Chapter 543 - The Northern Continent II (Patreon)

“Why is it always snakes!?” I screamed to Iona as we sprinted through the dense jungle, a tiny Fenrir slowing down enough that we could keep up with him. Iona was sprinting straight towards a dense patch of bushes, my wife having complete faith in my abilities to keep the way clear.

With a thought, I obliterated a thick mass of undergrowth with liberal application of [The First Rays of Dawn], a few ashes drifting in the breeze the only remnants.

“Snake!?” Iona leapt over a log. In the time it took her to leap, she summoned her bow and an arrow, twisted, and smoothly released a [Hailstorm] behind us. “Snake!? If you’re calling that a snake, of course everything’s going to look like a snake to you!”

I didn’t need to look back to see the monster plowing through Iona’s [Hailstorm] like it was nothing. A few slitted eyes closed and heads hissed at us, but nothing we’d tried so far had even scratched its scales. Blinding and irritating was the best we could hope for.

“Let’s see. Slitted eyes. Fangs. Hissing mouth. Long and sinuous. It looks like a snake. It hisses like a snake. It’s trying to eat us like a snake. I dunno, it seems to pass the duck test.”

“What fucking part of that looks like a snake!?” Iona was trying not to cry-laugh. “It’s got multiple heads! It’s got fucking wings. It’s a winged hydra, it’s nothing like a snake! Next thing I know, you’re going to start calling dinosaurs snakes! Of course if you call everything a snake you’re going to be chased a lot by snakes!”

Iona slid under an ancient tree turned into a bridge, effortlessly clearing out a muddy trail. I slipped through right behind her, the log exploding into a million sharp splinters aimed at us a moment later as the typhon obliterated it. 

I snap-analyzed the shards. If they were going a little slower, I’d let them literally bounce off me. As it was, I didn’t feel like getting dozens of splinters. I snapped [Event Horizon] up, some of the splinters vanishing into oblivion.

Iona had some different ideas. With a display of [Telekinesis] I found frankly impressive, she managed to magically grab huge chunks of them and shoot them at the typhon’s eyes. Artillery Mage-lite - with more magic power behind it than most Sentinels of Remus.

“Something’s up ahead!” I yelled, sensing… nothing?

Which was sensing something. Wildly different from the unending bounty of the lush jungle.

The trees suddenly stopped, leaving a great circle of nothing in the middle of the jungle. I spent a moment absorbing it all.

It was like the world had been scoured down to the bedrock. Forget heavy leaves and thick trees, colorful flowers and blooming bushes - there wasn’t even dirt. It was like a titan had taken a cookie cutter to the jungle, cleanly removing a chunk.

 The typhon skidded to a halt, wings flaring and heads hissing as it refused to go past the clearly demarcated line. Iona and I slowed down as we went a little deeper into the empty zone, not wanting to stay close enough to the typhon to tempt it into taking a quick little nibble.

“This is new.” Iona said. We both knew what was going on - we’d entered the territory of another apex predator, one strong enough to scare the typhon off.

“Do we want to fight the typhon, or fight whatever’s in here?” I asked.

Iona mulled it over.

“Whatever’s in here.” She said. Fenrir roared agreement.

“Why’s that?”

“Everything else is coexisting. There’s no reason to kill a powerful monster that’s just being itself, and letting the cycle of life continue. Not here. But whatever’s here isn’t doing that. It’s clearing out everything. Might as well leave things a little better than we found them, yeah?”

I frowned at that.

“Or… we could just sprint through this territory and get closer to Auri.”

Iona rolled her eyes.

“Well, yeah. At the same time, the question was ‘which do we want to fight’, not ‘what are we doing.’”

“Ugh, you’re right. Want me to take a look?”

“Mine.” Fenrir growled, taking off. Iona shrugged, turned south, and started walking.

“Can’t offer up a case near Fenrir without him taking it.”

I eyed the omnipresent cloud cover.

“It better not start raining again.” I complained. Rainforests were aptly named, as I’d discovered to my soaked dismay. 

Iona held up a finger.

