Foggy situation

Ducking below the giant white gorilla's swing, Cassian dashed toward the Silverback and swiped his sword at its throat, causing a spray of blood to gush out.

Launching off of the Silverback that was now clutching its throat, Cassian switched his sword to his left hand and brought his right fist down onto the Hard Armored's head, which was trying to attack his back, caving it in and killing it.

The trio was currently surrounded by several dozen Silverbacks and Hard Armoreds. The fight started with only half a dozen with them, but more came, drawn by the sounds of the battle.

Cassian was taking their attention, but there were too many of them. While most of them were after him, some slipped away and attacked Nico and Leo, when Cassian was completely obscured from their vision by the sheer number of monsters.

"Zephyr Air Wall!" A big shield made of condensed air materialized and blocked the charge of two silverbacks, knocking them back from their own force as they did not expect to run into a sudden obstacle.

"Wind Cannon!" An air ball struck the two disconcerted Monsters and blew apart half of their torsos next to each other.

Nico was holding his own admirably, his spells quickly taking care of any stragglers and then picking off the monsters around Cassian. He had to be careful not to accidentally hit his brother though.

The silverbacks were much easier to deal with for both of them than the Hard Armoreds. While they had superior physical prowess their durability was not good enough to withstand the two's attacks. The armadillos though? They were hard to damage and kill, although Nico's spells were doing a better job of it than Cassian's blade or fists. No wonder their durability was considered to enter the level 2 zone.

Just then a weird cry was heard by the party and a giant black bat dropped down from the sky immediately heading for Cassian. The bat had only just spawned from the ceiling right above them catching everyone off guard. Cassian was locked in combat with the group of monsters and couldn't respond properly in time.

/SCREEE/

It quickly got close to Cassian and uncaring for its fellow monsters, screeched as loud as it could. It was a monster called a Bad Bat, that possessed the ability to release intense sound waves from its mouth. A type of sonic scream.

"Argh!" Cassian grunted as he was stunned and his ears started ringing. The sonic screech affected him much more than normal due to his super hearing, making the effect akin to a flashbang being set off near his face.

Due to being stunned, Cassian couldn't react properly to the monsters and he took a hard hit to the side by a silverback. Fortunately, Quen protected his body, as it absorbed the force of the impact, before shattering into pieces of light and fading away.

Despite negating all of the damage, he was still thrown a good distance away, right into the waiting jaws of a hard armored. Cassian finally shook off the dizziness and realizing the situation, righted his body in the air. Instead of his neck, the armadillo monster chomped down on his left arm.

"Brother!" Nico called out in distress, before casting his wind cannon and scattering the monsters heading for Cassian.

"Mghh" Cassian's left arm was screaming at him, he had never felt as much pain as he was feeling now, but the pain tolerance and survival instincts ingrained in this body kicked in, sharpening his mind and focusing him on the current situation, pain being shunted into the background.

"Aard!" He screamed out and a powerful telekinetic blast shot out from the hand that was inside the hard armored's mouth.

The monster's eyes bulged for a moment before its head, neck, and upper torso exploded into a shower of gore, coating the now-free Cassian.

Cassian quickly gathered himself, took out the potion in his belt pouch, and downed it. He could feel the healing effects kick in but didn't wait for his arm to become functional again. Instead, he immediately launched himself into the fray once more.

Jumping and weaving his way around the armadillos, he quickly cut down the silverbacks in his way until he reached his destination.

Using the silverback in front of him as a platform, he jumped up into the air towards that blasted bat, that put him in this situation and unleashed a spell from his left arm, which finished healing.

"Igni!" A jet of fire burst from his hand and shot towards the bat. The bad bat, who was preparing to let out another sonic screech, did not have time to dodge and was engulfed in flames.

The bat immediately started screaming in pain as its flesh started to burn away and fell from the sky, crashing into one of the monsters below.

With the main problem dealt with, Cassian sheathed his sword and started dealing with the remaining monsters, primarily the hard armoreds.

After about 5 minutes all the monsters were dead, with Leo quickly working to harvest them.

Nico ran up to his older brother and started asking about his condition with a worried voice.

"Dude! What happened?! That armadillo almost ate your arm!"

"Sigh, the damn bat got me. Apparently, enhanced senses do not mix well with attacks targeting those senses. Who would've thought?" Cassian drawled out sarcastically and in an annoyed voice, but there was an unmistakable satisfaction in his voice.

That fight just now felt different. Different from the almost boring fights he has had up until now. He could've truly died in that fight and that brought him an immense sense of satisfaction. He fought and escaped death. Something about that fact made him exhilarated. He was worried it might have awakened something inside of him.

"Ah crap, so it's like Superman all over again?"

"Pretty much, yeah. I'll need to come up with a solution to eliminate that weakness. Can't have someone taking me out by farting in my general direction, now can I?" Cassian finished with a smile, which brought out a chuckle from his little brother.

"We should finish up now. We've been fighting for around 6 hours and that should be enough for the day." Nico expressed after getting back to the situation.

"Yeah, you're right. Leo must be pretty tired by now too. We've most likely earned a fortune today anyway." Cassian agreed, before moving to the monster corpses to help out and finish up faster. "Leo, we're done for today. After this, we're heading back up."

"Got it. Uh, is your arm okay?" She asked with concern on her face.

"Heh, good as new. The healing potions really are something." Cassian assured her. And they really were. Drinking a blue liquid and having it heal wounds that would take months to fix, was a surreal experience.

