Novels2Search

3.01: A Journey Interrupted

?—Your Attributes:

217 [Aegis]

254 [Agility]

102 [Strength]

126 [Channel]

126 [Focus]

219 [Source]

110% [Primeval Resonance], 55% Base

2190/2190 Mana, 64% Primeval

100 [Blood Pool]

100 [Surge Pool]

Perched on a high outcrop of rock as my people passed by below me, I looked over my attributes with a warm sense of satisfaction. They hadn’t changed too much since killing the behemoth: I was level 29. I’d put four of my [Bestow: 16]s in [Focus], it had risen from 62 to 126. The added [Focus] improved many of my skills, but the most noticeable difference was that I could fly without a skysail—I could draw air into the form of a stable, thick skin that coated my body, lifting myself efficiently and precisely.

My [Source] had likewise increased, because I’d replaced my [Life Magick 7] with [Primeval Mana 14]:

[Primeval Mana 14]

Components: [*Primeval 5] + [*Mana 3] + [Mana 3] + [Mana 3]

+ 64 [Source]

+ 24% Primeval Mana Profile

The binding that I’d used to gain [Primeval Mana 7] from a rune-lined wrapping for my wrist was now holding my prized new cloak, created by Fireesha along with some of the other enchanters over the course of a week:

[Aziriel’s Pale Furs]

Binding this item has granted you the [Blood Magick 17] skill.

This fur cloak and mantle have been enchanted to absorb blood for the [Blood Magick] skill. It naturally repels filth and cleans easily, and if damaged it can be repaired with healing magic.

[Blood Magick 17]

[*Primeval 5] + [*Body 3] + [Body 3] + [Life 3] + [Water 3]

+ 100 [Blood Pool]

Channel [Blood Pool] to heal wounds, cure exhaustion, or restore any of your other resources, such as your mana and your [Surge Pool]. Your full [Blood Pool] can currently restore 135 [Surge Pool] or 2160 mana.

Restore your [Blood Pool] by absorbing blood within your claim. The rate at which you can absorb blood depends on how much [Focus] you assign to this purpose.

You can control blood within your claim.

You can sense blood within your gaze, and extending your gaze to include blood is easier. You can never use this skill to sense inside a living creature.

With the added time to enchant it properly, Fireesha had given it some of the typical benefits that came with quality enchantments: it stayed clean and could be easily repaired. It could also drink blood all on its own, absorbing it directly into the fur.

The cleanliness was something I appreciated. It was snow-white: when clean it was very dramatic-looking, but it was much easier to spot filth on it.

The [Blood Magick] skill itself was another example of the fact that not all skills were created equal. It healed, it invigorated, and with its high rank it was almost a full second pool of mana and more than a full [Surge Pool]. Its only real drawback was that it needed to be replenished by being fed a lot of fresh blood. Fresh blood could be hard to acquire, but not here: on this world, with the work I was doing, [Blood Magick] would see liberal use.

It was the second day of our journey to the settlement sight. A long convoy of elves laden with packs and cargo snaked its way up the side of the mountain below me.

Today was the slowest in terms of covering ground. We had the largest number of mountain slopes to ascend and descend as well as two ravines to fly everyone across. A week of harvesting wyverns had left us with more than two dozen windcallers strong enough to do the job, but it was still time-consuming.

Lux Irovex? Mirio asked me through the bond.

I was just thinking of you. What is it, Mirio?

I found a four-legged, six-headed behemoth hydra, he said.

I let out a little laugh, drawing some looks from the chain of elves passing below me.

For me, the journey had practically been a break. I was sticking close to the elves in case of an emergency, but we had hunters, wildhearts, and windcallers both with the group and spread out in every direction to detect threats. The plan had been that nothing would catch us by surprise: I was mostly just staying close for reassurance.

Mirio had built his skill to conjure a broadwing to ride around on, and he and Luthiel were both in the air using their extraordinary powers of sight to spot threats at great distances. If they were just spotting a behemoth now, it would be far, far away from us. With luck, my relaxing afternoon of flying close and talking to my people would continue.

And has it found you? I asked.

