The csezul's head stops right in front of him. A circular maw of pink lips and rows of leech-like circular teeth pulses in his face. Saliva drips onto the cavern floor, hissing.
Sol feels a tingling on his left shoulder. The saliva is corrosive.
Reflexively, he jumps toward Nia's position, moves her out of the way, and in the same motion removes his outer fur coat, spinning it in a circle before throwing it toward the head, hoping to distract the csezul.
Wanwan jumps back, growling, teeth bared, eyes starting to glow red.
The elongated, elastic head of the csezul begins to flail wildly, forcing Sol to duck and use his body as a shield for the four Garm pups.
"Sol!" Nia tries to step in.
"Nia! Stay away! This thing is dangerous!"
To say that it's dangerous, perhaps, is a bit of a stretch, but there's still some truth to it.
A csezul might not be the deadliest thing one can encounter in a cavern. There are still the Basaltars and Drenitars inside this mountain. And furthermore, csezuls are weak to flame and their belly is especially vulnerable to slashes, what makes them dangerous is their ability to creep up on something or someone, totally undetected.
A hunter from another party lost two legs to a csezul a few moons back. Another one got melted, only the bones made it back to the village.
These things are no joke.
Sol has encountered a csezul before, at the start of his journey toward the Stake with Rahzar's party, and Rahzar made it look easy. One stroke was all he needed to decapitate an adult csezul. But that was Rahzar; his freakish size and strength, combined with his named, lunoxene-coated greatsword, made him the apex predator of this entire area while he was here.
Worse, Sol thinks this particular csezul is a bit bigger than the ones Rahzar killed a couple of weeks ago. If that one was an adult male, then this one might be an adult female. The agitation might stem from that.
Sol looks around. This place does look like a nest for something. He looks toward the Garms, which is odd, considering this is not where Garms should live.
This was the csezul's nest. They found it empty and relocated here.
The head stops flailing and turns toward Wanwan, seemingly tracking him. The csezul's stomach bulges, and multiple green goop bullets launch toward Wanwan. The speed is alarming.
Like the wind, Wanwan sidesteps and sprints toward the cavern wall, looking for a place to leap and attack. The greenish bullets splat on the rock, hissing.
As expected for a pup of a Guardian Beast. He knows what he's doing instinctively. Sol finds an opening and looks for something he can do in the distraction Wanwan is creating.
Nia runs along the edge of the room, keeping far from the conflict, toward the underground lake, dipping both hands deep into the chilling water. She winces at the sudden freezing in her palms but keeps them there.
She already noticed the healing properties of the lake's waters the moment Sol gave her the cold, damp cloth. If the cloth helped rejuvenate her magical capacity a bit, then dipping her hands in the lake might do a better job.
Sol notices a piece of boulder he might be able to move to protect the pups. He runs toward it and starts rolling the stone toward the open alcove where the pups are whining in pain.
With that, at least the pups are protected. Sol readies himself and refocuses on the battlefield.
Wanwan bounds toward the wall, narrowly evading another volley of green acid shots. Using his speed and momentum, he pushes off the wall like a springboard to gain height, propelling himself toward the csezul's maw-tail, which is biting a lunoxene on the ceiling of the alcove, anchoring itself above everything here.
Sol notices and shouts, "Aim for the lunoxene, Wanwan!" He doesn't know whether the Garm will understand him or not, but he has to try.
In an instant, like a shock of electricity, as if a connection forms right then and there, Sol knows Wanwan understands. He feels confirmation without a growl or a glance.
Wanwan's momentum drives straight at the cluster of lunoxene on the ceiling. He crashes with a loud report, sending everything down in a rain of crystals.
CRASH.
The csezul's maw-tail, once anchored to a lunoxene, loses its stability and drops toward the hard cavern floor.
It opens its flabby, scaleless wings and tries to flap them, powerlessly.
At least four big clusters of lunoxene crash down with the csezul. It emits a shrill roar from the circular mouth on its phallic-like head. Smaller lunoxenes stab into its back, wounding it badly.
Sol narrows his eyes. This thing doesn't have any eyes, right? How does it detect its prey, then?
He scans its rubbery, pale, elastic, scaleless skin. No nostrils, no eyes. How do you detect your prey?
Wanwan lands on all fours after a midair spin to regain balance.
The csezul's head snaps toward him as the Garm touches down.
Vibration? Sol runs to the side, avoiding a near strike from the tail while it searches for Wanwan.
Wanwan sidesteps again and barks, sending a loud vibration through the entire cave, and the csezul's head snaps at him.
This thing detects vibration! Sol looks around, trying to find anything to throw, hoping to confuse it before it regains stability and lands a fatal blow on the Garm.
He finds a big piece of lunoxene, weighs it for a second, and deems it heavy enough to distract.
The csezul's head whips back and, like a flail, its maw lashes at Wanwan with terrifying speed.
