"Sorry," said Terran with a shoulder shrug.
The other groupings got right to work, but Enoki stormed off—head down and fuming, and purposely without Granite—took a spot at the far edge nearest the river, and started furiously digging. Granite ventured near before shying away as if he'd been burned, then took a different spot and stabbed his shovel into the ground while watching Enoki to mimic her actions.
"Not going as planned," said Luna, watching the pair stay far away from each other as if they were reverse magnetic.
"I'd hoped this would teach them to work together, that we need them both, but at this point, I wouldn't be surprised if Enoki tries to push Granite into a burrowbeast hole if one appears," said Terran with a sigh.
"Speaking of," said Luna.
"Yeah. Make a circuit of the loaming site. Yell out if you sense something. I'll stick near our fast friends over here and keep them from stabbing each other with their picks," said Terran with an eyeroll.
He found a rocky outcropping that gave him a good view of the area, standing atop and leaning on his staff as he guarded the team of loamers. After a couple of hours of silent watching, Terran was almost hoping for the appearance of the burrowbeasts, but the creatures were nowhere to be found. He wondered if the myth of them had become greater than the reality.
Terran was staring at the wispy clouds drifting away from the mountains to the north, humming an improvised melody, when he heard a shout, followed by a scream.
On the far side of the loaming site, a mound of fresh earth was collapsing back into its hole as a sword-clenching hand was pulled into the ground. The two loamers were cowering nearby, clutching their shovels and staring at the ground as if they might be next.
By the time anyone made it to the hole, there was nothing left except the sword, half in the loose soil, looking like a poor grave marker. The interface had a red skull icon over Leilani Crescent's name. Everyone gathered around the collapsed hole, staring at the place where the elven guard had only recently been standing.
"We didn't even see it until it'd already grabbed him," said one of the loamers, clutching her shovel, eyes wide. "He was supposed to be watching us, I didn't know we needed to watch him."
"I only sensed it when it came out of the ground," said Luna, pawing absently at the soil.
"We knew this would be dangerous, but it's important," said Terran, hoping to bolster their resolve, but seeing the concern in their hunched foreheads. "Let's all work in a smaller circle so we can overlap our guards."
This didn't seem to ease their fears, and as everyone moved to the new location, they constantly watched the ground and probed it with their boots and sandals. The unease even distracted Enoki and Granite enough that they were working in close range of each other, though not directly together.
Rather than stand on a safe outcropping, Terran planted himself at the edge of the loam site, hoping that the next burrowbeast attack would target him rather than the others. His boredom had been banished by the loss of the elf, and rather than hum idly, he focused on sensing for vibrations in the ground using his Earth Sense ability.
Burrowbeast!
"Where?" shouted Terran when he couldn't spy its approach.
Luna was dashing across the green grass towards an elven woman on her knees near a small hole, looking alarmed by his question. Terran grew a stone wall right on the other side of the woman, hoping that he'd picked the correct spot, and moments after it rumbled into existence, the barrier tipped over after something impacted the lower section. The elven woman rolled out of the way before the wall trapped her.
"Get on the wall!"
The woman threw herself forward, right as the soil beneath her exploded, an angled head bursting out, then expanding into a toothy maw. The mouth was filled with thousands of needle-like teeth.
Young Burrowbeast (Level 14)
You don't eat the worm, the worm eats you...
Terran hit the creature with a Vocal Slam as he hurried across the grass, but the armored hide deflected the majority of his attack. The head of the burrowbeast gravitated towards the elven loamer who was standing on the fallen wall, holding her shovel like a weapon.
The nearest warrior jabbed her short sword into the beastie's mouth, snapping off dozens of teeth and puncturing a hole. The creature snapped its head back, knocking the woman unconscious with its hard outer shell. By the time anyone else reached them, the creature had disappeared back into the earth, leaving a mound of upturned soil.
Enoki checked on the unconscious warrior, who was bleeding from a head wound. Terran spun on his heels, looking for more signs of the underground creatures, not understanding why he hadn't sensed it before it reached the camp.
