Chapter 27:

26 Days After Spring’s Beginning

288 Days After The Ra’tok Attack Amia Village

Rua Desert, Rhia Territory

I blink, the world coming into focus around me.

I am laying on the stretcher, looking out at the mouth of a tunnel. The sandstorm rages outside, the wind whipping sand past the cave and howling it’s fury.

I can hear Kamar yelling, and a hissing. There is a crunch of something breaking, a inhuman screech and the sound of flesh being hit.

I twist around, and watch as a dark shape scuttles on all fours franticly deeper into the cave, hissing.

Kamar falls to his knees, breathing heavily, and his head bowed.

I start frantically untying myself from the stretcher, and stumble to my feet. The ground sways under my feet, but I push through it and make it to Kamar.

Grabbing his shoulder, I ask, “Kamar?”

He goes rigid, startled. He turns around and looks at me in confusion, “Kardin?”

The asper looks around him, at the cave walls and the sandstorm outside. He looks at me, “What happened?”

My brow furrows as I ask him, “You don’t know?”

He looks incredibly disorientated.

I look around the mouth of the cave we find ourselves in. The walls are sandstone, and one of them has collapsed inwards. It’s a tight cave, about 8 feet high and several feet across.

The walls are unnaturally smooth. It looks remarkably more like a tunnel than anything else. Like something carved it out.

Kamar climbs to his feet, looking down the dark tunnel. “I can’t… remember sitting there. I remember walking into the cave… but nothing after.”

I look at him in worry, “You shouted something. Umber hulk, I think?”

Fear creeps onto Kamar’s face, he grabs my shoulders with his second pair of arms, looking into my eyes. “Are you sure?”

I think for a second, and now slowly. “Yes, I’m pretty sure that’s what you yelled.”

Kamar lets go of my shoulders, and lumbers around.

“What’s wrong? What's a umber hulk?” I ask.

Kamar looks me in the eyes, “It’s a creature from the depths of the earth. They are rare, and mostly found in far more humid climates than this. They have a tough shell, powerful strength and unmatched digging ability. But that all pales in comparison with its eyes, they mess with your mind. Scrambling your memories and making it incredibly hard to fight them.” He looks shaken, paler than usual.

They scramble the mind?

“How do they mess with your mind?” I ask, leaning on Kamar.

“Don’t stare into their eyes, thats believed to be how they activate it.” He lumbers over to the stretcher, picking it up effortlessly.

I swat on my feet, looking at him. Would its ability work on me? It sounds like it would count as a mind attack.

I can’t help but remember how effortlessly Inik bypassed the barrier that protect my mind. With the thri-kreen Queen’s warning and Inik’s action, I am far more wary of how well it protects me. What if it doesn’t work?

Leaning on the smooth wall of the tunnel, I look at my asper companion. He looks worried, and is glancing outside, at the howling sandstorm. He shakes his head, turning around, “We can’t go back outside. And that thing is bound to come back. But if we go further in, there’s also the chance we run into it.”

I consider what he said, thinking. He brings up a good point, if we head deeper into the tunnel, we could run into the umber hulk, but if we stay, its assuredly going to come back.

I decide after a minute, “We can’t stay here. It knows we are here, our best bet is to find somewhere else to hide till the storm subsides. Then we can leave.”

Kamar grunts, dragging the stretcher behind him, “Get on.”

I think for a second, and shake my head. “No, You need another pair of eyes.”

I move around to his back, and grab a handful of his fur, pulling myself up. I wrap my arms around his neck, riding his back. “There, now I can see too.”

He grunts, and lumbers into the darkness of the tunnel.

I close my eyes and start up my cycling technique, making as much Gray katra as I can.

I need to stop making things in my soul space, it leaves me without any katra, which is dangerous. I need to wait next time till I am in a place I am sure is safe.

I adjust my grip on Kamar, making sure I am not choking him. Though I doubt I could even if I tried.

He had proven himself far stronger than me. At least physically. I’m not sure how I would hold up against someone like him now, but before, I barely dodged his attacks. Who knows, maybe now I can go toe to toe with him.

I doubt it though. While my abilities have developed quite a bit since we first met each other, and the subsequent fight from it, I have moved in the opposite direction of him.

