Chapter 104: The final hurdle
Felix Sythias’ POV (continued):
The doors of the exit weren’t too large, but they were large enough for two of me to walk through side by side. And the monster’s hairy ass blocked the whole thing. The monster had to be huge. But more importantly, it was blocking our only exit. While it was still possible that there was another exit, it was rather unlikely we’d find it anytime soon. But here we had a perfectly functional exit. All we had to do was get through.
We were incredibly lucky my shout hadn’t awoken the beast from its sleep. Instead, it kept slumbering on like nothing had happened. At least, I thought it was asleep. There wasn’t any sound of breathing, or the twitch of muscles, or even the rhythmic movement of breathing. Granted, I couldn’t see its chest very well aside from a few small glimpses, but it was certainly odd.
Was it even alive?
“Let’s move back to the hall,” Alex whispered.
I nodded in return and followed behind him as we crept back towards the tunnel and then less quietly, to the hall. We didn’t dare close the doors behind us as we went, afraid we’d wake up whatever monster was there. Though if it hadn’t woken from my shout, I wasn’t sure what would. Still, it didn’t hurt to be careful.
Once we were back in the hall and far enough away it wouldn’t hear us—hopefully—we both let out sighs of relief. Alex’s was a lot heavier than mine. When I asked why, I did not like the answer.
“That thing was level 82! I was scared that even its fart would kill us!”
Now that my nerves had settled down a little, I could chuckle. “It probably wasn’t that strong. But that monster is dangerous for sure. How are we going to get past it?”
“Get past it?” Alex asked, looking confused. “Oh, right, I completely forgot for a moment it was blocking the exit. I just got caught up with its level.”
“I don’t blame you. That thing was huge,” I said, shaking my head. “Actually, I think we should use its size to our advantage. It will have trouble getting through that door frame.”
Alex nodded. “And it was asleep, too. Let’s ambush it, catch it off guard, do as much damage as possible before it even wakes up.”
“Do we have any poison or anything?”
Alex thought for a moment, then searched his bag for a moment. It didn't take long for him to pull out a small vial with a clear liquid within.
“I have this,” he said. “I was carrying it for Tiki, though I’m not sure what it does.”
I considered the vial for a moment before shrugging. “Put some on your sword before the fight and throw the rest onto the wounds I’ll be leaving.”
We talked about the fight for a little longer, but after a certain point there wasn’t much point in discussing it further. Talking tactics didn’t have much use when you didn’t know how the monster would act. We’d have to improvise. So we crept back inside the tunnel and back to the room with the core—which was still humming away, throbbing with mana and being all disconcerting. I hadn’t had a moment to think about that System message and what it meant, both for me and in general, but I would save that for until we were outside in the fresh air.
The monster had shifted slightly, so we were able to get a better look at it. It was horrible, like someone had taken a dozen different animals and stitched them together. There were clear seams where two completely different types of flesh had fused together into one. It had the paws of a tiger, the legs of a jaguar, the jaws of some kind of shark, the wings of a gryphon, a mash-up of different animals for its body, and so forth.
The seams were all clearly irritated too. They were red, angry, and swollen up, pus leaking from some places. It looked painful, and I almost pitied the monster. I genuinely didn’t understand how it was even alive.
I waited for Alex to pour some of the poison, or whatever it was, over his sword, then charged my breath attack. The power I could put behind a single breath was roughly proportional to the size of my mana-pool, and my mana-pool had grown quite a bit since the first time I had used this new ability. I’d release my most powerful attack yet today.
The lightning accumulated in my throat, throbbing and crackling with energy. Within seconds, the attack was fully charged, and I signaled Alex to be ready. Then I released it. Lightning arced from my mouth, straight into the beast’s ass. There was a minute ripple as the lightning passed the door frame, and the edges glowed slightly with runes and mana. It didn’t stop the attack, though, so I ignored it.
The attack landed without a sound, which was incredibly weird, but it still burnt fur and scorched flesh, all the while electricity coursed through the monster, burning traces into its muscles and innards—it was too bad its Attributes protected it from heart attacks. The monster flailed as the lightning made its muscles contract involuntarily. It wasn’t enough to immobilize the thing, but it still smashed into the ceiling and walls of whatever cave it was in. I saw the creature roar out in pain, but again, no sound came through whatever barrier covered the door frame.
