“Well this is a problem…” Rose muttered, rubbing the white and grey feathers under his chin while considering his options. “We’re surrounded you say?”

“Pretty much. At least from what my mana pulse tells me. It’s almost as if Mayheir city had been allowed to grow within their territory as a pet or a plaything,” Kina reaffirmed what Rose just said.

The 2 had been moving through the forest at a fast pace ever since leaving the city walls. The immediate boundary of forest from the walls seemed pretty safe, with regular patrol squads and plenty of adventurer parties. Mining activities were carried out within 20km from the wall and there was frequent traffic from the mine shafts to the wall gates. Kina and Rose encountered plenty of friendly adventurers who had taken jobs as security detail for the mine shafts and the transport cargos.

However, once past the 20km mark, the forest became considerably thicker as few people ventured this far. Guard patrol groups became non-existent and adventurers became far and few between, none of which were friendly. They all minded their own business, hoping to finish their task as soon as possible. And hence, the journey continued at a leisurely pace for Rose and Kina, on which they found themselves in this difficult situation on the 3rd day past the safety margin.

“How many of them are there?” Rose questioned, his hands grasping his daggers tightly.

“Ahaha..” Kina laughed nervously, “I don’t think you’d want to know. And they are not alone. It looks like they have been amassing swarmlings for quite some time, probably preparing for an attack soon.”

Staring straight ahead, the forest could no longer be seen. It was shrouded in a thick deathly purple mist that roiled and churned as if it was alive. Kina and Rose hesitated, before shrugging their shoulders in defeat. There is nothing they could do other than move forwards. Kina slammed her blood sword down into the ground, channelling all her mana into the sword. Gripping the handle tightly, she looked at the miasma fiercely.

With a single word, a swirling tube of wind gradually picked up speed from within the purple mist. It sucked the poison miasma from the surrounding regions, quickly becoming a natural disaster sized purple cyclone. It continued to suck in all the poison gas like a spool reeling in thread. Rose had reacted fast enough to also grab the blood sword, barely avoiding being sucked up by the tornado. The spell rose up towards the clouds, where it began spewing the poison mist into the air high above. The mist masked the red glow of the moon, giving it and even more eerie look.

Pointing her finger up towards the slowly descending cloud of purple toxic gas, Kina cast another spell.

The tornado lost its power almost instantly, the swirling vortex continuing its motion from inertia. The winds changed direction as a strong wind carried the mist deeper into the land, away from the city.

Rose was dumbfounded, not by the spell or the destruction to the forestry it caused, but by something even more disgusting. When the mist had cleared, it revealed what was hidden within. The entire forest, or what used to be a forest was crawling and wriggling like a sea of legs. There, no more than 50 metres in front of them, was a sea of 4 legged spider things. These were the swarmlings. They were each about the size of a large dog, with varying hues of brown, grey and silver. There was even the occasional glint of gold under the moonlight.

The swarmlings had only 1 body section, with 4 sharp legs protruding from the body at equal distances. There was a pair of eyes between each leg, giving it 8 eyes spread around the perimeter of the round body. Kina could spot the occasional underside of the belly, where there was a gaping hole lined with sharp fangs. The swarm had yet to spot them, minding their own business as they continued to crawl around with no discernible order.

“So I assume the broodmother is buried under this grotesque mass somewhere?” Rose asked, tilting his head to whisper to Kina while keeping his eyes locked on the swarm.

“Yea,” Kina whispered back, not wanting to provoke the swarm any more than she already had. “it is underground, according to my mana pulse.”

“What!?” Rose couldn’t help but exclaim in a hushed voice. “So this creepy crawling mound that is twice my height is made up of these things only? And we still have to dig the broodmother out after?”

“Unfortunately, yes,” Kina whispered back. “Any ideas on how to approach this?”

“They look like they are made of metal, why not try to melt them?” Rose suggested.

“And what if that fails?” Kina questioned.

“Please. Do you think I was born yesterday? I’ve seen you cast god defying lightning and wind magic. Do you really expect me to believe you don’t have a fire version that is just as nonsensically powerful?” Rose quipped.

“pfttt…” Kina stifled a laugh, not wanting to disturb the swarm. “I do, but what I meant was, what if it destroys the broodmother blood as well?”

“Didn’t you say there were many of them? If we do end up destroying this, then we can just go to another one and try another method.”

“Nah.. I’m too lazy to go find another one, let’s just go with the safe option. I’ll try a little lightning, see if I can get some nicely arc-fried swarmlings, while paralysing the broodmother,” Kina muttered, stretching her arms and cracking her fingers, giving off distinct popping sounds.

*Thud!... Crrraccckkkk…. BOOOM!*

“Uhh. Was that you?” Rose asked with a confused look. Kina looked back at him with an equally confused look, shaking her head in denial.

The ground shook with each thud. The sound of trees cracking could be heard as the sound got closer. Whatever was approaching them was definitely not small. Despite the shaking, the swarm did not seem to be bothered, continuing to crawl around in their mini hill.

*CHOMP!*

“Uh.. what?” Kina uttered unknowingly, watching the scene unfold before her.

