Chương 16: 15-The Roost

Billy watched his girlfriend as she returned from her Spiritual Expansion trek. He quickly gulped down the last bit of rat sausage he had been chewing while she remained in her trance. It was a guilty pleasure: a bit stringy but with a nice spicy aftertaste. Waste not, want not, as Ethel would have said. Of course, Jenna could never learn about it. She opened her eyes and stood up.

"Ok, we have been lucky so far. There is a fifth rank dungeon fifty miles to the south, bordering on Serpenta's domains," she explained.

"It is based on harpies, or whatever you want to call winged female humanoid warriors."

"Fifth rank? On a world at this stage?" Billy asked incredulously.

"How do they manage? You need a relatively high population to upgrade a dungeon to that size, and Voria is completely destroyed. Most surviving communities barely have a thousand inhabitants left."

"They are quite ingenious, even though it pains me to say so," Jenna explained.

"The dungeon has the hatchery tag, and all its inhabitants are winged. They have high mobility and make good use of it. They attack communities within one hundred miles. That allows them to harvest enough essence to upgrade." Billy whistled. Then, he made a face.

"Poor people. They have been totally crushed, and they do not get the only benefit from losing to the dungeons: they still have high-ranked ones."

"I think it must be a common tactic at this stage," Jenna answered.

"I have seen something like this before, when I prepared Sara and Helena to fight the Master of the Hunt—the Wild Hunt was a highly mobile dungeon that survived by raiding farmsteads." Billy wondered how Jenna's students were doing. After Steven reconciled with Dignity, he, Sara, and Helena chose to travel the countryside, activating those humans who had not yet been turned into Avatars. Once a teacher, always a teacher, Steven had said.

Jenna suspected he was ashamed of his past behavior and still felt uncomfortable in Dignity's presence.

"How do you want to go about this?" Bob said. Even though he was unbelievably smart, he deferred to Jenna's superior tactical prowess.

"We need a good plan, but for that, we need high-grade intel," she answered.

"How are you feeling about doing some infiltration, Billy?" she asked with a smile. Billy smiled too. Bob loved wizards and, apparently, archers. He loved rogues. One hour later, Billy approached a pack of harpies carefully. He had been studying them for a short while. They did not look like the stereotypical bird-headed harpies, but rather like winged humanoid females covered in feathers.

Their faces were not altogether human, with coarse, brutish features, and their voices alternated between ear-splitting shrieks and deep-throated clucking noises. They smelled terribly, like a zombie marinated in manure for a week. He studied them for the better part of an afternoon, witnessing a few mock duels and a real one that ended with the offender dead, transfixed by feathers as sharp and hard as steel.

There were at least four different subspecies of harpies: the victor of the duel belonged to one that was capable of throwing its feathers as if they were knives, with great precision and effect. The loser had tried to bombard her with explosive eggs released mid-flight. Other harpies were capable of releasing a sonic blast in the form of a shriek. The last ones seemed to have mastered the art of smelling bad, turning it into a chemical attack.

The situation was very similar to the one he had faced with the Progressors and the Turalian Overseers. The Revenant ability would work better than shapeshifting for infiltration, as it provided basic racial memories and language knowledge. He waited patiently until the duel victor separated from the group, after being congratulated by the others and eating part of the loser's face. Billy shot an arrow at a tree. The harpy heard the thump and came to investigate.

As soon as she was out of sight, Billy put another arrow through the back of her skull. The harpy was lethal, but not physically powerful. She was a creature of precision and speed, ill-suited to close combat. It clucked a few times, shuddered, and went still. Billy entered the Blue Room, expanding it until he could float near the Harpy's corpse—then he activated his Revenant ability. He would lose the achievement points of his centaur form, but it could not be helped.

Do you want to respawn as a level 15 Stymphalian Harpy (Einheriar) for 750 AP (Y/N) Billy confirmed the choice mentally and reincarnated as a male harpy, adding another shape to his Akashic Library, a new letter to his alphabet of power. He strutted confidently toward the group. They all fell silently and looked intently at him.

Then, his racial memories finally caught up to him, like a pensioner running after a departing bus—Harpies lived in a state of almost perennial lust, and 999 out of every 1000 births were female. All the harpies took to the sky and flew like missiles toward him, shouting terms of endearment.

"Mine, mine, the eggs I lay have shells powerful as steel and white as marble," a bomber shrieked.

