ENF Academy: For Some Reason, She Can Only Save the World if She’s Naked

Ch 2.31: Venom

There was something disturbingly frightening about the creature towering over them. Elaina had seen beavers, seen ducks, heard tales of this things in front of her, but it didn’t mesh together in her mind as something that could actually be. 

“It’s resistant to aspects,” Carline said as she crawled away. Not surprising, since it was a creature of myth like a starhound, but good to know anyway.

“It’s not resistant to this though,” Tira said as she pulled her whip off of her belt. She let out one thunderous strike with it it, the cord of the weapon sinking deep in the platypus's arm as it let out another guttural cry. But the wound was nearly debilitating enough, and the monster charged at Tira, her weapon still embedded into its skin. Tira’s crystal whip has been strong enough to cleave stone, but a regular leather whip wasn’t even able to through this flesh and bone monstrosity.

And we can’t exactly transform into our class gear right now, Elaina thought as she glanced back at their captive. She may have been relatively tight lipped about her own operation, but there was no reason for her to keep their secrets. “Stay still,” Elaina said as she used her aspect to pull on the restraints and launch the woman back towards the road, tying the lead that she had been using to guide the prisoner to her bag and sending it that way as well. The woman wasn’t completely bound, but it wouldn’t exactly be easy for her to get up and run away in her current state, and that would have to be enough. 

Elaina turned back towards their attacker just as a webbed claw dropped towards Tira. She was able to dodge away and trade glancing blows with the monster, each receiving a small gash along there arms, though nothing serious.

It hadn’t serious, at least, the long scratch along Tira’s left arm, but she started screaming almost instantly, even dropping her weapon from her uninjured arm and doubling over onto the ground. “Fuck, poison!”

“Over here, asshole!” Flora shouted, crawling over the fallen tree and charging at the monster. “Pay attention to me!” She slammed both her fists into the beast’s thick fur, but it seemed completely unfazed as it wound back its arm once more, preparing to drop its full weight onto Tira.

Elaina didn’t even realize she’d raised her arm, hadn’t noticed she’d frozen herself with [Personal Restraint], was surprised herself as the giant shackle appeared around the monster’s neck and she yanked back on it, sending the platypus toppling over backwards

Elaina blinked as she came back to her senses. Everything she’d just done had been her own doing, but it wasn’t a conscious effort, just something she’d done instinctively. She knew it wasn’t enough though, that the creature was already standing up again. She conjured new links of chain from the shackle, extending them to three trees and shackling to those as well. The creature was able to stand, but as it tried to lurch forward it found resistance, unable to uproot three trees as it tried to force its way forward.

Carline was pulling Tira away, her screams finally quieting down as she was undoubtedly having the pain dulled by her rescuer. Flora was standing on top of the fallen log now, still ready in a fighting pose, but out of reach of the monster. “What now?” she said.

“Why is it even here?” Tira screamed, still wincing in pain as Carline set her down and laid hands on her injured arm. 

“I don’t know,” Elaina said, circling around the bound creature and making sure her chains were still holding. Since she had them anchored to the trees she didn’t need to actively force the thing back, but she was still burning a non-insignificant amount of mana just keeping such a large amount of metal in existence. 

Before anyone else could answer the creature offered one itself, a deep bellow that threatened to shatter Elaina’s ears. And then she heard the reply, another cry from the woods, then another, and another.

“Flora,” Elaina asked, staring off into forest, “do these things usually hunt in packs?”

“I don’t know,” the girl replied, stepping back off the log with wide eyes. “I’ve only seen the one!”

“And how did you beat it?”

“We didn’t! We just hid until it left; I don’t think it ever spotted us.” 

“Too late for that now,” Tira said, trying to get up before collapsing back down.

“You can’t move right now,” Carline said, a rapid panic in her voice. “I don’t know what’s with this venom, but it’s not like anything I’ve read about.”

“Just get me walking; I can do the rest.”

The chorus of sound from the woods returned as Elaina looked back up at the one they’d already captured. If more came, she’d need access to her full mana potential again, need to release the energy she was spending to keep the chains up, but she knew she couldn’t do that while the thing was still alive. 

“Hey! Over here!” 

Elaina and Flora both turned, seeing their captive trying to struggle to her feet, having only made it to her knees. “I told you to stay put!”

“I’ve seen one these things before! Untie me, and I’ll tell you what’s coming, how to beat them.”

Elaina and Flora exchanged glances, coming to a wordless agreement that the woman must be lying. 

“I’m telling the truth! It tried attacking our camp while we were still working in the cave, but we were able to drive it off.”

“Don’t believe her,” Tira managed to say through gritted teeth. “If she actually knows anything she’ll tell us anyway, or else she’ll end up eaten like the rest of us.”

“They don’t eat meat!” the woman said. “It’s after crystal! One of you has to have really powerful crystal on you like the one we found in the cave!” 

A really powerful crystal, like the one they found in the cave. The subcore, Elaina realized. And if the one their captive fought before was after the subcore the poachers had stolen from the cave, the ones after them now would be after…

“Temmie!”