Mixed negative feelings filled me, but I had no time to think about it. I simply, just had to do it. Mustering the bravery and whatever kind of valor, I threw all the concerns to the back of my mind and hurried towards the nearest slope and carefully slid down, being careful to not actually slide, or things were going to get even worse. I used the wall as a stopping point multiple times, but eventually I reached the bottom. The trembling got stronger, as my eyes darted around and observed my surroundings, the further down I went the blacker the rocks became and the colder the environment felt. It slightly reminded me of the mountain chambers, cold and unfeeling.
Howls echoed, and the Moonfangs turned towards my direction, but they completely missed me. Instead, their eyes snapped upwards, where the rumbling became more pronounced, much stronger, and much more deafening. I reached the bottom of the ravine, where I noticed more tunnels filled the place, though these were wider, more open and I could actually see light coming from a lot of them. Though at the same time the tunnels themselves seemed to go downwards once more, the sloped ceiling of them was a giveaway in my eyes anyway. They were escape routes in my eyes.
The footsteps entered the room at last, and I looked up, the place I had slid down was barely safe, but the thing was closer to a downwards precipice than any sort of safe thing. Next thing I knew however, four Bloodfangs tumbled down like rocks, they slammed and hit the walls with painful squeaks, splattering against the ground nearby. I winced realizing they had instantly died. At that moment, I second-guessed if I even had to lure them towards the Moonfangs anymore, but my doubts were quickly quenched when some began to use the same steep slope and the walls to descend. My expression became crestfallen as I couldn’t help but look at the Moonfangs once more, somehow— their expressions were ugly. I was unsure if they were angry, but their eyes were clearly looking towards the Bloodfangs.
I took a deep breath and began advancing towards the nearest tunnel, the Moonfangs were about fifteen meters away from me and the actual tunnel was about four at most. I can do it. I limped and used utmost caution to not make any sudden movements. Penumbral Sense remained white-gray, basically reassuring me that I was still undetected. I wasn’t too fast, nor too slow, and as I was about to get into the tunnel, a Bloodfang landed next to me. Its head splattered and its body bounced with a horrifying crunching sound. I winced as I turned to look back once more, only to notice both Moonfangs were looking at me.
[Moonfang. Lvl. 27]
[Moonfang, Lower Moon. Lvl. 31]
I cursed as a Fangtooth fell down with a horrid crunching sound behind me. Reaching into my ring, I grabbed a mana crystal. The sheer amount of echoing sounds just told me that there were well over a hundred Bloodfangs and Fangtooths just trying to come after me. The Moonfangs stared at me, the mana whips seemed ready to attack at any moment, but they seemed to be hesitant. My body still throbbed, but I was doing a bit better thanks to the potions that were still affecting me. I tentatively held onto the mana crystal, ready to explode it into a flashbang at any moment, but the Moonfangs snapped their heads behind me instead, subsequently, one spoke.
“Rebels!”
The purple mana whipped past me, and the other Moonfang began to howl, the sound echoed throughout the cave system, shaking the ravine itself. I recognized it, it was a command to gather— it was bad. I quickly ignored whatever was happening behind me and dove into the tunnel. I still felt overly sore and found it hard to move, but thankfully none of the monsters chased, both of them were too busy trying to kill each other.
Another round of howls came from deep within the tunnels as I slid, my tunnel was no different, a howl reached and passed through it. Buzzed in my ears making me snort. I still felt sickly, but it seemed that I was going to need to fight. I stowed away the mana crystal and instead took out a mana potion that I drank shortly afterwards, and then, I grabbed my spear. My eyes scanned forward as I saw a source of light, it was blue and soft— and I also saw a shadow coming towards me, its yellow eyes glowed under Glim’s light.
[Moonfang. Lvl. 29]
I took a deep breath and shifted my spear. It couldn’t see me, I knew that much. Penumbral Sense was to be trusted. Pushing my muscles to their limit, I pushed forward with all the momentum and just when it was about to make contact, I flooded my spear with mana and pierced.
The monster yelped and was taken along with me, the spear tip dug into its clavicle and broke it, its insides melted as I pushed even more mana and welled it up. I still felt half-dead but the wailing from the pain was music to my ears. The monster was taken down with me as I finally reached the end of the tunnel, I couldn’t quite take out my weapon as it stared at me with its golden eyes.
