Chapter XIII: Tracking an Airship

Demonic Wildlands Near the Great Plateau

Month of the Garuda 32, 172 ,328 DE

Whup. Whup. Whup. Whup.

As the faint sound reaches my ears, I look to the west, but all that I can see are the hills that surround the bowl-shaped valley outlined against the brilliantly starlit sky. In the valley, the light of the big moon shines down from near its zenith, turning it into a stark picture of light and dark.

More than a thousand Goblins stand in small groups or mill around. The tribe's chieftain and his henchmen stand in cluster near the center of the valley. No matter where they are or what they are doing, the Goblins keep tilting their heads back to look at the sky. From their twitchy mannerisms and their scents, the majority of them appear nervous.

Whup. Whup. Whup. Whup.

As the sounds grow louder, the Goblins hear them. With the way they jump and bounce around, they look like children expecting treats. At best, they could be called cruel, vicious, murderous children, but children all the same. Only the chieftain and his henchmen restrain themselves, but from their clenched fists and tensed muscles, they are just as excited and expectant as any of the Goblins.

After a few minutes a dirigible floats over a rocky hill at the west end of the valley. Sigils for strengthening and defense glow on the surface of the dark grey metal weave covering the rigid superstructure, which contains the gas bags. Mixed in with the sigils I can comprehend, a few sigils, which I cannot identify, glow with polychromatic light. As two large propellers sticking out the back of the gondola stop spinning, the whupping sound ceases, and the airship's speed slows.

As the airship nears the center of the valley, a hatch in the bottom of the gondola opens, and ten bushel baskets fall to the floor of the valley. When they hit the ground, round, faintly glowing fruits the size of grapefruit bounce into the air. Are those the Blood Fruit the Yellow Earth Ape told me about?

As the Goblins scramble for the fruits, multiple pitched melees erupt. The strong Goblins beat down the weak and stuff the fruits into their mouths. After eating just one or two fruits, the skins of most of the Goblins glow with a faint crimson luminescence, and they collapse to the ground. The chieftain stuffs at least five into its maw before falling, and its henchmen eat four or five a piece.

With the stronger Goblins down, the weaker ones continue to fight over the fruits. With a total of maybe five hundred of the fruits and many Goblins eating more than one, less than a quarter of the tribe manages to get one. The strong get stronger, and the weak become prey.

Whup. Whup. Whup. Whup.

After dropping the fruit, the airship's propellers start spinning, and it turns its nose toward the northeast. The airship flies faster than a common human can run. A Martial Artist at the peak of Body Tempering could match its speed but would not be able to do so for an extended period of time. Luckily, I am a Great Wolf; I can run faster and longer than a mere human.

Grabbing my loincloth and weapon belt in my mouth, I burst into the bowl-shaped valley and race for the north end. Another ravine, this one not so choked with brush, exits between two rocky hills. I have already covered half the distance before the Goblins notice me, but they are too slow to even close before I enter the ravine.

Passing through the ravine, I follow the airship through the rocky hills. Once it reaches the thicker woods north of the hills, I can only track it by the sound of its propellers.

Along the way, I encounter Ferocious Beasts, as I pass through their territories. The strongest are a couple Striped Forest Cats, which have barely reached the First Circle of Coalescence. Whether alone or in groups, none of the Ferocious Beasts have the will to contest my passage. They all back down and make way for me.

The longer I run, the more I feel the warmth of Trinity flowing through my Body and continually strengthening my muscles and bones. As yet, I cannot control Trinity to Coalesce my Power, but as it flows within me, it still brings me great benefits. Even though the changes are barely noticeable, my muscles slowly strengthen, and my endurance almost imperceptibly increases.

After a bit more than an hour, I catch the scents of Yellow Earth Apes. Some have the sour stench of Chaos corruption in the scents, but others still remain uncorrupted. Like the other Ferocious Beasts, the Apes lack the will or courage to challenge me. The ones that I find along my path quickly scramble to get out of my way.

Even if the Yellow Earth Apes lack the will to challenge me, they number in the thousands, perhaps the tens of thousands. Their territory spans an area several hundred kilometers north to south, and I have never gone past its eastern boundary. With their sheer numbers, I grow to my full size, just in case I run into something like another Lord Class Beast among them. I am not here to fight with the Apes, and since I have killed one Lord from their species, there is a better chance of another backing down, if I am at my full size and strength.

Around fifty kilometers into the territory of the Yellow Earth Apes, the noise from the airship's propellers dies out. As I reach a grassy area surrounding a hill with few trees on it, I see a group of close to two thousand Apes. Some of them have the stench of Chaos corruption about them, while others remain clean, but whatever their condition, all of the Apes stare up into the sky at the drifting airship.

