Good thing Rex was not actually sleeping like ordinary mortals, but spending the nights in a meditative pose, mostly advancing his body towards a higher grade of refinement. Sure, his passive draining, alongside the natural enhancement that came to all adventurers killing things inside dungeons, was quite the boost, ensuring he grew stronger with speeds that would baffle, if not cause some to faint should they hear of his progress, there was no reason to rob himself of yet another way to empower himself, especially when said empowerment would give him access to more unrestricted usage and manipulation of concepts under within his grasp.
The makeshift beds that were placed in the mostly run down building the two tracker squads, along with a much smaller collection team, hired precisely to harvest everything from the manticore he was supposed to slay, were staying in, was beyond uncomfortable and would no doubt result in some stiffness come morning, and a slight smile creeped on his face as he imagined the looks of the remaining team when they wake up. Thus, anticipating a rather funnny morning, he returned to his own devices, meditating the night away.
It was around an hour or so earlier than his ussual wake up time, probably at aproximately five in the morning, a light knock resounded against his door, causing him to open his eyes.
"Coming." Rex replied to the knocks, leaving his bed, slightly strtching on hsi way, Snek quickly sneaking back into his sleeve and coiling around his hand, dozing off to rest after a night's watch duty. Not that Rex blamed his little pet. On the contrary, in the short time he has had it with him, he had grown to like the creature. 'Gotta get some quality monster cores from a dungeon soon. or some good quality blood.' Rex pinned the task to a metaphorical 'to do list', hanging at the forefront of his mind, in a sense, always in his vision and thoughts.
Rex was among the first few people reaching the central room that was designated as the briefing room, listening to teh predicted groans and complaints regarding their bedding quality.
"Stop whining like little girls. Be happy we did not have to sleep on ground, roaches crawling over." The lady team leader from yesterday shut them up.
"Brrrr, dont remind us of that. I still have nightmares about that job!" grumbled on of the trackers from the second group, slight goosebumps covering his body at the mere recollection.
"This is how it looks." the woman spoke, standing in the middle of the room, everyone else surrounding her, though leavign enough space in the middle, where she unfurled a map and placed it on the ground. A relatively large, easily noticable red chess piece like figurine was placed on the map and after that, another one, resembling a monster, was placed in another location. She then pointed towards the first piece "This is our locatiion" then pointed her other hand towards the monster figurine "And this is teh manticores lair. The second team says it is rather difficult to reach, unless one can fly, the poisonous herbs not including, so we might have to lure it out."
"Whats the fall range from the cave entrance to teh closest decent location where a proper battle with it could be performed, for ground based fighter?" Rex asked, already calculating more than one way to deal with the monster in question.
"Here. A rather large clearing is there. The fall would be ten to fifteen meters." ponted on the map one of the second scout teams members, having been there yesterday.
"Would a fall from such height damage what we are after?" Rex asked further, more and more liking the idea of fighting the manticore inside the cave. It would limit the possible combat and variables in such limited arena of combat.
"Manticore is much stronger than yesterdays cat you know." the woman commented, remebmering the speed Rex dealt with the monster teh day before.
"Thats for me to deal with. So?"
"No. It should be fine, unless you tear out the organ and drop it along from teh height. And even then besides the dirt and superficial damage, it could stil be used." explained on of the retrieval squad.
"Then I will take care of it inside the cave and once its done, will throw the corpse down. The limited mobility inside the cave will help me out a ton." Rex analyzed. "Can we go now?" he then asked, his thoughts circling back to the need to aquire a proper flying mount. He could brand it and then have teh coachmen guiild take care of it untill he needs it to work. They would surely take such a job on, especially after Rex finishes this job without an issue.
With the gameplan decided, everyone quickly ate some breakfast, and then departed toward the lair, spending fair few hours on the road, or more precisely, creeping through a rather dense folliage and forest. And soon enough, the peak with the manticore den came into their sight, a grin rising on Rex's face. He simply could not keep the smile away. The closer he moved, the more and more he could feel his blood pumping, prepearing him for the start of the hunt, his predatorial instinct stirring his soul. What greater pleasure could there be than hunting an apex predator in its own territory.
As far as Rex could thell, they were one and a hal, maybee two killometers up on the mountain, its peak with the cave in sight. Numerous, colourfull plants covered the otherwise naked peak, their distinct colours indicating their poisonous nature. Even from the lower level that be and the rest of the group was stationed, it could be seen rather well. And so, after rolling his head in a circular motion, stretching his neck muscles, he exerted his will, the blood chain wrapped around his non snaked arm coming to life, shooting upwards and wrapping around a solid acnhor point, Then, without further waiting, he was pulled up, the chain reeling him in.
As he was ascending, he controlled his aura, covering himself in a miniscule layer, ensuring no poisonous dust comes in contact with his skin, resulting in a possible poisoning, or worse. With his knowledge of the air composition, as limited as it was, it was not too hard to filter and allow in only the needed elements, like oxygen, its percentual quantity nicely regulated.
