Rune Seeker

With the body of some kind of dog, shoulders that’d make a Shaper proud, and a neck that was just as thick, the canine-head lunged at Seeyela. Bamf, snap, the woman teleported out of the way, just in time as the jaws closed so hard the air seemed to vibrate. At that same moment, the second head – actually, could it even be called that? – turned in Drahn’s direction.

This thing, now that it swiveled, reminded Hiral a lot of the worms they’d just battled in the Crawling Pits dungeon. What was it…?

Green liquid sizzled as it shot from the puckered-up mouth of the worm, cutting through the air in the tracker’s direction. And, unlike Seeyela, the man didn’t have a teleportation ability to get him out of the way. Still, with a solid investment in Dex and Atn, he wasn’t completely caught off guard, and he dove to the side.

“Aaargh,” Drahn grunted as he hit the ground and rolled, the thigh of his leather armor corroding and smoking. Left was already moving to assist.

Acid. The damn worm spits acid.

The monstrosity didn’t end there, either, its tail resolving out of the darkness as it spun to intercept an incoming spearman. Yanily’s spear danced with lightning, then came around just in time to block the monster’s tail darting forward. Except, it wasn’t a tail, it was a third head – this time of some kind of serpent with fangs as long as Hiral’s fingers.

As soon as Yanily deflected the snake-tail’s assault, though, he pivoted and tossed the snake-head aside, weapon spinning and slashing across. Lightning sparked as the tip of the blade carved along the broad chest of the strange monster. The illumination revealed patchy fur over skin that looked like dry paper, green veins pumping underneath. Despite the beast’s broad body, its muscles appeared barely contained within the sickly skin, as if any quick movement would tear it away.

A surprised yelp from Yanily, and the spearman leapt back, while green blood spewed from the newly created wound. Blood that sizzled and steamed on the wet mud where it landed. Not only did the worm’s head spit acid, but the whole body seemed to have more of the same substance pumping through its veins. Just wonderful.

Feet secure on planes of pink butterflies as he landed again, Yanily got his spear up in preparation to deflect a second lunging snake strike. One that didn’t make it, that third head exploding from a Piercing-Shot-improved bolt of Impact clean through it. Thanks to the sheer force of the shot – along with a healthy dose of Energy to sear the flesh – the bloody fallout of the attack erupted to the side, sparing the spearman a burning shower.

That still left two very angry heads, one puckering up and looking in Hiral’s direction – if worms could look – while the other snarled to bare vicious teeth.

Even as Hiral began to move, already dodging the attack he knew was incoming, something triggered his expanded sensory domain.

“More on the way!” he shouted, feeling several of the large bodies charging through the low trees.

“Same direction?” Seena shouted, fire spiraling in her hands. She didn’t wait for Hiral’s response, a back-handed toss hurling the three balls she’d formed into the woods. Flaming explosions lit the night, silhouettes of three-headed beasts weaving through them. She’d managed to singe them, but not kill a single one.

That realization struck at the same time Hiral’s View ability finally kicked in.

(Chimera) Chimeric Hyena – Low-B-Rank

Another thing just happened to strike at that moment as well – Right.

Purple fire shrouded his fist as he slammed it into the Chimera’s flank. Thin flesh shriveled at the contact, while muscle and bone bent beneath the blow. The whole beast slid sideways in the mud, yelping in pain, and the acid-spray it’d planned for Hiral went arcing harmlessly into the woods. Well, not so harmless by how the sounds of sizzling and popping echoed from behind him.

But, Right wasn’t finished there, moving in side-by-side with Yanily, and leaping into the air to score a spinning kick on the side of the hyena’s maw. Snap, and the head jerked to the side, opening up the worm-face for Yanily to slide in and stab. Repeatedly.

Reed-Spear Style peppered the rubbery flesh of the worm with a dozen strikes before it even realized what was happening. Unfortunately, the worm’s hide seemed to be more durable than the rest of the creature, and the barrage wasn’t quite enough to make the thing stop squirming.

Hiral’s next shot sure was, though.

Pulled through the three runic circles, his Piercing Shot punched into one side of the worm’s neck, then burst out the other before slamming into the side of the hyena’s throat. As if for good measure, a phantasmal Troblin appeared – thanks to the critical hit – and whacked the slumping worm-head with its club before vanishing again.

That was the last of the attention he could spare for that particular hyena, though, with two more charging out of the foliage right beside him. Thanks to his sensory domain, he wasn’t caught off-guard by their sudden appearance, but they were still B-Rank threats. Finger-length teeth from four heads gaped and lunged in his direction from both sides, while two, puckered mouths prepared their acid delivery.

Somehow, the sprays came first, and Hiral ducked low and darted forward between the two beasts to avoid both. RHCs down across his abdomen as he went, he kicked up into a jumping somersault with the help of Rejection to avoid the first striking snake-tail. Then, hanging upside down – mid-air – he pulled both triggers. On his right, the bolt smashed into the second snake-tail, cleanly decapitating it. While, on the left, he punched the blast straight down the worm-head’s throat.

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Neither of those things seemed to slow the hyena jaws charging in his direction, and he hit the ground in a roll before springing upright and pivoting on his lead foot. Not a moment too soon, either, the first large head snapping past him, then finding itself within a solar-energy duplicate of Hiral.

