Fox Tale Of A Dungeon Boss

Layla breathed in deep as she crouched a bit, but her legs were normal, just like Kai and Helena's if not for the difference in skin tone.

'Pedro's legs are like that of a bird's after all... so I probably can't jump like him.'

She did a short hop to check. 'Yup, normal jump height here.'

She crouched again, spread her wings, and the party ahead was looking back curiously, waiting to see what she'd do, and if she could "fly" too.

Kai squinted. Previously... he'd felt something, he wasn't quite sure. It was like an itch, a sensation both alien yet familiar, something which made his c.h.e.s.t feel... hot and cold at the same time?

It was impossible to describe the sensation by any comparison to anything you could feel, as it was an entirely new sense, something completely different from any of the five senses that everyone else had.

'Is this unique to me? Do the others have this sixth sense? Is this... the "talent" needed to be a spellcaster?'

He had felt the air move under Pedro as well, not to the extent Pedro felt it, but enough to notice something happening.

He watched Layla carefully. 'Let's see...'

Layla raised her wings...

Kai's eyes widened! "Wai-!"

They flapped down, and Layla shot 4 feet up into the air, her legs still in the crouching position, not having even jumped, and they extended in midair as she flailed a bit in surprise!

"AH!" Layla cried out, bringing her wings back up to flap again, but she was falling too fast, there was no way she could flap her wings fast enough to fly-

She landed, stumbling and tripping as she began to fall forward... and her wings continued to come down in that desperate flap to try and stay aloft, coming too late.

"GAAAAAAAIIIIEEEE!" She shrieked as she laughed herself flying forward, arcing over the rest of the slope and past the other party!

"I GOT YOU-" Pedro yelled as he rushed to try and catch her-!

"THUD!"

He was knocked sprawling as she fell right into him like a batkin missile.

"..."

The party along the drop looked down in shock at the two winged Beastkin before looking up at the party above them. 'Bro, what the f.u.c.k? Why is your party made of psychos?'

Michael coughed awkwardly. "I see... Air Dodge because she can propel herself in a short burst of motion in midair to dodge."

Helena nodded silently with raised eyebrows, and Kai lowered his hand he'd outstretched uselessly.

"Well..." Kai looked at Helena. "How do we... get down?"

"Aren't you the man with the plan so far?" Helena retorted, crossing her arms over her c.h.e.s.t.

Xandra shrugged. "Should I catch you two as you jump down?"

Kai shrugged uncertainly. "I... guess so?"

They walked down, skirting the party ahead, and Michael stood at the edge for a second.

"Well... okay." Michael hopped, and plummeted down that two meter drop, and as he landed he heavily dropped to his knee.

"CLUNK-THUNK!" A cracking sound resounded as he hit, and a burst of white light could be seen in his leg as a copper pipe cracked as his plexiglass exterior dented into it from the impact.

He attempted to stand, but the gears of that knee weren't moving right, shuddering as he fell back onto his knee again.

Xandra hopped down, a puff of dust from her impact against the earth rising into the air alongside the "THUD!" of her massive body hitting the ground.

She walked over to Michael, helping him stand as his damaged leg held the same awkward position while he stood on the other leg, leaning against her.

"Michael! You okay?" Kai called down in concern.

"Yeah, time to test my Self Repair talent I guess."

His core began to pulse brighter and brighter, a Tesla coil of magic resonating through his body as the surges of white energy began to pulse as waves of power down into his leg, while weaker surges headed to the rest of him from the other cracks and dents from the fall to the pocket realm and this new two meter drop.

The metal could be seen unbending and uncrumpling as it glowed white-hot, the plexiglass fusing back together as the cracks disappeared, and a wire trapped between dented plexiglass and the inner metal cane free and fixed itself back into place as the plexiglass unbent.

Finally after a good 30 seconds, the pulses began to die down, and the core still pulsed, but the white glow was barely visible now, weakened.

"Ugh..." Michael g.r.o.a.n.e.d with his echoing voice as he slowly moved his leg straight and stood under his own power, and began taking slow steps, as though he were walking underwater. "I seem... to be low on power... I think using mana to support my body to be stronger and more durable to fall actually would have used less mana than using it to fix the damage done by tanking the fall myself."

He turned to Xandra. "Thanks Xandra... you okay?"

Xandra shrugged. "My knees don't even hurt? Then again, I'm probably actually lighter than you, seeing as you're made of metal, so I don't hit the ground as hard, not to mention my enhanced vitality. Also you already had some damage weakening your structure from earlier right?"

Michael nodded at that explanation, and Kai sighed in relief. 'Well that's good.'

He looked to Helena. "So... how do we do this?"

Helena frowned, went to the edge, and sat down before edging herself over the drop, turning to hold herself up with her hands, and lifted herself most of the way down, the drop probably actually being 2 meters, and dropped the last couple feet onto her own legs easily.

Kai stood there awkwardly. "Right... I'm f.u.c.k.i.n.g dumb."

"You mean we could have just DONE THAT instead of THIS COMPLICATED SHIT?!" Pedro yelled angrily, waving his wings around!

Helena laughed. "Well at least we have a better idea of some of our talents and capabilities?"

Pedro rolled his eyes in response and grumbled under his breath.

The other party began to get down the same way Helena did, and Kai came up to the edge.

