—Orion—

  We all moved and filed into formation, our three knights were positioned at the front with Gin leading the charge. Behind them were our five ‘damage dealers’, Elio leading the operation from there. The last section contained our medics—or as they say, 'healers'—Becky and the other two mainly worked on keeping the knights healthy, and occasionally ‘buffing’ the damage dealers. And finally there was me, my bow strung and hanging off my shoulder, with a torch in hand instead of a weapon.

  I was effectively benched, and with my only weapon deemed unfeasible for now, all I can do is try to warn the healers about possible threats while acting as a moving light source. Elio did have a spell to light up the caverns, but it was difficult for him to both maintain it and cast new spells, so he thought it would be prudent to have a backup.

  “Everyone ready?” Elio whisper-shouted, just enough that everyone could hear and nod in response. Then Elio ducked his head and began whispering under his breath, with my hearing, I could catch a few words talking about light and ‘his holy father’. I guess that makes the Sun God a man, I had been wondering that.

  But once he finished, an orb about half a metre in diameter popped into existence above him, emanating a similar amount of sunlight as a sunny day. With all preparations completed, we all headed into the cave, and saw nothing we could hunt.

  The spell lit the cave like a skylight illuminating a room at midday, the only things I could see from my position at the entrance worth noting was a cracked and discarded eggshell, and a little clump of meat. Even without my experience hunting, I could tell that until very recently, there were animals in here, and judging by the size of the eggshell, a species of large reptiles lived here.

  Slowly everyone in front of me marched into the cave, relaxing at the lack of enemies, but not breaking formation. Eventually I walked in as well, becoming the last person to do so, and the back of my neck immediately prickled with a cold sensation as I stepped through the archway.

  Sometimes [Hunter’s senses] gives me feelings, warnings, or prompts to do certain actions. A hint at which way the animal could’ve gotten, a nudge to aim where an arrow would be more effective. This was a new sensation, it felt like walking through a dark forest, and hearing a branch snapping in the distance. It alerted me to a serious threat from something I haven't noticed yet, and sending my heart racing with anxiety.

  [Hunter’s senses] was telling me, that if I didn’t play my cards right, I’d die before I could even beg for my life.

  Very carefully I twisted my head—just enough to sneak a look behind me—and out of the corner of my eye I spotted a flash of silver, from the roof just above the entrance. I could also blurrily see a claw and wing, clearly something inhuman waiting to ambush us.

  In the moment I had before the creatures above me decided to strike, I had the chance to do something. Just shouting for everyone’s attention would just push the threat into attacking earlier. The healers and I don’t have any real skills to defend ourselves with, and at least one of us would die if a large beast pounced on us.

  The only chance I had to guarantee a better outcome was to startle it, while threatening it at the same time. If they felt endangered enough, most predators would pause to reassess the situation before attacking. And the pause it would take to make sure it was safe to attack would give me the chance I needed to warn the rest of the party.

  Before I could stall from fear any longer, I turned and flung my torch at a forty-five degree angle, hitting the creature waiting to hunt us.

  “BEHIND US!” I shouted, my torch slamming into the space between what I could now see were two draconic creatures. The plan seemed to have worked, judging by how they both stared at the torch instead of attacking us. They stared at the ignited piece of wood as it hit the wall and fell to the floor, sputtering out without someone to hold it upright.

  Before I used the opportunity to retreat, I grabbed the closest healer to me and shoved him back, moving the more important member of the group to safety. But I didn't get the chance to get back myself, one of the animals jumping down from the ceiling, directly falling towards me faster than I anticipated. I instinctively raised my arms up to protect my head, and tensed in anticipation for the pain.

  But nothing bit, tore or ripped into my arm, and a bright flash of light pierced through my closed eyelids, and replaced the slicing pain I was expecting with a burning sensation instead. With a grunt I stumbled backwards, slapping the fire still burning on my sleeves as I tried to piece together what just happened. I glanced at the muttering Elio behind me, and realised that he’d used his spell he’d named [Fireball]. I looked at the intended victim of it and saw that the creature was unharmed, with only a smudge dampening the shine of the scales, instead of the oozing burns that I'd received.

  The other dragon-like creature dropped from the ceiling right after it, but was intercepted by Gin running through the packed group of people. She caught it on her torso sized shield, her thick plate steel sliced up by its talons instead of the healer it was trying to pounce on. With a shout she threw it off, sending it tumbling to the floor next to its partner.

  I—like everyone else hopefully following protocol—used appraisal once Gin had created a barrier of safety in between us and the foes we hunt.

