Chapter XII: The Beastman Warrens

Shizukana Gake, Heian Kingdom, The Great Plateau

Month of the Garuda 31, 172 ,328 DE

Hoshi finally pops out from behind the upended table that he has been using for cover. "Did you two figure out who got the most points for kicking asses, yet?

After staring at Hoshi for a moment, Old Man Jones looks at Ambassador Ragnar. "This is a bit more trouble than the Obnoxious Brat usually causes. Is your prince like this normally?"

Ambassador Ragnar rolls his eyes and shrugs. "He's usually not this bad. Your Beast seems to bring out the worst in him."

"I'll leave those two in your hands." The City Guard Captain shakes his head and leads the three squads with their Black Blade prisoners out of the tavern.

Vorn looks at me. "I need to talk to you about some things in a more private setting."

Old Man Jones glances at Vorn. "You can come back to our compound. It's closer than the Noble Quarter."

With a mostly drunk Hoshi following us, Vorn and I silently follow Old Man Jones and Ambassador Ragnar back to the compound.

When we reach the compound, Hoshi gestures vague to the north. "I'm going home. Will you be in school tomorrow."

I laugh. "Tomorrow is the weekend."

"Oh. See you for the next test, then." After nodding sagely, Hoshi sways a bit as he heads north to the Noble Quarter.

"Hey, brat. Don't you disappear. I have more questions about what was going on." Before entering the compound, Old Man Jones waits for me to enter first.

Inside the residence, we settle around the kitchen table. Old Man Jones and Ambassador Ragnar have mugs of cold beer in front of them. Since Old Man Jones says warm beer tastes like piss, he keeps a couple kegs in the cooler.

I stare at Vorn. "You recognized that shitty description of the assassin's employer, right?"

Vorn nods and looks at Ambassador Ragnar. "Cross is here. Deadre can't be far away."

Ambassador Ragnar's eyes open wide. "You're sure, Your Highness?"

Vorn frowns. "A gaijin. A tall man with long straight black hair, who looks like someone who has been sick a long time. How many people around here do you think fit that description?"

With a sigh, Ambassador Ragnar bows his head to Vorn. "You were right, Your Highness. Your mad aunt is indeed somewhere around here."

I raise my eyebrows. "Mad aunt?"

Vorn looks at me and nods. "I am hunting my aunt. She's insane and wants to bring Demonic Beasts onto the Great Plateau. She has no talent for Cultivation, but she practices what she calls Sorcery. The Temple of the Celestial Court has declared her a Heretic, and her continued existence could bring the Kingdom of Amber and the Temple into conflict. If the Temple attacks Amber, more of the Jewel Kingdoms will get involved. It could be the end of human civilization on the Great Plateau."

I cannot say that I would be sorry to see the end of the Temple or most of the human species. After all, most humans are nothing but trash that mindlessly follow the Dragon Gods, the Daos and bow to the Temple of the Celestial Court. But there are still a few humans I would not want to see suffer from endless Demonic Beast Tides.

Old Man Jones stares at Vorn. "How fast can she cast spells?"

Ambassador Ragnar's eyes open wide in surprise. "The fastest I've ever heard of her casting one is five or six seconds."

"What kind of spell?"

"A dart shaped bolt of Yuan Qi. It could only wound a Foundation Establishment Cultivator, but not kill him. But she has stronger spells that can kill Core Formation Cultivators with a single attack. Those take thirty seconds or more to cast."

Old Man Jones snorts. "She's nothing but a half-assed Caster. Where did she learn spell weaving?"

"What is spell weaving?"

"Its how you create spell patterns to cast spells."

Ambassador Ragnar shakes his head. "I don't think anyone knows. She disappeared for almost six years, and when she returned, she called herself a Sorceress and cast spells. When people did not praise and revere her, she became hostile to the kingdom.

"Princess Deadre tried to rebel against King Gerd, but she was put down. Before she could be tried, she disappeared and many newly corrupted Demonic Beasts began to appear in the Demonic Wildlands to the north of the Great Plateau, but after a few months, things calmed down. Prince Vorn was the only one to believe she was the cause."

Vorn holds up his hand to stop Ambassador Ragnar from speaking. "I knew she was the source. I saw her do something with a red stone to create a new Demonic Beast, but I had no proof. I did not know what she was doing at the time, and it was almost two years before he rebellion. Once I understood what I saw, no one gave credence to my words.

"After the corruption of the Ferocious Beasts quieted down, I paid independent information brokers to search for any rumors about unusual occurrences of newly corrupted Demonic Beasts. After almost a year, the Kingdom of Asuka and the Kingdom of Nara started having high numbers of weak Demonic Beasts showing up around the base of the Escarpment. I came here to investigate, and Ambassador Ragnar showed up as a Special Ambassador a month or so later.

"My father sent him to keep an eye on me." Vorn spits out the last line in a disgruntled tone of voice.

