Combat Prowess

"Brother! Brother! Are you alright?"

Arlen snapped back to reality, he felt overwhelmed and confused, but the soft and concerned look in Gunk's eyes settled him enough to speak.

"I'm okay Gunk, just tired is all." He claimed, for some reason Arlen felt the need to hide his meeting with Tar, he truthfully didn't know if what had happened was reality or not but he didn't want Gunk to be concerned for him, or to suspect him.

"That's okay, I'll do most of the work for the request just sit back and watch!"

"What is the request anyway?"

"The human world is very peaceful right? Pop Pop has told me about it, but here and the elven world not so much. The request is to kill a Coal Mole that's blocking our town's train."

"You guys have trains here?"

"Oh yes! Our little town is underdeveloped but the big city is full of cool technology."

Arlen pondered on that for a moment, this town truly was a little worn down, the masonry made it feel like some of the paintings you'd see in the human world depicting the 1700s. And in similar fashion was the building Gunk stopped in front of, a once again brick building with a wide staircase leading up to a platform, and giant lettering spelling out "Halfrun Station."

"Is that what this town is called? Halfrun?"

"Yes, this town was built for the mix children after the war. But well, it's mostly abandoned now except for a couple people who moved in."

Arlen felt a slight churn in his stomach, the name "Halfrun" didn't really sit right with him to begin with but the state of some of the houses and shoddy architecture made him feel a little sorry for the children who had to grow up here. Still, a house was better than no house as he was far too well aware of.

The duo walked up and into the station, proceeding past long abandoned ticket lines and down some stairs, where Arlen was immediately met with a sight he had never even conceived before. It seemed to be a standard mole, except it was the size of the entirety of the railway tunnel, it was curled into a slight ball, seemingly asleep. At first glance it seemed as if the creature was covered in fur, matted to a crystalline black sheen, but upon looking closer Arlen saw that it's skin was entirely composed of pure black coal.

"Huh, it's a lot bigger than I expected, shoulda brought my hammer." Gunk explained casually.

"Is- Is that normal?"

"Yeah sorta, Coal Moles live underground and get into these subway lines all the time, although this one is bigger than usual. Should be fine though." Gunk explained as he began taking heavy strides toward the sleeping creature.

With a bare fist and a hardy wind up Gunk smashed a solid punch directly into the Moles rocky hide, leaving a tiny crack and knuckle print where his strike had landed. The mole wiggled it's nose slightly, stirred awake from his slumber and swiped absently at Gunk, connecting and sending him flying into a nearby support pillar. The mole was awakened fully by the loud crash of his giant body slamming into the pillar, and jumped onto it's paws scampering down the tunnel.

Arlen ran to him in concern, "Gunk are you okay? Talk to me."

"Hm? Yeah I'm fine, I just need a second, kinda bummed that didn't work, you need to go chase after him though we can't lose him." Gunk exclaimed sounding slightly disheartened.

Arlen hesitated for a moment, not wanting to leave Gunk potentially injured but there was no bleeding and he seemed perfectly fine, so he turned and ran down the tunnel. Living on the street meant Arlen ran from people a lot, cops, muggers, other homeless people, to the point where running was a daily occurrence. He had no problem with his stamina and kept up a full sprint for a long while only, the Mole was still out of sight. After a while of running he began to get worried, he couldn't even hear the mole in front of him as he urged himself to go faster.

As Arlen began praying for speed he felt a breeze from the tunnel directly ahead of him, only it didn't hit him and blow past, he felt it's presence. He felt the wind churn beside him and felt it halt slightly, he tried to reach out to it but there was nothing to grab, the breeze just flew past. He had an idea, he began wishing for the wind to give him speed, to help him, and as he did a gust slammed into his back launching him forward. He caught himself, and began his stride again, now feeling the wind on his back and under his feet he essentially flew through the tunnel, until he smacked right into the body of the Coal Mole.

It appeared to have begun digging a hole, although due to it's large size it was having difficulties in this cramped subway tunnel. It turned toward Arlen, swiping out once again but this time slightly too short, as he had bounced a good distance back from the hard impact. He was slightly rattled, but not exactly out of it, and as such Arlen was able to realize that the mole, just like human world moles, couldn't see. Sadly he really couldn't either, the lights overhead barely lit the mole's features, and from Arlen's point of view it was just a large rocky black sphere.

The mole went for another wild swipe, missing once again, Arlen stood and backed up several more feet just to be absolutely safe before thinking of a way to attack. If the mole was swinging based on the sound he was making maybe it'd swing at any sound, so Arlen picked up a rock and threw it at an adjacent wall and sure enough, the mole swung and crumpled the wall with it's mighty swing. In the moment after the swing, Arlen reacted, sensing an opportunity, and charged in just as Gunk had and swung with all his might, crumpling his fist.

Arlen yelled in pain, and recoiled as his hand began to swell, his eyes began to water from the excruciating pain and he stumbled to the ground, but not before jumping back out of reach of the moles swings. This time though, the mole had a good sense of where Arlen was and started swinging continuously in front of him in an attempt to squash his attacker.

As the mole's mighty claws swung down onto Arlen they were intercepted, with a loud crash that sounded like a landslide Gunk had arrived, now with a makeshift warhammer made from stone.

"Are you alright brother! Move back I'll handle this!" The hammer he wielded was now destroyed, having broken off the mole's hide, but after pointing it at the ground an unearthly glow coated the earth he aimed at and reached out, clinging to the once destroyed hammer and repairing it.

"Did you find it's weak point brother?" Gunk asked.

"I- no, no I didn't."

"That is fine, it seems I won't need one." Arlen peered over his shoulder and saw that where Gunk had struck created a crater, revealing a fleshy layer of skin under the hide of the mole. Gunk reached up, bringing down his hammer with precision and enough force to shake the tunnel around him, the mole cried out in agony as the stone broke off into it's skin. Using the destroyed remnants of the hammer, Gunk thrusted the broken off head deeper into the animals side. As it let out one final warbling cry it hunched over itself, dead.