Kadin scanned the area around him but didn’t see anything – with the lightning above he was hesitant to use any magical energy for his long sense spell and so he quickly checked his gear, he had replenished his bombs and throwing knifes, his demon blades still had a soft purple glow to them, but here and there a little rainbow pattern would shimmer along its blade and dissipate almost as soon as it appeared. His long elven blades were still sheathed at the bottom of his back. He drew his demon blades holding one in each hand, one in a normal grip another in a reverse grip and slowly made his way forwards. He kept scanning the area around him although he felt very limited without his long sense, but all was silent, except from the occasional rumble of thunder overhead and still he moved on. As got a little further he heard a light chittering noise something he would expect to hear from a small bird but he still couldn’t see anything, taking a risk he used a tiny amount of his power to expand his senses and see what was around, he could feel a light pulse of magical energy expand around him he cut it off as soon as it began and a bright pink bolt hit the ground a few feet away from him, but from his pulse of power he found that there was two life signs, he detected both off to his left but there were small in size, about the size of a small rabbit. Some of the tension released from him then and he started towards the hills again, but he kept his blades in hand and still kept a look out around him. After a few moments he heard the light chittering noise again to his left – but this time it was answered by another to his right, after a few second he heard a skittering sound of a small creatures claws over the stone, he spun towards it and seen a small lizard that appeared to be charging at him. Things clicked a second later and Kadin cursed diving to the side rolling over and getting back to his feet; as he moved he felt the heat wash over him and as he turned the small lizard was swelling and looked like it had started distorting, after a few second it was the size of a horse.

A salamander, a light orange colour ran along its back with a few dark spots here and there, the orange colour got darker and darker as it moved down its body until an almost brown colour at its clawed feet. It had a large snapping jaw filled with lots of little sharp teeth, saliva congested around the corners of its mouth and as its drool dripped down and hit the stones it gave a light hissing sound as it started to dissolve or melt the rocky ground. Quickly sheathing one of his blades he grabbed a frost bomb and threw it at the large reptile as it hissed at him and reared back. it stood on its hind legs and it wretched it head forwards where it spewed up liquid fire right at Kadin.

Kadin dived to the side again feeling the heat wash over him, then the light chime of his frost bomb as it shattered, quickly followed by a blast of cold air. As he got back to his feet facing the lizard, which now had a light frost covering it, which almost immediately dissipated. To make matters worse there was the second one swelling, distorting, growing close to the other, but he had no time to prepare or take advantage as the first one had charged at him, hissing and growling. Kadin drew his second demon blade and charged at it, as he got close the lizard it took a swipe at him with its massive clawed forearm. His left hand had his blade in a reverse grip as he crouched low to the ground, he swung his blade up catching the swipe and pushing up which then passed above his head, as his blade make contact it cut through the skin but it was a small shallow gash, it screeched in pain and outrage that it had been marred by its prey, as Kadin flipped back and out of its range, as the salamander reared back to blast him with fire again Kadin noticed the scratch he had made it had a light glowing purple outline around it and it did seem to be slowly pulsing and slightly growing – but he didn’t have too much time to examine it before he flipped away again to get out of the way of its latest fire attack. As the fire was still incinerating the ground where he stood the other salamander charged through the flames; a flaming nimbus surrounding it as it charged at him. Kadin quickly evaded to the side as he threw another frost bomb at it, this time he seen the little glass ball shatter as it hit the beast right on the snout a shining light blue crystallisation of the air, a tiny diamond that in the span of a second brightened from deep sea blue to sky blue to pure white, then the blast as the tiny diamond of light shattered. The halo around the salamander dimmed then winked out, but had no other effect than that, Kadin couldn’t even feel the cold blast as it seemed to be completely enveloped in the nimbus of fire. But with the fire halo now gone Kadin charged forwards both blades held in a forwards grip as he charged it, as he got close the beast reared back on to its hind legs and lunged for him, Kadin dove under it and a bit to the side he rolled and came out on his knees by the salamanders side, as he did he lunged forward thrusting both blades ahead of him into the underside of his target. The blades sunk into the beast by about a hand length, almost half the full blade length. The salamander screeched and flailed back and to the side it threw Kadin, who evaded but leaving his blades in its side. As he flew through the air Kadin twisted around and was able to flip off the ground back to his feet. The injured salamander was thrashing on the ground but in its thrashing it seemed to be driving the blades further into its body and there was a light purple spreading from the puncture points there seemed to be a little growing purple crescent around the stab wounds, the crescent seemed to be growing and expanding, it was only at thick as Kadin’s pinkie finger, but once the little wave of light passed an area it left behind darkened skin, he guessed that it was some sort of rot magic from that purple lightning bolt that hit him before and his blades had absorbed it. He was only able to see it for a few seconds as the other salamander had charged past its fallen comrade swinging its head side to side as it wildly charged Kadin. Its drool and saliva flying everywhere, he jumped out of the way and evaded back but even as he did so the beast kept closing on him, as Kadin flipped to the side he drew a knife from his cloak, and had to stop himself channelling into as he was so use to doing - to charge the knifes before throwing them, instead he aimed for the open maw of the salamander, but with it swinging its head side to side the blade bounced of the hard scales of its snout. He was just reaching for his elfin blades that were longer and lighter than his demon swords when he stopped a new idea hit him – he was going to use this environment to his advantage. He drew one of his throwing daggers that was longer, heavier and bigger than the knife he just threw, he scanned the environment looking for a more dusty, stony part of the ground around him instead of the big flat stone boulders, as he kept evading and found a good place he leapt and flipped past the ground still evading. The last salamander was now slightly limping due to Kadin’s previous shallow gash on its front leg, he could still see the gash looking wider and more decayed but the purple crescent of light had gone from this beast.

