“What happened?” Tormacc asked in shock. What kind of monster had Zedna run into that caused her to lose part of her arm?
“We can talk while we run,” Zedna said. “Hurry up and get moving. Athra, let me know when the monsters behind us start to close in. I’m sure they’ll be in pursuit, although hopefully it will take them a while before they are able to come after us in force.”
Zedna quickly took the lead, urging Athra to speed up by using her Stonebending abilities. Only once she was satisfied with their pace did she tell them what happened in the valley.
“We suspected there was a monsters in charge of the valley,” Zedna said. “It turns out there were four of them. Either of you heard of Greenstone Ragers?”
Tormacc and Athra both shook their heads.
“They’re from one of the danger zones at the end of the mountains,” Zedna said, continuing her explanation. “They’re nasty buggers, and a bitch to kill. They also shouldn’t be here. By the time I realized there were four of them it was too late to disengage cleanly. They only get stronger the longer they fight, and were I to leave them alone they would chase after us until they were dead. If there was only one my plan was to just maim it before running away. With four of them, that became more difficult, as maiming does nothing to impact their battle strength, only their mobility. I somehow managed to kill two of them and cut off the legs off a third, but the fourth is only heavily wounded, and it won’t stay that way for long thanks to their high regeneration.”
“Are you sure it will come after us?” Tormacc asked. He still couldn’t stop starting at Zedna’s stump. If the Greenstone Rager caught up to them and Zedna couldn’t kill it he and Athra would be in trouble.
“Oh, it definitely will eventually,” Zedna said. “The only question is how soon. There’s a possibility we can shake it off by entering another monster’s territory, as I doubt many of the mountain’s inhabitants will take kindly to a Greenstone Rager invading their home, but if it catches us out in the open we’re all fucked.”
“What about the other monsters in the valley?” Tormacc said.
“They’re small fry at this point,” Zedna said, glancing back at Tormacc and Athra as if urging them to run faster. “I would be worried about the four-armed trolls chasing after us if we were trying to be stealthy. We don’t have that luxury. Since we have to escape the Greenstone Rager we will outpace the other monsters, so I doubt they will be an issue.”
“Can you fight with only one arm?” Athra said, her bluntness allowing her to ask the question that Tormacc wanted to but felt he couldn’t. If Zedna couldn’t fight they might be running out of the frying pan and into the fire, as while the Greenstone Rager was behind them, there were sure to be other monsters ahead.
“The Greenstone Rager? Doubtful. As for other monsters, we’ll just have to hope we don’t run into anything I can’t handle. I can regenerate my arm given enough time, but I need a calm environment to do so, and unless we know for sure the Greenstone Rager is no longer chasing us we can’t afford to stop any more than necessary.”
“If you don’t mind me asking, how did you lose your arm?” Tormacc didn’t feel comfortable bringing up her arm before, but since it was now on topic, he took the chance to ask. Zedna specialized in speed and dodging, so he couldn’t figure out how she lost part of her arm.
“I sacrificed it to strike a killing blow,” Zedna said. “I mentioned I killed two of them. The first one I killed early on, but with most of my abilities still on cooldown I had to take some risks to kill another one. To kill the second one I had to forcefully block an attack by the Greenstone Rager whose legs I cut off. Trading a killing blow for an injury is always worthwhile; now we just need to worry about escaping and finding some time for me to regenerate.”
The no-nonsense way Zedna talked about sacrificing her arm made Tormacc realize he might have been playing things too safely. Despite his healing and regeneration skills he still tried to not get hurt, avoiding any and all injuries. Of course, preventing injuries was preferable when possible, but some situations called for a sacrifice like the one Zedna made. He needed to steel his mind when that decision was presented to him. If he lost an arm he would be out of action for a while, but he could grow it back just like Zedna could. Trading an arm to either escape or strike a deathblow was obviously worth it when the disability was just temporary.
Darkness was coming, but the three of them couldn’t afford the luxury of stopping to rest. Moving at night came with increased danger but it was nothing compared to the monsters they knew were chasing them from behind. Based on Zedna’s best estimate they had at least three days and potentially up to five before the Greenstone Rager recovered enough to catch up to them. There would be no rest during that time, as unless they could outpace it or somehow throw it off they would be in for a tough battle.
Thankfully that night and the next day passed uneventfully, but as dusk was starting to set in Athra called for a stop.
“There is something up ahead. Not sure what, but is many. Monsters are moving on cliffs, not paths. But not of Great Rock.”
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
Athra sounded confused when she was making her report. Tormacc interpreted her words to mean there were a bunch of monsters ahead that were somehow moving on the almost sheer cliff faces, but they weren’t doing it with Stonebending abilities. He suspected she was confused about how the monsters were moving on the cliff face, but he didn’t really care about that. Tormacc was more concerned with their mobility. It didn’t matter to him how they were doing it, only that they could.
“It sounds like we’ll have to proceed with caution,” Zedna said.
