Rose blocked the claw marks that were coming at her. Her shield wall breaking as she hastily brought it into existence. Even more problematic was that the rabbit was still coming at her, well at least until elongated stone hands erupted from the ground behind it and grasped at its limbs, halting its momentum. The rabbit was but a few hops from her, and with a smile on her face, Rose rushed forward; her sword rose in the air, glowing brighter than ever before, and then came down on the rabbit monster, who stared with defiant anger at her while still trying to break free.
Lili was waiting for the distraction as she and the boss still danced around the cave. Finally, stone hands rushed out of the ground behind the rabbit boss. The boss reacted, but it couldn’t fully dodge all of the grasping hands. And one of its arms and legs were gripped by two out of the dozen or so hands that burst from the ground.
That was enough for Lili to make her move. With her one dagger, she dashed forward, calling forth the same technique she had used to kill the boss’s lackey.
“Unbound Destruction.”
Aiming for its head, the rabbit boss shifted it at the last second, but it didn’t matter. The technique went off right by it, and the explosive force re-arranged the rabbit's neck completely to the left, making it bend in a way necks shouldn’t.
Jasmine had shifted the rabbit away from anyone else as she waited for Alyx’s spell to take effect. Soon enough, what she had been waiting for appeared, and the rabbit, which was far gone from its sense, didn’t notice the stone arms extending from the stone.
It was quickly restrained by the arms, but Jasmine didn’t want to learn how long the restraint would last. So, she stopped in her tracks, dropped her staff on the ground, and made a triangle shape with her two hands, bringing her index and thumb fingers together. Then, putting the rabbit inside the empty triangle she had made, she activated her technique, pouring as much of the godly mana as she could handle since she was already low on normal mana to dilute it.
The pain came instantly as the mana burned its way through her body. However, with the bunny in the crosshairs, she activated the technique, her eyes flashing silver-white as she did so.
“Final Spark.”
The last thing the rabbit saw was a beam of pure white-silver energy coming right at it.
Drex hadn’t expected the hands to pop out of the ground and grab his prey, but he wouldn’t complain. However, what took him by even more surprise was a blast of force, which was then followed by the cave being overcome by bright golden and silver-white radiant energies that lit up the cave as if the sun had been placed inside. After the blast of energy, he turned around to see what was going on and found that the fight had ended.
The rabbit Rose had been fighting was cut in half from shoulder to hip, the wound still glowing with soft golden energy. Its killer was standing over it, her sword also glowing but with a much deeper golden color, not a single spot of blood on it. Additionally, the boss rabbit that Lili was fighting had its head almost torn off, and much like Rose, the white-haired elf was breathing hard. The odd thing was that at that moment, Drex was tempted to go to the elf to make sure she was okay. He didn’t know why he had the urge but imagined it had to be something he had gained from Tesilim.
Out of everyone, the gnome looked the best, but Drex imagined that it was just because he wasn’t covered in blood and tiny bits of rabbit. Still, just like everyone else, he was breathing hard, but instead of standing still, he was running toward the one called Jasmine. That one, whose bunny was burnt to a crisp, was kneeling on the ground as her body released steam. However, seeing as everyone was good, Drex looked back at his still unconscious bunny and quickly bit its head off, finding he liked the taste.
After biting the head of the beast, he turned back around and found everyone was running towards the cave his dad had disappeared into, worry on their faces.
The team, having just exhausted themselves to finish the fight, got the mental message from Tesilim at the same time.
“Guuuyyysss… Not to alarm you, but I have accidentally summoned a griffon.”
The whole team knew that all griffons, much like wyverns, innately grew to C Rank, and they were not in a place to fight a C rank monster. Even so, they couldn’t just leave Tesilim alone. They all hoped as they moved towards the cave that this particular griffon was not a dick. For the most part, griffons tended to leave humans alone, preferring to eat horses or other cattle animals, but since it was Tesilim’s power that had summoned it, all cards were off the table.
Lili and Alyx were the first to enter the cave and saw Tesilim staring at the griffon. For its part, the monster was lying down, tearing chunks of the wererabbit it had appeared by. A bit after Alyx and Lili, Rose appeared. Since she was helping Jasmine, the half-elf leaning on her friend.
At that point, Tesilim had moved towards the cave entrance. He had done so slowly, not wanting to spook the griffon and using telepathy to speak.
“Guys, what the hell do we do now?”
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
“Well, it looks like it doesn’t care about us.” Rose pointed out the obvious.
“Yeah, but for how long? I don’t know too much about griffons, at least not how they actually work.” Tesilim responded while throwing a look at Lili and Alyx to have them give an explanation. He had noticed they were looking roughed up, especially Jasmine, but considering she was conscious and seemed uninjured, he didn’t push further due to the current crisis.
Alyx, seeing Tesilim’s look, decided to expand his database. Lili, on the other hand, hadn’t stopped staring at the griffon, almost like she didn’t want to miss anything in case it tried something. And considering she was the only other C ranker around, it made sense.
