Chapter 103: 88: Devil Dogs

Auratic

Beyond the periphery of Velauhart’s weald lay wetlands, floodplains and swampy marshes that formed around the winding rivers that flow out of the silva. Tall grass hid predators and prey alike. Dragonflies and damselflies darted through the dank air as the frogs sang their chorus of croaks. These fertile lands fit for farming were one of the features that made Velauhart such a coveted region. Though the fendwellers’ ambush and other territorial amphibians became a difficult obstacle for any land reclamation efforts by humans.

After some thought Llynbel stepped into the muddy bog in blatant insouciance, with the water reaching all the way to her hips and the tips of her long hair dispersed over the water's surface, drifting freely.  Letting her hands freely submerge, she concentrated on something unseen, it almost seemed that she had dozed off with her eyes open, in a few moments she snapped back to reality. It seemed that to the water spirit, any body of water seemed to be an inviting home, regardless of its perceived pollution.

Picking off algae, duckweed and other debris from her hair and body with fresh water, Llynbel asked:

In her short travels to the Viveria with Rosalia in tow, Alicia had to hide her identity from the noble girl. This meant moving at a normal human pace and pretending to eat. While that was hardly an expeditious affair, it did allow for Alicia to have a good look over the local terrain and mentally update the old map of the region she acquired. The hills, the marshes, the sparse woods surrounding small ponds, isolated villages and hamlets, blooming meadows and, most importantly, the natural sources of freshwater.

There were two large rivers that ran through the land. With its source somewhere in the mountains to the north, one took a westward turn and flowed all the way to the city of Viveria and beyond. The large-scale agriculture of the county could only be supported thanks to the irrigation provided by this river. The remaining river, originating from Velauhart, slaked the thirst of the countryside. Besides these two, there were mottles of villages with wells that tapped into underground streams and reservoirs and some of the aforementioned ponds deep in the wilderness. Irregardless of the presence of sorcerers capable of creating water aside, they could never hope to make enough to sustain a march of an entire army.

Soldiers of such a large number of troops, and the horses they rode alike needed to drink. As such they are bound to follow a path with ready access to drinking water. Though the outlying villages were already razed, their food and livestock plundered as rations for the coming army, the wells full of water went relatively untouched by the make-pretend brigands. Using those wells and the snaking river that flowed through the land as a reference point, Alicia could guess what route these invaders would take to reach the city. However there was still too large of margin to make an accurate estimate, thus she was planning to stifle the flow of water to more or less guide them, and make the room for error as small as possible.

Sounds of dry grass crackling and squishes of mud interceded their talk.

Alicia did not seem fazed at all by the warning.

Unnatural tear fissured open near Alicia’s as she held her hands out, from within fell out a dark violaceous sword; its hilt landing perfectly upon her waiting grasp.

After she finished spritzing a generous dose of yellowish venom unto her blade:

After her preparations were done, Alicia took on a relaxed posture with her weapon hanging low. Wargs were the most prevalent of monsters nearly everywhere in continental lands. Though similar to a wolf in characteristics and hunting strategies they differed in savage aggressiveness, appearance and physique. Somewhat larger and stronger with engorged muscle mass in the upper torso, neck and front shoulders cause them to appear as though they had a hunchback. Possessing jaws and teeth able to crush through bones to suck on the marrow of prey, they were a considerable threat to anyone, especially in a pack. Despite being outclassed by a fully fledged Direwolf in most scenarios they were nonetheless rated as far more dangerous than a direwolf by guilds due to their taste for human flesh. A Direwolf attacked humans in defense of its den, territory, or its hunting grounds; wargs attacked humans because it was peckish.

Barks and snarls signaled the beginning of their assault, it was both a form of intimidation, as well as a signal for their pack members to begin their attack in tandem, a form of coordinated attack. They believed themselves to be concealed by the high grass and reeds as Alicia did not track them by sight and began their attack from her flanks and behind. However, by now it had almost become a second nature for Alicia to exploit that fatal misjudgment. As one leaped out towards her from behind her, absolutely certain of its triumph, mouth salivating, she swiveled out of the reach of its lunge, away from harm. Continuing the momentum of her swirl into her blade she delivered a heavy downwards slash on its scruff just as landed, the cold edge shredded through fur and flesh alike. After the strike it could only stumble a few steps away before succumbing to pain and collapsing. Even though they could shoulder such grievous wounds to a vulnerable spot like their neck to keep attacking through sheer tenacity, the venom drenching her weapon made sure that was not the case as it seeped into its bloodstream through the open wound.

