Giant Spine Hills…
A land filled with hills with lots of large stone spines of very large creatures also known as bone worms. These worms are so large that they had to evolve bones to support their bodies.
It's a normal looking place with patches of grass here and there and it is the home for many quick land creatures. They had to be fast because if you aren't fast enough, the giant worms may choose you as their meal.
The view of the hills looked peaceful and breathtaking because of the number of giant spines on top of them. The spines were a huge attraction because of how large and terrifyingly mythical they looked that one couldn't help but wonder what the bones of that creature would have belonged to.
And if someone looked closely, they would see a lion with a vibrant red mane being chased by hundreds of bloodthirsty beasts.
Ralfor ran as quickly as he could. Four legged hounds with thin bodies but with long snouts and sharp serrated teeth chased after Chrysos and Meiros.
"... As you can see Meiros, these Bonecrusher Hounds are very adept when it comes to hunting as a pack. This is a very useful and effective way to survive in such a harsh environment since they utilize their advantage as much as possible." Chrysos lectured calmly as if there's no imminent danger to their lives.
"Master, that's nice and all but… why out of all quests did you choose an advanced quest!?" Meiros complained as he shot metal thorns coming from a large magic circle floating behind his back, killing some of the hounds chasing after them.
Chrysos laughed.
"It isn't that dangerous." Chrysos slashed to the right, killing a Bonecrusher Hound that was about to bite his head. "Mostly."
Meiros sighed in exasperation. His master really takes things too lightly from time to time. "But why are we here though? What's the quest?"
Chrysos smiled and replied with no fear in his tone. "We're going to slay a giant spine worm."
Pulling his sword lodged inside a hound's neck, Meiros stared at Chrysos with a blank expression before turning into a face of absolute disbelief. "Master! Those things are Provectis and above! What were you thinking!?"
Waving his hand at Meiros, Chrysos assured him. "Don't worry, I'm not going to fight something that I don't have confidence in defeating." Chrysos clawed through a hound that leapt towards his head with a flaming swipe. "Besides, when have I been that reckless?"
"The greenflesh village and when you were fighting that Provectis ranked knight." Meiros said with a shrug as his thorns stabbed through four hounds. Their blood splattering on the air like flower petals.
"Hey, that time when I was fighting the knight, I had the advantage there." Chrysos refuted.
"But master, you still ran out of Divinium and I had to be the one who killed the assassins chasing you." Meiros revealed a smug smile.
"Damn, you remember that? But that wasn't recklessness, that was just me being caught off guard. The greenflesh village though, that was reasonable." Chrysos agreed with the first one.
With a sigh, he looked behind them.
"There's probably around a thousand of these guys chasing us." Chrysos shook his head.
Meiros nodded but soon stopped and said, "It's 1327 hounds. I hope that helps."
Chrysos turned his head back to Meiros. "You know, I'm glad I picked a psychic as a disciple."
Meiros paused. "Disciple? I thought I was your student?"
"C'mon, we've been through many life and death situations. I believe that you're ready to become my disciple. Plus, a student is just someone you teach for a while before leaving them. A disciple is someone that you keep by your side and someone you trust the most to carry on your legacy." What Chrysos said was a bit of a mouthful, but these words made Meiros feel better.
Laughing to himself, Meiros said, "Student or disciple, what's the difference?" Meiros kept shooting more and more thorns towards the hounds. They squealed in pain before falling down and dying after being run over by hundreds of their own pack.
"It's a huge difference…. But do tell me if you feel that you're being left alone. After all, I don't want to restrict you as much." Chrysos extended his fist towards Meiros. "After all, I'm just trying to be a great master for you." He added.
Meiros extended his fist as well. "Master, you're already the best for me… remember that."
Meiros' mannerisms were also starting to imitate Chrysos. After being together for so long, these two were inseparable.
Woof!
A hound pounced from the left.
Bang!
Chrysos smashed the head of the hound, killing it on one strike. "Do you mind? We're having a conversation here."
Woof!
The hounds barked at them more.
"Ah okay, that's how it is." Chrysos threw a potion with earthen energy swirling inside it.
When the potion landed on the ground, earthen stalagmites rose up from the ground, impaling many hounds in one go.
Woof!
The pack responded with an even more hostile reaction.
"Aaahh… these guys just won't stop." Chrysos crossed his arms and sent a hound off course after shooting an ice arrow at it. "Meiros, go check if Ralfor's getting tired. If he suddenly stops, that will be a problem."
Meiros sent a strand of psychic energy to communicate with Ralfor for a few seconds before saying, "Master, he's not tired but he is about to be."
"Around how long?" Chrysos asked without much of a reaction.