“YOU!”
[You’re immune to Mental Attacks, effect: voided.]
I snorted as soon as the notification came and pushed mana into my boot. The spikes pushed out, filled with mana already and I coiled my leg before using the spear’s leverage to kick the Moonfang, the spikes dug into its face as the spear broke through its flesh, its fur stained in red as it rolled on the ground.
“Ugh!” It groaned. “You. I must. Kill you. Lower Moon. Soon… If. Kill. Lower Moon…”
I snorted as I still held onto my spear. I rushed towards the Moonfang as it finally stood up, pushing my spear out forward. I changed my grip and held it by its end. My legs ached as I took a final step, my boot dug onto the ground, and I twisted my body as mana filled the spear. Using all momentum and pushing the mana to a single side of the spear, I swung— bludgeoning the head of the Moonfang I felt something give way— expand! The mana blew, and blood splattered, the monster flung. A flash of purple engulfed me and shock traveled through my core, I staggered in place as I identified the warmth of my blood. I felt a bit lightheaded which made me nervous.
At this point, I held no sense of what my condition was, but I knew that I wouldn’t last much longer. My mana was fine, but my entire body felt stiff and somewhat paralyzed with certain movements. The places where my armor felt tight were actively throbbing with pain, and my head banged with an awful headache. I took a step back, trying to not fall over and used my spear to prop myself up. My eyes faced the ground, as I noticed just the sheer amount of blood that was leaving me, a cursory check on my body and even though some wounds had closed a lot of them hadn’t.
I looked around, quickly finding the Moonfang sprawled on the ground. It trembled, and its body glowed a pale purple light. It let out an audible sigh of relief, though it was still very clearly bleeding. It turned to see me, only for me to notice it was missing one eye, its nose was split in half and its snout was covered in red with dripping flesh. It paced around, as if its shoulder was never hurt to begin with. However, the mana whips around its ears seemed to be burning, as they constantly lost a bit of their length with the passing time.
"Moon... I need... your strength."
To my surprise a notification came.
[The Moonlight shines brightly. Environmental Advantage strengthens the affected monster.]
“You. You’ve hurt me a lot…” It spoke much more clearly than before. “But the fate of the moon smiles upon me. After vanquishing you I shall ascend to the Lower Moon and change stratas…”
I snorted. Part of me couldn’t believe it was still alive, or even the fact that it could ‘power-up’ just like a guardian, but it was whatever. Not like I could actually do something about it other than to kill it. I held onto my spear, not wanting to reach for my bow and create an opening. The Moonfang walked around me as I constantly turned to face it. I was now in an underground chamber, and I even saw a tree right next to the cave. I seemed to be standing on a plateau, though I couldn’t take in much more, because the Moonfang finally spoke.
“You’ve caused me suffering… I shall take your life.”
It began to jog and its fur began to leak purple mana, the whips left purple trails. And soon, I saw ethereal apparitions form, they were very similar to the Moonfang, just made out of mana instead. It moved around as it kept speaking, more and more illusions formed.
“I’ll show you the might of a Lower Moon!”
The apparitions came my way, but no danger came. There was no sense of alarm as the first one reached me. As it passed through me, I felt something go off within me— emptiness. Half of my mana was drained in an instant, and the Moonfang looked at me with glee and contempt as more apparitions came towards me.
I snorted and did my best to dodge, but eventually some graced me, others nearly passed through me. One after the other, more mana was drained until eventually it was dry. I began to feel dizzy and wanted to throw up, but it did not go further. I felt as if I had enough mana to keep my body from collapsing, but not enough to do absolutely anything else. The whips behind the ears of the Moonfang grew longer, much longer as they lit up.
“Suffer.”
It whipped once. Shock traveled through my arm. Twice— I gritted my teeth. Thrice—
I began to scream as my pain tolerance was exceeded, I felt sickly but my legs were unharmed, I can still win… Through my hazy vision I saw the Moonfang take a step back and get ready to pounce on me. I felt my mana shift within me, it was such a small amount and in the end I couldn’t help but sigh as I pushed it onto the spear tip, all of the mana that I could muster.
“So, you are choosing death…” It shook its head. “I’ll grant you your wish.”
