The Cysaru hadn't been taking them seriously since the start, even now. That was the only reason they even lasted this long anyway. A double mage like Rowent was as good as a sitting duck without mana, he didn't even have the strength to carry Top away.
"Stop! You want us alive don't you?!" Fergus yelled.
"A meerree flliigghtt offf faanccyy, buttt noottt aaanymoore." it teased with its wide grin as it squinted with those large bright yellow eyes. It stood before Rowent and Top, it wasn't very big for a monster but it was like a titan was looming down on them.
It took its own sweet time, maybe savouring the moment his prey fell before it.
"SSSHH!" it hissed as he swung his head back. A knife found its way into its eye but not too deep.
"Pull back!! We're done here!" Dina shouted, rushing just in time to stop the guillotine over her party members' necks.
"Oh thank Dina the saviour, I love you so damn much! Fergus! Quick help me drag this lug of a leader." Rowent sincerely cried out. The pill he fed Top could only slow his bleeding by a large margin and helped increase health regeneration a little, even with his high vitality and lizardmans' inherently higher regeneration he needed actual medical care or he'll die at this rate.
The good news was Dina, whose Profession was a first aider of sorts, was here. The bad news was that she was the only one in the condition of distracting the monster. Fergus was already low on mana as well and it was already obvious nothing he did was enough to distract the monster.
"Tchh freaking hills, there aren't many trees I can use for my wires." Dina cursed under her breath as the wire on her out thrown knife in the Cysaru's eye loosened and coilled around its neck. She already threw more around its scythe like arms to keep it in check but there was no stable footing or landmark she could use to actually hold it back.
❅❅❅
Like a guitar string snapping, the Cysaru lightly touched its arms on Dina's wires, cutting them easily. The initial surprise was over, it wasn't really injured and its eye would heal in time. It was only intrigued by the newcomer who managed to hurt itself.
Planning to keep its promise, it was never really gonna kill the fire mage or archer. The Cysaru didn't seem like it but it was burnt pretty badly internally, the wind archer prolonged and enhanced the damage by a little but it caused him damage all the same.
Scaring the mage was only having a little fun, it really just planned to kill the tailed one. To think another one came back to meet it in battle. Excellent.
"Grrreee!" It was about to say hello to the newcomer but something cold flew into its mouth just as it opened its wonderful jaws to speak their tongue.
❅❅❅
"Ebony?! Why did you come back? This one's too much for you, run back now!" Surprisingly, Dina was the one who called out.
"Since you're already here, we could really use some strong arms and fast legs. Get Top out of here first, he needs medical help as soon as possible." Rowent asked realistically. Ebony was a warrior fast on his feet, Fergus could use the chance to distract the monster for another second or two buying them more time.
*Crunch*
"Chiiilllyyy. Maaaggnifiiiceentt. Reeelllaaxxss, oonnly thhee taaileed one hazz tooo dieee." The Cysaru crushed the ice in its mouth.
"Smokes! It's talking! Did I mishear?!" Dina was so shocked she almost dropped her weapons.
'A talking monster… even Gen couldn't. Wait no it's because I didn't understand Elcrian but I think Gen did try to speak to me. So is it like Gen? Losing monster stats to gain smarts and the ability to get a class? So it's only trying to kill Top for some reason, why? Cause he doesn't like the fact they both have tails?' Ebony pondered.
"It talks alright. Don't listen to it, it just tried to kill me along with the leader." Rowent verified.
"Wait a second Ro, I think it means what it says." Fergus said.
"..."
"Finnaaallly usssingg thhaat heaaad thhaat youuu prriddee youurrseelvvess offf pooinnttyy eaaareddd onneee."
"Explain, Fergus." Rowent ignored the creature.
"I'm sure you know what I mean, Ro. It has been playing with us the whole time. I bet we would be dead within seconds or less if it was trying to kill us from the get go. It initiated conversation, gave us terms and acted almost...civil. It took damage from your fire blast probably from my attacks too but none from Leader. It never attacked and took all our hits defensively the whole time, letting us take our own sweet time talking. It knew we were planning to give him a big one but never tried to stop us either." Fergus explained, his eyes never having left the grinning and patient creature.
"It turned back on its words and tried to kill me too!" Rowent pointed out.
"..." Fergus couldn't deny. He himself was still doubtful of a monster's whimsical words.
"Doonnee chhaatting? I-ee willl beee taakiingg himmm nowww ifff youuu haavvee noothinng leefftt tooo saaayy."
"What will it take for you to let him go?" Ebony thought there was no harm asking if it really was civil like Fergus said. It didn't seem violent like the monsters he'd seen and it really was just standing there and listening in on them.
"Hmmm? Kek, I-ee meeerreelyy leeet youuu go beecauusee a leveell 33 acctuaallly manaageed tooo caatchh meee offf gaaurrdd. Doonntt thiinnkk tooo higghlly offf yourrselff, youuu diiidd noottt manaagee tooo hurrtt meee aannd haavee nooo qualiiifiicaationsss tooo neeegootiateee wiithh meee."
'It can Identify me. It might really be like Gen and have skills and a Class.'