“Wait for it. Waaaait for it… the laws of comedic timing dictate we get a rumble of thunder… now.”

We stopped for a moment and listened. I snorted a laugh at her when nothing happened.

“It doesn’t always-”

A mighty crack boomed across the sky, bright Lightning turning the overcast day incandescent.

Iona and I took off sprinting in the direction Fenrir had just left, all banter gone in an instant. I squashed the traitorous parallel thought that wanted to say it doesn’t count if it’s someone’s skill, but Fenrir deciding to sprint off without talking to us was concerning.

I soon heard tiny whimper-mewling noises, some growls and wanna-be roars from something small, sloshing sounds, claws on stone, squishing noises, then Fenrir’s [Icebeam] drowned everything out. We crested a small hill, and I immediately took in the situation.

The apex predator that had scared off the typhon and stripped the jungle down to the bedrock was a slime. A gigantic, oversized slime that towered twelve meters tall, and slightly more around. The slime had cornered an akhlut pup in a small valley.

An akhlut was basically the cross of an orca with a wolf, deadlier than either one. They had an interesting smell, like blood and brine.

A pair of larger akhlut bodies were half-dissolved in the slime, slowly breaking apart.

[Slime - 2231] 

[Akhlut - 8]

I couldn’t tell if the slime operated on ‘inevitable death’ or had been toying with its prey, but either way, the akhlut was alive.

Fenrir was hovering above the slime, bathing it in Ice, slowly freezing the entire monster. Iona shot forward, going around the slime, then dropped down into the little dead-end canyon. ‘Canyon’ was being a little generous, the walls were barely ten feet high. She scooped up the pup, who tried to bite and claw at her, and easily hopped out.

Practically mundane teeth and claws versus adamantium alloy? No contest. Worst possibility was the puppy hurting herself.

I opened up my wings, taking to the sky. In a different situation, I would try to burn out the slime entirely, Radiance being alright against the gelatinous monsters. On one hand, they were like water in the sense that the heat was diffused and spread out, making it difficult to burn through or strike precise targets. On the other, that was exactly what was needed to kill a slime in the first place. However, Fenrir’s Ice was trying to do the exact opposite, and we’d cancel each other out.

Instead, I scanned everything else, staying low as to not draw the ire from other creatures, but at the same time knowing the only threat was right here. I double, tripled, then continuously checked that my healing was up, everyone was included, my mana was stable, and the akhlut was now included.

The puppy clear, Fenrir’s beam upped in intensity. Crystalline ice structures started to form in the slime, which seemed to be shaking in rage. The puppy was now barking up a storm in Iona’s arms, trying to get to the slime. Iona jumped up next to me, floating with [Flight of the Valkyries].

“She’s got moxie.” My wife commented, nodding to the akhlut.

“Sooo, I take it we’re rescuing wildlife now?” That’s what everyone’s actions were saying, but communication was key. No matter how much I assumed, no matter how in-tune with one another we were, there was nothing wrong with confirming.

“Fenrir seems to want to. She’s brave, and I don’t see the sense in letting her just die, no matter how ‘natural’ it is. Especially not to that.”

“Oh yeah. Seems like she wants to kill the slime herself.” I said.

“I’d be amused to see the class quality from that, but I’m pretty sure she’d die just getting close to the ice.”

Fenrir was almost done freezing the slime into a block of Ice, and the two - three - of us backed off a bit, the bitter cold making me shiver.

Iona was fine, of course.

“Any idea how it’s still alive if it’s this easy to kill?” I asked dubiously.

“Both Fire and Ice are terrible elements here. I’ve seen almost nothing with either one.” iona said. “Just a few low level creatures here and there. There’s no real Ice to get started with, and Fire with this much water? The slime has fantastic skills against almost everything else.”

“I mean, we’ve seen Radiance. That tends to be great against slimes.” I said.

Iona shrugged.

“I don’t know what to tell you.”

Fenrir resized himself back to normal as the sunlight gleamed off the frozen tip of the slime. Waves of condensation came off the ice block as the freezing cold met the humid heat, then Fenrir landed on the slime.

