Lycan's Lament [Private Exam]

Amber Stone

Be ready for the Queen of Rocks.

Tag: @tag
HP: 500/500
MP: 500/500

"Well, this place sucks." Amber said aloud, leaning on the haft of her hammer as she regarded the place known as the Lycan Woods. It had been a long, heard trek through the Cursed Lands to get her, and she'd had to kill a lot of monsters. Even when traveling underground, she'd had to fight off a horde of giant mole-like creatures. It sounded lame, but thinking back on it, they'd had enormous sharp teeth and frightening strength. And somehow, the ability to travel through the earth with hardly a vibration. She hadn't sensed them coming until too late, and one had almost ripped her arm right out of the socket. She'd been forced to spend a few days hiding up a tree to recuperate, the surviving mole creatures circling the base just underground. After that, she had stuck to traveling above-ground. At least she could see and hear the monsters coming there.

Now, bloodied and weary just from travel, she faced the legendary forest and prepared to enter it. If she had thought fighting the hordes of beasts was hard, it would be nothing compared to what awaited her inside. According to Medeia, the ace of Errings Rising who had given her this quest, the creature she was to slay was a wolf of enormous proportions and unparalleled ferocity. Her and the pack who followed her also reportedly possessed acidic saliva or something similar, meaning she couldn't let any of them get their fangs into her. Her task was to retrieve a vial of blood from this alpha wolf, but it seemed like the Lioness would have to be lucky just to make it out with her life, let alone with her limbs intact. Actually succeeding and getting the blood seemed absolutely impossible. A grin suddenly stretching her mouth, she hefted her hammer onto her shoulder and set off into the forest. Nothing was better than an impossible task.

She strode through the dark forest fearlessly, gauntlets jingling on her lower arms. This mission had justified the use of her full arsenal. The hammer, which she had never gotten around to naming, was her primary weapon. She had forged it herself, drawing the metal from deep within the earth and melting it over a lava pool. The metal was something called carbonadium, a metal far stronger and yet far lighter than steel. She had infused it with a mineral known as manite, which conducted mana extraordinarily well, almost like a part of the wielder's body. The two materials had melded surprisingly well, forming an alloy that she had dubbed manadium. As far as she knew, she was the first person to make it. The carbonadium required intense heat to shape, hence the pool of lava. It took someone with very high heat resistance, knowledge of material properties, and strong earth magic to work, and manite was not very well known at all. She had discovered it one day when she touched the wall of a cavern deep underground and felt her magic power suddenly be leeched away. So she felt safe in assuming that manadium was something unique to her, something only she could make. It made the hammer incredibly strong, able to dish out blows fueled by Amber's inhuman strength with ease without denting, even when slammed into other metals. And yet, it was extremely light, able to be wielded with a single hand despite it's absurd size. Though, Amber had recently noticed an interesting phenomenon. The longer she used the hammer, the heavier it seemed to get, though it always remained as light as it ever was in her hands. Perhaps it was her magic infusing it through the manite, making it heavier for everyone but her? She was unsure.

Her gauntlets, which also had yet to receive names, had been made the same way, though with higher concentrations of manite. In fact, the proportions were about reversed, making the twin armor pieces quite heavy, but conduct mana even better than the hammer. This was important to Amber, as her best magic was performed through her hands directly contacting the earth. The gauntlets and hammer were both deepest black, with hardly any sheen at all. The head and spike of the hammer were lighter, almost gray, but still matte. It had a wedge-shaped head good at dealing maximum impact force, and a long haft to further maximize the momentum. The far end had a spiked handguard that would protect her hand and enable her to deal blows without bringing the full hammer to bear. The gauntlets covered her entire forearm from fingertip to elbow in black, smooth metal, segmented at the wrist and fingers for full mobility. They were etched with archaic designs, filled in with dull gold to create designs similar to scrollwork. They were a more recent addition to her arsenal, and significantly boosted what she could do with her magic. They were also great at protecting her arms. She could only hope that they would stand up to corrosive Lycan teeth. She wished she had a full set of armor made of manadium, but there hadn't been time. It took a lot of time and effort to work the materials. For now, she would have to make do with what she had and hope it would be enough.

She struck deeper into the forest, which was perpetually dark. Despite the fact that it was the middle of the day, Amber walked in shadow as if it were the deepest hours of night. The trees were enormously tall, mostly conifers like pines and cedars. It should have smelled amazing with all that vegetation, but it just smelled rank and musty, like rotten meat at the bottom of a stagnant pond. Which, given what lived in this place, was more than likely true. She had yet to see any monsters in this spooky-as-hell forest, but her sensitive ears had picked up the sounds of movement all around her. It seemed as if the creatures were following her out of sight as she headed towards the location at which the alpha wolf was said to live.

