Thariel held her new bow by its grip.

The weapon looked better than she first expected.

The bow had tendons for string and chitin-bound muscles for a body. Its color is a deep shade of dark-red with hints of rich crimson peeking from the gaps along the chitinous frame. The "mouth" is an opening between four fang-like teeth growing out from the center of the bow.

On the end of its recurved frame, growing along the bottom, is a row of jagged teeth with thin tendon fibers tied around the ridges of the spikes. These thin lines of fibers are then coiled around each other to create the bow string proper.

A single tug and release at it and Thariel felt a great thrum of power vibrating throughout the bow's frame.

Her sharp senses spoke to her about how the muscles underneath the chitin plating sang with exertion after the string's release and how the bow itself yearned for a target to direct their shots at.

The weapon was alive. And the oddest part? It had a soul.

Magitech fabricators can forge and manipulate souls. They were that powerful.

Back in Tainted Orchids, the amount of powerful weapons one of these fabricators can create is a lot, quite varied, and also extremely powerful. And that's precisely why the devs decided fabricators should only be in the end game.

Thariel also had the option to pick a non-living bow but she deliberately chose not to since a living weapon is several times better than a regular one with only one minor drawback; sapping HP everytime the wielder uses it to cast a spell.

The bow, despite being alive, also didn't have sapience let alone any kind of sentience. To compare, it was mentally closer to a single-celled bacteria than any living creature.

The bow's lack of intellect wasn't a detriment though.

If anything, it was a boost to its overall capabilities as it can focus all its (basic) mental faculties into its natural understanding of how sharp shooting works as well its rudimentary senses in detecting the wind to help with correcting the wielder's aim.

It did have thoughts- basic ones which came from its melded soul - but most of it consists of a single minded-goal; find a target to shoot and kill.

"Don't worry," Thariel purred in response to the weapon's thrum, "I'll find you a few noteworthy targets soon,"

With the bow on her hands, the Thostasaurus stood no chance.

"I think I'm ready to finish the quest now," Thariel greeted the saint with a respectful bow. Her words accompanied by the sounds of metal plates smoothly folding into each other as the door to the guest room closed behind her.

The automaton faced her, "that is good." The saint then made a show of "looking" at her bow by turning its head towards it, "and that is the weapon you made with the tendon burrower corpse? You could have made a heavy bow with it couldn't you?"

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

That is what those worms are called? Darn that's an ominous name. And whose tendons do they dig into?

"Yes?" Thariel lifted her bow and looked at it for a moment, if she did that she wouldn't have been able to make her quiver.

Thariel went on and defended her bow, "I think it's pretty useful, it can help out with my bad aim." She explained, "then there's also the fact that every arrow I shoot out of it gets endrenched with non-coagulating venom,"

Honestly, she had expectations of some kind of DoT effect when she picked this bow in the fabricator's grid. The surprise came when the effect was marked as being "bleeding" and not "poison" like she first expected.

But as it turns out, the bow did use venom, just not the damaging kind. Instead the effects were similar to a komodo dragon's in that it stops any wound it inflicts from forming a scab so it'll just keep bleeding.

"A heavy bow is too much honestly," Thariel added during a lapse in the conversation, how come the saint didn't reply? What was the robot thinking? "And also it doesn't have the bleeding effect this one has so..."

"I understand," nodded the saint, "and I suppose your current bow packs enough of a punch with every shot that making a heavy bow would only make things redundant."

"Yes. Exactly," Thariel agreed readily. "It just doesn't make sense for me to make a heavy bow you know? What use would that even have?"

"Piercing barriers, I suppose," smiled the saint.

"Pfftt-" admittedly, Thariel didn't think about that. Maybe she'll turn the gun parts she's repurposing into a pistol for breaking barriers, that sounds like an idea, "- I know that."

"Anyway I need to leave," Thariel picked up the slack and waved goodbye, "I'm going to track the Thostasaurus now,"

"Goodbye," the automaton returned the gesture.

Thariel turned around and made her way out.

Okay, she now has a weapon good enough to possibly kill a Thostasaurus so the question here is if she is good enough to actually kite one during combat.

And the answer to that is that she isn't sure.

At the end of the day, she only knows that she can outrun a Thostasaurus but fighting it while running is completely lost to her. She's never done this before after all, and she has no baseline to compare herself to.

She was trained in combat yes, but she only knew the basics of positioning and making opportunities for counter attacks.

And even then, what she learned isn't meant to be used for a bow, or even in range for that matter. No, her knowledge was centered around utilizing a spear.

A weapon that she may have been able to craft - could have crafted really - but she already thought things through earlier and well, she eventually decided that making a bow instead of a spear was simply better.

And besides, with her bow's special effects, she could just wait for the Thostasaurus to bleed out. But that's assuming she lands multiple arrows at it or better yet, miraculously hits a large vein.

The neck was her best bet for doing that, but if she wanted to land an arrow there she first needed to figure out how to not get spotted by the dinosaur.

Back on earth, Giraffes had long necks so that they could see predators from far away. Thostasauri didn't have long necks but they might as well have with how tall they are.

Then there's also the problem of the color of her clothes perfectly contrasting that of the environment's.

She wasn't going to lie, the packball gear is very comfortable and warm to wear and she also feels that the feathers suit her well but its black coloration is just too obvious amidst all this white snow. She just stood out so much you know?

With time to spare, some more thought was put into her plan on taking down a Thostasaurus.

Thariel eventually concluded that she only needed one strike on the neck of a Thostasaurus waiting in ambush and the rest will work itself out.

She first started her search for one of the therapods by sensing massive pods of heat coming from the landscape.

The winds here blew in a strange manner and instead of the outlier air being weighed down by humidity, it was instead the air which got enlightened by heat. The air felt heavy to her senses so figuring which direction the lighter pockets of wind came from wasn't that hard.

Thariel followed that type of air knowing that it will either lead her to a Thostasaurus or a herd of its prey.

True enough, she found a herd of the boar-like animals she saw getting eaten by her current quarry a while back.

The boars are large things with tusks twice the width of her head. Their feet have thick hooves and their legs are covered in a large bundle of fur. A bushy tail swished back and forth behind them.

They didn't seem to think of her as a threat thankfully, and she was able to walk alongside them in peace until she found the creature she was looking for.

Thariel smiled once she saw a Thostasaurus hiding behind a group of trees in the distance.

She stalked forward, bow in hand and her fingers on its string.

She grabbed an arrow from her quiver and plucked it onto the bow. She pulled. Her aim was being aided by the very weapon she wielded, Thariel used her senses alongside the aim assist to point the tip of her arrow on the neck of the giant therapod.

Thariel released her grip and let the arrow loose.

The projectile flew from the bow string and briefly bent when its shaft pressed against the enamelous fangs of the bow, then it straightened up once it passed through the center and began to fly freely in the air.

It whizzed past dozens of boars, passed several trees, and landed on the neck of the Thostasaur.

The dinosaur roared. The boars scattered.

Thariel grinned despite herself, her racing heart was torn between excitement and fear but she knew that the former would conquer the latter as she runs away from-

Eh? Why was the Thostasaurus running away?