Dao 3 Chapter 26 (Patreon)

“Dar, it’s time to get up.” Mika shook him gently at first, then harder when he didn’t wake up immediately.

“Uh. Time?” Dar asked groggily.

“Time to go.” She pushed and pulled, but he was stuck between Neko and Sasha.

The cat girl responded to his movement by holding his arm tighter and nuzzling into his shoulder.

Dar pinched his eyes open and saw his predicament. Scooting the cat girl off his arm as gently as he could, he lifted himself out of the bed. Then he reached forward, grabbing the bed pole and using the dao of granite to help pull him out of bed.

Mika gave him a raised brow. “That’s what you use your dao for?”

“It gets harder and harder to escape the bed every morning.” He shrugged, grabbing a set of clothes that Sasha had laid out for him. She’d needed to mend them after unmaking them the night before.

Ducking out of the bedroom and closing the doors, Dar realized Tami had been waiting just outside, and he was still naked.

“Hold on.” Dar covered himself and got dressed behind the kitchen table.

“Don’t mind me.” Tami turned away as her face warmed.

“Blair is still in your inner world?” Mika asked.

Without her reminder, Dar might have forgotten. He pushed and Blair popped out, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. “Always a little startling to have that happen. But I’m starting to learn how to feel it coming.”

“How is everyone settling in to cultivate?”

Blair covered her mouth as she yawned before answering. “Not a lot of questions. Most of them could feel it when they settled down next to the tree. After that, it’s been quiet as they all are taking advantage of the opportunity.”

“Progress?” Dar asked.

She gave him an unamused look. “It has only been a single night. We aren’t all freaks.”

“If you two are done, Russ is probably pacing back and forth by now, waiting. We are usually well on our way by now.” Mika swung her trident over her shoulder. “Coming?”

Tami was on her feet and behind Mika in a flash. “Right behind you.”

Blair rolled her eyes and sauntered after Mika, swinging her hips exaggeratedly for Dar’s pleasure.

He took the moment to check her out. Blair had curves where Mika was toned, and Tami was just thin.

“Stop staring and come along, Dar.” Mika waved her hand over her shoulder.

He wasn’t going to deny it. “Sorry, distracted by the beautiful view.” But he sped up, following Mika out to the village proper where, exactly as she predicted, Russ was pacing.

There was a moment’s thought that he’d have to fill the crucible full of iron, but then again, Bart was still in his inner world. He could do it when he let him out.

“Finally!” Russ shooed his girls ahead of him towards the Bell River. “It is important we get out there early.”

Dar shrugged. He thought it was still plenty early. “It can’t be too hard to hunt bison around a herd.”

Russ didn’t respond to that, instead changing the topic. “How’s Mindy?”

“Blair was with them, and Cherry is with them now. According to them, everything is going well.” Dar didn’t have much more than that to say.

“Good.” Russ said excitedly. “Mindy is really sharp; she’ll pick up dao quickly.”

“Surprised you didn’t want to go train.” Dar honestly thought the gnoll would want to become stronger, faster.

But he shook his big dog-like head. “Not interested in earth or shadow. A hunter needs to be quick, agile, and able to chase down prey. Wind is what I’d like.”

Dar was surprised. The logic made sense, but Dar had thought Russ would be interested in earth. “Surprised. Figured earth would interest you.”

“You have to play to your weaknesses sometimes.” Russ answered.

Ah, that mindset made far more sense why he’d want to go for wind. At the very least, it showed that Russ was maturing. The demon that showed up at Hearthway in the first few days wouldn’t have come up with a plan like that.

“Good for you.” Dar patted him on the back as they got to the river. There, he saw his girls hauling thick cords of rope into the boat. “That’s a lot of rope.”

“Takes a lot to hang a bison and bleed it out.” Russ grunted, picking up more of the rope and throwing it onto the boat.

Dar followed suit, taking an armful of rope and jumping onto the deck of the boat, before pulling hand over hand and helping get the rest of the rope loaded.

“Alright, everyone ready?” Mika called out, getting behind the helm of the boat and using a long pole to push the boat off the shoreline.

