Duskbound-Chapter 138 - Book 2, 59
There was one major drawback that Velik hadn't considered to his new skill. Enhanced hearing was fantastic. Sharper vision was wonderful. Even his new nose was fine, all things considered. He considered his honed senses to be a win in every regard.
But spears didn't have taste buds, and mouths did.
Why is it so dusty?! It's solid stone!
Velik crunched down on the elemental's arm, his teeth easily tearing through the monster's body. Being made of rock, there was at least no flash of hot blood or the acrid taste of monster flesh, not this time. That didn't make it pleasant, however, and he quickly spat out the gravelly remains of the severed limb before he lunged back in.
Elementals, much like undead, didn't care much about damage. They could reconstitute their bodies by drawing on their elements, and this one had an entire mountain to pull from. A new arm was already forming, dirt and stone swirling up from the ground it stood on to grow the limb out from its severed stump.
Regeneration took time, however, and Velik had no plans to give the monster any. He savaged it with tooth and claw, quickly tearing it to pieces and exposing the core in its chest. That shattered between his fangs, and what was left of the elemental collapsed into dust.
[You have slain a statue of earth (level 19).]
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Two small pebbles were left in its remains, both of them barely the size of Velik's pinky nail. A normal person would never have noticed them, but the smell gave their presence away. Copper? he wondered as he stared down at them. Is this what it was digging for?
It was delicate work to pick them up with his teeth, but once Velik got a grip on them, the magic of [True Form] whisked them away to the same place it had put his clothes and his weapons. He didn't get the impression that it could hold much more than it already was, but that was fine. Anything he stuck in there would return when the skill had run its course, so the storage wasn't useful from any logistical standpoint.
The elemental was a good first test, but there was something else he wanted to test out. [Aspect of the Wind Tamer] didn't really work that well without a spear, though he'd definitely sensed some of its hastening properties affecting him while he was tearing through the monster. Once he thought about it, he wasn't even sure he could say that was all the skill was doing. He had no experience fighting as a wolf without it passively helping him, so it was entirely possible it was guiding his new style of snapping lunges and digging claws.
[Apex Hunter] was clearly working in concert with his new form, and Velik had no complaints there. [Burden of the Beast] wasn't relevant to this particular type of monster, so he couldn't test it, but he assumed it work the same as always. That just left one final skill to test.
Without a spear, Velik wasn't entirely sure how smart it would be to use [Dread Lance]. He'd need to deliver the attack through a bite, and even though he'd ranked it up to 3 and gained a bit of control over its shape and vector, that didn't make him eager to set off an explosion in his mouth.
Better to know if it works now than to have to find out in the middle of a fight that's actually dangerous. I've got healing potions if I need them.
With that thought in mind, Velik climbed higher up the mountain slope. There were more elementals up there, though they didn't seem to want to go near each other for some reason. He only needed to find one, and truthfully, even that wasn't necessary. It would be just as easy to use [Dread Lance] on a tree, but he wanted to see how much damage it could do to something a bit tougher. Stone elementals were about as durable as the monsters on this trail appeared to get, so they were what he was going to use.
The next one he found was doing almost the exact same thing as the first, just in a different patch of stone. It was already four feet deep in its own hole and paying no attention to Velik until he got close. He didn't bother to try for an ambush this time, and as soon as he got close, the elemental climbed back up to ground level and started lumbering at him.
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Simple stimulus response actions. I bet if I got far enough away, it'd forget it ever saw me and just start digging again. It might not even return to this spot. What a strange type of monster.
Velik wasn't here to do field research. He had one simple, straightforward goal, and one way or another, he'd have his answer in the next few seconds. The buildup from [Dread Lance] arcing between his teeth was like biting down on a bolt of lightning, causing his fur to stand on end and crackle. A blue-white bolt of static leaped across his vision, then he bit down on the elemental.
Energy exploded out from between his teeth, momentarily blinding him and reducing the elemental to nothing but dust. His mouth went completely numb from the skill, which annoyingly made it difficult to determine how much damage he'd done to himself.
[You have slain a statue of earth (level 21).]
Well, there isn't a puddle of blood, and the remains of my lower jaw sitting between my feet, so it's not that bad, he thought as he peered down at the swirling dust cloud that had been an elemental moments before.
The numbness eventually wore off, leaving Velik to prod at his teeth with his tongue. As far as he could tell, everything was still in place and undamaged, which meant the experiment was a success. He might have some trouble biting something after using a [Dread Lance], but he wouldn't be crippling himself in a tough fight if he needed to pull it out. The only real problem with using his new skill was that it took several seconds to complete the transformation. At the level he operated at, several undefended seconds was guaranteed to get him killed. It could only be used before a fight if he wanted to do it safely.
He returned to Granite Peak half an hour later. [True Form] wore off at around the fifty minute mark, perhaps not coincidentally lasting about one minute per point of mystic he had if he factored in the [Dread Lance] he'd used draining his reserves. Velik could have pulled himself back to his original shape sooner, but he'd wanted to test how long he could expect to maintain the skill. The good news was that it was more than enough for any single fight, but maybe not for a marathon dungeon running session.
Despite its flaws, Velik was happy. [True Form] represented a massive boost to his physical power, as long as he was cautious about how he used it. For the moment, at least, the size of his wolf shape wasn't unmanageable, though if he kept growing as the skill ranked up or he gained more mystic, it could become an issue. Time would tell on those facets, but with the huge stat upgrade it brought him, he thought he might be strong enough to defeat Emberson, should that become necessary.
The town looked much the same as the first time Velik had seen it. The only difference was the people out on the streets. They ignored him, the same as the ones who'd seen his group come in a few hours ago, and he made his way back to the inn on the west side of the town. About two blocks away, he stopped and cocked his head.
"Crakis himself couldn't keep me from doing my job," Giller said from the third floor. Her voice was low, pitched not to carry, but Velik's hearing was so good now that he caught it anyway.
"I'm not asking you not to do your job," Jensen retorted. "I just want you to stop getting in the way of mine."
"Yours? Please. You're here for the girl."
"So what if I am? I like her. She's a good person. It's not a crime to want to help people."
"The guild's going to want her back, and Emberson knows who she is. The second he discovers her here, it's going to be a shit storm. Aria fucked the whole plan up showing up on her own and letting them know more people were coming. The way I understand it, Velik won't be welcome, either. Unless he's got some trick up his sleeve, Emberson's going to put his head on the curb and stomp it."
"What do you want me to do?" Jensen's voice was tired. "Should we kidnap her and run away into the mountains? How far do you think we'd get even if I agreed to go along with it?"
"You should do what I told you to do a week ago and convince her that this is a bad idea. You have no idea how strong the people Velik is fucking with are, and that shithead cousin of mine is fanning the flames. Mark my words, this is going to be a disaster for everyone involved. The best way to keep you and her safe is to get the hell out of the way before it all comes down on our heads."
Velik took a moment to really listen to all the conversations going on around him, hoping to hear some familiar voices or someone saying something that would identify them as a hunter, but there was nothing like that. He wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not, but either way, Giller was right. Staying at the inn was begging for trouble.
He needed to get everyone out of there before someone from Emberson's team returned. Aria would complain about it, but he didn't care. Then again, she can just stay there. She's not part of our group anyway, and she's already caused problems for us.
Resolute, he marched into the inn to collect the rest of his team so they could figure out where exactly on the side of a mountain they'd be sleeping.
