1.85 Prelude

We had a great time talking about my possible inherity. Seralyn at some point suggested I could develop wings after an evolution.

I looked at her with intrigue.

“What?” She said. “Don’t you think it’s perfectly in line with the changes you’ve been through so far? First, you’re going to get some extra eyes. Next up are the wings.”

Velariah laughed.

“Those are going to have to be some insanely strong wings, then. She’ll probably need more than two, too. I can’t even imagine where she’d keep them.”

“Maybe they’ll perfectly fit around her behind… like a ladybug!” Seralyn suggested.

Draco and I joined the laughter.

Food was served a while ago, but that didn’t prevent us from making fun of my abilities one bit.

Imagine a flying spider.

How terrifying would that be?

I smiled at the prospect.

“Maybe she will grow scythes, like those mantises in the dungeon!” Velariah added to the list of strange things.

“I’d rather not fight against those,” Draco smiled.

“I do wonder where they would go,” I commented as I put my pedipalps on the table. “I’ve already got these and my fangs. There isn’t much space for more here at the front.”

Nira giggled as well.

“No, but really,” I said, after taking a bite of sausage. “The poison or venom thingy, I’m certain about, but what about all the other things? Any bets?”

“Oh, now this is my territory,” Seralyn said. “I bet you have two inherities. Anyone willing to bet against that?”

Velariah, Draco, and Nira shook their heads.

“You guys are no fun,” Seralyn pouted.

“How many of those abilities can be attributed to being part spider?” Velariah asked.

“I imagine it could be something like… I don’t know? Spider abilities, such as silk, get stronger with evolutions? Maybe the regeneration of limbs is included in that too? Honestly, I have never seen anything like this. I’m just guessing away here.”

“My carapace seems to get tougher too,” I added.

“And less hairy,” Velariah grinned. “But yeah, you’re right.”

A familiar figure entered the guild hall. Valtheril walked up to the Lore keeper and received a couple of documents from her. He scribbled down a few words on other documents, which were put somewhere under the desk before he stood up straight and smiled at us from across the room.

Velariah waved at him, and he exited the building.

“He’s always busy, isn’t he?” Nira spoke softly.

Velariah nodded. “He is. I hope he can get a proper administrator for this village sometime soon. I fear he is overworking himself.”

I couldn’t imagine the amount of work he’d already gone through. The results spoke for themselves. There was an assault on the goblins in the works, he’d cleansed some kind of necromantic magic from the forest, an elite squad of soldiers stood at the ready, the coffee plantation had been set up in record time and seemed to be coming along quite well.

And I was dating his daughter… I imagine that would have to account for some burden too, no?

Actually, I think we were beyond dating already…

I shook my head and smiled.

We finished our belated lunch and Draco divided the rewards from the Borer quest among Nira, Seralyn, and himself. Velariah also refused to take any. She knew she was going to get a new and improved set of armor soon, so she skipped out on the rewards to have the others gear up as much as they could before departing the village.

She took the same stance as me. We’d only be as strong as our weakest link.

“You guys wanna join me and Velariah for the ritual?” I asked.

“Fine by me,” Seralyn said. “Got nothing better to do, anyway.”

Draco simply nodded, Nira looked at the lizardman and then nodded as well.

“Shall we go and see if the Grandmaster has arrived yet?” I suggested.

I stood up, and did not receive an answer. I assumed that meant that everyone was in agreement.

We exited the guild hall and made our way to the large oak in the center of the village. There were not many treemenders about. I could see Pylanor and Lorin and only two others. Another figure that had the same type of clothing was present, although his robes were as white as white went. I had the feeling this was the person that I’d need.

I didn’t dare to ask him directly. Instead, I walked up to Pylanor and asked him if Ineus had arrived yet.

“He has. That’s him, right there.” He pointed at the man in white.

Seems I’d been right in my assessment.

The others kept their distance from me. I could see how it might be a bit rude to walk up and ask about my ritual with four others behind me.

“Thank you,” I thanked Pylanor and turned to the other treemender, who turned around at the same time, so he was facing me.

“You must be Miss Elania,” He stated matter-of-factly, with a neutral expression.

The Grandmaster before me was definitely in a much later stage of life than any of the other elves I’d seen. He also seemed to be far more experienced. He had a long, white beard reaching to his stomach. A staff that was as long as himself was held in one hand. On top of it sat three orbs, one green, one white, and one blue. His face was full of wrinkles, clearly showing his age. It made me wonder just how old he was.

