Chapter 59

Mountains and Monsters

To say that the jungle basin was large would be an understatement. No one had ever managed to cross the length of the jungle basin, at least not down its center. The reason for this lack of accomplishments is simple, up until now no humanoid creature had been strong enough and stupid enough to try to reach the center of the basin and return. Even a trek around the basin was one marked by the passage of months, and even along the safely guarded paths one could find many hidden dangers and obstacles hindering their way.

While the term basin adequately described the large impact crater that sat at the middle of the basin proper, the term failed to highlight the string of mountain ranges that sprung up as a protective ring around the basin itself. Little is known of the time before the great impacts that struck the lands, causing the basin to form and ultimately changing the shape of life of the planet. Some say only the gods know what happened before and after the impact. Some say that the impact is what led to the existences of the gods in the first place. The only thing that is truly known is that there was life way before the impact and well after the impact, but no signs of life exist for the time of the great impact. No signs of life, save for the gods themselves, but getting them to tell you of anything is nigh impossible.

All this is to say that Lykan and Nayali began making their way through the ridges of mountain chains that built up, eroded away, and formed over the past few hundred millennia to act as a natural boundary from the secrets of the impact crater and the lands that could be conquered by humanoid beings. Over the generations many humanoid creatures tried to conquer the basin to obtain its power for themselves, only to be sent home broken and defeated. That was of course assuming one was able to survive such an ordeal in the first place.

The problem with the basin was it already had a high level of mutation inherent to it before the calamity began to appear within its unclaimed borders. Then you add in the effects of the calamity, and it would be easy to see how the robust creatures of the basin would only expand. There was little wonder why the basin was considered the birthplace of psychic dragons, a phenomenon never heard of anywhere else. It was also a well-known fact that psychic dragons were the only species of dragon that no one was able to bond with. Many brave Pirans gave up their lives in the attempt to bond with such savage creatures, but all were slaughtered for their troubles.

In the end, psychic dragons, or those with purple scales were eventually left to be unclaimed. The only times other dragons dared to enter the basin was when they had a good reason to fear an outbreak. The civilized hordes of dragons, or those that had domesticated human riders to tend to their needs were the only ones who would dare enter the lands of the jungle basin. Each time they went was to exact a singular mission, the last time anyone other than native inhabitants tried to enter the basin was to deal solely with a corrupted brood of psychic dragons, a brood that had already tempted to expand beyond the borders of the great jungle basin.

As the pair made their way forward neither made a sound. Nayali for her part had tried to hover and glide gently over the ground so as not to make a sound. Yet her use of energy was enough to set off the local monsters. Many monsters were drawn to the pulsing sound of mana that all but thrummed in her body as she circulated the energy fast enough to provide lift to her body.

Lykan for his part struck down all of the distracted monsters that bypassed him in their attempts to strike at the low-gliding Nayali. At first Lykan was able to keep up with the monsters as only one or two would show up every few minutes or so. The problem came when there was a herd of bat sized psychic dragons that all came for Nayali. While they were smaller than the normal dog and horse sized psychic dragons that managed to leave the steep cliffs of the basin, their tiny bodies could still produce a wave of force strong enough to knock out most opponents. It was clear that the baby psychic dragons moved in a large flock or school and would react to dangers in a unified front.

Thus, Nayali found herself not only swarmed but unconscious from their sudden and unrelenting assault. She awoke sometime later to find a gore covered Lykan standing over her body. As she moved, she found that there were dozens of tiny bite marks over both Lykan’s body and her own. The wounds had been tended to, as bandages had been applied to the worst of the wounds. As she became more aware, she finally saw the carnage that lay around them.

When she got to a sitting position Lykan, went to her side to support her and to help check her bandaged wounds. Feeling his touch, Nayali felt a flair of warmth from the gesture, she also couldn’t help but feel a bit ashamed of the fact that she had been knocked out from such minor creatures. No, they are not minor creatures, they are just small. I need to remember they are one of the strongest species of dragons for a reason. Nayali chastised herself.

“I think they are attracted to your ability to circulate mana throughout your body. They all but avoid me until I strike at one of their pack.” Lykan admitted.

Hearing this Nayali couldn’t help but think back about how she had been the only one targeted by the swarms of monsters they had encountered so far.

“Do you think they are attracted to my mana?” Nayali asked, realizing that Lykan himself didn’t have mana due to his damaged meridians and thus felt that there was some level of validity to his claims about the attacks being related to mana. But she felt the claim of it being due to circulating mana was a bit much.

“No, you have been out for at least two hours now and nothing else has come our way. I don’t know what it is, but it seems that your circulating mana might act like a beacon to these creatures.”

Hearing the explanation Nayali could only nod to herself, as she could not find anything to contradict his assessment.

“Okay.” Nayali said as she realized his explanation was better than anything she could come up with.

“Are you okay to move on? We should be safe for the moment, but I’m sure all this blood will attract some predators.” Lykan said, gesturing to all the different dead animals that were scattered around the ground.

