A line of searing lilac split the skies, and for a split second, the jungle turned to day. Then came the thunderous boom, roaring directly above Nar’s head with such viciousness it set his bones to rattling.

  The roiling, sudden storm was a surprise threatening to derail their carefully laid combat plans.

  Another lilac flash speared the skies, revealing dozens of eyes, rows of sharp fangs, and claws surrounding him from all sides.

  One of his assailants clawed at him with a long, muscular limb of sinewy, scaly muscle and patches of wet, dark red feathers. Even blinded by the continuous lightning show messing with his [Dark Vision], his other senses meant Nar evaded the attack with an easy sidestep, and responded in kind with an [Aura Blade] that lit up the exposed, dark, knotted roots of the Den mangroves surrounding him.

  Their leaves glowed a soft, neon light blue, which mirrored the water he splashed over.

  His aura seared through the pitch darkness in between peals of lightning, and he sensed, with grim satisfaction, as his [Aura Blade] sliced through the beast's HP and split through scales, muscular flesh and powerful bone.

  The Brightnight had made him work for it, but now, the combined might of his nearly 2500 points in [Aura***], the huge [Ego] he’d amassed and which allowed him to fully control the size and concentration of his [Aura Blade], and his increased pathways and [Mastery], all combined to grant his [Aura Blade] skill the might that it had early been denied by the powerful [Constitution] protecting the beasts of the jungle. He left three of the dinosaur beasts to fall apart in split, burned chunks, and spun round to drive a [Sword Aura] down the throat of another one of the beasts.

  Though his eyes stung from the churning violence of the muddy salty water, not even the rising tide coming in to flood the marshy mangroves of the Den was enough to deter or slow him down much. He moved with a symphony of Source and Aura powered attributes, his blade singing in his hands and leaving trails of searing aura in the rain. His footsteps had been made surer and more ingrained thanks to Leon’s repeated lessons, and he flowed smoothly like a whirlwind of death, shifting through the simple steps and strikes of his longsword style with an efficiency that did not require neither flourishes nor complicated, dramatic gestures.

  It was a simple style of swordplay, yes, but more and more, Nar was coming to learn its value and might, and so he continued to shred through the voracious dinosaurs assaulting him.

  Dinosaurs were a family of beasts sporting an enormous variety within its branching lines. Be it in terms of size, strength, speed, mode of combat, flight or no flight, there was a truly staggering amount of the creatures, and the Den was riddled with the beasts. They couldn’t take two steps in that blasted, mud soaking wetland without stumbling on one of the beasts or a herd, though it also didn’t help that they were in the Den to help Eum with his hunting quest.

  “Gah!” Nar groaned, passing a hand over his eyes in a futile attempt to clear the stinking of the brackish saltwater. It wasn’t just the salt that was damn, nearly blinding him, but also the fact it was infused with a small quantity of aether.

  A garbled mess of clashing shouts and calls clamored in his ears, but whatever aether was in the glowing waters flowed up through those tall, twisting roots to concentrate within the mangrove trees themselves, explaining the glowing blue canopy. Somehow, that concentration of aether in the wood also resulted in interferences to the System’s communication capabilities.

  Nar reached outwards with his senses as he continued his deathly dance with the over 15-foot-tall beasts that surrounded him. But the storm and the rising tide made what was already a mess of a fight into absolute chaos. The domain party was splintered into small pockets of desperate fighting, broken up across a wide area of tight, twisting roots. It was impossible to get a proper sense of what was happening around him, and of finding what he was looking for.

  And I can’t hear our sensors without the domain chat either, Nar thought, recognizing Jaz’s panicked chatter in the garbled mess inside his mind.

  Another peal of lightning lit up the monstrous clouds high above the round basin depression that cloistered the Den, and with a growl of frustration, Nar lit up the night with a follow up stream of aura attacks.

  He was left panting, surrounded by dead sarians. His mind drowned from the broken-up chatter of the others and the ceaseless rain pounding hard at the rising water-level.

  It’s up to my knees now, Nar thought, grimacing. Of course there had to be saltwater leeches.

  We need to finish this damned fight before the tide gets any higher.

  The tide came in slowly, the water levels increasing inch by inch from beyond the boundary past the Marshlands’ long coastline as the marsh too, flooded. But as the tide neared its height, it picked up a sudden haste that had caught them unawares more than once over the last two weeks they had spent in the mangrove basin. One had to delve according to the tide schedule here, pitching up tents on the rare rocky rises in the middle of the mangroves, and only being active during the low tide.

  If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

  The aquatic beasts that swam into the Den during high-tide were no joke, and though they had undertaken a couple of fights against them, it had quickly become apparent that, just as their guides had warned, there was no point in attempting those fights. Aquatic beasts were at an imposing advantage in the water, plus, they had a tendency to run away once things proved to be going badly, leaving the domain party with injuries to heal, wasted time, and no way to properly chase the beasts in that flooded landscape. It was best to avoid the things, but within less than an hour, the mangroves would be flooded and teeming with them.

  “Kur? Kur!” he tried.

  But to no avail. No orders or guidance was forthcoming in that mess, so it was up to him to scan through the flashes of skills all around him and to pick which fights he thought were the most desperate.

