[Exile duration: 00D:20H:49M:23S]
[Exile duration: 00D:20H:49M:22S]
[Exile duration: 00D:20H:49M:21...
Arken groaned in pain and boredom combined as he sat on the throne, his legs resting atop the former 'king' Hoza's back as he sweated like a pig.
"I'm so so sorry, please, don't make me—owh!"
"Didn't say you could speak, mongrel," Arken quipped and leaned back.
The people had given the boy a fine beating and were ready to kill him when Arken stopped them. He needed answers and a corpse wouldn't help him.
Rutma was pacing around while Vizer stood nearby covering up the now confident maids who were looking at Arken a bit too closely.
"I'm not your savior dickheads! Go do your thing!"
"So the staff doesn't affect you?" Rutma stopped and asked one of the many curiosities he had of the newcomer.
Arken played with the staff and the boy's head using his legs, "not really no. I did want to test out how much it did but apparently it doesn't do shit to me. Let alone stop a killing intent," he tilted his head down to catch Hoza's gaze who shivered.
"Then why get beat up?" Vizer asked as he retrieved a tray from a passing girl who hurried away all red.
Arken shrugged, "call it my penance if you will. I needed a bit of that colorful judgment to be sure of it's lack of affect."
Vizer bent down to reveal a tray of fruits and offered it to Hoza who eyed it and began to reach for it with one hand while on all fours when Arken casually kicked his face and yawned.
Vizer stood straight and decided the boy wasn't hungry.
"Son have some fruit," Arken rejected it as he thought to himself.
"I need to go back, I have...stuff to do," he sighed and stared up, "jeez so much stuff to do and I'm stuck here of all places."
"Rutma tell me more about that thing up there."
Rutma's eyes popped in delight as he crunched on what seemed like an apple, "what, the devourer? Well sure."
"It's a wandering creature. It eats almost anything and it seems to get a kick out of hunting us."
A snicker from Hoza came, "maybe we just taste better," which earned another disrespectful kick from Arken.
"Seriously how did you people let yourselves be lorded over by this lilliput of a thing."
"Blame the staff," Vizer came close offering the fast emptying tray to Hoza and not even bothering to give him one before reaching to Arken, "son have some fruit."
Arken waved his hand off, "tell me more then. Oh yeah, the mana. How's it here?"
Rutma pondered, "from what I weirdly know and recollect, wait let him tell you. Hey," his face instantly changed to one of anger as he spoke to Hoza, "speak you fool."
"I...can I sit? Please."
Arken pushed him away with his leg and Hoza scrambled all flushed and flustered as he sat on the floor. When Vizer came again with the tray lowered for him he did try to reach but the man simply walked away, making him whine.
"It's always been here. This place," Hoza's eyes reached above and around, "the mana in the air, too less to use fully. I remember there used to be people who could make miracles happen."
"You're talking of mages," Arken realized.
"Is that what they're called?" Rutma sat near.
So this is like a world within a world.
A part of the story which was discarded.
He looked at all of them who were meeting his gaze with curiosity.
And discarded characters.
"Son, have some fruit."
"Dammit old man, quit it already will you?" Arken hissed and the unbothered man popped a little berry for himself.
A sudden inspiration cloaked Arken's mind, "say Rutma care to show me how you popped the air?"
☆
If Arken needed the archetype of an excited child showing his toys to elders, he would easily point to Rutma.
The way the man strutted about in that upper portion of the cavern where they had passed through, which he made a worspace of sorts.
Rutma first showed what seemed to be a roughly made container, the size of a small ball and enclosed in it a type of gaseous substance. Pale bluish in color.
"Is that mana?"
"Yes, in its raw form. I spend most of my time capturing it from the surface."
"It's a marvel," Vizer said now accompanying them in the tour, "that you have stayed alive as long as you have doing this."
Rutma scrunched his nose, "well I had to make myself useful right? What do I know about food, managing people like you do? I can't cook except for materials to merge and fall apart."
