The drake-like monster focused its eyes upon its newest prey. It lowered itself before springing forth like a missile straight for Ellie. It seemed to want to get rid of the weakest in the group.
“Not on my watch!” Sarina yelled as she jumped in front of Eleanor with her shield at the ready. She managed to block the blow, but as a result got sent flying straight into the wall of the tunnel. “Sarina!” Blake yelled as he bit his lip and knocked another arrow. The arrow flew and hit the monster! Alas, it merely bounced off the scales. This thing was much too resilient for a regular arrow to pierce it.
Cassius looked around and realized he was this group’s only hope. As the only melee combatant capable of putting a dent in this drake, he had to step forward. “Come on you ugly piece of shit!” Cassius picked up a stone and fastballed it straight at the back of the reptile. “Sssss!” It seemed Cassius had a knack for pissing things off.
“Ellie I need one last buff! Wayne, toss me some poison!” The two members did as they were told. A vial of yellowish liquid got tossed to Cassius, and he also felt the familiar warm feeling as his body started to heat up. He kept the vial in his pocket and threw his bag off his back. He needed as much freedom of movement as possible.
He squatted down, ready at any moment to dodge and roll out the way. The drake bounded towards him, saliva dripping from its razor sharp teeth. A quick dodge evaded the monster but it was quite mobile as it turned on a dime to once again attack Cassius. He swung his axe in an arc and hit the drake but it was only a superficial wound. The beast quickly lashed out with its claws sinking one into Cassius’s shoulder.
“Ah, why do I always trade blows when I have such a squishy body?” The sting hurt, but he had to bear it. It seemed his combat art was focused on doing damage even with the body at risk. [I’ve got to use my mystic art somehow, just focus…] What did Cassius want at this moment? It seemed he could alter the world itself, bending the laws of the world to his benefit. What he wanted… was a blow that would rend the drake in half. The barbaric strength to violently cleave whatever stood in his way.
His weapon began to collect a purple hue. Cassius strained to lift it as it felt heavier than a boulder at that moment. Suddenly, Cassius had an epiphany. “Ahh, I get it… I’m simply making the force the world exerts on something stronger… What was it called again?” A brief memory flooded his mind, recalling a stale air, constant scratches of writing, and a monotone voice droning on about some law. “Gravity, the force that brings everything together… How could I forget?”
If this mystic art allowed him to affect gravity, there were many things he could do. Exerting his mind, the axe felt like a mere feather. It almost felt like he was holding onto nothing. A fierce headache assailed him, the familiar pain of using his mystic art.
Soon, a plan formed in Cassius’s mind. The missing puzzle piece was finally found with the discovery of his ability. “Ahhhhh, I’m gonna love spilling your skull and brain matter on the ground you wretch!” His cohort looked on in horror, thinking that maybe Cassius had gone insane. Perhaps their looming death had made Cassius snap.
Cassius pointed at his group, his bloodlust thick in the air. “Watch and gawk you tagalongs, this is how you fight!” Cassius bellowed. It seemed at moments where his life was on the line he felt exhilarated. This combat art was truly a pain, it made him into a battle maniac!
Right now he didn’t care, he simply wanted to see the beast on the ground dead. He pulled his trusty dagger out and slathered the yellow poison on it. “Come here!” The reptile stuck its forked tongue out as if answering, ‘Alright you puny human!’ The drake leapt straight for the man, his mouth going for the jugular. A purple aura surrounded the man. Right before the drake was near him he made a huge jump before landing on the back of the drake. He stabbed the dagger straight into the confused monster’s eye. Green blood gushed out of the wound and the yellow poison seeped inside the monster.
Suddenly, the drake had stopped moving for a bit. The poison that Wayne had was of the paralyzing variety. “Just stay still for a bit, lizard, I’ll make it quick!” Cassius leaped over ten meters towards the roof of the cavern, little did his cohort know but right now gravity had little effect on him.
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He planted his feet on the ceiling before pushing straight back down towards the drake. Now, the man was speeding like a cannonball, with his axe pulled behind him, ready to rain down a swift death upon the creature. All the poor drake could do was look up as the crescent axe filled its vision. BOOM!
A wave of dust and rock filled the tunnel as Cassius impacted the ground. “Ugh…” A pained groan filled the room as the group went to make sure Cassius was still alive. “I think I broke some bones…” Cassius’s shoulder dropped to his side unnaturally. He probably popped it out of its socket. Cassius was helped up by Blake when he looked at the now dead drake.
