"Where did you see the mysterious shine?" Anna huffed and puffed as she tediously lugged the giant breastplate in front of her as a makeshift shield.
"It was smack dab in the middle of the animals, or at least what's left of them." I recalled, "But we're not gonna just charge straight through. No, for now we're gonna flank the left side and hope to uncover some more info before we get caught."
"Huh? So you've already accepted that we're gonna get caught?" Aru raised an eyebrow, "Your luck is quite high due to my favor following you, so what makes you think you'll get caught?"
"Well, I hardly doubt we won't come into a conflict with the lanky man if we come across him, right?" I reasoned, "Besides, charging into enemy turf and expecting not to get caught is a fool's errand."
"That's true, I guess..." Anna muttered behind us.
Running through the dark Green forest with as much haste as we could muster, it didn't take us long to eventually start seeing more and more of the animals - a clear indicator we were getting close to their leader. This lanky man could prove quite scary to have to fight, so I very much hope we can speak to him like diplomats. Otherwise, judging by the height of the glint I saw in the far off distance, we might not be able to deal with that beast of a man.
"Stop!" Aru made sure we all stopped dead in our tracks and told us to hide, "See that there? An entrance to an underground cave!"
"Huh? What's that doing there?" I wondered, "There's no reason for it to be there, the amount of work and money put into digging it out wouldn't have been worth the trouble."
"Maybe the lanky man asked the moles to dig it out?" Anna thought out loud.
"Anna, this is serious." I lightly jeered.
"I-I'm serious..." She felt a bit embarrassed.
"No, her idea might be the corrrect assumption." Aru defended her, "Remember, moles might be a bit too small to dig out such large tunnels underground, but what if it wasn't an animal, but a beast?"
"Huh?" Even Anna was surprised, "So like... a molt did this?"
"Probably." She explained, "Molts are just way bigger moles, right? If the lanky man can control both animals and beasts, then it wouldn't be so farfetched to see a molt burrowing for him as well."
"Yeah, but molts aren't indigenous to Cardina." I refuted, "They're pretty much all in Entropa if I recall correctly. Not that I've ever seen one or anything."
Just then, a large stomping could be heard as a giant mole the size of a small house emerged from the hole it had previously burrowed out. Without a doubt, that's a molt, and despite what I previously said, it seems like this one isn't exclusive to Entropa.
"Well, that was scary." Anna finally let out a long and heavy sigh after holding her breath to not get caught, "Well, what now?"
"What do you mean what now?" I ran out the bushes, "We follow it, that's what!"
"Heheh, your wife's pretty lacking in the adventurer's intuition department." Aru smirked as she made fun of Anna.
"Cut her some slack, Aru!" I smiled back, "She's new to all this."
"Yeah!" Anna blushed lightly, "I'll get better with time, okay!?"
Diving straight into the hole in the ground, we were fully expecting to comically hit the large beast's even larger behind, but that surprisingly wasn't the case. It seems the molt is way faster underground, because goddamn, we can't even see it down here! And trust me, the tunnel is super straight and goes on for what looks like a kilometer at least!
"The tunnel's branching out almost every couple of meters." Anna noted, "Should we keep going forward or explore the other pathways?"
"In times like this, you gotta keep moving forward!" Aru proudly puffed out her chest, "Until all our enemies are destroyed!"
"Uhh, no. That's not how it works." I corrected her patriotic reply, "Usually, if you're going through a maze, if you put your left hand on the wall and keep following the wall's natural path without letting go, you'll be guaranteed to reach the end."
"Yeah, but this isn't a maze, jackass, it's an enemy base." Aru got pissed all of a sudden, "That may lead us to AN end, but what are the chances that that'll be THE end? If anything, it'll probably just lead us to a random dead end, since the lanky man put his office or whatever he keeps in here in another room."
"That makes no sense, if you..." I began explaining, but it seems our comedic timing finally kicked in, if a bit late, because we all suddenly hit the great molt's buttocks dead on.
"Foo-wee!" Aru pinched her nose as she guffawed, "Damn Edward, you really ran straight into the crack!"
"Augh! Ew! I'm dying!" I spat on the ground with all my might, but the stench still lingered on, "Anna, am I dying?"
"No, but you should definitely take a shower after this." She too inched away from me with her nose pinched, "And I think it goes without saying, but any kind of touching is forbidden until you do."
"Noooooo!!!" I began violently punching the molt's butt due to the sunk cost fallacy, not expecting it to have enough room to turn around, most probably livid, "Oh, uhhh... shit."
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"Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck." I then turned around to see it still just as eagerly chasing us down the tunnels, "FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK...!!!"
"Stop swearing and think of a way for us to beat it!" Aru came up with a brilliant suggestion as always.
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
"Forget beating it, let's just aim to make it out of here alive, okay!?" Anna was being a tad bit more realistic in her approach, however no matter what they said, one thing still remained true.
"If I knew how to do that, I wouldn't be swearing like an idiot, would I!?" I then facepalmed, "Dammit Aru, just make an ice barrier and block it!"
