《Ashes of Empires》Chapter 114 - Unpleasant Intruder
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The hot mist was swirling around the boar as it walked closer without showing any fear. It mostly seemed to care about Weils who was the only true enemy around. Everyone else it could kill with ease.
Kaden continued cursing. Why had he ever got involved with that damn beast! Why did it have to show so much interest on him? How was it even able to follow him? It kept appearing in places where he was. Last time was at that remnant at Sacronan. There it made a huge mess.
"Thats right", Kaden thought about something. "It took that fire elemental's core?"
The Cerulean Boar was a water and earth type beast. Yet, it had clearly decided to absorb a fire type core and it was from a more powerful creature than itself. Due to Kaden's studies he was very well aware how cores and mana worked. In most cases the boar would have either wasted the core entirely or died due to huge amount of incompatible mana, but this seemed to be something else.
"It probably evolved with the fire mana and achieved a special mutation", Kaden muttered to himself as Weils prepared to fight the boar. "This mist is probably some effect of mixing fire and water mana."
Kaden tried to remember all those beast encyclopedias he had read. Special mutations were rare, but truly unique ones were even more rare. It was likely this type of boar had been seen, defeated and catalogued before. It shouldn't be too rare. Then he felt like he remembered something.
"It is probably a Geysir Boar now", Kaden though after a moment. "Water, earth and fire. Three mana types. Usually found only in certain volcanic regions. Named after the way the boiling steam comes out of its tusks."
Having more types wasn't neccessarily always good for beasts, but in many cases it was. It would have to balance the mana types, even more so with conflicting types like fire and water. Kaden himself had fire and wind elements and they didn't clash so he didn't need to be concerned of it.
"I hope Weils puts it down", Kaden thought as he watched events unfold. "If its dead, it wont be stalking me anymore."
The boar rushed at Weils, spewing its boiling steam out of its tusks. Weils had to block the attack forcibly instead of getting out of its way. The steam was surrouding Weils and he had to deal with it too. It seemed the boar was in complete control of the boiling steam mist.
Perhaps, if Weils had not been surprised like he had been and had not suffered injuries because of it, he might have been at better situation. Still, Weils was no weakling and had not perished immediately.
"Beast lord should have greater concerns than a minor remnant like this one", Weils said to the boar angrily. "I doubt you even have any use for anything you could get from ambushing us like this."
The boar didn't even seem to care.
"You are in the way!" The boar shouted. "You should just die."
Kaden knew why it didn't seem to care. Weils was just at the wrong place at the wrong time. The boar most likely just wanted to pick up Kaden.
"There is no way I can run from it", Kaden cursed as he watched the fight continue.
The boar was very tanky and Weils had trouble dealing any significant damage. Then again Weils was much more agile than the boar. In most cases the fight would have become fight of attrition, but, as it happens, Weils was injured from the ambush.
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Kaden watched Weils barely avoiding the boar's attacks.
"Perhaps I could hide inside the remnant", Kaden wondered for a moment. "The boar is so large, it would have trouble getting inside."
Around at this time an earth spike with serrated edges, that the boar cast, hit Weils on his side. He was now heavily injured. The boar wasn't going to let the chance go and it charged forward. It crashed against Weils who was knocked backwards with a crunch as his bones shattered.
Weils was still alive, but could not get up. The boar corrected this soon after by stomping on Weils brutally a few times, crushing whatever had not been crushed with the charge. Then as if it needed to finish it all, the boar used another earth spike and impaled Weils on it.
Weils was most certainly dead.
The boar did have some injuries, but nothing life threatening. Regardless, it had been weakened only slightly due to the fight with Weils. It did not care about any of that. It was only concerned about one thing.
"Ooh, where are you dear?" The boar shouted and looked around, ignoring Weils's remains completely or its own bleeding wounds. Whenever it found someone alive, it killed them. Soon there were no survivors except Kaden and Emina who had hidden away a bit. "Now that I'm very strong, I can take you home and love you very very much! Forever and ever!"
Kaden was truly planning on going back into the remnant. He wasn't sure, if the boar would eventually get bored or had a way to fit inside despite its large size, but there were very few choices left. Kaden was not planning on experiencing the boars love and care.
"What is it looking for?" Emina asked quietly and was also planning on going back inside. "You seem to know something."
"It fixated on me at some point", Kaden decided to reply. There was no point hiding it, but he did obfuscate the truth slightly. "It's probably because of my mutations that its attracted to me."
Emina frowned. "Will it listen to you?" She asked.
"Almost certainly not!" Kaden replied and shook his head. "Nor am I attempting. It will take me with it. Its previous 'dear' didn't survive the ordeal."
