Pandora Unchained - B1C70: Bear VS Stag

The first thing Sorin did after finding Stephan was coldly analyze the situation to see where he could best jump in. Our battle with the minotaur tainted my expectations of what a two-star battle should be like, thought Sorin as the arctic rune bear and the two-star stag traded blows.

The stag was extraordinarily nimble and liked to jump in battle and kick out with its clawed hooves. Thanks to its thick demonic energy, its body had further mutated, granting the deer two additional legs and additional joints on each leg that made them resemble scorpion stingers.

Stephan is now much nimbler than he used to be, thought Sorin, taking in the bear’s fighting pattern. Stephan didn’t fight like a slow but heavy hitter. He instead cautiously swiped at the demon while maintaining a defensive posture, like a badger defending its lair. But Stephan won’t be able to hold out much longer. His energy stores aren’t as deep, even if he can match the stag toe to toe, thanks to his abilities as a hero. Also, the stag has the benefit of mana shields, while Stephan doesn’t. His armor only helps partially mitigate this factor.

Having determined their respective strengths and weaknesses, Sorin activated Anti-Mage’s Blade and covered his dagger with a network of solid but poisonous mana that specialized in tearing through mana shields. He kept his left hand empty in preparation for casting any spells he might require in the future, then began circling around the stag in search of an opening.

Sensing the threat of his dagger, the stag immediately adjusted its wild fighting style. Its horns lit up and blasted Sorin with a wave of heat that licked his flesh and burned his skin.

Sorin dodged the flame wave and dove in to try his luck with his dagger. He then pulled back on instinct, barely avoiding a clawed hoof that came flying from an inconceivable angle.

He responded by throwing out a spray of three paralytic needles with his left hand. These needles also contained manabane elements and could pierce through the deer’s mana shields and strike its side, disrupting its hip.

The deer pulled back its limp leg, and Sorin used the opportunity to dive deeper. He avoided another flying hoof with an Adder Rush, then stabbed his dagger two consecutive times into the same paralyzed hip. A large dose of manabane poison was injected into the stag’s system, temporarily causing its flames to go out.

Stephan took advantage of the stag’s dimmed flames to drastically lower the temperature in the region, weakening the many one-star deer still sieging their companions. His two paws then rent through the deer’s mana armor and tore into its tough leather, delivering a solid dose of cold energy and slowing its movements.

Sorin took advantage of the disruption to throw out another paralytic needle. This time, he targeted the creature’s neck, causing it to stagger and opening it up to Stephan’s gauntleted clauses.

Unfortunately, the difference in strength between this two-star demon and the minotaur caused him to overestimate the duration of his poisons. Just as his latest batch of poison took effect, the first batch faded away, freeing up its hooves to slice Sorin’s chest open and tear away a chunk of flesh and leather armor.

Another clawed hoof followed, but this time, Sorin used Cobra’s gaze to stun the stag for an instant so that he could avoid it. Then, thanks to his armor’s berserker effect, he could dodge the deer’s follow-up and use Viper Strike to land two more attacks.

This time, Sorin didn’t bother with paralytic poison and directly injecting acidic mana into its system. Sensing Sorin’s threat, the deer twisted in mid-air to strike him. Stephan, anticipating such a reaction, struck down with a lunisolar paw, interrupting its movements. The hoof barely grazed Sorin as he made his way to the creature’s neck, then slammed a poison-filled agger into its spine.

The demonic deer was a creature of violent instinct. Sorin’s attack was lethal enough to activate this latent potential and cause it to go berserk. It slammed into Stephan’s shoulder as he tried to assist Sorin, then bit into Sorin’s left shoulder. Unable to free himself, Sorin grabbed his whip and tangled up the deer with Python Coil to prevent it from thrashing about.

Heavy damage to muscle tissues and nerves, Sorin analyzed. Mana flow is disrupted along critical meridians. Recommendation: use flesh-melt poison to close off key arteries, then apply a healing potion to regenerate lost flesh. Remove melted flesh to restore blood flow once a critical amount of flesh is restored.

Like a puppet, Sorin acted on these instructions. He stabbed three points on his shoulder to stop the bleeding, then splashed a healing potion on his shoulder. He then pressed those same two spots, materializing a simple mana needle to break apart the obstruction he’d created.

This wasn’t enough to restore the use of his arm, but he could now rest easy knowing that his arm wouldn’t be crippled for the foreseeable future. Only then could he calm his mind enough to focus on Stephan and the creature’s intense battle, which had reached a fevered pitch.

Blood splashed on the ground as both sides abandoned defense in favor of offense. Stephan’s wounds were worse, but the intense wounds seemed to trigger an ability in his armor that covered him in a light shield, rendering him impervious to damage.

Taking advantage of this period of invulnerability, the bear launched itself at the deer and tackled it to the ground. Sorin didn’t hesitate to release his whip and stab at the creature repeatedly, injecting it with heavy doses of paralytic poison.

The creature’s thrashing grew increasingly weak as Stephan bit into the creature’s neck, and Sorin’s previous poisonous attacks erupted uncontrollably. Little by little, the creature lost its life, and finally, after ten seconds of limp thrashing, it collapsed, dead.

"You can relax now," Sorin said, confirming its demise with Ophidian Eye.

"That much is obvious," said Stephan, pulling back from the creature. "The demonic deer are routed. It won’t be long before they scatter and return to the wilderness. Gareth and Daphne were picking off what demonic deer they could. Barbara also took out a bow to join Gareth in his target practice.

