Unbound

Hallow slid down the loam-covered slope of the mountain, rapidly descending between the middling-sized trees that sprouted there in the rare patches of sunlight not blocked by their far larger brethren. Her large, wide feet were particularly suited to such activity, and the jarring stop at the end barely fazed her.

Down there, through a short gorge, she found a grotto of fallen giants. Not giants as they had seen in the north, but trees—those immense trees that Felix had muttered something about being Redwoods. Hallow didn’t understand that; the memories she shared with Beef didn’t include such a thing. These weren’t red at all, but they also weren’t green like the living ones appeared. Fallen and seemingly dead, their bark was brown and white, threaded through with heavy lines of black rot.

The grotto was wet, and most importantly, it was filled with mushrooms.

Mushrooms are edible, right? Hallow remembered Beef's father cooking with them, but those had been far smaller. These were larger than Beef himself and clung to the sides of the fallen trees like platforms, stark yellow against the rot. She remembered a younger Michael eating mushrooms, enjoying them, in fact. Yes. Edible.

Happy, she began to collect them. The mushrooms came free of the rotting great trees with relative ease and in large chunks that were easily stackable. Before long, she had amassed a significant pile.

Stacked upon the ground, she considered them again. Still less than a quarter of the way through the grotto, she began to consider the problem of transporting the large fungus. I suppose if I shape my hands…

Utilizing Switchshift, she molded her arms into stout platforms, curved slightly to mimic something like a giant bowl. Nodding to herself, she changed back and began harvesting once more.

The further she traversed the grotto, the more the fungus reminded her of the mushroom warriors that once attacked Harwatch. Thankfully, these were not nearly as mobile or poisonous. She wasn't sure how she could tell that, but she could. The scent of death wasn't on them, nor the grotto that surrounded her, save for the decaying trees.

She reached for another, and was surprised to find a creature composed entirely of wood, seated nearby. "Oh, hello. I'm sorry, is this your mushroom?" she inquired.

The creature, resembling a bundle of sticks bound together by fronds and moss, clacked and clattered, producing a sound akin to branches colliding in the wind. From all around her, through the open holes in the fallen trees, other stick creatures poked their heads out. Each one was unique, a vastly varied arrangement of branches and twigs, and every head glowed with a singular spot, like a burning ember buried deep within the shadowed knot of branches that formed their faces.

"Oh," Hollow said, "You’re wood elementals. Wickerjaks."

She had encountered their kind before, but the last time was near Khasma, in a tower submerged in the depths. Those had been Manawarped by the Fathom, though, which had made them exceedingly violent and territorial. Thankfully, the elementals in front of her appeared to be entirely normal and peaceful.

All at once, the Wickerjaks raised sharpened fingers towards her, some bristling with thorns, others sheathed in thick layers of bark. Their single ember eyes burned as they observed her and cautiously advanced atop their trees.

Perhaps not entirely peaceful, then. Hollow did the only thing she could think of—she bowed low.

"I took your mushrooms," she admitted, "I apologize for not asking. I intended for them to be food for hungry people, and I did not consider that they might be food for someone already here. Might I be allowed to take some with me?"

A sharp clattering echoed throughout the grotto, and the Wickerjaks halted their advance. A smaller wood elemental stepped forward, its back adorned with brambles and green leaves. It peered at her, clicking and clacking, its eye flaring like an ember about to ignite. It gestured repeatedly, clacking all the while. Hollow strained to understand.

"It's not food?" she asked. The Wickerjak shook its body. Hollow glanced at the trees again. Where she had removed the mushrooms earlier, the trees appeared less ravaged by the blackened striations. More green. "Oh, they feed on the trees. Your homes."

The Wickerjak pointed at her pile, then at the rest of the trees, and took her hand. Hollow allowed it, letting the small creature guide her through a gap in the fallen grotto and into a much larger space. Beyond was a veritable graveyard of enormous trees, all of them blanketed in mushrooms. The Wickerjak clicked at her.

"Yes, of course," she agreed, "I'll take them all."

"Right," Archie said, dropping a heavy Bogcat onto his pile of beasts. The creature was easily three times his size, but a molten dagger to the brain killed a lot of things. "With this, I'm beating you both."

The Dire Hound trilled a laugh. "Not a chance. With all these Bogcats I’ve got?”

