What I assumed to be the basement of the building was incredibly dark and damp, with an absolutely annoying layout of winding hallways. The paths were dimly illuminated by red lights that were far too spaced out to help. I could hardly see where I needed to go. The sounds of fighting were my only guide, but the constant echoing and the shaking from above were disorienting me.
A few minutes passed of trying to navigate the hallways before the fighting down below died down. Afraid for the worst, I quickly ducked into a side room. If Sera couldn't beat it, I doubt I could either. However, I suddenly bumped into a figure in the darkness, scaring the life out of me.
Was this it?
To my surprise, a blade of light bright enough to illuminate the room. It was Sera, whose forehead was dripping with blood. In its own way, it was kind of terrifying, like a scene out of a horror movie. And, of course, the blade was pointed at my neck.
She narrowed her eyes at me, attempting to ascertain my identity.
"You've got a lot of nerve trying to assassinate me," she spoke in a sharp tone.
My heart stopped. I only just realized how bad this looked for me. I quickly threw up my hands in surrender.
"That's not what I'm here for, I swear. I came here to help you."
"Really? And the perception-blocking mask is just for show, I assume?"
My mind raced to find a way out of this situation. How was I supposed to explain to her that I was on her side? Before I could say anything, a loud, angry roar came from down the hall.
"Shit," Sera said.
Realizing that her arcane art drew the attention of the haginn, she seemed ready to finish me off right then and there.
"Wait! I'm one of the examinees. I'm... an assassin-type, but I'm not here to assassinate you. Galliard told me to help you. He's currently fighting the other haginn above."
It was half true. Galliard did tell me to help her, though I was forced to make the first part up to justify concealing my identity. I was gambling on the belief that she didn't pay attention to any of the other examinees.
She paused. I could tell she didn't trust me, but in this situation, she didn't have much choice. It was unlikely that she could win against the haginn alone. I have to keep pushing.
"Look. If I was after you, I would've brought the haginn here first and then try and kill you. Not randomly bump into you while blindly shuffling around in the dark. I'm going to say it again: I'm here to help."
After another moment of hesitation, she dispersed her blade, returning darkness to the room. I felt a hand press against my forehead followed by a foreign warmth entering my eyes. Suddenly, I could see in the dark.
"Assassin-types are inherently capable of adjusting to the darkness. I don't know who you are, but you're a terrible liar. Stick to telling the truth."
She had an exasperated expression on her face, but it seemed a little more relieved than before. Her short orange hair was a mess, but the fierceness in her golden eyes was as intense as ever. I let out a weak, nervous chuckle, but I was quickly interrupted by the sound of thumping from down the hall.
"Do you have a plan?" she asked.
"...It's not much of a plan, but if you can help me get in close-contact with it, I can tell you its weak points."
She looked annoyed. "Haginns don't have weak points. That's their biggest strength. They're well-rounded, which is why they're so damn annoying."
I was aware of that, but we didn't have many other options. While there were two of us now, my individual strength isn't enough to make up for the difference.
"I have my methods. Are you in or not?"
"I don't have any damn choice, do I?" She let out a loud sigh. "What exactly do you want me to do?"
"Just distract it. If I can get my hands on it, I'll be able to figure out its weakness."
The haginn was rapidly approaching. We were running out of time. Before it could get the jump on us, we both ran out into the wide hallway.
Coming face to face with it now, haginns were massive. Standing at over nine feet tall, it looked to possess over five-hundred pounds of muscle. Despite its size, it was deceptively swift.
I started channeling a simple physical enhancement magic through my body, amplifying my strength and speed. While it was still lacking to other users of this magic, it was sufficient to keep up with a wounded haginn. I reached for the sword at my hip, making sure it was still there. However, I didn't need it quite yet.
Without warning, the haginn howled, making a mad dash for the both of us. Sera, blade of light in hand, ran forward to meet it. She slashed at its legs while sliding between them, but it was a mild annoyance at best. Blood ran down its hairy legs, but they were too thick for her slashes to do any real damage.
Fortunately, it was enough to draw the haginn's attention. It spun around to chase after Sera, and that was when I made my move. Propelling myself forward as fast as I could, I came to a swift stop after the beast came into range. It also paused, noticing my presence, but I was already one step ahead.
Channeling my secret weapon into my fist, I struck its hide. My form was still amateurish, but my goal wasn't to do damage: it was to activate my skill.
A burst of pale flame spread out from where I landed my attack, quickly covering the haginn in it. I quickly dashed backwards, making distance between me and the monster. It was too distracted by the flames to retaliate, but after a while, it realized that the flames weren't hot at all. In fact, those pale flames don't burn anything. Releasing wisps of flame that turned to beautiful white petals, they seemed nothing more than a simple light show. However, there's more to them than that.
The pale flames dissipated just as quickly as they appeared, save for two different spots on the haginn's body: its eyes, and the right side of its abdomen.
[The pale flames of 'Hela's Authority (Weakened)' have taken effect. Three weaknesses have been identified.]
I smiled. There were a number of skills in the world that could detect a target's weakness, but none as good as this one. It picked up on weaknesses that weren't necessarily weak points.
For example, the eyes. Of course, neither Sera nor I are capable of blinding it with our blades, but that's not what I'm aiming for.