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But he waited for it to get closer, and as it did it stopped on the ground Kadin was hoping for and reared its head back to blast him with salamander fire, but before he could Kadin ran and skidded forwards low against the ground and as he began to slide under his target he flipped his dagger in to a reverse grip, he poured air and earth magic into his blade, and when he was directly under the lizard he thrust his blade forwards with both hands, his right gripping the hilt had his left pushing where the pommel would be. He pushed the blade deep into the soft underside and as he did so he felt and heard the blast of lightning impact the creature above him, and as it hit he also released his charge, the air charged in the blade released and blew a big chunk out of the back hide of the lizard and the impact from the lightning bolt pushed it down.

Too late he realised the flaw in his plan as a horse sized lizard crashed down on top of him pinning him to the ground. Where Kadin groaned to himself

“Uurgghh not again!”

This time however his large dagger was sticking out of the Salamander directly into Kadin’s shoulder, fortunately his armour was strong enough that it just dispersed the contact point of the butt of his dagger. He tried to heave the lizard off him and it did give so he should be able to quickly work himself out from under it; which was good as even dead the beast radiated a lot of heat. He was just about to heave and move again when the lizard started to glow, it quickly started getting brighter and brighter and hotter and hotter. Kadin covered his face as he felt like he was standing next to a furnace and the light was almost blinding, fortunately as it began to shrink and morph the weight cut down to almost nothing so he was able to push out from it and get back to his feet a bit further away, even the deep heat of the blasted lands felt cool against his skin now. After that, once the glow dimmed he went back to it to see a light orange soul gem that looked like a flame frozen in time, next to it was his dagger which had slightly melted around its edges and a big chunk of the tip had melted off. Kadin hesitated for a second and went to pick up the gem with the hem of his cloak, luckily it didn’t burn and after a few second he touched it with his bare skin where it felt warm but not scoldingly hot, he got a good look at it then it was as long as his hand about the same size as the Sabercats gem, so that meant four kills and four different types of essence.

‘ this is definitely enough for Aurora’ he thought to himself as he walked back to the other salamander corpse, once he got there he retrieved his demon blades the purple glow now gone, but otherwise they were fine. He sheathed his blades looked around to find the point he was traveling too, and as he was about to set off he was again hit with the conflicting thought of

‘is there where my target really is?’

A few seconds later he got his answer.