Chapter 23- First Waterfall Raid

I let out a calm breath as I checked over my armaments, in the lull before we raided this bullywug infestation. 

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(Uncommon Grade Quiver)

Thunder Quiver

Type: Tool

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(Uncommon Grade Bow)

Swift Bow

Type: Ranged Weapon

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{Uncommon Grade Spear}

*Bonded* Blooded Spear

Type: Weapon

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Those three powerful items were my backbone in this battle. My gauntlet and mana would be kept in reserve in case of emergencies, a safety net. I felt confident for the first time since I entered this tower, I relished it.

I waited patiently, awaiting Ivar's signal with my bow trained on the furthest bullywug. The sound of a powerful mechanical click and my fingers let the string free. I was sure I killed the bullywug so I curiously checked on Ivar's prey. My interest in how my lightning-enchanted bolts would perform. A small smile broke as I turned to Ivar's prey, the bullywug test subject had a quarter-sized hole between its eyes. It fell over dead a second after I chose a new target, the second furthest bipedal frog.

My sight was trained on the ranger bullywug who still hadn't realized two of his comrades had fallen and in a blink later, he became the third to fall before they realized.

The wooden bow-wielding frog seemed to realize something was wrong. My blue eyes locked onto the amphibian's deep black ones. Sadly it collapsed backwards as a hole appeared in its chest.

What was truly impressive was the fact that bullywug a right next to it fell as well. It seemed Ivar was well-versed in crossbows and their mechanics. It only took him five seconds to fire and then reload, almost half the time it would have taken me.

Somehow they didn't realize what was happening until thirty-five seconds after the first of their ranks fell. In that time I had taken out fifteen bullywugs while Ivar had taken twelve, there were a mere eight remaining. Well from what we could see.

Confused croaks rang around as two more of their numbers fell to Ivar and me.

This was the point, whether any of my preparations mattered or not would be decided right now. I watched with a cold glint as a specific bullywug's vocal sack began to expand. I had an arrow trained on the creature the moment the vocal sack seemed at full capacity, yet I held and waited.

It released its horrid croak in what I could guess was a great roar. But to me, it was more of buzzing in my ear making me slightly uncomfortable, if it weren't for the soundwaves disturbing the water I would probably think he failed somehow.

I smiled in relief as my fingers loosened and the bullywug fell before it could even finish its psychic croak. Turning to Ivar he seemed slightly surprised before giving me an impressed nod. I felt pride once again as my crafting abilities continued to show their use, not just weapon improvements but also countering our enemy's most dangerous ability. Even if I could be considered no less than a novice back in twenty-first century Earth.

Without a prompt Ivar holstered his crossbow and charged in, his mighty chilled war hammer the chosen weapon for this battle.

Honestly I was a little wary of charging into melee, but I trained specifically for this, and my bonded spear needed to kill enemies to evolve. I placed the swift bow across my back and in the same motion drew my spear with a slight flourish as I ran. What did it matter if I was slightly scared, I chose this weapon. Keep your distance, ward off attackers, and pay attention to any ranged combatants. That was all.

I slid into combat more smoothly than I ever had before, it helped that my dexterity and agility stats surely dwarfed the bullywugs. I calmly sidestepped a flying dagger from a rouge-based bullywug. Watching it grab another knife from its holder I charged forward, as the small throwing knife came towards I noticed its trajectory and raised my left arm. A satisfying clang was heard as it hit my rare grade gauntlet.

After the parry, the frog was in my range. I went for a leaping stab, the beast jumped back in an attempt to go back to its preferred range. I didn't let it, flew my arm through the stab the handle flew forward. Once it was inches away from its chest my palm was placed on the end of the spear's handle. I savagely pushed and it didn't matter what my strength stat was, momentum. The spear pierced true and I held the embedded spear. 

