Chapter 543: The Northern Continent II

Chapter 543: The Northern Continent II

“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.FOlloow newest stories at no(v)el/bi/n(.)com

“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.

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.