"Twenty minutes." Meiros replied. "He also said he thinks that you're having too much fun and you might have forgotten how deadly the situation is right now."
"Tell him that it won't take long." Chrysos groaned. "I really didn't want to waste so much Divinium but, oh well." Chrysos exerted force on his legs, jumping off Ralfor's back afterwards.
The hounds snarled at Chrysos after seeing him jump towards them.
Caziwair Blade Storm.
Windslash Aricos.
Many of the hounds were sliced by the blades of wind shot out by Chrysos' sword.
And as he landed, the hounds began swarming him.
"Whoa ho ho!" Chrysos ducked down and avoided a hound that leapt towards his face. He slashed at the hound, splitting it in half.
Sword of Fortune, Form I.
Chrysos was surrounded by hundreds of hounds. He slashed forward and dodged the hounds that were coming for his back by jumping.
But the hounds didn't let him off.
As he was still in the air, the hounds jumped off other hounds and pounced with their serrated teeth towards Chrysos.
But Chrysos' sword moved as if it was always luckily in the right place at the right time. Whenever an attack was about to land on him, the sword would find its way there.
Swoosh!
The hounds were beheaded as they fell down on the ground lifelessly.
Chrysos activated three Force Pulse magic circles on his left arm and pounded it on the ground, creating a powerful shockwave that injured many hounds in the area as he landed.
Crack!
The ground shattered and rippled, sending the hounds flying away from him. The hounds with their relentless pursuit, began rushing once again after being pushed back by the shockwave.
Chrysos' left arm flared up before lighting itself on fire. With his sword ready to attack and his claws ready to tear the hounds apart, Chrysos activated "Steel Rage" and defended himself in a flurry of quick slashes and claws.
The hounds kept pouring in on Chrysos. No matter how many of them died, they kept trying and trying in all kinds of manners. They tried leaping from behind, but it was no use.
They tried dodging the strikes, but it was no use. They tried catching him off guard and striking where his sword wasn't busy slashing, but it was still no use.
It was as if Chrysos was protected by a barrier of invisible blades.
Because of how many hounds Chrysos was killing, there were only around seven hundred of them left.
But that didn't stop them from pouring in.
Chrysos leapt up once again to prevent himself from being overwhelmed. Casting Lightning of Orobas, Chrysos electrocuted the hounds from five meters up in the air.
Zap!
Because most of the hounds have high resistance and strength, they were able to shrug off the lightning that quickly. Some were a bit disoriented, but they still had the capacity to keep fighting.
"My spells are getting more and more obsolete.. most of them can't even handle these guys now." Chrysos knew that they were in an area where creatures are definitely stronger because this is an area that humans haven't occupied yet.
And the reason for that is because the things living in such areas aren't something that people would pay attention to at the moment. After all, they have their own interests that they have to worry about. And besides, there isn't much of a need to expand territory since people back in Ironmountain are still living nicely without the need for more land.
There's a saying that lands that humans avoid are usually the most dangerous ones. This really explains the bloody nature of the Giant Spine Hills. This unconquered land was flourishing under a brutal food chain where the fast ones live and the slow ones adapt.
Chrysos fended off the hounds as they kept pouncing at him.
They were getting fiercer and fiercer. The hounds were slowly learning from Chrysos and they were managing to avoid more and more slashes from him.
And what's worse is that Meiros is also under the pressure of these hounds.
Ralfor managed to defend himself at first, but as they slowly piled up on him, he and Meiros were forced to turn tail as Meiros shot metal thorns, trying to shake them off.
"Master, we can't hold on like this…" Meiros alerted Chrysos nervously.
Chrysos sighed. "This is going to cost me a lot of Divinium."
Earthen Fist!
Small pebbles formed around Chrysos' left arm, the magic circle gathered earth energy that solidified the arm and ensured its structure and integrity.
Infusing his Divinium into the arm, it turned into an earthen pillar extending fifty meters into the air, carrying Chrysos on top of it.
Checking his Divinium reserves, Chrysos was not happy how creating the pillar consumed this much Divinium.
Even though the Divinium regeneration of ranks changes as you get stronger, what really matters is the quality of the Divinium making the effects of the magic circles effective.
There's a reason why Chrysos had a hard time activating Strange tier spells with his Iretoir ranked Divinium. The higher the quality of a spell is, the higher purity of Divinium is required.
Since the level of Chrysos' Divinium reserves is the 1st FoF, his Divinium is called Provectis Divinium. This goes the same for the rest of the ranks.
…
Now that Chrysos was on the top of this earthen pillar, he took out a special concoction that he brewed early in the morning.
