Quintessence of Arcana

Teleported?

The sound of water dripping reached an unconscious young man's ears. A chilly wind blew past his cheek, and his whole body shivered. The young man then groaned softly as he opened his eyes. His cheek was resting on something hard, while the lower half of his body was freezing cold.

Groggily, he pushed himself up off the ground, an aching pain running throughout his entire body all the while.

“This place is...”

He steadied his head with one hand, then tried to recall how he’d ended up in this place.

His surroundings were relatively dark, but thanks to the odd-glowing blue crystals scattered around, it wasn’t all that pitch black. He looked beneath him and saw a river five meters wide, and noticed that he was still half submerged within it. His upper body was resting on a boulder that jutted out from the riverbank.

“Oh yeah... I was sucked in back into the cave and then...”

A haze lifted from his mind, and his brain finally started working again.

This young man is none other than Erald.

Halfway down the cliff, Erald had seen an opening in the wall from which water was flooding out. A waterfall, basically. Erald had realized that maybe he was swept away by it, until it eventually guided him into one of the openings in the cliff, much like a water slide from hell. The fact that he was still alive was nothing short of a miracle.

“But how I did I end up in here? Didn't I was sucked in by that ice cave?”

No matter how he surveyed his surroundings, he couldn't grasp any resemblance of the cave from where is he now. He didn't know why but he guessed that maybe he was teleported in this place by some sort of magical means.

“Is it because of that Grimoire?”

Erald looked around but he couldn't see it. It seemed that the Grimoire suddenly vanished. He still remembered that he was clutching on it when he was sucked back in by the cave.

But then if his guesses were true, why was he in this place?

Erald then noticed that his body temperature had dropped dangerously low due to how much time he’d spent in the cold water. If he stayed submerged much longer, he will ran into risk of developing hypothermia. Even though his body didn't feel any symptoms or some sort, he still quickly pulled himself out from the ice-cold water. He stripped and started wringing out his clothes.

He then noticed that the odd-glowing blue crystals around him was somehow warm. Without hesitation, he quickly put his clothes on the crystals to let it dry. After a few moments when he warmed himself sufficiently and his clothes were mostly dry, he decided to head out. He didn’t know what kind of place he was on, but he clearly knew that he wasn't in the ice cave anymore and it wouldn’t be strange if any dangers where to pop out at any time. Erald walked as cautiously as he could down the long passageway.

The path Erald was going down resembled a cave of sorts.

It was nothing like the passageways he’d been on back in the ice cavern. A few obstructions showed up at random intervals, and the path itself was twisting and winding. Though it slowed down his progress, Erald effortly moved from cover to cover, making sure to stick to the shadows as he advanced. He had no idea how long he walked for.

Around the time when Erald was starting to grow tired, he found himself at a fork in the passage. Though it was more like a street intersection than a fork. Erald pondered for a moment as he sought out which way to go.

While he was thinking, he saw something move out of the corner of his eye, and he hurriedly stepped back, behind the safety of a nearby boulder.

He timidly peeked out from behind it and saw a giant white ball of fur hopping down the passage directly across his. It had rather long ears and looked just like a rabbit. However, it was different from the White Sprinter he ate back in the wilderness as it was much larger, and it also had very thick hind legs. Furthermore, there were veins of pulsing dark-red light trailing down its body. It looked quite disturbing.

Erald knew that it was clearly deadly, so he decided to go down to one of the paths to avoid running into the creature. It didn't mean that Erald was afraid of confronting it if necessary, it's just that he need to conserve his strength.

Judging by the position of its ears, Erald determined that it would have a harder time spotting him if he went right. He held his breath and waited for the perfect moment to run. Eventually, the creature turned around and lowered its head, busily sniffing the ground. It was at that moment that Erald attempted to leap out from behind the boulder.

But then the creature suddenly twitched, rising back up as it did. It warily looked around, its ears twitching.

Erald furrowed his brows and glanced into the distance. A similar white-furred wolf monster suddenly leaped out from behind a different boulder, heading straight to rabbit-like creature.

The wolf-like creature was as big as the Frost Wolf, but it had two tails sprouting from its behind. Just like the rabbit-like creature, pulsing veins of dark-red light ran down its body. Then, out of nowhere, two more twin-tailed black wolves suddenly leaped out into the open.

Erald peeked out from behind the boulder to see what was happening. The wolves were clearly attacking the poor bunny, though the creature was nowhere near cute enough to warrant a description as 'bunny.' Erald slowly got to his feet, planning on escaping during the confusion of the fight. However...

