Picking up the small white crystal, Leander tossed it into the bag. He moved to another outcrop of white crystals, moving from one crystal to another, breaking them off of the wall and throwing them into the bag.
'From how Riku described this cave, I had thought it would be teeming with deadly scorpions. But so far, I haven't seen anything; it's almost satisfying. Maybe caves aren't so bad, they can't all have killer beasts like Lewren in them.'
As Leander broke off another crystal, he felt something hit his right leg. Looking down, he frowned. A scorpion so small its body didn't even reach his ankle – its carapace looked like crystal reflecting the light from the glowing crystals in the ceiling like a mirror – was tapping its stinger against his leg, unable to penetrate it due to his armour. Although it couldn't breach his armour – even if it did, Leander was sure that whatever poison it had stored within its stinger would have no effect on his undead body. Yet, despite this, Leander raised his right foot to crush the scorpion.
'That sound was getting on my nerves.'
As the crystal scorpion broke under Leander's heel, its crystal-like carapace breaking sounded like shattering glass. Leander was deep enough inside the cave that the sound echoed in each direction.
Before the sound of breaking glass had died down, another sound took its place. The sound of thousands of feet rattling the floor of the cave.
Instinctually reaching for his sword, Leander froze.
"Ah, of course."
Giving up on that idea, Leander balled his fists, waiting for the approaching horde. After a few moments, Leander's next foe came into view. Hundreds of crystal scorpions filled the cave ahead of him, yet despite the overwhelming number of beasts, Leander found it hard – if not impossible – to feel any form of intimidation.
The crystal scorpions were just too small to be scary.
As the horde of crystal scorpions reached him, Leander simply stepped on them. Dozens of crystal scorpions died every second as Leander quickly stepped up and down – the sound of breaking glass caused a ringing in Leander's ears.
'I would have thought there would be some variety in sizes, but these things. They are all just so tiny.'
The hundreds of crystal scorpions soon thinned into the double digits, and in even less time, Leander crushed the final crystal scorpion.
Staring at the cave floor, now covered in the corpses of hundreds of crystal scorpions, Leander crouched to pick one up. Looking at it closely, he noticed something.
'These crystal scorpions…'
Taking a small white crystal out of his bag, Leander held the two together.
'These look similar… No, if anything, they look exactly the same as if the crystal the carapace is made out of is the same as the crystals embedded in the wall. Interesting. I'll fill half the bag with crystals and half the bag with crystal scorpions. If they are the same, that will save me some time picking crystals out of the wall.'
Scooping scorpions up by the handful, Leander tossed them into the bag one after the other. After a couple of minutes, the bag was full to the brim with both white crystals and crystal scorpions. Still on one knee, Leander pulled the strings taught tightly, closing the bag.
"Well, that's that."
"You… Kill, my family…"
A chittering voice echoed through the darkness, it seemed to struggle to pronounce its words. Leander didn't immediately turn to see who was talking, too busy struggling to tie a knot so that the bag wouldn't come loose as he walked back to Riku's home.
Dismissively, he responded to the voice.
"If you're family with these scorpions, you should be aware that they had attacked me first. So it was simply self-defence, if beasts have honour then you should let me leave in peace-"
Having finished tying the knot, Leander was about to turn around when something struck him in the face, interrupting his sentence. Being attacked off guard, Leander was knocked to the ground. Leander quickly picked himself up – checking that the bag was still secure – and slowly turned to glare at the beast that had hit him.
"So you're not all small fry, huh? You must be the alpha of these crystal scorpions."
The beast that stood a dozen feet in front of Leander was a crystal scorpion, although this one was much, much larger, its body reaching Leander's waist. Had its carapace been a different colour, Leander wouldn't have known it was the same race as the smaller crystal scorpions at all.
Although it speaking also gave that away.
"Honour… What need… Beast… Have for honour… You sound like…The Decemtal"
Rubbing the back of his head where the large crystal scorpion had struck him, Leander smirked.
"You are a lot different from your family, I guess that makes you the alpha. I will say that I am surprised at your ability to speak. Back in my day, finding a normal beast that could speak was one in a million, and I've run into two within the last two weeks. Maybe three if I ever find out what Ravenmother is. Although your ability to speak is a lot worse than theirs."
Finishing rubbing his head, Leander dropped the bag next to him. Holding his hand out in front of him, Leander motioned for the alpha to attack.
"I've got a schedule to keep."
Without any further broken words, the crystal scorpion alpha dashed forward. One of its large pincers flew forward, intending to grab Leander's body and crush him. Stepping to the side, Leander threw an arm around the beast's pincer, pinning it to his side.