"That’s nothing," Beef said, struggling through the underbrush with a heavy, ox-like creature hung over his back. It had a single horn sticking out of its forehead, like a heavily armored unicorn. The kid dropped it onto the ground, and Archie nearly lost his footing as it landed. "This thing is called a Lox. I've never seen it before, but that horn is rough. I got it, though. And it weighs more than all six of your Bogcats, Pit, and your pile of whatever that is, Archie."

Archie sniffed. "They're called Volacris. Which is a dumb name for what is basically a feral ostrich." Archie had killed nearly half a herd of the flightless birds, which were very much like a feral and larger version of an Avum. The main difference between the Volacris and their tamed cousins were bigger heads, sharper beaks, and some nasty claws. He had several scratches to prove it.

Beef looked around at their piles and chewed on his lip. "I think maybe we’re tied."

Pit groaned, and Archie spat. None of them were happy about that. They'd been hunting for over an hour, and game was starting to get scarce.

"Oh, hello!" Hollow walked by, her voice echoing with all of the sounds of her many forms, carrying what looked like a metric ton of mushrooms and gourds. She waved happily at them.

"That's her third trip," Archie said. "We're gonna lose to a rock."

"Hollow's not a rock. She's a Homunculus," Pit corrected. "Well, that’s just her main Body. She's a magical phenomenon due to Beef's..."

"I know a rock when I see it, and that's a rock," Archie interrupted. "Granted, no boulder back home could talk, but I never made a point of chatting with them."

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

Beef rolled his eyes. Archie frowned. “What?”

“Nothing.” Beef lifted Bedlam back up to his shoulder, grunting with the effort. "Listen, I'm going back out to..."

His words were drowned out by a deep, bugling call. The leaves and the canopy hundreds of feet above them shook with the force of its cry, and all of them felt the pressure of it. Archie winced. It was like standing in a wind tunnel, with rocks, leaves, and sticks thrown through the air. He even had to Stoneswim in order to resist the force of it.

"Oh, holy crap! That thing has to be Journeyman Tier, right?” Beef asked in the silence that followed. “Tier... What is it? Tier IV?"

“That’s Adept…but that feels right,” Archie said, before looking at the two of them. “I’m gonna check it out.”

Something that strong has to be big enough to win, he thought as he slipped through the underbrush. If I get that, then I win.

At this point, he didn’t much care if he won Felix’s prize. He just wanted to beat that walking rock.

Archie stalked closer, slipping through the earth and across some lesser trees that dotted this portion of the mountain forest. Tier IV or no, he wasn’t worried about getting spotted by the beast. An advantage of his sleight stature was that most plants provided him with ample cover.

Which made it doubly annoying when Beef came crashing through the forest behind him.

“What do you see?” he asked in a loud whisper.

“Shh. I’m looking,” Pit said, and Archie forced himself not to jump. He hadn’t even noticed the damn dog.

The three of them pressed forward a little more, until they stepped up to the edge of a sharp cliff. Below, perhaps fifty feet down, was the biggest creature Archie had ever seen. It was definitely a beast, like a bear, turtle, and beaver had an unholy baby. It had horns, big spiky things that covered its skull like a crown or shield, and thick scales covered all down its back and sides like spiked armor. All four of its huge legs were armored too, as was its tail. That was wide enough and strong enough that when it swung it obliterated some of the lesser trees in its path.

“Whoa. That’s almost as big as a Razorspine,” Beef said.

“A lot less wiggly though,” Pit added.

Archie swallowed. “It’s bigger than that Oathweaver was, too.”

“Oh yeah, that construct thing,” Pit said. “What’s it doing down there?”

The creature was busy digging at a section of forest, pulling up and gnawing on giant roots that seemed to be its food. As it chewed through one huge root, it snapped with an almost metallic whipping noise, like a giant cable snapping free. One of the massive trees, hundreds of feet tall, slowly tipped and the rest of its root system ripped up in an explosion of dirt as it fell to the ground. Even up on the cliff, they were thrown fully six feet into the air by the impact.

"Holy crap!" Archie whispered through the pain of landing. "What the hell is that thing?"

"I don't know," Pit said. "Hold on, gotta try and use Felix’s Voracious Eye."

The Hound screwed up his face, tongue trapped between his jaws as he concentrated, before letting out a heavy gasp. "I did it! Oh. It's called a Greater Armadon. Big bruiser, and fast too. It's definitely Tier IV.”

Beef bit his lip. “We could take it.”

