A Salamander, but Mighty

POV: Tamara

In the end, Luchael had left Tamara a good two days before thinking about returning to the adventurers' guild for a new dangerous quest, her health had risen to more than 2/3 of her maximum and her Mana was at half, not enough to make her feel safe, but enough to apply [Acid Spit I] as a last resort.

And then it must be said that Tamara couldn't wait to get out of that room again... and from all the suspicious sounds that came from the surrounding walls. Outside the dilapidated tavern it was raining, but inside Luchael's backpack she was sheltered and safe, as was probably the leporan's head if it hadn't been for the ears, which with their length certainly couldn't fit under a hat if not being bent downwards.

There weren't many people around, and before leaving the tavern she could see that Luchael had once again waited until nightfall before leaving, a good choice since this way they could avoid most of the other adventurers in the dungeon, but not totally good considering that going into those late hours meant that the dungeon had already been cleared and there weren't many monsters still around before the daily reset, so there were fewer opportunities to increase level.

In the darkness of the backpack, Tamara heard the guild door open and the water stop falling on the backpack's tissue; she heard him talking to someone before making some movements that she had now learned to interpret as steps. A few minutes later they were back in the rain.

“Get ready, I've chosen a scavenging quest, they even gave us the pickaxe,” Luchael whispered under his breath as the rain fell on them, Tamara almost felt sorry for him walking under the rain, not that she could do anything to help him in that regard.

Ah, rain is a bit like death: it doesn't discriminate against anyone, Tamara found herself thinking. The cynical nature of her own thinking caught her off guard: she had never been so disillusioned when she was a human girl, perhaps her new reality was making her pessimistic? Not that she could really blame herself if that was the case, considering she didn't even have a real body anymore. This is all the fault of those two deities...

When they entered the dungeon and the backpack was opened, Tamara was busy wondering if she would ever see those two gods again, and above all, IF she wanted to see them again, given that the attempt to kill her that one of the two made was the cause of why she found herself in the body of a salamander monster.

And she was also already missing Velen, she was a bit like her Mrs. Wilson, with the difference that she wasn't a volleyball and above all she wasn't the fruit of her imagination but a real being.

“Come on, it's your time!” Luchael told her trying to smile at her cheerfully, in reality it was clear that something was making him thoughtful about her, ever since they had returned from their expedition into the wild he seemed to have conflicted thoughts whenever he had to deal with her. “No fighting this time, I brought you just to be safe… and because I needed someone to watch my back.”

“How would I've ever do that if you can't even understand what I'm telling you…”

The leporan smiled more sincerely, "there, I just need you to make strange noises like these to warn me if you see something."

He wasn't entirely wrong...

But it still hadn't been nice to tell her that her words were strange noises... not that Tamara really blamed him for that.

Tamara blinked a few times contemplating the environment of the dungeon: compared to the previous time it seemed that the pools made of the blue light dripping from the ceiling were wider and brighter, as if it were in a different phase of the day. The smooth stone meanders were covered with moss and mushrooms, and the ceiling was well lit by the pools of light that Tamara supposed established the cycle of day and night.

They began walking, exploring the dungeon which, as Tamara expected, was empty. By the time it took them to find one of the dungeon's mining areas, the number of enemy encounters they had had were non-existent, and the area still showed enough resources to be mined.

Or perhaps the resources were also regenerated? For some reason, Tamara doubted this: if the resources in the dungeons had regenerated like monsters, then the world's economy would have looked very different from what she had seen, and the adventurers would have looked more like miners than fighters in search of next mortal danger to run.

The excavation area had a curved shape and seemed to widen in the middle before narrowing again to connect to another tunnel, as if it were a stomach; there were puddles of light that illuminated the surroundings but cast disturbing shadows on the ceiling, the smell of musk was more pungent and made Tamara wrinkle her nose.

“Keep watch, I'll take what we came for and we'll leave!” Luchael reassured her, taking the pickaxe with both hands, "and let's hope we don't break the pickaxe, I'll have to pay it back if it gets too damaged!"

The leporan straightened his trousers, moved the short hare's tail that emerged from just above his butt and got to work. Tamara turned her back to him and rested her long belly and tail on the ground, resting her head on the uneven floor of the dungeon and moving her completely black eyes from side to side, alert and attentive.

There wasn't a sun moving across the ceiling to tell what time it was, nor a moon moving to tell how much time was passing, the only clock was the repetitive sound of Luchael's pickaxe hitting the brilliant yellow stone similar to a quartz.

Bam.

Bam.

Bam.

Tamara raised her head suddenly, raising the alarm as soon as she saw the shadow of something that reminded her of a mix between a dog and a hyena projecting from one of the two tunnels that connected the large room to the rest of the dungeon; Luchael exclaimed a surprised curse in his own language and dropped the pickaxe while turning away. The pickaxe hit the dungeon floor hard, making an echoing sound in the cavernous depths.

Tamara focused her attention on the hyena-like creatures that were emerging two from one side of the tunnel and one from the other.

[Hynarl – Lv: 6]

[Hynarl – Lv: 5]

[Hynarl – Lv: 5]

“This is not good! Not good at all!” Exclaimed Luchael, who had drawn his rapier but seemed more ready to try to cling to the ceiling to escape than to fight.

So, a level 4 salmadrer and a leporan ready to flee against two level 5 hynarls and one level 6.

In short, the opposite of a fair fight.

No, there was absolutely no hope if she fought alone. Tamara jumped on the leporan forcing him to stop climbing to the ceiling in order to defend herself from the first attack of the hynarls, which thanks to Tamara's dodge and a calculated use of [Acid Spit I], transformed a potentially serious wound into little more than a scratch.

Like the previous time, it was Tamara who had to work hard to allow her and her teammate to survive: at the second fight, she noticed that it was easier for her to fight than the leporan, she was faster, her skin was scaly and it acted as an armor and its claws seemed to be just as effective as the sword of the biped that accompanied her, not to mention her acid spit, a weapon that as far as she could see had no comparison except in the leporan's rapid thrust attack.

The girl reincarnated as a monster managed to prevail by focusing her attacks with those of Luchael, on their side they only had a tactical advantage dictated by the fact that both were equipped with superior intelligence, which allowed them to bridge that small difference in levels that 'was among them. This didn't mean they were getting out unscathed, on the contrary, Luchael was having a much worse time than Tamara: wounded in multiple places, with his clothes stained with blood and breathing rapidly, it was clear to Tamara that the last hynarl who was still standing between them and safety had the opportunity to avenge his fallen comrades by taking down at least the leporan.

The hynarl was injured but still on its four legs, its long, white fangs gleaming like Luchael's rapier.

Then it did something unexpected: it pricked up its ears, and giving a sort of chilling laugh, it turned and fled into one of the two tunnels. It seemed that they had won, in reality, the hynarl was simply exchanging positions with a much bigger, and much nastier relative.

Tamara could only watch as a vaguely humanoid hyena bigger than Luchael emerged from where the wounded hynarl had just escaped. It had short gray hair, swollen muscles and some pulsating veins could be seen on its neck. Its brown eyes seemed filled with unreasoning fury.

[Hynarl – Lv: 12]

This... this is the end! The gap between us is too big!