"The next one I see I will smash," said Granite, holding a massive warhammer easily in his enormous hand, snarling as he looked in all directions.
"That was close," said Terran, relieved they hadn't lost anyone else. "How is she?"
The elven warrior was waking slowly, blood leaking from a wound in her forehead.
"Anyone seen Zipper?" asked one of the loamers.
Everyone looked around, their eyes eventually finding a small mound on the other side of the site.
"Dammit," said Terran as he examined his interface to find Zipper's portrait covered by a red skull. This trip wasn't going as planned. He'd thought he'd easily be able to protect them, but he couldn't stop creatures he couldn't see.
"Sorry, Terran," said Luna. "I didn't feel the second one with everyone running around."
"I didn't feel any, so you're doing better than me. But if we can't detect them before they attack, we're going to have to abandon the site," said Terran, rubbing the back of his neck.
The others looked hopeful that they'd be leaving soon, but Terran wasn't ready to give up yet.
"Maybe I can provide better protection," said Terran, nudging the fallen wall with his boot. "I'll give everyone a stone platform to work from. It's not ideal, but at least you don't have to worry about it coming right out from under you."
There was disappointment, but no one complained, not even Enoki, who accepted the stone platform next to Granite. Terran made walls and tipped them over for everyone but himself and Luna. The gray lynx kept up a tight path around the loaming site, while Terran patrolled back and forth.
It looked quite strange, the group of loamers and guards, perched on square stone platforms, digging into the ground tentatively as if every moment might be their last, but at least it was a little safer than before.
Burrowbeast!
Terran saw the location Luna was running and headed to the same location, while shouting, "Incoming!"
Everyone hopped to their feet, clutching weapons and spinning around. Terran couldn't feel the approach, but caught the signs of soil breaking near the stone platform Enoki was standing on. He teleported to a spot on the other side, right as a burrowbeast burst from the soil. Terran was ready this time, his staff vibrating with energy as he smacked it on the nose like a diver driving away a hungry shark, but the burrowbeast thrashed its head, knocking him off the platform and leaving a clear path to Enoki.
Before the burrowbeast could close the distance, Granite met it with his warhammer, cracking the thick outer carapace with a single blow. The impact split the hard outer casing, releasing ooze and an awful stench, and stunned the beast. As the burrowbeast lay prone on the soil, the group fell upon it, killing it with numerous stabs and blows, though the one that had mattered had been Granite's first stunning strike.
"Nice work, everyone," said Terran, after he confirmed no one was missing. "We'll figure this out yet."
Enoki hugged her shovel as she stared at the dead beastie, her gaze occasionally flickering to the big crag troll, who had returned to his platform. Granite knelt with his arm deep in his hole, scraping at the earth randomly with a trowel. The reluctant elf took two steps forward, nearly turned, then hurried to the hole.
"Look for the blackest soil, the stuff that neither crumble
s nor smears," said Enoki, crouching on her heels with her arm extended. "Like that piece you hit with your trowel a moment ago."
The crag troll used his tool to scratch an itch on his jaw, staring back at the elf as if it were a trick, but when she didn't relent, he nodded and reached down to scoop out the loam with his fist. Granite offered the rich soil to Enoki, palm flat.
"Is loam?"
Enoki placed her nose over his hand and sniffed deeply, eyes closed, relishing the inhale, a smile creeping to her lips. "Mmmm...yes. Smells like gardens, and home. You smell."
The big crag troll leaned forward, too close to the soil. When he sniffed, his enormous nostrils vacuumed up particles of the loam. There was a moment that Terran—and Enoki—thought Granite would sneeze right in her face, but he turned his head, blowing the top of the dirt off his pile.
"Maybe not so close," said Enoki, chuckling. "Here, let me show you some techniques for getting the loam without other less valuable soils."
Feeling like he was intruding, Terran stepped away. Luna found him on the ridge where Zipper had disappeared.
