THEOS

Luke opened his status, for a second tearing away his eye from the battle in the sky. Checking his mana, he dismissed it.

Status | Skills | Quests | Inventory

Name: Lukas King

Tier: Mortal

Mana: 3991 / 6624

Rate: 15% per hour

Strength: 116

Agility: 240

Constitution: 144

Arcana: 92

Stat Points: 0

Bloodline: Locked. Conditions not met. (1/10 000)

Charges: 7/10

Still have some. Maybe enough for another fall or two. He sighed in relief, returning his attention to the fight. Glad to still have a safety net, however small it was, in case something else pushed him off.

To his surprise, Nel seemed to fare a lot better against the winged serpent than she had the giant. Something he attributed to the fact that the creature bled, and unlike the giant, didn’t regenerate itself as soon as any damage was done to it.

She stood in the air, always making sure to position herself between the creature and the griffin, preventing it from breaking past her and getting to them. Not that it seemed particularly intent to do so. Her spear crackled with white electricity, and tore through the sky over and over, impaling the creature before returning to her waiting hand. Tearing itself free with a wet squelch, dozens of times every few seconds, and moving so fast, that it was a blur to their eyes.

It’s like she’s mashing buttons in a game. He grinned. Nothing wrong with that though, if it works, it works. If the thing is too stupid find a way out, then that’s on it.

The serpent was simply unable to cope with Nel’s barrage. Its ability to turn invisible wasn’t perfect, and Nel was unusually adept at dealing with it whenever it did try. Her eyes found the faint shimmer of its presence and the droplets of blood dripping from its body with unerring accuracy.

Nor was it fast enough to escape her spear. Not that it was willing to do so in the first place.

Despite the damage it was accruing, the monster showed no signs of retreating. If anything, it seemed more and more determined the longer the fight persisted. Even when it turned invisible it was to try and sneak past her guard, and never to escape.

How is it even alive? Luke thought incredulously, as the one sided battle dragged on.

The serpent had so many holes poked through its body after a minute or two of the treatment, that it was hard to find a spot that didn’t have one.

“Why isn’t it dying?” Jax mumbled under his breath. His hand gripped his sword so tightly, that his knuckles had turned white.

“Because. Nel’s not hitting anything important.” He stretched his arm out lazily, pointing to the monster's head. “It's taking her hits, but protecting its eyes and head. And look at where it does hit. Her spear sinks in a little, but –”

“It’s not getting past the ribs.” Jax sighed.

He’s right… “Do you think she can finish it?” Luke asked, turning to Rex.

“Maybe. It doesn’t matter too much either way.” He answered casually.

“What do you mean?”

“The griffin is a lot faster than that thing, she’s fighting it, but we can leave any time. Just look how slow it is.” He said matter of factly. “If we hadn’t run into it, there wouldn’t have even been a battle at all. Honestly, if Nel gave it the chance, it would run, but it knows that she won’t let it escape. The second it turns it back, it's going to get a spear in its skull.”

“Why aren’t we leaving then?” Jax asked.

Rex just stared blankly at the battle. “Creatures at the Warrior-tier are valuable and rare. Nel’s mother is also an alchemist. One of the best on the island, actually. The sheer amount of mana saturating the body’s of warriors make them an exceptional reagent, and a monster that size could be used to make hundreds of high quality potions. I don’t think I have to tell you how valuable those are.” He explained. “Not with the Tide so close.”

“But still, do we have the time? We have a mission to complete.” Jax grumbled. “I thought delivering the message would be more important than killing some random monster living in the middle of nowhere.

“If time was a big constraint on this mission, then she wouldn’t have agreed to take you. Or came to the Capital to grab me for that matter.”

“Why did she come for you?” Luke asked.

Rex just grinned at him. “You’ll find out if you find out. Just because we’re going to a Cyclop’s Forge together doesn’t change the fact that we’ll be competing in a few months.”

“Really?” Luke deadpanned. He’s still on that?

“Yes.” The smile slipped from his face. “Really. My abilities and my secrets are mine. I have no obligation to tell you anything. The same way you don’t have to tell me anything. If I were you, I’d be glad for that. If everyone went around thinking they were entitled to your knowledge, the world would be a bloody place.”

Well, he’s not wrong. It’s not like I was going to tell him my secrets. I’ve killed to keep my own already. It’s only fair that he doesn’t tell me his own.

Still… He frowned at him. It kind of sucks not knowing what’s up. It’s not like we’re complete strangers, and knowing what he can do, and the extent of his abilities could mean life or death. It’s not like I'm asking him to explain everything he can do in excruciating detail. Whatever.

Shaking his head, he focused on the battle.

It's probably something dumb anyway.

Their battle, if it could even be called that anymore, continued in the same vein for minutes. Nel was beginning to look tired from the constant exertion, but the serpent looked on the verge of death. She had begun aiming for its wings, drastically reducing its ability to maneuver in the air. Something she had avoided earlier on in a feeble attempt to protect its most valuable organs. As the battle wore on though, she became more and more careless to the damage she was causing it. Having decided that it was more important to kill the beast, than it was to extract the maximum amount of value from it.

