Cold, desolated, and dark were some of the few words I would use to describe the place I was currently walking through. It has been quite some time now since I walked through the musty smelling passageways of a cave.
I hate caves.
An eerie silence followed Saori and me as we trekked through the trolls’ home. None of us talked as we continued walking on the stone-cold floor, feeling the chilly earth under us.
While the cave’s corridors were large enough to accommodate our monster forms, we instead chose our humanized forms for this stealth mission. Our smaller frames were ideal to avoid attracting unneeded attention.
No light nor fire guided us on this path as we couldn’t risk revealing our location in enemy territory. Thankfully, our [Night Vision] were both at a decent level, making walking through this pitch-black darkness not a problem. What was problematic was the fact this place was too large!
Being cautious was important in a foreign place, especially when ambushes and traps were very likely. We couldn’t even fully rely on [Detection Sensor] or [Enhanced Enemy Sense] ‘cause it couldn’t tell us about the location of inanimate objects.
At the beginning of the cave, Saori was nearly skewered by a spike trap. Our [Danger Perception] only activated when she was a foot away from falling into it.
We had to be wary for the rest of the way, but our paranoia led to nothing. But that was when it happened! We let our guard down for a moment, and boom, we triggered a string trigger which let down a giant boulder, almost crushing the both of us!
Walking was not a problem but noticing these small details, like hiding a string behind a corner, pushed our focus to the extreme. We were following the trolls with Saori’s sense of smell, but the traps on the way were exhausting to deal with.
[“I hate this place…”] I finally let out a complaint using [Telepathy] to avoid making noise.
[“Come now, Hestia. Did you burn through all your daily energy, already?”] Saori said sarcastically to lighten up the mood.
[“No, I just hate this place. I hate caves…”] I snarled.
[“Stay optimistic, dear.”] She patted my back, assuring me that she was still beside me. [“We have to rescue somebody, so do not allow your title to bring you down.”]
My title [The Light] gave my body an annoying flaw, which not only made me more susceptible to dark elemental attacks, but it also made me feel uneasy being in complete darkness. Nighttime wasn’t much of a problem thanks to the moonlight. It mentioned “weakening” me, but it only worsens my mood.
Well, if the darkness and the traps weren’t enough, there were also a bunch of creepy totems. There was one in the front of the cave, and we’ve been seeing a ton of them along the path that we were walking.
The creepy part of these totems came from the fact that a monster skull was adorning the top of a wooden pole, with three dreamcatcher-looking things attached to its eye and nose holes. I just had no idea what it was supposed to say.
Why do you have to make them so ominous? I asked my mental image of the troll shaman, but he didn't answer back. Naturally, since it's my imagination of him.
[“…We found them;”] Saori reported, tensing up her body.
[“Alright then, time to set up phase two,”] I said with a sigh of relief.
Having said that, I placed my homemade bombs, which I was carrying around, back into my storage. The first phase revolving around these little beauties in Saori’s plan was set up nicely.
I then proceeded to quietly construct a wall connecting the ground to the ceiling, blocking the path we just came through. After checking there were no gaps, I took out a bunch of firewood, a self-made stone cauldron, and all my paralyzation toxins.
Our plan was simple. Create a distraction and let Saori rescue the fairy. Afterward, get out as quickly as possible.
[“You should have [Paralyzation Resistance Lv. 10], right, Saori?”] I asked my companion, just to make sure.
[“I have tested it,”] Saori answered while pouring the toxic fluids into the cauldron. [“Your poison cannot stun me.”]
Saori’s plan was to have me catch the attention from the trolls, while she would sneak behind them to pinpoint the fairy’s location. She would then free her, and then we would escape from there.
To make sure our plan would work, we prepared some extra measures. Besides the whole of phase one, I would also boil all the paralyzing fluids I had to have the trolls inhale the fumes. They weren’t completely immune to it, compared to Saori and me, and considering the only path outside from here was now blocked, they had no way to flee.
However, we were still on a time limit with this plan. Fire ate up oxygen, and we still needed it to breathe. We had to hurry up. Suffocation didn’t sound too good of a way to die, right?
[“Here.”] Saori handed me a breathing mask. I thanked her and immediately put it on. [“This amount of wood might cause enough smoke to cover the whole room. Better safe than sorry.”]
The mask was completely blue ‘cause Saori made it using her [Mana Weave] skill, just like my dress. For spectators, it might look like we were wasting time, but it wasn’t. Saori made a good point before we entered the cave, "She is a stranger. Our safety is more important than hers."
I couldn’t talk back to Saori, knowing she was completely correct. Not only were we risking our lives for somebody we never met before but we were also entering enemy territory just to save that one person. We weren’t action movie protagonists who could jump into a villain’s base just to save the girl.
I dragged Saori into this fight against her will, so the least I could do was to be a good friend and listen to her. I only hoped that we weren’t too late to save that fairy.
[“Ok, everything should be finished, now.”] The fire was burning hot, slowly cooking the fluids inside the cauldron. I nodded in satisfaction.
[“Good job.”] She patted my shoulder and smiled. [“Do not forget to put a bomb on that wall. It will be the trigger for our escape.”]
Saori pointed at the wall I just made. I took out one of my bombs and stuck it into it. Using [Trap Creation], I also set a trigger a bit further away using mana, so the bomb would trigger when I step onto that point. With that, we were finished. Our prep work was done and now the real show could begin.
[“My skill says that four people are inside that room,”] I informed Saori what [Detection Sensor] told me. [“Three dots are surrounding a smaller one. Be careful, Saori.”]
[“You too.”]
Operation: Save the Fairy, start!
Using our stealth skills, we sneaked closer to the cavern entrance/ Looking through it, I was welcomed by a large, no, massive chamber, spacious enough to fit in an army. There wasn’t much inside it yet, as the trolls must be its only occupant, right now.
What I could see were two bell-shaped tents placed to the far left, with a large campfire burning in between them. A cooking pot was placed over it and from smelling the aroma, my mouth was filling up with saliva.
Mhmm, tasty.
Behind the tents, a pile of weapons and armor were placed on a wooden cart. There wasn't a lot of equipment but identifying them showed they had around the same quality the trolls were currently equipped with. My own greed told me to get one or two, but the rational part of me shook that idea away. I couldn’t risk Saori’s nor the fairy’s life for something this trivial.
Next to the cart were opened barrels and casks full of food and water, neatly packed beside each other. There were also boxes filled with glass bottles with some kinda liquid, but I couldn’t tell the color with the shadows hanging over them. From this distance, it was too hard for me to use [Identify] on them either, unfortunately.
I transferred my buff spells onto Saori with [Synergist’s Oath] and she then slipped through the entrance, evading the awareness of the trolls.
After reapplying the buff spells on myself, I entered the room and looked at the trolls who were huddling around something in the middle of the chamber. [Night Vision] helped me see in the dark but recognizing details was still troublesome, making it very hard to describe that object.
