This time, I approached on foot with my foxes. Avalon was safely stored away with [Store Monster], as this time I wanted to focus on stealth, which meant going through terrain not suitable for horses.
It took a long time to reach the forest without going directly to the rift, and by the time I got there I realized I could have at least ridden Avalon to the forest’s edge, but well… exercise is important right? Right, that would be the excuse for my shortsightedness.
I entered the forest carefully. Unlike my foxes who had an instinctive grace that allowed them to move through the forest silently, I had to rely on disjointed memories gathered from my inheritance.
Thankfully, it seemed that many creatures in the spirit world had to learn to move through forests, as I had many memories to draw from. Half of them even seemed to be from the same creature, a gnoll who I could have sworn was the same gnoll I had seen in chains when I first chose my name.
Exploring my inheritance would have to come another time however, as I finally caught sight of my prey. My disturbance of the hive earlier must have woken it up, or perhaps they had just seen me coming last time and hidden themselves, because now I could see them moving around in broad daylight.
They were carefully tearing leaves from trees and carrying them back into their hive, like ants. Were they omnivores? Or perhaps they only ate plants and were only chasing me because they felt threatened by an intruder on their lands, not because they wanted to eat me.
Again, not important right now, keep your head in the game Gem.. What was important was getting some of these beetles alone and picking them off.
Right on time, one of the foxes made a noise stepping on a branch and a few of the beetles suddenly looked up. Thankfully they didn’t spot the fox, which was a miracle considering they were a bright silver that did not fit in at all with the earthy browns and greens. More proof they didn’t rely much on sight.
The small group of beetles separated from the rest and began to cautiously approach the noise. As they did, my foxes carefully moved around so that they were to the sides of them, forming a pincer attack. I watched, glaive at the ready in case the ambush went bad.
Right when I had started to wonder what the foxes were waiting for, they pounced. Two went down instantly as the chitin around their throats cracked. Three more remained, however before they could make any noise or find a way to call for help, I leapt forwards, twirling my glaive to catch all three off guard. It only managed to kill one, as I was far from a master at using my glaive, but it bought enough time for my foxes to kill the last two remaining.
Quick, clean, and efficient. Now if only we could repeat this process for a while without any complications…
Which was, of course, way too much to ask for.
After killing almost forty beetles, the foxes and I had started to get in a comfortable rhythm. A group of three had wandered away from the main group by a while and we started to stalk them, seeing an easy catch. Just as we had done many times today, the foxes moved ahead to flank while I slowly approached directly.
Just as we were about to strike, the beetles started to make a sharp clicking noise, and my eyes widened as I realized something was wrong. The ground beneath me suddenly collapsed as four beetle wolves appeared from the earth and started clawing at me. One lunged for my throat and I only barely caught it. With some effort, I smashed its head against another of the beetles, and quickly pulled my glaive out of the disturbed ground.
Kicking and flailing, I dragged myself out of the shallow pit they had formed. In my struggles, I managed to cave in one of their heads, as well as stab into the body of another, but that still left me with two beetles plus the three that we were originally hunting.
I spared a glance towards my foxes who I noticed must have avoided the initial ambush thanks to their quick reflexes, but they were still having a desperate battle with their own beetle opponents. I grit my teeth, resolving to finish my battle as quickly as possible so I could help my creatures before it was too late.
Thankfully, these creatures were incredibly weak, and obviously relied on numbers rather than strength. Not thankfully, the three beetles we were originally hunting must have decided I was the most dangerous of the group and attacked me all at once from behind.
I felt a claw rake across my back and a mandible clamp around my leg. In a panic, I summoned Avalon right on top of the beetles, and two were instantly smashed while the last was kicked several feet away. Horses might not be at the top of the list of deadly creatures, but hooves were dangerous!
Seeing the devastation, the last two beetles retreated while making their weird clicking sounds. Looking back to my foxes, I noticed they had won their battles as well, but not without serious injuries. I winced looking at their bloodied forms, and felt guilty for leading them into yet another ambush. Thankfully they were alive and still capable of moving, because I had a feeling we had to get far away from here fast before a larger group of the beetle wolves found us.
Going back the way we came in would take us too close to the hive in my opinion, but the fact that I was able to retreat back to my domain the last time we were chased felt like sufficient proof that these beetles stuck to a very specific range around the rift.
If I just left their territory, we should be fairly safe… right?
Saurus· Dec 20, 2019
Myewphi· Author · Dec 24, 2019
