Life Giver

"HISS!! *THUD* HISS! *THUD*"

The large Black Viper hissed as it repeatedly barged into the array barrier, at first it seemed as if the Black Viper was simply too confident in its strength but after 5.. 10.. 15 full force attacks, it still didn't stop.

Clearly the Black Viper's intelligence was very underdeveloped even though its body is incredibly strong.

Half way down the hill, Casmir, Zaya, Daroch and another student named Harley had regrouped behind a boulder as they watched the Black Viper brutishly attack the barrier, its body flailing about erratically.

They had fortunately been given a short reprieve from the Black Viper's assault after Cor'Dana distracted it and they didn't waste this time either. They were quickly planning out their next move although they were shaken by this series of events.

"What is that thing.. how come Instructor Redfire's array doesn't work but that one does?" Harley asked quietly, his eyes fixated on the Black Viper as he carefully peak over the boulder.

Zaya, who was wrapping a bandage around Casmir's injured arm, quietly replied.

"I don't think that's a ferocious beast.. It doesn't use any Qi energy and it clearly has very low intelligence. It's only its physical body that's incredibly strong.."

Casmir, crouching beside her, was trying to understand how the Array Orb failed but after hearing Zaya's speculation, he identified a possible reason.

"The Array Orb Redfire gave us clearly doesn't effect us or smaller lifeforms that pass through it like trees, insects and smaller animals.. so it must use some mechanism to identify foreign objects, right?" Casmir asked.

Zaya and the rest nodded back, this sounded completely reasonable from the limited knowledge they had of Qi technologies like Array Orb's.

"I bet that blue bubble it gives off uses Qi energy somehow, to identify 'threats' before it acts on them.. but that Black Viper doesn't have any Qi energy, so the Array Orb failed to identify it and didn't do anything... " Casmir reasoned.

Hearing his explanation, Zaya, who was still bandaging Casmir's arm suddenly jerked as she realised Casmir's explanation made sense.

In response Casmir released a strange muffled "MHPM!" sound, before he looked at Zaya with angry, questioning eyes.

"Sorry..." Zaya said before quietly muttering "..you big baby.." to herself.

Casmir heard her and glared back at Zaya for a moment, before he shook his head and continued talking.

"..I think we can work around the Black Viper though. It's clearly an instinctual animal so as long as we're cautious, we can bait it into doing what we want."

Casmir then suddenly stopped talking and carefully looked at everyone, pausing on Zaya.

"Zaya.. do you think you can outrun it and distract it while we get to the cave? Don't play around. We need to be confident if we act and we can always try something else." Casmir said seriously.

Zaya was by far the fastest of the group as she could rely on her Ancestral affinity to increase her speed, Daroch with his large ridged tree-like body was far slower and Harley was an Elemental with no speciality in speed.

Casmir was in fact the second fastest of the group in this terrain even though everyone else was Qi Grade 2, thanks to his superior physical strength and environmental training with Zaya.

Hearing Casmir's suggestion Daroch and Harley looked at Zaya expectantly, they wouldn't admit it but both of them were afraid and they had little confidence in fighting this dangerous beast.

Zaya stood up, peering over the boulder and seriously observing the Black Viper for a moment. A tinge of fear appearing in her eyes before she f.o.r.c.i.b.l.y supressed it and turned to Casmir, nodded her head.

Casmir couldn't help but feel reluctant and powerless that he had to ask Zaya to do this, but he was confident in her speed, he knew that she could move faster than the Black Viper but that didn't stop him from being concerned for her.

Casmir stepped in front of Zaya, placing his good arm on her shoulder as he looked straight into her eyes.

"You can do this. I'm going to grab Cor'Dana crossbow on the way, we'll cover you when you come back... If you're in trouble just call for me, I'll get you out." He said firmly.

A strange chill passed through Zaya's body as she heard.

