Ophidian Aspect Chapter 2.5
Back in a large, makeshift camp filled with different races, a familiar group of adventurers were getting ready to go out for the day. After their encounter with Drake, they decided to further devote their time to hunting nearby to clear out any traces of nearby monsters, and hope to find the strange, lizard like monster that attacked them.
“Oi, are you guys gonna hurry up or not? I’ve been sitting here forever.” The large giant, with tattoos covering his face and chest was currently waiting on the edge of camp, polishing the large, stone battle axe that he had grown accustomed to using.
“You know Travis, you can’t really expect us to be as quick as you. The rest of us can’t just go you out like you, we actually have to prepare.” The elf, who was the first to speak up, arrived with the rest of the small group where they planned to meet.
On their sides, the weapons and armor that they had initially fought Drake with had been almost completely replaced with a variety of weapons and armor that seemed to glow with a strange, ethereal magic.
On the side of Jack, the elf, was an arm long dagger that seemed to glow an eerie green color, and a set of leather armor made from a large, wild beast.
For both the twin fox girls, they continued to prefer long, flowing clothing that covered most of their body. At first glance, no one could tell that they were anything but strikingly beautiful humans. With no visible armor, the only signs of the twins even having a weapon was a vague outline of a dagger hidden within their robes.
On the other hand, Rachel, the dwarf, had almost completed a large array of metal armor, from plate mail all the way down to metal greaves and boots. She continued to wield a large warhammer kept in place by a small strap on her back.
Lastly was Travis the Goliath, who was almost completely unarmored, except for a small set of leather pants. That, coupled with his large stone battle axe, made him look remarkably like a barbarian.
As they began to leave the camp, Travis ran up to Rachel, excited for what might happen today.
“Oi, Rachel, so what’s the plan for today? We cleared out most of the camps nearby, and I don’t feel like smashing in any more goblins today. Can’t we find something, well, larger?”
Looking up at the large man, the armored dwarf shook her head reluctantly before walking further forward.
“You know Travis, most of us aren’t as excited about this as you are. Kat and Alyssa still have trouble with blood, and while I have been getting better, I use up those mana stones too quickly in the more dangerous fights. Especially after you charged that damn lizard monster and got yourself hurt, that took basically my entire stockpile after the fight to get you back up and running again.”
The Goliath’s face visibly darkening, he ran to the front and began to grin fiercely.
“That’s exactly what I’m talking about. Do you really think it’s safe just letting a creature like that run around? Any of these nobodies can clear out a few goblins, but we’re one of the only ones that have leveled up so much in our camp. If we just focus on all the small fry, what’s gonna be left for all the others? Besides, I know you’ve been meditating more lately.” Smiling fiercely, Travis winked to the small dwarf before smirking to himself. “Little ole lady felt guilty for not being able to do enough huh?”
Swinging at his leg, Travis quickly jumped out of the way of the incoming punch and began to laugh heavily. Glaring at him, the dwarf continued to walk towards the nearby forest where they had been hunting nearby recently.
“Shut up, dumbass. You know you could have died, right? I’ve never seen a magic that was able to do that to you. While my healing magic seemed to affect it, it wasn’t until Alyssa jumped in front of the monster that the magic seemed to stop and return to the damn beast.” Scowling, she said, “It was your fault for trying to trap it in the first place.”
The elf quickly dashed in between the two, and did his best to defuse the situation. “Hey, hey, guys, calm down. That’s in the past now, besides, everything turned out alright in the end.”
Turning to his friend, the large goliath glared at him for a moment before speaking. “Jack, are you really just gonna let this go? That damn thing could have killed you if it had felt like it. Hell, it could have probably killed both of you before I had the chance to even get over there. Besides, you and tiny over here were the ones who just walked over to it in the first place.”
Grimacing, Jack stared back, remembering what happened on that day.
“Yea, I know. It was bad. But it ran away right? Isn’t that what matters?”
Walking forward, Alyssa joined in on the conversation, speaking in a soft, hesitant voice.
“B-but Jack, why did it run away? It.. It could have killed me. It should have killed all of us. But it just stopped and ran away when I jumped in front of it and asked it to stop. Almost like it could understand me.”
Glaring at the young girl, Travis snarled, “Oi, are you really saying that the same thing that speared me with a damn crystal and just about killed Jack actually gives a damn about what we think?”
“All of you, be quiet. Look up ahead.”
Trying to get their attention as quietly as possible, Rachel pointed to a group of four large, red, muscular monsters that were walking through towards the forest. Roughly six and a half feet tall, they had large, curved horns growing out of the top of their head, with long claws on their hands, and hooves instead of feet.
“Identify.” Rachel murmured.
Monster identified as a Satyr. Class C Threat. One of the demon class species. Originally a relatively peaceful species, Satyrs were once Nymphs that have been corrupted through exposure to demonic mana. Noticeably violent and territorial, they enjoy torturing weaker species before killing them.
