Chapter Four Hundred And Sixty One – 461
"Here, lad. Climb up," the Knight said, making space on the boat. "We must be away and in the Redoubt before the sun sets, but first we gotta finish our patrol."
Felix eyed the boat skeptically, worrying at his own weight for a bit. Pit, ever the enthusiast, leaped aboard immediately with his ungainly puppy legs. The mage laughed as the boat rocked side to side. "Maybe not as wildly as your friend, though."
Adamant Discord sang within him, pulling ever so slightly upward on his connection to the air above. It wasn't a strong connection, nothing so great as to generate the strange magical friction that resulted in brilliant azure lightning, but enough that Felix felt his weight shift. He took a cautious step forward, it felt as if he were tensing every muscle in his body at once while also feeling a little floaty. Felix reached out and grasped the gunwale of the shallow boat before taking a leap of faith...and a literal leap, right into the center. He landed with a light tapping, and only a minor splash as the shallow-drafted craft slapped into the water.
"Careful, boy," warned the Knight. Felix held up his hands in mute apology.
"Are...what is up with your hands?" the mage behind him asked.
Your scales and claws! Pit sent alongside a thrill of alarm.
Acting swiftly, Felix Willed his Garment to fashion black leather gloves, slightly scaled for texture. His Mana dipped, but the formation was near-instant and hopefully hidden by his body. Felix turned and held out his hands to the mage, as if proud to show them off. "Oh, these? Killed some big sand lizard out in the wastes. Broke my butcher blade skinning it, but made some good gloves out of it."
Deception is level 35!
The mage scratched his head, revealing slightly pointed ears beneath his hood. "Huh. That's some fine stitchin'. My nan did some good seamstress work, years back, though I never got a proper handle on it."
"It's a good Skill to have," Felix said with a smile. "I'm Silas. Never got your name."
"Mage Venali. He's Knight Tandagh."
"Quiet, the both of you," Tandagh warned from the front. His spear was still resting on that elevated prong, but now he angled it toward the water as they pushed forward. "Things are stirring."
Felix and Pit both peered over the sides of the boat, eyes focusing on the murky depths. He could make out tons of debris, uprooted trees and unsettled soil for the most part, but smaller, brighter shapes flitted among them. Fish of varying size and shape, but nothing to be worried about yet.
Mmm, fish. Pit licked his doggy jowls. I'm hungry.
Felix rolled his eyes. You're always hungry. I see you've picked your [Chosen Form] then?
A measure of joy trickled along their bond as Pit sat his small rear end in between the seats and panted. Yes! I like this one.
Felix smiled. Me too.
The barding his Companion wore, now fully Masked by his [Chosen Form], gave him a couple of benefits aside from simple protection. The first was that the barding would change size with him, so that Pit need not ever worry about outgrowing his armor. The second was due to its construction within the Smithy in Nagast, beneath the boughs of the Spirit Tree, which granted increased protection from a foe's Spiritual pressure. The last was altogether more arcane and strange: the Mask of Echoes IV.
Name: Abjuration Barding
Type: Armor (Enchanted)
Tier: Master
Lore: A set of heavy armor designed exclusively for Pit, Companion of Felix Nevarre. Scales of exotic metal form a powerful barrier against harm, and the sleek design hugs tight to Pit's chimeric body, covering his legs, neck, back and chest. An attached helm completes the set, and all of it is a unique red-gold coloration thanks to the bond between Companions. An enchanted gem has been placed just below the gorget of the barding, a Stone of Alloyed Refrain, and it confers several bonuses. The armor has gained the ability to alter in size to fit its wearer, as well as masking the physical form of the one to which it is bonded. The armor must be bound by blood to a single user.
Chosen Form: Unknown
Mask of Echoes IV - Once bound by blood, the Stone will allow the wearer to appear as a [Chosen Form].
Chanter's Intent I - The Harmonic Song of a Chanter was used to enchant this item, and it bears their Intent. +10% Effectiveness of Mask of Echoes.
Chanter's Inversion I - Addition of Dissonance to invert the item's properties, hiding them.
Spirit Smithed I - A Unique enhancement, bestowed by a Forge that has been directly influenced by an Elder Spirit Tree. Increased resistance to Spiritual pressure given by those of greater Temper.
Like the enchanted Stone that had first granted Pit a Dire Hound form, this had a similar function. The main difference was that Pit could have chosen anything to mask his physical form...and had decided on a puppy. Felix found it hard to be mad about, though, as Pit shoved his hound head beneath Felix's dangling hand.
"You're a tall one, ain'tcha?" Venali said from behind. "Don't see many folks wandering the Hills or the Expanse...specially not now that a Night-cursed sea has come up outta nowhere. You're only Journeyman though, huh? Pretty low to face the undead alone."
