As they fought the tide of gaunts, Lanek felt power stirring nearby. At first, Lanek worried that something more powerful was leading the gaunts when a notification appeared.
Invidros, Primordial of the Storm, has pledged himself to the cause.
Not long after the notification Pharaoh’s voice rang out across the battlefield. “It’s done, she’s here!”
Lanek speared another gaunt before calling out to Liv. “Lira is going to be unconscious and weak for a while, go get her and start heading back to Caelis. Yuri is the only one that can carry the two of you easily and still have enough stamina to plow through any gaunt standing in your way. Tell Ivan to get onto Maximilian, I’ve already given the order for him to let Ivan get on. Go, the rest of us will catch up.”
Not bothering to argue, Liv withdrew from the barricade and retrieved their newly revived companion before mounting Yuri. With a last look at her companions, she urged the bear into motion, causing him to trample numerous gaunts as he headed to the northwest.
You know what to do. Lanek sent silently. Whining softly, Sanguineus burst into motion and quickly overtook the bear. Meanwhile, Kazuma had sent a feeling of concern before following Yuri and deploying a huge amount of fog to cover their retreat.
Lanek backed toward the enclosure, sensing his companions gathering as well. He jumped into Maximilian’s saddle, Ivan having moved back to allow him access. Lanek yelled for them to ride, feeling Maximilian lurch forward as he laid about him with his spear.
“Ograch! Get Reaver ahead of us!” Ivan yelled, fishing around in one of his pouches. As soon as the raptor had pass them, Ivan cast stones on the path behind them, triggering small explosions. These explosions were not as powerful as his previous efforts, but they were more than enough to cause minor injuries while disorienting and slowing the horde of gaunts following them.
Lanek felt a weight settle onto his shoulder before hearing a voice hiss in his ear. “Keep the beast steady, I need to concentrate.”
A few seconds later, Ivan yelled from behind him. “The gaunts are turning aside, they’re heading south now!”
“Don’t look.” Pharaoh hissed again, a paw slapping the side of Lanek’s head. “Focus on guiding Maximilian. I can’t keep the illusion up if I have to worry about maintaining my balance.”
They rode onward, the gaunt’s shrieks fading into the distance for a few more minutes before a unified scream of rage filled the air. The illusion had apparently run its course and the gaunts were once more on their trail. However, the party had a substantial lead at this point and Lanek had no desire to waste it. He urged Maximilian to speed up and yelled at Ograch to go all out as the hobgoblin was forcing Reaver to keep pace with the slower demigryph.
“Don’t worry, they won’t catch me. It’s more important that we keep Lira safe. Go!” Ograch nodded and Reaver took off in a blur. Despite not being able to keep pace with the raptor, Maximilian was still able to put on an impressive burst of speed. As he neared the edge of the forest between the two cities, Lanek noticed a lack of shrieking behind them and risked a glance. The horde of gaunts, which was much larger than he had anticipated, had stopped in a massive clump, eyeing the forest in silence. I guess they don’t know that the shifters are gone. Or maybe they are just avoiding the territory of another evolved gaunt and don’t know that it is dead yet? Either way, let’s not waste this either.
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He caught up to his companions at the former shifter lair where they had decided to wait for his arrival. Part of him wanted to be angry that they had waited, but he put that aside as there was no harm done with gaunts unwilling to enter the forest.
“Looks like we made it in one piece. Let’s head straight home. I don’t know how long the gaunts are going to be scared of the forest.” Lanek stated before leading the way. Meanwhile, Kazuma and Sanguineus remained behind to make sure that the party wouldn’t be followed. While they rode, Lanek looked over at Lira’s body, cradled in front of Liv.
Now that he could see her face clearly and her light brown hair, she wasn’t what he would consider gorgeous, but she was definitely cute. However, he was a bit surprised at how young she looked. Considering that he knew that she had been in her spirit form for centuries, he had kind of assumed that she would have been older when she became the guardian of Caelis. Instead, she looked like she was just entering her twenties. Hell, considering how old Lanek had been when he was transmigrated, he couldn’t help but see her in the same way that he saw the average college student back home. People in that age range had always seemed like little more than children to him. Seriously, I guess I’m officially old now even though this new body of mine is in its prime.
“Pharaoh, do you want to fly on ahead and start getting your people ready to move? I’m going to get the tree planted as soon as we drop Lira off, so it shouldn’t be long before I have a safe place for them.”
“Of course,” the tressym said happily. “They’ll be excited to hear it.”
Lanek watched in amusement as Pharaoh flew into the forest ahead of them, humming to himself as he went. It was all so surreal to him that he now had a talking cat companion to add to the team and would soon be welcoming many more regular cats into their home. As he thought on it, he couldn’t help but wonder once more why the dungeon had protected them in the first place, much less for so many years. He didn’t like the idea, but he was at the point where he desperately needed more answers about the dungeon and had exhausted all of the available avenues of investigation. Well, all but one: the Depths itself.
He found himself torn about entering the dungeon, much less having his companions join him. Beyond that, would his companions even be amenable to investigating and possibly making contact with the dungeon? Most of those living in the monastery had lost much to the Ashen Depths over the years and would probably prefer to destroy it rather than try diplomacy.
Not finding any easy answers to that particular situation, Lanek turned to trying to find a new place for the tree. The obvious answer was to place it in the open plaza near the monastery, but if it did turn into a new grove for Eldros it would take up all of the space that had been set aside for growing food in the spring. There were a few other spots he had seen throughout the city, such as the square near the shops, but that stood at the edge of the city and was far too exposed and difficult to protect.
Obviously, the center of the city was occupied by the entrance to the dungeon and the remnants of the defensive walls. I don’t really like the idea of splitting our limited strength up too much, so maybe I should just plant it between the west gate and the monastery. I’m sure there is a place on that road that would make for a decent set of living quarters.
Making up his mind, Lanek waited until the party had arrived at the southern gate before excusing himself. “Take Lira to the monastery and get her settled in. I’m heading to the west gate to look for a spot to plant the tree. Let Talwarg and the others know so they can find me if they need to.”
“You sure you don’t want to plant it next to the monastery?” Ograch asked.
“Yeah, I’m not sure how large the tree or the grove will get, so its probably better to have some space.” Lanek replied before turning his gaze behind him, to Ivan. “Would you be willing to come with me? I may need to knock some buildings down and you seem to have a knack for that.”
The lothenae grinned in response. “Of course, I can’t think of a better way to spend the day than making things explode!”
Lanek shook his head at the enthusiasm. “I’m so glad that you’re on my side, the way you get when thinking about making shit go boom is downright disturbing.”
“Oh, I’m sure. But you can’t really argue with the effectiveness of it all, can you?”
“No. No, I cannot. Alright, I’ll see the rest of you later. Oh, if Khurzag’s patrols have returned with some seeds already, please send them our way. I might as well get started on fortifying the area while I’m there.”