Part 4

Shrinking back, Drake chastised himself for getting caught. Oh come on, is it a crime to look at cute girls? Well, given my appearance they’ll probably attack me on sight anyway.

Sighing, Drake pondered what to do, while the Dwarf slowly approached his position, with the elf not far behind.

Stopping suddenly, the elf seemed to focus for a moment. Turning towards Rachel, he said, “I don’t hear anything else moving, but I do hear something like breathing from behind that pile of rubble.”

Shaking his head erratically, he could only stare in disbelief. This is outrageous! Since when do elves have such good hearing?! That wasn’t even part of the deal when he was going over it with Taylor!

Drake thought to himself quickly. The two fox girls seem to be almost out of power, so they’ll probably be useless if they try to fight. They’ve barely been moving around at all since I’ve been watching them. The elf seems like the only one who is fast enough to get close in a fight, and the big guy with the strange tattoos seems to be staying to guard the fox girls.

Laughing to himself deprecatingly, he exhaled slowly and began to draw mana into his body. If he was going knock out the elf in one attack, a bit of extra mana wouldn’t hurt. They were able to take out that huge golem somehow, so caution would be a better idea here.

Jumping out from his position, he flew towards the elf in one jump.

“What the hell is that thing?! It’s way too large for a lizard speci--” Grabbing the elf with a blindingly fast speed, Drake held him helplessly for a moment. Heh, caught him by his throat. I’m not a damn lizard either. Well, I am, but not the typical kind you’d see. He chuckled under his breathe with glee.

Picking up the elf, the giant that was covered with tattoos sat up, and began rushing over, while the dwarf seemed to be in shock for a moment.

Letting out a serpent-like hiss, Drake said, “Sorry man, this is your fault for hearing me first.” The elf visibly paled in terror, and the dwarf snapped out of her shock. In a panic, she swung at Drake with the large hammer she was keeping on her back.

Jumping back, Drake slammed the elf’s head on the ground as he landed. “Ha, that should be good enough to make him unconscious,” smiling to himself playfully.

With a look of horror on her face, the dwarf started screaming and charged at Drake. Swinging her hammer in desperation, Drake jumped back swiftly, avoiding the hammer with ease. Then, placing her hands on the elf, a strange, golden light seemed to flow out of her hands, quickly sealing the large head wound that had knocked the elf out.

“Please don’t tell me you guys have a healer.” With a look of exasperation, Drake turned around to run. As he did, the giant cut him off, a bloodthirsty look shining in his eyes.

Smiling in a deranged manner, the giant slowly unlatched a strange, stone axe that he had kept on his back, and began to approach Drake. The axe glowed with a soft hue of green magic, and the air became a bit heavy. “Don’t think you’re gonna be running away monster. Not after what you just did.”

Staring cynically at the large axe, Drake sighed loudly. The better question is, where the hell are they getting all these weapons?! I know for a fact that no one can make a full battle axe out of stone.

Taking a deep breath, Drake charged towards the giant, intent on taking down the giant in one blow. The giant seemed shocked at the burst of speed, but still managed to time his swing well enough to hit Drake. Dodging out of the way at the last moment, Drake swung a punch at his abdomen.

Hitting the giant, Drake quickly realized something was wrong. The giant’s skin felt hard like stone. Although he heard the giant grunt in pain, after only a moment, the giant looked down at Drake, smiling. “Heh, little lizard thinks something like that is enough to take me down.” Swinging his stone axe, the giant caught Drake across his chest. Launching him into the air, Drake flew until he hit the side of a nearby building, collapsing on the ground with thud.

Coughing on the ground, Drake stumbled up onto his feet, a large gash streaked across his chest. Looking up, Drake could see the giant begin to charge towards him again, a maniacal grin plastered across his face. A wave of anger come over him, and Drake’s eyes narrowed into slits, his menacing red mana beginning to slowly seep from his body.

