by Ian Rodgers
THAT’S GOOD, I replied with my letter-shaped tendrils. WONDER HOW DORA IS DOING?
OH, ARE YOU BOYS FINALLY FINISHED? Glowing words suddenly appeared in the air and Gaelin and I turned to Dora to see her grinning smugly, the tip of her right index finger shining silver. Tracing it through the air, she carefully wrote out more words that hung around in the cave.
A HEALER NEEDS TO LEARN HOW TO CHANNEL MAGIC WITH EXACTING PRECISION OR ELSE THEY CAN SCREW UP A PATIENT. THE HARD PART WAS FIGURING OUT HOW TO VISUALIZE IT WITHOUT GETTING DISTRACTED, the half-orc said proudly, the magical images of her words humming with her pride.
WAIT, AM I THE ONLY ONE WHO CANNOT DO THIS PROPERLY? I asked with an air of disbelief. Was I the only one in the group who couldn’t do a silent spell casting properly?
Dora and Gaelin shared a look with each other. I couldn’t read the latter’s facial expressions due to his helmet being in the way, but Dora’s amusement was clear.
THOSE WITH LARGE MANA RESERVES ALWAYS HAVE A HARD TIME CASTING WITH FINESSE, Dora wrote out at me, trying and failing to hide her smirk. Gaelin nodded his head in agreement.
I groaned in annoyance and settled down to try and figure out what I was doing wrong. ANY ADVICE? I asked them in sign language.
Again, Dora and Gaelin exchanged looks. This time, though, it was the lad clad in Berserker armor who answered.
HAVE YOU TRIED THINKING YOUR SPELLS AS IF YOU WERE CASTING THEM OUT LOUD? Gaelin asked me.
I scoffed at that suggestion, before pausing. ‘Wait, could it really be that simple? I can just think the incantations and they’ll work?’
‘It can’t be that simple… can it?’ I immediately dove back into my Mindscape to commune with my soul. I took a long, hard look at the silver and royal purple sphere that was the embodiment of my soul before attempting to follow Gaelin’s advice.
‘Light resplendent, shine for me! Dancing Lights!’ I thought to myself, doing my best to think the incantation of one of the easiest spells to cast.
Before my ‘eyes’ I witnessed a thin thread emerge from my soul, bending into a pretzel shape and drifting ‘up’ through my Mindscape towards ‘me.’ I grasped it with my thoughts and knew I had managed to cast a spell silently.
‘It really was that simple!’ I cried out in my mind, disbelief and rage aimed at Celbrem brewing in my mind.
But then, I settled down. I’d only pulled off one of the most basic spells known to mages. And trying to focus this intensely in a stressful combat situation would be impossible. I still had a long way to go.
I returned to the real world in order to make sure the Dancing Light spell I’d thought-cast worked properly. Raising a tendril, a new orb of silvery, warm light popped into existence on the tip of it.
Dora and Gaelin both clapped their hands in praise when they saw the spell come into existence. Giddiness rose up inside me, and I took a bow, jiggling happily.
NOW WHAT? Dora asked me, writing her words out in the air.
WHY ASK ME? I signed back, and she responded by saying,
ME AND GAELIN SPOKE A BIT WHILE YOU WERE MEDITATING JUST NOW. WE BOTH FEEL YOU’VE GOT THE TALENT AND ABILITY TO LEAD.
WHAT? I signed in disbelief. I’M NO LEADER!
YOU TOOK COMMAND TO LEAD US TO SAFETY EARLIER, Gaelin scratched out into the ground. AND DORA TOLD ME HOW YOU TOOK THE LEAD WHEN TRAVELLING THROUGH LUMINOTH, PROTECTING AND GUIDING HER.
WHICH IS WHY WE THINK YOU SHOULD BE LEADING US FROM NOW ON, Dora added. PLUS, DID YOU NOT INTRODUCE YOURSELF AS NIA’S HERALD?
I thought their arguments over in my head. It made sense, much as I was loath to admit it. I had taken the lead in two separate occasions now, and none of us had died or been maimed due to my decisions. Which is a good thing! And in the past, I’d been responsible for Rosa and Tara when we’d adventured together.
But Tara had been a disembodied spirit living in my mind, and Rosa was a Carbuncle who’d become my Familiar. It was completely different compared to leading fellow Chosen Ones!