Sitting next to Pit, Felix settled his thick sandy-brown cloak around himself. "It wasn't so hard as all that. Big rule is to stay active during night and hidden at day. You might have to deal with the occasional creature at night, but during the day is when the Cursewinds start to blow...or it was, anyway. Things changed out there...here too, I noticed," Felix said, gesturing to the water and broken fortification they were leaving behind. Their path looked to be an arcing circle around the ruined perimeter of Bogfeld, but for now it was through mostly thick, tree-clogged waters. "What happened here?"
"A wave as big as the sky dropped on us," the Knight grunted. "Crashed through the Pass and ripped apart the fort there before flooding the whole damn Province."
"A trap," Tandagh growled.
The woman, never once ceasing her screams that still reverberated against Felix's Affinity with true terror, rose up out of the water. Her dress flopped to her sides, the murky liquid no longer hiding the way it spread and flapped like fleshy gills. A thick, pulpy tentacle filled the bottom of the "dress", lifting the thing up higher as the waters swirled and exploded upward. A dozen more tentacles ripped through the air, each one angled at their small boat.
Cardinal Flame!
Red-gold fire hit the creature and skipped off, the limning fading after less than a heartbeat, though the burning nature of the spell did send a few tentacles recoiling. Thankfully, Tandagh snatched up his spear and inscribed a wide circle before their boat at the same time.
"Aegis of Iron!" The remaining tentacles smashed into the circle, which instantly transmuted the air into a massive plane of dark metal. Sigils glowed upon the edge of the huge disc, but each one burnt out with every strike against it. "Venali!"
"Y-yes! Bottomless Quagmire!"
Newly restored Mana thundered from Venali's channels, fully half of it pouring into the spellform that sank around the rising mass of tentacles. The water went from translucent haze to a thick, impenetrable morass that clung to the beast like sticky mud. Immediately, the creature's attacks faltered as its efforts turned toward escaping the strange spell.
Voracious Eye!
Name: Bog-Lure
Type: Beast
Level: 55
HP: 9984/9984
SP: 3388/4327
MP: 92/233
Lore: A Bog-Lure is an uncommon threat in the Ghreldan Hills, and normally only seen in the deepest areas where they are known to grow to immense size. Utilizing a magical form of mimicry, the Bog-Lure grows an appendage to appear as a mortal Race and emits an intermittent scream in order to lure its prey into its clutches. They do not move fast, so avoiding them is easy so long as you do not enter within range of their strong tentacles. If caught, prey is pulled into the water to be devoured by the jaws just below the surface.
Strength: More Data Required
Weakness: More Data Required
"Nasty," Felix muttered. Judging by the flickering of Mana he could see, Venali's Bottomless Quagmire was fading fast, and Felix doubted the Knight could maintain his odd shield for long. Don't attack, Pit. We're not trying to give away all our secrets right now.
Ugh. Fine.
The smart thing to do was to pilot the boat out of the copse and just never enter it again...but that was a temporary solution. What if the thing kept growing? Would it eventually threaten the town? Felix could kill it in any number of ways, most of which were very flashy and counter to his purpose. So he settled on simple and hidden, instead.
Stone Shaping!
Rime Shaping!
With the others preoccupied, it was easy for Felix to shove his left palm into the water to obscure the torrent of Mana that poured from his channels. It speared downward, sinking into the earth more than thirty feet below them, until all the ground around was seized by Felix's Will. The water froze into spikes of jagged ice, each stabbing through the central stalk of the Bog-Lure, while the stone and soil itself began to pull inexorably downward. In seconds the lure itself disappeared beneath the waves, pulled deeper and deeper as Felix reshaped the very earth beneath it. And then, with a final flex of his Will, it was gone and the stone solidified.
You Have Killed A Bog-Lure!
XP Earned!
"Damn good job, son," Tandagh said, slapping Venali on the back. The mage only stared at his hands, as if disbelieving what had happened.
"I'm impressed," Felix admitted, and it wasn't even a lie. Both the Knight and mage had acted fast and with level heads during the unexpected attack. "Now I know why you were chosen for patrol duty."
"Ah no, it's just because I can pilot the boat," Venali admitted. "But I have been practicing against the beasts...thought I've never seen one of them before. A Bog-Lure, was it?"
"Aye. I've seen them, but not anywhere near a settlement though." Tandagh lifted his visor and spat into the water, as if clearing his mouth of something nasty. Felix was mildly surprised to see he had the purple-green skin and short tusks of an Orc. "We need to report this to the Knight Commander. Bog-Lures aren't anything to take lightly." The Knight looked to Felix, suspicion and curiosity playing across his Spirit. "Mr. Veil. If you wouldn't mind. I think my mage is spent."
"Not a problem," Felix said, careful to breath heavily, as if he too had just exerted himself. "Glad to put my back to this grove, that's for sure."
Tandagh grunted, and Felix guided them out of the trees and back toward the Redoubt.
