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Kernstalion2 - 2: Dangerous and creepy
🕑 Added 2021-05-06 17:34:16 +0000 UTC"You're sure we can't remove it?" I asked, staring at the beautiful vista behind a massive fungal growth.
"Impossible. The seeds will be deep in the ground, and it will regrow, infecting everyone and everything," Laurel said as she inspected the massive mushrooms and fungi.
We were standing on the edge of the sparse forest, looking at the top of a hill not too far away. After scouting around for a while, it had looked like one of the few promising spots, at least from far away. It had a steep slope and a cliff on the back, making it easily defendable. The best thing was that below the cliff was a five-meter-wide river that looked to lead back to the sea.
"Too bad. It's the best spot we've found so far," I said.
A loud pounding behind us caused us both to swirl around, axes at the ready. The two Sabre Goats stood beneath a nearby tree, staring deeper at the forest. Moments later, a third Goat shot out from behind a few trees with Haltir on its back. The old soldier had a wide grin on his face as he practically stood on the footholds carved in the Goats wooden side as it dodged around trees and jumped across a log.
"He better found something more useful than those Vestiri from before," Laurel muttered as I moved forward.
Remembering the three-winged, chicken-like birds we had killed a while ago, I shuddered. They had looked almost normal, covered in black and red feathers. Then they turned as one and gazed at me with a single massive, human-looking eye while making soft sobbing noises with a beak that wobbled. Laurel attacked them on sight and said we should be glad there had been only four. Apparently, these things usually traveled in flocks of hundreds and sucked the blood out of you with their beaks.
Haltir slowed the mount to a throat before jumping off a few meters from me.
"I've found one of those ugly slugs you told me to look out for!"
Haltir seemed content with himself, and it was hard to say if his good mood was because he had been riding the Goat or from having finally found something edible. Ever since we began traveling, his mood had become better and better, but he hadn't been willing to explain why.
Laurel rushed forward, staring at him intently. "A Glerion Slug? You're sure?"
Haltir spread his hands almost a meter wide while grinning. "This big, red, and with black pointy spikes on their back?"
Laurel whooped, startling me before I glared at her and hissed. We didn't need to draw the attention of any of the demons that roamed the forest. We had seen plenty of tracks reminiscent of rooster feet half a meter across. Seeing
"Alright, let's get it! And remember what I said-"
"Yeah, yeah. We will let you take care of it," Haltir snorted before shaking his head in disgust. "Do you think I wanna have that thing teleport and eat my face off?"
Laurel wasn't listening but running towards her mount. I followed behind, hoping those Slugs tasted better than what I was imagining. My stomach growled loudly as if it wanted to show it cared little for what my taste buds might think of the food.
Slinging myself on the back of the mount, I placed my feet in the wooden footholds, clamped my knees around the thick shoulders, and pulled the side of the handheld. The angular head moved in the direction I wanted, and with another shove, it began following after Laurel and Haltir.
I need to fix my leather straps, I thought as I looked at my ax. Holding it all the time was useful if we had to fight all of a sudden, but I was hungry, thirsty and sleepy, and wouldn't mind having my hands free. Looking at the side of the mount, I decided to create a wooden loop to attach it behind. They would need to be resummoned in half an hour anyway.
We rushed through the forest, the Goats easily navigating the rugged, rocky terrain and jumping across crevices and fallen trees with equal ease. Although I had carved saddles in their backs, my ass still hurt like crazy every time I slammed back into the unforgiving wood.
I constantly kept looking around for anything dangerous, scanning the rocky forest around me.
We were far away from the coastline, but instead of becoming denser, the forest became even more sparse. Whole swaths of rocky emptiness separated small pockets of the tall and sickly trees. Most were the fake pine's with the screeching pineapple demons, but there were tall trees with grey leaves in the form of stars standing apart from the rest. We stayed far away from them. According to Laurel, they weren't actually trees but demons that just resembled them. They slept during the day and woke at night to hunt anything they could find.