Snapping my fingers together, I created a spark. “Hello, Mister Trolls!” I spoke with my humanized voice, amplifying it with [Aerokinesis] like a microphone.
As my job was to draw their attention to me, I cast [Shine] and [Light] to imitate spotlights and directed them to beam their light onto me.
“I would like to request that you hand over…!”
In the middle of my speech, [Prediction] and [Danger Perception] exploded into action, warning me of something life-threatening. That "something" the trolls were crowding around started to radiate blue light.
“Wha—?!”
Terra Wall! Sanctuary! Air Shield!
My instincts were telling me I had no time to dodge it. The panic and fear of this unavoidable attack pressured me to immediately construct my defensive spells, not caring for how much mana I would use.
“Guk!”
I flinched at the sound of an exploding cannon. An intangible blue ball was shot out of that “something.”
Hold on, please!
It effortlessly bore through the incomplete [Terra Wall], leaving only dust behind, giving me little to no time left for [Sanctuary] and [Air Shield] to fully materialize as it pierced through the air, making its way to me.
My teeth clenched together, cold sweat pouring down my spine as I reminded myself I was currently in my human form. Having no time to transform back, I crossed my hands in front of my body, tucked my head behind them, and prayed that my current stats would be enough to survive this attack.
The piercing blue ball made contact with my half-materialized [Sanctuary], shattering it into fragments, and then dispelled [Air Shield] by merely touching it. Colliding with my [Draconic Barrier], my scaled arms could feel the impact literally shaking my bones.
Looking at my dwindling mana, I could feel the blood in my face draining away as I acknowledged this attack would have definitely sent my Health to zero if it weren’t for my [Draconic Barrier].
My bones were shattering at the sheer pressure, but I was holding somehow. My survival would be decided on who will triumph in this showdown — my mana or the firepower of this attack.
“ARGGGGGGGGGGGH!” I screamed out in agony.
Eventually, the winner was decided.
The blue ball managed to pierce through all my defensive spells, but was unable to destroy my [Draconic Barrier] and exploded, blowing me into the wall behind me. My whole body dug into it, leaving an imprint. Clouds of dust and debris were released from this destruction and covered the area around me, making it hard to breathe under this face mask.
“Uaraghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh…GUK! Arrrrrrgh…ha ha.” I groaned, pain running rampant inside my body.
[“Hestia! Answer me!] I could hear Saori’s distressed voice through my mind. [“Are you ok?! Hestia, please, answer me!”]
[“Stop!”] Fighting through nausea, I called out to Saori to stop approaching me. I couldn’t see her ‘cause I was blown outside the chamber, but my senses were sharp as always. [“I’m fine! Stick with the plan!”]
Saori stood still for a bit, unsure if she should listen to me or not, [“Shit! I’ll kill those bastards!”] With that declaration, Saori sneaked her way past everybody’s attention.
I want armor or something… guek.
While lamenting the problems of being the “bait,” I inspected the damage on my body.
My mana dress was torn into shreds but was slowly repairing itself using my mana. My arms, being the closest to the blast, were completely deformed. Bones were sticking out of my fingers and elbow and my scales were fractured and drenched in my own blood. I couldn’t move them anymore.
This would have been so bad without [Absolute Pain Tolerance]… Moderate Heal! Moderate Heal! Moderate Heal!
…! Major Heal! Major Heal!
It had been too long since my Health was this low. I didn’t know what would happen if my Health dropped to zero in my humanized form, but my mind wasn’t interested in that. Instinct was telling me to focus all my attention on fixing my mangled arms.
Eventually, the pain began to subside as my body recovered from all the wounds. I still felt an annoying headache from all of this, but it was better than being near death. I took in a strained deep breath and shrugged it off, standing back up before—
“Buraghhh!” I vomited blood. There was a cracking sound coming from my chest when I tried to move.
I didn’t lose that much blood for a dragon, however, I wasn’t currently in my dragon form. As a dragonewt, this large pool of blood puke was enough to make me feel light-headed.
Biting my teeth together, I quickly identified my internal organs and skeleton were also ravaged from the attack. The dust cloud wasn’t the only thing making it hard for me to breathe.
While healing my body, I noticed the external wounds weren’t as conspicuous, considering how terribly damaged my insides were. I sighed in relief, knowing how lucky I was to have my splintered ribs miss my heart. I probably would have to do some surgery if that happened.
Judging from all the damage, if I hadn’t had [Absolute Pain Tolerance], I would have definitely fainted. I was unconsciously moaning and groaning like there was no tomorrow, after all. My skill helped me stay conscious enough to patch me up. With how much I was sweating, it seemed the pain was boiling me.
At the rate I was using mana to heal myself, I had to absolutely avoid the next attack at any cost. My parallel minds were telling me I shouldn’t be wary of arcane corruption. It seems like [Draconic Barrier] barely produced any at all, at the cost of heavily reducing my Stamina.
Having finished healing my body, I looked up and used [Identify] on that “something” that nearly killed me.
Hold up, what?! A fucking cannon?!
Not only did these trolls booby trap this whole cave, but they also had a cannon ready?! No wonder they caught me off guard! My detection skills couldn’t sense inanimate objects.
I wasn’t happy I had to receive that mana cannon head-on, but a smile crept up my face, knowing I had the troll’s full attention onto me now. I barely survived, but if Saori had been hit… Well, I didn’t want to imagine that. Gotta stay optimistic, after all.
Fuck them up, Saori! Go, bite! Leave occupying these idiots to me! I cheered before I activated [Humanize].
No need to hide anymore.
Licking the blood off my lips, I refocused and let out a roar, “Kraaaaaaaaaaah!” I spread my wings, dusting the dust clouds away as I showed myself to the trolls. Intimidation. I had to keep their eyes on me no matter what. With renewed vigor, I dashed head-on, acting recklessly.
And in that very moment, a bright blue light greeted me, shooting another ear-splitting mana blast.
Come at me! Banishment Beam!
From my head, a beam of brilliant white shot out, crashing against the mana ball. My spell struggled to push it back, but I managed to redirect it from hitting me directly. Sadly, the blast grazed me, causing me to trip before crashing into the entrance’s wall, widening it even further.
“ARGH!”
The attack sent me tumbling onto the ground but using [Acrobatic] and my claws, I managed to fully recover from the fall, only losing minimum momentum. I cast healing spells onto my right arm, regrowing my lost scales.
“Kraaaaaaaaaaaaaah!” closing into my prey, a war cry escaped my throat.
““Guuuuuuuraaaaagah!”” Reciprocating my challenging roar, the two remaining troll warriors left the troll shaman’s side and engaged me in close combat. Looking at them now, they were still taller than me.
The troll shaman once again enchanted the trolls' weapons and armor with water, giving them the type advantage in this situation. Still determined to fight, I shot out multiple [Sacred Smites]. As they were occupied with blocking my spells, I blasted myself up over them with [Wind Blast], bypassing their defense.
