Chapter 169: His Balance

The team sped along Kallid’s mountain valley on a snow skimmer, called as such despite the current lack of snow. The weather steadily progressed towards spring. Whatever nefarious plans Erras’s residents and resident invaders stormed up had no bearing on the global weather at large. Stalks of new green grass peeked from thawed muddy earth, like a bald man re-experiencing his youth with renewed hope. The air was crisp and fresh, almost minty in texture as Nara took a physically unneeded but spiritually needed breath.

To the north, beyond Kallid’s royal palace, over the Ilwyd Mountains, was Kallid’s infamous eternal storm—the Eilifyrstrum. The storms over the monoliths were smaller swirls, similarly eternal, but not the genuine article. Kallid’s visitors confused the two until they cast their gaze towards the North—the difference in magnitude was unmistakable.

It was the sole grey, almost black, mar on an otherwise clear early spring sky. Heavy storm clouds cast the north in persistent darkness, sparing only flashes of lightning that shattered the air between heaven and earth like glass. The land was barren of any non-magical plants—no light penetrated the thick woolen blanket, and most non-magical plants could not survive the drought of sunlight, the unrelenting winds, the freezing temperatures, and the aggressive magical environment.

The Stormlands were dangerous, but they held tempting riches. If one dared to brave the arching lightning, the violent winds, the slashing dagger rain, and the ominous darkness, high rank materials of silver rank, or the rare and coveted gold were of the taking.

It wasn’t their place, for now.

When they cast their eyes upon it, they felt the welling of awe within their hearts. None was quite so awesome as the unbridled forces of magic and nature combined. It was a sight that may have inspired divine reverence in either world. The sort that inspired genius and madness, poetry and epics.

They skimmed past the thawing streams that ran over the rocks and the earth. The valley was a patchwork of grey, green and blue. Farmers planted their seeds, standing with a glance to gaze at the passing craft, which left their hard work untouched, although they largely avoided it. Nara had a growing appreciation of Erras’ choice transportation, the ever-convenient skimmer.

Their contract was simple—eliminate the crystal-eaters (accurately named) in Kallid’s Ice Crystal Forest. Sen prioritized basic contracts that led to a seeing of the sights that Nara and John so enjoyed. It was important for his familiar, too. Caspian borne power within himself from his experience—a significantly impactful experience. In some ways, it was like a racial ability evolution, except it could be triggered more than six time (one per racial ability).

Nonetheless, it did not trigger often. He had gained an additional mode of power from their fight to slay Siyu, the vampire of the crystal quarry. It turned their adorable little team mascot into a hound of the apocalypse (figuratively), which swept the area with necrotic damage. Unfortunately, none to synergistic with the rest of the team, but Caspian wasn’t known for his cooperative nature—varying between mischievous fey and pandering pup—and he didn’t exactly get to pick-and-choose (or maybe he did, the little Simurgh wasn’t telling).

He dashed alongside the skimmer, intentionally choosing to run through mud and water, creating a chocolate coated carmine Simurgh, if mud was chocolate (and often it was, by a toddler’s standard): Intentionally, no doubt, so that Sen would have to clean him later. He knew he wouldn’t waste valuable crystal wash on just mud, and perfectly pegged a situation where Sen came out losing on both sides.

When she would see Sen wrangling the adolescent mythical wolf-creature, eyes narrowed but mouth sporting a wry smile, she knew neither of them hated it. Not that it had ever been in doubt.

After a quick chat to those that maintained and harvested from the Ice Crystal Forest, the team set off for their destination.

Nara heard the forest before she saw it. She heard the could of glass clinking, the ringing sound when a finger runs over the lip of wine glasses, the crackling of ice shifting, breaking, and changing.

Nara was a loss for words when she finally saw it.

The trees were tall—most magical trees shot upwards of their non magical counterparts. Trees could hardly grow shorter than normal, after all. Then they’d just be a bush. Trees draped with long strands of leaves, like weeping willows and wisteria, if their petals and leaves were made of delicate, pastel glass. They swayed gently from the wind that swept through the valley, their clinking chimes the equivalent of rustling leaves.

