Outside of the walls of Splinter was a gray wasteland that stretched for miles. Ruined buildings dotted it, along with an occasional rock formation. A few neofauna and machines roamed the wasteland, but in a much lower concentration compared to higher floors. Zeirdin and the crowd of tag-alongs walked surrounded by floating cargo transporters and armed guild members.
If someone couldn’t keep up, they were left behind. There were about two hundred people total in the entire caravan. The past two hours since they had left had been completely uneventful, with no one having to turn on their vibroblades or open fire. There had been a few moving shapes in the distance, but they didn’t get any closer, to Zeirdin’s relief.
A boy who looked to be about Zeirdin’s age walked over to him. He had shaggy shoulder-length blond hair and piercing green eyes. Zeirdin hoped he hadn’t come to harass him, as he was already having trouble keeping up with the swift robotic pace of the floating cargo transporters. The youth had a large military-style pack, similar in size to Zeirdin’s.
“I thought we’d get to ride in the MagFreighters.”, The blond said. Zeirdin just nodded. They continued on in silence for a few minutes, the constant rumble of two hundred pairs of feet filling the air, along with dust. The engines of the MagFreighters roared like beasts, leaving no shortage of sound.
“Oh yeah, my name is Jin, what’s yours?”, Jin asked. Zeirdin sort of hoped he would just leave him alone, but he didn’t want to be rude.
“Zeirdin.”, He didn’t mean to sound that curt, but it just came out that way. Zeirdin wondered where Jin was from, he had an accent that he hadn’t ever heard before among Vilmek speakers. Most inhabitants of Laurentia spoke Vilmek and another local language. Zeirdin spoke Tuala, which was what he spoke with other people from his clan, the Toxda.
Jin hooked his hands behind his head, “Where are you from? I’m from Falgonia.” Zeirdin’s question was answered. Falgonia was quite far from The Tower, perhaps a good three months travel by foot or a couple of weeks by arcbus.
Zeirdin let out an inaudible sigh, “I’m from northern Gistern.”
“Oh, my dad went there once for business. H’ said it was really green with lots of trees.”, Jin said, excited to mention his father. Zeirdin nodded.
“Yeah, there are a lot of trees, just not a lot of good farmland.” Much of the soil in Gistern was contaminated from long-past wars, and crops could not be grown. Only a select few trees and plants were chemical resistant enough to grow on much of Gistern. This meant that most of Gistern’s food had to be imported from other countries with better agricultural systems.
Jin twirled his hair around his finger, “I came to The Tower to escape my dad. I Want to make a name for myself on my own, without his influence. What’s your reason?” This seemed like a rather personal question for someone you had just met, but he had given his first, so Zeirdin reluctantly answered.
“Power and revenge. I’m Toxda.” Jin’s slight smile disappeared and his face soured. When Zeirdin put it like that, it didn’t sound that good, but it was the truth.
“I’m… uh… I’m uhh sorry. I don’t know what to say. I heard about the massacres and the crimson meadows… never thought I’d meet a survivor… I’m sorry if I just brought up something bad”, Jin said remorsefully.
“Yeah, uh, don’t worry about it.”, Zeirdin said shyly. They continued on in silence again for a while.
As they were passing under massive sandstone formations, Zeirdin got a sinking feeling in his stomach. A siren went off and someone shouted over the speakers on the transporters.
“MONSTER!”, Immediately, everyone fell into panic. The guild members readied their weapons, while everyone else scrambled to get to a spot they thought was safe. The shout had come from the front. Over the crest of the hill in front of the caravan, under the sandstone arch, a single scout cave sprinting towards them.
Terror was written all over his face, his movements frantic in a way only possible when mortal danger was present. The sound of wet meat hitting stone slowly got louder behind the scout. Shwunk. Wump. Shwunk. Wump. Zeirdin’s heart rate spiked and he could hear it in his ears. He had his zinnium rotator in hand, safety off. Jin stood to his right completely frozen in terror. There wasn’t much they both could do. Whatever it was, one bullet probably wasn’t enough, zinnium or not.
A hulking gray figure came into view. It stood at over ten feet tall and walked on all fours, spindly legs disproportionate to its bloated body. Pulsating veins covered its body like a second bumpy skin. The only evidence of a head was a fleshy lump at the front with slits that almost looked as though they were carved into the skin of the beast.