"Sera! Can you put away your sword?" I called out.
"Do you want to die?"
"Just do it!"
I grew increasingly afraid as the haginn quickly turned my way. I tried to slip past its legs like Sera did, but felt a sharp pain in my back as it kicked me from behind, sending me flying towards her. I recovered as fast as I could, silently swearing under my breath as I tried to ignore the pain. While I got up to my feet, Sera dimmed her blade.
"What now?"
"Run!"
Without protesting, she followed me as we ran through the dark halls with the haginn in pursuit. While I wasn't the fastest, it still felt a little jarring how much I could tell Sera was slowing herself down to match my pace.
Before long, we ended up at a dead end.
"Alright genius, what happened to your plan?"
The haginn was hot on our trail, no less than ten seconds away from catching up with us. She was probably convinced that I had just sealed our fates, but we were only just beginning the next step of my plan.
"Can you blind it with your light?"
She scoffed. "This is your plan? A haginn's eyes-"
"As bright as you can! We have no time!"
Right before the haginn reached us, Sera let out a burst of brilliant light, scattering glimmering dust all around. I had to shield my eyes from it to avoid being blinded myself. A loud roar followed.
As I expected, it worked.
The haginn desperately clutched its eyes, howling in pain. Sera looked at me in surprise, but we didn't have time for that.
"Quickly! The part on its stomach where the flame hasn't gone out!"
Without hesitation, she summoned her blade of light, and I drew my sword. In almost perfect sync, we dashed forward, aiming for the pale flame. Our blades were met with little resistance, piercing straight through its tough hide and into its organs. The haginn attempted to swipe us away, but its speed had significantly decreased. Blood profusely spilled from where we pierced it.
The haginn fell to its knees, crying out in agony. Before long, it completely toppled over to the floor. It constantly panted in pain, but it wasn't in any state to retaliate against us.
After a while, Sera finally spoke.
"Care to explain?"
I took a step back, still uneasy about being so close to the haginn.
"Haginns have good eyes, sure, and that's why it can track us in the darkness. They're also capable of adjusting to incredibly bright environments as well. But when it grows too accustomed to the dark, a sudden flash is bound to disorient it, even if it's not that strong."
"...I already figured that part out. I'm asking about why the haginn had a weakness in its tough hide when it normally doesn't."
"This haginn is female," I spoke simply.
She raised her eyebrow at me, trying to understand the meaning behind my words. Before long, she understood what I meant.
"She's pregnant," she whispered.
There were two haginns, meaning that the other was probably the father. When a female haginn is pregnant, a small area around its stomach becomes softer to comfortably house the baby during pregnancy. Incidentally, once the baby suffers significant harm, the female suffers from immense pain and sickness, causing the haginn to become immobilized.
I felt a little bad for the beast, but there was nothing I could do about it. Even if we could find the exit, it would've followed us out and caused even greater havoc. I've never seen a normal haginn to tell the difference, but it was probably enraged and wanted to protect its baby.
I let out a sigh of relief. The immediate threat was gone.
"Should we just leave it here?" Sera asked.
"Unless you want to spend the next several minutes trying to cut your way to a vital organ while it cries in pain, probably. It'll die on its own eventually anyway."
I felt Sera's fierce gaze on me. She couldn't recognize me, but for a moment, I was afraid that she did. I tried to turn away from her, but she seized my wrist.
"Tell me your name."
Was she going to try and interrogate me now that the haginn was gone?
I quickly thought of a random name. "Ascalon," I replied.
"Can you at least come up with a more realistic reply?" She loudly groaned, then let go of my wrist. "Whatever. You helped me out, so I'll do you a favor this once and leave it be."
Thank the divines. I was afraid she was going to point her blade at me like she did earlier.
A curious thought came to me. Earlier, she accused me of being an assassin, didn't she?
"You have assassins coming after you?"
She nodded. "Not too surprising, to be honest. The big guilds are always aiming to weaken the competition. Since I'm a first-year adept, they probably thought it would've been an easy mission."
"They tried to kill you to eliminate competition?"
Sera gave me a confused look. "Why are you so shocked? The feud between the larger guilds is particularly intense. Their black-ops units are good enough to hide their traces, so they won't leak information about who sent them. Even if the guy above got captured, they won't get any information out of him."
I couldn't tell if I was more surprised by what she was telling me or the fact that she was saying all of that with a straight face. Someone nearly succeeded in taking her life, and all she had to say about it was, "not too surprising"?
I rubbed my temples. This was a little too much for me.
"Anyways, I did say I wasn't going to pry anymore. But if I find you again, I'm going to make you pay for lying to me, and I'll uncover all your secrets. I don't like mysteries."
She gave me a slight smile, but there was nothing friendly about it. In fact, it was a little intimidating.
"...I'll make sure to keep that in mind."
Sera let out a small chuckle at my words. "Now then, let's go find that exit."
It took us about half an hour of wandering to not even find the exit ourselves. By then, the rescue party had found us and escorted us back out.
I was mostly fine, but Sera was still covered in injuries, so they took her to the on-campus medical facility. Before she was taken away, she left one last message for me.
"Watch yourself, Ascalon."