It jumped, and I willed the mana to explode. I felt like throwing blood as I closed my eyes, my ears buzzed with a yelp. When I opened my eyes I saw the Moonfang flying towards me, but it had its eyes closed, and seemed disoriented. Its paws bared against the air, I tried moving my arm but it felt unresponsive, in my momentary stun, the only place that felt movable was my neck.
Fuck it— I head-slammed the Moonfang’s snout, I felt something give way as pain spread through my head, my ears buzzed along with the shrill cry of the Moonfang. Through my now reddened and hazy vision I saw it lie on the ground, and with a final grunt that took all my power I moved my spear and stabbed it through its neck.
A notification came as I nearly felt like fainting. I couldn’t even use my mana to bring out something from the ring anymore.
[You have killed: (D) Moonfang. Lvl. 29]
[Level up: You have achieved level 31. Prophecy Bonus: +1 WIS +1 VIT]
I wobbled in place panting. I wasn’t going to die, and at this point I had forgotten to leave a potion out in case of moments like these. I cursed myself briefly, but decided it wasn’t worth it. I was alive and that was enough. I trembled in front of the tunnel and finally took in my surroundings. I was on a mountainside plateau, right behind me on the cave, there was a pillar of rock akin to a mountain that reached the ceiling— the place was lit up with a dim blue light as if it was night time, though I saw no clear light source, instead the distant rock just shone like stars and the atmosphere seemed to be naturally lit. My eyes wandered around towards the tunnel, I saw that the plateau surrounded the place, and continued towards elsewhere, at the same time I was sure it wasn’t the only tunnel. That much was obvious, but I seemed to be at the end of the plateau, since the mountain did not continue for much longer. Part of me expected more enemies to show up, but the place was desolate.
Under the plateau I saw a lush forest with blueish green trees. And the space seemed just as big as the forest near my Settlement, it was just an expansive gap within the mountain. Part of me felt concerned about the stability given my last experience with it, but it seemed sturdy enough, far off onto the distance I could see a gap in the distant mountain wall, and moon-like-light was filtering through it.
I thought for a second before I heard footsteps, they were somewhat quiet but close. I frowned and sluggishly made my way towards the distant tree and bush next to the cave. Every moment was hurtful, and my head felt as if it was going to explode at any second. I thought I was going to die at any moment, and Glim did not seem to want to speak either, not like it could say anything.
Soon, I reached the bush and crouched inside of it, barely able to see past the shrubbery. The footsteps finally got closer to my right, and passing the wall I saw a shadow. It was twice as big as the Moonfang, though my heart nearly stopped.
[Guardian of the Sun and Blood. Lvl. 48]
It was similar to the Fangtooths, though its white fur had red markings and its crimson eyes inspected the Moonfang as soon as it saw it. It paced around with surprising agility, and its snout constantly smelled the air, before finally it turned to me.
“I will attack if you do not show yourself, intruder. Be warned, I can smell that I can kill you in an instant. Should you show yourself to me I might do you a favor.”
I frowned, but considering it was looking at me, or at least at the bush, I simply made my decision. I spoke through my raspy voice.
“What kind of favor?”
“Oh, you can speak…” It seemingly smiled through its fangs. “Show yourself.”
I snorted but decided to listen, simply standing up. I didn’t have it in me to do anything else. It looked curious and confused.
“Not a fang, I see… Hm…” It mused. “Are you the reason I was called here? There isn’t much time you see. An Upper Moon will be here soon. And they aren’t as kind as I am.”
My sense of danger did not even exist, and it could kill me at any time. With those factors in mind I decided to be truthful.. “The Bloodfangs and Fangtooths are fighting the Moonfangs in the ravine,” I pointed towards the cave.
The Guardian frowned and gritted its teeth. “Fighting, you say?”
I nodded expecting to die as its anger flared.
“I’ll make an assumption and say they chased you, then they saw those of the Moon and began attacking, yes?” It asked, making me uneasy. I simply nodded. I was too hurt to actually think critically, but the Guardian became angrier. “They broke the pact… If those of Blood touched the ravine, the ones of Moon should retreat back to the Moon forest and allow me to deal with it…”
It stomped on the ground with nothing but anger, the stone beneath it clearly fractured as it turned to face me.
“Intruder, I will spare your life. You have killed those of the Moon, so I will consider you a party that does not bring harm towards my race.”
