The night passed quickly as my companions helped expand my boon’s grasp of their language. Salvador, Robert, and Mathew all talked about random topics ranging from food to the forest around us. Martin, on the other hand, focused on more practical phrases to be able to use quickly. This included things like “Danger”, “Stop”, and “Attack”.
Unsurprisingly, Norbert elected not to say anything to me. He didn’t talk much to the others either, so it wasn’t odd that he would treat me the same way.
The one that surprised me was Liam. He always examined my runes and sigils with such intense interest, I had expected him to immediately bombard me with questions about my mana forms. Instead, he remained utterly silent for most of the night. The one time I tried approaching him, he muttered something containing the words “Check runes” before darting away to the edge of the camp.
Rather than dwell on the odd behavior of one of my traveling companions, I engrossed myself in learning how to communicate. I found that there were some intrinsic differences between our languages. For one thing, the ordering of words was strangely shuffled around. There were also words that couldn’t be translated directly between our languages. One single word they used often, “Empire”, was translated into my language as “very large collected society”. Many of my own words similarly yielded compound phrases.
As much as I would have liked to spend the entire night talking, the need for sleep eventually forced us to stop.
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A loud crash dragged me out of my pleasant dreams. As a second one echoed through the jungle, I grabbed my spear and poked my head out of my tent.
I could hear the others crawling out of their tents as well. Someone immediately ran towards the edge of the camp, but it was too dark for me to tell who.
The crashing sounds echoed through the jungle and they drew closer. Roars of pain and anger soon accompanied the other sounds of a heated battle. Something flashed in the distance, indicating that more than brute strength was being utilized in this clash.
With the battling beasts heading straight towards our camp, I knew I needed to do something. I ran to the edge of the camp where I found Liam frantically carving more runes. My mana senses had grown strong enough that I could easily tell what runes he was using to strengthen the barrier around the camp. Opening my jar of sigil paint, I worked on adding a second layer to our defenses.
The two of us worked as quickly as we could. Liam cast frequent glances at my work, but neither of us took the time to try and talk to each other. With every passing moment we could hear the sounds of battle drawing closer.
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As another flash lit up the night, I hastily traced out a large harvesting sigil. We were out of time.
The first of the monsters to crash into view was a huge creature with an armored shell and four thick limbs. It crashed through a tree as its opponent slammed it towards our camp. Its head, like a strange cross between a turtle and leopard’s, was turned away from us towards whatever had thrown it.
The other creature was a far stranger sight. It stood far taller than the shelled beast, but its dozen, long, flexible limbs were extremely slender by comparison. In the dark, it was difficult to make out anything about the creature’s main body.
The shelled beast righted itself and let out a defiant roar. Dozens of sigils lit up across its shell as it prepared a powerful spell. I could identify some of the mana forms that dealt with lightning and invisible force, but there were more that I was unfamiliar with.
The other monster didn’t give the shelled one time to finish its spell. A spray of a vile smelling substance sprayed forwards. The liquid was filled with potent mana that twisted and writhed. It glanced off the beast’s shell, dispelling the sigils in a crackling hiss.
Where the vile liquid splashed onto the nearby foliage, the plants immediately withered and fell. The monster’s shell remained unharmed despite the evidently destructive nature of the fluid.
Slamming its feet down onto the ground hard enough to send small tremors all the way to our camp, the beast charged forwards.
The other monster moved a few of its limbs in an arcane fashion.Bizarrely, the slender creature had no trouble repelling the much heavier beast’s charge. It didn’t even flinch as the shelled monster was thrown backwards.
It was difficult to tell at such a distance, but I was fairly sure the slender creature had used some application of invisible force magic. I didn’t have long to ponder as the other beast crashed into our barrier. I flooded the collection sigil with my mana as our defenses strained under the blow.
The sigils on the monster’s back once again started to glow as it tried again to cast its spell. This time, the other monster was too slow with its counter attack. As the shelled monster rolled to its feet, a blinding flash and a deafening crack tore through the night. I was momentarily blinded by the sudden flash.
My eyes were slow to readjust to the darkness of the night. By the time I regained enough vision to make out the monstrous combatants again, the shelled creature was once again charging forwards. To my side, I spotted Liam pulling something out of his pack in a hurry.
Just like before, the beast’s charge was reversed by the slender creature’s unusual motions. As it flew back towards us, Liam placed a cylindrical object in a harvesting rune of his own. The barrier briefly flared with power, repelling the blow.
With every deflected exchange, the slender creature had drawn closer. The illumination from the shelled beast’s sigils revealed the grotesque visage of the other monster. Atop its dozens of twisted limbs sat a bulbous mass of gnarled flesh. The center of the horror’s malformed body housed a nightmarish face. A half dozen mismatched eyes ringed a circular maw filled with rows of curved fangs.
At the sight of the hideous creature, Liam whispered a single, frightened word. “Demon.”