Chapter 36- The Two Guardians

She was right to claim that both of these monsters were strong, I would even bet that they were Orgnar's peers in terms of strength.

One of them was a bipedal lizard covered in a cloak, two shiny short swords were in each hand, and the swords themselves glowed a vibrant green.

While standing in front of him was a bullywug, but this one seemed like he ate all of his vegetables as a child. Standing slightly over Ivar and wielding a mace and a tower shield. The shield itself looked primitive, wooden, and filled with jagged iron spikes. It also glowed a vibrant green, thankfully the mace didn't show the same as it seemed to be just a normal weapon.

"They are both mini-bosses." I reported my educated guess as I turned around and relaxed behind a particular large bolder.

"Their what?" Seline asked with a raised eyebrow from under her assassin-like cowl.

"Later, we need a plan before anything else. They both possess an enchanted item, one of them is the large tower shield while the other is the lizard's dual short swords." I said as I looked over my companions to see if they had any bright ideas.

"Any idea what the enchantments could be?" Ivar asked as he continued to run the Burned Schimitar over a whetstone.

"For the blades? A whole lot of nothing, they have no characteristics I could derive a guess from." It was an honest report as they just seemed like regular iron swords. "My guess would be it had the ability to increase its cutting power or the weight of its slashes. A basic enchantment for a basic set of swords. But take that with a grain of salt" I voiced my thoughts on the possibility.

"Though for the shield I have a few more reliable guesses. The first would be some kind of reversal skill, we attack the shield and receive a small amount of the damage in return. Though it could be something that empowers its user, for example, he could block a certain amount of damage and receive a buff to his athletics in return." I speculated as I readied my spear and made sure my enchanted gauntlet was secure.

"What?" Seline said as she looked at me like I had grown a second head, I hummed at her question as I continued to secure my armor in various places.

"I have an idea. Though it is moderately risky for one of us" Ivar said as we both turned our attention to our large companion.

"Two of us could try and quickly take out the larger enemy while the other job would be to stall the lizard" Ivar said his plan and I agreed it was a decent plan with what we knew. I was about to volunteer to hold off the lizardman when someone beat me to the punch.

"I'll handle the reptile, we have some unfinished business" Seline said and I couldn't find a reason to disagree. 'At least she's proactive.'

"Fine with me, with Ivar and I together we should be able to take out the tank in less than five minutes" I said my piece as we all agreed and blasted forward. However, we were nowhere near as fast as the two fireballs that were flying toward the largest in the room.

The large frog barely got a confused croak out before it was slammed in the face by two fireballs. If I were hoping for a quick kill then I was sorely mistaken, a small growl and a shake of its head later and it looked like it barely felt that, though I knew better. 

One of its eyes was unmistakably charred to a crisp. I yelled at it to take the aggro while the woman next to us dissolved into thin air. Intent on taking care of her mission away from our battle.

"I'll take the front, you take the ranged" Ivar said as he charged forward with a shout and slammed his Warhammer against the amphibian's tower shield.

I held my breath as I awaited a response but it seemed Ivar's strike didn't activate the shield's enchantment, from what I could tell at least. I let out that breath as I fired a lightning-enchanted arrow, it would probably be the shot of my life. As if Artemis herself was guiding my arrow it flew through the air and embedded itself feather-deep in the tank's only other working eye.

Ivar let out a war cry as he noticed my shot and began unloading a staggering barrage of attacks. I smiled at his enthusiasm and drew my next shot. I calmly let it go and watched as it blew a hole in the monster's foot.

Which caused the beast to stagger and Ivar to attack as if possessed by some war god. Smashing it over the top of its head causing it to collapse and then following that attack with a gruesome stomp that showered the area in purple blood and brain matter. 'Fucking diabolical'

As the red whisps gathered and separated, flying to each of us in quick succession. However, I was more interested in our newest members' condition.

She seemed to have given up stealth and engaged in the skillful melee. It seemed that this reptilian swordsman had countered her assassin abilities with either familiarity or perception. Seeing that she seemed to have the fight under control Ivar and I remained where we were, close enough to join the battle if needed.

Luckily it wasn't and before long the woman had the reptile on its knees. In a admittedly cool scene she held her dual daggers over its neck, with a twist of her wrist later and the lizardmen's head fell to the dirt.

"What did you say her class was?" I whispered to my partner who had already seen her entire status.

"She is level 187 and her class is Blood Reaper. Whatever the hell that means" Ivar said cuasing me to nod in response. We both silently waited as the woman took her well-earned loot out of the lizard's hands.

It was about time she told us how to get our own classes. 'But Blood Reaper? That was something I had never heard of. So that means that this class system is incredibly specialized. Not just mage, warrior, and thief. Which I wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not. It all depended on what class I could get myself.'