Then it was Alex’s turn. He rushed forwards to slice at the monster’s behind while it was still distracted. He managed to get in a few cuts and slashes right where I’d burned it, before opening the vial and throwing the contents onto the wounds. Where the liquid landed, the flesh sizzled a bit and I almost winced as the monster jerked away like it had touched acid.
I couldn’t let it get away untouched though. I rushed forwards and past Alex. I passed through the barrier and felt a pop as I could suddenly hear the monster roaring in pain. Then the smell hit me, and I almost stumbled back. The beast smelled horrible, like a corpse left rotting in a heated container for several weeks before being covered in sewage and sweet-smelling herbs. It smelled a lot like the freshly reanimated corpses farmer Bob had working on his land, now that I thought of it.
Fuck, was this monster undead?
That was bad, but it didn’t change what we had to do. So I continued my sprint and lunged at the monster. With one flap of my wings, I landed on its back while it was still recovering from the lightning attack. I dug my claws in and began digging at its back like a dog digging a hole to bury a bone in. The hide was incredibly tough, but my claws were sharp. Dead flesh and blood sprayed out as I tried getting to its heart. The monster shook me off before I could, though, and I rolled to catch my fall. To my luck, it had thrown me off in the direction of the doorframe, so I rolled right through with another pop as the monster’s yowling vanished.
“It’s undead!” I said to Alex while I got up. “Aim for its head when possible, and otherwise its tendons and bones. Flesh wounds won’t do very much to it.”
Alex nodded, and I turned to face the beast. It had turned around and mindlessly glared at us. It stepped forward to try to get through the door, but I wasn’t about to let it. I lunged forwards again to strike at the monster, but it dodged and struck back. I jumped out of the way in time and retaliated with another strike of my own. This continued for a while until Alex joined the fray, too. If the monster struck at me, he’d slice at its paw while I dodged, and if it struck at Alex, I’d do the same.
We were at a stalemate right now, neither party really able to hurt the other much. Not in this terrain. But the monster was slowly gaining ground, getting closer and closer to the doorframe and threatening to come through and eliminate our only advantage. The question now was, would we be able to whittle it down before that happened? And if not, what could we do then?
It seemed we’d have to find out sooner rather than later. It took a while, but between Alex and I growing tired, it constantly gaining ground, and it just shrugging off most attacks like it was nothing, it eventually burst through the exit. Immediately, the pungent smell washed over us, and I heard Alex gag.
It roared in victory, but I was distracted by the surge of mana building up behind me. The monster fell quiet, too, and despite the fight we had just been in, we all turned to look at the core in the middle of the room. It was glowing brighter and brighter by the second, and the amount of mana it was putting out was genuinely terrifying. The humming turned into a high-pitched whine as the mana built exponentially, until finally, with a single blinding flash, the room was gone and I was standing in an open desert.
The ambient mana tasted of spatial mana, and it didn’t take much to figure out what had happened. That core, whatever it was, had some protective measures built in and had teleported us to wherever we were now.
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I looked around, and as far as the eye could see, there was only sand, sand, and sand. Though if I looked to the right, there was more sand. It was hot and dry, too, but that wasn’t very surprising. But being teleported into a desert wouldn’t have been so strange if we hadn’t just been beneath the Boundless Forest. Had it teleported it straight into another world?
Then I realized I hadn’t spotted Alex anywhere. Growing worried, I launched into the sky and flew to a considerable height. From here I could see that beyond the sandy hills was even more sand, what a surprise. I also saw a cave’s entrance poking from the ground not even a kilometer away. Shapes moved beside it, and one large and one small. Alex and the monster, I guessed.
I flew over as fast as I could, and the moment I was in range, I dove straight down at the monster. My talons dug into its flesh as I tackled it to the ground. We both rolled towards the cave while I tried severing tendons wherever I could. Undead or not, you couldn’t move muscles with severed tendons. I only managed to cut one near its leg before it threw me off again. But it was enough. Alex had gotten the moment that he desperately needed to recover and the monster couldn’t walk nearly as well anymore.
