Chương 617: Chapter Six Hundred and One - The Monsters and the Deep Blue Sky

From the beginning, I came to Dirt to root out a great evil. I, uh, had mostly not done that? Sure, I'd taken care of a few roots, and helped some people along the way, but mostly I was here to have fun, see the world, make friends... And then I did a lot of other things too! I did make those friends and got myself an almost-nemesis. I saved people and became the captain of an airship. But the roots just kept showing up. And Rainnewt never stayed locked away, either.

Soon enough, we were dealing with another of his schemes, setting off to find the Black Avatars of legend. Well, we did. Now we were all standing on their Keep, a fortress of black stone floating in the eye of their own personal storm. The storm was being torn apart, though, breaking up into rain that was really starting to lash at my bun ears. Through the ragged storm flew monsters.

"What... what are we supposed to do?" I asked. I looked towards Amaryllis. Honestly, she looked just as out-of-her-depth as I was, but she was one of my smartest friends, and when it came to... many things, I would trust her more than anyone else. Right then, standing atop the Black Avatar keep, a few paces away from the moored Beaver Cleaver, there were few people I'd want more by my side. Fortunately, all of the others I'd want nearby also happened to be here, so that was nice.

"I... don't know," Amaryllis said. She took a deep breath.

"Bastion, have you ever seen something like that?" Bastion's eyes narrowed.

"No," he admitted.

"Those are alive. I can see their levels."

"Are they high?" I asked. I turned and fired off an Inspect onto the nearest of them, one of those that looked like a squid, then I winced and pressed a hand over my forehead as something like a flick hit me. The skill had just... failed? That hadn't ever happened to me before. He paused, then nodded.

"The smaller ones are level twenty. That large one is thirty." So... two classes and three, assuming they were all at their level caps? Didn't that mean that someone had dragged those things through a dungeon? How? They were huge! The largest of the living-airships dwarfed the Beaver. It could have swallowed my ship whole, maybe even literally. The smaller ships, which I counted five of, ranged from just a bit smaller than the Beaver to a little longer, though they were definitely all thinner.

"They're armed," Awen said, her voice was low, but it carried anyway. I turned back around, squinting through the rain to see what she meant. Each small ship had long tentacles trailing behind it, and at the end of each tentacle was fastened a metal sheathe. Someone had tipped them with metallic blades, each longer than I was tall, and barbed. I didn't know how quickly they could move those, but the were already swaying about fairly rapidly. If one of those whipped out and struck a ship with any amount of force...

let alone if they decided to attack a ship's balloon.

"Right, this won't do," Guinevere said.

"Tristain?" The little rat-folk man nodded. He wasn't quite the leader of the Black Avatars, but from everything I'd seen of him, he was at least one of their more respected, reasonable members. The kind of person the others turned to.

"Nicholas, prepare the Stormpiercer for launch. We don't want it driven into the castle.." Tristain indicated a pair of Avatars, "Lynette, Claudin, you're with him. Guinivere, prepare something strong. I'm going to try and negotiate. Percival, anti-intruder contingencies." Percival thumped a fist to his chest, then took off at a sprint that I couldn't've caught up to even if I'd tried. Guinevere, for her part, gave him a serious nod before she strode to the edge of the dock, then leapt off.

I gasped, but then she did something and bounded off of nothing to land atop one of the Keep's towers without a sound. I could see her breathe deep, her tails fanning out behind her. Facing the incoming plant-ships, she spread out her open palms. Magic erupted from her like a second sun had risen, a corona so dense I could see it, cascading up into columns and rings of dense spell structures.

Even from this far away, the mana washing over me felt stronger than when Amaryllis cast her lightning spells right next to me.

