V Hunting Party Pooper

[Cassius Promen]

It has been about a week since Fae and Cassius arrived in New Abraxis. Fae has taken a liking to help Newt Scamander in the Managerie while Cassius has made the library of Abraxis his second home after the small room in the university that Dr. Jones has graciously lent to them until they can afford better lodgings. Cassius has figured that Kraw is filled a lot of things that can and want to kill them, carnivorous plants, giant and mutated dinosaur, even the world itself is out for blood. Getting anywhere or expanding existing settlement has been a struggle. Naturally curious and ambitious, Cassius wanted to know if there was anything he could do for New Abraxis. Figuring that they were going to stay here for a while, improving the area would be best.

Cassius has also been studying the magical energy of Kraw and has figured out quite a bit. Kraw has a prominent natural and almost sentient feel to the magic, very similar to the woods of Kelram. Right now, he has bought items from the market, a flask of water, some miscellaneous seeds of various carnivorous plants, and the heart of a beast, "Alright, let's see if this will work." He laid out the ingredients in front of him and closed his eyes. He focused his mind on the energy from the ingredients and try to extract and manipulate it. The seeds were easy to extract but the heart seemed to take a bit more effort but after a bit of time and energy he managed to drain everything of their magical energy, "So far so good. Now the hard part." He focused his mind to mix them together and put it inside the flask of water. A few minutes of concentration and effort passed, he finally managed to put the magical essence inside the flask and the water had turned a light shade of red, "Phew, finally." Cassius stood up and inspected the potion, "Hmm not quite as potent as I hoped but this should be able to heal some minor injuries. Wonder if I can sell this on the market?"

"Definitely, hunters always get hurt one way or another. The divine knows that they need any help they can get." A woman with short red hair and wearing padded leather armor, brandishing a bow and arrow entered the room as Cassius was finishing his experiment. She walked closer to Cassius, "I have not seen you before. I assume that you are new to Kraw." She had taken an interest in the potion, "Though, you seem smart enough to use the magic of the land."

"You're... Lelliana right? The one that helped Dr. Jones set up New Abraxis."

"So you have met Indy. Good, then you know what to expect in Kraw already. Would you mind handing me that potion you got there?" She opened up her hand. Cassius was hesitant at first but considering that she was another key figure in new Abraxis, it was a good idea to get on her good side and handed her the potion, "Thank you." She took off her arm guards, showing a bunch of light bruises before drinking the potion. seconds later, her bruises had disappeared, "Not bad, these are definitely useful." She handed the empty flask back to him, "Do you know how to fight?"

"Well," He took out the hilt of Hope and extended the blade, "I know how to use this pretty well and we managed to kill a mountain lion, chimera looking thing."

"We? You did not come here alone?"

"Yeah, I stumbled into Kraw with a friend of mine, Fae. She's probably somewhere around the menagerie right now."

"Fantastic, I don't need to train you for the wilds then. Let us be off."

Cassius was then thoroughly confused, "Off? Where are we going?"

"You are talking to the master hunter of new Abraxis. I am taking you and your friend along on a hunting party to assess your skills. Impress me and you might see some more of Kraw's secrets."

 

[Cassius Promen]

Lelliana ran ahead of Cassius to prepare some equipment for the hunting party and brief the rest of people coming along about the two newcomers tagging along. Cassius went on a detour to the menagerie to get Fae and tell her the news.

The menagerie was basically glorified zoo and the smell as you enter it shows that. It housed all kinds of creatures from the harmless small slimes to the tamed carnivores like the one that Cassius and Fae encountered. While looking for his friend, Cassius got fairly acquainted with the animals within by narrowly dodging a pair of claws, "Woah, easy there," Being slobbered on, "Ugh, what the," having what seem to be cobwebs stuck on his head, "Ew, seriously?" and finally being covered with a green gooey substance. He was speechless at that point. After a good ten minutes of searching, he finally, finally managed to find her without missing a limb, "Fae, got a moment."

Fae had seemed to have convinced the small slimes that she was their queen as they were practically scampering to be held by her, which hit Cassius with a pang of jealousy, even if he doesn't know it, "Hey, dude. Sure, just give me a moment." She put one of the slimes down and picked up a slightly larger one before walking over to him, "What's up?"

He eyed down the creature in her arms with a confused glare, "Aren't you going to put it down?"

"HE." She retorted quickly, "is a special one and I basically adopted him now. His name is Goopy." She started snuggling the slime with her face, which he seemed to be enjoy, guessing by the purring noises, "Just look at him! He is the cutest little thing!" She basically smushed Goopy against his face.

"Yeah, very cute." He pushed the slime away from his face, "Well, you probably would want to leave your pet here for what we're going. Lelliana asked us to join her hunting party."

"Lelliana?" She let Goopy down to go play with the other slime, "Professor Scammander said she was a brute who didn't understand the natural beauty of Kraw."