Sol jumps to a jutting stalagmite near the wall, uses it for lift, and leaps higher. He spins and hurls the lunoxene toward the deer carcass on the far side of the room. The impact is hard enough that the crystal cracks and begins to smoke.
Never, ever touch a lunoxene and expose it to hard impacts! It'll fuckin' blow up right in yer face! Keep them with care! Dobsy's dad's words ring clearly in his head. Lunoxenes can be used as weapons. Thanks, Dobsy's dad! He smiles as he lands.
The crystal explodes with a sharp bang, sending the deer carcass everywhere within the cavern. Orange smoke spreads from that corner.
The head, unlike a flail, suddenly halts mid-snap toward Wanwan. The Garm, as if knowing it was Sol's doing, is not distracted. He dashes forward, passes the head, and rakes the neck with his front claw.
The csezul staggers and withdraws its head to its normal size: a stubby, rotund, fat, ugly, pale, scaleless, wyvern-like creature. Wounds are piling up on its body.
Nia pulls her hands from the lake's water. The wounds are almost gone, not all, but good enough. She looks back toward the csezul, now squirming on the ground, massive pieces of orange-golden lunoxene scattered near its sticky, wyvern-like body.
The csezul spins. Its head and tail expand to three times their original length.
"A whip! Duck! Everyone!" Sol's voice reaches them almost instantaneously. Wanwan ducks as if expecting Sol's command. Nia submerges beneath the lake just before the tail hits rock at the water's edge, sending pieces tumbling deeper.
At this moment, Sol feels something strange happening to his entire being, physically and mentally. There are stories he heard from Gazmir and other hunters in the village that in a life-or-death situation, improvement is expected, but usually after the crisis has passed.
If something survives a dire moment, it gets stronger. It's natural, it's simple. What he's feeling now is not unlike that.
He looks at Nia and Wanwan, both laser-focused on the csezul's spin.
He's sure Wanwan feels it too, and perhaps Nia as well.
He feels like he's getting better even in the middle of a fight. The adaptation is happening in real time, far faster than normal, even though the life-or-death moment isn't over. It's just a feeling for now, but he feels like he knows what to do, even though his experience hunting this creature is lacking.
He's nearing a breakthrough, and he can feel Wanwan is close to one as well.
He doesn't know what that will entail, and honestly, he does not care. What matters now is that Nia and the pups are safe. He grips his flimsy dagger tightly.
"Wanwan! Jump up! When it spins, it can't change direction!" The Garm barks, confirming his command.
Sol looks toward Nia, surfacing from the lake, hair wet from submerging. "Nia! Restoration?"
"Twelve seconds!" Nia does not know where the number came from, but she knows it's fairly accurate. She realizes Sol and Wanwan know it too.
This kind of connection is rare. Not even seasoned hunters from bigger cities often experience it. The three of them trust each other with their lives, even if they haven't spent much time together.
Nia sees Sol smile a little. It's not nervousness; it's excitement.
"Twelve seconds is all we need." Sol runs into an incoming, rubbery tail-whip and slides, unsheathing his dagger within the same movement, and slashes the tail three times while he slides, the dagger still in hand.
Fresh, thick, greenish blood spurts from the wounds. The csezul roars, the shrill sound shaking the cavern. The lunoxene on the ceiling shakes, and some of the snow outside the hole drops inside toward Nia.
Wanwan spins in the air and lands with a heel-paw kick to the csezul's center mass, then jumps back to neutralize the recoil and lands on all fours. In the same movement, he roars to counter the csezul's shriek.
"WAN!"
Instantly, the vibration stops. The lunoxene and the snow stop falling.
Sol keeps sliding, nearing the csezul's belly. The csezul is still reeling after Wanwan's heel kick. Its head snaps toward Wanwan, ignoring Sol completely.
With one prepared movement, Sol slashes the belly, hoping to deal massive damage with a single attack.
SLASH!
His dagger finds purchase. He feels the sharp bit of the weapon bury into the thick, fatty, rubbery skin. However...
The handle snaps from wear and tear.
The csezul roars in pain.
No… the dagger!
The blade gets stuck mid-slash. There's still some damage. Sol did a good job, but this thing isn't finished yet.
Sol stops sliding and uses his left hand to halt his momentum, spinning his body. He drops to all fours, gets as low as possible, and tries to get under the belly once more.
I can still grab the blade! I can finish it for sure!
Wanwan dashes forward, meeting the head that now expands and spirals toward him, and bites into its muscular, tube-like neck, wrestling for control.
Nia comes out of the lake, scanning positions, understanding the Garm pups are safe, Wanwan is wrestling the head, and Sol is near the underbelly. She is the only one who sees it coming.
The csezul's maw-tail is already sniffing for Sol.
"Sol." She is too late.
The maw-tail's soft constitution goes rigid. It flails and bites Sol right into the back, taking a big chunk of flesh with it.