“It’s in the Dust Woods. A bunch of plants all powered up by a powerful magical line which is being pumped in through a connection with another dimension,” Lyra revealed as she sipped her cup of tea.
“F*** my life,” Jacque responded with a sigh.
“It’s not too bad. You’ll be fine. After all, you have the woman who defeated One-Eye Hei,” Lyra countered, pointing at me.
“Yuki’s pretty strong but Darryl is the one who actually has to get his weapon. If he’s not strong enough, none of this matters,” Shan pointed out.
“Stop doubting Darryl, he’s proved himself. It’s not good for his self-esteem even if you’re joking. Just do your thing. Everyone in here believes you,” Lyra rebuked the gravity manipulator.
All the stuffed animals in the room raised their hands, legs, or tail in encouragement. Kind of creepy but Lyra’s presence nullified most of it, making it more cute than weird.
“Anything else we should know?” Ksi stepped back as a stuffed dog brushed past her leg.
“You’ll have to figure it out along the way,” Lyra replied.
We wrapped up our discussion with Lyra and went to the transportation terminal that would take us to Dust Woods. When we arrived at the device, Zhuyu and Kisai were there discussing something. What were they doing here?
“Did Tess send you as backup?” Ichaival greeted his two friends.
“Nope, doing some investigation for the SIU,” Zhuyu answered.
“I’m here to check out a miniature magic cannon,” Kisai revealed.
“Oh, anything interesting?” Ksi questioned, an excited look on her face.
“Not anything that stands out. If you want, I can give you anything useful I come across. You’re looking into it too, right?” Kisai offered.
“I would appreciate that,” Ksi accepted.
“You’re here to get Darryl’s Kali sticks, right? Good luck,” Zhuyu said, moving away from the terminal.
Ichaival slid a card into the machine and we all entered the active portal. A loud rumble occurred as we arrived on the other side. Faint raindrops fell and I felt a slight sting. Great, I love acidic rain!
“Never gets old!” Shan grinned as he donned protective rain gear.
I felt something squishy with each step and checked the ground. Was this a swamp? There was a burnt tree stump in the distance with no other foliage around it.
“This sucks,” Ichaival complained, shaking off the mud sticking to the his pant legs and shoes.
Ksi slogged forward without a word. I followed her lead and we arrived at the stump. Ksi knocked the stump with her left knuckle before standing up.
“Just confirming if the stump was a security check,” Ksi explained before walking ahead.
Glad someone was aware enough to check for traps. Shan probably would have too if she hadn’t taken the initiative. There wasn’t much of a breeze so visibility was still good.
“What did you fight here before the place got blown up?” I wondered as trees appeared on the horizon.
“Just your normal everyday thugs. Orcs, elves, you know the usual,” Shan replied.
“He’s not joking, for once. The cult who wanted to take over came from another dimension to invade Za’ard,” Ichaival confirmed.
“That’s…. interesting,” I responded.
I kept expecting the trees we passed to uproot and attack us. The mud diminished as solid dirt replaced it. There was an actual path now. Still, no enemies showed up yet, always a bad sign.
Ksi raised her hand in the air. She had become the leader for this expedition even though Za’ard wasn’t her area of expertise.
“You sense something?” Shan questioned.
“Let me check with my powers,” Ksi replied.
I saw a wispy spirit exit Ksi’s body. Shan walked up and caught her limp body. The spirit carried a scythe and vanished from my sight as it flew off.
“Hey Shan, you know if her spirit has a limit to how far away she can be from the body?” I glanced at Ksi’s body.
“I haven’t asked her about it. I assume that there is one but you never know with these things,” Shan answered.
Ksi’s spirit eventually returned and her body moved again. She took out a pair of rectangular glasses from her coat pocket and placed them on her face.
“There’s a horde of enemies ahead. Be prepared to fight,” Ksi informed us.
“Oh, that’s great. What kind of enemies?” Jacque asked.
“Same as last time. Ichaival, don’t fire off knives without thinking first,” Ksi answered, shooting a glance at him.
Jacque flipped back a few pages in his sketchbook and tapped his flamethrower drawing. Would it actually work this time? I heard slithering as roots and vines shot up from the ground. Jacque pulled the trigger on his device and a burst of flames shot out with a huge whoosh. It decimated the leafless trees crawling towards him and reduced them to a pile of burnt wood chips.
