28 Enduring Pain

Two minutes passed in the cavern above Galahad; Solteer was dodging the attacks the best he could, but the environment was completely against him.

He couldn't fly high because of the red veins dangling from the ceiling, he nearly got tangled in them more than once. If he got too close to the center or the floor, he would leave himself open to the servants' weapons or the Succubus's nails. He was stuck in a small area to fly in the middle.

'I shouldn't have let that child enter here, his ideas and attitude let me get careless at the idea of solving this without the others. I only have myself to blame for my death.' Solteer seemed to accept his fate and swooped down at horde below him.

'Merely accepting death does not mean I will let it take me without any casualties.' He dove straight into the little dirt-dwellers with as much stabbing and slashing as he could motion.

Solteer felt his talons rip muscles, tear skin, and stab without caring who he was ripping apart. There with a lot of subconsciously pent up stress behind it. Being the king in the valley was no leisurely walk in the forest; he spent most of his life solving dispute over the most trivial of matters. This was his last chance to let out all his anger before dying, he wanted to feel like the warrior king he was supposed to be.

The masses started reforming around Solteer and struck back at the giant hawk. Some threw stones, others stabbed at his body, one goblin even bit at his tail feathers. The giant hawk flapped his wings with a even enough gust to kick them back, but his movements were slowing down from exhaustion.

Midway through his retreat, Solteer felt himself draw too close to the Succubus. His body was close enough for it to slice him apart, but the warden rose out of the pool to punch out him out of the air instead.

Solteer felt the impact fling him towards the ground and was almost offended by the defeat.

'It has just been toying with me, it could have killed me but instead it wants me to be ripped apart by the followers. I can only hope karma is unrelenting in its future.' He thought as he hit the ground.

Solteer fell as his expansion magic was no longer stable enough to make him oversized. He hit the ground hard and tumbled across the cavern while still shrinking. By the time he stopped, his body was back to the normal size of a hawk.

The swarm of servants started running across the cavern, ready to rip him apart with their claws and teeth. The Succubus who never exited her pool was watching with a gleeful smile from the edge of her pool.

Solteer felt his body refusing to listen to his commands, telling him it was all over. He would be feasted upon by the horde, and his time as king would soon come to an end. He shut his to await the pain and then feel the darkness carry him into death.

He waited and listened to the rumbling of feet come at him, then the silence came. He only heard silence now.

That shouldn't be right, where was the pain of dying that was supposed to be in between life and death?

Solteer opened his black eyes and looked at the horde. They stopped at sight of Solteer for some reason. He watched them all pause and even take a step back before a red light began shining around him. It turns out they were looking over him and at the pit beside his body.

Solteer turned around and felt wave of heat coming from the hole Galahad had fallen into. Red light was coming from the hole like the fiery heat of the underworld was bubbling up to the cavern floor. The light was growing so quickly, no one saw the fingers grabbing the dirt edge to climb out.

A flaming arm grabbed the edge of the pit and pulled itself out. Galahad was attached to the flaming limb with most of his body flaring in the red flames and his exposed skin was encased with dozens of little cracks across his body. Beneath the cracks were glowing magma like fluids, running under his skin like volcanic blood.

Galahad stood up and scanned the cavern before finally speaking. "I thought the fall was bad, climbing back up was way fucking worse."

Galahad had pieced together the scene when he saw the half-dead hawk at his feet. He only hoped he wasn't too late to save him.

Galahad knelt down to Solteer and saw he was still breathing steadily enough, he just had the wind knocked out of him. Galahad was relieved and expressed his feelings with a blunt comment.

"You look like shit."

"You- *Cough* ugh, now is not the time for mockery, that monster needs to die."

Galahad looked at the Succubus with a whole new perspective in his brain. She didn't appear like a ravaging monsters, she looked like a moving target with weak points highlighted across her body. It seemed to be another part of his new skill.

In Galahad's mind he saw her joints, neck, and eyes as potential weaknesses to exploit. The opposite were the nails, teeth, and the water she bathed in, the kind of things he didn't want to get anywhere near.

Galahad looked back at her face and noticed it was perfectly fine, no cuts or scraps from before he fell.

'Solteer cut her up not even five minutes ago, but she looked untouched now. Looks like she can regenerate too. Probably a helluva lot better than me.

Well . . . She laughs and screams, that means she breathes, and if she breathes . . . . well this is gonna be interesting.' Galahad grinned mischievously.

"Let's tag out, you deal with the followers and I'll start picking some flowers."

His chain of thoughts and analyzing only took him an instant before he pictured the plan in his head.

The Succubus was shocked at the sight of Galahad at first, but then it quickly turned annoyed. It clicked her tongue at the servants to chase after Galahad once again.

Galahad charged them first instead, confusing them even more while he kicked a gnome over. The little creature was crushed under his foot and his tiny stick spear flew straight into the air.