“Heh heh heh heh.. They actually want to fight.. they actually want to kill me..” With a crazed look on Drake’s draconic face, the giant stopped in his tracks. Off to the side, the fox girl they called Kat yelled out to the giant. “Be careful, whatever that stuff is, it seems to be a form of mana. Don’t get too close!”

Seeming to bolster himself, the giant called back, “Just let me do my job dammit. You and your sister are useless right now, and this thing needs to die for hurting Jack.”

“Die… Die… Die..” The red aura from Drake seemed to surge in response to the giant, swelling in and out like waves. The mana quickly formed together into several large crystals, and fired itself off into the giant.

Eyes full of fear, the giant yelled, “The hell, it can use magic?!” Blocking two of the large crystals with his axe, one embedded itself deep into his shoulder, tearing itself into his body. As it did, it began to pulse, growing larger as it did.

“AHHHHHHH. GET IT OUT OF ME.” Flailing, the giant tried to tear the crystal out, but it seemed to only e

mbed itself in response, draining the giant of his mana. Weakening, the giant called out to Rachel who finished the elf, and she quickly rushed over.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

Putting out a stream of holy energy, Rachel looked up at the draconian and said, “What the hell is this thing, none of the other monsters were able to use magic.” Rachel tried to heal the weakening giant, with the crystal seeming to dim slowly in response. Grimacing in pain, the giant glared hatefully, saying, “It must be similar to that demon Jun’s group came across! It was able to kill almost the entire group before one of their warrior’s was able to get behind it and backstab it.”

Off to the side, the cloaked Alyssa seemed to brace herself for a moment, before running towards Rachel and the fallen giant.

“Kill.. the enemy…” With a terrifying serpentine laugh, Drake began to approach the dwarf and the weakened giant, the aura around him seeming to grow in anticipation. As he drew within six feet of them, the young fox girl ran over and stood in front of them, blocking his path.

With a heartfelt plea, she said, “Stop, please! Don’t kill them!” Hearing her voice, a shock pierced its way through his body, stopping him mid-step, gazing curiously at the young girl. As Drake stared, the mana that was gathering around him almost seemed to bite at Alyssa in response, as if wanting to tear itself away from Drake to attack the young girl. Within a few moments, Drake’s mind cleared, and his eyes returned to normal.

What was I..? Looking over at the silver haired fox girl with tears beginning to well up, he felt a tinge of guilt. He just wanted to escape safely, and they couldn’t be allowed to follow him. It was too dangerous. He would have run away sooner if that giant hadn’t tried to stop him.

With Drake’s mana drawing back into him, he commanded the mana crystal that was embedded into the giant to return. Almost unwillingly, it removed itself, before liquefying and returning to Drake as normal.

The small group looked at him in surprise, with the elf beginning to wake up after being healed.

Unwilling to start another fight, Drake quickly bolted off in the opposite direction of the city.

Muttering to himself, he said, “What was I doing for a moment there, I was really going to kill them all.” With a look of regret on his face, he ran until he was completely out of town. Looking back on the ruined city, he said, “I can’t go back into town again. Not until I understand what that was.”

As he turned towards the forest, he began to notice the large slash across his chest left by the giant’s axe. Chiding himself for letting himself be injured, he said, “Damn, he really got me. I wasn’t expecting him to be able to take a hit from me.” As he began to walk back, he heard a strange tearing sound behind a large cluster of trees and shrubs, off to the right of him. Sighing, he slowly made his way over to go investigate the cause of the noise.

“What the hell is that,” he muttered. It was a large, black-furred creature, with small spikes running down its spine. With large, bloody claws, and a very canine-like snout, it definitely seemed to be made for hunting. The noise that he heard seemed to be the large buck it had been eating its way into. As he came closer, the creature’s ears perked up, and it finally turned to face Drake.

This damn thing looks practically like a werewolf. It’s not even close to dark yet though. Guess those aliens didn’t keep with the full moon myth. As he stood there watching, the creature slunk down, and began to pace back and forth, as if gauging whether or not to attack.

