Chapter 47: Chapter 39- The Outskirts

After preparation, a smart hunter needs to gather information. Take a pirate elimination task as an example. The team of hunters need to know how many pirates there are, the state of their vessel, the types of weapons they carry, their levels, the amount of hostages, and how many allies they have. Only once the information is gathered should a hunter go on and begin the mission.

-Excerpt from the ‘Hunter’s Handbook’

 

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The town of Red Shale was small, even compared to Hard Sand. A cluster of houses huddled around each other in the center of two towering mesas that ran along either side of the town, fields of thorny bushes sprawling around the cluster like a spilled glass of water. The town’s namesake, the high red cliffs of seemingly soft rock, surrounded the cluster of houses on two sides, providing a natural barrier from the vast sands beyond. As Mori and her group came closer to the cluster of buildings, another small group of people emerged from their homes and waited for them, visibly shifting in apparent discomfort. 

As they approached, an elderly man stepped forward, but recoiled back as Mori lowered her hood. She rolled her eye-flames, “Please,” she groaned, “I’m not going to kill you. We’re here to take care of your wyrm problem.”

The elderly man stood still for a moment, but soon breathed a sigh of relief, “I… Thank you very much, Lady Lichess,” he said while bowing.

Mori waved her hand, “No formalities, please. Just point to where the wyrms are and we’ll go deal with it,” she said, trying to keep any hint of annoyance out of her voice.

The man raised his head, nodding, “Y-Yes! They have nested in our sister mesa, Black Shale Mesa to the northeast, and have become aggressive as of late. I ask that you be careful, madam; they can ambush you from the very walls of the mesa itself,” he explained.

Mori’s skull furrowed, making the small group of farmers recoil a bit, “I thought they could only tunnel in sand. Is this some sort of unique Variant?” she asked. Fara’s explanation was brief, but she was told, in no uncertain terms, that wyrms were incapable of burrowing into stone and she trusted Fara.

Nonetheless, the man nodded, “Indeed, it seems so. If any of ours has killed one of them, they have not lived to tell the tale. We have already lost a few trappers to the beasts and I dread to imagine the result of them becoming more bold.”

Smiling, Mori mounted her skiff once more, “Well, don’t worry about us. We’ll take care of them,” she said, waving her group away. With a small rumble, they left the town and rode hard northeast. During the ride, Pride rode up next to her, “Pride? Do you need something?” she asked. 

He nodded, “Mistress,” he began, “How will we handle this? If what the man said is true, then we will always be open to ambushes by these wyrms, so simply attacking seems… ill advised.” 

Just then, Idle rode up next to Pride, “Don’t worry about it,” she said, “I have good senses, so I can just tell you where they’re coming from,” she said, “We’ll be fine!” 

Pride shook his head, “No, we won’t. All of us have to be able to fight them off or else-”

“How about a compromise,” Mori interrupted, getting the death knights’ attention, “Coordination is key, so we do this: We all gather in a tight cluster. Idle, you stay in the center to call out ambushes that are about to happen. Pride and Jel, you two use fire to flush them out of their holes; unless these things work in some weird way, they should leave tunnels behind that we can use to attack once they burrow through. Megaera, Allecto, Tisiphone, Fury, and I will protect these three. Do you all understand?” she asked. They nodded, moving their skiffs into the formation Mori suggested. Smiling, she led them to their destination.

 

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“Damn,” Mori remarked, looking at the pitch black mesa, “Why is that so different from the normal sandstone or red mesas?” she wondered aloud as they parked their skiffs in a small cave under an outcropping of rocks a mile away from the tall mesa.

Tisiphone poked her head around the corner of the rock, “I could not tell you, Mistress. It may be interesting, but I believe the numerous holes that permeate the mesa are much more pressing of a concern.”

Allecto walked out from behind Tisiphone and lightly batted her head, “Stop trying to sound so smart,” she said annoyedly, “But she does have a point. Those tunnels do not look fun.”

Tisiphone stood straight, her orcish height towering over the smaller lizardman, and stared her in the eyes, “I am not trying to ‘sound so smart.’ I am-”

“Stop it, you two,” Fury said from the side, “We have battles to fight and things to kill and I don’t want to listen to you two going at each other like this for any longer than I have to.”

The two zombies glared at him for a moment, ready to rebuke, before Idle elbowed him in the ribs not used for his extra legs and arms, “Cut’em some slack, Fury. This is their first real fight, as well as ours, so we should all just get ready here,” she said, gazing between the three. They sighed, nodding, “Good. Mistress, I think Jealous has-”

“I-I put everything away, mistress!” Jel’s voice called out from within the small cave. She emerged from the darkness and stood at attention, “What now, mistress?”

