Duskbound-Chapter 144 - Book 2, 65
Either of the hunters individually would have been easy prey. Maybe not easy, but certainly not impossible, Velik mentally corrected himself. Both of them together made things difficult. If his goal had been simply to kill them, he was confident he could have managed. Subduing them was altogether a different matter.
Agora was fast compared to a normal person, but with what Velik was used to dealing with from gold-ranked hunters, she was nothing special. She had explosive speed, mostly in the form of her deceptively fast axe strikes, but she couldn't keep it up, and, even at her best, she wasn't faster than Velik. He could keep ahead of her without fear of being struck by her normal attacks.
Of course, no one made it to nearly level 50 without picking up a few tricks. In Agora's case, that meant cleaving the air itself, leaving behind vacuums that pulled on Velik's body as they attempted to drag him along in the axe's wake. Even that wasn't a big deal, not really. With his physical at a staggering 182, the powerful vortexes didn't have a chance of budging him.
At first, Revick stayed out of it. Agora's desire to skin Velik—something he wasn't sure was possible, since the skill would likely expire on his death and his body would revert to human shape—meant she didn't want a bunch of arrow holes ruining his hide. It wasn't until Velik got his fangs clamped around Agora's shoulder that the archer reacted.
His bow came up in a flash, arrows appearing on the string as if by magic. For all Velik knew, they might be. The archer had a hip quiver that was obviously feeding his attacks, but even Velik's high mental couldn't catch him drawing individual arrows. However it was happening, he had five arrows in the air in an instant, forcing Velik to release Agora or allow himself to be pincushioned.
If he'd had access to his cloak, he'd have used its [Air Walk] enchantment to dodge. If he'd had his ring, a [Power Surge] might have allowed him to drag Agora into the arrows' paths in time to serve as a living shield. He could feel his gear, stowed away safely in whatever pocket dimension [True Form] created. It was still connected to him, but it wasn't available to use.
That was a flaw he needed to fix, and hopefully soon. [True Form] was still worth it in terms of raw stats, but Velik had grown used to the tool kit his equipment had granted him. He was sure there was a way to draw on those enchantments, at least in part, but now wasn't the time to experiment.
"Hey! I told you not to put holes in my new cloak!" Agora bellowed.
"Oh, sorry," Revick told her snidely. "I'll just let it rip your arm off next time."
"With this thing's little love nips? Please."
There was some merit to that. Agora was tough, and even though Velik was sure he was physically stronger, he wasn't confident that he'd actually have been able to take the arm. His plan had been to slam her around like he'd done that bat champion, mostly because he'd hoped that Revick would hesitate to shoot him with Agora in the way. That turned out to be a futile expectation.
Velik was perhaps less agile in his wolf form, though part of that was definitely that he wasn't nearly as used to how his new body worked, but he made up for that in raw speed. Instead of a graceful dodge that saw arrows speeding by, barely ruffling his fur as he effortlessly avoided them, he simply threw himself ten feet to the side.
"Come back here, you little shit," Agora said. She reared up, her axe held over her head in both hands, and slashed it down hard enough to split the stone. A wave of magic erupted from the blade, slicing through the air and heading directly at Velik, but it was once again too slow to hit him.
Maybe I can take out Revick first. He looks a lot weaker, easier to knock out.
Of course, looks could be deceiving. No weak man could fire arrows at that speed or even draw back a bow that size. The limiting factor was actually the short man's arm spread. The draw itself was effortless, so quick that Velik could barely keep track of it, and aimed so perfectly that he was firing multiple arrows at a time.
Still, the system did not grant things in equal measure. Revick's physical looked to be largely focused on agility and coordination, not pure toughness. If nothing else, he probably wasn't as durable as Agora. So when Velik leaped clear of the energy slash she'd tried to hit him with, he made the snap decision to actively involve the archer in the fight.
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"Legra's tits!" Revick swore as the wolf closed in on him suddenly. He tried to drive Velik back with a storm of arrows, but his quiver was emptying out faster than whatever magic it possessed could refill it. Velik easily outpaced Agora and reached the archer, where he promptly locked his jaws around the man's bow and activated [Dread Lance].