“Alright, so honestly. The thing usually doesn’t care about eating us, and considering it has plenty of free meals, I don’t think it will try anything. They are fairly intelligent, so it knows that there is no reason to possibly get hurt by fighting us.” The gnome said.
“Okay, that's good. By the way, is it true that they eat horses? Also, can they use magic? Back on Earth, we had a few stories of them casting spells.” Tesilim continued with his questions, and the whole group listened as they joined Lili in staring at the monster.
“Actually, yes, they prefer horses and other cattle. As for magic, well, usually no, they have some Innate Wind magic but otherwise, that's it. Now, there are known griffon families whose bloodlines have given them the ability to surpass their innate C rank status the way we do and without using other more corrupting means.”
“Do we think this one can do magic?”
“No, it can’t.” Lili interrupted.
“She is right. It can’t; otherwise, we would be having a proper conversation with it right now.” The gnome said, agreeing with Lili.
“What? Do they use a reverse version of that speak with animals spells?” Tesilim asked.
“Yes, exactly.” The gnome answered, seeing Tesilim raise his eyebrows in shock like he couldn’t believe he had just guessed that.
“Guys. Not to interrupt this learning moment but Jasmine here is in a rough spot. Since the griffon is not a threat, are we going to finish this mission or what?” Rose asked in a tone that implied they needed to hurry up.
“Nonsense. I am fine; I just used a bit too much of the good stuff.” Jasmine said, rebutting Rose’s statement. However, it didn’t convince anyone.
“I guess we need to explore the rest of this place,” Alyx said, and the party moved deeper into the cave.
At the very back of said expanse, they quickly spotted a large makeshift hut. It had a round thatched roof made of rather large pine needles. The roof extended downwards and melded to become the walls. It was as if an igloo had been made from straw.
The hut had an entrance right at its center with some basic cloth acting as a door. Carefully, the party made their way inside to find the living quarters of the rabbits. A real messy living quarters with furs thrown about, dried herbs, and other unknown plants. Additionally, cups and bowls were also thrown about the place, a few having been shattered, scattering ceramic pieces all over. The entire place looked like a very primitive hut.
Looking around, it didn’t take long for everyone to spot the one thing that stood out the most. Opposite the door they came in through was another opening, also covered by cloth. Knowing they were in there looking for a portal or some sort of mana-transforming monster, they all knew it would be through that door. Not just because it was the obvious spot for it but because fey mana that chilled their bones flowed through the entrance.
The team moved towards the door carefully. They didn’t think there was anything else to fight but even Tesilim knew that there was always a chance for some sort of hidden defender. Thankfully, looking past the cloth, they only saw a small cave that would barely fit them all. Wanting to have space in case something happened, Rose and Jasmine were left behind. Jasmine was still looking rough, and it was obvious the redhead wouldn’t leave her side.
Of course, in the small cave was the source of the fey mana. It definitely wasn’t a portal. Instead, it was a stone around the size of a beach ball. The rock was uneven and resembled the classical look of a meteorite. Tesilim instantly made the connection between the rock and the moon aspect of the fey. However, it did help that the damn thing sparkled silver and gave off an aura of cold.
The three of them stood there looking at the rock, and Lili eventually disrupted the silence.
“Jackpot.” She whispered in quiet excitement.
“You can say that again; you guys are about to make some good gold,” Alyx added quietly as if they did not want to disturb the rock.
“What? Is it a precious stone or something? I thought we were going to destroy it?” Tesilim kept to the silent speech in case they weren’t telling him something. What if the rock was some sort of monster, and he woke it up by speaking too loudly?
“Tesilim, you know how I said, usually it's a portal or mana-corrupting monster?” Alyx said in his “teacher” tone.
“Yes?”
“Well, another way is this.”
“That's nice, but what is this?” Tesilim replied, gesturing at the rock with both of his hands. The gnome's need for an epic and revealing explanation getting on his nerves.
“This is what we call a Fey Affinity Gem.”
“But, it's not a gem,” Tesilim said, interrupting the gnomes' reveal and earning a scowl. Alyx wanted to make Tesilim wait for a reveal. Well, Tesilim would ruin his reveal.
“Yeah, I was getting to-”
Tesilim began one of the longest farts he ever had, interrupting the gnome once again as the sound echoed. The fart lasted a good ten seconds and made Lili walk out of the small cave leaving just the two of them behind. Looking over at the gnome, who was clearly trying to hold his anger back, Tesilim spoke.
“Damn. I thought it stopped. I didn’t fart during the fight. I guess it was waiting. You know, you should probably write that down. My magic farts wait until I am safe so as not to distract me during a fight. I bet you never seen farts like that.”
The gnome left, his face red with anger and annoyance, but with a pen and notebook in his hands. Tesilim had to give it to him; the guy really liked his research.