With a very quiet 'thud', he landed on the top level, only the poisonous plans and the cave entrace his current companions, though it was not so for long. Not wasting much time, Rex made a final nod toward the remaining group and descended inside the cave, on his way to slay the monster expected to be resting right now. The cave was damp, slippery rocks everywhere, though much like the larger manticore, Rex had little to no issue with that, their balance superb, either due to sheer size in the manticores case, or actual superior balance and experience.
There were even more colourfull and poisonous plants inside, but one again, due to his filtration, there was nothing that could be done against him by the current defences. The cave itself was, for the most part, a singular path, slowly descending deeper into the heart of the mountain. There were a couple of smaller, branchin tunnels leading to the sides, both stalactites and stalagmites, as though teeth from a mouth, covered said branches, makin it nigh impossible for anything larger than small rodents and insects to pass through. Nevertheless, Rex used his mana pulse, focused in one dirrection to scout these small branches. Who knows, maybee they held something interesting. Though, as expected, he was not that lucky, his search for some extra 'treasures' turning out in vain. Did not meant he would not do the same should another, similar opportunity arose, and soon enough Rex reached the place where the monster was. It was a rather large, easily ten times the size of the tunnel he had traversed. At the very center, on a nest of poisonous leaves, laid the monster, easily the size of at least three horses, It quickly sensed Rex, its eyes shooting open and a powerfull, clear roar leaving its mouth, clearly displeased, enraged even, to see some intruder walking into its lair.
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"Tsk." Rex cliked his tongue, both already discovered and not having as much of an advantage as he had hoped for. The sheer size of the cavern the manticore claimed as its lair messing with his ground advantage quite a bit. Luckally, the monster was not yet aware of just hwo dangerous Rex was, still on the ground and charging at Rex, its lion like mouth open, large fangs prepeared to bite down on him, ending his measly human life. And, like many before, was suprised by Rex speed and power, as his sword rose and delivered a ratehr shallow cut in manticores side, having to doge the scorpion like tail coming for him just moments after his sowrd connected with the monsters flesh. Still, the first blood was in Rexš favour.
What followed next was a deadly dange of lunges and paw strikes, followed with a rather dangerous stabs of the monsters tail, all aimed to either end Rex's life in a single strike, or, in case of a slight miss, still deliver heavy and debilitating wounds, heavily reducing his ability to perform, priming Rex for the soon coming final strike. manticore was too enraged to think about playing with its supposed food.
And yet, much like the first strike, most were avoided entirely, making its powerfull strikes impotent flailing, or the like, and the lighter strikes were either parried or intercepted by the tough shield, followed up by another slash, creating a new wound on the large manticores body. It seemed that Rex was working on a death by a thousand cuts, and manticore, well, seemed amost helping Rex attttain his goals.
The manticore had some intelect, its paw strikes were getting less and less agressive, the savage fury slowly dissipating from monsters mind and getting replaced by dangerous cunning. And yet, who was man? The spirit of change and adaptation. There was a reason that human, in general at least, was the least gifted race withe either sheer might or magical potential. And so, Rex was quick to notice the change, adopting to the situation near seemlessly. The greatest proof coming when the manticore was performing a paw strike, to quickly transition if into a semi lunge, knocking its opponent donw, followed by a precise tai lstrike, impaling the unsuspecting human.
Things did not go taccording to teh monsters plan, the moment it relatively light paw connected with the blocking shield, a powerfull pain radiated from said paw, red, blood like spikes coming from the shield and through its paw, heavily damaging the apendage in the process, earning a roar of pain fomr the manticore. Rex had willed his shield to create spikes on its furface, then pierced the incoming paw, resulting in their current situation.
It was from there that the situation spiralled donwwards for the monster. Reduced to only three useable apendages, tail not including, it tryied to take to air, utilizing its inherent ability to fly. Something it should have done sooner, as the moment it tried so, a chain wrapped around one of its propelling the man upwards, and due to the stinging pain in the wounded paw, it was unable to repell the incoming human, its sword now creating much larger gashes on it's body, the 'ow so important' life blood slowly being lost, making concentrating and performing much harder the longer their fight went.
And so, the manticore started to spew poison inside the caver, hoping its potent creation would put an end to its opponent, or at the very least weakend it enough for the monster itself to deliver the final blow, resulting in victory. Cheap and shamefull, but victory nonethless. But no, the human seemed to not care one iota that the cavern was filling with poison, its movement not only not slowing down, but on the contrary, using both the metalic like rope, as well as some odd moevement techniques, the human was even faster now, launching himself through the air, using the aforementioned rope to also reposition himself, avoiding any desperaate attempts to stab him with the manticore's tail.
