Kitsune of the Blue Sun

Chapter 171- A Painful Time in the Desert

[Mostima POV]

It’s been three weeks since we split from Keeno. In these three weeks we met with quite a few annoyances which pushed our timetable back quite a bit. After the first night and two days after that we didn’t meet any kind of trouble, but the next day we had to hunker down in the wagons because a storm blew in. That kept us in one spot for two days and left us finding ash in every crook and crevice, much to all of our combined frustration.

The day after that we ran into three giant scorpions herding a group of cacti and fighting everything else, including each other, that got too close.  It took most of the day to deal with them. After that we had four days of peace before a pit nearly opened up beneath us. We lost one horse to it.   It took us three more days to slowly tread a safe path around the hole.  Thankfully, the last two days had been peaceful once again, but most of us were cursing the God of Fate under our breaths.  Thanks to all of this, though, we’ll be arriving at our destination much later than we estimated, meaning Keeno is going to reach the city before we will.

We were all hoping today would be another peaceful day, but the way Huginn, Muninn, and the remaining horses were acting didn’t give us much confidence in that hope. It took three hours into moving for the day for us to u destined why they were acting strange.  Margaret, who was at the head of the group signaled all of us to stop.  This out all of us on edge. Not long after we stopped, we all felt it. The ground was slightly rumbling. Out in the distance we started seeing small plumes of ash with rapidly moving, fin-like protrusions coming in our direction.

They were still far enough into distance that we had time to get the wagons in a defensive formation. Just as the last one was moved into place, one of the monsters was upon us. It leapt out of the ash, its grey, piscine body sailing over us with ease. When it landed on the more compact ground, it floundered around for a second like a fish out of water before turning its flat, hammer-like head in our direction.  Before any of us could move, it let out a terrified sounding roar and jumped into the air and dove into the softer, shifting ash and ‘swam’ away, leaving all of us confused. Turning back in the direction it came, several more plumes similar to the last one were all moving toward us, chased by an even bigger one.

On top of the ash moving along at incredible speed was a monster wider than the other monsters coming right for us.  When they got closer, we could make out what the bigger monster looks like.  It was two times as wide as the monsters running from it and its mouth was big enough to swallow one of the wagons in one bite.  I noticed it had a strangely bright red organ in the very back of its mouth that seemed to be some kind of lure or something.  It had a giant protrusion on top of its mouth that looked a bit like a boulder and the mouth had two rows of pointed needle-like teeth that seemed to gleam like metal.  Soon, the monsters it was chasing started splitting around or jumping over us like the one from a moment ago.  We braced for the one chasing them, only for it to dive under the ash, avoiding us completely, and resurfacing behind us.

“What?” (Margaret)

As soon as the back of the giant creature rose above the ash, a shadow flew over all of us faster than a lot of things I’ve seen, and several human-sized golden scales pierced the ground and the creature’s back.  It let out pained screams that were quickly snuffed out by an earsplitting roar sounded above us.  In a flash of gold and brown and billowing ash a monster I hadn’t seen in hundreds of years stood atop the other creature.

It was lizard-like in appearance with long, muscular legs similar to those of birds ending in four talons the size of my arms.  Its winged arms studded with spikes with a talon halfway down the arm.  Its neck up to its head and the end of its tail were covered in scales that flared out like a pinecone.  Its beak-tipped head dove into the creature under its back and ripped out a massive chunk of flesh and scales and flung it away before stabbing back into the creature, ripping out the red organ I saw earlier.  Every time its head came up, the large, single horn on the end of the head dripped with sticky, crimson liquid.

“Ready yourselves, everyone, this thing is no joke.  Its scales are sharper than most swords and its speed is nothing to be trifled with.  I’ll try my best to keep it grounded, but I make no promises that it’ll be the entire time.” (Mostima)

“What is that thing?” (Margaret)

“A wyvern.  I thought they were extinct, but, clearly, they aren’t.” (Mostima)

Once the wyvern was satisfied with its meal, it turned to us and roared, the pinecone like scales on its neck, tail, and legs, shaking and flaring our slightly, glimmering brightly in the sunlight.  It spread its wings to try and take off, but, using my gravity stave, I held it down.  It struggled immensely and nearly broke through my magic with pure strength.  Several of the knights ran forward, their Soul Weapons manifested.  They swung with all their might, but even under the effects of my gravity, the wyvern swung its tail, shooting several gleaming golden scales at the knights.  Freya had sped herself up with her own magic and deflected as many of the scales as she could, though two of the knights still caught some with their bodies.  They were thrown back, severely injured but thankfully still alive.

