“Are you daft, lad?” Pelk exclaimed, looking over the huge growth of earthheart. They’d gone and fetched the dwarf away from the iron deposits where he’d been overseeing Aria and Belman.
“This thing’s as big as you are,” the dwarf said. “Do you have any idea how heavy it is? While I respect the ambition here, there’s no way we can shift something like this. We’d need a whole team of laborers, special equipment just to move it up above, some transport, the lot.”
Jason held up both hands in a placating gesture.
“Ok, ok, I get it,” he said, embarrassed. “It was just a thought. It’s got other uses, we’ll just break it down. Anything special we need to do for that, or can we help?”
“No, I’ll see to this,” Pelk replied. “You three just shoo and let me work. Keep exploring and let me know if you make anymore finds like this one.”
With a shrug, Jason turned to follow Lumi back to exploring the other underground areas of the ruin. There were only a few additional chambers remaining to be examined. One held a much smaller piece of earthheart, which Pelk was nonetheless pleased with, and the results dead-ended into collapsed tunnels.
Their exploration portion complete, Jason, Kera, and Lumi returned to the camp. Lumi elected to help Pelk and the others, as she was capable of keeping watch for any unpleasant underground surprises and had the strength to assist with the mining as needed.
This meant Jason and Kera went up to the surface to keep a general watch, while Serif remained camped in the cellar with the horses. This suited the relatively taciturn guardsman just fine.
For the first few hours, Jason’s surface watch mostly involved him sitting around reading Kera’s books to her for lack of anything better to do, while Kera lay basking in the sunlight, her crystalline hide glittering, having decided to activate her day’s use of her belt so she could use the crystal serpent form to listen for any hint of surrounding life. She also told Jason that she wanted to practice using the snake’s unusual perceptions to separate out individuals from the general noise around her.
Jason wasn't even sure why he was reading the books to her if she was trying to listen to other things, but at least it was something to do.
The hours passed, and the sky grew a bit overcast. Kera’s hide stopped glimmering so much, and Ceri took up the job of lazing around in the few remaining patches of full sunlight that dappled their way across the courtyard.
Jason’s stomach began to rumble a bit, so he decided to whip himself up a meal. This once again consisted primarily of bread, meat, and cheese, so he decided to simply make himself a sandwich.
Of course, he ran into a problem as he sat down to eat.
“Ahem.”
He looked down at Kera from the chunk of sandstone masonry he was sitting on, in the shade of an old ruined tower that had at one time been connected to the courtyard. She’d reared her fore-body upwards and was eyeing his lunch.
“Huh?” He paused, about to take a bite of his sandwich.
“So what am I supposed to eat?” Kera asked in her distorted, hissing, snake-voice.
Jason thought she sounded like she was trying to tease him. He could almost hear her hands on her hips. But there was a bit lost in translation there in terms of tone, so he was confused until he had an ‘aha’ moment.
“Oh. Oops,” he said. “Yeah I guess snakes aren't exactly geared for chewing, are they?”
“They’re not really known for it, no,” Kera said drily.
“Can you even eat like that?” Jason asked, curious. “I mean, what happens when you change back? Snakes sort of… eat more of their body weight than people do and then sleep it off for ages. Wouldn't you choke?”
Kera gave several short dry huffs that Jason recognized as her trying to laugh. It seemed she was just teasing him.
“I wasn't going to eat a whole lot; I’m not actually particularly hungry,” Kera said. “Maybe just a snack? But I’m sure it's fine. Seems weird to have magic that transforms you and not have built-in protections for that, right?”
“I guess. Well, if you’re sure, I suppose I could cut something up for you.”
Jason scratched his head with one hand, thinking.
“Artifice,” he commanded after a moment, and a pair of plates appeared. He put his sandwich down on one, and sliced up a few strips of jerky into thin strips like Kera normally did for Ceri, who was currently lazing about in the sun next to his owner.
“Hand-feeding one of my friends seems…a bit too weird. But you can have this,” Jason said to Kera, putting the plate down in front of her.
“Aww, you’re no fun.”
“No, I’m just aware you like to be pampered." he replied with a smile. "Don’t think I haven't noticed how much longer you take in the bath than the rest of us, getting Leska to help you wash out your new long hair, and all.”
“Hey!” Kera protested. “I’ve got Ceri to clean too, and Leska is nice. She’s fun to talk to.”
