— Keira —

With those sensitive to the sunlight safely ensconced within their thick tents Keir started her guard rotation as the sun rose fully into the sky. Her guard duty could easily have been boring, as the only creatures she encountered were small reptiles sunning themselves and the occasional ground squirrel or rabbit foraging in the tall grass. Despite the lack of excitement Keir simply enjoyed moving through the steep hilly terrain. She was also a bit amused by the surprise on the faces of the others, especially the dwarves, as she walked effortlessly up or along near vertical slopes.

So far from her homeland most people who knew much about it at all focused mostly on either its rich and unique mines. Many also knew they stood as a bulwark against the vast hordes of abyssal spawn and other threats from the immeasurable depths of the Ferin Ocean. If they think at all about the terrain, most think about sandy beaches and rich coastal cities; which admittedly the Steel Coast archipelago did have, especially along the Coral Sea. They don’t tend to think, or perhaps don’t know, about the fact that almost the entirety of the inland areas are rugged inhospitable mountains.

While many battles were fought on the rocky beaches facing the Ferin Ocean or occasionally the soft sand beaches along the Coral Sea, more often than not Keir and her fellow soldiers fought on steep slopes slick with sea spray and blood. Compared to that her path along the steep slopes might as well have been a well paved level road.

When she was relieved not long close to mid day Keir found a comfortable position near the top of the steep slope the camp was built along where she could lay out the books she borrowed and still keep an eye on the camp.

She was rather eager to learn more about the city they were traveling to. She was familiar with Stoneshield in much the same way the people in the area were familiar with her own homeland. She knew they helped keep the creatures of The Great Beast Steppes contained and often battled the hordes of cavern spawn. She also knew the ruler of the nation was the blacksmith equivalent of a Warrior Emperor or Empress like the current ruler of The Steel Coast Archipelago.

Rather than dive right into that she instead started with the arguably more immediately useful adventurer’s guild bestiary of the Barrier Mountains.

The book was perhaps a bit dry but interesting, though not as useful as she expected. Well over half of the creatures within were things she’d discussed with Lovisa and the most of the remainder posed little if any threat. The rest were creatures that rarely if ever left the mountains and many were entirely stationary.

There were a few creatures she made special note of like the rock mimic slimes that could range in size from a head sized rock to an entire boulder field. The shalemaw worms were also a potential threat both on and below the mountains. Several mineral based elementals and rarely ancient golems could also be encountered near abandoned or unclaimed caves and mines.

That book killed a few hours before she moved on to an informative and immensely dull tome mostly focused on the economics and trade of Stonesheild.

It was when she was about midway through a section detailing the food importation of Stoneshield when she felt the tremor. For a moment she thought fell asleep but soon remembered she didn’t do that anymore just before a stronger tremor shook loose some small pebbles from the slope she was sitting on.

Clearly the dwarves in the group were more familiar with local threats as even before the pebbles hit the ground they were calling out warnings of shalemaw worms.

Keir half slid half ran down the slope to join them, weapon in hand, as the members of the group capable of operating in the bright afternoon sun moved away from the camp stomping and where practical banging their weapons on the ground. With the imminent threat of the sun hanging over those hiding in the tents, the first priority was moving the fight as far away as possible while still close enough to aid those in the tents if necessary.

As soon as the group reached their destination Eshtan Earthhammer, the dwarven combat engineer, impaled his war pick in the stone at his feet. The stone the group around him stood on sunk at least two feet, the stone shifting to a glossy black smooth surface and several patches of moving stone nearby took on a bright oil sheen like glow. As that happened he Spoke up his voice holding a high pitched keening sound of resonating crystal “Is a breeding clew. Five Males an a big female.”

Keir was trying to remember everything she had just read about the creatures but was rather distracted as the ground just off to her left shattered, spraying sharp chunks of stone as a three foot wide maw burst from the ground lunging toward Alasdair who stood beside her.

As far down the maw of the worm as Keir could see were lined with circular rows of teeth that resembled spikes of shale colored stone and the outside of the worm was chitinous plates of the same color.

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Alasdair must have either had experience fighting the creatures or at least trained for it. He sidestepped the gaping maw, striking the side of the worm’s maw with the meat tenderizer but of his ax.

Nothing in the bestiary indicated the worms were particularly resistant to toxins so Keir channeled mana into her blade coating it with ancient viper matriarch venom and swung down with her full strength onto the portion of the worm protruding from the ground.

With a crack that reminded Keir of the sound of breaking crab shells, her sword cut deep into the meat of the worm. Even the extremely sharp blade of her artifact class sword wasn’t enough to completely bisect the creature though she cut fully halfway through it.

