Even after we returned to our camp, it took almost another hour to remove the various shards and splinters from my body, a process that ultimately left exhausted and with a bit of lingering soreness, but that didn’t an I wasn’t able to discuss the entire issue with my daughters. And there were a few things we needed to discuss, mainly what our next steps would be, if we wanted to linger and challenge this entire region, including whatever monster decided to try blowing up a hillside to get , or if we wanted to play it safe and get out while the getting was good.
“So, what do we actually know about these creatures?” I started our discussion, trying to establish so facts first before we got into potential plans and opportunities.
“Know?” Luna asked in return, “Not a whole lot, you are the only one who has seen them from sowhat close range, the rest of us can only go by our observations from a distance, though what those, and my instincts, tell isn’t good,” she added, her voice just a little snarky, evidence of how shaken the way these monsters had interrupted my ritual had left her. Which, to be fair, I could understand, knowing that our enemies were capable of locating and utterly annihilating a ritual site over a kilotre from the current boundaries of their territory was quite scary, to say nothing of the sheer devastation they had wrought. I could do the sa, sure, but it would take a bit of ti to set up and prepare, not sothing I could just whip out to interrupt an opponent's attack. Perhaps it would be worthwhile to try to create sothing in advance, so that if it were ever necessary, I could simply activate it and have it work imdiately.
“She’s right, I can’t tell you a whole lot either, just that I saw those waves of burning death goop flying towards us, grabbed you and got us out of there imdiately. How they found us, I couldn’t say, nor could I tell you what they noticed. You’d have to consider the steps of your ritual and try calculating how long that goop would be in the air, while estimating how long it might take for it to be launched from the simulus those things received. That way, you have an idea what riled them up and you can make sure not to do it again, unless you want to have more fiery death goop flung at you,” Lia piped in, her reasoning solid and quite compelling, making wonder just what might have been noticeable enough for them to pick up. The ritual I had used had multiple parts that were possible, and I couldn’t easily guess which was the right, or wrong, one, as I had no idea how long it would take for these creatures to act, whether they had so sort of ssenger system, a hive-mind or so other thod. Nor did I have any idea how long the goop had been in the air, and, without fairly good observations regarding its trajectory and speed, I wouldn’t be able to accurately calculate where it ca from.
“Sadly, I can’t tell you a whole lot from my observations either,” I admitted, “I just saw that they use parts of their bodies as projectiles and regenerate the launched parts. Oh, they also seem to be made from the sa material as the ground they spread, though whether that ans they are rely extensions from so creature that literally is that ground or if they are just walking on it and spreading that goop to extend their influence, I also don’t know.”
Both Lia and Luna nodded at my explanation, while Silva gave out a sowhat angry growl, letting know that she didn’t appreciate these monsters and wanted to see them destroyed if at all possible, a sentint I readily agreed with. Even now, kilotres away from these monsters, I could faintly sll their stench of fire and ash, not sothing I wanted to allow spreading any further than absolutely necessary.
It didn’t take long for us to reach the consensus that we would continue to try to curb the spread of this strange infection. Not only was it absolutely noxious to sll, it was also dangerous, and who knew whether it would burn out eventually? It wasn’t as if this was a normal fire; it burned far more than the vegetation, and it did so while the plants and ground were quite wet. Thus, if the fire lasted until the weather changed and the sun did its part and dried the ground and plants, things might get seriously nasty when a conflagration scorched large parts of the countryside. I had no desire to have that happen, even if we would be able to outrun it with relative ease, it was the uncertainty that got to . We didn’t know how dangerous this phenonon was, nor did we know what caused it, so trying our best to curb its spread was deed the best choice.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
And opened up the question of how we were supposed to accomplish that task. Obviously, the attempt to use a wide-scale magical ritual had failed, at least if the ritual could be considered an attack on these creatures and their territory, leaving us with the option to contain them first, similar to the way I had shielded that farm in the valley from the flood, or to destroy the goop n one at a ti, hoping that they wouldn’t simply regenerate and continue doing their thing. Or, worse, we didn’t know if any attack on an individual goop man would trigger the sa kind of retaliatory attack my ritual had triggered. Because, if that happened to be the case, we wouldn’t be able to fight this infection at all, and the only valid tactic would be to get away from this area post-haste.
With that in mind, we decided to begin experinting once I recovered from the interrupted ritual. Or rather, continue experintation as the previous ritual could be considered the first experint, especially as it had yielded so interesting, if highly flammable, results.
Once that decision was made, the conversation largely died down, and I had so additional ti to focus on the bound spirit. Looking at the figurine, I noticed a few strange distortions in the otherwise clear Ice and started to carefully investigate. What I found was sowhat annoying, though I probably should have expected it. The figurine had suffered the sa sort of backlash I had endured, and the visible distortions were only the tip of the iceberg. Magically, there were countless shards embedded everywhere, and, to make matters worse, the Astral Power within wasn’t purely mine any longer; it was a strange mix of my own Astral Power and the power the spirit used, aning I couldn’t readily influence the splinters.
After poking and prodding them a few tis, I quickly ca to the conclusion that only waiting would resolve the issue. Eventually, likely in a few days, maybe a week or two, the Astral Power would have dissipated enough to let the spirit regenerate its form, but until that happened, it would most likely be unable to do a whole lot. Feeding it Astral Power, as I had done, would likely strengthen it a little more, but that was all I could do to help; the rest would only be solved by ti, as annoying as that was.
A part of realised with a fair bit of amusent that the bound spirit was passively absorbing a bit of my Astral Power, just the amount I would usually lose back into the environnt or the Astral River, likely trying to get stronger. Granted, it also strengthened its bindings as it did so, aning the stronger it got, the tighter its bindings would tie it to , so I didn’t really mind. But I was amused by the fact that I had managed to find another entity that fed off my power, though luckily this one fed passively, not like Lia, who needed to directly drink my blood.
Grinning to myself, I focused my mind back to the task for the morrow, how I could get a better understanding of these creatures without exposing myself to danger. Long-range attacks would be the first way to test things, so sort of launched javelin, trying to hit one of them before escaping as quickly as possible, maybe even before my attack got anywhere close to the target. Additionally, trying to see if I could shadow-step within their territory would be vital, and if I could, stepping in, using Observe and stepping back out might be the smart thing to do. We desperately needed more information on these monsters; if we wanted to contain and defeat this infection, we didn’t even know what level they were.
With nurous thoughts and ideas swirling through my mind, I let myself drift off to sleep, exhaustion and pain quickly silencing my racing mind.
User Comments
0 comments from readers