The attackers were... lizards? Not quite, they were bipedal and had scales and short horns of different styles adorning their heads. Some were wearing differing levels of armor but all of them were holding swords, clubs and spears. They were short like the Goblins were but almost more... human in the way they moved and dressed. They shouted angry things that Alice couldn't understand but what was clear is they did not like the Goblins.
Alice was... torn, the Goblins had given her safe harbor, allowed her to evolve and not attacked her. But she also had no idea why this was happening, she didn't know if they had committed some horrible act upon these lizards. She could try to help but getting involved in this dispute when she didn't have all the information seemed... like a bad idea?
Luckily for Alice she did not have to debate the moral choice for very long, as one of these scaled figures rushed at her swinging an axe towards her and yelling something in their language, Alice couldn't help but feel as if they were a bit slow, clumsy even. She shot forward, her large body slamming into the creature who to their credit did not move but that didn't stop Alice from sinking her fangs into its throat, she felt a sudden rush of pleasure as she drained its blood, pulling and ripping as she tore its throat out.
So these were Kobolds? And at least Tier Six, interesting, it hadn't felt all that hard to kill although she was freshly evolved and perhaps not all Tier Six monsters were made equally. Unfortunately her dispatching of the Kobold had not done her that many favors.
A number of them were now eyeing her, Alice bared her fangs, still dripping with fresh lizard blood as she activated [Intimidation]. Some trembled, one fled, but in majority it had an adverse reaction as well, as one suddenly shot her with a crossbow.
The bolt stung, she had never been impacted by an arrow before, she didn’t know what to expect but she could feel the metal scraping against the inside of her flesh.
In response Alice snarled before shooting forward at the Kobold who had shot her, briefly flying across the battle field fangs flashed like steel as she ripped open the throat of another kobold, turning her gaze to the others she jumped onto the next closest one, sinking her fangs in and beginning to drain its blood. As another Kobold came to attack her she shifted her body pulling the kobold causing its friend to stab its body.
She dropped it from her mouth pouncing onto the next one, ripping open their chest with her claws, she was vicious and merciless as she tore through kobold after kobold. Eventually she flew up onto the roof of a building as she surveyed the area, she tilted her head watching the different strategies and movements of this Goblin-Kobold war. She noticed Grub was being cornered, Grub had been very nice to her so she couldn't just let it die.
She began to cast [Weak Shadow Spike], noticing with interest as it didn't feel as draining as it once did. Her mana pool must've grown, she watched with joy as her spikes ripped through the unarmored parts of the kobolds, weakening and scaring them which gave Grub the perfect opening to crush them with it's hammer. It looked around as if searching for what had helped it but then moved onto the next set of kobolds.
Meanwhile Alice took a moment to view her new stats.
Name: Alice
Race: Adult Vampire Bat (Tier 5)
HP: 70/70
Mana: 50/50
Strength: 24(25)
Dexterity: 33(34)
Constitution: 22(23)
Intelligence: 15
Wisdom: 5
Charisma: 35(37)
Luck: -2
Skills
Echolocation 2
Supernatural Sense 5
Blood Drain 8
Pain Resistance 6
Shadow Magic 5
Stealth 3
Assassination 1
Intimidation 3
Human Language 6
Language of the Deep 1
Mana Control 4
Charm 5
Blood Magic 1
Blessing the Night 2
Daylight Weakness 2
Speed Up 1
Spells
Shadow Spells
Weak Shadow Spike 4
Weak Shadow Grove 1
Shadow Sprint 1
Shadow Shot 1
Blood Spells
Blood Lock 2
Skill Points: 5
Her snout turned into a smile as she looked at her stats, they had all increased majorly. It was a great leap from where she had been previously. Maybe she'd even be able to fight that Crow now. She looked across the battle that was now beginning to fade down, plenty of Goblins had been slain but so had Kobolds, albeit with some help from Alice. It seemed the Kobolds did not want any more losses and the Goblins weren't in a position to follow after.
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She could stay here, fight against these higher tier Prey, gain plenty more strength. But she couldn't just leave Xana could she? And more importantly she had to kill that rat. Her mother deserved vengeance. She spread out her wings and took to the air flying up out of the forest.
Looking down she was completely shocked, the forest spanned for... for miles, she realized she was rather low as she kept flying upwards she saw an icy sector of the cave, she wasn't sure how it was snowing there but she assumed it had something to do with magic? It looked as if that part of the cave had been different prior but now was frozen over. Something about the area seemed extremely dangerous to her. And then she saw it, two large eyes glowing with a blue hue. She knew she wasn't big, still just a Bat she was the size of a small animal, akin to a small dog.
But... those eyes were massive, she felt even if she had been a tall human they would've been easily four times as big as her. She quickly decided to avoid the icy area at all costs, redoubling her efforts to fly upward and escape the lower layers of the Cave. It took her a while. She constantly felt watched as she passed by sectors of the cave, in some she couldn't see anything, in others she saw massive earth eating worms and giants with horns. She could've sworn she saw something with five heads but it was gone when she looked again.
She eventually found... well it had to be the outside of the Lower Dungeons right? Brick spread out across the area above her, but there were gaps, just long lines of brick rectangles that connected, creating almost a spider web across the hole that went deeper and deeper. She landed onto the top of one and was sure. She recognized these bricks and when she was able to watch everything shift that confirmed it.
So from here... she just needed to find her way up and then figure out which side her sector was on. That couldn't be too difficult right? She flew upwards before suddenly stopping, a hallway cleaved through the air directly above her as the maze shifted again. Okay, she just had to take it nice and slow. She began to fly from one level to the next, waiting for the maze to shift before she flew again. She occasionally saw holes like the one she had fallen into. Maybe that's how people entered? That was... concerning. If she ran into Humans they'd definitely be less kind to her now that she was much larger.
