Beneath the Dragoneye Moons

Adventurers. Just when I was starting to see some potentially redeeming traits, they had to pull a stunt to remind me why they ranked lower than thieves and brigands. They were at least honest about their desire to rob everyone!

“We should almost be there.” Iona said as she strode deeper into the lair. Auri and I followed.

There were hundreds of little noises all around us, and I simply lacked the knowledge and experience to properly interpret them all. Was a little scratching sound a Pekari working on something, or a mole scratching a rock? I heard dripping water, but was it from a leak or an underground stream? Were a few pebbles falling from an Octopus drilling, or nature?

A trio of barrels peeked around the corner at the end of the hallway. The unusual nature of the barrels combined with my sheer inexperience with the Pekari had me questioning what, exactly, I was seeing, trying to work out what the barrels were. A trio of soft pops answered the question, metal slugs flying towards us. I reacted on a well-trained instinct, my hand snapping up with three fingers pointing out. A [Nova Lance] arced out of each finger, melting through the slugs and slagging the Skitter’s barrels.

An object in motion stayed in motion, and for all the nice things I had to say about Radiance, it didn’t stop things dead. The metal slugs turned into a deadly spray of molten metal.

I snapped [Mantle] around Iona, hissing as some of the spray landed on me. I healed as quickly as it tried to burn me, the angry red metal slowly turning orange as it cooled.

“Good reflexes, but I have to ask - why’d you shield me, and not yourself?” Iona asked.

I started to peel the metal bits off of me as they cooled, tossing them to the side.

“First, didn’t think my shield would hold against all the slugs, and it’s better to know which ones will land than have them randomly hit. That’s the worst of both worlds. I figured I’m easy to fix and repair, but I was worried about your armor. What would happen if a bunch of molten - is this iron? - landed on your gear, then cooled off. Wouldn’t it screw with your armor and weapons? None of us are a [Blacksmith] or [Armorer], and trying to use wizardry to fix it would take forever, compared to just healing.”

I knew Iona was giving me a Look through her helmet. Just the way she was staring at me, combined with her body language.

“Elaine, I love you, that’s a wonderful thought, but no. Just no. Protect yourself, don’t mind my stuff. It’s mallium. Watch. Auri, if you would?”

Iona scooped up a few cooled chunks off the ground, holding them in her hand. Auri dutifully burned them, quickly melting the metal back down to slag. The iron melted in her glove, forming a pool. Iona then ‘squeezed’ it like a stress ball, the metal mixing in with her mallium.

“See, my gear’s been horribly contaminated. Annnnnnnnnd - poof!” With a mental flex, all of the iron popped out of her glove.

“I control the mallium. It’s easy enough to isolate and throw out something that’s not mallium, even if it takes a moment or two.” Iona explained. “Don’t worry about my stuff. I don’t like seeing you get hurt.”

I held up my hands in surrender.

“Alright, gotcha. Let’s keep going.”

Fireworms and Dragonflies tried to ambush us, but their short range and my ability to literally see through walls completely neutered any assault they tried.

“Fireworms. There, there, and there.” I rapidly pointed to the three almost-invisible holes that had the small worm-like golems hiding in them. Auri, with malicious glee, burned the three out, melting them in such a way that the hole was permanently dammed up.

“I’m probably going to jinx it, but this seems…” I trailed off, not daring to finish my sentence.

“Easy?” Iona finished.

“Dragonfly.” I pointed to the spot. “Yeah. I didn’t want to say it out loud, but like. The Pekari don’t seem to be living up to their hype.”

I got another Look from Iona.

“Dragonfly.” I pointed again.

“Most people venturing into a Pekari lair are like the Sterling Six. Most stories are from people in that level range, or lower. I was entering lairs as a squire. Level 128. We’re both over 512, with a third class. Yeah, this should be this easy.”

Right as Iona finished speaking the entire place started to rumble.

“I just had to open my big mouth!” I wailed as what could only be a Crusher rumbled up.

It filled the entire corridor perfectly, like the two were designed for each other. There was barely a centimeter of space between the Crusher and the walls and ceiling. The front was a nightmare of metal. A roller with thick spikes on the floor, followed by whirling chain flails and slicing blades up high. I had no idea how long it was, but everything I’d read suggested it was long, giving the Crusher near-unstoppable momentum once it got going.

“Back round the corner!” I shouted the usual counter to Crushers, stepping lively backwards with Auri.