Putting in all the strength I could muster, I swiped my right arm with [Spark Claws] activated one of the troll’s back. The flaming claw pierced right through the scales and metal, but seemed to have stopped before it could dig right into his spine. It felt hard, maybe it was chainmail.
“Grrrrrughk!” An irritated voice escaped the troll as he tried to counterattack with his mace.
Deftly sidestepping it, I then aimed an [Inferno Beam] at the troll’s head but was stopped mid-cast ‘cause of the other troll’s support. Despite the reduced numbers, they still worked well together.
Knowing I was outnumbered, I nonetheless kept up my assault. It was a dance of magic and metal, as I continued shooting out spells, while they swung down their weapons at me. Although wind and earth magic weren’t impactful, damage-wise, they helped protect me from damage and made it oh so harder for my foes to land any hit.
Every single counterattack left a small window in their defense, allowing me to use my superior Agility to outmaneuver them. Even if their armor was strong, I slowly chipped and shredded them with every slash and tear. Their quality equipment was turning into junk before my assault, making me kinda regret not dipping my claws into some of my toxins beforehand.
The shaman would occasionally shoot out a water spell to counter my fire one but was mostly preparing the mana cannon for its next shot.
“Uck…”
Amid our twirl of attacks, one of the troll warriors suddenly dropped to his knees. A quick [Identify] informed me he had [Paralyzation (Minor)]. My build-up fatigue vanished the second I knew of this, understanding that the fumes were finally having an effect on them.
“Gack! Gack!” At the back, the shaman also coughed profusely.
Looking around, I finally noticed black smoke covering the chamber;s ceiling like a fog. My own lungs were having trouble breathing in air, as the oxygen was diminishing rapidly. All of us were breathing heavily from all this movements, and my fire spells and attack weren’t helping the situation either.
As the neurotoxic fumes infected the trolls, their already fatigued bodies were unable to keep up with my continued assault. The trolls’ situation was precarious enough that the shaman had to stop working on the cannon to fully dedicate himself to supporting his warriors.
“Kriii argh…gack! Il socht thae…, gack, sadon!”
Still coughing excessively, the troll took out a vial of black liquid and quickly consumed it all in one big gulp. He gave a maddened laugh and began casting a new spell. At that very moment, large shadow tendrils erupted from the ground and captured the shaman in their clutches.
“Wroooooouuuuu!”
“Grack! Arrrrrrrrghhhhh!”
As if she was part of the shadow, a large wolf lunged at the troll shaman, penetrating his unarmored throat with her ferocious-looking canines. The shaman screamed in pain, coughing up blood, as he desperately flailed his arms around in a futile attempt to free himself from this death-dealing bite.
Despite his higher Strength stat, he was unable to throw Saori off. I checked his status with [Identify] and noticed he had [Paralyzation (Moderate)], while the troll warriors only had minor. It was very likely Saori coated her mouth with my paralyzation fluid.
The troll warriors turned their backs to me and ran to the aid of the troll shaman, however, their advances were stopped by the shockwave of the [Scorching Sun] I threw at them. Without the support of the shaman’s water spells, the warriors squirmed in pain, as they tried to extinguish the flames melting through their armor, fusing metal with their skin.
Using this moment to my advantage, I started casting a new inferno spell. Something that will rip right through their natural regeneration.
Goodbye! Maximum powered Blazing Twister!”
As the temperature of the air sharply rose ever higher, the first sparks of fire started to appear, with more appearing over time. The scorching heat began twisting in the center of the trolls, burning the very air these trolls were breathing until flames began to appear.
A roaring blaze morphed into searing winds of carnage, accelerating its rotational speed more and more. This tornado of fire was fully materialized.
The trolls’ cries of pain were so audible, I could sympathize with them slightly. It didn't matter if your armor was made from fire-resistant material or not, 'cause nothing could endure the amount of heat exerted from this advanced fire spell.
If a single powerful blast wouldn't do it, then slowly peeling away the scales and melting the metal until the wearer was cooked in his own armor, should be more effective. The twisting inferno consumed everything that the trolls once had — their skin, flesh, and life.
Having finished my battle, I looked over at Saori’s direction. My mouth turned into a grin as I noticed the troll shaman’s eyes no longer showing any signs of life. Saori turned back into her wolfkin form and rushed over to give me a hug as I transformed back into a dragonewt.
[“Thank goodness you’re still in one piece, Hestia,”] Saori gave a long-winded sigh as she held me in her arms, albeit a bit too tightly. She was really worried.
I laughed enthusiastically, “Haha, I told you that I was alright. You don’t need to worry when I have my healing ma… ow, ow, ow, no, no! Not my cheeks!”
Holding both my cheeks in her hands, Saori stretched them to the sides as if they were gummy bears. [“Stop being so boastful. I thought my heart was about to stop when I saw you being blasted away.”]
Our mood was pretty lively despite my near-death experience. Our plan didn't go completely as we wanted, but we still won in the end. After releasing my cheeks, we went to the fairy’s location, while I caressed my pained face. We might have shown her our monster forms, but we turned back into our humanized forms to hopefully not scare her when we speak.
According to my [Detection Sensor], the fairy was trapped in a compartment of the mana cannon. Opening it, I could feel some of my mana being drained just by having my hand close to it. Looking in, the fairy was there, crouching and wheezing as if she just ran a marathon. Checking her status board, my attention was caught by her slowly decreasing mana.
I quickly grabbed her out of the cannon and started pouring my mana into her.
[“Hey, Miss Fairy!”] once it seemed like she recovered, I spoke to her with [Telepathy]. I didn’t know her language, after all. [“Are you feeling, alright?”]
[“W-Who, wait, that voice? Are you— I-It’s you two, right?”] Stuttering, the fairy uttered her surprise at seeing us in this form.
We nodded.
[“Y-You two came back for me?”] She sounded baffled for some reason.
["We made up our mind to save you, so of course, we will keep our word,”] Saori spoke from the side to reassure the fairy.
[“I-I didn’t think… No, thank you! Thank you so very much for saving me!”] Still in my hands, the fairy started to weep, continuously thanking us while bowing.
Feeling a bit timid holding a crying girl in my arms, I averted my eyes and changed the topic in a panic. [“Right, right! We haven’t introduced ourselves yet! My name is Hestia, and this is…”]
[“Saori. A pleasure to have met your acquaintance,”] Saori’s perfectly normal introduction left me dumbfounded.
[“Thank you very much, Hestia and Saori. May the winds of Zephira and water of Plesia bless you two.”] After sniffing her stuffy nose, the fairy reciprocated our introduction. [“My name is Tasianna Marina Silverpond. A simple fairy, as you can see.”]
Plesia? Is that another god?
[“I don’t know how I can ever repay you for saving me but ask anything you wish! I will do my best to fulfill it,”] Tasianna stated, humbly bowing her head.
[“We can talk about that later, let’s first…!”] I wanted to soothe her, but my head suddenly snapped around.