An existential terror and revulsion filled Zeirdin. He wanted to gag, cry, run, and crawl into a little ball all at once. Then the smell hit. Bile rose to the back of his mouth but he couldn't gag. He was completely immobilized in terror. The miasma from the beast coated everything in the smell of decay. He could only watch as people around him prepared to fight the foul creature. Zierdin saw Jin break his stupor and swear, “Fuck, why is there a Kebeg on floor 1?!”. Zierdin broke free of the terror that gripped him, it would have to wait. People were shouting and running around with boxes of ammo.
“What do we do?! What is going on?!”, Zeirdin shouted, the roar of terrified people gradually increasing with every second.
Jin gave him a shove, “Come with me, I’ll tell you as we get to a safe spot”. They began sprinting, dodging frozen people, the smell of urine permeating the air. Between breaths, Jin said, “That thing. That thing is super fucking dangerous. I don’t know why it’s here. It shouldn’t be.” They got to a safe distance and climbed up a pile of sandstone boulders. “Kebeg are supposed to inhabit floor 13 and up, and also parts deep in old Laurentia. They have a taste for anything warm-blooded. We make a run for it the second anything looks like it’s going wrong.”, Jin told Zierdin and he nodded.
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“I think I would be dead already had I decided to go alone.”, Zierdin said with a shiver. Ten meters away from the kebeg, people had begun to encircle it. It hadn’t made a move yet.
“They’re stalling until they get the negative ion cannon assembled.”, Jin said. “It will just regenerate if they hit it with anything else unless they have a mage here.”, Jin looked around through the crowd of frenzied people, and the Black Hoods. “Yeah, doesn’t look like anyone knows anything high-powered enough to stop a Kebeg.”, Jin said dismissively. The men and the Kebeg had been at a standstill for the past few minutes, but suddenly, one man fell over and broke the circle.
Before anyone could react, in a motion and speed uncharacteristic of such a large creature, it lifted a spindly leg and brought its gnarled foot down on the fallen man’s head in one swift motion. In the place of the man’s upper body, all that remained was a crimson splatter with red chunks in it. Zierdin felt nauseated. It almost felt surreal how easily that man’s life was ended. To the Kebeg, that man was barely more than a bug.
A yell boomed out from one of the cargo freighters, “WE DON’T HAVE ENOUGH TIME! Prepare the thunder hooks!”. Immediately, the men surrounding the monster pulled harpoon-like objects from off their backs or belts and began loading them. A clap of thunder boomed throughout the rocky underpass.
Zeirdin felt it reverberate through his chest. Looking around, he saw that one man had fired his weapon, a thick cable now protruding from the Kebeg’s abdomen. The creature looked around the men but did not attack. The other men followed suit, thunder filling the air, leaving a ringing in Zeirdin’s ears. Each man then stuck the long metal spike on the weapon into the ground after pulling it taught. It could not move anymore.
Jin nodded, “This is the best-case scenario. I think it must be drowsy, they’re supposed to be nocturnal. If it decided to kill all those men before they could pin it down, it could’ve.”
“What are they going to do now?”, Zeirdin asked.
“After they finish assembling the negative ion zinnium cannon, they’re going to put a massive hole in it. After that, they might cut out its heart to make zinnia, depending on if they have the time to keep its chest intact.”, Jin answered with a hint of excitement in his voice, terror, and panic completely gone.
Zeirdin fidgeted with his foot, trying to move a pebble that had made it into his leather boot to a more comfortable position. He had them laced uptight and thoroughly, as he did not want any blisters, which had turned out to be extra excruciating when debris made it in. He would deal with it when they either set up camp for the night or made it to a town. Some floors had secondary towns but they were much less safe. The terror had worn off and Zeirdin now felt confident that they were no longer in any danger. The Black Hoods looked like they had everything under control.
“What’s zinnia?” Zeirdin wondered. It took him a moment to realize he did not know what that word meant in Jin’s sentence.
“Oh damn, you don’t know?”, Jin said with a slightly surprised expression. “It’s one of the main reasons people come here, you know? To the tower.” Zeirdin gave him an oblivious look. “It’s a legendary elixir that gives you strength. I’m not quite sure how it works, but it’s made from the hearts of monsters. There’s a complicated refining process that makes it incredibly rare and expensive.” Jin continued.
