Part 2: Starvation
“Rolp Lizards at 8 o’clock fifty meters!”
The ship’s crew armed themself with everything they could find: Paddles, harpoons, fishing rods and whatever else they could find. The lounge of the scaled animals was steadily maintaining its advance, for whatever reason they were dead set on attacking the stranded boat as they were rushing with speed that were barely possible for their builds.
Since none of the two parties was willing to back down, a brawl was sure to come, the average lounge was made up of around twenty five individuals meanwhile the Porky Red was holding fifty four people and a golem.
The fight quickly broke out, lizards would attack with all their beastly strength but the animals were in numerical disadvantage. Two men would take care of a single lizard as they had enough people to simply overwhelm the lizards.
The old magician Guddatta scoffed at their stupidity: “Stupid lizards, they think that a surprise attack would work on us humans.”
The captain was worried about his ship: “Just great… We found what we came for but we lost my ship in the process. Hopefully we will be able to somehow salvage it.”
Daga the knight thought about the prestige he could gain: “I don’t see a Great Beast amongst them. Did they really attack with nothing to back up their group?”
The old magician may have been a fraud, he was still able to produce spells that could devastate the lizards’ ranks but if he was to use any of his powerful spells he could hurt the people that stood next to his targets. He could only curse and hold his destructive capabilities and instead send low-leveled spells.
-Soundless Song: Cut and Divide
A series of low pitched sounds started being heard in the old man’s direct perimeter, translucent blue musical notes appeared in the air around him. They slowly rotated half a meter above his head, he could propulse them toward the lizards, each of the blue musical notes were able to kill a lizard each (if the note was to touch an important area of their body).
The mage was able to kill five lizards before having exhausted his spell’s reserve and he would need a minute or two before he would have enough energy to use a second spell.
Daga the knight saw a man on the ground surrounded by two lizards and knew that by duty and honor he had to rush in, he had to help that poor sailor from his potential death even if it meant dying while trying.
This is what being a knight meant, helping others when they needed a helping hand.
Sword in hands and his armor protecting from most of the lizards’ attacks Daga ran as quickly as possible even if he exhausted himself, the sailor was at death’s door and every seconds wasted meant that the man’s death was approaching.
He threw his sword forward tearing through one of the two lizards’ back, it hissed as it turned around with urgency. A second sword charge cut open the lizard’s face from the mouth to the left eye, the scales around the eyes were sturdier than the rest of the lizards’ head.
He had not been able to kill the first lizard and was about to get attacked by the second lizard that had repositioned since then. He was tired, he had known that running with an armor was taxing on the body but he did not expect that he would be this tired.
His sword was heavy and his breathing always gasping for more air, his head was spinning and his eyes had difficulty focusing on the bleeding lizard in front of him.
“I am so tired… I cannot…
I am too tired to fight… I… I can’t help the man…
Was it a mistake?
But even if I failed, it's not my fault, my armor is too heavy…
Can I still retreat?
NO! How will the rest of them look at me if I flee? They will think I am a coward.” He could not help but have mixed opinions on his rush.
Daga sent another sword slash but missed, the lizard was now looking at him and its legs had never been harmed, one could say that Daga had not done any harm to his opponent. The lizard was full of hate and anger, it could feel Daga’s fatigue and it was ready to jump on the knight.
The lizard jumped forward, time seemingly slowed down for Daga, he lifted his sword with all the energy he did not have and in what could only be described as a stroke of immense luck his sword reached the lizard’s belly before he could get to him.
His sword tore open the lizard, the blade made its way through the flesh and the organs before coming out of the lizard’s body by creating an exit for itself. Blood splattered on the young knight’s plated armor and his sword dropped by his side the sunbeams pierced the clouds to rebounce off his armor giving him an holy halo.
“I cannot continue… This victory was a fluke…
I… should not even have won… Maybe Lady Mielna has yet to give up on my soul…
Could I make a run for it?
The other lizard will not go after the one who killed its brother and instead secure the easy food that the sailor represents, right?
It’s not my fault that the other guy is stupid and didn’t take the opportunity to flee when I fought for him.
I tried as hard as I could to save him but he didn’t take his chance.” The knight who had just won a pyrrhic victory couldn’t help but feel like he should throw the towel and leave the sailor to his fate.
“If the expedition wants to even have a chance at survival they need my fighting skills. The other guy was stupid not to flee when he was offered the opportunity.
I am leaving but it is for the greater good. I truly am sorry but you should have left when I fought the first lizard…
…
But that goes against the Knightly Code, the Oath I did, when I promised in front of the Goddess’s name that I would never leave someone to die.
No… No, I cannot falter now, the sailor is still under threat and I need to save him! For honor, for Mielna’s name I shall never back down.” The knight reaffirmed his purpose and chose to stay.
Step after step, he approached the second lizard, the scaled lifeform thought for a small amount of time before scramming away, it had seen its fellow lizard get obliterated by the metal man’s stick and was not willing to share the same fate.
The wounded sailor’s eyes gained a glitter that had previously been lost, he said: “Thank you my Lord, you truly are a Paragon of virtue… I thought that no one was going to help me but you proved to me that there are still people who are willing to risk their lives for the rest of humanity.”
“You are a great man, your heart is bigger than a thousand willow trees, you my Lord are an Envoy from the Gods.” The sailor started weeping from relief.
Daga who would normally feel happy to receive such praise could not help but feel empty: His knightly spirit had shaken, he had seriously considered leaving a man to die.
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X-29JLO was feeling down, she was saddened each time she would kill a lizard and her consciousness told her to stop killing but her unconscious was forcing her to follow the orders she had received.
Her towering build was perfect for fighting those lizards as their teeth were not strong enough to pierce her mineral body and her strength allowed her to lift these lizards on a whim. She could throw them around like she could tear off their legs, they were too weak to fight her.
She started hearing powerful soundwaves coming from somewhere behind her back. When she turned around she saw her owner with his two apprentices gathering their magical powers, often she would envy the two apprentices as they were always treated fairly compared to her.
