"Why not stay the night and leave at dawn?" I asked Roy as we stepped out of the ruin. It was midnight, and the silence that settled over the forest felt heavier now, like the trees themselves were holding their breath.
"If we're late to return, the tribe may send a search party. I'd rather they not cross paths with Kurraghal," he replied, without looking.
I noticed he was keeping a bit of distance between us. And while the priestess's staff was strapped securely to his back, it was the pouch at his waist that he seemed oddly protective of. Every few steps, his hand would brush against it, almost as if checking to make sure it was still there.
He definitely picked something up in that room. If he found those blades there, maybe there were artifacts too - Armor, maybe even relics...
I needed armor. Not just for protection, but because the robe I was wearing was basically a glorified curtain. It did nothing to keep me warm, offered no defense, and made me feel like I was walking around half-naked.
Still, I let it go.
Roy had already handed over the blades freely, and I wasn't about to start demanding more - or worse, use divine power to force him.
Whatever. I've already gained more than enough from this ruin. And if Roy gets stronger, that just means more influence for me. I calmed myself with that reasoning, even if part of me still wanted to know what he was hiding.
We walked in silence after that. Roy kept stopping to listen, sometimes crouching, sometimes tilting his head slightly - like he was reading the forest itself. We only moved when he was sure it was safe.
I really need to raise my perception stat.
There wasn't a huge gap between our perception attributes. But apparently, those 6 points made all the difference, because I could not distinguish sounds at all. The entire forest was just noise to me. But for Roy, it was different - it was like he could read those sounds like a language.
"Elar Roy, are there many ruins like this in the region?" I asked, already planning how many more I could raid.
"Very few," he said after a pause, either sifting through memories or deciding how much to tell me. "But I know of three dungeons near the tribe's territory."
He shot a sideways glance at me as he spoke, subtle, but not subtle enough.
Why is he so damn suspicious?
At first, I thought it was just caution, but the constant testing, the measuring, the guarded looks - it was starting to get really annoying. I was never the most patient person, even as a human. And try imagining how impatient I would be now that I was a God.
I wanted to ask more about the dungeons, but held back. I didn't trust myself not to get irritated, and I wasn't in the mood to test my own restraint, especially now, when the System was clearly affecting how I thought. So I just kept walking, silent and focused, choosing to follow while trying to improve my hearing skills.
This part of the forest felt wilder. Meaner. The animals near the tribe were small, easy prey for Velmoryns. But here, the air felt different. Like the predators owned it. And yet... nothing.
Roy didn't know this, but I was watching from the Window. The forest near the ruin had gone completely lifeless. Every creature that could run, crawl, or fly had fled.
I knew for a fact that there were plenty of creatures near the ruin when Roy first entered. Something had clearly changed while we were inside.
Is this Kurraghal's effect? No, it can't be. He was terrifying, sure, but not to this extent. Could it have been the vessel? Maybe my takeover scared them off? Animals do tend to pick up on unnatural things. They are very sensitive to change, weird presences…
I was still deep in thought when the ground just a few steps ahead of me and Roy cracked and began to bulge.
Moments later, something grotesque crawled out. A creature that looked like the cursed offspring of a spider and an ant. Even with only the faint light from glowing plants and trees, the pulsing, dark green patches on its body were enough to judge its size, and it was big.
"Do you know what this creature is?" I asked, or maybe even shouted, unsheathing my blades and settling into a ready stance.
"I've never seen anything like it", he replied.
And yet, even now, even facing some unknown monstrosity, Roy didn't falter. He didn't panic. He took a step back and readied his bow, voice full of zeal.
"Praise be to the Velmoryn God. Should He will it, I shall slay you." He declared, his eyes gaining more confidence.
I realized quickly that if we were to win this fight, I'd have to be the tank, the distraction, letting Roy do the damage from a distance.
