NOVEL NEXT Chapter 111 - Juvenile
Symon instantly focused, his eyes locking onto the forest. "You heard something?"
"Yes, but not like that," Entisse answered calmly, her posture relaxed but ready to strike — like always. "I hear water. Likely a small stream, but there are sure to be more beasts there than here." They hadn't encountered anything more than the occasional bird, which had all immediately fled from them.
He nodded; it was sound logic. They hadn't spotted any large bodies of water from when they'd been up on the cave wall, though anything could have been hidden under the dense canopy of the forest. Still, they'd have a better chance of finding a monster stopping for a drink. For that matter, Symon was getting thirsty too. They hadn't brought any water with them, just the wolf steaks, and those were still back in the cave. "Good idea. We should try finding a way to store some water for ourselves, too. Err, you do drink water, right?"
"I can," Entisse said, though she didn't sound enthusiastic about the prospect. "Blood is preferred."
"Naturally." Symon's lips curled into a slight smile. "Well, sounds like we can slake both our thirsts at the stream, then. Which way is it?"
Symon crouched inside a bush, observing the creature drinking from the stream through gaps in the foliage. He'd only needed to wait there for a few minutes until something showed up, which was still plenty of time for his magic to kill both the bush and all the nearby vegetation. Plants completely drained by his magic weren't obviously dead — they tended to slump over and break apart more easily, and sometimes darken a little and lose their leaves, but it wasn't as blatant as an area of complete destruction.
At the very least, it was enough that the creature couldn't see him.
The beast in question looked a lot like a bear, though the proportions were all off. The back legs were short and stubby, while the front pair were overly long. This meant that it walked around at an odd, half-upright angle reminiscent of a gorilla. It was covered in short brown fur so dark it was almost black, and showed off large, white fangs as it bent to sip from the stream. Unlike Entisse, who had a mouth full of them, the creature only had a single pair of fangs, though they were big enough to make up for it; about as long as his hand, and probably only slightly slimmer than his wrist.
"Think we can take it?" Symon whispered as softly as he could. They were still some distance away from the creature, and the creek was flowing quickly and causing a lot of noise, even though it was narrow enough he could jump over it, so he wasn't worried about being overheard.
Entisse nodded excitedly at his side, her clawed fingers twitching in anticipation.
<It's a juvenile cave bear,> Keelgrave provided suddenly after having been silent for some time. It was odd, but Symon hadn't been startled by Keelgrave's sudden interjections in a while.
"That's a juvenile?" Symon asked, his throat suddenly going dry. The unimaginatively named cave bear's shoulders came up to the same height as Symon and Entisse's. It was bulky, too; its legs thick like tree trunks.
<Yeah, the adults are twice the size. Don't worry about them showing up, though. They lay eggs, and the parents don't protect or provide for them. Quantity over quality, you know?>
The beast paused its drinking, taking a quick look behind it. Beady eyes passed over their hiding place, but it didn't notice them and quickly went back to slurping up the water. "How the hell do you know all that?"
<The eggs are a delicacy. Real rich and creamy.> The ghost let out a sigh. <Sometimes I miss tasting things, you know.>
"Well, maybe I'll try… cave bear eggs if we don't die in here, how's that sound?"
<I'll hold you to it.>
"Sure, sure. Anything I should know about this thing before I fight it, though?"
The spirit inside Symon's vessel spread out slightly before springing back together, Keelgrave's equivalent of a shrug. <Not really. They're strong, and like to wrestle and bite. No magic for you to worry about, though.>
Symon nodded in relief. There was nothing blatantly magical about it, but he'd have no way of knowing that on his own until he fought one. "And it is Second Step, right?"
<Yeah, barely. I don't think the adults ever make it to Third. I say you go for it.>
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Symon agreed. They all knew hunting in the forest was a risk; they could probably survive for longer hiding in tiny caves and scrounging for food just to get by, but that wouldn't make them any stronger. They'd be stuck in the dungeon until they inevitably got unlucky and something way too strong for them found and ate them. By taking calculated risks like this, there was a chance that they could actually grow strong enough to survive against the dungeon's dangers and eventually escape.
"Okay," he whispered aloud this time. "It looks strong, but doesn't have any armour. I'd bet you could make it bleed pretty good."
Entisse nodded excitedly, bouncing on the balls of her feet. The end of her long white braid danced with the motion of her head.
"We play keepaway, alright?" When he saw her big eyes stare at him in confusion, he elaborated. "One person distracts, the other attacks, then we swap."
Understanding bloomed on her face, and she nodded once. "Pack tactics," she hissed so softly he could barely hear it.
