Chapter 22
Lysaria said," run!" Lysaria stagger and Dakar laughed, he said," I like your enthusiasm, but you have a cast on," Thana and Hectar ran towards them as though the darkness itself were on their heels. Lysaria wanted to run but her leg wasn't going to allow her to keep up with her friends. She Drew her Khopesh channelling essence into the curved blade and balanced on one foot as she stabbed at the ground in front of the approaching monster.
Lysaria winced, shifting soo rapidly caused a bolt of pain to shoot through her leg, the line of darkness snapped forward gouging a trench in front of the charging monster. stumbling the creature almost fell into the minor obstacle. It was all she needed as the stumbling monster presented its vulnerable side, Hectar yelled, "Don't hit me." Thana and Hectar pumped their arms wildly, frantic to keep ahead of the thundering monster.
Thana panted sliding to a stop next to her, Thana frantically glanced back at the monster and shot an orb of bright essence at her pursuer. Lysaria formed an orb of the essence in front of her, instead of releasing it, she channelled harder expanding the orb until it was the size of her head. the ball of essence shot forward and crashed into the monster popping and splashing corrosive darkness across its neck and the sharps spines of its back.
The monster screamed in pain and thrashed in a futile attempt to remove the acidic essence eating through its skin. Lysaria shouted, "Help me, finish it off." slashing at the monster's neck she watched the crescent of essence part flesh. Three orbs of light shot past her and slammed into the monster burrowing deep into its shoulders and side. The monster collapsed grunting its lifeblood spilling onto the dirt from the many injuries.
Hectar said," about time, light take me that thing is durable, I hit it with an essence orb atleast 10 times while it was in the pit." Dakar said," it must have been lysaria, her darkness is more corrosive than most acid." Lysaria felt a flush rush to her face, all of her friends look at her some in mild discust while thana was even grinning at her.
The monster glowed and essence flowed from it a wave of light green that shot across the gap and enter each of them, all the light washed past Lysaria making way for the wave of darkness that crashed into her, she felt a rush of euphoria as the stabbing pain in her leg heated up and faded the essence fixing her bodily wounds.
Her throbbing headache went away a as though a fog had been covering her mind. taking in a deep breath she sighed. She glanced towards the monster as its corpse shrank to the size of her palm its essence condensing into a vessel. Dakar whooped, jumping up and down, He shouted, "we are alive, take that you monstrous jerks." Hectar said," I told you we shouldn't try and fight them, we almost died." Lysaria said," don't be like that we got the essence, and if my guess is right these monsters are strong enough to create a vessel when they die."
Hectar said," I thought these were the weakest monsters, no way they would create a vessel," Lysaria said," check for yourself, It looks like a vessel formed when it died." His eyes widened as he spotted the shimmering green orb laying on the dirt where the monster fell. Dakar yelped as lysaria stumbled forward catching herself as she leaned against him, smoke rose from his shirt where she was gripping for support, she forced her unruly essence back inside feeling embarrassed.
Dakar yelped stumbling away, he said," stop doing that!" flushing lysaria looked away, she took a step and almost fell on her face the cast unbending as she teetered flailing backwards and stumbling on her butt. Thana and Hectar burst out laughing, easing the tension on Dakars scowling face, she smiled at Dakar shrugging in apology. after a long moment, he smiled back showing off his dazzling smile, she had to squint at him as his body began to glow with shimmering essence.
Where she had touched him left a visible handprint staining his brown shirt. Dakar brushed at the corroded mark on his shirt blanching in annoyance or perhaps disgust. Lysaria said," get this cast off of me please, I can't walk with it, my leg feels fine." She waited while Dakar leaned down and sent a cloud of shimmering Essence into the cast.
The solid clay turned liquid and melted off revealing the fabric wrapped underneath. Embarrassed lysaria turned around and pulled off the fabric covering her leg to her thigh revealing the cut pant leg underneath.
She felt her face flush at the bare skin underneath, even though it was just a pant leg the cloth had rode up exposing half of her thigh for all to see. She quickly pushed it down feeling foolish for being so embarrassed. Glancing to her friends who were admiring the vessel, Much to her relief all of her friends hadn't even noticed her flush, they were much more interested in the small glittering orb the monster had left.
Thana turned over noticing her embarrassment, She said," I think he has a change of pants for you in his bag, didn't your guardians pack you some." Lysaria felt all eyes on her, feeling her cheeks burn she said," well I'm not changing right here." Hectar and Dakar seemed rather interested, Lysarias proclamation sent them back to examining the orb they were holding.
Lysaria stepped forward examining the green orb of essence, the orb shimmered releasing a soft glow. She could feel the essence within, a torrent of wild energy confined in the stone. Lysaria said," now how do we use it," Hectar said," I could use it to make something like reinforced walls." Thana scoffed, She said," I could use it to make something much more useful than a stupid wall." Hectar said," like what?" Thana said," I could make something to shift us 100 yards, if we get more of these I could create some amazing things, or so its says in my book."
Thana scuffed her leather boot on the ground abashed, Dakar grinned he said," Thana I bet you will make something amazing, If you two work together then we might actually live longer than a week." Lysaria gestured over her shoulder and said," well you don't need to fight over the vessel, the second monster is back up the hill, Hectars face lit up he said," Let's go get it I want to make something rock awesome."
Thana actually laughed, Lysaria felt her lip curl into a smile, Dakar groaned, He said," if you are going to tell a joke at least come up with a better one. winking he said," Don't you know it is at the essence of the problem." Lysaria said," I didn't know you two were so intreeguing."
smirking to herself lysaria walked past her friends, of course, she too could come up with silly puns like them. They walked up the incline ascending the hill towards the corpse of the last monster, Lysaria felt her spirits lift, she was excited to see what they could make with two vessels.
Lysaria glanced at her inner vessel checking to see how much essence she gathered, to her delight she now had 1900 essences filling her vessel. The Dark yellow vase representing her soul now held 2/10ths darkness the oozing darkness slowly growing inside her. Distracted she idly wondered what the marks she was walking on were, they were an odd line in the dirt that shifted side to side, a trail of smooth dirt.
The tracks hadn't been there earlier, She stopped glancing towards her friends, they were huddling together walking and not paying any mind to their surrounding. lysaria wasn't sure but she thought something might be here, She turned in a full circle examining the trees looking for the culprit. All she could see was the corpse of the monster some trees and the ravine wall.
Lysarias snapped her eyes around, confused she thought, wait why is there still a corpse didn't it disappear? Her eyes found the corpse, a long-form began uncoiling as a snake contorted around the remains of the dead monster. Lysaria turned to her oblivious friends, She said, "what are you doing, there is a monster right there." her friends looked up at her, Dakar said," you are being jumpy lysaria. Thana said," what do you mean a monster?"
Lysaria pointed to the monster through the trees, the contorting coils began unfolding off the snake as it finally noticed them, its head peeked over its massive coils exposing bright amber eyes. Hectar said," isn't that the monster you killed?" Hectar stared for a moment, He screamed a high pitched sound and scrambled back," Light take me a gigantic snake!"
The snake hissed and gracefully began uncoiling crossing the large gap of trees towards them, Lysaria noticed her three friends freeze in place for a moment taking in the near 30 foot long reptile. Lysaria felt a bubbling excitement build in her as she reached for her Khopesh, she heard running footsteps and turned to see hectar running with all of his might back down the hill. Thana said," get back here Hectar we can kill it."