Lycris Hound

It’s all well and good to go after what you want, but… it pays to have a plan. Barring that, you should at least be light on your feet. Plans do tend to go awry.

. . . . .

Robin looked around in the darkness. The hole they’d found ended up being a tube that went deep into the earth. They hadn’t gone all the way down but had exited from an opening in the tube that led to a cave. Strange crashing sounds came from below, making Robin very reluctant to go further. Orion had agreed with her inclination.

She bit her fingernails as the darkness seemed to encroach on her. “Is Graham really here? Did we come down here for nothing?” If he was, why hadn’t he stayed put so they could find him easily? She’d tried calling out for him, but it just echoed into the darkness with no return. “What should we do? We can’t search for him in this darkness!”

Orion stood close to the opening they’d come through, the only source of light from the surface. He stared down the tube, though she wasn’t sure what he was looking for. They really needed some kind of light…

She snapped her fingers and shuffled over to the opening, pulling out the book she’d kept in her pocket. The Apothecary’s Primer. “Maybe I’ll find something that can help?”

She flipped through, looking for plants that glowed. If she could find one, they’d have a light source!

“Robin, how much do you want to find Graham?” Orion asked.

She looked up, jaw hanging. “I… what? I mean, he’s our friend, right? We can’t just…” she trailed off. Did she really want to find Graham? After what he’d done?

“If you do, we may have to go further down.”

She gave him a sharp look, then leaned over the edge.

Orion pointed down. “If you look closely, you can see a light at the bottom. I think Graham may have fallen all the way down. He wouldn’t have had time to climb down properly like we did.”

Robin bit her lip. “That’s true… If he jumped in suddenly to avoid the fire…” But the noises coming up from below… “I don’t want to go down. Who knows what we’ll find down there?” And what if they got there only to find Graham had died from the fall.

She flinched back, shaking her head. “No way. Graham wouldn’t die from something like that. He’s just… he wouldn’t!” Graham always seemed to know what to do. He always kept going, no matter what this place threw at him. He’d been stabbed and cut, beaten and bruised, and he always looked forward. Planning his next move.

She clenched at her chest, fingers gripping the fabric of his jacket. He’d killed James, but she didn’t want him to die. She was mad, yes, but it wasn’t fair if he wasn’t here for her to be mad at! They had to find him.

She stood, her legs shaking. A quick pinch to the thigh stopped that. She met Orion’s eyes. “Let’s go.”

After searching the safe, Graham found what he was looking for. Breathing Livewire, a scripture meant to place a living seed of lightning within the body, granting the user impressive control over the element.

“God, I want this!” It was so cool! Just imagining shooting bolts of lightning from his hands had him salivating. However, it wouldn’t be easy. Unlike the Standard Scripture, it took more than touching a sigil to practice.

The scroll told him what he would need. The heart and the core of a Lycris Hound, along with a charged lightning crystal. He ran his hands over the smooth parchment. “I’ll have to kill that wolf and dig out its heart and core.” He grimaced. “Then I have to eat the heart and use the sigil carved into the floor to combine the core and the lightning crystal into a lightning seed.”

Getting the lightning crystal would be easy. They were all over this cave. Likely why Gereth was here in the first place. In fact, from the little he could glean from the man’s journal, Gereth had brought that Lycris Hound here himself, along with another. “Not really sure what happened to the other one, but I’m glad I don’t have to deal with two.”

Well, he hoped there was only one. Maybe the other was hiding deeper in the cave? Or… no. Gereth must’ve used the other hound to test the scripture. Right? How would he know if the latest iteration of the scripture that involved the Lycris Hound would work if he didn’t test it?

That must mean there was only one.

He grimaced, thinking of one of the other conditions for practicing the scripture. “Do I really have to eat that things heart? The whole thing? Can I cook it?” How would that even taste? He’d never had an animal’s heart before. He’d never really thought of it as food. It was something you were more likely to see in middle school biology.

He pushed his disgust to the back of his mind. If he had to eat the damn thing, then he’d do it. The powers this scripture promised were worth it. “Guess I just have to find that wolf now, huh?”

First thing’s first, he strolled right outside, found a crystal the size of his arm and kicked it until it broke off. It took a few minutes but he accomplished it. “Would’ve been faster with circulation, but I don’t want to tire myself out right now.”

It felt like the cooldown period where he couldn’t use it was shortening, but not by that much. Besides the cooldown period tended to get longer if he used it multiple times in a row. It was better to hold off until he really needed it.

