บท 4: Bat King

The bats were disgusting. Their raw meat would still probably have tasted bad even if they were cooked, but Morgana didn't have the necessary materials to make a bonfire at the moment. The only reason why she even had light were the shining stones that were spread around.

As she suspected, these animals were poisonous, but, since she successfully extracted the glans, there was no problem. A long experience dissecting all sorts of creatures made her a fairly skilled surgeon, so there was no chance of any poison seeping through the meat.

Morgana ate and ate. For the first time after arriving in Agatha her stomach was actually full. This small pleasure filled her with great joy.

Perhaps this explains why she didn't see It coming...

...

Four great talents sprang forth grazing the skin of her left arm. Morgana growled in pain while retreating and tried to steal a look at her opponent.

What she saw was a faul beast, child of this place's darkness.

Two pairs os leathery wings extended themselves from the back of a three meters long bat-like monsters. The creature had long claws and fangs, somewhat resembling a much larger version of the other dungeon dwellers.

"This must be their king." - Thought Morgana - "I was too careless, letting my guard down like this."

The wizard had chosen a small hidden chamber with only one entrance for her lair, believing this would keep her presence a secret from the monsters. After all, not even their echolocation should be able to penetrate walls and especially the long and twisted corridor that gave access to this place.

She had put her eggs in a basket called stealth. Yet the basket had been ruthlessly stroke down.

....

But, as It seemed, lady Luck still wasn't showing off her beautiful smile, so Morgana was once more pitched against terrible odds.

By using the terrain in her favor, the wizard managed to evade the first few attacks, dodging between stone pillars. She had grown up fighting stronger foes very frequently for training, so speed was a trait she greatly valued. It had been particularly useful in her childhood when competing against her brothers.

However, even after learning powerful defensive spells during the course of her long career, Morgana never gave up on exercising her body and keeping the senses sharp. After all, maybe her mana had run out or the magic in a certain place was just somehow limited or less effective.

Besides, it was never a bad thing to have an extra ace in the hole. Too many melee fighters had underestimated her physical skills over the years just to be utterly surprised when she managed to evade their strikes.

Common sense dictated that wizards had weak bodies and many smart foes would act on that notion.

But this is the great strength of unorthodox methods. By breaking common sense, even something inefficient can be used to great effect.

Of course, this beast wasn't intelligent and as such was not limited by any stereotypes.

Morgana had attempted do use her Nimbleness to maneuver herself. The idea was to lure the monsters away from the door only for this cunning fox to make a sharp turn and scape. She was confident that the creature with its massive body wouldn't be able to follow her through certain passages, and as such, once outside the chamber, a chase would not be viable.

It was a crude yet sound enough plan.

But the bat king proved too fast. These corridors were too small and cramped for a monster of such size to be able to fly freely. So what exactly were those wings good for?

Well the obstacles in such an environment were plentiful. Any large body would have a hard time evading. This creature should have utterly failed as a predator in this place, except for one detail.

The two pairs of wings flung lightly at every sharp turn and jump, making It easier for the main body to move and obstacles that should have been challenging became mere stepping stones on his path.

Those wings weren't made for "flight" in the strict sense of the word. Like a chicken, the Bat King lightly lifted itself whenever It was convenient, making hunting much easier.

Morgana saw this and quickly adapted her plans. She took a stone shard from her clothes. If one were to look closely they would see that It had been carefully polished by grinding, a poorly improvised weapon, only useful for those with no access to metal of any kind.

She breathed deeply and, against all logic, charged against the monster. Even the creature itself was surprised, just barely having the time to raise its claws and charge ahead as well.

The two were in a collision route against each other and certainly the bigger would crush the smaller ones. Such is the nature of physical momentum and, at that moment, the outcome seemed set in stone.

But then Morgana threw the shard at the monster's face. The bat king was surprised and bewildered, but besides that, seemed to take no damage, once more turning to look at its prey. However she was nowhere to be seen.

What was the meaning of this?

Lesser Acceleration is a very useful spell, but the fact that it could not affect living creatures made many people believe it could only be used aggressively. However this was far from the truth. Magic was stronger when deployed by a creative mind.

At that moment when the bat king was distracted, Morgana lowered her center of gravity, kicking the ground and rushing towards the corridor with all her might. But, at that decisive juncture, she wasn't the only thing moving. So were her shoes. She enchanted the latter and pushed herself forward indirectly.

This was the reason why she chose to learn Lesser Acceleration first, before other techniques. There were many attack spells that were actually much stronger. Fire, in particular had great destructive power.

But this one had great flexibility. A trump card that could be used at critical moments to save her life.

Before the monster even understood what happened, she vanished into the darkness.