Today was almost painful, she could only be sent to do the dirty work, the kind that could harm her inner mechanism, meanwhile the two apprentices were helping her owner using his magic.
And when the spell was ready she immediately learnt the name of the spell:
-Lyinch Grand Melody: Pierce and Burn
Small red javelins appeared around the three mages, each of the spears were burning with a vigor only seen in forest wildfires. Once ten of those spears had manifested themself from the sounds that summoned them, the mages started their second large offensive.
X-29JLO looked in awe as fire rained on the lizards, it decimated the remaining enemies and only two of them were able to flee the battlefield, one of which was staggering as it left.
The magicians had ended the fight before too many people had died and could be considered heroes but what about her: She had fought and killed many of the lizards. Why was she not being praised by the sailors?
She felt the white space calling her, the magic energy in her was not enough to keep her awake and the mechanisms were forcefully putting her to sleep.
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The fight had ended, the assessment of the situation showed that they had won without too many losses, nine sailors had died in the brawl but the good thing was that they now had more portions of meat than what they would ever need.
In times of unrest like today, common sense had to unfortunately go out the window, a victory had just been achieved yet they could not party.
Both the injured and uninjured had to work on the defense of the base (the stranded boat) as the last combat had clearly shown their lack of defenses. They had only lost nine sailors in the last fight but what if that situation happened again?
With nine men down they would suffer harsher casualty and that number would grow exponentially as time passed!
They needed defenses but to create, one needed materials and to have materials one had to first find them. Scouting parties made of three sailors each were sent one after the other in the hope of finding something useful.
The second problem was that they needed food and water to work, indeed making palisades and making traps required a lot of effort. Humans’ minds worked marvelously when they imagined plans and concepts but to make them their bodies had to burn energy.
This energy could only be replenished when resting and when one had eaten/drank their fill, as such to last a long time in the desert the Porky Red’s crew had to find a reliable and steady source of food and water.
They would not have any food issues for a time thanks to the lizard meat that they had just harvested but water would quickly become a major problem. Their reserves were limited to the stock they had on the ship, if they were in the middle of the ocean they would have had enough for a long time but now that they were in a desert water would be consumed more often and the reserves could dwindle thanks to the heat.
Their problems would be most likely resolved if they found an oasis near their camp: water would be plenty and various beasts would come to drink their fill, drink and food would be assured if they found an oasis.
From there the group would be able to find other biomes to gather more resources and hopefully escape the Archmage and the God’s battlefield.
When they looked up, they could take a glance at the fight in the distance, the duo had fought during the entirety of the day and throughout the combat had drifted from the giant mountain chain to an unknown biome.
The fight seemed without an end, when one retreated the other would pursue and when one would attack the other would flee.
An endless cycle, a day that kept on going, the cycle of infinity. The two powerhouses did not stop for a minute, continuously fighting against the other. During the hundreds of years, did they never think about proposing a draw?
Neither the God nor the Archmage thought about stopping the fight even when they clearly matched each other’s strength?
When an attack would hit the wound would disappear in less than a minute, neither of the two fighters could win this fight as they would never injure the other enough to kill them.
Were they fine with a continuous, endless and meaningless fight?
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The morning that came right after the fight against the lizards was not a good day for the crew of the Porky Red. The old doctor started saying how much he wanted to eat meat for breakfast and as they had so much of it a meal would not cause them harm.
Falma was the captain but he was only one of the three people that had the sailors’ respect, his second mate, the third mate who happened to be the doctor and himself all shared the sailing crew’s trust.
So angering the old doctor over a meal was not worth it, losing the support of the doctor would make him lose the support of quite a number of sailors. Furthermore, the doctor was also one of his most trusted aides and even if the doctor did not take offense over a meal it would still create sparks of discontent in the old man’s heart.
So Falma accepted, a pack of lizard meat was taken out of the reserve and was cooked for the doctor. The doctor was the first and the last person to ever touch the lizards’ meat, not long after ingesting the meat the doctor fell on the ground and started convulsing.
The doctor did not have the time to vomit the meal he had so desperately wanted and died under the terrified gaze of the sailors around him. It was his fault, as a doctor and an old man he should have had the reflex to check the meat for poison before eating it but his impatience caused his doom.
The second mate knocked on the captain’s cabin before barging in, there was the captain continuing the boat’s logbook, he kept his straight face even as the situation had gone so much out of hand.
He remained calm in every bad situation the second mate had ever lived with Falma and that was why the second mate respected the man, his serious and calm demeanor inspired him.
The second mate urgently said: “Sir, the old doctor, he ate the meat that he asked for and he collapsed, we think that the meat is poisonous.”
“Alright, I’m coming.” answered Falma with a mix of calm and stress.
The deck was full of people, they surrounded the doctor’s body looking at the disease with fear and mourning. The sun was overbearing, its beams heating up the dry wood of the ship as well as making every man sweat.
Falma came out of the inner ship closely followed by the second mate, he saw the group of sailors, his sailors. They looked like a lost herd of sheeps, he was the captain and as such he had the duty of leading them forward.
When they saw him arrive they were surprised, as if they weren’t expecting him, it was weird. The group made way for him to reach the corpse. A path carved itself between him and the deceased doctor.
Falma slowly approached, the sailors were all looking at him, their gazes following his every movement. He strangely felt intimidated, their looks and the murmurings were unsettling. His face of ice did not show how he felt.
His breathing got a bit rough, his legs started feeling heavy, walking forward was hard. The sun was a pain as it burned his skin with its heat.
Falma’s skin was itching from the heat, his breathing was uneasy, their gazes all centered on his person. Anxiety grew from the bottom of his being, uneasiness was slowly devouring his mental state.
His movements became exhausting, he couldn’t stop walking forward now…
The sunlight was blinding, his eyes were blinded by it, it was directly in his face. Falma could barely see the faces of his sailors but he could feel the animosity they had. They were unstable.
His breathing had become heavy, the hot air was burning his inside each time he breathed in. It was slowly becoming unbearable, the hot air and the sunlight and everyone looking at him and his own anxiety and the situation and the desert.
“What is this, how did it happen?
Why are they looking at me?
