บท 21: Battle of the Misty Forest
After the gut wrenching massacre that had just occured, the collector started picking up the bodies of the villagers and carrying them over it's back. In total, we counted over 64 arms all over the body of the creature, most of which wielded weapons of their own.
According to miss Danari, collectors can absorb the abilities of the things they "collect" so for this particular one, it can mimic the sword fighting skills of it's victims, as was evident when it parried a villager attack with the movements of a seasoned fighter. Should it be allowed to continue existing here, it would accumulate more arms from even more unfortunate souls, and therefore potentially become even more powerful, especially if by chance it's able to collect from skilled fighters.
"It seems that it's on the move, let's go."
The low voice of lord Jorgé suddenly pulled me from my thoughts.
"Keep your head down and stay quiet, Danari will take lead."
"Understood"
Under his orders our group started tracking the huge monstrosity. Weaving through the thicket and brushing away the leaves, we moved quietly under the canopy, following the tracks of the beast.
Looking at miss Danari and lord Jorgé, I could see from their faces that this wasn't new to them. It seemed as if they were well aware and trusting of each other's combat capabilities, the men as well looked stoic and prepared. In comparison to me who was deeply affected by the massacre we just witnessed, they seemed totally fine.
Thinking back to the monster we just saw, I couldn't recall anything about it, both the boy from the slums and Ryouma Satorou had no knowledge as to what that monster was. While it was understandable that the boy from the slums knew nothing about it, I was quite surprised to know that even Ryouma had no idea what it was. I had first thought that it looked similar to the hecatoncheires, a multi armed multi headed giant in Greek mythology, but after hearing lord Jorgé's explanation, it was apparent that it was far from the hecatoncheires that the Greeks knew.
Maybe it's a creature unique to this world, that's the only explanation I could think of.
"Larc!"
"Hm? Ah!"
Startled by lord Jorgé suddenly call pull from the arms, I couldn't help but exclaim. I looked around and saw that everyone had a look to their faces that seemed as if they were biting their nails.
"You fool! Keep quiet!"
"A-apologies, my lord!"
I could clearly see the panic in lord Jorgé's eyes. I first thought that lord Jorgé was weary that the noise I made was loud and could have alerted the monster, but miss Danari's uninterested voice debunked that.
"You almost died, you know." She whispered in a low tone while looking at me with eyes of annoyance and pointing to the place in front of me.
"Eh?"
Confused at her remark, I looked at the direction that she was pointing to.
[?!]
To my surprise, having been too preoccupied with my thoughts, I had failed to notice the group of pea - shaped pods directly in front of me and almost stepped on it, if not for lord Jorgé's intervention
[Pit trap pods] I thought to myself.
These carnivorous plants grow in groups within mana rich environments. They lie dormant on the forest floor waiting for something to accidentally step on them. They then release spores that stick to their preys and dissolve their skin and flesh like voracious ants. After a while, the plants absorb the dissolved body of it's prey.
Normally, these things wouldn't be that much of a threat to humans. The worst that could happen was losing a limb or two, but the ones in front of me now we're unusually large ones, if these things were to release spores relative to their size, it would be more than enough to kill a full grown man.
While wiping away the sweat that accumulated on my forehead and sighing in relief, Lord Jorgé drew close to the plants and intently looked at it.
"These things are filled with mana.. we must be close to the collector's den."
After dusting off his trousers, lord Jorgé looked back at us and issued a command.
"Stay on your guard, if you see anything suspicious, alert us."
"Understood" The men agreed.
"Don't stray too far, Larc. If I were to bring you back to my sister with a missing appendage, who knows what she'll do to me."
"Ah, y-yes, my lord. Apologies."
Not minding his teasing remarks, I continued following the path miss Danari trekked through.
[I have to keep my witts about, I can't die here] I thought to myself.
+++
"This is the place where the mana is densest."
After going through the forest for what seemed to be hours, we finally arrived at a small clearing inside the misty forest. It did feel eerie just by looking around, almost as if something heavy was within the air.
At the center of the clearing stood a lone monolith the size of three men standing on top of each other, so basically almost 4 meters tall.
"You feel it too, right?" Lord Jorgé asked me as I looked in awe at the monolith.
"Ahh yes, my lord. It feels heavy, like a dense cloud looming over us."
