•••
"This is so boring, FUUUUUCCCKKK!!!" Delia throws her head back and yells at the sky.
Aurelius, who was squatting nearby, feeding a nut to what looked like a chipmunk with distinct cyan blue tints in his fur, looked up at her with intrigue.
"It is?" Caius asked with a slight smile, "You haven’t ntioned it in the past five seconds..."
Delia glares at him.
"You know, when I agreed to co along and join your team..."
"You didn’t have a choice, lacking friends as you do," Caius chid in quietly still with a smile.
"... I thought it’d be fun," Delia completed.
"And I told you to have patience," Caius said and his smile slipped slightly, "You’ll be glad you’ve kept your strength."
"What for?" Delia asked, throwing her hands up, "Everyone else is already gaining duel points."
"Would you really find satisfaction in dueling our classmates?" Caius asked.
Delia opened her mouth but then shut it. As bored as she was now, she did feel it wouldn’t be all that much better if she were to fight against other First Years. As it turned out, the two in the class she was most confident she’d enjoy battling were right here with her, on her team.
’Thank you for that,’ she thought at Caius, throwing him another glare.
He just shook his head and looked over at Aurelius as the blue-tinted, furred chipmunk leaped off his hands and hopped away.
"Where next?" Caius asked.
Aurelius stood up and furrowed his brow.
They had been to about six habitats so far. Aurelius, as their guide and surprisingly (to Delia) very attuned with Forest navigation had ensured they only ever arrived at the dod habitats of docile beasts. The kinds that required gentle handling and no combat acun at all.
To put this into perspective, the most confrontational set of beasts they had stumbled upon so far were Wind-Puffing Rabbits and it was because the fluffy things had a penchant for blasting them with wind. Besides that, it had been smooth sailing. So long as they were gentle in their Beast handling.
Which naturally ant Delia struggled the most. She was already not the soft and cuddly kind, but her agitation for more excitent made her short of patience.
Still, their team had never spent too long with the Beasts. And they always earned the near maximum amounts of points they could before moving on.
Funny thing was, as well as they were doing, Caius had a feeling their team was being overlooked because of the lack of excitent. Even by their Professor, Lea Gilligan. He was fine with that though. The point here was not to put on a show.
"Well?" Delia asked after Aurelius said and did nothing but furrow his brow for a couple of minutes.
"Give him ti," Caius said and touched Delia’s elbow gently.
Another minute passed and Aurelius pivoted, directing his attention in a direction and walking on.
"This way," he said absentmindedly.
"Let’s go," Caius said and urged Delia to follow along.
"Ugh," Delia groaned, not appeased with more promise of more docile beasts but she moved.
Caius focused on Aurelius.
He could tell it was close.
After about ten minutes of brisk walking, during which Aurelius had steered them away from running into other First years and other Beast Habitats, they arrived at a netted Do.
There was nothing in there besides what looked like a freshly dug hole.
"Sothing’s wrong," Aurelius said then.
Delia looked confused,
"What?" She asked.
"I-I’m not sure," Aurelius said.
"What do you an ’you’re not sure’?" Delia asked, "You led us here!"
"Sothing’s coming," Aurelius said.
Delia looked to the side at Caius and he had a sword in his hand and looked to the side at her, his expression halfway between serious and teasing.
"You wanted action?" He said, "Well, here it is."
They heard the sound then. It was like shrieking, occasionally mixed with clacking sounds that Delia was not sure she understood. Still, her heart beat a bit faster as excitent coursed through her, hard.
And then she was confused.
"Shouldn’t we be inside the Do?" She asked.
"It’s better we’re here," Caius said.
’Though it likely won’t matter,’ he added in his mind.
And then sothing broke through the freshly dug hole with a loud *bang* and rose high up to nine feet, causing all three First-Years to raise their head so they could see its head.