Zeirdin felt stupid having come all the way to The Tower without knowing this. He had come for power and wealth, and for revenge. Jin scratched his nose, “I think the reason most people come here for it is that any creature strong enough is deep within Old Laurentia. It’s a land truly lost.”
“Wow, I’m a dumbass.” Zeirdin blurted. He really didn’t have any other excuse for not knowing, other than naivety.
“Actually, it might not be your fault. I think Gistern highly regulates magic and technology. Also, you guys don’t have freedom of press right, despite having a democratically elected government body?”
Zeirdin sighed, “All true.” Bitter memories welled up from the back of his mind, like a river during the rainy season. Zeirdin’s mood soured slightly, but he tried not to show it. He would have to face everything eventually, and getting influenced this much by painful things would not be good for his survival, or long time goals.
On a side note, it was beginning to be obvious that Jin was from a wealthy family, or at least a quite educated one. Gistern was a rather insignificant small country in the north that didn’t do much.
A high pitch humming noise pierced the air, unaffected by the distance, and Zeirdin’s attention was drawn back to the men encircling the kebeg. Three men were holding a cylindrical contraption with pipes, dials, and latches sticking out in all directions.
One transparent glass chamber in the center of the cannon-like object glowed a faint blue that was visible even from 100 meters away. Sensing the increasing energy from the zinnium cannon, the kebeg started to struggle against the cables that held it down, like a second gravity.
“HURRY, IT’S GETTING LOOSE!” One of the men shouted, voice full of panic. The cannon men were frantically fidgeting with the dials and switches. Zeirdin understood their struggle quite well, as he had helped calibrate and test zinnium weapons with his dad. While the false Polaris he currently carried required no calibration, no projectile zinnium weapons required constant tinkering. This was due to certain phenomena that occurred when dense enough mana mixed with super-heated air that made firing from below 50 meters to be extremely inefficient without proper calibration. The three men finished their tinkering and hauled the cannon to a position with no potential friendly fire.
“COVER YUR EARS!” one of the cannon men bellowed. Without thinking, Zeirdin slapped his hands over his ears, Jin following suit. A split second later, everything was dyed in blinding bright blue with the sound of a roaring waterfall following. A shock wave of hot air blew in all directions, caressing Zeirdin’s face like a silk blanket. Zeirdin’s ears popped with the change of air pressure, and he could still feel the roaring in his chest.
The kebeg had stopped resisting, a perfectly circular massive molten hole was burned through its chest. The hole continued through the massive sandstone formations behind it. Finally, the kebeg’s long stilted legs gave out and it crumpled to the ground, organs spilling out all over the men below in a nauseating crimson cascade. At this moment, almost everyone there silently let out sighs and relaxed, while a few retched. Zeirdin couldn’t blame the people who had lost control of their stomachs. While it possessed a grotesque alien exterior, the kebeg’s innards were barely any different than those of a mammal.
Jin turned away from the corpse and looked at Zeirdin, “That was awesome. The cable men were incredibly well-coordinated, otherwise, it would’ve escaped while they were charging the cannon.” Jin said excitedly. Zeirdin simply nodded. He knew he wasn’t experienced enough to fully understand their prowess in restraining the beast. “I wonder why it took them so long to charge the cannon, though,” Jin said curiously.
This was finally a question Zeirdin had an answer to. Zeirdin looked away from the bloody mound, “I’ve helped my dad test zinnium weapons. I’d guess they have low-quality insulation sheet crystals. Probably hard to come by this low in the tower for a reasonable price.” Jin nodded impressed. Knowledge of zinnium weapons was scarce due to high government regulation and scarcity. The bystanders started mingling about, some taking a closer look at the kebeg corpse.
“We leave in 30 minutes, it gets nasty after dark.” A voice over a speak announced. Zeirdin remembered that it was late afternoon, it was hard to tell due to the constant white expanse overhead. He started to doubt that clouds were even the cause anymore, they had more variation than this. Jin dropped his bulging backpack next to Zeirdin’s feet, “Watch my stuff, I need to take a leak.” Jin sauntered off and disappeared behind a cluster of boulders at the foot of a large sandstone formation.