“Brrrpt!”

Iona crinked her neck and glanced over her shoulder. She rubbed her hands together as the Crusher started to pick up steam.

“You two should get out of the way.”

I swore and sped back, grabbing Auri as we fled back towards the entrance. I wasn’t going to try to argue with my girlfriend, indecision was a fantastic way to get someone killed. Iona crouched down like a wrestler, putting one foot back and to the side, bracing herself. The Crusher was rushing towards her, going faster and faster, the blades and chains spinning so quickly as to be a blur even to my eyes. The stones around her feet cracked as she made herself heavier with [Lunar Mass].

I got to where the tunnel sharply turned, and stopped, staying in the same path as Iona and the Crusher.

“Love you! Good luck!” I yelled as I pushed Auri to safety.

The Crusher came rumbling down, and Iona met it with a lowered shoulder. She ‘punched’ her arms through the spiked roller, the sheer impact and momentum pushing her back as she grappled with the Crusher. Iona dug a mighty pair of furrows into the floor with her boots as she strained against the Crusher, pushing back against its momentum.

The clever thing about her hitting the roller was she was cleanly under the flails and blades. The sound of screeching metal filled the hallway as Iona stopped the Crusher like a runaway train.

She was coming fast, and I started to try and think of any quick magic I knew that could help. It’d have to be Jiwa, and [Levitate] was the-

Nope, never mind. With one last shudder, Iona and the Crusher came to a halt.

“Ha! I knew I could do it!” Iona cheered as she ripped the roller off the Crusher, using it as an oversized cudgel to smash through the flails and the blades.

I put my hand over my heart.

“You had me worried for a second there.” I told her.

“Yeah, that was a bit heavier than I remembered.” Iona cheerfully told me through an unending cacophony of her just smashing the remains of the Crusher to bits. There was a lot of metal just hanging out, and while I was no merchant, that amount of iron or whatever it was had to be worth a pretty penny. If we could somehow drag it out.

And if the Pekari let us. They tended to get agitated when people tried to drag their bodies out. Grabbing other stuff in their lair? They didn’t care. Dragging the golem bodies out? A sure-fire way to get a lot more Pekari breathing down our necks… according to the books I’d read.

“Yes! A level!” Iona crowed as she finished smashing another internal piece of the Crusher.

“Woo! Levels! Nice!”

“Brrrrpt!!”

It took a few more minutes to finish turning the Crusher’s remains into something we could cross. Iona did most of the grunt work, and Auri then melted and smoothed the metal so we weren’t walking on sharp beams pointing up at our feet.

As we walked down, I found a new, different part of the lair behind one of the walls. I narrowed my eyes at the wall.

[*ding!* [The World Around Me] leveled up! 70 -> 71]

“Danger. A bunch of Clankers and Poppers on the other side of the wall.” I pointed, getting on the balls of my feet, ready to run, to fight, to fly, whatever was needed. I tilted my head, trying to interpret what my senses were telling me. “I saw them carrying Vorlers…”

Iona tensed at that, her hand snapping to her axe and hefting her shield up.

“...although they looked dead. I think I hear… a furnace? Haven’t spent enough time around different furnaces to be sure.”

Iona relaxed at that.

“Let’s leave them be. If they’re fighting Vorlers, well. They’re the great enemy of life everywhere, and I’m not going to get in the way of Pekari eradicating Vorlers. In fact…” Iona paused, thinking a moment. “I wonder if the Pekari were created to eradicate Vorlers? They’re unusually well-suited to killing them, given that they’re golems and immune to poison.”

I shrugged.

“Well, if that’s your take, I’m not going to argue. Let’s keep going?”

We turned a corner, and that was that. We were at the end of the Pekari lair. A vast, horrifying room stretched in front of us. Clear glass vats dotted the room, the captured villagers suspended in a murky green liquid. Strange growths were coming off of some of them. One had fuzz all over his chest, a second had a fleshy tentacle mass coming down from one knee, like her lower leg had been twisted and warped. Three villagers were unconscious, strapped down to tables with all manner of bloody instruments above them, like the tools for a giant [Dentist]. A bloody bone saw, rusty meathooks, large sharp picks with drying flesh on them and more all hovered over the villagers. The only thing I could imagine that could be done with the tool was straight dismembering, and I suppose the Clanker form was ideal for manipulating tools like that. One mystery solved?

But why delay?

