Skag Showdown (Solo)

Shadow Island- as the name implied, it was a dark place where the sun just barely shined down. It was a place known for all manners of dark creatures that lurk the night, territorial wars ravaging its history for eons. It was rare for anyone to want to go to this island knowing about it's history, but Ilda was determined to take on the job she found from an international job board: defeat the skags rampaging and ruining a village on the island.

Her first battle had started without even getting to the island. It was a new feeling, traveling abroad, and Ilda was now learning the cruelty that was seasickness. Grasping onto a bucket she was loaned by the ship's captain, the fire mage vomited endlessly the food delicately made for her that morning.

She shuddered, a chill up her spine. She loathed this feeling, and even more so loathed having to waste food this way.

It took a few hours, but they finally arrived at the dock. Ilda jumped onto dry land, thankful for its stability. Squinting, she finally realized just how dark it was without the sun, causing her captain to worry she'd get lost on her way to the village needing help. "I'll be fine. I have a trick up my sleeve."

She raised up her bat and chanted aloud. "Fictisol!" Her cry induced a ball of flame to hover before her. She tapped it with her bat to show the direction she wanted it to go, letting it lead her towards the first set of enemies: a litter of baby skag.

"Trigue!" She yelled the spell as loud as she could, making the skag scatter a bit so that she could direct three flare balls at three different ones. Since starting her fictitious sun for sight, she had a warm aura that, if close enough, did damage. And, as three skag went down, two came to bite her, only to die to her aura in the process.

Still, they'd bitten her. "That hurts like hell, damn beasts!" One had gotten her gloved hand, which still hurt even if their sharp canines didn't manage to bite through. "This better be worth it after the job's done. I should really have asked more details about these things beforehand. But...These pests are pretty easy, aren't they? Too easy..."

Something told her this was only the beginning of a long, arduous fight. And that something was right.

As she predicted, this was just the first swarm- and it was ready for a fight. There appeared to be less of the little ones this time, which worried Ilda's only ally- Vanna, her support animal. Vanna stood as far back as she could, staring at the skags while Ilda moved to bash them a couple times with all her strength behind her bat. She would do just about anything to get rid of them, all but let them escape.

"Why isn't Trigue working?" Ilda cried.

Vanna watched her with a soft sigh, her concern growing as Ilda clearly didn't know a thing about her opponent. "That's not metal they're made of. The armor appears more like thick leather- like, say, your gloves. You can beat them, but you'll have to use all your might and take your time."

"And how do I take my time when these bites freaking hurt?!" Ilda's voice was a roar, calling out two bigger than baby skags- the whelps, or as Ilda would soon call them, the teens of the skag family. If Ilda thought the babies were troublesome, she had no idea what the whelps could do. When one went for a headbutt, she managed to dodge it, but not without getting assaulted by the one behind it in line. "Crap, these things are smarter than I thought."

Vanna shook her head, despite the fact Ilda was facing the opposite direction. The fox knew it before this that Ilda may have bitten off more than she could chew, but she also knew the woman's stubbornness would keep her alive and kicking no matter how bad they hurt her. "Try to focus, Ilda. They may seem smart, but they're just whelps. The only ones you need to really worry about are the adults and the alpha!"

Ilda groaned as she hit a whelp that was chewing on her foot, piercing through her boring sneakers and slightly into her flesh. It backed away, giving her a chance to counter the incoming attack from behind with a flare ball, which she hit as hard as she could yet again.

A couple of pups still scattered around came diving in, seemingly adapted to the heavy heat surrounding the fire mage after using her magic. One whelp went down without much of a fight thanks to her good timing with her counter, but the one that only got a hit in the head or two needed a bit more before it would leave her alone. When she could tell it was no more, she let out a deep sigh.

"You mentioned adults and an alpha, right? Do we just wait here for them or will they come our way soon looking for their brats?"

"I'm really starting to hate being right about things," Ilda muttered under her breath as the remainder of the skag family came to avenge their children. There were exactly three left, but it wouldn't be easy with her fatigue to fight them. At a time like this, she would have to resort to less magic and more physical means of violence, at least if she wanted to last through the entire battle in tact.

As the two adults marched in, her body's heat was still blazing, but not strong enough to do much damage against these matured, armored fiends. She adjusted her bat to be on the ground rather than high above, swinging it at one of the adults like they were a golf ball- which, in a way, wouldn't be entirely hard to imagine them as.

They weren't just tough, but they were heavy too. Ilda hadn't expected that when she tried her golf swing it would send such a strong vibration through her bones. It wasn't too painful, but it was certainly startling. She decided to lift her bat up over her head and slam it down instead.

"Damn it, these guys are tougher than they look." She turned to look at Vanna, who didn't say a word in retort. It felt weird for the fox to agree so easily with one of Ilda's opinions, especially in battle. That was likely the worst omen of all.

The adults continued coming at her no matter how she tried to bash and swing them away. At one point, she even tried shooing them as if they were rodents- which, admittedly, she also saw them as to an extent. As she tried to keep them at arm's length, her fictitious sun was starting to lose its power. The last thing she could afford was to go blind in this situation- and so, she used another burst of mana to create a new one, blinding herself for a period anyway when it was so close to her face.

Cursing under her breath, a shooting pain ran up her leg as she regained her sight- surprisingly, the alpha had decided to attack on its own. Shaking it violently off her leg, she ran backwards to gain some space before using her triple flare ball skill once more. It did minimal damage, but enough to shoo them away while she tried to come up with some way- no, any way- to win this fight.

The battle ended in an infernal flash as Ilda used up ninety percent of her strength to fend off the alpha skag. She'd been hit more times than she could make herself count by the adults, who followed their leader so exquisitely she almost felt bad beating on it.

Exhaustion kicked in, and she fell to her knees and hands, gasping for breath. It wasn't the first time she'd be this fatigued, nor would it be her last. Letting her rump lay on her heels, she pushed off her hands to lay backwards, arms and legs spread out in a sort of X.

"You fought hard, Ilda. I must say I'm impressed you realized to beat the alpha to rid yourself to the others." The sassy fox wandered closer to her owner, plopping herself on the ground and scooting back until she had managed to get underneath one of the fiery woman's arms.

"You could have mentioned it earlier, you know." Ilda scoffed.

Vanna chuckled in response, turning her head to face her irritated carer. "You need to learn to think for yourself, Ilda. It's not like I'm going to live forever." Another groan left Ilda's body as she began to pet the fox under her arm, tickling under her throat and yawning.

"Thanks to your silence I'm exhausted."

"That just proves how hard you worked to finish your job, don't you think?" For about an hour, the two rested there in the silence of slumber. Finally, upon waking from their nap, they found their way to the village to offer their report. As they walked, all Ilda could think was this:

"If I ever do that again, it'll be too soon."