Like Inik said, I focus more on adapting to my opponent, steering away from straight up slugging matches.

A thought comes to me. I guess that’s why I am an Artificer. I just don’t have the raw strength or skill to fight on the same level as anyone else.

As the ‘system classification’ implied, I can forge things and bring creatures from Amia. And considering I am rather fragile, not having the general toughness of normal Steel bodies, I can create things to help me fight. Like Vel, if I am able to summon her, then I will have a formidable weapon.

There is a deep rumble, and loose sand from the ceiling crumbles down. The earth shakes, and a low roar seems to permeate everything.

What is this?

Then it all quiets down slowly, the shaking stopping.

Kamar and I both look around, he stopped when it began, and looks just as surprised as I feel.

“What was that?” I mutter, trying to puzzle it out.

Kamar just shakes his head, and keeps walking, “I’m guess that it was your friend, Inik.”

I look back the way we have come. Has Inik already begun to fight the tarrasque?

***

Venel blinks, holding his hand up to block the bright, scorching sun. He can already feeling himself being cooked from the heat.

His Ma and Pa step out from the portal, having a similar reaction as him. The portal folds in on itself, closing with a quiet pop.

His mother fans herself, sighing out, “Gods, it’s hot!”

Venel nods, looking around at the landscape, gently rising and falling dunes, sand shifting in the wind. No life in sight, only two rows of giant, jagged spikes protruding up from the ground out in the distance.

Venel’s mom turns to his father, saying, “Drazen, honey, are you sure this is the right place?”

The man grunts, his pitch black hair and glowing amber eyes focused on the air in front of him. He swipes, looking up, “According to the report, this was the last place the… subject was alive. Though, I have to agree with you, Sanja, this place is scorching!” He chuckles a little, patting Venel on the shoulder.

Drazen leans down and says into his son’s ear, “What can you see?”

Venel casts Eyes of The King. The air in front of him seems to fold in on itself, a greenish portal ripping itself into reality. There is a screech, and four large bats fly out.

They have large ears, and bigger, teeth filled maws. They screech, their wings beating and their skin sickly pale and liver spotted.

The fiends separate, heading off in four different directions.

The portal folds in on itself, closing with a pop.

Venel enjoys the rush of energy through his limbs as the spell completes, the summoning over. He can’t help but be amazed at what he had done. It was something he never even thought possible.

Cereus, the strange skeletal man, had gifted him with mainly powerful summoning and long range abilities. It was his specialization.

The skeleton had accounted for the fact his mother and father wouldn’t want him near the danger, and so had given him ability to summon minions to fight for him.

His Ma and Pa’s abilities were also different, and all of their powers complemented each other. They worked with synergy, designed to be a three man team.

Venel, even now, marveled at the skeleton man’s foresight. While the others who had accepted his power were designed more for solo missions, the three of them had been given powers with the idea in mind of teamwork.

The boy closes his eyes, feeling his connection with the bats. There is a moment of disorientation as he looks out from all four of their eyes, but he quickly adjusts.

Bellow him, he can see the dunes passing by as the four Eyes of The King spread out around the area, scanning the terrain.

He commands to of the bats to move over to the odd, orange spikes rising up from the ground. They both fly over the spikes, and he can see a strange pyramid in the center of the rows of spikes.

Venel focuses his will, and the bat switches its sight to energy detection.

He gasps, taking an involuntary step back. His father grabs his shoulders, and he can hear him ask, “What’s wrong?”

The pyramid is crawling with katra, moving about like ants in a hive. There must be hundreds of them, but there are two things that catch Venel’s attention most.

Around the pyramid is a complex circle of runes, pulsing with katra, bleeding it out into the surroundings. He can tell they are protection scripts, and various other kinds.

The second thing is what made him take a step back. The entire row of spikes, under the pyramid, are pulsing with a blazing hot katra. It radiates pure malice and destruction, like the scorching of the sun and fire.

Venel shakes his head, dispelling the connection with the Eyes of The King. He can feel them returning back into the folds of reality, their purpose served.

His mother leans down and hugs him, whispering, “What's the matter?”

She looks at him in worry and concern.

