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Vol. 5 - Journey - Chapter 11
🕑 Added 2019-07-12 21:22:40 +0000 UTCAs the single gunshot continued to echo in the dungeon room, Lexiana was shivering while she crouched down and covered her ears with her hands. The sound had been deafening in the dungeon room and with her hearing it was painfully loud. It took her a few moments to recover. When she did she looked at the dungeon wall behind her and started to shiver in fear. There was a small smoking crater now decorating the wall. It should be known that dungeon walls were notorious for being extremely hard to damage.
The only reason she didn't have a new hole in her head is that Thomas had shifted his aim slightly to the right before pulling the trigger. While he had no qualms with killing the pesky wolf-woman, he also had no real reason to. Yes, she had threatened him but he honestly wasn't all that scared of her. He had plenty of tricks he could employ to deal with her. As an overt threat, he slowly cocked the hammer of his Peace Maker once again letting her hear every click and movement of metal.
Lexiana, the wolf-woman, instantly turned around and faced Thomas with fear in her eyes. She still had no idea what the thing in his hand was, but she knew it was deadly. Thomas continued to stare at her with the barrel of the Peace Maker aimed right at her head, "You were saying?"
Lexiana swallowed loudly before making a small placating motion with her hands. She slowly stood back up to her full height but made sure she kept her hand far away from the rapier-like sword on her hip. Thomas studied her for a moment before speaking, "You should leave now. I'm losing patience with you."
Lexiana took a deep breath and risked speaking, "Please, just tell me why the Garou is following you."
Thomas glared at Lexiana in silence for a short time before letting out a sigh. The wolf-woman was incredibly stubborn. He was starting to wonder if he should shoot her in the leg and move deeper into the dungeon. After a few moments of tense silence, Thomas decided to answer and hope she would go away after. He had no qualms with killing her but at the same time, he wasn't a cold-blooded murderer, "Her name is Snowlily and she is my soul companion. Now leave before I lose all of my patience."
As if to punctuate his words, Snowlily growled at Lexiana. The growl from Snowlily seemed to have far more effect than Thomas's threat. Hearing the growl, Lexiana wilted and nodded. She was still shocked to learn about Snowlily being the soul companion to a human of all things. She couldn't risk sticking around any longer, she was fully aware that she had worn out her welcome. She carefully retreated back the way she came without another word. Thomas kept the Peace Maker trained on her the entire time.
Once the woman was no longer in sight, Thomas holstered his revolver before scooping Snowlily up into his arms and picking a random exit from the room he was in. He wanted to put some more space between himself and that annoying woman. If she bugged him again he would definitely put a bullet in her leg and leave her in the dungeon. The torchlight path led to another room containing skeletons. The group makeup contained the same kinds he'd seen in the previous room just with different proportions. One shield warrior, two archers, two mages, a dual wielder, and likely a hidden rogue.
He'd decided to always assume there was a rogue within the room. Even if there wasn't it was best to be prepared just in case. After all, he'd not seen the rogue skeleton last time and nearly had his spine severed. As he contemplated the problem he smiled. There was always a chance that could work. He circulated his mana and let it burst out from his body like a radar ping. An instant later he could feel seven bodies within the room. He looked into the darkest corner in the room where the rogue skeleton was hiding from him. Mana Field really was an excellent skill!
After the burst of mana from Thomas, all of the skeletons in the room turned to focus on him. Snowlily lightly hopped out of his arms and got herself out of the way. Thomas decided to have a little fun. He pulled the iron sphere he made earlier out of his inventory and let it roll on the palm of his hand. He gathered mana and smiled wickedly as he looked at the charging shield warrior skeleton. He held his hand up and aimed it at the skeleton's skull. Mana gathered behind the skull of the skeleton and converted to magnetic energy. Thomas poured power into it and directed it at the iron ball in his hand only. The ball rocketed off of his hand and smashed through the skull of the skeleton shattering it into multiple pieces.
The skeleton continued forward due to its momentum before falling onto the ground and sliding for a short distance. The iron ball continued to float in the air, held in place by the mass of mana that had been converted to magnetism. Inspired by the sight, he started to move the spell itself and watched as the ball followed it loyally. With a wicked grin, he sped the movement of the spell up and sent it flying at the still charging dual sword-wielding skeleton. Its skull shattered as the iron ball pulverized the brittle bones.
Though the skeletons were not the sharpest tools in the shed, they still had enough intelligence to recognize and react to a threat. Now, the flying iron ball represented a deadly threat and they reacted accordingly. The archers and mages all started to fire arrows and spells at the flying iron ball. Though the could recognize it as a threat they couldn't discern that the threat really originated from Thomas.