"At least one thing is going right. I can't lose anyone else, but it's hard when I can't sense their arrival. I figured my Earth Sense ability would help here," said Terran.
"I don't have a problem, but then again, I'm the much superior life-form in these lands," said Luna.
"Modest too," he said, looking down at his furry companion. "Wait. You don't wear footwear."
Luna raised an eyebrow. "You're only just realizing this?"
"Of course I knew that. But maybe that's why I can't sense them," he said, kicking off his sandals.
With his toes tasting the cool grass, Terran closed his eyes and sent out his senses like he did when he was looking for deep stone. The tremor in the balls of his feet felt like a faint tickle, but he pictured the burrowbeast worming its way through the soil towards the back side of camp.
Wordlessly, he ran to that location, Luna on his heels. The loamers were alarmed by his arrival, but he motioned for them to continue working, and closed his eyes again. The creature was moving faster to their location, heading at an angle to intercept, but Terran waited until the last second before he motioned the loamers to move away. When the burrowbeast burst from the ground, Terran was ready with a Void Blast, the impact ripping the top half of its mouth clean off.
[You have increased the skill Earth Sense]
Earth Sense (END) 12 - skill
The smartest rocks are also the densest.
"That was much better," he said, leaning on his staff and trying to ignore the awful stench emanating from the burrowbeast's corpse. He looted a few materials—teeth, carapace shards, and a few other items that Petram would likely welcome—and moved back to a fresh patch of soil to scan for new burrowbeasts.
The rest of the day, Terran and Luna managed to kill four more burrowbeasts, including an adult that was level 20 and took more than one Void Blast to kill. They managed a decent haul of loam, but he knew the next day would be better, since he knew how to defend against the burrowbeasts and the inexperienced loamers like Granite were gaining confidence.
The next two days were much the same as the second half of the first, with burrowbeasts occasionally bursting from the ground, only to be dispatched by Terran and Luna. Despite the loss of two, the loamers nearly doubled the take of the first day, much of that increase attributed to their newest team, as the big crag troll could scoop away much more waste soil to reach the good loam, while Enoki had a keen nose for where to find the next batch.
By the middle of the fourth day, Terran knew they had enough loam for the settlement to reach level 4. He was tempted to leave the moment they crossed the threshold, but he hated the idea of stopping in the middle of a good day. It would be good to have some loam to spare, as he would deplete the entire reserve with the upgrade.
Focused on what he needed to do before leaving for the Shadowlands, he might have missed the incoming vibrations of the burrowbeasts if they weren't so strong. At first, he thought he was sensing an earthquake, until he realized the vibrations were coming from multiple directions.
Terran, do you feel that?
Luna was on the far side of the settlement, staring at the verdant plain where worm trails were cracking the soil in multiple locations.
"Oh, no." He made a quick calculation on using his pathway traveler ability, but there wasn't enough time to get everyone out safely, and there was no way they could reach the forest on foot before the burrowbeasts arrived. "Everyone to that rocky outcropping!"
There was hesitation and confusion. Terran added, "We have multiple burrowbeasts incoming. Like a lot of them."
Leaving their tools, but grabbing weapons, everyone made it to the rocks in plenty of time, but their sanctuary was questionable. An adult burrowbeast could surge over the rocks and snatch someone with its deadly teeth.
"Terran?" asked Luna, the fragileness of their safety clear in the question.
"I know. I know. I'm working on it." He spun in a circle as the burrowbeasts closed in. There were so many he could feel them through the stone. More than he first thought. Some bigger than any others they'd encountered. "Pack into the middle. I'm going to try something."
With the threat of the burrowbeasts rapidly closing in, Terran closed his eyes and brought forth stone walls in a circle around the outcropping, then when the perimeter was complete, he covered the top with a ceiling.
"Terran. What are you doing?" asked Enoki. "We don't want to get trapped in here if a burrowbeast breaks through!"