"I have not washed my armpits since I broke free from my egg. Smell them, they are all yours," said one of the feather throwers. Billy shrieked in a very harpy-like tone and took to the sky, flying to protect his virtue and his sanity. He screamed for help in the blood link.

"It seems you have a fan club," Jenna observed dryly.

"Fly to us. I will enhance Bob's stats, and he will take care of them." Billy saw them as a distant dot on the horizon. He flew toward them, trying not to listen to the promises of his pursuers. As he neared them, he noticed that the chorus of shrieks was growing silent—Bob was picking them one by one with his bow, starting from the rear so the others would not notice. When Billy reached the other two Losers, no one was in pursuit.

He had left a line of dead harpies along his trail, most of them killed with a precise arrow to the heart.

"Did you have to incarnate as a male?" Jenna asked him. She seemed as if she was torn between feeling annoyed and amused.

"I can't control that, Jenna. If the race has a male, I always come back as one," he explained.

"It also happens with Belegrin."

"A ladies' man, through and through," Bob commented, dropping the joke quickly as he saw the way Jenna glared at him. They decided to try the Thousand-Faced Assassin strategy again. They flew to the Roost under the cover of the night and set an observation point where they could spy the harpies without being discovered. You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version. The Roost was an enormous cave entrance in the middle of a cliff, hundreds of feet above the ground.

The cliff was nearly vertical and impossible to climb.

"A perfect base of operations for them. Near the few human communities that remain and impervious to counterattacks," observed Bob.

"They will probably raid tonight," Jenna told them.

"I have been keeping tabs on their actions with Spirit Expansion. The whole dungeon attacks as a whole, so they are easy to track." They decided Billy would return as Whisper and shapeshift as a harpy. With some luck, no one would notice him among all the havoc of the raid. This time it worked like a charm. With a powerful cry, the Core, the only male harpy in the dungeon, accompanied by his four bosses and most of his warriors, flew toward his destination.

The Core was a gigantic harpy, wielding a wicked double-bladed axe. The bosses looked like paragons of the four harpy tribes. No one noticed Billy enter the dungeon in his female harpy form as the whole flock went to war. He had plenty of time to use his Essence sight on the dungeon. When he was satisfied with the results, he flew back to the Losers and returned to his true form.

"It is a very simple dungeon. The cave extends hundreds of meters into the cliff, which would be impossible if dungeons stuck to normal rules," he explained.

"There is a central chamber covered in hundreds of harpy eggs. Some harpies remain behind to protect the eggs when the rest of the flock goes to war," Billy explained.

"The eggs are also guarded by an enchantment that alerts the Core if they are harmed." Jenna's eyes glazed for a second.

"They are going to raid a small hamlet fifteen miles east of here. The other place is going to activate in twelve minutes." Jenna had found the other place three hours ago, scouring the planet with her spirit. It was hundreds of leagues away, but distance meant little to Bob when Jenna enhanced his powers.

"How sure are you, Jenna?" Bob asked.

"It would never work like that on Earth."

"Trust me, Bob," answered Jenna.

"We are no longer on Earth, and different rules apply. T he other place does its thing with clockwork precision, every sixteen minutes, and forty-four seconds, to be exact."

"If we start now, we may call them back just in time, before they can hit that hamlet." That sealed the plan. Bob assumed Manta form and carried both Jenna and Billy on his back as he flew toward the entry of the cave. A few hundred meters before entering it, Billy jumped down, respawning as a male Stymphalian Harpy in midair. He flew into the cave, to the delighted cries of the harpies who had been left as guards.

Jenna and Bob entered the cave unmolested, as the whole guard retinue flew after Billy, who tried desperately to keep away from them. Bob landed and assumed his Fae-Touched form, which enhanced his magic powers at the expense of his body. Jenna empowered his mind, and Bob became a one-man anti-aircraft unit, filling the cave with icicles and fireballs. He cleared the whole dungeon in less than three minutes. Billy flew down, relieved, and assumed his true shape.

Bob and Jenna walked among the eggs, reminding Billy of the first Alien movie, which he had once watched at Mark's home. Bob activated his Flamethrower perk and turned it on the eggs. He suddenly grimaced.

"What is the matter, Bob? Are you feeling okay?" Billy asked him.

"It is Charlie Vaughn," Bob said, disgusted.

"He insists on my dropping a one-liner he just made up," he explained.

"Something about omelets."

"No. Anything but omelets," pleaded Billy, trying to avoid a sensitive subject.

