Tower of Ancients

by Jaeger Mitchells

  “I need you two to organize sanitary pits and have Harlan and his wife come up with a blueprint. Cease any efforts on getting the barracks made. For now, this will be the priority of eighty percent of our people. Have Slayer work out his frustration with the rest and work on providing shelter.”

  “My Lord, we’ll get right to it.”

  “Good. Check in with Harlan before you do anything. Don’t waste energy on needless things.”

  “I think we should do it at the edge of the forest or somewhere outside,” Stalker commented. “If we ruin the water, we’ll be swimming in shit. Literally.”

  “Then make sure you don’t. I’ll be going out with Dimas to get rid of the snake while you take care of business over here. Even if we don’t come back for a couple of days, don’t come looking for us.”

  “My Lord? Why would you say such a thing?” Stalker asked. He was confused, I could see as much, but it had to be. The monster shouldn’t be able to kill us no matter what, so even if we got wounded and needed to recover over a couple of days, they shouldn’t worry.

  “You never know what might go wrong. Anyway, make sure you guys do your best to get set up in this place. I can see us staying here for a while.”

  Their faces lit up as the mere mention of settling in. For a Human or a Hybrid, this was almost heaven so it wasn’t as strange to see them like the place. Hell, if I were still one of them I would have probably liked the place too despite being near the Beastmen border.

  “Will do,” Sentinel said with a grin. “Thank you for thinking of us and our future, my Lord.”

  I coughed inwardly and winced. I wasn’t doing it for them, I was doing it for myself. Rennes was quite the catch if I may say so, but it all depended on what the sisters would do. I wasn’t risking them over ten Rennes’.

  “Oh, and another thing. I didn’t notice a real smithy or a marketplace. Set those things up along with a storage once enough sleeping space has been constructed.”

  The two nodded and ran off, doing my bidding.

  I could see Calina milling about from the corner of my eye. Who knew what passed through her mind, but the way she stared at me from behind the horse bothered me. I decided to nip the problem in the bud, so I walked over to her and put my arm around Calina’s shoulder.

  “Do you really want to lower yourself to something worth less than you are now, Calina? For now, you’re my sister, but if you want to take the next step, you’ll be my lover or my sex slave. Do you really want to exchange your status and become worth much less?”

  I knew she wouldn’t want to change the life she had now. Calina must have imagined something totally different from the way I used to be with Alara, but no more. No more Humans and no more pussyfooting around. From now on I would have my women with me and I’d make sure to use them to our mutual pleasure.

  “No, I guess you’re right, Lord Raziel. But since it’s already out there, what if I change my mind? Can we make the next step?”

  “That depends on you and your brother, but I don’t think he’d like it.”

  “Thanks for being open and honest with me. I’ve been wanting to—.”

  “I know, and now you know why I’ve been avoiding the topic. Alright? Now, drink from me and go have a rest. Your body will start readjusting unlike with the small dosages I’ve been feeding you. Go find Slayer once I’ve fed you, alright?”

  She nodded, obviously slightly fearful of the process. It was nothing to be afraid of, but becoming something new and more than you’ve ever been mustn’t be easy. At least it wasn’t for me. Even after waking up with superhuman power.

  “Thank you, my Lord.”

  That was it. She didn’t say anything else and just stood there, waiting for me to feed her. I slit my wrist open and pressed it against her mouth. She coughed violently, wanting to throw up, but I pulled her head back and forced it down her throat. A strange sensation washed over me. I turned more than a dozen of Humans so far, but it was never like this, so spontaneous and honest.

  Finally, I let go after a good ten seconds passed and she had enough. She spat and coughed when I let go. I steadied her and waited until it had passed before I let go of her.

  “Go find Slayer or just lay down somewhere, alright?”

  She nodded and stumbled direction where the first barracks were being erected.

  “Quite a benevolent Lord if I may say so,” Dimas said as he appeared from the shadows. Shit. Either I was becoming rusty or he was just too good.