Arken found it all fascinating. Here was this man alone, tinkering away with something like mana with almost no resources.
He had used sand, hardened paperish sheets, coiled fibres from some plant no doubt being grown by the civilized people down under to carefully build these blocks, balls and containers of raw mana.
"Congratulations Rutma," Arken said with a glint, "you have just made something close to a crude explosive, probably the first of its kind in this world."
"I have?" Rutma questioned but didn't hide his face from beaming with pride as he raised his spectacles up the bridge of his nose.
Wait a damn minute!
If the author's interference is not here, does my magic work here?
[Your magic is indeed uninterrupted here. But as you failed to learn anything applicable there's no point]
"And why would I even bother to you dumbfuck?! Knowing I can't even use it. If only you had told me then," he caught himself from humiliating himself further in front of them.
Well no point crying now.
"Rutma what's the most powerful you have made here?"
"Well I certainly tried but it's just so unstable in this form, I dare not compact more lest it," Rutma made a 'blowing-up' sound, "burst in my face."
"Come here, see this," he picked up a bigger ball, filled with a more denser mana, "this is tightly held by the strings around it, the minute I let go of it, it'll blow."
"It blows up in contact with air?" Vizer asked and Rutma nodded.
"It's the pressure. Compacting it into such a tensed space after having been used to be free in the air, it's reaction to being let out of that is the trigger for its explosion."
Arken twisted the ball, little ideas forming in his head, "so if a person were to throw this one, they simply put themselves in harm's way is it?"
"Of course, that's why I haven't even tried anything. Frankly I'm at a loss for it."
Arken studied his face then saw Vizer who was peering into a wooden tube, "how many did that bozo kill?"
Vizer's eyebrows raised up, "bozo?! Oh you mean Hoza?"
Both Rutma and Vizer immediately adopted this grim tone.
"We didn't count but it's in the scale that we stopped counting after a point."
"Then we have a unique opportunity before us." Hearing Arken's words both men looked at each other puzzled.
☆
Hoza was led forward, his wrists covered with vines as a way to restrain him as his haughty demeanor seemed to vanish more and more.
Being marched up to the surface by few chosen males, while Arken, Vizer and Rutma followed with his contraptions and what Arken had begun to refer as 'explosives'.
"What's going to happen to me? Where are you taking me?!"
Arken chuckled as they came out of the underground and the sun hit them all equally.
"Don't be so desperate kid, you'll get to enjoy soon enough. Rutma, please go ahead."
Rutma came in front of Hoza who was trembling a little but when he was merely handed a hardened sand ball he looked at it perplexed.
"Hold it properly, don't sneeze, don't blink your eyes away from it. Just keep it in your hands without dropping it, ok?"
Hoza nodded meekly, "but what's it for?"
Rutma pointed to Arken who had a similar one albeit smaller than the one in Hoza's hands. "Watch."
Arken made a great show of twisting his arms around and flung the ball high in the air after pulling the strings attached to it.
It flew up and up. Then—
BANG!
The sudden noise startled everyone and a bright yellow flame was flung around before disappearing into thick black smoke, almost fifteen meters wide in the air, blowing hot air from the blast down to its spectators.
When the dust settled, Hoza found Arken, Rutma and Vizer looking at him.
"That was small. The one in your hand, oh boy," Rutma grinned, "I don't even wanna think about the scale."
Hoza looked down horrified and screamed, "no!! Take it off! Take it off! You, you evil bastard!"
The ground suddenly began to shake and shift. Immediately Arken and Rutma knew what it was.
The devourer was back.
GRAAHHH
It seemed displeased at the sudden ruckus in its abode and they all shuddered collectively at it's large looming shadow from a distance away as it blocked the sun in its path.
"Run! Run!"
The others has already scuttled back into the rocky surfaces just as the creature snapped and spit out rock, then turning to the ones who were late.
