The pit (2)

As the adrenalin settled, I realized just how much damage I took from the insect knight. I had a few broken bones, a missing piece of flesh, and many shallow cut wounds. It was bearable thanks to my [pain resitance] skill.

The cheers also slowly died down and a voice in my head said that I should get back to the waiting area. Doing what the voice said I quickly slithered back to get some rest before the next round started. Lucky for me, my old space was still free, however, the treeling wasn´t here anymore. Meh, having more important things to care about I slumped down and dropped the core on the ground. 'Hmm, this one is slightly bigger than the purple core I found on the first floor. Meaning, the core belonged to a peak tier-one monster and this one is only slightly weaker... Damn, at least it wasn´t tier 2, or I would have been so dead.'

I licked the blood of the core and saw that it was a brown core, meaning earth affinity.

Taking a look at my health I could see that I was slightly over 50% left and my mana was on 40%, but as I glanced at my status, I remembered that I had the [Healing Fang] skill. 'I guess, it is finally time to test it out,' thought I with a grin. So I opened my mouth and channeled mana into it, as my 2 pointy teeth began to shine in a smooth white light. Taking a last deep breath I sunk my teeth into the wounded area.

The pain from the bite was minimal, as it felt like two needles poking me. I looked at the wound and could see it slowly closing in on itself and my health slowly rising, but the skill was still on level one and my control on this new affinity was quite spars, so it didn´t do much except sucking my mana, for a few health points.

Just as I was finished testing this skill, the familiar vine girl appeared with a smile. "I see you survived, your next fight will be in 30 seconds, hope you will come back again!" said the small green girl and left, but before she disappeared around a corner I could see her stop and lay a small vial on the ground while saying shyly "it´s from the treeling."

I tilted my head and thought about it, I didn´t understand why he helped me in the first place, but I appreciated it, but I am still a little bit sus of him. So slithering towards the bottle filled with a red substance I opened it and flicked my tongue. It smelled like some herbs, blood, and other things I couldn´t detect, but it didn´t smell like poison or anything. To stay on the safe side I only, dipped the tip of my long split tongue in it, you never know what might be in there. The potion tasted weird.

*Ding*

[You consumed 0.1% of a bloodline!]

'The fuck... what in the hell did he gave me?'

But feeling no other negative side-effects I thought, 'fuck it!' and took the bottle between my mouth before tilting my head back. As the liquid entered my throat I could feel my body heat up.

*Ding*

[You reached 100% on a bloodline. It will now be assimilated into your body.]

My body burned up and my head felt fuzzy. I lied down, but a tap on my head woke me up.

"Mister Raas, you have to go into the ring now..." said the vine girl while poking me. I guess she came back just to remind me. I smiled and stood up, but my vision blurred for a moment and I slipped. The girl caught me and looked at me worried, "Are you fine? should I cancel your next fight?"

Hearing the worry and concern in her meek voice I patted her head. "No, don´t worry I am perfectly fine" lied I without betting my eyes. What an angel... how can she be so nice in a place like this...' thought I.

The girl let out a sigh of relief and smiled. "What´s your name?" asked I. "The girl looked down, somewhat sad, and said "I don´t have a name yet, I am only a tier 1 Vineral after all..." Before I could say something she ran away. "Ugh, guess I stepped on a land mine here... I will make it up to her later... but first, time to kill a monster."

So slithering into the pit I could already see my opponent standing near the middle and waiting for me.

A weird amalgamation of many different creatures awaited me in the ring. He looked so bizarre that I thought I was tripping or something. The monster was a mixture of an owl, a reindeer, a scorpion, a goat, and a cat. Well, it is mainly owl, but had deer antlers with cat-ears and a stinger, and stood on 2 goat legs. Unlike normal owls, this one was longer and had brown fur instead of feathers on his body, and had his wings on the side, which was way too short for flight, while it also had four bird legs as hands with 5 digits each.

As I said a really bizarre creature...

He looked at me and turned his head so far that his head was upside down and stared at me with his two large yellow eyes. Creepy stuff...

"You are a bizarre-looking snake..." commented the owl in a surprised manner, but my only thought was 'have you looked into a mirror yet?'

I was surprised that he talked to me, as the other one was rather silent, but monsters here could usually speak to each other, so I just shrugged it off.

The bang sounded and the monster ran at me on all 6 while his two small wings are flapping and his stinger high in the sky, ready to sting me.

I was still foggy in my head and my reaction time was clearly stunned by the potion, but I was still fast enough to avoid the incoming scorpion tail. But I couldn´t avoid the sharp claws and grazed my belly. Leaving 3 long cuts, I jumped back to get some air, but the owl thing just followed me.

Seeing no way to defeat him but to face this thing head-on, I activated [Harden] and used [Intimidation]. The owl upon getting hit by my [Intimidation] skill completely froze up and looked at me extremely frightened. I didn´t expect such a strong reaction but used the chance to attack and jumped at him.

Just as I was about to sing my fangs into the owl and fill it up with my venom, a smile bloomed on his face... 'This motherfucker tricked me!' thought I as his four clawed hands sunk into my body. My health dropped dangerously low, but could barely avoid getting my vitals struck and use [Harden], however it was still not enough to block his razor-sharp claws from piercing through my scales.

"Hoo hoo hoo hoo, dumb snake getting tricked so easily! You thought you could kill me the most cunning of all Owlcoras? Hoo hoo hoo hoo!" said he arrogantly while trying to put more strength into his arms

"Stop struggling you worm!." My anger flared up as I heard his words and wrapped my tail around his chest and used [Crush] with full force.

*Crack* *Crack*

*Cough* *Cough*

I looked into his eyes and said menacingly, "Shut up you bird brain!" and poured all my remaining mana into it, crushing his ribcage. He threw me away and fell towards his knees as I landed on the ground. My vision blurred again, but this time, not due to the potion, but to the blood loss. In the distance, I could hear the faint voice of the owl monster cursing and whining, but I was too tired to hear him.

I felt cold... so extremely cold... but I didn´t dare to shut my eyes as I lay on the ground and curled up to get some warmth.

*Ding*

[You killed an Owlcora!]

[You gained 301 exp!]

*Ding*

[You leveled up!]

I was too tired to read the notifications, but I knew the damn monster died before me.

A bright light engulfed me and I could hear the faint voice of the veiled girl.

"You did well Raas..."

I smiled at the words.