With a smirk, Thomas started guiding the iron ball directly at the head of one of the mages. He put more focus on increasing the speed of the iron ball to increase its attack power. The mage lifted its staff and started to cast a spell of some sort but before it could finish the iron ball smashed its skull to pieces. Thomas immediately reversed the direction of the iron ball and slammed it into the back of the other mages skull. The two mages collapsed to the ground at almost the same time.
The iron ball whizzed and danced through the air dodging the arrows fired by the skeleton archers. At the moment Thomas was just playing around and increasing his skill at handling the iron ball while it flew through the air. Thomas quickly changed the direction of the iron ball and sent it hurtling through the air. It blasted one of the achers skulls into powder as it flew by. He swung the iron ball in an arc and slammed it into the skull of the second archer a moment later. As they collapsed to the ground the only skeleton remaining was the rogue-type skeleton hiding in the shadows.
Despite all the commotion that Thomas had caused the rogue skeleton hadn't moved at all. If Thomas had to guess, he would guess that the rogue would only come out and attempt a sneak attack when he came close to the rear line fighters in the skeleton party. Thomas pulled the iron ball back to his hand and grasped it with a smile. There were a few scratches on the once perfectly smooth surface but that was to be expected. Thomas turned to gaze at the corner where the rogue skeleton was still hiding. He pondered on a way to deal with it that might be interesting.
He finally decided to try something new, something he'd never done before. There was no guarantee it would work but at the very least it would be interesting. He lifted his hand, even though he didn't need to, and created a ball of mana in the corner. He compressed it a little before turning it into the light element. The moment he did a bright light filled the corner of the room and showed the rogue skeleton in its black ragged cloak. The skeleton reacted immediately and attempted to slash the orb of light revealing its location. The slash had no effect of the immaterial ball of light.
Thomas released his control over the ball of light and contrary to his expectation, the ball of light didn't immediately fade away. It continued to float there and emit light. Thomas was pleasantly surprised, he now had a spell to provide light, well if he ever really needed it. With his 'All Seeing Eyes' he could see just fine in the dark, but things like shadows still existed and it was those shadows that allowed the rogue skeleton to remain hidden from his sight. There was also the possibility of a skill or an ability being in effect.
Thomas put that to the side for the time being and instead started to gather his mana once more. The iron ball on his palm took off and blasted through the skull of the rogue skeleton. Its skull was blasted into pieces with ease. Kinetic energy could be a rather scary thing. After retrieving the iron ball, Thomas went around the room and collected the mana crystals earned from defeating all of the skeletons in the room. He didn't move on immediately though. He stuck around and observed the floating ball of light. He wanted to know how long it would last. It had some use to him but would have more use in the future when he was working with other people.
It took almost ten minutes for the orb of light to use all the mana that Thomas had provided to it. Once it did it simply faded and disappeared. Thomas expected that the more mana he provided the longer the light would shine. With that test over with, the two companions made their way down and random pathway to fight with some more skeletons. At this point, Snowlily was acting more like an experience leech than a companion. Thomas didn't mind in the least though. He was thinking of it more as an investment. Once Snowlily gained some strength she would be able to contribute to the fighting and they would both gain experience faster in the future.
For the next several hours the two of them explored the first floor of the dungeon and slaughtered skeletons using a variety of methods. Thomas used his sword, the iron ball, and various magics to defeat the skeletons and earn experience for the two of them. Likely because he just kept picking random paths to take it took most of the day for them to find their way down to the second floor. Despite running into multiple groups of people fighting skeletons and not being able to fight in every room of the dungeon, Thomas had managed to slaughter around a hundred skeletons throughout the day.
After descending to the second floor they used the teleportation formation to leave the dungeon. Once they arrived outside they both enjoyed the fresh air outside. Well as fresh as city air could be. The sky above them was turning orange signaling the end of the day approaching. As Thomas held Snowlily her stomach rumbled loud enough for him to hear and feel it. He looked down at her and grinned, "We should look for something to eat for dinner."
Though they had eaten a few snacks from his inventory while they were in the dungeon they hadn't eaten a full meal since their breakfast back at the inn. They could head back to the inn for their dinner however, there was something much more important! Together they made their way toward the street where they'd found the food vendor the previous day. Those skewers had been so damned delicious that they had to find the vendor again today and get their hands on some more.
It took them almost an hour to find the vendor. It was mostly thanks to Snowlily's excellent nose leading the way that they managed to find it. Like the day before there was a line of customers waiting for some skewers. Thomas had to admit that the vendor definitely did an excellent amount of business. Together they waited in line and when it was finally their turn, Thomas ordered the maximum amount he could and paid without a hint of hesitation. Snowlily's tail was wagging and she was practically drooling as Thomas accepted the skewers. She could barely contain her excitement as Thomas made his way to a side street where the two of them could enjoy their reward for a hard days work.
