The Way of the Clan 6: World of Valdira

by Dem Mikhaylov

  The cries of the wounded giant pierced into our ears. A wave of air hit us in our faces. I staggered back and almost fell from the back of the mammoth, gripping the crossbow at the last moment. The bald elf gripped the mammoth behind his ears and was shouting joyfully, but no one heard him. The Kolyvan roared loudly and began to back away, and this didn’t contribute to our sense of balance. Snakes and anacondas quickly moved from under the feet of the mammoth, not wishing to turn into flattened sausages. The howling tore us straight through.

  The monster through up his hands, which weren’t fully formed— and tried to grab the drill of fire. Several fingers instantly broke from its hands, and the ground shook from the blows of several tons of fallen timber. But the monster didn’t give up— slowly squeezing his glowing hands and trying to break the drill of fire. And, amazingly, he was succeeding. Very high up above his head, there was a long strip of life. Full. Almost full— down by no less than a quarter, and twitching to the right and left. Not bad with regeneration, if you ask me!

  “Eye! Where is the forecast?!” Sounded the strained voice of the Baroness.

  “Eye! Collecting data! Wait!” Came the very calm and collected voice of an unknown companion.

  “Ul! Ul!”

  “Take that!” Ul sent two arrows flying from his crossbow at the monster, and only after this he turned to me. “What?!”

  “What’s the forecast?” I shouted, trying to yell over everything that was drowning me out. “What is the Eye?””

  “Analysts! Analysts!” He cried in response. “We got lucky! The information flows are open! All data— audio and video— go straight back to Barad-gadur! And they’re all sitting watching this like a blockbuster movie, and giving advice! Mirrors, see? Magic! There!” He jabbed a finger into his chest, and I noticed that there was a round mirror fixed onto the straps. “It’s a camera! And the Pteros have similar ones attached! They’re like drones. Only toothy! Overall, a great view from all sides. Got it?!”

  “Yep! Hella great! And do they have by any convenience a rocket aimed directly towards the Outland?”

  “Not one that is quite as long range! Unfortunately! Kaylen, where’s the arrow?! Why are you slacking?”

  “It’s interesting!”

  “Doc! For me, too!” I said suddenly, turning the crossbow towards the melee.

  The rate of fire wasn’t slowing. But our blows were like pinpricks…

  “Slasher— turn to 9 o’clock!”

  “Yes ma’am!”

  “Kolyvan— explosives towards eleven! Towards the slugs!”

  “Got em!”

  “Drass— a stream of rock towards 9 o’clock! Double! And once with wind needles!”

  “Got it!”

  “Forecast! Don’t hit him out of sync— he can recover easily! Then a hit to where the vines are bundled— they are the tendons holding him together! Cancel all fire! He is covered in moisture, inside the body— hit him with the ice! This will slow him down at least sixty to sixty-five percent! But first there needs to be a massive blow of fire to the jungle around him! That’s where he regenerates from— that’s his source of life! Burn everything around him within a radius of thirty to fourty meters!”

  “Got it! And thanks! Alright, you heard? Then begin! Drass, prepare the freeze! And another “Flamedrill!”

  “Yes ma’am!”

  “Kolyvan and Slasher— five rounds of fire to the jungle around the monster! Kolyvan to the right, and Slasher to the left!”

  “Over!”

  “Got it!”

  I turned the crossbow to the right and began to fire. Ul was doing the same. After ten more seconds, the green area of jungle burst into flame. The rainforest, soaked with moisture, caught fire quite reluctantly— but nevertheless, the process had started.

  The Baroness gave a few more orders, and then the flaming Phoenix ended his torment of the butterfly and propelled itself into one of the many tall trees. Sweeping through it, he left the crown of the tree on fire, and moved on to the next one. The flaming bird continued to fly in a circle around the monster, setting aflame two more ancient trees. Columns of smoke stretched into the sky. The ground crawled with smoke. We were burning the forest. Annihilating it. Monsters scurried among the fire, leaping over flames, trying to dodge the falling, burning branches. And then the first tree fell, completely engulfed in flames.

  “Baron! We’re too close! Should we fall back?!”

  “No! Forward, all in! Drass! Let’s start freezing!”

  “Yes sir!”