When the worm pulled itself back though the hole in the stone it left behind a thick trail of grayish purple fluid that seemed to be its version of blood.

It quickly became apparent that was the worm's favored method of attack as more worms burst through the ground towards the small circle of defenders. Most of the combat ready members of the convoy were not as well prepared to deal with the creatures and plenty came away from the experience with flesh wounds. Keir, Alasdair, and Eshtan were by far the most effective combatants.

Keir cut the worms deeply and the hemotoxic and anticoagulant nature of the venom coating her blade bled them even after they retreated below the surface.

Alasdair not only avoided taking damage but also frequently stunned them with the forceful blows of his cooking ax.

Eshtan not only maintained the safe ground they stood on but created spikes within the worm’s tunnels and along the edge of the platform that lead to the worms ripping off large chunks of their own flesh further exacerbating the unchecked bleeding caused by Keir’s venomous blade.

Just when the group started to relax as the markers went out with each worm’s death Eshtan yelled out “”Ere come tha big’un; scatter.” and yanked his weapon from the stone and took a few running step before jumping away from the reinforced stone disk he’d made.

The rest followed his lead, though a relatively young looking dwarven man acted too slowly. As he jumped the entire section of stone shattered and erupted upwards as a maw that was at least fifteen feet wide smashed through it catching and ripping off his legs almost at his knees.

Keir darted forward, tapping into both “Serrated Strike” and “Tide Carver’s Stance” as she struck the massive worm. The resultant blow carved through the purple obsidian like plates and left a wound four feet deep, six inches wide, and almost six feet long. Unfortunately due to the creature's thick segmented armor and hide, her cut didn’t even get through the worm's muscle, let alone damage a vital organ.

The only reaction the worm gave to the wound was a brief spasm of the tissue around before it started retracting back into the ground. She wasn’t the only one who struck but with the exception of the damage done by the hardened stone spike on the bottom of the platform she was the only one who broke through the armor of the beast.

Keir knew she couldn’t let the worm retreat underground if it was likely to continue attacking so with only a moment's hesitation she braced herself for the coming agony and called on “Aspect of Phlegethon”. As the greenish blue fire filled her blood she focused all her will on tapping into “Blood Thorns” and making another strike, targeting the wound she left.

Due to the strange movement of the worm and the pain she didn’t hit the wound straight on and instead carved into the side of the open wound. As thick thorny vines of greenish blue blood burrowed through the worm's flesh it let out a sound somewhere between a boiling kettle and geyser and rapidly retracted into the ground.

As Keir dropped her “Aspect of Phlegethon” she could feel the regeneration from “Blood Thorns working to repair the fairly severe burns covering most of her body. If she required blood flow or most of her organs the wounds would almost certainly have been fatal instead of simply agonizing.

As the marker above the worm grew further away before disappearing, Keir resigned herself to draining her tide pool to get back to at least nearly fully recovered.

— Minira —

As Minira and the soldiers she led rode at a steady rate through the Underways she rode beside General Stonefury, whose first name she now knew to be Marsaili Stonefury.

Both Marsaili and herself were grieving mothers who were chosen for the task to allow them the chance to avenge their lost children as well as high tier combatants so they’d had plenty to get conversations started. Fortunately a shared pain and military service were not all they had in common and as they rode they were talking about their favorite restaurants in Stoneshield.

Between their own conversation and those of the soldiers combined with the sounds of the mounts they’d brought along Minira almost missed the faint rumble within the tunnel.

As she consciously registered the still weak vibrations she turned towards its origin and Marsaili steered her mount towards it.

About five minutes later the tunnel wall burst apart and a large female shalemaw worm easily fifteen feet across burst out. As time seemed to slow as adrenaline kicked in, Minira saw a decent sized cut on the side of the creature's head. Spreading out from there were charred holes where something burning hot burrowed through its skin and muscle. The creature was likely in pain but far from severely injured.

Marsaili urged her mount to leap to the side even as she smashed the war hammer-like back of her battleax into the side of the worm’s maw. The armor covering the site where she struck shattered and the creature slumped stunned.

Before it could recover Minira reached into the Eternal Tempest that raged as much in her soul as the distant sea it churned across. With a simple thought she brought forth a bolt of lightning that ripped through the worm pulping or carbonizing the entire creature.

When Marsaili rejoined her she looked introspective rather than pleased, or more likely bored given how simple the fight was.

Minira looked over at the woman who was fast becoming a friend and said “Wha’s got ya lookin so glum?”

Marsaili sighed and answered “Tha jus made me think about when i taught me boy to hunt those when he was a lad. It was a long time ago but I remember it clear enough.”