He picked up the jagged crystal and tossed it in the room. He looked to the left, the way he’d come. “There’s really only one direction to go.” After all, he’d passed the wolf before he found the room, so it must be that way. “That kinda sucks. If I want to get out of here, I’ll probably have to kill the wolf, come back here to make the lightning seed, then go back to find the hole I fell down.”

He hated retracing his steps. It felt like such a waste of time. He’d drop any game that made him backtrack too much, just because of how annoying it was. “Of course, this isn’t a game, so I don’t have the option of ‘dropping’ it. Too bad.”

He set off at a run.

The wolf sat curled up on a fallen crystal, breathing lightly. Graham armed himself with the only remaining spike from the Urspine and began climbing to a higher crystal. “If I can get a sneak attack, the fight’ll be over before I know it.”

Despite its resting state, sparks of electricity still crackled through its fur. Thunder crashed in the distance, but it didn’t disturb the animal. Graham came to a crystal a good height over the wolf. He frowned. “Am I gonna be shocked the moment I touch that thing?” The bestiary hadn’t mentioned anything about it, but with the way it was constantly emitting sparks, it wasn’t too far-fetched.

He held the spike in both hands, breathing deeply to prepare himself. Chances are, this fight would happen incredibly quickly. A fledgling Seeker versus a powerful beast. He’d pay for front-row tickets to watch this fight, but he was feeling a little reluctant to take part in it. He also felt a bit excited. Who would come out on top? Would he defeat this monster and prove the strength he’d gathered in the last few days?

He closed his eyes and drew in the energy of the world. It felt a little different this time. More excited, almost tingly. As if the surroundings had affected the energy’s composition. He slowly tipped forward and fell. The wind whistled past his ears, but he tuned it out. He positioned the spike in his hands, aiming it at the wolf’s neck.

The wolf’s ears popped up and it spun, tailing whacking Graham out of the air. He bounced off a wall, twisting to land on his feet. The wolf lowered itself, growling at him. “Alright, sneak attack failed. Guess my stealth stat is too low.” He kicked the ground, flying forward at high speed. The wolf floated out of the way like it was light as a feather. It swatted at him with claws every inch as big as Graham’s spike.

He kicked again, shattering the ground, and flew into the air. Head over heels, he watched the wolf for its next move. “I don’t have long. The time limit has lengthened, but I don’t know by how much.” It’d be great if he could find a stopwatch somewhere. Then he could just time it. It was crucial information, after all, knowing how long you could fight.

Lightning danced around the wolf and gathered at a point between the two large crystals on its shoulders. “Oh, shit!” He was still mid-air! “I have to dodge!” He twisted as hard as he could, but that only made him spin. The crackling energy the wolf was gathering grew brighter, louder, almost as loud as the thunder.

Graham had an idea. He put a hand near his waist, palm out. If Thinwell could gather water by spinning Qi, then maybe he could alter it slightly to just push the Qi out. Of course, that would have the opposite reaction on him, right? He sent energy to his hand, letting it sit there and gather. It felt like his hand would pop.

He looked at the wolf, waiting. Its eyes shot open and met his. “Now!” he shouted, unleashing the energy from his hand. Simultaneously, a writhing bolt of lightning struck the air and a burst of translucent force sent Graham to the ground.

The wolf paused a moment as if confused that it hadn’t hit. Graham almost laughed, but there wasn’t time for that. He jumped to his feet and attacked again. He leapt at the unmoving wolf, dive kicking its left shoulder crystal. It shattered, but that caused him to slam into the wolf and bounce off. He screamed as lightning coursed through him, sending his limbs into spasms.

Before he hit the ground, he forcibly overcame the spasming and threw his hand out to catch himself in a handstand. He flipped easily and regained his footing. “Alright, maybe without both crystals it can’t use that attack.” That was the theory he’d been operating on when he’d decided to aim for the crystal.

His jaw fell. “Wait, it seems to absorb electricity from the surroundings through those crystals. If I destroyed them all, would that have the effect of ‘separating it from its power source’?”

It was worth a shot. He frowned. “How much time do I have left?” Would he be able to destroy all the spikes before circulation ran out? It’d be tough, especially since the wolf was bound to cotton on to his plan at some point. Something told him this animal was smarter than the average wolf.