Without looking, Galahad snagged the makeshift weapon out of the air and spun around. Once he armed himself, Galahad put it in his belt loop and started making a mad dash for the tunnel exit. Solteer saw him fleeing and wasn't upset to watch the human run, he only wanted to convey his last wish to the boy.

'I understand to chose to flee, but please go get the more help, otherwise the forest will lose too much life to prosper for who knows how long.' He had no strength to shout at this point, so all he could do was hope Galahad would do the right thing for him.

Solteer let his body relax and await the deadly swarm soon to take his life. He was then startled by Galahad screaming like a raving lunatic two seconds later. He drew all of the monster's the attention away from Solteer and nearly shook the entire cavern. His harsh toned shouts released a booming sound that was much deeper than even he expected from himself.

The hawk watched Galahad run straight up to the wall next to the exit and grab one of the red veins growing through the walls. He bent down a little and launched himself up enough to grab ahold of another one.

The human boy jumped up the wall and gain at least three to five feet with every motion he made. His climbing speed seemed impossible for person built with his frame and size, but he was somehow doing it with such ease.

'This boy, whatever he is, regardless of human or not . . . He is definitely crazy.' Thought Solteer from the floor.

Galahad's odd method of travelling was clever to some extent; it had stopped the Goblins and Gnomes from following, none of them could climb with such little legs and arms. The Succubus made an ugly face at her servants for being so useless, yet she only watched from her pool making disgusting noises at them instead of doing anything herself.

Once Galahad made it to cavern's dome shaped ceiling, he leaped off the wall and grabbed one of the dangling veins. Some dirt came loose from the ceiling, but the veins held together. He began to swing himself like a pendulum to gain enough motion to jump to the next vein to swing from.

He jumped between the veins, feeling like he was in the stories he used to here as a kid about the gorilla man who lived in the jungles of Southern Afamore. All eyes were staring at the strange scene of the red flaming human that swung from the top of the cavern.

The Succubus watched as the boy was now directly above her, she saw the opportunity to attack without fully exiting the pool. She lunged straight up to pierce her dagger nails into Galahad and pull him to the bottom of her pool to drown him. She had no idea that she was taking the bait Galahad had set.

Just when she was a few feet from piercing her nails into his body, Galahad threw his little spear like a dart at the monster to throw her off guard. The Succubus recoiled in the air as the wooden projectile plunged itself into her eye.

Galahad dropped down with the Succubus and whipped the vein around to snag her around the neck. In one fluid moment, he caught the monster before it could fully return to the pink pool. The pink water only reached her midsection before the vein grew taunt.

Both of them were now dangling from the ceiling as they thrashed about. It was pretty clear the Succubus didn't plan on ever getting out of her pool for longer than a moment, now the monster was being forcibly yanked out by the neck.

Galahad was thankful the thick veins held and started pulling up on the vein, tightening the hold to let no air seeped into her lungs. He didn't have much strength before the incident, whatever muscular abilities he was using now was coming from his new class and skill.

All he could do was heave up on the monster to get her out. Her body was now halfway out of the pool, and her smooth pale skin slowly turning dry and wrinkled as the seconds passed.

"Come on you son of bitch, hurry up and melt." He shouted. Galahad sounded insane while trying to kill the Succubus, but that's because none of the monster understood human language or knew what he was actually urging to melt. Everyone except Solteer.

The hawk watched the gnome corpse Galahad had killed reveal a mana orb that popped to release the blue smoke into Galahad's direction. He could fight and heal while the monsters could only thrashed at him from below.

"Interesting idea, you better hope it works." Solteer got up once he had air back in his lungs. None of the servants were paying any attention because they were frantically running to save their goddess.

Solteer was able to fly back up unhindered. The regular sized hawk then approached behind the monsters and started mauling as many gnomes and goblins as he could find. Once their throats were cut or eyes were gauged out, they melted to reveal their pea-sized mana orbs.

The Succubus wasn't taking any of this lying down, she stabbed and swiped at Galahad to release her. She made contact a few times and cut open Galahad's calf, forearm, and thigh with her sharpened claws. Soon the pink pool was turning murky with red blood contaminating it's contents.

Pain had become a friend to Galahad for over the last month, he took the damage without budging an inch for the opponent before him. Instead of thinking of pain, he laughed to himself when the list of mana orbs kept growing in his view.

As the orbs started to appear in Galahad's mind, Galahad was confirming in his brain to consume them as quickly as they appeared on the list. Blue smoke clouds were entering Galahad's body from all around the cavern. Each one of his wounds would start scabbing over soon after they appeared, Solteer kept Galahad going for well over a minute.

'Enhanced body, faster tactical thinking, maybe deadened nerves, and partial mastery of combat. I am loving this new class.' Galahad grinned as he was being attacked by the monster beneath him, the way he smiled at that moment was beyond mischievous. Galahad looked like he was in pure bliss while strangling the demon.