Saori and I dodged to the sides when our [Prediction] warned us of an incoming attack. Turning my head around, I saw a boulder crashing into the mana cannon, spinning it around until its muzzle pointed at the source of the boulder.
“Grrrrrrrrouugghghgh!”
What is that—?!
His eyes were abyss black, his body deformed to a grotesque abomination leaving no signs of his previous appearance. Horrifying, hairy tentacles grew out of his torso and wriggled around as if they had a mind of their own. His limbs enlarged and looked bloated as if they were left too long in water.
The only part of his body that was still normal was the head but even that received a make-over with all his teeth growing out of proportion into tusks. Hideous was too light of an adjective to describe this… thing. Monstrous beyond compare!
The troll shaman was no more. At first, I thought the slimes were the most hideous and bizarre creatures in this world, but this weird freak just went the extra mile to prove to me there could be even more outlandish and eldritch looking monsters in existence!
Wanting to know more about it, I used [Identify] but all that came out of it was:
Information not available.
My brain froze for a second as I learned this fact. In that small window of vulnerability, the mutated troll grasped my leg, pulling me to it.
“Aahhhh!”
Screaming, my body collapsed onto the ground, releasing the fairy from my hands in the process. The troll swung me over his head and then slammed my whole body onto the ground with full force.
Any damage was minimized with my [Draconic Barrier] but my body still screamed at me for endangering it once again. My parallel minds were also dutifully healing me, leaving me relatively unharmed despite engraving multiple imprints of my humanized body on the cave’s floor. The mutated troll kept on swinging and slamming me on the ground, despite all of that.
“Urrrrgggh…”
Moaning, I activated [Flame Spark Veil], creating sparks to appear around my body, which unfortunately reduced my Stamina to zero. One of the sparks ignited the eye of the troll on fire, who then released me by throwing me away like a used-up tissue.
[“Hestia!”] Saori once again transformed back into her garm form and caught me mid-flight.
Feeling the soreness of my muscles, I couldn’t help but groan. “Uuuurgh, end me already…”
[“Uhh, no thank you.”] For some reason, Saori responded to my joking complaint with a straight-forward answer. Talk about a hard crowd.
“Saoriiiiiiiiii!” Like a whining child, I cried out ‘cause of that.
[“Okay, okay, I am sorry. Oh, my goodness, I am doing a terrible job as your companion here! I told myself that I would protect you, but I just let you be injured twice! You are supposed to be my princess, but I am doing such a bad job as your retainer!”] Saori apologized.
As we were having a moment, the mutated troll crawled at us in the most unsightly way possible.
“Isht sa ous ahk zath’ll il hukma!” Shouting in her own language, our attention snapped towards the source — the fairy. Tasianna was operating what looked like the trigger of the cannon.
Pushing it, the cannon’s muzzle, once again, glowed a bright blue and shot out a powerful mana ball at the mutated troll, blasting him against the wall.
“Yes!” Standing up, I shouted in elation that the troll had a taste of its own medicine. “That’s how it feels!”
Saori looked at me in confusion, noticing my weird outburst. However, I didn’t have the time to defend myself as Tasianna suddenly fell to the ground. Picking her back up, I recognized she was stunned by breathing in too much of the fumes.
Using [Cure], I cured her of that status ailment. [“Nice shot!”] I complimented her and gave her a thumbs up.
She smiled wryly, letting out a small giggle. [“Hiehie, thank you very much, Princess Hestia.”]
Uhhhh, what?!
Suddenly hearing somebody else besides Saori calling me princess, made my mind freeze, again. Fatigue was slowly getting to me, I guessed.
[“Get on!”] Waking me up from my stupor, I shook my head and turned my gaze to Saori’s. [“Primary objective is done, let us get out of here already!”]
“Gruuuuarghhhhhaghh!”
That thing is still alive?!
Whatever was possessing this troll made it so much harder to kill now. He recovered from that cannon shot as if it was nothing. Not wanting to stay any longer than we had to, I got on Saori’s back and let her ride us out of here.
Dashing out of the chamber, I threw a [Firebolt] at the trap I made at the start of this rescue operation, triggering the bomb I jammed into the [Terra Wall]. The bomb lighted up red for a moment and then detonated in a grand explosion.
Riding through the dust of the now destroyed wall, I noticed small balls stuck on the cave’s walls lighten up a similar red color, showing us the path outside. After some time, those balls would also explode.
“This plan is so excessive! I can’t believe you’re the one to have thought of it, Saori!” I incredulously shouted.
[“It was for the worse case if there were more trolls inside! We had the tools, we better use them!”] Saori shouted back to rebuke me.
Hearing Saori explaining the first phase of her plan was enough to leave me speechless. She wanted me to plant bombs on the walls of the cave while we traveled through it. They would light up before they exploded, guiding us out of this place, while simultaneously covering our escape from the trolls by causing a cave-in.
“Grrriiaauauaauaghahaah!”
“What the hell! I thought you killed that thing?!” Looking back, I could see the mutated troll keeping up with us.
[“I did, alright! You saw its Health. It was dead for sure!”] Saori’s loud voice cried out in her defense.
We weren’t sure how it got back up, but we knew this thing would pursue us relentlessly if we couldn’t kill it off now! Colliding my fangs against each, I took a deep breath. The spark quickly grew into a massive ball of fire as I continuously poured in mana through my mouth.
Spark Inferno Blast!
Opening my mouth, I released the bigger-than-my-mouth inferno ball. My dragon flame crashed against the mutated troll and sent him flying back. The consequence of the chain of explosion finally showed itself as the ceiling of the cave began to fall, burying the troll under it.
Giving it her all, Saori sprinted like the wind and we finally made it outside the cave.
Is this…!
[“Guys…I got the level up.”] Having received the best confirmation possible, I turned back on [Telpathy] to inform everybody of the mutated troll’s death… uh, death-death?
[“Ahhhh, finally…,"] Saori immediately collapsed onto the ground, panting heavily.
“YEAAAAAHHHH!” On the other hand, I jumped off her back and wrapped my head around Saori’s fuzzy head, nuzzling against it after learning of our victory.
While I was cheering like crazy, another voice suddenly entered our minds, interrupting our celebration. [“I wish to once again thank you two for coming to my rescue. You have my eternal gratitude, Madam Saori and Princess Hestia.”]
Princess?! Did she just call me princess?
[“Uhhh, princess? No, no. I think you misheard that, Miss Tasianna,”] I tried my best to object to her claim, however, it was fruitless.
[“You don’t have to worry, Dragon Princess Hestia. I overheard Madam Saori mention it.”]
I glared at Saori, who averted her eyes and simply said, [“Oops.”]
[“I know this is rude of me after you just risked your life to save me, but…”] Tasianna placed her hands on her lap and gave me a complete bow. [“Please, allow me to serve you as your maid, Princess Hestia!”]
…
…Uhhh, what?
AbyssRaven
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Thank you for reading this chapter.