Then from within the darkness of the forest, a massive jaw extended, snapping shut and taking a bite out of the mound of swarmlings. A nasty chewing sound could be heard as the monster stepped out from within the darkness, completely ignoring the swarmlings that were going bat-shit-crazy and attacking it. As it continued to munch on the swarmlings, it’s giant body began to shine, as if absorbing the swarmlings it ate.

A little larger than a full grown elephant, this giant lizard was growing spikes and scales as it continued to eat. The swarmlings could not damage its scales even the slightest bit. The more it ate, the more ferocious it looked. The giant lizard turned its head to look at Kina and Rose, its sharp yellow eyes locking onto them. Then, without any indication of hostility, it turned and left, causing the swarm to follow behind it, trying to deal as much damage as possible.

“The enemy of my enemy is my friend?” Rose asked nervously, secretly glad that the lizard, for whatever reason had chosen not to attack them.

“No… I don’t think so,” Kina replied hesitantly. “But at least this makes out job easier. Let’s just quickly dig this broodmother out and collect its blood.”

Another unreasonable spell was cast by Kina as a giant spike made from earth, stone and metal protruded from underground. It had failed to penetrate the broodmother’s carapace, but had forced the gigantic spider up above ground. As it scrambled to orientate itself after having been yanked rudely from its resting spot, Kina quickly wrapped the spider up with her mana threads. Manipulating the threads, she easily broke off one leg of the broodmother, causing it to release an ear piercing screech.

Spitting out more of the toxic miasma through pores on its back, Rose came in with the assist, casting a wind spell quickly to drive the gas away before it could get near them. With the leg broken off, Kina quickly retrieved the vials and started collecting the blood. However, after only 3 vials, the wound quickly healed over, with the blood no longer dripping from the broken off leg.

Left with no other choice, Kina continued to break off segments of legs all throughout the night. The blood was thick and flowed slowly. By dawn, the broodmother was on the verge of death, crying pitifully for Kina to end it. 24 leg segments lay strewn over the forest floor as Kina wiped the sweat off her brow, filling and stoppering the last vial.

She had no choice but to keep the broodmother alive to make sure the blood continued to flow out. Once she was done though, she snapped the neck of the large spider, putting it out of its misery. Rose was about to doze off, having stayed awake and alert all night, fearing that the broodmother’s screams might attract the swarmlings from neighbouring broodmothers. The constant shaking of the ground was a reminder that the giant lizard was still lurking around nearby, and that it could return and decide to attack for no reason.

In the end, they managed to complete the request without much difficulty. They did not even have to fight the swarm. Walking back the way they came from, Rose and Kina quickened their steps along the way. The demons were gathering a large force right outside the city and they could attack anytime soon. This was news that needed to be delivered with utmost urgency. Despite that, Rose was vehemently against teleportation, since it did not sit well with his alcohol. As such, they simply ran back towards the city.

It had been a week since Kina and Rose departed from the city gates before they finally returned. The security at the gates was lax as usual. It would seem that Mayheir was not prone to bandit strikes. Everyone had a common enemy and was focused on working together to survive rather than benefitting off each other. Kina had personally witnessed adventurers putting their lives on the line to protect the transports from the mines that they randomly come across.

“Oh back again so soon miss? Couldn’t find what you were looking for?” A guard called out when he saw the signature blood red sword.

“Nah, it took me a week but I found it. Just about to head back to the alchemists association,” Kina replied cheerfully, a little surprised that the guard remembered her after only one meeting.

“A week? Ahaha little miss, you really know how to joke. Well, good luck then. I’ll be expecting to see your name up on the highscores list soon,” the guard laughed heartily, before signalling for his men to raise the heavy gate.

“Joke?” Rose whispered to kina, confused as to why the guard thought it was a joke. Kina simply shook her head too, just as confused at the guard’s reply.

The request slip from the alchemists association gave them entry into the central district easily. By late afternoon, Kina finally handed the slip to the coordinator within the association, followed by the 50 vials of broodmother blood. Rose then lifted his cloth sack and placed it on the counter with a loud thud. Inside, was a single leg segment from the broodmother as proof. The coordinator stared at the leg in disbelief, and then at the 50 vials, before quickly dashing into the ‘employees only’ room behind him.

Within minutes, a middle-aged man who looked to be in his late forties came out with the coordinator. He was of a lanky build, wore a vest and a coat, and had a bandanna over his head. He smiled warmly, slowly making his way to the counter. He first picked up the leg, and then inspected the vials of blood arranged on the counter.

“This is indeed broodmother blood.. and 50 vials of it no less. Well young lady, what is your name? You have just sky rocketed to the top of our contributor’s list,” he spoke firmly.

“My name is Kina. Kina Trishen.”

“I see. So you are the famous blood maiden that has been the hot topic amongst the city wall guards. Well then, my name is Mempheus. I’m the head of the Alchemists Association and this request was put up by me personally. I thank you for finally completing this request. As promised, I will arrange for fifty thousand gold to be submitted to you. Your current points now stand at twenty five thousand. Congratulations, you made it to the top spot. I will make all the necessary arrangements, but if you could come back in 2 days, that would be great. We will arrange for you to be promoted to a noble status and you will be given your own private property within the central district,” Mempheus explained, quickly collecting the vials and returning to the back room, leaving the leg segment on the counter for the coordinator to dispose of it.