Chapter Four
What should I do? What should I do? What should I do?
Think, think, think Cyan. THINK!
Still trembling from fear, Cyan can only take a stance and waits.
The cave. I’m at a big disadvantage here, I need to bring the fight outside.
Cyan start to rummage through her side pocket to get some pebble magic stone she stored for emergencies.
“Rattle.”
The pebbles start to vibrate in Cyan’s hand.
She then throws one of them to the ground.
“OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!” The Tesák-Worm immediately attacks the pebble thinking that it was an enemy.
Alright!
Cyan start to dash as fast as she could to the cave entrance.
The Worm hurriedly goes back underground and pursues her steps.
“Volitare.”
A quick spell to make things float for a few seconds. I cast it to my boots and start to jump to the left. I then throw another pebble to the right.
“OOOOOOOOO!!!” being played like a dumb dog, the Worm attacks another pebble making me go freely on the left side.
That’s the entrance!
Cyan was finally a few steps away from the entrance with the monster still in pursuit behind her back.
The Tesák-Worm quickly goes underground again as it still thinks that this is its best way of attacking for now. Already missed two of its attacks, the monster starts to learn which vibration is the pebble and which vibration the enemy is. After listening to another diversion, the Tesák-Worm starts attacking the other one, the one with the constant vibration which was Cyan’s steps.
“OOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!”
“Firä!”
Fire burns brightly around the magic stone. Cyan evades to her right just in time. The Worm might have read her tricks, but Cyan also finished calculating how fast can it goes and predict when it might attack the third time. She also prepared her attack spells and everything works as she wanted.
The Worm gulp down the stone enveloped in fire, only to get burnt badly as the magic fire burns intensely for a few seconds before it runs out of oxygen.
“KIIIIIIIIIIK!!!”
The fire only adds more damage to the already badly wounded monster. It stays above the ground for a while before it starts to dig below again.
“Huff… Huff… Huff…”
Cyan finally runs past the cave entrance to the small clearing in the forest.
She readies her sword once again and turns back to face the Tesák-Worm inside the cave. A well-lit place outside like this didn’t really put Cyan at any advantage but at least she can sense her enemy better by seeing the ground movement and the grass wobbling when the Worm moves around.
“OOOOOOOO!!!” another simple attack comes from below, after seeing this same attack and the same roars again and again Cyan's reflexes really outshine the monster. She evades just a little bit and thrusts her silver sword into the monster’s body. The Tesák-Worm momentum only makes its wound get bigger and bigger over time.
Red blood spurts everywhere on the field, foreshadowing the death of the monster. It won’t be long until the Tesák-Worm meets its demise, but it won’t go back now. It can’t. The Worm knows that even if it let go of the human now, the human might return with more numbers and destroy everything it has built. The human must die.
Alright… I got the upper hand now. What should I do next?
Cyan took a stance and waits. She doesn’t have any scratches on her body, even after multiple attacks she faces inside the cave. But her mind is not completely fine. Those series of quick spells are not free tools to use at no cost. Like when Warrior swings their swords over and over in a battle, their arms will starts to get heavier and heavier until they cannot swing any longer. That is fatigue, quick spells also did this to the spellcaster’s mind. It uses the mana from the magic stone to do its tasks but the spellcaster still needs to spend his mind power to activate it. Mana Potion won’t help this case like how Stamina Potion will never make a Warrior hold his stance for months. Cyan needs to rest before her mind starts to consume her from the inside.
“SPLURGHHHH!!!” the Worm unveils another one of his deadly attacks. It spits out its gastric juice to its enemy, hoping to make this a ranged battle. Green-ish slimy juice flies straight to Cyan’s face only to be evaded just in time.
“Pssssshhh…” the attack meltdown nearby bushes and trees and a disgusting stench fill the air immediately.
“Splurghhh… Splurghhh… Splurghhh…” the monster keeps attacking cyan over and over. Cyan runs through the plains trying to get close to the monster while evading the attacks.
