Chapter 41: chapter forty-one

I blink. “Furnacio is YOUR Lord? Whoa, I didn’t think we’d end up with different deities. Should’ve expected there’d be more than one god or goddess…”

I shrug and smile at the Alv Mana Knight. “Well, at least we can still party up and have fun, right?”

Asteria leans in and gives me a pec on the lips. “Of course, babe. We can spend as much time as we want just doing whatever, no worries or pressure!”

I melt a little as she kisses me, my cheeks reddening, and fidget as she giggles at me. “ANYWAY!” I huff, “Let’s get this quest started before you turn me into a puddle…”

A few hundred yards later, Asteria points. “There, this is the place!”

I look in the direction she’s indicating. A picturesque farmstead stands before us, with a young woman leaning on the fence by the gate, looking hopefully at us.

“Are you the Argonauts that’re gonna fix our farm?” she asks, chewing on a stalk of hay. Asteria nods, stepping forwards.

“Yes, that’s us. We’ll be taking a look around to see what’s causing the problem, and then solve it. We’ll start immediately, okay?”

The girl nods, straightening up. “Aye, I’ll show yous’ where we first noticed the occurrences takin’ place!”

She begins heading back towards the farmhouse, pausing at the door to yell, “Da-ad! The Argonauts’re here!”

Without waiting for a response, she jogs around to the back of the farmhouse. I equip my armour, keeping my wings hidden, my new swordspear and shield in hand, just in case there’s something about to happen. Asteria smiles at me, her sheathed sword shifting on her hip as I try not to ogle her butt.

A short distance away from the house, a patch of dirt stands, fresher than the packed-earth surface of the yard. Splashes of dark red, dried to a dull brown, coat the ground in front of us.

“Astie, is that…?”

“Yeah… dried blood. Something got absolutely butchered here… what was it? A pig or something?”

The girl shakes her head. “Farm dog. Good beast, but an old ‘un. Whatever got ‘im, ‘e was too slow to get away.”

She shrugs and turns to leave. “Do whatever you need, I’ve got milking to do, seeya!”

She hurries off, and Asteria crouches down, her eyes starting to glow an eerie blue, as she murmurs, “Hmmm… interesting… there’s traces of magic here… not something I’m familiar with, but… definitely nothing good…”

I shiver. “Can you do anything?”

She purses her lips. “Well, maybe. This might take a while…”

I look around, wondering what I could do, biting the edge of my thumbnail as I check my abilities and available points. The Skill-Forge ability has a little upwards-pointing arrow beside its icon in my menu, and I hunt through the tabs until I find the one that lets me spend points I’ve kept in reserve.

Hmmm…. 25 Ability Points to upgrade my Skill-Forge? What does upgrading it even do? I scroll through the details, eyes widening.

Skill-Forge lvl 2:

Upon improving this ability, you will be able to create entirely new skills and spells from scratch, at an increased gold cost. At higher levels, you can create more powerful techniques. Currently, you can create lvl-20 abilities.

 

I grin and purchase the ability. I have about 10,000 gold, might as well spend some of it! I begin the creation process, setting my sights on an on/off passive ability with an MP-cost per second linked to my swordspear. Elemental affinity is wind, melee-range.

 A shroud of wind, lengthening and widening the blade while appearing invisible. With a skill like this, I could confound my enemies with wounds they shouldn’t have received, or damage they thought they’d blocked. With a pause, I settle on a name, based on a Japanese creature I’d read about in a book of ancient mythological beasts around the world.

Kamaitachi. Translated, it means ‘Sickle weasel’.

Taking my swordspear in my hand, I mentally command the passive to activate. I can feel a vibration start up, running up my arm through the gauntlet, and the weapon seems to get a little heavier. I turn it off, feeling a little short-of-breath as I realize that it really did use a portion of my MP during the skill’s activation period.

Asteria bolts up. “Ah-ha! I’ve got it!”

She begins sprinting off in the direction of one of the fields. Following after her, I pant, “what’s happening?!”

She grins, her eyes wide and still glowing that same spooky blue. “I’ve got something! There’s a trail of magic leading this way! Still don’t know what KIND of magic, but it’s definitely something not-good.”

As we reach the border of the field, something… stirs… as if a breeze blew through the crops, tall stalks of golden wheat bobbing and swaying. But there’s not a gust of wind, the air is still and silent…

I look at Asteria out of the corner of my eye as I raise my shield, my swordspear ready, as she draws her new sword, a beautiful rapier, the blade shimmering in a coruscating rainbow of colours, in a smooth, fluid motion that sends a shiver down my spine. “Ready when you are, love.” She purrs, and I gulp. Damn, just when I think she can’t get any hotter…

We burrow into the wheat-field, almost side-by-side. I take the lead somewhat, several stalks of wheat falling as the invisible air-blade around the head of my weapon caresses them. The rustling intensifies, before something huge and green-brown bursts out of the forest of wheat, crashing into my shield. I can feel the sheer brute strength of the whatever-it-is as it shoves me back a foot, then three. I slash the blade of my swordspear, and feel the wind-edge bite into something briefly, as Asteria flicks her rapier, a spike of earth ripping out of the ground and jutting forward like a planted spear.

