After their first fight with some orcs the two companions now had a fresh trail to follow. Now they would not simply rush into this, but they did need to know where the orc were based if they wanted any hope of being able to properly fight them.
And so they slowly crept forwards, Violet actively using her void manipulation to shroud them in darkness and help hide them from sight. One noticeable improvement that she found using void instead of shadow was that the void seemed to erase their scent aswell as hide them, this was of great help as they were weary of allowing any trace of them to be found by the orcs.
Regardless the two advanced ever onwards, the typical lust forest giving ways to a more rocky environment. They were still within the forest obviously but the trees were beginning to become sparser whilst bare rocky ground covered in outcroppings became more prevalent. This was a unique Experian e for Violet who had only ever known the forest, sure around her cave and the lake their was a lack of trees but they were singular exceptions not a full shift of the environment.
This also resulted in a slight shift of the type of monsters that they noticed and tried to avoid. A greater abundance of reptile type creatures was noticed and a trend towards monsters that utilised more earth based mana. This was discovered when they bumped into a odd lizard that used a think layer of rocks as its outer hide and was able to fight back using stone projectiles on top of its quite sharp claws.
"Hey Violet why am I fighting this by myself again?" Luna said whilst dodging the various stone projectiles that were being sent her way. She tried to utilise her spear to block or parry some but was only partially effective her skill with the spear was still somewhat lacking. She was however steadily improving as noticed by the fact that her spear proficiency was already at level 3, her stealth skill had also leveled up thanks to their adherence to trying to remain hidden.
"Well my magics are loud so don't want to alert anyone nearby." Violet replied, in reality she was trying to study how the rock lizard was utilising its mana to form its defence whilst also observing how Lunas ice covered her and provided its own benefits. She had been working on developing a new skill, Violet had realised that she was beginning to rely on ranged combat too much and her physical abilities were beginning to lag behind. This was especially felt in her strength and constitution which were barely above half of her intelligence.
Whilst her agility was slightly further ahead it was still lacking, so she decided that she would try to develop a new ability with her void that would allow her to engage in fights more physically whilst still utilising her strengths of her magic. Currently she was working on coating her legs and claws in the void and then enhancing her ability to cut and tear with her claws when imbued with the void.
Luna meanwhile was still dancing around the lizard occasionally getting the odd stab or slash in but annoyingly it seems quite impervious to her ice strikes ability to transfer over the cold and freeze it over. This left her in a sort of stalemate with the creature as neither of them could hurt the other. "Violet I'm going to need you to help out here or this fight will go on too long! It's defenses are too tough for me."
Violet let out a sigh but that turned into joy as she finally felt the magic's click into place, her limbs now coated in a layer of void. She felt her speed and strength improve noticeably and she in turn began to charge a pounce. "Lure it towards me slightly iv got something new to try out!" And so Luna did so, backing up steadily in Violet's direction with the lizard steadily following along pressing its perceived advantage.
When the rock lizard was around 5m away Violet unleashed her pounce and paired it with a void step to teleport that gap almost instantly befor ramming into the side of the beast with her shoulder. This knocked it off balance and allowed both Violet and Luna the opportunity to get some clean attacks in. Luna managed to snake her spear in between some of the rocks protecting it whilst Violet aimed for its now exposed underside.
Stab, Slash, Crree!
As violets claws made contact with its underside the extended void claws pierced through its rocky hide with ease and managed to gouge out a deep cut which caused the lizard to let out a wailing cry of pain, this only increased when lunas spear found its opening.
From that the momentum of the fight shifted rapidly and they soon managed to finish off their opponent.
[Your group has defeated Rock Stalker lvl 19 exp rewarded]
[Your skills have leveled up:]
Pounce lvl 3->4
Void Manipulation lvl 6->7
With that fight dealt with and Violet indulging in the surprisingly tender flesh of the fallen foe the pair moved on.
They didn't encounter any more beasts or orcs till the evening where the spotted a much larger group of orcs walking through the rocky landscape before them. They were carrying a absolutely massive lizard of some kind between them that was obviously dead and looked to be in quite the sorry state.
The duo quickly moved to hide behind one of the nearby trees and peaked out to observe them. Using their mental bond they discussed what to do next. "We should follow them from a distance, they are probabally heading back to their base." Luna suggested.
"Hmm yes we need to know more about them." Internally though Violet was beginning to get a little worried, if that party of 7 orcs could hunt a beast of that size what chance did the two of them truly have against even more orcs? Still she kept those worries buried away for now, after all they could continue to level up and grow ever stronger till they could overwhelm this enemy.
They followed behind the hunting party ensuring that they kept a good distance and remained hidden behind obstacles to better block and chances of the orcs spotting them. After another half an hour of stalking them the scenery changed. Off to the left of the path they were following a cliff face came into view, the orcs diverted towards it. And as they got closer they spotted a opening in the cliff face, not a cave but a canyon that split the cliff in two the opening to this canyon was only around 10meters across but our two companions did notice two more orcs standing guard at the entrance. It would seem that they had finally found the orcs base of operations.
Once they had identified that they had some choices to make, they could either post up outside of the canyon entrance, find a good spot to hide and observe the entrance to try and get a better feel for how many orcs their were housed there. They couldn't just look in as the canyon curved soon after the entrance effectively hiding what lay within.
Alternatively they could try to scale the cliff and try to get a look at the camp from above. Now both options had their pros and cons and the two tried to come to a consensus. "We should stay down here and watch them come and go for some time." Luna was trying to say, only for Violet to butt in and give her own opinion.
"Not enough gain for the risk, what if we get spotted? How long will we have to wait before we get any good information? No best to climb cliff and get good look at camp from above." Luna frowned at that answer but couldn't quite come up with a suitable rebuttal, the reason she wanted to stay on the ground was also clear to Violet, she just wanted the chance to kill more orcs. And as much as Violet wanted to do just that she was also aware that would be a dangerous option right now and they would be better served getting more info before looking for small groups and hunting them.
"Okay so let's say we go to the cliffs, how exactly are we going to get to the top? They look to be pretty tall and not exactly great to climb. Plus we will be completly exposed and easy to spot." That was a good point raised by Luna but it was one that Violet had a response to, she had noticed something earlier when the first spotted the cliff after all.
After quickly explaining this to her companion, Luna had to agree that it did seem like the best bet. And so they once more moved out back towards where they first spotted the cliff and the switchback path up said cliff that Violet had spotted. Now all they had to worry about was being spotted whilst assending.