I started to look around for… I didn’t know what, something obvious that would clear the glass tubes. Iona had no such hesitation. She walked up to one and punched it, the glass shattering into ten thousand tiny harmless pebbles. The liquid splashed out, draining down to goddesses-knew-where, and Iona caught the woman before she could crash to the ground, who was just waking up.

She started coughing violently as Iona held her, keeping her upright.

“There was a Pekari attack. You’re safe now.” She said. I flicked a heal over, and the bottom half of her leg morphed, turning back into a whole, healthy limb.

[*ding!* [Imbue] leveled up! 188 -> 189]

Auri flitted over to another glass container, and started pecking at it like she was a woodpecker.

“You go, Auri!” I encouraged her. Anytime she found a solution that wasn’t fire and was actively trying to help others needed all the encouragement it could get.

Iona worked her magic. In four sentences, she managed to calm the panicking woman down, reassure her that everything was going to be alright, and was moving on. We worked as a team, breaking the glass, healing the villagers, and getting them all organized. A few of them joined in helping us, grabbing the oversized meat hooks and smashing the glass. A couple couldn’t wait, choosing to flee back to the entrance than stay in the Pekari nest a second longer.

Iona and I traded looks the first time that happened, and it was like she read my mind.

“We cleared the path in, and the Pekari tend not to chase people escaping. They’ll be fine.” The Valkyrie said without prompting.

It took about a quarter of an hour for us to free everyone, and I noticed something interesting during that time. A room on the other side of one of the walls, not in the Pekari’s style.

Iona clapped her hands together, sounding like thunder.

“Alright, everyone listen up! You’re safe now. We’re going to leave the Pekari nest, and your home is nearby. Do not try to take any part of the Pekari with you. Follow me, and you’ll be safe. Don’t bother the fire bird. Elaine, can you take the rear?”

I nodded.

“Brrrpt!!” Auri wanted to patrol between us.

We slowly shambled out with the biggest incident being one kid slowing down, and another villager scooping him up before I needed to ‘catch’ him. There was something nice about a close-knit village.

I heard Iona grab the adventurer we’d tied up, and quickly reassured the villagers of why he was tied up - regardless of the protests and vile lies he spat, claiming that Iona was a cold-blooded murderer, entirely twisting the story to say that she’d killed his entire team in a surprise ambush.

Iona roundly rebutted him, and between the 520 armed and free Valkyrie who’d just rescued them, and the low-level adventurer in chains, it was easy to pick a side.

Regardless of what the truth was. It was on our side though! They’d attacked first!

We saw them off at the edge of the tunnel, and thank goodness Iona was there to be the recipient of all their thanks, hugs, small gifts, yada yada yada. All the people stuff that I wasn’t too interested in. Iona was in her element, asking after people, having memorized their names and half their life stories in the short time they’d known each other, and generally being the ultimate people-person. I liked my skills, but [Social Lubricant] and to a lesser extent, [Adaptable and Flexible] were crazy skills to watch in action.

Iona had Fenrir fly the adventurer to the nearest town and drop him off. I suspected that Fenrir would be taking it literally, but eh. He should survive. I wrote a quick note, burning them into the chains with [Nova Lance] explaining what had happened.

She even managed to get the villagers to laugh off Fenrir dropping a half-dozen bloody carcasses when he returned right in the middle of the village. Iona had the skittish, nervous villagers back to their normal lively selves, and it was a miracle to watch.

“Are you sure there wasn’t a miracle there?” I suspiciously asked Iona.

“Would Selene intervene in something like this?” Iona asked, her tone making the answer obvious.

I grumbled.

“I just don’t get how you do it!” I complained.

“Well, it’s easy. Listen to people. Watch people. Understand them. Everyone has wants and needs. Right now it’s easy. Security. Safety. Reassurance. You just… do it.” Iona shrugged. “It’s that easy.”

“Auri.” I said with a flat tone.

“Brrrpt!!!” Auri knew exactly what to do. She landed on my head, flashed her wings out, then did a backflip.

Iona slowly shook her head at me.

“What now? You looked like something caught your attention back in the lair.”

I nodded.

“Yeah, something weird behind one of the walls. Mind if we check it out?”

Iona shook her head, and before long we were back in the room, broken glass coating the floor.

“Here.” I knocked on the wall in question. “Looks different behind. Not the same… bricks? Any issue with checking it out?”

Iona punched the wall, and the bricks came tumbling down.

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