Ambassador Ragnar regards Vorn with a blank expression. "Your father was right to send me. It appears, your aunt is out to kill you."

From the way the two Amberites lock stares, there appears to be a running argument going on between them.

"What do you want from the brat?" Based on Old Man Jones' emotionless tone and the odor of anger in his scent, he is not in a good mood.

Tearing his eyes away from Ambassador Ragnar's, Vorn glances from Jones to myself. "You are familiar with the Demonic Wildlands in this area, correct?"

I shrug. "I've been a few hundred kilometers out from the Escarpment, and I've gone a lot farther south. If you think your aunt is lying low somewhere out in the Wildlands, I'd say you're way off base. There's not much of anyplace for a human to set up camp and stay unmolested by just the Ferocious Beasts. The hostility of the Demonic Beasts makes the Ferocious Beasts look like house pets. If your aunt is really around here, she has to be hiding out in a city or two on the Great Plateau."

Vorn's dissatisfied stare bores into me. "You're certain? Absolutely certain?"

I sigh. "You saw how just the sound of your steam engines drew a Beast Wave onto you. What do you think will happen if you go deeper?"

Despite my claim, I cannot forget the Beast Lords claim that a human female gave them Corrupted fruit. The only thing is that I have never found anyplace that Deadre could be using as a base in the nearby Demonic Wildlands. If she is down there, she must be farther out from the Escarpment than I have travelled.

Old Man Jones frowns and looks at me. "What if she's in one of the abandoned Beastman warrens?"

I scoff. "Have you ever taken a good look inside of them? Those tunnels are filled with tons of poisonous molds and lichen. On top of that, there's slimes running around. Rolling around? Sliming around? I don't know what you want to call it. I doubt she'll be there."

Old Man Jones' frown deepens. Even though he called the aunt a half-assed Caster, he has had the odor of worry in his scent since they said the word Sorceress.

I stare at Vorn. "In the morning. I'll check out the abandoned Beastman warrens. If your aunt is there, even if she's trying to hide the signs of it, I'll find them long before her or her bung boy ever catch wind of me. You'd do better checking out Shizukana Gake and the nearby villages for any sign of her or Cross. This isn't the capital; Gaijin stand out around here."

After Vorn glances at Ambassador Ragnar and he nods , he meets my stare . "Okay."

Demonic Wildlands Near the Great Plateau

Month of the Garuda 31, 172 ,328 DE

The abandoned Beastman warrens lie less the fifty kilometers to the south of the Shizukana Gake and not more than sixty kilometers from the base of the Escarpment. The land quickly turns to rough, broken, wooded hills and valleys not more than thirty kilometers south of the trail I regularly use to come down from the Great Plateau.

As I travel along the rough ground on the lip of a narrow gorge, the calls of dozens of different birds and animals fill the air. The trees on the floor of the gorge rise almost thirty meters to the top of the gorge, making it look like a river of leaves spreading out a hundred or so yards to my right. Other than common animals, I have only come across the scents of a few small herds of Stone Rams. The Stone Rams tend to not be overly territorial among their own kind, and unlike many types of Ferocious Beasts, you can find multiple small herd groupings in just five or six square kilometers.

While numerous common animals make their dens in the broken lands, Stone Rams are the most common Ferocious Beasts, so I seldom hunt in this direction. I only occasionally eat Stone Rams. I prefer other types of Ferocious Beasts, the predators.

Once I am farther from the foot of the Escarpment, I come across the scents of a few cat and bear type Ferocious Beasts, but not many of them. I barely notice the passage of time, and soon the rocky hills, with the Beastman warrens, rise above the woods in front of me. Smelling smoke and seeing the smoke trails from multiple small fires rising above the hills, I halt and crouch in the cover of some bushes.

Damn. Could the aunt actually be here? If she is, she has a lot of helpers with her.

The wind are erratic today, but they still blow mostly from north to south like usual. Staying under cover, I sort through the scents in the air. Smoke from burning wood is annoying; it tends to mask other scents. At least, they are only burning wood. Smoke from coal and some other things I have come across make it even harder to pick out other scents, when they are in the air.

Beneath the smoke, I pick up faint traces of the sour odor of Chaos corruption, but I cannot make out what carries the corruption within it. With an irritated frown, I set out to the south, to get downwind of the smoke trails. Even with the erratic breezes, I do not want to give my prey any better chance to pick up my own scent than I have to.

Passing by a bald-topped hill, I spot movements among the rocks on its crest. As I focus on the hilltop, the warmth of Trinity flows through my Body, and my vision sharpens, magnifying the scene. A half-dozen Beastmen fight over the carcass of a small deer, while a few more lazily look out over the woods. They are probably meant to be sentries, but anyone with even a milligram of awareness would spot the Beastmen long before the Beastmen spotted them.

