But not just any rhinoceros. These were floating things, like flaming rocks suspended in the air. Living boulders with horns. The elders back at the Pride called them meteorhinos and they hit hard as a crashing buck if allowed.
Idalia snarled. Kelix poised himself to strike as the Wanderan warriors fired magic from their metal sticks, their rhinos swooping through the air to hit as a stampede formation.
"Do it," Kelix called.
She was already on it. Idalia roared, creating a large portal that cracked and claimed a great stretch of the air. The Wanderans' charge failed as the warriors and their mounts zoomed straight into the gaping maw of her portal.
Then came the fun part.
The meteorhinos' riders were launched from the other side of Idalia's portal above the valley—howling, flailing as they dropped. Kelix dashed ahead, saying he'd handle the dismounted soldiers.
Of course, Idalia took her own initiative. She turned her attention to her all-you-can-eat bonanza of prey. She would have free access to the rhino meat—an amazing hunt for herself!
[Spatial Sight] made her risk-averse, allowing her to maneuver easily around the mass of angry, anxious rhinos. She sunk her teeth into the first rhino that charged at her and slammed the rough-hided creature to the ground, tearing chunks off it. It lay still after she bit its neck hard with [Bite].
The taste was gamey and sweet. The meat itself tough and sinewy, almost like molten rock. But the runes spoke to her again, allowing her to visualize her success.
[Bite: {Level 20} → {Level 21}]
[Power Particles: 18,100 → 21,000 Units]
[Accumalated Particles: {20,000 | 20,000}
Development (Lv12) reached.
Stat Increases: +2 to STR, DEF, FPWR, RES, SPD]
???
[Idalia's Stats]
(Development: Lv 12)
[Raw Values]
STR: 54 [+30]
DEF: 26 [+3]
FPWR: 26
WIL: 26 [+4]
RES: 23
SPD: 24 [+3]
??? ??? ???
[Next Development (13) at: {21,000 | 30,000}]
One down. Her ears twitched. [Spatial Sight] saw movement. She turned. Another rhino zoomed through the air straight for her with a bloodlusted dive.
Idalia ducked, bit its hindleg and brought it down with several strikes of [Claw Rend], tearing it to sparks and mana fragments. It went down quickly.
[Power Particles: 21,000 → 22,500 Units]
[Claw Rend: {Level 19} → {Level 20}]
The second prey fell, once she used her [Stomp]-[Portal Breath] combo on its head. It crashed into the ground. She roared in triumph.
That took a moment, then she proceeded to hop into the creation of her [Portal Roar]. Defeated another rhino then another until there were none left hovering in the air.
She savored the results of her triumph afterward.
???
[Idalia's Stats]
(Development: Lvl 13)
[Raw Values]
STR: 56 [+30]
DEF: 28 [+3]
FPWR: 28
WIL: 28 [+4]
RES: 25
SPD: 26 [+3]
??? ??? ???
[Accumalated Particles]:
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{36,800 | 40,000}
Spent = [-4000 Particles]
Distributable = [368 Points]
??? ??? ???
[{Skills}]
[Misc]
- Smell = Lvl 24 | Deftness = E+
- Spatial Sight = Lvl 22 | Deftness = E+
[Combat]
- Bite = Lvl 24 | Damage Tier = E+
- Claw Rend = Lvl 23 | Damage Tier = E+
- Stomp = Lvl 22 | Damage Tier = E+
- Portal Roar = Lvl 15 | Damage Tier = F+
- Portal Breath = Lvl 18 | Damage Tier = E
??? ??? ???
On the other side of the stretch of the volcanic field, Kelix had finished off the rest of his foes. Idalia chirped at the sight of his well-being. She then surveyed the field littered with meteorhino bodies.
She had so much to eat. It would be dishonorable to leave her prey alone to decay, untouched. Idalia decided that she had to eat everything before departing the area. The greatest code of the Liorex was to leave no prey behind. Unless it were unsavagable and it tasted as rotten as Kelix.
Before she had the chance to munch on the juiciest rhino that caught her eye, Idalia decided to approach Kelix. She had questions.
"If you're not going to eat your prey, then what are you gonna do about their remains?"
Kelix bit his bottom lip, then walked up to the closest fallen Wanderan. "This." He pushed his palm forward and a blast of lightning eradicated the Wanderan in one attack, armor and all. He did the same to another fallen soldier.
"Don't get any bright ideas, Ida."
Kelix's hand flashed like a broken storm and the Wanderan went to nothing but a small, fizzing pile of ash.
He let the ember-cloud curl away on the wind and folded the map back into his cloak with the same slow, careful motion he used when pressing a lock. "We need to move," he said. "The tide's turning and the patrols will be searching. We can't sit chewing bones while mercenaries muster."
"Move," Idalia repeated, offended. Moving meant leaving food behind and leaving prey unfinished—and that was a slur against Pride. Her claws dug at the volcanic grit. Her belly still hummed like a hive.
Kelix glanced at the carcasses of the meteorhinos, at the string of floating bodies like fallen moons scattered across the field. There were enough for a feast and a field. He rubbed his temple, annoyed and amused in the same breath.