The knights that Freya saved continued to attack the wyvern who was thrashing about, doing its best to free itself from my restraints, and beginning to succeed.  In an attempt to keep it from getting airborne when it did free itself, I used earth magic to create spikes from the ground to pierce its wings.  A few managed to do so, but most of them were broken by the wing or snapped with they hit the wing membrane.  I did manage to attract its attention with that action though.

It roared at me and lowered its horn in my direction and began pawing the ground.  It launched forward, piercing through one of the wagons and through several stone walls I made in front of it.  Thankfully the last wall managed to stop it, allowing more knights and Margaret herself to challenge the monster.  I created some footholds for them.  Their weapons managed to inflict several injuries on the wyvern’s neck and Margaret actually broke its horn.  Having enough of this, the wyvern swept around in a circle, shooting scales indiscriminately, hitting most of the knights back.  Margaret was thrown against the wagon Pram was hiding in.  Not missing its chance, it stepped over to one of the downed knights and began fileting him with its talons in a rhythmic, dance-like way.  Seeing that, Freya’s body became covered in blue flames, and she vanished from sight, next appearing above the wyvern with her swords raised.  She brought them down with all her strength, carving two long, burning gashes in its neck, causing the wyvern to stumble and fall over, flailing all the way.

Before the wyvern could recover, Huginn and Muninn flew out of Pram’s wagon and right at the wyvern.  Before anyone else could react, the two dove right into the monster’s eyes, piercing through the wyvern’s face like paper.  It shrieked loudly and flailed even more, destroying a second wagon before going limp.  We all took this time to recover, and Pram came out of her wagon, already moving to heal all the extremely injured knights.  Sadly, the knight the wyvern pinned was dead.  Margaret was limping heavily as she approached me and Freya, who were standing over the now dead wyvern trying to figure out a way to get Huginn and Muninn out.

“I’ve never seen or even heard of a monster like this.” (Margaret)

“They used to live in the mountains in this region of the world but were hunted down for their scales and meat a long time ago.  Then, when the Fiends appeared, we thought they were completely taken out or corrupted.  Apparently, they weren’t, though I wonder where they’ve been hiding till now.” (Mostima)

“Just another thing to investigate when we get to the city.” (Margaret)

“Um, guys.” (Freya)

At Freya’s confused words, we both turned to the wyvern corpse.  Out of the wounds Freya made on its neck, two large mounds were moving until two birds covered in viscera emerged.  We knew they were obviously Huginn and Muninn, but they had changed in the last few minutes.  They had yet again grown in size, both now reaching my stomach in height.  They had both sprouted a second pair of wings and their eyes now glowed with blue light.  They both turned their heads toward us and cawed in triumph when Keeno’s voice sounded in our heads.

‘Um…is there any reason I can see you guys right now…and what in the name of all that’s Divine happened?’ (Keeno)

“There’s a lot that happened, actually, but it’ll take a while to tell.” (Freya)

‘Well, I’m all ears.’ (Keeno)

Chaos Realm:

Luna: WHY DOES KEENO’S WORLD GET THE MONSTER HUNTER MONSTERS!!??  I WANNA FIGHT A SEREGIOS!!!

It’s just how things evolved…but I’ll pull some strings for you.

Luna: Yes!

Amaterasu: *appears carrying a deflated Phobos* Fix him. *Vanishes*

…

Luna: …

Phobos: I did nothing…why am I being blamed for something I had no hand in?  I was asked to stop making things easy, and this is the treatment I’m given?

Atmos: *Appears after sensing something fun* You get used to it.

Phobos: Can you teach me how to not feel anything?

Atmos: Hehehe.  Sure.

Luna: Postpone my Seregios fight, I need to make sure she doesn’t corrupt him.

Says the one that will potentially make things even worse.

Luna: …Come on Atmos, Phobos, let’s go somewhere we’ll be appreciated.

Atmos: Wooo!  Party!!!!!

Phobos: *Monotone*Yay.

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