No, he said. I’m staying well-hidden—still, I can sense it searching the area around it with its bond. It’s… quite potent.

It has six minds to search with, I said. How far away?

From you? Twenty kilometers.

We hadn’t gone behemoth hunting yet. Mirio had mostly only gone with the hunters to increase his limit and gain levels. This was the first of them we’d learnt of since we’d killed the wyvern on the peaks.

I would very much love to hunt and kill that creature for the [Plural] skill keys that it would grant, I told him. Unfortunately, we’re all busy right now, and I’d really want to bring more than one of us to kill a hydra. Keep tabs on it.

Yes, Lux Irovex.

Actually, see if Luthiel can figure out a way to track it without putting you two at risk. He’s good with tracking spells.

Ah—yes, Lux Irovex.

I scowled from my perch on the mountainside. It didn’t surprise me that we’d eventually spotted something—we were covering a lot of ground over several days, and our seers were looking across huge swathes of territory.

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But of all the known creatures that might cross our path in this moment, a hydra might have been the worst. They were natural kings of the wild, hydras—Olorai, Shifting Lord of Forests, had made them that way.

It was almost impossible for any other beast to get the better of them. The multiple heads were simply too advantageous: against equally-sized foes, they were brutally effective when it came to wrestling their opponents into submission, maneuvering it into a position where the hydra had all the leverage and could easily pin it and tear it apart.

Two-legged hydras were deadly, but far less mobile than their four-legged kin, who were much better at swiftly balancing their movements so as to attack with their many heads. They could rapidly shift their weight around, making them as slippery as the snakes they resembled, and high [Aegis] meant it was no trouble to use their heads as limbs for the purpose of climbing and shifting around, pushing off of surfaces with their snouts and grasping trees and boulders with their teeth.

Multiple heads meant multiple minds, along with some complex physiology: an enormous cluster of lungs surrounded a set of furiously beating hearts. They were voracious in the extreme, and roved across huge swathes of territory to feed the formidable engine of predation that was their body. Like most mighty beasts, they were fundamentally magical, and reproduced slowly as a consequence.

But just as our local wyverns cultivated [Air] and [Sight] keys, a hydra was guaranteed to cultivate [Plural] skill keys—a powerful aspect. It was an extraordinarily potent enhancer for [Lightning] skills, but almost anyone could find a use for the magic of duplication and repetition.

I reached out with my own [Wild Bond] and found Zirilla in the air not too far ahead of us—she’d been out scouting, but flying close at hand in case I needed her. Zirilla.

Mm?

Six-headed, four-legged hydra. Doesn’t know we’re here, about twenty kilometers out. Find us a good spot in case we come to its attentions.

Mm. I’m not keen on that idea.

Me neither.

We continued on our course for awhile, a line of elves that slowly meandered up a set of rough-hewn steps and through a crook made by the rising, rocky slopes of two distant peaks.

Lux Irovex? It was Mirio.

Yes?

Luthiel knows a way to track it, but only if we get closer.

Disappointing. It’s not worth it. Stay away. In fact, best if you retreat past where you think its [Wild Bond] ends.

As you wish, Lux Irovex.

Zirilla found us a spot, and I waited until our column arrived there and then called for a break. It was a broad, flat ledge with a few clusters of scraggly trees growing out of a sparse layer of soil. It wasn’t very large, and all of us were fairly tightly packed.

This must have aroused some suspicion, as we’d taken one not an hour earlier—but there were no objections. The slopes of the mountain were steep, and a break for everyone to be cured of their exhaustion by our healers was more than welcome.

There was no reason to hide anything from them, however, and so I had Zirilla spread the word. Very quickly she and Valir were quietly moving about, reassuring some folk while also giving ordes in case of the worst outcome.

Then Mirio contacted me again with a frustrating bit of news.

It’s chasing us, he said simply. I thought we’d done a good job stealthing from it, but…

You’re telling me that despite all your skills, it spotted you without you realizing it?

Unfortunately, yes, he said. I’m guessing one of its minds spotted us, but I missed that moment because I was paying attention to the others. After it had spotted us, it hid all considerations of me from my sight with all its minds. At least, that’s my theory—I’m rather disappointed in myself, to be quite honest.

