Vol. 2, Ch. 110: Industrial Scale Evolution
You have got to be kidding me.
Neska didn’t know whether to be disgusted, terrified, or furious at the new monster bounding into the room, its hackles raised. She didn’t know what to call it, other than half-warg, half wasp, and uglier than both of them by an exponential factor.
Wargs were already hideous. It bore a similarity to the mongrel creatures of the southern plains, a lopsided grin of snaggled teeth, a sloped head, atop a muscular canine body with an overly broad chest covered with coarse tan hair.
Except in this case, it looked as if someone had glued compound bug-eyes onto their face. It only got worse when she examined the wasp-like wings emerging from its back. If there was one small comfort, they didn’t seem to fly very well. They barely hovered, and their movement was erratic.. Neska pondered what, exactly, those large sharp spines on its flanks were.
She didn't sit still to find out as it bristled some of the spines, sliding to the side. The wasp-warg hybrids shot the stinger-like spines at her. One breezed by her hat close enough that the fabric rustled, and she gave a death glare to the creature.
"Bad dog," she hissed.
She took a second to assess the avian allies above. Kasfew looked bloodied, and at least one stinger was sticking out of a wing. Setting his body on fire with his strange pyrokinetic powers, however, seemed to do the trick in deterring his attackers, and he torched a wave of wasps trying to drop into the room from an access shaft in the top of the chamber.
“Seal that entry!” Kasfew called out. Noricatu extended her wing-like arms, ice forming in spreading fractals along the limbs, all the way to her shoulders. A stream of ice shards shot upward from her wing claws, forming a sheet of ice that closed off the entryway to the floor above. Neska could hear the distant hum of wasps trying fruitlessly to bash through the ice, but that passage was sealed up tight.
Neska dodged another volley of stingers. She had to deal with the new monstrosity, currently extending spines from its back and shooting them at Kasfew when he flew by. He dove off the balcony and soared over the broken foundry, dodging stingers and flaring fire from his wings. He aimed his ability at goblins still trying to fling explosives at him.
She yanked their feet out from underneath them with her still-active vines from before, their boom sticks rolling away harmlessly and detonating behind a large workstation. She didn’t get the goblins in that blast, but she did catch one of the wargs with shrapnel. She thought it might kill it in a single blow.
It didn’t. It roared and lurched forward on its undersized wings, buzzing and wobbling in flight while attempting to close on her.
This required more firepower. She grabbed her bow and fired another venom arrow while flicking a [Venom Bolt] at the same time.
The arrow stunned it after impacting its body, the venom bolt drilling in and doing more damage, yet it snarled and lurched forward, diving to the deck and leaping over molten metal from a cracked forging pot, jaws opened wide to chomp on her.
She made one more effort and used a [Spring Scales] burst to leap over the creature, arrow drawn and firing again. The arrow pierced down through its skull, while she also flicked another mana bolt with her tail at maximum force.
The arrow bounced off, but the mana bolt seemed more effective than the venom variant. The hybrid stumbled to the ground, then extended its spines, charging for her as it fired in a spray of deadly stingers.
A side-slide avoided the worst, but a stray quill still tugged at her arm. She fired another [Mana Bolt] from both hands and her tail simultaneously, the trio of magical projectiles finally felling the creature. Black blood dribbled from the wounds as it let out a wheezing gasp.
She panted, clasping her hand to her chest. The creature twitched, struggling to rise.
She ended its efforts with a point-blank arrow to the face, and she panted from exertion. These were definitely stronger than the attack wasps. Before she could properly assess it, another hybrid spotted her and broke into a sprint.
Her attention flicked to Kasfew and Noricatu diving after the charging creature in a strafing run, with Noricatu freezing it with a layer of rime frost. The magical effect ensnared its wings, sending it crashing to the ground. It shook its head spasmodically, trying to rise on its legs.
Kasfew cast a flameburst that engulfed the creature, and it let out a screech of pain. Neska didn’t wait for the flames to finish it off, instead throwing another succession of three mana bolts in a one-two-tail from her hands; her tail bolt was larger, landing the fatal blow.