Is it because I allowed the doctor to eat meat?”
He continued his walk, slowly, time stretched as he walked past more and more sailors, it seemed that there was no end to the path toward the corpse. The more he walked the more gazes were on him, hundreds of pairs of eyes all looking at him.
“What were they thinking?”
Falma slowly turned his head so that he could see what filled the eyes of the sailors, the expression he saw was horrifying.
The sailor’s face had a distorted expression, he looked at him with disgust and hatred, they hated him for what he had done to the doctor. The captain's unrest was being fueled by their hatred.
The captain had an extremely dry mouth and tongue, he could not control his body anymore. His body moved on its own and his train of thoughts was a mess, countless thoughts shared his mind in a disorderly manner.
“How do they see me?”
“Am I still their captain? Or do they see me as a monster?”
“What should I do?”
“Should I have refused the doctor’s requests?”
“I am nothing but a devil weaning human skin in their eyes.”
He was a man fighting the heavens, they judged how he should be treated. Their choice would either throw him in the abyss or keep him standing tall. The silhouettes hated him, obviously they would want him to perish.
But they were his crew, they would understand that it was a mistake. They would forgive him, it was an accident.
His complexion was not warped in a single bit, he was keeping his cold face even in this situation. Or maybe it was that he was not able to show much emotions to others in the first place.
But his body was not as unchanging as his face, his legs were hurting, his back was filled with cold sweat even as the sun’s merciless gaze burned his skin. His heart was beating faster than ever before, his breathing was heavy and his mind was in shambles.
“What should I do in the end?”
“What should I do…”
“What can I do?”
Falma took deep breaths, this instant was long and exhausting, he felt tired and strengthless. His clothes had started feeling heavy, his footsteps that were already very distanced from each other slowed even more.
Every step he took siphoned the remaining strength that he had, his mind was working more and more slowly.
The figures of the sailors were now fuzzy in his eyes, the only thing he could see clearly were their disgusted gazes.
But the road toward the doctor’s corpse was finite and in the end he arrived right in front of the body. Falma hesitantly crouched to have a closer look at the deceased. Then came shock and fear, the doctor’s face was not his, the face was someone else’s face.
The visage of the old doctor had been changed, Simalee’s face had taken over the dead man’s face. It did not make sense, Simalee was still back home, she was not here exploring the uncharted waters of the world.
He looked toward the sun, his heart full of questions and worries.
“Am I going insane?”
He looked back at the corpse’s face, it was not Simalee’s face… No, it was his own. He had not killed Simalee, nor had he killed the doctor. The one he had sentenced to death was himself, he had destroyed his future when he allowed the doctor to eat the poisonous meat.
He realized that his downfall was soon to come, the others would most likely overthrow him in the next few days. He had made one bad decision and they would all band against him.
That ungrateful bunch! They were akin to opportunistic sharks: when they smell blood they all rush over to take a bite.
Falma slowly got up, he was surrounded by the crowd of sailors but he saw more of a large mass of darkness and hatred than a group of people. As if there was only one entity whose gaze was the concentration of every cells’ gazes.
He gave his orders while he was still captain: “I want a new scouting party to go find a meal for when we run out of edible food. Take care of the old man’s body, we don't want it to be eaten by scavengers.”
The sailors quickly went to work as the fallen captain retreated in his quarters, his tail between his legs.
Rumors of the scouting parties being dead quickly spread, those rumors had foundations to back them up, indeed the scouting parties were given lizards’ meat as rations. If the theory of this meat being poisonous was real, then there were very few chances of seeing them again.
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This new hunting party was made up of X-29JLO and two sailors, the two sailors were a duo of brothers, Wako (the youngest) was small in stature but he was the brains of the two, Hundee (the oldest) was almost retarted but was as strong as an ox and as tall as a mountain.
Meanwhile X-29JLO was the strongest of all of them, they constituted a trio of two fighters and a tactician, the goal that was assigned to them was to find a food source in urgence and hopefully find an oasis.
They headed what they assumed was west (The sun rises from the east to the west) but since they had been transported by the pillar of light they couldn’t be sure that they were still in the real world.
This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
The trio walked and walked, X-29JLO thought that the desert was like a sea of sand, each dunes was a wave, they were exploring the sea. She couldn’t help but to think that what they were doing was not so different as before the Light.
She couldn’t feel hunger or maybe she simply did not understand it yet, when the two brothers would complain she could only look at them with a gaze full of expectation: Maybe they would explain what it was to be hungry.
But she could not ask them as her rocky body simply did not allow her to speak, she was like a fierce beast whose fangs and claws had been cut off. She could only think in silence and never explain her thoughts.
The two brothers were leading the way as her large body provided them a shade to hide under, the sun that came from the east allowed them to follow a passable straight line. Every once in a while they would plant a large wooden stick in the ground to mark the way for when they would do the walk in reverse.
They walked until evening eventually came, nights in the desert were always cold, to prevent the two brothers from not being able to get rest they made a makeshift tent using X-29JLO’s body. X-29JLO’s large body allowed her to make a weird looking hut when she put herself in the right position.
Then the two brothers would enter the gap that was left between her torso and her arms, her torso would serve as a roof and would trap the heat that the brothers’ bodies produced allowing the two to barely be able to sleep.
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At dawn of the third day in the desert came extremely bad news for the people who had remained at the Porky Red, one of the three original scouting teams had come back. They were bearers of bad news.
They had been tasked to follow the trails of fleeting lizards (they had all gone in the same direction), this task had been given in the hopes of finding the lizards’ nest and water sources. If it had succeeded the sailors would have access to a large food source (the poison was unknown at the time) and to a water source.
Finding those two things would fix their two urgent problems and allow the humans to work on the main problem at hand which was escaping the God-level battlefield they were in.
But when they found the remaining lizards the shock had been immense, not only did the lizard lounge had not been exterminated but the worst was that the already large lounge that they had fought was a scouting party of the larger lounge.
The three sailors had been surprised to not only see more lizards than what the entire crew could handle but to also see the leader and its lieutenants: Two Great Beasts were following a Legendary Beast!