Hearing that Nayali nodded and began to stand up, as she did, she felt Lykan’s gentle, but firm hands grab her and help her to her feet. Now that she was standing, she saw that a few of the dragons had been gutted and skinned.

Seeing her gaze fall on the spot a few meters away where he had gutted and cleaned a few of the larger psychic dragons Lykan only gave a quick thumb over his shoulder to his backpack.

Seeing that Nayali nodded. She wanted to tell him more, to thank him, but Lykan already began to move.

They had made a pact when they first entered the forest, that they would try to keep their talking down to a minimum. In fact, Nayali felt comforted that his first and only words to her since she entered were about helping to protect her.

Snap.

Nayali looked down at the twig she had broken underneath her footstep. To her relief if Lykan heard the sound he did not make any action about the sound, instead he just kept walking forward. When Nayali compared their two movements, hers were that of a buffalo, while his were more like a ghost.

She could still hear him making sounds occasionally, but only if she focused. For the most part Nayali noticed that a gust of wind would make more noise than him. Nayali could only shake her head in disgust.

What she didn’t realize was the reason Lykan was able to move around so quietly was due to two main factors. The first and most obvious was his unnaturally high Attributes that went beyond the scope of mortal ability. The second reason was due to his recently acquired Stealth Mastery that let him move about quietly. While there was a cost to his natural movement speed, that was unnoticed due to the terrain the two found themselves traversing and the fact that Lykan’s unnaturally high Attributes helped to compensate for most of the loss in speed. The result was Lykan was able to move at roughly a normal walking speed while barely making a sound.

Despite all her stumbling and clomping around clumsily in the forest no further animals came forward to attack the two. It almost felt like the two had passed some invisible barrier, and the forest no longer gave the warning to turn back, but now was resolute in springing a death trap around the couple. These thoughts and more flowed through Nayali’s mind as they made their way forward. Following Lykan and his new innate map of the corrupted pillars that had been provided by the gods.

Now that she was back to her regular state of mind, she felt horrible for what she had done. She had killed thousands of innocent lives, only to draw out Lykan. She had been so cold and calculating in her pursuit of her one goal, to bind herself to Lykan that nothing else mattered. She had ruined his career, and all but made him an outcast due to their needing to be bound by fate. Still Lykan never complained or protested, each time adversity faced him, he just turned the other cheek and took his lumps silently.

Then she saw the most selfless act, when she passed out from the constant mental attacks that burned through her brain, she awoke to find him caring for her. He had even gone so far as to clean food for the night. She found herself falling for Lykan twice. The first was the one she took for the love of her brother, and the love of her country. The second was for the way he always tended to her as if she was more than a war trophy.

The worst part now that she had finally come back to her senses thanks to his cleansing the corruption from her mind and body; she knew he would never fall for her. He already had another.

Many would throw themselves at Lykan, either directly or indirectly. As his mandatory shadow she saw the girls that would throw themselves at him, and the others that would only stare longingly from the sides. At first, she was jealous and angry at those women and would send them mean glowers when Lykan had his back turned. Now though, now she pitied them, if only for the fact that she saw in them the same thing that she now saw in herself. She was a woman who had been outmatched from the very beginning, trying to take something that had already been stolen.

Who could have stolen your heart? She wondered as she followed him further into the heart of the basin and towards the first pillar. They had made a deal to only stop once they reached the first pillar, seeing the resolve even now in his eyes Nayali just did her best to keep up. She did not want to be an extra burden to him, in fact she made it a plan to be the one to provide over-watch on him while he tried to defuse the first corrupted pillar.

At first, she had planned to fly directly overhead and rain down lightning and other powers on any monster that dared to get near her Lykan. But after the advents of their entering the forest, she was trying to modify her strategy. She knew she could, through meditation, stay awake nearly indefinitely but did not want to use her meditation in quite the same was as she normally would.

Just as she was contemplating what it was, she was to do, they had reached it. Or at the very least the first of the dark pillars could be seen glowing brightly with its intense powers from in front of them. The only problem was, they were not the only ones who had been drawn to the pillar. It seemed that several local animals were also drawn to the pillar.

To her horror, Nayali saw the effects of corruption oozing out of the pillar and infecting all forms of life around it, plant, and animal alike. The plants had a sick twisted nature to them. The animals likewise had red and black veins pulsing around their bodies that seemed to fill them with intense threads of power. Seeing them Nayali could only freeze for a second in shock at the twisted sights before her.

To her surprise Lykan never faltered, instead he just kept moving forward.

Nayali looked at the monsters that Lykan was now approaching, and then had a sudden thought fill her mind. Is that what I looked like while I had the corruption in me?

Having that thought, she realized it must be the case. Then she wondered no wonder he doesn’t look at me that way. He must think that I am a monster.

Before Nayali could get too lost in her own thoughts a loud piercing roar filled the air.

“ROOOOAAARRRR!”