The light that sparkled through the ice-flora would have been a fire hazard, if anything could be set on fire within a mile radius. Prismatic sparkles cast the forest in dappled rainbows. This forest must have been the origin of the shardshimmer flacons. Other animals were similarly prismatic—Nara found it odd she never saw their entrails within them like a serial killer’s enchanting yet grotesque living trophy case. She shoved down the odd fascination of how the saunter-horns would look if she cut across their hides. Was their flesh red? Or, similarly crystalline?

A glace at Thanatos confirmed he shared it.

She felt the need to warn him off aloud. “Please don’t exterminate the local wildlife.”

He huffed through his nose. After all, what was a wolf than a hunter? Those saunter-horns tickled a primal instinct within Thanatos’ being. Made for him to hunt.

“Just one,” she said, sharing his curiosity. “After the contract.”

Thanatos’ nose twitched, and he decided the compromise was agreeable. One other thing, however, was of upmost importance.

“Yes, Thanatos, I’ll see if Chrome can cook it.”

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*****

They saw the signs of the crystal-eaters before they saw the monsters. Partially eaten, wilting shard-willows and the half-eaten corpses of the crystalline saunter-horns. Their blood shimmered like liquid crystal, like rainbow crystal had melted through their arteries and veins. The crystal-eaters were, unfortunately, much harder to spot within the Ice Crystal Forest. According to the records, the crystal-eaters matched the Ice Crystal Forest appearance-wise. The animals they formed varied, usually mutated variations of a different crystal-form magical beast. It was part of the difficulty of hunting them—they blended into the local ecology. The forest-keepers only knew that some had manifested from the destruction they wrought.

“There’s a few ways we can go about this,” Sen explained, his feet crunching crystalline grass, which, despite the soft sounds of crushed glass, recovered and stood bent in the dirt, pliant despite their crystalline makeup. “We can try to lure them out.”

“Unlikely,” Eufemia muttered. “They have an uncontested feeding ground. We’re not more delicious than—” she cast a glace at a barely eaten carcass, organs picked out, wasteful, “—than that.”

Sen nodded. “The forest keepers have given us some bait to lure the crystal-eaters, but it’s unlikely to draw their attention over their fresher options. Another option is to try our luck and hunt them down. Most aren’t known for their stealth capabilities.”

“Most?”

“Crystal-eaters start out infantile, weak. Unusual for bronze rank monsters. As they consume crystal, they take on some of the properties of that which they consume.”

“They are a growth-type monster that can grow into higher ranks if left unchecked, forestalling their degradation,” Aliyah mentioned. It was more common at silver rank, where monsters could live long to cross to gold if left unchecked, so silver rank monsters were necessary to kill, regardless if they interrupted operations for long-term safety. It was rare at bronze, and the crystal eaters stood out for their precipitously quick ability to advance and evolve.

“So seek and destroy.”

Sen nodded. “You and Eufemia will have to sweep the forest for any stealth types. For now we split into teams of two and hunt what we can detect.”

Contracts were still training, so Nara grouped with Sen, one of her rarer pairings. She and Eufemia formed the infiltration duo, she and Encio were the high mobility strike force, while she and John were the delay tactic duo. Sen did not lean into a particular strength with her—they were both resilient and sustain fighters, the main difference was their rate of damage.

Nara extended her aura over the forest as Sen kept his attention sharp and defensive, protecting her as she marked every Cystal-eater she could detect. It was a rough sweep—once numbers were reduced, flushing out the sneaky bastards wouldn’t be so dangerous. What snagged her attention wasn’t a crystal eater, but a flashing group of four blue dots—neutral entities, neither allies nor enemies.

“Sen, there’s something up ahead. People. Four of them. We’re the closest group.”

“Any others in the forest?”

She cast him an incredulous glance.

“You think I can cover the whole forest?”

He lifted a challenging eyebrow.

“I’m sorry to disappoint you, o’ leader, but I can’t. High bronze, maybe, if I’m meditating. Not yet.”

He stored that information away, seemingly pleased.

“I’m not the leader.”

Nara looked at his profile, examining him.

