Chapter 62: The domain

After Hornet woke up and the chaos started anew, more things became known about the three new citizens of the Bastion. Panda, as it became apparent, followed Sairal everywhere, much to the dryad’s dislike. From the walls to his tree and back again, hovering around him. She refuses to leave the dryad alone even when he is busy making his spores.

Sairal already has a steady stream of mushroom guardians trailing in his wake, observing every move he makes. He likely doesn't want to add a panda to that. Though, unlike Chaco who continues to evade everyone, Zerzia is useful.

The one time she used her skills on me…it was intense. Intense in the way of having enough caffeine flow through your veins to drop an elephant. It was that ceaseless energy, provoking frantic movements or seeking to be let out through the use of a skill.

And then there is Hornet. The battle-hungry kid. In some ways, he’s much like Cobalt. But where she uses clever ploys, relying on her skills and only taking calculated risks, he throws his cares to the wind. He willingly breaks his body in every fight. When I asked about it, all he said was that it was how he fought, confirming what Chaco said.

With no monsters to fight he’s taking up more than the necessary shifts of guard duty; standing on the walls for hours on end, hoping that some eldritch monster attacks the Bastion for a friendly spar. When Sairal told everyone to avoid the lake, unwilling to have a repeat of when Zillindial tried to have a bath in the lake, Hornet wanted to fight the middle (E) grade.

In private I relayed the information the Chameleon told me to Sairal, saying that he will be kept out of every fight. Hornet doesn’t understand grades or strength, thinking that his skills and Panda’s abilities will bridge any gap. He’ll throw himself at the first monster he sees, ending his life in the process.

The dryad, in all his wisdom, now has mushroom guardians crowding around the insectoid creature at every moment of the day, distracting him with anything he can come up with.

I signal to Cobalt that I’ll be expanding the bindweed battlements again, my mind set on having replaced more than half of the temporary walls at the end of my grade. I didn’t think it could be done previously, grossly underestimating how skill levels work in that equation.

Along with my increasingly large pool of Stamina, it’ll be the work of weeks instead of the entire event. Perhaps even earlier if I get my hands on some good upgrades for my bindweed-related skills. The temporary loss in strength when the skill resets will be a bit painful, although I’ll probably manage.

The walls are replaced and I climb back up again, taking place next to Cobalt who’s gazing out at the world beyond the walls. “What are you thinking?” I ask her as she has her arms folded over each other, every line of her posture exuding distaste for something.

She takes her time replying to my question, her eyes doing another scan of the landscape. “The Cave crawlers are gone. I see them in the distance, however, they do not dare to approach the Bastion.”

I glance at her before turning back to the land beyond the walls. It’s true. Even days after Sairal shot his special arrow, the Cave crawlers have been absent from the nearby area. Beyond that, they are busy at work. Right next to the persisting wasteland of corrosive mana, new hives are being erected at an astounding pace.

Each time I look at the fleshy white sacks, sparks of anger ignite, searching for something to catch on fire. A part of me wants to ask Sairal to use another one of those arrows, hopefully telling them that enough is enough and that they should retreat out of the event and never reach beyond the Depths again.

Sadly, those spores are expensive, their cost likely numbering in the hundreds of gold coins. And besides, we need levels. As menial as fighting the Cave crawlers is, they are the best source of experience for now.

I turn back to the conversation at hand. “So?” I ask her. “Isn’t it good that we’re finally left alone? We have peace, fickle as it might be.”

She glares at me contempt on her face. “The mushroom guardians are not growing stronger. The new citizens aren’t conditioned to fight on the walls, and I am getting bored,” she lists the reasons on her fingertips, her tone growing more severe with each finger she taps.

“I don’t know how to fix those first two problems,” I say, looking at the nests. “I’m up for some hunting if you are,” I add as an afterthought. It’s time to test my domain out there. Stupid the Cave crawlers might be, will they tread on the ground where they know bindweed grows underneath?

From what I know, the answer is yes; it always is with the Cave crawlers. They couldn’t keep their hands off the Grove mother’s tree or the Bastion walls. However, it might be useful to test it out before I get caught with my pants down.

“And your Health?” she asks, “Dryad Sairal will not be happy.”

I let out a sigh, reminded of the promise I made to him. “I said that I wouldn’t go out as often, not that I would stay behind the walls permanently. Besides, I want to test out my domain. If you stay relatively close, it’ll be fine. Even if some dangerous Cave crawler appears, it’ll take them some time to get through all the bindweed.”

Her antennae twitch as she thinks over the proposal. Normally, Cobalt is a stickler for promises and rules. Combined with the risk it is for me to leave the Bastion, it’ll always be a ‘no’ from her. Luckily for me, her boredom is working in my favour.

