Felix Sythias’ POV:
After the wolves died and the shock had worn off, I stepped forward and rose on my hind-legs. While balancing myself using my tail, I used my wings to create powerful gusts of wind to put the fire out. It wasn’t quite enough, but a small amount of water and fire magic did the rest.
The other benefit of this method was that it also immediately cleared out the remaining smoke, blasting it into the larger cave where it wouldn’t bother us.
Looking at the wolves, there was very little left of them. They still vaguely looked like canines, but they were charred and singed. It looked disgusting, and I quickly looked away. Despite what I’d said about using the traps again, I really didn’t want to. They were horrible. Fire was horrible. But it was still really effective, and it didn’t hurt to keep it in reserve.
I remembered the fight with the dire-bear. It felt forever ago, now, but I could still vividly picture the desperation I’d felt. It had driven me to bite and tear at the monster with my teeth and maw. I could still vaguely taste the metallic blood, but I was sure that was just my imagination. I hadn’t liked it, but I’d still done it, because at that moment, what I liked didn’t matter—I just had to survive. So even if we didn’t use these traps again now, I wanted them to keep the possibility of using them open.
From the determined—if still a bit shocked expression—on their faces, it seemed my message had come across. We’d still have to talk about it later when we got back to the surface, though. I didn’t want this to fester into a larger problem.
But for now, we could weather through the horror of it together. I walked back towards them and pulled them both into a hug, my wings enveloping them both. Alex leaned into the comfort and Tiki was surprised, but didn’t protest. She did ask why, however.
“You both looked like you needed a hug,” I told them. “Now, come on, let’s move away from the wolves.”
Neither of them argued. None of us wanted to stay here. So we moved into the larger cave, going slow and looking for more of the wolves. But the cave was quiet, and none of the ferns rustled. I considered taking a break here and relaxing a little before we continued, but dismissed the idea. The corpses of the wolves were too close-by, and the smell of burnt flesh and fur lingered. Besides, we only had a limited amount of time down here, and I wanted to make the most of it.
So instead we moved through the cave until we reached the opposite wall. There were three tunnels leading away from the cave. We picked one at random, noted it on the map, and I scratched a cross into the wall of the tunnel we’d come from. Then we headed to the next cavern.
This one was another cave full of mushrooms and ferns, though there were some bushes here and there as well. There were also more of the wolves here. If I remembered correctly, and I probably did, these were deep-wolves. Like most monster variants, their name was pretty self-explanatory. They were wolves that lived in the deep. They mostly had the same capabilities as their surface dwelling brethren, but had an increased sense of smell and hearing. Strangely, though, they had no eyesight, despite there being plenty of light down here.
I glanced over at my teammates to discuss our strategy. “Do you think you two can handle them alone?”
“They’re only level 14, so yeah, probably,” she said, and I smiled at her gratefully. I couldn’t get their level for myself after all. “But I think we should probably take the first pack on as a group, just in case.”
Alex nodded. “I... um, I think that would be best, yeah. I hate to admit it, but their increased level is making me nervous.”
“Alright,” I said. “So, this is how I think we should handle it…”
Not much later, we were standing just outside the entrance, between the ferns. The monsters had already noticed us and were getting up. They had grouped up and were walking our way and would be here in a moment. Alex had his sword drawn, and Tiki had nocked an arrow. Soon, they were upon us, and it was my turn to act. Trying something new, I flared my wings and took a menacing step forward, like I was about to pounce.
I didn’t actually jump, but the wolves flinched and in their distraction, didn’t notice the small obstacles I’d made in their path. They all tripped and rolled to a stop in front of us. Before they had time to get back up, three of the seven wolves were already dead, and we’d already severely injured another two.
I leaped forward and slammed both my talons down on the fourth wolf, crushing it to the ground and splattering its head into goo. I grimaced, still unhappy with the fighting style I was forced to use.