"Right.." He said while raising an eyebrow, Scammander sounds like quite the eccentric, "Well, I doubt the person in charge of security in New Abraxis would have an interest in the local wildlife but she doesn't seem like a bad person."

"Well, I'm sure that Professor Scammander was exaggerating. Alright, let's go." She moved pass him, "Oh, I forgot to ask. Do you realize that you were standing on mammoth's dung?"

"Mammoth what?" He then noticed that the ground was soft and the smell finally caught up to him, "Oh God why?! I swear this place just hates me. Why didn't you tell me?"

Fae couldn't keep in her laughter, "You're cute when you're flustered like that." She said under her breath.

"Did you say something?" He said while trying to scrape off the mammoth turd from his shoe.

"Nothing, I guess I just didn't notice the smell. Come on, let's get out of here. I need some fresh anyway." She ran ahead of him to the exit.

"Hey, wait up!" He tried catching up to her while also dodging the myriad of animals on his way.


The two finally arrived at the gates, Lelliana was already there to brief the rest of the party, "So, we're going to the jungle northern sector from here. The dinosaurs have been acting up and stealing our livestock. This unusual behavior needs to be investigated." She finally noticed Cassius has arrived with Fae, "Ah, you are finally here. This is Fae I assume? Do you know how to fight?"

"Well, not really the best but I have been practicing." Fae said with enthusiasm.

"Good enough. You will fill out the middle flanks, act as support for the main fighters. Think you can handle that?"

"Sure, but what are we facing off against?" Cassius asked.

"A Dilophosaurus has been stealing our livestock for the past week. We managed to fend it off before too much damage was done but our scouts only found its nesting ground yesterday. We suspect that it is just one Dilophosaurus but we can't be too careful. We capture it if possible but these things tend to get violent. All clear?"

"Yes, Ma'am." Cassius and Fea responded.

"Good, let's get moving men!" The entire party starting chanting before walking out the gates.

 

[Cassius Promen]

The party started marching out north in formation, three Swordsman and Leliana up front, two shieldbearers on each side, guarding their flanks, four magic users to support from the back, and Cassius and Fae just behind the front lines. The jungle they're marching through are a lot denser and more humid than the area Cassius and Fae explored when they first got here. Behind the bushes, everyone can see that shadows were shifting, leaves were dancing around, and Cassius can sense a heavy aura of bloodlust in the air, "We're getting close, aren't we?" He asked Leliana in front of him.

"You feel it too right?" Leliana said while inspecting the surroundings, "All eyes are on us right now and the nest is about 500 meters ahead. Be ready everyone."

We moved passed the dense jungle and ended up in a sort of clearing. The trees had more space between them, the vines were secluded to edges, and in the middle was completely clear of live save for a few leaves, vines, and twigs that were made to be a rough nest, "Looks like the beast is not here yet but we should get ready. Weapons out everyone!" Everyone took out swords, shields, bows, and wands. Cassius and Fae took out their swords.

Fae was frantically looking around, "Cassius, do you think something's nearby?"

Cassius focused on the energies surrounding them, he expected similar killer intent vibe that he felt while fighting that Chimera thing but the air is still and almost silent. He can feel some creatures moving around but most are running away from the nearby area, "This area feels off, be on your guard."

One of the shieldbearers was rummaging around in the bushes nearby when he called out to everyone, "Oi! Everyone, take a look at this." He moved around the leaves and twigs to uncover a single large bone on the ground, completely clean except for hints of a green substance splattered on it, "Anyone recognize this?"

Most of the party converge on that one spot, Leliana took to the front and examined the bone, "Judging by the size, this may belong to creature we're hunting." she picked up a bit of the green substance with her finger, "It's not acidic, a little sticky, could be from the creature that ate it but it doesn't explain how the bone is so cleanly picked." Just as she was done with her examination, the sound of metal clang through the air and everyone's head swiveled around towards the noise. Leliana followed by everyone else ran towards the nesting ground. On the other side, a pair of sword and shield was on the ground, "Line up! Head count!"

Everyone formed a straight line and start saying their name, "We're missing Theo. We can't leave men behind, split off into groups of two, watch each others backs and look for any signs of Theo. Scour the perimeter, the creature couldn't have run off too far so soon. If you find Theo or anything that might have taken him run back and wait for back up. Theo was a trained knight, either he was ambushed or the thing that got him was strong. Now, scatter!" Everyone saluted and ran off in pairs, Cassius and Fae ran off west.

Cassius took point while Fae watched his back, "Cass, do you think this thing is worse that that beast we fought before?"

"Well, considering it took out someone with actual training, probably." Cassius turned his head and saw that she was nervously shaking, "But don't worry. As long we're together, we can take on any..."

"Any wha..." She was about to asked before Cassius put his hand over her mouth and pulled her behind a tree.