She hesitantly nods, “Very well.” Cobalt motions for mushroom guardians to take our place as we head to Sairal’s tree, ready to tell the dryad we’re off on some much-needed pest extermination duty. While cutting down the hordes of Cave crawlers is boredom incarnate, it still beats wall duty.

I wave at some guardians and Hornet teaching Aeru how to wield a sword. Zillindial jumps up from his own little corner of the Bastion where flowers have begun sprouting amongst the grass, and walks up to us.

Somehow he knows our plans, even if he didn’t overhear us. “You two are going out to hunt,” he states.

Cobalt gives an affirmative nod while continuing to walk to Sairal’s tree.

Zillindial fully catches up, blocking our path, “Can I come along? I need to get stronger.”

Cobalt halts in her tracks and scans the Green Bear, noting how the fur has begun to grow back on the patches of bald skin and how the dried blood has fully been cleaned out of his fur.

“We are going to fight the Cave crawlers, Green Bear Zillindial. While we do so, neither Mandrake Green nor I can grant you the safety the Bastion provides.” The statement is provocative and somewhat belittling. Seeing how Zillindial folds in over himself, his shoulders temporarily sagging, it seems to have done its work.

Cobalt marches past him, her head held high. It’s somewhat unfair to him, how she shuts him down with only two sentences, but knowing her it's the way she protects people from themselves; pushing the truth in their faces until they either retreat or decide to push back at her.

I give a sad smile to Zillindial and pat him on the shoulder as I follow Cobalt.

“I want to fight too,” he says. The words aren’t loud, barely a whisper.

Cobalt turns around, “You might die.”

The Green Bear clenches his fists. The fur on his body stands up, making him seem larger than he is. “I don’t want to be cornered again. I- my flowers will be for war. What use is a garden if it can’t protect?”

Cobalt holds his gaze for a few moments, testing him again. Satisfied, she claps her hands together, “Good. There is strength in number.”

The three of us approach Sairal who’s already glaring at us in suspicion while Panda sits next to him, her knees folded over each other, her head swivelling between the dryad and us.

Before Cobalt and I can say anything he shuts her down, “No going near the hives and the two of you aren’t taking him with you,” he points at Zillindial.

“Why?” I ask him, “He can do what he wants.”

Sairal states the truth plainly, “First, the hives will have more security measures now that I have taken them down once. Expect (D) grades or at least high (E) grades to be there. Second, He won’t be able to keep up with you two.”

I open my mouth to protest again, yet memory catches up. Zillindial, in all his kindness, has confessed that he only has had rare evolutions and only has a single Rare rarity skill. Even if he's a higher level, he'll be weaker than us.

Cobalt doesn’t back down, “He can choose what he desires. Dying in pursuit of revenge or freedom is not an unworthy death.”

Zillindial chokes on his tongue, likely thinking of his own mortality and his life that suddenly doesn’t seem that long. Then he shakes his head and coldly stares at Sairal, the hollowness he had in his eyes briefly returning, “I want revenge. Any Cave crawler I kill is a win, a prevention of another death, or at least a possible one. I can’t defeat the humans, not yet,” he falls silent for a while the words suddenly too large to leave his mouth, “I want to be strong.”

The dryad sighs in defeat, “Very well. Do know that I have warned you. If you truly want to fight, I suggest you stay close to Green. Your skillset overlaps somewhat with his.”

He continues to talk to Cobalt stating rules and cautioning her of areas to stay clear of. I receive a few warnings of my own and soon enough we climb back up the walls, leaving the Bastion. Hornet wanted to join too when he saw us leave, though, the guard duty Sairal assigned to the forest dweller and the mushroom guardians that kept tugging at the hem of his robe to ‘play’ kept him away.

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I climb down the walls again, still hearing Sairal's final warning in the back of my mind. It wasn't so much spoken, only needing to be conveyed through a single glance; Keep to the promise you made.

He'll let me off for now, but this won't become a habit.

***

Halfway towards the hives, the pests already start swarming us, going as far as to crawl over each other to get a piece of mandrake flesh. The insects mostly consist of (I) grades that scour the land for anything new, relaying any oddities to the higher grades.

And as the usual tactics of the Cave crawlers go, when enough of the weaklings die, the stronger ones begin to show up.

It gives me more than enough time to go over the needed plans. Cobalt will roam free, taking on anything she sees as worthy to become stronger, while I, as my class serves, create a fallback point for her to rest if needed. Zillindial will stay in my domain, fighting the Cave crawlers alongside me.

I don’t think this is how the Wall Bearer was meant to be used; setting up domains in enemy territory, whittling them down on the land that has become mine, but I’ll roll with it and abuse the absolute shit out of it.