“Seems we are on our way despite what we say.” Blair said dryly.

“Oh, hush.” Mika was excited as she started up the enchanted piece of the boat that functioned much like an onboard motor. Water sloshed out behind them as Mika turned the boat into the river.

Tami ran to the back and grabbed the rails, looking into the wake. “What is this?”

“Dar made it.” Mika answered her. “He makes lots of interesting things. Watch this.” She slammed the lever forward and the boat’s front rose out of the water as the boat zoomed across the river.

Mika and Russ’ crew hooted into the wind as they rode across the river. It was a short trip, but they still enjoyed themselves.

Tami was looking a little green as she clung to the rail. “This is very fast.”

“It’ll be over soon.” Dar pointed to the other shore. “It isn’t as if we have far to go.”

On that note, Mika turned the boat hard and powered down the motor, letting the boat coast into the other shore.

Russ and his girls were jumping off and pulling the boat ashore before they’d even touched ground.

“So, where did you see these odd kills?” Dar asked the gnoll.

“South side. We’ll show you.” Russ gave one more hard tug on the boat before handing off the rope to Mika, who lashed it to a nearby rock as best she could.

Dar didn’t think that rock looked particularly big enough. Touching the ground, he felt granite beneath them and made a thick stone pole that connected to the granite beneath them. “There. That’ll be more stable.”

“Already making things easier.” Mika smiled. “I’ll be here at the boat doing some fishing while you guys go scout.”

Dar nodded, noting that she didn’t participate in the hunting.

When Dar looked up, Russ was already tromping through the woods. Dar and the two girls hurried to keep up with the hunters.

The woods by the river didn’t last long before they opened up to a wide field of rolling hills that ran to the northeast, like one massive green carpet.

Bison dotted the landscape, many of them clustered a mile from where they stood in one massive herd. “That’s a lot of them. It’s one thing to hear about it, another to see it.”

Tami kept an eye out on the field. “Is this what your village uses for food?”

“We had crops growing, but yes, the bison are our principal source of meat. Since the southern woods burned down, we don’t exactly have many options for meat.” Dar explained as Russ followed the tree line, curving south along the edge of the plains.

“Dar, the herd has been staying away since we found this.” Russ pointed up ahead, and sure enough, there were two or three bisons worth of mangled bodies and blood.

Tami hurried over and pulled a few of the limbs up, examining them. “Whatever did this has sharp teeth and brute strength. Half of this is physically torn from the bison, the other half is chewed through.”

Dar looked at the surrounding woods for some sort of additional sign that would point to what had killed the bison, but he didn’t spot any. So he went off of the limited information they had. They needed to consider what was strong enough. “Do you think it was one of the beetles?” He asked Tami.

“Could be. I don’t think a mantis could fly with one of the bison.”

“Fly with it?”

Tami was still sorting through the gunk. “Yeah, I think the bison was dropped. Its legs look broken, and not in a way that some force hitting them from the side would do.”

“If we are talking about something that could fly with a bison, it is most definitely the beetles. If it is the insects at all.”

“There really isn’t much here for me to put together a full picture. Russ, can we check along the forest line to see if there are any more killings like this?”

“Sure.” The demon led them forward, keeping an eye on the herd.

Dar thought about the size of the beetle devils and what they were seeing. The bisons that were killed might just be enough food for one or two beetles. More of the herd would be killed if there were more than that. He was relieved the herd was still there; it meant the hive hadn’t come yet.

But if it did, they would lose their primary source of meat. “Let’s hope it is some random demon or monster.” He wanted to believe that, but it felt too coincidental that it started just after the insect devils started to roam.

As they followed the curve where the forest met the fields, Tami held up her hand for everyone to stop. “There.” She pointed to a blood stain not far into the forest.

Dar put his hand on her shoulder to stop her from going ahead. “Allow me to stay in front.” Molten lava pooled out of the ground and ran up his legs until it made a ball in his fist.

Squeezing the ball tight, he kept pressure on his ball of lava, ready for a surprise.

He walked forward to where the blood began. It trailed away in a path, as if something had been dragged.