  I saw again the full effects of the spell familiar to me. And I saw it at the right time— the monster reared up his arms, each of which had a thickness of ten meters now. He was something like King Kong, woven of trees and vine. If he slams those fists into the ground, there would definitely be a very strong earthquake.

  The freezing beam hit its target— first, to the left shoulder, and after ten more seconds, crawled across the chest to the other shoulder. And he effects of the magic were immediately noticeable— the right hand slowed down sharply, though still continuing to fall. There was a staccato crackle, indicating the breaking of frozen vines, no longer willing to bend with movement. Down fell thick layers of wood and chips of ice and frozen vegetation.

  “Drass” was masterfully using the freeze ray, moving it through all the joints— the shoulders, neck, and torso, and then through to the hips and back to the shoulders. The monster roared constantly, attempting to lower his arms. He was literally breaking himself. There was a deafening crack from his right shoulder, and a splattering of sap, which immediately froze in the wound.

  “Archers! Switch to explosives! Wait for the order! Where is the fire?! Malice!”

  “Got it! Take t-that!”

  Sh-h-h-h-h-ah!”

  Roaring geysers of fire rose up from the broken ground ahead of us, and rose to a height of three meters. With a long sigh, the wave of lava moved forwards, destroying everything in its path. The wave scorched the earth, leaving behind only the monsters who managed to survive, miraculously, after the unbearable heat. But, having survived this blow, they immediately met the swords and axes of the foot soldiers, who were marching steadily ahead. We moved closer to the colossal monster with each step.

  “Drass! Countdown! Ten seconds! Nine!”

  “Archers! At one— fire! At the shoulder! Kolyvan— right! Slasher to the left! Beat him non-stop, all in!”

  “Seven!”

  “Yes ma’am!” Our voices cracked from the overabundance of adrenaline.

  “Drass— hit him with hail! Twice!”

  “Got it! Five!”

  “Malice— use your scroll!”

  “OK!”

  “Three!”

  “Baron! Amber explosive potions on the legs! Four times!”

  “Got it!”

  “Two! One!”

  The thick white frost beam flickered and disappeared.

  “Fire!”

  All forces were fired. We were literally spewing out aggression. Explosions hit the frozen body of the giant. All places were hit— the shoulders, torso, the hips. And then came the combat magic. Immediately, two stone spears hit the damaged shoulders with a crash, inflicting terrible damage. The frozen wood broke down, and both arms literally broke off of the body. The wounded monster threw up his head and uttered a surprisingly long, thin howl. The sound echoed into the sky, and from the sky came the answer— a hail of boulders pounded down on the creature, crushing the frozen trunks and sending chips of wood and thick branches flying. Woody debris flew down from unimaginable heights. And as the arms of the creature hit the ground, the earth trembled under us.

  Reload, shoot, reload, shoot…

  I shot and shot at the huge target, who was slowly backing away into the Outland jungle. he was still alive, but barely.

  “Archers! Stop shooting!”

  Exhaling, I wiped my forehead with a virtual and trembling hand, never taking my eyes off of the dying titan. Huge pieces of its
body broke off and fell to the ground. The sky was torn with a shuddering howl. The gigantic body tipped into the burning jungle. The fire from the forest reached the monster’s legs. The sap inside its body had dried up, no longer able to nourish the dry tree. Everything was on fire. And then he finally collapsed…

  The fall shook the ground, and for a moment, the Kolyvan swayed, sending us toppling slightly to the side.

  The hailstones continued to fall from the sky, delivering the final punches. Now the scale of his life was nearly fully gone, the short and flickering red line decreasing with every moment. We were covered with the storm of ash and soot, by an impenetrable black veil. But our troops went stubbornly ahead, straight into the darkness.

  A few more agonizing seconds, and it was all over.

  A line about experience appeared on my screen, and then another one, a congratulations. I had obtained another level. It was the second level I had attained in the Outland. We killed the monsters in unimaginable amounts, but the levels hadn’t risen much— there were too many Sleepless in our ranks, and the total amount of experience was divided by all of us. We were only given mere crumbs for this mass slaughter.

  “Alright! Stop! Drass! Cold wind!”

  “Got it.”