The front walls of the dirigible's gondola open up, and a human woman in a long dress looks down upon the Apes. Her midnight sets off the snowy pale skin of her face. She looks to be barely into her twenties, and her beauty would probably cause men to fight to possess her. If she is Vorn's aunt, they bear no familial resemblance to one another.

Ten bushel baskets of the red fruit drop from the hatch in the bottom of the airship's gondola, and as with the Goblins, the Yellow Earth Apes charge toward them and wild melees ensue. The strongest Apes, who already bear the stigma of Chaos corruption, get the most fruit, but they do not get all of it. After the already corrupted Apes collapse, some of the stronger uncorrupted Apes also get the fruit and become corrupted, like the others.

There can be no doubt these fruits are what the Yellow Earth Ape Lord called Blood Fruit, but I still have no idea what kind of fruit they really are. I have never seen anything that looks quite like them before.

Once all the fruits have been consumed by the Yellow Earth Apes, the woman begins to draw glowing grey lines in the air in front of her. It resembles a sigil, but I do not recognize the purpose of the pattern elements. Spends almost five minutes creating the pattern, and when she finally seems to have completed it, her already snowy skin appears entirely bloodless. Whatever that spell may be, it took everything she had just to create the pattern.

This is my fist time seeing the work of an actual Caster. Old Man Jones claims to be unable to cast spells, and I have yet to pick up the knack for it. The Sigils we use in our Engineering and other crafting are technically spells, but we cannot cast them like the woman is doing. We need a medium to bind the patterns to, but Old Man Jones says the ancient War Masters had real Casters, who cast those spells with no more than a thought.

I have seen advanced Martial techniques that Old Man Jones calls "half-assed imitation spells", but with my Mana, Psi, and Ki fusing with my Body, Mind, and Soul, I cannot even use something like a Martial technique. What the woman just did bears only a passing resemblance to those Martial techniques I have seen. If the pattern of the woman's spell were a textbook, the pattern of the martial techniques of Cultivators would be the scribbles or a child learning to write in comparison.

Taking out a red crystal with a corona of polychromatic light surrounding it, the woman touches it to the cent of her spell pattern. The light around the crystal dims, and the grey lines of the pattern flare with the same polychromatic light as the crystal. Flipping to a horizontal orientation, the pattern floats to a position under the airship and expands. After growing to a large enough size to encompass all the corrupted Yellow Earth Apes, the pattern descends to the ground. Halos of the polychromatic light momentarily surround the heads of the corrupted Apes, before shrinking and disappearing withing the Apes' skulls.

Whup. Whup. Whup. Whup.

Once more, the airship's propellers engage, and the airship turns to the southeast.

I have no clue what the woman did with that spell, but all my instincts tell me that nothing good will come of it. I remember some of the elements of that spell pattern. If I show them to Old Man Jones, he might have some idea of its purpose.

I continue following the airship, and it leaves the territory of the Yellow Earth Apes. After a while, it enters the territories of another type of Beastman, the Lizard Men. Scales cover their more or less human-like bodies. Their had look sort of like a cross between an alligator's and human's, and thick tails, as long as they are tall, stretch out behind them. As with the Goblins, many of the have the crimson glow in their eyes, and they fight over the Blood Fruits.

Unlike with the Yellow Earth Apes, the woman does not cast any spells this time.

After the Lizard Men, I follow the airship into territory controlled by Steel Fang Hyenas, for another drop of Blood Fruit. No matter the particular species, Beast or common animal, anything remotely originating from hyenas are nasty, vicious creatures. They are cowardly that surround lone prey in packs, and even if the prey is weaker, they distract it and make sneak attacks from behind. Like the common animals they are related to, the Steel Fang Hyenas are a matriarchal species.

Not long after I enter their territory, more than thirty Steel Fang Hyenas surround me, yipping and baying. With fangs that gleam like smooth, grey steel, they stand about two-third my height at the shoulder, but other than their bites, their strength pales in comparison to my own. The leader of the pack stares at me, and a faint glow burns in the depths of its eyes.

Without giving them thy Steel Fang Hyenas a chance to start their bait and backbite games, I identify the pack leader and charge straight at it. As it tries to snap at my neck, I bite down on its own muzzle. My teeth shear through its flesh and bone as though they are nothing more than paper. With distorted mewling sounds coming from its ruined face, the pack leader staggers backward, and slamming into it with bone-breaking force, my shoulder sends it flying.

Spitting out the corrupted wreckage of the Steel Fang Hyena's muzzle, I spin to my left and sink my teeth into the throat of another Hyena, crushing its windpipe and tearing apart the veins. Behind me, the teeth of a third Hyena snap closed on empty air, barely missing my left leg. Whipping around, I launch the Hyena in my jaws at the one that tried to bite me, knocking it down, and before it manages to scramble back to its feet, I sink my teeth into its throat and rip it out.