It's expansive, grinding jaw rotated clockwise in a terrifying noise as it picked off three men, losing one midway while devouring the remaining into it's depths.
It raised its neck as if to swallow and roared again.
"How the hell are we supposed to fight that thing?" Arken shouted as they fell to the ground in unison.
Rutma looked pale. Paler than usual, unlike last time. "It's a different one. I think it's the mother."
As if confirming it trained its eyes on them.
"These things have genders now?!"
☆
"Huff! Huff! Stay with me!"
Having blocked their way to the caverns, Rutma led them all, Vizer in the middle of them who carried Hoza in his arms, the sandball now tied to his hands to prevent it from falling.
"Do you have a plan or are we supposed to keep running?"
Vizer's question irked Rutma, "oh you do? I'm not the advisory brain here! Why don't you work your head now?"
"Hey duck and roll away!" Arken screamed and fell to his side.
THUMP! SLAM!
FIZSSSS!
Sand outpoured in huge arcs as the creature rammed its tail to squash them, missing by a wide margin.
They all ran parallel to each other, one eye behind, one eye in front.
"There! Follow!" Rutma roared and limped faster, before Arken helped him too towards another rock formations.
"Seriously did any of your ancestors kill it's baby or something?"
"Mommmy!!!!! Wahaahhh! Hellppppp...aagg."
"Shut it you! Or I'll simply throw you down and be done with you!" Vizer snapped and hurried forward.
Now that he thought about it, Arken could make out significant differences between the bookworm now and before.
This one was bigger and more ruthless but painfully slow. Whereas the one before was almost playful and wild but less lethal. And pf course smaller in size.
They had barely taken cover behind the surfaces when it threw a wave of loose sand on them, making them blind.
"Ow, fuck me!"
Arken's eyes fell on Vizer who had collapsed on the ground and was struggling to get up, while also holding onto the whimpering boy king.
"Hey! Leave the jerk and come over! Hey!"
Rutma and Arken stared, the creature slowly turning to the old man on the ground.
"He's not listening is he?" Arken asked baffled.
"That old idiot still cares for that piece of shit somewhere," Rutma seethed and stood up before being brought down, "hey! Seriously leave him!"
Vizer could barely make out sounds over the roaring sands and wind the creature looming above him was making.
The fact was he was trying to get out but Hoza's bite into his arm was slowly killing him as he desperately tried to hold onto him.
"Pweaseeee....ayy...dwoonntt...wannwaa...dwiieee...!"
Vizier groaned in pain and tried to kick him away with his leg but Hoza had the death grip in his teeth.
"Weren't you a king a few moments ago?! Where the hell did all that go now?"
The boy merely whined and screamed as his eyes fell on the dark rotating and grinding machinic noises above them.
"Stop screaming lad!"
From a distance, Arken closed in not yet leaving the sanctuary of the rocks.
"Hey that thing you made, you said it's volatile right? To the boy, you said not to fiddle too much," he pointed there, "is that gonna blow?"
Rutma shook his head, "it is volatile but I exaggerated. Needed him to keep holding onto it right. Only when the strings come out will it unravel."
Rutma eyed the pair writhing on the ground and cursed, then suddenly he erupted, "what the hell are you doing?"
☆
'Ah this is the end for me,' Vizier thought as the presence came down on them slowly, toying death.
'Being bit by a rabid thing while a madness climbs down upon me from above, what do I even call this?'
Just when he thought it was all over he felt something warm like a hand over his head and opened.
It was Arken and he...had a shield around him.
[You have unlocked Plot armor!]
[Plot armor in effect]
Arken punched Hoza's jaw and freed Vizier, "go to Rutma. Let me deal with this."
Vizier nodded and stood weakly. His eyes not believing what he was seeing.
Sand whirled around them as the creature flew in rage at being obstructed.
Around them was a light yellowish forcefield which had hexagonal divisions distributed all through its sphere and ending at the ground.