The Lioness continued to work her way through the immense forest, relying on her direction sense to keep moving in the right direction. All other methods of navigation were useless. The skies were invisible, and even the age-old trick of looking at what side of a tree moss grew on was worthless. Moss grew on everything here. Only her magic would keep her straight and true through this place.

She stopped to make camp when she felt weary, as she had no other indication of time. She used her magic to raise walls of rock around her little campsite to prevent any incursions from the beasts that lurked in the darkness, eating a small meal of bread and cheese and water she'd packed in her bag. She lit no fire, as she sensed that would only draw even more unwanted attraction from the forest. She was a trespasser here, and the longer she spent here the more she wanted to leave. But she had a job to do.

She slept lightly for a few hours, barely enough to make her feel rested, then rose and rearmed herself, emerging from her cocoon of stone to resume her trek. Her senses told her she was still being followed, which kept her on edge. It was this edge that saved her life when a slavering wolf the size of a horse leapt from the shadows in nearly complete silence, jaws aiming to latch onto her throat and rip it out. She barely managed to interpose her gauntleted fist in time, the wolf's jaws closing around the metal instead of her flesh. Immediately, the metal began to hiss and steam, the wolf's caustic saliva eating into the metal. With a shout, Amber twisted her whole body, dragging the wolf by the jaws and throwing it to the ground. At the same time, she stomped her foot, raising a spike of earth that impaled the giant wolf through the eyes, killing it instantly. She carefully extricated her arm, then looked at the scarred and pitted manadium gauntlet with dismay. She would have to be even more careful from now on.

She took her hammer in both hands instead of resting it on her shoulder, proceeding more cautiously. She must have been getting close. Sure enough, a growl sounded behind her and she spun, just in time to smash her hammer into the skull of another wolf, driving it to the ground and impaling it on another stalagmite. She spat on it's corpse for good measure, then continued on her way.

The Lioness had to fend off several more attacks as she delved deeper into the forest. At first, it was lone wolves that struck at her. As the hours passed, they began to come in pairs and trios, forcing her to fight more creatively. She managed to get through each engagement unscathed, though her weapons were getting progressively more battered. At one point, she'd had to thrust the haft of a hammer between a lycan's jaws to keep it from biting her, and it had burned almost completely through. She would have to take some time to reforge both it and her gauntlets after this mission. Should she survive.

For now, she made do by pulling up ordinary metal, tungsten in this case, and shaping it into a jacket around the melted area of the hammer. It was harder to work pure metal than earth, especially without a forge to heat it, but she made it work. The jacket wouldn't be as tough as the manadium that composed the rest of the hammer, but at least it would keep the weapon from falling apart, or worse - breaking in half the moment she tried to hit something with it. She still had a long way to go until she was done here.

She spent that night the same way as the first, holed up in a tree. This time, it was because she figured the Lycans couldn't climb. It was uncomfortable, and she felt uneasy being away from the source of her power, but there was nothing else for it. She wanted to sleep, and she didn't think she would be able to rest on the ground, worried about giant wolves and moles attacking her. When she rose, she looked down at the ground in the dim light and immediately felt better about her choice - there were enormous wolf tracks ringing the base of the tree where they had clearly circled it, waiting for her to come down. There were several indentations where it looked like they had sat or lain down as well. There weren't any Lycans in sight at the moment, but that didn't mean they weren't there.

Amber got down from the tree after a breakfast that was the exact same as her dinner and her lunch from yesterday, and would be the same as her lunch and dinner today, and resumed her trek for hopefully the last day. Her senses told her she was nearing the location where the Alpha was said to reside.

Sure enough, within a few hours she emerged into a clearing about the size of a baseball field, empty save for the enormous wolf sitting on her haunches in the center. Interestingly, though the clearing was open to the sky it was still shadowed, despite the fact that it should have been around noon at that point. Clearly it was not the trees, or the trees alone, that caused this forest to be so dark.

After investigating the area, Amber turned her attention back to the wolf she had been sent here to kill. As Medeia had explained, it was roughly twenty times the size of an average wolf, which meant that sitting down as it was it's head was a good ten feet above Amber's own. It was panting in what she assumed to be anticipation, exposing it's gangrenous gums and drooling it's caustic saliva. What was most interesting was that despite the bestial and savage appearance, as well as it's mangy and emaciated frame, it had a light of intelligence in it's eyes that the other Lycans had been lacking. Clearly this wolf had more going on in it's head than it's brood. That didn't mean the Lioness didn't have to kill it, of course. That was her job.

"Alright, time to earn my pay." the Lioness said, then slammed her hammer into the earth in front of her, sending a pulse of magic into the ground that rippled to the edges of the vaguely circular clearing, raising walls of stone that would block any other Lycans from entering and interfering with the fight. At least, she hoped.