Leo nodded her head and went back to harvesting. She was somewhat shaken up by the sudden grievous injury their party leader sustained, while also becoming a bit afraid of going through the same. However, the tenacity Cassian displayed afterward dispelled her fears and inspired her to continue working towards her goals no matter the hardships. She started looking up to Cassian more.

After harvesting all the corpses, they made their way back to the surface. They encountered some monsters on the way, but nothing approaching the previous numbers. All the bad bats that they encountered were targeted and dealt with first, either by Nico's spells or Cassian shooting them down.

Making their way outside of the dungeon, the trio went to the Pagoda, to exchange the drops for Valis. And they had made quite a sizeable income after the guild clerk calculated their income.

Putting together all the magic stones and drop items they had made 160,000 Valis. A huge improvement compared to their usual haul.

Leo's eyes were bulging once she received her 10% share. She had earned 16,000 Valis! That was three times the daily income of a skilled level 1 adventurer and she had earned three times that as a Falna-less supporter! Her admiration for the two grew even more.

"I'd say today was a great success. We earned a lot and we couldn't have done it without you Leo." Cassian was satisfied. This amount would allow him to buy the supplies he needed to get started with runes.

"Me?! But I didn't do anything, just followed you around and cut up corpses. You even needed to protect me…" She remarked with self-depreciation and a lowered head.

'It seems all the rejection from various familias really hit her self-esteem.' It was obvious that she didn't hold much opinion about herself. And for some reason, she sounded extra disappointed in herself. As if she failed to achieve some goal, she set for herself.

"Don't be like that dude, you totally helped out! If you weren't there, we'd have to spend a lot of time harvesting corpses and wouldn't be able to earn as much!" Nico tried cheering her up, though he missed the slight flinch of hers at his words.

'This idiot spent the entire day beside her and still hasn't figured out that she's a girl.' Cassian wondered how this dimwit managed to excel at magic according to Hecate's words.

"Really?" Leo asked unsurely.

"Yes, really Leo. Your help was invaluable and I hope to continue working with you in the future." Cassian answered.

"D-Does that mean?!" Leo exclaimed with a blush on her cheeks from the praise.

"Yeah, I want you to join our party on a more permanent basis." Cassian said with a smile.

"Yes! I won't let you down!" Leo declared with determination and then went her way after saying goodbyes and agreeing to meet up tomorrow morning by the dungeon for another dive.

"Cool, we have a new member! Though I guess it really is a different world, I wasn't expecting guys to blush so easily too." Nico said as they also departed.

"Sigh…" Cassian could only let out a deep sigh.

"What?"

"You're hopeless."

"What? What do you mean by that?!"

--- Elfin Lounge ---

The brothers had gotten back to their place and started resting.

"Hey, boys! Everything go well in the dungeon?" Hecate greeted them with a warm smile.

"Yeah, it was pretty awesome! We got a new party member!" Nico cheerfully replied.

"Oh? Tell me about it."

Nico then proceeded to explain the day's events to her. Hecate seemed pleasantly surprised at them getting a new addition to the party, as it would improve their safety. Although she didn't immediately place her trust in this supporter. After all the dungeon city of Orario was a dangerous place and backstabbings were not uncommon.

"What do you think of this supporter Cassian?" She decided to ask the older brother as he was a better judge of character.

"He's a good guy. Not greedy or malicious, instead he just seems like a good kid with grand dreams and is trying his best to pursue them. He's trustworthy from what I can tell so far." He answered his thoughts but noticed that Hecate twitched at his words and gazed at him strangely.

'So that's the lie detection of the gods huh? Guess it kicked in when I referred to Leo as a male.' Hecate also noticed that Cassian saw her catching his lie so she tilted her head at him. Cassian answered the unasked question with a casual shrug and a nod, signaling to her that it wasn't important and he would tell her later. Hecate was satisfied at this and also nodded.

"So, everything went smoothly then?" She asked as she started setting the table for supper and getting the food ready.

"Well, apart from Cassian getting his arm almost chomped off, yeah it was smooth!" Nico decided to drop that casually, which made Cassian glare at him instantly.

"What?!" Hecate stopped what she was doing and instead turned on Cassian with worry etched all over her face.

"It's fine, really! Nothing serious happened." Cassian tried to placate her, but it was in vain.

"Getting your arm almost ripped off is plenty serious mister! Now explain what happened!" She commanded in an authoritative voice, that somehow made Cassian's back stiff and straight, much to his confusion.

Cassian explained everything and after much assurance, convinced Hecate that it was just a mistake and he would be more careful in the future. After that, they ate dinner calmly and stood up to disperse to their rooms, when Hecate grabbed his arm.

"Just be safe, okay? I only just got you children, I don't want to lose you. Please?" Hecate asked with a pleading face.

"I- "Cassian was stunned for a second. No one has worried or cared about him so much before. The matron was kind but mostly left them to their own devices. This was a different type of care. He felt the same warm sensation as before and in front of that face could do nothing but lower his head and accept. "I promise I'll stay safe as much as I can."

Hecate's face bloomed into a smile before pulling him down and pressing a kiss to his forehead. Then she did the same with Nico and excused herself to her room.

Nico was visibly over the moon at that and Cassian couldn't help that he was quite happy too. With these strange and unfamiliar giddy feelings, he retreated to his room.

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Hey folks, I wanted to ask about your thoughts regarding the character interactions. Do they seem natural and realistic? I don't want to accidentally come off over the top or have conversations or reactions that seem forced.