Cheep!?

Cheep!? 

Chapter 122

Niko dragged a Thimurge towards the rest of the group whilst feeling rather satisfied with how quickly they were able to deal with these creatures. The creatures, recently deceased, were from the fourth group of Thimurge they'd now handled, and as there was no apparent shortage of these particular monsters, the Wyldwalkers had ample opportunities to test a few of their more particular tactics against them. Sasha had even commented that their first hunt in the area was quite clean, though she’d also jokingly complained that she didn’t have anything to do for her part.

In all honesty, Niko had been a little let down as well for the lack of melee combat on the first offense, but then they’d engaged the second and third group in much closer quarters. Niko and Sasha were the skirmishers in those two engagements, supported from the back by the others, with Ronald and Mithel being especially helpful in reducing the number of ways that the enemy could approach them.

The fourth group was subject to a super-long range attack, leaving the bulk of the fighting to Skye, with buffs coming from Dachna and Mithel. Amusingly enough, arrows that were affected by Dachna’s Lure pattern were much harder to dodge, it seemed. Though, Skye had to put a considerable amount of effort into every shot in order to punch through unweakened Thimurge exoskeletons.

Niko knew now that they were much hardier than he’d initially thought, given that their third engagement saw a minimal amount of effort from Mithel. Without any attacks intended to bring down that innate durability, it required several times more force to breach their shells. Luckily, there were several ways to get around that. Skye discovered some of them rapidly, though it wasn’t as though it was especially surprising, nor hidden. The Thimurge’s segments themselves were, by necessity, less armored than the rest of them, along with more critical locations like the eyes. Skye took rapid shots at the most distant targets, penetrating their exoskeletons through the joints, before switching to much more powerful shots that could punch through their shells as they drew closer.

Every flashing arrow drew the hordes attention, slowing them further, and with a much milder ‘Hammertime’ potion - the original of which was now referred to as the ‘Hammertime Deluxe’ and likely would only ever be used with Niko, whose body could take the strain in relative stride - Skye was able to handily tear apart five Thimurge before they’d even approached close enough for Ronald to strike them.

“That’s impressive,” Dachna whistled, “They started, what, a hundred fifty meters away?” 

Skye nodded, pleased with herself and giving a nod to Mithel, “The new Hammertime potions helped a lot. Did the other version sharpen senses, or is that new?”
The alchemist, likewise quite pleased with the performance, happily extolled the virtues of her craft, “It’s much better than the prototype versions. The first one was too harsh, a lot of power, but too distracting. I changed some of the ingredients in this one, and used others in lower doses, that’s let me move some of the potency around. Now it’s more like a general buff, but the downside is that it makes you burn through essence a bit faster.”

“That’s a lot better than frothing at the mouth and then your body rebelling against you afterwards,” Niko shuddered, remembering the prototypes and how awful it had made him feel afterwards.

Mithel, sheepishly, acknowledged that, “Yeah, sorry, that, uhhh… Yeah, no, I’ve got nothing, that was straight up experimental. It’s better now, though!”

The Wyldwalkers chuckled at that, and went about collecting the bodies for Mithel. As she approached Niko, though, he quietly whispered, “It’s a good thing PETA doesn’t exist here, what with the animal testing and all.”
For a hot second, Mithel looked like her brain was catching up to the joke, before she snorted a laugh. “Oh, that would be awful. I’d have to find some other way to test all of my stuff.”

Niko cawed at her amusedly, “Shouldn’t you be testing it on yourself first, o’ master alchemist.” 

She shook her head with a smile on her face, “I mean, yes? Kind of? That’s how a lot of alchemists do things.”

“Wait, seriously?” Niko blinked in confusion, “What if the concoction came out wrong?” 

“I wasn’t saying that I do that,” Mithel waved wildly for a moment, “That’s crazy stuff. There are some really messed up ways potions can go wrong. That’s why I try to stick to the theory of stuff. Plus, my pattern lets me discern some things about my ingredients and potions before I use them, anyways.” 

Niko nodded, before moving the Thimurge he brought into an easier to access position. “What do you think you can make out of these things?”

Mithel considered the organs and other tissues she’d taken from them already, “Well, there’s actually a fair amount that can be used, but not for potions we’d care about. I might be able to use their endocrine glands in some buff potions, but I’ll have to test it more. The exoskeletons, though… there’s some potentially interesting uses there.” She gestured to the one that Niko had slain, “And, for some reason, I’ve noticed that all of the kills you make have some part of the creature that is more reinforced with essence than normal. I’m not really sure why, though.”

