Ben awakes panting and sweating that night.
"Ben, is everything OK?" Lina asks, sitting against the back wall of the cave while Dagonet is lying on his back with his head in the girls lap.
"Yeah. Don't worry. Just a bad dream." Ben says.
"Why don't you get some sleep too? It looks like the Manticore is resting as well and I can take watch." Ben offers.
"But Ben..." Lina says.
"Please, I insist." Ben tells her, taking off his red cape and drapes it over her legs, putting Dagonet's head on top of the cloth.
"Alright. See you in the morning then." Lina agrees and brushes through Dagonet's hair a few times, before drifting off to sleep herself.
"Yeah. See you." Ben says, staring out at the manticore who lies on a destroyed backpack.
"How much provisions do we have left?" Ben asks himself quietly and looks through a small pouch he usually wears on his waist.
"Enough for a day, maybe two. But we're at least a days travel away from the nearest town." Ben says dreadfully.
"There is no other choice I suppose. Dagonet shouldn't stress his wound and Lina is out of commission with her bow destroyed during that rockslide." Ben sighs.
"Well, I was bound go get killed for my skill anyways at least this way I'm dying to save my comrades." Ben says, getting up and puts down the bag next to his friends.
He then places his palm over the earth and pulls a small axe made entirely of stone out of the ground while grabbing his dagger in his right hand.
"Phe, am I glad I spied on that earth mage." Ben says, looking at the crude axe which won't last more than maybe two or three hits by his estimate.
As he steps out of the cave, squeezing through the small entrance he erects small rock bars so his friends won't follow him if they get woken up somehow.
'Man, what am I going to do? I may have one of the 10 legendary skills, but I never got past the first technique since I ran away when I was 12. That I survived up till now is really only a compliment to the basic technique of adaptation, allowing me to get a clue about other techniques.' Ben thinks, sneaking towards the Manticore.
Once he's standing about 3 meters away from the creature its eyes shoot open and its large body stands up, looking at him eye to eye.
"Crap." Ben says, staring in the creature's eye for a moment before running away, heading for a mountain range to his left, to draw the manticore at least away from his team.
"Just my luck!" He huffs, breathing heavily and has to dodge a swipe from the creature, jumping and rolling out of range in time.
"Take this!" Ben shouts, tossing the stone axe into the manticore's face, only leaving a small bruise since the edge isn't sharp or strong enough to penetrate its skin.
"Damn." Ben curses and continues running away, only for the Manticore to stand still and wings start to appear out of its body with magical circles glowing on their connection to its body.
"Of course it's an evolved Manticore who learned flight." Ben curses and spots a forest ahead of him. In a wild dash he runs to the forest edge, but just when he's about to jump onto a low hanging tree branch the Manticore's paw connects with his back, sending him face first into the tree at full speed.
Lucky for him he got knocked away by the paw before its claws could shred him to pieces.
"Come and get me." Ben shouts at the creature, blood running out of a broken nose and some blood drips out of his ear, making him feel dizzy.
The Manticore roars loudly and stomps after the fleeing human, who is tumbling aimlessly through the forest, disoriented by a damaged ear.
"What was that? Dagonet, wake up." Lina says, having been woken from the roar and shakes the paladin in her lap.
"Hmm?" He asks still weakened from the wound.
"Where is Ben?" Lina asks, setting down Dagonet gently and goes over to the small cave entrance, seeing it barred with stone rods.
"Damn that idiot." Lina sighs and goes back to Dagonet, taking his hand for moral support and hopes that their leader will make it back alive.
"Scared?" Ben shouts towards the Manticore, while leaning against a tree, unable to continue walking anymore with the world spinning for him.
The Manticore growls at this and swipes at Ben, who manages to drop down flat on his face while the tree collapses behind him.
"Just leave my friends alone." Ben tells the Manticore, turning his head to the creature, only seeing a blur of orange and red though.
"What a strange human. In death begging for his comrade's life." Ben hears a voice say in his mind.
"Shut up. And at least fulfill my last request before you feast on me." Ben says, managing to sit up and looks at the creature through half lidded eyes.
"Fine." He hears the voice say and the manticore bites into his shirt, tossing him on his back before stomping out of the forest and heading towards its cave.
At nightfall Ben and the Manticore are in the cave where the Manticore seems to want to take its time devouring him.
"Why don't you just eat me and be done with it? I doubt a creature like you would be on a diet." Ben says weakly, sitting against a rock while the manticore brings over a large leaf filled with water and puts the water in a hole in the cave.
"I need to know why you understand me." Ben hears the voice say.
"I don't know. I partnered up with a guy once who could talk to animals and tame them, but I never heard an animal talk before." Ben groans and crawls over to drink from the water the monster provided.
"Why did you attack me?" The Manticore asks.