“I am. Though, I guess it’s hard to miss from the description you’ve probably been given…”

The man before me smiled.

“You’re right. It was pretty hard to miss. I am Grandmaster Ineus. I have already prepared a couple of things for the ritual, but I’m afraid some items seem to be delayed. I’m hoping to have them here soon.”

“Delayed?” I asked.

“A specific herb wasn’t available the moment I left Goldleaf. The local adventurer’s guild would send it here as soon as they could. Knowing them, I reckon it’ll be here within the hour.”

Damn. That sucked. At least it didn’t seem like we’d be delayed for days.

“Where will the ritual take place?” I asked.

“In our research chamber.” He pointed his staff to the door that held the laboratory setup and equipment. “It’s already been rearranged. I’m just waiting for the herb.”

“Thank you, Grandmaster. I’ll come back again later… unless you want me to wait here?”

I decided to add that last part. I did not want to come across as rude.

“It’s fine, child. You do whatever, I’ll still need to arrange a couple of things.”

I bowed before the old man and joined my companions behind me.

“Well, that sucks,” Velariah commented. It seemed she’d picked up the conversation with those large ears of hers.

“It does, but it can’t be helped, I suppose.” I sighed.

We had barely set a step outside of the tree, before I felt vibrations in the ground once more. I was surprised to feel them, through the cobblestones. I stood still to try to make out what was going on.

Velariah walked up to me and looked at me with confused eyes. I had my finger on my lips for her and the others to see.

“Something large is below the surface…” I said softly, after walking up to the others.

“Any idea what?” Velariah asked.

I shook my head. “No idea, but it’s large, and deep.”

I stood still for another moment, taking in the odd sensations.

“It’s slowly coming towards the village… from the forest, as far as I can tell. Vel, I think we should notify Valtheril, like, right now. I’m getting quite uncomfortable.”

She led the way and stepped towards the guild briskly. She entered the building and started talking to the Lore keeper, while the rest of us waited outside.

Velariah exited shortly after. “He’s gone to inspect the dungeon for himself. I requested the Lore keeper to send an emergency courier over to the dungeon and have him summoned back to the village. What do we do?”

“Prepare, obviously,” Seralyn said.

“You’re right. We need to mobilize the guard, get the archers out of the forest and prepare. Whatever this is, it’s probably going to take some manpower to take down.” I replied.

“Draco, you check if any other adventurers are willing to help out,” Velariah said. “Elania and I will get the word out to the checkpoint and Allina’s squad.”

I lowered myself so the elf could hop on.

Draco nodded. 

“Anything I can do?” Nira asked.

“We should get to the checkpoint,” Seralyn told her. “And probably stay there. If things go sour, I expect your inherity to be invaluable.”

Nira nodded.

As time went on, the tremors in the ground conveyed more information about what was coming our way. The more info I got, the more anxious I became.

This thing was huge.

Slow, but huge.

“Let’s go,” Velariah commanded.

I started running as fast as I could through the sparsely occupied cobblestone street. Once I reached the eastern village exit, I put the pedal down and ran as fast as I could.

Velariah had to hold on tight.

The checkpoint guards saw us running towards them and proceeded to stand at attention.

Velariah started talking as soon as we stood still next to the first guards.

“We have something large inbound on the village,” She spoke. “Get everyone ready for combat.”

“From what direction?” Came an immediate question.

“East,” Velariah spoke again, “And subterranean.”

“We’re fetching the archer squad. This is not a drill,” She continued.

With that, I continued sprinting towards the forest.

I took one small pause to ‘feel’ where this unknown entity was at. Additional information was available. I could feel it tunneling its way through the dirt, somewhere below the forest.

I hurried over to the forest as fast as I could, knowing that whatever was moving towards the village was going to meet the archer squad first.

We entered the forest and I slowed down.

“Where are they?” I asked.

I knew these archers were hard to spot.

Velariah unequipped one of her gloves and used her fingers to whistle loudly.

A long, loud whistle caused some movement in the tops of the trees. Figures jumped down from the branches all around us and converged on our location. Within half a minute, we had about thirty archers, including Allina, before us.

“What’s the matter?” The archer captain asked quickly.

“Something large is on the way to the village through the forest. We don’t know what it is, and are setting up defenses as we speak.”