“Him actually needing it and you being gone for an hour and a half are two different things,” Jason replied, amused.
Kera tried to just stick her tongue out at him, which looked absolutely comical on a snake, to Jason’s mind. She looked more like a very strange cat with a lazy tongue than a girl his age trying to pretend to be annoyed.
“Fine, fine,” she conceded. She tilted her head nearly upside down, so she could eye the plate.
“Hmm….now how do I manage this whole picking up with the tongue thing…? I can't even look at it straight.”
“I’m pretty sure that’s not how snakes do things anyway,” Jason said. “They just sort of jam their food into their mouths and swallow repeatedly for twenty minutes or something. I don't know. That’s how it always seemed to me anyway. They don't use their tongue to pick stuff up.”
It took Kera a few tries to even manage to get a small piece of beef into her mouth. Then she choked on it trying to figure out how to swallow; snakes weren't built the same ways as people, after all.
“Ok, this is harder than I’d thought it would be,” Eventually she spat out the piece of meat. “Maybe I’ll just wait til-”
Kera cut off suddenly, swaying her head upwards quickly, twisting her head from side to side with a hiss.
“W-what is that? I hear… ringing?”
“What, like a phone?” Jason asked. “Or do you mean a bell?”
Kera shook, swaying from side to side and rotating her head, almost like a person would try and blink away distracting lights.
“No like…buzzing. Or singing. Oh! I know! It's like when you're a teenager, and you can hear that high pitched electronics whine that most adults lose the ability to hear by the time they're in their late twenties.”
“Except….,” Kera continued with a shake of her head again. “This is… higher? More ringy? Is that even a word? If I had ears, I bet it would sound a lot like someone running their finger along the edge of a wine glass.”
“Maybe we should have Ceri fly up and take a look?” Jason suggested.
“Aww, he’s enjoying his nap over there,” Kera said, indicating the small blue drake, who was sitting the one small patch of sunlight that seemed to have been missed by the overhead clouds.
Jason eyeballed the tower above him. It looked stable enough, with plenty of handholds. He could probably manage.
“I could, but is whatever you're hearing close by, or…?”
“No, I think it's really far. But it's kind of distracting. Like having a mosquito buzz in your-”
She cut off again as Ceri woke with a sudden start and a snort.
“Ok that’s new,” Kera said. “Now I can hear… barking? And something else. I’m not sure….”
She trailed off, her head swaying a little as she tilted back and forth, tasting the air.
“It's hard to tell. Sharp, sudden vibration with an impact. Also some kind of weird rapid tapping, like an insect. Reminds of those scarabs. That's coming from a different direction.”
Kera began to slither around the courtyard, pushing her bulk into a large circle, with her head sticking up from the center like an antenna.
“Yes, definitely barking,” she said. “There’s tapping, and other stuff. It’s like the whole place has come alive suddenly.”
“You said ringing, right?” Jason said thoughtfully, looking over at Ceri. He felt like he was missing something really important.
“Yeah. There’s a kind of…I don't know, background white noise to it now. It's making it hard to pick things out. But it's pretty far away, like miles and miles and miles.”
Jason began mumbling to himself, looking at the ground and the area around Ceri, trying to work out why the lizard was setting off alarm bells in his head.
A gust of wind blew through the courtyard. The patch of sunlight the Drake was in dimmed as another cloud covered the sun once again. Ceri climbed to his feet with a snort, letting out a creel of complaint, looking around for a new patch to move to.
Jason put the pieces together, looking up at the sky.
“Electrical sounds…animals on the move, clouds…sounds like a storm to me.” he murmured to himself out loud.
“Jason,” Kera called with a bit of a whine to her voice, as her tail started to thrash.
“Things are getting really loud now. I’m sending Ceri to alert the others. Something bad is happening. Please go look?”
“Alright,” he replied, and stood up. Jason crossed to the ruined tower, looking for handholds, and found some he could reach with a short hop. It didn't take him long to reach the top of the slightly off-center tower.
You have earned a new skill, [Basic Climbing]. Would you like to purchase it now for 1 Skill Point?
It had been awhile since Jason had earned a new skill. Frankly, he’d been surprised he hadn't earned some kind of haggling skill working with Flora, but maybe there were other requirements. However, this skill seemed of little need for him - he could always create a potion for that sort of effect. Probably.
No. He thought firmly to dismiss the notification, as he shielded his eyes and looked out over the Wastes.