“Kyuu!” The rabbit-like creature let out a squeal, then leaped up, did a turn in midair, and caught one of the wolves with a powerful roundhouse kick.

Boom!

It didn’t sound anything like how a kick should, and connected squarely to the face of its target. A second later— a cracking sound, seemingly like a sound of bones cracking, could be heard. Then the wolf’s head was turned to a very unnatural angle.

Erald stood stock still as the battle raged on.

The rabbit-like creature then used the centrifugal force of its spin to turn itself upside down and hurtle toward the ground like a meteor. Then, a mere instant before impact, it righted itself once more. A powerful axe kick came down on the wolf standing at the rabbit’s point of landing.

Smash! The second wolf didn’t even have time to cry out before its head was pulverized.

Two more wolves came out of hiding and charged the rabbit.

Erald thought that it was the end for the rabbit, but it flipped itself upside down, and like a breakdancer, stood on its ears while spinning, legs spread out. The two new wolves were sent flying by the tornado kicks and slammed into the wall. The two wolves were slammed with a splat, spraying blood everywhere, and slid to the ground, unmoving.

The last wolf growled menacingly, its tails standing straight up. Suddenly, electricity began running down its tails. It looked like a some sort of defensive skill that the black wolves could use.

“Graaaah!!” The wolf roared, and bolts of lightning flew toward the rabbit. But with nimble steps, the rabbit swiftly dodged the incoming bolts of lightning. Then, at the moment the lightning attacks stopped, the rabbit hopped forward and hit the last wolf with a somersault kick. The wolf’s head bent back with a sickening crack, and it fell to the ground, utterly still. It was yet another wolf with a broken neck.

The rabbit-like creature let out another squeal. After that, it started scratching its ears with its leg.

“You’ve gotta be freaking kidding me.” Erald widen his eyes in disbelief, his body stood completely still.

'Dangerous' didn’t do the beast justice. In fact, it might’ve even been more dangerous than the Frost wolves Croen and him encountered back in the wilderness.

This is the first time Erald felt fear, but he calmed himself down. Even though Erald showed great prowess back in the wilderness, his instincts clearly told him that the creature was definitely not his match. Knowing that his life will forfeit if he started to panic, he started to assess his situation. In order to escape from it, he needed to go back to find another route, so he unconsciously took a step back. But that was a mistake.

Clatter. The noise reverberated throughout the cavern.

Erald had accidentally kicked a pebble when he stepped back. He couldn’t believe he’d made such a basic blunder. Rivulets of cold sweat were pouring down his forehead after that.

The rabbit’s neck creaked like a badly oiled machine as it turned to look in the direction of the sound.

The rabbit-liked creature clearly saw Erald. Its glowing red eyes glared at him. Erald's entire body stiffened, like a deer caught in headlights. His brain was yelling at him to run, but it felt like his nerves had all been cut, making his body refused to listen. Even though, Erald was still calm and didn't panicked.

The rabbit turned its whole body around, then began gathering strength for a leap. Erald instinctively managed to guess the moment of the rabbit’s leap. The speed of its jump was so ridiculously fast that it left afterimages behind it.

Driven purely by instinct, Erald threw himself to the side. An instant later, a kick with the force of a cannonball slammed into the ground Erald had been standing on. The force of it gouged the earth below. Erald rolled over and over on the hard ground before coming to a stop in a sitting position. His face twitched when he saw the pulverized ground and he quickly started running.

The rabbit leisurely got back up and dove toward him with another earth-shattering leap. Erald instinctively brought up his left arm to shield himself from the blow. That somehow helped him avoid getting his face blown apart, but the shockwave of the kick sent him flying backward. Waves of excruciating pain ran down his left arm.

“Arghh!” When he looked down, he saw his arm was dangling at a very unnatural angle. His bones had been completely shattered. He crouched down in pain, then looked over at the rabbit. This time it wasn’t lunging forward, but leisurely hopping toward him. He wasn’t sure if it was just his imagination, but it felt almost like the rabbit was looking down on him, as it was toying with him.

This is the first time Erald felt helpless. In fact, if it was another person that received that blow, that person's arm will surely be smashed into pieces. But even though his body constitution is quite different from other people, all Erald could do was defend and continue standing up in face of this creature.

A short moment later, the rabbit stopped right in front of him. It glared down at Erald as if it were looking at a worm. It then raised one if its legs up high, as if to show off before slaughtering its prey.

“So this is where I die...”

Erald looked up at the rabbit with defeated eyes. Its leg came swinging down, together with a whoosh of wind.

Erald gently closed his eyes. He didn't expect that he will die here before he could even regain his memories.

However, the blow he was expecting never came.