Risen World

Chapter 435: First night in the Prairie

The moment Joshua took down the pack leader of the coyotes the rest of them seemed to get lost. It was clear the pack leader was the one that organized their attack patterns and now that it was dead the rest of them were easy pickings. Cinder took another couple down on her own while the rest of the group killed off the rest since they didn't have much more than muscle and fur as protection. Bullets and arrows had no problem penetrating the coyotes while the swordsmen of the group could easily cut through the skin and muscles of the creatures. The fight had only lasted for around five minutes.

The moment the fighting stopped Joshua signaled everyone to be silent through the mental link and for Vince to drop the illusion that was keeping the elks from noticing the confrontation. In the end all the elks saw was swaying grass and the moment the bad feeling they were getting from the coyotes nearby had disappeared they started ignoring it and focused on getting some rest. Joshua quickly put away most of the bodies into his inventory while leaving a couple for Cinder to eat before signaling the rest of the group to follow him back up the hill.

After the short skirmish Joshua could only marvel at the amount of experience they had gained from taking down the coyotes. After two fights in the prairie Joshua had already gained nearly half a levels worth of experience. He knew the experience gain rate would slow down the higher his level got, but there were beast even stronger in this prairie just roaming around along with hopefully a dungeon that could end up being a treasure trove. All in all they were getting off on the right foot when it came to gains in the prairie and Joshua was looking forward to what else they would end up finding.

Once the group got back to the top of the hill above the tall grass and away from the elk they decided it was time to set up camp since the elks wouldn't be traveling anymore for the day. The sun was already setting with the sky darkening and night starting to make its presence known. They were far enough away from the elks that the beast repellent device that they had gotten from the system wouldn't scare them away, but it would keep any predators from trying to attack their group throughout the night. If they were lucky it would also keep groups of beast from wanting to go after the elks as well.

The hill they were setting up on was more than big enough for them to set up multiple tents and a camp fire where the cooks in the group got to work on setting up a meal. Joshua was actually looking forward to dinner since they had some high level meat to try out when it came to the prairie chickens that they had killed earlier. Joshua wasn't interested in eating the coyotes, but the chicken was something that would end up being delicious especially with the aura and mana rich meat.

The rest of the group that weren't busy helping set up dinner got to work setting up the tents and keeping an eye out for any other predators that might come after the group of elks nearby. Joshua made sure to keep his aura sense spread out as far as possible so that he'd be the first to notice any change in their surroundings. As the light of the sun started to fade away and night began to take over Joshua started to take notice of a few things changing around them.

Many of the creatures in the nearby areas that Joshua could sense with his aura sense faintly were sleeping, but at the same time they seemed as if they were on the verge of waking up at any moment. The elks were a prime example of this as their aura seemed to be ready to spring out at any moment. Even when they were carefully making their way through the prairie they didn't seem nearly as on edge about their surroundings as they did at the moment. The large flock of prairie chicken in the distance were no different as they stuck close together in the short grass area where they could see everything around them just in case they were taken by surprise. Not all of them slept at the same time as they seemed to sleep in shifts the moment the stars appeared in the skies above.

The tension that seemed to take over these beast told Joshua that there were threats at night in the prairie that were far more dangerous than during the day. He knew that there were always predators that preferred to come out during the night, but he didn't know what kind of beast could provide such tension. Since all of the animals were tense Joshua decided to keep an eye out throughout the night to see what could cause such a situation. For now it was time to have a taste of the food that was being cooked up and relax a bit while they discussed their plans for tomorrow.

The moment Joshua sat down at the campfire amongst the rest of the group he was handed a plate filled with chicken meat, rice, and assortment of vegetables. It was a fairly quickly put together meal, but it smelt amazing and Joshua couldn't wait to dive in. Once he took his first bite of the chicken he could only grin at the delicious flavor of the meat. It was the best meat he had ever tasted and that showed that the stronger the beast they faced the better the meat would taste when cooked. Joshua could see why there was an entire guild dedicated to hunting down powerful beast for food.