The bindweed spreads out, two dozen metres in each direction. Not too far since it’ll cost a ton of Stamina to keep the outer defences going, though far enough for us to have enough protection from any Elites that might snipe at us. It forms a maze of tight corridors that’ll trap insects, unable to turn around.

The (I) grades gradually vanish and make place for the stronger (H) and (G) grades that appear in the next thirty minutes. It’s funny when you think about it, even with how endless the pests seem to be, so many of them are killed.

Cobalt, in all her glory, smashes through them like a bulldozer. The Cave crawlers almost explode when they hit her body. The gore freezes stuck to her carapace and peels off in thick, frozen layers when it has accumulated enough. Already, she must’ve killed hundreds if not a thousand.

I work on my oasis of safety, carefully laying out paths the insects can travel through while building up the outer walls. The loose vines the pests have trouble with layer onto them. Zillindial stands next to me watching the vines rise like towering spires with awe.

With my toes fused to the bindweed underground, my body turns to him, “Don’t move past the bindweed. I won’t be able to keep most of the Cave crawlers off you.”

The Green Bear nods and begins setting up his magic. Contrary to all the elements I’ve seen, Zillindial has something new. He sheds his fur, the strands floating through the air before they land on the ground. Like seeds, flowers rapidly germinate and bloom in lilacs, golden yellows and crimson reds.

They wrap around my vines, using them as support as they grow bigger. On the few bare spots of mud, grass sprouts tall and unkempt.

I discuss tactics with him and come up with the idea that he’ll have a small room in my domain with a steady stream of Cave crawlers that’ll find his garden.

He moves away, sets up his place a bit further away from me, and waves at me when he’s done. Between the grass and the painfully bright flowers, the Green Bear is difficult to separate from his garden, blending in with the world around him. He gives me the signal and the pathways in my domain shift.

An (H) grade Cave crawler moves past my outer defences pushing itself through the tight bindweed corridors and comes to face Zillindial in his new garden. As one, the flowers shift unnaturally, their petals aimed at the unfortunate bug.

One of the crimson reds sheds three of its petals at the Cave crawler. I blink as they seamlessly slip through the insect's carapace and tear up the monster's organs.

Zillindial doesn’t have the time to celebrate as another Cave crawler enters his garden.

I keep one of my eyes on him as he fights, noting that the flowers he uses to kill the insects tend to die after a single use, even if all the petals on it aren’t used. Zillindial is forced to use more of his fur to replace what he uses. Bald spots form in his coat, quickly getting overtaken by new fur.

If a few dozen Cave crawlers amble through, he’ll be out of flowers to defend himself with, or forced to go bald. Likely, he spends Stamina to boost the regeneration of his coat. Nonetheless, with his smaller Resource pools, the time he can actively fight with his flower garden is short. It’d be his demise if he didn’t have a fallback point.

“Tell me when your Resources are getting low and I’ll redirect the Cave crawler so you can get a breather,” I say as my thoughts are pulled away from him to other parts of my domain.

The insects rage against the walls on my border, nipping at the small strands that are difficult for them to cut with their mandibles, before finding one of the dozens of pathways. When they are in deep enough, the vines rush in from all sides, dicing up the insects.

The bindweed dances in the air, more of my skills turning on when the number of pests in my home grows.

A particularly large (G) grade presses itself into one of the larger paths. A green vine is shaped like a sledgehammer, the thorns on it breaking and regrowing as it crushes the monster flat.

More come and all are washed away.

Zillindial is bent over on the ground, heaving as his Resources dwindle and his flower garden lays bare, the bald spots grow larger on his body before I cut off the corridors that lead to him.

The frozen mist hangs like a shawl around my world, partly obscuring the hungering death of my bindweed. More, come and they are wiped away.

Higher (G) grades appear, their levels climbing as time drags on. Zillindial enters the fight again. His golden flowers burst into blinding rays of light. Blue flowers pop and become balls of water cold enough to burn, and the red ones turn into shrapnel or burst into hungry fire.

An Elite that manipulates flame seeks to end me. It enters my domain jets of flaming liquid spurting out from an orb between its mandibles that set the bindweed alight. The world around it shifts, the vines pulling out of the ground like the undead. It quickly finds its flames not hot enough. And soon, that particular pest is crushed to death and extinguished.

The notifications humm in the background, a pleasant ding when one of our enemies falls. Skills are gained and I even see a level notification or two. I shut it all out, except for the victorious chimes of death.

Zillindial sets up his garden again, this time only filled with the angry reds and bleeding crimsons.

Cobalt roars as she engages with a low (F) grade, the monster the size of a hippo and at least twice as angry as one of those vengeful creatures back on Earth.

Another (F) grade rushes me, snapping through the vines like a lawnmower, its mandibles and pincers on its butt practically buzzing as they snap shut in rapid succession.