"We didn't. We got caught in a rockslide. Why would a bunch of 4th and 3rd class adventurers want to attack a special class monster?" Ben laughs.
"You do seem weak." He hears in response.
"Haha, anyways why haven't you eaten me yet?" Ben asks.
"I'm not hungry and find you amusing to watch." The monster tells him.
"Great. Anyways, what's up with your tail? I would've thought it's in working condition again." Ben says smirking slightly.
"Smirk all you want, but my tail was out of commission before you struck it." The monster explains.
"Why?" Ben asks.
"I'm not the only predator around here. There is a certain dragon in the area making my life harder than it needs to be." The Manticore explains, lying down lazily in the cave.
"Dragon? Crap. I need to help my friends." Ben says, standing up while leaning against the cave wall and stumbles towards the exit, literally falling out of it and rolling down a hill, with the Manticore following him in a relaxed walking pace.
"Why are you following me? I thought you lost interest." Ben asks the Manticore while walking from tree to tree.
"Like I said watching you struggle amuses me." It replies.
"Haha. Just leave me alone. If you're lucky I'll take out the dragon for you." Ben says.
"I want to see for myself." The Manticore replies.
"I'm so gonna be pissed if I'm gonna wake up and realize all this is just a dream." Ben grumbles.
About 20 minutes later Ben stumbles into the clearing leading to the cave and sees A large dragon, easily 15 meters high trying to reach through the cave entrance with its maw and claws.
"Guys. Stay back!" Ben shouts, falling to his knees just behind the dragon, the Manticore watching this from the tree line.
"Ben!" He hears two voices cry out from the cave.
"Ground leveling." Ben shouts and places both hands on the floor, dropping himself and the dragon in a large crater like hole.
"Get out of there. The Manticore will leave you alone I think." Ben shouts while the dragon turns to face him, growling at him.
"Iron Defense." Ben says, standing up and a shimmering shield appears in front of him, blocking the dragon's claws but the shield breaks after the dragons first strike.
"We should help him." Lina says, stepping out of the cave with Dagonet.
"No." Ben yells and blows them a good way up the mountain the cave is under with a wind spell.
While levitating his comrades away the dragon strikes again, one Talon slicing into his right side while he gets pushed face first into the ground by the dragon's massive paw.
"Aahhh!" Ben screams in pain, hearing multiple ribs crack under the beast's weight.
The dragon then leans down, smelling Ben's blood covered body while halfway up the mountain Lina is crying, upon seeing their leader's condition.
"You overconfident lizard, finally I can revenge my kin!" Ben hears the Manticore seconds before something hot passes by his head, singing the tips of his hair and he feels warm fluid come down on him, soaking his clothing immediately.
With a painful yell Ben passes out while his body is covered in dragon's blood and the dragon's head lands beside him with a splash.
"The Manticore killed that Dragon." Dagonet says shocked, having watched the Manticore breathed some kind of fire lightning combination and separate the dragon's head from its shoulder with it.
"Where is Ben?" Lina asks worried, seeing nothing but a pool of blood in the hole Ben made beforehand.
"I don't know. But we can't go down there. We're no match for the Manticore like this.
"Wait. Look. What is it doing?" Lina asks seeing the Manticore paw around in the blood looking for something until it drags out Ben's body.
"He's alive." The Manticore says surprised.
"What happened?" Ben groggily asks, spitting out a mouthful of blood.
"You helped me avenge my kin." The Manticore says, looking down at Ben.
"Good. Too bad I won't get the chance to do the same. That seems like a great goal." Ben chuckles.
"What makes you think you won't get the chance?" The Manticore questions.
"Look at me. I'm barely in one piece." Ben says.
"Is that so? You know that fresh dragons blood has incredible healing properties, right?" The Manticore says.
"I did not." Ben says surprised and slowly raises off the ground, flinging off his blood soaked and destroyed clothing, leaving him in only some underwear.
"So you're not gonna eat me?" Ben asks.
"I think I have more than enough meat for a while." The beast answers.
"What do I call you anyways?" Ben asks.
"You can call me Sebastian." The Manticore says and slices off a decent amount of the dragons hide, nudging it over to Ben with its snout.
"Then I hope we meet again Sebastian." Ben says, nodding to the Manticore, who tosses the hide at Ben, saying don't forget your luggage.
"Thanks." Ben says with a grin, watching the monsters tail raised above its massive stature again.
"Ben!" Lina shouts, rushing down the mountain with Dagonet and running over to him upon seeing the Manticore spare Ben's life.
"It's all OK. I'm fine." Ben tells the girl, giving him a big hug.
"Hey D, take a sip from the blood. It should heal your side." Ben advises the muscular man who pats his shoulder.
"Are you sure?" Dagonet asks, seeing the Manticore ripping chunks off the dragon.