Haltir was in the lead, and after only a few minutes, he began slowing down, heading towards a group of five trees. I was scanning for the Glerion Slug when I saw a shadow move across the ground twenty or so meters from Haltir before hiding behind a rock. I rose in the saddle, staring intently at the cluster of boulders. Nothing moved.
My imagination? I thought, then sniffed at the idiocy of the through.
"Incoming!" I shouted, pointing at the spot.
Laurel was a few meters ahead of me and slowed down, letting me catch up to her. Haltir had stopped further away, staring at the spot I had been pointing at.
For almost a minute we stared at it, and nothing happened. I was about to say I must have been mistaken when a two-meter long, grey brow shape shot from behind the rocks, moving in a straight line to Haltir.
"Eng Bloodsucker!" Laurel gasped before turning her mount away with a terrified look on her face. "RUN!"
I turned to Haltir, but the soldier had swirled his Goat around and shot after Laurel without doubting her fear. The toffee-looking snake moved after him like a tactical missile, barely even touching the ground. Taking a look at the forest with the potential food, I groaned before rushing after the others.
That thing better not follow us too long, I thought as I recalled I needed to redo the Goat Mounts soon.
Five minutes later, we stood below one of the Torpel Trees, which somehow looked a lot more normal.
"If it follows us, the Torpels will begin to scream! As soon as they do, we need to flee again," Laurel said.
"What the hell was that thing?" Haltir said, looking back in the direction we had come from.
"Eng Bloodsuckers," Laurel said, and I saw her shiver. "They are one of the few things not demonic or chaotic in these hills, and even demons avoid them. They look like a single thing but are really thousands of small slugs. If they reach you, they will spread across you and pierce through your skin, burrowing deep in your body. They eat bone marrow and hollow out the bones, leaving their eggs inside before leaving. The larva eat anything…"
Haltir and I were staring at her, my mouth hanging open. I swallowed and looked around. "I'm starting to second guess Rathica's idea of creating a city in this place…"
Haltir nodded. "Perhaps we should see if we can find a better place?"
"It's not that bad," Laurel said, grimacing as we scowled at her. "We just strayed too far from the coast and rivers. Eng Bloodsuckers hate water. It burns them as fire does us."
"Then let's head back closer to the coast before something even worse finds us," I said and turned towards the setting sun.
"What about food?" Haltir muttered, and my stomach growled loudly.
"I'm starting to think we might be better off fishing in the sea," I said, turning to Laurel. She shrugged before nodding.
"It's possible, but there will be many demons in the sea around us."
"Anything small and creepy like those Eng Leeches?" Haltir asked.
"No, but there might be a Demon Seedlayer…"
I shook my head in disgust at the image the name brought to mind while Laurel began slowly explaining what the thing was.
--
It took us an hour and one resummoning of the Vengeful Spirits to reach the coast, and this time we moved along the high cliff sides, searching for a way down. The cliffs continued for a long time, and when we finally saw a slope that led to a rocky beach, it was dark. We were beside a group of three of the Torpel Trees, and I had decided that if they screamed when anything dangerous came close, I liked them a lot.
"Spend the night here or beside the water?" I asked, turning to Laurel as I realized we had been diverting to her knowledge ever since getting here.
"Here! Some demons come out of the sea at night."
I nodded and slid off the Goat's back. My legs buckled as they cramped up, and I groaned as I saw down. I began rubbing the inside of my legs, which had turned raw and painful. Laurel was in a similar state, but Haltir hopped off and walked around spry as a fiddle.
"How come you are fine?" Laurel asked, using two hands to rub her legs while leaning back on the others.
"Experience!" Haltir said as he moved beneath the trees and picked up some wood. "Can we light a fire?" He asked, turning to Laurel.
"Sure. If you want every demon in the vicinity to come and attack us."
Haltir dropped the wood and moved below the tree, putting his back against it.
"Don't sleep that close to them!" Laurel hissed, and Haltir scrambled away, glaring at the tree.