“Damn, I really did a number on it.” The neck of the drake had been cut straight apart. Its body was also a wrangled mess from the amount of force and momentum that Cassius produced. However, Cassius wasn’t unscathed. Not only was his shoulder dislocated, he was cut up pretty bad. Luckily, Wayne also had some cloth in his bag to at least cover up the bleeding. “How… how did you do that?” Sarina finally asked the question everyone wanted to ask. “I don’t know, I just finally realized what my mystic art really did.” Everyone looked at each other before gulping. “I guess you really weren’t lying about the whole wendigo thing. Looks like we misjudged you…”
Cassius waved his hand, “Don’t worry about it, first and foremost let's cook up some of this meat. Monster level meat should have a decent healing and rejuvenating effect.” As he limped to the corpse something wet flowed from his nose. “Huh?” Then the world went black as it felt like a hammer struck his head.
…
Cassius opened his eyes looking at the dark gray ceiling of the smooth and stone tunnel. “Passing out after every fight shouldn’t be a common occurrence…” Cassius let out an exasperated sigh. “Here, have some meat and water!” Ellie shoved a spit with roasted meat on it towards Cassius as well as a waterskin. Cassius smiled, “Thanks Ellie.”
He ravenously chewed on the succulent meat, and could feel in real time his exhaustion waning. Blake spoke from across the fire, “Thank you Cassius, without you here I feel we might not have survived this expedition…” Everyone in the group nodded at Blake’s words.
“Don’t worry about it guys. Without that poison and buff there’s no way I could have survived that monster. But, you guys wouldn’t mind if I took its core?” Sarina laughed, “Of course it should be yours, we were dead meat without you.” Cassius thanked them, they seemed like genuinely good people. If they really wanted to they could have killed him while unconscious and taken the core.
All that was heard for a bit was the crackling of the fire and the sound of people gnawing on meat. Before long everyone had a satisfied look on their faces. The group had some small talk as they took a break from the constant fighting and exploration. “I can’t wait to get back! My inn can be paid for at least another week, and I can even afford to go to the tavern!” Spoke Wayne in anticipation. Ellie nodded in agreement, “I can’t wait to get some soap… I hate the feeling of not being completely clean…” Blake sighed, “We should at the very least buy some gear… it’s clear we need more armor, and we need to pay off the debt we owe to the Expeditionary Group.”
Wayne and Ellie pouted, “Why do you have to dash our hopes and dreams Blake!” Blake scratched his head, “Hey, I’m just trying to be a realist. Plus, the better equipped we are, the more money we can rake in!” Blake rubbed his hands together like a greedy businessman. “Plus, we won’t be a burden to Cassius if we can improve ourselves.” Agreed Sarina. Wayne and Ellie looked down, “I guess…”
“How much money are we hauling in with this?” Blake counted on his hands some figures, “Well we killed four ants, as well as about nine lampreys. Each confirmation of killing a creature is ten credits, whereas all of the tidbits of chitin and teeth can be sold for about eighty credits all together. The confirmation of the kill on the drake is worth fifty credits, and its claws and fire sac can sell for about fifty credits.” Everyone gulped, this one expedition would net the group 310 credits! That was 62 credits per person. Meaning they had effectively paid off their debt to the Expeditionary Group in one go.
Now with the looming threat of debt removed from their minds, the party felt truly at peace. Cassius sighed in relief, [That’s one less thing to worry about.] After resting for a while the group finally decided to get a move on. But first, Cassius had to fix the issue of his arm.
“Sarina, I need you to put my shoulder back in place.” Sarina sighed as she nodded. Getting in position, she had him arm straight in front of him. The pain was already immense, but Cassius insisted. “Alright on the count of three… One, tw-” POP!
“GAHHHHH SHIT!” Tears welled up in Cassius’s eyes as he held his arm in pain. “That wasn’t on three!” Sarina shrugged, “I just thought getting it over with would make it hurt less.” Cassius grit his teeth, before the pain finally settled.
“Dammit, I really need to avoid recklessly injuring myself…” Cassius went over to the corpse of the drake, with most of its meat removed. All cores were apparently contained within the head of the abyssal. Cutting into the scaled head he stuck his fingers straight into the drake’s brain. “Ugh, this is disgusting…” The gooey feeling on his fingers was unpleasant so he fumbled around with his hand frantically searching for the core. Finally, he felt a cool glass marble within his fingers.
“Found you!” Pulling the core out the familiar endless darkness greeted his eyes. “I’ll save you for later…” Cassius also cut the spike on its tail to confirm the kill. The group made their way back, not forgetting to butcher any creatures they had initially left behind. They were going to carry as much as they could back to the bastion. On the way back Wayne got pretty lucky. He managed to find a red rune hidden within a crevice below one of the dead lampreys. The group was improving in real time.
Finally out of the cave the familiar grasslands and glimmering crystal met their eyes. “Looks like we spent an entire day in this damn cave.” Time was hard to keep track of when fighting in the depths of a tunnel. Blake clapped his hands, “Let’s taste the spoils of our first hunt. Shall we?” The mood of the Expeditionary Group was ecstatic. Most novice squads like there's rarely had such a great first hunt. They gleefully made their way to the familiar lonely ramparts of Poplis.