Chapter 429 - The Scattered Dawn IV

The mountains changed again exactly fifteen minutes after the curtains fell on the frenzy. Marked by the dense, magical waves that pulsed throughout the land, the transitory phase cleared the blizzard and sky in turn. The only non-living clouds to remain were small specks, tiny thin puffs raised far above their usual elevations. Shaped around the mountains, they were like fluffy white halos, present only to crown the illustrious peaks that dominated the northern lands.

If not for the wooly wreaths, the snowy slopes, and the muted monsters, it would have been an endless field of azure that stopped only as blue dimmed to black. But while they were certainly poised to steal her focus, Claire found very little of her attention taken by the heavens.

She was preoccupied instead with the magical sources that had produced the shockwaves to begin with. There were dozens of them scattered throughout the mountains, the closest just a few kilometers above her. Like heat, magic tended to naturally disperse over time and distance, so it was difficult to pinpoint exactly where it had come from. But looking up, Claire found only a few likely candidates. All of the epicenters were caves, large gaping holes in the side of the mountain that led deep into its depths.

Nothing happened for the first few seconds she spent observing them, but the rightmost hollow began to stir right as she thought to raise her ears. A single bear marched out from within its confines, confidently tottering about in a manner that hardly seemed appropriate given the species’ evident cowardice. A second emerged after a brief delay, and then a third and a fourth. Every subsequent ejection was a little faster than the last, and it didn’t take long for the single file line to grow into a messy mob. The flaming, ursine monsters poured from the entrance en masse, squeezing as many as five of the giant creatures out the door at a time. Over a thousand must have emerged in the first five minutes she watched, with only more of them on the way in a seemingly endless procession.

None of the cowardly beasts reacted to Claire’s approach. They were too busy scrambling down towards the foothills where their people were gathered. It wasn’t just from the mountain that they swarmed. Another blob marched through the forest, their numbers just as utterly absurd. Her eyes started to spin before she could count them all up, but there must have been twenty thousand bears in total. Most were the usual variety, featuring pelts made of fire with an ordinary ursine shape, but there were also a few oddballs thrown into the mix—bears with different elemental compositions and slightly changed bodies.

She was almost tempted to dive into the crowd and pick out the variants, but it seemed like more trouble than it was worth. The bears were weaklings, and she had greater priorities.

Rising through the sky and glancing into the cave, she found the entrance to a dungeon buried deep within it—a large ruby-red stone that rippled each time a bear emerged. It was a dungeon break, the sort of phenomenon that would have caused all sorts of trouble and panic anywhere else, especially with monsters of such a high level. But in the Langgbjerns, it was perfectly commonplace.

The bears were not the only ones appearing from the aether and restoring their numbers in droves. From her position, roughly halfway up the mountain, she could see schools of herrings and bales of vlasches. Though certainly eye-catching, none of the groups were quite as arresting as that of the flying penguins. Rising from a hole in the ground, they cut into the sky and joined the flocks overhead. All throughout the Langgbjerns, the monster populations were inflating anew, growing again to make up for the morning’s slaughter.

After a moment of consideration, Claire placed her fox back on her head and dove straight into the bear-bearing crystal.

Log Entry 885324

You have entered The Hall of Fire. The monsters that lurk in this dungeon far outclass you.

She was subjected to a wave of attacks as soon as she stepped through the door. Though the bears queued up in front of the exit ignored her, the ones that were sitting beside it, seeing off their compatriots, were nowhere near as passive.

Sourced from over a thousand individuals, the streaks of flame came together to form a monstrous wave of roaring fire. It almost reminded her of the volcano she found in crimson rock, but unlike the eruption therefrom, the combined breath attack was easily deflected.

Directing the stream with one of her fingers, she sent it crashing into a patch of bears before diving into the fray.

It was only as she murdered them that she noted the dungeon’s layout. It was simple, almost too simple—a long hall inside of a fiery mountain marked by an uphill slope. But unlike the similarly straightforward layout she had found in Crimson Rock, it managed to spark her interest immediately. The hill could be broken into ten distinct segments, each a few kilometers long and populated by a different species. The accompanying bosses were likewise visible from the get go.

