Chapter 256: Watcher in the Woods

Rosalyn Losenska

“Phew, these things are really comin’ at us, huh?” Rosalyn wiped sweat from her brow, looking around at the still swarming group of Warped. She’d just wiped out this Phalanx Turtle. There was an oddly large amount of defensive Warped mixed in with the predators.

“Doing ok?” Eyes asked as she slammed her hand down, squashing several creatures at once. She was a formidable creature by size alone. Her cluster of eyes also helped her keep track of way more than anyone else.

Rosalyn looked up into several of those eyes. “Yeah. Just… thinking. You notice how many shelled creatures we’re fighting? We had the Arctic Gnasher earlier that Ann and Alruna had dealt with, but Tarnu and I have been fighting a lot of things with heavy armour.”

Eyes pulled back to let her friend refill the gap. “Now that you mention it, it is a little weird. Maybe it’s a migration pattern or something? You’d be the one to know. Not me.” The deer-headed woman gave her a toothy grin.

No particular migration patterns matched what Rosalyn was seeing. Sure, the flocks of birds and some of the Warped that started as herbivores had that calling, following the warmth, but not what they were fighting. A lot of them set down roots and claimed an area to live, sharing only with things stronger than them or their food. This many in one location, even with Ann blasting her Goddess powers all over the place, was unusual. Most of these were territorial types, too. Getting this many Twinwolves to get along without a bloodbath was a miracle.

“Rosalyn, I have need of your aid!” Alruna called.

“Coming!”

Alruna was walking towards the south again. Another big creature, this time a towering pillar of tree and muscles, approached. It was vile, covered in eyes dotted around its surface like knots in wood. It had to be, what, fifty feet tall?

“That’s likely to fall upon our position,” Alruna said. “I cannot think of another reason for such a creature to exist. Nor do I see any other means it possesses to deal harm to us.”

“Well, who says we get to see it all. Might be any number of things inside it. Maybe even other Warped? Could be carrying some. That’d be creepy, but also kinda cool. Like a hive, but not? Oh, Kat was talking about siege engines one time. That’s kinda what that’s like, right?”

“I have no knowledge of war machines. If it seems similar to you, I will defer to your judgment. Or that of Katlyn.” Alruna’s stride was precise, and Rosalyn swore she could hear her boots click even on the muddy ground. “We topple it, correct?”

“Up. That was my plan, anyways. Get it to fall backwards or anywhere that isn’t here,” Rosalyn said, staring up at the creature. “Wonder if it has a spine?”

I wanna know how it tastes!

Rosalyn ignored Xirali. “Couple ways to knock a tree over. Either we stick its legs and hit the top, or we knock the bottom out and blow the top wherever we want it to go. How’s your aim, Alruna?”

The woman shrugged. It was strange seeing her above ground without her mask and hood, but kinda nice at the same time. Rosalyn could actually tell that her focus was on the monster and not on her. “I believe the second option would be easier. If I had a large enough boulder, I could hit it, but my aim’s not as precise as Lucia’s.”

Fillianore made another bang as if in reply. A flying Warped called a Ruflin screamed in a terrifyingly human voice as it fell from the sky.

“Gotcha. You go deal with the topple. Try to hit it from behind, too. Makes my job easier,” Rosalyn agreed.

Alruna took off without a word. Words right now, as she’d said, were waste. Yet here Rosalyn was jabbering away. She couldn’t help it. That niggling feeling that something was wrong just wouldn’t let her get relatively calm.

Her eyes were once again drawn to the tree line. The dark face of the forest with its gap-toothed grin. Why was it making her so nervous? She’d been in a forest most of her life, but this… she couldn’t put her finger on it.

Alruna’s leap pulled Rosalyn’s attention away from the trees. Well, the trees that weren’t walking on roots festooned with toes. Heh, festooned was a funny word. It wasn’t just those; some strange bits of metal were also dragging its towering trunk along. Metal Warped seemed like such a pain. She was grateful her neck of the woods didn’t get any.

Right, Alruna. Alruna landed with a stomp. The stones under Rosalyn’s feet rattled a little as the earthshaker skill went off. According to Bren, the natural versions were more common in Bortislav. Anyway, she’d put everything off balance and used that time to run over to the big one.

Alruna had gotten most of the things, but not all of them. Rosalyn levelled her staff and sent a blade of wind slicing through a Terror Rabbit. She got a couple of its muscly tentacles, sending them spinning into the air, but the main body still collided with Alruna. Her armoured robes took the hit, and she sent the small creature tumbling with a shove of her elbow.

