Zalia and Boreal stood atop the mountain that Rozestrazix called home. The shallow crater was a bit less intimidating now that it didn’t hold a massive dragon with lightning arcing off its body.
“Must have missed them, think we should wait?”
Boreal padded up to her, having finished her inspection of the area.
“Wait? Why?”
Zalia poked her.
“Because they might be able to tell us about what the threat it rather than the alternative of us stumbling over it on our own.”
Boreal sat and cocked her head.
“I don’t see the problem.”
Zalia once again considered the irony of how often Ember told Boreal to look after her. If they had gone with Boreal’s plans since they had first met, there was a high chance that both of them would be dead by now.
“Because we don’t want to walk blindly into some kind of threat we have to fight?”
Boreal blinked.
Zalia sighed. Look who she was talking to, of course Boreal had no problem with it.
“Alright, let’s go then.”
They flew up and out of the dragon nest, then dove down the side of the mountain. Zalia grinned as the air whipped past her face, her control over the wind enough to keep from being blasted by it. Boreal, apparently more aerodynamic than Zalia, zoomed past her before entering into a large loop, ending it right next to her.
Zalia grinned at Boreal, then rocked sideways to bump into her, sending both of them tumbling through the air. Recovering first, Zalia continued on as Boreal fell even further. Shadows grew up from the ground and Boreal vanished into them. A chunk of shadow grew from between the ridges of Zalia’s armour, resolving itself into the shape of Boreal, who proceeded to land on Zalia’s back.
Grunting with effort, Zalia managed to keep them both aloft as Boreal perched uncomfortably.
“Do you mind?” Zalia asked.
Irresponsive, Boreal began to clean her paw.
Rolling her eyes, Zalia spun into a roll, throwing the weighty cat off her back. This time, Boreal righted herself into flight with precise movements.
With a little bit of Boreal’s, and her own, nervous energy out of the way, Zalia settled in for the long haul, entering the strange state of mind that she was able to achieve. It came over her almost like sleep, her brain entering a semi-unconscious state where she was still present but less aware of the passing of time.
The mountainous reaches of the north slowly gave way to flatter land before them, until Zalia was looking at a massive body of ice that stretched far over the horizon. It looked quite thin in parts and she spotted an area with a strange, jagged, zig-zagging pattern through the ice. She dropped lower and was able to see what appeared to be the result of a lightning strike.
Sure that she knew what had caused it, Zalia dropped down to land on the ice, strengthening the surface with her control over the cold. It was hard to tell, but Zalia thought that whatever had been the target of the lightning had been turned to dust by the strike. It wasn’t surprising considering that it had been Rozestrazix that had attacked whatever it had been.
Shrugging, Zalia moved on. She used the wind to propel herself into the sky and ever onwards.
They passed over the massive stretch of ice for a few more hours before reaching land once more. It looked similar to the more southern regions of the snowy lands protected by Rozestrazix with smaller trees but much thicker snow. Zalia hovered over it for a time, looking down and waiting for whatever threat was meant to be here to reveal itself.
She spotted a bunny, an Ironfur one if she wasn’t mistaken. A little uncertain, she dropped down near to it but kept herself hidden from its sight. It was only Iron rank, so she didn’t need to even hide behind something to remain hidden from it, simply relying on the Stealth passive.
Stealth - passive
Tin - Normal vision and sight based skills and abilities have a harder time seeing you.
Iron - Other senses are also inhibited and you blend with your surroundings.
Bronze - When still, you become invisible to the eye, only becoming visible again when you move. Certain perception types can see through this.
Silver - You may now remain invisible when moving. This invisibility is more resistant to alternative types of perception.
Gold - You are able to hide yourself so completely that even the physical world cannot sense you. You may slip through the world for short distances without being stopped by physical objects.
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The bunny was sat still, unrealistically so. From her perspective it was as if the bunny was frozen to the core, no twitch of muscle or movement of the eyes giving away that the animal was real and not a statue. Her senses other than sight informed her that it indeed was real, from her Aura Observation to the sense of heat, it appeared to be completely normal. There was something in its aura that made her hesitant however, a type of… corruption.
She didn’t see what that corruption was until she walked around the bunny to the other side.
There was something growing from its face, a mess of pulsating flesh that made her recoil. Her body reacted violently to the aberrant bunny and without quite realising what she was doing, she compressed the air and earth around the animal, crushing it to a pulp and burying it in the ground.
Shaken, she moved away and back to where Boreal was waiting.
“I guess we know what Rozestrazix is trying to protect the rest of the north from. If this is some kind of… infection or disease that exists here, it could get completely out of control if it spread across Endaria.”
A vibration rumbled through the ground and Zalia took to the air, Boreal close behind.