I looked up and watched as Alex jabbed his sword forward, catching the one remaining uninjured wolf in the shoulder and severing several tendons. The leg went limp, and he quickly finished the wolf off as it unexpectedly collapsed, its limb unable to support its weight anymore. Tiki had a little more trouble with her wolf, as she wasn’t as skilled at melee combat, but she too made quick work of it. She stabbed her wolf, then jumped back before it could retaliate. She repeated this a few more times before she finally got it in the skull. The wolf collapsed with a thump and the both of them went to face the other wolf.
They then whirled around to face the last wolf, which had turned to leap at me claws first. While I distracted it, Tiki went for its skull and Alex cut into its side. This wolf was quite a bit stronger than the other six, but even so, less than a minute later, it died as well—having a knife in your skull tended to do that.
Alex and Tiki then went around stabbing all the wolves in the head a few more times to make sure they were dead. We’d read about a monster that would pretend to be dead, only to jump at you when you turned your back and we weren’t taking any chances. Afterwards, we went over the fight, but it had gone rather well and there wasn’t too much to be said. The wolves, despite being wolves, didn’t really use pack-tactics, so the fight had been rather straightforward. That would change when the wolves got to a higher level, partly because they got smarter, but mostly because the ones using pack tactics were much likelier to make it to higher levels to begin with. We wouldn’t have to worry about that during this excursion, though.
After the fight, we walked into the center of the cave and looked around for any other monsters, but there was no movement and none of us spotted any monsters hiding in the bushes. There was still a chance there was something hidden elsewhere, though, so we moved carefully. Eventually we decided if anything was still hiding, it would’ve attacked already. So I made a small clearing in the ferns by rolling around and we took a small break.
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While we ate an early lunch, Alex asked Tiki about whether she had any less gruesome traps as well.
She nodded. “I do, but I have fewer of those. I have some that just straight up explode, but I’m not sure if it will kill them; I had to limit the power of the explosives, since I didn’t feel like making the ceiling collapse. I also have one with acid I wanted to try out, but after the fire one, I’m not so sure anymore. And I have a few others as well, but they’re more experimental and I am not entirely sure what they’ll do.”
“Do you want to start out with the experimental ones first?” I asked. “Then we can get those out of the way while we still have time. That, and I’m not exactly looking forward to an explosive going off down here. It’ll be loud.”
“Yeah,” she said, “I’ll probably do tha—” Something moved behind her and I jumped to my talons just in time to block a root shooting towards her neck.
Tiki yelped as I was suddenly upon her, and she scrambled backwards away from me in fright. Before she got far, I grabbed her leg and pulled her back and yelled. “Monster!”
Alex, who had been leaning against me just before, had stumbled but was already standing up and grabbing his sword. And Tiki’s expression turned from fright to determination as she unsheathed her dagger. While they looked around us to spot the monster, I glanced down at the root in my talon. It was a green-ish brown, had a texture like bark, and was covered in thorns. If it hadn’t come out of the ground, I would’ve thought it was a vine, instead.
I was trying hard to remember any monsters down here that used vines but couldn’t come up with anything. This monster hadn’t been in any of the books, and that scared me. For all we knew, this was an incredibly lethal monster. The only thing bringing me any comfort was the fact that our guide hadn’t intervened yet.
“Be careful. This monster is unknown,” I said. “Treat it like it could one-shot you.”
Tiki and Alex grunted their agreement, and just like we’d practiced on campus for situations like this, they fell back towards me. When they were at my side, Alex and I kept watch while Tiki climbed onto my back. Having only consumed a lesser version of the head-start potion, and without scales, she was the most vulnerable of us three and on my back was the safest place. On top of that, she was best at ranged attacks anyway, and she got a better viewpoint from my back. Alex meanwhile stayed slightly ahead of me, where I could keep an eye on him and protect him from sneak attacks while Tiki kept a watch behind us.
It was a formation we’d come up with before we left, in case we ran into monsters we weren’t sure we could handle or hadn’t been cataloged yet. The dungeon caves of Almar were a popular destination for young ‘adventurers’ to level, but the place was still out of the way and under-leveled for most people, so there were large parts of the second and third floor that just hadn’t been explored yet. It was weird to find new monsters so close to the entrance, though.