Cold, desolated, and dark were some of the few words I would use to describe the place I was currently walking through. It has been quite some time now since I walked through the musty smelling passageways of a cave.
I hate caves.
An eerie silence followed Saori and me as we trekked through the trolls’ home. None of us talked as we continued walking on the stone-cold floor, feeling the chilly earth under us.
While the cave’s corridors were large enough to accommodate our monster forms, we instead chose our humanized forms for this stealth mission. Our smaller frames were ideal to avoid attracting unneeded attention.
No light nor fire guided us on this path as we couldn’t risk revealing our location in enemy territory. Thankfully, our [Night Vision] were both at a decent level, making walking through this pitch-black darkness not a problem. What was problematic was the fact this place was too large!
Being cautious was important in a foreign place, especially when ambushes and traps were very likely. We couldn’t even fully rely on [Detection Sensor] or [Enhanced Enemy Sense] ‘cause it couldn’t tell us about the location of inanimate objects.
At the beginning of the cave, Saori was nearly skewered by a spike trap. Our [Danger Perception] only activated when she was a foot away from falling into it.
We had to be wary for the rest of the way, but our paranoia led to nothing. But that was when it happened! We let our guard down for a moment, and boom, we triggered a string trigger which let down a giant boulder, almost crushing the both of us!
Walking was not a problem but noticing these small details, like hiding a string behind a corner, pushed our focus to the extreme. We were following the trolls with Saori’s sense of smell, but the traps on the way were exhausting to deal with.
[“I hate this place…”] I finally let out a complaint using [Telepathy] to avoid making noise.
[“Come now, Hestia. Did you burn through all your daily energy, already?”] Saori said sarcastically to lighten up the mood.
[“No, I just hate this place. I hate caves…”] I snarled.
[“Stay optimistic, dear.”] She patted my back, assuring me that she was still beside me. [“We have to rescue somebody, so do not allow your title to bring you down.”]
My title [The Light] gave my body an annoying flaw, which not only made me more susceptible to dark elemental attacks, but it also made me feel uneasy being in complete darkness. Nighttime wasn’t much of a problem thanks to the moonlight. It mentioned “weakening” me, but it only worsens my mood.
Well, if the darkness and the traps weren’t enough, there were also a bunch of creepy totems. There was one in the front of the cave, and we’ve been seeing a ton of them along the path that we were walking.
The creepy part of these totems came from the fact that a monster skull was adorning the top of a wooden pole, with three dreamcatcher-looking things attached to its eye and nose holes. I just had no idea what it was supposed to say.
Why do you have to make them so ominous? I asked my mental image of the troll shaman, but he didn't answer back. Naturally, since it's my imagination of him.
[“…We found them;”] Saori reported, tensing up her body.
[“Alright then, time to set up phase two,”] I said with a sigh of relief.
Having said that, I placed my homemade bombs, which I was carrying around, back into my storage. The first phase revolving around these little beauties in Saori’s plan was set up nicely.
I then proceeded to quietly construct a wall connecting the ground to the ceiling, blocking the path we just came through. After checking there were no gaps, I took out a bunch of firewood, a self-made stone cauldron, and all my paralyzation toxins.
Our plan was simple. Create a distraction and let Saori rescue the fairy. Afterward, get out as quickly as possible.
[“You should have [Paralyzation Resistance Lv. 10], right, Saori?”] I asked my companion, just to make sure.
[“I have tested it,”] Saori answered while pouring the toxic fluids into the cauldron. [“Your poison cannot stun me.”]
Saori’s plan was to have me catch the attention from the trolls, while she would sneak behind them to pinpoint the fairy’s location. She would then free her, and then we would escape from there.
To make sure our plan would work, we prepared some extra measures. Besides the whole of phase one, I would also boil all the paralyzing fluids I had to have the trolls inhale the fumes. They weren’t completely immune to it, compared to Saori and me, and considering the only path outside from here was now blocked, they had no way to flee.
However, we were still on a time limit with this plan. Fire ate up oxygen, and we still needed it to breathe. We had to hurry up. Suffocation didn’t sound too good of a way to die, right?
[“Here.”] Saori handed me a breathing mask. I thanked her and immediately put it on. [“This amount of wood might cause enough smoke to cover the whole room. Better safe than sorry.”]
The mask was completely blue ‘cause Saori made it using her [Mana Weave] skill, just like my dress. For spectators, it might look like we were wasting time, but it wasn’t. Saori made a good point before we entered the cave, "She is a stranger. Our safety is more important than hers."
I couldn’t talk back to Saori, knowing she was completely correct. Not only were we risking our lives for somebody we never met before but we were also entering enemy territory just to save that one person. We weren’t action movie protagonists who could jump into a villain’s base just to save the girl.
I dragged Saori into this fight against her will, so the least I could do was to be a good friend and listen to her. I only hoped that we weren’t too late to save that fairy.
[“Ok, everything should be finished, now.”] The fire was burning hot, slowly cooking the fluids inside the cauldron. I nodded in satisfaction.
[“Good job.”] She patted my shoulder and smiled. [“Do not forget to put a bomb on that wall. It will be the trigger for our escape.”]
Saori pointed at the wall I just made. I took out one of my bombs and stuck it into it. Using [Trap Creation], I also set a trigger a bit further away using mana, so the bomb would trigger when I step onto that point. With that, we were finished. Our prep work was done and now the real show could begin.
[“My skill says that four people are inside that room,”] I informed Saori what [Detection Sensor] told me. [“Three dots are surrounding a smaller one. Be careful, Saori.”]
[“You too.”]
Operation: Save the Fairy, start!
Using our stealth skills, we sneaked closer to the cavern entrance/ Looking through it, I was welcomed by a large, no, massive chamber, spacious enough to fit in an army. There wasn’t much inside it yet, as the trolls must be its only occupant, right now.
What I could see were two bell-shaped tents placed to the far left, with a large campfire burning in between them. A cooking pot was placed over it and from smelling the aroma, my mouth was filling up with saliva.
Mhmm, tasty.
Behind the tents, a pile of weapons and armor were placed on a wooden cart. There wasn't a lot of equipment but identifying them showed they had around the same quality the trolls were currently equipped with. My own greed told me to get one or two, but the rational part of me shook that idea away. I couldn’t risk Saori’s nor the fairy’s life for something this trivial.
Next to the cart were opened barrels and casks full of food and water, neatly packed beside each other. There were also boxes filled with glass bottles with some kinda liquid, but I couldn’t tell the color with the shadows hanging over them. From this distance, it was too hard for me to use [Identify] on them either, unfortunately.
I transferred my buff spells onto Saori with [Synergist’s Oath] and she then slipped through the entrance, evading the awareness of the trolls.
After reapplying the buff spells on myself, I entered the room and looked at the trolls who were huddling around something in the middle of the chamber. [Night Vision] helped me see in the dark but recognizing details was still troublesome, making it very hard to describe that object.