Great Beasts were already a large threat on their own, they could wipe out armed militia by themself (the threat they represented was enough to be a task required to become a High Paladin) but Legendary Beasts were something humans could not hope to slay.
A single Legendary Beast was enough to destroy an entire city by itself, most had weird abilities that no one had lived to tell the tales of and the rare Legendary Beasts that had been killed were the weakest of them.
The blood of a Legendary Beast was extremely valuable as it could give someone some of its genes and thus allow the one who consumes it to gain extreme strength and transfer some of his/her newfound powers to their descendents.
But as said before, the only Legendary Beasts that had been killed in the past two hundred years were the weakest with useless abilities.
The one the scouting party saw was a being that was part of the Rolp lizard’s species, they were known to be extremely strong and resistant in their base form, it was impossible for the Porky Red’s crew to even harm it in the slightest.
To add insult to injury, the lounge was currently moving toward the Porky Red albeit slowly. The sailors, the Paladin and the Mages had to flee. Even if they discarded their survival instinct and fought to the death the humans would not be able to beat the lizards.
But to flee meant that there wouldn’t be the Porky Red to act as a fortress in the future, survival was however more important than the boat and the decision was quickly made to abandon ship. Due to the sailors all preparing the retreat there was only one person who wasn’t doing anything.
Thus, Jeyna the apprentice magician was the one who had to go explain the situation to the captain who had been staying in his quarters since the day before. He needed to convince the captain that leaving the ship was what needed to be done.
He knocked on the captain’s quarters, no response, he knocked again, seeing no response the lad decided to speak through the wooden door. The whole ship knew the captain was hiding in his quarters, they knew that the old doctor was one of the captain’s closest assistants and that his death must have been a big blow to the man’s psyche.
That was the reason why they did not break the man’s mourning until they learned about the mega lizards’ lounge that was coming for the ship. Only when a large threat came to their doorstep did the crew dare break their respected captain’s grief.
The young magician said: “Captain! We know you don’t want to leave the ship but a decision was made by the whole crew, we have to leave. The lizards are coming back and we are not enough to defeat them.”
“We need to abandon ship, otherwise we will die here. The ship is not vital for our survival.” He continued.
Hearing no response he said one last sentence before leaving: “I’ll come back later to tell you when we are leaving”
With the critical message delivered the apprentice mage retreated, he told the captain this last sentence to allow the man to accept reality (The crew knew how much he cared about the Porky Red and abandoning it would not be something he would appreciate doing).
Falma was stuck in his delillusion, he thought that the crew had done it, he knew this mutiny was coming. He had been writing in his logbook for the last couple of hours, he wrote his last wishes and his farewells to his beloved.
When the young magician had transferred the message, he had realized that the decision had been made by the whole crew. The fact that his second mate had betrayed him was getting under his skin, how could the kid dare do this to him?
His thoughts went wild: “So they chose to kick me out…
Ungrateful kids, do they not realize what I have done for them
I was the one who gave them their jobs.
Lizards… Bullshit we killed them all, the Rolp Lizards are known to act in small groups…
They didn’t even bother making up a good excuse…”
The seeds of distrust had since then germinated, Falma could only see his version of reality, he thought the ship had betrayed him because this was how he saw the situation. It was however not surprising that Falma would break, he was after all a broken man with a twisted mind.
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X-29JLO’s consciousness was once again pulled out of the white void, the mechanisms of her body were telling her that morning had come. Her mind once again entered her massive rocky vessel and as her eyes started working again she saw the morning sun breaking the sky in the horizon.
Suddenly her body started sending warnings in every senses’ captors that she had, according to the warnings she was in the middle of a volcano or right under a meteor.
According to the captors that were on her back (she was in the tent-like position) the situation the brothers and she were in was extremely dire.
She slowly raised her head, not too far away were two figures flying in the clouds. The giant tree overshadowed the entire area of the desert while the man was constantly showing that he was in control using his magical aura to threaten the branches of the God.
X-29JLO was beyond shocked, the two fighters were at the peak of this world, if any of the two were to do anything an entire city could go up in flames in a couple of seconds. They were flying so close to her that her inexistant heart shook.
Dread was the word to qualify the feelings she was currently experimenting with; those two could snuff her life out if they wanted to.
The Archmage who was until now flying around decided to prepare another one of his grand spells. The tree shook before creating a barrier of leaves in front of itself. Each leaf was burning with intensity and yet they felt null of vitality.
But the attack that the tree was expecting did not come, instead the mage chose to also create something.
- Great Natural Laws, Dytsi’s Rapid Tempo: Life and Creation
Flesh started forming from the sand all around the surrounding area, sand turning into flesh and flesh fusing to create deformed blobs of flesh. Each and every blob started melting before resolidifying into soldiers with full plated armors and war axes.
An army rose from the endless dunes of the desert, each and every single one of the soldiers were a carbon copy of the others. Their look clearly showed their unnatural and artificial natures, it was just like when one is weirded out when they met similar looking yet unrelated people but this time it was thousands of them.
Their vital energy was like a storm, it raged toward the sky as if it showed its hatred for the heavens. The life that birthed them refused the cycle of life and death, as if they refused the fact that they would ever die they all started rushing toward the tree.
They all wore white plated armors that seemed like they were made of tin, their axes were of a golden gleam and their flesh made of glass. They were an army that could topple the greatest of empires in an effortless night. They were what every king would dream about as they represented an unstoppable force, an army that perfectly followed the orders of their creator.
Unzolt’Ukmis the tree-like God shook, a wave going at supersonic speed spread out from its roots, in a blink of an eye the wave had covered a radius of a hundred thousand steps. A quarter of the army fell as the wave was going through.
Both Hundee and Wako were woken up by the disturbance, the trio were powerless to anything but to look at the two powerhouses’ fight and hope that they wouldn’t be caught in the crossfire.
The wave that had been sent by the God of Death slowly retreated back, this time the wave was clearly visible and every sand soldier could see it as it was coming back.
If the first coming of the wave was unexpected and fast and could be compared to an accident in your daily life then this second passage was more of your old age catching up to you. Its slowness was like a reminder that you have lived all of your allowed time.