Dar followed the trail, with the girls and the hunters lingering behind him. The bloody path led up to a hole just big enough to stuff a bison through. “That doesn’t look ideal.” Dar let more of his molten dao creep up from the ground and clad himself in glowing orange armor.

He found it now served two purposes, protection and lighting for the small tunnel.

He slowly moved into the dark space, keeping his senses open.

Once inside, he stretched out with his dao of shadow, reaching out to get a sense of the structure. He found that it was connected to a larger network of tunnels. And the structure felt very familiar.

“Shit. It’s the insect devils.” He confirmed. “It is set up exactly like the one in the hills, only smaller. And I think it goes further south.”

“Is it connected to the other one?” Tami asked, concern in her voice.

“I can’t tell. That is too far outside of my reach. How did they expand so quickly?” Dar asked.

Blair wrinkled her nose. “What if they were already this expanded before you attacked? What if you just gave them reason to use it?”

Dar didn’t like the idea, but it made sense. It was unlikely that the insect devils had made these tunnels in a day. If they had, that would be a terrifying level of growth. Dar sensed devils approaching. “Ready for a little fun Blair?”

The salt spirit was wrapped in diamond armor in a moment. “Do we have company?”

“Three beetles coming down the pipe. Let’s fight them here so they can’t fly.” Fighting had its own set of risks, but letting the devils fly would have its own troubles. He’d rather take them on in the narrow corridors. “Everyone else, stay up here. It’s tight corridors and the fewer people the better.”

“Let me go first. Give me some light.” Blair excitedly charged forward. Dar smiled. It was fun to watch her get so excited about using her new dao. He’d always seen her in more of a meditative state as she’d continually tried to progress down her dao path; he enjoyed seeing her in action.

Dar created a globe of magma in his hand and held it high in the air, washing the tunnel with bright orange light.

Blair’s diamond armor sparkled in the light as she charged forward, a lance of diamond smashing into one of the beetles and tearing right through the massive devil. Dar noted it was far more effective than his shadow weapons had been.

The three beetles pulled up short in surprise, but Blair and her new dao weren’t stopping. Her lance bent ninety degrees and stabbed into a second beetle.

Beetle number three let out a piercing screech down the tunnel as it used one of the injured beetles’ bodies to slam Blair into the wall.

The injured beetle used the chance to smash its horn into Blair.

Dar prepared to move forward and help her, but the hit did nothing to the diamond armor, not even scratching it.

Lances of diamond filled the air and came down, silencing the third beetle.

Dar just stood there watching, dumbfounded at the display of violence and power. He was once again reminded of the added power grand dao provided. He now understood why Karn hadn’t wanted to fight using dao. A grand demon fighting someone without a grand dao was pointless.

But Dar felt bad for Cherry, because despite all the help she had been, he realized just how weak her grand dao was in the scheme of things. That because she was a spirit, her ability to learn new dao was often limited to what kind of spirit she was.

Blair had made it work for her, but Cherry didn’t have great options as a dryad. Plants, especially new growth, weren’t… well… diamond or magma.

“What did you think?” Blair bounced back towards Dar.

“You were amazing.” Dar replied honestly, absorbing the beetles and banishing his globe of lava to let his dao of shadow loose once again down the tunnel.

The globe of lava had limited his shadow abilities, but as soon as it was back, he regretted that he hadn’t used it sooner.

“Incoming.” He hissed.

“How many?” Blair asked, excitedly spinning a new diamond lance in her hands.

“Not sure. But a lot.” Dar couldn’t count the number pouring into the tunnel, but they were coming from many of the side tunnels. And they were moving quickly. “Just how many damn bugs did that queen make?”

He prepared himself. “Let me handle this.”

Dar stepped forward, careful to keep his molten dao from harming Blair in the small confines of the tunnel.

He drew upon his newly minted grand dao, filling the ground beneath him with molten magma. The floor of the tunnel didn’t hold up to it, melting into the pit he was creating, but that was okay.

Mantises were at the front of the pack, and they weren’t smart enough to realize just what magma was. They were recently created and not highly intelligent, and that worked to his advantage.