  “I try to be. It’s a better thing for people to love than fear you. They’ll lay down their lives and follow orders much easier.”

  “Oh? Is that all there is to it?”

  I shrugged.

  “What else do you want to hear?” I asked.

  “That you care for them. I think you try to act colder than you are. But that’s none of my business.”

  “Perhaps. I rather not go into detail if it’s alright with you, Dimas.”

  He winked and appeared only two feet next to me, using that thing he loved to when disappearing.

  “I’m ready if you are. And from the look, you are. Come, let’s find ourselves a snake to grill over the fire pits.”

  “You’re rather excited about all of this,” I mused.

  “Aren’t you? I never run from a good fight, especially when it’s a possibility to gain a monster core for my trouble.”

  “I see. So that’s why you want to join me.”

  “Oh? Don’t tell me that you’re interested in it as well, Raziel?”

  “I am. But if it’s you, I wouldn’t mind giving it away if I can get the rest. Including any crystal it might have.”

  Dimas laughed as he stepped in closer and patted me on the shoulder.

  “I like you, Raziel. You’re straightforward in a time when most people aren’t. I can respect that.”

  “Likewise, Dimas. But tell me, why do you want it?”

  “Trade secret,” he laughed. “I’ll tell you if we survive.”

  That didn’t sound very assuring. Whatever, it wasn’t the first time I took on a beast of that category. We’d have to wait and see, though he really did get me all curious. Cores were mostly used in enhancing one's power, especially magical powers. Did he want it for his family?

  I turned to the gate and approached the black-bearded bandit who came to get us.

  “What’s your name?” I asked, wanting to put a name to his face.

  “Graves, my Lord. What can I do for you?”

  “Graves? How peculiar.”

  “Yes, my Lord. It is usually me who digs a grave for our deceased so they started calling me Graves. Before that I was Black-Beard.”

  I see. Now, can you tell me where the viper sleeps? She mentioned something—.”

  “Just follow the river and you’ll find it. The cavern is located where the river forks. Though it’s pretty active during the day, you might find it lurking in the vicinity.”

  “Alright. Talk to Rennes about our agreement, then have all your people help my people with whatever they can. Will you do that?”

  Graves frowned but nodded slightly. He was obviously afraid to insult me, which was a good thing.

  “Well then, Raziel,” Dimas growled low. “What the hell are we still waiting for?”

  Chapter Twenty

  The river grew slowly wider as we moved further along, following the viper’s trail. It was too hard not to notice the deep gashes and indentations in the soil and sand. An odd thing was the presence of what looked like skin and pieces of bone.

  “What do you make of this?” I asked as we stopped a mile out. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard them throwing up their prey’s remains randomly.”

  Dimas knelt and poked at the bone with his claws. The tip went straight through.

  “I’m not so sure that these belong to whatever it ate,” he whispered. “And I’m not so sure that I want to hunt this thing any longer.”

  I frowned, not sure what might have changed his
thoughts. Sure, the sponge-like bone meant something strange was going on, but nothing beyond that.

  “Why’s that?” I asked curiously.

  “Because this type of bone isn’t something you normally see. I’m not sure where I’ve heard about them, but I do remember someone mentioning it was a sign of danger.”

  “Worst case we run. Unless your pride doesn’t allow you to retreat from a hunt.”

  Dimas burst out in laughter and got up again.

  “Young Raziel, I’m far from too prideful, but there are things greater than us Vampires, and quite a few at that.”

  “Alright, let’s retreat then. We’ll get more people and we set out again.”

  “No, I’m not endangering anyone else. You and I are seeing this through, no matter what.”

  I sighed and unsheathed my sword, making sure I wasn’t caught off guard. We moved along past the farmland, but there was no one out here during this time of day I guessed, or they had been eaten already.

