Chapter 791: On The Way To The First Nest

A horde of wild monsters burst out of the tangled brush twenty paces ahead.

They were a grotesque mix of plant and beast.

A few dozen thorn-crawlers came scrambling over the roots with wet clicking hisses, slender six-legged things covered in bark-like scales with quills of hardened wood sticking out of their spines.

Behind them came the vine-spitters, swollen plant monsters rooted in squirming knots of tendrils, their gaping fleshy mouths bulging as they got ready to spit balls of acidic sap.

HISSSSS!

Before the monsters could pounce, Ther’Abella exploded forward.

Her silver hair trailed behind her like a comet as she swung her starlight staff around in a blinding flat circle.

WHOOOSH!

Thin crescents of starlight sliced out from it and sheared through the brush with terrifying ease.

The thorn-crawlers at the front were cut cleanly in half before their claws could touch the path, and their bodies dissolved into pale silver mist.

She stepped forward three paces and drove the staff out in five quick thrusts that caved in the fleshy heads of three vine-spitters, wiping them out with cold contempt.

The last two spitters reared back and spat at her together.

Two fat globs of hissing green acid came arcing through the air, and Ther’Abella spun her staff into a blurring silver disc in front of her.

The acid hit the spinning starlight and burst apart into steam with a sharp sizzle, and before the steam had even cleared, she flicked the end of the staff forward and sent a thin crescent of light straight back through both of their stalks.

TSSSSS! SHHRAK!

...The two plants slid apart at the middle and flopped into the moss.

A crawler slipped past her left side and lunged for her ankle.

She stamped down on its head without looking, pinned it to the root under her boot and swept the staff down across its neck in one short stroke.

THWACK!

Two more came at her from the right at the same time.

She spun the staff once over her head, caught the first one under the jaw with one end and flipped it into the air, and then brought the other end around and smashed the second one into a tree trunk so hard the bark split.

The first one came back down, and she skewered it before it hit the ground.

SHUNK!

But the jungle was thick, and a second wave of crawlers came leaping down from the high branches, trying to drop straight into the middle of the line...

FWOOOOSH!

A crackling roar drowned out the wind as Elowynn swept her hand up toward them.

A torrent of swirling bright orange flame poured out of her palm.

FWHUMP!

The fire tore through the branches overhead in a roaring sheet of blistering heat and burned the falling monsters into crispy black ash before they were even halfway to the ground.

The smell of roasted wood and scorched scales filled the path as their burning husks crumbled into harmless embers against the damp moss.

One of them hadn’t quite finished burning... It hit the path right in front of the new Shieldmaidens, still smoking and twitching, and dragged itself toward them on three blackened legs.

The five girls jumped back so fast they nearly tripped over each other, and Elowynn flicked her fingers at it without even turning around.

A tiny spark popped against its head, and it crumbled into ash.

POP!

"Heh."

Elowynn glanced back over her shoulder and gave the five of them a lazy wink and all five of them blushed.

As the last flame flickered out on her fingertips, a faint pulsing golden glow washed over Elowynn’s shoulders and sank into her skin with a soft tingling chime.

DING!

Elowynn blinked, her chest rising and falling under her snug tunic as she looked down at her glowing hands, and a surprised breathless smirk curled the corners of her lips.

’I leveled up, eh?’ Elowynn thought, a sudden thrilling rush of warmth tingling down her spine. ’That felt good! Maybe one day I’ll actually reach the pinnacle of Level 999 and become some kind of legendary fire queen! Imagine Silas’s face if I stood in front of him like that... But no, don’t get cocky, Elowynn... You’ve got a nest to reach, Focus.’

She lowered her hand, and her amethyst eyes locked back onto the thicket as she snapped back into focus.

Before they could take another five steps, the ground on their left heaved violently.

KRRRACK!

A big tangle of bramble-stalkers came tearing through the ferns, monsters made of twisted muscular briars that walked on two legs, with claws of petrified wood.

