Electric power coursed through Devon's weapon as he dashed forward. This contest had gone on long enough, it was time to start really pushing Voltar Pura.
The lord of the mountain roared at him as he approached and tried to bite down on his charging figure. Devon was ready for the attack and swung his hammer in an overhead arc.
Electrified metal met the scaled nose of Voltar Pura, and Devon could see the lightning arc underneath its red-hued scales as it roared in pain. The dinosaur's back arched as the electricity locked up its nervous system, paralyzing it.
Devon cursed internally. He'd hoped the creature would be paralyzed with its head lower to the ground, but with its back arched the head was raised skyward. It didn't make for nearly as optimal a target as he'd hoped.
Even so, he noted with satisfaction the extensive burns across the monster's head from the blow. With that in mind, he dismissed his plan of going for the head and dashed toward the legs.
Let's see how much damage this limb takes to really break.
Even if it could use blood manipulation to set a fractured and broken bone in place and force the limb to move, Devon knew the leg was still the best place to target. Blood manipulation would only be able to delay the inevitable if he kept destroying the leg with both blunt trauma and lightning burns.
The lord recovered faster than he expected, shifting its massive weight to the side as it dodged as best it could. Devon couldn't help but smile, now it was the one on the defensive.
Hammer collided with leg again, and Voltar Pura once again roared out in pain. Devon was about to swing again, but was interrupted by the massive tail of the lord swinging his way. He quickly scrambled out of the way, noting the extremely short duration of the lord's stun.
It's already gotten past the worst of the paralysis. I wonder if it has a natural resistance to that effect. Either way, the damage the spell inflicts is more than enough.
The leg he'd been hammering looked almost completely disfigured. Devon doubted it would take much more to disable it completely. But just as he was about to continue the assault, a system notification interrupted his focus. It was a message request from Trey, which he quickly opened.
[Trey]
Situation A5.
[Devon]
Understood.
The window closed, its purpose finished. This was something they'd been over, a series of simple phrases to notify each other of potential situations Devon had imagined. It was meant to convey information as concisely as possible, without wasting time on elaboration or explanation. He was glad he'd spent the time coming up with the system, this wasn't a situation where there was any time to waste on explanations.
The A meant overseer movement, and the number represented what parts of the group were acting. 5 was a representation of Val Kazar.
As expected, Lightning Imbuement II is too damn flashy. Since the one moving is Val Kazar himself it's all but certain he knows it's me up here. The fact that he's coming more or less alone means he won't risk destabilizing the overseer's oversight of the camps this close to the deadline. Still, even if he's alone I need to finish this immediately. I don't want to have to fight a level 63 on an empty tank of mana.
He once again charged toward Voltar Pura, intending to finish this, but the lord of the mountain was not content to simply sit back and be killed. The colossal dinosaur had positioned itself next to a pile of rubble and had been waiting for Devon to make his move.
As Devon charged in, Voltar Pura slammed its tail into the pile of stones, showering Devon in another hail of rubble. Devon pushed through it, determined to finish the dinosaur off before Lightning Imbuement wore off and Val Kazar made it up the mountain.
The stones left cuts and bruises all over Devon's body as he shouldered through it. He readied his hammer, prepared to strike at the beast's leg, but the sight past the hail of rubble wasn't as he expected. The lord had continued swinging its tail in a circle while Devon had been distracted by the blast of rubble.
Caught unprepared, Devon wasn't able to avoid the several ton tail. It slammed into him, blowing him back across the plateau.
He felt blood rise in the back of his throat, but shoved it down with all the will he could muster and once again charged in. The pains of the beast's previous hip check returned with a vengeance, and Devon felt his bones creak as he pushed his body despite the damage.
Voltar Pura couldn't maintain its balance after swinging around on a damaged leg, and it stumbled to the side. Devon took the opportunity to rush in and hit the weakened limb with everything he had.