"So if I, a level 33 manage to cause damage to you. You'll let Top go free." Ebony asked. He was still as calm as always as he tried to think of ways he could deal damage to a beast much tougher than anyone present.
*Rwoaar!*
Its roar shook the air and the very ground they stood on as if the angriest beast was unleashed upon the world. It was actually roaring with laughter at the funny joke. Even its 'lessers', higher levelled than it could hardly harm him much less a non monster 40 levels lower than it.
"Suuurree. Trrryy anyythiingg attt yourrr disssppoosaall… yoouu thrree caaan leaaavee noow, brrinngg thhee taaileed oneee tooo. Ifff yoouu failll youuu shallll beee myyy meaall insstteeads." It decided to humor the funny one for his foolishness, even letting the bath servant go since it didn't really matter which one it eats.
Though the tailed one had a lot more meat, if its own scales were any indication it would be that biting through it would be troublesome.
"Okay. Wait a minute." Ebony replied. The threat of being eaten not even bothering him one bit. Eat or be eaten was something he was aware of every hunt, a stronger beast or not didn't change the fact.
Fergus and Rowent already gathered beside Top who was wheezing badly yet unconscious. The wound was gigantic and it was quite a wonder he wasn't dead yet. Dina was standing in front of them with her back facing them still watching the monster's nonchalant behaviour.
"I'll help freeze the bleeding."
"Wait. Lizardmen are weak to the cold, you might kill him if you freeze his blood in his current state. Just shut his wound so that he doesn't lose any more blood. The pill we fed him should help close the internal wounds and replenish his blood a little. It's fortunate Lizardmen can regrow the flesh and bones, even organs, with the help of some healing he should be able to make it."
"Why Ebony? You didn't have to do this for us? We can still fight our way out of this. With you here we can leave the leader in your hands as we hold it back and retreat."
"If you could hold him back we wouldn't be holding this conversation." Ebony didn't want to refer to it as a monster and just assumed it was male.
"..."
"Don't worry. I'm not doing this for you guys. He is confident but so am I. Just go." Ebony sealed a thin layer of ice over Top's chest and back.
Dina unwillingly left with eyes that look like she was trying to burn a hole into Ebony. She was full of rage, she wanted to fight yet seeing how little her seniors were able to do she was even more scared than angry. She was so angry at herself she couldn't speak out to stop Ebony. So ashamed she was kinda happy she could actually go free without seeing any of her party members die. She didn't wipe her tears away.
Rowent and Fergus both had complicated looks and what they were thinking was beyond what Dina was imagining.
Ebony walked towards the Cysaru, 4 shields in tow. He hardly used any mana in the previous fight. Moving back here without Icebody Enhancement to regenerate more mana, but not much since they weren't really that far away to begin with.
Fighting or trying to deal damage in close combat would just be suicidal. Ebony had learnt enough from his silly suicidal attempts at fighting monsters with his sword. His low strength wasn't helping even with his body enhancement he bet he wouldn't be able to do crap.
As for magical means, he wasn't really much better at it with Ice Spikes literally being eaten by it like a frozen cookie.
There was only one thing that came to mind. One thing he could dish out to solve a problem and that was to dump all his mana at the problem.. Ebony felt blinder as he left Hoarfrost Glade behind him, the ice mana in the air thinned out quickly and they weren't ice mana where they were now.
3 of his 4 shields were fully compressed 5 Layered Ice Carapaces while the last was a little damaged and wasn't 5 layers either. A single max powered shield was basically a compression of over 6000 mana. A ridiculous sum for someone of Ebony's level, and this was with his 100% mana efficiency with ice magic. Mana Compression is already playing a huge part in its low level. Furthermore his mana was 100% more compressible, making it easier and less mentally draining to compress mana
It wouldn't have been possible if he couldn't regenerate his mana while casting, they were all constantly brought back into his control as he casted them.
❅❅❅
"Noott usssinngg thaaatt stticck oofff yoouurss?" The grinning Cysaru tilted its head. She was used to seeing the weird sharp 'sticks' that the lanky people like to use as they didn't have awesome sharp hands like hers. Ebony had his sword sheathed, not planning on using it.
"I have something better to show you. It's called a handshake, a greeting from where I came from." Ebony said as he reached out to grab the blunt side or top of its scythe hands. His hands were just large enough to wrap his fingers around the tip of the scythe. Griping just tight enough to bleed, the scythe arms obviously extremely sharp.
His left hand was touching his shields which were stacked up together by his side. He began imbuing every drop of his mana into his hands and drawing even more from his shields.
Getting more and more intrigued by this weirdly calm person. The Cysaru had met and even eaten a few of his kind. All that came face to face with her were filled with fear and dread. Some acted dead, some cried, some fought even as their body failed them, the stronger ones thought they were 'lucky' to find such a rare 'catch'.
Those who thought that were usually quite a few levels above herself perhaps around level 120, though she hated the look they gave her like she was prey so, she usually ate anyone or thing that was higher level than her.
She didn't know why but she always gave chances to those lower level than herself. Perhaps she wanted those higher level than her to give her a chance as well if she ever met one stronger than herself. Perhaps she didn't feel like 'bullying' them, but the concept was a little foreign to her. She only learnt how to speak recently after all and her memories don't go far back.
