extended its legs forward in a grabbing motion.
Jack went forward and met with it with his new Kite Shield. The bird was thrown away by the collision. Its strength was weak, Jack deduced by feeling the impact force. He used Inspect on the bird while it was down. It was the Crowing Bird which was also one of their targets. Peniel had mentioned that the bird and rhino lived in the same habitat, she didn’t mention though that the two formed a symbiotic relationship.
Jack turned around at the next red dot that arrived. Now that he saw the way they attacked, he went on the offensive as well. He swung his sword as the next bird leaped out, and cut it mid-flight. Its weapon was its claws and beak, the wings on its body were pretty useless, so he aimed at its defenseless mid-section. The slash gave 112 damage to the bird. Its defense was also weak, Jack thought.
He used his speed to intercept whenever the birds jumped out to attack. Apart from their numbers and their ability to hide inside the grass, he didn’t find these birds to be troublesome.
Fierce Flame put aside her bow and used her dagger to deal with the birds. Her speed was not slow as well, she imitated Jack by waiting for the birds to attack before counterattacking with her dagger. Once the bird went back down to the ground, she switched back to her bow swiftly and gave additional damage by shooting the bird on its back. Jack was impressed by her speed of aiming and her accuracy. It seemed that she didn’t choose archer class randomly.
Bowler was the only one that was helpless in the situation. He couldn’t aim his magic at the bird as they were hidden in the grass. When they attacked, they were already in melee range, which was his weakness. Luckily, Jack was there to protect him.
Since Bowler couldn’t provide any contribution to the situation, he looked at The Man and found that his HP had decreased more. The Rhino also suffered damage from The Man’s attack but not much. At least it was not 10 damage like when Fierce Flame attacked it. That monster was probably almost immune to physical range attacks.
He cast Heal on The Man to recover his lost HP. Then cast Mana Bullet on the slow Rhino. The magic bullet hit the Rhino and produced 110 damage. He was astounded by the damage. “Hey, that beast is weak against magic attack!” He shouted.
Jack noticed it and replied, “good, then you go ahead and assist The Man. We will take care of these birds.” This Horned Rhino apparently was similar to the Rock Golem. They were highly resistant to physical damage, although not as absurd as the Rock Golem.
Bowler nodded with excitement. He was not useless after all. He cast Energy Bolts and directed them towards the Horned Rhino while The Man kept it at bay.
The Crowing Birds were cawing ceaselessly as they made their attacks. The noise did nothing but annoyed Jack. Suddenly he heard Fierce Flame screamed behind her. He looked back and found her swaying while striking at empty air. A bird jumped up and struck her with its claws, before proceeding to peck her with its beak.
“Heal her!” Jack said to Bowler as he dashed forward and struck the bird that was assaulting Flame.
“I got this status effect called Dizzy!” Flame exclaimed once she got back her bearing. “It stunned me for a second and impaired my vision for a while. I couldn’t see clearly during the effect.”
Another bird jumped at them and cawed loudly as it attacked. Jack struck it away with Power Strike. “It must be their cawing. The noise is also their attacks, it probably has a chance to inflict that Dizzy effect every time we hear it.”
“How do we defend?” Flame asked.
“I don’t think we can defend against sound. Just pay attention to your position and the direction of the bird, don’t panic when the Dizzy effect hits, and strike at the direction where you last remembered.”
Fierce Flame gritted her teeth, she could not think of a better solution. Fortunately, the status effect didn’t last long.
Jack was also hit by the mental attack and experienced firsthand the effect. The scenery in front of him spun around when the effect took place, creating a sense of vertigo. He almost fell over to the ground because of it. When he came around, he had two birds clinging on him while pecking him fiercely.
The damage of their attacks was decent but Jack’s defense was much higher than average players, so they had difficulty inflicting serious damage on Jack. Jack used Swing and cut at both birds before following up with a few more attacks before they ran away.
It was difficult to kill the annoying birds as they kept on fleeing back into the grasses after making their attacks, making him unable to focus his attacks. They could only slowly chip away at the flocks as they continued to make sneak attacks on them.
Good thing that Bowler was a Healer. He could heal Flame’s missing HP every time she was vulnerable after suffering from Dizzy. Jack himself did not need any healing because he only lost a little HP. Furthermore, Jack’s resistance to Dizzy was 40% due to the boost from his equipment, hence he didn’t suffer from the mental attack as often.
The fight was messy at first, but after they got used to the birds’ pattern, it wasn’t so hard anymore. They only lost some ground whenever the Dizzy effect hit, but Bowler’s heals immediately alleviated the pressure. The birds started to fall one by one. By the time the last bird died, the Horned Rhino was at its death bed. Jack went over to assist and soon the Rhino also fell.
