Crystals and Fire

After slaying the Lamia, the trio crouched to start extracting the magic stones, but Cassian's head turned to one of the pathways at the sound of pitter-patter sounds.

"Ah crap, we're not going to get a chance to breathe, are we?" Cassian spoke as he started to look around the oncoming monsters. In addition to the ones coming from the pathway, he could also hear a certain… rumbling…

"Jump to the side, now!" Cassian shouted.

Nico and Leo were startled for a moment but immediately afterward, not knowing who he was referring to, both jumped to the side, rolling on the ground. Not a moment later, the ground beneath them exploded outwards.

The ground split open, and a massive, writhing form burst forth. They recognized it as a giant Dungeon Worm. The creature's segmented body glistened with slime; its circular maw was lined with rows of serrated teeth. Upon realizing that it had missed its target, it let out a loud, rumbling screech, the ground vibrating as it advanced.

From the shadows of the pathway, creatures began to emerge. Small, rabbit-like monsters with sharp fangs and glowing red eyes, the Almiraj, skittered forward, their ears twitching aggressively. They moved in a pack, and their small size made them difficult targets, in addition to many of them carrying stone weapons.

"Ugh, that looks disgusting." Nico gagged as he watched the giant worm.

"Focus!" Cassian barked, positioning himself between the group and the oncoming horde. "You two, concentrate on the Almiraj. Nico, be careful not to hit Leo with your wide-range spells. I'll deal with the worm."

Leo nodded, already moving toward the pack of Almiraj. The rabbit-like creatures darted toward her, their tiny claws and stone axes scratching against the stone floor as they closed the distance. Leo swung her Greatsword in a wide sweep, the sheer force of the blow scattering the pack. Several Almiraj were sent flying, their bodies slamming against the walls with bone-crunching force. The rest scrambled back, regrouping and pouncing once more.

The Almiraj were weak. Even low-level 1 adventurers could hold their own against them. Their most threatening aspect was coming in large hordes and overwhelming the adventurers with numbers. But against Leo, that became a severe weakness, as with each kill she grew stronger and stronger, killing them even faster.

A Wind Cannon hit a concentration of the bipedal rabbits and instantly pulverized their whole bodies, shattering even their magic stones.

"Nico!" Leo shouted at him, causing him to wince.

"Sorry! I didn't know they were so fragile!" Wind Cannon was too strong for these monsters, so Nico switched to using the Wind Blade and started slicing the rabbits into pieces.

/Screee!/

The Dungeon Worm screeched in pain as a long gash was opened on its body from Cassian's sword slash. The monster was strong, strong enough to easily break the dungeon's walls, but its body gave it very little capacity for agility and good mobility.

Cassian simply danced around it, as it thrashed all over the place, opening numerous wounds on its body before it finally stopped, exhausted from the exertion and blood loss.

Cassian capitalized on the moment and dashed towards its head, driving his sword all the way through and swiping it, cleanly separating the worm's head from its body.

Satisfied with his victory, he looked over to the others and saw them about to finish up the last of the Almiraj.

"Wait!" He called out and Leo who was about to bisect them, stopped to look over with a questioning face. "The Almiraj are barely stronger than the Kobolds and Goblins. I should be able to Axii them into the same role as the Kobolds."

They were running out of the deformed wolfmen after all. Only one remained, and they needed them to maintain Leo's buff.

Leo nodded, and instead of the edge, hit them with the flat side of her blade with moderate strength, knocking them back and stunning them for a second.

Cassian went up to the white rabbits and one by one cast Axii on them, watching as their red full eyes seemed to glaze over and lose concentration.

"Follow, don't do anything else, and stay clear of the fights…" He implanted the hypnotized orders in them and got up.

"Now that that's over with, let's start extracting and get a move on." The three each went about gutting the corpses before finishing up and continuing.

As they continued their journey, they entered a vast chamber where the ceiling stretched higher above them, studded with some luminous crystals that bathed the area in a ghostly light. Suddenly, the ground trembled ever so slightly.

"Get ready," Cassian whispered.

Before they could react, a chorus of clicking sounds surrounded them. From crevices in the walls and gaps in the floor, Crystal Mantises emerged, towering insectoid creatures with bodies encased in shimmering crystal exoskeletons. Their scythe-like arms glinted dangerously, and their multifaceted eyes reflected the trio's every movement.

'Why couldn't- They were standing still! That's why I couldn't hear their approach, they didn't approach at all, and instead were waiting in an ambush for someone to walk in.' Cassian was confused about not detecting their presence at first but realized the reason as soon as he watched the monsters coming out from behind the obstructions.

Simultaneously, as if to make matters worse, snarls echoed from the shadows as a pack of Hellhounds prowled into view. Their dark fur seemed to absorb the light, and flames flickered between their razor-sharp teeth.

"We're surrounded. Hellhounds are weaker physically, but their fire breath is a problem. You two move together and start targeting them. Nico, use Air Wall anytime they shoot and Leo, make sure to stay close to him to hide behind it when they fire. Go!" The monsters finally finished pouring in and started rushing over instead. Several fireballs started shooting towards them and an Air Wall rose to meet them.