Looking up to the large Goliath, Rachel slowly lifted the hammer off her back and smiled. “Well Travis, is this good enough for you?”
Beaming with an almost mad smile, he answered, “Check back in a few minutes, and I’ll tell ya.”
Motioning them all down, Rachel began to sort out their plan.
“Jack, you circle around and flank them. Travis and I will draw their attention. If everything goes well, they’ll try to attack us. You take advantage of that in whatever way you want. Alyssa, you try to control them as best you can, and spear one if you get the chance. Kat, if you see one try to run off, or you get a free shot, blast them. Travis, just do what you typically do.”
Grinning from ear to ear, Travis stood up and began to make his way towards the Satyrs, with Rachel following close behind. The twins stood roughly 30 feet behind them, while Jack began to circle around, hiding the best he could to stay out of sight of the Satyrs as he slowly circled them.
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Hand outstretched, the large goliath yelled, “Hey, ya bloody bastards! Wanna have some fun?!”
Looking to the side, the Satyrs immediately spotted the Goliath, and began to charge towards him.
In a flash of mana, ice began to grow around the legs of one of the Satyrs, immobilizing him while Alyssa seemed to glow with a cold look in her eyes. As it grew, the ice began to slowly pierce its skin, stabbing deeper into its muscles. It struggled for a moment before letting out a horrid scream as the ice began to sink deeper inside.
Enraged, the other three Satyrs looked back to their frozen comrade, and charged at the Goliath, claws fully extended.
Taking the battle axe with both hands, Travis let out a mad yell, before charging them himself. Nearing the first of the Satyrs, he raised his axe and struck down fiercely. Barely managing to block the unexpectedly quick strike, the axe imbedded itself deep into the arm of the Satyr. As the beast screamed in pain, the other two noticed quickly that their companion’s arm was slowly beginning to solidify, turning into a gray, stone-like color.
Grinning madly, he yelled out, “Haha! How do ya like that, ya damn beasts!”
Gripping the battle axe with its remaining arm, the injured Satyr ripped the battleaxe out of itself, before retreating behind the other two.
Walking up to him nonchalantly, Rachel said, “That always seems to scare them the most, just turning into stone like that, huh Travis?”
Standing behind the large Goliath, she had taken up a defensive position behind him, doing her best to shield him from being flanked by the others.
Smiling, Travis steadied the battle axe between him and the Satyrs, eager to test himself against the enemy.
“Hey, Rachel, it looks like these bastards have a simple combat style. It’s likely their only form of attack will be their claws, so it looks like you’ll have it easy this time around.”
Nodding to herself, she readied her warhammer confidently, and gave the signal that Jack had been waiting for.
Running behind them in a flash, the Satyrs could hear their trapped friend begin to scream with a horrifying death rattle. Jack had snuck past the Satyrs and was stabbing into the Satyr trapped by the ice. As he did, the Satyr desperately tried to rip itself free from the ice that had continued to grow into its legs, doing its hardest to strike out at the elf that seemed to be toying with it. The ice had grown too far up the Satyr. Almost reaching the large creature’s waist, the Satyr was left completely unable to move, and defenseless.
Looking to each other, one of the uninjured Satyr’s split off, rushing towards Jack. With a flash of light from Katrina, a large fireball flew towards the Satyr. The fireball roared across the forest and hit the Satyr, exploding in a wave of heat and fire. Hit on its side and knocked against a nearby tree, it lay unconscious and slowly burning from the traces of fire.
The Satyr, seeing one friend trapped and another potentially killed by the women standing in the back, charged furiously at the women who had seriously wounded two of his friends. When he was within seconds of reaching the two cloaked women, he was slowed by a strange, invisible force. Looking out of the corner of his eye, he saw the small dwarf glowing with a strange, golden light, moving her hands back and forth in a hypnotic fashion.
As he struggled against the invisible force, he noticed the screams of his trapped friend had stopped. Glancing over, he saw the frozen Satyr was bleeding heavily from marks all over his back, now completely frozen from the waist down, with his upper body slumped over in a dead position. He looked over to see the Goliath continue to use his body to block his injured friend, with the small elf now walking towards him smugly.
Thoroughly angered, he broke free of the strange force that was holding him in place, and charged towards the twin Kitsune with one last dash.
Seeing the glow of mana from one of them, the Satyr tried to dodge any incoming attacks, only to see a large ice dome cover the two girls, insulating them from any further attacks.
Hearing the footsteps of someone approaching him, the Satyr turned around in time to see the dwarf and the elf coming at him with a large hammer and an evil glowing dagger from both sides. Dodging the hammer, he grabbed the arm of the elf and slammed him fiercely into a nearby tree. Hearing the cracking of bones, he threw the elf to the side, and focused on the small dwarf in front of him.