Undeterred by the loss of their ally, they went on with their assault, only this time cautious of Alicia’s counterattacks. They dipped in and out of the reach of her weapon, growling, hoping to lure her into an empty swing that will leave her open to an attack. Keeping a cool head despite being surrounded, she did not move unnecessarily. The miry ground made it difficult to read the vibrations of fine movement of muscles, something she depended on to tell if someone or something was committing to an attack or not. Instead she relied on her reflexes to react. Though certainly not the most sound strategy in any case it was something she worried about, for she was not alone.

The wargs' hopping movements faltered as the earth itself seemed to drag them down, with the intent of devouring them, if it could. While certainly not the most pristine of sources, it was still nonetheless a source of water, a home to a Water spirit. One that was now especially riled up. It was clearly apparent that Llynbel was not adept at controlling the mud ridden, moist floor. Her usual precision and celerity over water magic being nowhere to be seen. But that in itself provided a unique opportunity, while it was true that she couldn’t drag them down to a bottom of a lake - her preferred method of dispatching unwelcome visitors - the dirt and soil, pollutants, carried within the swamp water provided for a strong grip that could hold onto the legs of the wargen wherever they stepped. Something that was not readily possible with pure water.

Recognising the situation as favorable to her, Alicia went on the offensive. Even with belated movement, the wargs’ were able to maintain a fair distance, though that space was quickly shrinking, until grazing wounds and scraping scuffs were piling up on their bodies. Usually such surface injuries would close quickly and merely amount to annoying a warg, but each drop of venom that entered their bodies through them was enough to start sapping their strength. Fatigue turned to exhaustion and Alicia could feel their legs trembling, just standing up seemed to have become a laborious task for them as the paralyzing venom set in slowly. Although it was tempting for her to use stronger, faster acting venoms such as neurotoxic and necrotoxic venom, when sprayed onto her blade they seemed to carry a certain odor, especially after being exposed to open air for a prolonged period of time. Odor that monsters with refined sense of scent could pick up on and become wary of, like wargs and would try their absolute best to avoid it. Though a deterrent to be sure, a venom was useless if there was no reliable delivery system. While the withering venom was too volatile to the point that it was questionable to even call it venom.

Whilst there was a more surefire and traditional way of delivering venom, it was something Alicia wanted to avoid at all costs, for it amounted to her basically grappling the target to bite down with her fangs. While it was the most straight-forward method, she would leave herself completely vulnerable to attacks from the target's allies while delivering the venom. Likewise fangs of her humanoid form could do the same, biting into the fur of an overgrown mangy wild dog was the last on the list of Alicia’s priorities. After fruitless skirmishes that only resulted in pain and injuries. The wargs changed their attention to a seemingly more vulnerable target, Llynbel.

While she was focused on assisting Alicia, one of the wargs circled around behind her before rushing to take a bite out of her ankles. It expected to drag her down and tear her apart piece by piece, to its confusion it felt as if her feet came off surprisingly easy, yet it did not have substance, feeling vaguely slimy. Although her concentration faltered briefly due to losing her footing, she quickly regained her composure. From the site of dislocation on her shins spurted not blood but leaking water. After some effort it bubbled a new stub vaguely resembling a human foot. Little by little it gained more and more definition, looking more proper as it lost the translucency of water.

The piece of her leg, which was losing cohesiveness and collapsing back into its original state as formless water, sprang to life, surging into the nostrils and mouth of the warg until not a drop of water was left on its snout. In spite of the fact that the volume of water was insufficient to fill its lungs it could still be cycled within its airways, blocking respiration.

Attempted sneezes, pawing at its own face accompanied by confused and hysteric wanderings eventually led to it collapsing on its side with its legs in manic movements resembling swimming motions, most likely caused by some natural instincts. It was slowly, and painfully, drowning on dry land. As the last of its movements seized up, water barely enough to fill up waterskin halfways1Very roundabout way of saying about 700ml of water. slowly poured out of it. It was doubtful if the warg survived the ordeal. By the time the event was over, Alicia had already downed two more of them over on her side. The last warg had just slinked away without much of a presence. Alicia had a general idea on where it fled to by the muddled information provided by pallesthesia but giving chase to something that was already running away felt unnecessary.

