The White King

Before It Was Cool

Hearing the sound of a distant roar, Schwarz turns away from the still mostly in tact log.

Training can take a break, I guess.

It's not like he'd really need it. He had, after all, been a hunter for quite a long time before meeting Nacah. Yes, he'd never actually fought his lion, but the bear pelt around his waist more than proved his ability to take down animals.

Schwarz does a quick stretch, relieving himself of the stiffness born from constant repetition.

A few cracks and the placement of a pair of bracers later, Schwarz heads out towards the sound.

~~~~~

Octanus doesn't even bother opening her eyes at the sound of the roar. It may be obnoxious, but it wasn't nearby.

Someone else can deal with it, dammit. There was a town of wizards and a group of warriors within walking distance.

Everything's going to be fine, she assures herself while rolling into a slightly more comfortable position. Everything... 's... fine...

~~~~~

Everything was definitely not fine.

Universe, I don't know if I hate or love you right now.

Nua just kind of stood there and watched the beast make it's cautious approach.

It was a Leo.

Generally speaking, Leo weren't that terrifying. They were inactive during the night and noon times on top of the general niceties of being a lazy Hokori.

It was a bit past two-thirty and it didn't seem to be all that lazy up close.

Despite being a T1 due to the way Central classified them, a Leo was honestly more terrifying than an Eva'Der. Yes, it was basically just an armored lion, like the Pansa was an armored panther, but...

It was also twelve feet tall.

In addition, Leos didn't have gaps in their armor like Pansa did, nor actual eyes. Going even further into their power level would just inspire more hesitation, so Nua shakes the thoughts away and faces the creature directly.

Cats functioned on an intimidation hierarchy. Assuming it worked like a real cat, which hopefully it did, winning a staring contest would certainly help him.

That in mind, Nua's slitted blue and brown eyes match the beasts green sphere things.

It paused it's slow- for it's size- stalking to meet his gaze.

And then it completely ignored the contest and lunged for him.

Nua throws himself to the side, dodging the initial leap, but it forced him to roll out of range of a followup swing.

As quickly as he can, he disables the mana skates at his feet, re-enabling him to teleport.

This was going to be pretty hard. The Eva'Der may be fast, but this thing...

Well, first of all, it could actually run. The Eva'Der would just kind of sink trying to do that and it's overly broad and oddly proportioned form forced it to cut its way through the forest.

If the Leo needed to, it would just barrel right on past without so much as a scratch.

That also meant heading towards camp probably wasn't a good idea. Not only would it most likely target someone less equipped to handle it than himself, but there was a lot more at stake there.

Here, he could only lose his steak.

Heh.

Gotta find humor wherever you can when a gigantic lion monster was gunning for your jugular.

Nua rolls to his feet, sliding backwards a step to dodge a swipe of its claws.

Given part of a second in respite, Nua teleports behind the boulder he was resting on.

He needed to test a few things.

Without so much as breathing, Nua waits. If it came for him, it either had such an acute sense of smell that it could bypass the roasted meat or it could sense magic.

Both of them would make stealth effectively impossible.

A moment passes in complete silence, neither entity audibly moving.

But, at the sound of a stone cracking, Nua was already prepped to move.

Draining another small piece of his magic, Nua warps a good thirty feet in the air, which gives him a perfect view of the Leo down below.

It had broken completely through the boulder just by throwing itself at it.

I might need Nacah or the Unmaker at this rate.

The majority of the Hokori were actually pretty weak in terms of destructive potential. They relies more on cutting and speed to kill than crushing all resistance 'neath their mighty tread.

It seemed Leo's had enough strength to do both.

The problem was, the Unmaker automatically drained all of the users magic, and that's not exactly good for somebody. It wasn't deadly to have literally nothing, but...

The results were sub-optimal, especially when you consider that more Hokori might be coming.

A second problem came up in regards to Nacah; where the hell was he? Despite constantly leaking soul magic in all directions, Nua couldn't locate him now of all times.

That inconsistency was going to be an issue.

All of that in mind, Nua sorted through and came up with three options.

Unmake the damn thing: unfortunate, but effective.

Lead it to Lleterof where someone might be able to stop it: potentially horrifically dangerous, but also the best one for himself.

And kill the thing the old fashioned way: the most dangerous to his own safety but also potentially the least harming to his future should he win.

He honestly chose the Unmaker, but a voice called that into question.

"What the hell is that?!"

Nua, still in the air, turns his attention to the speaker, Schwarz.

And instantly regrets it as the Leo throws up an arm and bats him into the ground.

His gasp in pain is followed up quite nicely by another one, the second caused by his chest being pounded downward by the Leo's paw.

Thank Kos that Leo's had retractable claws.

Before it's able to throw them outward, Nua casts again, launching his disheveled form as far as his confused mind can recognize.

Sure, he technically could have gone further than five feet since cast time wasn't affected by distance, but teleporting was dangerous. If you weren't careful, you could always teleport into something.

And pain probably wasn't helping his concentration.

As the beast turns it's head to stare down at it's bothersome prey, Nua wheezes a few times and silently curses.

Screw you, Schwarz.

Although, to be fair, the word he used was slightly different.