"What about us?" I asked Tristain. His lips thinned, then he [glanced at the Beaver through the intensifying rain." Prepare your ship to cast off," he said." If it comes to a fight, we'll do what we can to cover you as you escape."" We don't know how to push through the storm, not easily," Amaryllis said." Fair point. But we might soon shut that magic off. It's meant to keep us obscure and safe, and as it is doing neither at the moment, our efforts may be better spent elsewhere." That... sounded like things were bad. Which I supposed they were. I felt my hands wanting to shake, but at the same time, I was confident in my friends and in the Black Avatars. Things would be alright. Looking back at the giant creatures slowly swimming through the air along a circular path approaching the keep, Rainnewt's reveal of the nature of the Evil Roots was still fresh in my mind. Even from this distance, the resemblance was undeniable. The living airships were malevolent in the same way an Evil Root was. They even looked like Evil Roots, with a woody texture and tendrils that tangled together like they were trying to strangle the air. One of the squid-shaped ones cracked open its ovular hull and loosed a deep, bellowing horn-blast of noise. Raindrops were vaporized. The black stones of the Keep shook, flakes of dust flying off of them. The dock under me vibrated, and the edges of my vision darkened, my magic warbling. You have heard the roar of a monstrous being! Your existence is battered. I felt feathers brush against me as I staggered into Amaryllis." You're bleeding," she noted, her voice sounding almost muted. I must've been half-deaf. Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site. I glanced at her and saw that blood was dripping from her ears. Oh. That's why there was warm stuff running down the sides of my head. Before I could panic, a wave of some kind of magic swept off of Tristain, and my health jumped back to full, my vision and hearing and balance all normalizing. Shaking off the disorientation, I straightened up, gazing at the approaching plant-ships." I'll help with the negotiations," I said." But everyone, get the Beaver ready to launch. If it comes to it, uh... well, maybe we can fight better from the air?" I didn't like the idea of running away. I liked the idea of losing my friends and ship even less. Tristain didn't object to me tagging along, so while my friends ran to the Beaver, we both hurried to the edge of the docks, where we stood right over the edge of the keep. I wasn't sure how he planned to negotiate until he waved an arm though the air wove mana into a complex spell faster than I could track. When he next cleared his throat, the noise of it sounded like it was coming through a powerful loudspeaker. There was a small glowing sphere that he spoke into, it hovered at head-height... for him, so if I wanted to speak into it, I'd need to crouch down." To the airships intruding into this airspace. Know that this is the Black Keep of the Black Avatars. We do not take kindly to aggressive foes. However, if your cause is just, and you come in peace, we are willing to be civil." Not exactly how I would have worded it, but I think it carried the right message. Two of the five smaller ships spun through the air, moving with surprising grace. They weren't that fast, but they turned faster than any airship I knew of could. Then they opened up, squid-like bodies splitting apart to reveal wide maws lined with meat, tooth-like thorns, and interconnected roots. It was like a curtain pealing back to reveal a thick, interwoven jungle of foliage and flesh." Shield!" Tristain barked. Both of the squid-like monsters spat, one after the other. The first's attack crashed into a large, perfectly round shield of foot-thick stone summoned by one of the Black Avatars. Awen could summon glass, so doing the same with rock wasn't surprising. The amount of stone, however, was. That had to cost a lot of mana, and the speed of it! Right, these weren't second-tier adventurers. They were several steps above that. The second monster's attack shot forwards and was struck in midair by a bolt fired from a bow one of the Black Avatars carried. The shot veered wildly off course, then exploded several hundred feet away. The explosion was less of a big boom, and more like a seed pod bursting apart. Tiny flecks of seed went everywhere, followed by a tangled mess of bright-green vines. They tumbled through the air and were soon swallowed by the storm." So much for that," Tristain said." Guinivere. Do what must be done." I couldn't hear her response from so far away. I could, however, feel the power gathering around her. The air stilled, then all of the humidity, from the rain pouring down sporadically around us, drew away all at once. I gasped, and the air I drew in was hot. Around Guinivere were three small suns, held in the spaces between her four splayed tails. The three suns were pouring a sort of liquid light into a spell construct. I actually recognized it. The shape and form and most of the main bodies of the spell was just... firebolt. The very same spell that I had used hundreds of times myself. Only when I used it, the spell fit into the palm of my hand. Guinevere's Firebolt was larger than a bus. She launched it, and I ducked down, my ears folding back. Tristain raised a hand, and the air shimmered, somehow negating the blast of heat as the monster fireball rocketed past. On the dock, steam rose from rain puddles as Guinevere's attack covered a kilometer in seconds. The firebolt rammed into the nearest of the squid monsters, then exploded with a roar that had me stuffing half of my ears. The inferno swallowed the monster whole. When it cleared, the charred squid-like monster was tumbling down, its root-tentacles ablaze and a trail of smoke following it down." We warned you," Tristain said." Please, leave this area and--" The biggest of the monsters rumbled, then the split along its centre grew wider. Hundreds of heavy floral bulbs tumbled out of the crack, trailing thick vines that soon pulled taught, leaving them swinging from the bottom of the seed like a thicket of pendulums." Cut those off!" Tristain barked. The Avatar with the bow fired four times in a second, arrows flashing across the distance like lasers. Bulbs were shot loose and plummeted toward the sea, even as another Avatar hauled his greatsword back and the blade began to shine. The immense seed bellowed again, a thrumming bass note that knocked the arrows off-course and made my vision waver, though Tristain did something to protect me from the worst of it. The bulbs started to swell up like ripening Brussels sprouts. One of the squid ships arced ahead of the larger vessel. The Avatar swung his shining sword, and a line of white slashed across the sky. Blinding flashes of light erupted as the squid ship deflected the slash with the blades fastened to its tentacles. The Avatar held his stance for a moment, then slumped forward." Give me a moment," he gasped, as his red-hot blade boiled the rain. Across from him, a kilometer away, the squid-ship writhed, wailing. Shattered metal shards and a handful of tentacles came loose and fell toward the waves, far below. The squid-thing slipped lower, and behind it, the split-seed ship rose up. The bloated bulbs lifted into the air, tearing open and aligning themselves towards us." Brace," Tristain said. As one, the bulbs spat seeds toward us, hundreds of them arcing through the air like I was staring down the salvo of a battleship. I squeaked, my ears flicking back." Frustrating," Tristain said.