  In the time it took for the scrap of information the second level of appraisal could give me, I took in the physical appearances of the drakes, and was stunned by the beauty of them.

  They were roughly about the size and shape of a wild horse—their shoulders in line with mine. They had thin wiry muscles that rippled underneath every scale, and their lack of fat made every twitch of the fibres easy to see. The head could be described similarly, mostly a lizard’s skull given some attributes from a horse, the usually flatter head made stockier. Like a Komodo Dragon’s head, but less wrinkly, flat and inelegant. Along their sides were their wings, silky smooth and incredibly thin, it seemed impossible that they’d be able to carry them, but I just watched them fly.

  The most memorable part of them was the eyes, vibrant and alive with emotions and intelligence that felt misplaced in the reptilian eyes. The beauty of these creatures alone made the journey to and battles through the [Mountain Dungeon] worth it.

  But that timeless moment when I admired them was ruined when Gin struck out with her short-sword, sinking its tip into the drake. A cry escaped the beast’s mouth, a deep and velvety noise twisted by pain. But I didn’t flinch or wince like I did when I was a child, I’d long mastered hiding that emotion.

  “Magic resistance” Elio scowled, looking at the drake he’d knocked back with the [Fireball], a faint scorch on its scales the only evidence that he’d ever cast the spell in the first place.

  I dismissed the Path after glancing at the [Health] and [Level] of the drake and nothing else—there wasn't time to read all the information it listed, the only reason to do it would be to sate my curiosity. I noted that its [Health] was high enough that it'd take at least three well placed, accurate arrows, that fully penetrate the scales, to kill it. Its [Level]—while ten above the teams average [Level]—it didn't make it too much of a threat. Levelling for beasts was typically an average of their stats, it worked differently for those with classes.

  “Tanks, engage and hit them when you can, mages and priests will be on supporting duties today, with Diego and Lee on damage duty.” Elio commanded while gesturing to the assassin bothering Gin earlier, and a man holding a spear with a scarf tied around its shaft. The battle had finally begun in full. The ‘tanks’ ran up to engage the two drakes, holding out their shields to catch any of the drakes' swipes, their sharp claws only leaving knicks and shallow cuts in the hardened steel.

  I watched the knights go to work, expertly using their shields to block every attack thrown at them while taking every opportunity to strike back. Sliding their short-swords out from behind their shields and stabbing the drakes when they became exposed. For every second that the beasts spent recovering from one of their failed attacks, it resulted in a wound on their body.

  If the knights didn't use the opening to attack, Diego and Lee did. The assassin was appearing in a puff of mist and attacking with his dagger, before vanishing again into the darkness. The spearman was more impressive, his spear flowing and weaving between the defenders to sting the beasts in a bloody flurry, its wielder making it bend in ways that seemed impossible for an inanimate object.

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  Ten seconds went by in which I did little more than watch the knights start to pen the drakes into a corner, my one job extinguished and lying on the floor underneath the drakes. After spending a moment to think, I unhooked my bow off of my shoulder and readied it for use. I might not be able to use it immediately, but that could change in a minute.

  But as I waited, the drakes were forced closer to the wall, injuries from daggers, swords and spears slowly adding to the mounting bleeding holes in their scales. A part of me knows that I could simply put an arrow into one of the beast’s eyes and end it instantly, but Elio asked me not to, so I won't. Not much of a point in having a leader if you ignore them when it’s convenient. I’ll stick to the plan, even if the plan doesn't involve me, because ignoring it would only cause confusion. A panicked crowd equipped with deadly weapons never ended well.

  But I still waited in readiness anyway, hoping for an extraordinary change in plans that would require me to become productive. And I don’t suspect that it’ll take too long for that to happen.

  These beasts are clearly intelligent, even when ignoring the fact that their appearance suggested above-average beastly intelligence. Their eyes were accurately tracking threats pre-emptively, the coordination in the pair's movements resembled a dance, covering the other's blind spots and striking whenever the knights slipped up however minutely. Forcing the healers to constantly burn through mana at an unprecedented rate. And their ambush at the start was well planned, only foiled because I had the Path to warn me, and they didn’t.

  Also, and most importantly, they’re animals. No matter how smart or ‘human’ any living thing pretends to be, to be above desperate violence, in the end we’re all animals. And animals bite, thrash, struggle and fight, even if it kills them, especially if the only other option is dying.

  And as expected, they did. One of the drakes lunged forwards, ignoring the spear Lee buried into its leg and grabbed two of the knights with its talons. It forced them down onto their knees through sheer body weight alone, flopping itself on top of them. Immediately the other drake jumped onto its partner’s shoulders, grappling both it and the knights to springboard itself high into the air, and it sent itself soaring through the cave.