He leapt into the fray once more, aiming for the other shoulder-crystal. The wolf ducked the attack then launched its head upward, shocking Graham and knocking him higher. While he was still in the air, the wolf bounded off a few crystals to gain height, then fired itself downward at Graham.

In a panic, Graham frantically used the Qi pulse maneuver from before. However, the wolf was too fast. He got his body out of the way, but it hit his extended arm at high speed. Intense pain accompanied a crack that was assuredly not thunder crashing in the distance. Graham screamed as he went spinning. He bounced on the ground, his broken arm flopping around uselessly and causing him further pain.

He clutched the arm with his other, tears welling in his eyes as he bit down a cry of pain. “Dammit, that thing’s fast! I guess it was my fault for using aerial maneuvers. It made me a sitting duck compared to this thing.”

It felt like it’d already been two minutes and now his arm was broken. His eyes widened as the wolf crouched, lightning pouring from the remaining shoulder-crystal to course over its body. “I can’t win. I need to run.”

He’d screwed up. That was very clear. The question was whether he’d be able to get out of this situation and maybe try again, or if he’d die here. He pushed himself to his feet, facing the wolf. He gave a half-hearted grin. “I don’t suppose you’d just let me go?” He let it hang in the air along with the crackling of the wolf’s electricity.

The only answer he received was the sway of a tail from one side to the other. He grimaced and lowered himself. “Alright then. I guess we’ll have to do it the hard way.” He jumped and leapt higher, using crystals as his stepping stones like the wolf had done. The beast followed him, turning every crystal it touched blue.

Just above him, there was an enormous one, growing down at an angle from the ceiling. He leapt hard and spun in the air, smashing his heel down on the base, then kicked off, launching himself to the side. The crystal fell atop the wolf, shattering as it hit the ground.

Graham bit his lip as he tried to set his arm back in place. It was broken just above the elbow and the way it moved when he walked was excruciating. He’d managed to get away from the wolf, but he’d been left with an awful present.

“It’s no good. It won’t stay put while I’m moving. If only I had something to set it with…” The cave was rather barren, mostly rock, sand, and crystals. There was nothing to use as rope to bind his arm up. The only thing that he could brace it against were some of the smaller crystals, but he was afraid they might shock him with prolonged contact. His eye was still twitching from that fight.

“I wonder if that last tactic killed the thing.” He kind of hoped it did, from a vindictive point of view, but the practical side hoped it didn’t. After all, he was going to have to eat that thing’s heart, so it’d be best if it wasn’t rotten by the time he got to it.

Either way, it didn’t seem to be coming after him, so dropping the crystal on it had some kind of effect. “That thing was way too fast. I’m not sure how I’m supposed to deal with that,” he thought.

He stopped to rest, sitting on a rock and cradling his arm. “One thing is certain, though. I have to stop jumping around. I’m a sitting duck in the air!” The Qi burst was useful and it had saved his ass twice, but it didn’t give him enough mobility to make an aerial fight viable. The wolf was just too fast and could take advantage of any time he spent in the air.

“Next time, I’ll have to keep my feet on the ground. It’ll limit my attack options, but I’ve got no choice,” he thought. The worst part was that he’d have to fight it with only one arm. There was no way his broken arm would heal before he met the wolf again.

He chewed on his thumb, deep in thought. “I’ll have to tie its feet up somehow. If I can seal its speed, I’ll have a chance.” The first idea that came to mind was breaking a leg. Unlike Graham, who only needed two legs to move at full speed, the wolf needed all four. However, breaking its leg would be difficult. It would already be on guard against kicks, as he’d used a dive-kick to break one of its crystals.

He leaned back against the cave wall. “Ah, if only I’d realized it sooner! I could’ve aimed for its leg rather than that crystal!” He closed his eyes and pictured the fight, playing it over in his head. “What other weaknesses did it have? There’s got to be something I can take advantage of…”

The only long-range attack it had—as far as he knew—was the bolt attack from its shoulders. With only one, it might not be able to do that again meaning, if he could keep his distance, he might gain the advantage. He didn’t have any long-range attacks, either, but he could probably shatter some crystals and throw the shards. With his strength while circulating, that’d be a powerful attack.

The wolf was fast, but if he tossed handfuls, it’d be like a shotgun. He grinned. “I’d like to see it dodge that.” He pictured the wolf dipping back and forth, slowly progressing through a barrage of crystal fire. He paled. “I change my mind. I don’t want to see that.”

He sighed and looked for a good spot to lay down. He needed some rest if he was going to fight that thing again.