With that, she threw herself at the massive wolf, which stood up and growled with a voice so deep and powerful the very earth shook underneath it's paws. Amber swung her hammer at the beast's left forepaw, but it moved with swiftness that belied it's bulk and dodged, leaping to the side and twisting to slash at Amber's back with it's fangs. Amber was forced to duck and roll underneath the Lycan's jaws, coming up to her feet and spinning to face the beast again, more warily.

"Just as I thought. You're smarter than the average wolf, aren't you? No wonder you lived this long." she said as they circled each other. She decided to change tactics, swinging her hammer into the ground at an angle, hurling spikes of stone from the earth at the beast's head. Amazingly, the alpha dodged every one of them, then howled at the top of it's lungs, which had the effect of splattering acidic drool at Amber, as well as nearly deafening her. She had to punch the ground to raise a small semicircular wall of rock to crouch behind, avoiding the dangerous saliva.

"Oh, that does it." Amber grumbled as the howl ended. Her seismic senses told her that the wolf hadn't moved from it's position, so she rose and smashed her hammer into the wall she had ducked behind, shattering it into fragments that flew in the wolf's face, forcing it to duck and close it's eyes. The Lioness charged forward just behind the spray of razer-sharp rocks and swung with all her might, slamming her hammer down into the alpha's left forepaw, crushing it completely. She then leapt back, out of reach of the wolf.

The Lycan let out an agonized yelp at the blow and reared up, backing away. The beast licked it's flattened paw for a few moments, whimpering pitifully. It then carefully put the paw back down on the ground gingerly, barely putting enough weight on it to limp around in a large circle around the clearing, glaring murderously at Amber, but with a hint of pain and fear in it's gaze.

Amber smirked a little, circling around with it. "Sorry, wolfie. You were dead the moment I was sent here. It's just taken a while to sink in." With that, she hurled herself forward, aiming at the wolf's other forepaw. As she'd expected, the Lycan reared up again, bringing both front paws off the ground to get them out of Amber's reach while simultaneously leaning down, preparing to sink it's fangs into her back. Amber's move was a feint, however, and she dove down into the ground, the earth yielding for her and swallowing her like water would a swimmer. She popped up a moment later behind the Lycan, swinging her hammer in an arc that ended at the wolf's right ankle, snapping the bone with a sound like a gunshot. The wolf howled in agony again and whirled, but the Lioness had already vanished into the earth again.

She emerged behind the wolf again, taking out it's other rear leg with another vicious swing, ducking into the ground again as the Lycan screamed and stumbled to the ground. Surfacing again, Amber crippled the wolf's remaining paw with another flattening blow, leaving it helpless and whimpering on the ground, watching her with fear. It almost broke her heart, hearing the fear and agony in the beast's voice, reminding her of the dog her adoptive family had had, long ago.

"I'm sorry." she whispered, resting the head of her hammer on the ground for a moment. "I don't know how you and your family came to be, or what kind of life you've lived. All I know is that my ace sent me here to retrieve your blood and exterminate your brood, so that's what I'm going to do. At least I'll make it quick." She hefted her hammer again, hesitated a moment, then slammed it into the ground, raising a spike of rock that impaled the creature through it's throat, into it's brain and out the top of it's head. It died with a last croaking whimper, the light fading from it's eyes. With a sigh, Amber laid her hammer down, then pulled out a vial and filled it with the blood flowing from the Lycan alpha's ruptured neck. Once it was full, she stoppered it and wiped it clean before putting it back inside her bag.

She picked up her hammer and turned to leave, then stopped and looked back. "You know what... I can't just leave you like this. You deserve a proper burial." she said softly, looking at the corpse of the giant wolf she'd slaughtered. She closed her eyes and extended her free hand, pulling at the threads of energy within the earth. After a moment, the hard ground transmuted into a soft silt, the corpse sinking slowly into the earth below. After it had been covered over by about ten feet of the soft ground, she transmuted it back into solid stone, entombing the wolf within an air-tight vault of rock. Perhaps that would preserve it, making it possible to retrieve more blood from it later. Right now, Amber was just happy she'd done something nice for the intelligent creature she had butchered.

With that completed, the Lioness turned and left the clearing. As ordered, she hunted down the remaining Lycans, killing them as quickly and as mercifully as she could, out of respect for their mother. Once her grisly task was finished, she left behind the dark forest, walking aboveground until she was out of the Cursed Lands entirely. Safe from the mole creatures that lived beneath the earth, the Queen of Stone dove into the ground, traveling through it as she headed back to the guild hall to deliver to her Ace the bottle of blood she had collected.