I lash out with my bindweed, the thorns sliding off the monster’s thick carapace.

My dance breaks and the melodic focus I had shatters around me. The Cave crawler ignores the deliberate pathways I built in my maze and roams free, searching for the source. I call Zillindial back, the bear leaving his garden right before the (F) grade stumbles upon it.

He moves next to me, staring at the confused monster as it probes the red flowers with the tip of its mandibles.

“Activate all of them,” I say while pushing Stamina into the walls.

The world turns to red, small jets of flames and shards of blood red launching themselves towards the low (F) grade.

Some manage to score lucky blows, pushing themselves into the weak joints or monster’s vulnerable underbelly, drawing thin lines of ichor.

Right as the field of flowers expends itself, I follow up with my own attack. The vines crash down like a tide. Thorns coil and sprout from all sides and even with its mandibles, it finds itself outmatched.

The monster’s body, likely enhanced by multiple skills is too tough. My thorns curve and break like needles on a wall of solid steel. Wrapped up, the monster might be, and yet it isn’t enough.

Even as I clench my fist, the pressure on the monster growing, the dense carapace won't give in.

Zillindial’s caught the monster off-guard with his flowers. The bug probably has some active defence skill that has a cooldown or a Resource drain. So it all comes down to a waiting game. Am I strong enough to keep the monster trapped until the skills give way, or does the wiggling movement and the buzz of its mandibles expend my Stamina before its own?

Through the gaps in the maze, and beyond the insect bodies crowding against the outer walls, Cobalt has found a new Elite firmly in (F) grade. The bug, relatively small, shoots bolts of purple magic at her. She ducks under one of the bolts, the thing taking a bite of the mud when it hits the ground.

Guess we need to sort this one out ourselves. “Zillindial, do you have a skill that might kill it if I give you an opening?” I ask the bear who’s on the ground, heaving for air and clutching his head in pain.

He lets out a soft growl. The sound, supposed to be terrifying, is more akin to one of those squeaks a chew toy makes. “No. I can’t punch through. Not when it has all those skills active.”

I let out a hum in agreement. Funnily enough, I still have weaknesses. My thorns, strong enough to rend through the weak insect, don’t hold a candle to a true offensive skill. I bet Hornet can punch through the monster’s carapace; all that force of a skill focused on a single point of contact.

It’s the same problem Sairal had with his makeshift nuke. Strong it might be, but against a high (E) grade the force is too dispersed. And it's not like I can do anything about it with my current restrictions for this evolution.

I give Zillindial a shrug to the bear’s distaste. “I guess you’ll get a longer break since it's occupying your garden.”

The bear’s annoyance breaks away for a smile, “Oh, that’s good. I think my lungs are bleeding,” he mutters something about headaches and System-induced nosebleeds under his breath.

I return his smile, a bit of devilishness leaking in at the edges, “You’ll get used to the headaches and the taste of blood.”

He shakes his head, “The forest dwellers in these parts are something different.”

***

Testament to the Cave crawler’s strength, It takes almost an hour for the skills to break down under the constant assault of bindweed. As if a switch is flicked, the carapace suddenly gives way to the force and the monster is crushed.

Just in time too. More (F) grades are starting to show up. Cobalt, happy as she can be, slams her fists into one of the pest’s skulls while she dodges a set of mandibles by leaping upwards, only to kick out with her foot and crush the second (F) grade’s brain on her landing.

She peels the most recent layer of gore that has accumulated on her carapace off and stalks through my bindweed maze as the vines part for her.

The coleoptera smiles at me, slowly coming off an adrenaline rush, “Let us retreat. We have claimed victory. I do not want to engage with any (E) grades on this day.”

My toes wiggle themselves out of the ground, disconnecting from my domain. “Good,” I say while checking my resources. After having built my maze, the Stamina drain was negligible. I only needed to expend Stamina for repairing vines and moving the bindweed.

However, as the stronger insects come, able to truly damage my walls, the drain on my Stamina rapidly grows. In the end, while holding back more than eight (G) grades at the same time, it’s difficult to allocate the right amount of Stamina to kill them. Especially when the Resources are starting to dwindle.

Cobalt turns to Zillindial. The bear had grown bored of waiting, so I gave him another place in the maze to set up a garden. To his detriment, he didn’t want to retreat when things started to become a bit rough. So, he decided to push himself. That ended with him, losing most of his fur. And I mean most of it. The bear, looking a tiny bit like a molerat with the folds in his skin, has a deep blush on his cheeks as Cobalt inspects him.

The beetle, dense as she can be, nods. “Congratulations on the level, Green Bear Zillindial,” she says.

The bear nods and we head back to the Bastion four hours of Cave crawler extermination later.