Like a slow song that came to an end, life was finite you cannot avoid death forever. You may trick it with medicine or magic but you shall never outrun it. Death is infinite while Life is finite, you will never escape, starvation, thirst, hemorrhage, sickness, lifespan, poisoning and so many more that you cannot escape them all.
The great wave was converging back toward the God, every soldier fell on the ground when the energy went through their bodies. Their death was just like killing newborns, they just arrived to this world with a future in front of them yet you chose to trample them destiny, you chose that their defenseless lives were to end.
The troops that had been summoned to this plane were dropping like flies, their bodies melting back into the mere sand that they originated from. It was a merciless end, their creator looking with indifference as they all dropped to the ground.
Inevitably, the wave went through X-29JLO yet she did not feel a thing, maybe it was because her body was never alive to begin with, you could not die if you were not alive, it was ironic that her who wished her own death in the past would not be granted to when the literal grim reaper was in front her.
The two brothers did not have that privilege, they would not be there to tell the tale of surviving a cataclysmic fight between deities. Both Hundee and Wako fell under the merciless harvesting of Death, their bodies turned into ragdolls.
X-29JLO felt a shock, it was different from the one she felt when the soldiers all died, this feeling was intense, she had just witnessed the death of people she had come to know. Maybe it was not a long time but during the days that the three of them had been walking, she’d grown to appreciate hearing the two brothers.
Yet Death was not a being of mercy, it did not give privilege to people who you wanted to live, there was no free meal for those who died and wherever you wanted them to live or not isn’t up for you to decide.
She couldn’t cry but if she was able to, then she would have. Once again, like every other time, X-29JLO could only grieve in silence. Her body could not produce a sound yet she could feel pain from the deaths of those who were her friends.
Ironic that her body, which allowed her to survive an encounter with the literal God of Death, was also the prison that stopped her from properly mourning. She was given what her creator was desperately searching for yet at that moment she felt like not having it would have been better.
Maybe she couldn’t see the advantages of having this pseudo-immortality as she had never wanted it, she was more of an unwilling blessed than the gifted that received a great boon. Maybe she couldn’t see the advantages as she was blinded by her mourning.
Or maybe she couldn’t see the advantages because she did not understand what feat she had just accomplished, she had unknowingly tricked the God of Death into letting her live yet she could not appreciate the situation as she did not understand that this never happened before.
Whatever stopped her from seeing the advantages of her situation did not matter, all that mattered was that she hated being in her position. If the one who fell under the powers of Unzolt’Ukmis in the past were to hear what she was thinking, they would most probably roll over in their graves.
What kind of ungrateful person was she? She had survived Death but she’d rather be dead?
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The captain was still not answering the calls and the knocks that Jeyna was producing from his side of the door. It was strange, the lack of response was almost like the captain was not in the cabin. It was as if he had left his quarters in the couple of hours between the comings of Jeyna.
During the first monologue that he had done the captain could be clearly heard through the door, he kept moving around, making noises and going through papers. This time it was pure silence, the captain was calm, he was calm as if he wasn’t even there.
Jeyna kept knocking as it was rude to both leave if you did not hear a response and if you tried to open a door without permission. After an agonizing three minutes the magical boy could not wait anymore, patience was a virtue but too much of it was like a poison.
He used a small trick he had learned as part of his mage training, it was a basic spell that every schmuck who had even a tiny bit of knowledge about magic could do. Rumors said that it was one of the oldest spells that humanity had ever created.
Some even say that it was given by Modar’Qog the Goddess of Magic herself had bestowed it to the first magic users. But those who said that were few and had no proof to back up this claim.
-Magnificent Crescendo: Unlock and Open
Light green symbols started being created out of Jeyna’s right hand, they started becoming smaller and smaller until they reached the point where each could enter the door’s lock. Once inside the glyphs started carefully touching the mechanisms around and after a few seconds of hitting around the door opened.
Jeyna slowly and soundlessly entered the room, it was an extreme mess, books were all over the floor and clothes had been hurriedly taken out of the wardrobe. A bag rested on the bed in the corner of the room. The magician looked around, he would have loved if magic could examine the place instead of him but information gathering was one of the things magic couldn’t do since the dawn of time.
Since magic wouldn’t do his task, Jeyna started searching around for clues: “Where would the captain have gone?
Had he been attacked in his own room? No, the decorative axe was still in its holder.
Could Falma have left the room on his own? That wouldn’t make sense as the door had been locked from the inside. That meant that the captain should still be in the room.
It was weird as the captain was nowhere to be seen, what kind of person would be able to leave a locked room from the inside when there were no windows to leave through?
This was strange! The room shouldn’t have other exits, thus was the captain still in the room?
If that was true, then where was he hiding?”
Without being able to continue his train of thoughts much longer as Jeyna had hit a mental wall, once you hit a wall in a chain of thoughts and without having the solution to the problem then it was extremely hard to proceed forth on that thought chain.
From the corner of his eyes, his attention was caught by an open book. It was open on the desk, very obviously to have the ink dry.
Jeyna approached without much thought, the ink was still fresh… It was as if the captain had written something right before Jeyna had broken in. The page was filled with mad rumblings, the madden thoughts of the captain.
Jeyna turned the pages one after the other, almost all of the recent pages were filled with incoherent writings or drawings of cryptid meanings. Some words kept being brought up, Simalee seemed to be an object of worship, the Porky Red’s meaning was obvious and curses were also quite recurrent.
From the logbook’s quick overview, it was quite apparent that the captain had gone insane during the last few days, maybe he wasn’t the most stable person to begin with as even the first pages were riddled with weird instances.
CHOP!
Jeyna’s vision started falling from its usual point, his head fell from his neck. In his last moments, he saw the axe that had been resting on the support earlier, he saw the boots of the man who had just killed him.
He had often expected himself to be scared and panicked at the moment of his death but strangely Jeyna was calm. His head was cool and his thoughts were calm as a still lake, he welcomed the sweet embrace of death.
