Shard

  Due to their rough enter, Morris decided to help with their defehrough the night. Instead of having to keep watd everyone be ready to respond, their guards would only have to alert him. This allowed everyoo get much better sleep—something they were all grateful for.

  As the m began, Dawn and Niphru both teo Richard’s injury again, speeding along the healing of his broken bohough they still needed more time to fully restore them. Ohey were somewhat mentally tired from healing him, everyo together a off bap, keeping him in the middle of the group.

  To avoid the issues they had yesterday with the sudden enter with the bear, Niphru returo scouting ahead of the group, though this time he made sure to stantly send back status updates. In additioried to rely less on his illusions, as well as keep a better watch for anything potentially dangerous to himself.

  On the remaining trip bap, little of note was entered, fortunately for the wary, weary expedition. While the prior day had beeing, to say the least, they only ran across one more mutated creature. A small bird that had adapted sharp feathers was easily put down with a single well-pced bolt of fire. Beyond that enter, they had a rather b trip back, though no one pined.

  Upon their return, they found the group that had previously been sg off was actually paying proper attention this time. Before, they had mao almost reach the camp before being spotted, but this time, they only made it a short dista of the forest before the guards noticed and greeted them.

  As they ehe camp, they spoke with the people on guard and learhat very little had happened during their time away, just a handful of boar leaving the forest. Fortunately, this meant fresh meat for everyoo eat, which was a nice surprise.

  Their tale of the enter with the bear and wolves was quite well received, at least once Morris firmed it to be accurate. It did intimidate the others, however, as they were hoping for another easy and uful trip like the single-day ones before. Several hours after sharing their story, the roup that had headed into the forest arrived, everyone seeming to be intact this time.

  From their words, it appeared that they had only entered some herbivores, rather than ivores, thus leading to a much less exg adventure. That said, their enter with an angry moose sounded quite worrisome, though they had all made it through uninjured.

  Sihe other two groups would be going orips into the wilds, a discussion was held with the roup that had just returned. As before, Niphru’s group decided that they would take the night shift, allowing the roup to stay up during the day. Ohat was agreed upon, they quickly headed to bed to get ready to take over that night so the others could rest before heading out tomorrow.

  Much as the priroups had found, the days involved numerous boar exiting the forest and trying to head out into the pins. After the third group, it became clear that there was an abnormally high popution of them, and something was driving them out of the forest.

  After some discussion on the dawn of the sed day, it was decided that before leaving, there would be a hunt to try and thin out the signifit hat had to have built up, with the teachers joining in oermination efforts. Additionally, word would be sent to the nearby vilge that there may be a major threat in the area, and to be extra attentive in the woods.

  Since Morris had his panion Kel with him, it was his duty to hahe warning, and Kel was sent winging off into the distaoward the closest vilge. In theory, the message should arrive in only a few hours due to the speed a hawk could reach, and they should be back by the end of the day if nothi wrong.

  In the end, it appeared that nothi wrong, as Kel returned in the evening as everyone reparing for their watch, promptly perg atop a tent and falling asleep. Si appeared they were not armed about anything, Morris decided to let them rest as he spent the night recharging his mana stones for the trip back.

  Partway through their sleep ohird day, however, everyone was awoken by a loud explosion and shouting. Quickly rushing to prepare, it only took about a minute for everyoo make it up to the walls to join the group that had set off an arm. Sihere were already two groups there, it appeared one of them had already made it back from their exploration, but they were breathing heavily and covered in scrapes and minor cuts, showing they hadn’t had an easy return.

  The reason for the alert was quite obvious; dozens of trails of waving grass dispyed a huge number of approag targets, quickly identified as even more, by now, b, boar. While even half a dozen would have only needed one group to be easily dealt with, there had to be at least forty of the swine approag from the woods.

  In addition to the ones approag, there were also scattered corpses closer to the walls, though only about a dozen of them. Still, the total number was quite arming. As the rger swarm grew ever closer, the mages readied themselves, dozens of bolts of fme orbiting Dawn and Niphru, with a handful er spheres floating around Miana.

  The roups had rather less impressive preparations, mostly holding a single spell eabsp; There were quite a few clumps of dirt and nces of rock, however, which were likely to cripple or take down a target immediately in a si. Even the air magic was visible as most of the mages had allowed their vortices to pick up dirt and gravel to amplify the impact they would have.

  Meanwhile, the three teachers each stood at the ready, oo each wall, with both of Lisryn’s guardians standing at the ers, fag towards the enemy. Even as the first of the boar reached the killing zone, more emerged from the forest at a panicked sprint.

  Body after body colpsed to the ground, failing to even slow those behind them. The aftermath of the fme attacks spread from the boar they impacted to ighe grass, rapidly spreading in all dires as the beasts tinued onward with wild eyes, several smming head-first into the walls in their mad rush. Other boar mao either curve their charge around the wall or were already far enough to the side to be clear of the obstacle, but they were caught by attacks from the waiting teachers, their numbers dropping with incredible speed.