It looked like a centipede. Only, of course, a thousand tis larger. The clacking sound ca from pincers that ca out of the corners of what appeared to be its mouth. But there was sothing more. A strange Aura surrounded its gigantic form. An aura that was not quite caused by Mana. At least not normal mana.
"Three Star Beast, Clacking Centipede," Aurelius said.
Yes, as ridiculous as it might seem, that gigantic centipede was indeed just a Three-Star Beast. At least normally. It pushes the barrier a bit but its hide and even its shell are susceptible to Third Circle magic and strength. It wasn’t like the Bullcrock even if it looked to be bigger than that Beast.
It wasn’t size or even ferociousness that determined the Danger Stars of Beasts awarded by the Adventurer’s Guild, but rather the strength and magic required to fell it.
This was probably put here to act like a daunting challenge still well in hand for any of the First-Years. But things are not so simple in this case.
"Sothing feels off from that thing," Aurelius said in trepidation.
And then the Clacking Centipede pulled its head back and struck forward, slamming its pincers against the netted do. Ordinarily, the do should repel the Beast as it’s ant to contain them but it secretes a strange energy through its pincers and they infect the do, burning it away and creating space for it to crawl out.
"How did it do that?!" Delia asked with wide eyes, "This can’t be part of the Test!"
As much of a combat nut as she was, she had the good sense to realize when sothing was against the norm, and this—a Beast breaking through the containnt region—was certainly against the norm.
"We have to get the hell out of here?" She said.
’Hell,’ Caius thought with a wry smile, ’Interesting choice of words.’
"I can’t," Aurelius said like he was rooted to the spot.
And he was.
His very being was telling him to stand his ground and face the beast.
"I’m with you," Caius said, his sword held at his side.
Delia looked at him like he was nuts and Caius, feeling her gaze on him, looked to the side at her and smiled but it wasn’t teasing. It didn’t even have all that much jest in it. It was a gentle call to action.
Delia looked at him a while longer and then shook her head.
’I’m pathetic,’ she thought, ’I wanted combat, it’s here, and I want to fucking run? Hell No!’
Had they had the ti, Delia might have wondered where the feeling of fear even ca from. Never had she turned away from a challenge. Hell, she fought the Bullcrock even though her punches were useless against it.
There was no way she would normally try to run from this without at least trying. It was out of character but now was not the ti to dwell on that.
So she held her hand out and summoned the Warhamr Caius had gifted her a couple of weeks ago and held it at the ready.
The centipede had been stalking them. It dropped its head and the strange aura that had been emanating from its form beca more visible as a hellish sort of red. It also ford three horns on the centipede’s head.
The base of each horn was as thick as each of Caius’s arms and considering how muscular he had gotten since he beca a True Vampire, that was saying sothing.
The centipede charged now, its eyes entirely on Aurelius who had his hands ready with a defensive spell ready to cast.
"Attack it!" Caius yelled out.
For so reason, Aurelius didn’t think. He just listened, changing his spell cast from defensive to attacking.
At the sa ti, a purple spell circle appeared between Aurelius and the Centipede. Aurelius saw the circles within the spell circle and knew imdiately that it was a Fourth Circle spell even without being smacked in the face by the energy coming off it.
The energy was aid mostly at the Centipede though as the spell circle summoned what looked like part of the hull of a ship. Interlaid with the wooden-looking structure was a smoky thing that looked like the maw of a demon, complete with fangs.
The demonic maw was open wide intent to devour and as the centipede slamd into it with a *Bang*, its attack intercepted, chains rattled, and struck out to wrap around the Beast’s head, holding it right where it was until every impact and might behind its attack was sucked up into the ever-hungry gullet behind the demonic maw.
The spell was Caius’s Fourth Circle upgrade of Arlette’s ~Galleon’s Gate~ spell with chains added for extra security.
Aurelius realized Caius had told him to attack because he(Caius) already had defense covered. Aurelius was already on the move, rising in the air on his ~Freya’s Footsteps~ spell so he could cast his large attacking spell from above and hopefully obliterate the enemy in a single move.
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