Antelligent Design

69. Flight from Liria

The shape of the basin and the terrain around the robed figure’s feet gives the impression of liquid being brought up and running downhill to be collected. If they’re bringing a liquid up from the Dungeon, what could the liquid be but Mana? I mean, I’ve never seen liquid Mana. But unless they’re bringing up some sweet natural spring water in order to give the biggest crocodile in all the worlds a soothing bath, perhaps followed by an exfoliating scale scrub, then what does the croc need that can be found in the Dungeon?

Mana.

I know it can be condensed. I have the freakin’ Skill to do it! Perhaps I’ve never seen something like this, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be done.

[They’re feeding Garralosh Mana! Using some sort of voodoo technique to compress the Mana in the Dungeon and letting her absorb it. That’s how she’s able to hang about on the surface.]

My minds race, connecting the dots now that I have this information.

[This is why she isn’t dead!] I exclaim to Morrelia. [She was never starving of Mana. Whoever these people are, they’ve been supporting Garralosh within the Dungeon and keeping her alive, feeding her Mana, controlling her.]

Oh snap! If these guys and gals can regulate the flow of Mana to Garralosh, then she’s dependent on them, completely at their mercy. If they decide to turn the tap off, then big momma croc has no choice but to fade slowly away as her core bleeds dry.

[This is insane,] Morrelia grinds out. [Who the hell are they?]

That is the question of the hour. We remain with our heads poked over the top of the city wall, straining to make out any details.

Just then, something new catches my eye. Movement to one side of the basin as something that had buried itself beneath the dirt rises up, shaking itself free of the loose soil. What the heck is this now? Another monster?

When the dirt finally fall away, what’s revealed is not a hideous monster or another deformed croca-beast variant, but a large lizard that appears to be draped in what I can only describe as luxurious robes and golden jewellery.

Although it’s dwarfed next to Garralosh, it’s still a hefty ten metres long from nose to tail, and not nearly as bulky. Something about the creature, perhaps its dull scale colour or wrinkly skin, seems to speak of incredible age. I get the feeling this lizard has been around the block a few times.

I can almost feel the weight of its gaze.

Wait a sec…

[Morrelia? Is that giant lizard staring at us?]

[Ka’armodo!] she hisses and jumps from the wall.

What the heck? We’re like eight metres up!

[Hurry up!] she hollers across our mental link. I watch, stunned, as she neatly rolls on landing and begins sprinting away from the city.

[I’m not up to speed here. Why are you running?] I ask as I hesitate at the top of the wall.

Then I notice something. Inside the wall, not only is the lizard looking at me, but Garralosh herself has turned to face me.

And so has every other monster.

I leap from the wall, legs flailing as I attempt to flap my way to freedom. Why the hell didn’t I give myself wings? I know I live underground 99% of the time, but still, wings!

THUD.

I smack into the ground with a dull thump, the impact sending shockwaves through my carapace. Thankfully, my sturdy exo-skeleton and its inner plating managed to absorb the force without cracking, since I don’t trust my legs to do the job. Not wanting to break any limbs at this critical juncture, I’d wisely tucked them up so my body would hit first. Repairing a broken leg would be a little awkward, to say the least.

[RUN!] I shout at my two pets as they watch from a distance. [Let’s go, go, go, go, goooooo!]

The moment my legs are under me, I’m Dashing, holding nothing back in my desperation to get away. Morrelia is way ahead of me, not pausing in the slightest when she realised I hadn’t moved as quickly as she had. That’s cold. Sensible, but cold!

[What the heck is that giant lizard?] I wail at her.

[It’s a Ka’armodo! They are not monsters. They’re a sapient surface race, like humans.]

[How in the heck is a giant lizard like a human?]

[Listen,] she growls. [They’re one of the elder races that existed on Pangera before the Dungeon opened. They are powerful mages and live for a very long time. Those robed figures we saw are its Setsulah, bonded servants.]

[And why is it helping a giant crocodile monster slaughter a heap of humans?]

[I have no idea! Would you please focus on running for your life?]

Good advice!

HUUUAAAARRRRRRR!

The sound of thousands of monsters bellowing in rage at once rattles against my ears, and the ground beneath my feet begins to beat like a snare drum. Monsters flood out of the gates and over the wall in a tide of death.

[Move those Fancy Feet, Tiny! Do NOT stop to fight. Do NOT turn and do battle. This is NOT the time to fire up! We are a Jamaican Bobsled team, keep cool and run!] I bellow at my most wilful pet, and with me keeping up the flow of constant orders and reprimands, for once, he isn’t able to turn and fight against impossible odds as he so wishes.

[Where are we running to?] I gasp at Morrelia, the strain of constant Dashing already starting to catch up with me. I am taking care of this problem when I evolve, no doubt about that!

[I don’t know,] she rasps. The usually unflappable warrior looks a fair bit flapped as she runs. [Any bright ideas?]

[I think so. This way!]

As if the demon hordes of Hades were on our tail, which they sort of are, we run with all our strength, feet growing leaden and weighed down the farther we get. Across fields, around fences and down roads, we run with the constant rumble of monsters shaking the ground behind us.

I don’t even want to look, but my stupid eyes with their near three-sixty-degree vision grant me tantalising glimpses of a monster horde greater than any I’ve ever seen by far. No way am I going to turn and fight this. Even ten Gravity Bombs wouldn’t be enough to swallow the entire horde. We have to get to safety.

Fortunately, it doesn’t take too long before it comes into sight.

On a hill ahead is a small church building, still somehow standing when so much of the buildings around here have been flattened. The church is a centre point of a modest town that I’ve visited before, and I happen to know that a path into the Dungeon can be found in that building.

[Let’s go to church!] I bellow at my companions.