Pit looked at Beef and Archie expectantly. "Team up?"

Beef nodded. "Yeah."

Archie sighed. "Fine, but only because the alternative is losing to a rock."

"Alright," Pit said, leaning close. "Here's my plan."

Felix watched the battle from high above, among enormous branches. Below, the three men tussled with the Greater Armadon, hitting it with their power as the thing stomped and clawed right back.

Hm. Tough fight for them. Felix reclined against the mossy bark, leisurely eating a fruit. It tasted like an orange but spicier, and the consistency was closer to a peach. He really liked it, though Felix would have much rather have found a worthy monster to eat instead. The Greater Armadon was an impressive beast, but it was too weak to offer Felix much in the way of Essence. He had quickly decided to let his friends have it instead.

At his level of power, there was a real dearth of creatures with the Essence required to fill his tanks. Felix could have stripped the entire forest of life and maybe would have claimed enough Essence to fuel his bare minimum. It was frustrating enough that he’d even considered eating the trees at one point—he could do that, he had tried it before, and he imagined the Redwood sized trees would provide quite a bit of Essence and likely even significance.

But something felt off about that.

They were called Circadian Goliaths, apparently due to their house-sized flowers that bloomed every day at the same time year-round, and his Skill Aria of the Green Wilds pulsed unpleasantly when he considered eating them. It was a deep discordance that soured his stomach and even made Hunger shy away from the things. Felix wasn't sure why, really, but the moment he decided he wouldn't eat the trees the feelings vanished.

At first, he worried that his Skill was influencing his Mind, but after examining the feeling, thinking off and on about eating the trees, he realized it wasn't the Skill affecting him. It was the sounds he was hearing beyond the Skill. Something in the world around him and yet deeper than the soil and bark. More than what his Affinity would offer him from people and creatures. It was like he was hearing the forest itself through his Skill.

That same Skill told him that the Armadon lived off of the Goliaths, eating their tender roots to sustain its incredible bulk. It was clearly responsible for many of the big trees falling, but from what Felix had seen, that didn't stop the cycle of life in the forest. Many of the fallen giants were still covered in leaves, fully alive despite being sideways on the earth, and the fresh sunlight that spilled down allowed the smaller plants to thrive. The few that didn't survive were covered in huge fungus that seemed to feed on the Goliaths, which were then in turn fed on by a number of smaller beasts and insects. It was a thriving ecosystem, and for the first time in forever, maybe, Felix could appreciate it without fearing for his life.

It was…nice.

The boys, however, were in a different situation. The Greater Armadon was also highly territorial.

Below, the Armadon swung its tail, smashing them back as it roared in defiance. Archie slipped into the earth as the tail passed while Pit flattened his small body to the ground. Beef just sort of took it on the chin. He was launched sixty feet through the forest until he clipped another Goliath and spun down into the underbrush.

Felix checked him with his Voracious Eye, but the Minotaur teen was tough. His Health had only dropped by five percent at most, and he was back on his feet almost instantly.

“Ready yourself, Pit!” he shouted, before taking off.

Beef activated Relentless Charge and lowered his horns. His form blurred and he speared headfirst into the Armadon's bulk. The thing squealed in pain, and thick, green ichor poured from the devastating wound. Beef didn't stop there, though. He conjured spikes of chitin—three of them—and swung his hammer, nailing them home into the monster's wounds. More ichor flowed, pouring onto the ground as the Armadon tried to evade, but the spikes were not just nailed into the creature, they were nailed into the ground as well.

It was trapped.

Pit came next, leaping far higher than his tiny Hound Body suggested, before hitting the beast with a raking slash that opened up its armored back. He landed atop the squirming Armadon, and with a snap of his puppy jaws he severed a portion of its shoulder. It fell to its side. “Archie! Now!”

Archie emerged from the ground, molten daggers already whirling with Fanblade, and brought his weapons against its tender, exposed belly. Felix winced as ichor and offal gushed out, drenching the Delven thief, as the Armadon let out a final pitiful screech before falling silently forever.

Your Companion Pit Has Killed A Greater Armadon!

XP earned!

Well, I guess that's enough meat.

He watched as Archie, curiously clean of ichor, pulled Beef free of the muck. Pit stood on top of the downed beast, crowing triumphantly. Felix jumped from the tree, letting himself fall to the distant forest floor.

How the hell are we going to get it back?

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