A New Dawn 47 Three-Legs

In a small cavern near the destroyed camp of goblin that Meridiana and Davion explored, a few humans could be seen moving some rocks. Behind the natural cover, some weapons and well-made leather pieces of equipment. The group of humans was already burdened by some huge backpacks and one could easily see some salted meat and other conservable food. There were also a few boxes filled with spices and diverse seasonings. The group of ten or so humans quickly did their task and began to walk toward the exit when a noise resonated nearby. They immediately extinguished their torches and tried to make a little noise as possible.

Tump tump tuMP TUMP

The loud sounds were getting closer and closer, but while it was disturbing the unknown group, they were still relatively calm. When the noise was barely ten meters away, they all began to press themselves on the wall. In the obscurity, nothing was seen and they stayed in that position until the loud steps were not heard anymore. Finally breathing again, the group still stayed at the same location an additional minute. The monster was currently between them and the exit, but they will have a hard time walking with such a heavy weight on their backs without making any noises. Because of this, instead of 2 hours, they took nearly 3 to exit the dark caverns.

When they finally saw the dim light of the sun that was barely visible, they still expressed their joy. One began to get a book from inside his bag and wrote what just happened and which terrible creature they met. Raising his head toward a human with ears that were strangely long, he asked him about it.

"It was Three-Legs, right?" They were the group tasked to regularly met with the trolls and while it was an extremely dangerous task, they had a relatively few casualties rate. Most of his companions followed him for more than a few years already and they were all extremely knowledgeable about current wildlife. Even the caverns under the mountains that were a deadly trap for everyone was just the perfect place to hide their stuff. The monster they met was one they regularly met, hence the fact that he earned a nickname.

"Yes, only him is so loud and is as blind like us. But it's still weird that he was roaming near the exit, most of the time, we should just hear him for afar. Well, there are a lot of strange things going on lately. The kingdoms are preparing for a war or something, but not the usual. I think we …" The man with strange ears received a slap on his head, ending his incoming monologue. The leader looked at him with disappointed eyes. He just asked about the monsters, why the h.e.l.l was he talking politics like that?

"I didn't talk about anything else but those monsters, so keep your thoughts for yourself. If we need to know something, we will be warned. Do you really think that something could be kept secret from them? Yes?" He pressured the half-elf that lowered his head and stopped talking. Looking at him one more time, he continued his questions. "Any traces of something else? Goblins? One-Eye? Twin-Heads? The Thing?" Each new name only provoked negative gestures and comments. Besides the goblins, each of the surnames given to those monsters was written with the blood of his former comrades. The leader still resumed everything one last time while writing on his small book.

"So, Three-Legs was met today, the usual tactic worked, unexpected behavior, no other monsters, everyone is good with that?" The rest of the crew expressed their agreement and they checked one last time whether or not they had everything for the hard weeks they will have. Unlike the rest of the clothes that could regularly be seen in the city of Archet, all those men wore lighter and warmer armor than usual, forsaking metal and toughness for more agility. Even if each of them could easily be rank in the top of the board of the adventurers in that region, they knew that fighting was suicidal in that barren region. Like in the cavern, even ten versus one monster, they knew that they won't be able to kill it.

Right before they left, however, they saw two silhouettes getting closer extremely fast. Drawing their weapons, they stare at the incoming threat and were ready for anything. No one besides madmen, soldiers and themselves should be around here, hence their hostility. When they finally saw that it was two being completely armored and visibly threatening, they were even more alert. But to their surprise, that group of two didn't slow down and rushed inside the cavern they just left, without even sparing a glance at them. Not knowing what to think about that, the leader gathered his men and they started their walk toward the mountains. But like everyone, he repeatedly threw a glance behind him, to see what those two fools were doing.

As for Davion and Meridiana, the moment they saw those well-trained humans, they knew who they were. Nothing on them was black or white, but from the timing and their equipment specially crafted for a high alt.i.tude, they were certainly the group of humans the trolls talked about. Right after entering the cave, the succubus transmitted the information to Malakov. They needed to know if that group returned to the Republic or kept going and reached the Ma.s.salia Kingdom. As for extracting information from them, while the succubus was the best of them, Malakov could still grab it directly from their souls. It will be their choices that will determine if they lived or died.

They dwindled a bit in the outskirts of the cave, trying to mentally form a map of it. Some tunnels were clearly natural, but some crossroads were weirdly shaped, meaning that something or someone dug them. They already had that idea when they first entered it, because they never encountered a problem, like a tunnel getting too small for Davion. It was always possible for the two to walk side by side and only near the goblins den did the pa.s.sages were slightly smaller. When they finally arrived at the last location they saw that shiny eye, they still had not met anything alive.