I don't want to put my vessel in danger, but if things go wrong, I'll use Destruction and kill this thing. Besides, I need to earn Roy's trust.
"I'll draw its focus!" I shouted, already kicking off the ground.
I burst forward, pushing off the ground with a speed that caught even me off guard. The moment I closed the distance, one of the monster's limbs came crashing down. It wasn't graceful. It was brute force, an attempt to crush me like an insect.
I didn't try to block it. That would've been suicide.
I sidestepped at the last second. It still grazed my shoulder, burning hot through the fabric and leaving a sharp sting.
I smiled.
Not because it was amusing, but because I felt it.
The pain... It was sharp and real. Unpleasant, sure, but for a God whose senses had been dulled by System... it was satisfying in its own way.
Let's see what this body can really do.
The grin slipped off my face as the excitement took over. I surged forward and slashed with my right blade. The edge struck its side and jolted me to the bone.
My hand shook. The feedback rattled through my arm like I'd just tried to cut through steel wrapped in leather. My blade barely left a mark.
I didn't stick around. I jumped back on instinct, just before another limb slammed into the dirt where I'd been standing.
The moment that weird spider mutant realized it had missed, it lurched forward to close the distance, hoping to catch me off guard.
You can't reach me… I thought, but my smugness disappeared the moment I realized it was faster than I expected. The monster's leg was already nearing my chest when it staggered to the right. An arrow slammed into the side of its head and burst into a flash of crimson light on impact.
I snapped out of it and pulled back again, heart pounding.
Being a God does not magically make me a better warrior. Even the knowledge of elven swordplay can't help until I gain more experience.
I shifted focus and narrowed my stance. One arrow wasn't going to end this thing. I dashed low, aiming for its underside. It was still reeling from Roy's hit and I was counting on it being too slow to react.
I passed under its front leg just as it began to crouch, clearly trying to squash me beneath its weight.
But it miscalculated both my speed and the distance I'd already covered. I dove to the side, narrowly avoiding its hairy underbelly.
"I'll strike it from above!" Roy shouted, seeing that I was starting to struggle, his tone sharp but composed.
I didn't even need to look to know he was about to use Phantom Step.
Skills... What about my own? Do I have anything useful?
I scanned my status window as quickly as I could. That's when I spotted something that caught my attention - Mimic Shell.
[Mimic Shell – Intermediate]
Creates a temporary imprint, allowing the next skill used by a visible target to be permanently copied. The target must activate the skill within one minute, and it must be fully observed and understood. Copied skills will have reduced (Intermediate) effectiveness. Cannot replicate abilities from higher-ranked beings. Initial cooldown is 7 days; each subsequent use doubles the cooldown duration.
Without wasting time, I cast Mimic Shell on Roy and focused on observing the skill in action, afraid that if I missed it, I would not be able to copy it.
The spider mutant noticed my moment of stillness and acted on it.
But instead of lunging, it spat. A thick glob of glowing green fluid arced toward me.
I jumped aside just in time. The spit hit my robe instead, burning through the edge in seconds. The acidic stench hit me immediately. Sharp and putrid, like a rotting corpse and boiled sewage had a baby.
I sliced the damaged piece off as quickly as I could, covering my nose with a sleeve.
This smells worse than a public toilet baking in the sun… I winced, cursing inwardly.
So much for enjoying my senses.
Then I felt the shift in the air.
Roy vanished. Shadows snapped around him as Phantom Step activated and he reappeared above the creature, bow already drawn.
I watched everything - his stance, the burst of motion, the exact path his body followed through space… and just like that I managed to copy his skill and instinctively understood everything about it.
As I expected, my range is shorter than Roy's, but it's okay. This skill is going to be incredibly useful.
I smirked, satisfied.
Roy fired again. Another arrow slammed into the beast's skull. This time, the wound ruptured and foul green fluid burst out, splattering across the ground. It smelled like someone had mixed sulfur with troll feet.