ARE YOU SURE? I asked them, my tendrils forming the letters carefully, their slow movements a reflection of my own hesitation.
Both of them nodded firmly. This was my show from now on.
I sighed to myself but bobbed in agreement. OKAY, I WILL LEAD, I signed. A hint of reluctance remained, but I didn’t exactly have a choice. I would lead the group from now on.
Dora and Gaelin smiled at my acceptance. I think. Again, Gaelin’s helmet obscured his face, making it impossible to tell what he was thinking or feeling based on facial expressions. Thank the Divine Family I’d learned how to read body language as well as faces and lips.
The first thing to do was assess the situation. Glancing back at the mouth of the cave, I could see that the Eternal Storm was still raging. Rain fell so thick it was almost a curtain, and the hailstones grew larger and larger, some the size of wagons! It was impossible to see more than an inch or two through the darkness and falling.
And then there was the thunder and lightning. Some thunderclaps were so loud they shook pebbles and dirt from the ceiling and walls. And sometimes lightning bolts would encapsulate the larger chunks of hail, turning them into miniature electrified icebergs. I had no idea how long the legendary and unending force of nature would linger around the Harpy Islands, but hopefully it’d move on in a few hours at best. Days at most.
Thinking about it, just staying here and meditating and practicing Silent Casting would be the best choice for us.
A loud grumbling growl rang out through the cave all of a sudden, shaking me out of my thoughts. I looked at Dora, who blushed vividly, hands clutching her stomach.
I winced, realizing that sticking around in one spot would be pointless. Dora and Gaelin weren’t like me, in that I could feed off the Ambient Mana to recover and stay sated. They needed actual food and water.
‘Well, we’ve got plenty of the latter,’ I chuckled, amused as I glanced out at the pounding rain. ‘Hmm, I think I should have a few ration bars on me…’
I reached into my Dimensional Pocket, a nifty little thing I’d gained after devouring a Bag of Holding. Being able to store all sorts of things inside an extra-dimensional space inside my own body was a useful ability and had come in handy often.
However, as I tried to remove my supplies from it, I found my access blocked off. ‘I thought Joris Cowl’s spell had already lifted?’ I thought in annoyance. The X-ranked adventurer who’d ‘trained’ me had ensured I couldn’t use my personal pocket dimension during the first stage of training. But as soon as I entered the Aether I regained control of it.
‘This reeks of something Celbrem might do,’ I thought to myself, realizing the only other person who could have sealed off my Dimensional Pocket was none other than the Silent Storm. Grunting silently in frustration, I looked at the others.
DID CELBREM TAKE YOUR BAGS OF HOLDING? I signed at them. Both of the blinked in surprise at the question before reaching for their waists where their bags were. Or, had been at least. Their Bags of Holding had been removed!
The scowl on Dora’s face was something to behold, and Gaelin’s fury caused the halberd to rattle ominously, the cape flexing threateningly as well.
CALM DOWN WE’LL FIGURE SOMETHING OUT, I begged them, and I quickly jabbed my tendrils into the stone floor. Using some acid to help melt out large chunks of rock, I then began to shave and melt away bits and pieces from the lumps I’d dug out, making a trio of crude stone pitchers. I then filled them up with rain water by holding them outside for a bit and handed one over to each of them.
WE NEED TO FIND FOOD, I told them, looking like an octopus with the sheer number of extra limbs I’d been growing recently. HERE IS SOME WATER FOR NOW. DRINK, THEN WE LOOK FOR PREY.
Gaelin nodded and drained the water in his pitcher in a few quick, deep gulps. Dora drank more slowly, savoring the fresh taste of the rainwater. I just dribbled some of my drink over my body, soaking it in through my membrane.
Once we were
properly hydrated, we started work on Phase Two: Finding Food. The easiest way to do so would be to venture deep into the tunnels I’d found and hunt a monster or two. If we were lucky, they’d be edible.
As I relayed this information to them, grimaces slid across their faces, but they agreed it was the best – and only – option they had at the moment. And so we entered the darkness, our path lit up by a handful of Dancing Light orbs that shed silver-white light on the surroundings of the dark tunnels.
Chapter 8: Halls of the Skyward Mountain
The interior of the mountain stank. It reeked of guano, rot, and feathers, and it was clear the deeper in we ventured that many an avian monster, harpy and otherwise, had called this place home over the countless eons.