Snapping my fingers together, I created a spark. “Hello, Mister Trolls!” I spoke with my humanized voice, amplifying it with [Aerokinesis] like a microphone.
As my job was to draw their attention to me, I cast [Shine] and [Light] to imitate spotlights and directed them to beam their light onto me.
“I would like to request that you hand over…!”
In the middle of my speech, [Prediction] and [Danger Perception] exploded into action, warning me of something life-threatening. That "something" the trolls were crowding around started to radiate blue light.
“Wha—?!”
Terra Wall! Sanctuary! Air Shield!
My instincts were telling me I had no time to dodge it. The panic and fear of this unavoidable attack pressured me to immediately construct my defensive spells, not caring for how much mana I would use.
“Guk!”
I flinched at the sound of an exploding cannon. An intangible blue ball was shot out of that “something.”
Hold on, please!
It effortlessly bore through the incomplete [Terra Wall], leaving only dust behind, giving me little to no time left for [Sanctuary] and [Air Shield] to fully materialize as it pierced through the air, making its way to me.
My teeth clenched together, cold sweat pouring down my spine as I reminded myself I was currently in my human form. Having no time to transform back, I crossed my hands in front of my body, tucked my head behind them, and prayed that my current stats would be enough to survive this attack.
The piercing blue ball made contact with my half-materialized [Sanctuary], shattering it into fragments, and then dispelled [Air Shield] by merely touching it. Colliding with my [Draconic Barrier], my scaled arms could feel the impact literally shaking my bones.
Looking at my dwindling mana, I could feel the blood in my face draining away as I acknowledged this attack would have definitely sent my Health to zero if it weren’t for my [Draconic Barrier].
My bones were shattering at the sheer pressure, but I was holding somehow. My survival would be decided on who will triumph in this showdown — my mana or the firepower of this attack.
“ARGGGGGGGGGGGH!” I screamed out in agony.
Eventually, the winner was decided.
The blue ball managed to pierce through all my defensive spells, but was unable to destroy my [Draconic Barrier] and exploded, blowing me into the wall behind me. My whole body dug into it, leaving an imprint. Clouds of dust and debris were released from this destruction and covered the area around me, making it hard to breathe under this face mask.
“Uaraghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh…GUK! Arrrrrrgh…ha ha.” I groaned, pain running rampant inside my body.
[“Hestia! Answer me!] I could hear Saori’s distressed voice through my mind. [“Are you ok?! Hestia, please, answer me!”]
[“Stop!”] Fighting through nausea, I called out to Saori to stop approaching me. I couldn’t see her ‘cause I was blown outside the chamber, but my senses were sharp as always. [“I’m fine! Stick with the plan!”]
Saori stood still for a bit, unsure if she should listen to me or not, [“Shit! I’ll kill those bastards!”] With that declaration, Saori sneaked her way past everybody’s attention.
I want armor or something… guek.
While lamenting the problems of being the “bait,” I inspected the damage on my body.
My mana dress was torn into shreds but was slowly repairing itself using my mana. My arms, being the closest to the blast, were completely deformed. Bones were sticking out of my fingers and elbow and my scales were fractured and drenched in my own blood. I couldn’t move them anymore.
This would have been so bad without [Absolute Pain Tolerance]… Moderate Heal! Moderate Heal! Moderate Heal!
…! Major Heal! Major Heal!
It had been too long since my Health was this low. I didn’t know what would happen if my Health dropped to zero in my humanized form, but my mind wasn’t interested in that. Instinct was telling me to focus all my attention on fixing my mangled arms.
Eventually, the pain began to subside as my body recovered from all the wounds. I still felt an annoying headache from all of this, but it was better than being near death. I took in a strained deep breath and shrugged it off, standing back up before—
“Buraghhh!” I vomited blood. There was a cracking sound coming from my chest when I tried to move.
I didn’t lose that much blood for a dragon, however, I wasn’t currently in my dragon form. As a dragonewt, this large pool of blood puke was enough to make me feel light-headed.
Biting my teeth together, I quickly identified my internal organs and skeleton were also ravaged from the attack. The dust cloud wasn’t the only thing making it hard for me to breathe.
While healing my body, I noticed the external wounds weren’t as conspicuous, considering how terribly damaged my insides were. I sighed in relief, knowing how lucky I was to have my splintered ribs miss my heart. I probably would have to do some surgery if that happened.
Judging from all the damage, if I hadn’t had [Absolute Pain Tolerance], I would have definitely fainted. I was unconsciously moaning and groaning like there was no tomorrow, after all. My skill helped me stay conscious enough to patch me up. With how much I was sweating, it seemed the pain was boiling me.
At the rate I was using mana to heal myself, I had to absolutely avoid the next attack at any cost. My parallel minds were telling me I shouldn’t be wary of arcane corruption. It seems like [Draconic Barrier] barely produced any at all, at the cost of heavily reducing my Stamina.
Having finished healing my body, I looked up and used [Identify] on that “something” that nearly killed me.
Hold up, what?! A fucking cannon?!
Not only did these trolls booby trap this whole cave, but they also had a cannon ready?! No wonder they caught me off guard! My detection skills couldn’t sense inanimate objects.
I wasn’t happy I had to receive that mana cannon head-on, but a smile crept up my face, knowing I had the troll’s full attention onto me now. I barely survived, but if Saori had been hit… Well, I didn’t want to imagine that. Gotta stay optimistic, after all.
Fuck them up, Saori! Go, bite! Leave occupying these idiots to me! I cheered before I activated [Humanize].
No need to hide anymore.
Licking the blood off my lips, I refocused and let out a roar, “Kraaaaaaaaaaah!” I spread my wings, dusting the dust clouds away as I showed myself to the trolls. Intimidation. I had to keep their eyes on me no matter what. With renewed vigor, I dashed head-on, acting recklessly.
And in that very moment, a bright blue light greeted me, shooting another ear-splitting mana blast.
Come at me! Banishment Beam!
From my head, a beam of brilliant white shot out, crashing against the mana ball. My spell struggled to push it back, but I managed to redirect it from hitting me directly. Sadly, the blast grazed me, causing me to trip before crashing into the entrance’s wall, widening it even further.
“ARGH!”
The attack sent me tumbling onto the ground but using [Acrobatic] and my claws, I managed to fully recover from the fall, only losing minimum momentum. I cast healing spells onto my right arm, regrowing my lost scales.
“Kraaaaaaaaaaaaaah!” closing into my prey, a war cry escaped my throat.
““Guuuuuuuraaaaagah!”” Reciprocating my challenging roar, the two remaining troll warriors left the troll shaman’s side and engaged me in close combat. Looking at them now, they were still taller than me.
The troll shaman once again enchanted the trolls' weapons and armor with water, giving them the type advantage in this situation. Still determined to fight, I shot out multiple [Sacred Smites]. As they were occupied with blocking my spells, I blasted myself up over them with [Wind Blast], bypassing their defense.
