Greenery flashed by as I was being kidnapped. The destination wasn’t the nearest spire. I had no idea where we would be going and what type of spire we would deal with. The twilight sky was filled with noisy fairies.
Nature energy lasers and other rabbit attacks could be seen in the distance, shooting the abominations out of the sky.
Mishelly also sent out several [Flower Cannons] out herself to shoot down curious fairies.
“So where are we going? And...can we talk about what happened to Sym?”
“Hmm? What about Sym?”
Mishelly sounded a bit cold and distant. I understand that the rabbits treat death different from Misha. Misha are more similar to humans in this. The rabbits take a short moment to mourn and then move on. I’ve seen it many times but I still can’t get used to it.
“You still remember who that was right?”
“Of course, we don’t forget our fallen brethren. We, unfortunately, don’t have the luxury to sit still on it too long...our race....the mythical races are built to handle loss differently because the truth is...our role in this world often kills us. It’s the same for every other tailed beasts. It might seem insensitive to you but it’s to make sure we continue being functional after our kin gets slaughtered around us.”
A fairy became deafening and Mishelly took a break to shoot it down. I pinned it to a large tree with [Azure Spears], leaving it up to fate whether it would die or survive.
“Most of the tailed beasts are carnivorous beast kin which have a better time handling this. Our [Aura Shift] helps us timid rabbits to compensate for this. You must have already noticed this but we’re not consistent in our behavior. We can’t be as we need to adapt to every situation. It’s also needed to tune into the emotions of others, plants and animals or even...to shut out emotions that could cripple us.”
A fiery spire appeared in the distance. Strange blocky objects were floating in it’s vicinity. They seemed inorganic but were behaving as if they were alive. Is this what the reports meant?
“I understand. I just...it’s not often that someone died that close to me, I didn’t know him that well but he was on our team. The same with Juvia’s husband. Maybe I’m not made for this but I was talking to them one moment and the next moment they were gone...”
I am not a warrior like these rabbits. I am a scholar. I like adventures but this is a war we’re in.
The temperature climbed as we neared the spire. The dairy density decreased and Mishelly had an easier time carrying me to the spire. Some animals tried to start a fight but Mishelly just kicked them aside.
“The jungle animals are agitated, they don’t normally attack us. This spire must be the cause.” Mishelly stopped and looked up.
We were quite close but still outside the range of the area of fire around the spire.
The ambient mana had almost completely shifted toward fire and small volcanoes and magma pits were surrounding the spire. As if a biome of another place, another continent had been taken from its place and had been planted here. The other sires must have something similar going on.
The weather around an ice spire in the distance seemed turbulent. The cold air it produced must have mixed with the warm jungle air and created some strange weather effects.
“This might be worse than it seems. While we fight the fairies, these spires might just destroy the jungle and our homes.” I pointed my fan at the ice spire in the distance to show Mishelly what I meant.
“Who knows what the other spires might do. It would suck to get wiped out by these side effects after driving the fairies away.”
“Oh Wowie, you might be right but...we can’t spare many rabbits to investigate all of them. We have reported 77 spires in our territory but there are more beyond them. Other rabbit groups would have to take those as we cant possibly take care of the whole jungle.”
“77 spires...another rabbit group? There are more groups?”
Mishelly cocked her head. “You didn’t know? I’m from the group that’s south of my mother’s group. There should be 5 more spread over the jungle, even still we seem to be understaffed. The southeast of the continent has difficult terrain and nobody monitors it so I would expect the spires and fairies to become a huge issue there. It might bleed over to other areas and overwhelm us.”
I tried to process the sudden influx of information. So there are 6 rabbit groups that have a territory but despite that there are areas unmonitored? Their role seemed to deal with nature related issues. The fairies and spires aren’t their problem technically but it would if they destroy the jungle.
“Aren’t there races that are supposed to deal with these? It seems unfair that you guys have to solve all this?”
Mishelly sighed and sat down. “My mother’s burrow is too focus on their responsibility so they must not have told you much about other tailed beasts as they might not know.
Mishelly put up 2 fingers. “The two tailed fairy dogs are responsible for wiping out pests or anything with high numbers. The problem is that humans fell into the category of high numbers. It is true that the humans have used their numbers to push other races close to extinction so the fairy dogs got into action somewhere in the past, this didnt go well as you can guess as humans are still numerous and pushing other races closer to extinction.”
“So the race that deals with high numbers to ensure others don’t go extinct got the tables turned on them? Ironic...”
“Well they aren’t going extinct they move in packs and have certain roles within those packs. A certain role has only gone near extinct so their ability to locate, identify and bring down large groups had been almost reduced to 0, so even if they appeared they would probably get wiped out...”
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Mishelly put up 9 fingers. “Any extra dimensional problem needs to be prevented and dealt with by nine tailed spirit foxes but...they are actually close to extinction. Whatever number the have, if they were to go out and deal with this...they surely would go extinct. So those that would have the responsibility can’t because either humans or gods have messed with them to the point they can’t function as a race. This puts pressure on the other tailed beasts.”
Mishelly stretched and yawned. “The tailed beasts are a team. If one of the races goes under, the others follow. And when we’re gone, this world is toast.”
I did know that the tailed beasts had a role as Wren had told me but she had failed to mention how dire the situation was.
“So because those 2 races can’t function, it falls to you rabbits and if you guys stop functioning, other-tailed beasts have to pick it up?”
“Sums it up nicely yeah.” Mishelly said nonchalantly. “Other-tailed races have similar problems. My mother told me that us rabbits are rare on Kaledon, so whatever tailed races live there have to solve rabbit issues and might get pressured by it. They have elves there i’ve heard so those could help.