I always kept kill notifications going, and my eyes flickered over them as the ice-slime exploded.

[*ding!* Your party has slain a [Slime (Ooze - 2232), Slime (Acid - 2193), Slime (Ocean - 2177)]

I was certain that was the highest-leveled monster we’d ever killed as a team, and it had gone down like a wet paper towel. I wasn’t sure if it was a combination of intelligence, class quality, or simply having exactly the right thing to kill it - I bet it would beat Iona in 100 out of 100 battles. 

Iona just stood there, her skill passively deflecting all the shards away from both her and the puppy in her arms. I let them bounce off my hardened skin. It hadn’t been nearly as bad as the typhon deliberately smashing a log.

I nodded to the akhlut still in Iona’s arms.

“What’s the plan there?” I asked. I didn’t want to make noises about how we were trying to find Auri, and I really, really didn’t want distractions or side-quests, but relationships were about compromise and understanding. I just… selfishly, I wanted the compromise and understanding to go my way right now.

Iona scruffed the puppy and brought it up to her face, using [Telekinesis] to move her helmet to her waist. The akhlut whimpered, then brightened up, wagging her finned tail and licking Iona’s face with great enthusiasm. My heart melted a little.

“Why don’t we bring Moxie with us, and when we find the right spot for her, we’ll let her go. We can’t bring her home with us.” Iona suggested. “I know finding Auri right now is our top priority, and I don’t think this will interfere with it.”

I dropped back down to the ground.

“Alright. I can do that. Should we take a quick break here, since it’s unlikely we’ll be disturbed?”

Iona nodded furiously.

“Yes! I’m ravenous, I could eat a whole cow. You don’t have a whole cow in your storage, do you?” She shamelessly batted her eyes at me. I laughed and stretched in the way I knew drove Iona mad. She was being considerate of my goals, might as well show my appreciation in a way she’d pick up and understand.

“If you want a cow, why don’t you pick something up from the forest while I get a campsite set up?” I suggested.

Iona nodded her agreement, and pointed to the little box canyon where all the drama had gone down.

“Let’s set up down there?” She proposed.

I agreed, and Iona put Moxie down at the end. I felt that wasn’t the best of places - hadn’t the poor puppy gotten traumatized to heck right there not ten minutes ago!? - but I suppose trauma and animals didn’t quite go together the same way.

“Sit. Stay.” Iona ordered, and to my minor ‘oh-goddesses-we’re-going-to-keep-her’ horror, Moxie did exactly that.

“Be back in a flash!” Iona dashed off to the jungle. Fenrir shrunk back down and curled up on the melting ice shards.

I shrugged, teleported into my [Tower], and started to set up camp.

===================

Moxie did not like fire very much. She did love a number of live, low-level - extra low-level - lizards that Iona dropped near her. Fenrir made some Ice walls, and suddenly we had mini-gladiatorial combat/puppy learning how to hunt as entertainment for the evening, all while three whole tapirs roasted on spits behind us.

Moxie play-bowed to the lizards that kept scampering around, trying to scramble up the icy slick sides of the arena in a desperate attempt to escape the predator. Moxie cautiously pawed at one of the lizards, jumping back in surprise as it scampered away from her.

“I bet three minutes of massaging that Moxie gets them all.” Iona said.

I snorted in disbelief.

“What kind of bet is that?!” I protested. “Of course she’s going to get them all! They’re trapped in a pen with a predator a thousand times their size. I bet five hours of massaging that you’re going to eat your dinner when it’s served.”

Iona shot me an amused look as Moxie pounced on one of the lizards, messily biting off its head. She briefly looked startled at herself, like she was surprised she’d actually gotten one!!, then voraciously devoured the rest of the still-twitching body.

Some of the ‘how to hunt lizards for fun and food’ figured out, she rapidly hunted down the remaining four lizards, devouring them all. The akhlut then turned to Iona, with big eyes and a little whimper that struck right at my core.

“She’s already got you wrapped around her paw.” I teased as Iona got up to the cooking tapirs, slicing deep inside for a mostly-raw strip to feed to Moxie. Iona tossed the strip to Moxie, who acrobatically jumped up to catch it.