At that point the boar noticed Kaden.
"There you are, dear!" It shouted and rushed towards the remnant entrance. Then it stopped and was very quiet. It could see Emina with Kaden. "A woman? Another woman?! I knew this would happen, if I let you wander around. Now step aside while I get rid of this whore! I will present her corpse at the altar I built for our love."
Emina looked rather horrified as she was facing her death.
The boar was simply going to stomp and crush Emina just like it had done with Weils. Just as it was going to finish Emina, something happened.
"Please, refrain from harming anymore humans", a robotic voice said from somewhere behind Kaden and Emina. It was 7RU-MC! It walked out wearing some kind of a pink dress it had put together. "Violence is unnecessary. Those other humans, they destroyed knowledge and I was going put them down anyway once I finished observing them."
"Huh?" The boar looked at the robot. It had never seen something like it. It still didn't really care. "You are interrupting my ritual offering of love!"
"How curious", 7RU-MC said. "It seems animals too have been affected by this 'mana'. I'm noting high intelligence."
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The robot was basically just studying the boar and it did not like to be ignored in such a way. It finally decided to ignore Emina for the moment now that a powerful opponent had appeared.
"I'm also noting high agression", 7RU-MC continued its report. It did not seem very concerned. "Perhaps it can be reasoned with. Please, calm down."
The boar wasn't listening.
Then the robot raised its arm with its weapon and shot a single shot which hit the ground just in front of the boar. Kaden noted the shot was far more powerful than anything the robot had done inside the remnant. It was clearly pretty powerful. Then again, it had probably existed since the times of the cataclysm. It had had more than enough time to simply naturally absorb mana. In fact, it was surprising it wasn't more powerful.
While the damage on the ground was seemingly minor, it was still basically a molten hole where the shot had bored through. Despite the simplicity, it was enough to give the boar a pause. Perhaps the shots like it were powerful enough that they were dangerous to it.
"Why do you interrupt!" The boar demanded to know. "My chosen husband is mingling with another woman! Surely the slut must be put down."
"Intriguing", the robot said casually with complete calmness as if it was having smalltalk about weather or other such thing rather than speaking with a murderous boar. "Why is it that you choose member of another race?"
"He feels nice", the boar replied. "My previous husband thought I was ugly and had more beautiful mate."
"It looks to me as if the mutated human isn't showing interest in return?" 7RU-MC pointed out.
"I just have to show him that I'm the best choice", the boar said confidently.
"Hmmm, would you be willing to discuss with me about beauty!" The robot said suddenly. "I might be help you get more beautiful and maybe you have better chances. Perhaps even your own kind will think you more desirable too!"
The boar was quiet for a moment. It had seemed to lost interest in fighting by then. 7RU-MC and the boar were having lengthy and detailed discussion about being beautiful and how to achieve that.
While this, both Kaden and Emina were basically stuck. They had to listen one of the stranger discussions they had ever heard, but it seemed to still be useful. The robot had for some reason decided to defuse the situation and wanted everyone present to reach desirable outcome. Once the boar was listening its beauty suggestions, it was also learning that Emina wasn't really having any relationship with Kaden.
"How wonderful!" The boar eventually said and bounced around happily. "I can work with this!" Then it looked at Kaden. "I got some important things to do now. I'll find you later and show I'm a worthy choice! Then you! Woman! I have been told I was mistaken, but know that Kaden belongs to me. I'll eat you, if I find you trying something!"
Emina wasn't entirely sure how to act. The boar was a beast and should have promptly killed everyone. Instead the robot was able to reason with it and make it leave.
"We ... uh, we aren't together", Emina said. "We merely worked together due to passing interests."
The boar snorted and left towards depths of the forest once more. It only picked up some human corpses, likely for a dinner. It had also done something to Weils's corpse, tearing it apart a bit. It did not take it all.
Kaden wasn't sure what 7RU-MC had discussed with the boar, but he inteded to find out, if it was something that could send it away. Nothing he had overheard had sounded important in any way.
"How did you do that?" Kaden demanded. "Nothing you told it made sense. It has stalked me for far too long and you somehow made it change its mind?"
"I obviously told it how to become more beautiful!" 7RU-MC replied happily. "Didn't you listen? Ciner is very concerned of her appearance and I have vast knowledge of beauty! It is my joy to spread such knowledge among all intelligent races. It seems some animals can be counted among them."
"Ciner?" Kaden questioned.
"Her name obviously", 7RU-MC replied. "Considering how interested she is about you, it is a wonder she never even truly introduced herself to you."