  Before long, the cause of their stampede revealed itself, trees swaying and even a few colpsing as they were impacted. It turned out there was an absolutely massive shat had been lurking within the forest. As the younger mages marveled at the size, nearly as tall as a house, it simply swallowed a nearby boar as it swiftly slithered towards the camp, following the fleeing prey. Oddly enough, it appeared mostly normal, aside from the immense size and scales that ended with backward-fag spines.

  At the sight of the colossal snake, Lisryn’s guards hopped off the wall and walked toward the ter of the apparent path it was taking, each drawing their ons as they readied themselves. By the time it reached them, the boar had all been brought down, and the teachers who had been manning the side walls moved forward, joining the younger mages at the front. The addition of the more skilled individuals appeared to help the morale, as everyone appeared to perk up at the sight of them preparing to ehe snake as well.

  After an initial round of spells that were simply ighe snake reached the two standiween it and the wall, gaping mouth ready to swallow them whole. Several gasps rang out as those without knowledge of their strength thought they would be ed. Niphru’s group, however, were not terribly surprised as the snake’s head was driven upward and to the side by a pair of incredibly potent strikes. While the snake had been stopped from approag the wall, the two guardians were embedded halfway to their knees into the soil from the force of their blows.

  Without missing a beat, Morris quickly forced the ground around them to press, f small ical pits that they easily leapt up from. Meanwhile, the serpent swayed slightly as it attempted to face toward the far smaller beings that had caused its approach to be disrupted. While it was still unsteady, an impressive nce of bck, gssy rock smmed straight into an eye, only to emit a loud crack as it shattered into hundreds of pieces against a transparent c. The lead mage of the retly-arrived group cursed as his spell failed to cause any damage.

  Seeing that the situation was simir to that with the bear, Lisryn shouted, “Hold off on pointless attacks; send your stro attacks into its mouth!”

  Niphru’s entire group excimed their agreement as they followed the strategy they had used a few days before. Fortunately, the roups realized it was more likely to work than simply pounding on the incredibly resistant outer defenses, and held back their attacks as well. The snake, meanwhile, had recovered from the first round of blows, and whipped its head downward toward one of the oppos who dared to block its way.

  The woman simply braced herself with her sword pressed against her leg, poio the sky, and waited. Her partner, meanwhile, swung their on upward with immense forbsp; An instahe ground shook as the massive head collided with the ground, the two warriors vanishing from sight below it. A pained hiss echoed over the pins before the serpent slowly lifted its head.

  A single cracked scale fell from the bottom of its snout, blood dribbling down from the wound. Closer examination showed two fttened figures embedded into the soil, slowly dragging themselves back up out of the holes they had made. Several of the mages lost trol of their spells in shock before realizing they did not, in fact, see two people die. Unfortunately, this led to them being uo attack as the serpent opes mouth, revealing three sets of fangs, and spat venom toward the shogly durable warriors.

  The rest of the mages, however, released their spells with focused aim, nearly all going directly into the gaping maw of the beast. One fang broke as a rge k of stone collided with it at extreme velocity. The tongue flinched back as several bolts of fire dug into it. A spike of stone embedded itself into the roof of its mouth, and another smmed into the soft spot outside where the scale had been torn loose. Several other spells scorched the inside of its mouth, though it appeared the water and air mages had held off from attag.

  The snake shook its head as it ss jaw closed, several slower spells spshing iually against its snout. The absence of the spells from the air and water casters were quickly expined as fme and debris swirled away from the beast’s nostrils, and several rge blobs of water spread themselves across the openings as well. Predictably, the serpent did not appear terribly pleased with this development, and a bst of air erupted, hurling the liquid in all dires.

  A momehe snake once again opes mouth, this time with a tube opening up at the base of its throat. A quick shout from one of the mages rang out, “We should stop it from breathing, clog its windpipe!”

  Immediately afterward, another excimed, “We ’t focus i, but we keep air from going into its nose, just keep it from using its mouth!”

  The eartheo strike wasn’t a rock but instead a rge mass of dirt, just barely missing the wide opening, small amounts tumbling inside as they spread from the attack.

  This time, the snake ged its focus, bowling over the warriors as it slithered over them, approag the wall with a wary hiss. With shog speed, it smmed down into the wall, mouth agape, right over the top of one of the mages. When it rose back up, there was no trace of the man. Shouts of terror erupted from those who had been nearby. Several patacks rolled off the durable scales as people scattered.

  As it reared back to strike again, three separate earthen projectiles smmed into its mouth, two of them managing to lodge into its windpipe. Suddenly uo breathe, the serpent flung its head from side to side, even going so far as to smack against the ground. During one of its filing movements, a rge mass of soil was dislodged and fell away, though it appeared to not be all of the obstru, seeing as how it tihrashing about.

  O had smmed into the ground numerous times, it seemed to give up, preparing for arike. The mages scattered, many jumping off the wall to hide on the inner edge of it to deny the snake an easy target. Instead, it focused on ane who had remaiop the wall, easily trag their attempt to dodge and swallowing them as well. Several more spells impacted as it opes mouth once more, with more soil being rammed down its windpipe, just to be followed up with multiple bsts of fire, hardening the plug that had formed.

