The trio walked towards where the rest of the small clan is. Balto is carrying the sleeping Radolf on his back, which is now drooling on his back. Beowul is ahead of Balto, quietly grumbling to himself. Beowul is thinking about what he just saw.
"Hey Beowul, what was that big bug thing?" Balto nudged Radolf to a more comfortable position, as the drool was dripping directly into his eyes.
"That thing was a Nightmare bug. Simply put it, it's like someone took a bunch of ants and made them stronger. They are almost as ugly as you, too."
"OK, but why was there one big one? And what was that weird dust that the big one made, also what was that weird black stuff that got on me?"
"First of all, I just told you about the ant thing. The big one was the queen. Secondly, the weird dust is how Nightmare bugs hunt. They ambush by covering the place with a special scent to put others to sleep. Usually all of them can do it, but it works quicker if the queen does it. For the last thing, it's called mana. I spoke too much today, so annoy someone else." Beowul increased his speed a bit, leaving Balto behind.
Balto didn't have much else to say, because he got interrupted by Radolf releasing a devastating dust cloud himself. Beowul picked up the haste to get further away. It smelled like rotten eggs, and the little he had eaten was threatening to come out. Who would know more about this mana thing? Maybe Fridolf knows because she is super old, or perhaps Duke? He sure looks smart.
After dropping Radolf off in front of the bush where Fridolf often is, Balto didn't bother to annoy her and went to Duke. Duke probably won't be busy with anything. As usual, Duke is resting/sleeping in the opening with the sun shining on him. He looks like a fluffy piece of warm silver, if that exist.
"Hmm, is there something important?" Duke opened one of his eyes. It was relaxed to the point that it looked like he died with his eyes slightly open.
"Duke, do you know what this mana thing is? Beowul doesn't want to talk with me because he was speaking too much for today." Balto sat down near Duke.
"Don't worry about Beowul, he will warm up to you. Mana is, quite simply, a gift from the Allfather."
"Did the Allfather make mana?" Balto tilted his head.
"No, no. When the Allfather created the world, all life were simply too weak. And the only thing that could strengthen the life that was created, the Allfather broke down his body to give it power. Some use it for hunting, some use it for helping others. But not everyone can use it. Some life can't use it no matter how hard they try. Some can learn to use it, and some are born to use it. For us, the children of the Allfather, we grow stronger with the more mana we have in our bodies." Ending the sentence with a long sigh, Duke closed his eyes and continued to sleep.
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Balto didn't want to disturb him and walked to the spot he previously slept at. He was in deep thought. The Allfather created mana to make life stronger. And the more mana someone has, the stronger they are. 'Then do I have mana?' Balto thought. The sun has gone under, leaving the sky empty for the moon. He closed his eyes and went slept.
The Nightmare bug queen was mad. Breaking smaller trees and pushing the larger ones over. She has never in her entire life been humiliated to such a degree! While the taste of dire wolves is, adequate, but that weird one! Oh, the blood was running through her dorsal vessel with fury. Her nobel and wonderful powers didn't seem to effect the odd looking dire wolf. It even made her use the incredible powers bestowed upon her by the dark one!
Her eyes and feelers were badly hurt. She couldn't see what she was running over. So she couldn't see the goblins she were running over. As she continued to run over more and more goblins, a group of goblins stood before her with hands raised. They mumbled something under their breath, causing balls of fire to shoot out and hit the Nightmare bug head on! The fire burned inside the queen's head, causing her to stumble and stopping right in front of the goblins. These goblins are taller than normal, with two small horns poking out from their foreheads. Not only that, they were a mix of green with dark red spots instead of just green.
The other goblins quickly got to work and started to cut into the still living Nightmare bug Queen. It tried to scream, but its molten mouth was cut open with shabby knifes. Its organs being pulled out and its blood being mixed with the dirt. The Hobgoblins looked on with gleeful eyes, but they didn't join the goblins. They looked away to speak to each other.
"Nightmare bug, not meant to come here. Why here?" One of them asked the rest.
"Don't know, ask Boss." One of the hobgoblins with asymmetrical horns spoke up. Another hobgoblin grimaced. This one had an eye missing.
"Boss, still angry, didn't make big dire wolf his pet. Boss killed big dire wolf to make cape." The hobgoblin rubbed his empty eye socket.
Inside a massive cave, a huge figure is standing in front of an equally big figure. Its skull had a massive greatsword embedded into, its eyes still locked onto the wielder of the greatsword. To put it simply, it looked like a massive goblin. However, there are some difference between this one and the normal goblins. Its body is filled with muscles, but with a hunched back and a protruding belly made the muscles less significant. From its head, there are three horns instead of two, shaped to look like a crown. It was standing there for a long time, looking at the massive dire wolf. Slowly, it reached out for the greatsword and pulled it out. Brain and blood splattered on the ground. Its dark green skin turning to a shade of black as it lifted one arm. Dark mana covered it, forming a bigger hand. With a single swing, the head of the massive dire wolf was smashed to a pulp with enough force to crack the rocky ground.
Its eyes flashed red for a second before going back to the normal yellow colour. Skinning something this big is going to take a long time.