"Atchoo!"
[The hell are you sneezing for? Are you allergic to gryphons.]
"It's not like I'd have known even if I had, now would I?" Ashton barked back while dodging the gryphon's attack, "Be honest with me, this is supposed to be another one of the Xyran's sick experiments, right?"
The gryphon... it was the first time Ashton had come across one. To be honest, Ashton liked the way they looked. The head of an eagle and the body of a lion, both being the apex predator of their own domain. But their appearance was quite a bizarre one. As far as Ashton was aware, only the Xyrans could pull something like this off.
[Uh... remember how I told you the Xyrans was militarising everything in sight? Yeah... the gryphons might be one of the things created by us for that reason. Or so you'd have thought but in reality, it was the precursors... we just failed to tame them as the precursors did.]
"I fucking knew it."
How could he not be? Something like a gryphon couldn't possibly exist on its own... at least that's what Ashton thought but then he remembered something like a Zompirewof shouldn't have existed either.
'Does that makes us relatives?' Ashton chuckled before stabbing the creature again, however, the plan still didn't work, "Damn it! The bastard keeps healing himself..."
However, they weren't healing. Much like the wraith wolves, the gryphons too had resistance to physical and magical attacks. Not to mention, their hides were just as strong as that of a Nemean lion's. The same one that took the lives of more than a thousand adventurers back on earth.
Ashton was quite familiar with their toughness as the armour made out of Nemean hide had protected him quite often back when he was in his early stages of development. Feeling helpless, Ashton looked down. No matter in which direction his eyes went, all he could see was the golden wings of the gryphons.
Around a hundred of them had appeared out of the dungeon and began hunting as if they had been starved for aeons. Thankfully, anyone flying in the air was immediately targeted by them. Ashton tried his best to keep them under control but in the end, they were a bit too much even him to handle.
As a result, at least half a dozen people lost their lives. The creatures weren't done after that and attacked everything they could... which only consisted of Ashton. Anna wanted to help him but Ashton sent her away, claiming she should protect the innocent first.
It was a bullshit reason. Ashton couldn't care less about the rest, he just wanted Anna to be safe. She was strong, he had no doubts about it, but if he was having trouble dealing with them, then surely Anna would have a worse time than him in dealing with them.
"If my sword or magic won't work then I guess we'll have to take a more intimate approach," Ashton mumbled as he placed Balmond back in his inventory.
[Dude, I know you think you're a casanova after what you have been doing for the last month, but believe me, bestiality is not the answer here.]
"What the fuck?"
Ashton had the most grossed-out expression he ever had on his face. Even watching two zombies fuck each other wouldn't have been less gross than him hammering them with his hammer.
"Intergalactic orgy... you fuckers..."
[It wasn't anything like that! Trust me!]
"Sure... I totally believe you."
Moments later, Another gryphon came charging at him. But this time, instead of dodging, Ashton wrapped his hands around its neck and before the gryphon could realise what was happening to it, he sunk his teeth into the beast's neck.
Ashton had two reasons for it. One, if possible he wanted to get high resistance to physical and magical attacks as well. And second, to test out his new [Irreverence] skill. Since the creatures were immune to the common types of damage, then the answer was simple. He would have to use other methods.
<The use of Irreverence has blocked the user from using skill absorption. Please deactivate Irreverence before trying again.>
<User's current Extra HP: 1200>
"I knew the skill would have some hidden complications." Ashton sighed before slamming his fists on the gryphon's head.
The next moment, he was covered in the creature's blood as its head exploded like a watermelon. Ashton had not expected something like that to happen... but he wasn't complaining. If he could one-shot a gryphon every three seconds, he was more than happy to swim in a pool of their blood.
"I really should hide this skill... it's too strong."
[Was I speaking in some other language when I told you that? Well, there's nothing we can do about it. The gryphons would not die without using this skill.]
Ashton agreed and flew over to his next target. Unbeknownst to him, something peculiar was going on the ground while he fought the flying lions.
***
"Damn it! That bastard ruined our plans."
A greasy, slow and downright squeaky voice pinched in everyone's ears. It was the voice of Shiok, the self-proclaimed leader of one of the Glaring Nightmare's independent branches.
"Yeah... I'm pretty disappointed too. But what can you do? You win some, you lose some- ow!" one of the party members shrugged his shoulders, only to start caressing his butt a moment later.
"And sometimes you get your ass kicked for interrupting me!" Shiok exclaimed ad continued kicking the one who interrupted him until his butt was brighter than the twin stars above "So where was I? Right, our plan failed. What should we do next?"
Another member proudly raised his hands. Shiok was pleased with the respect he was being shown and asked the man if he had any idea.
"I wanna pee. Can I leave?"
"... someone, shoot him in the head."
No sooner than Shiok uttered those words, a dozen shots were fired at the man's head. Proceeded by another... and another... and another... until only one of the twelve gun holders was alive. All because they were arguing about whose bullet killed the man first.
By looking at them, one would wonder how the hell did they even manage to successfully execute an elaborate plan like summoning the gryphons. The answer was... they didn't. They only did what they were told to by a person they didn't even know.
Hell, they had no idea what would happen once they completed the 'ritual' as they called it. They simply did it because it seemed a funny thing to do. But now their lives were in danger because of it.
"Boss, I have a genuine idea. Let the man fight them, he'll get tired and then we'll kill him!"
"Nice. I like this idea. Let's go with it- why am I... feeling sleepy... all of a... sudden?" Shiok collapsed, followed by the rest of them.
As they did, Anna appeared out of the shadows, wondering if she should kill them or hand them over to the authorities once they arrive.
"Ants want to hunt a T-rex these days?" She shook her head, "You should be glad I found you, morons, before Ashton. Or else, god knows what he'd have done to you."