Putting in all the strength I could muster, I swiped my right arm with [Spark Claws] activated one of the troll’s back. The flaming claw pierced right through the scales and metal, but seemed to have stopped before it could dig right into his spine. It felt hard, maybe it was chainmail.
“Grrrrrughk!” An irritated voice escaped the troll as he tried to counterattack with his mace.
Deftly sidestepping it, I then aimed an [Inferno Beam] at the troll’s head but was stopped mid-cast ‘cause of the other troll’s support. Despite the reduced numbers, they still worked well together.
Knowing I was outnumbered, I nonetheless kept up my assault. It was a dance of magic and metal, as I continued shooting out spells, while they swung down their weapons at me. Although wind and earth magic weren’t impactful, damage-wise, they helped protect me from damage and made it oh so harder for my foes to land any hit.
Every single counterattack left a small window in their defense, allowing me to use my superior Agility to outmaneuver them. Even if their armor was strong, I slowly chipped and shredded them with every slash and tear. Their quality equipment was turning into junk before my assault, making me kinda regret not dipping my claws into some of my toxins beforehand.
The shaman would occasionally shoot out a water spell to counter my fire one but was mostly preparing the mana cannon for its next shot.
“Uck…”
Amid our twirl of attacks, one of the troll warriors suddenly dropped to his knees. A quick [Identify] informed me he had [Paralyzation (Minor)]. My build-up fatigue vanished the second I knew of this, understanding that the fumes were finally having an effect on them.
“Gack! Gack!” At the back, the shaman also coughed profusely.
Looking around, I finally noticed black smoke covering the chamber;s ceiling like a fog. My own lungs were having trouble breathing in air, as the oxygen was diminishing rapidly. All of us were breathing heavily from all this movements, and my fire spells and attack weren’t helping the situation either.
As the neurotoxic fumes infected the trolls, their already fatigued bodies were unable to keep up with my continued assault. The trolls’ situation was precarious enough that the shaman had to stop working on the cannon to fully dedicate himself to supporting his warriors.
“Kriii argh…gack! Il socht thae…, gack, sadon!”
Still coughing excessively, the troll took out a vial of black liquid and quickly consumed it all in one big gulp. He gave a maddened laugh and began casting a new spell. At that very moment, large shadow tendrils erupted from the ground and captured the shaman in their clutches.
“Wroooooouuuuu!”
“Grack! Arrrrrrrrghhhhh!”
As if she was part of the shadow, a large wolf lunged at the troll shaman, penetrating his unarmored throat with her ferocious-looking canines. The shaman screamed in pain, coughing up blood, as he desperately flailed his arms around in a futile attempt to free himself from this death-dealing bite.
Despite his higher Strength stat, he was unable to throw Saori off. I checked his status with [Identify] and noticed he had [Paralyzation (Moderate)], while the troll warriors only had minor. It was very likely Saori coated her mouth with my paralyzation fluid.
The troll warriors turned their backs to me and ran to the aid of the troll shaman, however, their advances were stopped by the shockwave of the [Scorching Sun] I threw at them. Without the support of the shaman’s water spells, the warriors squirmed in pain, as they tried to extinguish the flames melting through their armor, fusing metal with their skin.
Using this moment to my advantage, I started casting a new inferno spell. Something that will rip right through their natural regeneration.
Goodbye! Maximum powered Blazing Twister!”
As the temperature of the air sharply rose ever higher, the first sparks of fire started to appear, with more appearing over time. The scorching heat began twisting in the center of the trolls, burning the very air these trolls were breathing until flames began to appear.
A roaring blaze morphed into searing winds of carnage, accelerating its rotational speed more and more. This tornado of fire was fully materialized.
The trolls’ cries of pain were so audible, I could sympathize with them slightly. It didn't matter if your armor was made from fire-resistant material or not, 'cause nothing could endure the amount of heat exerted from this advanced fire spell.
If a single powerful blast wouldn't do it, then slowly peeling away the scales and melting the metal until the wearer was cooked in his own armor, should be more effective. The twisting inferno consumed everything that the trolls once had — their skin, flesh, and life.
Having finished my battle, I looked over at Saori’s direction. My mouth turned into a grin as I noticed the troll shaman’s eyes no longer showing any signs of life. Saori turned back into her wolfkin form and rushed over to give me a hug as I transformed back into a dragonewt.
[“Thank goodness you’re still in one piece, Hestia,”] Saori gave a long-winded sigh as she held me in her arms, albeit a bit too tightly. She was really worried.
I laughed enthusiastically, “Haha, I told you that I was alright. You don’t need to worry when I have my healing ma… ow, ow, ow, no, no! Not my cheeks!”
Holding both my cheeks in her hands, Saori stretched them to the sides as if they were gummy bears. [“Stop being so boastful. I thought my heart was about to stop when I saw you being blasted away.”]
Our mood was pretty lively despite my near-death experience. Our plan didn't go completely as we wanted, but we still won in the end. After releasing my cheeks, we went to the fairy’s location, while I caressed my pained face. We might have shown her our monster forms, but we turned back into our humanized forms to hopefully not scare her when we speak.
According to my [Detection Sensor], the fairy was trapped in a compartment of the mana cannon. Opening it, I could feel some of my mana being drained just by having my hand close to it. Looking in, the fairy was there, crouching and wheezing as if she just ran a marathon. Checking her status board, my attention was caught by her slowly decreasing mana.
I quickly grabbed her out of the cannon and started pouring my mana into her.
[“Hey, Miss Fairy!”] once it seemed like she recovered, I spoke to her with [Telepathy]. I didn’t know her language, after all. [“Are you feeling, alright?”]
[“W-Who, wait, that voice? Are you— I-It’s you two, right?”] Stuttering, the fairy uttered her surprise at seeing us in this form.
We nodded.
[“Y-You two came back for me?”] She sounded baffled for some reason.
["We made up our mind to save you, so of course, we will keep our word,”] Saori spoke from the side to reassure the fairy.
[“I-I didn’t think… No, thank you! Thank you so very much for saving me!”] Still in my hands, the fairy started to weep, continuously thanking us while bowing.
Feeling a bit timid holding a crying girl in my arms, I averted my eyes and changed the topic in a panic. [“Right, right! We haven’t introduced ourselves yet! My name is Hestia, and this is…”]
[“Saori. A pleasure to have met your acquaintance,”] Saori’s perfectly normal introduction left me dumbfounded.
[“Thank you very much, Hestia and Saori. May the winds of Zephira and water of Plesia bless you two.”] After sniffing her stuffy nose, the fairy reciprocated our introduction. [“My name is Tasianna Marina Silverpond. A simple fairy, as you can see.”]
Plesia? Is that another god?
[“I don’t know how I can ever repay you for saving me but ask anything you wish! I will do my best to fulfill it,”] Tasianna stated, humbly bowing her head.
[“We can talk about that later, let’s first…!”] I wanted to soothe her, but my head suddenly snapped around.