Kaden ignored the robot's comments. As for what it told about the boar, Ciner, he was not sure why something like that had changed it's mind. Perhaps there was more to it. That or it was just crazy. Kaden was leaning on that option. The boar had never seemed very mentally stable. If some beauty tips could affect it, then so be it.
There were some other things to do. The boar had taken Weils ... or most of him at least. His body was very nourishing for a beast to consume, but it seemed the boar only muched his corpse a bit, tearing off little pieces and leaving small parts behind. Such as an arm and a leg.
Whatever the boar left behind did not include what Weil's had come for. Kaden could not find any of that sort. Why had Ciner come to begin with? It was now a Lower Cari and thus at least as intelligent as humans. It should have been well aware who it was fighting. Perhaps its main reason to come had not been Kaden afterall, but the information.
"I really can't tell what that damn beast thinks", Kaden muttered to himself. "It didn't seem to care much about Weils and was, as usual, more interested in me, but it still seems to have taken whatever Weils had come for."
Emina stood by at Kaden's side and watched him pick up the pieces of Weils that the boar left. Those would be very useful to Kaden too.
"I think the beasts have some interest in this matter too", she told Kaden, after understanding the situation. "Beasts like that boar don't come out randomly."
"I assure you that it does whatever it wants", Kaden told Emina. He had seen far too much of its crazy acts. "But I'm willing to accept that, if it wasn't coming here on its own volition, perhaps it had been told to complete some task here by some stronger beast."
It was all speculation, of course. Weils had also shouted something that beasts should not be too interested, but perhaps they were. Then again maybe they were just aware, didn't exactly care, but didn't want humans to get the stuff in their hands.
"This is beneficial for us", Kaden said after thinking for a while. "Everyone else is dead. How about we share all the information we have now?"
Kaden was planning on his near future plans. Perhaps if Emina shared everything, he would not have to kill her. He still questioned that. Emina was potentially useful. Killing her still was the last option.
"Why should I? I'm looking for things ancients made, remnants and other such things", Emina replied. "And honestly I don't trust you much."
"You don't like the church, yes?" Kaden continued. "Neither do I. Whatever it is that you hope to find, that you can use against them or perhaps to just grow strong enough to have them not meddle with your business too much, I would guess you could use an ally for it. The sort of allies that would work with you regarding church and gods are rare. Trust in my motives, not me."
Just who would act against churches of either Saint Empire's or Sacronan's? Very very few people. That or cultists of God of Lies, but they were hardly a good choice.
"As it happens, current situation frees me from certain problems back at Corand", Kaden continued. "I can now take my time and act freely. Your interests happen to coincide with mine."
"Fine", Emina replied after a moment. "Its not like I found anything interesting. I merely took the chance when possibility showed itself. I only got some history that both human churches want to hide. Nothing useful, I believe."
"Why do you even do this?" Kaden questioned her.
"Do you know what church has done to me and my people?" Emina replied with another question that didn't really need answering.
Kaden knew this very well too. Churches, the servants of gods, are deceptive just like their masters.
"I'm merely hoping I will eventually one day find something I can use", Emina added. Then she handed over a few crystals to Kaden. "I'm not sure what Weils found, but thats gone now."
Kaden looked over them. History, just like Emina said. Perhaps one day, if enough of it was put together some truths about ancients and what really happened at the Cataclysm could be deciphered. Yet, none of that was very useful to Kaden.
"Here is what I got", Kaden handed over his stuff and Emina's that he had looked. "The inquisitor basically made me come here. I had no plans other than to complete my task and have the inquisitor and church ignore me afterwards. So I took what I could."
Emina grimaced. It seems neither of them had gained much of anything. Of course there was some, but nothing major.
Once Emina was done she handed Kaden's crystals to him.
"Are you planning on going to that other remnant we found?" She asked.
"Possibly", Kaden replied.
"Well, if you do run into me there, either we work together again or stay out each other's way", Emina said.
"Fine for me", Kaden agreed.
Kaden was indeed going there, but now that he was free to act as he pleased, he was still thinking what to do. Perhaps he could go to Sacronan instead and find Juren? As much as Kaden wanted to kill him, he wanted to make sure he was able to do so. He also wanted to torture Juren personally before feeding his soul Vengeance.
"Well, I got time to think now", Kaden muttered to himself as he planned to leave.
He didn't want to stay around and take the chances that the boar, Ciner, could change its mind. The robot was already wandering around studying everything. Trees, rocks, whatever it found. Perhaps it would eventually leave too. Not that Kaden could expected it to protect him again. Its motives were strange.
In other words, there was no reason to stay around.
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"REINDEER GAMES" - marvel gif series
"does anyone have any orange slices?"----gender neutral pronouns (they/them)i do not own anything stated in this book
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