I had thought about it the moment we stepped foot this open space, but it was indeed very peculiar. We encountered almost nothing on our way here, and even the occasional beasts that we crossed paths upon didn't even bother looking at us and just continued their way. There were also no traces of human activities anywhere, which was contradictory to our information that a mercenary company entered this forest.
"That's because this place is surrounded with illusion magic, and a high level one at that too."
The one who interjected was the dark - skinned elf lover of lord Jorgé, Danari. She brushed her hair over her ear and drew close to my lord.
"It looks like a mage has made his base here, master."
"Umu, this could be troublesome."
The young lord separated from his lover and moved closer to the monolith. He looked at it with discerning eyes, before slightly nodding his head.
"Yep, this mage knows exactly what he's doing." He remarked as he crossed his arms and smiled in approval.
He continued nodding his head before speaking up.
"The average man wouldn't even have noticed that there was an illusion spell casted here, much less know how to break it ."
The looks on the men's faces clearly told me what I was thinking myself. This mage must've been very talented to be praised by lord Jorgé, the epitome of the word prodigy.
Interestingly though, when I looked back at his face, what I saw was more of a mocking grin.
"Unfortunately for him, I'm not an average man."
Raising his eyebrow, his left eye started manifesting a strange sigil I had never seen before. As if in response, the monolith lit up and showed different runes across it.
Suddenly, from the open space, a crack appeared from thin air, almost as if breaking reality.
[So this is the famed anti-mage] I thought to myself while looking at the smiling figure of the lord.
Apparently, lord Jorgé was born with heterochromia and no affinity to any element or kind of magic from birth.
Although he showed great intellect and talent, because he couldn't use any form of magic, lord Jorgé was enrolled in the knight's academy instead of the magic academy where nobles of high standing such as himself would normally go to.
It was there where they discovered that he had a very unusual talent. His left eye, which was a different colour from the trademark sapphire of the Carmine family, was capable of seeing and disrupting the mana flow of a person or beast.
Being able to render his opponents magic less, combined with his training in the arts of sword fighting and high intellect, he became known as the strongest duelist in the kingdom, the anti-mage.
"Now then, everyone, keep your wits about you, and stay vigilant."
At the order of lord Jorgé, the men with us all drew their weapons simultaneously.
"By your will, my lord" Agreed all the men, except cobalt who kept quiet.
+++
Upon entering the rip in reality, we came across a stairway leading deep underground. The air that felt so thick, combined with the distinct smell of death, made it hard to breathe.
"Follow closely, and don't stray away." Lord Jorgé said as we went down.
The hallway leading down wasn't anything fancy, just a standard stone wall, supported by wooden beams, albeit especially huge though. Considering the fact that we were just at the forest floor a while ago, I was genuinely amazed at how a place like this was hidden in plain sight.
[Magic sure is convenient, huh.. ] I quietly thought to myself as we walked down.
Of course, I myself was able to use magic, but it was the most basic of magics, the body strengthening. I had once hoped that maybe I could learn and study a different type of magic, but Sir Alford explained to me that I had no affinity for any magic, other than the most basic one.
[Well, nothing I can do about that]
After walking down a few more steps, we came upon a turn when miss Danari suddenly stopped in her tracks and crouched down.
Having seen this, the men and I quickly followed suit. Lord Jorgé then drew close to her and looked over her shoulder.
"Yep, their there. Both the collector and the missing villager as well as some other people."
I moved closer as well and saw a number of cages lined up a huge room. Within them sat dozens of humans whimpering and crying at the sight of the huge slug like creature that had numerous hands, while it was adding more to it's collection.
"Uhu.. mama.. I want to go home.."
"I don't want to die! Please let me go!!"
"Their coming for us, I'm sure of it."
"Please o Great God Vanos, I'm a firm believer, please deliver us from this evil"
"Please save us!"
Hearing the cries and plead for help of the captives, stung my heart. Looking at them,I could see that most of them were still relatively healthy, albeit bruised and wounded.
[We can save them!] I thought to myself.
"Gruuuu" *click click click*
Hearing the collector's grumbles, the captives shrunk and shivered in fears.
It was currently at the other end of the room, tinkering with the mutilated bodies of it's latest victims. I felt my stomach tighten when I saw it growing long, extra appendages throughout it's body and attaching the severed hands to them.
