Trial by Lightning
The lightning fang tiger hung over the body of the large goblin and bite by bite began consuming it. To a creature like that everything else was nothing but prey. My body was trembling uncontrollably as large drops of sweat began dripping from my forehead. Currently I had not really taken any damage fighting the goblins and with Pebble’s earth magic we could have been able to sneak away somehow. Although there seemed like no chance of ever being able to survive fighting such a creature there was this absurd thought ringing in my head that made me stay.
“I wonder what kind of card I could craft using that.” (Arin)
My face began to form an awkward grin as I held my dagger with both hands. Pebble laying on my shoulder looked just as determined as I did. If I were to survive this battle then I would truly be ready to leave the village as a true adventurer. And so while the lighting fang tiger was preoccupied by its meal I had Pebble cast earth magic to trap the beast in a cage of stone spikes. Just as the magic had been cast and spikes were raised from the ground in the split second before making contact the tiger used its immense speed and dashed from where it was standing, bouncing off tree after tree, refusing to be hit.
“You’re not getting away that easily!” (Arin)
With the lighting fang tiger focusing on dodging I came up from behind and thrusted my dagger at the lower back of the beast. The tiger now aware of my presence moved in an attempt to avoid the attack but instead was grazed on its side. My attack failed to deal a critical blow and now the lighting fang tiger was in range to shred me apart with its claws. The tigers claws came falling down from above my head but before the attack could hit Pebble had gotten in-between us and received the full force of the attack. Lighting shot off by its claws exploded on contact and the shockwave from the attack sent Pebble flying in the air right at my stomach. The impact sent me flying a few meters back until my body collided with a large tree.
I looked down to see Pebble with large cracks along his arms and a single crack laying across his face. Even with the [Harden] skill that Pebble had it was not enough to shield him from such a simple attack. As for me I was lucky just to get the wind knocked out of me but I might not be so lucky from that thing’s next attack.
“Pebble… Can you last a little longer?” (Arin)
Pebble slowly shook his head ensuring me that this fight wasn’t over for us yet. Although the lighting fang tiger had incredible speed it did not immediately attack us after knocking us back. It was more like it didn’t see us as a threat and took its sweet time playing with the new toy it saw us to be. If it saw us as nothing more as an after meal exercise maybe we could use that against it.
Just like before I had Pebble use its earth magic to shoot spikes out of the ground and just like last time the tiger avoided every last one of them. With every attack that missed the lighting fang tiger came closer and closer until it was close enough to rip us to pieces. Just at the last second, before the tiger could reach us, Pebble had used his earth magic to create a large pit fall right where the lighting fang tiger was about to step.
The sudden loss of footing made the tiger fall deep into the newly formed pit, now at more of a disadvantage. With it down there I had Pebble use his earth magic to shoot stone bullets down into the hole where the lighting fang tiger had no escape. The tiger tried to avoid the attack but was in too narrow of an area to dodge anything. A rain of stones pelted it unrelentingly. Soon a cloud of dust formed at the bottom of the hole to where we could no longer see the tiger. As the attack settled down we had thought we had finally won.
Looking down into the pit suddenly a flash of lighting was created and the whole body of the lighting fang tiger was made visible. Its body looked a bloody mess, even so it no longer looked like it was messing around anymore. With its body now clad in lighting the lighting fang tiger shot up from the hole almost as if it were flying and grabbed Pebble between its jaws. Pebble holding on with his [Harden] skill was then throne to the ground, shattering both his arms into rubble.
“PEBBLE!!!” (Arin)
Before I could react a bolt of lighting was fired at my feet, knocking me to the ground. The time for playing was over and now the lighting fang tiger was finally seeing us as an enemy it must destroy. Things were getting dire and everything I had done so far had only made it mad. That last blast of lighting had blown my dagger away from my body and the lighting fang tiger wasn’t going to let me get it back.
The tiger unleashed an immense amount of lighting scattering in every direction, laying waste to the forest, setting the trees on fire and filling the air with smoke. I was able to avoid that well enough but if I didn’t finish my fight soon I would be engulfed in flame like the rest of the forest. The lighting fang tiger them charged at me with all its might. This was it, the moment when I would die. All my dreams of becoming an adventurer were all going to end before it even started.
“It can’t end like this!” (Arin)
It became hard to tell whether or not there were tears flowing from my eyes or blood. Even with all my injuries I was still able to stand. With nothing else I could do I stared down the tiger with my image reflected eyes. I thought this was the end for me but just as I thought this was it the tiger's legs began to sink into the ground. It had appeared that the hard ground had turned into mud and was sealing off the tigers movements. Pebble had returned to my side and even without its arms was still able to must up some power to continue.
“Pebble, you’re okay right.” (Arin)
Pebble nods his head in response to me, all the while focusing on keeping the lighting fang tiger in check.
“That trick won’t work on him for long. We’re going to have to finish things off in one big attack. Can I rely on your support a bit longer?” (Arin)
Even without being able to talk I could understand Pebble wanting to continue on. This would be our last attack and we had to put everything we had into it. Before the tiger could break free from the mud Pebble latched onto my right arm and began to glow. Multiple magic circles enveloped my arm and with it stone and dirt from the surroundings started to combine with Pebble and started to take form. Suddenly my Right arm was encased in a giant stone fist. It was roughly five times ten times bigger then any regular fist, and every knuckle has a short spike protruding from it. Even with it’s large size it was not as heavy as I thought it would be.
Pebble had used all its remaining magic to make me this weapon and I was going to use it to finish this fight. The lighting fang tiger freed itself from the mud and charge at us head on. With all the strength I could muster I charge the tiger with the determination to finish it off. The tiger with both its large fangs tried to crunch down on my body but instead I used my stone fist and collided with its skull. The stone fist was holding out from the impact. Since Pebble had basically turned himself into the fist he must had been able to use his [Harden] skill to make it stronger. As both mine and the lighting fang tigers attacks collided there was an intense shockwave. As it settled down both the tiger and I were standing firmly in place. And in that moment the lighting fang tiger fell to the ground as a motionless, lifeless body.
“AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!” (Arin)
It was over. For some reason we were able to make it out of this fight alive. That was my final thought before I fell to the ground in exhaustion. I was about to pass out, but before that would happen I had to turn the tigers corpse into a card and store it. With the last of my energy I used the [Card Craft] skill to turn the lighting fang tigers body into a card, along with the rest of the goblin corps that were still lying around. No longer having to worry about that I finally lost consciousness and laid spread out on the ground. I had gotten one step closer to being a real adventurer.