One that promptly exploded.

(Lost) Echo Aura+: When you successfully evade an attack, have a chance to leave behind an exploding Lost Echo+ afterimage in your position.

Note: (Lost) Echo Aura+ is a continuous effect requiring no ongoing investment of solar energy, and a minor investment for each explosion.

Note (2): Damage of explosions caused by (Lost) Echo Aura+ is based off Atn, with damage for each subsequent explosion against the same target increasing by 10%.

Note (3): User of (Lost) Echo Aura+ and party members are unaffected by explosions.

Note (4): Explosions. Explosions. Explosions. More upgraded explosions.

The Lost Echo caught the whole hyena head within its blast radius, and forced the monster to stagger back with a pained yelp. Hiral, meanwhile, continued the rotation on his heel to bring both barrels up between him and the second monster. A pull on each trigger met the Chimera mid-lunge. Twinned bolts took it in the chest – it’d barely managed to yank its heads out of the way – but stopped its forward momentum cold.

Green, sizzling blood gushed out of the side-by-side wounds that had bored straight out its other end, but the beast didn’t fall. If anything, it looked angry, and it snarled before lunging in again. On Hiral’s other side, the hyena that’d taken the exploding double to the face likewise came back at him. Despite missing most of the skin and fur on its canine head – along with its eyes – it seemed to be using the snake tail to guide it.

Lunge, snap, pounce. Hiral danced out of the way, the Primal Chord resounding through the falling rain as the two monsters attacked. Another Lost Echopunished the hyenas for their assault, as did a pair of Piercing Shots through each of them. More green blood joined the rain and mud on the ground, the smell of it like a slap to the face. Whatever was inside these Chimeras was something foul.

Yet they didn’t slow. Any normal dog would be on the ground long-dead from the holes he’d put in them. Damage aside – their health bars were only at half, somehow – his shots should’ve pierced their lungs. Maybe even their hearts.

Then again, their bodies obviously aren’t normal. Who knows where their hearts are… or if they even have them.

With the battle continuing to rage around him, he didn’t have time for biology experiments. He needed to put these things down and get to Drahn. Without a healer in the party, an expansion of his Rune of Restoration was probably the best they could do. Or a potion, actually, which from a quick glance, Left had already given the tracker. Good thinking.

A snarl drew his attention back to the monsters in front of him as both beasts lunged at the exact same time. Which, honestly, just made things easier. A burst of Rejection launched him straight up to flip in the air, a Lost Echo appearing where he’d been standing at the same time he pulled both triggers. Two more bolts of searing Impact drilled their way through the backs of the hyena’s as they collided, and Hiral landed off to the side while his Echoexploded. Immediately following the explosion, a terrible kind of wet tearing followed behind him, and even he winced at how graphic it sounded.

Would that be enough to finally take the two monsters down?

Honestly? Probably not, so Hiral spun back around with his weapons raised, expecting to find the monsters staggering out of the explosion. What he actually saw was something entirely different.

Instead of two hyenas each at less than half-health, there was now only one, with a full health bar, and six damn heads. None of them were injured. A pair of serpentine tails hissed as they hung parallel over its back, while the hyena heads flanked the two worm heads between them. Six legs pawed at the dirt, and the thing took a snarling step forward.

(Chimera) Chimeric Pack Hyena – Low-B-Rank

Still low B-Rank, but half again as big as before? The monsters can combine?

Obviously, they could, and it wasn’t just their size – or number of heads – it seemed to affect. The snarling lunge came faster than the previous ones, heads snapping so close as Hiral dodged, he could smell their fetid breath. It was somehow even worse than the stench of their blood, and he instinctively pushed it away with a touch of Rejection as he leapt back.

An exploding Lost Echo and two Piercing Shots didn’t even slow the beast down, and it kept after him as he backpeddled down the path. While his RHCs seemed to be doing solid damage to the hyena, they weren’t stopping it. What other options did he have?

Swords seemed like a bad idea with how acidic the blood looked, and his shiny new axe would be just as bad. The Bestial Axes sounded like a terrible option – the last thing he wanted was the monster bleeding more. He really needed to get a hammer or… something. Thankfully, a flare of purple fire in his peripheral vision gave him a second option.

Dodging another pair of snapping maws, Hiral launched himself straight up and over the back of the Chimera, just in time to evade the acidic sprays. A twist of Rejection mid-air got him between the snake-heads that seemed surprised to find him right there, and a pull of each trigger added a few more holes to the beast’s back. As soon as he cleared the monster, he tucked into a roll and holstered the weapons back on his thighs, then sprung to his feet and began igniting his runes.

Impact and Breaking burst to life around his hands, before he weaved in threads of Expansion and Increase. Instead of having one runic image floating in front of his fists – like a pair of brass knuckles – the runes sunk into the double-helix script across his hand and forearm. Light flared from the writing on his sleeves, but he still wasn’t connecting with the Edicts. Could he only do that while using Eloquently Enraged+? No, even then, he wasn’t quite there.

Something to explore later.

With his fists ready to go, it only took the blink of an eye to Cycle the same runic combinations to his feet, knees, and elbows. That done – and the hyena spinning around to resume its attempt at eating him – Hiral charged forward.

It was time to do his best impression of Right.