He smiled back. "Do you want to go fir—" he started speaking, but Entisse had already scurried out of the bush, taking a wide circle to loop around to the cave bear's back. "—st. Well, I guess that works."
Symon crouched stock still as Entisse rapidly vanished into the foliage with barely a sound. Ideally, he would be a little closer to the cave bear when the ambush was sprung, but he wasn't nearly sneaky enough to risk moving now. They'd been lucky that the cave bear had decided to pick this little section of the creek to take a drink from, and he wasn't going to push it by trying to eke out a slight advantage just to end up scaring it off too early. Or, more likely, to scare it into eating him too early.
He wasn't sure if Entisse had some kind of stealth Skill, or if it was just the result of higher Attributes and lots of practice, but he saw no indication of her travelling through the thick undergrowth until she popped out on the opposite edge of the clearing, directly behind the cave bear.
Symon would have appreciated some type of warning from her before she immediately charged towards the monster's exposed back, but he supposed that if he was a little surprised by her sudden appearance, then the cave bear certainly would be.
Still, it somehow noticed her approach at the last second, turning around and swinging one of its massive forelimbs in a lazy arc. He winced in anticipation at the approaching blow, but she deftly dodged it by dropping to her knees and sliding under the swipe. At the same time, her claws flashed out, carving red furrows across its side as her momentum carried her out of range. She pushed off the ground just in time to avoid falling into the creek, instead alighting softly on her feet, where she then promptly turned to face the enraged cave bear, giving it an equally savage grin.
It reared up on its hind legs, banging its fists against its chest like a gorilla would. Each impact sent a deep reverberation through the air, rattling Symon's teeth with pure concussive force. It might be a weak Second Step, but Symon was only barely on the First.
Regardless of that fact, Symon still repeated the tactic Entisse had used, charging from directly behind while its ire was focused on her. Already, the shallow lines carved in its side leaked more blood than a normal wound should have, so Symon would target that area with his own attack.
The Running Passive guided his steps; while Entisse was more agile, he had her beat in a straight line charge. The distance between him and the monster quickly dropped to nothing. Even at only level zero, his new Natural Weaponry Passive helped guide his motions. Wind your arm back like this, rotate your hips just so, then explode out, it whispered into his mind.
Symon didn't hold back, twisting his whole body as his fist hooked inwards. As it flew through the air, another Passive provided aid. Though it was most effective on humans, or those close enough like Entisse, Anatomy worked to one degree or another on every living thing. In the case of the cave bear, the information provided was simple but undeniably important.
Though the coarse, dark fur provided a visual barrier, the Passive helped him to build an understanding of his opponent's body in his mind's eye. Nothing so obvious as a glowing weak spot presented itself, but that wasn't necessary. It gave his fist a slight nudge downward, letting him know where the sturdy ribcage ended and the softer, more vulnerable flesh began.
Perhaps with many more levels, he'd be able to know where all the most vulnerable internal organs were with a single glance. He didn't have x-ray vision as he was now, but perfect precision wasn't required, not when he already knew there were plenty of things under your ribcage that you didn't want to get punched in.
Symon's fist slammed into the creature's exposed side. Most people would have described it as like punching a brick wall. Up until recently, Symon would have been included in this group. But he knew, very intimately, what punching a solid wall felt like, and the cave bear's flesh just didn't measure up.
It was very tough, that was for sure. There was barely any give to the hit, but there was some.
It let out a bellowing roar of pain. Instead of swiping after him like it had for Entisse, it stumbled to the side — more out of confusion and an instinctual reaction to pain than because of the force of his blow, but it nonetheless moved.
There was no guarantee the bear-gorilla hybrid had the same organs in the same places as him, but his guess must have been good enough because the retaliatory swing came a little slower than it had for Entisse. The paw that narrowly missed him looked very odd — a lot like an ape's thick hands but without an opposable thumb.
He repeated what Entisse had done, leaping easily over the narrow creek, though he circled to the right where she had gone left. All the while, his thread had lashed out and begun draining its life. The magic struggled and strained to rip it out, though it wasn't nearly as difficult as it had been with the spider. Like unclogging a pipe, a few motes travelled down the connection, paving the way for more and more to follow in their wake until a steady, dense stream flowed into his Vessel.
"Ooooh, that's the good stuff," Symon said to himself. It lacked the overwhelming fiery quality that the giant spider's life had possessed, but the relative ease with which he pulled it out made up for it. Quantity had a quality all of its own, after all.
The monster slapped its chest in response. It was hesitant at first, but the injuries it had sustained were minor in the grand scheme of things, and it quickly picked up the pace of the rhythmic banging. The fight was far from over, but Symon couldn't help but smile eagerly.