From the point that Zalia had buried the bunny, a massive, fleshy worm broke the surface. It reared its ugly head into the air, jagged tooth-filled mouth gnashing, before sinking back below the surface. As if on its own, dirt and snow moved to cover the hole left by the worm until there was no trace of its appearance at all.
“Ooookay, a little worse than I thought.”
“Think its tasty?” Boreal asked.
Zalia turned to her, aghast.
“Please, for all that is right, do not try to eat one of those things. If you catch whatever flesh warping disease this is Boreal, I swear.”
Boreal turned away, obviously grumpy that Zalia kept stopping her from tasting different beings. Zalia didn’t think she was unfair to her though, she just didn’t let Boreal eat allies or weird, warped things. Or disembodied souls. Or undead.
She sighed.
“Look, I want to see if we can’t get that thing to come back up and kill it. It was Silver rank so we shouldn’t have too much trouble.”
Boreal nodded, excitement thrumming down their bond. Rolling her eyes, Zalia dropped back down and disturbed the ground with her abilities. As she did that, she also used the Trapper passive, as did Boreal.
Trapper - passive
Tin - Your traps are magically hidden from sight.
Iron - Your traps are magically enhanced.
Bronze - You are able to magically fabricate basic traps you have been able to make before in an instant without materials. You are limited in how often this ability may be used.
Silver - The strength of all traps are significantly increased. Additionally, you may create up to ten traps that remain permanently. These will also rearm themselves soon after being triggered.
Gold - You are able to instantly trap an area without preparation or materials.
In an instant, various traps of darts, spikes, tripwires and icy clones of Boreal covered the immediate area. Boreal also began to warp the shadows around them, a blue glow coming from vague Boreal shaped shadows as they all prepared to use Cryokinetic Pounce.
Rather than preparing an attack, sure that Boreal and the traps would do enough damage to kill the thing, Zalia prepared to use her power to drag the worm from the ground.
A rumbling signalled that Zalia’s disturbance of the ground was working and she stepped far enough back to not get eaten. The worm burst from the ground and Zalia constricted it with the dirt and stone around it, while several shadows and icy statues of Boreal leapt from the surroundings. They impacted with an explosion of wind and ice, freezing the worm instantly.
It died about as quickly as Zalia expected, standing no chance against a prepared Gold ranker. The only reason Zalia had ever been able to fight Gold rank beings when she was lower in Silver was due to her six linked attributes, where most beings had three or four.
Stopping Boreal from biting into the worm by pushing her head away with both hands, Zalia walked around the worm inspecting it. She didn’t think that the worm was infected with whatever flesh warping disease the bunny had been.
“I think this thing is what did that to the Ironfur rabbit. I wonder how many of these there are…”
As she was looking at the worm, a rumbling noise began to build again. This felt different from the worm though, more like the approach of something above ground. An Ironfur rabbit dashed into the little clearing they were in and tripped across one of Zalia’s traps, getting wrapped by the magic and killed in quick order.
Zalia stared at it as the rumbling approach grew ever stronger until another Ironfur rabbit exploded out of the forest. Two more followed, each of them falling to her traps, yet more still kept coming, each of them covered with warped flesh in patches.
A tall, limber wolf with two tentacles growing from its back, something Zalia recognised and had killed before, appeared. She summoned her sword and bow, killing it in quick order as well. The rumbling grew ever stronger and she found herself in combat with dozens of creatures.
She spun between two Ironfur rabbit’s, cleanly cutting them in half with a single slash. A shadow glowing blue flew past her face to hit a six legged bear, freezing it in place. Zalia applied Hunter’s Mark to it and nine other of the warped animals, then hit the bear with a strong sword strike empowered by Kill Shot. The overkill from her hit jumped from animal to animal, killing each of them in quick succession, their bodies falling like dominoes.
Using the moment of peace granted by her and Boreal’s efforts, Zalia launched into the air and, waiting for Boreal to join her, activated Nature’s Wrath. Five stone elementals rose from the ground and the stampede of Ironfur rabbit’s, wolves, bears and even the odd deer, continued to rush them. Eye’s glowing a deep green, Zalia took control of the earth as vines pulled every animal into a pile. Dirt and stone roiled, crushing everything below with careless abandon until the stampede stopped and the bodies of the dead were buried.
Zalia stared at the conspicuously clean clearing, free from snow, blood, bodies or even a single plant. She had wiped it clean of everything, burying the remains deep below the earth.
“What the…”
She hadn’t been worried about the warped animals as much as she had been the worms she theorised infected them, but if they had some sort of control over the infected, then that could be a very real issue. There would be countless animals scattered throughout the land here and fighting them all at once was not an option. The experience reminded her of Cormaine, clearing out countless undead drawn to her by any sound or sighting.
The comparison brought back the unwelcome thought that she might be back in that place sooner than she wanted.