The much smaller, almost childish-looking bear in charge of the first segment was spinning its daggers with its eyes locked on her frame, while the living armour in charge of the second lethargically toyed with the sword on its hips.

So on and so forth, the challenges were laid out. A bipedal wolf with arms made of flame, a large deer covered in more crossbows than fur, and a floating head accompanied by a fork and knife made of molten lava. All of the challenges culminated at the peak of the fiery mountain with an automaton that had cannons for arms, puppeted by an ashen arachne whose abdomen was as wide as the ascending path.

Slicing through another bear, Claire allowed a faint smile to creep its way onto her lips. It was a full suite of challenges, and if she wanted to verify the consistency of the mountain range’s effects, she would need to finish them by the end of the day.

___

Allegra sent a pulse of magic through the party’s surroundings, confirming for the 426th time that there was no danger inbound before directing her eyes back to the battle unfolding in the valley beneath her. There was a frown on her lips all the while. It had been six full days since they entered the Langgbjerns and the party had cleared Red Rabbit Junction twice over. Finally feeling a little more confident, they had returned to the mountains to challenge a set of tougher foes.

She had to admit that the strength they gained over the last half week was not insignificant. To be more precise, Chloe and Arciel, the last two who still fell behind in levels, had drastically bolstered their ability scores by way of murder, while the others had better learned to use the tools they had at hand. Jules’ progress was especially impressive. He had merged three of his classes into a single, more powerful alternative. And with said class on the verge of acquiring its thousandth level, the clam was on the brink of becoming a magus. She was so impressed by his progress—he had even gone on to fill his two empty slots with a pair of schools perfectly suited to the circumstance at hand—that she was tempted to ask him to drop out of the tournament so she could formally adopt him as a disciple.

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Still, despite everyone’s growth, the rabbit was anxious, anxious enough to produce the day’s 427th pulse. Remaining in the mountains wasn’t worth the risk, especially how much they had changed from the last time she saw them. Constantius had warned her of the dangers, but it was clearly more than just what he had claimed. Something wasn’t right. There were far too many mutants.

Case in point, the griffon with which the party was actively engaged. It was just a fledgeling, likely somewhere between 1900 and 2400, and yet, it was giving them no end of trouble. Unlike a normal griffon, which would have been made of flesh and blood, the variant had a malleable body crafted from silt and soil. The soft, loose dirt was even more difficult to destroy than a Cadrian veteran; it had no obvious weakness, and would reform even when blasted to bits.

Its unique constitution came with few downsides. It was just as fast and strong as a regular griffon, and its talons, beaks, and claws were all just as sharp and deadly.

Mass was the only thing it lacked, but it made up for the weakness through the manipulation of its body. Not only could it control any detached parts from afar, it could also reshape them, turning scattered feathers into beaks and talons alike.

It was a wonder that they even fought it to a standstill. All the members were continuing to abide by Allegra’s restrictions. Jules wasn’t allowed his red magic, Krail had his mouth bound shut, Lana was banned from maintaining her domain, and all of Arciel’s ars magnae were restricted. But though certainly weakened, none suffered quite as much as Chloe. The offensive use of her teeth aside, she wasn’t allowed any of her racial abilities. Even the accompanying blood magic was banned—she had started to rely on it immediately after growing accustomed to its use.

Sighing, Allegra twiddled her wand and scanned their surroundings for the 428th time. She doubted that she would find anything, but as her detection magic reached the furthest reaches of its range, she noticed that there was something inbound.

It was not a creature, but a clump of mana, specifically a solid projectile coated with an arcane enchantment. The spell in question was fortified by an almost absurd amount of faith, enough that she understood at a glance that all was as the deceiver had warned.

They were being hunted, and it was already too late to warn the Vel’khanese; her voice wouldn’t make it before the arrow exploded.

Annoyedly clapping her ears together, the rabbit lifted her wand and sifted through her mystic library. Picking lightning for its speed, she connected the circuit between her spellstick and her target, vaporizing it before it could fall from the sky. The magic still went off and blew the heavens apart, but its effect on the party was moot.