The two goblins left standing were still trying to tear away from the vines of her hex. Neska twisted the vines around their necks, choking them out until their eyes bulged. A single regular arrow to each of their heads finished the job.
Neska slid away from the dripping molten metal from the broken molding station, panting. Kasfew and Noricatu landed nearby, with the firebird holding his arm where a stinger remained embedded. He gripped it tightly, his wing muscles twitching. “Cassia? Antivenom, please?”
Do I make him sweat a little? Wait, he’s a bird, no sweat glands. These figures of speech are just not working for me today. She instead pouted and pointed to one of her fangs. “Inoculation does come with an untidy side effect of me having to bite you. I know one of your prior taunts was ‘bite me,’ but to cure you, the requirement to save your feathery posterior has now become quite literal.”
He gripped his wing, spasming slightly from the pain, and his face scrunched. “Are you really going to hold that against me? I’m dying here!”
“Hmm.” Neska leaned in and removed the stinger with great care, avoiding squeezing the small, membranous venom sac still attached. How annoying–the wasps must regrow these damn things, because the sac wriggled with its own life, even when detached from the source. “You’ll probably live? How many times has Kasfew been stung?”
“Several. He used up all the antivenom samples you handed out.” Noricatu puffed her feathers, glaring at Kasfew. “I would use a healing potion, but I need to get this venom out. He can suppress some of it by burning it out of his blood with one of his abilities.”
“I’d rather die than be bitten by this snake!” he screamed, clutching his wing and falling to a knee, wheezing. “That might be sooner rather than later!”
“If you have time to be dramatic, you have time to survive,” Neska said with a soft tsk. “But seriously, it’s better if I bite you to make sure the delivery is effective.”
Noricatu waved Neska in, even as Kasfew protested. “Just heal him," she sighed. Neska took just a slight amount of satisfaction as her needlelike fangs pierced at the stinger injection point, slightly swollen and inflamed beneath the feathers. Kasfew let out a groan as her [Love Bites] went to work, and his wing trembled.
The vigor returned to his face, and his expression softened as the pain receded. She withdrew her fangs and slithered one pace back, satisfied that it worked. “There. Feeling better?”
“I’ve been bitten and envenomated by my mortal rival,” Kasfew snarled, gold eyes looking at her balefully. “I’m doing absolutely fantastic–”
Noricatu slapped him on the wing Neska had just bitten, drawing a suppressed whimper from Kasfew. He turned and looked at her, shocked. The frostbird gave him a chilling stare that could have rendered matter to absolute zero. “You are the most ungrateful, irritating asshole I have met, by far, Kasfew!” she fumed. “She just did you a huge favor–oh, and thank you by the way, Cassia,” she added hastily, shaking Neska’s hand, before returning to her dressing down of Kasfew.
“But–”
“No buts, hot shot! We have a team to find and make sure to burn this place to cinders on the way out!” Noricatu declared. A goblin nearby that survived the previous assault groaned, and she shot a ray of frost in its direction, freezing it in its tracks. “Starting with these awful things. What were they even doing in here?”
"Haven't had time to assess this room just yet. Where are Corvin and the others?” Neska pressed. She hadn’t been familiar with the other two on the Sergeant’s team, only that one of them was the light sword fighter Neska had seen at the briefing. She couldn’t remember her name.
“We got separated and forced down the tunnels. Not a lot of room to fly, so we lost our biggest advantage,” Noricatu explained, examining Neska closely. “You look absolutely dreadful, by the way; you should get a change of clothes when we get out of here.”
“Yeah, the first coat of bug guts had just dried, so I had to add a second. Any communication on the lapel from Corwin? The tunnels have severely limited their effective range.”
Kasfew groaned, then rose to his clawed feet and slapped on a bandage over the stinger wound. “Why are we taking directions from the snake? Where’s your team?”
“Alive. A cache of goblin boom sticks blew up. Along with a lot of goblins and these horrifying wasps,” Neska explained. “We’re trying to find the central chamber at the bottom of the hive to deal with the Instance core. You should be paying attention because I kept those goblins from making you into little chicken giblets with those explosives.”
She turned toward Noricatu. “Are you injured at all?”