"Shh." Cassius felt the presence of two living things but the movements seems off, janky, jittery, almost like they're struggling. The live essence was also fading away, first to only a glimmer then to nothing. Then they heard it. Squish, squish. Wet, heavy, and gross. He peaked, while still holding on to Fae's mouth, there he saw it, a giant blob of green goo and inside it, two of people in his party, or at least what's left of them. Their bodies were being dissolved bit by bit, their skin was being erased revealing the muscles and letting their blood flow out wildly.

Fae managed to wriggle out and took a peek; her eye quickly went wide, "We have to go!" She whispered loudly before pulling Cassius by the hand back to the nesting ground, "That thing is dangerous, we have to warn Leliana and the others!"

"Wait you know what that thing is?"

"Limus Maxima, or king slimes, professor Scammander told me about them while I was helping in the menagerie. They'll eat anything that isn't part of its habitat. They're really resilient and would consume anything that enters it's body, we need to get away from it." They finally managed to get back to the nesting ground.

"Leliana!" Cassius called out to her, who was on top of one of the tree branches, scouting around, "We found the thing that took out Theo and a couple of others!"

She jumped and walked up to them, "What did you find?"

"King Slime." Fae answered, "We found it consuming a pair of our men, we need to regroup before anyone else get hurt."

Leliana nodded and whistled loudly, the men started appearing out of the grove, "Another group has been picked off out west, we need to group up and take out the creature." She looked around and counted seven people, "We're missing one pair." A blood curdling scream can be heard northwest of the nesting ground.

 

[Cassius Promen]

Everyone in the party turned towards the noise, weapons drawn and with Lelliana taking front guard, "Stay calm and watch my guard." She moved forward to the bush, pushing away the branches and leaves. For a moment, everything was silent and the screams stopped.

Cassius and Fae soon followed Lelliana into the bush, "It stopped," Fae commented, "Maybe they're gone now."

It was a nice notion but the peace didn't last long, something soon came out of the foliage in front of them. It was one the missing men, crawling on the ground and covered in cuts and bruises, "Lelliana!" He shouted as soon as he looked up, "Leave! Now! This thing is too dangerous! They already got Kyle!"

"Calm down, man!" Lelliana said to the man, "Let's get you up and fixed up first."

She tried to pull him up but he screamed out in pain, "Agghhh! Stop! Stop!" He dropped back down and moved slightly further out, exposing a bottom half that's devoid of skin and muscle and dripping with blood from his torso, "It's too late from me! Just g--" He was dragged back into the forest before he could finish his sentence.

"Run!" Lelianna screamed as she dragged Fae and Cassius out back to clearing, "Looks like a fight is coming, get ready everyone!" She knocked an arrow in her bow and the others got into battle formation, spells primed, fighting stance set, and everyone moved into battle positions.

Soon, the leaves and bushes started to rustle then the branches of the leaves started to part, there it was. 6 meters tall, bright neon green, and inside it were two sets of skeletons, one of which still had meat and skin attached before it quickly dissolved. At the center of it, there is a wooden chest, completely untouched and no sign of decay. One of the fighters charged on ahead in anger, swinging her sword at it but as soon as she made contact, she was disarmed and her sword taken into its being. She quickly back away.

"Careful everyone," Fae warned, "King slime would take in anything that enter its body. Ranged attacks and magic would be the best way to take it apart and kill it."

Lelliana nodded, "Mages! Fire!" The three remaining mages started lobbing magic spells at it and it managed to do some damage, only for the slime to quickly regenerate itself really quickly, "Damn it! Our spells aren't powerful enough!"

Cassius took a moment to think as the slime slowly moved closer to them, "Everyone move back, I'm gonna try something." Everyone else moved behind him while Cassius took out his sword and held it up to his face. He closed his, feeling the magical energy flowing around him and taking it into the gem inside his sword, "Aggghhhh!!" he plunged his sword into ground. The ground then shook before craking open, letting wild thorned vines burst out everywhere in front of him and puncturing the slime, holding it in place and taking large chunks off of it, "I got it! But it's not down yet!" His sword shook and Cassius struggle to stabilize it, "Ugh! Quick, I don't know how long I can hold this."

Everyone then started barraging the slime with everything they got, spells flew, explosive tipped arrows took chunks off of the thing, and it started to slow down. The slime already lost about 60 percent of its mass but it was still fighting and Cassius was struggling hard to keep the spell stable. His sword flung off the ground, Cassius knocked down, and the vines retreat back into ground. The slime was starting to reshape but Lellianna dashed forward with two daggers in hand and started slashing at it at lightning speed, basically pulverizing it, not letting it have a chance to reform. All that's left was the bones of their teammates and the wooden chest, "It is shame that we lost two good men, we will honor them with a proper burial." Lellianna walked towards Cassius who was lying down on the ground, "Good work out there." She reached out and help him to stand, "We couldn't have defeated it without you, and you," She turned to Fae, "Your knowledge helped us out immensely. Looks like I don't need to worry about you two." She turned away and started walking back to camp, helping the others carry the chest and what's left of the fallen.

Looks like Cassius and Fae passed this test.