The mantises took flight to avoid the heat on instinct, moving over it.

Curling tendrils of magma erupted as Dar snatched at the mantises. Each time the magma touched one of the devils, the devil burst into flame and consumed by the magma instantly.

Dar pulled up the pool of magma he’d made and pushed it down the tunnel, following as it went. The deadly lava flow crept deeper into the devils’ hive. The molten liquid sloshed at Dar’s behest, splashing those that were trying to escape.

Dar smiled, pleased with how well his grand dao was working when put to the test.

He kept moving, destroying beetles, but then he noticed one approaching that looked different from the rest. It was far larger than the other beetles.

The large black beetle slapped Dar’s lava flow, and the earth swallowed up his lava, dumping further under ground.

Dar frowned. It was the first he was seeing a devil use dao beyond that of physical amplification.

It felt so wrong, and he realized instantly why.

Though they were both connected to the dao, however, the devil didn’t use mana.

It all occurred in a blink of an eye, and the next moment the devil was jumping into the surrounding soil, disappearing like a fish into water.

“Blair. Be ready.” The spirit had followed him and watched the tunnel with watery eyes.

“Dar. If they have grand devils among them, then suddenly the length of these tunnels starts to make sense.” She spun with her lance, waiting for it to attack.

When it didn’t immediately, Dar figured the best way to force it out would be to go back on the offensive. He drew more magma around his feet and set it rolling forward to melt his prior flow of magma and the earthen spikes that the beetle had created.

A massive clod of earth shot from the wall, impacting Dar and slamming him against the far wall just before a pair of black claws grabbed him.

Even as the claws clamped down, the black beetle screamed in pain from Dar’s molten armor.

Dar smiled. The beetle had it coming.

Dar broke off eight beads of molten material from his armor and punched them into the soil behind him.

The screaming intensified as its clawed arms retreated.

The attack had stopped Dar’s lava flow once again, allowing the insect devils further down the hive to run and scatter deeper into the hive. Dar had a feeling they were moving to a connection that led to another hive.

In anger, he drew up a ball of molten material and pressurized it into tiny balls until he almost had molten buck shot. Then he opened his hand, spraying the material into the tunnel walls.

They didn’t have quite the force of a shotgun, but it had far more penetrating power with the heat of molten lava. They sizzled paths through the dirt, penetrating several feet deep.

“Where is it?” Blair looked around, shifting nervously.

“I think it’s gone. It seems like the black beetle was only trying to stall us for the others to escape.” He looked further down the tunnel, letting his shadow dao stretch out for almost a mile. All he found was a rapidly emptying hive. “There’s almost nothing left here.”

“Do you want to chase after it?” Blair asked, seeming fine with whatever he decided.

“No. I think if we keep going like this, then we’ll end up in an ambush we can’t handle. Did you see the way that beetle went through the earth?”

“Yes. It was like it was flying through air rather than dirt.” Blair agreed. “At least they didn’t have the brains to just bury us in earth until we suffocated.”

Dar shot her a dirty look. “Let’s not even give them the idea.”

“I don’t think devils can understand language.” Blair shot back, but kept quiet on the subject after that.

“It would be just our luck to find one that did.” Dar spat. “Okay, if we aren’t chasing after them, then I want to seal this place.”

“Seal it?” Blair asked.

Lava started to flow around Dar’s feet. “Yeah, it’ll take me a little bit. Want to go up and tell Russ that it's clear and we’re okay?”

She hesitated before nodding and turning around. “Stay safe down there.”

Dar nodded, but he was positive they had all fled. And even if he was trapped, he had all the food in his inner world. He was confident he’d be able to dig himself out with a shell of molten lava long before he’d need more food.

Magma bled out from the walls around Dar as he descended deeper into the hive, sealing the walls with lava and flooding junctions with molten flow that poured down deeper into the hive.

He did manage to find a few more body stores like they’d found in the first hive. Stuffing those into his inner world, he made quick work of sealing the hive. As he left the cave, it was all still liquid and hot. Even if the black beetle came back, it would have a hard time dispersing his magma. The ridiculous heat coming off of the hive would keep anything from getting close.