Kai hopped off while spinning around in midair, grabbing the edge as he fell past it and kicking off the wall, spinning in midair yet again to land in a shoulder-roll, spreading the impact as he popped back to his feet.

"What the HELL?! Since when are you a bloody gymnast?!"

Kai rolled his eyes. "I was obsessed with parkour for awhile. I can't actually do parkour but I got a few tricks for recovering from falls and such."

Kai paused. "Huh... it's weird I can remember what parkour is. Why can't I remember other things if I still know parkour is a movement style for quickly and efficiently moving through a complex environment without equipment?"

They saw his face turn increasingly annoyed and confused after saying that, and Michael sighed before stepping forward to pat him on the shoulder. "Don't think too hard, just do your best."

Layla nodded brightly, still anxiously trembling a little from her short-lived and disastrous flight. "Y-yeah! Let's go! The city is just ahead!"

They started to walk, and the party led by John set off as well, distancing themselves a few meters to the side of one another.

They came to the crossroads, the dirt paths kicking up small puffs of dust with every step they took, and Michael g.r.o.a.n.e.d. "Damn it... I'm gonna have to clean myself constantly aren't I?" He looked pointedly at the dirt caking his legs already.

Helena laughed while Pedro and Kai smiled, Layla and Xandra giving a sympathetic look to the unfortunate automaton.

The path was walked in silence, other parties coming down the mountain too, as the two parties at the front felt a strange energy, a nervous crackling like ozone in the air, the feeling of weight, of importance in their c.h.e.s.ts.

And finally the city was close, and they looked at it in awe.

It was beautiful.

The stone was so white and pure in its shade that it seemed impossible for it to be so clean, a shimmer like a layer of gloss over the walls that towered overhead, the kind of size on city walls meant to ward off siege towers, castle walls, not the lower stone walls a city might have to defend against bandits or the wild.

The outgrowth of rock and the walls built along the bedrock's edge extended into the lake, making the front of the walls the only side reachable by land.

Kai remembered from his view from above that the walls made a polygon, multiple sides at different angles with the city built within, and they could see that towards the back of the city over the lake, the streets were higher up because the buildings back there were so tall the towers were visible from here, and the walls grew even taller back there too!

'It's like a castle... a massive castle made to be a town all its own... no it's not a town. Town's wouldn't be so defended, It's definitely a city... right? But it's small for a city...'

As they drew closer they saw some people standing at the entrance to the town, a few birdkin's and a few beastkin with ferret ears, as well as a lady with hair that looked like water, and she had pale blue skin. Without even checking Kai was sure she was probably a water genasi.

"Hello adventurers from another world! You... are the adventurers from another world, right?"

Both parties looked at their other members before John stepped forward, and Kai's group watched him nod. "Yes, we are."

"Well!" The water genasi lady brightly smiled, and Kai noted the look in John's eyes... 'yeaaaah he's totally staring at her b.r.e.a.s.ts.'

"Well if you're party would follow one of our people, we will introduce you to the fortress and get you set up as an adventuring team!"

Kai raised a hand, and she turned to him with that same customer-service smile. "Yes Sir...?"

"Kai." Kai gave a small nod, a part of him stepping into the role she'd given him by calling him sir unconsciously.

"Can you explain something? Why are you all so... prepared? How did you know we would be here? Is this normal to you?"

She shook her head. "Otherworlders are not brought to this mortal plane often, but it has happened enough that there is a procedure to it. You're the first to be summoned to Motika within hundreds of kilometers of Thunderclaw." She gestured you the walls behind her as she said the last word.

'So the city is called Thunderclaw? What the f.u.c.k kind of name is that?! And good to know that apparently otherworlders being summoned is a thing in this world... not a common one, but still.'

"Why is the city named Thunderclaw?" Lin spoke directly, in a somewhat rude tone.

"Well... it's hard to tell, but the coastline has two points where the land extends into the sea a bit-"

All the otherworlders nodded. They'd seen that, the cliffs went a bit further into the sea a bit into the forest and a bit into the plains.

"-and then mountain there makes a third. Legend has it that the coastline was formed from the decomposed body of a thunderbird, so the mountain is called the 'Thunderclaw' and our fortress is Thunderclaw Fortress! If you'd like to know more you could ask a bard to sing you the legend." She shrugged, ignoring the gaping "WHAT THE F.U.C.K?!" expressions of those before her.

"Now!" She forced an extra bright smile! "Please follow a guide into Thunderclaw!"

John shook his head in disbelief, before taking his party to follow a woman who was labeled as a <Female Gopherkin>.

Kai shrugged to the rest as they schooled their expressions back into calm faces, still somewhat in disbelief. That entire massive coastline... was just the decomposed body of a bird?!

"It's just a legend, don't think too much into it." Pedro finally said, and everyone nodded in agreement. A large, muscled man with thick c.h.e.s.t hair poking out from the v-neck of his loose shirt cake forward, his forearms having black fur begin on them that covered his hands, which has short claws on the fingers while round, furred ears were on top of his head.

<Unknown Male Bearkin>

Kai reached out a hand, and the bearkin grabbed it firmly. "Well met, kitsune."

Kai nodded, shaking his hand while responding in kind with the other pronunciation of the words "bearkin". "Well met Ursa."