He paused, let his eyes open enough to see the collective distress on their faces, then went back to the forming of the stone, but added a flight of stairs that led to the roof. When he was finished, his mana had been drained to less than half, but they were standing nearly ten feet above the ground on a stone disc over a rocky outcropping.
The first burrowbeast broke the soil, extending its armored head up the side of the mini-fortress...only for Granite to slam it right on the nose with his warhammer. The beast fell back onto the grass, writhing in pain. But three more burrowbeasts took its place, adults with longer bodies and mouths large enough to swallow a dwarf whole. Without discussing it, the defenders split into three groups: Terran on one third, Granite on another, and the rest of the guards and loamers with Luna.
In the first minute, they killed five burrowbeasts. The creatures pushed up and over the edge, only to meet weapons and Vocal Blasts. When there was a pause in the attack, Terran thought they might have made the price of their assault too high for the subterranean creatures.
"Did we win?" asked Enoki, peering cautiously over the edge with a short sword clutched between her hands.
A moment later, the structure shook as a burrowbeast impacted into the stone below the surface. The thought that it was an accident was quickly destroyed when the mini-fortress shook three more times from three different directions.
"They're attacking stone," said Luna.
Chips snapped from the edges, followed by dust rising from below. The protection he'd provided was rapidly being destroyed. It might take them a few minutes, but once it was gone, the burrowbeasts would be able to go after everyone. Terran leapt onto the grass, hoping he could distract them from attacking the fortress, but the creatures kept ramming the stone, shaking apart the structure, one impact at a time. Worse yet, now that he was back on the ground he could feel how many burrowbeasts were incoming. It was as if the whole region was descending upon their location.
Terran jogged away from the structure, humming loudly to find the killing harmonic for the burrowbeasts, but nothing seemed to affect the creatures.
"Terran! This isn't going to hold much longer," said Enoki, shifting to one knee to keep from falling.
"You should run. I stay with Terran and kill big worms," said Granite, grimacing with legs spread for stability.
"Just a sec," said Terran with his hand pushed into his brown hair, tugging lightly.
He shoved the end of his staff into the ground and started the killing harmonics again. Within a few notes, he knew he'd found the frequency, as the creatures paused their assault on the structure until he ceased. The earlier singing hadn't reached them deep in the soil. A plan formed in his mind, but he knew it wasn't going to be fun.
"I'm going to distract the burrowbeasts," said Terran. "As soon as they stop attacking the stone, start running back to the forest line. Once you're in the trees, you're safe."
He didn't wait for their acknowledgement, teleporting to a location away from the stone, but not quite in the path of the incoming burrowbeasts. He shoved the end of his staff into the soil and restarted the killing harmonic, which caused the cracked lines of incoming burrowbeasts to change direction. He sensed dozens of burrowbeasts converging on his location.
While keeping up his singing, he placed his hand against the soil and brought forth stone walls, not above the earth, but inside. Singing and spell casting was like singing and playing an instrument at the same time. He'd trained different parts of his mind for each task, but now he had to get them to work in concert. He had to delay the burrowbeasts from attacking him, because if they killed him too quickly, they would have enough time to chase down his friends.
He risked a brief peek, cracking open an eyelid to see the line of his companions sprinting across the grassy plain with Granite in the rear. They were still too far from the forest edge. Terran was almost too busy watching his friends when the first burrowbeast burst from the soil, sliding across the grass with an open mouth. He fired a Void Blast directly into the toothy maw, leaving a smoking hole where the head had been only moments before, which used far too much of his mana.
Before he could return to the Killing Harmonic, two more burrowbeasts appeared, so he stepped through his hidden pathway to a location about a hundred feet away in the curve of the river's oxbow, returning to his song, which forced the burrowbeasts to change direction. He kept up this dance, moving locations and drawing them away, until he no longer saw his companions as they'd made it into the forest. But the last jump drained his mana, and he stood on the wide plain with dozens of burrowbeasts heading en route.
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