With Drake’s face darkening, his red aura came back in full force. Grinning in an almost feral manner, he said, “It’s your bad luck that I caught you here. I can at least kill you so you can’t hunt that group back there.” With a wide toothy grin, Drake prepared to attack. Not to mention its been awhile since I’ve eaten, he thought to himself

Jumping forward, he reached out, intending to tear its head clean off. As he did, the creature yelped out in surprise, quickly lowering itself to the ground to avoid the attack.

Reversing his momentum, he turned around and hissed, “Ah, damn mutt. Die already!” Forming a ball of mana, he quickly shot it out at the beast. As it approached, it splintered into shards, peppering the monster with an array of crystals.

As he did, the monster stumbled forward in pain, and screamed out a horrible cry, the shards beginning to grow rapidly inside of the monster. Launching forward again, he impaled the monster on his hand, spraying blood towards him from the many wounds covering the body. Struggling against Drake, the monster attempted to bite down onto Drake in a last ditch attempt to survive.

In the moment before it bit down, the crystal shards that had grown into the beast seemed to explode with mass. As they expanded, a spray of gore covered the surrounding area as the crystals impaled the creature from countless directions from the inside out. Utterly dead, Drake pulled the corpse off his hand with an unexpectedly wet sound, letting it drop to the ground in a heap of gore.

Rather nonchalantly, he muttered, “This was almost as simple as the griffin. Why did that giant give me so much trouble..” Looking down at the remains of the werewolf creature, Drake could see something interesting. The crystal shards that shot into the strange werewolf had stopped growing.

Crouching down, he stared closely at the remains. “So my magic really only works when whatever I’m draining is alive, at least that seems to be the rule when it comes to my crystals. Now where is.. Ah, found it.” Looking inside of the creature, he found the same strange gem that he had found in the griffin.

“It’s likely the golem had the same stone inside of it. That’s what that group seemed to be looking for.” Popping it into his mouth, he felt the same rush of energy as before, with his red mana instantly responding to the small gem. Within moments, it had liquefied, slipping down his throat and giving him a burst of energy, only this time it seemed to be considerably less profound. Muttering to himself quietly, he said, “What, is my body getting used to it or is this guy just weaker than the griffin?”

Looking down at the remains of the deer, Drake paused for a moment, before reaching down and ripping out a small chunk of meat. Looking at the bloodied chunk of meat, he shrugged before popping it into his mouth. Almost immediately the taste of rotted flesh assailed him, even though the deer itself looked freshly killed. Scrunching his face in disgust, he spat, “Oh god this tastes horrible. I thought it would at least taste decent.” Spitting out the remaining gristle, Drake looked down at the remains of the werewolf, and sighed. “Well, the griffin tasted good. Time to test a theory.” Tearing a large chunk out of the werewolf with his claws, he threw it into his mouth hastily, his face scrunched up in expectation.

Originally expecting an average taste, compared to the meat of the deer, the werewolf-like creature tasted absolutely divine. “I was right...” With a look of pleasure in his eyes, Drake smiled. “Whatever I am now, it seems likely that this body needs to eat mana filled creatures to grow.” With a hiss of steam coming from Drake’s chest, he noticed that the large gash began to slowly close itself, knitting his muscles and skin together as if he was never injured in the first place.

Grinning triumphantly, he said, “Well, I know how my race fights now at least. My magic may be something exclusive to me, but the strength this race has, doubled onto how quickly we heal, it’s definitely powerful.” Looking down at the corpse, Drake sighed, thinking back to the griffin.

Shaking his head, he made his way over to the partially crystallized corpse, slightly upset at how much meat had been lost. It had only been a quick impulse, but it had resulted in losing almost half the meat off the corpse. With a shake of his head, he gestured towards the crystals, resulting in them returning to mist as it re-entered his body.

“Well, I at least know what I’m eating for the next few days.” Grabbing his meal, he threw it over his shoulders, and began to make his way back home.