  The deep lines covered more and more of the soil the further we moved in as if the viper was marking the territory on purpose. No animal sounds could be heard, not even bird song, no life sources, and no—nothing. It was only natural I guessed as such a ferocious predator made short work out of anything on its territory. But how was it able to survive on such small quantities of food?

  “We’re about two miles off from the fork I think,” Dimas said, breaking the silence. “I don’t feel anything in half a mile radius for now. It’s probably sleeping or out hunting.”

  “I sure hope so. If it is, we can end it without much trouble.”

  “Pray to whatever Gods you believe in, young Raziel, but there’s no such thing as a free meal. Trust me, I know.”

  I sighed, knowing what he was on about. For every free meal, as he put it, you had two you had to pay for.

  “Do we battle it inside the cave or draw it out first? I don’t want to mess up whatever you’ve already thought of.”

  “I’ll go in and wake it up, then you attack it once we’re out. I don’t see how we’re supposed to fight it in such a narrow space. At least not efficiently.”

  Sure, I knew as much, but the way I saw it was if we had the drop on it, why not go for a kill? I was strong enough to cut through anything but stone, and only because it was way too thick for my blade. Why not go right for the head or the eyes and disable it?

  “What’s with this strange feeling?” I asked. “Do you feel it too?”

  Dimas nodded and started moving again, but much slower than before.

  “It’s as if someone’s watching us, stalking our every move.”

  He eyed the riverbank and forest’s edge over and over again, but I could see he wasn’t picking anything up. I ran past him and entered the forest. I could see over half a mile up ahead, but there was nothing as far as the eye could see. Dimas caught up and hissed.

  “What the hell are you doing?”

  “I can’t shake this goddamn feeling!” I cursed. “It’s as if death looms overhead.”

  “That’s why you can’t move like that. If the creature is indeed watching us, it will know we figured it out.”

  I sighed and nodded.

  “I’m sorry, but I have never been as nervous as today. All my instincts are screaming at me to stop and turn back.”

  “Yeah, same here,” he replied and started moving back toward the riverbank.

  Minute by minute passed as we crept up on the viper’s cavern. The fork in the river could be seen up ahead, some half a mile in the distance, but there was still no sign of the thing.

  Dimas put his hand up, balled in a fist, and stopped. I followed his order and knelt. The cavern was up ahead and it was enormous. From what I could guess, the opening was easily two-hundred feet tall and wide. It was as if a giant monster had carved the place out for themselves.

  He picked up a pebble and threw it at the entrance. The small, round piece of stone struck the inner wall and rolled inside. We waited, but the snake never came out. He took another and threw it even harder. I could hear the pebble strike the wall and clatter on before it suddenly stopped, hitting something soft.

  “Get ready,” Dimas growled, pressing a button around his wrists which made the claws around his wrists come together and move in place. Shit, now that was something Harlan needed to study if Dimas allowed us.

  We ran up to the cavern and stopped just outside. Dimas peeked in and disappeared into the darkness as I waited for the ruckus to begin. But it never did.

  “What the fuck?” I heard him yell. “Come see this!”

  I turned around to see if anything was there before I followed him. A gut-wrenching stench of death hit my nostrils as soon as I entered, though it shouldn’t bother me much as I was a Vampire, but for some reason, it did, and badly at that.

  Skeletal remains were strewn all over the place, mostly digested, but some still had flesh and meat on them. Maggots the size of fists crawled around, digesting whatever was left for them. The scene was nothing short of Lefrand’s court. At least that’s what it reminded me of.

  I looked around, searching for Dimas and finally spotted him standing near a mass of a strange substance. What the hell was that gooey stuff?

  “This isn’t good, Raziel. We need to get out of here and prepare for something much worse than a Three-Horned Viper. I’m sure the viper isn’t what it used to be, not anymore.”

  “What do you mean? Something worse ate it?” I asked, not quite getting what he meant. I hadn’t heard about creatures in these regions that were much worse than a viper, so what could have rattled him so much?