Sure enough, in the distance to the south, Jason could see heavy, dark clouds. A quick glance upwards at the slight overcast above confirmed they were probably headed this way. Looking back into the distance, he spotted flickers of dimly-seen light scattering across the horizon, low to the ground, and a plume of something kicking up from the ground as a darker, grey plum descended downwards.
Jason had never had the occasion to actually watch a sudden storm front develop before, so it took him a moment to realize what he was witnessing, and that his survivalist skill had been screaming at him to get under cover.
He was watching a sandstorm kick up. As he stood there, fascinated, wisps of opaque brown reached up from the ground as dirt, sand, and other debris was picked up as the whatever wind was pushing the clouds struck a region of particularly loose sand. For just a moment, it looked almost like there were a thousand upside-down tornadoes springing up across the horizon. Lightning arced once, straight across the dust-filled horizon.
Then there was a solid wall of brown roiling in the distance, with the most incredible light show Jason had ever seen contained within. Multi-hued colors flashed through the dust cloud, mostly obscured but still visible. Thousands of tiny flashes of reds, yellows, and white lit up the interior of the dark cloud, like it had come alive with millions of giant fireflies.
Jason felt the blood drain from his face, and he realized why the animals were all becoming active: they were headed here, to take shelter from a storm that would be far deadlier than anything ever seen at home, thanks to this place’s unusual makeup. He knew what the lights were.
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Quickly scanning the terrain below, sure enough, he spotted several groups of animals in the distance, making a beeline for the temple ruin. Most raced alone across the dirt and salt and sand, but at least one group seemed to be a pack of similar creatures. They were too distant to make out exactly.
Jason hollered down to Kera.
“We’ve got incoming!” he yelled as he scrambled madly back down from his perch. He judged they had only fifteen or twenty minutes before the fleeing wildlife began to arrive. And who knew how fast the storm would get here.
He jumped the last bit of distance down to the ground.
Kera was beginning to twitch visibly now, like she was very uncomfortable.
“What issssss that? She hissed at him, her voice more snake-like than usual. Her voice was overly loud, like she was trying to talk over something. “Sssso much buzzing, sssso much-”
Just then the first wave of audible sound arrived, like the sound of a thousand firecrackers going off in series, accompanied by rolling thunder. Kera collapsed with a shriek.
She began to thrash wildly, screaming and hissing. “Aaahh! H-hurts! So loud!” She cried.
Jason raised his voice over the noise, but she didn't seem to be able to hear him. So instead, lunged forward, wrapping his arms around her fore-body to grab her before her thrashing injured her; she was currently made of crystal after all: a good impact to her head might do some serious damage. Jason immediately ended up tangled amidst Kera’s coils, but he was now able to shout directly at her head, over whatever the girl was hearing in order to make himself heard.
“Kera, change back! You’re going to injure yourself!”
He had to repeat him twice and give the confused girl a light bop on the head once to get her to realize she was being talked to, but he got the message across through gesturing once he had her attention. With a blur of melting flesh and clothes, Kera reverted to human form. She and Jason immediately fell over in a tangle of limbs that took them a moment to extricate themselves from.
“Sorry, sorry,” Kera apologized loudly, clutching her head. “Urg, that hurts. I've got the mother of all hangovers now."
Serif came bolting out of the cellar.
“What is all that racket?!” he shouted.
“The mother of all sandstorms,” Jason replied grimly. “One that will make the ones in Dubai look like a mere dust devil. All the local wildlife is making a beeline for us.”
“A sandstorm?” he asked curiously.
Jason looked at him, surprised at the man’s passivity.
“Wait, you don't know? But you, Aria, and Belman seem to know so much about what's out here.”
“That’s mostly them. And remember, they don't spend much time out here either. Nobody does. We’re hardly experts. People don’t live out here for a reason, remember?”
Just then, Lumi and the others pushed their way past the canvas coverings and ascended the ramp, coming out into the main courtyard.
“What’s going on?” Lumi asked. “Ceri was freaking out about something.”
Jason gestured to the sky.
“Sandstorm, a really bad one," he said. “Wildlife on its way as well, looking for shelter.”
Aria and Belman cursed soundly and ran back down to the cellar saying something about securing the camp. The others, excepting Jason, seemed a bit confused by their abrupt panic.
Jason felt a little panicked too, knowing what was coming.
