(A few days after the defeat of the beast Achiloq, before the 12 gods witness Lucian's transformation)
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"I'm not comfortable with fighting against the others, but the thought of killing Nova is appealing." Luna grunted out as she did her last push-up. Since she got her hidden skills, she had been training her body in accordance with her system demands to boost her physical strength.
"I'm the one who's killing Nova." Lucian stated coldly. The image of Nova pushing him to his death when they fought Achiloq was still fresh in his mind; it won't go away until he takes his revenge. Besides that, there was something Lucian wanted to experiment on, and that could only happen with Nova's death.
Lucian practiced his ability to control poisonous gas, moving it around his hand. He couldn't harden his skin like Achiloq; it was an impossible feat for him in his human state, but he could bring out poison from any part of his body without being affected by the poisonous substance, and he could also direct his poison at the exact target to cause harm. He tried it with Luna while she was sleeping; surprisingly, she remained alive. He planned on waking her up to heal herself if his cruel experiment failed in the end. Luna had punched Lucian hard in the face when she found out the truth.
Nova had been discovered with Thorin and his team. When Lucian and Luna found her, they watched her lie about trying to save them and failing, stating that she was sad with the choices Lucian and Luna made to sacrifice themselves for her to live.
"Ready." Luna said. Her long dark hair was tied into two pigtails. A sword was kept at her side.
Lucian nodded and led the way. They had been following Thorin and his team for days, watching them, learning what each of them could do and what their magic abilities were, in order to prepare for a surprise attack. They were lacking in terms of numbers, and if they attempted to fight openly, Lucian and Luna were going to lose.
Luna steps back away from Lucian, who hardens the knuckles of his right fist, biting down on the pain of using Achiloq powers before hitting his fist on the ground with the same strength the beast possesses, making the ground tremble and causing Thorin's setup camp to fall down. Lucian hit the ground again three more times, disregarding the pain in his right arm that made his hand feel like it was going to fall off. He took in a deep breath and let out a huge amount of poisonous gas in the air that was harmful to everyone except for him and Luna.
Thorin and his teammates, along with Nova, became scared and confused, thinking that the beast Achiloq was back for them. Not knowing that the whole setup was Lucian's deceit to make them anxious, prepare for battle, and scatter themselves without proper coordination, giving Lucian and Luna the opening they needed to attack and win.
"I'm not fighting that damned beast again." One of Thorin's teammates voices out in fear.
"Let's run away before it gets here." Another said.
While some stayed to fight, others ran away without waiting for Thorin's commands.
"That's enough." Luna grabbed Lucian's right arm; he was about to hit the ground again. One more hit, and then his arm was going to break.
"One more hit." Lucian said stubbornly. His arms were in immense pain, but he didn't show it; he was focused and desperate to make his plans successful. He had already started; there was no backing out now. "I need more of them to give up on the idea of fighting."
The healer in Thorin's team was already working to protect Nova and the rest of his teammates from the poisonous gas.
Lucian punched the ground; it trembled loudly. The joint of his arm twisted as he broke his arm, falling down to one knee. Lucian swallowed the pain of his broken arm. Luna cringes at the gruesome sight and begins healing his right arm.
Sweat formed on Lucian's forehead; he got back to his feet with his still-broken arm that was undergoing healing, and he took in another deep breath, filling the air with poison. At that same moment, a monster growl filled the air.
"Woah, nice acting." Luna remarked. She finished up the healing on Lucian's arm.
Lucian twists his right arm. "That wasn't me."
A number of little lights appeared; they flew in the air and looked like harmless fireflies until they growled like monsters and attacked Thorin and his teammates. Their scream of fright filled the air.
"The hell?" Lucian watched from a safe distance. "What are those supposed to be?" Nothing in Hlasked made sense to him.
"They live in a warm, sunny environment but normally appear in dungeons due to poisonous air." Luna said, reading the beast description through her system. "They can also be used for medicine?" She raised a questioning brow and looked back to the flying creatures, who were as small as a flying insect but had sharp teeth and were eating the flesh of those they attacked, taking little bites of their victim even though they were alive, screaming for help, and trying to shake the fly off like mosquitoes. Luna shakes her head in disbelief.
'sunny environment?' Lucian thought, wondering if there was a place in Hlasked that wasn't just a dungeon full of dangerous monsters. He took note of the direction the beast came from and felt tempted to check out what was there, but he didn't want to be eaten. Still, against Lucian's better judgment, he ran towards the direction regardless of the danger.
"Are you going to fight those things?" Luna shouted at Lucian from afar.
"No." Lucian replied, "It's not my responsibility." He intended to leave Thorin and his team alone with the beast without rendering any help; if possible, he would have loved to trap them in, the same way they trapped him, but recreating the same trap for someone as strong as Thorin won't work.
'I have no plans to beat this.' Lucian thought, regretting his decision to dash in without thinking. His only option was to provide the flying beast with more poisonous gas if they came near his way.
Surprisingly to Lucian, the beast attacked the others and ignored him; if any got close to him, they didn't attack him.
"It's a dead end." Lucian said, hitting the rocky wall in frustration, while he wondered how the beast was able to pass through even though there was no hole in the wall. A new pack of flying beasts passed through the stoney wall before Lucian's eyes; they had bright lights like the first pack and flew around him before ignoring him.
Lucian let go of the breath he was holding after the beast ignored him; he would have been dead if they didn't ignore him. He turned his attention back to the rocky wall, wondering if it was magic. Could there possibly be a different world outside the dungeon? Or could it be that players aren't allowed to leave the dungeon?
Nova was surprised to see that Lucian was still alive; she was curious about how he survived and couldn't see Luna around, which meant that he was the only one who managed to survive.
[Warning: beast essence detected; the beast, Achiloq]
Nova fearfully looked around and was startled to see Lucian behind her.