Elemental Dissonance.

Nux Plains

Under the dusky sky, a large encampment of people was located in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by the tall grasses of the plains, fore to them into the distance was greyish volcanic mountains circled by ashy clouds.

And behind them was a Gigantic mountain range marked by tall trees and lush vegetation, it was so gigantic and widespread that it cut off the paths from three directions.

Solitary from the encampment was a small group of three men sitting around a bonfire, they carried broad smiles on their faces as they inquisitively listened to the narration offered one by one.

Those three men were Berat, Tyler and Bilal, off from Battle Energy sensing sessions, with some effort Bilal broke the Ice between them and decided to spend some time with them as he was in a similar state as they are; Totally worn off.

".....and that's how I met my wife in the Zeror City state…oh the Holy White Soul let me survive this ordeal and I would present you an offering of 50 silvers…." Befer joined his hands and prayed to the Holy White Soul indicating his faith lies in the White Goddess, afterall the Holy White Church had influence in the Federation too.

He would be so shell shocked if he were to know, a legitimate priest of the White Goddess that too with a Faith Mark, was present in front of him. Good for him though Bilal didn't intend to let that secret out anytime now.

"Bilal you are married too, right?" Tyler asked.

"No, i am not" Bilal replied straightforwardly.

"How can that be? I've heard the Tribals of the High Tribes marry their young ones at the tender age of 14" Tyler continued ahead curiously.

"I've had a Life partner but she is dead for a long time now, and I don't intend to marry for sometime now" Bilal lied unhesitantly.

"Hmm, OK" Tyler said "I honestly can't fathom the reason for the massacre of a High tribe by the Empire, but I…."

"Leader Bilal! Leader Bilal!!" A voice sounded from behind which stopped Tyler in his words.

Immediately turning his head around Bilal looked towards the source, it was Scarface, he ran haggardly towards them, approaching Bilal he said: "Leader there's something that requires your presence, everyone is already gathered"

"Ok, let's go"

He took them to the far end of the cooking area of the encampment, where a truly upsetting scene welcomed them with a whole lot of a crowd.

It was a corpse, a totally mangled and mutilated corpse of a young man who was the worker responsible for distributing food, a blood puddle rested on the place where his left arm and leg should be and fragmented white ch.i.p.s of bones was lying on the ground indicating that his bones were first crushed before cutting his arm and leg.

And on his neck clear strangled marks could be seen representing his slow and asphyxiated death.

It was a dreadful picture for anyone who has not seen and experienced corpses up close before….and that Included Bilal who had almost vomited. Plus the waning light made it more horrifying and difficult to see.

"Crushed bones….Bite marks….definitely a monster, Captain look into this matter" one of the Experienced Soldier, analysed quickly and said.

"I agree, please have a look Captain" another onlooker nodded his head and expressed concern.

"Let's have to bury him first, he was a devout believer of the Shaman God of Forests and Tribes, therefore he should be m...." One of the Worker, who stood at the edge, raised his voice but was stopped in his tracks as a rustling sound escaped from a grass thicket behind him.

Before anyone could even react, two shadowy fangs found their way into his neck from behind and light-headedness grasped that worker.

Bilal, who stood the nearest to that worker, leapt immediately after realizing what happened, with the Shamshir Saber unsheathed in his hand.

He gathered the proper amount of force and unleashed a diagonal slash at the shadowy figure as not to hurt the Worker collaterally.

Luckily his slash struck true and it hit the shadow precisely, which led it to be cleaved disproportionally and having the fangs dislodged from the neck of the Worker.

The slash didn't feel any extraordinary to Bilal, as if he had experienced Swords for years already. The Shamshir was a great fit for his hands, it gave off a smooth sensation as he cleaved off the shadowy figure.

Even his own body felt foreign to Bilal nowadays, due to the unknown changes taking place every then and now, but that was a talk for another day because as soon he saved the Worker, chaos erupted out.

Workers screaming and running everywhere in fear and terror in the dark, being more disciplined the Soldiers stood up on their own and began stopping them.

Seeing the situation getting out of hand, the Old Adrogen stepped up and screamed the top of his lungs "I'LL HAVE YOUR HEADS ON THE TABLE, IF YOU DON'T STOP"

No matter how daring they might be, they stopped at this death threat.

Ordering two torchbearers and two Soldiers, Adrogen sent them towards that worker for immediate support. Soon they stopped his bleeding on the neck with a piece of a cloth and along with Bilal they taxily dragged the shadowy figure into the light.

It was a monstrous horned snake around tens of centimeters in diameter and around a few meters long, enough to coil around a grown a.d.u.l.t's body and strangle it. In addition it had two sharp fangs protruding out of its mouth, deadly and dangerous, covered by a greenish camouflaged skin, it was the perfect predator of the Night in the Plains.

"A Ground Devil, non-poisonous snake monsters often spotted in swamps, steppes and timberlands, Nests forming Monsters, rarely solitary, hunts in packs" The experienced Soldier muttered within one breath.

"You heard the man...Hunts in packs!!! Therefore, be alert, we're gonna leave the place right now, start wrapping up, quickly!!!" Regardless whether it's a Soldier or a Worker, they obeyed the command of the defacto leader Dayes and didn't dare slack off….

"Let's bury him first" Bilal says to Scarface and a few Soldiers of his Rearguard, and goes behind the encampment to bury the poor soul.

-------------------------------------

Captain's tent.

"Tuek, Befer, do a head count of the Soldiers every now and then, and make sure no one truly leaves for anywhere alone" The Old man paused and said "Besides that make peace with the people of the Rearguard, even if they are mere barbarians in your eyes"

"How can that be Captain…"

"We definitely won't cause trouble for them ofcourse"

"Dismissed" The Old man commands and mutters under his breath "I'd only be a fool to believe you"

"Uncle, do we really have to continue this path? Can't we go back and wait at the Mountain Ranges? There's no nearby water source, there's no game to hunt, we have no horses, how could we ever survive within the extreme environment of the Redrock Fire Mountains without these resources?" Dayes asked concerningly and stared down deep in the eyes of the Old man "Can't we just retreat and wait out at the mountain range? Federation surely would send the reinforcements, right?"

"Book 5, pg no 43, Of the Timeless Adventures of Yinier: Our horses couldn't survive the Harsh hellish atmosphere of the Infernal Plateau, and our rations depleted….Soon the 'us' transformed into 'me' as my companion couldn't last more than I did, yet I still brought myself up and moved forward…" The Old man said sagely "The Great Adventurer Yinier only moved forward and crossed the Infernal Plateau and persisted through many more ordeals to expand the Human Domain in the Dwarish Territory, he survived through and wrote 5 more books, if he can survive then we can too"

"There's no path to retreat at all Dayes, the Dissonance is upon us, haven't you seen the Ring around the Sun? No reinforcements would come under this premise!! The Green Wind Tribe used to pacify the Mountain Lords by paying tributes, we may last a few days, a few weeks or even a few months, but eventually we would be hunted off by the Mountain Lords, not even i would be spared if one were to come down personally, we would be sitting ducks by then" The Old man clarified shortly.

Hearing this Dayes shuddered and began to contemplate on the situation.

This after all was too big of a problem he ignored unknowingly, he definitely didn't include the Hunt of Mountain Lords, into the list of issues presented.

A Lord Creature was the moniker given to famed and powerful semi-sentient creatures, by advancing their unique Attainment they had acquired sentient intellect and were able to effectively govern the Monster and Elemental Creature population within their domains. The lowest attainment level of the Lords was of a Mortal Adept.