Chapter 60: Smooth Sailing
Zillindial continues screaming about death and murder as the angry lake monster hurdles him through the air as if it is having a temper tantrum.
Sairal kicks himself off the ground, pulls out a dagger from his pocket space, and cuts off the tentacle as if it is nothing. With his free hand, he grabs onto the bear and somehow makes a clean landing on the grass.
More tentacles burst out of the lake, writhing with ill-disguised rage. Each of the monster’s purple limbs stretches out from the deep pool, searching for any forest dweller or mushroom guardian that might be around its home.
Everyone, having more than enough experience with the lake monster thanks to Aeru and his gang, has already taken a few steps back. The guardians curiously watch the monster's head rise above the water’s surface, reddish reptilian eyes glaring at any offender. Its gaze lands on Sairal before slowly backing away, sinking under the surface without leaving a single ripple behind.
And that is just another day in the bastion. A mild sense of surprise, a bit of trauma thrown into the mix, and no deaths.
***
Zillindial watched the mandrake, the dryad and the curious blue insect move around their camp during the day. The dryad, ruled with an iron fist as he moved between the idle guardians around his tree and the ones standing guard on the walls.
Each of the dryad's commands was followed to the letter. The wooden walls were taken down for the mandrake to build them anew. The coiling vines replaced the haphazardly stacked together logs, the gaps stuffed with smaller sticks and dirt by the less combat-capable guardians.
Under the dryad’s reign, the fortress was growing stronger. However, Zillindial had to look twice at the other two who were more interesting than a first glance told. Starting with the blue insectoid creature, who had told him several times that she apparently wasn’t a Cave crawler Elite that had decided to rebel against her species. And he had to admit that she didn’t share much of her appearance with the monsters.
Then again, when he found this safe place, he could barely stand. He still remembered how hungry he was, how the lack of drinkable water made his tongue seem to be made out of stone, weighing down his mouth and straining his neck. His Resources were pitifully low, and most of his skills were spent evading the humans and the Cave crawlers that came after. But as custom, to one of a higher level, he had apologized. And the insectoid creature didn’t seem to bear grudges, only taking the time to respond with a few words before moving on with her work.
Zilindial watched her move, teaching the curious mushroom guardians to punch by throwing all their weight behind it. He listened to her explain to them how to balm up their fists without hurting themselves. After her initial lesson, the topic shifted to the weaknesses various monsters had and the ones they should do their best to avoid.
It was a curious sight. How and why did these soldiers whom others used as pawns on a board or as cards to be discarded, get trained and cared for? The ones wounded by defending the walls were instantly sent back by the dryad to recover in his grove. Even if the guardians seemed willing to continue to f-
The wind moved, bringing a tinge of frost and winter along with it. The beetle creature wreathed herself in it as if she were one of the cold mages that helped tend to the special plants in the inner forest. He had heard the stories from his neighbour. How she told them of the frozen mosses that they kept in glacial caverns. Zillindial didn’t believe her at the time. Now though, as he watched the blue one practice her abilities. It didn't matter anyway, he never got to speak with her again.
He pushed the pang of sadness away and continued to watch the blue beetle. After practising her skills, she climbed with the mushroom guardians over the wall, likely seeking enemies beyond the battlements.
That left the mandrake, perhaps the most curious of all. Not only because of how strange he was compared to the few of his kind he had met before but by how he carried himself. The creature stood in the sun which was normal for them. The crown of leaves on the being fully unfurled, likely converting the sunlight to experience thanks to one skill or another.
That is where the similarities ended. Zillindial watched the forest dweller’s body ripple, the green vines he was made of twist and turn, shaping the mandrake's body into something different. Feet turned into talons, the hooks on them sharp enough to rend flesh off the bone. Legs elongated and thinned out, giving a greater height and a wider step. Arms distended from his side, the vines growing downwards to form almost whip-like tendrils that carried lethal spikes on their ends.