Saori and I dodged to the sides when our [Prediction] warned us of an incoming attack. Turning my head around, I saw a boulder crashing into the mana cannon, spinning it around until its muzzle pointed at the source of the boulder.
“Grrrrrrrrouugghghgh!”
What is that—?!
His eyes were abyss black, his body deformed to a grotesque abomination leaving no signs of his previous appearance. Horrifying, hairy tentacles grew out of his torso and wriggled around as if they had a mind of their own. His limbs enlarged and looked bloated as if they were left too long in water.
The only part of his body that was still normal was the head but even that received a make-over with all his teeth growing out of proportion into tusks. Hideous was too light of an adjective to describe this… thing. Monstrous beyond compare!
The troll shaman was no more. At first, I thought the slimes were the most hideous and bizarre creatures in this world, but this weird freak just went the extra mile to prove to me there could be even more outlandish and eldritch looking monsters in existence!
Wanting to know more about it, I used [Identify] but all that came out of it was:
Information not available.
My brain froze for a second as I learned this fact. In that small window of vulnerability, the mutated troll grasped my leg, pulling me to it.
“Aahhhh!”
Screaming, my body collapsed onto the ground, releasing the fairy from my hands in the process. The troll swung me over his head and then slammed my whole body onto the ground with full force.
Any damage was minimized with my [Draconic Barrier] but my body still screamed at me for endangering it once again. My parallel minds were also dutifully healing me, leaving me relatively unharmed despite engraving multiple imprints of my humanized body on the cave’s floor. The mutated troll kept on swinging and slamming me on the ground, despite all of that.
“Urrrrgggh…”
Moaning, I activated [Flame Spark Veil], creating sparks to appear around my body, which unfortunately reduced my Stamina to zero. One of the sparks ignited the eye of the troll on fire, who then released me by throwing me away like a used-up tissue.
[“Hestia!”] Saori once again transformed back into her garm form and caught me mid-flight.
Feeling the soreness of my muscles, I couldn’t help but groan. “Uuuurgh, end me already…”
[“Uhh, no thank you.”] For some reason, Saori responded to my joking complaint with a straight-forward answer. Talk about a hard crowd.
“Saoriiiiiiiiii!” Like a whining child, I cried out ‘cause of that.
[“Okay, okay, I am sorry. Oh, my goodness, I am doing a terrible job as your companion here! I told myself that I would protect you, but I just let you be injured twice! You are supposed to be my princess, but I am doing such a bad job as your retainer!”] Saori apologized.
As we were having a moment, the mutated troll crawled at us in the most unsightly way possible.
“Isht sa ous ahk zath’ll il hukma!” Shouting in her own language, our attention snapped towards the source — the fairy. Tasianna was operating what looked like the trigger of the cannon.
Pushing it, the cannon’s muzzle, once again, glowed a bright blue and shot out a powerful mana ball at the mutated troll, blasting him against the wall.
“Yes!” Standing up, I shouted in elation that the troll had a taste of its own medicine. “That’s how it feels!”
Saori looked at me in confusion, noticing my weird outburst. However, I didn’t have the time to defend myself as Tasianna suddenly fell to the ground. Picking her back up, I recognized she was stunned by breathing in too much of the fumes.
Using [Cure], I cured her of that status ailment. [“Nice shot!”] I complimented her and gave her a thumbs up.
She smiled wryly, letting out a small giggle. [“Hiehie, thank you very much, Princess Hestia.”]
Uhhhh, what?!
Suddenly hearing somebody else besides Saori calling me princess, made my mind freeze, again. Fatigue was slowly getting to me, I guessed.
[“Get on!”] Waking me up from my stupor, I shook my head and turned my gaze to Saori’s. [“Primary objective is done, let us get out of here already!”]
“Gruuuuarghhhhhaghh!”
That thing is still alive?!
Whatever was possessing this troll made it so much harder to kill now. He recovered from that cannon shot as if it was nothing. Not wanting to stay any longer than we had to, I got on Saori’s back and let her ride us out of here.
Dashing out of the chamber, I threw a [Firebolt] at the trap I made at the start of this rescue operation, triggering the bomb I jammed into the [Terra Wall]. The bomb lighted up red for a moment and then detonated in a grand explosion.
Riding through the dust of the now destroyed wall, I noticed small balls stuck on the cave’s walls lighten up a similar red color, showing us the path outside. After some time, those balls would also explode.
“This plan is so excessive! I can’t believe you’re the one to have thought of it, Saori!” I incredulously shouted.
[“It was for the worse case if there were more trolls inside! We had the tools, we better use them!”] Saori shouted back to rebuke me.
Hearing Saori explaining the first phase of her plan was enough to leave me speechless. She wanted me to plant bombs on the walls of the cave while we traveled through it. They would light up before they exploded, guiding us out of this place, while simultaneously covering our escape from the trolls by causing a cave-in.
“Grrriiaauauaauaghahaah!”
“What the hell! I thought you killed that thing?!” Looking back, I could see the mutated troll keeping up with us.
[“I did, alright! You saw its Health. It was dead for sure!”] Saori’s loud voice cried out in her defense.
We weren’t sure how it got back up, but we knew this thing would pursue us relentlessly if we couldn’t kill it off now! Colliding my fangs against each, I took a deep breath. The spark quickly grew into a massive ball of fire as I continuously poured in mana through my mouth.
Spark Inferno Blast!
Opening my mouth, I released the bigger-than-my-mouth inferno ball. My dragon flame crashed against the mutated troll and sent him flying back. The consequence of the chain of explosion finally showed itself as the ceiling of the cave began to fall, burying the troll under it.
Giving it her all, Saori sprinted like the wind and we finally made it outside the cave.
Is this…!
[“Guys…I got the level up.”] Having received the best confirmation possible, I turned back on [Telpathy] to inform everybody of the mutated troll’s death… uh, death-death?
[“Ahhhh, finally…,"] Saori immediately collapsed onto the ground, panting heavily.
“YEAAAAAHHHH!” On the other hand, I jumped off her back and wrapped my head around Saori’s fuzzy head, nuzzling against it after learning of our victory.
While I was cheering like crazy, another voice suddenly entered our minds, interrupting our celebration. [“I wish to once again thank you two for coming to my rescue. You have my eternal gratitude, Madam Saori and Princess Hestia.”]
Princess?! Did she just call me princess?
[“Uhhh, princess? No, no. I think you misheard that, Miss Tasianna,”] I tried my best to object to her claim, however, it was fruitless.
[“You don’t have to worry, Dragon Princess Hestia. I overheard Madam Saori mention it.”]
I glared at Saori, who averted her eyes and simply said, [“Oops.”]
[“I know this is rude of me after you just risked your life to save me, but…”] Tasianna placed her hands on her lap and gave me a complete bow. [“Please, allow me to serve you as your maid, Princess Hestia!”]
…
…Uhhh, what?
AbyssRaven
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