“Just minor scuffs, I’m alright. A little low on mana, though,” she admitted. Neska handed her one of her mana potions from her belt, surprising her. She wasted no time tipping it down her beak, and she trilled contentedly when the vial was empty. "Thanks."
Neska nodded approvingly. "Glad I could help. I need everyone operating at their peak. These wasps and the Instance are far worse than I ever imagined.” She motioned for them to gather around one of the warg/wasp hybrids, and she took a look at the stingers before cutting one off with a dagger, using surgical precision to keep the venom sac intact. A second later, she placed it in another sample jar. “What does this look like?” she gestured to the hybrid monster.
“A sin against nature,” Noricatu fumed, probing the chest where Neska had shot it with multiple [Venom Bolts]. “I’ve never heard of this. Kasfew, anything you’d like to offer, oh enlightened one?”
He grumbled and knelt, examining the dead beast. “An amalgamate. There have been reported examples of merged species within Instances, creating brand-new species. But for every successful endeavor…there are numerous failures. They're using the power of the Instance to accelerate mutations, typically aligned with the specific biome it generates. In this case, insects.”
“They’re tougher to kill. These were also resistant to my [Venom Bolt] variant that uses my active venom type,” Neska added. “Regular mana bolts seem to be more effective. Thermal extremes also worked effectively."
Syrona fluttered in, having avoided the chaos, and charged a [mana bolt] on her tailtip, striking the dead creature. Everyone stared at the coatyl chirping in triumph. "Oh, there you are!" Neska beamed.
“That…thing has magic?” Kasfew said, eyes bulging at the spectacle.
“She has magical abilities inherited from me,” Neska said, a low hiss underscoring her words. “Be nice to my little fluffy guardian. Or I will tell her she has my permission to nibble on you.”
Noricatu let out a titter of laughter that sounded like birdsong. “My goodness, she is adorable! What is the story with this little fluffy thing?”
“She’s my familiar, and we can go over the details after we get out of this wretched hive of scum and villainy. She likes having her head stroked by the way, and she will steal your jerky when you aren’t looking,” Neska summarized.
Kasfew stared at her, stark-faced. “You have a familiar. What in the Divines are you, snake?”
“You know it’s funny you say that, because I’m still figuring that out,” Neska said, puffing out her cheek feathers in annoyance. “We have a team to find and get out of here alive. Let’s see if there’s anything in this room we can use to bring this whole hive to a ruinous end.”
Neska slithered around the molten metal still spilling out of a broken forging pot. After a cursory inspection, she saw something surprising: they were attempting to liquify the mana crystals with extreme heat in the forge, though the crystals were still intact. She waved Noricatu over. “Any of you two know of any additional uses for mana crystals in this manner?”
“No. But goblins might have attempted to make rune materials. The issue is their furnace is ancient and clearly not built for this endeavor,” Kasfew said, examining the device. “We did run into some hobgoblins who did not appear to be affected by the parasite wasps, barking out orders. But they aren’t uh…around to add further comment.”
Damn. She probably should try to take one of these hobgoblins alive, if possible. She didn’t have a paralytic venom to make the job easier, and the venoms she’d experienced from the wasps were all specialized to enhance pain and direct damage to the bloodstream.
“If we find any hobgoblins, keep them alive until we can interrogate them,” she said.
“Why are we following your orders, oh omnipresent authority figure?” Kasfew demanded, a few feathers smoldering.
Neska pointed to his currently smoking feathers. “Do you always catch on fire when someone irritates you, or am I just that special? We’re bonded now. I mean, you allowed me to bite you, so you do have some level of trust. Or at least, respect that I won’t cause you harm deliberately.”
Kasfew narrowed his eyes, feathers ruffled on his cheeks. “S-stop using those words! That’s absurd; there’s no such thing as a bond! You are the lowest of the–”
Noricatu punched his wing again with one clenched wing claw, her gaze as frigid as a glacier. “Would you stop trying to be an asshole? I don’t see anyone out of the three of us with a better representation of survival skills. Now answer her question so we can get going. That ice above us won’t keep the wasps out forever, and this place is a labyrinth of interconnecting passageways.”
