EG Monster Island Chapter 24

*** AUTHOR'S NOTE *** 

I am ahead again on chapters, so expect chapter 25 on Wednesday this week!

*** AUTHOR'S NOTE ***

I ducked under the scything talons of a flying Steeflight Soldier Ant, which had shown up in this last round. We’d been able to build up a small wall that let Kami, Bridget, and Jon keep the majority of the forty eight Ants off of them. Sia and Zim were dogfighting the other flying Ants, three of which were laying twitching. There’d been eight of them to start, and I reduced the total left to four with an Aether Slash that separated the stupid bugs wings from its back.

It collapsed to the ground, and I pounced on it. Two seconds later, it was a splatter of goo, not an enemy anymore. A dozen Soldier Ants peeled off from attempting to overwhelm the others and charged me. I met them, dancing among the stabbing legs and grasping maws to avoid or block what I could while whittling them down. Flashes of Aether and arcs of ichor let me know Lammy was ripping into the back of the Beasts.

“Frozen Wasteland!” Jon yelled, hundreds of runes floating in the air around him. They flashed purple and sky blue, then ten of the Ants froze solid and shattered. The ground in front of him was now full of ice spikes and planes of black ice to slip into the spikes. Two more Ants slid and impaled themselves before the others shattered the Ice with Metal blades.

Bridget moved back, letting Jon take her place while Vaya kept the wall intact, and started to spin her arms around her. Runes formed around her hands as they whirled, making an intricate pattern around her body. It took ten seconds for her to create her technique, leaving Jon barely fending off a bunch of Ants, when she yelled out, “Localized Tornado!” A blast of Air Aether spun around them, throwing Ants back and sucking some up into the sky. Blades of Air in the tornado sliced them apart, killing a dozen.

I’d run to the edge of the grotto, as far from them as I could get while dodging Ants, then ripped into the injured ones closest to me. Sia and Zim had dove to the side to avoid the tornado, letting the other flying creatures be thrown about by the wind, then they savaged the disoriented Beasts.

Vaya screamed, “Devouring Vines,” and dozens of wooden spears shot out of the walls she’d been maintaining, leaving only three Ants left alive. They were quickly destroyed, and then we all collapsed.

“Was that the last round?” I asked the Dungeon.

“You have completed the wave,” it said robotically, then in a buzzed tone, “Dude, that was epic! You have so much Mana, I feel drunk! Do you want to continue? You gotta tell me you want to leave.”

“Is that why the others died?” I asked.

“Yeah, man. They didn’t understand me, so they couldn’t tell me to stop,” it said, sounding sad.

“Can you make two large panels of wood? I’ll write on them in the common language, and in English, whether they want to continue or to leave. Then you could have them walk to the side where they want to leave by flashing a light on either end. Would that work?” I asked.

“Dude! Yeah, that would be amazing. Then I could grow without killing people. Those cat dudes were people right?” It sounded excited.

“Yeah, they call themselves the Ashkhas,” I said. “But if you see any lizard people come in, murder them with prejudice. The Illyrians are evil, or at least any that would show up here are.” I looked at my friends, “We’re done today, but might come back. Does that change the gauntlet?”

“Nah, dude. You’ll have to fight my Ants again. The next wave is awesome, but you won’t get to see it,” it said. “Have some neat swag as a reward.”

The grotto shook slightly, then a chest rose from the ground next to the pillar in the center. I slowly walked over, still exhausted from the chaotic fights we’d just gone through. The last two rounds we’d had to use all of the earned Mana Pearls to recharge before the next round started, so I was left with two. Everyone else had one to three, and I was holding one extra for Sia.

I picked up the lid of the chest, Vaya and Jon running over to stare over my shoulder. We oohed at the contents. Eight Mana Pearls that were four times the size of the ones from the level four Steelflight Soldier Ants rested on a cushion on the left side of the chest. On the right was a cloak. I picked it up, and under it were two collars, a headband, and a sword.

“Yo, that leopard was awesome, so I made her a collar. The black one, with Mana it makes you harder to detect. She’ll be so cool that way,” the Dungeon said. “The other collar is for the owl. It will make his claws sharper. I can’t make anything for the phoenix, I can tell that collar he’s wearing is making him weaker. The headband is like the necklace I sensed on the ice dude, and will make you stronger over time. The cloak is for your healer, and is very protective. It makes a wall of stone for five minutes. If you had fought another wave, I’d be able to give you more.”

“These are great,” I said, repeating what he said and helping Vaya put the cloak on. It swirled in color before matching the brown of the dirt around us. “Ooh, camouflage too. Nice.”

