Snuffing out lives was extremely easy. The humans had become lax.
There was no littering, but there were outings, picnics or just people enjoying the scenery.
A scenery that would get filled with blood.
Loran had stopped caring.
What did it matter? The only person that cared and could help him was gone.
The bloody day ended, and the Moorland Menace returned to the stream.
Eileen’s tent and body were gone. There had been traces of a cleanup crew as the blood was gone.
Loran’s only hope was that Eileen’s work got respected and put to use.
The spirits acted as if nothing had happened, and it greatly upset Loran. Another attempt was made to break free but no success. He wasn't allowed to express his frustration, loss and pain. All he was allowed was to observe how the Moorland menace had the spirits bathe in spectral fire.
Pure blue for sharing, black and blue for offense.
Eileen had failed to explain if the use of offensive spectral fire would also consume ‘spirit energy’ but she had no opportunity to investigate this.
Loran tried to keep track of the victims. Eileen had inspired him to do his own research, limited it may be. He would be able to mentally prepare if he knew when a peaceful era would end.
Already 116 deaths in the first day. One man had gotten lucky and managed to escape as he had magic specialized in running, probably a Toxic Donkey.
The Moorland Menace followed him well beyond the moorlands, suggesting that the cursed armor wasn't limited to just the moorlands. It was bad news for humans and beast kin, but it was possible for Loran to see the jungle again. But how to get the Moorland menace there? And would it get renamed to the Jungle Menace when it could enter the jungle?
‘Thud, thud, thud.’
Was it time again?
The visibility was poor as water was pouring out of the skies. Why would anyone visit the moorlands in this weather?
‘Thud, thud, thud.’
The target got in sight. It wasn’t a human, beast kin or an elf.
It was a black cloud with strange purple lights, and it was attacking water spirits.
The Moorland Menace raised its arm and a [Spectral Fire Pillar] erupted out of the ground from underneath the cloud.
The water spirits fled, and 4 mean spirited eyes turned around the cloud and glared at the Moorland Menace.
Loran had no idea, but it wouldn’t take much guessing to arrive at the conclusion; this must be an evil spirit.
The Moorland Menace crossed its arms in front of it’s body as the black cloud let out a shrill shriek.
‘Thunk, clunk’
And the armor collected dents and scratches as it was slowly getting pushed back.
The purple lights in the cloud changed to green and beams of light shot at the Moorland Menace, which sped up and did it’s best to avoid these strange attacks. Every incurred hit earned the armor a gash, tear or dent in the armor.
The barrage continued until the lights returned to purple.
‘Thud, thud, thud.’
Faster, even faster. The Moorland Menace passed the cloud, slid over the muddy road, turned around and caught the cloud in between the space of it’s cupped hands.
The eyes turned around on the cloud in time to get hit by the [Spectral Explosion].
The shriek returned, and the Moorland Menace got pushed back while incurring scratches.
The spectral fire disappeared, and the cloud was unharmed, although many times smaller.
Purple lights shifted to green and the barrage of green [Spectral Beams] shot at the cursed armor, who crossed its arms in front of its body and rushed in.
The ‘thunk’ and ‘clang’ sounds made Loran root for this strange cloud. ‘Yes! A bit more and you will be able to kill me!’
An armored arm stretched out to the cloud and grabbed it.
Offensive spectral fire covered the Moorland Menace’s arm and spread to the cloud, who continued shrieking and shrinking until it disappeared and stopped making noise.
It wasn’t strange for the Moorland Menace to become unrecognizable, but this was the first time that physical damage was responsible for it.
‘I suppose he will go visit the earth and nature spirits now.’ were Loran’s thoughts. A logical thought, but that wasn’t what happened.
A shriek came from the jungle in the south, the same shriek the cloud had let out several times.
‘Thud, thud, thud.’
The moorlands zipped by as the jungle got closer and closer.
The frequency of foliage and trees increased as the moorlands transitioned into a jungle.
Claws mowed down the branches, foliage, vines and more blocking the Moorland menace’s path.
The ‘thud, thud, thud’ had disappeared and got replaced by plants snapping or cracking under the armor’s weight.
All Loran saw was green flashing by, as the Moorland Menace didn’t claw plants as he used to do. This was also the reason Loran preferred path’s as clawing plants to create a path was exhausting and unpleasant.
The shriek went off again, and the Moorland menace changed its direction slightly to adjust to the change of location.
The ground disappeared from below Loran as the moorland menace had ran into an open area that a significantly lower altitude than what he had been on previously.
Another reason Loran disliked clawing path’s as this had happened to him many times in the past.
The Moorland Menace tumbled down and took down several trees in it’s landing.
A strange tree-like spirit and a wind spirit resembling a rapidly spinning air sphere were combatting another black cloud spirit.
Something else laid on the ground. It resembled a spirit, but it lacked its… spirit.