"Yeah. Sebastian is cool. He won't attack you." Ben says and the man nods, going over to the blood puddle, drinking a mouthful while almost puking from it but he sees his side heal quickly.
"Phe, only you could befriend a manticore." Dagonet says after spitting out the rest of the blood, the aftertaste of the blood all too evident in his mouth.
"I can't believe you survived a manticore and a dragon." Lina says relieved.
"Yeah, somehow." Ben says and notices a blue shining on his palm. Looking at the spot he reads '2nd technique finding of a goal.'
"Come on guys let's get out of here." Ben tells them, leading them up a path away from the mountains.
"What now?" Dagonet asks.
"Now we're going to town and I'm getting a drink." Ben sighs exhausted, looking back at the dragon's corpse and the manticore, exchanging a look of respect with the powerful creature.
"I like the sound of that. We need a break after such worrisome events." Lina agrees.
"Yeah." Ben says, patting both their shoulders with a smile and puts on a spare pair of pants Dagonet offers him and his cloak.
"But it seems I underestimated your mimic skill." Lina says as the three start to walk to the nearest town.
"Yeah, actually. I think you should know what my skill really is. It's been overdue since you joined us a month ago and now it may be important you know." Ben tells her, taking a small device Dagonet holds out for him and puts the small plate against his forearm, a blue screen showing his information in front of him.
"My real skill is the skill of true leadership." Ben confesses.
"But that is one of the legendary skills, how's that possible?" Lina asks shocked.
"My full name is Ben Alfred of Toran. I'm the 12th prince in line for the throne of Gustare." Ben says.
"Wow. So, you're really important." Lina says impressed.
"Not in the way you think. I ran away when I was 12 and have been on the run ever since. A lot of people would do anything to get their hands on my skill." Ben explains, starting to walk again while handing Dagonet the tool back.
"So, you're on the run from Gustare?" Lina asks.
"Yes and every other mayor country, which is why we're in Ceran right now. A minor country doesn't have any use for the skill. And the other reason I assume Dagonet already told you?" Ben says, looking at his companion of 2 years.
"Yes. She knows about what happened two years ago." Dagonet answers.
"OK. So, I guess if the stakes are too high for you this is your guys chance to get out. I know you love each other, and you could disappear and have a happy life somewhere on the countryside." Ben offers.
"I appreciate the sentiment but I'm truly home on the battlefield." Dagonet answers.
"And I won't really be save anywhere anyways." Lina says, brushing through her hair and over her pointy elven ears.
"Good thanks guys. And so you guys know something happened after Sebastian pulled me out of the dragons blood. I got my second technique." Ben tells them.
"What is it?" Dagonet asks interested.
"Not sure yet. All it says in the skill description is that I unlocked it when I decided on a goal." Ben says, closing his eyes and looking at his skill description in his mind.
"What is the Goal?" Dagonet asks.
"To avenge my loved ones." Ben replies.
"Your teacher?" Dagonet questions.
"Yeah, him and a royal girl I knew back in the day. Nowadays she's probably married and in a position of power though, but she was treated very poorly when I knew her and I can't let that stand." Ben answers.
"Ohh, so Ben does have a girlfriend." Lina chuckles.
"No. I left before that could happen." Ben replies with a sigh.
"Can you activate the skill?" Dagonet asks coming back to the matter at hand.
"No. It says it's a passive skill." Ben answers.
"Passive huh? Let me try an old paladin trick then." Dagonet says and holds out his palm to both teammates and grabs their hands, white chains connecting them before disappearing.
"I see. Yes. From the looks of it your skill increases your party's stats by 50%." Dagonet explains before dismissing his own skill.
"Sounds pretty neat. But how do you know that?" Ben asks.
"When I formed a protective link with you I can see your information. Usually it's used to see if people are poisoned or to use the skill to disperse damage between teammates in extreme cases." Dagonet explains.
"Right. You mentioned that once." Ben says nodding his head and they start to walk again, Lina and Dagonet keeping their hands connected.
"By the way Lina, what you should know is that unlike others I haven't received training in how to use my skill. Like all of the techniques I have learned with my adaptation technique are level one talents, other than smithing and weapons combat. Those skill levels are determined by physical and mental attributes, not experience with the skill." Ben tells Lina.
"That explains why I've only seen you use one or two techniques of a skill." Lina says thinking about the techniques he used.
"Yep. My teacher once told me about his theory, that if my first technique is nourished correctly, that I could be able to learn high ranking talents of all the skills I have adapted to." Ben informs the two.
"Sounds awesome." Lina says impressed.
"It would be if he had explained how that's supposed to work before he got executed because of me." Ben says tiredly.
"But that's a problem for another day. For now we just focus on getting to town and filling our bellies." Ben says, wrapping his arm around Dagonet who's still holding hands with Lina.