As she was watching, a surprised shout came from in front of her. The fighter had gotten overwhelmed, and a Terror Rabbit of her own was nearly in striking range! Should she Thorn it or Wind Blade? The moment of confusion let the thing get way too close. It lashed out with its ribs, landing hits on Rosalyn’s chest, side, and leg. Gods, that hurt!

Rosalyn grabbed one of the tentacles and gave it a good shocking. It had been… she couldn’t really remember the last time she’d used the spell, but was quite surprised when the rabbit began to convulse in her grasp. She let go of the flailing thing as it tried to control its spasming limbs. A sharp Thorn through its side made it still.

Alruna! She was almost at the creature.

Rosalyn was a little out of position. She limped forward, getting a good angle to blast the top of the creature just in case Alruna’s strike was a little… not enough. The woman was anything but weak.

“Sorry, miss!” the fighter called back to her. He was an interesting one, with flowers over most of his body, and roots digging into his scalp and eyes. Not the thick roots like a tree, but the smaller roots of flowers and the like.

“It’s fine! Keep it up!” Rosalyn hollered back. The wounds hurt like mad, but she wasn’t about to make that this person’s problem. Her parents had taught her not to let other people worry if they didn’t need to. How she did it was up to her, though. Either keeping it from them, like her increasing collection of Warped parts that’d be much bigger after this fight was done, or just tell them straight out and pray they took it well.

Alruna got to the monstrous trunk. The muscles unravelled, canine faces poking out to greet her. Their flesh was pulled taut with no fur. Wet red fluid coated them, making them glisten in the sunlight. Even as their yellowing eyes fixed onto the woman, lunging out to bite at her, Alruna stepped back out of range. That wasn’t the only thing, though. More had opened up near the top. A massive bird’s head, also bald and covered with the almost amniotic fluid, pulled free. Opening its beak, the thing retched, and a gob of goop was hurled at Alruna.

Rosalyn wished she had any of Bren’s defensive spells right now, but she didn’t. She could only send out a blade, hitting it on the side of the globule away from ALruna, and pray that it sprayed the other direction. It did, praise Illdall.

At last, Alruna made it behind the tree. Rosalyn was waiting. Her lightning was insanely fast, so she’d have to time it when Alruna was done with her windup. She watched Complacency whip back into position, hang there for a fraction of a second as Alruna cut the weapon’s momentum, then it rocketed forward.

Rosalyn channelled the Storm Winds into her spell, focusing on the bird head near the top. She couldn’t have asked for a better target. As soon as she knew the spell was aimed right, she closed her eyes exactly as the lightning exploded forth. It was just a slightly longer blink that saved her vision every time she did this. Her arms took the recoil as she watched her target.

The bird head exploded. Black blood went everywhere along with shards of bone and the beak. Alruna had beaten her to the strike by a half second. The result was absurd. Instead of toppling the creature, they spun it. It flipped backwards, the top of the trunk slamming into the ground near Alruna while the thing’s toed roots flailed helplessly towards the sky.

A scream pierced the chaos of battle. The creature’s side had split open into a maw of misformed teeth, some with their roots exposed instead of their crowns. Warped around the creature recoiled, voicing their pain and rage at the sudden outburst. The thing started to roll. The wolf heads were crushed under its weight as it tried to roll over Alruna.

Alruna probably would have been fine, but Rosalyn wasn’t taking chances. Entanglement wrapped the Warped in thorny vines. It wouldn’t do any harm, but the thorns helped hold on.

Alruna had to turn from the Warped to deal with a few others who took advantage of the big log being toppled to try and get a bite. It was a momentary distraction, but just enough. As her hammer blasted a Snow Crab and two creatures who might have been the sloths from the other day into meaty chunks, the log grew limbs. Horrible twisted limbs with eight joints each and metal spikes on each of the limb’s diaphyses, and twitching bony fingers.

“Watch out!”

Rosalyn’s warning was a moment too late. Alruna had the creature’s limbs wrap around her in a grisly coil. The woman’s scream of pain sounded like a dying grindstone, and she was pierced by the spikes.

Rosalyn spun her staff as she unleashed a salvo of wind blades. She didn’t dare use lightning lest it accidentally hurt Alruna through the monster. Even now, she had to divert some of them to deal with Warped getting past the front line. What did she do? Did she just dump everything in here and hope Alruna survived, or did she just keep this up? Maybe some…

“THORN!” Alruna’s strained voice cried out.

Where? Rosalyn searched desperately for a weak point to hit. Oh, the eyes, duh. Five Thorns shot up, each aimed precisely into the tiny orbs. Blood spattered everywhere, and the creature’s grip slackened.

With a furious yell, Alruna tore herself free. Her robes were pierced and or shredded, and exposed her porcelain flesh beneath, which was no less torn.

As soon as she was free, Rosalyn hit the thing with two more lightning bolts, and it finally went into death spasms.