The mandrake took a curious step and fell to the ground, unused to the changes, but quickly adapting.
He had watched the mandrake experiment over the past day, gaining confidence in his abilities and moving on to more extreme changes.
The mandrake morphed once more, slowly turning back to normal. Then the vines began glowing with a hue as the forest dweller took off, bounding to the walls and gesturing to the mushroom guardians to replace yet another dozen metres with something more sturdy.
It was a strange place, he concluded. He didn’t know if it was just them, the monster in the lake that almost killed him, or how a dryad tree stood out in the open, ready to be targeted from kilometres away.
However, this strange place was one of comfort. The canopy of the Grove mother was gone. The roots that warded the invaders off, were consumed and eaten. Her trunk defiled by the adventurers with their weapons and flames.
His heart ached for the memories and he felt his shoulders shudder, his throat pressing close as his stomach tied itself into knots. How many made it out when the defences failed? And how many fled past the insects to the land of mud?
Perhaps he was the only one from the dozens who hid in or under the Grove mother’s canopy. It hurt to think of it. And it hurt even more to think of those who had spent weeks with to be suddenly gone.
He shut the memories out for now, even behind the walls, war raged on. Zillindial looked around once more and concluded that this was a good place. Not as perfect as before, but good. Maybe, if the dryad allowed it to be, he could even get his own patch of land to grow his flowers on.
Something whispered in the back of his mind, what did it matter? The flowers didn’t stop the insects or humans. They were flowers, not grand weapons or magic. He was ill-suited to war. He didn’t want to be. Zillindial only wanted to devote his life to the forest, making it better in his own way.
But with the forest gone, there wasn’t much to improve on. He had to think about this, what he wanted to be. Maybe the flowers he tended to, did need to become weapons. Maybe the coiling stems and the prickly thorns of his favourite rose bush were meant for strangulation and murder. Possibly, the sharp petals of the Joys of spring had been intended to stab into flesh.
He had to think about a lot.
***
The Stamina courses through my body, providing me with almost unnatural speed and an alacrity I normally lack. The world moves so slowly around me. Or I’m just that much faster.
The mushroom guardians reach out together. Their arms grasp open wide, ready to pull me into a bear hug. I twist out of the way. My eyes see the perfect path and my body follows as if they are one. My being shifts like clay, edging away from one of the grabbing hands-
I’m gone, out of the encroaching circle and speeding towards Sairal’s tree. The mushroom guardians storm after me, arms pumping on their sides or wildly swinging above their heads while they give me another exasperated look with their beady eyes.
I bound over the moss, evading several of the hibernating guardians that suddenly wake up. White arms push themselves out of the moss as if Sairal’s tree is placed right in the middle of a cemetery that has a zombie problem.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
One snags onto my foot. Their fingers find the strands and pull me back, keeping me away from my goal. Bindweed of nature flicks on, and I meld my foot into something else; something hard to hold onto. I imagine an eel, its skin smooth and slippery. Then I try to match my foot to the image in my head, ignoring the sense of vertigo as my balance shifts away from what I’m used to.
The feeling is sudden and unwelcome, but this close to my goal, I won’t be defeated.
Another set of arms grabs onto my leg, and I settle onto something else. The eel is forgotten and a rubber band takes its place. I stretch my leg out, the bindweed thinning as I limp on with my free leg to the finish line. The mushroom guardians, a bit slow but not stupid, begin to reel me in like a fish on a hook.
I touch Sairal’s tree and cheer, another victory in the pocket.
The guardians, not holding a grudge, gently applaud, their large hands clapping together like the pattering of rain.
I give them my thanks again for helping with my training. The impromptu game of tag, where I need to reach the tree while the mushroom guardians try to capture me, is ideal. Skills need to be applied perfectly or else I’m captured and kept from my goal.