However, what we saw next greatly shocked us.
The arm collector, that was supposed to only collect hands, suddenly took a body dressed in what seems to be a mercenary, and severed the head, it then proceeded to grow an appendage near where it's mouth was and attached the severed head to it.
".. This is bad"
"Indeed"
After seeing the new head of the arm collector open and close it's mouth, lord Jorgé and miss Danari quietly mumbled to each other.
They then slowly walked towards us and led us back to the stairway.
"How did that thing attach that head, my lord? I thought arm collectors only collected arms?" I asked in disbelief.
Not only did the creature attached a head to it's body, the same head suddenly moved and almost looked like talking.
Looking at lord Jorgé's face I could see that he was a bit troubled. He crossed his arms and looked at all of us before continuing.
"This is worse than we thought" He said.
"It's not a just a normal collector, it's a hoarder."
"A.. hoarder?" I asked in confusion. "What does that mean?"
"A hoarder is a mutant variant of a collector. Instead of just collecting one body part like a normal one, a hoarder would collect multiple different parts, making them the most dangerous of their kind."
"My hunch was correct, someone is raising that abomination."
Feeling confused as to why a head on the collector would be very bad for us, I drew close and asked,
"My lord, may I ask what that head entails to it's combat capabilities?"
In response, lord Jorgé chuckled quietly while miss Danari gave me a cold look.
"Quite simple, actually. If collecting arms allow the collector to use the martial skills of the victim, collecting the head would allow it to use any and all magic the victim had access to, making it incredibly more powerful."
[?!]
Being able to use both martial skills and magic was a feat formerly exclusive to humans and elves. With the appearance of this creature, that advantage was no longer viable.
"What do we do then, my lord?" The one to ask was one of lord Jorgé's personal guard.
Lord Jorgé cupped his chin as he looked down in thought.
"Okay, this is what we're going to do."
We drew in close and listened carefully to lord Jorgé's strategy.
+++
Having split up our group into three separate units, the plan was for mine and lord Jorgé's group to engage the monster in a melee, while miss Danari and sir Cobalt would bombard it with long ranged attacks, a fairly simple flanking technique.
The creature, unawares of our impending attack, was too preoccupied with it's assembling of different body parts. Making use of this, we quietly slipped to our designated positions.
"Huh?! H-hey!! Help us!!"
Unfortunately though, one of the captives spotted us and started making a ruckus, alerting the monster.
"Shit!" Lord Jorgé exclaimed. "Stick to the plan!"
"GROAAAAAHHHH"
As soon as he uttered those words, the hoarder started charging at us at an astonishing speed.
"Scatter!"
At the word of our commander, the men and I rolled over to the side to avoid the charge as well as the swinging of the swords on it's numerous arms. It hit a pillar before it started engaging the guards in a fight.
The men that had rolled to the sides were quick to get up and assume their stance. I was astonished at how coordinated they were in their attacks, each of them supporting the one another with spears and shields.
Picking myself up, I readied my sword and focused my mana on my arms, readying to receive one of it's blows and parrying it to the side. Unfortunately, the force I used was too much and the drawback was strong. Before I knew it, another slash was already coming my way.
"Shit!" I exclaimed while attempting to pull back my sword arm that had just parried an attack.
*Swoosh*
But just as it was about to hit me, a screeching arrow zoomed past my ear and hit the creature right at what seemed to be a joint, severing the arm.
"GUAAAAAAH!"
"Don't let your guard down, human."
"Thank you, miss Danari!" I exclaimed as I re adjusted my stance.
Condensing my mana to my feet, I kicked of the ground and dashed towards the monster, aiming for the arm near it's base.
"Orah!"
I exclaimed as I slashed down on what seemed to be a beastkin's arm holding a weapon similar to the Nodachi of my previous world. Surprisingly though, the arm moved in a sophisticated manner and properly received my attack.
I never would have imagined that a grotesque monster such as this would have the dexterity and finesse to perform the techniques it was using. I thought for sure that it was using the skills of the beastkin arm.
Meanwhile on it's other side, a guard had managed to parry an attack and stab his spear deep into the torso of the monster, greatly angering it.
"ROAAAAA!" It roared as it turned it's huge body filled with armed hands around in an attempt to slash at us.
"Cobalt!"
"Yes."