Mori looked at the mouth of the cave, open and inviting, and sighed, “Maybe… no, I can’t think of how I could. Alright, let’s just hope that our skiffs don’t get stolen while we take care of the wyrms,” she idly hoped, “Alright, in formation; we should always be on alert while dealing with these things.” 

Following her commands, the death knights converged and surrounded Idle in a tight circle. In the inner circle, Pride, Jel, and Idle stood in a triangle while the rest of them surrounded the three in them in a pentagon formation, flat side forward. The three zombies pulled out their rifles while Mori formed a light lance sigil on her gauntlet and Fury readied his fire breath. With their formation solidified, they began to march to the mesa. 

The walk was long, but they were able to catch glimpses of their quarries as they approached, the long tubular beasts worming their way through the numerous tunnels that ran through the mesa. Just as they reached a half-mile from the mesa, Idle whipped her head to the side, “Fury, left!” she shouted, readying herself. The sand erupted and a wyrm emerged from the ground, mouth wide and ready to swallow Fury whole. The pyrausta let loose a beam of flame from his mouth into the gullet of the wyrm. Meanwhile, Pride and Jel sent bolts of fire into the creature’s mouth, one of them exploding when it hit the beast’s throat. With a cry, it flew back, ripping sand up as it flew. 

It writhed on the ground, it kicked up a dust cloud that would have blinded them were they not undead. Megaera took aim and shot, hitting the creature’s tail and sending brown blood splattering across the sand. After a few more shudders, it fell limp, dying.

[You and your allies have defeated a level 19 Stone Eater Wyrm Fledgeling. Experience has been awarded.]

“Well, I guess it is a unique Variant,” Mori said, “But it looks like this won’t be too hard after all either way. Though…” she trailed off.

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“There should not be any ‘fledgeling’ wyrms…” Pride finished.

They shared glances while Fury grinned, “That just means that this’ll be a lot more fun than we were expecting!”

“Agreed!” Allecto followed, “Mistress, can you raise the wyrm? With it, we may be able to flush them out much better.”

Mori nodded, holding up her hand. Thinking for a moment, she held up her other hand and began shaping a sigil with Fara’s earth mana and her own death mana. She rested her palm on the creature, letting the spell loose. It convulsed, writhing on the ground for a moment, before bringing its length to bear.

[You have created a low-complexity undead with your natural death mana. Experience has been awarded.]

It was not small, being over two dozen feet long and wide enough to swallow a pyrausta whole. Its skin was thick and tough, almost scaly in consistency. In its maw, dozens of rows of teeth betrayed its main lifestyle. Petting it, Mori smiled, “Stay under us and make sure you drive out any other wyrms that try to ambush us, alright?” The undead wyrm hissed and dove back underground even faster than it did when it was alive, the ground parting before it even reached the sand. Mori took a moment to look at its Status page, finding its Variant to be of interest.

[Fledgling Earthshaker Wyrm: Created from the corpse of a wyrm with the use of unique ‘earthshaker’ mana, this undead can dive underground as if it were water through a unique combination of its natural earth mana gland and the raiser’s ‘earthshaker’ mana acting in conjunction. Like all undead, it requires occasional mana to fuel its soul.]

“W-Was your test a success, mistress?” Jel asked as she watched the wyrm circle them like a shark, a bump in the sand signaling its location. 

Mori nodded, “Indeed it was. Let’s move; we don’t know how many are there now and I would prefer to get a good sense of what this hive looks like.” They nodded, following after her. 

After another few hundred feet, Idle snapped her head to Mori, “Mistress, front!” Mori held up her gauntlet, light lance ready to fire, when another wyrm was thrown through the ground, sand shooting up. The undead wyrm followed the living beast up, coiling around it. Mori aimed her gauntlet at the beast’s tail. With a lance of light, the creature was killed.

[You and your allies have defeated a level 12 Stone Eater Wyrm Fledgeling. Experience has been awarded.]

“Huh,” Mori said aloud, “It’s a lot lower leveled than the first one.” She walked up next to it and placed a hand on its tough hide, making another sigil. She wanted to test her new booster mana type while she had the chance and forged a sigil to fit such a purpose. Letting the spell flow into the wyrm, it began to boil. Stepping back, Mori watched as the wyrm quickly liquified into a veritable pond of sludge, “That… was not what I expected.”

Pride broke from the formation, standing next to the sludge, “Mistress. What did you do?” he asked. 