With a new urge to stuff all the food down his throat Joshua started eating away forgetting about discussing the next day just like everyone else who had taken a bite of the chicken. Tasting the prairie chicken made Joshua wonder how amazing some of the other stronger beast would taste if the weakest beast in the prairie tasted this amazing. It wasn't until he finished his first plate of food that Joshua had gotten back into the right frame of mind to discuss what their priorities would be for the next day.

It was clear that the elks had the water hole as a goal in mind and it was the perfect location for the group to get a good idea of the different types of beast in the area. It wouldn't be everything they needed to see, but it could be a good starting point for them since at the moment all they knew about the area was to avoid the large groups of prairie chicken and that predators tended to stay in the tall grass more than anywhere else. They were going to need to gather more information before they could truly strike out their own path in exploring the prairie.

After a short discussion of their plans for the next day they put together a rotation for watch duty overnight. This time Joshua had first watch so he didn't take off all of his battle gear just in case some sort of ambush occurred while he was doing his shift. Since they had the beast deterring instrument it was highly unlikely that anything dangerous would happen while Joshua was on watch duty, but he still made sure to keep his aura sense up and spread out just in case anything decided to come close. The range of his aura sense was able to go fairly far into the tall grass and he could sense that the elk were also well guarded against the dangers of the night.

He spent the next hour sitting their doing maintenance on his weapons while his aura kept an eye on the surroundings. It was about half way through his shift of guard duty that he sensed a powerful beast approaching the area from the tall grass. Joshua couldn't actually see the creature because of the grass, but he could see how the grass would shift aside as the beast moved through it. That alone told Joshua that the creature was on the larger side. With his aura sense Joshua could tell that the creature had a long snake like body that gliding along the grass as it slowly approached the elks.

The creature seemed to stop for a moment when it got a little too close to the hill that Joshua and his group were resting on. It raised its head up just above the grass so that it could look in the direction of Joshua. Right away Joshua could tell that it was a snake of some sort with dark green scales that made it blend in with the grass and hard to spot if not for its large glowing yellow eyes that were gleaming in the night. The snake was around the same size as the ones Joshua had seen in the canyon, but its body seemed a bit more slender so it could focus on ambushing rather than constricting its targets.

The beast was just out of range of the device that was currently protecting the group and it seemed to be working since it wouldn't come any closer in their direction. It was still close enough for Joshua to observe it so he gave it a quick look over and was surprised to see the creature was level eighty-five with three stars next to its name. It was a powerful predator that was planning to go after one of the elk and get away in the darkness of the night.

The creature turned its head away from Joshua and lowered itself back into the tall grass fully as it started to make its way towards its goal. At first Joshua couldn't decide whether to intervene or not, but once he saw that five of the larger elk were already glancing in the snakes direction he had a feeling that things weren't going to go the way that the snake was hoping. The fact some of the elk were as high of a level as the snake was a good sign that they were prepared to deal with the situation. All of the lower level elk had already been moved underneath the tree well away from the tall grass while the stronger ones were all up and on guard.

Joshua was waiting to see how the confrontation would go down, but that would never happen as another presence suddenly broke into the range of his aura sense at a frightening speed. This presence wasn't coming from the grass, but instead from the sky so Joshua quickly turned and looked in the direction only to see a giant brown and grey figure swoop down at the snake while slamming its legs into the ground. Since it slowed down for a bit as it attacked the snake Joshua was able to see its full form and noticed the giant bird's resemblance to an owl.

The creature had a body that stood at least ten stories tall with its wings being twice as large all spread out. Its feathers only made it seem even larger as their dark coloring made the creature hard to see clearly in the dark outside of the spattering of moonlight that caught one of its wings. Its giant eyes were currently glaring down at the snake that it had pinned down at the moment. With quick and deadly precision its beak slammed down into the grass before coming back up with the head of the snake attached to the end of it.

The owl turned in the direction of Joshua for a moment as if it could feel his aura sense. Joshua used that moment to observe it and could see that it was level eighty-eight with five stars next to its name. The owl then flapped its powerful wings once and lifted itself into the air while carrying the rest of the body of the large snake as it flew silently away through the night sky. That was Joshua's first encounter with the beasts of the night in the prairie.