  The Kolyvan stopped. Finally, I stopped my shaking. Strange… silence engulfed us…

  A great cold wind started behind us and moved forwards. The stream of cold air dispersed the huge cloud of ash before us. As if someone had pulled a black cloth from my eyes, I saw the Outland again in all its awful glory…

  Ashes. Simply unimaginable amount of ashes. The tropical forest had disappeared, and all I saw before me was a clearing the size of ten football fields. All black, smoldering coals— the ground was covered with a thick layer of soot, and over it lay the slain bodies of monsters. But no living monster around! Not one… apparently, they had dispersed after the death of their “daddy.”

  “Alright everyone! Rest! For twenty minutes! Slasher, keep watch! Baron! Time to harvest!”

  “Got it!”

  “Eye!”

  “Yes!”

  “What can you tell me about hiding places? What’s the probability?”

  “Very high! That was probably one of the ancient guards! An ancient hiding place may be within a kilometer! Perhaps, a mile and a half.”

  “Got it! … Ah shit. I’m tired of this commanding. Ludwig?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Send the Pteros out! I want to find the stronghold! Very much!”

  “Right! Sending them now!”

  “And I want a glass of wine and Malice, you managed to upset me three times in one fight!”

  “Why me?!”

  “Who else? First time I see such a screw up! And yeah, from you! Couldn’t you have figured out the giant’s elemental resistance?”

  “I tried!”

  “So you should have said so at once! And I would have changed the order to a different type of magic! Come on! Ludwig! What’s the sitch?”

  “Still looking! Everywhere!”

  “Got it.”

  I continued to sit on the mammoth. As did the rest of my team. It’s not for those with our levels to go poking about in a place like this. The mammoth was like an island of rest for us. And though there was silence around us, we didn’t know what that meant. My companions also stayed put, but eagerly awaited the news. I kept my hands on the crossbow. Ul nodded towards me, noticing my apprehension.

  A search was going on around us. A careful one, but greedy nevertheless.

  The Sleepless warriors, clad in their invincible armor, were dispersing in all directions— stopping at every step and looking around. Huge boulders were placed in the territory already explored. Charred trunks of trees were cut into pieces, earthen mounds were thrown aside by way of explosive potions. Through the stream, covered with a thick layer of ash, swam the achilot warriors, lingering in every puddle, every ditch. Another team— three players and one rhinoceros— made their way straight to the site of the fallen giant. Before my eyes, the rhino tore a huge stump out of the ground and tossed it out of the way. Like a huge bulldozer, clearing away rubble. But I deeply doubt that even a single bulldozer of the real world would have been able to snatch a stump out of the ground and throw it five meters to the side. Behind the main team walked a player in very plain clothes. They looked like patchwork. But this was a player of the Sleepless Clan. If the clothes were unpretentious, this was just her chosen appearance— and said nothing about content. The player seemed to be one of the healers, masquerading as a peasant.

  Above our heads flew the Pteros, now and again swooping down to the charred earth and soaring upwards again. The evil-eyed reptiles closely scrutinized the land, and flew boldly through the plumes of smoke and ash. The Phoenix did not participate in this— preferring to sit in a huge bonfire kept burning by one of the mages. A little further away from the fiery bird was an icy column, within which the black bird was suspended— reminding me of an adventure long ago on the plateau of Tribulation.

  Despite the scale of the searches on dry land, the achilots were the ones who struck gold. There were only two, the water was dirty and opaque, and there was an inconvenient network of reservoirs— everything was inconvenient for research. But they got lucky. Although, one can hardly call that kind of natural persistence luck.

  Receiving information that was inaudible to us, the Black Baroness started and abruptly turned to a shallow puddle through which, not a moment ago, had marched several members of the Sleepless brigade. At that time, the murky water had hardly reached to their knees.

  And now, from this very dirt, surfaced a couple of terribly dirty achilots— and, with an effort, pulled a tremendous contraption to the surface. It was layered in all kinds of filth— including fat white worms, mud, and scraps of algae. At one point, I thought I saw a jagged stone corner. A cube, or some kind of chest, maybe?

  Putting the chest ashore, the achilots ducked back into the water. The rest of the Sleepless continued their search.