Despite being in danger these 2 spirits were lively, the spirit on the ground wasn’t it even appeared to be dead.
Loran made a hasty conclusion which had a high possibility of being correct.
The Moorland Menace raised its arm and a [Spectral Fire Pillar] shot into the cloud from below.
It was like a déjà vu. This cloud behaved in a same manner.
The spirits fled as this cloud started to shriek, followed by purple lights turning green and shooting beams.
Loran had difficulties identifying any differences from this fight and the previous fight. The Moorland Menace was taking damage and reacting to this situation in an identical fashion.
Was this coincidence, or did something mess with time?
The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
The lights in the cloud turned purple, and the Moorland menace picked up speed, it slid past the cloud and used [Spectral Explosion]. To then endure another streak, grab it and destroy it like the last time.
It wasn’t a time loop. The armor was way more damaged than before.
The Moorland Menace sat down as if to rest, armor creaking.
As if they had made an appointment, spirits appeared and started repairing the armor in exchange for blue spectral flames.
It appeared that this interaction wasn’t just limited to the moorlands. Every spirit would have this interaction.
Several jungle animals passed by but didn’t engage or disturb the Moorland Menace, who clearly looked out of place in the jungle.
A leopard beast kin stumbled upon the Moorland menace and made the intelligent decision to flee.
No movement in the armor however as it needed the repairs badly.
The rain was unrelenting, but the spirits didn’t seem to mind.
Did Loran have to count the death of evil spirits also under the casualties?
2 days was how long the repairs took. Nothing died to the Moorland menace for 2 days.
All it did was fight 2 evil clouds, and that was enough to put it out of commission for 2 days.
The Golden Angel Eileen had been correct, only spirit magic was able to damage the armor.
Loran didn’t mind the 2 hour break in the jungle. It had been over 2 years that he had been trapped in the armor, which meant 2 years had passed since he had really been in the jungle.
It was quite far from his village as it laid to the west of the Aquini river and this part was on the east side but a jungle was a jungle. He might not even be in Lopahz anymore but in the Aquini kingdom, not that it mattered.
There were no movements despite the reparations having completed. Spectral fire was feeding the spirits which all seemed to be a step above lesser spirits.
Were these minor spirits or was the step above lesser spirits, medium spirits?
Loran was unaware of the spirit classification but he believed something must have been between ‘lesser spirit’ and ‘medium spirit’ as the flexing water spirit near the stream was stronger than a lesser spirit but didn’t seem up to par to what he would expect from a medium spirit.
The spirits receiving spectral flames from the Moorland menace had complex forms, were quite large, and gave off a feeling of higher competency.
The spirits reacted to an approaching panther.
It went straight toward the Moorland Menace, which got up.
The distance closed in a moment and a punch landed on the face of the panther, who rolled over the ground.
Something flew out of the panther and shrieked.
‘Thunk, clank’
More damage to the armor.
The Moorland Menace raised its arm, and the spirit that had previously possessed the panther got obliterated by a [Spectral Fire Pillar].
The panther in question fled near instantly.
The spirits gathered and recommenced the repairs.
This brief interaction had [proven that spirits could also possess living beings. Was this the case for Loran? But he was encased in armor, he was inside the armor and not vice versa. Was there anything like reverse possession?
2 days and the Moorland Menace had claimed 119 victims, of which 3 were evil spirits.
Another day got spent in the jungle and the cursed armor moved, turned around and faced the wall which appeared to be the edge of a cenote.
It didn’t appear to be the case to Loran at first, but that’s what this must have been.
The armor accelerated and tried to run up the steep slope, failed and slid down.
Another attempt. This time with more progress, but the ultimate result was sliding to the bottom.
Anyone would have gone to find a different solution, but not the Moorland Menace, as it kept trying to run up the slope and try to reach the top.
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“Hey Loran, why do we wolf beast kin live in the jungle? It’s not our original habitat, is it?”
Loran looked next to him at his friend Wild Claw, who was looking out of the window of their tree house.
“Did you fall asleep during your lectures again?”
“I’m a ‘do’ person, not a ‘listen’ person!” Wild Claw said as he flung a rock through the window.
“So does that mean that you won’t listen to my explanation?”
“Uhh, of course I will listen! Those teachers are just boring.”
“Well, it appears that most beast kin have been driven to these jungles. It was either jungle or extinction. At least that’s what the teachers told us. Humans seem to do poorly in dense and dangerous jungles like these, which is why even wolf beast kin like us and camel beast kin live here. Even though those prefer to live in the desert.”
“But aren’t deserts human unfriendly too?”
“Ok then, tell me how you would hide in a desert!” Loran said as he pointed a stick at his friend.
“Uhhm, you dig?”
“And why do you think camel beast kin can dig?”
“They can adapt!”