  “No, not something else. Look at this stuff. It’s highly acidic and I think that it’s the viper’s dissolved skin and bone. It has evolved into its next stage if I’m not mistaken. This shit is no longer something we can take on without any real preparations.”

  “I thought that it couldn’t go past three horns,” I said, thinking back to my sources. Then again, the books I read weren’t complete and very old, so who knew when they were written?

  “It can become two things from here on out, and neither are good,” he growled.

  “What the fuck are you on about? Speak, Dimas!”

  Something alike goosebumps ran all over my body, but it shouldn’t be possible. Could Vampires even feel fear? Sure, we felt battle-lust, but never fear.

  “Either a Death-Wyrm or a Poison-Drake. I don’t know which one is worse.”

  I stood there, trying to understand what he just said, but those words were meaningless to me. I’d never heard of them. The words death and poison, however, didn’t sound all too good.

  “What the hell are those?”

  “They’re not that different but for their attributes and size. A Wyrm is an eight to twelve-limbed creature about the size of the Three-Horned Viper. It releases pure death that can easily kill anyone if they inhale it. Nature dies, waters get polluted, and life stops to exist wherever a DeathWyrm shows up.”

  “That doesn’t sound good. How rare are they?”

  “Very rare. I haven’t seen one in my lifetime of over twelve-hundred years. A Drake isn’t as rare and dangerous, so we’d be incredibly lucky if it turned into one.”

  “Isn’t that a type of Dragon? Those things that live far to the North?”

  “Yeah, but this is different. The Drakes are four-legged creatures without wings, though quite large. Their skin is tough as stone and they can have all kinds of shitty attributes. I don’t think a viper could evolve into an elemental one, though. So most likely it doesn’t have an element or it’s a poison one.”

  “So those things are the only ones it can turn into?”

  “Yeah, as far as I—shit, no, there’s a third kind. It can become a Basilisk as well.”

  I cursed inwardly, having heard about those bastards. They were called the King of Serpents wherever they appeared. I never faced one, but from the tales that were passed down, they were nasty creatures.

  “I’
ve heard about them. Nasty bastards from what the books say.”

  “Trust me, it would be the best option out of all if we encountered one.”

  I sighed inwardly and cursed some more. Dimas turned around and opened his mouth to speak again, but remained like that, frozen as his eyes grew wide. A stench of death, far worse than what was already present made its way up my nostrils. I could feel a chill run down my spine from the look on his face.

  “It’s behind me, isn’t it?”

  He nodded barely noticeable. I tried to remain calm even though every part of me screamed to run or to turn around and see what we were about to face.

  “Slowly,” he whispered, “Hide behind me.”

  “No. What is it? A Wyrm?”

  He shook his head.

  “How rude of you, little Vampire,” a voice boomed inside my mind. “I’m not a stinking Wyrm, I’m a Basilis!”

  I finally turned around but honestly wishing I hadn’t. The damn thing looked like a creature that nightmares were made of. It had a thick, fifteen-foot-thick body covered in glistening scales. Along the back were two rows of sharp, blade-like growths arrayed all along its sixty-feet-long body. Two rows of head-sized poison-green marbles stared down at me, blinking as if trying to see me better.

  “And you can even speak,” I replied, not quite knowing how to respond otherwise. This was something unheard of. At least from all the books I’ve read.

  “No, I can’t. I can project my thoughts to your minds like I’m doing now. But enough about me, why don’t we talk about you?”

  “Don’t listen to the thing. It doesn’t wish us well!” Dimas growled, taking up a fighting stance. To our luck, or so I thought, they didn’t start brawling right away.

  “What do you want to know, King of Serpents?”

  “Oh, it knows how to flatter. However, it won’t get you anywhere. Now, why don’t you tell me something? What are you doing in my home?”

  “Your home? Why are you attacking my servants? My people who have been living on these lands for decades?”

  “Decades? Hah!” it boomed, laughing dreadfully. “I’ve been here for over four hundred years! How dare you speak of your people and your land?”