“I guess you’re more the judgement caller. But… I think I know what this is about. Don’t take what I said during the exam too seriously.”

“I don’t disagree with you.”

“We all have our strengths, Sen. Your strength is strategy. You also have that political know-how. More straightforward than Encio is, but Encio’s method isn’t always the right method. He’ll overdramatize the whole situation if you let him. We’d probably come out on top, but behind us is a carpet full of glitter. It’ll never come out.”

“Glitter?”

Nara plucked a shimmering, crystalline flower from a tree. “Like this, but if you skimmed tiny flakes thinner than a piece of paper from it.”

“Is there a use for it?” he asked, curious. He always did absorb whatever information Nara offered, storing it for later. He wasn’t an inventory or researcher like Aliyah, but he always had a knack for incorporating information into strategy.

“You’d be surprised. It’s used for arts and crafts, but also in makeup and paint. There was a rumor that my university professor would neither confirm nor deny that glitter was used by the military in arms coatings for identification, but I digress. The point—” Nara said, tucking the crystalline flower behind Sen’s ear and briefly appreciating how nice it looked on him, “—the point is that we’re comfortable with what you do. What we do works. Don’t think about it too hard, and don’t let the label worry you. It doesn’t have to be too defined. Wiggle room.”

“Wiggle room,” he said, his tone unimpressed and neutral.

“Wiggle room,” Nara confirmed, wiggling.

He stared at her, the hint of a grin beneath his artificially straight face. “That ‘glitter’ explanation didn’t have anything to do with your point, did it?”

“I thought it did. You thought it didn’t?”

Nara sent Sage to check on the four roamers, and she reported back telepathically her findings.

“Poachers,” Nara passed on Sage’s findings. “They’re poachers.”

“The Ice Crystal Forest, while resilient to damage, grows and expands rather slowly. Overharvesting can drastically reduce the replenishment of specialty resources, hence why the area is under the care of Forest Wardens.”

Nara sighed, rubbing a finger against her brow. “What do we do with them?”

“Are there any Crystal-eaters nearby?”

“A few. Like you said, they aren’t particularly interested in the people. Might change if they get close enough. Do monsters kill for fun?”

“They kill for fun or frenzy, it depends on the monster.”

“And these?”

“All monsters eventually kill in frenzy. Crystal-eaters will kill for fun.”

“What a pain,” she bemoaned. “I can have Sage try to escort them out, but I don’t know if they’d listen without a little show of force. Chrome might be able to slug two of them over his shoulders. Thanatos could take a few, but we’d have to tie them down or something. Caspian if he’s willing.”

From her shadow, Thanatos’ paw extended and smacked her calf.

“You’re not a cat,” she admonished.

Another paw smack.

“Another option—Thanatos says he could probably scare them into obedience, but he also says terrified normals aren’t known for running in the same direction or being particularly quiet.” She glared at her shadow. “Don’t think I don’t know you just want to scare them. This isn’t the time for that.”

Sen considered this. No Crystal-eaters were attacking them now. He heard the sounds of battle ricocheting across the forest, turned into a strange echoing cacophony of chimes and glass, drawing the attention of other Crystal-eaters—their other team members, no doubt.

Sen didn’t think the poachers deserved to die, not like the bandits. The poachers hadn’t directly killed anyone innocent, as far as he knew. He knew his was a cold-hearted viewpoint—an exacting equivalence—who was deserving of their protection, and who was not.

In life and in battle, everything had risk and reward. He evaluated risk—reducing the chance his team would come to harm. Seeking the path to victory without sacrifice. Knowing the limits of what his team could accomplish, because high-difficulty maneuvers had great gain—gains of life and reducing risk long-term.

In political maneuvering he applied the same mindset. He didn’t treat every situation as a battle, no matter how much his team claimed he was a training-addict or a battle junkie (he secretly thought it was Nara at this point, but never voiced this opinion), but he did treat every situation as a balance of risk and reward.

He combined everything—his information, his evaluations, and his intuition (sometimes the subconscious mind noticed what conscious observation did not. Sen valued intuition)—to make his decisions.

He made his decision. “Let us pay these poachers a visit.”