He closed his eyes for the last time and went to the realm of eternal sleep, death was oddly comforting. He started hearing the calming humming of death and knew that his rest was now inevitable.
But the humming as much as it had terrible implications also indicated that it was time to stop and that you should appreciate the last few moments that you had.
The humming’s melody ended as every magical spell did and Jeyna’s soul went to sleep forever.
|break|
Falma looked at the headless corpse that had fallen in front of him, his breathing went from uneven and chaotic to a more relaxed pattern. He had dodged the worst. Jeyna’s blood dripped from the axe’s blade, a pool of blood dirtied the floor around the separated neck.
His body had acted on its own, he came out of the closet and took the decorative axe before slaying the magician that had broken in the room. The smell of blood started permeating the room and a feeling of strength filled Falma’s mind.
This was the fifth time he had killed a human being and he could barely contain the urge to do it again. Each time he killed a rush of addictive strength and control filled his body, he felt like he could do anything; He would feel like he was the king of the world.
The first time he had killed, he felt scared of himself; this feeling good was terrifying, he had learned that he was in fact a cold blooded killer whose main source of excitement was trampling on lives.
Then came curiosity, a good experience always asked for it to be done again: The second time, he picked a random hobo on the streets and stabbed him to death.
Satisfaction filled his veins and power was a fruit that forced you to eat it once more. Thus half a year later, he chose to kill the mayor’s daughter for fun. But killing the descendant of the powerful almost led to his undoing, he had been breaths away from being caught that day.
This once again scared him, he knew that he could extinguish a life with ease but that also meant that his own life could be stolen. Fear forced him into hiding his nature, he layed low and stopped killing for a long time.
But like said before, Power was a fruit that asked you to eat it again, Strength was the most powerful drug to ever exist. Thus came a fourth time and today the fifth had also been scored. But this one was different, this kill hadn’t been made due to Falma’s desire but due to necessity.
Indeed, Falma had no intention of killing the apprentice mage as it would lead to the fury of his master, that old fool may have been a fraud of a mage he was still more powerful than common humans.
But the kid had left no choices to Falma when he started going through his notes, this logbook was the recollection of every thought that he had from the start of the exploration to today, if these sentences were to fall in hands of anyone Falma would most likely be executed.
Thus the captain had no choice but to kill the kid using the decorative axe that had been left to pretty up his cabin’s wall for the last few weeks. He had done it, he had killed the lad and that meant that being near the old mage was spelling his own death. He had to think about what he would do.
“FUCK!!!
What should I do?
This time it really wasn’t my fault! You brought it upon yourself!
Alright, let’s stay calm for this one…”
The enchanting feeling of power, strength and control started leaving his body, he suddenly felt weak, the withdrawal symptoms were strong. He could barely contain his stress and fears, his mind was in chaos and his body was shriveling even when the environment around him was that of a desert.
“Alright… Let’s stay calm on this one…
What can I do?
I’m fucked…
Either I’m getting executed on the ship by the old fool or the knight kid or I leave and I try to survive in the wilderness.
Which one of those two options is better?
I… I want to live!
I WANT TO LIVE!!!
I will live even if it is only for a minute more! This is not where I die, I won’t fall to the hands of those traitors.
No way that I’m waiting here for my death. Just wait for me Simalee, I’m getting home soon!”
With his mind set on his new goal and his body pumped full of adrenaline, Falma chose the biggest bag he had in his closet, took his axe and his two large gourds before leaving the room and Jeyna’s body to whoever will find it.
Falma made his way to the food reserves without getting noticed by any of the sailors who were too occupied preparing their escape to look out for the captain. That busyness allowed him to sneak through the entire ship without getting noticed and without any obstacles slowing him down.
He didn’t bother being generous and directly started filling his bag with copious amounts of rations. He knew that the Porky Red’s crew would probably go after him once they found out what he had done and chose to ruin the remaining food ration in order to weaken their pursuit.
He threw everything he couldn’t bring with him on the ground to smash it to pieces, he stomped on what wasn’t broken enough for his taste before spilling all the water barrels to make sure that they would lack the necessary water to pursue him.
Falma descended from the stranded ship and started exploring the uncharted ocean of sand that stood between him and the rest of the weird place they had all been sent to.
Once he was far enough he took the time to take one last look at the Porky Red that he held so dearly in his heart, what he saw was terrifying; the lizards had arrived much more quickly than what the crew had expected them to.
The fact that the whole lounge was there to take revenge was not surprising but the fact that they had arrived so fast was a slap in the face to the humans. Their unusual speed was like an insult to the crew: You wanted to flee peacefully by abandoning the ship after you had made every preparations you needed, well that won’t be happening because we ran here as fast as we could just to kill you guys.
But it was a good thing for Falma because it meant that the crew that had been taken by surprise wouldn’t be able to send people after him. He was free of the threat of being captured for his sins and that lifted a huge burden off his mind,
Then the largest lizard of them all did an action that justified the fear that humanity had toward Legendary Beasts; It started vibrating its throat and after a couple of seconds it spit a gigantic wave of acid.
The acid covered half of the Porky Red as well as everything that stood between the stranded ship and the Legendary Beast, the wood started being destroyed by the effects of the solution, the sand was broken down into dust and the flesh of those who were touched by the acid started melting into a shadow of what it once was.
In no time the Porky Red was turned into nothingness and the humans started scattering towards every direction, wave after wave of lizards came rushing down on the fleeing sailors. The number of people who were able to leave the site of the massacre could be counted on three hands.
It was time for Falma to leave, the ex-captain put cloth on his head to protect himself from the burning sun and started walking toward the unknown.
|break|
Daga couldn’t believe the events that had taken place during the last hour, the whole situation was unreal (even more unbelievable than being stuck in this desert), no sane human would believe his story.
He had been in the boat when the first attack arrived, the acid that had been sprayed on the vessel started destroying the structure faster than fire burned through meat’s fat. In a couple of seconds half of the ship had crumbled.
With one attack from the Legendary Beast the crew had lost half their men and the bastion that was supposed to shelter them until they were ready to leave. The Legendary Beast did not attack after the first one, it looked from afar as if it was purposefully provoking the humans using its large size and its threatening power to show them who would win in a fight.