"Oh, right." She stopped before giggling in place a bit, "That could work!"
Raising her tiny arms up high in tandem with the ice wall being created in between us, the beast... completely smashed through it, only sustaining minimal cuts to the outer skin because of the ice shards' sharpness.
"...Or not." I went back to the cutting board as I continued running with all my might, "Maybe waterlog the dirt under it to create a mud trap?"
"Oh yeah, great thinking!" She stopped running once more to try the idea out.
"Great idea my foot!" Anna stopped her, "The entire tunnel will collapse if you do that! And we're still in it!"
"Ah, damn. You almost got us killed, Ed." Aru crossed her arms at me, "What's your problem, man?"
"Watch out!" I jumped in to save her from the molt's deadly claws before carrying her off on my shoulder like a sack, "I get you're an immortal Goddess who doesn't care if she gets eaten by this thing or not because you'll live either way, but news flash - we won't! So how about you stop joking around and genuinely help us get out of here alive?"
"Oh shut up." She crossed her arms again, though this time feeling a bit miffed instead of just joking about as usual, "Trust me, I wouldn't wanna get eaten by that thing either. I'll come out all smelly no matter how much I clean myself up after the fact. Fine, I'll help you."
"Great, so then what should we do?" Anna donned a hopeful smile.
"Something Ed did a long, long time ago." She explained rather vaguely, "It's a pretty efficient way to deal with a pesky beast, y'know? Besides, we might even be able to take it alive if we play it right."
"Quit beating around the bush and explain it properly already!" I shouted at Aru after finally snapping.
"Heheh." She giggled before smugly pointing to Anna's DIY shield, "Think about it, that shield would make for a perfect stopgap, wouldn't it?"
"Hm? Wait, you don't mean...!" My face went from puzzled to absolutely ecstatic as I called for Anna's assistance, "Anna, throw me the shield!"
"Whaaaat? No way, I need it!" She refused outright.
"Anna, give me the shield!" I started begging, "I have a plan, but I need you to cooperate. Do you trust me?"
"Mn..." She finally shook away her unease as she tossed me the shield with all my might.
"Right, now for me to grab it and..." I thought out loud before realizing she threw it way too fast, "Whoa, if I grab that I'll get sliced straight in half!"
Thus, without too much time to think, I... jumped to dodge it. What, not my fault she didn't pass it nicely. Though, when I landed back on the ground, I was surprised to see my dear wife getting further and further away from me, despite her visibly not moving anymore. Glancing down at Aru, I noticed she had her hands stuck together in a praying motion. What the hell, who're you praying to!?
"Myself, goddamit!" She read my mind and answered the question before pointing down, "Look, I don't know how you managed it, but you somehow perfectly landed on the shield and are now heading straight towards the molt. Either let go of me or we both perish, got that!?"
"Then I'm obviously gonna choose the best option left!" I smiled, "To live!"
Applying pressure to the front of the shield, I jumped before leveling the shield's tilt with my back foot and jumping off. With this, the shield was properly launched towards the molt's mouth, thus making it choke violently on it.
"Haha! That's right, when Grim and I fought the snair, choking it with a giant object was the way we beat it!" I raised my arms to highfive Aru after safely letting her down on the floor only for her to ignore me completely in favor of saving the dying beast in front of us.
"We can celebrate once we win this, but until then, we're gonna need this one on our side." She said as she calmly raised her hand up in front of it, filling its mouth with water to make it easier for it to spit the larger iron plated shield out, "There we go, that wasn't so bad, was it? Now will you stop trying to kill us, mister molt?"
"Ack, argh..." The molt spat the water out, "Inimici! Argh!"
Chained up by Aru's water, the molt yelled and yelled in its mind as it referred to us as nothing but enemies. On one hand, I'd call it stupid for just assuming we're hostile, but on the other hand we did just almost kill it without remorse. Yeah, I can kinda see it, sorry dude...
"Venimus in pace!" Anna stepped in to shout back with all her might, "Venimus in pace, venimus in pace! Venimus in...!"
"Okay, okay, I think he got the gist." Aru chuckled before turning to the beast, "Mulier recta est. Pacem tantum volumus, itaque de duce tuo plura nobis indicare placet."
"Phah! Pax?!" The beast laughed in our faces, "Conatus es me occidere!"
"What's it saying?" Anna turned to ask me.
"That we really shouldn't be trusted." I replied with a light chuckle, "Alright then, let's do this the hard way, then! Duc nos ad te vel adi peream."
"Mnf!" The beast started fretting for its life as I shoved the slimy shield back in its throat, "Bene bene! Ego te ad illum!"
There, that wasn't so hard now, was it? A bit of threatening to kill him while he's tied up and he'll do whatever we want him to! What a good beast! Or is he? Because if I think about how easy it was for the molt to switch sides, then I can't help but feel uneasy that it's on our side. What if it eats us when we least expect it or something!?