It was exhausting.
Every time he swung the rock down on the creature’s leg, he felt the weight of it just that little bit more. The heat only made it worse. He felt like he was sweating buckets.
It didn’t help that he had to constantly move with the creature as it turned, just so that he could keep hitting at the same spot. And each hit only chipped off a tiny bit of rock, barely even damaging the monster.
The only good thing about this was that it was safe. The creature didn’t seem to have any ranged magical attacks, it was too slow to reach him with its mouth, and too dumb to attack him with any other part of its body.
All in all, while it was tiring, and at times felt like a waste of energy, it wasn’t dangerous.
That didn’t stop Lucien from being careful though. He believed that there had to be something special about this creature besides its defence, otherwise it would be easy prey for anything else that might exist out here.
There was also the fact that it came from the footprint of that ancient beast. It gave Lucien the feeling that there had to be some kind of a connection between the two, no matter how weak it may be.
After a while of pounding away at the creature’s leg, Lucien felt a scorching heat that almost made him throw the rock in his hands away. He flinched back, just in time to narrowly avoid the flaming tongues that lashed out at him.
The creature finally let out a shrill cry as lava flowed from the open wound like blood.
That was close. He felt a flicker of pain on his hands, but he was lucky. If he had moved any slower, the fire would have caught onto the fabric and he would have been turned into a pyre almost instantly.
The flames coiled through the air, reaching out to Lucien like the desperate hands of a beggar.
What the. He dodged to the side, but the flames continued to chase after him. It wasn’t until he distanced himself about ten metres from the creature that the flames finally stopped following him and instead coiled randomly through the air like a ribbon dancing in the wind.
“Are you okay?” Lynn called out to him with worry.
“I’m fine. Just stay back. I’ve got this.”
Lucien had ample experience fighting magical beasts over the years. And although he had no magic of his own, he had figured out how to spot when it was being used against him. Especially by beasts that didn’t bother hiding it.
There was no way this wasn’t done by magic.
You’ve got to be kidding me. Lucien watched from a distance as the lava that flowed from the creature hardened at a rapid rate, quickly encasing the wound in a fresh layer of rock.
All of his effort over the past several minutes had been wasted. The only solace he could find was that the flaming tongues had disappeared, as they could no longer escape from the creature’s body.
Okay, new plan. I can’t whittle it down at all, I need to try and take it out in one fell swoop. Meaning I have to go for the head.
He studied the creature’s head for a moment as a plan started forming in his mind.
This was, by far, the most troublesome use of magic he had ever come across in all his years. It wasn’t the deadliest, nor was it the strongest, but it synergised so well with the creature’s physiology that it had reached a point of absurdity.
The creature’s natural defences made it difficult to harm it, and its magic not only healed the injuries, but inflicted damage back. This creature was meant to withstand wave after wave of attacks until its enemy was too exhausted to do anything.
Lucien could try to whittle it down, hoping that its mana would run out, but he knew that it was more likely that he would faint from exhaustion first.
He thought back to his own experiences with magic, hoping it would help him out in some way.
From his experience, most creatures that could utilise mana would either use it to make their attacks stronger, or would send it out in a rudimentary burst of energy like a ball or a slash.
Just like that wolf that injured him.
While humans were capable of using mana far more creatively than this, and some could probably achieve the exact same thing this monster was doing, Lucien hadn’t met many people who were skilled in magic.
There was only the elves and Uther, but none of them used it like this.
It’s no use. I haven’t faced anything like this before. With his mind drawing blanks, he could only hope that attacking the head would be effective.
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And if it wasn’t, then at least he could easily leave. This creature wasn’t exactly fast.
He threw away the rock in his hand. While it was good for repeated swings, he didn’t think it would be able to do enough damage with a single strike.
He needed something with weight.
He started looking around at the big bits of rock that had been sloughed off, but ended up running into the exact opposite problem. These rocks were too big for him to carry. Some of them were too big for him even if he still had both his arms, much less with just the one.
He spotted something that looked like it could work, but was still too close to the creature for him to be able to test it out.
After a bit of time slowly leading the creature away from it, he raced to the rock. He looked back at the creature and figured that he had about a minute or two to test out whether this rock could work.
He crouched down, placing his hand on the rock as he felt around for a good place to hold it.
He grunted as he lifted it up off the floor. It was not as easy to lift as the previous one, but still manageable. His arm shook and he took a step back, taking the chance to stabilise himself with the rock above his head.