“I tried testing that new booster mana type I had and… well, that happened.” Mori dipped a metallic finger into the pond of sludge, letting it rest for a moment while ignoring the tingling and pulling it out. Her entire finger was gone, melted off. Luckily, both her bony finger and metallic armor were regrowing right before her eyes, making for an odd image of metal ‘growing.’ “Well, let’s not touch that and I’m not going to touch the booster mana when raising undead. What the hell caused that?” she wondered aloud.

The undead looked at each other, trying to come up with an answer, but shrugged. Megaera stepped forward and knelt beside the pond, “Mistress, what, specifically, do you imagine when you think of that booster mana? Perhaps this one did not meet some qualifications to be ‘boosted’ by the mana and this was the result?” she threw out.

Mori pondered for a moment, “Well, I think of the power needed to shake the earth from striking the ground, so… maybe the mana finds this little guy not good enough to get the power that comes from the mana? I guess?” Megaera shrugged as Mori turned her sight to the zombie, getting up, “Well, we still have a job to do and I can have my fun later. For now, I’ll just keep raising earthshaker wyrms.” Once more, they fell into step as they advanced, reaching almost the base of the mesa, Idle called out two wyrms approaching. When the two wyrms dived out from the black walls of the mesa, the group of undead was ready to meet them. The three zombies fired their rifles at the first one, bullets giving nothing more than shallow wounds until they struck the tail. 

The first wyrm fell dead while Pride and Jel shot fire at the second. Their efforts, however, seemed to be for naught. It landed directly in front of them and tried to take a bite from Fury. He pulled back, dodging the bite, and sidestepped as it passed. He stabbed into its body with his spike-arms, piercing deep but doing little to stop its rampage. Just then, Idle leapt over the creature’s mouth and sprinted across its body, rapidly stabbing into the much thinner skin of the tail. With a final cry, it fell dead. As Mori went about raising the two into earthshaker wyrms, Fury huffed, “I need better arms,” he said. 

Idle shrugged, sitting on the dead wyrm, “Like what? Make them into blades or something? Like a mantis?”

Fury nodded, “Yeah, something like that! But… I do have plans for my physical Trait slots…” 

Pride and Jel leaned against the wyrm beside Idle, “Divy them up, then,” Pride said, “Spend one slot on wings, then one on new arms the next.”

Jel shook her head, “I-I don’t think that’s a-a good idea,” she said shyly, “If you do that, t-then you’ll not be particularly good at most things…”

“I can have Unio help with that!” Mori shouted from the side as she raised the wyrm, “I don’t think it’ll be too hard!”

Pride gestured to Mori, “Well, if the mistress is offering, then I do not mind having my arms turned to blades,” he said as Jel nodded beside him.

“You guys are lucky,” Allecto said, “We’re just a buncha zombies, so we don’t get all that fancy stuff.”

Megaera and Tisiphone slapped themselves in their respective faces, “Ally,” Megaera groaned, “They’re a bunch of modified lizardmen zombies. You happen to be a lizardman, so you should be able to become a pyrausta if the mistress can modify their arms…”

“Ally?” Mori said as she approached the next wyrm, “A nickname?”

Megaera nodded, “Ally,” she said, pointing at Allecto, “Tisi,” she said, pointing at Tisiphone, “Mae,” she finished, pointing at herself. 

Mori nodded, quickly raising the wyrm under the death knights and ordering it to do the same as the first, “Alright, who else noticed something?”

Tisi nodded, “I would say what you are referring to is the fact that there have only been these fledgelings guarding the hive. If this has so many wyrms, why are only the smaller ones defending it?”

They all nodded, “M-Maybe they’re fighting?” Jel offered.

“I couldn’t say, but let’s get moving; we can’t solve the mystery from down here, after all,” Mori joked as she led them up through the tunnels. For all their slaughter from before, nothing came to harass them while traversing the tunnels, not even targeting the earthshaker wyrms. The inaction made the group uneasy, a feeling that was becoming stronger when they reached the top of the mesa. Stepping to the edge of the cliff, they looked out behind the tall black wall. Instead of a ring, like Red Shale Mesa, Black Shale Mesa was actually a dotted line of mesas that snaked around itself, making a choked knot of tall walls. The walls were mostly concentrated in one spot, making a wedge with two separate walls. Inside the wedge, a massive construct of black rock, dirt, sand, sandstone, and other materials stood, about half the height of the hundreds of feet high mesas. There was one main hole at the base of the hive, extended into a tunnel that seemed ideal for ambushes. “Well, we have our work cut out for us,” Mori said, “Let’s go.”

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