The current path they were on was a narrow trail with a steep drop to one side and a cliff face on the other. It wasn’t certain they would die if they fell, but at least for Tormacc and Athra being separated from the Party would spell almost-certain doom. The path had a decent width, but if they were to engage in battle it would still be a tight squeeze. And if monsters were attacking them from above things could get even more dicey.
Because of the gravity in the mountains there was very little loose rock, as anything that wasn’t attached to the mountains usually took the path of least resistance and rolled downhill, but there was still the possibility of something like an avalanche. None of them were worried about one occurring naturally, but it was easy to imagine even slightly intelligent monsters making use of boulders to take down prey.
Moving farther down the path the monsters Athra had scouted finally came into view. It was now almost fully dark at this point but Tormacc was still able to see fairly well thanks to his Tattoo of Perception and the starlight coming from above. He could still make out shapes easily enough, although colors were a bit harder. But he didn’t need to see the color of the monsters on the cliff face above to tell they were some kind of goat. They were moving around, their leaping ability seemingly free from the constraints of gravity as they perched on divots in the cliff face that Tormacc would have sworn didn’t exist if he didn’t see the goats standing on them.
“This might be tough,” Zedna said, looking up at the new threat. “The goats up there must have some sort of inborn ability that lets them ignore gravity, or at least lessen its effect on them. Nothing else explains their ability to jump like that.”
“Can we get by them?” Tormacc asked.
“It’s hard to say. There’s always the possibility they just let us through, but if they attack us I’m honestly not sure how we would fare. Without knowing exactly how they’re ignoring gravity it’s impossible to estimate what other abilities they have.”
“Weight.” Athra said. “They can change weight.”
“How can you tell?” Tormacc asked. He didn’t want to doubt her, but how exactly did she figure it out? Was she told by her Great Rock or something?
“Is easy,” Athra said. “Before, I was unsure. Now, is obvious. Great Rock can tell weight.”
Tormacc felt the urge to facepalm. Of course it was the Great Rock. He was glad Athra was so useful, but it did get kind of annoying when she brushed off explaining things by attributing them to her Great Rock. But at least her information should be accurate. Whenever she brought up the Great Rock she was always incredibly serious.
“That makes things easier,” Zedna said. “Although it’s not all good news. I suspect that if the goats can adjust their weight they can not only decrease it, but increase it too. The attacks we have to worry about are them either dropping down on us or charging and trying to knock us off the cliff. How confident are both of you in dodging those attacks?”
“Not hard,” Athra said. For their charges, she could disturb their footing to make them trip and with her ability to propel herself with stone pillars getting an explosive burst of speed to dodge them falling on her was easy.
“I should be fine,” Tormacc said. He was less confident than Athra, but he did have some mobility skills. As long as he wasn’t ganged up on he should be able to maneuver through safely.
“Then let’s charge,” Zedna said. “I’ll clear a path and both of you follow closely behind. Let me know if there’s a situation you can’t handle and I’ll try to save you. But whatever you do don’t stop running. If we can keep up a good clip we should be able to make it through their territory, but getting bogged down in battle won’t end well.”
After a moment of preparation the three of them charged ahead, with Zedna in the front followed by Tormacc and then Athra. Because they were next to a cliff ledge they tried to stay close to the wall of stone on their left, but because of their positioning they had to look almost directly up to spot the goats on the cliff face high above them. This also made it more difficult for the goats to spot them, but it only took a few minutes for one to notice traces of their passing, and with a loud bleat the battle began.
As soon as the goats noticed them, they attacked, dropping down from above like missiles from an aircraft. Because Tormacc was following Zedna he was able to keep most of his attention focused upward, which allowed him to fairly easily spot the falling monsters. Dodging a few of their falling bodies, once Tormacc could get a good look at them he could see that their hooves were reminiscent of spikes. As the goats fell their hooves elongated, and they scrunched their legs together to form one large spike that, if it hit, would surely cause instant death, likely even for Zedna.
Their hoof spikes when extended were about half a meter long, and because of their weight they easily slid into the stone of the pathway, the friction of the entry causing a flurry of sparks to fly up, bathing the goats in red light. Because they were able to retract the spikes the goats had an easy time getting out of the holes they caused, and as more fell down the three of them soon had a large herd following them, bleating in anger.
The bleats of the goats sounded disturbingly Humen, and their cries combined with the shower of sparks as they hit the ground made them seem almost demonic, the once quiet mountains now echoing with screams and thuds. But for all the goat herd’s ire their attacks were not that effective, and with Zedna leading the way they made good progress.
A loud rumble echoed out from the pathway ahead, and as Tormacc looked forward he saw part of the path they were on crumble, a goat having rammed into it head-first, dropping down using its horns instead of its hooves. The sound of the pathway crumbling thundered out and a cloud of dust soon followed as their path ahead was blocked. It was a relatively small gap, but between the increased gravity preventing them from jumping across and the horde of enraged goats chasing them they were truly stuck between a rock and a hard place, or in this case, a drop and a goat chase.