“Well, I got all the other Pearls from the last round,” Bridget said. “Divide those equally?”

“Yeah, but let’s give Kami and Sia an extra of the Pearls since they didn’t get a reward,” I said. “We can all share the headband.”

“Should I use it with the necklace?” Jon asked. Jon had the necklace now, after both Vaya and Bridget had used it. We were going to give it to Aleks after Jon was finished.

“Ugh, probably not,” I said. “Bridget, you get the headband first.”

“Kami can have my Pearls,” Vaya said. “I got the cloak and can use the headband, so I don’t need anything from the last round.”

“You should keep the massive Pearl, though,” I said. “These are similar to the coins we got from the last Dungeon, and Librarian Narwan said we would be using those once we reached this level.” She nodded. I thought for a second then yelled at the Dungeon, “Do you absorb items? And if you do, do you learn what’s on them?”

“Yeah, dude. I can absorb and replicate anything that you leave behind,” it answered me.

“What about a book on learning to read the local language?” I asked.

“You have one!” It exclaimed, excitement oozing from its voice.

“Unfortunately not on me, but I will tell others to make sure you can get one,” I said.

“I’ll add a reward to anyone that gives me that. I can’t just give you one for promising though, so the first one to give it to me will get an extra reward. Hopefully they are good and will give you your portion,” the voice said.

“Well, I’ll hope for it, but I’ll tell some others about you. We’re on an expedition to find useful resources, and I bet we’ll end up winning the competition with your location,” I laughed. I explained to the others, and Jon laughed loudly.

A few moments after, a swirl of Aether left two sheets of wood, roughly the size of a sheet of plywood each. I separated them, then took out a pruning knife. “Stand here to continue and receive greater rewards,” I said aloud while writing it in both English and Craesti. “Stand here to finish and receive your rewards. Does that work for you?”

“Dude, you’re awesome. Here, have some stuff,” the Dungeon said. The first chest vanished into sparkles, and another rose up where it was sitting. I opened it to find a large metal plate attached to a short chain.

“What’s this?” I asked.

“Dude, I’ve been wanting to make this for a while. Put some Mana into it,” the Dungeon said. I shrugged, then complied. The surface lit up, a small ball of Aether forming above the surface. “More,” it commanded. I kept pushing Aether into the item.

The sphere continued to get larger, finally stabilizing at about the size of my head. It rippled for a second, then flattened. A pulse shot out, coating everything around for a split second before shooting back into the surface. A small-scale rendering of the clearing formed over the next few seconds. “So cool,” I whispered.

“Whoa, that was cooler than I expected, dude,” the Dungeon said.

“Hey, what’s your name?” I asked.

“Bruno!” It responded. “Bruno, uh, dude, I don’t know my last name. Not everything from before, before, uh, dude.” The pain was evident in its voice.

“I’m sorry, man,” I said. “Uh, changing subjects, how often can your gauntlet be run?”

“Once a week, dude,” Bruno said. “But another party can run it in only an hour.”

“So we can hang out here and recover for a little while before heading out again?” I asked.

“Uh, sure, dude,” he responded. “I won’t say no to company.”

“Well, we’ll be pretty quiet,” I laughed. “Have to recharge after that fight.” I turned to the others, who were all standing and looking at the projection.

“That will be useful,” Bridget said. “How did it make that map?”

“You didn’t see the Aether pulse it sent out?” I asked. They all shook their heads. “Awesome! I had to charge it up, and then it sent out a pulse of Aether to map everything. I wonder what its range is?” I repeated the question to the Dungeon, but he didn’t respond. I guess he doesn’t know, I thought.

“Well, we should gather as much as we can here, then start heading back to the transport pad,” I said. “Bruno, the Dungeon, said we’d be fine.”

“I’ve got some gathering powders,” Jon said. “Since you are too good for making those anymore.” He shook his head at me, and Vaya and Bridget laughed. I glared at him for a second, before laughing as well. We took the powders, sat down to enjoy the layer of pure Aether, and gathered.

I was full after nearly an hour, beating everyone slightly due to the gathering meridians I had. I looked around, then stood and walked off to the side. Sia landed on my shoulder, shrinking to the size of a large falcon. “Doing okay?” I asked.

“Yes,” he sent to me.

“Regretting Bonding with me? You might have advanced if you weren’t limited,” I said.

“Not likely. You have already improved my strength and longevity significantly, even though I have not advanced in level yet. Once you match me and we can both advance together, I expect to explode in power, and you will as well.”