Fenrir headbutted Iona, and the poor woman was run ragged between the two pairs of hungry jaws and huge eyes.

I was so glad I wasn’t in that mess. Sensing one of the more-attacked tapirs was now mostly cooked, I [Teleported] it to my hands, letting the hot grease drip down my fingers as I chowed down. They tasted nothing like pork, thank goodness. 

I couldn’t eat the whole thing, of course - but by ‘claiming’ one, I’d make sure there was enough left for Iona.

Sure enough, Fenrir and Moxie ended up eating the two tapirs, Fenrir contributing most of the munching. Moxie basically fell asleep on her last bite, rolling back with a distended stomach. Fenrir curled up next to her. I handed Iona most of the tapir as she sat back down next to me.

She shot me a puzzled look.

“I already ate enough.” I claimed.

“Hey.” She quietly spoke to me. “Thanks for indulging Fenrir. He’s usually pretty cold, but something about Moxie is speaking to his instincts. He didn’t mind what I did to his mother or nestmates, but there’s something about a young predator in distress that’s gotten to him. I’m aware this might slow us down getting to Auri, and I’m really sorry about that.”

I tried to shrug nonchalantly.

“Auri’s a big bird. A few hours delay, tops, isn’t going to change much. We’re all a team, it’s alright.”

Unsaid was I’d only eaten half of what I normally would’ve due to my stomach churning anxiously over Auri. I wanted to blaze ahead as quickly as I could, but there were a number of creatures here that could genuinely kill me, amazing healing or not. If the typhon had swallowed me whole, for example, I wasn’t sure I could cut or burn my way out. [Tower] was a potential escape… but that was one monster barely using any skills.

In some ways I was incredibly strong, able to blast my way through all obstacles and move at twice the speed of sound. In others, well.

Other creatures also got massive enhancements to their bodies and their own fantastical abilities. There was no sense in letting arrogance lead to death.

“Yeah. Let me lay down a few wards, so we can rest well.”

We hadn’t often been able to truly rest here. I’d taken for granted how easy civilization made getting a good night’s sleep. No civilization? No walls, no towns, no roads, no agriculture? Even in proximity?

Well, we might be able to claim a cave for ourselves, if nothing else decided it looked good for their home. Or smelled us out and wanted to try for an easy meal. Or…

It only took a few days in the deep, true wilderness for me to appreciate towns all the more. 

I started to rewrite reality, placing down wards that said to erase our smell, sight, and sound, to warn us when creatures approached, to ward off insects, and dozens of other protections, ignoring how I was using them as a distraction. It took me two hours to lay them all down, then I curled up next to Iona and fell asleep.

[*ding!* [Realty, Writ As You Will] leveled up! 530 -> 531]

==========

We got up the next day, fed Moxie, and with minimal fanfare, kept going.

Moxie did not like being carried, but nobody - not even Fenrir - was willing to slow ourselves down to a level 8 baby pace. 

We slowed down as the jungle thinned out into a savannah, Iona peering around cautiously. 

“What do you think?” She asked. 

Moxie howled at the vast expanse. I could detect all sorts of life, invisible to a mundane eye but clear in [The World Around Me], from little dinosaurs to hidden cats, mice-like creatures to the endless beetles and worms crawling through the rich dirt.

“I think we should get through this zone as quickly as possible.” I said. “The sightlines are long, and it’s a good chance to reorient ourselves.”

“Better fast than sneaky here?” Iona asked.

“Yeah, we’re not that stealthy with Moxie here, and I doubt we can move without rustling a blade of grass.”

Thunder rumbled ahead, and we instinctively glanced to Fenrir, who tried to look as innocent as a murder-wyvern could.

No jury in the world would return a ‘not guilty’ verdict.

Iona grabbed my arm and pointed.

“Look.” She whispered with awe.

We looked up.

A flood dragon - one of the long, sinuous ones with whiskers and five claws - had sunk his claws into the cloud and was literally pulling an entire storm system behind him, moving the rains and the storm through the sky. Pouring rain started to pelt us, and I fully expected Moxie to be a small, shivering sad little huddle.