I nodded not quite following.
“Hide once more.” It pointed towards the bush with its snout. “There isn’t much time left. I can sense it getting closer…” It spoke with a growl.
I was confused but ducked once more. It paced around and spoke to itself.
“Soon…”
A minute passed of the same thing, before finally I heard more footsteps. They were quiet and familiar, and soon around the corner I saw another monster.
[Moonfang, Upper Moon. Lvl. 44]
It stared at the Guardian for the briefest second it spoke.
“Why haven’t you dealt with the problem?”
“You people broke the pact. I can just sense my kind getting slaughtered!”
The Moonfang snorted. “I know of no pact, but you should deal with the problem!”
The Guardian with a low growl shifted, its muscles tensed and a red aura enveloped its body. The Moonfang tried to speak once more, but with a flash it was flung and slammed against the wall of the other side. With nearly instantaneous acceleration, it stood before the Moonfang and clawed downwards.
[Guardian of the Sun and Blood enters a frenzy.]
A notification buzzed as the wall caved in with claw marks. It stood on its hind legs as it swung, every single swing destroyed rock and cleaved past anything and everything. At that moment, even though I was severely hurt, I understood.
I stood absolutely no chance against the Guardian.
The Moonfang was screaming and almost making a begging sound, but all I saw was blood splatter, a limb fly off, and the rock of the wall break apart as if it were nothing. It continued for nothing more than a few seconds as the Guardian let out a gruff and stepped away. All I saw was—
There was nothing but mangled flesh in its place. It turned to me, still in its frenzied state as I understood my fate.
“Friend. Thank you for giving me this opportunity.”
It dashed into the tunnel with the wind, leaving me alone along with the two Moonfang corpses. I let out a chuckle as I began to feel lightheaded. My eyes wandered to the ceiling, it looked like a starry night sky.
A nest within a nest? Bloodfangs and Moonfangs at war with each other?
I stared upwards as dizziness overtook me. I was still bleeding but I just felt tired.
[This is a bad place to faint at… I just felt like saying that.] Glim warned.
“I know.”
With a small smile I lost consciousness.
Azrie
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Mixed negative feelings filled me, but I had no time to think about it. I simply, just had to do it. Mustering the bravery and whatever kind of valor, I threw all the concerns to the back of my mind and hurried towards the nearest slope and carefully slid down, being careful to not actually slide, or things were going to get even worse. I used the wall as a stopping point multiple times, but eventually I reached the bottom. The trembling got stronger, as my eyes darted around and observed my surroundings, the further down I went the blacker the rocks became and the colder the environment felt. It slightly reminded me of the mountain chambers, cold and unfeeling.
Howls echoed, and the Moonfangs turned towards my direction, but they completely missed me. Instead, their eyes snapped upwards, where the rumbling became more pronounced, much stronger, and much more deafening. I reached the bottom of the ravine, where I noticed more tunnels filled the place, though these were wider, more open and I could actually see light coming from a lot of them. Though at the same time the tunnels themselves seemed to go downwards once more, the sloped ceiling of them was a giveaway in my eyes anyway. They were escape routes in my eyes.
The footsteps entered the room at last, and I looked up, the place I had slid down was barely safe, but the thing was closer to a downwards precipice than any sort of safe thing. Next thing I knew however, four Bloodfangs tumbled down like rocks, they slammed and hit the walls with painful squeaks, splattering against the ground nearby. I winced realizing they had instantly died. At that moment, I second-guessed if I even had to lure them towards the Moonfangs anymore, but my doubts were quickly quenched when some began to use the same steep slope and the walls to descend. My expression became crestfallen as I couldn’t help but look at the Moonfangs once more, somehow— their expressions were ugly. I was unsure if they were angry, but their eyes were clearly looking towards the Bloodfangs.
I took a deep breath and began advancing towards the nearest tunnel, the Moonfangs were about fifteen meters away from me and the actual tunnel was about four at most. I can do it. I limped and used utmost caution to not make any sudden movements. Penumbral Sense remained white-gray, basically reassuring me that I was still undetected. I wasn’t too fast, nor too slow, and as I was about to get into the tunnel, a Bloodfang landed next to me. Its head splattered and its body bounced with a horrifying crunching sound. I winced as I turned to look back once more, only to notice both Moonfangs were looking at me.