“HAAA!!!” I tried another vertical slash to the Worm and hit it easily.
Nice! Maybe I can end this quickly.
The Tesák-Worm spins before Cyan ends her attack.
Eh?
Cyan got thrown away from the momentum, releasing her grip on her sword.
The Worm spits right away in her direction not waiting for her to stand.
Cyan frantically evades just at the last moment but her leg still got caught in some juices.
”Pssshhh…”
“Uaaargghhh….”
Cyan’s leg starts to show burnt marks while she tries to remove her dissolving greave.
The Tesák-Worm, with a silver sword still sticking out of its body, starts to move slowly to Cyan to deliver its last attack.
The color drained from her face, her body felt numb, and her blood froze in his veins. Cyan’s fears break out once again, she desperately rummages through her bag searching for anything that could help her in this situation.
“Ugh…”
“…”
“Where am I…”
Gabe found himself buried in some kind of slimy rubble, still cannot see anything other than darkness. He tried to move the rubbles from his legs and see if he could stand.
“Arghhh….”
His right knee bone was shattered and his calf was crushed. He can’t feel a thing below his right thigh.
“Anne…?”
Still, the cat’s safety was the first thing that comes to his mind. Anne breathes slowly, showing her outstanding will to live even after all that happened. Her body is still in Gabe’s arms, protected from any debris that may harm her.
“Don’t worry. I’ll get us out of here.”
Gabe put his leg with a stick and wrapped it in his clothes hoping it would somehow act as a cast. His eyes have already started to adapt to darkness making him able to see a little bit better than before.
“Hnrrgghh…”
Gabe tries to stand on his feet and scans the environment near him.
“I’m pretty sure this is not the monster’s stomach…”
He can feel the ‘walls’ all around him, it was hard and sturdy not soft and slimy as he would expect inside a monster digestion system.
The only way he could try is to go up, to the darkest points in the room.
A few minutes after tying up his leg to try to minimize the pain and plucking up courage, Gabe is ready to find a way out.
“Alright, we’re good to go,” said Gabe after he took Anne into his pocket. He needs to alter his pants a little bit to make sure Anne won’t slip out when he climbs the ‘wall’.
“Here we go… Hmph!”
The ‘wall’ around him is not too far away from each other, Gabe knows he was in some kind of cylinder-shaped room with around 1.5m diameter which he should be able to climb with only using one leg and two hands.
He did try to push and hit the wall around him expecting to get to another room if exist but there is no sign of anything there except the hard-cold stone, making him unable to do anything else besides going up.
“I hope Cyan is fine…”
Gabe starts to climb the ‘wall’.
After sipping a lesser health potion Cyan’s pain immediately goes away. The potion also helps to bring down her fear for a little bit. She stands up and took another stance once more.
I screwed up. I need to get the sword back. I probably could set another firä or two but that would probably be my limit before passing out…
“HAAAAAAA!!!” Cyan charges.
“OOOOOOOOOOO!!!” the monster answers. It is no longer afraid of her melee attacks as her silver sword is no longer in her possession.
“FIRÄ!!!” I wrapped my left hand with a magic stone just before I charged so that I could control the fire direction better hoping to make this attack distract the Worm while trying to retrieve my sword. It doesn’t work.
The Tesák-Worm didn’t even flinch from the fire attack. It knew that this is a do-or-die situation. It hurtled right towards the fire, withstanding the burnt marks it might have, and just focus on slamming the Human to the ground to end this battle.
Ah… is this how it ends? Did my adventure end at my first hunt?
SPLASH!
Blood once again spurts out to the small clearing inside the forest, dying it all red as far as eyes can see.
Cyan can only kneel powerless in front of the deadly monster split into two pieces.
Wait. Two pieces?
The monster splits into two parts and falls to the ground.
A shadow appears behind the monster’s body.
Not long after that, a cloaked person with fully equipped leather armor and two daggers replace the shadow at the same time as Cyan’s mind runs out and makes her faint.
to be continued to Chapter Five
~Terti