To my minor surprise, she was loving the rain, squirming in Iona’s arms to get more of it. We traded a look, Fenrir joining in and failing to give cute little puppy eyes.

Seriously, Fenrir looked eight different types of malevolent and evil. Poor guy. 

Thinking about it, it made sense Moxie liked the rain. Akhlut were amphibious. The fins on her back, tail, and elbows weren’t just for show.

“Let me go scout around a bit and make sure we’re going in the right direction.” I conceded.

Fenrir was off in a flash, Icy walls rising up in a modest circle around us. Iona let Moxie down to play, and she promptly started sniffing around. There was a leopard tortoise hiding in its hole a few feet away - I wondered if Moxie would pick up its scent.

Might be for the best, I was willing to bet ‘puppy teeth’ versus ‘shell hardened by skills’ would be a good lesson for the akhlut.

Mindful of the fucking dragon tossing around fucking storm systems, I shot high into the sky. It was possible that whatever was in this territory would take offense, but it was even likelier that they were dodging either the dragon or the thunderstorm.

My hair went up in a halo all around my head.

“Overcooked mangos!” I swore right as the lightning bolt hit me.

[*ding!* [Etheric Aegis] leveled up! 222 -> 224]

My body was smoking, and I wanted to file a complaint. Only two levels for getting struck by lightning?! Come on! It was no fair!

Figuring I was high enough, I popped into my [Tower], grabbed my broomstick, cast [Greater Invisibility] with my chest rune, and teleported back out.

I’d originally made the flying broomstick for fun, but it was turning out to be an invaluable way to fly around invisibly. I made a mental note to go see a really good [Enchanter] when I was back home and get myself a really nice broomstick, not the slapdash job I’d done.

I scanned the horizons, trying to spot where we needed to go next. The heavy rainfall made it hard. I had super eyes twice over, but I couldn’t exactly look through walls, rain or wood.

Except if I was close enough, then [The World Around Me] would…

I siphoned the thought off to the side.

I was primarily looking for the ocean, since we were-

My heart went into my throat as the soft glow of a distant volcano appeared to be just over the horizon. We were almost there.

We were almost there!

I quickly scanned the lands between where we were, and where we needed to go, marking a dozen landmarks and creating a tentative path. Avoid the steep canyon, and we wanted to steer well clear of the unnatural-looking swamp. The river looked crossable, which was to say, not teeming with high level predators, and the hills were a left-left-right pattern, unless we wanted to climb them.

I looked down. Moxie and Fenrir were having a blast, the older predator trying to teach and show the new one how it all worked. The desire to get a move on warred with the sweet moment the two of them were having.

Auri was right there. So close I could almost see her. It had been six years, and she was late. I didn’t know what was going on with her. I didn’t know if she was alright, if there was a problem - any of it.

It… I felt Moxie could wait. It was a little selfish of me, but sometimes it felt like my existence was nothing but giving. 

I landed next to everyone right as Moxie bit down on the turtle, its shell going Mirror-bright before Moxie howled in pain, pawing at her face. Fenrir promptly ate the entire turtle whole, and I healed Moxie with a thought.

“We’re almost there!!” I shouted as I landed in the mud. “We need to go that way!” I pointed.

Moxie yowled a protest, and Fenrir grumbled his displeasure, but we all started to sprint through the muddy, rainy savannah, dexterity keeping us on our feet while Iona’s strength plowed through the thick, tall grass like it wasn’t there.

We blazed through, pushing our stats hard. Still, it felt far too slow. We were almost there! We were miles away. We were going fast! We had to detour around the swamp.

It was agony. Not even the sweet agony of anticipation, no, it was the cruel agony of walking up to a wreck, knowing something was wrong and simply waiting to find out the extent of the damages. Everyone was alive, right? Who was hurt? How much? How wrecked is everything?

A coatl shot out of the sky, aiming for Moxie. Iona started to react, reaching out to strangle it single-handedly, but I killed it with [The Rays of the First Dawn] before it could get close enough.

