The party was still in the forest after an hour and Azemo might have asked if they were lost but the no talking rule created an oppressive wall of silence that Azemo dared not touch. What Short hair was following was a mystery to Azemo because he noticed sbsolutely nothing about the trail they were following. Of course that meant almost nothing because even though he had enhanced demon vision he had no idea what to look for.
Instead of worrying about the path Azemo decided to study up on the snake monster they were hunting, it wasn't like Master had taught him about every single piece of dirt in the world so there was much Azemo did not know.
Luckily for him the back of the job posting had some basic knowledge about the snake monsters. These particular snake monsters had short stumpy legs and multiple snake heads, the mental image he created almost made Azemo break the silence with laughter. They were called Tnepers and it seemed that they usually traveled in groups. However, after double checking Azemo was certain that the job posting was asking for only a single Tneper to be hunted.
After checking the posting Azemo went back to reading about the characteristics. Apparently they were physically weak but their heads could move extremely fast. Another fun fact was that they did not use their legs to move and instead slithered like snakes, their legs were only used when they were standing still or trying to reach something on a high shelf. As for defenses the Tnepers were kinda annoying to kill because each one of their heads had to be destroyed within minutes of each other or else they would continue to function perfectly and the heads would grow back.
The reason that many people stayed away from Tnepers even though they were not the strongest was because of their poison. A Tneper's fang could pierce almost any armor and even a small bit of the poison was fatal. As such it was not really worth it for people to risk fighting a Tneper, so most were left to their own devices.
But here was a group of Sell swords going to find a Tneper in a forest and not even for an extravagant amount of coin. Currently Nose was looking at Azemo reading about their prey like he wanted to laugh. 'The idiot kid really did not know anything about the dangerous monster they were about to fight.' Azemo was much too oblivious to notice the stares of his companion so Nose just kept his mouth closed, he didn't want to ruin not having to hear Azemo's voice.
"We are here." Short hair spoke up after what felt like multiple eternities to Azemo. The group was in a clearing and even Azemo could see the shedded skin of a Tneper by a tree.
As soon as short hair spoke a Tneper fell from a tree and lashed out with one of its heads. This Tneper had five heads, which meant it was one of the strongest of its species. The average Tneper would have two to three heads at most.
Short hair dodged the attack and leapt back, obviously she was not a close range attacker as she pulled out a long spear. The Tneper tried to follow but Short hair expertly wielded her spear and even managed to slice off a head. The Tneper decided to fall back for a second, giving time for Short hair to glance at the rest of the party. The look she gave them clearly said, are you going to contribute at all?
Long hair pulled out a handful of throwing knives while Nose took out a few spell scrolls. It looked like Azemo was going to have to take point so he ignited his gauntlets and charged at the retreating creature. Since his back was to them Azemo missed the looks of greed from the rest of the party after they saw his weaponry.
Since Azemo was to be the engager he decided to use One Million Strikes so the creature never had the chance to attack anyone else. He quickly let out a torrent of strikes that the Tneper tried to dodge. Some blows hit some missed but by now the Tneper had retreated long enough for it's missing head to grow back.
Once it's head was working again the Tneper went on the offensive and lashed out with all of it's five heads. But, no matter how it swung it's numerous heads Azemo was always able to block the attacks with his gauntleted hands.
The pair had quickly exchanged nearly a hundred strikes before the rest of the sell swords did anything. Nose finally cast a scroll that sent a wind blade straight into a head taking it out of commission. Long hair followed the strike by sending two daggers through the eye sockets of another head leaving only three heads behind. Azemo used the openings created by the attacks to punch another head as his right hand connected with the Tneper head he instantly activated the blade part of the gauntlet leaving two remaining heads.
Azemo was able to restrain another head long enough for Long hair to turn it into a porcupine with some knives. As for the final head, Azemo felt a sense of danger behind him and dodged out of the way as Short hair's spear appeared in the space he was just in, piercing the final head. With that strike the Tneper had fallen and the party had completed their task. Azemo almost expected to hear someone say "Mission Complete" but of course there was only silence.
Azemo decided to gather a couple heads for Sawell and the rest of the group just stood their and watched him because he was being weird. After Azemo finished collecting the intact heads he stood up and saw a snake head heading straight towards his face.
Instinctively he reached out and tried to use his magycka to teleport the head away from him but it did not work. All he succeeded in doing was to pause the head for half a second. However, that half a second was enough time for him to dodge out of the way and he felt his tome burn slightly. He had no time to check the tome as more Tnepers dropped from the trees surrounding the party.
(Magycka path created).
The Tnepers did not communicate at all but, at the same time they all attacked.
"What the hell, there was only supposed to be one monster." Long hair shouted before bending over backwards to dodge an attack. The silent group did not respond instead they were focusing on dodging or blocking the attacks.
Short hair dodged them all easily while Nose cast a spell that created a barrier made of ice that stopped all the Tnepers attacking him. As for Azemo he continued where he left off with the other Tneper, dodging, blocking and occasionally catching a head in his hand. Whenever this happened he quickly crushed the head before worrying about the next attack. As such he was able to kill a few of the weaker two headed Tnepers.
After some of the Tnepers were injured with spear thrusts or the seemingly never ending throwing knives they backed up to regroup. At this time it gave the party time to form a plan, this meant they all moved away from each other, every person for them self. Even though the party did not take advantage of the situation Azemo was finally able to get a good look at the enemy.
There were a total of thirteen Tnepers left, ranging from two to four heads. This amount of Tnepers would usually equal a dead party but as the battle continued on more and more Tnepers were falling while the party had only a few minor bruises.
At the moment, Azemo was taking on three Tnepers at a time attacking and defending in perfect synchronicity. Whenever he found an opening a head would fall and after a few exchanges the Tnepers were no longer standing.
While the other party members were not doing nearly as well as Azemo they were still cutting down Tnepers. Short hair's spear was constantly forcing away Tnepers all the while slicing them up.
Long hair was running around the enclave tossing daggers and avoiding attacks while Nose still had his barrier up while he was casting a multitude of wind blades.
Soon enough only two, three headed Tnepers remained and Long hair let her guard down. Suddenly the able Short hair lost her footing and tumbled into Long hair pushing her towards a Tneper. The Tneper who was already missing a head quickly took the opportunity to fill Long hair with its poison.
Azemo quickly finished off the two Tnepers but there would be no saving Long hair. The poison of the Tneper had already claimed a victim.
"One less person to share the reward with." Nose grunted seemingly please. Short hair didn't seem to mind either, but Azemo just wanted to leave the forest. He quickly pulled himself together and started to leave the clearing.
"Hold up." Short hair casually called. "We need to discuss something."
'Maybe losing a teammate will bring our party closer together.' Azemo turned around to join the conversation.