Smiling as if he is having a blast, Cain dispatched the alligators with swift slashes. Not of them stood a chance against him, he had fought them hundreds if not thousands of times.
“It doesn’t seem like he needs our help, look how he is dealing with them!” Sofia said, looking at the other two who were just staring at him. ‘If Cain said that he can fight them, he could do it.’ Sofia settled herself to trusting his decision more.
Alice looked at the alligators being over 16 feet long, Cain looked tiny in comparison to their massive size. “With those numbers, I can’t come in to heal you, one bite and you’re dead!” Alice shouted so Cain could hear her. Seeing their massive jaws, she was certain one bite is enough to kill someone.
“Don’t get surrounded-nya, and leave me some-nya!” Selena was just enjoying the show, as well as keeping an eye on Cain in case he get in a bad situation.
“Don’t just stare at me, help those guys out, they’re in the way!” Cain shouted, casually stepping over an alligator as if he was a jumping stone. He was protecting the falling adventurers as he was playing with the alligators.
The girls rushed to help the adventures, some of them were unable to stand. “Alice, don’t waste MP healing them. The way out should be safe so they can just crawl out!” Cain told her, that MP could be needed to heal Sofia or Selena and he didn’t want it to be wasted.
“Can I at least stop their bleeding, I don’t feel right leaving them like this!” Alice complained, she was surprisingly stopped by one of the adventurers.
“He is right, we ended like this because we wasted our MP. Once our healer was done our formation crumbled and we started to get overwhelmed! A-cough, cough!” The adventurer started coughing blood, barely able to speak due to the nasty wound on his chest.
“Cain!” She screamed, waiting for an answer. Even with that she didn’t feel right leaving them like that, most of them would die of blood loss before they could reach the exit.
“Fine, do what you feel right!” Cain finally gave his word, and Alice started healing them instantly.
“Stop, you will just end like us!” The adventurer replied, doing his best to speak.
“Alice, we have more people in critical condition! This one here seems to have a severed leg and is bleeding a lot!” Sofia shouted as she dragged a girl from the battlefield.
“Sorry, I only listen to Cain’s words. No matter what you say, it won’t change the fact that he agreed!” Alice stated her feelings. It didn’t matter if he was right or wrong, as long as it was coming from Cain she would accept it.
Grarararar! A loud deep growling came from the depth of the cave, followed by the sound of heavy footsteps and the sound of something getting dragged on the ground.
“It’s coming!” one of the adventurers cried, ” We gotta run!” he added, terror was clear in his eyes.
“What is it?” Alice asked, the man’s face said it was dangerous and she got concerned for Cain’s safety.
“Something big and heavy is approaching, get ready-gaw!” Selena was in full fight mode, her claw itching for blood.
“Don’t worry, It’s just the Alpha gator!” Cain shouted back, seemingly unfazed.
Those gators can live for over one hundred years, the oldest of them becomes the pact leader and gorge itself on prey, eventually growing to be several times larger than the others. Comparing a regular cave alligator with an Alpha gator is like comparing a cat to a lion.
Cain pulled his sword, It flashed with red flames like an ember in the darkness of the night. [Fireblade] “Don’t interfere, this thing is dangerous if you don’t understand its attack pattern!” Cain warned them to not get involved, to him dealing with the Alpha gator was something he has done hundreds of times in his past life.
As soon as the Alpha gator showed its massive head from the corner, Cain rushed it at a blinding speed. The monster was large, turning in that tight corner was almost impossible without it damaging itself. Cain didn’t hesitate to take that opportunity to attack its neck.
Alpha gator didn’t take kindly to that attack, violently swinging its neck and avoiding a deep cut. As a side effect, it shock the entire cave causing a small cave-in and killing a bunch of the other alligators who didn’t know how to dodge the falling stalagmite.
‘So it’s a male? I thought it was a female from the head shape.’ Cain though, female Alpha gators are usually caring for the other alligator and avoid killing as if they were their children, the males, on the other hand, are cannibals who actively try to end other alligators’ life.
A female Alpha gator is distinguished by the scales on its head, they point sideways while the male’s scale points backward. From its head this was a female, why is she killing the other gators in her pack?