Bringing his fist up, Leander brought it crashing down on the base of its pincer; after half a dozen punches, the crystal carapace began to crack. In response, the crystal scorpion's stinger shot forward – Leander showed no reaction as it pitifully hit the chestplate of his armour. Pulling its stinger back, it attempted to stab Leander's face with its stinger – which Leander ducked. Folding his arm, Leander raised his elbow, bringing it crashing down into the already weakened carapace, causing it to shatter. The resulting shatter echoed through the cave. With the pincer crippled, Leander let it go.
Shaking his hand, Leander took a step back. The crystal scorpions littering the floor shattered further with each step. Frowning, Leander watched the crystal scorpion alpha as it prepared to attack again.
'Stronger than a manyfang, far weaker than Lewren, weaker still than that dragon. I don't have time for this.'
Leander closed the distance between himself and the crystal scorpion alpha – with one of its two pincers disabled, Leander was able to easily close the distance, dodging its second strike with its stinger. Leander brought his fist down, crashing into the crystal alpha's head.
In the next moment, the crystal scorpion fell to the ground,d unconscious.
Exhaling, Leander rubbed his fist again, staring at the alpha.
'Another beast that can't use anima. I haven't had a proper opponent since Lewren; even then, he was nothing when I was able to tap into my own anima. If I was able to use my anima freely, I doubt I would have even acknowledged you.'
Leander's frown deepened as he took another step, the sound of shattering glass echoing throughout his mind.
"Damn… What's with me recently?"
Picking up the bag, Leander turned around. Carefully picking his steps so as to not hurt any more of the crystal scorpions than he needed to.
Making it past the remains of the crystal scorpions. Leander reached the entrance to the cave. Squinting as the bright sun overpowered the subtle light of the glowing crystals. Leander's squint slowly transitioned into a cold glare. His grip on the strings of the bag loosened, letting the bag lower to the ground. Leander called out in a calm manner.
"Show yourselves."
A moment of silence passed with Leander staring at the empty entrance.
A moment turned into seconds.
Seconds turned into minutes.
After ten minutes of waiting, two individuals stepped into view from either side of the cave. One thing stuck out to Leander immediately. They were both wearing kitsune masks.
The figure to his left wore a grey mask, their form concealed beneath a fur cloak that hung down to their feet. A pair of petite feline ears that stuck out of their equally grey hair, accompanied by a tail swaying behind them, revealed their true nature as Beast-Kin. The one in the grey mask tilted their head, and the voice of an older woman spoke from beneath the mask.
"I was hoping you were just bluffing, but you knew we were here. Impressive."
The next one to speak stood beside the one in the grey mask, wearing a yellow mask. The gender of the second masked figure was apparent. She wore a flowing silk robe adorned with intricate patterns that evoked the jagged brilliance of a lightning strike, the fabric cinched snugly around her chest, accentuating its elegant design. Where the grey-masked woman had shown a calm demeanour, the one in the yellow mask seemed to be vibrating in place as if staying in one place was against her nature.
"Grey! Grey! Why do we have to stay in place so long!? This guy has been making us wait for too long. Can we just kill him already!?"
Leander couldn't help but chuckle to himself as the one in the yellow kitsune mask spoke openly of killing him as if he wasn't even there.
The one in the grey kitsune mask – aptly named Grey – tutted at her accomplice, beginning to tell her off.
"Now, Yellow, how many times have I told you? We do not need to harm people who aren't a part of our mission. This obviously isn't the heir to the Oni families. So we'll leave him be. I just wanted to see if he would be a problem since he had just left Riku's home."
Yellow let out an exacerbated sigh.
"Then let's leave this guy here and kill the Heir, come on! Come on!"
Holding his hand up, Leander interrupted the two masked ladies. Politely asking:
"Excuse me, but are you here to kill Riku?"
Grey turned to Leander, and with a slight nod, she answered.
"Yes, that is the case. The Elikeen Council have sentenced him, his sister and another to death."
After a few moments, Leander asked.
"May I know why?"
Slightly chuckling, Grey shook her head.
"I don't see how that would concern you. Now, if you don't get in our way, we will have no problem with you. So, if you will excuse us."
As the Grey Fox began to turn, Leander dropped his bag to the side. He started to feel annoyed that he hadn't accepted Riku's offer of a weapon.
"As much as it would be nice to kill that guy, I'm afraid I need his help with something. So I can't let him die so soon."
Grey stared at Leander for a few moments before turning to her accomplice. Her calm tone turned as cold as ice.
"Kill him."
Yellow – who had started hopping from one foot to the other – threw her hands up into the air. She gleefully called to Leander.
"Try not to die too fast man!"
Before Leander could react, the Yellow Fox turned into a blur as she shot forward – yellow lightning followed her movements as her fist slammed into Leander's chest, sending him flying further back into the cave.