“Ichaival, stay in the rear for assistance. Shan and I will handle the front. Jacque and Tomo, help out where you can,” Ksi ordered.
She slashed through enemies with a fierce look on her face. No need to worry about her. I summoned Mirror’s Rend and cut through the enemies around me with my flaming blade.
“Shigetzu, that’s not a plant!” Ichaival pointied at a lumbering creature rushing towards us.
A…cyclops? It carried a large club…no that wasn’t it. It wielded one of the tree creatures, stripping it of its branches, using only the trunk portion. The creature clasped a bundle of branches and sticks in its other hand.
The cyclops tossed the branches and sticks into the air, firing off a laser from its eye. The bits and pieces descended, creating a fiery debris shower. I constructed a barrier, protecting everyone from the projectiles. The large one eyed creature swung the trunk down and generated a mini earthquake. Ksi leaped into the air and hurled her spear. The weapon pierced the cyclop’s eye. Shan followed up with a strike, using a massive piece of wood, to the creature’s leg.
“Darryl!” Shan directed, hopping away.
The cyclops collapsed and Ichaival fired off knives, striking the creature’s back. I gave him an assist, imbuing his blades with explosives. The knives embedded in the cyclcops glowed before detonating.
“Nice!” Shan congratulated me, leaping away from a vine and stomped on it.
Eventually, we cleared out all the horde of enemies. I took time to recover after the long battle. Burnt piles of wood and organic matter all around us. A weird smoky aroma filled the air, not nauseous but definitely not pleasant either.
“These plants are annoying but easy to deal with,” Shan remarked.
“Yeah. I rather fight plants than that cyclops. I thought Lyra said we would only be seeing plants here. That thing could have wiped us out if it wasn’t for Ksi,” I agreed.
The acidic rain finally ceased but the sky remained gray. We continued on and arrived at a forking path.
“Ksi, I got this,” I said.
“What?” Ksi stared at me in surprise.
“My grimoire can point us the right way,” I explained as my magical tome opened up.
An arrow pointing left appeared on a blank page. Should I let Ksi scout ahead anyways? She stared at the grimoire page and then me.
“I’ll trust you for this one, Tomo,” Ksi decided.
“Darryl, you hear that?” Shan asked as we walked on the left path.
“I don’t hear anything,” Ichaival answered, shaking his head.
“I swear there was something,” Shan said, furrowing his forehead.
Jacque put on a pair of wireless headphones. He walked up to the gravity manipulator with an uneasy expression. Did he confirm the noise Shan heard?
“Let me try,” Shan requested and Jacque handed him the headphones.
He took them off after ten seconds. That didn’t look good for us.
“This might be bad,” Shan said.
“How bad?” Ichaival qustioned.
“Remember the orcs we fought before, Darryl? There’s two or three of them,” Shan revealed.
“Orcs here? Crap… wait, we have Tomo and Ksi here,” Ichaival pointed out.
“Hmm… you’re right. But we’re going to do that thing again if things get bad, okay?” Shan gestured at his friend.
“Yeah, yeah, you don’t have to tell me. Let’s hope these aren’t the really fat ones,” Ichaival agreed.
We crept forward and saw the orcs. They were at least ten feet tall. One of them wore a shoulder pad with spikes and another carried a large steel rod adorned in barbed wire. The third appeared normal, at least compared to the other two, with no weapon near him.
“I’ll fight the one with the steel rod. Tomo, can you take care of the one with full armor?” Ksi directed.
“Yeah. I’ll take Jacque with me. That okay with you?” I pointed at the artist.
“You sure? I mean, you could take Ichaival instead,” Jacque answered.
“I already picked you so deal with it!” I replied.
“Darryl, you can handle the shoulder pad one alone, right?” Shan requested.
“Hold on, you said we were going to take care of this together? What the hell, Shigetzu?” Ichaival looked at his friend, shock on his face.
“Plans change. You know how it is,” Shan gave him a grin and followed Ksi.
Jacque scampered after me. The enemy we were assigned lumbered to the left, heading to a sandy area. Jacque and I followed him and hid behind some withered trees once the orc stopped.
