White Flower, Black Feather

Showdown in the Cave!

Miriam moved to the rocks that fell from above, and picked six that were big enough thanks to the light that came from her eyes, while thinking about the pattern for her Silent Stone

‘Ia, Chisel, Scratch, Inscribe, From Memory’ she touched the rock with a claw ‘Stone Engrave!’ and was pleased to see it roughly appearing on the stone ‘Good… five more to go~’

She had no trouble with the stones, or the magic cost for the engraving, and quickly made the box on her back again, storing five of them inside it, while keeping one on her hand, as the vibrations became stronger to her

‘He is getting closer… let’s see how these actually work, from the inside that noise. Ia, Imbue…!’ as the stone was draining her magic, she could feel how the shape of the tunnels she could “Hear” around her, became blurred and shrunk ‘Hmm…’

The sound wasn't completely nullified, but she had no time to think about how to improve the design

‘No pain~ time to hunt~’ because it was good enough at the moment

At that moment the vibrations intensified, and she took another carved stone on her hand, to be ready to Imbue it

‘I wonder how much of a mess I can-!’

BOOM!!!

‘Ah!’ she could hear and felt the shockwaves of the explosion, as she saw more rocks fall from the ceiling ‘Move!!!’ trying to avoid them

/////

The enormous red and gold bat was learning the shape of the cavern and its tunnels, as it flew closer. Landing on the shore of the lake that was close to the entrance, near the white line last location, before dashing between the trees to the entrance

Silently opening its huge mouth while a sharp chunk of ice was growing between its sharp incisors, and he aimed it to the darkness

BOOM!!!

Firing the projectile and destroying the entrance, causing the whole cliff and hill to shake and collapse on certain parts. Covering him on dust coming out of the cave, while seeing the name of everything he had killed with that attack, not paying attention to the rustling trees

SCREEEEECH!!!

But nothing matched with what a white line should be, and used the red claws on his wings to destroy the source of the dissonant lack of sound next to him

A carved stone that was thrown at him with the explosion

He could detect another one of those inside the hill, but it was too deep to aim at the time, and when the black ball got out of the water, on the other side of the lake, he aimed another projectile at it, making the Fell Destroyer freeze with fear

Screech?!!!

At the same time the second dissonant spot started to move, making him turn to it, and firing the projectile at the lake. Making the ground tremble and causing an enormous tower of water, once it exploded on the bottom of the lake

SCREEEEECH!!!

The Ruler dashed to the water and took fly, aiming to another entrance nearby that connected to the same tunnels

Knowing that the lack of sound and the white line were related somehow…

/////

Miriam looked at the collapsed tunnel next to her, while rubbing the spot where a rock hit her body

‘Ow…’ it was painful, but not in a way she felt the need to heal herself ‘At least it just blocked one of the sides…’ the rest of the tunnel was in a rough shape, to both her illuminating eyes, and to the vibrations she was feeling. But even if only one big stone had fallen in that direction, she didn’t wanted to remain still ‘Ugh… I hope that I can eat soon…’

With that though she started to move, doing her best to make a mental map with the dulled vibrations around her. Helped by a sudden loud explosion far below her

‘What was that…? Hmm… there should be… another bigger tunnel down and to the right of this one…? It’s either that, or an open chamber…’ as she moved, Miriam took a moment to see the walls ‘I don’t know enough, to tell if this is a natural tunnel… or if a creature made it…’

The Silent Stone was helpful to make sure the noise wasn't hurting her, but she was sure that it was hiding the sounds of anything nearby

‘Ah!?’ like the black, eight legged, chitinous things, that reflected the light coming from her eyes the moment she took a turn on the tunnel

One of them was looking on her direction, and in a similar way to a Launcher, threw itself towards her after turning to aim at her

Silently passing next to her as Miriam dodged it, ignoring it, before jumping towards the other one once she realized that they weren’t spiders. Grabbing it with her mouth while she coiled around it, turning to look at the first one, as she felt the body of the thing she was attacking first, starting to crack

