~Wilderness~
Three bounty hunters hung to the tree line at the edge of a vast expanse of jagged rocks and boulders, all covered in a thick carpet of moss.
“What do you think?” Linc asked, squinting out over the naked plane.
“There’s no way around.” Vanderby whispered, looking left and right, then back at some boulders in front of them, and he tilted his head forward, “But I don’t like that.”
Two giant boulders lay a hundred yards ahead, each of them had a hole on top that was pooling with blood, running down the sides and staining the moss, standing out among the green blanket like red warning flags.
“Which way?” Vandery asked Estra, and she pointed directly across the expanse, causing Linc to give up a wry smile.
But as Vanderby took the first step, Linc followed, with his sword already raised a thumb-length from its sheath.
They had a bounty to catch, and they had come too far to go back now.
~Hegatha’s Swamp~
“Bob, it’s nearly daytime. Hello?” Asra said, prodding his arm.
Jay moaned, shifted his body and closed his eyes, but the nudge on his shoulder didn’t give up.
“Mm. Give me a second.” Jay rubbed his head and sat up, gathering his thoughts.
[810 Exp]
Jay nodded at the free exp, left his warm bed and sat on the chair by his desk. Asra promptly slipped under the covers, making his bed into hers, while Jay whispered at her side.
“Don’t get too comfy. We’ll be leaving today, after your final healing, so I’ll wake you up soon. I will have Hegatha heal you outside, then we’ll leave. Here’s the blanket.” He said, and lay the noon-leather on the desk.
“Thanks.” Asra murmured, though she was already turned away and facing the wall, her eyes shut.
As Jay sat at his desk, he felt an odd sense tingling across his skin. It was like strings of web being pulled from his body and drifting towards Leeches. The necrotic mana was being subtly drained from him, but it was such a small amount that it was almost imperceptible, and his mana regeneration could more than handle it. He rested a hand over Leeches and delivered some mana, keeping it repairing itself.
Jay was about to ask about it draining out his mana, but paused. Asra was still awake and he didn’t want her knowing Leeches could talk, so he decided to have that conversation another time and left without a word.
Walking outside, Jay took out his throne and left it at the side of his house. Its seat was still wet from the storm, and leaving it in his inventory wasn’t going to change anything.
The fire was still gently flickering, carefully tended to by the skeletons overnight and giving out a small plume of smoke, but since he planned to leave today, he let the skeletons leave it to smolder into embers.
After breakfast he had little to do and a lot of mana, so he began making armor plates, which the skeletons could fix to their bodies.
Archers brought back a wealth of new mushrooms while Red stood valiantly by Jay’s side, watching its master work.
~Wilderness~
Lara and Lannister came to a sprawling expanse covered in a thick sheet of moss, and nimbly moved between boulders, hiding behind each of them. Every so often they carefully peered over, stalking their targets.
They had tracked what the orren kitten found, and covertly tailed a group of three young people; Estra, Linc and Vanderby. They couldn’t get close enough to see what level they were, but based on their youthful appearance they were likely below level 20.
As for the other two orren seeds Lannister sowed, they yielded no results. They presumed Jay continued south from Losla, but these three adventurers moved slightly south-east.
Of course, they didn’t believe for a second that it was a coincidence to find them out here. The three strangers didn’t analyze plants or collect samples as they went, and their clothes weren’t waterproof or camouflaged, so they certainly weren’t explorers—and certainly too novice to be military.
Lara placed one hand on the mossy boulder and glanced at Lannister. He was sitting with a ring of blue around his neck, his head vanishing into a portal.
Somewhere in the sky, an almost imperceptible dot appeared; Lannister’s head, watching from above as the bounty hunters moved across the mossy plane. He had to wait till they left the thick forest canopy to get a good view, but he wasn’t the only one watching them.
Something else had crept out of the forest, stalking them. A long body covered with hairy fur moved silently as it curved between boulders, navigating them with fluid motions. Whenever its prey glanced back it sunk closely to the ground, hiding its presence. Its body froze, then moved forward with skittish movements that revealed its clinical bug-like nature, and each movement from its numerous spiny legs showed its predatory instincts were honed to perfection.
