The zmey roared in fury as it started rushing towards Lindle. If Madam Holly hadn’t broken the forelimb attached to the wing he was sure it would have flown for him and he would really have been screwed, but at the very least he had a few moments before it climbed up to him.
He supposed that was the point, this was a test, at least it was Madam Holly’s idea of one. If she hadn’t blown away all the snow he might have had a chance to just sneak away with an egg without risking a fight, but she also injured it, giving him a chance. Well fine, if she wanted him to prove he could handle himself when face to face with a monster even as a crafter, he’d play along. Of course, however, he wouldn’t play fair.
Lindle stuffed the egg into his alchemy pouch and pulled out some alchemist’s fire. Concentrating on his Mana Points, Lindle cast [Levitate] on himself. He tossed the potion into the nest and pushed off the outcropping floating backwards into the open air. As the zmey crested the ledge, it scrambled towards him, but he floated out of reach of both head’s bites.
One of its head turned to inspect its nest and the bottle he had left inside it. Smiling, Lindle cast [Produce Ember], taking the ball of spellfire that appeared in his palm and throwing it. The head that had still been focused on him jerked backward in alarm and moved out of the way, but it wasn’t Lindle’s target.
The spellfire hit the nest and the potion ignited. Empowered by Lindle’s [Alchemical Bomber] feat, a massive fireball washed over the monster. The head poking its face into the nest was now mostly a charred mess as burns covered its face and neck, as both heads roared in even more pain.
Lindle pulled out two potions, a Mana potion, and a frost resistance potion, taking both in quick succession. Casting a tier 2 and a tier 1 spell one after the other had left Lindle with only 5 mana points. He had taken a lot of potions today, and he would be reaching dangerous levels of toxicity soon, but he was an alchemist’s son and apprentice with giant blood, he had a higher tolerance than even some adventurers.
The uninjured head snarled as Lindle drifted further out of reach, it couldn’t fly to him and maul him like Lindle knew it wanted to, so when it started sucking in air, Lindle readied himself and crossed his arms to protect his head. The zmey’s frost breath washed over him, stinging shards of ice cutting him alongside the deeply chilling air, causing masses of ice to grow over his body, but the frost resistance potion protected him as planned. What Lindle didn’t plan, however, was to start sinking back towards the ground.
Lindle looked down in panic as zmey crowed in triumph and rushed at him. The ice! They hadn’t been on his body when he cast the spell, so they still weighed him down. It wasn’t a lot, but any weight added to his body was enough to bring him back down with [Levitate] unlike the superior [Fly] spell.
Lindle touched down on the snowy ground at the same time as the zmey, the monster scrambling for him. Fumbling in his pouch he pulled out a potion and pouch of smoke powder. He closed his eyes and slammed the pouch into the ground, the smoke bomb obscuring him from view as the monster dived into the cloud. Lindle rolled out of the way as the zmey barreled past him.
It started looking for him as Lindle winded up the potion in his other hand. He couldn’t see any better than the monster, but it was close enough for his Ethos sense to tell him where it was. He used [Throw] and smashed the potion against its flank. It roared again, it was probably going to launch another frost breath, which would blow away the smoke, but it started gagging.
Normally the kind of poison Lindle had used would need to be ingested to work, it was actually used as a purging agent while diluted, but his [Alchemical Bomber] feat didn’t care about that He wished it good luck trying to use a breath attack while violently ill.
It was a little more vicious than Lindle liked being, and it was only defending its egg, but if he couldn’t take out his frustrations on Madam Holly a monster was a convenient stand-in.
The monster was lashing out wildly now, and Lindle had to keep backing up to avoid its claws and two sets of teeth. It was certainly much faster than him, but between all its injuries and being blinded he was managing to keep up, especially weighing practically nothing with [Levitate] still active, but he would be forced to leave the cloud soon where it would see him.
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It got lucky with one of its swipes across Lindle’s arm, knocking him away and making him spin several times through the air. Lindle hurriedly canceled [Levitate] and landed on his feet, skidding to a stop now he didn’t weigh as much as a feather. He was out of the cloud now and having felt the impact, the zmey followed him. It stared him down as it approached, this time not charging mindlessly.