She saw the other one, push against the wall of the tunnel to remove the sharp horn it had, from where it had impacted on the wall, landing on four legs that it had on its “Back” that tensed immediately

‘Aaahhh!!!’ making her force the stone, that made the floor of the tunnel, into a spike to block it once it launched again

The lack of sound, while seeing the spike and the chitin of the thing break, unnerved Miriam. She still moved her body to curl around the twitching monster, to crush both of them

Ding

‘Ugh…’ even with that sound, she didn’t relaxed her body ‘By the smell, these are monsters, not looking forwards to eat them. Status’

‘Eh…? Why that fast…?’ even if she was completely dumbfounded by how fast she had gotten that level, she was still aware that the Ruler was trying to kill her, and removing the “Horn” from both monsters, Miriam kept trying to eat ‘Ugh!!!’ which was difficult, due to her upgraded senses…

The Darts had a long tubular shape, with four long, chitinous legs, above and below, even if what was “Above” in one of them wasn't clear. Unlike the Launchers that Miriam had fought before, the monsters had a sharp, flat horn between two equally flat and wide eyes, that looked to the sides of the pointed head

Miriam didn’t noticed, but between the horn and the rest of the body, there were two mouths above and below it, technically making them, two headed monsters

‘Ugh…!’ she was doing the best she could, to forget about the taste as she moved away from that place after eating

/////

It wasn't long for her to reach a point were the tunnel split, but before she got there, another explosion had shook the tunnels, nothing had fallen near her. But she was sure that one of the side tunnels she had felt crossing above her, had collapsed

‘Up or down…’ directly to the front of her, the tunnel shrank as it went up, to the point were a human would need to crawl to move on it

The other did a sharp turn in the direction she had came, but it twisted to the deeps without being connected to a previous tunnel she had felt on the way

‘Up is probably a bad-!!!’

But the choice was made for her, as something big enough for her to heard within her Stone’s effect, landed above her. And before she could fully hide on the twisting tunnel, she saw an enormous red eye glaring at her

‘Self Speed Burst!’ making her force her body to move as quickly as she could, until she saw another split on the tunnel ‘Aaahhh!!!’ and using her magic to make the stone wall close the entrance to the split she took-

BOOM!!!

‘AAAHHH!!!’

/////

It was a snake…

Just before flying to that hole leading to the underground, The Ruler had destroyed another entrance to it that was too small for him to enter, he could have entered the first one, but it quickly became too small, so it didn’t matter that he had destroyed it while enraged

And this third entrance was even smaller, but it was where he had seen the creature that had troubled him

A white snake…

He took fly again, the moment Miriam started to flee, carefully aiming and firing a smaller projectile. His attack didn’t connected directly on the splitting part of the tunnel-

BOOM!!!

But the explosion still caused the ground around the hole, to sink. Making the trees rustle and move quickly to avoid getting buried-

Crackle!!!

And with being annoyed a third time, they started to fling bolts of lightning to the Ruler in retaliation-

SCREEEEECH!!!

Just as the beast blocked all of those with many smaller ice projectiles. Continuing to do that, while trying to listen for the spot without sound for a few minutes, until the trees eventually stopped

Screech?!!!

But now there were two dissonant spots underground…

/////

Miriam was hurt and dazed by a hit on her head, caused by the explosion that destroyed the “Door” she tried to make. She still managed to use magic to heal her head, while the noise was paining her senses

‘Ow… ugh… I can work with this…’ but because she had less than half on her magic reserves, she choose to not heal her whole body ‘Shit! One broke…’ instead she worried because one of the carved stones she made broke, together with the “Box” she had on her back, spilling its contents ‘Where is it…?’