The competitive guardians force me to use multiple skills as they coördinate with each other, coming up with clever tricks and ploys. It’s enough to give me a slight headache, especially once I end my current cast of Stamina Surge. Though, it has proven to be more than useful, providing a steady increase in my skill levels for now.
Perhaps when the game becomes too easy, I might need to ask more mushroom guardians to help me. Or do the same with Cave crawlers trying to kill me as I sneak towards their queen’s chamber.
And speaking of the bugs, not even five days later, the pests are back to building their grotesque homes. Not in the same place. They can’t handle the corrosive magic that still lingers where their hives were. Stupidly, they have decided that right next to the wasteland is a place as good as any.
I take position in the sun and focus on pulling in as much sunlight as possible. While the skill is passive, I’ve found that conscious thought and achieving a greater understanding of how it works in the minutia is proving to grant more skill levels.
My senses focus on my leaves, feeling the sun fall on them, slowly pulling that energy into me, pushing it down the veins in my body and trapping it in the stocks I’m building up in my body.
Now that I’m in (F) grade and my Stamina pool has increased by leaps and bounds, the skill is leaning towards the useless side. Right now, having not pulled on those stocks ever since the fight with the [Chimera’s Vestiges[, I have a good 400 points of Stamina stored up. It’s not as much as I hoped for. Even so, when everyone is down for the count, dead on their feat at the end of a battle, I can just open the floodgates and enjoy another 400 points of Stamina in the tank. With some more skill levels, I’m hoping to increase the efficiency and the speed which I can build up the points with. When I gain an upgrade for the skill, I'll pick the one that increases the speed for building up the stocks.
With the walls mostly free from constant attacks, Sairal has been working on his newest skill. He’s expanding the Mycorrhizal network beyond the walls for some reason. He's spending the rest of his time teaching the guardians how to wield bows or crafting new spores under the canopy of his tree. Likely, having that many of the mushroom guardians active all the time has demanded a toll on the dryad, eating into his resources and mental energy.
But since the pests have backed up, afraid of the dryad with bioweapons, everyone has some extra free time on their hands. It's quite relaxing, to be honest. Then again, Cobalt has been growing weary for the same reason. Several times each day she goes out hunting down human parties that stray too close to the Bastion. It isn’t where her heart lies, she told me. She’d rather fight the bugs.
She has asked Sairal to destroy the nests again or give her the means to do it. Sairal careful as he is, told her that it wasn't a good plan to draw even more attention to us. Cobalt, acceding to the dryad that it indeed might not be for the best, has settled on making the guardians an elite fighting force. I'm not totally certain what she's planning but it looks like she's content for now.
Green Bear too, has been growing more comfortable in the days after his arrival. He’s been mostly staying close to Sairal’s tree, sleeping on the comfortable moss. The bald patches in his fur have started to regrow, and even the wound in his neck is slowly closing after Sairal dealt with the infection. And yet, it isn’t enough.
I stare at the bear in question from the corner of my eye, wishing for something but not knowing what. It’s just unfair. How can someone who’s at the bottom of (F) grade stand up against tides and tides of Cave crawlers with a few humans thrown in the mix?
Cobalt can, I guess. When Zillindeal showed what his abilities were, I realised that Cobalt is indeed a cut above the average (F) grade. She took down a Hive queen with barely any assistance aside from some minor distractions and my meddling to keep the other Cave crawlers out.
Somehow, I don’t think Zillindial will be able to do the same, much less take on an Elite Cave crawler on his level.
Sairal did say that we were stronger than average, though, I thought it was just something anyone says to be kind. And now looking at the one other example of a forest dweller I have, he might’ve been right.
A mushroom guardian approaches me and points to the walls, signalling that I'm needed, even if I’m not on wall duty today. With a tinge of worry in my steps, I head to the wall and move up to Sairal who’s surveying the landscape.
“You called?” I ask him.
He gives me an absent nod, tracking an empty spot on the muddly land, his eyes narrowed in confusion. “It’s likely nothing, but prepare your skills. There is something out there.”