“How do you know? We haven’t seen anything from this direction.”

“Elania can feel it.”

“Feel it? Do you honestly want to act on emotions? I’m sorry, Lady Velariah, but that’s a new low.”

“No, no,” Velariah spoke sternly. “She can feel it; her legs allow her to sense vibrations in the ground. We used it earlier today to deal with the Giant Borers.”

“Oh, so you were the ones that caused that mess.”

Allina sighed.

“You better be right about this,” She looked from Velariah to me.

“Rangers! To the checkpoint!” She yelled.

The archers ran past us on their way to the checkpoint, leaving Velariah and me behind.

“Honestly, I can’t imagine what would have happened if you didn’t have some kind of authority…” I sighed.

“Bad things, probably. If we didn’t have you at all, they would likely be even worse.” She replied.

She put on her gauntlet again. “How close is it?” She asked.

I focused on the vibrations in my legs again.

“It’s about a hundred meters out, and it seems to have increased its speed.”

“I have no idea what that means.”

“It’s close,” I simply said, and started running toward the checkpoint.

“We should teach you some proper measurements,” She joked as we ran past the archers who could in no way keep up with my speed.

“These are proper measurements,” I replied. I then sighed, “Though, they are probably useless here…”

“Yup.”

“Thanks, Vel,” I smiled, but I doubted she could see it.

Seralyn and Nira were already present at the checkpoint. Nira seemed to be preparing medical supplies and stalling them outside the barracks. 

Seralyn climbed up a tower with some extra arrows she’d obtained from the building.

The number of guards had increased significantly, and there were about thirty guards in superior, full-body plating. Their armor had traces of gold weaved in between plates. They also wielded swords and shields that appeared to be made of dragon-blessed steel; their weapons glowed faintly red.

It wasn’t hard to see these guards held a much higher standing than the standard village guards. If I had to guess, I’d bet they were part of the elite squad that Valtheril brought with him.

But I thought he said he had a hundred and fifty men with him?

Where were the others?

We still had a small army, even if we didn’t have the others. I did a quick count and estimated about sixty guards total. Then there were the thirty or so archers from Allina’s squad.

I lowered myself to the ground to allow Velariah to dismount.

One of the guardsmen in expensive armor walked over to Velariah and me. He stood out from the others in the sense that he had a golden symbol of a tree above his helmet’s visor. He pulled his visor up when he stood before the white-haired elf.

“I heard you’re the General’s daughter, correct?”

Velariah nodded.

Geez, I wonder what gave it away. Was it the hair?

“I’m Major Vymar. May I ask what is going on?”

“Elania here,” She nodded to me. “Feels something large approaching the village from beneath the surface. It should be at the edge of the forest by now.” She turned to me. “Is it still approaching?”

“Yes. And it’s still picking up speed.”

“What is it?” Vymar asked.

“Something large, and long… if I were to guess… it feels like a Borer? It’s far bigger, though.”

“Never heard of anything like that,” Vymar commented.

“Yeah, well. I’m only stating what I feel.”

He looked at me from top to toes. “The General seems to hold you in high regard, so I’ll trust you… for now.”

That sounded a bit harsh.

Then again, this whole ordeal was strange.

“Never heard of anything like that?” I inquired with Velariah, as the guardsman turned away to instruct his troops.

“You don’t have any giant worms or something like that?”

She shook her head. “Not in this area. By that, I mean, they are far, far away. I think the closest you’d find something large that tunnels through the ground would be the Giant Sandworms of the Zerdanian desert.”

“You tell me this now?” I frowned.

We had plans to go through that desert. What the hell, Vel?

“I figured we’d be ready by the time we got there.” She replied.

Whatever.

“Anyway,” She continued. “We have some sort of giant worm approaching. Any idea how we deal with it?” Velariah asked.

“Hit it till it’s dead?” I suggested with some irony in my voice, while I started thinking about a real plan.

“The best plan you’ve ever come up with.” Velariah half laughed.

I was still thinking about a proper plan and ignored the elf’s comment. Valtheril was going to be summoned here. I reckoned he’d have no issues taking this thing out. We had thirty elite soldiers with us who I imagined would be able to do some serious damage on their own. We had a good archer squad that would only have to hit a single target. The issues were that I had no idea where this creature’s weaknesses were.