It was then when she realized that her Silent Stone was gone, seeing a deep crack nearby as the most likely place where it fell

‘Ia! Imbue!’ she didn’t wasted time trying to find it, and Imbued another one ‘Ow… the prick is big…’ once it was done, she could finally focus on the echoes around her ‘This one… turns almost vertical behind a corner… and ends on a cliff…? Or are they called ravines in this case?’ she stopped focusing on the path where she had tried to hide ‘This other one… full of rubble…’

Most of what she could detect of the other tunnel, had been buried by the attack, but she still could hear a way to move on it…

‘I don’t like tight fits…’

She remade the box on her back and stored the three remaining “Blanks” in it, before moving to, and on, the partially collapsed tunnel

It wasn't as tight as she feared, but her box had gotten stuck a couple of times, making progress slow. Eventually on the other side she saw another living Dart, partially buried by the rubble, which she killed and ate part of it

‘Ugh…! There is… ugh… a Spawner nearby…’ she looked around for the source of the smell, but it came from a tiny crack on the wall, and the vibrations didn’t revealed anything in that direction ‘Later, first I need to… deal with the flying prick…’

Miriam had no idea of how to “Deal” with the Ruler, but she focused on following the tunnel, now thankful that it was clear of obstacles

‘Why I couldn’t smell it before…? Um…?’ moving along the darkness, she reached a point were she was unable to understand some of the vibrations, and slowly she moved in the direction where the oddity was

Reaching a small open spot in the tunnel, with muddy water reflecting the light on her eyes. Miriam got close to the liquid, and after making sure that nothing was hiding around or in it, she drank some water

‘Not ideal, but it’s better to not waste magic trying to clean this water…’ she noticed a small crack on a nearby wall ‘The vibrations react weirdly with water… I think there is water behind this wall, and the prick is making a lot of cracks…’ once she had enough water, she retreated a bit from the mud ‘Now… is the lake behind this wall? Or is just a… natural chamber that filled because the idiot?’

To her senses, the water on the other side of the deep stone wall, was at either the same height as the puddle, or slightly above it…

‘Either way I can’t break the wall, it’s stone, I run the risk of making it fall on top of me and-!’ she suddenly realized something and moved away from the wall, deeper into the tunnel, clutching tightly the Silent Stone on her hand ‘The prick is tracking the lack of sound! If the wall goes to the lake then he can break it to kill me!’

Only one way was available to Miriam, as she could feel another distant explosion…

Down the twisting tunnel, eventually feeling the strength of the vibrations increasing slowly, as something big was moving on the edge of her perception, and getting closer

‘Oh…!’ the Ruler took all of her concentration until she reached the end of the tunnel, and suddenly she found herself staring at the darkness beyond

The tunnel ended abruptly in an open space, a sharp cliff too deep for her light to show her the bottom, and the vibrations of the Ruler were getting closer…

‘All right’ she threw the Silent Stone forwards with all her strength, hoping that it didn’t break with the fall, ignoring the pain before grabbing an empty one ‘Imbue!’ and placing it down on the edge of the cliff…

And the last step of her plan

‘Ia Stop’

Was to stop seeing

/////

The Ruler finished destroying another small entrance, and took flight again, moving to the only entrance that he could fit, while dodging and blocking another volley of lightning coming from the trees

Landing in front of the cave, before they were done with the attack, and screamed, unable to ignore the pain, but with his regeneration, it meant that the trees couldn’t damage him fast enough, to achieve a kill before stopping, allowing him to get in

His head had the same dimensions has the Fell Destroyer, but he could hear a path that was perfect for his size, and the wings to his sides, were strong enough that the occasional scratch was healed in moments

The only thing that stopped him for a moment, was the smell of monsters and Grudge in the tunnel. Those smells had been hidden by magic, but his sharp claws had destroyed the engravings on the mouth of a side tunnel, releasing it

Screech?

For many reasons, unlike the other forest’s creatures, the Rulers were immune to the pressure that came from the trees, so he wasn't going to go out of his way to kill monsters

But the foul nature of the Undead almost made him turn around… almost

Screech!!!

