Chapter 153

The Chase

Yolandara of The Eclipsion Tribe, Runesmith and part of the forward vanguard for her Tribe had but one mission. That mission was to make sure no true powerhouses of the newly discovered backwater planet didn’t amount to anything in the grand scheme of things. That or if they did make something of themselves, then she was to make sure they were brought to heel before the elven nation, as a whole. While it would have been nice to bring the strongest and most talented under the banner of the Eclipsion Tribe, she knew that such movements would cause great waves of discontent within elven society. The days of the one great elven society were dead, as were the ancestors who could have handled such great powers and responsibilities.

There was an important part to Yolandara’s overall mission, the fact that once this planet was finally integrated, not just the forces of light, those being the Orcs and Elves, but the forces of Darkness would also gain a chance to grow on the planet. While the forces of darkness had been beaten back to the nether realm, the war of attrition with the vile invaders has been at a standstill for as long as Yolandara had been alive. From what she was told there was a time before her birth, when the armies of light would actually march into pitched battle with the forces of darkness, forever fighting one another in an unwinnable fight. For the demons cheated, they could be killed, but they could never be truly erased, only allowed to come back a decade or two later in a different body and have spent those past two decades learning from their mistakes.

That is why the elders, the ones who first fought the war and led the charge against the demonic forces all look so hollow, their empty eyes denoting an emptiness that is hard to fathom. The fact that their bodies still fight on, all these years later goes to show both the power of the great system, and just how high those few monsters managed to climb during their historic battles against the Darkness.

In fact, every great tribe still has one founding member for whom their tribe is named after. Eclisis, was one of the most active soldiers in the great war, and she was also the last to go dormant. Yoldandara saw it, the moment great great grandmother Eclisis lost her will to fight on, the day she lost her will to help another planet during their integration process.

A shadowling, the term given to a planet that has fallen to the darkness. When such an event occurs, it is nearly impossible for the inhabitants of a planet to evacuate, let alone survive the process. Eclisis had survived long enough to escape, but the vapors she inhaled while there had been enough to cause her great pains to even walk. Now the best healers on the planet do all they can to keep great great grandmother Eclisis in a state of torpor, lest her pain riddled body be allowed to feel.

Yolandara has seen the effects firsthand of the Void, the most destructive energy that the armies of darkness have at their disposal. While she herself hated the idea that such a vile form of magic would even be used by other elven tribes, Yolandara could at least understand why it had been used. Here they were, integrated people who had managed to do the impossible, to take down two dragons, one of which had opened a rift portal. Had the elves let that go, then people would have never understood the true enemy, they would have been willing to say that they were prepared enough to handle what was going to come. The Void Bombs had been a wake-up call, at least they were meant to be a wake-up call, as they should have gotten everyone. Yet, Yolandara had seen with her own eyes the way that one human still lived. How she seemed to exude power in a way that even the great Eclisis never had.

Shiver.

Just remembering the look of contempt from that human caused chills to run down her back. Even now, far far away from the actual event, Yolandara could only feel the growing sense of unease, as she made her way to her safehouse.

Snap.

The cracking of a branch far away could be heard.

Instantly Yolandara turned around and faced the direction from where the sound came. Yet, she saw nothing.

Badump, badump.

Yolandara’s heart pumped in her chest, partly from having exerted her body to its maximum, the air on this planet was far weaker than her own, and often caused issues for elves that hadn’t achieved enough points in Endurance and Strength.

Stillness.

The entire forest was quiet. With but a second’s understanding she realized what it would take many novice hunters years to learn and perfect, an innate Danger Sense. Waiting, she looked for signs of a predator being released in the wild around her. Nature itself screamed that there was such a creature present, as every bird, rabbit, and wild creature that would normally make noise as part of their day was deathly quiet.

Yolandara’s Danger Sense screamed at her that she was being stalked by a predator, one apparently adapt at hiding in plain sight.

“Hello?” Yolandara first began in English, the human tongue of these parts. Even now, the word felt lifeless and hollow on her tongue.

Silence.

“Hello?” Yolandara asked again, this time in Elvish.

Silence.

Yolandara paused, waiting for a moment, forcing her heart to slow down as she took in her surroundings, but nothing stood out. Slowly she turned around, there, right when she was facing the exact way she had been going, that’s when she felt it, that strange sense of being watched.