Arken grabbed Hoza who was struggling to get away, "I'm gonna go away from you, when I do, if this asswipe above us follows sprint towards the rocks, ok?"
Vizier nodded thankfully, glad to not have a horrible death.
"Now!"
Arken lost his shield the moment he moved and the creature hissed from above.
Then began to follow Arken's path through the sands.
Arken punched and pinched Hoza repeatedly, "scream! Scream loud you fucker! Or I'll massacre you!"
Hoza's screams did the job of attracting the attention of the creature and Rutma ran out to grab Vizier who fell limp in his arms. A sudden wind blowing their hair and they turned to watch Arken.
"What's he doing?"
"Nothing good," Vizier spat sand.
At a safe distance from them Arken brought up the shield again and sat down, while Hoza scrambled to the side, staying within limits of the shield.
It made Arken smile, "so dependent even in death."
Hoza was shivering and in fear. But of whom he couldn't even decide. The monster with him in protection or the one outside that looked like a dark storm.
SLAM
BANG
Arken felt the shield shudder at the repeated attempts by the creature to penetrate. And no doubt it would unless he came up with something.
He gathered a bunch of sand and threw it out of the shield.
It passed through and blew away with the wind of the creatures hovering flight.
"Listen kid, you wanna live? Then do as I say," he got near to him and untied the ball he had been forced to hold for long and he sighed in relief.
"That thing is not gonna just go away, it's made that much apparent. Now, look at how it's trying to get in but can't..but we on the other hand can throw stuff out can we not? Hey?"
"Yes, yes," Arken saw the desperate plea in his eyes.
"Watch," Arken swiftly extended a leg outside of the shield and immediately made another shield. Despite the gap between the creature was just too fat to even try and get his leg between it.
"I'm gonna run across, while this shield is gonna stay up. You will undo the strings," he winced just when Hoza began to complain.
"No, no, no, take me with you, take –"
SLAP
"I will leave you to your death if you don't listen to me. You wanna get out of this, then do as I say."
Hoza wiped his tears and defeatedly nodded.
"Good, undo the strings and throw it up when it makes the next charge down, got it?"
He didn't wait to hear a reply as he jumped out, rolled over and over before turning to face him and put on a new shield.
But Hoza didn't pull the strings, just sat there in silence. Not moving. Like life had been sapped out of him.
He had lied about the shield but without the strings out was it going to work?
Hoza turned his face slowly in Arken's direction as the shield collapsed without it's owner and didn't build back up.
The creature gleamed in delight and flew down in full force, eager for it's much denied meal.
"Hey! You fool, pull the strings out and throw it up!"
Hoza just stared, emotionless.
FWOOOMMM!
CRASHGGH!
Dust and sandy mist burst out as the creature descended into the ground where Hoza was staying limp.
Was that his act of defiance? Denying me the sight of the experiment?
The worm burrowed deeper and deeper making Arken wonder if it was still searching for Hoza when it had long devoured in it's frenzy.
Then it finally disappeared and the sands cleared.
A few moments passed. A shout came from ahead. Rutma. Probably asking him how he was doing.
But it was engulfed by the suddenness of a terrfic blast that threw Arken backwards.
Sand erupted like a volcano from the same spot the worm had burrowed in and even lifted the ground a little as a huge explosion followed from deep underground, sending gory matter and what felt like metallic waste high up into the air.
KABOOOMM
KRAKOOOM
Yellow flames blew out followed by so much smoke, Arken had to run around, his hands covering his face as he coughed repeatedly.
Rutma and Vizier saw him stumble towards them from the massive smoking ground and ran to him in their own pace.
By the time they had reached him, he was casually leaning on one elbow on the ground, staring at the hole in the ground and the still burning, smoking embers of the explosion.
Rutma flopped next to him, his jaw open at his own creation. Then he turned to Arken.
"Yes?" To see Arken grin in response, Rutma shouted his victory louder, "Yes! Ahahaha! Yessss! Did you see that Vizier? Oh....my."