Chapter 59. Cat Food

  We headed out of the dungeon, following Janica directly North, through the forest that surrounded the University.

  “Tell me why we’re taking this detour again?” Kab asked the group. “Do we even have time for this?”

  “It’s not a detour,” I said, stepping along the path, “we need a way to reduce Clarity’s self-healing or we’ll never do any damage to her. Unless you have a better idea.”

  Kab grunted.

  We had followed a path directly North of the University that led through dense forest. Not twenty minutes of travel later between dense deciduous forest, the path sloped downward and the environment changed in steps. Some games were like this. One step you’re in a desert zone; the next you’re walking on snow. One step you’re tip-toeing through daisies, the next you’re side-stepping brambles.

  The trees disappeared behind us. We descended into a dry, open valley. Red dirt dusted up with each step. Tall grasses surrounded the path, brushing my hips. From our high vantage, I could see the whole valley. It was a circle, not ten miles across. A savannah with a copse of trees in the center, like an oasis in a tiny desert. The rim of the valley was forest. It was like a meteorite had struck the forest, leaving a desert crater in the center of it.

  “Janica,” Rowan called back from the front of the group. “What’s the plan here?”

  #x200e Janica had taken an unlikely position in the center of our group. I generally found her at the front of any group, head held high. Yet she looked from side to side like she was… anxious?

  From my position directly behind her, I started to smell something awful. “Good God, Janica. Was that you?”

  She turned and shot me a glare. “I fart when I get nervous,” she said.

  I was too startled to laugh. But Cassandra giggled like a kindergartener. And the giggles spread. Rowan stopped and put her hands on her knees, the laughter pouring out so abruptly that she couldn’t walk.

  Janica looked at the others with a frown. Like a disappointed parent. But not for long. She kept her eyes moving around. She fluttered higher into the air and must have been ten feet up.

  When the giggles turned into deep breaths and people started to recover, I asked, “Why are you so nervous? The cats?”

  At that moment, a lion sprung from the tall grass. It leapt over me, flying through the air at Janica. Janica spun to the side, dodging the attack. But two more pounced from different angles, and one of the cats caught Janica with its claws by the armor, bringing her to the ground. Dust flew up into the air. Janica yelped. Two cats I hadn’t seen lunged at Janica, who tumbled over the ground as cats piled on her from all sides.

  Starving Lion

  Level 19

  HP: 114/114

  Stamina: 285/285

  Mana 0/100

  Laughter stopped abruptly. Rowan charged to Janica’s side to protect her. Cassandra dove, daggers first. Kab and I… did nothing. I had completely forgotten that mana didn’t work outside of the dungeon. I had become used to wielding spells. Fire, ice, lightning, nature. In the dungeon, I had become a bringer of death and crowd control. Out here, I was useless. I watched in horror as Janica got attacked from all sides as Rowan used her shield to bash Starving Lions away from her and Cassandra fought one-on-one against a mob ten levels higher than her.

  For his part, Kab responded better than me. He pulled out a mace and swung it at a cat, pulling its attention away from my Fairy friend. The lion hissed at him, backed up, and stalked back and forth looking for an opening. “Come on, cat!” he taunted. It sprung at him, taking him to the ground. Dust erupted from the ground.

  I pulled out my drum and pounded out the opening to “Crazy Train,” by Ozzy Osbourne. I pounded base with the heel of my hand and sang out the iconic “I… I… I…” that almost nobody can resist singing along with as the song ramps up. Without my musician skills in my Loadout, the effect didn’t create any buffs for us. No timing or haste. But it seemed to liven my group all the same. Cassasndra buried her knives in a Starving Lion; it fell to the dirt, motionless. Rowan kicked another off of Janica, finally allowing the Fairy to rise into the air. She fluttered up, her health below half, in a rage of fury and fire. She pulled out her mace and began attacking the cats with an intensity that I had never seen in her. Usually, she was calm. Methodical. Deadly. Now, she was an angry tornado of Fairy ire.

  When the last lion finally fell, Janica spit on it, calling out some Latin curse. I would have to ask her about that later.

  You defeated Starving Lion x 6.

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  You received 137 Experience Points.

