Chapter 319: Fight!

Chapter 319: Fight!

Tala may have gotten carried away.

She pulled the metal away from her mouth as she spat blood to the side.

The iron was instantly stripped away as the thick fluid left her mouth, leaving a clear splatter on the rock beside her.

A hundred yards away her opponent hunkered low and let loose a roar that shook the ground and caused the nearby trees to tremble.

The sound was like a mix of a heavy, rasping breath and the beginnings of a growl, projected at volumes that would break mundane eardrums.

Yes, this fight might have been a bit much for her to take on while simply traveling between cities.

Tala had been nearly halfway to Bandfast when she decided to divert into the mountains just north of that city as a way to take a new route back there.

As she traversed the increasingly rugged terrain, she had sensed a powerful collection of magic coming from within a moderately well-hidden valley, easily a dozen miles deeper into the mountains than she had planned on going.

Even so, shed been curious.

It had led her here.

The valley was only two or three miles long and just over a mile wide, tucked high in the mountains.

A lake dominated one side, trees filled much of the remainder, snow capped the surrounding mountains, and the air was positively dripping with power.

Tala could sense no less than a dozen founts in caves surrounding the valley, all of which felt like they were earth or plant related, at least at a cursory inspection.

Alat had checked immediately, and Tala was not authorized to remove these founts. They were known and allowed for various purposes.

Since she was in the area, she was offered two gold to investigate the integrity of the area and ensure that nothing odd had cropped up.

As it turned out, something had.

Tala had noticed unusual movements in the zeme of the area near a cave in the northern most extreme of the valley. She had barely drawn near, in order to investigate when this creature had lunged forth.

The magical beast was seemingly a newer addition to the valley as it hadnt been there a decade earlier, when the last Archon passed through the area.

As Alat reported the situation via Talas archive link, the reward had been upped to ten gold if she slew the creature and brought back the body. That said, defeating the monster was only to be her third priority behind, maintaining the integrity of the valley and keeping the corpse intact.

She should have asked for more.

The magical beast was a compact, four-legged, feline beast.

Its muscles bulged and flexed, looking more like those belonging to a bodybuilder than a standard specimen.

The flesh and fur were striped with browns, greens, blacks, whites, and oranges, letting it blend in perfectly with the surroundings to her mundane sight.

Its eyes were a bright blue, like a glacial lake, and its fangs and claws were the pure white of new fallen snow.

The big cat registered as green to her magesight, and it had a depth of power within its own body that would make chasms envious. Additionally, it was intimately connected to the valley in which she stood.

While she had fought magical beasts before, shed never actually fought one on its home turf before, in the seat of its power. The prospect had seemed intriguing.

All told, the big beast looked reminiscent of a mundane tiger save its coloring, and its size.

It was as large as two caravan wagons and built like a city wall.

Magical beasts A check through her memoriesof the books that Master Grediv had given her so long agotold her what it was.

It was an upland tiger.nôvel binz was the first platform to present this chapter.

The name was insultingly mundane given the truth of the creature.

It was quick.

Not in the way Terry could quickly reposition himself around a battlefield, but in the sense of reactions, reflexes, and the flexibility to distort in seemingly impossible directions to avoid her blows.

They had only clashed once in a rapid series of strikes given and received.

Tala had scored a cut deep into its side, causing clear blooddrained of its ironto splash the ground beside them. The tiger had ignored the hit in order to backhandBack paw?her so hard that her mouth had filled with blood even before shed slammed into a rock formation more than a hundred yards away with shattering force.

Thus, she had spat out her own blood as she pulled herself to her feet. It roared at her, and she realized that she might have been a bit hasty to pursue this fight.

Her magesight easily saw the torrents of power being drawn into the feline from the land around it, the slice on its side sealing in barely a breath.

Just like the book said

-Well, we can only see information on the Refined version.-

Yeah, even so. It seems like it cant heal while attacking, like the Refined variant can. It is using its roar as an area effect to give it space and time to enact its healing.

-Yeah. It also does seem to be tied to the land even more closely than most magical creatures that have areas as their bound source.-

The only hope is overwhelming power before it can heal, otherwise were fighting a well of resilience equivalent to a mountain valley.

-A magical mountain valley.-

Yeah that does probably factor in.

-We also need to keep in mind that it could be more powerful or more capable in some aspects. Hopefully its known weakness still holds true: It cant heal from anything that would instantly kill a normal animal.-

Thats basically only a beheading or brain obliteration. Even ripping out a heart takes a moment or two to lead to death.