She felt both weakness and strength surge from the unknown depths of her mind but for better or for worse she trusted Casmir, if he believed in her then so would she

"Ok.. be as quick as you can. I'll lead it down the hill and circle around before I come back up, that should give you enough time." Zaya said before she crouched down and quickly made her way across the rocky terrain.

Casmir signalled Harley and Daroch to hide behind a nearby large boulder as they waited for Zaya to distract the Black Viper.

Zaya quietly moved across the hill, she stopped roughly two thirds of the way up the hill but a good 50m from where Casmir and the rest where hiding.

The Black Viper was still recklessly attacking the cave barrier, it seemed to be obsessed with the weak food behind it, unwilling or perhaps unable, to realise it would never break through.

Zaya reached backwards, the Grade 3 dagger that Master Bluefire had giving her was firmly grasped in her hand. Then in an instant she rapidly twisted her upper body focusing all her momentum into the dagger before releasing it with a burst of her Qi energy.

The dagger shot out like a small bird, its beak sharpened to a deadly point as it silently slipped through the air towards the Black Viper.

At the top of the hill the Black Viper was oblivious to this sudden, silent attack and thus made no effort to move.

The bird's beak easily pierced through the Black Viper's scales, digging deeply into its flesh until its entire body was immersed in blood and only a short handle remained visible in the wound.

"HHIISSSS!" The Black Viper cried in pain as it coiled its body defensively.

It quickly turned around in anger to find Zaya standing out in the open, she looked like a piece of meat waiting to be eaten to the Black Viper and after having completely enraged it, naturally the Black Viper wouldn't let her be.

Its coiled body erupted with strength as it flung itself into the air directly towards Zaya.

Zaya knew she had gained the Black Viper's attention the moment it turned around, she had already spun around before leaping down the hill. At the same time placing as many boulders between herself and the Black Viper as she could.

Casmir's group quietly watch as the Black Viper shot by them, crashing into a large boulder that seemed like a pill of sand to the Black Viper. It was barely slowed at all although it did seem angrier after the collision as if it had hurt itself in its reckless pursuit of Zaya.

Casmir wondered how such a stupidly reckless animal could survive, even the lowest Grade 1 ferocious beasts knew not to hurt itself while chasing prey, it was as if the Black Viper didn't recognise what a stone boulder was.

Then suddenly an odd thought crossed Casmir's mind.

What if the Black Viper actually wasn't used to such an environment? What if the Black Viper wasn't native to this area?

After all, he had never learned about such an animal during his studies and surely an animal capable of penetrating an Array's detection would be a point of interest his Instructors would focus on.

"Casmir lets go!" Daroch suddenly called out from beside him.

Casmir quickly pushed his thoughts to the side for now and rushed up the hill towards the cave.

It would only take them ten seconds to reach the cave even with Casmir slightly detouring to pick up Cor'Dana's dropped crossbow.

Casmir was the fastest of the three and he raced up the hill like a mad man, repeatedly activating the Will Resonance state every few seconds to boost his speed and focus. He would also be looking back and forth between where he was going and Zaya's position to keep track of any unexpected events.

Thankfully Zaya had easily outran the Black Viper, she had reached the bottom of the hill before she quickly circled around the bottom. The Black Viper couldn't even get close to her as she used the terrain to her advantage, every ten metres or so she would orc.h.e.s.trate a new obstacle for the Black Viper to overcome with her controlled movements.

Even though she descended from a Cheetah, she looked more like a fish in water as she navigated the terrain completely naturally.

Casmir smiled seeing this.

'Good.. Good.. she faster than the Black Viper downhill, there's no way it can catch up to her coming back up..'

It was at this point that Casmir reached the mouth of the cave at the top of the hill, Cor'Dana and the other half of the students were still waiting cautiously behind the barrier. They couldn't see far out of the cave or down the hill from their position and they didn't dare leave the barrier in case the Black Viper was only waiting just out of sight.

