Chapter Ten
After some ambush-free rest, the Party got back on the move.
They made it all of ten minutes before they were jumped by a massive grasshopper with a carapace of stone. Dent’s hammer smashed the monster’s skull to dust before anyone registered it was there. Sadly, it appeared that the grasshoppers were extremely territorial—and stupid.
Vester assumed the things survived by eating all the slime and fungus that grew on the wet stone and had likely been driven out of their territory by the goliath scorpions, but he failed to see how the beasts managed to live very long when their reaction to creatures approaching was to charge straight at them at full speed.
By the third hour of their journey the Party was heartily sick of the stupid things, and they gave thanks when the attacks finally stopped coming.
“So, what do we think will try to kill us next?” Krysta asked. She was walking next to Vester, their fingers entwined, though she kept glancing around to try and spot any attackers. The Hospitality Mage hadn’t had to fight at all so far and she was loving that. “Is this floor just bugs?”
“The blood elflings aren’t insects,” Li Ra pointed out.
The oni had her rifle balanced across her shoulder and her hat tipped back while she scanned the terrain.
The stone columns had grown to the point they rivaled buildings in thickness, and some rose over a hundred feet into the air. Li Ra made sure to look up frequently.
“Don’t they evolve into a half-bug at some point in their life?” Krysta’s question saw Li Ra cock her head in thought. “Those… bloodbloatians?”
“Bloovidian,” Kora corrected in a mild voice from the front. “According to Elondolin, those look like an elf growing from the waist up out of a goliath scorpion’s body. He also warned that the bloovidians are dumber and more violent than the blood elflings, so we have to keep that in mind.”
Because that doesn’t sound like a nightmare, Vester thought.
After all, who wouldn’t want to cuddle up to something the length of a car, with eight legs, two pincers, two arms, a tail, and an uncertain disposition.
But I’m sure they’re someone’s idea of beauty, and gods bless that lunatic… because they’re stronger than I am.
He let his head tip back, staring up at the ceiling, which was when he saw a huge shadow passing over them. Yet this wasn’t a titanbat—it was an airship. “Guys… look up,” he said, instinctively keeping his voice down in case the ship had deployed scouts.
It was hard to make out much of the vessel’s frame from below, but Vester saw hundreds of balloons forming a cushion, while eight long segments spread outward from the ship’s keel.
Something about the rigging reminded him of spiderwebs, especially since they were woven around the balloons to hold the lifting sacks in place beneath the ship.
“Is that… a flying spider?” Li Ra wondered, squinting to get a better look at it. “The keel is sculpted, and I think the entire thing might be made from chitin. That would explain the coloring… I’ll bet they used the exoskeletons of the goliath scorpions to craft it.”
“We’re all agreed that delvers didn’t build that down here, right?
” Vester asked, just to confirm. When they nodded, he sighed.
“So the blood elflings have airships? I knew going to the city was going to be an experience, but I didn’t think they’d be this advanced.
How far do you think we are from the central city? ”
“About three days’ travel,” announced a cold feminine voice from one of the pillars to their left.
Above them, clinging to the stone, were six scorpions.
The pitch-black arachnids had crimson highlights on their chitin, and Vester saw they were far slimmer than the goliath scorpions, with longer legs and a more traditional shape.
But what really caught his attention was the group riding atop the bugs.
Six women, all about five feet in height, each with flowing white hair, coal-black skin, and crimson eyes.
At first glance they appeared naked—and impossibly perky—then Vester picked out the black-and-crimson bikini tops as well as the coined belts and realized they were wearing the same armor he’d found for Reve.
The one in the middle, with blue highlights in her hair and the shiniest coin belt, was the one who had spoken. She tapped her mount and the scorpion descended farther down the stone pillar. “The question is whether we shall allow you to approach our city at all.”
Every woman had a metal tube held loosely in one arm, and if Vester hadn’t been from Earth he might not have immediately registered them as firearms. They didn’t have traditional stocks or grips—no, instead a loop of metal rose and wrapped around the women’s forearms, and their fingers were curled around some kind of bar near the bell-shaped muzzles.
Kora stepped up, her tails flicking, though she kept her shield lowered for the moment. “Is there a reason you wouldn’t?” she inquired. “We have heard your people are hospitable, and wise enough to realize how well women are suited to rule.”
While Vester found it irritating that he had to take a backseat when dealing with the elflings, they weren’t going to ignore Elondolin’s warning that the society was bloodthirsty and matriarchal, and that they looked at outsiders for potential slaves.
But the woman on the scorpion didn’t seem all that impressed by Kora’s attempts at diplomacy. The blood elfling’s lips peeled back in a sneer, revealing fangs, and she’d descended down enough that Vester could now see her eyes—which were crimson, compound orbs lacking eyelids of any kind.
“You think your kind is suited to rule?” the dungeon spawn asked in a haughty tone. The disdain was visible, and it remained locked on her face while she studied each member of Vester’s Party.
Until she got to Reve.
Reve was standing next to Skylar, who was astride Ripper, and when the elfling locked eyes on the bat-winged Avatar of Life her entire posture went rigid.
“Blood drinker!” she hissed. Her scorpion, reacting to the woman’s fear, backed up.
That caused the rest of the spawn’s group to descend and close ranks.
Reve flared her wings, swept them down to lift off, and then flapped twice, lazily, until she landed at the front of the Party to stand next to Kora.
She kept her wings spread, and Vester used the opportunity to weave subtle illusions to make the shadows cast by Reve darken and spread farther than they would have otherwise.
“You know of me?” Reve asked in a casual tone, like she was pleased to meet a fan, yet Vester could see the predatory lines in her body as the tall woman took a step forward.
“Marvelous… this shall make things easier. We request an escort to your city, and then to be left in peace. Is that acceptable?”
