Zalia quickly explained a few of her abilities and her plan to the farmers, getting their acceptance. She also managed to get out of Darren that the creatures only attacked at night. She hoped that meant the creatures were nocturnal, so attacking during the day was the best idea. It was around midday now and Zalia didn't think she could prepare everything she needed within the time she had today. The two farmers didn't seem happy that they might experience another attack that night but seemed alright waiting once Zalia told them she would be staying around for the night to see if one did attack.
She spent the rest of the day creating little spikes, poisoning them and keeping them in her bag. She would need quite a few to blanket the area she was planning to.
Zalia now waited, relatively hidden in her new enchanted cloak near a large pen area holding some more of the cows she had seen that morning. She was hiding up in a tree on the side of the pens fence that faced the direction of the creature's cave. She had to wait a few hours before she saw a duo of the creatures arrive,
Congratulations! Low light vision has reached Tin 3.
Zalia saw the creatures pretty much how Darren had described, standing on two legs, hunched over and covered in fur. They had human-like hands but much larger and with wicked claws instead of fingernails,
? (Enraged) - Tin rank.
? (Enraged) - Iron rank.
"Hmm, I think I could probably take the Tin rank one, not sure how I'd go against the Iron rank in a direct battle. Luckily, I'm not," Zalia thought.
She let the creatures take the animal, not wanting to give alert to the fact they were now being hunted. The enraged affix being put on them made Zalia's mind think back to the notice board saying the farmers only had issues after planting a new herb. She wondered if the plant was the cause of the creature's enraged status, maybe something that was sacred to them or maybe just a simple chemical reaction when they smelled it on the wind. Either way, it gave her another idea for the next day's hunt.
Zalia slept out in the tree, the wide bough providing a relatively safe and stable place to sleep. It wasn't the most comfortable but Zalia had slept in worse and besides, she liked the fresh air and night sky. When morning came, she got to work.
Zalia stood by the cave looking at her work contentedly. The clear area surrounding the entrance was entirely coated with small poisoned spikes, the effort using a large amount of her stores of her poison but well worth the effort she thought. The spikes were all covered now with leaves, only a small path through that she had memorised. She had also used all but a small bit of her Flame-root to coat the boundary of the space. After testing a small bit, she did find it would burn on its own for a good thirty seconds before going out. It burnt quite hot too, thankfully, though she expected nothing less from a bronze rank herb. She had also asked the farmers for some of the new herb, keeping it in her bag. It was only Tin rank and might not be the cause of the creature's enragement but she would use the advantage if it panned out to be true. She had prepared one last thing. In the centre of the area in a relatively large space she had laid out the ritual for the Dodge-vine on the floor. Remembering that Glemp had told her the Bitterbalm was used in cursing rituals she'd had an idea. While her abilities didn't tell her about anything higher than Tin rank magic she had coated over the Dodge-vine with Bitterbalm too. The last bit of Flame-root was currently mixed into the gel-like poison coat on the tip of one of her arrows, nocked on her strung bow. She took one deep, calming breath before slowly and quietly entering the cave.
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Zalia came out of the small, curved cave tunnel to find a much larger space. She had thought the smell at the entrance horrendous but she was definitely longing for the mundanity of it now. The smell in this larger cave was almost enough to make her leave immediately in itself. With the small amount of low light vision ranks she had, she could see the vague forms of about sixteen of the creatures. A couple were moving around but hadn't noticed her yet and she wasn't going to give them a chance to. Lighting the tip of the arrow with her lighter, she shot it into the largest group of the creatures she could and ran for it. She heard a loud explosion go off as her arrow hit and just as she reached the cave entrance the shockwave reached her, throwing her forwards.
Zalia opened her eyes a few seconds later, her ears ringing. She had been flung clear of the open pit of spikes and landed painfully on the other side of her ring of Flame-root dust. Her hearing quickly healed by her magic, she got up, grabbed her bow from the ground nearby and got ready. Very soon, the creatures started appearing in the cave entrance. Some of them were much more heavily injured than others, their fur licked by flames, scorched. They stopped at the line of the sun, seemingly not wanting to come out into the clearing. Shooting one arrow into the leader as she applied her Hunter's mark, Zalia then quickly hung her slightly scorched bag on a tree nearby and took out a little bit of the new herb the farmers had given her. After a few seconds, the creatures all turned to her. She quickly put the herb back before igniting the flame ring and drew her bow to shoot once more.
The creatures charged at her as three things happened. She activated the Dodge-root ritual, the carpet of dried leaves began igniting at the presence of the Flame-roots fire and Zalia began sending out more arrows. She felt the ritual take place and watched as an arrow swerved slightly in the air to strike one of the creatures directly in the eye. The creatures sprinted over her bed of poisoned spikes, quickly limping and slowing down as the Snow-leaf in the poison took effect. One of the creatures seemed less affected than the others. While some of the creatures were already falling over, some were still coming towards her but this one seemed faster and stronger. Just before it reached her low wall of flames, she activated Nature's wrath and put her Hunter's mark on this one specifically. She could read now that it was Bronze rank, but she was a far way off from her first day fighting that bunny. As the creature was set alight by the flaming dried leaves and Flame-root, eaten from the inside by the poison, damaged by the flaming roots that sprung up from the ground to hold it in place, all of that damage enhanced by the protection curse ritual and then enhanced again by the Hunter's mark, Zalia watched it very quickly degrade. She drew one last arrow, the rest of the creatures dead or dying, and activated kill shot. She looked the beast in the eyes as she released the string.