  With a single flap of its silky wings to redirect itself mid-air, it flew straight through Elio’s [Sunlight] spell and shattered it into a thousand pieces-—its shards scattering and fading in seconds, like stars in the night sky as dawn arrives. Darkness replaced the spell, and made the cave a suffocating black abyss—only populated by the panicked breathing of my teammates.

  I have to admit that I panicked as well, flinging my head around widely in a futile attempt to see something. But before I could make a mistake, the question Father always asks when I complain rung in my head, the words ‘what makes a warrior?’ forcing me to focus on what's important.

  Warriors don't bend, don't break.

  Warriors don't bend, don't break.

  Warriors don't bend, don't break.

  I’m a warrior, so I can’t bend or break.

  With the mantra finished, I took a deep breath, focused, and gave up on using my eyes to find the Drakes. While the sudden darkness should blind the drakes as much as it did for us, their habitat was this cave and they're made to hunt in this darkness. They'll adapt to it while we stay blind and helpless.

  I summoned an arrow into my hand and nocked it into the bow, holding it like it was useful in this situation. With no other options left to me, I closed my eyes and listened—[Hunter’s senses] helped, almost enough to stop me wanting to replace it with a more useful skill.

  Every step and shuffle had my heart racing, my brain trying to figure out if that noise was a sword being unsheathed or a talon scraping the floor. It took a few seconds for me to orientate myself, between the still ongoing struggling of the knights and the first drake, and the confused shuffling of my teammates, it obscured the threat hiding among us.

  I opened my eyes, and peered in the direction of the sound suspiciously similar to claws scratching stone. I couldn’t truly see anything, but it was almost impossible to discern what might be the outline of a person or a figment of my imagination. But near that person I think that I saw what might be the outline of a drake.

  A couple of metres from the nearly invisible threat, I could hear the muttering of a hushed prayer, identical to when Elio first cast the [Sunlight] spell. In the next second I weighed the possibilities, whether that barest indications of a drake stalking Elio was real, and not a figment of my imagination.

  When I heard another tick of claws against the floor, I made my choice and raised my bow. I drew back the bowstring and relied completely on [Hunter’s senses] to guide my shot, my only offensive skill [Power Shot] imbuing the arrow as I released the string.

  My heart was pounding in my ears as I heard a wet thunk ring out from roughly where I thought the drake was, and I couldn't help but wonder if I'd made a horrible mistake.

  A few moments of anxious worry and reading the notifications from the Path telling me that I killed whatever I hit finished when I heard Elio cast his spell. After a few painful couple of seconds of adjusting to the light, I looked at what I killed.

  I felt a surge of debilitating relief when I saw that the arrow was embedded in the eye socket of the drake, instead of the very real possibility of a teammate. Elio stared at the corpse in complete shock as he also came to the very jarring realisation that he almost died. If my arrow strayed or if the drake wasn't stopped from killing him, he would've died before he'd ever could've recast the [Sunlight] spell.

  I looked over at the other drake, the creature releasing the knights it’d held through the darkness in complete shock. In its eyes I could see the process of it realising that its mate was dead.

  Shock.

  Disbelief.

  Then anger.

  Undiluted rage engulfed the drake, its blue eyes locking with mine, transmitting its accusatory rage onto me through the connection our eyes had made. After a moment of suffering its hatred, I looked away. It took my cowardice as a declaration of war, letting out a guttural roar and charging straight towards me, attacking anyone who dared get in its way with blood-coated claws.

  I watched the drake shove its way past the knights, swords getting slid into its side and torso in retaliation and splattering its blood onto the floor like spilled paint. But it still struggled towards me, ignoring the blades piercing its flesh and cutting its tendons until all it could do is crawl. Never taking its eyes off of me.

  But even rage couldn't keep you from dying, and the drake’s crawling quickly became useless scrabbling at the floor, its talons losing the strength needed to pull itself forwards. Eventually even that stopped, and all the drake could do was breathe and stare in my direction, like a hateful geist.

  I walked the final metre to it and stood by its side, summoning another arrow to my hand. It didn’t bother to move its head or eyes, its breathing becoming strained and choked, red spittle dribbling out of its jaw.

  Before I had the chance to put it out of its misery, Elio got there first, and jabbed a golden dagger into its chest. He activated the relic, the blade extending and going straight through what I could only consider to be its heart.

  “I don’t care what it takes, I’m going to find a shower and sit in it for at least an hour.” Gin sighed, holding up her gauntleted hands and shaking some of the dripping blood off of them. I noticed that most of her body was coated in the drakes' blood.