We entered a vast cavern filled with dripping stalactites. The pitter-patter of falling water echoed loudly and repeatedly.
‘The dripping sounds faster than I’d expect in a cave. Must be due to the storm outside,’ I mused.
Abruptly, Gaelin tensed up as a flapping sound rang through the area. Startled by my orb of Dancing Light, a dozen giant winged creatures detached from the ceiling and began to soar about in a wild frenzy, chittering and clawing at everything in their path.
Gaelin lashed out with his halberd, splitting one of the monsters in half as it flew at him. The sudden death of one of their own startled the others, and with a shriek they fled down another tunnel, leaving us alone with the corpse.
‘That is one big bat,’ I mused as I held the Dancing Light over the two halves of the body. Gaelin’s attack had split it diagonally along the middle, but even divided up like this, it was quite large. It’s wingspan alone was close to ten feet. Its numerous jagged teeth glinted in its maw, and I had a feeling it was purely carnivorous.
Sadly, the creature was not big enough for Dora and Gaelin to eat. Nor clean enough, judging from the stink rising up from its carcass. Before we moved on, though, Dora wrote a question out in the air.
I THOUGHT YOU HATED FLYING MONSTERS, she wrote at Gaelin. WHY ARE YOU SO CALM WHILE LOOKING AT THIS BAT?
NOT A BIRD, he replied, using his halberd to carve those words into a nearby stalagmite.
At that, I shared a look with Dora. Her expression was one of bemusement. My thoughts were filled with curiosity. What could have happened to fill him with such unrelenting hate?
‘Seems like Gaelin only despises feathered fliers,’ I thought to myself. ‘Good to know.’
There was nothing else to see in that particular cavern anymore, so I led the group down a tunnel that hadn’t been used by the other giant bats. We eventually came upon what looked to be a large field of mushrooms. Dozens of them were growing all across the floor of the cavern, and here and there tiny lizards and insects scurried among the caps and stalks, doing whatever it is mushroom eating cave animals did with their lives.
As pretty as some of the fungi were, I could detect poison in most of them. Ever since I’d eaten a bunch of Poison Ooze and survived Triarch Effect poisoning, I’d been able to generate toxins of my own, as well as detect them in other things. Not that I used this ability often. Acid was a cleaner weapon to use, and I’d rarely ran into poisonous plants or venomous animals while adventuring.
DON’T EAT, I warned them as Gaelin took a step forward towards the field. POISONOUS.
He paused at the edge of the fungal field before edging back warily. Dora however bent down so she was closer to the mushrooms, and closed her eyes. She held out her hands towards them, and slowly a glow filled her palms. After a minute she opened her eyes, nodding at my assessment.
VERY POISONOUS, she agreed. ANIMALS TOO.
‘Seems like she’s figured out how to cast the Detect Poison spell silently,’ I thought, giving her a brief round of applause for doing so. It sounded like a bunch of wet noodles slapping against each other, and lost a bit of the effect. She still smiled though, cheeks red from the praise, before she coughed and straightened up.
A loud growl, even more forceful and fearsome than earlier, tore through the cavern, scaring all the little critters into hiding. This time it was Gaelin’s turn to look sheepish as he crossed his arms over his stomach in embarrassment.
‘We’d better find food or else they might just be hungry enough to risk eating the mushrooms,’ I thought to myself, worried for them due to their hunger. I looked around with my magical echo-location, trying to find a tunnel we could venture into in search of prey. Eventually, I did locate one, and lead the group towards it.
‘Jackpot!’ I happily cried out to myself. There, at the end of the tunnel we’d spent several long minutes traversing was a creature I knew from stories and books back at the Academy.
It was a large beast, easily twice the size of a horse. It had the rear half of a lion, but the front of an eagle. Its fur was a tawny brown, while its feathers were a soft grey. It was a griffon! A fearsome beast, designated as a B-rank monster back on Erafore.
Gaelin griped his halberd tightly as he beheld the half avian creature slumbering away in the cave we’d stumbled across. Dora stayed at the back of the group, unwilling to get close to something so dangerous without a better weapon. Sharp as her dagger might have been, against a griffon it was a mere splinter of metal.
