Third Smasher flew past Cal in the opposite direction he had just charged in, crashing hard into the cave wall. “Yeah, this is why I wanted us to work together on this. Assuming we both live through it, try to remember for the next fight.” Cal yelled at the somehow still-standing squirrel. Well, at least he wasn’t dead yet. That was something, though he wasn’t sure what, and he didn’t have time to ponder it as the hellmoose that was responsible for Third’s current state blasted several bolts of fire out of its antlers directly toward Cal.
He immediately prematurely detonated the two balls of lightning he had been charging in between himself and the hellmoose. They sizzled into an explosion of electricity and mostly blocked the fire from its intended path. Cal hated wasting them like this, but it was better than the getting scorched option. He rather liked his skin and wasn’t ready to see how long it would take for him to heal third-degree burns.
“Hey, Third, if you could get snap back to reality, I could use your help as a distraction that isn’t just a punching bag,” Cal called back to the squirrel as he threw himself to the side of another fire blast.
“My apologies, they are stronger than I expected,” Third Smasher said as Cal watched him leap across the room onto the back of the one that had thrown him the wall.
“Yeah, that just seems to happen to you all the time. Maybe consider you aren’t as tough as you think!” Cal yelled in annoyance as the distraction didn’t seem to be helping at all. Both of the creatures were targeting him with blast after blast. He decided it was time for a new tactic and erratically moved through the cavern, doing his best to avoid any of the attacks, randomly dropping small balls of lightning with every change he had.
None of them were in any way targeted, but he figured if he could put down enough, he’d eventually start doing some damage and possibly even set off a chain reaction. This was, of course, assuming he could keep his feet moving long enough. He preferred playing the run in stupidly role more and more.
He turned his head to one of the hellmoose that had just let out a loud scream. He was happily greeted by the sight of Third Smasher holding one of its severed horns in his hand right before leaping from its back onto the other. Good job, Third. This gave him a free moment to follow up with several arcs of lighting into the one missing an antler. They sizzled across the air, hitting the side of the beast, leaving behind a horrible smell and a large black mark on its side.
In response, it reared up with a look of murderous rage in its eyes and charged directly at Cal. Luckily for Cal, that path led it straight through the minefield he had been creating. Ball after ball exploded across the underside of the hellmoose, and despite it screaming in pain with each eruption, it still kept its momentum. It lowered its head, bearing down on Cal, ready to gore.
Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.
“Shit,” Cal threw his hands up in front of him and pushed as much lightning mana as quickly as he could between the two of them and grabbed hard onto the little bit of friction mana he had in his core. The newest explosion hit them both head-on. The shockwave traveled through the hellmoose as it continued trying to push itself further at Cal. The opposing forces tore its body to shreds.
Cal, on the other hand, only felt the briefest touch of the shockwave as he was knocked backward into the wall, which he then pinballed off of deeper into the cavern. Right before he could crash into the next wall in his path, he felt the fiction mana he had channeled dry up and crashed painfully to a stop. At least it was likely less painful than it would have been if he had hit the wall first, he thought. He turned back to look at what was left of the hellmoose. It was on the ground, unmoving, and with fewer legs than it had started the fight with.
“One down,” he yelled to Third Smasher just as the squirrel stabbed its pilfered antler into the skull of the hellmoose it was balancing on. It bucked wildly, but Third managed to hold on through all of it and even pushed the antler deeper until the moose fell to the ground, no longer struggling.
The squirrel turned and looked back at Cal. “Two.” Cal wasn’t sure, but he thought Third had been smiling for just a moment. Okay, so they had to bond through deadly fights, he could work with that.
“Don’t take this the wrong way, because we did live through this, but can we work on team tactics a bit? You’re a good fighter, but at this point, you have to have realized you have a ton to learn,” Cal asked the squirrel as gently as he could.
“I suppose your request isn’t totally without merit,” Third Smasher responded.
“Thank you…uh, what are you doing?” Third Smasher was cutting off more of the antlers on the beasts.
“I am taking materials for a new weapon. The power in these creatures is incredible,” He answered.
“Huh, not the worst idea. Wait, what’s that?” Cal had spotted a small burst of mana near coming from the hellmoose that he had blown up. The harder he looked at it, the fuzzier the location seemed to get. “Hey Sleek, any idea what I’m looking at?”
“Pretty sure it’s an abyssal core. The beasts grow them as they get bigger and more acclimated to our universe. It lets them pull increasing amounts of power from the abyss. I’m surprised we can even see it like this. Normally, only a world spirit can detect them,” She answered.
“Interesting. What happens if I take them?” Cal was considering if they had any use.
“No idea, but we can’t really leave them. I think their size might be part of why we can even see them, and we can just leave to grow bigger. Who knows what could happen then,” She said.