Kasfew rubbed at his wing, shocked at Noricatu’s boldness. “Okay, fine! We will proceed as equals, for the time being.” Neska’s venom was less venomous than Kasfew's words, in that moment.
He sucked in a sharp breath before continuing. “I think they are attempting to create industry down here using the existing infrastructure of the mine. There is plenty of laden ore filled with mana crystals. Instances need to be fed either bodies or mana crystals, if all the surveys are correct. But the raw ore is suboptimal. Witch, you use mana salts for your ritual work, I’m led to believe?”
“It’s Cassia,” Neska hissed. “But, yes. It’s a refined material. Higher potency, fewer impurities, which means more energy per volume, if what I read is correct. Impurities can affect rituals or equipment, causing unintended side effects or adverse reactions. What of it?”
“I believe they are likely using this place to refine mana crystals…poorly.” He pointed to a metal pan filled with a fine powder that glowed a light blue. Neska took a small amount and rubbed it between her fingers, noting a tingle of energy seeped into her scales. "And shitty grade steel," he added dryly, pointing to the industrial-sized smelter still active, and fires burning from some coal-like material within.
Neska tended to agree, given Kasfew was able to shear through the material with a single fiery claw. "Okay, maybe I'm not giving them enough credit. They're trying to understand hundreds of years of metallurgy, smithing, and magic craft and condense it down. Speaking of which, what's stoking this smelter?"
Neska peered in for a closer look through a grated hatch, and when she saw what was inside, she slammed the hatch shut. "Nope. Fire elementals are powering this thing. They don't look happy, and that is a bad door we should never open."
“The Varadur have never bothered to mimic our technology, let alone industrialize manufacturing processes. Why now?” Noricatu pondered aloud.
“Because they are evolving. So are their strategies,” Kasfew concluded. “What worries me is why this is happening now, and where they could be in a few years. Goblinoids and their relatives were not among the Varadur ranks until the last five to seven years, approximately.” Neska finally had a timeline on that little mystery of why they now had goblinoid Awakened.
She pointed at the cracked retaining tank. “Hey, Kasfew. Wanna wreck some shit while we’re at it? I see zero chance of us recovering anything from this place after we destroy the instance core…and a rush of liquid hot rock and mana crystals will make for one hell of a distraction. Everyone is above us, so…”
Noricatu put one clawed finger to her beak. “You are crazy. We should take samples first.”
“Agreed.” Neska took the processed mana into a small sample bottle, and, noting that her satchels were almost full with bug corpses and the other Varadur bits she wanted to study. She glanced contemplatively at the reinforced glass vial before putting it in her mouth.
Kasfew and Noricatu gasped, pointing at her. “W-what…are you doing?” Kasfew stammered.
“Stowing things safely. I have a weird inventory power now,” she stated.
“You are refreshingly weird, and if we survive this, you have got to tell me where you got that hat,” Noricatu said, looking in awe. Kasfew scowled at her, and as if in response, Syrona fluttered to wrap around Noricatu’s arm, trilling like a songbird. “Oh, I need to know more about this cute little thing!”
“It will bite you when its betrayal can be maximized,” Kasfew fumed. “Any other tricks I should know about…Cassia?”
Finally, he used her name. “Yeah. I’m carrying several dozen goblin boomsticks in my stomach, and we'll need them to take out the Instance core. I have half a plan.”
Kasfew’s eyes went wide, his pupils tiny pinpricks. “Divines, I’m gonna die. And it’s going to be your fault.”
Neska would retort that they were safer in her stomach than being carried around, but a sound of cracking ice drew everyone’s attention. The wasps hadn’t given up on trying to break the ice barrier, now showing several cracks on the icy barrier separating the room from the upper chamber above them.
Neska pointed to the cracked forge, molten alloy still dribbling out. “Kasfew, get that flowing; we’ll flood out the lower half of the hive with a molten bath, and I’ll deal with the interlopers. Noricatu, you’re with me!”
The female avian’s expression hardened, and she nodded in affirmation. Syrona took off in a flutter of wings, and a trilling hiss as ice formed along Noricatu’s wings. “It would be my pleasure, Cassia.”