Since I was at the front, I was the closest to the beast. I glanced at Gaelin, who was almost trembling with rage as he looked at the monster. I was glad he had enough sense not to immediately burst into action.
‘Inside of a cave, we have the advantage over the griffon,’ I thought, looking over the soon-to-be battlefield. ‘It can’t fly or maneuver as quickly as it likes. It won’t be able to use its full strength against us because of this. But even hindered, its claws are sharp enough to rend flesh with ease. Dora will have to stay in the back. I doubt Gaelin will have any worries, though, thanks to his adamantium armor.’
‘We’ll have to take it out fast,’ I reasoned. ‘No reason to let it get a chance to fight back.’
I signed the plan to Gaelin, and he nodded in understanding, hefting his halberd and pointing it at the griffon’s neck, which was just barely visible. Magic Edge soon crackled to life along the polearm’s blade, silver sparks cascading over the silver metal.
The griffon began to stir, sensing the spell even in its slumber. I lashed out with my tendrils before it could fully awaken, binding it and holding it still. It started to struggle, trying to break free. Gaelin refused to allow it to have a chance to recover, and lunged.
It detected the danger and, despite being bound, managed to wiggle around enough that the blow that would have decapitated the griffon narrowly missed. A long, red line burst open upon the side of the griffon’s throat which trailed down to its breast. Blood welled up from the cut and the pain caused the griffon to let out an ear-piercing shriek.
Anger from being wounded and woken up gave the half-lion monster great strength, and with a flex of its wings my tendrils that had been binding those limbs snapped. I let out a wordless cry of pain as the tendrils were sundered by pure physical might. No longer held down, the griffon started to rise up, settling onto its haunches and glaring at all of us with its beady eyes.
Gaelin did not stop or hesitate, however. As soon as his blow was evaded, he drew the halberd back and prepared to strike again.
With the Magic Edge still active, he drove his halberd into the left wing of the griffon, twisting the blade and ripping it upwards and out of the monster’s feathered limb. Blood spurted and the half-lion avian screeched in pain as its wing was severed.
Taking advantage of the griffon’s injury, I latched several tendrils onto the stump and began to suck the blood from the wound. I doubted I’d be able to kill it through blood loss, but I could at least make it dizzy and light-headed.
It sensed what I was doing however and quickly drove its beak into my limbs, biting and tearing them apart with ease. I tumbled back, having syphoned only a small amount of its life juice from the monster.
I recoiled, wincing at the pain, but ch
uckled silently to myself. The griffon had just opened itself up to another attack from Gaelin.
With the griffon’s head twisted towards me, its neck was vulnerable and bare to a strike from the halberdier, who took the opportunity the instant it appeared and jumped upwards a few feet before plummeting like a meteor.
His halberd struck the griffon’s neck, and with contemptuous ease the silver blade carved through feathers, flesh, muscle, and bone. A gurgle was all it had time to emit before its head fell from its body.
Before too much blood and gore seeped out and attracted other predators, I wrapped up the stump with my tendrils and soaked in the monster’s fluids. Gaelin shot me a thumbs up, and Dora walked over, grinning eagerly, her stomach making rumbling sounds.
Preparing the griffon’s meat for eating took a bit of effort. After all, we only had a dagger and a halberd for slicing, meaning that the meat looked ragged and crudely cut. Then there was the difficulty of making a fire. None of us had tried to practice any Fire spells during our attempts at casting silently, and so it took us a lot more time to get even a moderate fire going so we could cook the flesh we’d acquired.
We did get a cooking fire started eventually, though. I carved out a small portion of the floor and filled it with some feathers, bones, and a little bit of other flammable materials from the cave and surrounding tunnels. Then, I dug up some rocks, flattened and smoothed them out with acid, and turned them into basic grilling slabs for the meat.
Gaelin tore into a giant drumstick ravenously while Dora helped herself to some griffon breast. I ate the head and the severed wing. Raw, of course. No need to waste food, after all!
We discovered that the most edible parts of the monster were its avian half. The meat from the leonid part tasted too stringy and tough, the three of us decided after sampling some of the lion-half’s haunch.
TASTES A LOT LIKE CHICKEN, Dora scribbled in the air with one hand as she daintily used her dagger to cut, stab, and bring pieces of breast meat to her mouth.
WELL, IT IS A BIRD, I replied. OR, HALF OF ONE AT LEAST.