[Moonfang. Lvl. 27]
[Moonfang, Lower Moon. Lvl. 31]
I cursed as a Fangtooth fell down with a horrid crunching sound behind me. Reaching into my ring, I grabbed a mana crystal. The sheer amount of echoing sounds just told me that there were well over a hundred Bloodfangs and Fangtooths just trying to come after me. The Moonfangs stared at me, the mana whips seemed ready to attack at any moment, but they seemed to be hesitant. My body still throbbed, but I was doing a bit better thanks to the potions that were still affecting me. I tentatively held onto the mana crystal, ready to explode it into a flashbang at any moment, but the Moonfangs snapped their heads behind me instead, subsequently, one spoke.
“Rebels!”
The purple mana whipped past me, and the other Moonfang began to howl, the sound echoed throughout the cave system, shaking the ravine itself. I recognized it, it was a command to gather— it was bad. I quickly ignored whatever was happening behind me and dove into the tunnel. I still felt overly sore and found it hard to move, but thankfully none of the monsters chased, both of them were too busy trying to kill each other.
Another round of howls came from deep within the tunnels as I slid, my tunnel was no different, a howl reached and passed through it. Buzzed in my ears making me snort. I still felt sickly, but it seemed that I was going to need to fight. I stowed away the mana crystal and instead took out a mana potion that I drank shortly afterwards, and then, I grabbed my spear. My eyes scanned forward as I saw a source of light, it was blue and soft— and I also saw a shadow coming towards me, its yellow eyes glowed under Glim’s light.
[Moonfang. Lvl. 29]
I took a deep breath and shifted my spear. It couldn’t see me, I knew that much. Penumbral Sense was to be trusted. Pushing my muscles to their limit, I pushed forward with all the momentum and just when it was about to make contact, I flooded my spear with mana and pierced.
The monster yelped and was taken along with me, the spear tip dug into its clavicle and broke it, its insides melted as I pushed even more mana and welled it up. I still felt half-dead but the wailing from the pain was music to my ears. The monster was taken down with me as I finally reached the end of the tunnel, I couldn’t quite take out my weapon as it stared at me with its golden eyes.
“YOU!”
[You’re immune to Mental Attacks, effect: voided.]
I snorted as soon as the notification came and pushed mana into my boot. The spikes pushed out, filled with mana already and I coiled my leg before using the spear’s leverage to kick the Moonfang, the spikes dug into its face as the spear broke through its flesh, its fur stained in red as it rolled on the ground.
“Ugh!” It groaned. “You. I must. Kill you. Lower Moon. Soon… If. Kill. Lower Moon…”
I snorted as I still held onto my spear. I rushed towards the Moonfang as it finally stood up, pushing my spear out forward. I changed my grip and held it by its end. My legs ached as I took a final step, my boot dug onto the ground, and I twisted my body as mana filled the spear. Using all momentum and pushing the mana to a single side of the spear, I swung— bludgeoning the head of the Moonfang I felt something give way— expand! The mana blew, and blood splattered, the monster flung. A flash of purple engulfed me and shock traveled through my core, I staggered in place as I identified the warmth of my blood. I felt a bit lightheaded which made me nervous.
At this point, I held no sense of what my condition was, but I knew that I wouldn’t last much longer. My mana was fine, but my entire body felt stiff and somewhat paralyzed with certain movements. The places where my armor felt tight were actively throbbing with pain, and my head banged with an awful headache. I took a step back, trying to not fall over and used my spear to prop myself up. My eyes faced the ground, as I noticed just the sheer amount of blood that was leaving me, a cursory check on my body and even though some wounds had closed a lot of them hadn’t.
I looked around, quickly finding the Moonfang sprawled on the ground. It trembled, and its body glowed a pale purple light. It let out an audible sigh of relief, though it was still very clearly bleeding. It turned to see me, only for me to notice it was missing one eye, its nose was split in half and its snout was covered in red with dripping flesh. It paced around, as if its shoulder was never hurt to begin with. However, the mana whips around its ears seemed to be burning, as they constantly lost a bit of their length with the passing time.
"Moon... I need... your strength."
To my surprise a notification came.
[The Moonlight shines brightly. Environmental Advantage strengthens the affected monster.]
