...
Excited at the prospect of fighting stronger enemies than what he's faced so far, Cloud rushes forward straight to the fray of what looks to him as a herd of Magnades.
"Ha!" With a low shout, he plunges right into the center of the group catching the monsters unprepared.
Magnades were terribly strong monsters which look like bipedal bulls with sharp vee-shaped horns. A bit like the very monsters he was facing now.
They had high vitality and strength and were a real challenge to fight when grouped together.
With this in mind, Cloud prepared for a long drawn out fight with this herd as he makes his first slash.
*shwing~* *puchi~!*
He swings his sword towards two of the nearest bulls, using his sword's massive size to his advantage. It hits true and finds purchase on the chests of the surprised beasts, ripping a long upward almost-horizontal diagonal slash; leaving an open gash through muscle and bones all the while exposing a fist-sized stone where the heart should be.
Using the momentum from his initial swing and taking advantage of the apparent surprise still present in the beasts, Cloud lightly kicks off the ground then twists his hips following along the motion of his blade until he makes a full turn and swings his sword again, this time in a downward diagonal slash. Which left half cross slash marks on each of the bull monsters, mirroring each other.
*shwik~!* *poof~!* *poof~!*
"""RAAAOOOOO!!"""
The attack, however, went too smoothly. For his second strike hit the monster crystals which were exposed by his first attack, cracking them, and immediately turning the beasts into dust.
This however, snaps the other monsters out of their stupor and into a fit of rage, as they do a collective roar and charge Cloud with some brandishing weapons made of the same material as the cave walls.
A grueling fight between fifteen bull monsters and a human then ensues.
Well, grueling for the monsters that is. As they used all they had to crush the impudent human who suddenly barged their congregation. Or so they tried, at least.
Honestly, Cloud was a bit let down with the monsters. He only needed to slash two times at least with his sword in order to finish each of the monsters. Even their landform weapons - for he couldn't find another way to call them, can only defend from his strike once before crumbling on the second.
He had expected them to be at least almost as strong or durable as Magnades - their counterpart in his old world. He remembered those beasts were tough to deal with when he first encountered them on the Great Glacier. Or maybe it was just the cold making him weak. He did faint there a few times.
Either way, he was basically underwhelmed by these not-Magnades that he was back to his stony look as he finishes off the last of the herd with a thrust to its chest which broke its crystal, turning the bull into powder.
After sheathing his weapon, he goes on to collect his loot. Seventeen crystals and three horns. He wasn't sure if that was a good rate, but he takes them anyway before steadily heading off once again to his determined destination.
Though he was uncertain where it would lead and how long it'd take him to reach there, with the rate it's going, he reckons it will take a while.
However, with his SOLDIER-level stamina, he was assured of one thing...
He can do this all day.
__________________________________________
...
News flash.
It didn't take him all day.
At least according to his estimates, not that he counted.
Based on the duration of his stay in this dark and dreary cave, counting from his unplanned arrival, it hadn't taken that long yet. Probably hours - more than half a day - if time works the same way here as it did in his world.
Maybe that was a good thing, since he was getting... tired. Correction, not tired. His body can still go on.
With his SOLDIER physique, he can go for days of combat with only minimum rest. So no, not tired. More like... bored? Yeah that was it. Add 'weary' to the possible word choices.
With being sent off into an unfamiliar place with no clear objectives, only to immediately find himself in a situation where he has to fight monsters in the area, yeah he wanted to find a safe place first to collect his bearings. To take stock. Gather intel. And find some food, while he was at it. He can still fight monsters any day.
And so it was, after killing off countless monsters he encountered on his way, he finds himself arriving to his chosen destination.
After navigating through the confusing passageways of the dimly lit cave, all the while following the growth of the crystals on the cave walls, he finds himself stepping into a spacious room.
He wasn't sure what he expected to find at his destination. He just based it all on his gut.
And frankly, with all his experience being flung about various worlds, probably something like a power source - a source materia, or a huge crystal capable of teleporting him to a city.
Unfortunately, he just lucked out.
In front of him was a giant hall with walls made of blueish crystal. The very same crystals he'd been following jutting out on the walls of the cave and giving off a faint light. Only here it was magnified. The whole room was lit up like a bright summer day.
And on the far side of the room, inside one of its crystal walls, he could see a trapped mass - and whatever it was, it was huge.
Maybe a prehistoric monster? He wasn't sure.
Anyway, as he scanned his eyes across the room, he saw another entrance some distance away from the wall with the trapped mass. He couldn't make out what was on the other side from where he was standing, so with no other choice, he decided to head that way.
...
...
Stepping through the passageway, he found himself on top of a hill overlooking one of the most breathtaking sights he'd ever seen. And that was including his memories from his visits to other worlds.
What he saw was a huge space filled with green. Various flora could be seen growing all around with some crystal structures of various sizes and color jutting out of the ground, giving contrast to the abundant green all around. A giant tree can be seen growing at the center like a proud overseer, towering over all the other structures in the area.
The whole space was enclosed by solid stone walls that extend from the ground, all the way to the ceiling covering the place like a dome. On the ceiling were various sparkling crystals of different shapes and sizes, with the center-most crystal the largest and shining brightly like an artificial sun, illuminating the whole space.
Awakening from his momentary daze, Cloud looks down and back to the giant tree - more specifically below it - where he noticed some manmade structures clumped together under its shade.
Finally, some signs of civilization.
'Hopefully they're friendly.'
Seeing what could potentially be a small underground settlement in this unknown place he found himself in, Cloud carefully makes his way down the hill and into the signs of civilization with goals of finding refuge and gathering information. All the while hoping that his first contact with the inhabitants of this new world is an amicable one.