“Get on my back!” I yelled, and a moment later, I felt Alex weight landing in my saddle. I didn’t hesitate for a moment and took off immediately. Once we were in the air, I turned my neck around to face Alex. “Are you okay? Do you know what happened?”
He nodded. “I’m fine, just surprised. I didn’t expect to be back here any time soon—and would’ve preferred if I hadn’t, to be honest. All I know is that I got a System prompt right before we were teleported. I didn’t get much of a chance to read it, but some emergency protection for the core was activated.”
“I figured as much,” I said. “So, we’re really in the Dry Territories, then?”
“Yeah, but let’s talk later. Let’s get away first.”
I nodded and started flying away. While I flew, I had the feeling I’d forgotten something, though. A moment later, I remembered. Our water! The fight would’ve spilled it all over! I glanced back at the bags to check and noticed something very not nice behind us, and I remembered the other thing I’d forgotten. The monster had wings.
“It’s chasing us!” I called, and I felt Alex shifting in the saddle to look. He cursed.
“Do we try to escape or try to fight it?” he asked.
I glanced at the monster and noted how fast it was flying. “I don’t think we’ll have a choice!”
Even if I flew at my top speed, it would catch up eventually. And unlike me, the undead monster didn’t get tired. So it was best to make a stand here, while I was still relatively fresh. Not really having another choice, I slowed down and spun around, already charging up a lightning breath attack. It really sucked that Alex didn’t have a ranged weapon. When we were back, we’d have to get him a crossbow or something, so he could help with these kinds of fights, too.
Once the monster was within what I considered the maximum range for my attack, I released it. The monster tried to dodge the bolt of lightning, swerving to the right, but the attack was too fast. It spasmed and tensed up as the bolt connected. But more importantly, its wings locked up, just like I had expected. The monster began plummeting down the moment my lightning struck. It recovered right before it hit the ground, but it was too late to stop its momentum, even with its immense strenght. Bones cracked and flesh squished, but the relative softness of the sand cushioned some of the impact. And it was undead, so of course this wouldn’t just kill it.
I began charging up another lightning breath while Alex supplied me with more mana. Meanwhile, the monster got up again. One wing hung a bit limply, and one leg was just entirely crushed, but it could still fly. It took off again, and I waited a moment to release my attack, letting it gain altitude. When it got past a hundred meters, I released it. But the monster was expecting it this time and dodged, rushing at me as I tried to recover from the failed attack.
I barely dodged in time, but one of its claws ripped through my shoulder like a knife thought melted butter, leaving a shallow but wide and long gash. I bit back a scream of pain, and whirled around to retaliate. I managed to strike the monster on its back, but it swerved out of the way before I could do serious damage. This went on for a while, the two of us exchanging blows as we dodged around each other.
While its level and strength were much greater than ours, it was large and heavy, and clearly not designed for flight. It was clumsy, and I was able to swerve around most of its blows. All in all, I hit it a lot more often than it hit me, but given its much larger size, it didn’t care much for fleshwounds. I, however, felt each and every hit, slice, and blow clear as day. And the latest one, one near the base of my wing, was making my flight difficult.
I was dodging slower now, with my injuries, and I got hit another few times. They were only shallow gashes and one gouge. I’d survive, even if they hurt, but they all slowed me down just a little. Eventually the monster managed to get behind me before I could turn around to meet it. I prepared for another strike on my back, but to my horror, the monster didn’t hit me, but grabbed Alex instead.
He screamed in pain and shock. “Felix, help!”
I whirled around on the monster, red hot anger covering my vision. I rushed at the monster, and for the first time since I’d gotten the ability a few days ago, I didn’t forget to use my lightning core to electrify my talons. I struck the monster hard, making it twitch from the small amount of electricity, and knocking it out of the sky. It let go of Alex as it fell, and I swooped down to catch him. I only barely caught him in time before he hit the ground. I made sure he was okay before putting him down. He had a nasty scratch on his shoulder but he’d be okay.
“I’ll be fine, go kill that beast!” he had said.
I turned my sight on the monster struggling to get back up. I launched into the sky and dove down on its right wing, snapping it like a thick branch—difficult, but possible. I should’ve done this much earlier, instead of relying on ranged attacks. When I got back to the academy, I was going to do some serious training. Fighting like this wasn’t acceptable. I needed to learn how to use all my abilities.