“You. You’ve hurt me a lot…” It spoke much more clearly than before. “But the fate of the moon smiles upon me. After vanquishing you I shall ascend to the Lower Moon and change stratas…”
I snorted. Part of me couldn’t believe it was still alive, or even the fact that it could ‘power-up’ just like a guardian, but it was whatever. Not like I could actually do something about it other than to kill it. I held onto my spear, not wanting to reach for my bow and create an opening. The Moonfang walked around me as I constantly turned to face it. I was now in an underground chamber, and I even saw a tree right next to the cave. I seemed to be standing on a plateau, though I couldn’t take in much more, because the Moonfang finally spoke.
“You’ve caused me suffering… I shall take your life.”
It began to jog and its fur began to leak purple mana, the whips left purple trails. And soon, I saw ethereal apparitions form, they were very similar to the Moonfang, just made out of mana instead. It moved around as it kept speaking, more and more illusions formed.
“I’ll show you the might of a Lower Moon!”
The apparitions came my way, but no danger came. There was no sense of alarm as the first one reached me. As it passed through me, I felt something go off within me— emptiness. Half of my mana was drained in an instant, and the Moonfang looked at me with glee and contempt as more apparitions came towards me.
I snorted and did my best to dodge, but eventually some graced me, others nearly passed through me. One after the other, more mana was drained until eventually it was dry. I began to feel dizzy and wanted to throw up, but it did not go further. I felt as if I had enough mana to keep my body from collapsing, but not enough to do absolutely anything else. The whips behind the ears of the Moonfang grew longer, much longer as they lit up.
“Suffer.”
It whipped once. Shock traveled through my arm. Twice— I gritted my teeth. Thrice—
I began to scream as my pain tolerance was exceeded, I felt sickly but my legs were unharmed, I can still win… Through my hazy vision I saw the Moonfang take a step back and get ready to pounce on me. I felt my mana shift within me, it was such a small amount and in the end I couldn’t help but sigh as I pushed it onto the spear tip, all of the mana that I could muster.
“So, you are choosing death…” It shook its head. “I’ll grant you your wish.”
It jumped, and I willed the mana to explode. I felt like throwing blood as I closed my eyes, my ears buzzed with a yelp. When I opened my eyes I saw the Moonfang flying towards me, but it had its eyes closed, and seemed disoriented. Its paws bared against the air, I tried moving my arm but it felt unresponsive, in my momentary stun, the only place that felt movable was my neck.
Fuck it— I head-slammed the Moonfang’s snout, I felt something give way as pain spread through my head, my ears buzzed along with the shrill cry of the Moonfang. Through my now reddened and hazy vision I saw it lie on the ground, and with a final grunt that took all my power I moved my spear and stabbed it through its neck.
A notification came as I nearly felt like fainting. I couldn’t even use my mana to bring out something from the ring anymore.
[You have killed: (D) Moonfang. Lvl. 29]
[Level up: You have achieved level 31. Prophecy Bonus: +1 WIS +1 VIT]
I wobbled in place panting. I wasn’t going to die, and at this point I had forgotten to leave a potion out in case of moments like these. I cursed myself briefly, but decided it wasn’t worth it. I was alive and that was enough. I trembled in front of the tunnel and finally took in my surroundings. I was on a mountainside plateau, right behind me on the cave, there was a pillar of rock akin to a mountain that reached the ceiling— the place was lit up with a dim blue light as if it was night time, though I saw no clear light source, instead the distant rock just shone like stars and the atmosphere seemed to be naturally lit. My eyes wandered around towards the tunnel, I saw that the plateau surrounded the place, and continued towards elsewhere, at the same time I was sure it wasn’t the only tunnel. That much was obvious, but I seemed to be at the end of the plateau, since the mountain did not continue for much longer. Part of me expected more enemies to show up, but the place was desolate.
Under the plateau I saw a lush forest with blueish green trees. And the space seemed just as big as the forest near my Settlement, it was just an expansive gap within the mountain. Part of me felt concerned about the stability given my last experience with it, but it seemed sturdy enough, far off onto the distance I could see a gap in the distant mountain wall, and moon-like-light was filtering through it.