"All right," he said at last. "You can finish three. After that, nothing. Not even a horn."
Idalia's eyes lit like twin suns at the permission. "Three?" Her voice went up on the last syllable like a challenge. "Only three? Kelix, you are stingy."
"Three. And then you help me get the boats, or no more permission ever."
She counted on her claws—one, two, three—then lunged with the kind of delighted, greedy sound that made the leaves shiver.
The first bite was a thunderclap in her mouth: rock-sinew, molten fat, the odd metallic tang of rune-heat. She tore and chewed and ripped and the world narrowed to muscle and bone and the beautiful crunch. With each swallow the inside of her chest pulsed warm, like a bell ringing.
[Bite: {Level 24} → {Level 25]
[Power Particles: 36,800 → 38,300 Units]
(+1,500)
She hardly came up for air before attacking the second meteorhino. It smelled of ozone and charcoal and old magics, and Idalia loved it for that. She went at it like a small god gnawing a planet.
[Power Particles: 38,300 → 39,800 Units]
(+1,500)
By the third she was panting, wading through sinew like a hunter through knee-deep grass. The third feed hit the place in her that was a ladder of hunger and sent her climbing.
[Power Particles: 39,800 → 41,300 Units]
(+1,500)
A burst of runic light scattered across her vision. Her bones hummed. The runes that lived in the corners of her mind told her she had crossed something. She tasted the world differently: sharper edges, the way the wind carried the iron of salt.
[Development (Lv14) reached.]
The map-voice—the quiet ledger that the runes whispered—delivered the rewards like a careful parent handing out spoils.
Stat Increases: +2 STR, +2 DEF, +2 SPD, +2 WIL, +2 RES, +2 FPWR
Idalia felt taller and broader all at once, the way a pond swells after rain. Her claws dug the earth and she flexed, testing her new strength. The numbers rustled in her head like leaves falling into a bowl.
???
[Idalia's Stats]
(Development: Lvl 14)
[Raw Values]
STR: 58 [+30]
DEF: 30 [+3]
FPWR: 30
WIL: 30 [+4]
RES: 27
SPD: 28 [+3]
??? ??? ???
[Accumalated Particles]:
{41,300 | 50,000}
Spent = [-4000 Particles]
Distributable = [413 Points]
??? ??? ???
[Claw Rend: {Level 23} → {Level 24}]
Idalia spun once, delighted. "Kelix! I feel like—like I could snap a cliff in half!" Her laugh was a rumble, still coated in meat-juice.
Kelix, who had watched with a curiously fond tolerance, finally let a smile crease him. "Good," he said. "You're going to need it."
He pointed, folding the map open quickly like a shark revealing a dark tooth. He tapped a smudge of ink where the coast bent around a narrow inlet and a set of small, reinforced skiffs were marked—supply boats, low and quick, used to ferrying men and gear to the island.
"There—three skiffs moored behind the reef. The mercenaries keep a lighter watch there because they think the reef does the work. It doesn't. We can take one if we time the currents and the patrols."
Idalia's tail flicked in a staccato of impatience. "Why not the big boat? The big boat looks comfier," she said, thinking of broad decks and more food.
"The big boat is anchored in the harbor and watched tight. Too many eyes. A skiff is a single breath away and easier to hide. We only need transport, not a parade." Kelix's fingers danced as he traced a route along the cliffs. "We skirt through the ruins. You said ruins have bones—good. We'll use them for cover. From there, a short sprint to the skiffs—no more than a dozen sentries will be watching them, maybe two towers. Keep quiet. No leviathans of noise."
"Quiet is hard," Idalia admitted. She remembered the portal-burst earlier and the way the tent flap clattered. "I am a loud thunder. I like being noticed."
Kelix arched one eyebrow. "Then don't be noticed."
She made a face that was half mock, half offended. "That is the worst plan. Why would I do your plan?"
"Because if you are noticed," Kelix said softly, "they'll see you. And they'll shoot whatever taste you have left out of you." He cast a look at the smoldering ash where the first slain Wanderan had been. "You won't like that. Trust me."
Idalia considered the ash and her stomach made a small, reluctant sound. She smelled salt from the ocean now, and iron, and far-off woodsmoke. "Fine," she said, folding her claws. "One plan. Quiet. But you owe me something better than hair next time."
"Deal," Kelix murmured. Then he looked to the horizon, where the thin black lines of coastal tents showed through a mist. Movement—figures on the beach shifting like kelp. The patrols were tightening.
He shrugged the map flat and stuffed it into a pouch at his hip. "Portal?" he asked.
Idalia's eyes lidded into slits of crimson. The thrill of making space tear by will alone filled her like honey.
"Portal," she agreed. She inhaled. She pictured the ruin's hollow arch, the floor of broken tiles and perched stone bones where they could crouch.
Her breath came out like an opened seam and a crimson cut unfolded. This portal was quieter, a long slit of air that wanted to be an alley and a shadow. It smelled like old stone and wind.
Kelix slipped through first, silent as a thought. Idalia followed, stepping through the shimmer with all the reverence of a cub stepping into a cave filled with goodies.
11 chapters ahead [or 5 weeks of reading time ahead of RR]. Have a good one!