"Cor'Dana quickly! We need your crossbow!" Casmir called out, throwing the heavy equipment towards Cor'Dana like nothing.

Cor'Dana was relieved when he saw Casmir and immediately stepped through the barrier to find out the situation. He caught his Crossbow on the way before he rushed to Casmir and join him as he looked down the hill.

Daroch and Harley had just climbed up to the entrance as Casmir was explaining what had happening to Cor'Dana.

"Zaya distracted it for us, you need to help cover her as she comes back up."

Cor'Dana quickly nodded, re-arming his crossbow before he took aim at the Black Viper.

As he did so, Zaya had already started her return trip up the hill, she was already a third of the way up while the Black Viper had barely started its climb, clearly it was having far more trouble climbing the hill than descending it.

When the Black Viper descended the hill it was mostly relying on its own momentum to 'fall' down the hill in pursuit of Zaya, but as it ascended the hill it struggled to find its 'grip'. The Black Viper repeatedly slipped on the uneven terrain and the overwhelming force it used to move its heavy body often crushed the rocks it was laying upon, slowing it down immensely.

Casmir let out a sigh of relief as he saw this, 'Thank god..' he thought.

However his relief only lasted for a moment as the Black Viper suddenly changed its tactics.

The Black Viper saw its prey quickly escaping in front of it and was enraged. It was unwilling to lose because of this terrible terrain so it suddenly opened its previously locked jaw and shivered as it erupted with a strange screech.

"AEEEECHH!" It cried as a large spray of yellowish liquid shot out of its mouth, threatening to rain down upon a the hill like deathly rain.

Zaya had been paying attention to the snake the whole time so when it sprayed this substance she immediately knew to take cover, fearing its effects, unfortunately she only managed to find a partially destroyed boulder nearby.

The yellowish substance quickly fell upon the hill splashing in every direction as it ricochet off of the uneven terrain, however as it splashed on the rocky terrain it started sizzled fiercely like some kind of acid.

If it wasn't for this substances short active period before it became inert, the entire hillside would have corroded away.

From a top the hill, Casmir and Cor'Dana watched in shock. They had never heard of any snake using a substance like this, even high level ferocious beast would rarely have such abilities naturally.

Then suddenly from where Zaya had hidden herself a sharp scream that almost resembled a growl emerged.

"AAGRRH!"

Casmir immediately recognised the scream to be Zaya's, if she had been exposed to this acidic substance one could only imagine the state she was in.

Anxiety and fear for Zaya's safety suddenly grabbed hold of Casmir, without a second thought he leaped down the hill rushing as fast as he could towards Zaya's last position.

"No! Stop!.. SHIT!" Cor'Dana shouted anxiously as he watched Casmir leap into danger.

With his weak close-combat strength following after Casmir would be idiotic so he furiously poured his Qi energy into his crossbow, knowing it to be all he could do. However Cor'Dana was well aware that unless he charged his attack for a reasonable time it wouldn't be able to inflict much damage on the Black Viper, he likely only had enough time for one shot.

Meanwhile Casmir was rushing down the hill, the Black Viper had closed its mouth and started its climb up the now corroded rocky terrain to find its prey.

It noticed Casmir charging towards it and was excited to catch him, its eyes seemed to grow more focused as it recognised Casmir from their earlier collision as a strong opponent.

Just as Casmir and the Black Viper's eyes locked onto each other, a thin figure stood up in between them.

Zaya had suddenly rose up from her hiding place in a attempt to continue climbing the hill, however her appearance sent shivers of rage across Casmir's body.

The Left side of her body was riddled with small blister like wounds, her clothing was scattered with circular holes of varying sizes from where the acid had burnt through. She looked like she was in incredible pain but worse was that her left arm and leg were drooping weakly as if she had lost control of them.

"Casmir!" Zaya cried desperately, the deep fear and pain that was lashed onto her face was all one needed to imagine her condition.