The Beastmen should not stand more than a meter or so at most. Naked except for weapon harnesses, their mottle grey skin and mangy fur would blend into their surrounding if they were not busy brawling over the deer carcass. With arms much longer than their legs, they can easily run around on all fours, and they should be faster than running on two feet. Their faces look like the unnatural, bastardization of a human, a chimpanzee, and a pig. I have actually seen their kind on the Great Plateau a few times, far to the south of the Heian Kingdom. They are Goblins.

Once I circle to the south of their hill, I smell the sour corruption of Chaos mixed with their scents. According to Old Man Jones, while they can often be corrupted by Chaos, Beastmen are not inherently creatures of Chaos. However, these Goblins have been corrupted.

Taking off my weapon belt and loincloth, I drop them on the ground and reach deep within myself. Focusing on the seal on my Body, I unlock it and begin to change.

My hair shrinks in length, and other than my palms and the soles of my feet, coarse, thick fur sprouts from my entire body. As pain flood through my Body, my fingers retract, and my feet shorten. A tail sprouts from my tailbone, and the bones of my hips crack and realign themselves. My body takes on the shape of a Great Wolf, with the extremely broad chest, thick shoulders, and a heavily developed musculature common wolves lack. The change takes less time than ever. Could it be a result of completing the Scripture of Body and finally touching on Trinity? I cannot be sure.

Despite the pleasure from being in the form of a Great Wolf, I do not howl out my joy, nor do I grow to my full size. I stay at the size of a common wolf, and taking my weapons belt and loincloth in my mouth, I trot to the east. I really need a dimensional storage tool, so I can more conveniently carry my things. They are uncommon in the Heian Kingdom, to say the least. Old Man Jones has a few of them, but he does not have the materials to make new ones.

Avoiding the Goblin watch post, I look for an inconspicuous way to enter the valleys from where the smoke is rising. After a couple kilometers, I find a thin foul smelling stream running from a narrow brush choked ravine. From the stench of the water, the goblins use it as a latrine.

With the disgusting stench in my nostrils, I take a moment to fervently pray for Vorn to have the worst hangover of his life. If anyone were to ask me to who I am praying, I could not really give them an answer. Maybe, Life Herself?

Looking to the southwest, I see a full moon hanging just above the horizon and remember what the Yellow Earth Ape Lord told me.

"Human female come on flying metal. Drops Blood Fruits. Eat and get strong. Don't eat and get eaten by the strong."

"When?"

"Every full moon."

Worming through the brush, I make my way through the ravine, until I reach a bowl-shaped valley. Several smaller valleys and gorges lead off from the bowl-shaped valley. The polluted stream flows from one of the ravines through the valley to the ravine where I am. In the middle of the valley several Goblins squat on the banks of the stream, while shitting in it. Downstream from the shitting Goblins, a few others, females, fill crude pots from the same stream.

The mouths of caves and tunnels dot the walls of the bowl-shaped valley, and groups of Goblins cluster around them. Most of the Goblins are naked, but a few have loincloths made from uncured, rotting hides. Many of them lazily nap in the late afternoon sun, but some fuck, while others brawl amongst themselves.

A number of females nurse litters of pups. Like pigs, the females have six teats each, but the have litters of eight or more pups fighting over those six teats. Goblin may be weak as shit, but only the strongest and most cunning of their species live to see adulthood.

In the area near a cluster of tunnels, thirteen exceptionally large Goblins sit around a fire. The smallest of them stands over one hundred twenty centimeters tall, decidedly on the bigger side for Goblins. The largest, probably the chief of the tribe, should be about my height, roughly one hundred and eighty centimeters, a truly massive Goblin. Looking at it, I have the impression the thing might have actually Coalesced to the First Circle, a miracle among miracles. In a fight, the monster would probably be a fair match for one of the more powerful Beastmen, such as an Orc or Hobgoblin.

While gesticulating at one another, the Goblins grunt and squeal like chimpanzees or pigs, a form of the Beast Language. From their broken argument, they seem to be planning a raid on another tribe of Goblins, 'weak ones' as they put it. Despite being just a Ferocious Beast, the Yellow Earth Ape Lord I killed was far more articulate than any of these Goblins, which does not surprise me. Goblins are about as stupid as you can get. They are cowardly, cunning, vicious, malicious, and bone fucking stupid.

Just estimating from the Goblins I can see, there should probably be a thousand total in the tribe, but depending on how many hunters are out, it could be more.

All thirteen of the large Goblins have a strong crimson glow in the back of their eyes, and faint wisps of smoke trail from the mouths, when they jabber at one another. Many of the rest of the Goblins, but still not even a quarter, have varying degrees of the same type of crimson glow in the backs of their eyes. The tribe should be in the process of being corrupted.

Why would the aunt be using these things? They can just barely be called sentient and cannot be relied on to carry out any complex tasks. Unless she overawed them with the use of Power, these Goblins would never see her as anything more than a target to be raped and killed. Besides that, I cannot imagine a noble, especially a female noble, holing up around such filthy Beastmen.

Digging into some thicker brush, I settle down to watch the Goblins.

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