I fired another venom bolt after my first and saw them embed in the beast’s thick hide. Whether it would do anything would become clear in time. I fired off all the necrotic venom I possessed in the form of bolts, dividing the doses across all chasing individuals. For a moment, I considered using the paralytic version as well, but I doubted I’d be able to pierce their skins enough for it to have an effect.

And so, while waiting, I continued running in large circles, thinking about what I’d do next in case none of this worked. There was no possibility of placing earth walls in front of the charging animals in the hopes it would crush their skulls due to the terrain, and I knew I’d lose massive amounts of mana if I did that, so perhaps it was for the better.

And even if it had been a way of taking them out, again, there would be four more.

I was lucky to have incredible stamina. I wasn’t getting tired in the slightest, but Selleron didn’t seem to know that. He was eager to spring into action and had unsheathed his sword at one point, to which I held up my hand, indicating I was more than fine.

I looked back every now and then to check the damage my spell was doing. The impact locations of the venom bolts were visible as small black spots which slowly seemed to expand outward, letting me know the venom was working.

These black spots grew continually and did as my mind had told me earlier. Red and grey were revealed, showing me flesh rotting and dying. The sight of it, even from afar, wasn’t pretty.

What a cruel way of killing…

I hated to inflict such apparent suffering. I’d rather end this quickly and cleanly. The silver lining about this was that this was a dungeon, and that these creatures were controlled by a different entity. I knew all that, but it was hard for me to see living creatures in that light.

A few minutes of running circles later, the first creature collapsed, the venom finally taking its toll. However, it wasn’t dead yet. It took several more minutes, and the other beasts collapsed as well, before the first one died.

You have killed a Caldera Hippo: No experience was awarded.

“Hippo,” I said, turning around to walk towards the remaining incapacitated animals. “Never heard of that name before.”

“Glad that’s over,” Cellestra commented as she let go of my back. “My arms took a beating.”

“Sorry about that. You feeling okay?”

“I’m fine. Thank you,” She replied warmly.

Nevertheless, I cast my healing light on her while I brought down my halberd on one of the anguishing hippos, quickly ending its life. I repeated this for the others, and at the end of it all, Selleron walked up to them and took off his helmet, a shocked expression on his face as he looked at the havoc that my venom had brought.

“What the hell.” He let out as he knelt to take a closer look at one of the beast’s blackened, dead skin.

“What was that?” He asked with utmost sincerity.

“What I thought to be the solution,” I said. “It’s called necrotic venom.”

“It’s necrotic alright, and at a speed that I’ve never seen before. It’s…” He paused for a moment. “Frightening.”

“I’ll be honest,” I said. “I didn’t know what to expect. I mean, I had some idea, but this is scary, even for me.”

The captain nodded as he stood up.

“Let’s continue.”

He led the way past the lake, to the edge of the massive crater, where another wall awaited us. A large cave opening led us down through a tunnel. Since the soldier was still leading, I didn’t expect anything to be down here and that this was merely a tunnel to connect two floors.

I was proven right when the passage ended, and we stepped into the open once more.

Before us was a vast, hilly and green grassland that stretched as far as I could see. The grass was almost completely covered by flowers of all colors. In a way, it reminded me of some of the pastures we’d seen on our way to Len Asari, except that there was a sporadic tree.

One thing worried me though. I couldn’t see any threats.

I looked at Selleron who stretched an arm forward, indicating ‘go ahead’.

I obeyed, but moved slowly and methodically, keeping my eyes open for any possible danger, which was undoubtedly nearby. I just couldn’t see it, and it bothered me.

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Then, a brief flash of red appeared in my thermal vision, and I’d already processed something hot was coming my way, and, as if in reflex, I’d summoned a fire wall to absorb an incoming fireball.

I successfully blocked the spell, but couldn’t spot my assailant. The attack had seemingly come out of thin air.

“Cellestra. Did you see whoever cast that?”

“No,” Came her short reply.

I kept looking around when I noticed another drastic change in temperature, a few yards ahead of where it had previously come from. Another fireball was directed at me, absorbed, and I fired a high-velocity ice lance in retaliation, aimed at the origin of the attack.

The air itself shimmered and shifted as, for a fraction of a second, some kind of massive blue lizard appeared. After the brief sighting, the creature vanished again, leaving nothing behind. It was, however, still there as another spell, this time, a bolt of electricity was flung from where the creature disappeared. It was easily absorbed by my firewall which had grown from the two fire-based spells it absorbed.

“Invisibility,” I concluded. “And I can’t see its heat signature either. I’m not sure if I hit my ice lance earlier. It could have some kind of magic resistance. Hold on, I’m going to charge it.”

Cellestra nodded and took a firm hold as I prepared my weapon, focusing on where the latest attack had come from. As soon as I noticed the temperature change, this time plummeting towards ice, I charged.

The sudden drop in heat was still easily visible to me. It wasn’t a fireball or lightning bolt, but a flurry of icicles that formed in the air and were fired at me, colliding and slowly shrinking my wall spell as I dashed through to thrust my halberd about an inch forward of where the spell came from, knowing the creature was moving.

Unfortunately, it appeared it had outsmarted me. I hit nothing but air and was left wondering where the lizard creature had run off to. I swung my blade in an arc, hoping to get a lucky hit, but I had no such luck.

“Fuck,” I cursed as I was once again left wondering where our attacker had gone.

I didn’t have to wait long as I noticed another dot of cold appear a few yards out. I charged again as the icicles disappeared into the flames, which extinguished as its power was depleted, leaving two icicles to shatter against my multi-barrier.

I ignored it and stabbed the air around where the spell appeared with both my weapon and legs, covering a wide area. This time, I did strike home as I felt one of my legs penetrate something.

The creature appeared again, impaled on my limb. It was trying to claw and run away, but had nowhere to go. I severed its head and let out a sigh of relief.

You have killed a Small Phasing Lizard: No experience was awarded.

“Damn. I wasn’t expecting that,” I said.

“Nice job,” Cellestra said with a smile.

“I feel like I may have figured out this floor’s theme.” I continued. “I have the feeling it’s magic. I am a bit worried about it. I mean, if that’s the easiest creature here, I think we might have to call in Selleron’s help sometime soon.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Cellestra advised. “Just call for his help whenever. You should be proud of how far you’ve come, pretty much alone.”

“Don’t say that,” I said, feeling sorry for the brunette. “We’re doing this together, as we talked about.”

I looked at the blue lizard creature. Not only was it able to make itself invisible, but it also possessed several large black spikes on its back, and long claws. I was happy it hadn’t chosen to use those.

“Should I eat this thing?” I asked, wanting to move on, but hesitant to leave something like this behind. It had shown a variety of spells that were more than useful.

“I think you should,” Cellestra said. “If you could absorb those spells, it’d be more than worth it.”

“Fair enough.”

I turned around and skittered over to Selleron and told him that I hoped he wouldn’t mind us taking a small break.

“I’m fine with anything,” He replied. “This is your trial. In the end, you decide the pace.”

I nodded and thanked him as I moved back to the corpse of the phasing lizard. I said a small prayer to Elysa as I sank my teeth in its flesh.