“What's so bad about a little sand and dirt?” asked Pelk. He gestured down at himself, still covered in rock dust from mining. “Don’t do me any harm.”
“Think you can breathe sand?" Jason asked him. "You’re a [Miner], right? Know how coal can get into your lungs and do you damage in the long run if you don't take precautions? It’s so much worse than that. You'd suffocate if you were to stand out in it because the sand will force its way into your ears, your throat, your nose. You'd suffocate where you stood.
"And there’s something even more dangerous.” Jason stepped over to a broken quartz cluster and picked up two finger-sized lengths. “You said it yourself… the ground is full of tiny quartz and tourmaline fragments. What happens when you strike the right kinds of crystals together?”
He demonstrated, and sparks of electricity spat.
Lumi gasped, hands to her mouth.
Jason waved them back down to the camp, explaining to the others as he went.
“Think that, but on a massively grand scale, as millions of crystal fragments collide with each other. The biggest lightning storm you've ever seen. It’s still shaping up out there, but it’ll be right on top of us in no time.
“We’re going to have to batten down the hatches and take shelter in the deeper cellar,” he continued. “Plus if we don’t want the horses to end up slaughtered, we’re going to have to defend this entrance until the last possible second from all the local wildlife trying to take shelter here.”
Jason pushed his way past the canvas ‘doors’ and into the first cellar, where Aria and Belman were already moving the horses to a back corner of the room, clustering them together.
Lumi looked at Jason.
“I don't know what needs to be done. You give the orders for this,” she said.
He nodded. “Ok then.”
“Listen up, everyone!” He called out. “We’ve got an emergency situation here. Time for us to take over. We’ve got a lot of wildlife incoming here, and not a lot of time to prepare ourselves. Aria, Belman, leave the horses for now. Kera and I will keep them calm magically. Just tie their lines down so they're all at the back. Pelk, you and Lumi pull down the canvas tents. Reinforce the entrance with as much weighted down, waterlogged cloth as you can.”
“Put holes in it and nail it to the wall and floor if you’ve got any rock nails,” Jason nodded to Pelk, who immediately began fishing around in his bag. “Just remember we’ll be outside and need to make a mad dash in just before the storm hits, so don't nail it fully shut till we’re ready.”
“Got an idea for that, will do,” Pelk replied as Lumi began hauling down the tents.
“Serif, I’m putting you in charge of making us some face coverings to go with the goggles,” Jason said. “Just use your sword on some spare cloth, make us something we can soak in water and tie around our mouths.”
“What about us?” Aria asked.
“I want you up top helping with defense. Keep an eye out until the rest of us join you. I know that’s not your job, but we’re going to need all hands on deck until the last minute, and right now our talents are best used securing the camp quickly.
The two [Hunters] didn't argue, they simply tied the extended horse lines to a pillar at the back of the cellar and went back up too.
Jason and Kera crossed to the horses. Jason began dosing the horses’ feed bags with [Serenity Tonic] and attaching them, while Kera cast [Calm Animals] to make them settle and eat. Soon the horses were standing blissfully docile. Jason thought some of them were drifting off to sleep.
Their task done, Jason sent Kera up above. Lumi had finished filling Pelk’s wheelbarrow with water, so he sent her up as well.
“Serif, Pelk, you two keep working here. Get this barricade as thick and heavy as you can, and be ready for us to come running. If you have time, see if you can't get that back door moving properly again. We’ll likely have to dig our way out once this is all over.”
“No worries lad, you worry about the outside, we’ve got this.” He pointed to one side of the entrance. “Come back through that side, we’ll have sommat ready to close it off in a few minutes.”
Jason nodded. He put on the tinted goggles, tied a moistened cloth around his face and nose, and exited to the surface.
----------------------------------------
The wind began to pick up quickly as Jason joined the others above, taking up positions about the entrance.
It wasn't long before the first of the wildlife arrived: a cat-sized, scuttling scorpion with far too many extra legs, no doubt the source of the clicking Kera had heard. It climbed directly over the walls, making a bizarre chittering sound and as it charged forward, desperate to get deeper underground.
Kera launched a silvery bolt of force from her staff as soon as it cleared the wall, bowling it over. Two arrows from Aria and Belman quickly followed, piercing its hide easily; for all the creature had a crystalline shell on its topside, its underbelly turned out to be quite soft.