The deadly dance, now move to the caverns sky, lasted for nearly thirty minutes, the monster loosing more and more blood, the wounds of it'ss body alumulating, untill finally, Rex took one of its wing, causing the large and heavy monster to fall back to the ground, where the assault from the human only intensified. The monsters scorpion like tail was the next apendage to go, yet another fifteen minutes later experiencing the same fate, eliciting powerfull roars, filled with pain and rage. With each passin minute, the manticore was getting more and more desperate. Neither its jaws, claws or poisonous sting had landed even once, either avoided entirely or deflected by the dark red oddly shaped appendage on the humans arm. As far as it was aware, not every human had such a thing. And its poisonous fumes had done nothing either. Where said fumes would normally show some effect within minutes, if not sooner, there was not the slightest inkling of it working, the human doing it's best to end manticores life.
There was no other choice now, it had to try and flee, all other options exausted, and even that last effort choice was already quite bleak, one of its wings laying on the ground, removed from its body a while ago. It lunged, intentionally overshooting, flying over it's adversary, recieving another, though shallow cut on its abdomen. And once on the other side, it did its best to charge forward, one of its front paws non functional. But, to the suprise of the monster, the human, while doing his best, was barely maintaining the distance between them, sometimes slightly stumbling, the slippery floor of the cave working against it.
Through pain, in just a few minutes, the manticore had reached the exit, jumping forward, using the only remaining wing to somewhat lighten its fall, gritting its teeth as it landed, the non funcional leg necessary to to balance it out, resulting in a sstrong jolt of pain flooding its mind. And then, extremely sharp pain came, its word spinning for a moment, untill it slowly stopped, a headless, one winged manticore standing in front of its eyes, the damned human it was fighting just a while ago on its back, blood spurting from the freshly cut neck as the body slumped to the ground. Its eyes dimmed, darkness taking over.
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"CHOP CHOP!" Rex yelled, jumping of the slumping body, the remaining team, wide eyed and slack jawed, staring at both him and the now dead manticore. "I ain taking shit if you waste the good stuff that the manticores body is. I even made sure no stabs penetrated too deep, damaging the liver or any other inner organ."
His words brought the team back, the woman who seemed to be the leader barking out orders, organizing an efficient and fast collection. It still took them more than an hour to finalize their task, numerous jars and boxes filled with certain parts of the slain manticore. Still, with the size and potential danger, what with all the poisons and stuff such carcass could hold, they were quite fast and organized."Lets head out. We have everything we need!" yelled the team leader, Rex following slightly behind.
They spent a few more hours, descending the mountain. Their steps had that extra little pep, most of the team in a particularily good mood, even with all th extra weight on their shoulders. No one eles besides Rex and the tem leader had any sort of space storage after all. As such, only the most expensive and sensetive parts, with the shortest shelf life were, plaaced inside the womans space storage, the rest mounted on the backs of the team, Rex not included. He was the muscle, should the need arise during their return trip.
And even with all that blood and flesh, quite a bit of it no doubt smelling more than just a little delicious to local predators, not one of them even dared to aproach us, the fear of the manticore ingrained in their DNA's. When back in teh camp, their haul safely stashed, a small celebration came to be, the leader pulling out a charitable sized chunk of quality meat and some booze, allowing her men to unwind, within reasonable limits of course.
As everyone else celebrated, she released a bird, resembling a hawk, a small message attached to its leg, a bottle of booze next to her as well. She too was having a bit of a celebration, more than pleased with the way the job turned out. Noticing Rex, she walked over once the bird flew away, taking a few gulps from her own bottle.
"You are quite the specimen, I will admit that much. I have had the chance to witness quite a few A rankers in action, none quite so, special, as you. I would not mind working with you again, in the future. My name is Anabelle. Should you need the services of a similar nature, just ask Regal for Anabelle's hounds. Pleasure doing business. In a day, two at the latest, the carriages should be here to collect us. Find a comfortable spot and relax while you can. I can bet you have some interesting and wild things lined up." she spoke, winking at Rex and taking a gulp from her bottle, theen turned away, and with a rather emphasized sway of her hips walked towards her men, joining them for a while.
"Heh, nice try." Rex smirked, enjoying the eye candy offered and then got up, returning to the room asigned for him, slinking into meditation, but not before he placed a rather large jug of manticore blood next to his bed, allowing Snek to gorge on the high quality liquid, no doubt quite the tasty treat for the snake. The next day and a half, went by without an accident. Once the carriages arrived, Rex recieved a rather large sack of coins for a job well done, with a letter from Regal, praising him to high heavens, promising plenty of work in the future.
"Where to sir?" Rex own coachman asked, having been sent to take Rex whereever he wanted.
"Take me to Ravenhold port city. I heard its closer than capital from here."
"Yes sir, a weeks difference. Jump right in." and with that, on their way they went, Rex slightly intrigued by the few rumors he heard from Anabelles crew during his few, short walks through the camp.