Only his pride made him keep on with his rampage…

Moving quickly, ignoring the sounds of anything that got too close, killing them either willingly or accidentally. It didn’t matter to him, he was just moving to the wide empty area that was echoing further down

Big enough for him to take fly, and where he could feel two empty spots

Once he found the entrance to the open area, he got stuck on it for a moment, before screeching one more time and break in the cavern, and using his massive wings to fly on the absolute darkness…

Screech?

Remembering the place…

Long ago, that hollow place had been his hunting ground, using the echoes he quickly found the chamber where he was born, near the bottom of the cliff, now barely big enough for him to turn inside it…

Getting distracted, because he now understood what the weird stones on the partially flooded cavern were…

Ruins of building that were older than him, extending far on the distance of that wide place… he almost considered getting the “Helper” for information about that…

SCREEEEECH!!!

But he didn’t dwell on those memories, or in thoughts about him asking for help, instead he focused on the emptiness that was on the wall, and turned flying towards it, sure that the one on the water below, was just a decoy. Hanging to the wall near the entrance of that small tunnel-

CRACK!!!

And biting the place were the dissonant rock was, destroying it. Roaring once it was gone, gloatingly knowing that he was stronger that the thing, as he read the notifications he had been ignoring…

Screech?!!!

Not seeing anything related to a snake…

SCREEEEECH!!!

Taking flight once more with wrath, aiming a projectile to the other empty spot and firing at it. Causing an explosion that shook the whole cavern, but it didn’t kill a snake, making him fire another one near the first explosion

Followed by another, and another. Destroying indiscriminately the ruins all over the hollow area, as he flew around it, making the whole cavern tremble, causing cracks to appear everywhere he attacked, while not reading anything about a…

Snake…

SCREEEEECH!!!

He had gotten too focused on the emptiness, to pay attention to the sounds of the creatures he had been killing. In just one moment of focus, he found the snake, behind something with a conical shape in a crack near the entrance to the cavern where he was born

Roaring, the Ruler landed and hanged to the wall with the intention of killing the snake with a bite-

HIIISSS!!!

/////

‘Ia! Sound! Vibration! Volume! Potency! Echoing! Stun! Unbearable Pain! Lingering!’ Miriam inhaled behind the megaphone she had made, waiting for the Ruler to get close enough ‘AGONIZING SCREAM!!!’

HIIISSS!!!

Making the Ruler scream in pain, and drop to the darkness below, with his wing covering his head. But didn’t stopped to celebrate her victory, because she doubted that he was going to die from the fall, and got to the nearby tunnel moving towards the chamber at the end of it

At first, after Miriam threw the Silent Stone, she was planning to climb up, to the other entrance to that cliff she had felt before. But while making the decoy Stone, she noticed how that lower crack was closer, and changed her plan

Like this, if she was going to die, she was going to die fighting

‘Moving close to the stalactites!’ but she needed a place that benefited her ‘Hahaha!’ and the ceiling of the cavern was perfect for that on her mind. Miriam started to climb a natural column and flung the top of her body to the biggest stalactite she could

Just as she started to engrave it, the Ruler started to stand up, doing his best to ignore the pain that kept hammering his head, destroying more submerged ruins around him, while loose rocks fell from the ceiling

Trying to aim his wrath at the snake, to overcome the pain, but it wasn't until the accursed hissing stopped, and the appearance of a new dissonant void on the middle of the cavern where he was born-

SCREEEEECH!!!

That he could force his body to crawl to, and climb the wall, entering the tunnel at the same time that Miriam Imbued a Silent Stone

‘Ia! Volatile! Impulse! Cling! Melt! Damage! Kill!’ preparing another spell while most of her body was hidden by the stalactite, and her mouth was filling with venom…

SCREEEEECH!!!

Dropping the stone the moment the Ruler entered the cavern, causing him to lunge at the moving stone first, breaking some columns and stalagmites before destroying it with his claws, turning his head to the stalactite above-

‘TOXIC BREATH!!!’ taking the brunt of a cloud made of both Miriam’s custom venoms to the face

SCREEEEECH!!!