At miss Danari's orders, sir cobalt held up two fingers and extended his other hand.
{Fire arrows} He chanted.
In response, numerous small fire sprites appeared around the mage and took on the form of arrows, before flying towards the monster.
The arrows hit their marks and ignited the hoarder. Contrary to our expectations though, it only shrugged it off and charge towards the back line's position.
"I won't let you do as you please."
To my surprise, miss Danari suddenly slung her bow over her shoulder and dashed towards it head on. Before colliding though, she suddenly shot off the ground, as if a torrent of air pushed her off her feet.
Positioning herself directly above the monster, she quickly re-equipped her bow and fired four consecutive arrow to its back, all of which hitting their marks and severing arms.
"GROAAAAAAAHH"
The monster roared in pain as it was stopped in it's tracks.
"Alright!"
"That's miss Danari for you!"
The men cheered on us the dark elf displayed incredible agility and marksmanship before landing on her feet and dusting her skirt.
{Lesser fireball, multi shot}
At sir Cobalt's words, 3 small fireballs suddenly appeared in front of him, blasting the monster with fire.
"GURAAAH"
But just like before, the hoarder merely shrugged it off and eyed us again.
"My fire isn't enough to burn it's thick hide." Remarked si Cobalt as he moved farther from the monster.
I condensed my mana to my feet and arms this time and charged at the monster, delivering a powerful slash to it's side and managing to cut some arms and hide.
"GORAAAAH!" The beast roared again as it stumbled back while trying to hit me with the Nodachi welding beastkin arm.
I quickly used to remaining mana to my feet and kicked off the ground to create some distance, all the while the men moved circling the monster.
Having managed to surround it with the use of their shields and spears, the guards steadily but surely inched closer and closer to the now bleeding and battered Hoarder.
*Click click click click*
Just as we closed in, using it's mouth near it's underside, the hoarder suddenly made a clattering sound as it looked around frantically.
Suddenly, just as we feared, the head above it's body started moving it's mouth.
+++
A
top a hidden balcony overlooking the open space below, a hooded man wearing a red robe watched the ensuing battle, while his two servants-cum-bodyguards stood at tables in the center of the room, continuing their experiments.
"Tch, that damned demon spawn found us before my hoarder could mature." He clicked his tongue in disappointment as he clenched his fist. "Just a little bit more and we could've achieved our mission."
Looking down, he could see that the hoarder was having a hard time dealing with the constant and coordinated attacks of it's assailants. The manufactured monster was still far from it's true potential. At present, it only had 64 arms and one head. Fortunately though, those arms and head belonged to a mercenary company, so even though it was incomplete, it was still a formidable beast.
"Especially that beastwoman. She was a valuable addition to the arsenal.. eh?"
"Wait.."
Just as the monster started charging towards the back lines, the robed man noticed something that sent a chill down his spine.
Slamming his hands on the porch, he gritted his teeth roared in anger.
"The demon spawn is missing! Where is he?!"
"A bit disrespectful of you to address the lord of the land as a demon spawn, don't you think so?"
"Huh?!!"
Turning around, the man and his servants saw the figure of a silver blonde haired man clad in silver armour, with different colored eyes, standing on the opposite side of the room with his arms crossed.
Seeing this, the man's anger rose to roof.
"You!! How'd you get in here?! Guards!!" He exclaimed as his two servants present moved to shield him.
"The illusion magic you used was quite innovative, I'll give you that. It's rather unfortunate that I won't be able to recruit a talented man such as yourself into my ranks. Ahh, don't bother with the guards, their all dead."
"Kuh?!! You damned demon!"
In response to silver armoured man's answer, the two servants drew their swords and condensed their manas.
"See, there you go again. You can't just illegally go to man's territory, cause trouble and then call him a demon, you know?"
"Tch! {Greater Fireball!!}"
Suddenly, a large fireball shot towards Jorgé at staggering speed, while the two guards strengthened their bodies and flanked him from both sides.
"Heh"
Lightly scoffing, Jorgé jumped to the left, evading the attack and meeting one of the servants head on. The fireball hit the wall flush and turned into a fiery explosion, destroying the wall and igniting almost everything near it.
"Hup!" Jorgé exclaimed as he received the full powered swing of the servant and blocked it.
"?!!"