Their thorny limbs swung in wide sweeping arcs straight at the side of the line.

"Mine!" an excited voice barked from the ranks.

Lupina didn’t even wait for orders.

The silver-haired wolf-girl dropped onto all fours for a single heartbeat, her boots digging deep into the moss, and then launched herself forward like a silver cannonball.

WHOOSH!

Her speed was terrifying.

The three-inch steel claws of her gauntlets gleamed in the scattered sunlight as she crossed fifteen paces in the blink of an eye.

She spun through the air with smooth acrobatic violence, and her claws left thin silver trails of whistling wind behind them.

SHRRRRK!

With three blinding sweeps of her gauntlets, she cut through all five bramble-stalkers at once.

Their thick wooden limbs and thorny bodies were diced into neat thumb-sized chunks of kindling that clattered down onto the forest floor in a harmless shower of sawdust.

WHOOSH!

’They’re quite weak...’

Two more of them rose up out of the ferns behind her before the sawdust had even settled, their wooden claws already swinging down at her back however Lupina didn’t turn around.

She dropped flat, let both claws whistle over her head, kicked off the nearest tree trunk and shot back between them like an arrow.

Her claws raked out to both sides as she passed.

SHRRK! SHRRK!

Both stalkers stood there for a second with long clean lines running down their middles then they fell apart.

Lupina landed lightly on the balls of her feet, barely disturbing the moss, and spun around with her fangs bared in a wild proud grin.

’Look at that speed,’ Silas thought, his eyes following the clean efficient path of her leaps with real admiration. ’She doesn’t waste a single bit of her momentum... She strikes, cuts them apart and gets her balance back before the wood even hits the dirt.’

When she noticed Silas watching her, Lupina straightened up and gave him a cheerful vigorous wave with one clawed hand.

Silas chuckled warmly and nodded at her.

"Nice work, Lupina! Those things didn’t stand a chance!"

The second the words left his lips, Lupina’s wolf ears twitched forward, and a bright happy flush spread across her cheeks.

Behind the hem of her leather shorts, her thick bushy silver tail started wagging back and forth so fast she couldn’t control it, thumping against the trunk of a nearby fern.

THUMP! THUMP! THUMP!

Lupina quickly stiffened her back and pressed her hand over the base of her tail to force it down, puffing out her cheeks in an adorable attempt to look stern and unbothered, though the proud little smirk on her lips gave her away completely.

A few paces behind, Solenne let out a long quiet sigh of relief.

She smoothed down the front of her robes and watched Lupina bound back toward the front of the line with a light heart.

’Thank goodness,’ Solenne thought, a gentle grateful smile curving her lips as her ears relaxed. ’I’m not the only one here with tails... With that wild wolf running around wagging hers in his face, Lord Silas will be too busy to bother with mine. My poor tails won’t be abus—’

Before the thought could even finish, a broad warm calloused hand reached out from behind her shoulder.

FWUFF!

Silas’s fingers closed firmly around the base of her thickest fluffiest tail, and his palm sank deep into the dense cloud-soft fur in one slow deliberate stroke.

"Aah...!"

A sharp breathy gasp tore out of Solenne’s lips, so close to an outright moan that her cheeks turned bright scarlet in a split second.

Her whole spine arched on its own as a sweet paralyzing shiver shot from the root of her tail straight to the tips of her fox ears, leaving her knees feeling like warm wax under her skirts.

Silas chuckled smoothly and stepped up beside her, his fingers still gently kneading the silky fur in his grip.

"Hey, Solenne," Silas said with a warm teasing grin. "You’ve been working really hard at the forge lately... I figured your tails deserved a little appreciation."

Solenne bit her lower lip, trembling a little against his hand as she tried to get her spinning thoughts into some kind of order.

"H-hello, my Lord..." Solenne stammered softly, her golden eyes shimmering with embarrassment and helpless pleasure as she glanced at him sideways. "I-I was just doing my job..."