I could feel it steadily approaching. Through the vibrations, I could start to make out its shape. It seemed my hypothesis about it being some kind of extra-large Borer was right. If that was the case, its outer skin shouldn’t be too tough to pierce.

Though, I couldn’t simply take that for granted.

I looked over to the village and an idea sprung to mind.

I looked back in the direction of the forest and started some estimates in my head. It seemed to have slowed down. The archers had grouped up with the rest of the guards.

With its current speed, we should have about twenty minutes before it would reach us.

I saw a green figure in the distance exiting the village with a few figures behind him.

Draco.

I’d need him for my idea.

“Vel, I’ve got an idea. Tell the guards to spread out and stand still as much as they can. This creature’s speed has slowed down now that the archers aren’t running. I’ll be right back.”

I ran over to Draco, who stopped moving after seeing my approach.

There were five other adventurers with him. I could only recognize two of them. The first one was the rude opponent from the trial. He had his two swords sheathed and didn’t care to look at me. The ground seemed much more interesting.

The second adventurer was someone I’d much rather see. Eric, the polite human from the trials was present and looked concerned.

The other three consisted of a Dwarf with a large axe, an elven male with a large sword, and a human female with wizard attire and staff with a white orb.

“Draco, I’m going to need your help.”

“You have a plan, Miss Elania?”

I nodded and beckoned him over to the palisade.

“I’ll cut the rope between these trunks. I intend to use one or two of them as massive stakes.”

The palisade around the village consisted of fairly thin tree trunks that were already sharpened at the top end. They were about two meters long and I imagined they extended further into the ground.

I placed my front legs against the palisade and used them to raise my human body. I then used my spear to cut through the ropes that connected them near the top. After that, I pried loose two of the trunks and lowered myself. 

“Could you get it out of the ground?” I asked.

“No problem.”

“What exactly is approaching the village?” Eric asked.

“As far as I can tell,” I started, while I observed Draco pull the two stakes out of the ground. “A massively oversized Giant Borer. And by oversized I mean, about ten times the length of one of those stakes. It’s truly monstrous.”

“Hot damn,” He spoke.

“Teel o peto,” The human with swords spoke, and spat on the ground.

I had the feeling he just insulted me.

Eric poked him in his side. “Ela tee noon.”

Did he just defend me? I wish I could understand this weird language…

One of the palisade tree trunks fell. Another one followed it shortly after. 

“Let’s get those over to the checkpoint then?” Eric asked.

I nodded and took the top of one of the stakes in my two non-weaponized hands. I had moved my spear to one of my bladed gloves. Eric took the butt end of the trunk and Draco simply carried one on his own.

Showoff…

We walked towards the checkpoint at a decent pace. We didn’t have time to lose, after all. We’d only about a quarter of an hour left.

An even better idea came to my mind.

First, I had to take care of something else.

We reached the checkpoints and laid the two palisade parts on the ground.

“Just how do you come up with these ideas?” Velariah asked me as she looked at the pointy tree trunks. “This seems like such a smart plan in hindsight. I wish I could come up with things like this on my own.”

I smiled. “I don’t even know how I do it myself. Use your environment to your advantage, I suppose?”

“You make it sound too easy.”

I focused on the sensations that entered my legs from the ground once more. I seemed to be right with my twenty-meter estimate with regards to the monster’s length. Its diameter seemed to be between one and one-and-a-half meters.

That meant that its maw would be large enough to swallow a person whole, armor or not.

I could only imagine the size of its teeth. I wasn’t going to gamble with being able to withstand those.

I looked around.

Our first objective would be to make sure nobody was going to get eaten by this thing. The longer this battle went on, the better our prospects would be.

If Valtheril arrived, it would be done.

I could feel the monster’s speed picking up again, throwing a wrench in my plan. I’d planned to cover some area with sticky silk in order to immobilize it, even temporarily. Instead, I went straight to the second part of my plan, the one that involved survivability.

“Vel, get Allina, Seralyn, Nira, and Vymar here. I need people that I can easily recognize.”

“Consider it done.” She ran off into the building.

“I’ll get Seralyn,” Draco said.

He walked off to ascend the tower.

“Anything I can do?” Eric asked.

“Yes, I’ll need your help, too.”

Anyone that I could recognize would be useful.

Within two minutes we had everyone assembled.

“So, the plan?” Seralyn asked impatiently.

Faragi

So close to the end now...

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