Slashing at her with his talons, he quickly realized that the dwarf was too heavily armored. While her hammer blows were certainly too slow to hit him, his claws were suited to ripping flesh from bone, not against someone who was fully armored.
Looking towards his injured friend, he let out a piercing scream towards his friend, and bolted off in the opposite direction.
While one of the Satyrs was escaping, Travis was fully enjoying himself with the injured Satyr. With one of its arms functionally useless, it desperately was trying to fend off the attacks from the large battle axe in a way that it didn’t become more injured. It was able to withstand the blows without becoming petrified again, but upon seeing its last surviving companion bolt off, it seemed to grimace to itself before charging recklessly at the Goliath.
Laughing wildly, Travis swung the battle axe onto the Satyr with one final blow. The battle axe came down firmly between its shoulders, and within moments it died as the petrification spell from the axe spread to its head.
Seeing that the battle was over, Travis pulled the battle axe out of the partially petrified Satyr with a strange grinding sound, and walked over to the others.
“Oi, you girlies gonna stay in your little igloo any longer? The fight is already over.” Travis called out mockingly to the two twins.
Smiling sheepishly, Alyssa waved her hands, and the small dome of ice began to slowly melt.
“U-um.. Sorry Travis.. When the Satyr started charging us I sort of panicked.” Gesturing awkwardly, she murmured, “Is Jack doing alright?”
“Dunno, bout to check on him myself.” He said.
Walking over to the injured elf, he could see Rachel was doing her best to heal him. A soft, golden light was flowing from her hands, and as seconds passed, Travis could have sworn he heard the popping of bones as Jack lay on the ground.
After roughly thirty seconds, Jack’s eyes popped open, and he began to breathe deeply, gasping for air as he woke up. Looking around groggily, he quickly realized what had happened, and began to smile at Travis as if to say sorry.
Sighing deeply, Travis stared at his friend, “Yea, yea. Just let Rachel fix you up. Can’t believe you let one of them get ya Jack.”
Smiling wearily, he said, “Sorry man, I wasn’t expecting him to grab me like that. They’re way stronger than they look.”
“Hah, didn’t bother me none. You need to get better at predicting them. Their movements were pretty simple overall.” Travis boasted.
“Yea.. I’m sorry.”
Continuing to grimace from the occasional pop as the bones were put back into place and healed, Travis and the two fox girls split off to the various Satyr’s to begin to gather what they could.
Deciding between one of the various Satyrs, Alyssa decided to go over to the one that was blasted by her sister with the fireball. Pulling out her dagger, she was about to cut into it to harvest the core when she noticed the Satyr begin to twitch and grimace in place.
“U-um.. Kat.. I think this one is still alive. It’s still moving.”
Standing up from where he was cutting apart the partially petrified Satyr, Travis began to walk over to it quickly. Picking it up by its throat, he pushed it against the tree as it began to slowly wake up.
Heavily burned and in pain, the Satyr winced as he opened his eyes and saw the large Goliath picking him up with one arm. Laughing to himself, he coughed up a bit of blood as he realized that he was slowly dying.
Looking around, he noticed two of the Satyrs were on the ground, with one still being cut into by the Kitsune who blasted him with the fireball. He didn’t see his last companion, and assumed that he managed to get away.
Looking down at the Goliath, only one thought went through his mind.
These damn… humans. They all need… to die.
Looking defiantly into Travis’ eyes, the Satyr stared into his eyes before swiftly stabbing his hand into his chest. Shocked, Travis dropped the Satyr, and jumped backwards, weapon at the ready.
Smiling madly into the Goliath’s eyes, he took his core out from his chest before smashing it in front of the Goliath.
They.. won’t get it… from me.
With the core smashed, Travis saw the life quickly left the Satyr’s eyes,
Cursing to himself, he muttered, “Damn monster. Wasn’t expecting him to kill himself just to spite us.”
Laughing, Jack finally stood up after being healed and walked over to Travis, slapping him on his back.
“Guess you got unlucky then, huh? You know Rachel isn’t gonna be happy about that. She hates wasting those things. After all, it’s thanks to how many we’ve collected so far that we are doing as well as we are.”
Grimacing, Travis looked over to the dwarf, only to see her angrily marching over with her hammer drawn.
“H-hey now, Rachel, come on, it wasn’t my fault. You saw it right? Who could expect something like that.” He said nervously.
Tapping the head of the large hammer back and forth on her hand, she continued to walk towards Travis with an almost serene smile on her face.
“What’s wrong, Travis. It’ll be alright. I just need to have a word with you is all. I know it isn’t your fault. All we’re gonna do it talk.”
“No, wait.. Noooooo!” Travis voice drifted of into the distance. The others quietly went back to doing their task, ignoring Travis’ cry for help
And so ended a rather average day for the group of adventurers.