I thought for a second before I heard footsteps, they were somewhat quiet but close. I frowned and sluggishly made my way towards the distant tree and bush next to the cave. Every moment was hurtful, and my head felt as if it was going to explode at any second. I thought I was going to die at any moment, and Glim did not seem to want to speak either, not like it could say anything.
Soon, I reached the bush and crouched inside of it, barely able to see past the shrubbery. The footsteps finally got closer to my right, and passing the wall I saw a shadow. It was twice as big as the Moonfang, though my heart nearly stopped.
[Guardian of the Sun and Blood. Lvl. 48]
It was similar to the Fangtooths, though its white fur had red markings and its crimson eyes inspected the Moonfang as soon as it saw it. It paced around with surprising agility, and its snout constantly smelled the air, before finally it turned to me.
“I will attack if you do not show yourself, intruder. Be warned, I can smell that I can kill you in an instant. Should you show yourself to me I might do you a favor.”
I frowned, but considering it was looking at me, or at least at the bush, I simply made my decision. I spoke through my raspy voice.
“What kind of favor?”
“Oh, you can speak…” It seemingly smiled through its fangs. “Show yourself.”
I snorted but decided to listen, simply standing up. I didn’t have it in me to do anything else. It looked curious and confused.
“Not a fang, I see… Hm…” It mused. “Are you the reason I was called here? There isn’t much time you see. An Upper Moon will be here soon. And they aren’t as kind as I am.”
My sense of danger did not even exist, and it could kill me at any time. With those factors in mind I decided to be truthful.. “The Bloodfangs and Fangtooths are fighting the Moonfangs in the ravine,” I pointed towards the cave.
The Guardian frowned and gritted its teeth. “Fighting, you say?”
I nodded expecting to die as its anger flared.
“I’ll make an assumption and say they chased you, then they saw those of the Moon and began attacking, yes?” It asked, making me uneasy. I simply nodded. I was too hurt to actually think critically, but the Guardian became angrier. “They broke the pact… If those of Blood touched the ravine, the ones of Moon should retreat back to the Moon forest and allow me to deal with it…”
It stomped on the ground with nothing but anger, the stone beneath it clearly fractured as it turned to face me.
“Intruder, I will spare your life. You have killed those of the Moon, so I will consider you a party that does not bring harm towards my race.”
I nodded not quite following.
“Hide once more.” It pointed towards the bush with its snout. “There isn’t much time left. I can sense it getting closer…” It spoke with a growl.
I was confused but ducked once more. It paced around and spoke to itself.
“Soon…”
A minute passed of the same thing, before finally I heard more footsteps. They were quiet and familiar, and soon around the corner I saw another monster.
[Moonfang, Upper Moon. Lvl. 44]
It stared at the Guardian for the briefest second it spoke.
“Why haven’t you dealt with the problem?”
“You people broke the pact. I can just sense my kind getting slaughtered!”
The Moonfang snorted. “I know of no pact, but you should deal with the problem!”
The Guardian with a low growl shifted, its muscles tensed and a red aura enveloped its body. The Moonfang tried to speak once more, but with a flash it was flung and slammed against the wall of the other side. With nearly instantaneous acceleration, it stood before the Moonfang and clawed downwards.
[Guardian of the Sun and Blood enters a frenzy.]
A notification buzzed as the wall caved in with claw marks. It stood on its hind legs as it swung, every single swing destroyed rock and cleaved past anything and everything. At that moment, even though I was severely hurt, I understood.
I stood absolutely no chance against the Guardian.
The Moonfang was screaming and almost making a begging sound, but all I saw was blood splatter, a limb fly off, and the rock of the wall break apart as if it were nothing. It continued for nothing more than a few seconds as the Guardian let out a gruff and stepped away. All I saw was—
There was nothing but mangled flesh in its place. It turned to me, still in its frenzied state as I understood my fate.
“Friend. Thank you for giving me this opportunity.”
It dashed into the tunnel with the wind, leaving me alone along with the two Moonfang corpses. I let out a chuckle as I began to feel lightheaded. My eyes wandered to the ceiling, it looked like a starry night sky.
A nest within a nest? Bloodfangs and Moonfangs at war with each other?
I stared upwards as dizziness overtook me. I was still bleeding but I just felt tired.
[This is a bad place to faint at… I just felt like saying that.] Glim warned.
“I know.”
With a small smile I lost consciousness.
Azrie
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