That much surprised Niko, but he did immediately have an idea as to why that might be the case, “Well, whenever I make a kill, the essence seems to… I guess release in a more pressurized manner? I can’t really explain it well, but I’d say it’s like it’s getting forced through certain tissues more as it leaves, like it’s trying to escape the body faster than when other people get the kill. It might have something to do with me drawing it out of them more efficiently…” Niko paused at that, genuinely considering the topic more. It wasn’t even a dramatic shift on how quickly he drew it out, and, moreover, it had always been like that. Even way back in the Evergreen when he’d made his first kills on the badgers, their hides had tended to be much more essence-rich than he’d thought they ought to be. 

Was there some kind of passive effect from Alterra’s blessing that he didn’t even notice? That would definitely require considerable testing. Maybe he could make it work for his team's kills as well.

“Hm… interesting. If I could see essence maybe I could offer a different point of view, but…” She shook her head, “I go by feel, mostly. I don’t know if I’ll commit a pattern to being able to see essence even after we tier up eventually, either.”

Niko shook his head at that, “I get that, I wouldn’t recommend it either. I get the feeling that my Aether Sight pattern is far from the norm. Also, it hurt like a motherclucker making it.” 

At that, more of the Thimurge were brought over, and Mithel made quick work of cracking them open with specialized harvesting tools. They lacked the huge, boxy packs that Niko had worn before - they’d regrettably been destroyed in Greenleaf - but he had some simple bags and his vest that they could tie some of their stuff to. On the return trip, they’d do that, but for now they were splitting up the loads as much as they could among everyone, save for Sasha whose pack wasn’t made with carrying multiple things in mind. 

“Apologies,” Sasha chuffed, “I hadn’t realized that these things had such usable parts, else I may have asked for our household to supply us with a storage box.” 

“It’s fine,” nonchalantly, Ronald shrugged, “Ordinarily we’d have some boxes for Niko to carry that he could shrug off as needed, but we’re going to have to have those rebuilt.”

Sasha nodded before considering something for a few moments. Before Niko could ask what was up, she said, “Perhaps we can see about having a few spatial boxes made for you. They’re difficult and pricey, but if Stella can make it for you, perhaps that would get around the pilgrimage’s restrictions.”

“You have those?” Mithel immediately snapped to attention.

Niko, on the other hand, blurted, “You mean ‘bigger on the inside’, spatial bags?” 

Sasha, surprised, looked between the two. 

“You both remind me of Stella, right now,” Skye sighed, but the levity of her tone revealed her thoughts on the matter.

“That would be amazing,” Dachna joined in, “I’ve only ever seen one a few times. Aren’t they rare?”
Sasha, still surprised, tilted her head, “Mm, yes, we have those. They are indeed ‘bigger on the inside’ but the space depends a lot on the materials and skill of the crafter. And as for if they’re rare, yes, but also no. It isn’t easy, certainly, but they’re not the most practical, depending on what you use them for.” 

Niko felt his brain short at that, “How is that not considered practical?”

“Weight doesn’t get reduced,” Mithel contributed the answer, “The very good ones reduce the weight, but those are waaaay out of our price range. I don’t think Stella can make them at all, either.”

“She might be able to, actually,” Skye shrugged, “I wouldn’t be surprised if she’s trying to learn that as we speak. She’s always wanted to make them, but the family wouldn’t teach her the high grade stuff until she proved herself.” 

“That seems… needlessly harsh?” Ronald grunted, “What’s the point of being a craftswoman born to a big family like that if you don’t get to learn and make whatever you want?”
Skye let out a bedraggled groan, “Oh, don’t even get me started on that family.” 

“But, it can be made?” Niko turned his attention to Sasha intensely, “Say, two boxes, both reinforced so that they won’t break in combat?” 

The sabrecat, bewildered, nodded, “Yes, that can certainly be done. I would recommend against using them as shields or anything, though.”

Niko’s feathers fluffed out triumphantly, “Yes! I won’t have to carry a pecking cart!” 

Dachna laughed uproariously, “That’s why you want one!?” 

“Hey, you try to tow a damn cart through a forest, tell me how you feel afterwards!” Niko complained, “It’s so awkward and uncomfortable! I’d much rather just get the boxes and call it there.”

The Wyldwalkers joked and jibed at one another as they finished dismantling their kills. 

Until Skye suddenly declared, “Everyone, quiet.” 