Looking around the cave, I didn’t spot anything moving. There were just the mushrooms, rainbow ferns, and bushes like before. But the attack had been a root, so the chances of one of the plants being a monster was high.
Alex, also having realized the same, said: “Identify all the plants. One of them is the monster.”
I sighed internally as I couldn’t really help with the next part. So, instead, I looked around like I was identifying all the plants. It was possible the guide already knew I had no System—in fact, I was pretty sure most of my classmates had an idea—but I didn’t want to confirm it. I wasn’t sure why; it wasn’t like it would make all that much of a difference. But telling people about it, except maybe my close friends, felt like giving up. A small part of me still clung onto the hope dad had found something. He should be returning soon and I couldn’t wait to see him again.
After I did a full sweep of the surrounding area, I still didn’t spot anything that might be a monster. The ferns just looked like ferns, the mushrooms were way too small to have such violent roots, and the bushes didn’t—did that bush just blink at me?
Without taking my eyes off it, I nudged Alex with my wing and pointed at the bush in question. A moment later he whispered, “It’s level 21.”
“And the other bushes?” Tiki asked.
Alex shook his head. “Only that one is a monster, as far as I can tell.”
I nodded and was about to say something about strategy when the bush suddenly stood up. It had long wooden legs with the texture of bark, and instead of arms, it had two pairs of its roots that now acted more like vines. One of the four roots was already damaged, and green-ish brown liquid dripped from the torn end. It was also tall. The bush itself had already been big, being almost a meter and a half tall, but with it standing, it towered over all of us with its three meter height.
The monster rustled its leaves at us in a way that I was sure was meant to be threatening, but fell short of its goal—they were still just leaves, after all. That didn’t stop the monster from attacking us, though. I had expected it to try to stab us with its vines again, but to my, and the other’s, surprise, it tore a stalagmite from the ground instead and hurled it at me.
My eyes widened and I threw myself to the side, only barely avoiding the projectile in time. I felt the rush of air as it passed me and slammed into the ground behind me. I resisted the urge to look back and see how far it went and instead sent a wave of earth magic into the ground, causing spikes to erupt beneath one of the shrubbery’s feet. It rustled in anger, and I used its distraction to quickly check if Alex was fine, and then, seeing that he was, to rush towards the monster.
As I thundered towards it, my claws digging into the thin layer of dirt for grip, I felt Tiki jump off me, and a moment later, Alex jumped on. It was another of the moves we’d practiced.
The monster had gotten its foot speared by one of my spikes and had only now managed to pull his foot free. It then broke off the very same spike to launch it at me again. Instead of letting it do that, I let my magic go and the spike instantly lost its structural integrity. Just like I’d planned, the spike crumbled and the monster stumbled slightly backwards as it was suddenly holding air. Taking advantage, I pushed off the ground, leaping the final distance and crashing claws first into the monster. With it off balance and my much larger weight pushing it down, it fell over backwards and hit the ground with a heavy thump.
While it fell, I tore into its legs, not having had the time to think of a better target. It struggled to escape while I ripped large chunks out and Alex stabbed at it from my neck, but it remained eerily silent. The monster’s skin was bark, but underneath was flesh. I couldn’t look down as I was busy keeping track of the vines, but it smelled strangely floral. By the time the bush had wormed itself free again, its left leg was mutilated and it had to support itself on its right leg using its vines to maintain balance, leaving two fewer of them for us to deal with.
Using the monster’s situation to my advantage, I took a moment to grab my lightning cube. Now that I had an idea of the monster’s strength, I knew we could handle it and I wanted to use the opportunity to practice my lightning magic. However, the cube, as well as the bag it was stored in, wasn’t around my neck anymore. Then I remembered I’d taken it off while we were taking a break and hadn’t been able to put it back on before the ambush.
I sighed. That meant I had to finish the fight with my talons. I crouched down for another leap at the monster and felt Alex shifting around on my back in preparation and suddenly had a great idea.
“Hey Alex?” I asked him over my shoulder “Send some of your lightning mana into me.”