Feeling it destroy fur, skin, flesh, his tongue, nose, eyes and ears

Causing so much pain that he lost control of his body, thrashing on the ground hoping that the suffering could end…

‘IA! SHATTER!!!’ and releasing her aura, Miriam saw the smallest glimpse of victory, before hitting the stalactite with her claws, making it fall on top of the Ruler

/////

The change on their calculations was sudden

[Cause of Death: 0% Nameless Fell Destroyer ‘Porkus’ – 99,999% Nameless Ruler of Death ‘Screeching Idiot’ Survival Chance: 0,001%]

‘What?!’

But it had change from an absolute, to an impossible…

And on the eons the Guardian had existed, they had seem many of those happen… but… this felt different…

/////

Wherever the Ruler noticed the stalactite or nor, while it fell and Miriam let go of it, he moved, making it break, and pierce, a bone of his left wing. Increasing his pain as it got him stuck to the ground, and Miriam fell on top of his back, biting again and delivering some of her normal venom this time

Before having to jump away to avoid the claws on the other wing of the enormous bat, for some reason that eluded her at the time, she had a weird hunch of the enormous creature

‘You are scared!’ she had landed on the other side from the entrance, but she didn’t saw the need to escape from him ‘And you aren’t used to pain! You lost the moment you stopped attacking at range!’

The Ruler broke the stalactite, looking on her direction as his body tried to regenerate his face and wing, wanting to kill her the moment the pain stopped

‘I win!!! Ia! Sound! Vibration! Volume! Potency! Echoing! Lingering! This place will be your Grave!’ she couldn't make another megaphone ‘STONE SHATTERING SCREAM!!!’

HIIISSS!!!

But with the already weakened cavern, she didn’t needed to

And the Ruler noticed, after some of the pain on his head stopped, how some of the stalactites were falling on that place, partially due to the snake… but he could feel the vibrations coming from the lake…

Thundering water had started to flood the cavern…

Rumbling louder than his echolocation, together with the lingering hissing on his big ears… and… the… fear…

Ding

Made him flee

‘HAHAHA!!!’ with Miriam right behind him as everything trembled and crackled loudly

The Ruler wasn't using his own sounds to guide himself, to both him and Miriam, the water was more than loud enough for that. Miriam was also happy of not having to withstand more damage to her ears, and once she heard the bat getting out to the big open space, she removed the box from her back and started to climb the stone wall up…

‘I hope the whole lake doesn’t get down here!’ not thinking too hard about her survival… ‘It looked so pretty!’

She was still trying to escape, but was wary about moving to the same opening that the bat was taking, instead she tried to move past the crack she had used to hid and make the megaphone-

CRACK!!!

‘AH!!!’ but the shaking caused by the water made a huge chunk of the wall to fall down, almost taking her with it, making Miriam rethink her route and just climb up

Becoming more and more worried as she slowly got close to the opening

CRACK!!!

‘SHIT!!!’ just for the same thing happening again, this time between her target and her location, making her try to get closer to the wall, to avoid the falling rocks

But on the space that had appeared, once the stone finished falling to the raising water below, she noticed an opening, that would take her to a considerably smaller tunnel, and she took it

Sliding upwards on it, not realizing that the route she was taking had some sand on it, trying to not think about how the constant vibrations around her, twisted her perception of how small the space around her and the stone was…

CRACK!!!

Trying to not panic, about how that noise indicated, that below her the tunnel had collapsed. Trying to not think about how the temperature was finally starting to feel colder to her

‘Breath! Breath and move! Breath and move!’ not wanting to panic, not wanting to think about how she was out of magic ‘Ah!’ not realizing that there was water flowing from above until her hands slipped on mud ‘AAAHHH!!!’ starting to think that she was going to drown

Only truly managing to calm down, once that message appeared

‘Thanks you!’ with it Miriam used her long body to anchor herself to the walls, not wanting to waste energy slipping, even if the cold was becoming worse… ‘Breath… I have the Heating Stone up there… breath…’

The water didn’t needed much time to reach her head, and at that point she started to use the water to float, helping her to move up

At points, she needed to hold her breath, because the water flow was erratic and fully covered her at times, or she needed to pass a natural siphon. Hoping that she wasn't making the wrong choice during the one split she found, needing that “Going up” was the right answer

But eventually, and after a long period underwater

HISS!!!