It doesn’t matter now, I said. Lead it on a useless chase, but be sure to flee in a direction away from us.

As you wish, said Mirio. Then he kept on going with his notes. If its habitat is somewhere in the region, it may simply be fascinated by us as a new form of life—we know how to hide ourselves from it, or at least how to try. And we know to run from it at great distances, which means we sensed it. I can’t think of another reason to chase us than fascination—it must know we’re too high in the air for it to reach. He paused, then added: it’s all rather impressive, really. From a naturalist’s perspective, I mean.

They generally are, I said. I took a drink of water from my canteen, then searched for Valir with my [Wild Bond], meaning to ask him how preparations were coming in case of the worst.

But in just a moment, Mirio contacted me again.

I misjudged, Lux Irovex. His tone wasn’t promising.

Misjudged what?

It didn’t see Luthiel and I.

Briefly, I closed my eyes and breathed a soft sigh. It spotted us, I said, opening them to look back at the elves.

Unfortunately, it seems that way. Even sweeping its gaze around with all six heads, its range must be twice my own. Do you think it has [*Wild] cores, rather than [*Body]?

I considered this. Like most predator animals, a hydra typically had [*Body] cores with the [Wild Bond] or [Wild Sight] as its class’s granted skill. If it does, it’s another unusual creature and class combination, I said. Especially for a behemoth. A six-headed psychic monstrosity is not more appealing than the alternative. In any case, bring Luthiel back and drop him off, then start organizing all the psychics.

Yes, Lux Irovex.

Then I reached out and found Zirilla and Valir. We’re up, I told them.

It’s coming? Zirilla asked.

I’ll get my hammer, said Valir.

I strode to the edge of our small shelf, and looked down at the terrain below. We were meant to descend the mountain for another few kilometers before the terrain would level out and we could follow the mists, and so the path ahead was nothing but slopes of varying grades: just in front of us was one of the steeper stretches.

If it had only had two legs, fighting on the steeper slopes would be wisest—we’d have a good shot at knocking it off balance and sending it on an irreversible tumble down the slope. But with four legs, we were best using the most level terrain we could find, a long stretch of land that began several hundred feet below us, at the foot of a rocky escarpment. It was still steep enough to be treacherous footing for the untrained, but the two of us—Valir and I—had the strength and senses to manage it.

You two brought Seriana and the mages in on your plans? I asked them.

We did, said Zirilla. She’ll be launching curses from the ledge, once it’s time.

Both of them reached me through the crowd. I spotted Valir first—he was so large that he made the elves around him look like children. Often, when I looked up at him I wondered if this was how everyone else felt looking up at me.

He had also built [Primeval Mana Hide], and was bare chested. The hide skills all increased the effect of [Primeval Resonance] in calculating the [Aegis] they provided, but with the added drawback of not being able to wear armor. As such, using a hide skill showed that one’s [Primeval Resonance] was high enough to make the difference worth it—and so being unarmored was the sign of an expert fighter.

“You’re too big to carry,” I told him, eying the massive warhammer that he was holding upright—one end of its head was a rounded spike, and could crack the skull of even a creature as large as a behemoth.

“We can fly down and make him a wind cushion to land on,” Zirilla said, a smile playing at the corner of her mouth.

Valir looked between us, his expression barely changing. Without answering us, he hefted his hammer. “I’ll start heading down,” he said, moving to the edge of the ledge we stood on and leaping off it.

“You should probably say something before we get started,” Zirilla said, jerking her head back toward the gathered elves. I could sense a growing anxious energy from their hushed, rapid conversations.

“You’re right,” I said. “I’ll speak in a moment, then head down to join Valir.”

First, though, I contacted Mirio. Still coming our way?

It’s definitely after the colony, he said. It almost seems… I think it thinks you’re all babies.

Hah, I said, laughing out loud as well as in the bond. A bit rich coming from a beast that’s probably seven hundred years old at best.

Then I added: a shame it can’t understand you, Mirio. If it did, you could tell that it’s about to fight someone who learned how to kill its kind from the very same god who created them.