CHAPTER 60 - Brand new world - Start of book II
The opening of the rift was a cursed ritual, it was known by the invading forces that it would be detrimental for the surrounding life the moment it was open. The place chosen for the rift to open was chosen from one of the isolated spots where it would only affect those they didn’t care about.
The problem with the process was that every minimal change, for smaller it was, would result in a deviation on the coordinates.
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Outpost 5#
“My liege, there were problems on sector 21, the emergency rift for backup was sabotaged. It spawned too far away for the stipulated exit point, losing our chance to go through, and we got the last messages from our forces right then before it closed.” A scrawny man, with similar appearance as the one that Leo faced, was giving out his report to his higher in command.
The sigils on the skin of the man covered its whole body, tracing veins of power all around him and giving him an imposing aura that only paled in comparison with the being he was standing in front of.
Each time he faced his superiors, he was reminded that he was nothing else than a slave, another pawn on their plans and small chessboard. Nothing much in the big scheme of things.
Thankfully for him, her liege was in a good mood right now, so he should be fine.
“Do we know what happened on the other side for them to mess up so badly?” She asked.
“No my liege, we only received a request for backup before the distorsion happened and the rift appeared elsewhere. By the time our soldiers arrived there, one of our scouts on the other side was already dead on this side.” He treaded carefully, trying to not irritate her boss.
“I assume that the body we found was the bodyguard, as the invoker always needs to stay still for the ritual to work. Which species was it? Was it one of the weaker ones?”
“No my liege, the body we found was that of a wyvern, our records say it’s name was Terrack, self proclaimed leader of the plains of Alabastria.” He prepared for the worst as the eyes of her superior shined with amusement for a second before dimming back down.
“It’s okay, forget about the situation on sector 21, it will be just another place to expand once we cross over, no need to worry for now. Do we know the whereabouts of the enemy that dared to mess up all our plans over there and came on to OUR planet?”
“We don’t my liege, but I will give my all to bring you the rat as fast as possible.” The words of the man seemed to somehow appease her higher in command and taking his cue, he left hastily, starting the search.
Once the general was alone in her room, she couldn’t help herself but to fall into her thoughts.
‘Sector 6, Sector 14 and now Sector 21… Of all the incursions that we sent, just how did those three fail?’ She couldn't wrap her mind around the fact that out of all the incursions that failed miserably, three of them were places where a “guide” was assigned.
The very same beings that send shivers down the spine of most and that even her would think twice before facing. All three of them, vanished!
She would understand if they lost and had to fall back, but for them to instantly disappear and send no messages back before doing so…
‘Those humans must have used some kind of trump card to be able to kill one of the guides, either that, or they had been betrayed. No, the beings assigned as guides were purposely picked to avoid situations where information would be extracted out of them.’
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
Getting up from her seat, she got ready, she would personally get involved to assure that everything went smoothly, and she would start by capturing the invader and extracting all the information she could from the guy.
She had been ordering people around for far too long in this conflict and would finally be joining in for real.
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Leo
Noises around me mask my steps as I traverse the place. The area I ended up in resembles a jungle, and I tread carefully under the cover of the canopy of trees, avoiding exposing myself out of the shadows.
I am alone on this planet, with no idea of how people live here, just one wrong move and my life could end sooner than expected.
I avoid any open areas where I can be exposed. I have no idea of what I am dealing with, the inhabitants of this place would be far ahead of my own species in terms of technological advancements for all I know, so I avoid the rays of light as if they were a virus, keeping myself from getting seen by any satellite that may be looking for me.
I feel tempted to show myself and see what happens, but that would be a bold move on my part, and one I am not sure I would escape from if my fears are on the money.
Following my safe approach, I try to cover the biggest patch of terrain I can before night arrives. I could use my advantages over the people of this place due to the gravity, using my dense body to cover bigger areas, but my cover would be blown even faster if I am seen jumping around with unnatural leaps.
Sticking to the ground, I look for a river of any kind of sign of civilization. I know there are various tribes on the planet by what I have seen so far, so I search for those tribes.
I see no paths of natives, but I can’t be sure either, there could be hidden in between the foliage, melted in the surrounding vegetation.
Slowly, I explore the area as I get myself used to the difference in gravity and at last I find a river that slithers through the jungle. I choose to follow it downstream to see where I end up and in my way I take a closer look at the plants around.
A lot of the plants around are similar in some way to the ones on Earth, but there are some that I highly doubt to ever heard or see. Obviously, I am not a walking encyclopedia, yet these new plants seem so alien that it is hard to find any connection to the ones of my native planet.
I keep a constant pace parallel to the water and I scan the surroundings as I go, always checking in vertically too, knowing that I am in a jungle. The trees above easily surpass the 50 meter mark (165ft), in fact, they are all probably well above 70 meters (230ft).
I hear animal sounds all around, but most of the ones that enter my scan radius are either insects or small game, nothing bigger than chicken or rabbit apart from a few instances. When bigger animals show around, I try to scan them thoroughly, yet I am sure by now that they are brand new species to discover for me.
Not side-tracking from my main goal of not getting caught off-guard by anyone, I focus my attention on only examining the new animals that enter my range. I first take a look at them to see if they may prove useful in some way in the future and if not, I start ignoring them as I go on.
The animals that prove useful though, I start recording. I don’t have the things I carried with me in my backpack as I lost my notebook and everything else while getting through the rift with the exception of a couple of my knives, yet I aim to remember each one of the useful ones for later use.
Minutes go by, and the only thing I touch in fear of leaving traces are the two last knives on both my hands. Only swinging them when there is too much vegetation on my way. Sometimes I end up jumping over the patch of lush instead of carving a path through it, not leaving a trail.
‘So far I haven’t seen anything with a respectable amount of iq.’
Hours go by, and just as fast the first day too, or at least it should. The night doesn’t arrive on time, the sun keeps shining bright on the sky, even though I should’t refer to it as “Sun” as it has to be another star far away from my solar system.
Only after the equivalent of a whole day on Earth with its 24 hours passes does the sun start hiding on the horizon. As dusk arrives, my body tenses up again.
‘If anyone was tailing me, now would be the perfect time to ambush me. I can see a lot better than average thanks to my improved vision and the scans of my mana, yet I am still lost in the jungle with nowhere to go.
For a second I ponder what I should do.
‘Should I try to leave the jungle? Should I try and get some sleep?’
‘No, I need to get any kind of information about this place before even trying to settle somewhere or relaxing.’ Thinking so, I keep moving under the cover of the night, dashing through the darkness, always keeping the river to my right.
The sounds of the native animals that till now were laying low now rise in volume, filling the night with all kinds of sounds that I don't recognise at all. Focused on my scans, I nearly bump into a weird bird that takes fly as I pass next to it.
The bird resembles an owl, yet instead of the chill and fluffy appearance of an owl it portrays a dangerous vibe with an elongated beak that it carries and a more defined body that shows it muscles and strength.
It panics as I pass by and takes flight, nearly crashing on my face as I move at higher speed than at day time, now a little bit more at ease due to the scarce amount of light around.
At a higher speed than before, I run past a lot of differences natural formations, yet finally my scans let me know of something weird, so I approach to take a look.
A totem. Carved in a big piece of dead wood, where a weird mix of inscriptions and drawings are shown, clearly expelling danger.
‘Why danger? Easy, there are skulls carved on it too with snakes crawling out of their eye sockets.’