“Yes, that’s why they adapted and do just fine in the jungle…”
Noise came from outside and Wild Claw started flinging more rocks. “So…. What happens if the jungle disappears? Also, can you help me? The monkeys are using [Stone Turds] again.”
“That’s because you keep provoking them…”
Loran looked out of the window to assess the situation and took a [Stone Turd] to the face.
“Ooow! That hurts! This is your fault!”
“Hehe, would you rather prefer normal turds then?”
Loran glared through a crack of the tree house and shot a monkey out of a tree with a well aimed [Wind Lance].
“Well if the humans cut down the jungle, they would be shooting themselves in the foot but… we would be quite doomed. They would invite calamity on themselves, however.
“Aaah, my head! Stupid [Stone Turds]!”
Wild Claw rubbed his forehead that had started to bleed and sent a [Gale Wolf] at the monkeys. The Galewolf was unable to climb trees, so it fell before being useful. “I hate monkeys…”
Wild Claw took cover and faced Loran. “Calamity? Because I will claw them all down?”
Loran shook his head and flung a [Wind Lance] at a monkey that tried to invade their treehouse.
“I think we might have to abandon this treehouse but to answer your question… the elves and jungle dragons won’t sit still if their jungle get’s destroyed. Either of those would be enough to pose a serious threat to the humans if they came into action. It’s just… they don’t”
“Is it because the’re legendary beings?”
“Probably.”
Wood shattered and the monkey screams became louder.
[Stone Turds] and rotten fruit made their way into their sanctuary and the decision was made to abandone the treehouse.
“My home…”
“It’s not your home and what did you expect after provoking monkeys!”
Loran grabbed Wild Claw, used [Wind Walking] and leaped out of the treehouse that was surrounded by belligerent monkeys.
Wild Claw dealt with the attacks flying their way, while Loran handled the escape and the landing.
“How about we go visit an elf or a dragon!”
“Dude, are you insane? Elves are one thing, but dragons are one of the few races that don’t speak Kaledonian. Do you know Draconian?”
Wild Claw scratched his temple, earning him a [Stone Turd] to the face, as he wasn’t paying attention.
“Aagh! That’s it! I’m going to wipe out these monkeys! Let me go!”
“How about you use that energy to help me escape…”
“Monkeys! You better thank Loran as he saved your asses today! I will be back one day and unleash the wrath of a jungle dragon upon you, hahaha! See how your [Stone Turds] square up on those! Wahahaha!”
Loran weaved between the trees and dove in a stream and swam to the other side.
“So ehh Loran, how do I send a dragon after those assholes?”
“I would not recommend that, but if you are serious, you will get targeted too. All you need to do is enter their territory. They like to live near cenotes or in large hollow trees. It’s why we’re told to avoid suspiciously large trees or big holes in the ground. Come on, you’re heavy!”
The wolf beast kin dragged themselves out of the water and glared at the monkeys who were left behind on the other side.
“Haha! Where is your god now?! Should have added swimming to your monkey starter pack instead of flinging turds! Haha!”
“Uhhm, monkeys can swim…”
Loran pointed at several monkeys who started to cross the stream.
Wild Claw grabbed Loran’s arm. “This is bad… we need to run!”
The wolf beast kin fled from the hordes of monkeys chasing them while evading [Stone Turds] and real turds.
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A roar broke Loran out of his memories.
The climbing had ceased as the moorland menace had made it to the top.
No path was present, suggesting that the moorland Menace had reached the top on a different location than where it went down.
It walked through a relative open area but something caught Loran’s attention.
He was being watched.
Shivers would run down his spine if he still had his body, as he knew this was bad news.
The Moorland Menace kept walking, unaware that something was eyeing it and the danger associated with it.
Another roar and Loran was sure. This was what all those rules of his village were for; to protect them and to ensure that they would never have to hear this roar up close.
Large green lizard eyes were staring at the Moorland Menace from a dark hole in the ground.
No response.
Characteristic of the Moorland Menace, but Loran hoped it would react.
Loran reassessed the situation.
Why did he think that? Was he somehow attached to being stuck in this armor? Did he see the Moorland Menace’s experience as his own?
He couldn't accept that, he wouldn’t accept that.
Loran had a change of mind. He would root for this jungle dragon to finish him off once and for all even though he was unsure if this was possible as dragons weren't known to possess spirit magic.
‘Come on! What are you waiting for1’ was what he wanted to yell at the lizard eyes glaring at him.
A deep voice spoke a strange language and Loran was sure; that’s Draconian.
The ground trembled and a green scaled claw burst out of the ground. Another followed and a large two-winged dragon unearthed itself, presenting its large dark green scaled reptile like bod.
A roar, louder than Loran had ever heard, came out of the throat of this jungle hazard.
The Moorland Menace faced the jungle menace and covered its arms in spectral fire, indicating that it had identified a threat and was willing to fight.
Who would come out on top?