  Elio then stood up and retracted the blade, wiping the blood off the dagger onto the now definitely dead drake, before turning to me, a serene smile on his face.

  “Orion, do you remember the conversation we had earlier?” He calmly asked me, surprising me with how well he was dealing with the fact that he could’ve been shot in the dark.

  “Yes, yes I do.”

  “Then could you please—pretty please with a cherry on top—explain, WHY THE FUCK DID YOU SHOOT AT THE DRAKE IN THE FUCKING DARK?” He screeched, panting heavily as he unloaded his rage and correcting my assumption on how well he manages his emotions.

  “Well, when I heard it-”

  “HEARD IT? YOU SHOT AT THE DRAKE BASED OFF HEARING?”

  “I could see it, I think.”

  “YOU DIDN’T KNOW? IF YOU COULD SEE?”

  “I had to-”

  “Oh, you just had to? You had to do it? No, you just had to have the experience from it.” He accused me, before turning on his heel and stomping out of the cave as his tucked his dagger back into its sheath. Though I was still confused on what experience had to do with the situation.

  “Sorry, he’s… a bit startled. I’ll talk to him later.” Becky apologised for him through gritted teeth, and chased after Elio before I could respond to her.

  Everyone else slowly followed them out, most of them ignoring me as they passed me. The atmosphere quickly became awkward as the party exited the cave. But Gin acknowledged me, giving me a rough clap on the back as she walked past and sent me stumbling forwards.

  “Good shot though.” she said with a smile, before leaving me alone in the room with the two drake corpses.

  After standing still until the urge to do something I wasn't allowed to do disappeared, I walked over to the drake that I’d shot through the eye. I laid my hand on the arrow, the ammunition disappearing without desecrating the corpse any further. With a sigh I closed the dead drake’s eyes, wondering why the Path needs us to slaughter such creatures in order to progress.

  I went back to the one Elio stabbed through the heart, and almost closed its eyes as well, before realising something peculiar. Its dull eyes were focused downwards and away from head height, and I'd presumed it'd been looking at me when it died, I might’ve been mistaken.

  I followed its gaze to something I’d forgotten was in the room—a cracked and scattered eggshell.

  I walked over to it and picked up a piece, the shell still wet and fresh. This egg couldn’t have hatched more than a couple hours ago. But that leaves the question of what happened to its contents.

  I closed my eyes and focused on [Hunter’s senses], hoping that the infant was still breathing somewhere in the cavern. After a few painful seconds of only being able to hear my own breathing, I found it.

  I opened my eyes and looked towards where I was heard the rapid panting, barely callable breathing. The spot of interest was a head sized rock lodged into the base of the caverns wall, blending into the wall and ultimately unremarkable. I wouldn’t have given it a second look if I couldn’t hear the noises coming from behind it.

  I slowly walked over, making sure to not startle whatever could be behind it, and pushed the stone to the side, revealing the small alcove behind it.

  Then I saw it, trembling and panicking as it had every right to after such an experience. A small, infant version of the two matured Drakes, its eyes larger and body weak, frail and trembling.

  It reared away from me, the light from Elio’s spell blinding it as it uselessly tried to flee. It was trapped by the stone at the end of the alcove, and was now trying to dig into the stone with its infantile claws, not even making a scratch on its prison.

  My heart broke as I realised that I’d just orphaned it. The pair of Silver Drakes were partners, mates, and the parents of this newborn. I-I never wanted this.

  It was tiny, making it so hard to believe that the hand sized infant could grow up into a Silver Drake. The plain-to-see-terror in its features making its adorable face unbearable to look at.

  I had two choices, leave it here, to fend for itself and hope that it would be able to support itself through hunting and scavenging. And that it'll be able to survive in the [Mountain Dungeon], which was filled to the brim with dangerous predators. Or, I could take it in and raise it, guarantee its survival. I have enough experience in caring for animals to be confident about raising it.

  I watched as the baby tried to stand up, its legs shaking and failing to hold its weight. It then spread its wings in a weak attempt to intimidate me, the noises it was making ruining that strategy. It was pathetically whining, making sounds of distress not dissimilar to a puppy when it's injured.

  Its utter failure to even stand on its own meant it had no chance of living if I left it, the rats down here would kill it quickly. Its lack of ability to defend itself—even walking seemed impossible for it—made it clear infant lesser silver drakes were not made to survive on their own.

  In that moment I promised myself that I wouldn’t let it die, and reached to pick it up. I covered its eyes and decided to bring it outside, before it could notice the lukewarm corpses of its parents.