“Is there a tailed beast council or something where you can discuss those problems and come to a working solution?”
Mishelly looked at me and laughed. “Hahaha! Wait, you’re serious?”
I nodded.
“Well, every race has 1 problem that the others share and it’s lack of numbers. We can talk about it all we want but the only real solution is to tell each other to just fuck more. This fairy problem would have not been a problem if we had more rabbits or if the fairy dogs and spirit foxes had healthy numbers. The planet probably wouldn’t even have noticed anything if that was the case. The only reason we rabbits are doing relatively fine is because we just do that, fuck more than the other races.”
How do I respond to this strange response? Surely there must be another answer, right? Maybe it’s because I’m not well-versed in warfare but superior tactics could make up for the lack of numbers, right? Although...
I looked toward the twilight sky above the burrow which was swarmed by fairies.
Higher numbers surely would increase the success rate of any plan. Are the tailed beasts doing so poorly that this is impossible?
“Hey Mishelly, what do the population of the tailed beasts look like?”
Mishelly’s ears twitched. “Psst, not now, something is approaching. Let’s hide!”
We laid low and crawled through the thicket.
At the border between jungle and the spire’s territory, there was a golem-like creature patrolling. It was blocky and red metallic. The golem had strange markings on its body.
Several strange blocks and blocky-shaped objects floated around inside the spire’s territory. All had different markings but they all seemed foreign.
“Hey, Azu, what the fuck are those?”
“I don’t know! Some golem life forms? Although ‘life’ is debatable. I also can’t read their mana signatures as the whole area and ambient mana is shifted toward fire mana.”
I searched my memories for information I remembered from Golemancy courses. Misha aren’t known for using Golemancy but it is a viable specialisation as Misha are weak physically and golems could solve that weakness.
Nothing suggested that these golems had a core and it was impossible to detect a mana trail to whoever or whatever controlled them. Are they autonomous? Not a foreign concept but difficult to do.
There was enough to nerd out on this golem alone. I need to focus!
A focus drink appeared from my dimensional pocket and I downed it.
“They look unstable, won’t they fall over if we give them a push?”
Mishelly made an [Airball] and kicked it.
The ball of air collided with the golem and nothing happened. “I take that personal! Here! Take a bigger one!”
Mishelly kicked bigger and bigger [Airballs] at the unsuspecting golem, toppling it over eventually.
“Ha! Don’t mess with Mishelly! Now lets see what you have to offer upon closer inspection!”
“Ha! Whoever made this thing must be stupid, now what...ouch!” Mishelly pulled her hand away after touching the golem. She blew at her hand and applied nature energy to it. “These things are hot, watch out.” I waved my fan and doused it with water. Steam violently erupted as the golem refused to cool down. “it might be generating the heat. It doesn’t seem to want to cool down...” I gave up and tapped the golem with my fan. “It’s not hollow” I didn’t recognise the mana it gave off even though it should have been fire mana. The writings were unfamiliar even it’s composition. I didn’t know a lot of metals but this metal seemed fine being extremely hot indefinitely and wouldn’t deform. “Mishelly, back off for a bit, I’m going to try something. I found a hollow part.” I raised my folded fan and got ready for a [Meteor Slap]. I put my all into it and...the golem got launched away... “Whoo! Nice shot!” “I wanted to break it open, I didn’t expect it to get sent flying...” The golem was well within spire territory so there was no way around it, we had to enter it. Only fire magic would be possible with the mana shifted toward fire that much. It would be fine in a fire spire but what if I encounter an earth spire, lightning spire or any other element I can’t use? This becomes a bigger problem the more I look into it. What about mishelly? Rabbits can’t use fire magic as far as i know. “Hey Mishelly, how are you going to be able to attack when things go wrong? You can’t use fire in there right?” “Oh no problem! Reports have confirmed that Rabbit mode bypasses that! I will just have to be careful when and where to use it. Let’s go!” Right, I have to remember that Mishelly is a mythical beast and that logic doesn’t always apply to them but Rabbit mode is still an uncomfortable restriction. She can only use it twice before needing a long rest and something tells me she would need it more than twice. Resting might not be an option either. “Hey, maybe just the 2 of us is a bad idea after all.” “Nonsense, we will just check it out and return to report when things get too dire. We’re not expected to blow up or deal with the spire. We just need to get more detailed information.” My hand got grabbed again and I got dragged into the territory of the spire. Nothing happened. I had expected for all the blocky thingies to get put on full alert and attack us but nothing happened. “How odd.” I assumed that they protected the spire but some even fled from us. It makes me feel that we’re the bad guys. Some fairies were bullying the blocky objects in the distance. It made me almost feel sorry for these things. One thing is for sure; fairies are assholes. They were using different blocky creatures to build strange constructions. As if they were puzzle pieces. Was that the intent? It still seemed like bullying to me. “Hey, Mishelly, you mentioned fairy dogs...” “As far as I know they’re not like these fairies. I’ve never met them, I’ve heard they’re ugly but more like... ugly dog type ugly and not that type of ugly.” Mishelly pointed at a 2 headed worm with sharp teeth, chewing on a pyramid-shaped thing. Its other head directed its mouth with countless eyes at us and stared at us. The insect type fairies creeped me out the most. “So fairies are ugly...period?” “I don’t know, it does look like it though...” We took time to look at a disgusting display as a group of 2 headed worms were drooling all over the floating blocky things and using them as chew toys. “Yuck!” I wanted to continue our earlier conversation when more golems appeared. These did seem to have to function of protection. Would fire or kicks even work on these things...is that the point of this territory? To disable attacks that would be effective? Mishelly drop kicked a golem and sent it flying. I guess kicking works... I might have to rely solely on [Meteor Slap] it seems.