Duskbound

Velik threw himself backward in a desperate attempt to avoid being snapped up by the giant wolf, but it was a futile gesture. The power of [Serpent Strike] was in its lunging speed, and there was really only one thing he could do at this point. He tucked his arms and legs in close and led with his spear when the jaws closed around him.

The fading light cut out, not that Velik needed that to see. The wolf's tongue pushed up against him, a massive, wet muscle that was trying to shove him between its teeth. His spear shot out, one part momentum and one part [Shape Shifting] helping keep it manageable in the tight space, and pinned the tongue down.

Despite his physical being over 100 now, he was surprised to find that it took all of his strength to keep from being forced sideways. Even as he wrestled with it, teeth opened and closed, the wolf's jaw shifted back and forth, and hot, fetid breath assaulted his senses.

If I could get this spear free, I could kill this damn monster right now, he thought, but he knew that was wishful thinking. The second he pulled the blade back, the tongue would slam him into the teeth and he'd be torn to pieces. It was the only piece of leverage he had to hold his position, however disgusting that might be.

But his spear wasn't his only weapon, not anymore. He had a class skill he was betting the wolf hadn't taken. [Phalanx] blazed to life around him, four spears of magical energy coalescing to stab out at the soft palate above him or into the wolf's gums. They weren't made for this, and a shifting of its jaws broke them apart, but the wounds they scored remained.

Velik summoned the phantasmal spears again and again, each time stabbing them into vulnerable flesh while he struggled with the tongue. The wolf's jaws parted, and it gave up trying to chew on him. Its head whipped back and forth in an attempt to dislodge him and send him flying.

Bit off more than you could chew, huh? Well, tough luck for you.

Getting stuck in the champion's mouth wasn't something he'd planned on, but now that he was past the teeth, he wasn't leaving until he found a way to puncture its brain. [Phalanx] was slowly draining the magic out of him, but he kept hammering away at the same spot, tearing more flesh and filling the mouth with black blood.

His control was shaky, and he couldn't maintain them for very long, but considering the circumstances and what he was trying to do, he thought he was doing a hell of a job. Even when his leg slipped and smacked into a razor-edged tooth, drawing a hot line of blood down his calf, he never lost focus.

It's still not enough. Damn you, break already. It's just like when I was fighting those monsters before I got [Kinetic Charge] to help me puncture their hides… Wait, could that work?

The skill was supposed to build up energy, and the phantasmal spears didn't last long enough for that, but there was nothing saying the energy had to come from swinging the weapon around. He was burning plenty of that just holding the tongue in place so it couldn't eject him.

He only made one spear with [Phalanx] this time. That way, he could devote the entirety of his mental to controlling it. In theory, it might be slightly stronger than normal this way, but he wasn't sure about that. He'd tried to test it, but he'd never been able to detect an appreciable difference, despite the logic behind how the skill worked implying that it would be. Mental measured how well he could control the spear; mystic measured how much magic could be put into it. If he only made one spear, that meant more magic got focused into it. Somehow, the theory didn't seem to match reality.

Not important right now. Focus on what you're doing.

With his mental grip on the spear firm, he activated [Kinetic Charge]. Instead of drawing from the momentum of the unmoving construct, he used his own limbs. One forearm was braced against the top of the wolf's mouth, while the spear was firmly gripped in his other hand and held against his chest to keep it stable. His injured leg pushed down on the tongue to keep it from wagging too much, and his other foot was locked perilously close to one of its teeth.

All of that took strength to hold, and he channeled some of that energy into the phantasmal spear he'd built with [Phalanx]. The construct shuddered in place, jerking so hard that he almost lost hold of it. For a moment, Velik was ready to start cursing, but then the whole thing stabilized.

[Kinetic Charge has advanced to rank 4.]

No time for hesitation, he thought.

The spear shot forward, many times faster than normal, and buried itself deep in the back of the wolf's soft palate. The wolf jerked in place once, then went still. Woozily, it shook its head, but there was none of the ferocity it had displayed just moments earlier. It took a hesitant, staggering step, then a second one.

Come on. Die. Just fall over dead. This fight is over. I pierced your brain.

But that didn't happen. With startling quickness, the wolf's neck muscles twisted and it slammed its face into a tree. The impact jolted Velik free of where he'd wedged himself and hurled him to the ground, fresh gashes across his body and his spear left behind in the wolf's tongue.

Velik rolled twice to absorb the momentum and came to his feet. The wolf hadn't pursued him, hadn't moved at all from where it was leaning its flank against a tree twice as tall as it was. The tree groaned against the weight, but held. "How the hell are you still alive?" he asked the champion monster.

In response, it stuck its tongue out to reveal his spear, then very deliberately dragged it across its teeth until the haft caught and the weapon was pulled free. Looking Velik directly in the eyes, it bit down with a crunch, then spit the two pieces of the spear out.

Son of a bitch.

[Mending] was a powerful enchantment, but Velik wasn't sure it could fix that. Maybe if he recovered both pieces and splinted them together, it might regrow a connection. It wouldn't matter if he didn't win this fight. And to do that, he needed a weapon.

A new phantasmal spear materialized in the air next to him, but rather than direct it with his mind, he reached out and grabbed it. With his other hand, he pulled out a healing potion, popped the cork, and swallowed it. Immediately, his wounds started to close.

"Ready for round two?"

* * *

Torwin scratched lazily at his cheek and considered what he was feeling. He'd folded [Mana Sense] into [Ranger's Lore] a long time ago, mostly as a way to give himself a heads up when monsters used skills that relied heavily on mystic, but it served a secondary purpose that rarely came into play.

Some people built whole classes around finding stuff like this, with detection skills that had ranges measured in miles. His version went out maybe fifty feet, and was partially dependent on his line of sight. He could sense flickers of mana in his peripheral vision, but it was only when he focused on it directly that he could sort out what he was seeing.

And here, in an incredible stroke of luck, he was seeing what appeared to be an apple the color of blood made out of solid crystal. "What do you do?" he asked the fruit. "A point or two to a stat, perhaps? Or something rarer, maybe knowledge to boost a skill or ease a merger? Well, whatever it is, I'm sure someone will pay quite a bit for the privilege of eating you."

He plucked the apple free of the tree and spent a few minutes scouring the area, just in case there was a second one. It wasn't that he expected to find it, not as rare as these sorts of treasures were, but it would be criminally negligent not to look. As expected, the fruit was entirely unique.

Whistling a jaunty tune, he pulled the compass back out and oriented himself. Wonder how the kid's doing. I was kind of expecting the signal to shift as soon as it got dark. Maybe whatever he's hunting is giving him some trouble.

If it were Jensen out there, Torwin would be rushing toward the next target at top speed, but he trusted Velik to handle himself. Besides, Torwin had already killed three champions in one day, which was impressive enough by anyone's standards. Velik could have this one. Torwin would be looking for a place to sleep in a few hours anyway, and leading up to that, he certainly wasn't trying to pick a fight with a champion elite in the dark.

Hundred thousand decarmas in loot just today. Easy money. This might be the most profitable contract I've ever seen. And to think, I only took it to give Jensen a job he could handle.

The compass drew Torwin ever eastward, but he was in no hurry to chase it down to its source. No doubt, the monster would be dead long before he ever got close.