“Not this time.” I muttered to the smoking corpse. Iona [Telekinetically] snapped the body to her hand, and fed it to a happy Moxie.

We got to the river and I paused, stomping my foot in frustration. I’d picked up a much stronger blood and brine scent. Fenrir had clearly noticed it as well. Iona cocked her head at us.

“We need to follow the river downstream.” I explained. “Might have found some more akhluts.”

I wanted to sprint to Auri, I was willing to be a little selfish, but there were degrees of selfishness. If this was Moxie’s chance at a family? I’d take it. It was likely she wouldn’t survive the phoenix peaks either.

I hung back and let Fenrir take the lead, constantly glancing towards the reddish glow diffusing through the heavy rain.

We were so close. 

The river terminated in a large lake, and when the wind gusted the right way, I could smell some of the ocean. The scent path also terminated in the lake. Fenrir snorted his lack of amusement, and flew up high, changing himself to full size before diving into the lake.

The waters roiled and the waves splashed up to our knees. Moxie struggled in Iona’s armored arms, trying to get into the water.

“No, girl.” Iona gently tried to soothe the akhlut. “If you go in there, we’ll never see you again. Just have a bit of patience.”

Moxie yowled her defiance, struggling even harder, her instincts telling her the water was where she belonged. A moment later the water surged up in a huge bubble as Fenrir exploded back out, gently holding two squirming adult akhluts in his claws. He flapped over to us and made high walls out of Ice, then carefully dropped them in. One went to bite at Fenrir while the other one rolled over in a submissive pose.

[Akhlut - 268]

[Akhlut - 256]

Not exactly peak predators of the area.

I spun off a thought.

The pair of akhluts - clever, vicious, powerful predators that worked as a team - would’ve been a dangerous request back when I was a Ranger. There was a high chance we would’ve lost someone if they developed a taste for human flesh and made the connection that humans were found on roads. Now I was wondering if I could use my worst stat and lift them with one hand. 

Probably… not.

While I had [Luminary Mind] ruminating on how far I’d come and threat evaluations, the akhluts had noticed each other and were staring at each other, noses twitching. Seeing the situation a little more under control, Fenrir shrunk back down to a less intimidating size, while Iona put Moxie into the pen, and the three slowly came a little closer, sniffing even harder. Iona slowly tensed, like a spring being coiled, ready to leap into action.

Then Moxie play-bowed to the akhluts, who came closer, sniffing and licking her. I put my head on Iona’s shoulder.

“Awwww.” I cooed over them. Iona wrapped an arm around my waist.

“Looks like it’s working out?” She said. Fenrir landed near her, looking pleased.

“It does.” I confirmed. 

The three akhluts slipped into the water, a trio of deadly predators unleashed on the traumatized fish population. I wondered if they ever hunted like crocodiles? We watched a minute as Iona stripped out of her armor in seconds, [Telekinesis] plus stats making the chore easy.

“Can you store this?” Iona asked.

“Sure.” I teleported her armor in.

We were so close to the phoenixes, and against flame and fire like they wielded, Iona’s armor was pure hindrance, adamantium or not. Pure heat was one of her bigger threats when she was armored up, and there was the very real possibility that the phoenixes could melt her armor around her. Getting her out of it would be ugly. Less ugly with [Teleportation], but ugly.

Then we were off like a shot, the ground blurring as we ran miles and miles as fast as we could, taking advantage of most living things hunkering down in the brutal storm. The hills grew bigger and bigger, and Iona pointed.

“Shouldn’t we climb that one and get our bearings?” She suggested. “We might already be here.”

I nodded my agreement, and the two of us went on the fastest hike of our lives. A glorious mountain-and-ocean vista unfurled before us as we crested the summit, the peak suddenly having bright sunlight instead of rain. 

Mountain after beautiful mountain stretched out before us. A volcano was burbling. One peak had a whole roc phoenix on it.

And by the ocean, a penguin phoenix, clad in white flames, was diving into the ocean. It hit the water with a gigantic eruption of steam.

We’d made it.