Chapter 119: Monsters against Monsters
The ground continued to shake, and the beast continued to roar. I still hadn’t seen what it looked like, but I was sure it was at the very least, massive.
(“ Do you want to defend this settlement? ”)
I know you are still playing the devil on my shoulder bit to make me give up, but can you stop for five minutes?
Espoiramissa was still going strong with its whole trying to make me feel guilty and/or get me weak enough to give up. I understood Espr didn’t want me doing this for various reasons, but it had been pushing the objective hard, which likely meant it was a lot more desperate than it wanted to let on.
I sarcastically added, Or would it be an angel on my shoulder since you are asking me to save lives? Wow, Espr! I didn’t know you were such a nice being!
Espr was smart; they knew a lot of things, way more than I might ever comprehend in my entire lifetime, but from my time being attached to the hip with them, they did lack in the social manipulation set of skills. This made sense; they were a bloody planet, but when it came to handling information, Espr’s main approach was simply not answering. And now its intention was clearly written in their words; it was kind of funny in a way.
“I know you said ‘don’t worry’, but I’m going to take a look,” I said to Lu.
Lu replied, “You need not worry. We are safe.”
"Oh, I have no doubt about that. I am just curious how big this thing is.”
Lu crossed her arms and confidently answered, “The biggest.”
“I don’t know about that.” I scratched the chin of my helmet. “I’ve seen some pretty gigantic creatures.”
Lu looked towards me, her eyes sparkling. “Really? What did they look?”
“Depends, the gigantic creatures I’ve fought tended to not be similar to each other.”
“How many have seen?”
“Too many considering the short length of time it has been.”
“Can you explain what they looked like?”
“Sure, we can do that as we walk.” I led the way towards the wall, and Lu jumped after me.
“Start with the biggest one! Please!” Lu begged.
“Sure, well, I guess it looked kind of like a whale, but it had a lot of different features.”
Before I continued, Lu interrupted, “What’s a whale?”
This might be more difficult than I thought.
I began doing my best to explain the large fish projection thing I met momentarily on my journey. I didn’t explain its size as I couldn’t–that would require explaining moons and spaceships to a creature whose world doesn’t even have a proper sun.
Lu asked, “Are you sure you aren’t making this up?”
“I wish I was…” I sighed. My memories of that encounter were still far from pleasant.
While we walked through the city, there was an old calmness in the air. The adults who weren’t the warriors were continuing their regular activities. There were a few children who were using the shakes for a jumping game. Of course, some of the much younger ones were scared by the noises and roars and were being comforted by the older generation.
Eventually, we made it to the wall, and as I was about to jump up to the top of it.
Lu said, “I’m not allowed on the wall.”
“I say my observation aloud then, but do you know how big the Kelrara is?”
“Yes! I snuck up on the wall!”
“I understand why you are banned.”
Immediately I jumped up onto the wall to get a view of the situation.
“Huh, big, but that is not that big.”
Its body was about the height of the wall, but it had only climbed halfway up.
Well, it does look crocodile-y.
There was some similarity between this creature and the Mbones I had faced. The clearest similarity was the face, as this creature basically had a scaled-up version of what the little guys had. The differences came in the rest of the body, where the MBones had a mix of reptilian features and undead bones, this creature was just bones.
It basically looked like a gigantic skeleton crocodile. The most interesting feature was the golden sand, which spewed from the tiny holes in its bones.
Its skull rattled, and a massive wave of wind pressure blew up the wall.
“I see why they wouldn’t want you up here.” I chose not to intervene as I saw no reason to; the people here seemed to be confident for a reason.
Along the wall, many guards were stationed with large spears designed either to be thrown or to poke the creature. Their bodies glowed bright with mana as, in a wave, the group launched their large spears at the creature.
They must have some kind of Skills or Vocation, but how?
The spears dug into the bones of the large monster, and waves of sand exploded from the holes. The creature slowed for a moment before continuing to climb.
Then I watched as Al-Roo stepped forward with a large spear made out of a tree trunk.
“Here he comes!” I heard a familiar voice right from below my feet.
I asked, without looking down, “I thought you weren’t up on the wall.”
“I am not up! I am merely hanging onto it.”
Lu was dangling from the city side of the wall, but she sure was an enthusiastic one.
Al-Roo stepped forward, and a violent storm of mana exploded from his body and surrounded him. He leapt backwards into the city, took a few steps back, and sprinted towards the wall. Then, with a mighty leap, he jumped high into the air, soaring high above the wall.
The energy initiated into a dark red, and with all his might, he launched the spear downwards.
Hurling forward, the spear pierced through the beast’s skull, causing more sand to be launched out.
The beast fell backwards off the wall, and its body faded into the sand, where it completely disappeared.
Al-Roo landed back on the wall, and the rest of the guards congratulated him.
I looked at where the beast vanished, and it was nowhere to be seen. They said it came often, but was it like the smaller undead monster where every version of it looked the exact same? I couldn’t be sure; the only way to find out was to wait for its next appearance.
“Al-Roo is certainly a strong one.” His output was mighty—not as crazy as my stronger stable attacks—but he was also only using a tree carved into a pointy stick as a weapon.
“Yes!” Lu said it with praise deep within her eyes. “He is a member of the Kelroo tribe.”
“You people have tribes here, what are you part of then?” Time to collect some more lore information.
“No. We are family here, but the Kelroo tribe are a small tribe of Nelatta who travel the lands day and night. They are exceptions.”
“Oh?” Now that was interesting. “Then why is Al-Roo here?”
“One powerful member of the Kelroo tribe guards the city; when that member reaches their limit, they return to their people, and a few years later, a new member joins the city. That’s what Cole-Ra-Cu told me the process was. Al-Roo has been the only member I have seen.”
“Does the tribe not visit the meraimaka at all?”
“No. They are far away and constantly on the move. Al-Roo doesn’t like being around company for too long, so imagine a tribe of that. They wouldn’t like being in the meraimaka.”
“I will take your word on that.”
Such a strange world…
This dungeon was certainly different from all other dungeons I had entered, and it felt different from Espoiramissa as well.
Espr, why is this world so different?
(“ It's a strange new place, you should have expected things to be different from what you knew ”)
(“ Don’t be, there are far stranger domains on this side of existence ”)
But there is something extra odd about this one, isn’t there?
(“ You are simply making up connection because you don’t know how these worlds work ”)
That I don’t, so are you going to tell me?
I will take your silence for a yes.
(“ Your insolence is growing ”)
Insolence? Please, don’t kid yourself.
I leaned down, picked Lu up, and carried her.
“Wow, you're strong.”
Lu asked, “So, how much bigger is the whale creature of yours, hmmmm?”
“At least a thousand times bigger.” I gave her a lowball.
“Impossible, that would be larger than the meraimaka.”
“Exactly, terrifying bastard.”
“...Are you sure you aren’t lying?" She shook in fear within my arms, but her eyes gave away the feelings of excitement she had.
“I am; trust me, I wish I was lying.”
While we were having our chat, the sand stirred and roots snapped as two more Kelrara burst from the ground. Identical in size and appearance.
“Do multiple of them usually appear?”
“No… not in waves. Usually, only one batch of Kelrara will appear, whether that is one or three. New ones don’t arrive until the next week has passed.”
“I see…” I looked down at the creatures and said, “I should test how durable they are.”