“We’re under attack!” shouted the rabbit.

Expanding the range of her radar, she found the sniper at roughly twice her effective range. The arrow had come not from the mountain directly in front of them, but the one to its left. The total straight line distance was over a hundred kilometers, even more accounting for the parabola in which the arrow had travelled.

It took a second for the realisation to kick in. The hunter had arced an arrow over a mountain roughly three dozen kilometres tall with pinpoint accuracy.

And more importantly, the hunter had arrived in the Langgbjerns before them.

She waved her wand whilst gritting her teeth and quickly deleted the mutant griffon. The same ray of light restored her allies, who she immediately approached and guarded—directing her magic towards the sky, she crafted a great shield that would prevent any attacks from above. And that was precisely why the next arrow came from the left instead.

It looped around the side of the mountain, traveling in a gravity-defying arc that was more absurd than possible. And yet, it gunned straight for her heart, falling short only because it was obliterated by a wall of fire.

“What’s going on?” asked Krail, as he tore the binding off of his lips.

“Cadrians! No more restrictions! Prepare to engage!” Allegra barked the orders as she blocked a third arrow with a blast of wind.

“The fuck?” shouted Jules. “I thought they weren’t supposed to be after us anymore! Or up in the mountains at all! Shit!”

“Most aren’t,” said Allegra. She erected a wooden dome thick enough to ward off any additional projectiles. “But you overpowered Pollux’s army and destroyed a city in the process. Grudges don’t die so easily.”

“Have you identified our foes?” asked Arciel.

The cottontail hesitated for a moment before nodding her head. “The standing army only has three bowmen strong enough to enter the Langgbjerns, and I know all their magical signatures by heart.”

“For fuck’s sake, stop beating around the fucking bush!” said Jules.

“This isn’t any one of them,” said Allegra.”

“The fuck is that supposed to mean?”

“You’ll see in just a second.” The cottontail undid her defence as she spoke and turned her eyes towards the hunter’s perch. The sniping had stopped as soon as she threw up her shield.

“They’re giving up their post?” Krail stroked his chin as he joined her in looking.

“They weren’t getting past my defences,” said Allegra. “We could have easily advanced on them if we wanted.”

“So they’re saving their stamina? Should we try running? We might as well waste more of their energy while we still have the chance.”

“I might’ve been inclined to agree if they were any slower, but it isn’t happening.” The magus pointed her wand at the rapidly approaching cloud of billowing snow. “Prepare to engage. We're going to be in for a fight.”

According to her spells, they numbered four in total; three fighters—a thorae and two centaurian variants—sat on the back of a large beast that doubled as a fourth combatant. Though she was prepared for an immediate attack, the group stopped in front of them and dismounted before closing the last hundred meters on foot.

Though a cordial gesture, it amounted to little but putting Allegra on guard. Four was the wrong number. They were supposed to be five, and their most threatening member was nowhere to be seen. It was both a relief and its exact opposite. She couldn't shake the feeling that the enemy’s trump card was waiting somewhere in ambush, either that or going after Claire.

“I am Arciel Vel’khan, empress of tentacles and blood, and the reigning queen of Vel’khan.” The squid stepped up and greeted the strangers. “For what purpose are you attacking us?”

“Doesn’t really matter, does it?” said the thorae at the center of the group. “Prepare to die.”

“You would not return a formal greeting?” said Arciel, as she covered her frown with her fan.

“No point,” said the thorae. “Hunters don’t give their names to prey.”

He loaded his bow and fired it in one swift motion, but his arrow missed its mark. Throwing a dagger, Chloe deflected it before it could reach her mistress. The maid immediately stepped forward, produced a handful of needles seemingly out of thin air, and awaited any further commands.

The thorae’s allies were just as quick to jump into action. Both charged in right away, one with her fists at the ready, and the other with a pair of blades drawn.

Lana met the swordfighter head on, while Krail was first to engage the monk.

With the cascade of arrows he launched, it took only a second for the battlefield to devolve into chaos.