"We will hit the humans in seven minutes, oh, Master of the Sky," Blooka of the East Wind told Koro. His mistresses always competed for his affection during raids. Part of that competition was being the one to bestow the most outrageous honorific on him. Blooka was a fawning bootlicker. She was the youngest of his mistresses and had not yet learned the art of the compliment. Nice tail feathers, though.

"Let's see if we can have as much fun as last week, my chicks," he jovially answered. Tanoola of the North Wind had managed to land one of her explosive eggs through one of the chimneys in one of the farms. Not only had they obtained a lot of Essence, but they had made those upstart farmers jump out of their windows covered in flames. He had made her Queen of the Roost for a whole week for that action.

"I think we have caught them unawares, Most Virile Rooster of the Chicken Coop," Berena of the South Wind announced. She always paid the most understated, tasteful compliments. Blooka could take a page from her. Koro had decided to attack the same settlement twice in a row, something they had never done before, and it had paid off. Many of the farmers had been working in the fields and ran toward their home screaming in horror as they saw the Flock diving toward them. Most would not make it. Then, it happened.

Screams of pain as the eggs died. Something had gone wrong at home.

"Back to the Roost. Protect the eggs," Koro howled in rage. How was this possible? Puny humans could not fly. It had to be another flock. They went back home at maximum speed, their prey already forgotten.

"... one minute twenty seconds, one minute ten seconds, one minute…" Jenna said aloud. If everything went according to her calculations, and most things did, the whole flock would soon enter the cave.

"Let's get ready, Bob," she said when only twenty seconds were left. She placed her hands on his shoulders and filled his mind with magic. Koro led the flock into the Roost, screaming a ringing war cry. Whoever had done this would pay for it with his life. He noticed something was wrong as soon as he entered the main shaft. The Roost was lined with glowing fungi that illuminated the whole dungeon. Someone had removed them, plunging the whole area into darkness. He smiled grimly.

Whoever had done this did not know harpies. They had phenomenal spatial memory and could fly with their eyes closed using only a mental map. The attackers were going to receive a very nasty surprise when—Blam. Koro flew face-first into a wall that should not be there, loosening several teeth.

"Stop! They have blocked access to the eggs. Everyone, fall back!" This was clearly a trap. He heard a commotion on the rearguard as several of the harpy warriors flew into another wall.

"We are trapped! Oh, sweet-eyed child of the morning! The entry is no more!" Blooka wailed.

"What do you mean there is no entry, you idiot! And enough with the compliments, moron. Now is not the time!" barked Koro.

"What is that?" he asked, as the whole ground trembled below him.

"Is that steam?" he answered himself. And then it began, a symphony of pain, screams, and charred feathers, as the temperature suddenly rose to unbearable levels and his flock started to fall to the ground. Koro was the last one to do so—he managed to fly in circles for three minutes, looking for an exit that no longer existed. As his strength finally left him and he plummeted to the floor and into darkness, he missed even one tiny compliment about how yummy he now smelled.

"Drop it now, they are all in," Billy instructed Bob as the last of the harpies flew into the Roost. Bob dispelled the Celestial Gate and fell to his knees. He was exhausted. Creating a gate this size, covering the whole entry into the Roost, was a titanic effort even with Jenna enhancing his magic.

"... twenty seconds, ten seconds…eruption!" Jenna finished her countdown. Somewhere along the eastern border of the continent, the perfectly predictable geyser released another colossal burst of steam.

"It worked," Billy announced.

"The core and all the bosses are dead, the dungeon is disintegrating. Time to do my part." Billy disappeared in a flash of blue light and used Heart of Darkness and Kingmaker to create a new dungeon without becoming part of it. He could have used a very elaborate motif, but he had learned long ago that spending a lot of points and letting the module design the dungeons almost always resulted in a better outcome. He chose "Learn to Be a Hero" as the Motif and the Symbiotic and Reproductive Tags.

He kept the Hatchery tag and used Rule Maker to create a new tag, Einheriar, spending almost all of his achievement points. He felt reality fall apart and restitch itself, following his instructions. Everything went dark. For a dreadful moment, that seemed to last forever, nothing could be heard, seen, or felt. Suddenly, the lights went on, and they were no longer inside the Roost. Music surrounded them, along with laughter and revelry. The smell of well-cooked meat saturated the air.

They were inside a mess hall, surrounded by burly men and women taking part in a feast. A gigantic bearded man presided over the banquet, a giant harp at his side.

"Welcome, friends. I am Oghm the bard, and I am here to sing your legend."

"Welcome to Valhalla."