Feeling that, Yolandara kept one-foot planted pointing forward, as she turned her head back to look directly behind her. This was not the most advantageous of positions to be in but given that she couldn’t even see the size nor true direction of her proposed enemy, Yolandara used this as the best course of action. So far, her Danger Sense was the only thing alerting her to what every creature in the wilderness already knew, that there was a monster nearby and it was dangerous. Had any high tier dungeons overflowed nearby? Yolandara didn’t think so, most of the time those were self-generated by her and others of her kind. They would use them as a form of both population control, and to help spread the power and influence of dungeons faster. Portals to the nether realms could not be opened within a ten-kilometer radius of an overflowing dungeon. There was of course just one problem with an overflowing dungeon, in that it also meant that said dungeon was considered rampaging, which meant that reinforcements couldn’t also use those dungeons to travel back and forth between realms either. This was the reason that dungeons that were designed as overflow were set in inhospitable lands, like the frozen north, or lands that the elves and the orcs alike had a hard time adapting to. Fortunately, there were only a few places on this planet that were considered to be completely inhospitable, and all of those had blessedly succumbed to overflow far before Yolandara had arrived, meaning she was never forced to go those regions and take physical readings.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

Another thing of note was that dungeons did not form under, or overwater. This was something that always amazed Yolandara, but apparently the far north of this planet was completely frozen, but it was ice over an ocean, meaning no spotters had to go there to observe dungeons for signs of overflow. In the southern hemisphere was an ice-covered continent, but that one too had long ago been left to be in the overflow state. Now everything was in temperate climate zones, or ones that suited the orcs and elves both. It had been a gradual process, slowly getting life to migrate closer and closer to the equator, but over the course of a hundred years of integration it had finally come. Their work, their efforts to safeguard this planet were nearly at an end. Now all they had to do was send enough forces through the well-maintained dungeon paths and meet any legions of darkness wherever they might arise.

Deep throat gurgling.

The sound of an utterly terrifying sound jarred Yolandara from her mental musings. The sound had come from her left, so turned, this was ninety degrees away from where her Danger Sense had told her the monster that had been chasing her was located.

Turning, she tried to both stare forward, and keep an eye out for any peripheral movement to her right, where she swore the enemy should be, but couldn’t see anything.

Blurred movement to the right.

Out of the corner of her eye, Yolandara saw it, or saw something at the very least. She saw the movement of something to her right.

Turning her head, she saw it, for a moment, then she saw where it stopped.

Badump, badump.

Yolandara, seeing the blur, pulled her rune enhanced weapon up and began raising it towards the spot where the blur stopped its movement. Yolandara thought about using the scope, but what good would a scope be, if she couldn’t see the target she was aiming at? Also, from this distance she felt confident in her skills with the highly advanced, but primitive weapon. From this distance she was certain she could raise the barrel up and point it towards the spot where she saw the creature stop moving.

Scanning.

Yolandara was no fool, just because she saw the signs that this monster had stopped moving, didn’t mean it had. This monster was clearly adept at camouflaging itself in its environment, only showing faint signs of being seen when it was moving.

Still what type of creature could do this? There were monsters from her home world, ones who were spoken of as part of ancient legends that they could perform such hunts, blending in completely with their background and hiding from every source of detection. Those were of course myths now more than anything, as the great tribes hunted down those creatures first during the integration process, making it so elves were the only true apex species on their planet by the time the integration happened.

Now it felt like she was staring down that same beast, or something far worse.

Remembering the stories from her childhood, Yolandara tried to recall what the fearless hunters did to find such a beast, as that was the previous challenge required to prove yourself worth of being an Elven Tribal leader, you had to go out and kill a Vishara by yourself, to prove you were up to the task of protecting the village from just such a monster hunting your people. If a single person could single handedly kill what it took other trained packs months of preparation and planning to do, then they truly deserved to be the leader of the town, settlement, or continent.

Now, fueled by such stories from her past, from the old worlds, Yolandara let a faint smile crest her lips. She was young, unblooded, and never truly been allowed to see action. But she had one thing that set her far ahead of everyone else, she was ready to prove herself, and here she was, able to take down the monster that all those noble clans couldn’t.

“Aru’ka right?” Yolandara asked the wind.

Gggrrrgg.

More deep throat gurgling sounds.

This time the sounds came from her right, but she was certain that the monster was dead ahead, somehow able to use Illusion magic to throw its voice or something. Realizing this, Yolandara quickly glanced left, before turning back and waiting to see the blurring light of movement caused by the monster.

Nothing.

Rustle.

Hearing her chance, Yolandara raised her rifle and fired. Her muzzle aiming towards the source of the sound on instinct, knowing she had but seconds to strike, and she took it.

Bang!

“Gah!” The high-pitched cry of a struck enemy fell. Feeling excited by her success, Yolandara strode forward confidently, having witnessed firsthand the humanoid shape fall to the ground.