  In one huge leap the Black Baroness landed near the puddle and pulled the chest onto the solid ground. We all craned our necks to see. Kaylen nearly fell off of the mammoth. And Kira, despite her rich gaming experience, also burned with curiosity. She kept a low profile, staying at the front foot of the Kolyvan, patting the fat neck of her armadillo— but it was clear that she was interested. It was just like a hidden pirate’s chest.

  All happened casually. Even a little too casually…

  The Baroness hastily cleared the mud from the trunk and removed the lid. Inside was another chest— this time, a gold one. Or perhaps some other kind of yellow metal. She removed the lid of the second trunk. And inside of it was a tiny wooden box— of a dark rugged wood, and riddled with mysterious symbols. From the box the Baroness retrieved a single sheet of paper, yellowed and nearly transparent. A scroll. Papyrus, perhaps? Our curiosity had reached its peak…

  “Malice!”

  “Hm?”

  “Learn immediately!” The Baroness passed the scroll to the magician who had recently received a brief scolding.

  Sh-h-hah! The scroll crumbled into tiny scraps. The find had been immediately extracted and learned. And not even by the head of the clan herself, but by a designated mage codenamed Malice, which said a lot about many things at one.

  The main conclusion— even if our party destroys monsters and plunders them for trophies, the knowledge derived from the scroll was not going anywhere. It would forever remain with the Sleepless.

  And it was most certainly a spell. because if it had been a map or some kind of ancient knowledge, it wouldn’t have crumbled to bits. A confirmation appeared before my eyes:

  One piece of ancient magical knowledge acquired from the Outland!

  “Oo-o-oh!” Uttered Malice, clutching his head with both hands. “It’s… it’s…”

  “You have a month to lift this spell to its maximum rank!” Ordered the Baroness dryly.

  “I… I
’ll do it earlier! Day and night I’ll work to raise it!” Breathed Malice.

  “Sorry!” I couldn’t stand it. “What was it? First of all. And second of all— maybe I would have liked to have learned it!”

  “I’m very interested in spells too!” Bom growled.

  Maybe we should have kept silent. But what was the point?

  “In the chest?” The Baroness smiled softly. “There was ten million in gold. Hmm… maybe even eleven. Ten percent is yours! Last time, when a piece of ancient knowledge was exhibited on auction, it was sold for over nine and a half million. And such a scroll was in the trunk. So everything is fair. Yes?”

  “Well, no!” Growled Bom. “I keep watch of the auctions! Sales histories— my favorite bedtime stories! When a scroll of the ancients was last sold, it went for nine and a half, but it’s been a long time! Not everyone had that much money! But now, if you dare to sell such a thing, it would go for twenty mil at least!”

  “Maybe twelve?”

  “Over nineteen!”

  “Thirteen!”

  “Eighteen!”

  “Shall we agree at fourteen?”

  “Fourteen and a half!”

  “Done! Ros and Co. will get ten percent of the fourteen and a half million gold coins. This is the sum we have agreed on.”

  “Ros and Co.?” I muttered.

  “And the stone chest, gold and wooden boxes are also ours!” The orc didn’t let up. “As an apology!”

  “For what?”

  “For finding it and taking it right away, for not showing or telling!” Bom bellowed. Kaylen nodded, her eyes sparkling angrily. “That’s not how we do it! If it wasn’t for Ros and his ugly animal, you wouldn’t have even been here! The legendary beast isn’t with him only, but you wouldn’t have gotten here without him!”

  “If we weren’t here— you wouldn’t have come this far!” Snarled the Red Baron.

  “That is another thing!” I couldn’t resist. “Don’t get me wrong— Bom is our chief accountant and barterer. He is the one who worries about money. Not me. But don’t tell us, where we could and couldn’t have gotten!”

  “Alright!” The Baroness snapped, stamping her foot. “Fine! Your chests. Take them. Murohrom— you are in on the same agreement, so we won’t let you down with finances either. Ros— I’m sorry. The Baron didn’t mean any offense. I offer my apologies in haste. But these scrolls should not be stored. Especially not in a high danger zone such as this. It was necessary to study it immediately, so that the information would not be lost. After our raid, successful or not, I invite you all to Barad-gadur where we will drink wine and converse. I promise— the wine will be the best of our reserves, the “elven moonlight.” We uncork it only during big holidays! We’re not going to bicker now, are we? All agreed?”