She reached the top of the Maze after a long and tedious period of time, once she did she did in fact see humans but they did not see her. She was laid against the top of one section of the Maze looking down as they approached the end of a cliff, it was a group of six, after a moment the Maze shifted, moving so that one of the holes was right in front of the cliff, the group jumped in and Alice tilted her head.
So those were indeed ways to get into the maze, how interesting. Although it seemed... overtly complicated for something that could teleport you out. Whoever designed this thing was not being reasonable.
Alice flew upwards as she sought out her Sector, it shouldn't be terribly hard, in fact she didn't need to look for her sector... she just needed to find... there! The area of moss that had overgrown one side of the cave, she knew it was opposite to her sector.
She began to fly off towards her Sector, rising higher into the sky. She looked upon the Cave as she flew, it was truly massive she hadn't fully paid attention as she flew up from the center but there was a ton of space down here, the caverns went on for miles and all the different levels meant it was even bigger than it looked, there was huge outcroppings of rock like that rock line of spikey rocks that was moving...
Wait, spikey rocks that were moving? Alice looked back and she quickly realized she wasn't the only one looking around. A pair of dull orange eyes were staring up at her, connected to those spikey rocks was a large and massive body, she didn't need to assume she didn't need to guess. This thing was... the [Earth Dragon]. It didn't seem as if it was going to attack her, instead it just watched her with some passing interest.
Its big lumbering body shifted the earth around it as it moved, changing the terrain of the Cave as it pleased. It was amazing to see a being of so much power... and it also showed Alice what she needed to strive for, she needed to be at least that strong right? Although... there were definitely stronger beings deeper down, the eyes from that icy area still felt as if they lingered on her.
She decided to move a bit faster, the sooner she returned to her Sector the more safe she would feel. She was sure that even if that Crow attacked her again that she would be able to fight back, she was stronger now. But with her quest she needed to keep fighting stronger and stronger foes.
It didn't take overly long for Alice to find her sector, she had spent a majority of her life in this world there and her [Supernatural Sense] allowed her to easily find it once more. She landed near Xana's Abode without much noise, her nose twitched as she realized she was a bit too big for the entrance now, it made her wonder how Xana had gotten those books in there since she would likely be about the size of one standing up now.
She looked around, her big ears twitching as she listened for Xana instead she heard skittering, a lot of skittering, and... explosions? Fire. Xana! She flew off, if Xana was fighting that meant she might be in trouble!
Xana was in trouble. A lot of trouble. She glanced at her missing limb, she was losing blood, and only had 3 limbs now. What was worse was that aside from the horde of undead rats that were rushing her, there was a Crow nearby. Just waiting for her to be weak enough to kill. She cursed her bad luck.
First she had been discovered by the Rats during her spying, she wasn't sure how but they had known she was there. She had barely escaped but had been poisoned in the process, getting back had been rough but she knew at least that Alice would be there to somewhat help her, only when she arrived the area was full of blood and viscera. She had found the feather on the ground and with no sight of Alice she knew she had been killed.
It had been a long and arduous process to overcome the poison but she had at least gained [Poison Resistance] in the process. But now she was dealing with Rats that could explode on death! It was useful in some regards for her destructive magic but it had cost her an arm and she had noticed that a Crow was watching her for the past few days recently. Surely it wouldn't pass up this chance to kill her.
Of course it wouldn't come swooping down while these Rats were here. They were dangerous even to those high above them due to their poisonous nature. Von truly had gotten out of control from what she had seen. Him? King of the Rats? Insane. And now it seemed he led not rats but... whatever these decaying monsters were. Sure they were shaped like Rats but her [Blinded Eye of the Dragon] let her see their souls were shells of what they used to be. Fragmented and sewn back to their bodies. It was horrid, disgusting and profane.
[Necromancy] was a magic she was aware of, a cruel magic that trapped the person in their body, they were still there as she understood it from her books. Still watching as their body listened to the commands of the [Necromancer]. The book she had read told her that until their undead body, the person who had been raised would not be able to move on. Those with stronger spirits developed personalities and some could even wring control back over but a [Necromancer] of proper power could force even the strongest undead to follow their commands.
Would that be her fate? Would this new Rat King come and raise her corpse? Ha... so much for the Salamander... she was too low on Mana for anything fancy she was going to- BOOM!
A large black figure slammed down in front of her, claws swept out cleaving open rats sending them flying before they exploded, in front of her was a large fluffy figure with wings... wait no... it couldn't be...
"[Let night fall over this land, may the garden consume ye and a great black tree grow from your bodies, Shadow Grove!]"
The bats shadow stretched out connecting to each shadow of a rat before spikes began to grow out, stabbing them, raising their bodies up into the air, before they erupted, their bodies exploding, a large amount of purple gas was beginning to fill the area due to these explosions but this figure... no Alice merely flapped her wings forward sending gusts of wind to push it away with ease.
She turned to Xana, powerful glowing red eyes gazing upon her.
"Are you alright Xana?"
Her voice was different now, it had been all squeaky before, it made sense. But now it had a hint of husk to it, she had saved her... Alice had saved her life, came back after certain death, stronger than before. Oh no... why was her heart beating like this. Blood loss, it was definitely blood loss not because the stunning bat had suddenly appeared and saved her and then looked at her with such concern.
She was fainting... from blood loss. As she fell she saw it, the two most important things.
And the Crow that was currently swooping down to attack Alice as she looked at her with worry.
Big dumb idiot... focus on... the crow... behind you.