‘AAAHHH!!!’ she reached an illuminated chamber ‘AAAHHH!!!’ by light that came from a crack on a wall about twenty meters away from the place she surfaced

Struggling against the cold, Miriam managed to reach a muddy spot above the water, and shook the glimmering water from her body. Feeling how drained of energy body was, she didn’t wanted to move, but after another small quake, the place where she had appeared started to gurgle and swallowed the rest of the water on the pool around her

‘Ugh… cold… move… just… cold… sun… heat…’ moving forwards on the muddy terrain

Slowly approaching the light, recovering some of her energy as she moved closer to the heat

‘Ah…’ almost fainting, once her shaking body came into contact with the outside air, on top of the drying lake bed. Enjoying the heat that her body desperately needed…

Not becoming alarmed when she felt magic gathering on her mouth and throat because-

HISS!!!

Ding

It had happened once before, but this time she could hear the distant sounds of thunder, and the sky to the south glowed orange for a few seconds followed by a roar… different to the one made by the bat

On that direction she also could see the Ruler flying away, his wing didn’t seemed to be completely healed by the form he was moving

‘Bye~’ Miriam made a rude gesture with her hand ‘Next time~ I’ll something more than just taste your blood~’ she shook her head while looking at the state of the lake, and pulled back her aura ‘Do I worry about that Ding now, or later…?’

-Tree…-

‘Thanks…’ she started to move up, towards the closest shore that had trees ‘Sorry about the lake…’ she was glad that she was moving to the same place, where she had placed her stone… and now that she was a bit more calm, Miriam could feel the same kind of pull, she had felt when she had been close to the Terror Stone she made ‘I can’t feel the Silent ones… they must have broken…’

She got briefly distracted by a fish trapped in a pool, too big for the water to fully cover it. She choose to eat it and drink some water, praying for the food, and asking for forgiveness about the lake, at the same time

Other than that, the only distraction she had while reaching the shore, was the terrain

‘Good that Porkus isn't here…’ before focusing on her stone, she made sure that the Destroyer hadn't come back to that place, while she was busy with the bat… and… ‘Can’t believe it… all that, and it’s just about midday…’

Miriam tried to not think too hard about that, and flipped her heating stone, wondering why it was in a slightly different place in comparison to before, but the tracks of something big nearby gave her an idea…

‘Ah!’ then, she started to feel heat coming from the stone ‘Yes!’ the stone wasn't just at the same temperature than the ones around it, she could see some steam coming out of it as she stared at it ‘I win! Hahaha! I can survive winter!’

She wasn't thinking about getting food during winter… but that could wait. The gods knew, that the forest wasn't going to let her have a peaceful day on it… at that moment she just could think about coiling her body in a circle around the heat

‘I better deal with the Spawner now…’ but her rest was short ‘Status…’

‘Ah…’ she read the information in front of her three times, before she shook her head ‘Thanks you… but I can’t remember when… my body moved by itself, due to the Strain Resistance…’ she moved upright and what little magic she had, was used to make a smaller “Box” on her back

Miriam designed it to hold the Heating Stone, while it was exposed and it’s “Recharging” was up, so she could use it’s heat to hunt for the Spawner in the cold cave. Having done that, she started to move to the trees, stopping to look at the destroyed cave, and now smelling the monsters from it

‘Uh…? Why now I can-?!’ something hit her head

Ding

Thunk

‘Hey!’ and looked up, once she saw the purple fruit hit the ground, in time to see a flower turning to dust ‘Why…?!’ she moved her arms wildly around and the trees rustled softly…