It lifted its head and let out a silent screech, even when no sound came out the entirety of the crew were frozen in place, their blood had gone still and their mind unable to produce a single thought.
When they started getting their faculties back the horde of lizards had started rushing down the hill they were on. A flood of scales and anger came down on the recovering humans, luckily for Daga he had learned his lesson from the last fight and only wore his chestplate.
Without the armor’s leggings he had regained a large portion of his mobility while losing a lot of weight yet he still protected his heart and lungs with the chestplate. His fighting abilities had gone up a notch with this simple trick.
Thus when a lizard inevitably reached his position he had been able to battle it by himself and was even able to kill it by piercing it through the mouth. This gave him confidence that he could fight off any lizards that would come to him.
Which would have been true if he hadn’t met one of the Great Beasts when he left the battlefield. But before leaving he had to reassemble with other members of the expedition as the desert was way too unwelcoming to travel alone, he also had to get food supplies that would last until they could find a food/water source.
He saved two sailors by killing the lizards that threatened them and they accepted following him, when they got to the food storage what they saw was a vision so horrible it froze their blood in place.
All the food and water that had been stocked there was wasted, water flooded the floor, the jerkies and the dry biscuits had been stomped until they were unsalvageable by someone with evil intentions. The barrels that hadn’t fallen over had been cut open using a tool like an axe or any other blunt objects that could leave a clean cut on wood.
This spelled the fastening of their doom, luckily a barrel of water had been left untouched by the carnage, it had been hidden behind two others which made it hard to destroy. The trio had (with difficulty) lifted it out of the safe space and brought it with them.
They somehow reached the far reaches of the battlefield without getting intercepted by too many lizards than what they could handle. Thus they were able to roll the barrel of water and almost leave the chaos and then a lizard, larger than most, came blocking their path.
It was twice Daga’s size and its scales seemed untouched by the hard reality of the desert: It was a Great Beast.
The knight had little time to think about what he should do, the lizard was obviously there to kill him and the two sailors and he was the only one strong enough to even think about fighting the beast.
The two sailors could possibly flee with the barrel if he was to hold the beast back for a long enough period of time. He had to fight to assure the group that they would have water until they found a food source.
Daga the coward had to leave the spotlight, Daga the knight was once more. He unsheathed his longsword, with his blade in front of him and his feet in position the knight valiantly challenged the lizard to protect his comrades.
The two fighters looked at each other for a time before all hell broke loose, the lizard rushed toward the knight while he braced himself for the impact. The beast’s speed was unbelievable; in less than two breaths it had crossed the distance that separated it from its prey.
With incredible reflexes Daga was barely able to parry the claws that had flashed into his vision, the lizard threw a tail sweep as it retreated. Daga was not fortunate enough and wasn’t able to move his sword in a way that would block the attack.
The knight was thrown backward by the strength of the tail, cold sweat filled Daga’s back; the speed that the Beast had just displayed was unthinkable, it was a surreal display of strength. Daga knew that this fight was unwinnable.
He could only hope for the best and tried to get back on his feet, he hadn’t even reached a crouched position that the lizard’s claws tried to tore their way in his chestplate’s backside. He rolled over to avoid the claws reaching his back and spine.
He had dropped his sword during his roll and could only watch with desperation as the lizard made its way toward him, suddenly the lizard flashed in and out of his vision, it had just crossed the distance between the two of them in a split second.
Daga’s eyes widened as he instinctively jumped back, claws had just enough reach to tear through his left cheek. His jump had barely saved his head, the beast was much stronger than he was.
He knew that he had to flee, this wasn’t a fight he could win. Even if he somehow won he would be riddled with injuries and without a medic he would die shortly thereafter. His eyes wildly checked every corner of his sight.
Near him were: his sword in the sand, the Great Beast, some piece of clothing left by a sailor and a gourd.
A short distance from him were: a piece of wood that had fallen there, a knife, a fishing rod, the dead body of a sailor and a bag.
In the distance were: the broken Porky Red, dead sailors, sailors who were fighting, the mage and his apprentice leaving the battlefield, fire, the man in black looking at him, the tent that had been there, lizards, his two companions leaving with the barrel, dead lizards and the Legendary Beast.
He once again rolled over to dodge an incoming attack, the hit did not land this time around. He ran as fast as he could toward his sword. The Great Beast started its pursuit as he was approaching his weapon, he didn’t know if he would be able to reach it before being killed but he knew that if he didn’t even try he would simply die.
The lizard flashed from its previous position to arm length of Daga, he dodged by rolling once more. The lizard had fallen for the same trick three times in a row, it was fuming with rage as Daga was able to take his sword from the ground and face the lizard once more.
He lifted his sword as the lizard appeared right in front of him, the lizard changed its strategy and chose to slam its body on Daga’s. His grip on his sword was tight and even as he was thrown back he didn’t lose it.
His body seemed to have learned its lesson and kept an iron grip around the weapon. He hit a dune, pain filled his ribcage and his head started spinning. His sight was blurred and his hearing was subpar.
He painfully lifted his sword once more, he hadn’t even landed one hit since the start of the fight yet he couldn’t stop now. He may have been a coward but under the threat of death anyone would fight back with all they had.
That was unless they knew that fighting wouldn’t cause any repercussion toward their enemy and most would simply give up. But Daga was holding on to the hope that he could still win, indeed killing a Great Beast alone was hard but not impossible.
His blade had a large crack that almost went from one side to another and his body was broken but he kept fighting, he kept struggling a slightly better tomorrow. His sword forward and his will crumbling with every second that passed, his concussion was making him weaker and weaker, he could only hope for a miracle.
Miracles are something that rarely ever happens and when they do appear to save you, they are unexpected, it is when you are on the brink of giving up. Only when you are at the end of the road, when you are ready to give up, can you fully appreciate and absorb the mercy that the world gives you.
The lizard once again flashed in and out of his vision only to reappear right in front of him.
