Nenn and the naga stared at one another for a long moment. Naga were weird in the way that they couldn’t just sit on the ground, their anatomy did not allow for it. The naga sat there with basically just its torso vertical from the ground and its entire tail behind it.
“Well, this is definitely not how I imagined making first contact with the naga would go, but here we are,” Nenn said.
“You can speak?” The naga said, his face betraying his shock.
“Yes. Believe it or not I am a human druid,” Nenn said.
There was an audible gasp from the group that had gathered around the sitting naga. They kept their distance a little bit, but Nenn could tell he held their entire attention.
“You’re human?” the naga asked. “But, that can’t be, you look nothing like a human. We’ve all seen the Helkis’ slaves, and the corpses they hung along the fortress. You look nothing like them, demon.”
“You would do well not to compare me to a demon, naga. I know it's a bit of a catch all term for otherworldly non-light aligned beings, but you should know that I am something far worse. But enough about that. Let’s talk about what your options are.” The siphon continued to pour into Nenn.
“Our options? What do you mean by options?” The naga said.
“You have two choices. The first is to form an alliance with me and the humans of Earth right here and now. We will split the obelisk resources 50-50 with you so 20 naga and 20 humans can integrate each day. We have already done this with the Forest Goblins at the Ottawa Obelisk. Naga and humans will work together to build an equal existence here in the world of The Trial.
The downside of this is that any of the trialborn naga who have become System-enabled, and any of the newly integrated naga who are sympathetic to their faction must be put to the sword.” Nenn let that statement hang in the air for a moment as the naga peanut gallery began discussing amongst themselves.
“A-and the second option?” the naga asked, his voice shaky.
“The second option is that I put you all to the claw right here and now. You decide as a group that you do not want to participate in a fair and equal society with humans, and I will cut you down before you can even hurl another insult at me. Running away will net you the same reward by the way.” The naga were silent as they each weighed their options.
“You have 3 minutes to come to a consensus. If anyone tries to leave the camp their lives are forfeit. If someone disagrees with my proposed alliance against the group's wishes, you may put them to the sword for me as proof that you are serious about my offer.”
Nenn got up and bounced backwards into the treeline and out of sight from the naga. He watched as the group began to bicker amongst themselves. Weapons were drawn and sides were taken. Two of the integrated naga had decided to take a stand against the rest of the group. With swords and daggers in hand they clashed, but the two dissidents were put down quickly after being blasted by a couple of [Shadow Bolt]s from the naga warlocks present.
Nenn took this as his signal to come back to the discussion table. He took his seat once more and the naga leader, who had elected himself by right of conquest over his former captors, sat once more in front of Nenn.
“We choose to enter an alliance with you and the humans,” the naga said. “The two dead naga you see before you are the ones who thought we stood a chance of fighting you for our freedom. I wish to apologize for their impudence.”
“Ehh, don’t apologize for them, they made their choice, and you have made yours. Now, I need some more info on this Helkis and his faction before we can proceed.”
“Sorry, I should have said this earlier. Our agreement to form an alliance is contingent on the death of the Helkis. We can’t help you until that corpsefucker is dead. He’ll use his crests to turn us against you. We do not know if we can honor any promises we make right now. All I can offer is our intent, and that we will do everything we can to not help the Helkis.
“Sounds good enough for me,” Nenn said. “If you can’t physically help me, I need whatever information you can give me. Let’s start with the Helkis himself.”
“The Helkis is some sort of mage. He was powerful before he became System-enabled and has only gotten stronger since then. He was the leader of the naga that seized the Obelisk. Since then he has built up the fortress and enslaved the newly integrated naga to serve him. We were all branded as soon as we popped out of the Obelisk. They then ferried out of the fortress and into one of the camps outside. Some newly integrated were dragged back to the Naga controlled territory on the other side of that large mountain, so I have no idea what has happened to them,” The naga leader said.
“We don’t know what the crests even do,” Another naga piped up.
“The trialborn guards that were put in charge of us told us that they could be used to track, or kill us with merely a thought from the Helkis”
“I overheard rumors that the Helkis needs the crests in order to control his undead army. And that the Helkis could control the actions of a living marked person.”
The naga peanut gallery was now working the rumor mill as they spewed forth every scrap of knowledge they had managed to put together over the last couple of days.
“Okay, that’s enough!” Nenn shouted, returning the camp of the newly integrated naga to order. “You all can stay here, and I will deal with the problem. If I find out that you have dishonorable intentions, I will personally sit here at the Obelisk for as long as it takes to spawn camp each and every single naga that gets newly integrated until your species is extinct. Believe it or not I am actually a nice person, but I need you to understand the gravity of the situation.”
“You can make all the threats you need to make. We have no intention of inhibiting you, and are looking forward to joining an alliance with you humans,” the naga leader said.
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
“Good now-” There was rustling coming from the treeline. Two tall lanky black figures staggered out of the darkness, hesitating before coming into the light. The bodies of the newcomers were twisted and warped, the same as the zombies that harried the Denver group last night.
“Oh Mother Serpent, have mercy on us,” one of the naga said. The zombies fixated on the naga and charged forwards towards them.
“[Entangling Roots]” Nenn said out loud for the others to hear. He lanced the zombies mid-charge, sending sharpened roots up through their mid-section at a 45 degree angle. It was enough to sheer their upper torso off, which then slid and fell off of the inclined ramp the roots had made. The zombies continued on, pulling themselves along with their arms towards the cowering circle of naga.
“[Rot]” Nenn said and the zombie’s corpses began to melt into a gunky black ooze, leaving only their mangled and broken bones behind.
“Does anyone know what those are?” Nenn asked.
“Those are Helkis’ creatures,” the naga leader said. “In the fortress there are many of those… things.”