This person instead was obviously one of the weakest… human, she tried to recall their race. Yet, she didn't feel or smell the usual fear that they have when against her. She looked at his hands holding onto hers, cold. But that was it. There was nothing special, nor did it hurt her.
She couldn't sense ice mana or use any magic so she didn't know how much mana was being imbued into Ebony's hands. She did see the floating shield decrease in size over time but didn't think much of it.
❅❅❅
Ebony's hand started to freeze up in a literal sense as his shields slowly disappeared. He wasn't pushing his mana into the Cysaru yet though, at most his blood was starting to freeze and stick to its scythe arm.
By the time two of his shields disappeared and their mana went into his hand he had long lost all feeling in his hand. It was frozen solid after all, he was glad the Cysaru was either arrogant enough or polite enough to keep still and really do nothing but observe. His fingers, maybe even his hand would fall off and shatter at this rate. He couldn't use any more ice mana unless he didn't want his hand any more.
"Isss thaat alll?" the Cysaru was even more confused at where this human's confidence or calm was coming from now. He stopped moving and now doesn't seem to be doing anything anymore.
"Thanks for waiting. I hope you'll keep your word." The Cysaru's instinct alarmed her to pull her arm back but she was a little too late. Dark blue appeared in her sights and she felt her arm growing more and more numb. She quickly pulled her arm away, slicing all 4 of Ebony fingertips off. But the dark blue flames wouldn't go out, slowly climbing up her arm.
She waved it off, but it wouldn't go out. Watching it climb up her hand started to scare her as she felt the sharp intense chill piercing through her scales and into her muscles and flesh before she slowly lost feeling in them. She swung her arms around more and more desperately.
"Try stabbing into the ground." The calm voice now seemed chilling to her but she thought the idea was good anyway and didn't sense any hostility in his words. She swung downwards, the flames spreading to the ground and thankfully, the flames seemed to go out quickly but a sense of distress was creeping up as she looked at her arms.
The flames didn't spread much and it was actually about to burn out soon since the mana expenditure was insane to keep it up. Ebony had tried to get a skill with them but even with a full mana pool he couldn't even keep flames of frost burning for half a minute.
For reasons he was not aware of, they were a lot colder than his normal ice magic. Since it was not physical damage he doubted the Cysaru had much resistance to cold and was pretty sure if the Cysaru was just going to stay still and take the hit, throwing whatever mana in his control should do quite some damage to the confident reaper.
A light breeze blew and the small frozen grass patch shattered under them.
"...Whaaatt wwaass ttthhaat?" the Cysaru asked as she looked up from her arm, covered in ice up till her elbow or end of the sharp parts of her scythe arm.
"A greeting. I'm Ebony, what about you?" Ebony replied while picking up his fingertips. He tried to stick them back on and hopefully, he could either heal them right back on or he would have to regenerate them. He believed he could regrow them with his physique that's no longer fully human, he did recover from his elbow popping right out.
"...I-ee dooo noott haavee anyythhinngg tooo goo byeee."
"It's called a name, allows one to identify and differentiate between people. Could I give you one? A name I mean."
"...Alllooowwedd, Ebbonnyy. I-ee aapoloogissee foor thhe diissreespecct, sttroongg onne. Andd allsoo foorr gooinng baacck onn myy wwordd." she lowered her head, giving a glance to the now frozen back on fingertips.
"It's alright, I am far from being strong. How about Obsidian if you're a guy or Obsius if you're not? Sorry, I can't really tell. Named after your obsidian like scales, hard, dark and glossy." Ebony proposed after seeing her obsidian like scales.
"I-ee aamm a feemaalee. Obbsiiuss… I-ee liikee itt. Thaankk youu." Obsius said.
"No problem, Obsius. What are your plans?"
"Seeaarchh forr allll thhe stonggestt fooess iinn theesse hiills aanndd reeiggnn suuprreemmee."
"The Bubble Hills is merely a small stretch of hills on the map. You should practice speaking more and when you reign supreme over these hills travel throughout the continent. There are also stronger foes, higher mountains, deeper oceans. The world is a big place."
"Inntrrigguinngg. I-eee shhaall grooww tooo bee thhee stroongeestt. Youuu tooo Ebboonyy, weee shaaall haavve ann acctuaal baattlee wwhheen wee meeett aaggaiin." Obsius hissed and squatted. Jumping off with enough strength to make a small crater on the ground, almost blowing Ebony off his feet. She jumped over entire hills as she disappeared from sight.
Ebony was going to help draw as much of the ice mana in her arm away as he could, it wouldn't heal her but at least it would help a little. She seemed eager to leave and he didn't manage to stop her fast enough.
He hadn't levelled once since leaving the village but his Mana Meister did level, especially his Profession skills and Layered Ice Carapace and Icebody Enhancement. His other skills levelled slowly even with the nightly spars and training.
Ebony made his way back and started to appreciate the Tracking skill. Dina and Fergus didn't usually leave easy to spot footprints but they were carrying their large, heavy leader so fresh tracks weren't too hard to spot and follow.