CHAPTER 14: CANINE BLOOD LOCKET

Ding!

~Arcane Pet Naga has been released~

~Grade Three [Intermediate]~

The air behind me split apart and a pocket of shimmering clouds swirled in hues of purple and black. Then with a deafening boom, Naga emerged.

Its enormous body uncoiled like an endless storm cloud. The obsidian scales shimmered faintly with streaks of violent light. From its spine, a sprouted long, spectral tendrils that flickered like dying embers, snapping against the air as though reality itself bent around them. Naga’s eyes glowed merciless gold, holding a terrifying gaze of killing intent.

It hissed.

My colleagues were surprised as to the sheer size of what I just summoned. In just a few weeks of training with the Arcane pet, it grew unbelievably fast to the point that I couldn’t let it roam free around my house again, it had to be hibernated at all times till when I would call upon it.

"There it is..." Dasheen’s voice rang out, filled with awe as he pulled himself from the rubble. "...There’s his great serpent."

"...Its an Arcane pet, I didn’t know he could summon Arcane pets!!!" Jet yelled with his mouth wide open.

Naga’s gaze never left the Shadow creature. The moment my thoughts sharpened, the serpent obeyed. It surged forward with a terrifying speed, a streak of dark lightining cutting across the mist.

"Snake art..."

"Coil choke..."

The shadow creature turned its massive head as its one reamining eye blazed with fury. It roared, raising it heavy claws to strike. But naga was already upon it.

The serpent’s body coiled around the shadow beast with each loop tightening with the inevitability of death itself. The ground shook beneath the pressure and soil carved inward, it was a testament to to collosus fighting.

The shadow creature kicked violently, its claws tearing deep trenches into the soil and its jaws snapping widly. But naga didn’t quit, the coils contricted tighter and tighter and...

"...Tigher..." I muttered steadiy with utter focus.

Then.

CRACK!

The sound of bones shattering echoed through the forest, followed by the violent explosion of shadow. The creatures beastly frame convulsed once, then twice before bursting apart in a plume of black mist.

The second after that was filled with silence and the hiss of shadowy mist evaporating into nothingness.

"...Dasheen, you said this was a low level gate... that was not even the boss monster." Valeria muttered shakily.

I turned my focus to the systems interface as I awarded stats points, to which I immediatelty allocated adequetly. Also, at that very instant, my Arcane energy ran out to a pulp.

Ding!

~Arcane Energy Reserve: 0/1000~

~Skill Divine Thread has been deactivated due to low Arcane energy~

~Arcane Pet Naga has been hibernated due to low Arcane energy~

I made my way slowly to pick up my sword and further sheathed it, Dasheen was the first to break the silence.

"I told yah!!! the boy’s got talent! And he’s not even ranked yet! With that kind of power he should be an A-Rank Awakened!!!" he said with a proud grin.

I was glad he thought of me like that, but I was far from anything close to A-Rank. The beast I just killed was most likely a D-Rank at best and I had help from my Arcane pet, if I had gone toe to toe with it, I’d probably be dead by now.

"Enough kissing noodle boys ass... that was definetly NOT the boss monster, so we should probably regroup!" Jet yelled out as he reposition his bow in his left hand.

In as much as I wanted to relish the joy in this victory, that Dire Wolf-type shadow creature was not the boss monster and we had our fair share of damage going up against it.

I was about to open mouth to address the team when the system blasted another notification at my face.

~New Quest: Clear the gate~

~Objective: Defeat the boss monster~

~Reward: Canine Blood Locket~

"What the hell..." I stopped dead in my tracks as I stared at the notification.

"Canine Blood Locket? This was the same type of notification I got before facing Duckskin Naga, does it mean that I can turn this gate boss monster into my Arcane pet..."

A hot, gullony smile spread across my face as realization sparked in my head. "If I defeat this boss monster I get this item, that would materialize the boss as my new pet!"

"Haha! I cannot fail at this now! No matter what!" I yelled in ecstasy, forgetting the fatigue that was tearing through my muscles. I dashed towards the location which the dire wolf shadow creature died off and snatched the anti-arcane stone, tossing it to the closest man to me — Jet.

"Come one guys! Lets go..." my heart swelled with joy. For the first time, I felt so eager and hungry to face something that was well enough bigger and stronger than me without fear creeping at the back of my neck.

"thats it noodle kid! Lets go!" Jet yelled behind me and then I could here the rest of the crews footsteps.

I ran and ran with tears bleeding from my eyes in euphoria and excitement, I didn’t realize that in a couple seconds I had lost track of my other crew members before me.

The misty environment of the dimension made it hard to see and their voices were increasingly becoming distant by the second.

I couldn’t wait for them, I had every intention to defeat this boss monster and collect my reward item before they saw it.

Sooner than later, I got a wide expanse of fallen trees and open space with the mist cleared up just enough that I could see as much as eleven feet in front of me.

That was when I knew...

"...I’m close."

I walked as quietly as possible while approaching the clearing, immediately I entered I saw the boss monster just about eleven feet away from me.

The creature seemed like it was asleep, but immediately I stepped foot inside, it sniffed the air and raised its body up.

"...Huh"

I gasped with surprise. The creature stood up completely and I made it out to be a huge dire wolf with two head; one black the other was white. It turned in my direction.

Ding!

~Boss Monster: Elemental Dogs~

It was a huge dog possessing two heads, and as soon as it stood up to its full size, the black head burst up into red hot flames while the white head shivered with a chilling icy blaze.

But no matter how fearful it looked, I still felt the zeal to fight it head on, I have grown stronger very quickly and within a short amount of time.

Without a shadow of a doubt, the Elemental Dogs boss was strong, but still, it didn’t come across as truly overwhelming. My enhanced perception and environmental awareness was telling me that I could do this.

The dogs glared at me, bared it fangs to threaten me.

I raised an eyebrow, "Is that a warning?" I said as my gaze wandered off to its tail. It kind of resembled a whip, and its end was covered in violent clash of ice and fire.

I swallowed dry saliva and just like that, the dogs closed the distance before stopping right in front of me and began studying my appearance for some reason.

’What? Is it looking for an opening?’ I said to myself as I instinctively reached for my sword.

Just as drew my sword, it attacked me.

Bam!

My eyes grew considerably wider than a few seconds prior as I barely evaded the creature fangs by sliding underneath its leap.

’Tch! How can something that size move that fast!’

I quickly retreated and wielded my sword firm at the dogs as it regroup and started baraging its fangs at me.

Clang!!

My dagger collided with the fangs and it resulted in a loud sound that seemed to resonate around the whole area.

The blade moved fast, yet all I could do at that point was deflect the creatures attacks and nothing else.

The Elemental Dogs agility had easily exceeded my expectations because I was blinded by excitement.

Just when I thought things wouldn’t get any worse, that long ass tail of it flew towards me like a whip.

Spa!!

I reflectively ducked my head lower and evaded the tail, but that caused my legs to stop moving for a second and the monster didn’t miss this oppurtunity for the world.

One of its huge heads bit into my left shoulder, resulting in a sickening squelch of outpouring blood.

"Gahhhhh!!!" I yelled out in pain as I musttered all the strength I could and stabbed it in the middle of the bitting head.

The creature felt irritated by that action of mine and right before it let go, I tried to transfer some amount of Arcane energy to it to activate my skill Erebis.

Then-

~2/1000~

"Shiiit!!"

Thankfuly, I was able to minimise the damage done before the other head had a chance to join in on the attack, but my left shoulder was now in ruins.

I tried as much as I could to move the left arm, but it didn’t budge the slightest. My expression crumpled immediately knowing fully well that I had messed up big time.