Only once she got close and witnessed what she had struck, who she had killed, only now did true terror take hold of her.

“What? No, no, no…” Yolandara said, suddenly dropping to grab at the quickly dying form in her arms. Then looking around Yolandara slung her weapon over her shoulders, picked up the dead and dying body and began running as quickly as she could, back to the safehouse hidden away in the woods, one that would surely have a healer, or at the very least healing supplies. There she could fix this; there she could hopefully undo what she had done. She had been so certain that an enemy was stalking her that she let her imagination go wild with fear.

***

Alexa watched her opponent turn her back on her, scooping up a body, only to end up taking it off in the distance. Alexa had been using Illusion magic all along, trying to see what the elves could notice while they were running. Despite urban myths, elves were just as terrible at noticing movement behind them as humans were, even their larger ears didn’t seem to account for much in the way of hearing. As it was only when she placed the sounds of the monsters within ten meters of the elf did, she even notice the deep reverberating sounds, sounds that set the whole forest on edge the first time she used them. Yet, it was only once she stopped that she seemed to even notice them. This was good, as it meant that most elves had a harder time hearing. That or Alexa herself had gotten better at stalking her prey silently. Regardless of the reason, she followed the elves to a giant rock that all but glowed with magical energy.

If Alexa blinked, she could almost make out the mental illusion that the rock was trying to project to her, a projection that she could feel from her heightened magical senses from hundreds of feet away, even before the illusion covered shed was within visible range, she was able to feel it out there. Then once the elf seemed to follow certain trail markings towards the shed, Alexa knew that this was the place. Just feeling the presence of magic required power and hiding such a structure was impressive, so impressive that Alexa felt shivers come down her back as she felt a hunger awaken within her. A hunger that she thought she had grown to master, but it had grown recently. Ever since her Awakening, the hunger for absorbing energy had grown leaps and bounds, so much so that just being near her friends was almost too much to bear. Now that she was here, and practically offered a buffet of energy, Alexa couldn’t help but feel her darker impulses rising, threatening to take control. This was why she had hidden from her friends; she had gone with her brother and the others to Thanksgiving, but it had been too much. Then when she became aware of the threat, she realized she could either send a clone, one that couldn’t fully transfer its knowledge of what it found to her, or she herself could go. That was why she was here now, as she needed to know what the Clone would have found had it come. So instead, she left a clone behind to mimic her presence at the charity event, one started by her father. That did pain her, but what pained her more was the thought of these monsters using that event to stage another attack, that was why Alexa decided to go and follow the elf herself. And now she was glad she had, not only had she gotten the elf to take down and severely injure another of its ilk, but it also now brought her straight to their secret lair.

Pausing for a second, Alexa wondered if this was another setup, as this all seemed to be too easy, and that was when she found she made the most errors. Pausing for a moment, she listened, using her magic to reach out to the forest, to the trees and talk to them, to hear their perspective on the foreign invaders who forced their way into her forest. Communing with nature, she didn’t quite know what she would get in response, but what she did get, made her spine tingle, as rage overtook her, awakening her from her brief meditation and causing her to realize that even if this was a trap, it was one she needed to address.

As the forest spoke of malevolence, and a strange magical resonance that could only be described as one word, the Void.

With her mind made up, Alexa moved forward, her rational mind holding back on absorbing energy for the moment, as she worked out the best course of attack. Then, once she was mentally prepared for what to do next, she moved into action. A sword that had been slung on her back hidden by an obfuscation illusion suddenly present and seeming to warp the very fabric of the world around it. Seeing the blade come to life with sparking magical energy Alexa nodded to the blade, almost as if in recognition of its own power, its own near sentient state of being. The sword was the thing legends, and it was one that she had forged with her own hands, her own skills, her own magic. Now with that magic that she used to separate herself from the others, she was going to exact vengeance on the elves that dared to take refuge within her sacred forests. On lands that she claimed to be her own. On lands that the planet itself seemed to agree belonged to her, or at the very least listened to her and her requests. Whether the planet itself was aware of her plight was entirely separate from what was happening here. Right here, right now, this was the equivalent of a natural disaster being released, to stop a greater catastrophe. A monsoon being released to quench a massive forest fire, the equivalent of using an erupting volcano to help melt some snow. Still, for the sake of this moment, she felt her mind and spirit merging with the planet, at the least the plant life of the surrounding area, and on this one subject both she and the forest agreed, the elves and their evil magics should be purged, root and all.

With that one thought in mind, Alexa strode forward, a silent confidence filling every silent step forward.