The fight became a race of who could heal faster and break the other first. The upper hand was turning back and forth between Galahad and the monster in the beginning. That soon changed as time went on.

The deciding factor was Solteer, each kill he made was slowly tipping the scale of the fight towards Galahad. Only half dozen servants remained before Galahad was now pulling the last of the Succubus's legs out of the water. Its skin looked more like a dying husk of a white flower; most of her hair began falling out and landing in the dirty pool, whatever remained on her head was turning grey.

The monster stopped slashing at Galahad and began pulling at the vein wrapped around its neck. Its plant based body wasn't feeling the healing properties of the pool anymore, the choking gasps started to sound like a weak fish out of water. The pink syrup began pouring out of its eyes, mouth, and ears.

The beautiful body of the Succubus was broken down to the carcass of an old hag. After a few seconds of twitching and tensing, the disfigured body went limp. The Succubus was no more.

Galahad swung the body away from the pool and let it drop like a two-ton bag of bricks. The Succubus's remain fell into an odd and broken pile. Leaving Galahad to dangle alone from the red veins while still spitting off fire.

Galahad climbed down till he was about fifteen feet from the ground and dropped to roll on the impact. The fire all along his body was extinguish as he dropped, He released the skill as he landed to conserve whatever energy he hadn't spent to stay conscious.

Once he was done landing, Galahad collapsed across the ground in a spread-eagle form. His body and mind went through a lot during the fight, now he just wanted to sleep.

'When was the last time I got to take a nap under the trees in the field?' Galahad thought as he heard Solteer land quietly next to him.

Galahad turned his head over to the hawk and thanked him. "If not for your assist, I wouldn't have lasted long without anything healing me."

"You are most fortunate, It is only unfortunate there weren't enough dirt-dwellers to heal the injuries on your face and neck. Although that might be for the best since you'd risk looking even worse." Solteer chuckled before collapsing on his front from exhaustion.

"Oh ha ha." Galahad sarcastically wheezed. "You joke, but if my family saw my face back to its pristine beauty, they'd lose their minds. I figure they have enough on their plates already."

Solteer turned his little head at Galahad. "They don't know what has happened to you? Why don't you tell them, surely a human can ask for aid amongst the invasive swarm that all of you are."

"It's not about helping one another, it's more about keeping them safe from the danger I've become. Besides, I only found out about this eight hours ago. I still don't understand enough of this power to start sharing it with everyone I know."

Galahad let a wisp of fire leak off his fingers, showing Solteer the new ability.

"What is that magic power?"

"It's not magic, its some kind of release of chi."

"I do not know what that is."

"Its like the battle class version of mana energy."

"Interesting. I would suggest next time you choose to fight a beast from the dirt, maybe start with that flaming ability of yours."

Galahad looked through his view and saw something new pop up every time he wanted to look through his skill system.

[ Battle Class: Spartan ] lvl. 8

"Yeah, next time."

*****

The two made their way out of the caves and ran into no other monsters thankfully. When they crawled out the boulder gap, the blinding sunset of five o'clock was beginning to set, they had entered the dungeon a little after noon bells rang. Galahad was rather surprised at the time change, he needed to go home before the sun came down and his parents' sent Brett after him again.

Galahad watched the boulder rocks collapse, and he felt his chance to stay in the dungeon to find his friends collapse along with it. He wanted to dive back in, consume as much mana orbs he could find, and then figure out where he could locate the cavern they were all trapped him.

Deep down he knew it was all just wishful thinking. When the shift happened the night of the incident, the entire layout of the dungeon would be wiped clean and no one would find their way back down to the same spot. He could only wait for when he was ready to take on them dungeon himself.

Solteer grew back to his large size from earlier, but immediately flew back down to the fallen log, standing at eye level with Galahad.

He bowed his head down before speaking. "You have my gratitude, I hope to return the favor in the future."

"Anytime. . . my liege." Galahad gave an awkward bow. He wasn't used to addressing anyone officially, but he didn't want to offend a powerful beast anymore than he already had when they first talked.

"Before I leave, you need to know something very important." The brown feathers on Solteer's chest shook a little. "Being a human in the woods is enough to warrant your death here, but that smell that you produce is so twisted and dark. You'll certainly meet a fate far worse than death if you come back to find yourself in the presence of another king."

Galahad refrained from smelling under his arms while the king spoke in such a grave tone.

"Please do not return unless it is absolutely necessary. Farewell . . . Galahad." In a gust of wind, Solteer shot straight up and out of the clearing, leaving Galahad back where he had started earlier that day.

"Huh, didn't think I was gonna be spending the day fighting monsters and befriending a giant bird." Galahad said to himself as he turned to go back home.

He ended up stopping mid pivot because he almost went face first into the dangerous end of a short sword.

"Mystic Creature to be more precise." Said the blonde elf.