I wonder how many Stat Points a warrior is worth.

Instantly Luke began thinking of ways to land the killing blow on the creature. His mind churned out one bad idea after another. He discarded all of them, deciding that randomly leaping into the battle would see him get killed.

If I can manage it though, I’ll make some progress with leveling up my sword. And who knows when I’ll get a chance like this again.

There seem to be a lot more Warrior-tier beings on Sylcra than there were on Carim, but a hundred isn’t a small number. Now that I think about it, a hundred warriors is probably a solid percentage of them. If I can chip away at the upgrade requirement, I should.

“Do you think she’ll let me land the killing blow?” He asked Rex.

“What?”

“I want to kill it.”

“Are you stupid?”

Luke smiled at him, as he watched Rex’s opinion of him sink in real time.

“I like to think I’m brave. Besides, how often do you get the opportunity to kill something at the Warrior-tier as a mortal.”

“Never. It’s suicide. Idiotic beyond belief. What about that makes you want to get involved?” He asked incredulously.

“Look at it.” Luke gestured vaguely in the serpent's direction. “It’s about to keel over and die any second now. I should be able to get close and stab it in the eye pretty easily.”

“Rex is right. What you're describing is insane. What's the point of landing a killing blow anyway?”

Well I have this awesome sword that used to belong to a demigod, that siphons the mana of whatever I kill with it. “I just want to. It’ll be something to brag about in a few decades.”

“Even if you could get close without being ripped apart, the odds of you being able to do any damage to it at all is next to none. It’s a warrior. Even weakened, its flesh is too strong for a mortal to cut through.” Rex argued.

“That could be a problem. Do you think I should test cutting its tail or something first. See if that works, before committing to a killing blow.”

“Are you stupid?” Rex asked again.

Luke ignored him. Crawling forward on the griffins back, he wrapped an arm around its thick neck, and unsheathed Bellerophon's Blade.

“Can you understand me?” He asked the eagle head, ignoring Jax and Rex muttering in the background. The creature ignored him. Unfettered, he continued. “I want you to fly closer to Nel, can you do that? I need to talk to her.”

It cocked its head to the side.

“Please?” Luke asked again.

This is stupid. It's just an animal. Why would it even understand me? Luke sighed softly.

One of its eyes met both of Luke’s.

Then to the surprise of everyone, it banked hard and fast. A moment later, it was hovering next to Nel.

“Aura! What are you doing?” She asked, not taking her eyes off the beast. Her chest rising and falling in exertion.

“I asked her to.” Luke swung his leg over the side of the griffin's neck, getting ready to sprint into the air at a moment's notice. “I want to kill it.”

“What?”

“I know it sounds ridiculous, but I want to kill it.”

Nel opened and closed her mouth in shock. “Why?”

Luke ignored her question. “I was thinking, I’ll have Aura fly past that thing, and I’ll jump onto its back, and stab it through the skull.”

“You’ll die.” She said, as her spear pulled itself free. Catching it with casual ease, she flicked it back at the monster.

“It’ll have no way to attack me if I'm on its back, and if you keep it distracted, it should be fine.”

“That’s stupid, and you have nothing to gain. Killing it won’t get you its corpse. I’m not going to give it to you after all this work”

Its corpse? What? Ew.

“If you let me do it, I’ll participate in the Olympics.”

She gave him the stink eye, before biting her bottom lip in thought. “Fine.” She agreed grudgingly. “I need a moment. When I say go, jump! You’ll know where to attack.”

Her ring flashed, and four more spears, identical to the one she was already using appeared in the air beside her. All five of them whirled in the air around her, and her face went red with exertion, as each of the spears became brighter and brighter. Lighting running down their shafts.

One after the other, they ripped through the air, each one aimed at different parts of the creature's head. It dodged two of them, while one lodged itself in its neck. Higher up its body than any spear had hit before. Not wasting a second, she launched another. Aimed right at its eyes.

It dodged.

“GO.” She shouted, launching the last spear. It flew through air, and the griffin took off after it, and arrived in the air above the creature moments before it struck the monster.

Luke jumped, sword drawn.

Her spear grazed the top of the creature's neck, leaving a deep gash along its skull.

Luke’s eyes glimmered, as he realized what she had done. Diving forward, he pushed downward, using his boots to give him extra leverage in the air.

His sword buried itself straight into the creature's brain, all the way until his hands were buried in its gray matter. Luke’s momentum, combined with his sword’s inherent sharpness, slipping through the remaining tissue, like a hot knife through butter.

It bucked.

Nel appeared underneath it and drove a spear through the roof of its mouth. Hooking it like a fish, and heaving it into the air.

Mana, thick and viscous, burned its way through the sword and up Luke’s arms. His world became white with pain, as agony greater than any he had felt before raced through him. He felt his Arcana stat surge rapidly, as the very act of absorbing Warrior-tier mana stressed his mana far beyond what should have been possible at his tier.

The Seed came alive within him, and swallowed it all. Saving him from death.

+316 Stat Points

Worth it. Luke thought, falling belly first onto the creature's blood covered body, as darkness clouded his vision.