The smell of charred flesh filled the air as electricity cooked Voltar Pura from the inside. After a moment of wobbling the leg gave out completely, and the lord of the mountain once again began to fall.
He couldn't help but smile viciously as the beast started to topple, but the monster wasn't content to let him have the victory that easily. It twisted its body unnaturally to whip its head around even as it fell.
Devon yelled out in pain as teeth closed on his arm. The agony of it made his vision run red, but he pulled on the arm anyway, heedless of the pain the yanking caused. He needed to move, he was still directly underneath where the beast was falling and he knew the thing weighed several tons at least, easily enough to crush him if he wasn't careful.
Yet no matter how much he pulled, the damn beast just wouldn't let go of his arm. Even as its neck twisted in a grotesque way it held firm, seeming determined to inflict as much injury to Devon as it could before its now certain death.
Unable to pull away and still in the path of the falling monster's colossal body, Devon did the only thing he could think to do. He planted the butt of the hammer against the ground and angled the head toward the collapsing body.
As Voltar Pura's body fully fell on top of him the hammer acted as a brace, holding it up and preventing it from crushing Devon. The butt of the weapon cracked the stone beneath them as Devon gritted his teeth against the pain. For a moment he worried if the stone ruin beneath would be able to hold against the weight of the dinosaur concentrated on a single point, but thankfully it held.
Voltar Pura's growls became squeals as electricity continually coursed through Devon's hammer into the colossal beast's body. The smell of charred flesh once again filled the air, much more potent this time as Voltar Pura was cooked alive by the magic imbued within Devon's hammer.
Devon chanted in his head Die already, die already, die already, over and over again as the beast tried to chop through his arm. But it couldn't muster any more strength to do so, and with a final pathetic squeal, it released the tension on his arm as it died.
Kill - [Voltar Pura, Lord of the Mountain - Level 60] - 1357 Talons
[Level up. Level 39 obtained.]
[Level up. Level 40 obtained.]
[Level up. Level 41 obtained.]
[Level up. Level 42 obtained.]
[Level up. Level 43 obtained.]
[Level up. Level 44 obtained.]
New title obtained: [True Initiate]
Ignoring the slew of messages, Devon pried his arm out of Voltar Pura's maw as the duration of Lightning Imbuement II ran out. His arm was a horrific mess and was bleeding heavily. The beast had managed to bite it along the entire length of the arm, leaving it completely mangled by the late lord's massive teeth.
The severe bleeding presented an immediate problem. If he left such a wound unattended for too long he would certainly bleed out. But he'd already used his first healing pill earlier, so if he took a second he'd pass out on the spot. That wasn't an option when he knew Val Kazar was heading his way.
The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
Do I have to use that?
The rejuvenation token would solve his problem without the detrimental effects of the healing pill, but he was extremely hesitant to use it in this situation. That token was the single greatest ace up his sleeve. To use it when he wasn't absolutely sure it was necessary would be foolish.
No, I can get by without it for now. If Val Kazar manages to catch up to me then I'll have no choice but to use it, but for now I need to do without.
Even with the rejuvenation token, he wanted to avoid a clash with the leader of the overseers. He was low on mana, but even with that constraint he didn't feel as though a level 63 would be overwhelmingly dangerous. The problem was that his foe possessed intelligence.
Val Kazar had left the main overseer camp alone, but if he managed to engage Devon and force him into a protracted conflict there was no reason he couldn't summon the rest of the overseers while the leader engaged Devon in a game of cat and mouse.
Devon slipped out from under the corpse of Voltar Pura and weaseled his hammer out as fast as he could. He then shoved it into his inventory and took out several other items.
The first was a tourniquet. Healing pills were almighty, but after Kal'o Kir's spree of tortures had shown the camps that not all wounds could be healed immediately there had been a call for the creation of basic medical tools.