To her it seemed that they were laughing…

‘Ugh… this one is the mixed recovery right…?’ she quickly swallowed it, but immediately started to shiver due to how spicy the thing was ‘Ugh!’ stronger that she remembered, and it made her body twist on the ground

She didn’t noticed the trees laughing again

‘Bleh…’ eventually Miriam raised her head again, and after making sure that the stone was still secured on her back, she moved to the tree that gave her the fruit, to give it some magic back ‘Thanks. Ia Stop, Status’

‘Oh~’ she was already planning getting something from the Shop, but that reward made her certain about what she was going to get ‘EP Shop, Senses, Buy Innate Sound Protection’

The heat focused on her head and grew until it became oppressive, slowly making her hearing worse. Making her grow fearful and place her hands on her head-

Pop!

‘Ah?’ until all that suddenly went away, leaving Miriam hearing her surroundings perfectly ‘Ugh… that scared me… some of these things need a “Fear Warning” or… something… wait… Helper is that your job too?’

-Yes…-

‘I really need to upgrade you soon… Traits… any suggestion?’

-Magic Boost, Tracking (Quarry), Fear Resistance Boost, ready to evolve…-

‘Any of them is a good choice…? Hmm… well seeing how hard it is to get to ten, I’ll start it now. Evolve Magic Boost’ the window closed

‘After those are done… I might get a Spell Focus…’ with that she closed the screens, looked at the cave… ‘How do I get in…? Where did the bat got out…?’ and waved at the tree before giving it more magic ‘Can you all tell me where to go, to get inside the cave?’

It took a few moments, but when another tree started to rustle, she moved to it to gave it some magic too, and repeated doing that, with every tree that guided her

/////

Miriam eventually found another cave, passing in front of some other places that she knew were destroyed by the Ruler, but before she could flip the Stone on her back to get inside

Ding

‘Eh…? Let me guess, Absorb did something… Status?’ these screens had blurred and fragmented edges…

‘Eh…?’ but after reading the contents of them she ignored that… ‘Traits?’ the “Trait” that she had gotten didn’t appeared in the list, but now Combat Gauge had (O. G.) next to it ‘Eh…? So… wait, they must be better? Like… that swordsman would have know that he had…’ she tried to remember the day of her clash with Dan ‘More Stamina and Skill… but nothing about the rest…?’

That thought made her try to remember anything from the Ruler…

‘My Combat Gauge didn’t told me anything… except about fear and pain… that is what that weird hunch was…!’ now she understood why she thought that the Ruler had been scared ‘Hahaha!!! This is great!’

And realized how strong that feature was

‘Not only it hides stuff… it also messes with how you “Read” the information you get’ she shivered… ‘I completely misunderstood that fight! Hahaha! Well done Absorb~ hahaha! I wonder what else I’ll get once I devour him~! Hahaha!’ not exactly with joy…

/////

While Miriam was preparing the stone on her back, the nervous Ruler got a notification of his own…

And his wrath awakened once more, silently he moved to the entrance of his cave and started his signal, quickly finding the snake, and as he prepared the biggest projectile that he could make

‘What are you going to do…? Lose to me again…?’ now that Miriam wasn't feeling pain from the noise he was making, she just made an annoyed hiss and entered the cave, ignoring him

Screech?

A cave, that the Ruler could tell, it was still collapsing in certain areas. Confusing him so much, that the projectile on his mouth dissipated, and he started shivering before stopping his signal, moving backwards to his cave

Because even at that distance he could feel fear…

And there wasn't anything he could do… to repair his wounded pride…

/////

‘Ia Imbue Eyes…’ Miriam looked around as she kept moving, completely unaware of how her aura overwhelmed the Ruler at that distance ‘Trickster~’ instead she got an idea ‘Any request about how to kill this one~?’

‘On it~’ there was enough dirt on that point of the cave, so she had no problem making one ‘Hahaha!’ not realizing how her hissing was mimicking laughter…

Nor how fast trouble was coming towards her…