Four more of the scorpions came scuttling over the walls. Jason launched a shadowbolt at one, bowling it over just as Kera had. A lance of shadow flew forth from Lumi’s outstretched hand, with similar results, while more arrows stabbed into the creature’s soft underbellies.
The creatures that live here must be resistant to magic in general, Jason thought to himself as he fired off another bolt. Light and fire barely hurt them, but even immune and Lumi’s shadow take multiple shots. And yet those hunters are just downing these in one go.
The effects of class, maybe?
“Hey Kera!” he yelled. It was difficult for him to make himself heard over the noise of the oncoming storm, the cloth covering his mouth, and the shouted commands of his companions. “Analyze one of these things for me! I want to know if they're magic resistant!”
“They are!” She shouted a reply when she had a moment. “I checked earlier. Low levels of general resistance, high heat resistance, and odd interactions with light magic. Everything here is like that!”
Great. And all I've got is shadowbolts that will run out when I run out of mana.
He downed a [Least Mana Potion] immediately during a brief pause after the scorpions died, deciding to let the potion start doing its work even though he wasn’t drained yet.
The next wave came moments later - several shining bird-things the size of hawks came screaming down out of the sky, making a beeline for the open gap in the canvas wall, while another crystal serpent slithered up and over the wall.
“Silverwings!” Aria shouted to Belman, who immediately turned his aim in the birds’ direction.
“Rapid Fire!” Both hunter’s shouted in unison, and a flurry of arrows stuck out towards them, causing the birds to shy back away from the entrance. One bird wasn’t fast enough and went down with an arrow in its eye, but the others swerved out of the way.
In a rage, they swooped upwards and began flicking their wings downwards in a jerking motion. Aria and Belman covered their heads and cried out in pain as they were peppered with fine, metallic needles that shot from the undersides of the bird’s wings.
“You deal with them, I’ve got the snake!” Kera yelled to Jason and Lumi. She ordered Ceri into the fray, and with a yell of “Enlarge Beast!” the drake grew in size and went on the attack, his scale patterns shining an electric blue. Sparks arced off of him and into the serpent as he lunged, biting and clawing.
Jason turned away as Kera let out of shout of “Guardian Wasps!” as well, conjuring a cloud of vicious, thumb-sized insects to harry the snake; they couldn't hurt it much thanks to its hide, but they could distract it from biting Ceri.
Jason leveled his wand in the direction of the birds, but Lumi seemed to have them in hand. She interposed a curved barrier of light and fire between herself, the hunters and the birds, shielding them from the barrage. He let off a few shots and then switched over to his healing wand.
Just so they’d know what he was doing, Jason shouted “Cure Wounds!” each time as he triggered the wand, pointing it at Aria and Belman in turn as they brushed the needles from their arms, blood dripping into the dirt.
Each of them winced but gave him a nod of thanks and understanding as their relatively minor wounds began to close over.
Then the baying of hounds filled the air, and Jason saw some kind of distortion rip through the air where the birds were swooping and diving.
The birds went crashing to the ground, stunned, and Jason looked up to see the first of the dogs leap to the top of the ten-foot wall that surrounded the temp grounds.
The dog was a little bit larger than a standard mastiff: waist-tall, with powerfully built muscles and a black, pebble-textured hide. Thick, vertical crystal growths sprouted from its forward shoulders and sloped slightly backward like some sort of ridiculous, RPG-esque shoulder-pads. A long line of spine-like growths began at its forehead and ran down its spine to a long, spiked tail, which reminded Jason of that of a manticore’s.
The dog looked down on the struggling adventurers and downed birds and cocked its head like it was curious. Kera took that opportunity to mutter an Analyze command, while Aria gave a fearfully whispered, “Rockhounds.”
One of the birds managed to recover as several more dogs leapt onto the walls, and threw itself up high into the air with a panicked flap of wings.
The lead Rockhound pointed its whole body towards the bird like an arrow, and an arc of electricity ran up from its tail to the crystals at its shoulder.
It opened its jaws, and a sound not unlike the one the Sobek had used on Jason emerged: a wave of solid sound, wielded like a weapon. A beam of visibly distorted air rippled forwards towards the bird, and Jason covered his ears as the noise of it assaulted his ears.
The bird crashed to the ground with a shriek, collapsing down on top of the flailing crystal serpent, who’d also been caught partially in the blast. Cracks appeared all along the snake’s hide, as if the sheer volume was ripping it apart, and it grew still. The bird seemed stunned.
