Land of Snow (2)

[Blank]

A notification beep startled Blank as he opened it.

[Challenge failed: Uploading consequences....]

[New area boss now available]

[Uploading next official challenge: Raven's Revenge: Guild assignment: FlameMustangs.]

Huh what was all this now? Blank pulled up his guild's chat window and the world chat and began scanning through the data before freezing for a moment. The guild Stardom had been wiped out. The first mess up of a challenge since the other problems. What would the consequences be like?

Blank clenched a fist. It had been weeks, he had been hoping that they had just taken forever and gotten some quest like walk a 1000 miles. But no, it seemed their reason for delay was the last few survivors of whatever chaos had been unleashed.

That chaos would now end up in the real world. Well if you could even call it that anymore. Blank let out a harsh laugh, this wasn't truly reality anymore.

Blank walked to a window and looked out. Other than it starting to snow there didn't seem to be any changes. And given the time of year even the snow couldn't be called abnormal. In the distance he could see the wall built to keep the crazy cars out. The cars had run out of gas long ago though, only a few solar electric ones still caused an occasional problem, but it was rare since they now took the time to destroy them.

Why did he feel like this time it would be a lot worse than just rogue cars? And what was an area boss? He definitely didn't like the sound of that. If only he could of shared his thoughts with Royal. It had already been several days, but he still felt tears anytime something reminded him of a certain blue haired person.

Blank tried to push the thoughts aside as he went back to the world chat.

[World Chat]

[WR LoveStruck: Anyone know anything on this 'area boss'?]

[RB HiddenTruthSeeker: Our guild is running a search of nearby areas, nothing so far.]

[TD Chocolate: AHHH PANIC A MONSTER COW!]

[TD TopFlame: Ah it's just a cow beast type, looks to be a minion class not a boss. They seem to be spawning everywhere. In herds of 6-10, also look to be ice type beasts.]

[HC DealWithIt: Oh boy time for some steaks! Anyone have some recommended seasonings?]

[SL Nova: Wait are these beasts actually flesh instead of machines? What's up with that!?!?]

[S Beta: Yep flesh, we could make steaks, but uh gross?]

[LW NightSong: We advise players to be cautious as we do not know anything about these beasts yet, and they wiped out the Stardom guild so we need to be cautious. Oh any if you see any regular citizens have them leave the area.]

[S Delta: If a normal citizen is still alive and stupid enough to approach them, let them die. That's just one less person we have to worry about protecting. Also chances are this area boss is what killed them, the mini herds don't seem to be a problem as long as you're in a group.]

Blank turned it off ignoring the rest of the comments. If something urgent happened someone would probably alert him. He paused thinking. Maybe he would go look for the area boss creature, at least it would help him keep his mind off...….yeah boss hunting it is.

Blank spread out his dark red wings and opened his window. He didn't bother with the normal door and just jumped out tossing himself into the sky.

The snow pounded down on him slightly and he ignored it. He then surrounded himself in flames. The cold was annoying, it was nice he'd managed to pick up a skill on how to not burn things and just generate heat. To think he was worried this skill might not be that useful.

He floated along scanning the area below him. If I was a random boss where would I be? He thought. It would have been noticed if it was in a highly populated area. He started just flying around random areas.

Several herds of cows moo-ed at him from below in anger at being unable to reach the flying annoyance.

One jumped up at him although it was sadly far from being able to touch him. it shot out a frost type attack at him which he dodged easily.

Well aren't you just little Mr. Trouble. Blank thought as he tossed a fireball at the cow. It was slow. Slow might even be an understatement, a snail might have had more luck. The fireball completely covered the cow as it moo-ed in agony before it was reduced to cinders.

The rest of the cows moo-ed in anger and started to gather below Blank shooting more frost beams up at him.

"Ah you really just want to join your pal that badly huh?" Blank muttered.

With a slight smirk Blank happily roasted them alive. He considered trying the meat then thought better of it.

"I shouldn't stop you from visiting your pal, after all I wish I could." Blank sighed.

He flapped his wings downward and continued his search. He felt obligated to stay alive.

The ones left behind are the ones who hurt the most...

Blank paused over a large open meadow just east of a certain forest he kept avoiding. The meadow was covered in snow and was easily several football fields in length. Trees lined the edges. In the center stood a mammoth of a cow. Did this even still classify as a cow?

The large bull cow had long shaggy hair almost like a yak. Two horns on its head and several smaller ones lined it back. Its four hooves were sharp and pointed. It didn't move from its spot and just stood staring at Blank as if daring him to approach.

Blank took a few pictures then backed off. The thing was the size of a five story building at least. You'd have to be suicidal to think you could solo it.

He opened world chat and posted it.

[SL Blank: Area boss found, see attachment.]

[SL Chase: Whoa talk about large! You're not in some tiny tree forest right?]

Blank ignored his comment. If anything the trees were still an understatement to its height. Not to mention its length.

He started to glide back to the government facility. He could see the district's wall a little ways off when he looked down noticing something weird.

A cow was walking alone without a herd. It seemed to be slightly larger than some others. Was there a mini boss type to the cows?

He thought about flying lower when he saw another group of cows meet up with the single one. Well that was weird behavior. He then looked closer and saw several other groups of cows forming up into larger herds. They were all headed in one direction. They were headed toward the walls.

Blank pulled up his world chat again to post the information and saw that it was already being talked about. Cows everywhere were headed toward the nearest city wall. Hundreds of them were marching along like soldiers.

It was the start of a beast wave.

Blank grumbled and shot down immediately starting to roast all the ones in his sight. If they got to the wall who knew how long it would last. The hooves on these cows could probably break it down in a few minutes.

A frost beam managed to chip his shoulder and Blank hissed backing up into the sky again for a moment. He pulled down the corner of his jacket and shirt to look. A dark purple and blue spot formed on him. Kind of like a mix of frostbite and a bruise.

"Well ouch!" He hissed moving his arm a bit as the pain numbed from the cold.

A notification popped up.

[Damage taken to left shoulder: 50% heal activated.]

Only 50%? Were these beasts also a cursed type then? He opened the world chat to inform the others only to find that someone had already posted.

[LW FireFly: Don't get injured these monsters half a 50% heal block. This means you have to let 50% heal naturally. So if ya don't want to die...… yeah you get the point.]

Huh maybe he should just leave the chat interface open in the corner.

The cows were slow but they were still covering ground. Blank sliced off the heads of a few hundred more before they reached the wall.

Clash!

A cow bashed itself against the wall leaving an indent as several bricks started to crumble.

Clash! Clash! Clash!

It would have looked amusing if the city wasn't in danger. All the cows were running into the wall at full force.

A low rumble started then the wall started tumbling down sending bricks all over. It hadn't even lasted half as long as Blank originally thought it would. Just how strong were these cows? It was a good thing he could fly.

Blank hissed as this herd of cows headed straight for the government facility and started ripping everything they could find to shreds.