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Snatching a quick peek over the rim of my shield, I swear in shock. Some kind of panther or big cat, made from woven, wickered-together plants and roots, with lashing, tentacle-like vines and thorns, is scrabbling to pry itself off the earthen lance.

Asteria’s eyes have stopped their glowing, and she raises her rapier. “I can use fire, it’d burn the crops! We need to lure it out if we can! Try and enrage it until it follows!”

“Right! On it!”

I thrust forward. The creature dips to one side, but the invisible edge of my weapon still catches it, and it lets out a rustling snarl of confusion. Asteria’s next move is to dart in and pepper the plant-beast’s ‘hide’ with a series of rapid thrusts, brief flashes of light sparkling where the point of her blade impacts.

 The plant-panther lurches back, rearing up, and I lunge, ducking low and thrusting up into the creature’s ribcage area, the blade on my spear tearing through and out its back. Wrenching free, the construct still clearly up and angry.

I start backing up as the thing pounces towards me. “I think I’ve got its attention! It seems real mad at-Yeek!”

I duck under a paw-swipe, dodging as I weave my way back towards the path, hearing the beast crashing after me as I sprint, pell-mell, for the dirt track. A raging snarl follows at my heels, my lightweight plate-armour clanking and chiming like a bell.

As soon as my sabatons meet the compacted dirt, I whirl, shield up, and brace the butt of my swordspear against the ground. As the rampaging beast ploughs out of the field, my swordspear drives home, and I use all the leverage I can muster, my arm trembling, to hoist the thing upright, and away from the crops. “NOW, ASTIE!”

A crack like a whip breaks the sound barrier, and a lashing tongue of fire coils out, striking the plant-monster squarely, several times. It yowls, thrashing, as the flame bites into its shell, eating into the dry, wooden carapace.

After a brief, violent struggle, the thrashing construct goes limp, whatever strange power animates it spent. I wait till the flames die down, lowering the body to the dirt. “Well… that was a thing. What IS it?”

Asteria shrugs, kneeling by the ‘corpse’ and poking around at it. “No idea, but it’s definitely the thing that’s been killing livestock. It’s got blood all over it, see?” she gestures at its jaws and the thorny vines coating its body. Sure enough, there are dark, black spatters of blood, drying in thick coats across the thing’s body. She pries open the jaws, revealing actual teeth, sharp, jagged-looking ivory blades, belonging to something. I kneel beside her, drawing a knife, and start sawing at the bark and roots forming the muzzle, peeling them away to reveal…

“Bone. It looks like, whatever this is, it uses a skeleton as a frame in order to form the body…”

She nods, frowning. “Looks like it incorporated the head of that dog into its skull, using it. Some kind of adaptive magic, driving it to enhance itself through cannibalizing the bodies of those it kills… but look! See the iron bands, here, and here?”

She gestures to a series of dull metal bands. Upon closer inspection, they’re engraved with odd, angular runes, etched with the point of a blade or a chisel. My brow furrows, and I reach out to touch one of the bands. Asteria’s hand catches mine.

“I wouldn’t. I don’t know what might happen if you do.”

Drawing my hand back, I shudder. “Can you tell if there are any more of… These things in the fields?”

The tall, full-figured Alv sighed. “I can’t be certain, but… I’m still picking up traces of that magic. There’s at least one more, possibly two or three. Whatever process was used to create this entity, it’s complex, and certainly not without risk. Something like this would be… a sentinel, or an assassination construct.”

 

Over the next two hours, Asteria and I hunt down and systematically destroy every single one of the horrible constructs we can find. Other than the panther-thing, there’s one that looks like an oversized lizard, another panther-like beast, and three that look almost human. I nudge one with my boot.

“This… has turned into a difficult situation. Can you tell if this is the lot?”

Asteria’s head turns this way and that, before she nods slowly.

“I can’t sense anymore of that weird magic, so I think we’re done.”

I sigh and lean on the haft of my swordspear.

“That’s good; my MP is almost tapped-out. I don’t think I have it in me to take on anything else…”

She clucks in concern, reaching into her belt-pouch and pulling out a vial of thick blue liquid, holding it out.

“Drink this, then! You should make sure to keep your reserves topped-up as much as possible!”

I take the phial, snapping the top off with a crack of breaking glass, before downing the contents. It takes like grass and leaves, but my MP pool fills up somewhat, giving me enough to work with if needed.

“That’s better, thanks babe. Should we do one final sweep before we turn our work in?”

She smiles. “Sounds like a plan, sweetie. I don’t detect anything, but that’s still a good idea. If we missed one, we could seriously regret it.”

She rises, brushing her skirt clean of dirt, and starts heading to the boundaries of the farm, her eyes burning blue again, as she scans from side-to-side like a mobile watchtower, her hips swaying as Naberius coils up around her waist, the Quetzal’s feathered wings shivering as he assists in some arcane way.

Right behind her, I follow, my swordspear raised in preparation, ready to activate Kamaitachi the instant something untoward happens.

The sweep turns out to be fruitless, thankfully, and we head to the farmhouse, revealing what we’d learned, and warned him to stay watchful, and to let us know if anything else comes to light.

With our pay earned, we head back towards the safety of the city walls.   

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