Eritance - Chapter 44

One of the party members took that opportunity and threw a dagger at the spine bear and hit it in the shoulder. The spine bear roared with pain as it buried itself deeply into its flesh. Another recruit pulled out a small crossbow that had been hanging at their waist and shot a small bolt in the wounded shoulder of the spine bear. I was amazed at the accuracy that recruit possessed.

If I didn’t do something quickly, the spine bear would be killed, and I wouldn’t be able to absorb any power from it. I rushed in and stabbed at the spine bear’s backside with my sword, getting a glancing blow.

We continued on like this for a few more rounds until the spine bear was breathing heavily and was full of wounds. Strong though it may be, it was no match for the three of us. Suddenly, I ran towards it and dropped my sword.

I focused the energy I had and circulated it through my body and held it in my hands. A glow formed around my fist as I pulled it back and then shot it forward with a strong job to the side of the head. A crunch could be heard as the skull cracked and fragments penetrated its brain.

With that focus punch I ended the spine bear before the others had a chance to. I was rewarded as I felt a surge of power enter my body.

“Ross, show me my stats”.

Orin Strength 2 (5) 2 (3) 2 (3) 1 (0)

Excellent! The spine bear’s energy had increased each of my stats by one. I was looking forward to being able to hunt and kill more of these bears.

“Oh? How impressive, you’re only a silver ranked recruit, and yet you’ve already learned how to focus your energy into one point of your body” Commander Aegis noted. “This is most impressive for your rank”.

I didn’t know that being able to condense energy was considered impressive for a silver rank recruit. Regardless, it was quite the bonus for me, because it meant that I would be that much closer to being given a gold rank status in the future. Acknowledgement from commanders held a lot of weight.

The others looked at me enviously but kept silent. With the spine bears being dead we moved on from that position. The underground cavern was quite large and had many interesting sculptures. This ruin seemed to belong to a tribe of warriors that rode on the back of what appeared to be large birds of some kind. The statues and glyphs on the wall had worn down over time, so it was difficult to tell what was going on.

Throughout our exploration we encountered eight more spine bears. I was able to get the finishing blow on three of them, but the others had been killed by the other two, with the Commander watching. Still, I wasn’t unhappy, this mission was extremely profitable for me.

My stats had already nearly reached the maximum amount that they could be. My strength had gone to 5 (5) my speed 5 (3) and stamina 5 (3). In just a few hours I had gone from being the weakest in the group, to actually being one of the strongest.

Sometimes I thought that my relic was a cheat given to me by the gods, to make up for the horrible lot in life I had been dealt. We continued down to what appeared to be a dead end. However, on closer examination it seemed to be a deep pit with skeletons scattered throughout it. It seemed to be a skeleton graveyard, but for what? The creatures had large bones, and weird triangular heads. We saw what appeared to be the frames for wings and realized that they must have been the creatures that the tribe rode on.

Commander Aegis chanted some more words and the orb of light that she had brightened significantly. The entirety of the pit was illuminated. Commander Aegis gasped at what she saw. One of the creatures still had flesh on it, albeit with bones showing in some places.

“This is a dragon graveyard! This must be a dragon clan ruin. We must go collect that dragon, its bones can be used for many powerful potions, scales can be used to forge armors, and if the core is still there, we could use it to forge an extremely powerful magic weapon”. A glint appeared in her eyes and she began rushing over to the pit.

However, before she descended a deafening roar was heard behind us. When we turned around we saw an extremely large beast. The beast standing before us was an elder spine bear. It must have been attracted by the great light that Commander Aegis had summoned.

The elder spine bear was massive. It stood at roughly two times the size of the others. I quickly asked Ross to analyze its stats.

Elder spine bear Strength 30 Stamina 20 Speed 20 MP 5

It was horrifyingly powerful. Even Commander Aegis was not stronger than this spine bear. The numerical difference in strength wasn’t much, but the practical difference was. There was no safe way to kill it. There was a chance we may all die here.

“Listen up you lot!” Commander Aegis said quite seriously. “We need to surround the elder spine bear and chip away at its body. That is our only chance. Don’t charge in recklessly or you will probably die”.

With that we all fanned out in an attempt to encircle the elder spine bear. Commander Aegis attacked first with a magic spell. She quickly chanted and threw a fire ball at it. “I’ve distracted it, get into your positions” she yelled.

The rest of us tried to run behind it while it was distracted. However, I was not so lucky. As I was running past, the spine bear swung out its paw and hit me. The force of the blow caused me to vomit blood and I was sent flying backwards into the pit. I blacked out.