Chapter 32 - Lizard

With a groan, my hand pushed off the branches covering my head. The sun was shining faintly through the trees.

After getting myself out of the hole, my back cracked.

Holding tightly onto my stake, my shadow once again joined the trees.

Soon my stomach was filled with a rabbit. From there, my objective was to find any demon in the vicinity.

My pathing was towards where my mind predicted the demons would be. Yet there was no way to know if I was actually going on the right track. My ears perked up, trying to pick up the sound of rushing water, I figured the lake would be a good reference point.

Despite traversing great lengths, rabbits were the only living things in sight. Perhaps actively searching for something made them more elusive. Nonetheless, my steps navigated the forest in search of something more than the unending trees.

My foot suddenly paused. There was a clearing in the trees revealing a big hill, or small mountain. It had occurred to me that this was similar to the hill where a cave was hidden. It was where the blue deer had taken me.

Perhaps by circling this mountain, there would be a lake in sight. Using that as a reference it would guide me towards the proper direction.

With that plan in mind, I started to scale up the mountain and circle around it. My eyes were focused on piercing through the trees, to catch any glimpse of running water.

Suddenly, as my foot pushed down on the snow, expecting ground, it passed right through. Caught off balance, my heart clenched as the foot still on the ground lost traction.

Falling through the snow, my hands instinctively reached out to cover my head. The fall itself was a few seconds long and the fall was mostly broken by my back. My head slammed onto the ground right after my back, but my hand had taken the brunt of the force instead.

It was a cave that was quite dark and musty, above me was a hole letting a ray of sunlight shine in. As my body shook off the pain, the snow had started to land on top of the gap above me and slowly block out the light.

My finger on one hand delicately wiped off the blood covering the knuckles on my other hand. After attempting to sit up, my vision blurred and pain surged across my spine. I stopped attempting to sit, so as to not push myself more than I should.

Since it wasn't too difficult to prepare another healing spell, my mind tried to finish the one prepared in my body.

But there was no mana in my body.

A frown slowly formed on my face. It seems my back will just have to heal naturally.

The walls were very smooth, without spells, there was no way my bare hands could climb it. Straining my eyes to look down in the cave, there was only darkness.

Without many choices left, my eyes closed, sending me into a deep sleep.

...

Despite sleeping on hard rock, my body was relaxed. The inside of this cave was at a moderate temperature.

This time, sitting up was painful but not excessively so. After a few cracking sounds rang out, I was on my feet.

The cave was almost pitch black, though my vision still reached about two meters ahead of me. My hand gripped the stake tightly, it was the only thing that was left after my spells became unusable.

My feet did not make a sound as they touched the rock. After a few meters, a soft haggard breath just barely reached my ears. I continued walking cautiously forward.

The breathing sounds became clearer, as they did, the pain in those breaths became more apparent.

None the wiser, my foot landed on something mushy. Startled, my foot pulled back. My eyes intently looked at the floor ahead of me. There was a faint outline of a grey humanoid shape.

Carefully treading around it, my eyes inspected what was in front of me.

The skin was shriveled and densely packed with wrinkles. There wasn't much more than skin and bones.

Then, my eyes locked on its head. There were three horns, it was a three-horned demon that had just passed away.

A high level demon had died down here? Though upon getting hit by Alyx's spell demons react quite violently, perhaps the lack of magic killed it?

The corner of my lips started to twitch, but my steps continued forward without faltering.

There was a large mace a few steps forward. I imagined what it would be like to swing that around, though realistically it would not work out that way, thus my silent steps circled around it.

The silence made it feel as if my legs were treading upon nothing. It was as if the hallway would end.

That's why the soft patting ahead of me was deafening. My legs froze while my hand gradually readied the stake to stab, holding onto it tightly. My head was down, so the little distance my eyes could still make out was at the edges of my peripheral vision.

Two black figures emerged at the edge of my sight. They were black lizards with very tiny yellow eyes. Their feet raised as if they were cautiously walking on a tightrope, making them silent.

When they were within one meter, I pounced on one, sending the stake straight at its face.

Unfortunately, they both backed up immediately into the darkness with a wet smacking sound. It was silent once again and my heart started to palpitate, but slowly relaxed. This time my legs carried me forward, with quiet footfalls and breaths.

At the edges of my peripheral vision, two lizards came into view. They were backing up with trepidation. It did not take long for me to get close to them, they did not appear to notice. It was like they could not tell my presence right in front of them.