"So, what are your plan now? Split up and hope that one of us find something? Because otherwise, we still have no idea how big the underground network is." The cold tone that p.r.o.nounced those sentences was clearly transmitting the immense disdain about that plan. Frowning a bit, the succubus had to admit that it was true, they still were ignorant about a lot of things. Regretting a bit to have let the humans go without questioning them, she firmly proposed her only solution.

"Simple, we go in a straight line, always deeper. You can't tell me that we won't find anything at the end. Even if it is only a trace, it is impossible to not find anything. So let's go toward … THI … no, that one. It looks better." Even if they were supposedly very strong, she still didn't activate any light or spell that could make her visible. They were proud but not overestimating themselves or belittling monsters that prevented generations of humans to enter the mountains, from above or under it

Fortunately, it only took a few minutes before they heard some loud stomping. As they got closer, they saw what was making such a loud sound. The monster was nearly the same size as Ymir if he had his back straight but he was walking nearly crouched. His back was filled with numerous spikes and Davion could still notice some scales on its skin. His two strong legs that were the size of Meridiana were the sole responsible for the ongoing racket. The sole peculiar detail from that point of view was the scaly tail hanging near the ground. From where they stood, they could see that, while it looked like one from a crocodile, the end was torn apart, probably eaten because of the deep marks on it.

THUMP THUMP …

The group followed the monster for a good minute, but the latter was totally oblivious to that track. As he walked, he never hesitated at a crossroad and never stumbled on any rocks on the ground. Well, sometimes he did, but it was not the creature that was harmed, but the rock that was smashed into oblivion. Only when the orodil got fifty meters away from it, did the reptile made a move.

… THUMP THUMP

He stopped walking and they could see him turn his head left and right like it was trying to hear something. Verifying that theory, the orodil made another step, provoking a bigger reaction from the creature. It slowly turned around, allowing the two adventurers to see it fully. What looked like an armored crocodile from the back turned out to have a snake head that was extending in direction of Davion. The neck was getting longer and longer and soon, at the head was at least three meters away from the main body.

However, even with that distance, the monster couldn't clearly see Davion and was waiting for a new sound. Moving more silently than anyone could guess with such heavy armor, the orodil got incredibly close to the hanging head. 15 meters, 10 meters, 5 meters. Only when he was that close did the noise made by his armor was too loud, making the head open his mouth and try to attack him. What the monster received was not a frail prey, but the entire length of the sword.

Piercing the scaly skin from the bottom of the maw and traversing the brain, the dark sword effortlessly did its job. The strength of Davion and the excellent quality of his weapon was clearly above the strange monster. Its eyes were still showing its intention of attacking and it probably never understood how it died. Retracting his sword from the head, Davion saw Meridiana getting closer while shaking her head.

"Well, that was expected, but still a let-down. Just a single swing from you and it miserably died. It's a wonder how a big blind snake managed to not die after all those years, but if it's the apex predator, it will be easier than we thought." She kicked the corpse and projected it to a nearby wall. Looking at the result, the skin was intact while the wall had a new crater on it.

"I guess that's the reason. That would probably interest Agnil and Malakov, so what should we do now? We grab the entire corpse and throw it inside the Adventurer Guild or we just grab the head and keep the rest of the body for ourselves?"

Pondering a bit, the succubus had no idea. The first solution was clearly cooler and more impressive, dumping such a ma.s.sive body in front of everyone. But then, they will probably not be able to get a lot of things from it and the guild will take its share. The other solution would still be shocking, but less heroic. It was just a head, a big head, yes, but not really showing how impressive the original monster was. But if they didn't choose that one, the dwarf will nag them for the next decades.

"Do we really have a choice with those souls? I just hope that Lucio will awaken soon, that way, I am certain that this would be turned into an amazing dish. Cut the head and we just have to … ARGH … why all our spatial storages were destroyed? Let's bury the body near the exit."

Because he already had the same conclusion, Davion quickly cut the head and launched it at Meridiana. He then grabbed the ma.s.sive body and they left the underground. When they arrived outside, they saw the light coming from the two moons illuminating the surroundings. Not wasting any more time, the two dig a hole big enough to hide the body and concealed it under an illusion spell. Not as efficient as the one around their base, but good enough for the short time where it will be without surveillance. Carrying the head still stuck in its a.s.sault, the two waited for dawn before entering the city. What was the point of doing something incredible if no one was awake to see it?