The fireballs exploded against it as Nico strained before they finally sizzled out. "I can block them, though blocking from several directions will be a problem."

"Move towards the wall then and start eliminating them from there." Cassian gave the final instruction before dashing forward toward the crystal mantises.

One of them raised its scythe-like claw and slashed at him with incredible speed. He barely managed to parry, not expecting the speed, the force of the blow sending a jolt up his arm. Another mantis struck from the opposite side, its claw slicing through the air toward his midsection.

Cassian twisted his body to avoid it, but not quickly enough, causing the claw to skid along Quen and make it spark before giving out.

'Damn, Rose was not exaggerating when she said the crystal mantises' strikes were extremely quick, even now I'm having trouble following them. Plus, their Crystal exoskeletons make them very resistant to magic, so Nico attacking from range won't be very effective either.' Cassian thought as he quickly reoriented himself.

Renewing Quen, he dashed towards the mantis on the side. Ducking below its claw slash, Cassian slashed at its middle, cutting into its exoskeleton and making the crystals break off. Blood started flowing from the wound as the mantis screeched but it was still capable of fighting.

Not expecting that amount of durability, Cassian had to scramble to dodge the monster's counterattack, leaving him open to a slash from behind, which one of the mantises was happy to exploit, making Quen give out one more time.

Not having enough time to set Quen up again, another mantis swung its claw at him with lightning speed. Cassian ducked, feeling the whoosh of air as the blade narrowly missed his head. Seizing the moment, he drove his sword upward into the creature's elbow joint. The blade bit into softer tissue, and the mantis let out a shrill screech, as its front limb was cut off.

But before he could withdraw his weapon, a sharp pain erupted in his shoulder as yet another mantis struck him with its claw. Blood flowed freely from the wound.

"Ugh!" Cassian grimaced, pulling back and reaching into his pouch for a healing potion. He quickly downed the shimmering liquid, feeling the warmth spread through his body as the wound began to close. 'The joints. They're the weakest part of their body, so got to target them.'

Nico and Leo were locked in their own battle. Working in sync as a team, they managed to counter the hellhounds.

Leo charged toward the Hellhounds, her Greatsword swinging in a wide arc. One of the beasts lunged at her, spewing a plume of flame. She dodged to the side, feeling the heat singe her Salamander Wool, and brought her blade down upon the Hellhound, cleaving it in two.

She continued her assault with Nico firing at the Hellhounds, injuring or killing them. Every time two or more of them shot fireballs at her and she couldn't dodge, she'd retreat behind and Nico would cast Air Wall to block the attacks, before resuming the assault.

Cassian found himself dodging and parrying a flurry of strikes, each one faster than the last. Each time he found an opening, he would lash out with his sword and sever limbs or heads from the crystal mantises.

The attacks came fast though, as Quen could not keep up and he started accumulating injuries. Cassian made sure to prioritize fatal or crippling attacks while ignoring the rest that he could heal with potions.

After a short while he settled into this rhythm of killing the mantises and drinking a potion to fix all the superficial wounds he sustained to keep fighting.

'As I thought, my toxin tolerance is allowing me to spam potions much more liberally.' He was happy about the confirmation and a grin worked its way up his face as he started enjoying the fight, where a single mistake and miscalculation of the attacks could cost him his life.

Potions contain toxins. Everyone knows this, as they are made out of monster parts. That is the reason why for normal people, drinking a health potion might be detrimental in certain conditions instead. It's also the reason why adventurers can't just drink potion after potion to sustain themselves in battle endlessly.

After drinking a certain amount, the potions will start having adverse effects instead. This is the primary reason, aside from costs, why adventurers do not bring an endless supply of potions with them on dives. If that was not the case, then the fatality rate among them would be cut in half.

The Development Ability 'Abnormal Resistance' helps mitigate the effect, increasing tolerance to toxins and allowing adventurers to drink more potions before they start losing effectiveness.

So, what would happen with Cassian, whose Witcher physiology grants him toxin resistance on par with Abnormal Resistance at rank B? The simple answer is that he could sooner completely fill up his stomach with mid-grade potions and physically can't drink anymore before the potions managed to poison him.

Cassian theorized this and planned to exploit it. As an elf, increasing his strength and endurance stats is harder than his other stats. So, Cassian's plan was to accelerate the growth of endurance stat by getting tons of injuries and then healing them with potions before continuing to fight. This would be impossible to replicate for others, due to their body not having the capacity to sustain that number of injuries and healing, but for him?

Cassian downed another potion as his body was filled with numerous slash wounds, feeling it start knitting his flesh back. The only problem with this was the blood loss, as the potions did not help with that, but he already possessed a decently accelerated regeneration rate, which mitigated it a bit.

He had already cut down over half of the mantis horde. The number led him to believe that they had unknowingly walked into a monster pantry. Perhaps an exhausted one that was waiting for a refill?

Igni and Aard were not very effective, as the crystal exoskeleton simply shrugged it off, but Yrden played a massive role.

Laying down another Yrden trap, it momentarily slowed the four mantises attacking him from the front, giving Cassian more than enough time to swiftly behead all four with a single swing, and then continue assaulting the rest.

Nico and Leo continued their own fighting sequence of attacking and defending, and so the battle started moving to an end.