This should work. It was a bit bigger than the creature’s head, meaning that he’d hopefully be able to crush it with enough force.
The creature was closing in on him now, it’s menacing eyes trying to burn a hole right through him.
It snapped at him the second it got within range, forcing him to take another shaky step back.
He could feel his arm burning, but he knew it wasn’t from anything the creature had done. He had wasted too much energy earlier. I can’t hold this for much longer. I need to do this now.
The creature continued to bite at him, as he continued to move back. He was waiting for the creature to fully extend its neck out so that it wouldn’t be able to dodge in time.
Gotcha. A tired smile crept onto his face as he took another step back, the creature’s mouth snapping shut a mere hair’s breadth from his stomach.
Using the last of his strength, he swung the rock down with as much force as he could muster. He stopped caring the second the rock left his hand, and rolled backwards out of the way of any attacks the creature might pull.
He heard a squelch as he fell to the ground, and completed the roll. He looked back at the creature, then flopped to the ground, letting out a tired grunt.
The rock managed to land right on the neck, crushing it instantly. The creature continued biting at Lucien for the next few seconds, confused as to why it wasn’t getting any closer. Its eyes dimmed as its thoughts went sluggish and its movements slowed.
Eventually, it stopped moving altogether.
Lucien stayed lying on the ground for a couple minutes. Both because he was tired, and because he was worried that it would lash out at him one final time if he got close.
After he caught his breath, he dragged himself to his feet and figured that it was okay to get closer.
He circled around the creature and kicked it a few times to make sure it was fully dead. Even going so far as to kick it in the head. “It’s safe.”
“You did it. You defeated the mini mountain!” Lynn said excitedly as she walked around the creature to join him.
“Mini mountain?” he asked, his eyes darting between her and the creature before nodding. “Good name.”
Lynn joined him near the head of the creature, looking at it with a mix of fear and curiosity. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. Just a little tired.” He waved off her concerns, his focus entirely on the creature.
He crouched down and moved the rock to the side, letting him see the full extent of the damage.
A section of the neck was flattened, with bits of meat and lava spilling to the floor. The meat quickly cooked and charred as it came into contact with the lava.
Interesting. Seems like it had some kind of protective barrier that it kept up so that it didn’t cook itself from the inside. No wonder its attacks weren’t that ferocious.
He moved the head around, observing it from all angles while making sure not to burn himself.
“What are you looking for?” Lynn asked.
“Anything that we can sell. There’s no point in letting such a good carcass go to waste.” Thinking for a moment, he looked over at the horses in the distance. “Go get the horses back. And while you’re at it, get me a knife, some water, and there should be a couple bags with some soot in it.”
It’s eyes should sell for a decent price. Shame its too big for us to flip over. Its insides should be worth a lot.
Lynn came running back with the horses in tow. She rummaged through the satchels, getting the things he asked for. “Here.”
Lucien took the knife, then crouched back down near the creature’s head. “You’re going to need to help me here. Pour some water into one of those bags.”
Lynn did as instructed, only stopping when he told her to. Under his guidance, she closed the bag and shook it rapidly for a couple minutes.
“That should be good. Now just hold the bag open and be ready to catch.”
“What was all that for?”
“We need something to preserve the eyes in, otherwise they’ll shrivel up and we won’t be able to sell them for anything.”
With the two of them crouched down, and Lynn holding open a small leather bag, Lucien got to work.
Delicately, he brought the knife to the eye of the creature. Hooking it into the eye socket, he sliced around the eye with the kind of careful precision that comes with experience. Careful not to damage the eyeball itself, he pulled the knife out and watched the eyeball fall into the open bag.
“So that’s what these bags were for,” Lynn muttered, now understanding some of the little things he had been doing over the course of their journey. Like collecting soot from the campfires, or washing the bags they used for food.
“Figured we’d run into a situation like this. It’s always a good idea to come prepared.”
Repeating the same steps, they collected and preserved the second eye.
“I don’t think we’re getting anything else out of this. Let’s go.”
Atop their horses once again, the two continued to follow the curve of the footprint, this time watching for anything else that might jump out at them.
“I’m curious, why didn’t you use magic in that fight? Wouldn’t it have helped?”
Lucien paused for a moment, unsure how to answer. It’s not like he was avoiding telling her. Magic had just never really come up so far on their journey. “I can’t use magic.”