Shaking my head, I flew back into the air and charged another lightning attack, aiming for its head. It was unable to dodge this time, and the bolt struck true. Then I charged another, and another, and another, until the monster finally stopped moving, its head a charred mess. And even then, I landed beside it and ripped its throat out, broke its neck, legs, the other wing, and severed half a dozen more tendons. For good measure, I also scratched its eyes out. Finally, for good measure, I tore its head off, returning the monster to death’s cold embrace.
The brutal kill left me covered in gore, so I did my best to shake it off, before rushing back to Alex. He was looking a lot less well than just a moment ago.
“Are you sure you’re okay? You don’t look so good,” I asked.
“I think I might need a healer,” he said.
I looked around us, like there was a healer nearby. There wasn’t anything here but sand. “It’s a good thing we’re outside again, then. I’m sure there’s a village with a healer somewhere nearby,” I said, and Alex looked dubious. “I can fly, remember? We can cover a great distance in a small amount of time. Before that, though, let's clean your wounds and wrap them up.”
Alex nodded, and I went to look how much of our water had survived. It wasn’t much. There was barely enough to clean our wounds with. We’d make do, though, just like we had for the last week. I poured some over Alex’s wound, revealing the gash was much deeper and longer than we’d thought. It didn’t just cut deep into his shoulder, almost reaching the bone, but also went most of the way down his back. If it hadn’t been for his recently improved Attributes, he would’ve been carved in half. And even if he hadn’t been, he would’ve already bled out. His newfound resilience was doing a lot of heavy lifting already.
I carefully cleaned the wound with Alex’s help, then wrapped it up in the last bandages we had. Then I went to my own wounds and cleaned them. Getting Alex to a healer was important, but it was no use if I bled out or got a nasty infection from the undead’s claws before we got there. I had quite a few wounds, but none were fatal or required immediate attention. To my surprise, some of the smaller wounds had even started healing already, and the rest had stopped bleeding. I’d have to investigate that later. I knew I didn’t used to heal that quickly.
There wasn’t anything we could wrap my wounds up with, but that was fine for now. The most important thing right now was getting Alex to a healer. I helped him climb into my saddle, where he strapped in. If he fell unconscious, that was all the falling I wanted him to be doing.
Once he was secure, I took off and began flying at a rapid pace across the desert, looking for a village. As we soared over the barren landscape, I finally had a moment to breathe and appreciate the open sky. After so many days stuck in small tunnels or cramped halls, I could finally see the sky again! The beautiful blue expanse stretched out as far as the eye could see, and I could see as far the eye could see. There weren’t any walls to block my sight now. I hadn’t realized I could miss the sky this much. It made me feel sorry for all those dragons that had been huddled in their refugee tents in those halls. They must have been there for much longer than we’d been stuck underground. I wondered if any hatchlings had been born there, never having seen the sky except in the murals. It was a sad thought.
It took several hours of flying before we found a village. Well, it was more of an outpost, really. I landed there, and after calming the frightened lizardkin down, and explaining our situation, they pointed us in the direction of a real village. So we set off again, this time in that direction. The village sadly didn’t have a healer, but they were kind enough to let us copy their map of the local area. The villages were unnamed, but had little symbols for what they could provide. One of them had the symbol of the healer, so we flew in that direction—which was annoyingly just where we’d come from but further south.
After an entire day of flying in the scorching heat—Alex had to drink some of my blood again—we finally arrived at the village with the healer. As I made the final approach, I woke Alex up. He’d fallen asleep while we traveled, the long day and the pain of the injury eating away at his energy.
“Are we there?” he asked.
I nodded. “Just a few more minutes.”
“Alright,” he mumbled, and I could barely hear him over the wind. I heard him yawn and felt him shift about as he stretched—inasmuch as he could stretch, given his injury. A moment later, he cursed. “Fuck! You’ve got to be kidding me! Argh, this is just my luck. First I get injured, and now this!”
I slowed down and craned my head around to look at him. He was grimacing, and it wasn’t just from the pain. “What is it?” I asked.
He sighed and rubbed his forehead with his healthy hand, then gestured at the village not too far away. He sighed again, then spoke. “Let me introduce you to Limescar village, which used to be my home.”