Alicia commented on the strange behavior as she washed away any excess blood and venom from her weapon with magically created water.

There was a sense of foreboding that came with her answer.

Before Llynbel could ask a question in turn, a hollow, otherworldly howl resounded throughout the damp bog.

-at… was that?”

Even before they came into sight, a foul, sulfuric scent assaulted Alicia’s nose. What emerged were a pair of monsters far more fearsome than wargs. From their steps bloomed abnormal green-yellow flames that burned atop the waterlogged floor. Monsters’ form resembled a typical canine in most aspects, excluding the skeletal head and legs, they appeared as though all of their fur had been scorched away, revealing hideously seared body and flesh that appears to be perpetually on fire, with the flames cloaking their bodies. Every orifice of their face spouted the very same flames.

To Alicia’s nervous comment only a screeching wail that was hauntingly similar to human scream came as a reply.

As they opened their mouths in unison, from the gaping depths a jet of flames spewed out towards the two.

The flames shot towards Alicia smashed against the magical barrier, clinging to it for a fair amount of time before subsiding.

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>Shield Integrity: 86.7%. Restoring…

>Damage analysis underway…

‘Don’t wanna get hit by that… whatever it is.’

Llynbel raised a wall of water to protect herself, the flames reacted violently to the liquid, violently sputtering and hissing on the surface of the barrier. It would seem obvious that the flames would be doused out, yet it persisted, burning still on the water, almost to the extent of boiling away the water. Nevertheless the fire dwindled away in the smokescreen of steam.

She never had seen Llynbel this worked up before, most monsters couldn’t put a scratch on her, these, however were the exceptions. Their flames could undoubtedly damage, perhaps even put an end to her existence. Alicia was furiously racking her brain trying to identify the monster in front of her. Meanwhile the water spirit took initiative. Surrounding swamp water twisted and swirled around the creatures, enclosing them before combining into tall waves and slamming down on them. They were immersed and imprisoned in the water for a brief while, for as soon as they were entrapped, the mysterious flames intensified and detonated in a spectacular fashion. Although it appeared to be fatal, flickering yellow lights proved otherwise, and they were still standing, albeit visibly worse for wear. The monsters started panting, as though they were tired, the flames on their bodies had died down somewhat but with each passing moment it was regaining its intensity.

Llynbel almost sounded as if she was bewildered, and at a loss at what to do next. But through observation something finally clicked in Alicia’s head.

She had seen entries describing the and illustrating the monster within the guild’s archives, only on the cursory. Now she understood that the reason why she didn’t recognize the monster was most likely it was because the rendition she had seen must have been an artist's impression, recreated from second hand reports. Seeing the real thing and a recreation was a day and night difference.

‘Lightning… With all this water around; toaster bath, no good. Cryo… Would hinder Llynbel. Earth… Soil too soft won’t be able to muster anything solid. Flora… would be equivalent to adding logs to fire. Wind… Hypoxic air might help but if it's not in an enclosed area they can just run out of it. Water… only thing that worked so far. Void and Anima… no offensive magic yet…’

>Thermal damage analysis complete. Able to restore derivative Thermal shielding effective against thermal damage. Standing by for confirmation…

‘What is that, five? Pocket change. Go! I’ll need it.’

>Executing…

Licks of  flames coated her body in a glow of burnt reds2Milano Red #C12D06 accented by golden yellows3Desert Fire #FFD67A that flared up occasionally. Fiery Monarchs - fire spirits bonded to Alicia - twirled around her in warm embrace. The blazes did not extend to her held weapon, to Alicia’s dissatisfaction.

‘Hm… maybe that’s for the best. I might as well try something else while I’m at…’

A small shoal of tiny glowing fish emerged from somewhere. They swam through the open air in a looping motion around her arms until they reached her blade, where they coiled around her sword and disappeared into its dark surface. But their presence could still be felt as a gentle stream that flowed through her weapon. A fine mist that formed on the exterior of Dauntless slowly condensed into drops of excess water that dripped to the ground.

Leaving one of them to Llynbel to keep it occupied Alicia charged forward ducking low as she held her weapon, imbued with water.