Suddenly feeling the weight of his sword, the servant clashing swords with Jorgé almost lost his balance. Fortunately for him though, he colleague had arrived at Jorgé's flank and attempted to strike him.
In a display of pure skill, Jorgé brushed aside the opponent's sword in front of him and parried the strike that was coming his way from the back.
"Kuh!"
"What are you two doing?! Kill him already!"
"Too slow"
In a swift flick of the wrist, Jorgé beheaded his assailant from the back, and then turned around and stabbed the other through the mouth.
Seeing this, the robed man started panicking and threw spells at him recklessly.
{Greater Fireball! Greater Fireball! Greater Fireball!!}
To his surprise, and disbelief however, the fire balls he launched all disappeared into nothingness before reaching Jorgé.
"Kuh?!! You truly are the devil spawn!! The Great God Vanos shall purge you from this earth!!"
"Hoh?"
In response to the robed man's accusations, Jorgé raised his eyebrows and showed a curious smile.
"So you're a believer of the Vanosian faith?"
"Tch!!" Realizing what he had just done, the man clicked his tongue and readied his own sword, but just as he was doing so, a great tremor shook the cavern.
"I guess I'll leave it for later, it's almost time." Remarked Jorgé as he drew even closer to the robed man.
+++
Just as we had cornered the monster, our fears were realized. The head atop of it suddenly opened it's eyes and started talking.
{Earth magic, Quake!} It bellowed in a low tone.
In response, the ground beneath the hoarder started imploding rocks outward, resulting in most of the guards getting blown away or getting knocked down.
Seeing this, the monster quickly moved in on the fallen guards with the intent to kill.
"Shit!"
Having been one of the few who managed to stay on their feet, I quickly dashed towards the downed knight and intercept the downward slash of the monster. Fortunately, I had condensed my mana to my arms prior to this, so I was able to stop it's attack, albeit with difficulty.
"Watch out!" A voice suddenly called out to me.
Unfortunately, the warning of miss Danari caught my ears too late as another attack came from the direction of my exposed body. Although the arm had no weapons, it still struck my armour with such force that I was blown away to the sides.
Because I had condensed my mana to my feet and arms, my body was left relatively unprotected by magic.
"Gueeh!" I exclaimed as I felt some of my ribs break and the air sucked out of my lungs.
I briefly lost consciousness for a moment before being woken up by the intense pain I was feeling to my sides. I clasped my left side and tried to regain my breath, all the while feeling my broken rib.
"Kuh!" I winced in pain.
Looking back up, albeit with difficulty, I saw that some of the guards had also regained their footing. But because their formation was broken, they were now at a disadvantage, being forced into a defensive battle by the monster.
"Guaah!" Exclaimed one of the guards as he got stabbed in the shoulder by a sword.
"Gaah!" Another as he was slashed in the leg.
The injuries were now piling up, as even miss Danari and sir Cobalt was having a hard time defending themselves, with the latter resorting to just running.
I looked around looking for my lord Jorgé, but I couldn't see him. I feared that he must have gotten blown away in the chaos.
"Kyaaaa! Please don't die!!"
The sudden scream of a captive pulled me from my unnecessary thought.
[I have to get up, I havs to help, or else we'll get wiped out and these captives will die. I can't die, not yet! Juliette is waiting for me!] I thought to myself.
Biting my lips to keep myself awake and clenching my fist, I mustered up what little strength I had left and propped myself up.
"Haah.. haah.. ngh!" Panting and wincing in pain, I started walking towards my sword, only to find it broken.
Looking around, what caught my eyes was the Nodachi looking sword that the beastkin arm had been using, thinking that it must've fell on the floor when the monster used magic, I picked it up tightened my grip.
I had felt that my mana reserves was almost completely empty, and that I was running on fumes, but I had to do something. Realizing that I would die anyways if I just sat back and do nothing, I started scraping off whatever mana I still had left, and try for one final attack.
[I have to live, I have to get back alive, for lady Juliette!!]
Screaming inside my head and resolving myself for the sake of my lady, I condensed my mana once more to my feet and kicked off the ground.
[?!!]
When suddenly, an unprecedented amount of mana started overflowing my body. It felt as if a closed off valve was suddenly opened, and the water stored within started violently rushing out, mowing down everything in it's path.
[Cold]
I thought to myself as I felt my eyes turned black and my consciousness slipped away.
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