SCHLING
Blood started dripping from the blade, the blade had become so heavy that Daga could only let it fall along with the body. His heavy breathing was a good clue to show how much stress he had been in.
|break|
A miracle had just happened and it had saved his life. Beasts had four stages of power: The first and most common was regular Beasts, they did not have abilities that were unbelievably powerful and had to rely on their races’ innate abilities to fight.
For example the Rolp Lizards were very resistant and their meat was poisonous.
The second stage of power was the second most common type of Beast: The Great Beasts, they had all the abilities of a regular Beast (same species) but greatly enhanced as well as a magical ability that only existed thanks to the second stage.
For example, the Great Beast of the Seagrilm species had the ability to create sonic waves that spread from their body as the epicenter, the closer one was to the source of the sound the more one would be weakened by the ability.
The third stage of Power was the Legendary stage, it was the stage where a Beast’s body was enhanced so much that they could destroy a city without using the ability that they had gained at the Great stage. Not only did they receive an enhancement to both their body and their magical ability but they also gained a physical power.
For example, the Salqi Queen Beetle gained the ability to create an independent (weaker) clone of itself using their new regenerative gland. The Legendary stage was also the point where their bloodline could be forcefully transplanted to human beings.
It was said that in the past there was a man who had gotten the Salqi Queen Beetle’s bloodline grafted into his own body and had gained the ability to create a clone of his younger self as well as the ability to unleash a Mind Flare attack on his opponent.
Thus it wasn’t farfetched to think that the Legendary Rolp Lizard had gained the ability to spray a titanic wave of acid from its mouth as well as an enhancement to the weird teleportation-like ability of the Great Rolp Lizard.
The fourth and last stage of Power was Godhood, only one Beast had ever achieved that stage: Khoos'Gor the God of Animals. As one could guess the Beast had achieved Godhood and no one apart from the other gods knew what abilities the Beast had gained.
It was to be said that Khoos'Gor had risen to that position using the faith of fifteen million people and this was why it deserved its throne at the pantheon.
|break|
Unfortunately for the Great Beast it seemed that its magical ability had backfired as it had reappeared with Daga’s sword directly in its heart. Daga had been as surprised as the Beast when it had happened.
He let a breath of hot air out of his mouth, a nervous laugh came out soon thereafter, he couldn’t believe that he had survived the fight. He dropped on the ground, it was a rest that he did not deserve. He shouldn’t have won, it had been a fluke, his victory was undeserved.
He couldn’t help but laugh, laugh at his situation, laugh at his victory, laugh at the turn of events. He had gotten what he had wanted from the expedition, he wanted to slay a Great Beast well he had done it.
Yet, what use did he have for that feat, he was stuck in this weird place that was in the middle of the Unknown Ocean. This goal of his now seemed so stupid.
With lots of difficulty, Daga took off the broken chestplate that was still on himself, he examined his ribs; They hurted like they did before but they were somehow not broken.
How come, he wouldn’t be able to say. But that was great news, he painfully got back up and after a long sigh he started gathering what was useful from his surroundings. The knife, cloth for the sun and the cold, the gourd of water.
The knight started following the trail left by the barrel that had been rolled by the sailors, he had to hurry and to catch up to them before the wind erased the markings on the sand.
Thus he walked, walked and walked until there was no trail left to follow, the two sailors and the barrel had left a path for him but the relentless winds of the desert had erased it. Wind blows, the sun burns and the humans anguish.
There was no guiding trail left nor was there a destination left for him to find, the only thing left was wandering around and wondering if he would die of thirst or of starvation. He walked and without a purpose other than to survive he couldn’t help but to remember the poem about the creation of the world.
On the first day, everything was erased.
On the first night, everything came to be.
Thus when the winds of destruction blow.
Humans can only look at the sky and ponder.
Thus when dawn breaks and when the world is reborn.
Humans can only accept as they disappear.
The blinding light of creation and destruction will make the world again, evolved by new knowledge.
Water will replace hunger and blood will replace power. Thus the world comes to be.
Strangely enough the first half of the poem shared quite a lot of similarities with Daga’s situation; The strange light erased his previous reality and put the people on the Porky Red in this wild place.
Now he was walking in the sand and when the winds of the desert blew they also blew away his hopes of survival. Now he could only look at the sky, at the horizon and think while hoping that he will find something that will save him.
He knew that human beings could survive without drinking water for a maximum of three days, that meant that with his gourd he had four days to find a new water source. It could be an oasis or something out of the desert, it did not matter. All he cared about was about his own survival and hopefully he would be able to get through this tribulation.
Walking was a long and boring activity, his body may have been at the peak of humans’ performance thanks to his training as a knight but his mind was weak to lack of activity.
At some point his mind shut down and his body continued walking forward in the hopes of finding something. When his mind wasn’t fully there, he would sometimes see the man in black looking at him from a distance but when he would focus there wouldn’t be anyone.
He could only guess that it was a mirage, that it was only the desert playing tricks on him.
When all of his hopes were down to the bare minimum, to their lowest of lows, he found his savior: He had somehow found an oasis.
It was right there, a miracle once more came to save him, he approached with suspicions as it was possible that this was nothing more than illusions made by his mind. But the oasis was real, he had actually found a water source and a food source.
Water was right in front of him and beasts would come to drink every so often, it was perfect for him. Furthermore, Daga was alone so the supply would take a long time to run out.
The only worry he had was: What would happen when the source would run dry, when there wouldn’t be any food nor any water left for him to consume?
|break|
Perhaps it was something that made her more human but she hadn’t given up, maybe she had temporarily wanted to die back at the Gods’ battlefield but now she had decided that she wouldn’t die. Not here!
X-29JLO knew that she ran on a battery, she had limited energy and needed to be refilled every once in a while. Thus even if she could not feel the hunger that humans spoke off, she still knew that she was starving.
It was a horrifying thing, it was starvation but not in the same way as people commonly associated the concept with. Humans could feel their hunger worsening and thus they could estimate when they were going to die.
But she did not have that privilege, indeed she did not have a stomach and instead her hunger came from energy deficiency, she could not feel her energy dwindling as opposed to human’s hunger.
She was starving yet she couldn’t feel it happening.
[...]