"GRRRR!"

As I growl and stare at the rest of the Hyenas, they tremble and back down. Turning their heads, they slink away without losing sight of me until the foliage blocks me from their view.

With a more pronounced warmth of Trinity flowing through me, I take a few moments to focus my awareness on my Body. Even though the effects are still slow, the strengthening of my Body seems to have accelerated slightly with just this little scuffle. If I kept up activity like this and the effects of Trinity remained roughly consistent, I could double my strength in about a month.

Continuing to follow the airship, I watch it drop more Blood Fruit and observe as hundreds of Steel Fang Hyena's tear one another apart for the chance to eat even a single fruit. Fruit is not particularly high the list of desirable foods for any kind of hyena, which just shows how attractive the Chaos corruption in the Blood Fruit is to Ferocious Beasts.

Once again, after the airship drops the fruit, the woman does not cast any spells.

After leaving the Steel Fang Hyena's territory, the airship enters the territory of more Beastmen, Hyena Men, more commonly called Gnolls. Even though they are Beastmen, the Gnolls senses are far inferior to a real hyena of any stripe; they never notice my presence in their territory.

As dawn starts to break, I watch another Blood Fruit drop and another bloody fight. But once more, the woman does not cast any spells.

With the clouds in the eastern sky turning pink with the rising sun, the airship turns back toward the Great Plateau and picks up speed. I continue to follow along behind. Since I stay mostly hidden beneath the trees, I track it by the sound of its propellers. It travels at about one and a half times the velocity it was moving during the night. I am near my limits, but I still keep pace with it. I could run faster for a short sprint, but I can barely maintain this speed over such a long distance.

When I pass by ponds and streams, I only stop long enough for a drink. At the very least, I want to know where the airship enters the Great Plateau and its direction of travel.

Around mid-morning, we near the Great Plateau, and returning to my human form, I climb to the top of the tallest tree in the area. As I watch the airship disappear from view behind the Eastern Escarpment, I identify landmarks and its direction of travel.

No matter how much I rush, the airship would be long gone by the time I reach the top of the Escarpment, so I take the time to hunt. Finding a lone Giant Copper Viper slithering through the brush along the edge of a glade, I halt and scan the area for other Ferocious Beasts.

The snakes mottled verdigris and copper scales blend into the background far too well. If I had not caught wind of its scent, I might not have seen it until I was right on top of it. The snake's eight meter length marks it immaturity. Adults run sixteen meters or more in length. As a youngling, its venom will not be as potent as an adult, but I still would not want to be bitten by it. Even though it would not kill me, I would be sick for several days or more.

I try to sneak up on it as best I can, but the snake senses my presence when I am still more than thirty meters away. Coiling up,. the snake raises its head and stares at me, while testing my scent with its tongue.

"Hissssss!"

Streaking toward me, the Giant Copper Viper rears back its head and strikes. As I spin to the side, I put two deep gashes in the snakes body with my Bowie knives, but with the snake's tough scales, I do not cut entirely through it.

The snake twists into a coil and sprays poison at my face. I dodge to the side, but the poison still tingles on my skin. The poison of Giant Copper Vipers possesses highly destructive properties against the nerves of its prey, and even with simple contact, it affects the nerves closest to the skin.

As the Giant Copper Viper strikes again, I duck under its head and bury one knife through its lower jaw into its snout. The other knife, I punch through its skull. Once the snakes struggles cease, I find a stream to wash off its poison. Just the little I absorbed through my skin will not be enough to cause me problems, but I still do not want to leave it on myself.

Butchering the snake, I carve out some of the choicer portions of its meat and consume them raw. Seasoned and cooked meat tastes better, but I do not dislike my meat raw, even meat as bland as snake. I will never understand the disdain humans have for raw meat. Depending on the Ferocious Beast, cooking can ruin the nutritional value of the meat.

With a full belly, I find a path to the top of the Escarpment. The airship is long gone, but I climb a taller tree to get the lay of the land.

Tall hills and rocky ridges dot the landscape. I recognize my location, and there are hundreds of valleys and hollows in a fifty kilometer radius where an airship like the one I saw could be hidden. Several large ruins lie within a hundred to two hundred kilometers of my current location. Sometime before the founding of the Heian Kingdom, and long before the construction of Shizukana Gake, there was a fairly large country in this part of the Great Plateau, and a few of its mostly stone cities still have usable buildings. Could the aunt be based out of one?

On the off chance that the aunt's base is nearby, I spend some time searching the ravines and valleys for signs of human activity, but other than an unused Beast hunter camp, I find nothing. To locate the aunt's bolt hole, we will have to conduct a coordinated search of the area.

With the sun halfway to the horizon, I turn north, toward Shizukana Gake.

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