-Severe trauma can kill something instantly. Id recommend a dissolution breath to the head, like with the thunderbull, but more powerful, but we have to keep the corpse intact.-

Yeah, but I dont think were going to be able to enact that level of trauma on a Paragon creature without ruining the body wait, is it more correct to call it Honored?

-Seems like either is correct. But more importantly, the fight?-

The tiger crouched, the very ground around it seeming to compact and harden beneath its paws before it launched forward.

Tala grinned as she called Flow back to her hand, pushing power through it to change the form into a glaive as she set her feet against the charge.

In the second that it took the massive feline to close the distance between them, Tala felt her footing shift.

It was so unusual a sensation that she oriented one of her mirrored perspectives specifically downward.

Her ears were magically reinforced, as well as being encapsulated under iron and magical steel, and she still felt like they were in danger of succumbing to force and magic within the sound.

As soon as the roar died down, Terry was on the offensive once again, his talons now focusing on the felines eyes and other vulnerabilities.

The tiger was livid at the birds assault, but Tala was able to close the distance despite the increasingly difficult terrain.

With a bit more time to line up her strike thanks to Terrys distractions, she managed to hit the front leg of the beast just where it joined the paw, and Flow cleanly severed the appendage, skipping off the bone to glide smoothly through the joint.

She had only an instant to grin in triumph even as she continued the attack sequence by driving Flow up to its sword-hilt in the tigers chest.

Her mirrored perspectives saw the severed paw reverse course mid-fall and seamlessly rejoin its limb just in time to slam into her side and throw her, skipping across the ground once more.

Rust. I thought that would give us a momentary advantage.

She righted herself, thankfully not needing to clear her mouth this time. Shed managed to twist with the blow, dissipating much of the damage potential of the swipe, even though it had still thrown her with ease.

As she considered, standing up once more, she realized exactly what that meant.

To anything else, she should have the inertia of a couple of thunder bulls, but this upland tiger was tossing her about with relative ease.

It was ridiculously strong.

Even with Terrys help, this might be an impossible fight given the restrictions she was operating under.

Her avian friend seemed to have reached the same conclusion, because Terry took that moment to flicker to Talas shoulder and rock backwards, pulling her directly away from the tiger.

She frowned, slightly surprised that theyd come to the same conclusion. You want to flee?

Terry trilled, the sound containing the increasingly familiar sense of obviously!

Are you sure? Tala looked back toward the tiger as it crouched low. She really wanted to beat the big kitty despite the difficulty

He bobbed before flickering away, appearing far behind her, turning back to regard his partner.

Tala almost shook her head in frustration, ignored the bird, and settled in to continue the fight.

He wants to be a flock, to test that out. Being a flock, fighting together that requires trust.

So, that was the question: Did she trust Terrys judgment?

No ones life was on the line.

She was fighting for a few gold at the most.

If she left, some other Archon would be dispatched to deal with this overgrown tiger.

With that understanding solidified, she made her choice.

Rocking backwards, she leapt away, following after Terry.

The tiger paused, clearly surprised by her retreat.

It didnt relax, nor lower its guard, but it also didnt pursue.

It was protecting its den, its land, its source of power.

It seemed to have no need nor desire to pursue her.

She blinked at that, then began to laugh internally.

She had suppressed her through-spike.

She was covered in iron.

She wouldnt look like a human, magically speaking, so the odd almost-compulsion that magical creatures seemed to have to attack humans, didnt seem to apply.

It would have had flickers of that while it was tearing into her, which likely explained its ferocity and persistence during those attacks, but now? Her power was effectively veiled, and it didnt have a compulsion to pursue.

A minute later, she was out of sight of the tiger.

Even so, she and Terry didnt slow down, and soon, they were at the southern end of the valley, in the pass through which Tala had entered.

Terry flickered to her shoulder and headbutted her cheek.

Thank you, Terry. You were a big help.

He chirped happily.

You were wise to have us retreat, too. It was a dangerous fight with little reward. Thank you.

He trilled happily and settled down.

She briefly informed him how the fight had come about and about the restrictions she had been operating under.

That seemed to help him relax further, the little bits of confusion shed detected from him leveling out. When she finished, he headbutted her again.

You were confused why I wasnt using certain tactics and skills?

He bobbed, chirping in affirmation.

Yeah I actually think I could have taken it out with relative certainty, but it would have been messy.

He gave a warbling, undulating, and descending note.

Tala snorted a laugh. Yeah, that was a bit of an understatement, wasnt it?

He bobbed one final time, and then flickered away, heading out of the valley.

Yeah, lets get back on the right track.

She turned to look south and a little east, to where she knew Bandfast lay.

It had been an interesting diversion, but she still wanted to get there that day.

Alright, Tala, lets get to it.