Instantly, everyone stopped what they were doing, and when Skye gestured for them to move with her, they did so. Niko briefly began dragging the body that Mithel was working on, before Skye hissed out a tight, “Leave it.” 

That ratcheted up the concern several degrees, and Mithel wordlessly pulled out several flasks of a pale white, milky liquid. She made eye contact with Skye, who wordlessly took one and chugged it. The others each drank one, and Niko felt a sensation like a film of oil covering his body, and more oddly, somehow insulating his essence from the outside. All at once, the already miniscule amount of essence that simply bled off of the Wyldwalkers from existing vanished, contained within themselves. To his other senses, their scent of the group vanished, suppressed under the strange concoction. 

The potion tasted like paper, at first, but the after flavor doubled down on it. It wasn’t the worst, but not pleasant at all, either.

Skye made hand signs to the group, the only one who didn’t understand them being Sasha. Even so, as they moved into whatever brush was available, Sasha got the picture. Niko watched out in the direction that Skye indicated, holding off on using his Aether Sight for the time being. He wasn’t certain if that would breach the effects of the potion, and whatever Skye had heard had properly spooked the half-elf.

The distant sounds of the titanwoods were all the Niko could hear, though, and if it weren’t for the vague sensations he was getting from Skye’s mind-bridge, he’d have thought that there wasn’t anything around. Niko reached across the connection, carefully monitoring the potion, only to realize that the bridge was unaffected. 

‘What is it?’ Niko asked her mentally, to which the half-elf took a moment to form her thoughts.

‘There’s something out there, my… pattern picked something up.’ she said.

Niko felt that she wasn’t being entirely transparent about the source, and that notion was felt through their bond. 

Skye grimaced at that, ‘I’ll tell you later, promise. Don’t move for now, it’s still around.’ 

‘But what is it?’ Niko let it slide for now, but still saw and heard nothing around them, ‘Where, even?’ 

Wordlessly, Skye directed his attention to where the bodies they’d left behind were. Niko stared at them, watching and waiting for any sign of something that he wasn’t detecting.

As he did, he thought to himself, ‘I don’t see anything there… is it invisible or–’ 

He stopped as he saw something shimmer in the open air above the kills, moving down in a lazily, deceptively fast shimmer. Now that he was looking directly at it, it felt like whatever had kept him from seeing it before vanished, and he was treated to an incredibly strange and otherworldly sight. 

It resembled a jellyfish, albeit one that had swallowed an especially angular diamond. A skirt of transparent flesh hugged the bottom of the diamond, and trailing tentacles draped down beneath it. A few were thicker, more like arms than the thin things he was seeing now. Niko felt something in the back of his brain tighten at the sight of the thing; his instincts knew that this creature was dangerous. 

He resisted the urge to use his Aether Sight because of that. If their defense faded, he wanted it to be because they were mounting an attack on it, not because of his curiosity. No one moved as it floated carelessly over the gathered bodies, drifting seemingly in search of something else. Its tentacles touched down on a body each, the tips seemingly sinking into the abdomen. Niko’s telescopic vision gave him an easy view of it as near transparent flesh seemed to ignore the exoskeleton of the Thimurge.

Something traveled up the length of the tentacle, looking more like a kaleidoscope of color than any kind of bodily fluids. If he didn’t know what to look for, Niko suddenly doubted that he’d have been able to see this thing at all, even as it was feeding.

‘Is there some kind of mind-affecting ability that helps keep it hidden?’ Niko asked himself, only faintly feeling anything that might be pressing against his consciousness. If there was, it was insidiously more subtle than anything he’d felt from the Daurghast in his brief misadventure there.

For what felt like many tense minutes, the jellyfish danced above the bodies, twirling seemingly happily as more and more color drained upwards through its tentacles, before becoming transparent within the strange geometric ‘head’ of the bell. 

Then, as if it couldn’t get eerie enough, the thing twirled upwards, spinning again and again, and Niko could have sworn he was hearing the jovial, ecstatic giggling of children and adults as it did so.

It unnerved him to his core, though, because it didn’t feel natural. Like the laugh of a doll, possessed by a demon, rather than an innocuous childrens toy.

The monster swam through the air, heading further away and to the south of them, leaving the Wyldwalkers alone. 

“What was that?” clearly unsettled, Dachna pointed at where the thing had been mere seconds ago.

“That is us going back to Riizen. Immediately.” Sasha scowled, “I don’t know what that was, but I’m willing to bet Mother can tell us.” 

 

 

Amazon publication is completed, finally! Thanks for your patience everyone! The link is here for you!