He bound it onto his bicep and pulled it as tight as he could, then scowled when the thing snapped before it could make a sizable difference in how much blood he was losing. The improved physiques that came with the system were incredible, but clearly Devon was reaching a point where his body transcended every material available to the initiates.
He considered using magic to cauterize the entire arm but decided against it. It wasn't worth using his remaining mana for such a purpose, since if he was dragged into a conflict with the overseers he'd be forced to use the token to heal the arm anyway, meaning he'd have essentially wasted the mana to use fireball.
The second item was a massive sheet of cloth. Devon bound it around his arm as quickly as he could, ignoring the pain as the cloth was layered over the open wounds. It wasn't meant as a bandage, his arm was far too damaged to imagine a bandage had any hope of preventing blood loss. No, it was simply meant to keep his blood from splattering everywhere as he made his escape. It wouldn't do to leave such an easy trail to follow.
With every preparation he could make completed, he started running.
----------------------------------------
Loh Unzak
Loh Unzak was beginning to wonder if there was any end to this human's caution. It had been half an hour since the end of its battle with the lord of the mountain, and it was still taking precautions that almost blew Loh's cover.
Loh, as he liked to call himself, was a stealth specialist. It was a profession that was generally seen as distasteful in their culture, but Val Kazar had appreciated his talents where the chief had not. For that reason, he greatly appreciated Val Kazar's leadership.
Still, he couldn't deny that appreciation had waned significantly over the past month when Val Kazar had told him to remain as a constant sentinel on the mountain. It was the most dull job imaginable, and Loh hated it. Even so, he couldn't deny he saw the logic in it.
The instant the humans had shown they might be more of a threat than they'd initially anticipated Val Kazar had around a dozen vishan take up permanent posts. Unlike the vishan who monitored the humans daily and were almost completely exposed as they did, those who took permanent posts did so with the intent to remain secret, or to gather information on terrain while staying out of sight.
Loh had mapped out the surface of the mountain within the first week, but Val Kazar hadn't allowed him to go any deeper into its ruins. And so he'd been bored out of his mind, waiting endlessly.
But that had changed today. Today a human had challenged the lord of the mountain. A human that summoned lightning.
For whatever reason, Val Kazar had forced him out of his dugout in the midst of a meal while he'd watched the show and forced him to follow the human as close as he could. He didn't understand why Val Kazar had such a fixation on this human, he'd been left out of the loop on just about everything while he'd been alone on the mountain.
He knew Val Kazar would have wanted to be the one to pursue the human personally, but Loh was closer. If he'd done nothing the human would have gotten away completely long before Val Kazar arrived.
Val Kazar had explicitly told Loh to stay undetected and only to observe the human until he could get there himself, which was fine by Loh. No way was he ready to engage a human who'd managed to take down that behemoth.
Gah, again! This human is just too damn cautious!
The pest had constructed a mesh of fine threads in the passageway it made its way through. Loh had barely seen them in time to stop himself from triggering the trap. From the way it was made, it was clear it wasn't meant to spring anything on him but to warn the human that it was being followed.
The human had almost immediately delved into the mountain from the first entrance it had found on the mountainside. It had taken serious restraint for Loh to not stop and marvel at the ruins as he tracked his quarry.
He was glad there had been no terminals close by on the mountainside. They would have made the chase meaningless when the human could have teleported away safely.
Traps or other methods to spot pursuers had been more and more frequent as time went on and the human's pace slowed, and after almost 20 minutes Loh found out why.
It's injured.
The trail of blood had started small, just a drop here and there. Now it was obvious the human was seriously wounded, with large splatters every couple of meters.
If it's still bleeding after almost half an hour of this running around then it must have received a serious wound, one that couldn't be fixed on the spot.
He peeked around a corner before quickly backing away. A glance at his mana revealed that the human had indeed seen him, or would have if his skill didn't keep him hidden.