  Then he heard the thunderous roar of the beast he’d been searching for, and all he could do was jump out of the way as a massive beast exploded through the mangroves, sending broken wood and shrapnel flying.

  There you are! Nar thought, as the Matriarch Tyrannus came hurtling through the broken tree line.

  At a staggering 50-feet tall, the beast didn’t even pause before plowing straight through the mangroves directly in front of it. In that small interval, Nar was able to spot the telltale darkness of Jul’s fear debuff, as well as glimpse several of Rel’s poisoned and blood cursed arrows piercing the beast’s leathery hide.

  Is it running away? Nar wondered, noticing the matriarch’s limp. One of its clawed hands also hung uselessly alongside her body.

  “Yoh! Nar!” Eum shouted, leaping through the air overhead as he chased the wounded beast. “I think it’s almost dead. Come join the fun!”

  “Wait for me!” Viy shouted, dashing through the air right after the tygaris.

  Oh, Pile no! We can’t leave those two alone! Nar thought, his jaw dropping. A bloodlust crazed tygaris and a guilt-ridden and sense-addled halberdier with little regard to herself? That was just calling for disaster!

  He ran up the nearest mangrove roots, leaping out of the water by pulling on every point of his substantial [Speed] and [Agility], and jumped through the air after the matriarch and the two delvers. Eum lit up the night with his dark crimson [Primal Claws of Carnage], casting eerie red shadows across the mangroves and the pounding rain. Viy tried to dash ahead to snag the beast’s legs with a well-aimed blow from her [Strength] increased passive of [Weighted Blows], but the beast managed to avoid her.

  It seemed as though between the two of them, they had the matriarch well at hand, but Nar had doubts gnawing at him. This beast was a rare ranked boss, leader of a huge den of mighty dinosaurs. The ones he’d just easily dispatched were but the mid-stage, common youths of the group. While the middle-uncommon ranked adult males had similarly proved little match to him, the females were all upper-uncommon, and those were a lot smarter and trickier to handle, let alone the rare boss herself.

  “Get back here you idiots!” Nar shouted at the pair of them.

  It was obvious the matriarch was leading them somewhere she would have the advantage, but it was no use. Eum’s bloodlust was an issue the guy always struggled with, requiring constant intervention from his party members whenever he looked to be losing control, but he was now split from them. As for Viy, the further the fighting went and the more she relied on her guild to power her and her skills, the more her [Reckless Abandon] boosted her skills, but in exchange for her senses, [Awareness] and [Perception]. It literally trapped her further and further within her own guilt, and it was only her wild, hurricane-like fighting style that kept her safe.

  Ugh, for fuck’s sake! Nar thought, as he spotted a mud rise up ahead, writhing with several shapes. She’s brought us to her own, personal nest. Which, of course, it’s filled with the damned things!

  The matriarch roared into the storm, and a guttural chorus answered. Two distinctive shapes rose up on the mud rise, and Nar tutted as he recognized them for three, full bodied and fresh adult males. This particular species of dinosaur was matriarchal, so the males were the ones who looked after the nest, the eggs, and reared the young. A female could have up to two male partners at a time, laying eggs from both of them at once, but Matriarch Tyrannus was the leader of the entire herd, and it looked as though this particular iteration of the beast had three partners.

  And what’s that, about twenty or so young? Nar wondered, pushing his senses and [Awareness] to penetrate the storm and the chaos to give him meaning so he could plan. And those males look a lot stronger than the ones before. Is that upper-uncommon? Lower-rare? They’re almost the same size as her!

  “Viy!” he tried again. “VIY!”

  But between the roiling thunder above, and the roaring nest that they were about to plow head first into, the pale halberdier did not hear him.

  Right, here we go, Nar thought, entering full tank mode and pulling up all his Tank Situational Awareness and Decision Making, or TSA for short, lessons to the fore. He lashed out lightning fast [Aura Blades] against the three males, allowing them to explode all over the nest ahead of the arrival of the matriarch, Eum and Viy. The three male giants shifted their amber, deadly silent stares to him, and he had their aggro.

  “Wait, Eum!” Viy shouted, having snapped out of it by the sight of Nar’s three blades of aura slicing through the rain around her.

  “Viy!” Nar called.

  “Nar! Shit! We followed her,” Viy said, perching from one of the trees. “We weren’t—”

  “Doesn’t matter now. I need to drag these three males away, or we’re all dying here!” Nar said. “You’ll have to handle the young ones!”

  She nodded. “And Eum?”

  “Eum will be fine,” Nar said, eyeing the tygaris as the matriarch turned about. “He’ll slowly bleed her out, or he’ll have to hang in there until we deal with the rest. Once you’re done with the young ones, come help me. In that state, Eum will be a danger to you too! And be careful with the rising tide.”

  “Got it!”

  Nar left the two of them to their own fights, just as Eum and the matriarch went roaring at each other. As before, with his claws dripping red, his blazing green eyes turned crimson and his features returned to its bestial origins, this looked more like the titanic clash between beasts, rather than between a beast and a sapient. Even though Nar had concerns about whether or not the tygaris would be able to bring down the matriarch, even as wounded as she looked, all three of them had walked into that situation alone, and now they had to get themselves out of it.

  The ground shook as the three males splashed after Nar.