Jason didn't know how the creature managed to direct a sound wave in a single direction, and he didn't care. Whatever the case was, he immediately drew one of his [Salamander Stones], and threw it up at the wall in the middle of the three Rockhounds clustered closeted together.
They reacted immediately, and with more intelligence than Jason would have given them credit for: they scattered out of the way, startled by the quick-moving object. Jason had hoped they’d go for it, but these weren’t normal dogs.
The stone detonated in a blast of smoke and flame, and the two dogs that had belatedly jumped up onto the wall were blasted off of it.
With another howl, the other dogs leapt down into the courtyard, charging forwards towards Jason, who began firing shadowbolts, backed up by the hunters’ arrows. Both had trouble piercing the stony hides of the beasts.
Kera then turned and directed her wasps to intercept and distract, while she simultaneously called Ceri back to her side. Lumi called everyone to form a line, and they fell back towards the cellar entrance.
Two of the dogs began to orient their bodies towards the group, preparing to unleash their sonic attack. But Kera stepped around Lumi, and took a deep breath.
The girl leaned forward, hands held backward, shrieking out a noise that sounded for all the world to Jason like a banshee’s howl, no doubt some variant she’d just learned from the Rockhounds, or perhaps the Sobek. The dogs stumbled backward, and Kera followed up by also belching a massive spit of flame across the courtyard in the direction of the two who’d been chasing up, igniting them. With a completely different kind of howl, the two bolted.
The largest of the dogs though flicked its tail up and over its head, launching a volley of crystal spines towards Kera, who was forced to leap to the side to avoid being impaled. A spine stabbed into her leg, and she fell to the ground.
Jason winced in sympathy and ran forwards to drag Kera out of the way as Lumi’s [Sunshield] snapped into place above them. He pulled her back behind the lines, and passed her one of the better healing potions, leaving her to remove the spine herself.
Aria and Belman began firing arrow after arrow through the one-way shield, and as the spines stopped, one of the beasts returned fire with a sonic blast.
Lumi shrieked and fell to the ground as the blast passed right through her barrier. Her [Sunshield] vanished.
Jason pointed his healing wand at Lumi activated it, praying the girl wasn't permanently injured or dead. But he didn't have time to check, as he began hurling bolts of shadow magic left and right as the rockhound leaned forward to savage its downed foe
Kera shouted angrily, coughing in the increasingly dusty air. She’d regained her feet, blood still flowing from her slowly closing leg wound, and directed her wasps towards the dog that was attacking Lumi.
“Final Sacrifice!” She yelled, as the wasps began slamming into the rockhound’s hide with small detonations.
The beast was lifted up off its feet and hurled up and away from Lumi’s prone form, and she ordered Ceri to start dragging the girl back towards the cellar entrance.
Jason didn't get to see what happened after that, because he was knocked to the ground by another of the beasts, which had charged him now that Lumi's shield was down. It leaped on top of him, and bit down hard on his arm as he raised it defensively. He struggled and cried out in pain, dropping his healing wand, and saw the creature's tail raise upwards above its spine. Desperately he jerked sideways under the dog’s bulk, and narrowly avoided the rockhound's attempt to stab downwards at his head like a scorpion. Bringing up his shadow wand, he jabbed it directly into the creature’s ear and fired off two bolts in rapid succession.
It died, darkness wreathing it's head with a cold chill that sapped even Jason’s strength at such a close range. Groaning and coughing out dust, he pushed the beast off of himself and staggered to the hunters, who held off the remaining Rockhounds with a flurry of arrows long enough for Jason to drink a [Least Healing Potion]. He was bleeding and would be in a lot of pain, but he didn't want to use a full potion just yet. The rockhound's teeth had bit deeply, but he would be fine for now.
The remaining few dogs pulled back, harried by the hunter’s arrows, Kera’s bolts of force, and Jason’s shadow wand. As soon as he had the opportunity, Jason threw yet another Salamander Stone, this time catching two of the four remaining Rockhounds in the blast. Kera then followed up with another sonic wail that knocked the other two off their feet, and Jason threw another grenade at them, finishing them off.
Smoke and flames mixed with the dirt and dust that was slowly filling the air, with the sound of howling winds and thunder in the distance. The dogs were down, the serpent dead, and the birds had flown off who knew where. Maybe they were hiding in the ruined tower; Jason didn't care as long as they weren't trying to get in.
Time to ride out the storm.