Venel licks his lips, looking at his mother’s face. It didn’t use to be so angular and sharp, her eyes burning with an eery amber glow, her long hair now black as midnight.

“Those spikes there,” He points to the two rows of them, “Are some kind of Beast. A very powerful one. I think it uses some kind of Fire aspect katra as well. It’s massive!”

Both his parents look at the stone like spikes in concern.

Drazen clears his throat, “I guess we have an answer to what killed subject 840k. Though, we still don’t know why the Bond is still active, or why it is moving. We’ll have to track it,” He says in a grim tone, his face set in a neutral expression.

Suddenly, Venel can feel something behind him, a towering and oppressive, baleful aura that pales in comparison with the monster under the sand. A shadow looms over them, the wind fading.

All three of them slowly turn around to stare up at a massive, black, serpentine dragon. It’s four horns curl around it’s head, arcing above it’s skull and forming a semicircle. A orb of light and darkness pulses between its horns, like the jewel within a crown.

Its violet eyes seem to pierce through Venel, staring down to his soul. He felt stripped and naked in front of its gaze.

How had he missed it, Venel should have been able to sense something this powerful and large sneaking up on them!

A voice booms out in his mind, ‘Agents of Cereus, I presume?’

Drazen steps in front of his wife and child, saying in a gruff, but also measured voice, “Yes, we serve Master Cereus.”

The black dragon’s eyes narrow, ‘Strange that you would be here now, of all times.’

Venel’s father hesitates for a second, “We are investigating circumstances around a subject. If you don’t mind me ask, but are you perhaps Adrize?”

Somehow, a smirk seems to appear on the dragon’s face, a bit of its teeth glinting through. ‘Yes, that is I. Though, I am occupied right now. If you want to talk, you must wait.’

Venel can’t help but tremble at the aura of hunger and sheer forceful power that the dragon releases. It is that of a thousand burning suns, of heat that can turn you to ash and of the power of a god.

Drazen nods, “Of course. We shall wait till you are finished with whatever… you are doing.”

The dragon leans down, ‘I suggest you clear the area.’

It stands to its full height, towering over the three of them.

Drazen motions of his Sanja and Venel to start running for the dunes into the distance. They take off in a burst of speed akin to that of Cereus, crossing the dunes swiftly.

Venel looks over his shoulder at the massive, black dragon. It has no wings, in place of them are spikes. A long tail whips out behind it, its talons seemingly sharp enough to cut through solid steel. It is a creature built to hunt and destroy.

Its voice booms out inside his head as it opens its maw, stepping forward. ‘Suns Embrace.’

The orb between its horns seems to byroscope, shifting more rapidly and glowing with a burning, piercing light.

The very moisture in the already hot air seems to dry up, scorching winds whipping outwards from the dragon. Heat shimmers in the air, distorting the landscape.

Venel licks his lips as they instantly start to crack, and blinks furiously at the heat as the very moisture on his eyeballs drys up.

The orbs glows even brighter, and Venel is forced to turn away.

Then he hears the deep, booming voice of the dragon again, ‘Scorch.’

The very ground rumbles, and Venel and his parents are thrown up from the earth, a massive amount of wind buffeting them as the very earth seems to crack. Large fissures running through the sand, the dunes sliding in like water.

Sanja twists around, and mutters while extending her hand, “Darkness dome.”

Shadow seems to explode from her hand, enveloping the three of them right before they crash into the fractured earth. Venel lands on a cushion of cold, shadow.

He crawls to his feet, looking out through the tinted walls of the dome. He can see the dark dragon still standing there, the very air seemingly scorching around it.

His gaze is drawn to the spikes, a massive shape rising up from the dunes. A terrifying roar permeates the air, and he can feel his eardrums wobbling form it, getting close to being broken.

Venel watches in terror as the tarrasque rises from the dunes and turns to face its hunter.

The black dragons voice rings out again, ‘Solar Flare.’

Venel has to close his eyes as the very earth trembles with the power of the ability, flaming chaos spreading out from the dragon and over the sand, burning everything.

He can mutter only one thing from hs parched throat, “Gods, help us!”

Venel watches as Adrize collides with the tarrasque, reality seeming to bend and burn.