Secret Hunting Ground
Crunch!
A fallen branch cracked under Lanse's step as he made his way to the secret hunting grounds that his comrade had told him about. On his way, he saw many prey beasts that quickly scurried away as soon as they detected his presence. The dense canopies of the towering trees hindered the sunlight, making it hard to see the surroundings.
But, for trained eyes, it was merely an inconvenience. As a veteran mercenary who had to battle in places where the sun couldn't shine, this kind of vision was not an issue at all for Lanse.
Slash!
Cutting off the thick vines that blocked his way, Lanse continued marching forward, following the directions he memorized. From the canopies, he could hear distant screams of flying beasts and Thrixies (smaller monkey-like beasts that reside in rainforests similar to tamarins).
This reassured that he was nearing his destination as his comrade mentioned that the place was quite noisy due to the calls and howls of various creatures nearby. He continued in the direction of the noises, and soon, he came across multiple tracks of beasts. Judging by the number of tracks, there were at least a dozen beasts. This was the hunting ground he was looking for.
'I guess he didn't lie after all.'
Lanse cautiously moved onwards, using the towering trees as a cover. Soon, he finally spotted the beasts in his vision. There were five Draxes cuddling together as they lay in their nest under one of the giant tree. Draxes were lesser versions of Drakes, having a leaner bodybuild compared to their cousins.
Resembling wolves in body structure, the Draxes also filled the similar niche. They lacked venoms and fire breaths, as well as wings, having only their physical strength and natural weapons to rely on. Unlike Drakes and Dragons that preferred to stay alone, Draxes formed tight-knitted broods and hunted together as a team. Usually, a dozen Draxes formed a brood which coincided with the tracks Lanse had seen earlier.
Taking note of the five sleeping Draxes, Lanse continued scouting the area until he located presumably all the members of the brood.
'Total 14, 5 sleeping, 5 patrolling, the rest went hunting.'
Lanse counted in his head as he watched the brood leader and the hunting pack disappear from his vision into the deeper parts of the forest. His comrade had mentioned the usual hunting times of the brood while he was boasting about his genius hunter status, and the fact that everything he said had been true up till now made Lanse reevaluate his comrade.
'That guy wasn't just a talkative drunkard after all.'
After making sure the hunting party was gone, Lanse went back to the nest and stalked the lone Drax that was patrolling the area around the nest. It was bigger than the other Draxes that patrolled in pairs, reaching over a meter in shoulder height. Probably around the rank of high-tier squire-ranked, it was the perfect target for Lanse to release his pent-up emotions on.
Although each Drax was a squire, with the exception of the brood leader being a knight-ranked, it did not mean that the brood was easy to deal with. Fighting them all at once would simply be a disaster as the brood itself had the combat and strategic power rivalling general-ranked beasts or even surpassing them at times when the brood had more than its usual numbers.
Taking extra care to conceal his footsteps and staying downwind so that the Drax couldn't detect him, Lanse slowly got closer to the lone Drax. Oblivious to the hunter approaching, the Drax casually stood with its forked tongue coming in and out. It never imagined that it would be ambushed by a hairy monkey jumping out from a bush with a shiny stabby thing in its hand.
As soon as Lanse jumped out from the bush to attack, the Drax immediately noticed and moved quickly to dodge the blade. Alas, it was too late to completely dodge the incoming attack, and its right shoulder was slashed, creating a gashing wound. Although the attack landed, Lanse had missed the initial target, the neck. His plan to chop off the head of the lone Drax had failed, and now, it was a race against time before the Drax call for reinforcements.
The injured Drax moved back to retreat from the threat and call for help, but Lanse didn't allow it to do so. He continued his momentum from the initial attack to pursue the Drax and launched another attack. This time, his blade fell on the Drax's neck but it failed to make a deep cut. But, it was enough to silence the beast.
Before, he was able to gravely injure the Drax because he had an advantage of ambush, but now that the Drax was aware of its enemy, it unleashed its bloodline ability. The greenish scales that blended into the rainforest suddenly flared up and shone like a polished jade. The scales stacked on each other and formed a tough armor, covering all the vulnerable parts of its body.
Although the bleeding injuries were covered up by the armor right now, dark red blood still seeped through the gaps of the jade armor, showing that the Drax wasn't completely protected. Having given up on running away, The Drax chose to stand its ground, abandoning its mobility for extra defense.
As soon as Lanse saw the Drax unleash its bloodline ability, he took a few steps back and stood guard.
'Dammit, I failed to finish it off in one go.'
To Lanse who battled with a General Ursarg, a mere Squire-ranked Drax should not be a problem. But, Draxes were well known for their extreme survivability. For edged weapon users, their tough armor was a nightmare to deal with. Most importantly, the reason why Lanse backed away from the Drax is that after their transformation, the scales at the end of their long tail became serrated like a spiky whip, turning into a brutal weapon.
Usually, Lanse would have used his serpent's sin to inject venom into his opponents and let it slowly wither away. But, venom was hardly effective on Draxes. After all, they were still part of the dragonic bloodline. Of course, as a far offshoot, their toxin resistance was much much lower than their cousins, but, the Draxes still could tank a few mililitres of strong venoms.
Another reason why Lanse didn't want to use his venom was because although he had no mana, using the sin still demanded something. It consumed a fair amount of his stamina everytime venom was injected. Since he was right in the territory of Draxes, he preferred to keep his stamina for later.
The Drax stared at Lanse with its livid eyes, moving its weaponized tail left and right. He could have just waited for the Drax to bleed out and die, but it wasn't what he came here for. Besides, he didn't know when the hunting party would come back. So, Lanse had to make a move quick.
'Haah, I didn't want to use this.'
Suddenly, the serpentine tattoo that coiled around his right arm came down and swallowed the blade he had in his hand, turning it into an Onyx blade. Then, Lanse quickly rushed toward the injured Drax attempting to end the battle at once. The beast didn't stand still and wait for its death, as it shot its tail toward Lanse aiming to cut his head off. The serrated tail flew through the air, nearing Lanse rapidly.
However, Lanse didn't slow down and kept moving forward, dodging the deadly tail with ease. In the first place, dodging the tail was an easy job. What was difficult was finishing it off while keeping its tail at bay. Now that he got past the tail, Lanse moved in for the kill, slashing at the same spot on its neck that he had injured before.
The Drax stood still, confident in its jade armor, but its confidence was quickly broken when it felt the cold sharpness of the blade on its neck. Alas, it was too late to notice. The Drax's head flew off, cut cleanly by the Onyx blade.
As soon as the ominous blade touched the armor, it corroded it away, revealing the tender flesh beneath. Thus, Lanse was able to chop the Drax's head off in one fell swoop. However, this enhancement had a price to pay. Unlike the venom which used a fair amount of his stamina in one go, this technique required the usage of stamina over time. Moreover, the blade enhanced will be destroyed afterwards, leaving him in the midst of enemies with no weapon.
As the dark red blood of the Drax disappeared from the surface of the Onyx blade, Lanse quickly rushed toward the other patrolling Draxes. Not long after, he saw two smaller Draxes side by side in his vision. Brandishing the Dark Blade, he prepared to pounce on the unsuspecting Draxes. Lanse was on a fight against time, now.