World Seed

Author’s Corner: Had some free time, so enjoy the chapter!

We weren’t in this city for long, since it was just a stop on the way to rest before the final leg of the journey. You try flying for sixty or so kilometers under your own power and not need a break! Though, I ended up sticking around to grab a bite to eat with Yin and Yang. Fun fact about gustwings, they aren’t vegetarians like lovebirds, so I had to get Yin some meat with her meal. I was a bit concerned about how I would feed her from now on, but maybe I could abduct a pair of rabbits and have them populate a small grove planet? I’d have to think about that next time I got to a planet that had them.

Once we were done eating, I sent the two of them back to my grove and set out towards the mountain on foot. Since Celeste said that there was a danger of wyverns attacking me in the air if I flew too close, I took on my wolf form and began running. I had learned my lesson already about not taking the advice of people who said that there were stronger things than myself in the skies.

Since I was running as a wolf, it took nearly an hour before I reached the base of the mountains, which were a vast series of towering peaks that rose up above the clouds. At least, that’s how it looked to a wolf. Alright, Celeste, let’s find us a cliff tiger.

I began activating my combat Aspect spells as I climbed up the rough stone slopes. First, the Aspect of the Armored Beast to give myself the armored skin, then Aspect of the Magic Breath to attune my breath weapon to the light element. These things have the magic ability to swim through rock, meaning they can have it slide off their body like water. Using earth attacks against them would likely be pointless.

So now, there was a scaled wolf running up the mountain, trying to draw as much attention as I possibly could. This is the right mountain, isn’t it?

“Well, the information didn’t specify a certain mountain. But maybe they are higher up?” The AI woman said uncertainly. Around this time, a new sound registered on my enhanced ears, the sound of something other than me scraping against a stone! I really needed to set up a sonar system for some kind of echolocation map. Maybe have it pass through Celeste so that she can arrange the data into a three dimensional representation, and I’m getting distracted again.

Oh hey look, there’s a big black tiger behind me. And another one… and another one… the hell? When did six of them get around me. I really need to learn to focus more. “No… they really did just appear out of nowhere.” Celeste confirmed that it was not me being distracted that was the problem here. “No, that’s still a problem.”

Anyways! Looking at the first tiger, I let out a wolf-like snarl, preparing to use my breath weapon. The tiger responded with a low roar. Oh look, we’re comparing to see who has the bigger bark! Laser breath to your face! Opening my mouth as if to roar, and I really did roar with it, I used my breath weapon to shoot out a… nothing? Wait, no, not a nothing. There was a red glow that appeared on the tiger’s body before it burst into flames and fell over. The hell? Wait… Carbon dioxide laser? Sweet! I had hoped for something more flashy, but I will take what I can get.

By the time I turned around, the five tigers had vanished. “Falenel, below you!” Celeste called out, and I jumped back as two of the tigers lunged out of the ground at me as if it were made of water. No, seriously, there were ripples and everything, it even formed back exactly how it was after they jumped out and dived back in. I didn’t even have time to launch an attack before the two tigers were back underground. A moment later, I felt something clawing at my sides, a few scales being scraped off. When I turned to look, there was nothing there.

Great, Falenel, you came to pick a fight on their home turf. I thought about a few possible answers to this, before deciding on a course of action. Step one, grow bat wings with Aspect of the Bird and fly into the air. Step two, change magic breath to fire element. Step three, wait for a tiger to jump out and attack where I had been standing, then roast them alive! Step four? Obviously, profit.

Sure enough, just after I moved, two more tigers jumped out to attack where I had been just in time to catch a face full of fire. They let out pained screams and dived back into the stone, likely extinguishing their flames. I need a step five…

Step five, laser death rain! I made five magnetic donuts filled with plasma, and lowered them down just above the ground. Soon, my pretties, soon you will be unleashed. The next time a tiger popped out, I had the nearest plasma bolt launch at it, killing the creature as I waited for the other four to surface. Celeste said twenty seconds… Did they run?

Using my X-Ray vision on my eye, I found that they indeed did not run. However, there was a cave system underground that they were hiding in. I could work with this. I landed down on the ground as softly as I could, and had my plasma donuts tunnel into the ground, moving towards their little cave. Don’t play hide and seek with the guy that can see you underground.

Once my little bundles of death were just above their cave, I created four more and had them follow down the same holes. That way, they could break through all at once. It was a bit distracting to control eight magnetic bundles at once, but still not nearly as bad as trying to rotate one at high speeds.

As soon as they broke through the ceiling of the cave, I unleashed Operation: Pain Rain. Naturally, this meant me shooting them all with plasma lasers. Thankfully I sent in an extra batch of death, because my accuracy was only about two out of three shots at this level of control. Still, that meant that all four tigers were quickly dispatched or rendered incapable of fleeing.