About fifteen minutes later, they had reached the foothills, and started up the mountainside. Their enhanced physiques allowed them to climb up exceedingly steep slopes with almost no difficulty, and they made good time in reaching the summit. There had been no monsters the entire way, but the bleating of goats could be heard from beyond the mountaintop.
When they reached the top, they saw that more and more mountains extended off into the distance with the beam of light no closer than before. This was going to be a long trip. Sam considered pulling out the ship to carry them the rest of the way, but there must have been a reason why it had dropped them off so far away. A few minutes later, Sam saw why. Titanic eagles wreathed in lightning rode the currents above the mountains, their screeches faintly audible. If their ship had gone in there, then it would have been torn apart. Sam pointed them out to the others, who all were dumbstruck at the side of the birds. For them to be that large from all the way down here, they must have been over a hundred feet long, with an even larger wingspan. Those monsters could have carried off an elephant in each claw, which reminded Sam of a roc, a mythical bird that was thought to have done the same thing. However, if anything, these birds were even larger than that.
Sam was not too worried about them however. The closest one was miles away, and it was too large to be interested in eating them. Their essence might be a tastier treat for the bird, but Sam assumed that there was no way for them to sense such a thing. As they walked across the slightly flattened summit of the mountain, Sam took a look at their surroundings. They were standing on a snow spattered table of rock, with patches of scree showing through the snow. Where the snow was missing, the stone was blackened, as if a lightning bolt had struck it. It seemed that the birds came around here sometimes, as they were the only likely source of multiple lightning bolts striking the same area.
Sam kicked a boulder off the side of the mountain, and watched it as it tumbled down. It was hard to judge the height of the mountain from simply looking, but Sam was able to roughly calculate how tall it was from how long it took for the rock to reach the bottom. A small cloud of dust rose up at the base of the mountain, and Sam was able to get his measurement. It was about two miles tall, give or take, and the mountains in the distance were even taller, with the largest ones being almost ten miles in height judging by his perspective. He told the others this, and they took it in silently.
With that, Sam started down the other side of the mountain. There was no apparent path, so they were forced to make their own, Pyotr was able to manipulate the rock around them to create stairs, which he quickly modified to being small footholds because of the drain that creating full stairs took on his mana. They made their way down slowly, focusing more on caution than speed. They had plenty of time, and rushing would only invite danger.
Halfway down, they passed by a dark cave, from within was a faint light. It felt incredibly enticing to Sam, but he could feel something off about it. It was tainted with a foul energy, but it seemed that only Sam could see it. Everyone else started moving towards the cave, as if they were in a trance.
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“Hey. Hey! Stop!” Sam shouted, but they did not listen. He dashed forwards, and pulled Edurdo back, but the man struggled against him as he did so.
“I need to get to that light,” he said, his voice completely flat.
Sam snarled, and put the man aside. He would have to deal with whatever was in that cave to free his companions from its grasp. The light grew brighter and brighter as he ran down the cave, and soon he saw its source. A massive, squat creature crouched at the back of the cave. It looked like a mound of wobbling fat, and an orb of light hung on an antenna on its forehead. It opened its mouth wide as Sam approached, assuming that he was under its spell. It started to close its mouth as it saw the others walking towards it at a more sedate pace, realizing that Sam was not ensnared by its lure. It was too late however.
Sam thrust his mace into its mouth, and imbued it with energy, twisting around and using his shoulder as a lever. The entire half of the monster’s head came off with a wet squelch, and the others suddenly came back to their senses. Eduardo was the furthest back, so he was not splattered with the wave of gore that came out of the headless corpse, but the others all got a good dose of monster viscera in the face. Spluttering, they flailed at themselves, brushing the foul substance off.
“What the hell? Where are we?” Pyotr said, squinting in the darkness.
“I’ll tell you all, but let’s get out of the cave first,” Sam said, brushing past the other towards the exit. He heard a few of them shudder as they looked at the massive corpse behind them, and eagerly followed him out. Back on the mountainside, in the light of the day, Sam noticed that everyone’s clothes were now irrevocably stained, except for Eduardo.
` “You all were affected by some sort of lure that was attached to a monster in that cave. If I had not killed it, you all would have walked into its open mouth. You all saw the corpse, didn’t you?”
“Yes. How did you resist though?” Eduardo asked. “I can remember a short flash of contact with you in the middle of my fugue. Did you try to stop me?”
“I did. You didn’t stop though, so I decided to go kill the monster. We should have some sort of contingency for this in future. What exactly did the effect of the lure feel like?” Sam asked, after answering Eduardo.
“It was like there was a priceless treasure located at the back of that cave, and if I did not go to find it, then it would be lost forever,” Addas answered.
“Yes, and it was strong enough to ensnare even me,” Lao said. “My high Wisdom should have stopped that, but I suspect that the monster was using a Dao. It was clever, using temptations against us rather than brute force. If it had tried to dominate us with its minds, then its endeavor would have failed before it even began.”
“Yes, well, the next time that you feel such an urge, try to resist it. If I am correct, you went along with the temptation in some capacity, rather than trying to resist?” Sam asked. The others nodded. “Alright. That means that you should be able to resist it if we ever encounter one of those creatures again.”
“We will certainly try,” Eduardo said. “There are no guarantees though. That was an extremely powerful effect. Next time though, I will attempt to use my Dao. Perhaps that will work.”
“Good, be ready then,” Sam responded. “For now, we have a hammer to claim.”