Without wasting much time thinking, Cain pulled backward and launched an [Firelance] at the Alpha gator’s eyes, robbing its left eye.
“Come and face me, look!” Cain swung his bright red sword in the air, drawing the Alpha gator’s wrath, the monster charged at him.
“Nice, open that mouth wide for me!” Cain pointed with his hand at the monster’s open maw, charging his spell [Firelance] [Enchanting] [Enchanting] unleashing a mimicked [Fireburst] inside its mouth.
As the monster growled in pain, Cain cast [Earth wall] causing it to trip and fall. Quickly climb onto it’s head to deliver the killing blow between its scales [Enchanting: Discharge] frying its brain with electricity.
“Im-impossible! to think that someone could easily kill that thing!” One of the adventurers gasped, not believing his own eyes.
“Monsters with big mouths are always so simple to take on if you know some AOE magic, their inside are always soft and weak!” Cain said with a menacing smile, ‘This one won’t blow up in my face either!’ remembering the hydra, it would have been an easy kill if not for its gas-filled stomach!
“It’s Cain after all-nya, just like how he took down that snake-nya!” Selena stated as she remembered the way he killed the Crimson Cobra.
To Cain, humanoid monsters like Jack, succubi, vampires, and greater undead like death knights and Lichs were far more dangerous than the big animal-like monstrosities. Besides dragons, of course, those things were an exception to all the rules, they are moving disasters.
Not wasting any more time, Cain jumped down to check the Alpha gator’s gender, he was too curious about the thing’s odd behavior.
“What are you doing, is it still alive?” Sofia asked as she saw Cain jump behind the Alpha gator’s corpse.
“No, just checking the gender quickly. This thing was acting a bit weird!” Cain replied as he signaled for Selena to come to help him flip the thing.
“Why do that-nya?” Selena asked the same question that was running in everyone’s head.
“It was just too aggressive for a female, yet it has the look of one. Something must be wrong here.” Cain was expecting to make a new finding, like a rare type of Alpha gators, or a mutated one. He was going on it for research, nothing more.
As Selena flipped the monster on its back, Cain took a closer look, it was obvious even for Selena, the Alpha gator was a female.
No signs of it being pregnant or wounded, its body looked fairly generic meaning it probably has no mutations. Cain scratched his head, should he take it apart here? No, that would waste a lot of time.
“So did you find anything?” Alice asked, they seem to have finished healing the adventurers and set them on their way.
“It doesn’t seem so from the look on your face.” Sofia illuminated Cain’s face with the torch she was carrying, Cain’s face was tense as the flames reflected in his eyes.
Cain took his time to explain his worries to them, even if they didn’t fully understand what he was saying, four heads thinking could save their lives. He was depending heavily on his knowledge to fight, correcting it always took top priority.
The girls tried to think of multiple reasons, each time Cain rejected their ideas with a simple counter. “It probably was sick, we can’t see it hand a painful stomach for example!” Sofia suggested, looking at the dead Alpha gator’s stomach.
“I don’t think that possible, if it was sick it wouldn’t be this big.” Alpha gators were large, which meant they needed to eat a lot to stay alive. This monster was healthy enough to keep hunting like normal.
“Maybe she didn’t notice them-nya,” Selena suggested, If it wasn’t a problem with the Alpha gator it should be in the environment. The monster simply didn’t know the other alligators were there when she attacked.
“That also wouldn’t be possible, It has already seen and heard them, Its head was fully out.” Alpha gators, Like cave alligators, have an amazing dark vision and hearing sense.
“What if she just didn’t care about them?” Alice said casually, starting to get bored talking about big lizards instead of fighting.
“That also isn’t possible, females Alpha gators always care about the members of their packs…” Cain stopped for a second… his brain caught on to something…’They care for the member of their packs, their packs only…Only… only their pack?’
‘That wasn’t her pack? Hold up!?!??!’ Cain spotted the two large eyes glaring at them from the darkness, it was already too close.
“Shit! there is a second one!” Cain screamed as he pulled Alice and Sofia backward from their hair, CLAMP! saving their lives in the last second.