His skill, Unseen, subverted the gaze of anyone who saw him while it was activated. It wasn't as though he turned invisible, so if anyone got a perfect view of him they'd still spot him, skill or no. It did serve as a convenient tracker for how often it saved his ass though, as it only consumed mana when it was actively subverting someone's gaze. The mana cost was horrendous though. It would only provide around 7 seconds of continuous use before he was tapped out.
And this pesky human is running me dry. Still, unless I'm mistaken about the layout of this place, shouldn't that doorway the human just went through lead to a dead-end room?
Loh used a map token just to be sure, and found his suspicions correct. The room was isolated, without any other way out.
He watched down the hall, waiting for the human to leave. But after ten minutes he frowned. The human still hadn't come out.
Loh almost jumped out of his skin when he felt a hand press against his shoulder. He quickly turned around and breathed out a massive sigh of relief when he realized it was just Val Kazar. He'd started to wonder how long it would take him to catch up, although it wasn't surprising considering the labyrinth that was these underground ruins.
He put up a hand to signal for Val Kazar to wait, then crept forward. Glancing into the room the human had disappeared into, he frowned when he saw it was completely empty.
[Loh Unzak]
He came into this room but now he isn't here.
[Val Kazar]
What?
Val Kazar came up behind him and gazed into the room. When he saw there was nothing inside he gazed at Loh with eyes that shone in the dark with fury.
[Val Kazar]
You lost him?
[Loh Unzak]
I've been watching this room for the past ten minutes. There's no way out and I can't imagine the human using a stealth skill like I've got. If they had one they'd have used it a long time ago.
Loh breathed a sigh of relief when Val Kazar's gaze turned from him towards the room. Gingerly, the much stronger vishan stepped into the ruined space that may once have been a small archive. Together, they spent several minutes searching the room, looking for clues.
[Val Kazar]
Here.
When Loh looked over to his superior he saw Val Kazar kneeling next to a stone shelf. He looked to the floor and saw scratch marks, almost imperceptible amid the gloom of the monotone space.
Val Kazar motioned him to the side of the bookshelf, and Loh took his position as Val Kazar readied his sword. With a shove, the bookshelf slid across the floor to reveal a small alcove, with the human lying there inside.
Loh jumped back at seeing the glistening golden sword in the human's hand, but to his surprise the human didn't jump out and try to stick him with it.
Val Kazar cautiously moved close and nudged the human's sword with his own. The golden blade fell out of the human's hand onto the stone with a clatter.
Kneeling down, Val Kazar said, "How cautious. He was waiting in ambush, but we took so long to pursue he must have reached his limit." He raised the human's arm covered in a blood-soaked cloth to reveal a puddle of blood beneath.
"Is it dead?" Loh asked.
Val Kazar held a hand to the human's mouth before unwrapping the cloth. Loh couldn't help but flinch when he saw the horribly disfigured appendage beneath, but then stared in amazement at the flesh stitching itself together before his eyes.
"The system provides the initiates with a healing item of tremendous potency. However, when a second is consumed within a short period it causes the user to lose consciousness"
"Who is this human anyway? I haven't seen this 'Steve' on the ladder the entire time. And you'd best believe I know every name that popped up on it, I haven't had anything else to do but wait and watch." Loh knew it was improper to vent his frustrations like this, but could he really be blamed after being assigned that dreadfully boring job?
"This is the human who killed the chief's daughter. He hides under a disguise, but it's him. There can be no doubt."
Loh's jaw dropped. Quite honestly, he'd thought they'd caught that human ages ago. He once again cursed his luck for getting stuck in the middle of nowhere.
"So… we're killing him now, yeah?"
Val Kazar stared at the human with an intensity Loh couldn't understand. It was obvious that the human needed to die. If it didn't they risked the chief raining down punishments on all of them, not just Val Kazar.
"It will, just not now. Do you have bindings?"
"We're taking it with us?"
"Better the chief have a chance to administer his own vengeance so we may be spared that much more of his wrath."