Flames of the barghest flared up again and they opened their maw. As soon as it did, a small spout of water formed and shot out towards the mouth of one of them. As water and fire met, the resulting reaction caused a series of small explosions inside its muzzle, disorienting it for a while. The remaining one that was unimpeded, charged up its fiery blast before firing it off towards Alicia. As she was quickly closing the distance, at the current speed of the fast approaching fireball a several decimeters in diameter, complete evasion was highly improbable, as even if she did avoided it, for when the projectile hit the ground the edges of the resulting explosion would catch her at the least.

But she had no need for such a maneuver, instead rushing against it head first. The flames hit her square in the torso and detonated as expected. Yet from the resulting haunting green inferno emerged the girl that had not slowed down in the slightest, still wreathed in the caress of golden fires. Palpably surprised with her unscathed survival and especially concerned with her swift approach, for the first time it seems that the barghests felt some form of apprehension, possibly even fear. Before they could mentally register the occurrence fully, Alicia was already within striking distance of Dauntless. Even after their late reaction they had managed to jump away to evade, allowing her to only land a glancing hit against it.

‘Not enough…-’ she thought as it wasn’t the decisive blow she was hoping to get. While she was thinking about how to follow up afterward, as she was swinging her blade, Alicia noticed a thin line of white that followed along the trajectory of her strike, shimmering in the light. She recognized it as water; a thin blade of water that followed along her slash extending the range of her slice. The cool water passed through its cloak of flames and deeply cut into its body, sizzling against the beast’s blazing skin.

Seeing that her strikes are effective and that her opponent is now on the defensive, she maintained her onslaught so that it did not have the chance to make distance and recover. Perhaps feeling threatened by Alicia or that it understood that its ally was being pressured, the remaining Barghest sought a chance to intervene. But the swirling waters around it and the jets of water that threatened to bore through its body prevented any chance for it to interfere. Being weakened by the crashing waves earlier the tiniest lapse in judgment would spell the end for it. Getting used to the extended range of her strikes Alicia was steadily pushing the monster into a corner. Until, it tried to go for a daring leap towards her, swiping its sharp skeletal claws towards her.

Spotting an opening as it sprung to the air, Alicia managed to just barely duck herself under its leap and positioned her weapon so that the barghest would shred open its own underbelly by the velocity of its jump against the edge of her weapon. Rot scented pus instead of blood, fire like magma instead of guts spilled out of the wound. As it rolled and sprawled on the ground, there was some life left in it still. Any other creature would have been dead in seconds, the barghest however stubbornly clung to existence. Intending to snuff it out completely Alicia stabbed her weapon halfway through its neck and twisted it, then using her other hand, held the sword by the upper part of the terso using it as a leverage to forcibly yank her blade to decapitate its head off.

With one of them dispatched Alicia turned to the other barghest that Llynbel was keeping occupied. Caught in an attack from both sides it was quickly overwhelmed and dealt with unceremoniously.

Or so it seemed, something bothered Alicia, even though its head was cut off from its head, the fire still lingered within its skull. Even before it was dispatched, she wondered why it had leapt towards her to swipe. For canines, magical or not, the strongest weapon in their arsenal was their fangs and jaws, not claws, that was more common in felines. So why did it try to attack her with claws? Was its fangs ineffective? Absolutely not, the skeletal fangs were enough to pierce through iron armor if it wanted to. Was it desperation? A possibility. But in retrospect of her fight with them Alicia noticed something odd. Even when its innards laid bare on the ground what it tried to protect was not its neck but its head, or rather the skull. Be it harmless water or sword strikes.

It didn’t sit right with her enough to the point that she went back into the soggy bog and crushed the skulls into pieces with a hefty stone. To her later justification, she discovered from Sha’ko that barghests’ were a result of unburied corpses. Those were made plentiful recently thanks to the attacks towards the outlying villages. As they were beings of death, they couldn’t be destroyed by conventional means, rather ritualistically the unburied bodies that summoned them had to be incinerated to banish them. But if one with enough martial prowess could best them somehow lest they destroy their skulls, however ravaged their bodies were they would rise again and seek vengeance…

Auratic

So uhh... this made me think, I have a pretty good image of how Alicia and the other characters should look like. But I'm not sure if I conveyed that into writing well enough, some details might have been left behind. One of which is well... Have I actually described Alicia's chest? And I actually cannot remember. So I ask you, did I ever do that? and if you would be so kind, give me like 7 word long(can be shorter or longer, whatever floats your boat) shitpost short description of your favorite character, I'll compare it against what its supposed to be and make amends if I have to.

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