I take a step back, suddenly wondering if one of those monsters of the second layer evolved. From what I’ve seen from evolutions, it wouldn’t be out of the question for them to turn into something entirely different, or gain a new element.
“What are you seeing? I don’t have a lot of Perception.”
He continues to track something, his frown slowly growing more severe. “I don’t know. I haven’t seen something like it before. It’s a blank spot, a shimmer, and it’s trying to make me forget it,” he hisses the last words.
I follow his eyes and find nothing. My eyes squint close and I notice the blur after he points at it. It’s as if something is underwater, rippling in the air, while it moves at a snail’s pace.
Cobalt jumps up to the walls on the other side with Zillindial on her shoulders. More mushroom guardians follow right behind them. Their eyes move like searchlights over the ground, not spotting the oddity.
The dryad fills in Zillindial and Cobalt whose antennae begin moving in erratic patterns. Instead of jumping down the walls and searching for the strange blur, mist swirls around her, streaming down the walls over the ground.
Sairal's hand leaves space and comes back with his bow and arrow. He raises it and aims at the shimmer.
The frozen air reaches the oddity and draws it closer to reality. The faint blur morphs into something that can only be described as a walking soap bubble with three indistinguishable shapes inside.
I let bindweed curl out from my toes. Incidentally, not everything happens on the bindweed battlements. And I wish it did. Up here the walls aren’t entirely mine, so my class falls a bit flat. I spend a quarter of my Stamina on the vines that begin to cover the outer wall, should it come to a fight.
“Don’t attack. Yet,” Sairal says before calling out to the spot that’s a good fifty metres removed from the walls. “Come any closer,” he says with an even tone. He raises his bow, pulling back the arrow, “And I’ll shoot.”
Cobalt conjures spikes of ice, ready to fling them at the threat before moving in close, and I push another quarter into the bindweed, willing it to move as my thoughts demand.
Then, like a curtain, the bubble falls away to reveal three creatures. Forrest dwellers.
Sairal’s bow lowers slightly and Cobalt gives them a puzzled look.
I continue to stare at a chameleon that blends in with his surroundings, unclear where his body begins and ends. Next to him, is another creature. Compared to the others, it's small, likely only being a good metre tall. Its hands are clasped tightly around the handle of an oddly shaped sword. The blade is narrow and round as if someone decided to model the thing after a toothpick.
Its insectile eyes glare at me, most of its features hidden under a brown hood and swirling cape.
Behind the duo stands a giant. The panda cowers behind the two smaller forest dwellers while it wilts under our collective glares. I don’t blink twice at the group, having had the same experience with Zillindeal several days ago.
[Mirage Chameleon] lvl 17/40 (F)
[Stinger Wasp] lvl 18/20 (G)
[Support Panda] lvl 6/40 (F)
Decent strength. They wouldn't have survived without it.
Sairal puts his bow away and folds his arms over each other. “It is not polite to sneak up on us, much less use minor mind magics,” acid drips off the words, enough to make the panda reel back as if slapped across the face.
I turn to the group and give them the same glare.
The panda wilts even further. “...sorry,” she says in a high-pitched tone.
“I demand a duel!” the bug creature roars. It steps closer to the walls, mandibles spread open in a grin. The panda pulls at the rims of the hood and drags him back. “I challenge you for passage!”
The chameleon, last to answer, copies Sairal and folds his arms over each other, “So?” the words are drawn out and oddly provoking.
This, however, does make me pause. Sairal ignores all three and marches on skipping to the end of the conversation, “Can we help you?”
Panda answers first, “We seek refuge.”
“Respite!” the bug creature yells.
The chameleon drops his arms to his sides and puts a more placating tone in his voice, “We need to rest.”
And, barely five days after Zillindeal came to the Bastion, another three forest dwellers join. That moment too, was where any semblance of peace vanished.