“O-o-of course,” the woman in charge insisted, nodding her head. “We wouldn’t dare cross one such as you. Please, allow us to carry you to the top of the pillar so the ship can pick you up.”
Vester hadn’t been paying attention to the ship, but when he glanced up, he realized that it had begun to circle them.
The thing moved so slowly and quietly it was easy to lose track of among the tall pillars.
He didn’t have to wonder how the scorpion riders planned to get back to the ship, because it now had long nets of spiderweb hanging from the side.
It was currently picking up at least two other groups.
Fuck, we had that many of the blood elflings around us and didn’t realize it?
he thought—Li Ra looked even more upset than him.
The oni was scowling, turning in a slow circle while carefully studying the columns.
We’re going to have to update the Guild records, because I know nobody reported seeing either an airship or cavalry.
He wasn’t sure if the Great Dungeon was ramping up the danger of the eleventh floor because his Party was delving it, or if the ship just didn’t travel along the normal path from the Safe Zone to the elfling city, but he had no doubt delvers would die if the information didn’t reach the surface.
Reve and the scorpion rider went back and forth, with Kora making a few comments, and while the dungeon spawn didn’t seem happy to listen to Kora, she avoided any signs of disrespect while casting fearful glances at Reve.
After about four minutes of negotiation, Reve signaled for everyone to take a position behind one of the scorpion riders—except Krysta.
She transformed into a red panda, hopped onto Reve’s shoulder, and flew with the Avatar of Life.
The almost-naked woman in front of Vester gave him such a look of disgust that he was tempted to ask where he should put his hands, just to mess with her.
He resisted the impulse, though, and simply straddled the scorpion’s slim body.
With his heels hooked under the arachnid’s belly, he was confident in his own ability to hang on.
He also took the time to study the dungeon spawn more thoroughly.
The first thing he registered was that her ‘skin’ was a very thin, flexible form of chitin.
The joints gave it away, though the ridges around the flex-points were so hard to spot that he would have missed it before Trickster’s Cunning boosted his wisdom, thus his senses.
So they’re not elves at all, he realized. They’re actually some kind of insect formed in the image of elves… and they have no ears.
That had taken him an embarrassingly long time to notice, because what he’d thought were pointed ears emerging vertically from their hair were actually rigid antenna of some sort.
From a distance, the frond-like hairs that came off the back of the ears looked like the softer flesh, but they were discrete little projections.
Depending on how hard their chitin is, that may explain why their armor offers nothing in terms of practical defense.
If their shells are hard enough to deflect attacks, then they’ve had no real reason to develop clothing for protection.
This floor doesn’t have any real weather patterns, and aside from being cold, it’s not inhospitable.
Though it is weird that it’s so cold on a floor full of arachnids and bugs.
The scorpion proved to be a stable runner, and Vester had reached the top of the pillar before he’d finished evaluating the blood elfling in front of him.
The mount didn’t hesitate to transition from the stone to the mesh of webbing, and it showed no signs of struggling even while running up the net of rigging.
When he slipped off the back of the giant scorpion and his foot set down on the deck, Vester immediately received a Quest.
Divine Quest: Summon Non.
Requirement: Before the eyes of the blood elfling, carve, cast, and take part in the ritual to summon the Goddess of Chaos.
Conditional: Make it look super cool, Vester. Trust me!
Reward: ??
Punishment: Have some faith, because you really don’t want to miss out on a chance like this, please!
Vester stared at the Quest, blinking slowly, and carefully ensured his poker face had remained in place. Non doesn’t generally ask me to do anything that involves acting as her clergy, he realized. So if she wants me to put on a show for these dungeon spawn… she has to have a reason.
He’d yet to reject a request from Non, even when they sounded insane or immature, and every time he’d accomplished something she’d recommended, he’d gained a powerful reward.
Vester was aware that Non continually skirted a line when it came to the Quests she issued him—she’d been censured several times.
Her ability to pop down to Ordinal and talk to him had been severely curtailed, which was why he could no longer communicate with her directly. Not without casting the ritual at least.
‘Non, I have no idea why you want me to impress a bunch of man-hating scorpion girls, but if that’s your play, I’ll back it,’ he informed his goddess with a quick prayer.
He waited a moment, wondering if he’d see some sign of acknowledgement, and when he didn’t, it just firmed his belief that this was important.
While he had been dealing with the Quest notification, Reve had been dealing with the airship captain.
The blood elfling looked like a pirate. She had a long, split-tailed coat made from some pale blue leather, matching boots, gloves, and a tricorn hat—and still wore a bikini top and thong underneath her coat.
The captain’s compound eyes were a startlingly clear blue, and when she spoke Vester saw horizontal mandibles inside her mouth twitching in place of a tongue. He carefully repressed his desire to shiver, and gave silent thanks that none of his lovers were quite so… different.
Or maybe it’s just because they’re fuzzy. Snuggling a warm, fluffy ball of woman feels a lot more natural to me than the idea of hugging something with a shell. Then again, I’ve never liked bugs, so I might just be biased against things with exoskeletons.
Despite her alien appearance, the captain appeared to be just as nervous in Reve’s presence as the scout rider had been.
The woman wasn’t willing to defy the winged Avatar, so the Party found themselves escorted below decks to a fairly comfortable cargo hold and told they remain within while the ship flew toward the city.
Once the group was alone, Vester used illusions to cover them in a shell of shadows that should make it hard to spy on them.
He added the sounds of birds, crickets, and other Earth forest sounds to the outer borders of the dome.
After an inner layer of silence, he’d blocked that noise out for them, which meant he could talk to his companions without problem.
“Well, what do we talk about first,” he began, “the Quest I got from Non to impress the hell out of the natives, or the way they’re treating Reve like a queen?”