“It all makes sense now. Helkis is definitely the necromancer I have a bone to pick with. If I had to take a guess the marks serve two purposes. He can tell where you are, and the marks serve as a primer for his magic. Magic that requires you to be already dead. If it didn’t, he would have already turned you into one of those zombies. Otherwise, the zombies that he sent would have attacked me first, and not you. He sent those things here to kill you, not me,” Nenn said.
“Well, fuck,” the naga leader said. “But, the other camps! The camps are filled with the integrated naga. If he sent those here, he must be sending more of his undead servants to cull the rest of them.”
“Yeah, I’m starting to think he was holding you as livestock. The plan was to fatten you up with some levels before killing you and increasing the size of his army. But, time is ticking. Now that we have a rough idea of what the mark does, we have the chance to save some of the other integrated naga before they are converted. This is a chance to win freedom for your fellow naga. I’ll go on ahead, and you come in behind me and tell the survivors what is happening. Don’t worry about the camps towards the smaller mountain. Everyone over there is dead already.”
“We will do so. May your nets be full, and your spear sharp,” the naga leader said.
Nenn didn’t waste any time and bolted out of the campsite at a steady sprint. The time for stealth had long since passed, and speed was now essential. The more integrated naga he could save the better. What kind of an idiot am I for thinking that all of the naga were our enemies? The integrated, no matter what species, share a common link. The mutual hatred of The System. Of The Trial, and of the people who are behind all of it. The enemy of my enemy is my friend after all, Nenn thought.
A moment later and Nenn was at the next camp, which had already devolved into chaos. It was a camp that held twenty-some integrated naga, with four trialborn watchers. Well, there were only two now as the other two were permanently out of commission on the ground. The integrated naga were holding their own against the more experienced, and probably higher leveled watchers. A humanoid zombie was also present, and it was cutting through the integrated naga without much resistance.
Nenn lunged through the air and landed on one of the watcher’s backs. He lacerated his overburdened foe with his claws before dragging it to the ground. In the confusion that followed the integrated naga had managed to land a debilitating blow against the remaining watcher.
“Please no, the Helkis will-” The watcher never got to finish its final sentence as one of the integrated naga drove their trident through the trialborn’s throat, stapling it to the ground.
Nenn felt the siphon effect begin to refill his resources. He shuddered as the feeling of ecstasy returned. I will not lose myself this time, Nenn thought.
The humanoid zombie was still rampaging on the other side of the camp. Nenn made the dash around the integrated naga, who looked wholly surprised that something had come to their aid, and fired off an [Entangling Roots] cast at the zombie. Only, this time the root lances were stopped dead in their tracks as they smashed into a blue translucent shield that popped into existence.
The zombie turned its attention towards Nenn, letting out a guttural howl at him. Nenn felt the instinctual need to respond in turn. He felt the power build within his chest and released a booming thunderous growl that even gave the zombie pause.
Nenn seized the opportunity and lunged at the zombie. He aimed slightly off of the zombies body, and slashed out, his claws catching the blue blooming mana shield. The blow was deflected, and Nenn in turn was deflected. The glancing blow and his own momentum carried him through and he landed exactly where he had planned to.
He had learned from watching Aiden nearly get stomped on by the ogre. As long as the mana shield was active, he would have to plan where he was going to land, and make sure it was out of range of the zombie’s sharp limbs.
The zombie wasted no time as it charged at Nenn with reckless abandon. It was dead after all, and it was literally a pawn of the Helkis, so it made sense that it would not hold anything back as it attacked. Every step it took was one with the sole thought of aggression. If it was not for the mana shield, the zombie would have already been half consumed by Nenn’s siphon.
The zombie was quicker than any of the other ones Nenn had fought. Its arms were different too. Rather than one longer sharp arm, this one had two shorter sharpened arms. Almost like they were daggers. Nenn dodged the charge by jumping a dozen meters to his left. The zombie charged right through where he had been. It immediately came to a rigid stop, and turned towards Nenn once more.
Nenn casted [Entangling Roots] This time a wall of roots appeared between Nenn and the zombie. As the zombie charged, its shield flared to life as it hit the root wall. The zombie inside the shield was forced to stop as it bounced off of the inside of it’s own shield.
Using the last bit of control in the cast, Nenn willed the roots to encircle around the mana shield and to constrict. The roots obeyed and the zombie was stuck. The translucent blue mana shield was slowly becoming more opaque with every second that passed. The zombie inside of the rootball did not have the faculties to cancel the shield, so it was stuck inside its degrading blue hamsterball.
I will have to remember that for later. The caster of a mana shield cannot pass through their own mana shield while it is active. Also, I should probably start using mine. Nenn thought. This was his second opponent that had a mana shield. It’s possible the alligator did too, but Nenn was always within the monster's guard, so to speak, rendering its shield useless.
The mana shield popped with the sound of shattering glass, and the zombie finally fell through a hole in the root wall. It had been leaning against the inside of its own mana shield when it popped and had been unable to correct itself before losing its balance.
Nenn had grown tired of fighting the one zombie and casted [Rot]. The zombie tried to rise from the ground, but as it went to push off of the ground with its arm, its shoulder squelched and turned into the all-too-familiar black inky liquid that dripped to the ground.
The rest of the zombie quickly followed as it disintegrated into nothing but bone fragments. The warmth of the siphon’s mana stream activated joining the dwindling supply from the watcher’s corpse. The camp was clear, but there were many more that needed Nenn’s help right now.
Rough math told him that half of the integrated naga were now accounted for. The other half lay in jeopardy ahead of him. Nenn sped off into the bush, not bothering to say a single word to the integrated naga of the camp. Hopefully the other group of naga will be able to bring them up to speed. I just hope they agree to my alliance like the last group.