Chrysos doesn't have a shortage when it comes to snake glands. That alone makes him dangerous as an alchemist because of his ability to produce these types of gasses. And that's the reason why most alchemists wear masks in all shapes and sizes. This makes most alchemist meeting look like a weird cult. Alchemists also make a lot when they make effective immunity potions against these types of poisonous substances.
The potion in Chrysos' hand is a clear bluish gray liquid lighter than water. He dropped the potion and waited.
Rumble..
"Oh f#ck!" Chrysos felt the earthen pillar crumble after being clawed and bitten by hundreds of hounds at once that were trying to get him. "This pillar isn't stable at all…"
Chrysos had to infuse more of his Divinium just to keep the pillar from being destroyed. And as he anxiously waited, the potion fell on the hounds and broke.
Poof!
After the bottle broke, the potion came in contact with the air, the potion evaporated into gas which confused the hounds for a little while.
The light blue mist that covered them wasn't hindering their vision that much, but they could feel something wrong with it.
But that was too late.
The hounds who inhaled the gas suddenly had their muscles constricted and they were unable to move them anymore. Their blood became more viscous which made oxygen transport difficult, and they started falling down one by one like weeds that got cut off.
"Woohoo! Success!" Chrysos laughed in joy up in the air. He then shrunk the pillar bit by bit to slowly bring him down safely.
When his feet touched the ground, he then ran towards Meiros and Ralfor being attacked by the remaining hounds.
…
Meiros was busy battling hounds with his swords and shooting them with thorns.
He was standing on top of Ralfor with one of the reins tied to his left leg.
A hound leapt towards Meiros, but with his quick thinking, the hound was slashed in the neck without any chance to retaliate.
Another hound tried attacking from the right, but Meiros shot it down with thorns.
Thu!
As he shot a hound dead, three hounds attacked at the same time and attacked Meiros in three different angles.
Without hesitation, he leapt upwards and slanted his body midair, dodging their attacks while managing to counterattack with his sword as well.
Drop..
The bodies of the hounds fell down.
Meiros landed on Ralfor's back on his feet.
"Ahhh… these guys won't stop chasing!" Meiros was frustrated. But as he was defending himself, he saw a figure running towards them while kicking up a cloud of dust as he ran.
"Master!" Meiros waved his hand in the air.
…
Shielding his eyes from the sun with his hands, Chrysos was surprised. "Meiros held his own against this many hounds?" He looked at the long trail of dead bodies and smiled. "This disciple of mine doesn't seem to be slacking off.."
He rushed forward and tried to meet up with Meiros.
Meiros commanded Ralfor to turn to the right and easily met up with Chrysos.
Swish!
Chrysos killed five hounds in one slash.
Activating Blade Storm, the hounds that approached him were diced into pieces. And with Meiros behind him to provide long ranged support, the number of the remaining hounds dwindled from around one hundred to nineteen.
Even so, they charged blindly for their death.
The Bonecrusher Hounds are known for their ferocity and neverending relentlessness. They will keep chasing a target with their pack and will only stop until the target dies. It doesn't matter if they die, they will keep charging forward regardless.
…
Drop..
The final hound was killed.
Chrysos brushed off his shoulders and sleeves. The Bonecrusher Hounds left a pretty nasty amount of bloodstains all over him.
"Ngeh.." Chrysos washed himself using the spell "Water."
What an ingenious name…
Meiros brought Ralfor towards Chrysos and hopped off.
"Master, is that all? This quest seems a bit too easy, don't you think?" Meiros wiped his sword clean as he recalled the fight earlier. The quest felt too easy for an advanced quest.
Chrysos snickered. "Oh, that's not that quest."
"Is isn't? Then why are we here?" Meiros sheathed his sword and looked around. Besides the large stone spines littering the area, he couldn't see what was so dangerous about this quest.
"You'll see." Chrysos then sliced the air towards the pile of hounds that sent a wind blade, cutting the corpses which caused them to bleed out.
As the blood seeped into the ground, the earth began rumbling.
Rumble…
Crack…
Meiros maintained his balance as he felt his hairs standing on end. "Master… don't tell me.."
Boom!
A gigantic worm appeared from the ground. The worm looked absolutely gigantic. It has a length of 212 meters and a height of 47 meters. It has an outer skin composed of organic armor that looked like dirty gray bones and a mouth shaped like an "X" filled with seemingly uncountable rows of sharp white teeth filled with strings of bloody saliva as it ate the corpses of the hounds.
It opened its mouth and released a deep alien-like screech.
Meiros looked at the bone worm with terror. His iris shrunk in fear after seeing how gargantuan this creature was.
"... So Meiros, how about we take care of this fella?" Chrysos held Angelfeather and infused flame Divinium into the handle.