After a blue wisps entered my body I tugged the weapon free just in time to smack away a greatsword. Leaving my next opponent wide open. I twisted, following the momentum of the impromptu parry to bludgeon the amphibian in the eye socket. Surely it was stunned, after completing the full rotation the blade of the spear found purchase in the longsword weidling frog's chest. 

It went limp soon after, as I let the corpse slide off my spear a few whisps entered my chest. I calmly turned around as this area turned deathly silent, well except for the sound of crashing waves. I turned around in slight confusion as it had only been around a minute but what I saw was a massacre. Arms, legs, heads, and indistinguishable pieces of these creatures floated. Morribly dying the river slightly purple for the time being.

"Jeez Ivar, save some for me" I said jokingly as I noticed the man managed to take out six bullywugs in the time it took me to kill two, less actually as it seemed he was watching me.

"Sloppy, none of that would've worked against a trained warrior," Ivar said as my shoulders fell. Sometimes I wished I hadn't asked him to give me a few pointers, I'd never forget the look of disgust he showed as I went threw a few slashes and piercing moves.

"I'm not training to fight humans... I'm trying to survive monsters" I replied, sounding slightly like a petulant child.

"Smart assery?" I couldn't help but chuckle. "It was better though" Ivar admitted as he gave me a light praise.

But I was waiting. 'Is that really it, no reinforcements?' We both waited with bated breath but after two entire minutes, I shrugged. I approached the rouge-like bullywug and stole his throwing knife bandolier, it was a nice piece and looked extremely convenient. It had ten twelve-inch long kunai-like knives. They would be well used for crafting and in scenarios where I need a blade quickly.

"Well, it is a rather small waterfall, maybe twenty feet tall?" I said as I was surprised that only thirty-eight frogs were using this place as a base. I killed eighteen while Ivar killed twenty, in about five minutes.

"Yeah, you did say you expected them to call reinforcements, but it seemed this waterfall couldn't hold that many of these creatures." Ivar theorized as I nodded accepting his reasoning. "Want to see if there are caves behind them?" Ivar asked as he began trudging through body parts and blood-dyed water.

I followed behind him and what we found caused me to chuckle.

"A chest!" Ivar said with excitement as he headed forward with greed.

"Stop!" I yelled which caused Ivar to freeze a few steps away from the seemingly safe wooden chest.

"What the hell is your problem Ace?"Ivar asked slightly angrily as he seemed to be coming to conclusions he shouldn't be 

"Noob rule number one. Never. Ever. Trust a chest" I voiced with complete sincerity that caused Ivar to tilt his head in confusion. I drew my bow and readied to fire.

"Why are you going to shoot out treasure?!" Ivar said in confusion and distress as it seemed the man loved his loot.

"There are monsters like these frogs that can impersonate objects," I said as I released the arrow. "For adventures like us, a chest is a surefire way to get somebody to drop their guard, easy prey as you would say" Halfway through my explanation the arrow took a corner off of the suspicious wooden chest.

"That… sounds ridiculous," Ivar said but he still took a few steps away from the chest, showing that he trusted my warnings at least. We waited with baited breaths but after a few seconds, I sighed. Surely a 'mimic' would've reacted to being attacked.

"It's safe, go ahead Ivar" I said as the man rubbed his forehead and approached the chest.

"You're way too paranoid kid" Ivar observed as he opened the chest's lid, I still stayed a few steps back as I looked over his shoulder. 'A twenty-first-century gamer getting surprised by a mimic? I'd rather die of explosive diarrhea than live with the shame. Well if I survived…'

Hypothetical scenarios aside I watched as Ivar found five gold coins and a rather nice-looking whetstone. Nothing enchanted but another clue about the world we found ourselves in. Most likely medieval fantasy, based on the coin's shape and rough carving of the coins. 'Definitely hand carved, and roughly at that' I deduced as the coins weren't perfect circles and had a few chips around the edges.

Still, all of this could be conjecture, it wasn't unheard of for a lost currency to appear in a dungeon.