  By this point, Lisryn’s guardians had recovered a to the top of the wall and were attempting to attract the attention of the monstrous snake. Unfortunately, their attempts failed as it instead smmed down around Richard, before tossing its head bad swallowing them as well. This time, it was Niphru’s group who screamed, having just seen one of their panioen alive.

  As chahe serpent quickly went for atack, though this time, its target was thrown out of the way as an armored form smmed into them, just to have the snake’s maw close around the figure.

  After the st strike, however, the monster began filing around agaiedly smming into the ground. Uhe prior time, it did not rise up for atack, though the thrashing grew weaker and weaker instead. Yurania approached the head of the beast, waiting until it had weakened enough that it was simply rog side to side.

  In a surprising act, she forced its mouth open and took several steps inside, vanishing as the mouth slowly closed again. As soon as the serpent pletely stopped moving, Morris moved towards it and focused. Slowly, a pilr of earth rose and pushed the jaws open once again, supp most of the weight of the creature’s head. With visibility restored, it ossible to see Yurania carving into the throat of the corpse, tearing rge ks of muscle loose and tossing them to the side as torrents of blood flowed over her arms.

  Without slowing, Yurania shouted, “Raelis has already begun w towards those that were swallowed. Anyone who , assist with opening up its throat or sending air through it. It is uo reach them, but better to try than not. Si didn’t appear to bite any of those it swallowed, we should be able to recover everyone alive. We were lucky enough to face a snake and not some other manner of beast.”

  Hearing this, Niphru rapidly approached, alongside Viera. As she provided illumination to help the efforts to cut the muscles apart, Niphru focused on produg a pair of wedges of force magibsp; Though the magic straio opehroat, one of the cuts Yurania made caused it to suddenly open up, revealing much softer flesh that was quickly targeted.

  As she was w where people might emerge, Yurania shifted to gripping her sword half the bde, redug how far it peed. Nearly two mier, the flesh shook before parting, a gore-covered figure f their way out, back-first. As they mao get free, it was revealed that they were dragging an unscious Richard by the shoulders.

  After tossing the limp body aside, the man turned and forced his way back dowhroat he had emerged from just before. In respoo the retrieval of their panion, Dawn rushed forward and began attempting to get him breathing again. By the time the maurned a mier, she had succeeded and dragged Richard to the grass outside.

  Yurania had mao pletely carve open the muscles of the throat, and began w her way inward, meeting her panion and helping him make it back out with the mage. As the others cmored about in worry, Dawn moved to treat the new arrival as well. Once again, Raelis quickly returo the fleshy prison t back the first mage it had swallowed.

  As before, Dawn mao get the person that had been delivered to breathe again, and brought them out to rest beside Richard. When the final mage was brought out, however, it proved much harder for them to recover. Since everyone had been freed from the corpse, Niphru stopped his assistah the force magid rao join Dawn in her healing efforts. In the end, healing magic alone failed, and attempting to use physical force to restart their breathio their ribs crag uhe pressure.

  While they may have broken bohey did, however, mao get their patient breathing again, and as healers, they were able to switending the damage they had just caused. Upon finding that everyone was still in one pied breathing again, the rest of the mages celebrated, with the teachers in particur looking especially relieved.

  A few moments ter, however, the fact that only three of the froups were present made itself known again, rapidly bringing down the mood once more. Upon realizing the situation, Raelis headed baside the corpse to attempt to find if anyone else was deeper within.

  Many worrisome mier, hopes were reignited as a rge fireball emerged into the air above the forest in the distance, revealing that at least one mage had survived behind the stampede and its cause.

  Almost ten mier, Raelis emerged once again, looking somber until he saw the more optimistic expressions. Upon hearing what had occurred a few moments before, he rexed as he remarked that he could not find anything but boar within the serpent before he had to turn back.

  Having finished digging around in the corpse, Raelis motioo Yurania, and the two began slowly dismantling it, cutting the scales free and pg them in a mound to the side.

  Over an hour ter, a very filthy and obviously exhausted group emerged from the forest, luckily entirely intabsp; Ohey finally arrived at the camp, they took several mio discuss what had occurred for the roups before they made it babsp; After hearing of the chaos that had happehey shared their own story.

  It turned out that they had never seen the serpent, though they were almost overwhelmed by the sudden stampede. After struggling to hold a small area, they had given up and instead used earth magic to burrow into the ground and hide. After three colpses of their burrow, they finally mao reach a spot below a rge tree that remained intact as they waited for the shaking to subside.

  With everyone safe back at camp, Morris sent Kel back to the nearby vilge with a report that they would o deal with the disposal of the immense corpse. Ohat was done, all but Lisryn’s guards sat down throughout the camp to rex, as they were far too weak to assist in removing the incredibly durable scales from the serpent.

  Shard