Standing right beside them, Kaelia stopped in her tracks.

Her wide eyes darted between Silas’s hand and the big fanned-out halo of silver fur rippling around Solenne’s hips.

The chef looked completely mesmerized, her fingers twitching against her apron as she stared at how impossibly soft the tails looked.

Silas noticed her longing stare and smiled broadly.

"Look at this, Kaelia," Silas said, lifting the tail a little so the scattered amber light caught the silver tips. "Nine tails, and every one of them’s softer than down feathers... It’s a crime for her to keep all of this fluff to herself. Go ahead, Kaelia... Grab one... See for yourself."

Kaelia gasped and looked up at Solenne with hesitant round-eyed awe.

"Can I... Solenne? Just a little touch?"

Solenne’s face was burning hot enough to melt snow, but when she saw the sweet innocent look on the chef’s face, she couldn’t bring herself to say no.

She gave a tiny flustered nod.

Kaelia stepped forward, reached out with both hands and gently wrapped her fingers around another one of the tails.

SQUISH!

"Ohhh!" Kaelia breathed, her eyes lighting up like lanterns as her hands sank past the top layer into the thick velvety fur underneath. "I-it’s warmer than fresh bread right out of the oven! It’s so soft!"

With Silas gently kneading the root of one tail and Kaelia stroking another, a string of tiny helpless gasps slipped out past Solenne’s lips.

"Ah... mmm... please..." Solenne whispered, clutching the sleeves of her robes as her ears twitched uncontrollably.

But despite her flustered whimpers, all nine of her silver tails were swaying slowly back and forth in broad lazy arcs, fanning out around Silas’s waist in an eager affectionate hug that completely gave her away.

’Hold them more, my Lord...’ Solenne thought, a sweet hazy warmth wrapping around her chest as she leaned ever so slightly toward his shoulder. ’I’ve missed your touch there so much... I thought I wanted them left alone, but I’ve gotten so used to your hands... M-maybe after this raid, he’ll even sit down with me in the workshop and help groom my tails the way he likes them... I just want to thank him for all of this, for giving me a real forge, a real home and a Lord who really cares about me...’

A murmur from the front of the line suddenly broke through the quiet rustle of the brush.

"Stop," Ther’Abella’s crisp voice rang through the trees.

The whole formation came to a smooth disciplined halt along the top of a mossy stone ridge.

Silas let go of Solenne’s tail and stepped up between Aki and Elowynn to look down over the edge.

Right below them, in a wide round sinkhole left behind by some old collapsed cave, lay the first monster nest.

The hollow was choked with grotesque plants.

Huge ferns with dark crimson fronds formed a smothering roof over the pit and dripped thick syrupy nectar into bubbling pools of mud below.

Clustered around the mouth of the cave in the middle were dozens of big pulsing spore pods hissing with sickly green vapor with their fleshy roots writhing across the stone floor like living snakes.

Prowling through the muck around the pods was a huge chittering swarm.

There were thorn-crawlers the size of hounds, armored vine-spitters with snapping petal jaws and hulking bramble brutes whose knotted wooden limbs bristled with three-foot thorns, and all of them were hissing and clicking low in their throats as they caught the scent of strangers on the wind.

Right behind Silas, Kaelia let out a tiny gulp and grabbed a fistful of his mantle, and all nine of Solenne’s tails puffed up at once like a pack of startled cats.

"H-huh...?"

Bones were scattered all through the mud between them, picked clean and half-buried in moss.

Some of them were small, and some of them very much weren’t... In the middle of it all, the dark mouth of the cave breathed out slow puffs of warm damp air that smelled like rotting fruit, and every time it exhaled, the ferns over it shivered.

The whole group stood in silence along the rim and took in the nest sprawled out below them.

Down in the mud, the biggest of the bramble brutes stopped moving, and very slowly, it lifted its knotted head toward the ridge.