The creature let out a high-pitched, grating screech, forcing me to cover my ears. The vibration hit so hard I thought my eardrums might burst.
But I wasn't about to stand around and wait.
Phantom Step.
The sensation of using the skill was disorienting but exhilarating. For a split second, my vision blurred, like shadows consuming me. Then came a sharp pull, as if something was yanking me through the fabric of space itself. I knew instinctively that resisting it was impossible, so I gave in and just like that, I was exactly where I wanted to be.
I reappeared on the creature's back and drove both blades deep into the same open wound Roy had carved out earlier.
The steel cut through the cracked shell with a satisfying crunch, sinking into the soft, twitching mass beneath. The monster jerked violently. Its shriek died in its throat as its limbs spasmed, twitching like a puppet with its strings severed.
I let go of the blades. Pulling them free in one motion would've required more strength than I had. Then I launched myself backward as the giant monster fell.
Maybe the backflip wasn't as elegant as I imagined. Maybe I looked like a flailing squirrel mid-air. But it felt graceful.
As I landed, I turned toward the mutant spider. The glowing marks on its body were slowly fading, their eerie light dying out one by one.
That was my first kill… but it didn't feel wrong at all.
I glanced down at my hands. Faint streaks of that disgusting green liquid clung to my palms, leftover from when I'd buried the blades in the monster's skull.
"You fought well," Roy said, walking toward me. There was no hint of exhaustion on his face, if anything, he felt more confident and relaxed.
His eyes dropped to my robe, a faint smirk appearing on his lips. "That robe leaves little between you and the wind."
He patted me on the shoulder as he passed, heading toward the corpse.
"Could be worse." I shrugged. "Unless you're hoping I lose the rest too."
My feet ached a little from walking barefoot, but Velmoryn skin wasn't exactly fragile. I could manage.
"Elar Avenor, extract the essence before it fades," Roy said, lightly kicking the creature in the head to confirm it was truly dead.
"I assumed you would," I replied casually, trying not to sound like someone who had no clue how to proceed.
"You struck the final blow, and your role was greater," Roy said, smiling. "Unless you'd rather I take it and hand it to you, it's yours to claim."
With that, he knelt beside the corpse and began offering a prayer to me - well, to real me, not Avenor.
Shit… what now?
I was almost certain I didn't have a skill for essence extraction until I finally noticed the one I'd overlooked - Crimson Rite.
[Crimson Rite – Innate]
A ritual magic unique to Velmoryns, enabling the extraction of the essence from the freshly slain.
Well, this is a pleasant surprise… looks like this body inherited both Elvish and Velmoryn innate skills.
I stepped closer to the spider mutant's corpse and activated Crimson Rite.
Crimson runes flared to life in the air, forming a circular diagram in front of me. Unlike when Ninali used this skill, the runes now seemed more vibrant. Or maybe I was just imagining it.
A sickly, rot-ridden redish green light began to leak from the corpse, curling upward before passing through the diagram and pooling into a jelly-like mass on my palm. It shimmered faintly, a dark red aura covering it.
The extraction didn't take long. Just a few moments later, the creature's body was completely drained. But whatever I was expecting, it wasn't this.
The end result looked even worse than it smelled, and the stench was so foul I genuinely considered hurling the damn thing across the forest.
"Elar Roy, I've never seen essence like this before." Technically, it was true. I'd only seen three types so far, and this wasn't one of them.
Roy, who had finished praying, stepped closer, frowning.
"Nor have I. It's a lesser essence, but that color…" He hesitated. "I don't know… Something about it feels wrong."
His words were cut off as a faint tremor rolled beneath our feet.
It wasn't an earthquake.
Just a subtle vibration through the soil, but the sound that followed made both of us freeze.
"Was that a scream?"
**
A/N -
This is the first fight scene I've written in first-person POV. Let me know if you liked it! And if it didn't quite land for you, I'd love to hear what felt off or what was missing.
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