16 Practicing Magic (1/2)
The reptilian monster I had set out to find and was now studying was a massive thing. It must have been almost four and a half meters long and stood perhaps one and a half meters tall. Its skin and scutes were both ebony black.
The thing had the harsh amber eyes of many sorts of snakes, and its maw was filled with row upon row of sharp teeth. It was lounging in a relatively sunny clearing, and I stood several meters away from it. Its back was turned towards me so it couldn't see me and the thing appeared to be quite lazy. It was only because I had solid vision that I could see its eyes at all.
After studying it for a little bit, I took a deep breath and walked closer to the monster in front of me. I waited for it to detect me, and it took an embarrassingly long amount of time for the beast to do so.
When the monster detected me it demonstrated a speedy reaction time. It flared to life faster than I anticipated given its massive form and turned around to try and get a good look at me. Its body shot up and the thing leaped to spin around and lay its yellow eyes on me.
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The thing made an annoyed sound as it spotted me. I grinned at my foe, as the creature took its first steps towards me and roared. As it closed the distance between us it made its intentions clear by biting the air between us. The caiman was hungry and it showed.
My response was simple: I rose my hands. I pointed my index finger on my left hand at the thing and wasted no time before casting my first offensive spell: poison pistol.
A straight line of sickly green fluid shot forth from my finger. It sped through the air and connected with the monster, landing on the thing's nose. The monster reeled back in shock as the poison began to take effect.
”What does poison do?” I asked the system, speaking aloud as the monster began to react to the delibating effects of the poison it had just been hit by. The monster began to thrash around as if it were suddenly afflicted with the headache of its life.
[Poison inflicts harm on creatures over the course of a few moments to a few hours. The worst poisons can kill outright, but the poison from poison pistol, when cast at your level, is mostly used to make an enemy useless or otherwise incapacitate a foe.] The system revealed.
I grinned and began to edge closer to the flailing monster, studying it carefully. The monster looked at me, and I could sense fear in its gaze. Fear and rage. I rose another hand in its direction and the monster took a step back, but only for a moment. Almost a second later it lunged at me, now more determined than ever to attack.
Before it could lash out at me and get revenge for the poison it was suffering from I cast another new spell: ”Acid Splatter”. The spell manifested itself as sweat, sweat which I proceeded to speedily flick at my enemy with a swift flick of my wrist right as my opponent closed in on me. The acid sailed through the air and landed on the space of the thing's head between its two eyes.
The acid cracked the skin of the beast and began to hiss against its flesh as it burned it. The monster's response wasn't to roar. It was to cry out in pain from the potency of my magic. It backed up and fell to its knees as my poison continued to weaken it.
”It's almost time to heal it.” I told myself, realizing that the monster was in a lot of pain. I smiled as I watched the thing for a second longer, before pointing my hand in its direction and silently casting another spell for the first time: ”Tangle”.
There was a second of silence before innumerable, green vines shot out of the ground and coiled around the monster's body. They speedily and tightly wrapped around the beast binding its limbs, before spreading its tiny legs apart. This caused the creature to fall onto its stomach. The monster was now thoroughly defeated and if it were a humanoid it likely would have been quite humiliated as well.
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”Sorry about that.” I said to the thing, as I began the process of healing it.
I started off by casting ”Cure Condition” on the monster, healing it of the poison I had inflicted on it. The monster sighed as the poison that pained it began to dissipate. I quickly cast ”Create food” and conjured an apple for the monster to scarf down. It phased into existence in my hand.
I began to silently heal my foe, hitting the thing with two bursts of ”Restore Health” so that I could heal the monster. I paid attention to my minimap and I watched as the monster's hit points climbed back to their maximum number. When the thing was fully healed I paused and considered how to best proceed from here.
”What should I do with you?” I asked, staring at the now fully healed monster. It glared at me, but the anger in its gaze was also tinted with confusion. It asked me a perfectly fair question.
”What do you want?” It asked. I took a second to gaze at it curiously.
For a second I considered lying to it. I could have easily told it that I was here for a more morally upstanding reason than the true reason why I had come here. Ultimately though, I opted for the truth. However cold it may have been.
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”I wanted to practice my powers. And you were here, in a state of constant aggression and hostility. I didn't want to hurt an innocent, neutral creature, and you were neither.” I told the thing. It looked at me, confused and angry.
”So you practiced your powers on me?” It asked, defensively. I nodded at it. It made a noise, a roar of anger and disappointment. I listened to it, not phased by the intensity of the hateful sound.
”You... monster!” The thing hissed, angered at my decision to use it as my guinea pig. I chuckled at it.
”Why are you upset?” I asked coldly. Its baleful yellow eyes zeroed in on mine before it spoke next.