Being so close, my stake confidently whipped at the lizard. Yet, as fate would have it, the lizards suddenly dashed away again.

...What was I doing wrong?

Ideas started to swirl inside of my head. Despite being so close, they could not notice me. Was this because they were unable to see? If that is the case, the lizards should be defenseless against a silent strike.

...The only question remaining was how to do a silent strike.

Many doubts surfaced. How was a strike supposed to be silent if it stirs up wind? Not to mention trying to attack at a speed that wouldn't stir up wind would be rather lackluster.

Searching through my memories I was hoping to find some way to perform this onerous task.

What was the solution to such a contradictory problem? The wolf would pounce, but it was not quiet. Eagles would always announce themselves loudly when they appeared, so how could they do anything stealthy?

...Wait.

It was then a small detail while the eagles dived that came to my mind. It was completely silent as it traveled, but would make a thundering slam upon collision.

...If I moved faster than the sound did, the target would not be able to register any sounds.

As my pondering concluded, the two lizards appeared at the edge of my vision again, as slow as they were before.

This time I pulled my hand back. Once the lizards got close, my stake snaked at one of them, at the expense of my wrist. The stake landed with a thump, piercing the lizard's head.

The lizard shrieked, flailing its limbs but its final struggle died down soon after.

Right after I struck, the other lizard pounced at my arm, clamping its jaws on it. My hand was unable to continue holding onto the stake. My teeth grit and my other hand hurriedly picked up the stake and stabbed the other one in the head.

The jaws slowly released with a shriek. My arm was starting the bleed. With my arm that was bloodied, I pulled out my shirt and spread part of it on the floor, as painful as it was. My hand holding the stake scraped against the shirt until it pierced the shirt and grinding against the rock floor.

With shaking hands, the newly acquired piece of cloth was sloppily cleaned against my coat and was wrapped tightly around my arm. The cloth was immediately soaked with blood but stopped the bleeding for the most part.

My heart slowed as a deep breath filled my lungs. My lips made a frown.

Without the healing spell, each injury would have long lasting effects. There was only so much my body could afford to take while down here.

My heart did not want to eat the lizards, but my stomach cried out for something. Reluctantly, my good hand peeled away the scales. Instinctively, my mind tried to draw in mana to cast the fire spell, but there was none. My frown deepened.

I ate it raw and held back my urge to vomit.

Moving on with a heavy heart, there were no encounters for quite an amount of time. The tunnel began to gradually widen until it split off into two paths.

After a few moments of hesitation, the realization that my only option was to pick one settled in.

Arbitrarily, the left became my new destination. Not too long after, there was a black lizard crawling towards me. My steps stopped and as the lizard came closer, my stake was being raised a little higher.

My stake plunged and the lizard was unable to dodge it. With a shriek, it soon stopped moving.

Not long after killing that lizard, three more lizards appeared in my peripheral vision. The first idea to come to mind was the wind spell to distract them, but there was no real way to pull that off.

My foot pulled back, slowly backtracking from the lizards that were approaching.

Unfortunately, the fact a lizard corpse was behind me slipped my mind. My foot landed on it, letting out a loud squishing sound. Without really thinking, my foot pushed the lizard towards the wall with a swishing and smacking sound.

The lizards rushed towards it, trying to bite it.

My foot took a step towards the lizards, getting me behind them. My stake plunged once more, but my hand immediately let go.

The one lizard started to shriek and died soon after. The other lizards rushed towards me but only bumped into the stake or air.

There were now two lizards, a lizard corpse with my stake in it, and another lizard corpse.

Circling around them I kicked the lizard corpse without a stake. Once again, the lizards rushed towards it, trying to bite into the corpse.

My hand delicately reached for and retrieved the spear. Despite that, a squelch still rang out.

My heart clenched and my foot sent the lizard corpse below me to the wall. Thankfully the lizards have been easily led astray, they charged at the corpse. My stake snaked towards one of the lizards and pierced the head. Before the shriek resounded, my hand pulled back. The lizard rushed, hitting only the air.

From there, my steps circled the lizard, retrieving the stake once again. Immediately, my foot sent the lizard corpse beneath me to the wall once again.

To my surprise, the lizard rushed at me. My body instinctively twisted away. My injured back protested greatly, sending as many pain signals as it could. The lizard brushed past me.

Before the lizard hit the ground, my stake was already flying towards the lizard and pierced its head as it hit the ground.

....It seems I let down my guard.