A minute later, no demonic deer remained. Half were slain, and half had run back into the wilderness. Now temporarily safe, Stephan unshifted and took out a dagger, which he used to cut open the demonic stag’s skull and retrieve a bloody crystal filled with violet energy. "Its horns should also be excellent two-star materials. On the other hand, its hooves are full of corruption and can’t be utilized."

The experienced adventurers quickly broke down into two camps: the healing camp and the gathering camp. Lawrence spearheaded the gathering while Sorin joined Audrey. The former cleared corruption using poison, while the latter used her thick life mana to heal wounds. She had clearly received some sort of medical education. She was, therefore, able to avoid common errors and prevent accidental over-healing or crippling.

Five minutes later, horns sounded. A group of soldiers who had left the fort shortly after their battle made their way over hastily. Sorin joined the other adventurers under Barabara and Stephan’s lead and met with the leader of the soldiers, Orpheus.

"We rushed out as soon as we heard about your predicament but were unable to verify the situation given the density of the demons present," Orpheus said to Stephan and Barbara. "I hope you’ll forgive my understandable lateness."

"You could have easily made your way over if you wanted to," snapped Barbara, but stopped when Stephan placed a burly hand on her shoulder.

"Don’t worry, I’ll take care of this," said Stephan. "Orpheus, it’s nice to see you again. Did you come to assist us in looting the battlefield?"

"Looting the battlefield?" asked Orpheus. "The battlefield belongs to the Governor’s Manor. I’ll naturally need to trouble you to turn in all those demon cores you collected."

"I’m afraid things don’t work that way, Orpheus," said Stephan. "If you check the agreement between the Adventurers Guild and the Governor’s Manor, you’ll see that kills belong to those who made them. In cases of ambiguity, there is an equal split. It’s too bad you took so long to get here that even a blind soldier standing on the walls would know you weren’t here before the fighting ended."

Orpheus’s jaw clenched. "Our presence on the battlefield exerted pressure on the deer horde."

"A tenuous argument," said Stephan. "It might even hold weight. But are you sure the governor wants to provoke the Adventurers Guild at such a crucial juncture? I believe the outpost’s adventurers would be most upset if their income was suddenly put at risk because of the greed of a few corrupt soldiers."

Orpheus snorted. "Fine. The battlefield is yours. But the responsibility for clearing it also falls on your team."

"You don’t need to worry about that," said Stephan. "We’ll naturally take the best of it. As for what we can’t carry, we’ll just torch it. Better to offer these things to Lord Hope to further bless our subsequent battles."

Having failed to achieve his objective, Orpheus retreated. "That’s it?" said Barbara. "That bastard basically tried to kill us just now, and all that happens is that he loses a share of the spoils?"

"Don’t worry, he’ll suffer immensely in the future," said Stephan. "There’s no love lost between him and the Adventurers Guild. When word breaks out about what happened, you can be sure that no adventurer would dare support any troop he’s in. The logical move will, therefore, be for Vice Governor Marsh to kick him down a notch and keep him inside the city to prevent further incidents."

"I never realized you were such a schemer," said Lawrence, holding his thumb out. "Well done."

"I don’t think the matter is so simple," said Sorin, shaking his head. "Don’t you think that was too blatant on Orpheus’s part?"

"Blatant?" asked Lawrence. "Hasn’t he always been blatant?"

"Sorin’s right," said Barbara. "He was blatant in the labyrinth, but that’s because he could hide things if he succeeded. But this… this was just downright stupid."

"Are you saying he wants to get punished?" asked Stephan incredulously.

Sorin sighed. "It just reminds me of an incident in the Kepler Clan. A family member didn’t have the contribution points to study in the library. Instead of going out to earn contribution points, he broke several library rules, which resulted in him getting punished with scribe duty. Two years later, he learned enough to pass the physician examination. By then, it was obvious what he did, but his value became too high for the family to punish him."

"I don’t think we have enough information to assemble this puzzle," said Daphne. "Unless you all have some dirt on him or awareness of the situation inside the Governor’s Manor?"

"We don’t," said Barbara. "Though Audrey might. She is related to Governor Marsh."

They all looked at the bloody-handed life mage washing her hands. "What?" Audrey said. "It’s a distant relation. I haven’t visited my uncle, the governor since Physician Kepler moved in as a guest."

"I agree with Daphne," said Sorin. "We don’t know enough. But I’ll wager that we’ll soon find out what he’s after. For him to get punished twice for his actions, whatever he’s after must be quite lucrative."

Their two teams then retrieved the rest of the demon cores and cut off as many deer horns as they could carry. According to Daphne, mages could use the dust of their ground-up horns. Artificers could also use them as a base for flame brand enchantments or premium fuel for their furnaces. Some of the higher-quality pieces could be used as core components for wands.

"Lorimer," Sorin warned when he noticed the rat trying to embezzle. "You only get to eat the cores of the demons you killed. And those ones are obvious. Don’t try to sneak in extra portions for yourself."

Lorimer let out a few aggrieve squeaks, and Sorin shook his head. "No. You can’t eat the horns. Not until after we’re done packing up what we can. You can have the leftovers." As for the corpses, although they would be offered up to hope with wish fire since there were too many even for Lorimer to eat. After discussing with his companions, they agreed to let the rat eat as much as possible before lighting up the rest.

They returned to the settlement an hour later and split up the loot. After a ten-way split, the horns, cores, and bounties totaled up to 1760 gold apiece. After replacing his health potions, Sorin had 1500 gold remaining.

Stephan was the worst off. He was stuck spending 500 gold for materials to repair his damaged half-plate armor. The rest of his gold was taken by Haley as a final repayment for the debt he owed to the York Clan.