The insectoid horror’s legs, segmented and covered with chitin, ended in hooks, and were the only part that weren’t covered in wiry strings of fur, along with a large beak at its head and two long spines at its tail, each twitching as it moved.
Lannister pulled his head from the portal, closed the spell and slowly held his hand up to Lara, gesturing her freeze as he whispered as quietly as he could.
“They’re about to be attacked.”
Lara frowned. Those three were the only clue they had, and if they had really tracked Jay this far, they could certainly lead them further to finding their necromancer.
*Crack!*
A glare of golden light suddenly flashed from behind the boulder, causing Lara to duck as the moss around them quivered.
*Boom!* The ground shuddered.
“We need to save them.” Lara said, and jumped onto the boulder.
“Lara,” Lannister raised a hand to stop her.
“If they become a problem we’ll deal with them later.” She said, and nimbly dashed across the mossy rocks.
“Back! Get back!” Vanderby yelled.
Linc stood at the foot of the beast. His blade met the beak but failed to cut, sending a jolt of pain reverberating through his arms and only leaving a dent in its hardened chitin shell.
The beak, deeply embedded into ground, had missed Linc’s feet by inches. He had barely escaped the impact, which sent a shower of rocks and debris scattering in all directions.
Its skittish body coiled forward, heaved and pulled its beak out, kicking rocks up with it.
Vanderby charged, smashing his heavy shield into its underside and taunting it. But the creature didn’t even budge. Linc jumped back and dashed around the side of the creature, looking for a weakness while Vanderby began to yell.
“We—!”
*Boom!*
The beak powerfully dropped again, like a hammer from the heavens. Vanderby earned its ire, his shield appearing like the top of a boulder-tortoise.
“Aghh!” Vanderby screamed in agony.
The powerful beak struck the shield on its side and shattered a chunk away before embedding into the ground again. Vanderby’s arm twisted with the shield and snapped, a jagged bone sticking out. The weighty shield pulled on his flesh, threatening to tear the last of his arm off.
Linc began to cut at the wall of legs at its side. A few precise slashes could sever one, but each moved as a blur, and a different leg replaced another before he could lock onto a target.
As for hitting it in the same spot, it was near-impossible.
Vanderby’s eyes were widened, filled with panic. He dropped his dagger and gripped his shield, barely holding it up as his legs began to shiver. He stashed his shield away before it could pull his dangling arm off, then grabbed his dangling arm and bolted away.
Vanderby’s legs moved themselves as he ran back to Estra, barely keeping himself upright on the sloping rocks.
The creature brought its beak out of the earth again. Its legs clicked and scraped against each other in an unsettling symphony, sounding like a nest of hissing snakes.
“Twenty-two seconds!” Linc yelled, but his heart sank as he saw Vanderby’s back, sprinting away.
The beast flexed its body upwards, surveying its prey. The silky, stringy fur draping down its neck becoming motionless as it prepared another strike. Its body skittered forward over the rocks with agile speed, its beak poised to strike, about to sever Vanderby’s torso from his legs.
Linc grit his teeth and widened his eyes, about to watch his friend die. But his friend had abandoned him. He glanced back to the forest, guessing he could make it if he sheathed his sword and used another flash step to escape. He thought it would be fair.
But as the creature raised up to strike, its body shuddered.
*Boom!*
A giant boulder wrenched from the earth itself crashed into its head, knocking it down and stunning it. All of its legs stopped moving.
“Dammit.” Linc angrily grunted and bolted forward to cease the opportunity. He cleaved his sword into a leg until pink blood spurted on his face, but he kept hacking relentlessly, and with a crunch he finally severed a leg—but it was merely one of many.
The legs twitched and began to move in their circadian rhythm. The creatures beaked head slowly raised as it recovered.
Linc had taken the opportunity to attack but it was pointless. Even when it was knocked out he could barely injure it, and he glanced into the forest again.
Vanderby had left him to die, so he was prepared do the same—if not for the boulder that spurred him to act.
Linc looked around to see where it came from, but more moss and dirt kicked up as another boulder sailed through the air.
*Boom!*
It struck the creature, sending a tremor through the ground that rivaled the beak.
Linc stumbled away and caught a sight of a young woman in a black cloak, their mysterious savior darting effortlessly over the rocks with another boulder hovering behind her.
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