It hurt and sick, but it was getting wise to his tricks. Zmeys were considered one of the stupidest of the draconoids, but as a whole, the creature type was smarter than most other monsters. The burned head looked at him hatefully, it probably had taken a huge chunk of its HP to keep itself functioning with all that damage, which gave him an idea.
Lindle cast [Produce Ember] again, and both heads locked on to the flame in his hands and paused, likely remembering the fireball from earlier. Without alchemist’s fire, he couldn’t do nearly as much damage with a tier 1 utility spell as he had, but the zmey didn’t know that. He subtly reached down into his pouch once more and brought out a boosting potion. Not needing to check for what he was looking for was very handy.
He reared back and threw the ball of flame high, and as both heads followed it, for the first time Lindle closed the distance himself. He squeezed the strength-boosting potion in his hand until it shattered, the effects applying to him through his skin. Lindle might have preferred to stay back out of danger, but after the dungeon and deciding he wanted to join his friends in the raid, he didn’t want to be useless in a fight again, and the simplest solution he had come up with for a way to contribute when everything else would be wasteful or get in the way, was to just be prepared to get his own hands dirty and hit the problem. Every Health Point mattered.
Lindle gathered his Aura in his fist and activated his least used Technique, [Power Strike]. His empowered fist slammed into the burned head, sucker-punching it. The head whipped back and flew to the ground, not getting back up. The other head snaked in to bite him, and Lindle raised an arm to catch it, fangs biting down on his arm. He screamed in pain and raised a foot, activating [Power Strike] again and stomping down on its broken forelimb. It released his arm as it screamed too.
Lindle took a step back and held his arm wincing. It didn’t feel broken, but no matter what, this thing had levels and he didn’t, any injury it landed was going to cost a lot of HP. He didn’t want to take another healing potion just yet, he was too close and running close to his limit. The zmey started to approach, but it swayed and gagged. Fighting through heavy nausea via poison after losing half its brain power had taken its toll.
Taking advantage Lindle swung again. Unlike Mana Lindle had plenty of Aura to use [Power Strike] again and again. He focused his punches on its head over and over. It clawed at him, but its muscles lacked the strength to push him away or do more than scratch him, so he just kept punching. He fell into a haze, focusing on nothing but killing the monster in front of him.
He didn’t know how long it was when he stopped mid-punch, no more Aura to fuel his technique. He looked down at the monster he had been kneeling over, it’s head a battered mess, already dead. Lindle backed away and sat back in the snow, breathing heavily as he looked up into the sky. He held up a hand and looked at the blood covering it.
He grimaced, this was another reason why he had no desire to lean into the advantages of his giant heritage. He probably would have made for a fantastic barbarian, it had been one of the giant classes that had been offered to him for a reason, but he absolutely hated the lack of awareness that came with the haze of a fight once he was close and personal. But it had been useful here, as long as Lindle got to spend most of his time submerging himself in the wonders of crafting and not bloodshed, he would grit his teeth and do what he needed to do to survive when it happened.
Looking back down, he saw Madam Holly leaning over the zmey corpse. She whistled. “Impressive job. I didn’t expect all that there at the end considering how much you seem to like your little tricks, but I suppose even brainiacs like you crafters can see the use in a good beating. I would be a bit more careful with your crafting materials though, usually, you tend to want them to be in better shape after you get them.”
Lindle groaned and got to his feet, all the cuts on his body and his arm aching. He reached into his satchel and pulled out the egg, thankfully unharmed. “I kept it safe.” He hadn’t found any other eggs in the nest, he didn’t have much time once the zmey had seen him, so if there were when he blew them up it would be a shame, but the one had should be enough for the purposes of the rite.
Madam Holly chuckled. “You thought I meant a measly egg?” She gestured to the zmey corpse next to her. “I would argue an entire zmey’s worth of materials is worth a lot more than their eggs. Heads are a bit of a mess but it’s mostly in one piece, so I think you’ve done enough to count as far as material collection goes.”
Lindle closed his eyes and held his face in a hand. “You said I was supposed to collect a magical object.”
She smiled. “A monster corpse is a magic object.”
So if he had just taken the egg and ran to safety she probably would have turned him around and made him fight it anyway. Lindle sighed.
Madam Holly clapped her hands. “Alrighty, let’s drag this puppy home!”