"Why not?"
"Those branches can bend to the ground, and you will wake with half of your blood if you wake at all."
Taking a deep breath, I got back up and moved to the Goats. I made them lie down in a half-circle, faces outwards and with enough room for the three of us to rest in the middle. As Laurel and Haltir moved in the small enclosure, I headed back to the three trees and picked up a wrist-thick branch. Inspecting it, I was glad to see it was still hard and strong, and I gathered up an arm full before walking back.
"You two rest. I'll take the first watch," I said before turning to Laurel. "I'll wake you in four hours."
Laurel nodded as she closed her eyes and lay down on the bare ground. "You need to get night vision, old-m… Haltir."
Haltir sat down with his back against one of the Goats and smiled at Laurel. "Why? You two are taking care of it perfectly fine without me."
Laurel rolled on her side, garbling whatever remark she gave.
I sat atop one of the Goats and put the wood upright on one side and my ax on the other while grabbing my dagger. The images of the Eng Bloodsucker and what Laurel had said about them wouldn't leave my mind, and I began thinking of ways to either block their movements or kill them.
Thousands of things that move as a single thing, I thought as I looked around for any movement.
It took me a long time to come up with an idea, but when I did, a juvenile smirk came to my face. So, you want to see what odd things we will do with magic? I thought as I remembered what Rathica had said. Let's see what you think of this.
Alternating between cutting the wood and looking around for any movements, I began carving something I had never thought I'd need from one of the lengths of wood.
When I finished the first of the small amalgamations of body parts, I wasn't sure what to think. Then again, if it worked, who cared what it looked like? A sharp ping from my status window showed it at least had something to say about it.
> You have created a medium-grade utility vessel
> Medium-grade crafting bonus
> If combined with the Vengeful Spirit skill, summoning time set to one day.
Holy crap! I stared at the last line, and a host of ideas began playing through my mind. Would the bonus be the same for every similar sculpture? If it wasn't random, I could create a host of things to guard us. Scanning around for anything dangerous, I couldn't wait to start on the second one. But first, I needed to see if my idea worked.
Focusing, I drew in a Vengeful Spirit and watched as the sculpture came to life. A Grablon's four-armed upper body sat atop a spider-like bulbous body with eight barbed legs. The legs were long and had multiple extra joins, which I hoped would allow it to move fast enough for what I had in mind. The top two of the miniature Grablon's arms pointed straight ahead like cannons and were hollowed. Picking up the deceptively light melon-sized Vengeful Spirit, I inspected it. I couldn't see any holes or openings and nodded.
"Go to the sea below, fill yourself up and then come back here," I said before tossing the sculpture towards the sea. It sailed through the air, righting itself midair before landing on the ground with a soft thud. Then it scuttled away, moving faster than I had imagined.
I waited until it disappeared across the edge of the cliff before looking at the rest of the wood. I wanted to try another one, but I decided to recreate my shin guards as I wasn't sure it would work. Almost an hour later, I heard something scuttle towards me. Realizing I had been lost in the carving again, I shuddered as I scanned around. I needed to pay more attention.
The small spider grablon was scuttling my way from the side of the cliff. It wasn't half as fast as before, but that was as I had expected it. When it reached the small dark camp, it easily climbed up the side of the Goat I sat on. A gleam covered it, and as I stroked it, I felt it was cold and wet.
"Alright, aim at that rock, and use a little bit!" I said, pointing at a rock a meter or two away. The sculpture swirled around, aimed with it's two upper arms, and a double spray of water shot from the opening as it lowered itself on its legs. The thin beam of water struck the rock, and I grinned.
"Good, now to make a few more…" I said, completely forgetting that it was time to wake Laurel. Putting my knife on the wood, I stopped as I recalled I had to make sure nothing snuck upon us.
"If you see anything move towards us, spray me!" I commanded the Vengeful Spirit before beginning the creation of the second. I wonder if I can get some poison from one of the demons, I thought as I began imagining creating a massive one the size of a tank.