Alruna ran over, batting Warped away as her Worms covered not just her arms, but her torso as well. She was a walking hive of the things, and really looked the part. “I will tear any more that dare profane these lands asunder!” she growled, holding her side. A quick glance let Rosalyn see how true Tarnu’s jab about being more worm than woman was. They were everywhere under her skin. Even where her skin had changed to chitin and cracked open, they were there. Some muscle from her old human self was in there, but it wasn’t the majority.

Rosalyn kept her distance but held up her hands to ward off the furious woman. “Alright, easy, easy, you’re out. You’ll get to kill a whole bunch more of them, but let’s get you to Bren or Bark first, yeah? You ok with that?”

Alruna paused, seemingly regaining control of herself. “I… I apologise for that outburst. I am in incredible pain.”

“Well, duh!” Rosalyn laughed. “You had giant spikes going through you! Don’t think many other people could survive that!”

“Truth be told, I almost did not. I was not able to stop the bleeding while they were inside me. I owe you my life.”

“Nah, you’re good. Go see Bren, I’ll keep watch over this lot. Maybe send Ann over if she’s good enough. Now shoo!” Rosalyn waved the injured woman away.

A pained shout came from the other side of the pillars. No one she knew, but it still bugged her how little of this battlefield she could see! No clean lines of sight meant it required a lot more coordination to keep people where they needed to be. Lucia and Bren were working to help, but they were only two people, and Lucia had to be posted up in the centre to deal with the flying… was that a Korwin?

The bulbous creature hummed towards the battlefield on dozens of gossamer wings. Twelve long segmented legs hung below it, trailing as it moved. Those things were deceptively dangerous. When one touched you, the barbs sank deep, and it was a nightmare to remove as it tried to fly away. Then there was the cloud of paralytic gas that it poured out of sacs under the thing’s body.

Rosalyn was about to pop the thing when Lucia beat her to it. The riflewoman had been holding on to her big shots, but it seemed like this one deserved the honour of being the first to take the biggest hit Lucia could deliver. It exploded, but didn’t quite die right there. A gaping hole was all that remained of its left side, and the wings were ruined. It slowly fluttered downward as it tried to regenerate. The entire thing stilled as it hit the ground, the wound only half restored.

“Stay. Cover. Recover Mind,” Lucia yelled down at her.

Rosalyn didn’t really have a way to do that. She had a massive pool of Mind for someone her level, but it came with a downside. She instead pulled a potion out. She grimaced at the liquid, remembering how the last one tasted. Alruna’s concoctions were effective, but the first thing they were doing when they got back to a bigger city was sending the woman a book on how to make it not taste like dirt. She knocked the solution back, for once welcoming the alcoholic taste over the grit of the rest.

As she waited for that to take effect, and her own injuries to get passively healed by the nearby healer who she had forgotten, she watched the forest again. Something still seemed wrong here. That log Warped was strange. As strange as the shelled hill of a monster that Tarnu dealt with. The hill was not as dangerous as the log, but they were both things that could get other Warped over the sections of stone that hindered their rampage.

As Rosalyn sighed in frustration, she realised she’d been paying more attention to Kat’s diatribes on tactics than she’d thought. That, and Bren’s weird way of using five gold words, too. She knew plenty of anatomical terms, sure, so he got some understanding on that point. He just sounded so formal all the time with his prickly grammar.

Wait.

Rosalyn squinted. She thought she’d seen something in the trees, but she wasn’t quite sure. It’d been like a shadow moving between the trees. Maybe whatever was sending out the root carped for the Warped?

It was shadowy enough that she wished she had a light spell to see whatever the thing was. Lightning was great for damage, but it was too bright and too quick to use as illumination. No one else she knew had a light spell either.

There it was again! It was a big and bulky thing. Kinda like…

“Oh shit,” Rosalyn whispered to herself.

She couldn’t be sure. She hadn’t seen any of the bone white that would have confirmed her suspicion, nor could she see its legs properly, but it looked like the thing that’d been tailing them to Godrin’s Cliff.

Still, she couldn’t confirm it! If she couldn’t confirm it, then it was maybe just her being paranoid and jumping at shadows that belonged to something else. That shape didn’t belong to just the pursuer. Any sort of larger bear-based creature could be similar. Quillbears, for example! Maybe not as long, but plenty big.

She dismissed her staff and grabbed her horns, rubbing their tips as she tried to calm her heart as it pounded in her chest. Calm down. Analyze. What did you see? Just a shape? If it was just a shape, then that’s nothing to…

A cluster of skulls briefly flashed into the light streaming from a break in the canopy. It was gone again in a second.

It was here.

It was watching.

Why wasn’t it attacking?

Something was very, very wrong.