  “You okay?” Rowan asked her, putting her hand on my companion’s shoulder.

  Janica flinched, then visibly shook off her intensity. “I’ll be okay when we’re out of this place. Somebody loot those cats.”

  Cassandra crouched down, picking up the loot from each one. “What are we looking for?” she asked.

  “A drop called a Cat’s Eye Diamond,” Janica said.

  “Sorry,” Cassandra said. “No luck. Is it rare?”

  “Yeah,” Janica said. “It’s less than a 1% drop.”

  “Hold on,” Kab said. “So in theory we might have to kill over a hundred of those things? Do we have time for that? We only have four hours until we’re supposed to be back with the raid group at the dungeon.”

  I sighed. “We’d better get going then. And hope for luck.”

  I changed my Loadout, dropping all of my useless Magic for the Musician Class and its Skills.

  We continued down the path toward the center of the crater. Janica remained in the middle of the group, but was now flying over twenty feet above us. We braced for an attack which never came. After ten minutes of walking, we veered to the side, into the brush, hoping to encounter more lions. I glimpsed movement several times at the edge of our vision, in the brush, but when I turned to look I saw nothing.

  “They’re stalking us,” Cassandra said. “But keeping a distance.”

  “Why don’t they attack?” I said.

  Rowan stopped at the front of the group. “Because they’re smart. And they can’t get at Janica when she’s so high up.” Rowan looked at me, motioning for me to talk to Janica.

  I shook my head. “You ask her,” I whispered. “She likes you better.”

  Rowan glared at me.

  I sighed. “Janica,” I called up.

  “Don’t even think about it, Warren,” she said. “I know what you’re gonna ask. And the answer is ‘no.’”

  “Come on, Jay,” Rowan said, looking upward. “I’ll keep you safe. We don’t have enough time to mess around.”

  Janica folded her arms over her breastplate.

  Cassandra tried next. “We need you. Please. You’re the best bait we know. The strongest. And won’t it feel good to kill more cats?”

  Janica sighed, then looked down at us. “I hate you all, and I hate this.” She pulled out her shield and sword. She cracked her neck on both sides. “Get ready.” She let herself descend. Slowly. Very slowly.

  We turned around, putting our backs to Janica, making a circle around her.

  I began whistling the tune to “The Lion Sleeps Tonight,” by The Tokens. Rowan elbowed me.

  And then a cat leapt from a position too close to us for belief. It had been hiding there, invisible. It flew through the air over the top of me. Janica fluttered straight upward, faster than a lobster retreating from danger. Cats converged on her previous position like magnets to a metal rod.

  And while Janica was up too high to get attacked, the cats had given away their invisibility. Our melee fighters converged on them, drawing aggro. I activated both rhythm and tempo with “Jump” by Van Halen, then pulled out my staff and pretended like I was useful in a melee fight by stabbing a Starving Lion for two damage.

  When Rowan had solid aggro on three of the cats and Cassandra had another two engaged in a battle of speed and daggers, Janica descended from the air. She swung her sword across the backs of legs and across backs. The cats slowed, inflicted by Janica’s slows and bleeds. In moments, they were dead.

  “You were right,” Janica said. “I do enjoy killing them.”

  The rare item didn’t drop. So we continued our pattern, walking ever closer to the oasis at the center of the crater. Every hundred feet or so, Janica would descend like a worm being dropped into a fishing hole. Cats pounced. We killed. Two hours later, dozens of cats had been killed, but we still had no diamond. My own nervousness grow with each unsuccessful kill. And we got further and further from the dungeon. It would take precious time to return.

  “Twenty minutes,” Kab said. “Then we have to go back. Regardless of any diamond.”

  We pressed on. The next group of Starving Lions left us without anything but Lion Skins, something I normally would have been very excited about. Under the circumstances, every unsuccessful kill caused a worry to grow in me. The mood began to get tense.

  Two groups later, and time was up. Twenty minutes had passed. “We have to go back,” I said.

  We stood there looking at each other. Defeated. Nobody spoke.

  A sound cut through silence, breaking through the tension. I slowly turned my head. And there it was again, coming from a tall tree with limbs that branched out everywhere. The sound of a baby crying. Except not a human baby. A scared cat.