“I’ll do my best,” I said, reaching up to stroke his wing. “Gather with me?”

“Yes. Grind away at the Affinities. That way they will become permanent,” he said.

“Yeah, definitely want that,” I gulped. I sank into my center and quickly set up the figure eight Sia had shown me before. We gathered for an hour, each mote of Aether burning away inside me. After a little bit, I altered the path, making it more complicated and reaching additional locations within my gathering system. Finally, the flow of Aether from him dried up, my meridians were slightly sore, and I pulled out of my center.

Jon and Bridget had laid out a small spread of rations, while Vaya was emulating me and gathering with Lampart. “Are you doing okay?” I asked them.

“Yeah, still sore some,” Jon said, shrugging his shoulders where a Soldier Ant had managed to stab him. Vaya had healed it, but only to the point it wouldn’t get hurt more as he used it. He’d had to finish healing it, and the Ice technique he knew for self-healing wasn’t the best at leaving you pain free.

“Is it going to affect your fighting ability?” I ask.

“Nah, just annoying,” he shook his head.

“Good,” I said. I looked over at Bridget and she just shrugged. I picked up the hard tac and started to chow down. Vaya stirred shortly afterwards, and we ate quickly.

“Everyone ready?” Vaya asked. A chorus of yeses, clucks, and grunts answered her. “Good, then let us go!”

“RUN, RUN FOR THEY COME! RUN TO SAVE YOUR SOULS!” The Dungeon boomed out.

“What? Who?” I yelled back.

“THE DOOM OF WORLDS! CORRUPTORS, DESTROYERS, THEY COME! RUN!” Was the only response. I asked again, but he just repeated himself, then static sounds occurred and he stopped responding.

“Let’s head back to the transport Formation immediately,” I said. “Bruno is telling us to run, and being really insistent about it. Sia, be ready to take off the collar.” I felt a pulse of affirmation through the Bond, then looked at the others. “Let’s run. Uh, fast.”

“Yeah. Follow me,” Bridget said. Vaya flung her new cape over her shoulders, nearly vanishing from our sight. We ran to the exit, moving quickly but quietly. The jungle outside the Dungeon was eerily silent. I focused on the Aether flows, trying to find anything in our path. Bridget was rushing, moving from tree to tree to bush and scanning the surroundings using some type of sensory technique.

I spotted a number of Beasts, some of whom should have immediately attacked us, but all of them were cowering in dens or hiding in the crowns of trees. Nothing was moving but us, the fear of the Beasts and jungle palpable. “Should we hide?” Vaya asked. “Lampart wants to dig into the ground and pretend she doesn’t exist.”

“No,” I whispered, “We need to get out of here. Whatever this is is looking for us, or those like us. Just run.”

“Okay,” Bridget said, then she stood and sprinted. I could see and feel the massive amount of Aether she was pushing into her movement technique, and could only match it. The Dancing Northern Wind sang through me, and we ran. The world around blurred as we pushed our speed to the limit, mimicking our flight from the Badger.

I felt something watching us. The expansive fear it inspired was something I hadn’t felt since my brief discussion with Darkness between my lives. The feeling sinks into my bones, then vanishes. The sudden absence was almost as bad as the lingering gaze, and I couldn’t help but look over my shoulders. Jon was behind me, almost skating on a sheen of Ice that formed and dissolved in an instant, lasting just long enough to propel him two meters with each step.

He shrugged, his head moving back and forth like it was on a swivel. I could only look over the rest of the area, still not seeing anything but the occasional flash of a Beast holding as perfectly still as it could. Even a few Aether plants that would be dangerous in normal circumstances were sitting inert and pretending to be as harmless as possible. Light, if I was willing to stop and harvest stuff, we’d definitely win. Still probably will, but it might not matter. What the hell is going on?

We ran for several hours, slowing occasionally to gather while jogging to ensure we stayed full without using the few recharge powders or pills we carried. Jon and Bridget both checked the few maps that we had in our possession. Occasionally Bridget changed the direction of our run, though usually by only a few degrees at a time. Darkness, we'd run quite a bit, I thought, it’s been nearly five hours of sprinting. Light, it’s been five hours, and I barely feel tired. How fast am I? What kind of endurance do we have?

Bridget slowed, and we started to creep forward. I could feel the Aether in front of us shifting. Strong Beasts, levels four and five, were shifting around in the direction we were heading. Or maybe it was gatherers, sitting in the upper levels of Condensation. Either way, we were outnumbered nearly five to one, thirty seven different signals echoing in my head. “They are surrounding the transport Formation,” Bridget said.