As much as Velik would have liked to preserve the weapon, he needed to prioritize his own survival first, rescue the hunters second, and keep them capable of combat last. The bow didn't precisely shatter under his assault, but it definitely wasn't in any shape to be used when Velik spat it out.
Revick himself was thrown backward to slam into the wall of the cavern. Before Velik could follow up to make sure he was really down, Agora caught up with him. Once again, Velik was dodging furious axe swipes, and she'd stopped holding back now. Velik twisted around, dancing backward on four paws and avoiding hacking slashes that cut through the floor despite the blade not touching it. More than one bit into muscle, drawing blood from him.
The sight of it seemed to drive her mad. Howling and frothing at the mouth, Agora abandoned all pretense of defense as she relentlessly pursued Velik. He dodged around her, slashed at her with his claws, and even smacked her once with his tail to knock her off balance. The entire exchange ended in seconds, and when it was over, Agora was pinned to the ground and Velik stood over her.
Uh… What now?
He'd won, temporarily, at least, but the sleeping draughts weren't currently accessible. He needed to shift back forms, but Agora was still very much ready to fight and Revick would no doubt be on his feet again soon.
With no better options available, he smacked Agora's face with a paw, bouncing her head off the stone hard enough to crack it. It didn't knock the woman out—she was too tough for that—but it did daze her for a second. Velik quickly shifted back to his human form and pulled the draught out. After administering the first one, he hesitated, then gave her a second dose.
That seemed to do the trick. Velik dashed over to the archer's prone form, only to find he'd overestimated the little man's durability. A weak healing potion helped stabilize him, and when his eyes flickered, Velik quickly fed him the sleeping draught.
No way the big one stays down for long, and this guy might not either. I need to get them back to the camp before this turns into another fight. That damn mine shaft… This is going to be a pain.
* * *
Sildra was recovering in the back of the cave, right near where the first victim lay. He'd had one of the most powerful parasitic monsters in him that she'd ever encountered, and the truth was that she'd probably still be working on killing it if it hadn't tried to run. Giller had caught the thing the moment it had slipped out of its host and promptly shredded it.
They'd fed the man—Yugon—a healing potion and let him lay down while it did its work. Hopefully, he'd be ready to talk by the time Velik got back with another one. She didn't like the idea of the Black Fang in that dungeon by himself, alone except for a half dozen hunters that were all higher level than him. She tried to tell herself that he was definitely on his way back, that there was no way he'd been killed or worse.
It was with mixed feelings that she heard the brush being shoved aside. A bit more recovery time, please! she mentally begged Morgus, but her god was silent. With a small sigh, Sildra pushed herself to her feet.
"What?" she asked blankly when she saw him. "Two? Are they both…?"
She didn't need to ask. The second Velik stepped into the cave with them, they moved into her range. Sildra could sense the monsters lurking in the bodies, only one of which was actually unconscious. An extremely short man hung limply in Velik's grip, but a monstrously tall woman was being dragged along behind him. He'd bound her eyes and legs, but that wasn't stopping her from struggling anyway.
"Giller, I could use some help restraining this one," he called out.
"Why didn't you use the draught?" Jensen asked as he eyed the woman warily.
"I did. I used two doses. She woke up about five minutes later, and I had to subdue her a second time."
"We'll get the monster out of her first, then," Sildra said firmly. "Bring her this way."
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The woman was gagged, but that didn't stop her from grunting and swearing into the cloth. Velik laid her down, and once Giller had wrapped several bands of steel around her, he removed the rope he'd used to secure her. Even Sildra could see how badly it was frayed and torn. The woman had almost escaped her bindings, lacking only a bit more time to complete her work.
"I don't think I'm going to be going back down there until these three are up on their feet," Velik said. "They both attacked me at once, and the dungeon itself is producing monsters. The short one tried to ambush me while I was killing a champion."
"We knew we'd have to adjust our strategy," Jensen said. "Honestly, three out of six isn't bad. It's too bad you didn't find the platinum, though."
"Oh, I wouldn't say it's all that bad," a new voice said from outside the cave. Emberson stepped forward, a feral grin stretching across his mouth. "So you all must be the second group Aria said was coming. That's great. We can kill off that druid that's been messing everything up."
Everyone was silent for a moment, even the struggling woman, and then chaos erupted.
