I dropped down the side of the ravine flanked by an abyssal tiger, with Ivy and Rowan staying above to watch from the skies. The ravine hadn’t changed much since I came through it last time. The broken cars, guns, and corpses of the Morokai were gone. From the looks of things, they were scavenged at some point.
A rustbucket of a transport truck sat parked near the burnt out husk of the downed HAT. The back was half full of parts, with two Morokai sitting on the hood. They were exactly as I remembered—rotting wood and leathery skin draped across it as if to hide what they really were. Their eyes held that same malevolent fungal green glow to them that they did when they were trying to kill Lucia.
In front of the Morokai keeping watch, a group of maybe knee height fluff balls worked at the HAT to break it down into salvage. Their fur was all matted, and manacles were strapped around their legs. Instead of having a head, they just had a larger torso with a face on the upper half of it. Most of them had horns.
Did the Morokai take another species as slaves? I was prepared to just wipe out the species, but another group being involved complicated things. Not to mention if there was one, there may be others. I stalked around to ensure there were only the two Morokai, and found about a dozen off to the side of the fluffballs.
Here I was expecting a big fight, only to find this… I was disappointed. Incredibly so. My battlelust faded to the point I barely wanted to deal with the two wood and leather guards watching over their slaves.
I sighed and activated Stormsurge for the first time outside of testing. Ether drained from me, and a dark cloud grew in my hand. I flicked it forward, and the cloud trailed under the transport truck. From there, it wrapped up around the Morokai.
The two shifted, and their language of clicks and whistles broke out in a chatter. The one sitting on the right side of the hood lifted its rifle toward the fluffballs. “Another trick, fleshbags? I’ll show you—“
Boom!
More ether drained, and a streak of lightning lit up the entire cloud. The two Morokai didn’t even have a chance to react before the lightning arced down the cloud and engulfed them in streaks of jagged electricity. By the time the cloud cleared, there was just two pieces of charcoal left.
That… Stormsurge was a bit stronger than I thought it would be. Should I say as expected of a skill I got from a C-rank boss? I rubbed lightly at my chest. That stag-king back then had really been something else.
“Intruder—“ Another Morokai was silenced just before it could fully shout as Willow pounced on it and ripped it’s leather clad head off.
Rat-tat-tat!
Machine gun fire erupted from the other Morokai toward Willow. The Ebonshroud feline just let the bullets pass right through here. They clattered out the other side, and the wounds were healed the instant they were made.
I tossed a set of throwing knives out. Four of them hit their mark, and dug deep into the guards. The Ebonshroud flowed into their bodies and turned into spinning saw blades to maximize damage.
Seven still stood—though not for long. Willow catapulted at three of them, and I launched forward toward the other four with a scythe. One of them flicked toward me to open fire, and was immediately cut in half by the scythe ripping through his body.
I planted it, and used it like a pole to vault into a kick toward another of the four. Spikes surged out of my boot and pierced through the creature’s head, dropping it instantly. The spikes surged out and a needlethin tendril whipped toward the closest. With Ether Reinforcement buffing its durability, it smoothly flicked through the Morokai and separated its head from its body.
A spray of bullets sprayed were caught by the thin layer of Ebonshroud I caught on myself. Before I could whip around and take out the fourth, two shadows darted from above and ripped through the creature’s head. Ivy and Rowan immediately launched back up into the sky to keep watch.
I stretched out and checked on Willow. She’d mauled her three, leaving torn apart corpses and not much else. Willow pawed at one, and shot me a bored look. “Sorry. Find something. Better.”
”Savior!” An awed chant went up from the fluffball scavengers, and they gathered around me. A group of them broke into deep, backbreaking bows. They looked a bit grateful, but mostly terrified. “Great savior!”
Now what? I eyed the group. I didn’t really want to kill them. I frankly had no idea what to do with the group of weird creatures. Arbiter Coatl just told me to execute the Morokai, not what to do with any stragglers along the way. “Not savior.”
”Humble savior!” Their cry turned even more ecstatic.
One of the fluffballs, its fur sparse and greying at the fringes, threw itself down in front of me. Something in its body sounded like it cracked with the effort. “Oh great humble savior! Save us!”
”What are you?” They didn’t match anything I’d seen in the city before. Of course, Bastion was only a small part of this world. There were probably all sorts of civilizations and species brought through portals out beyond the known lands by now.
”Dokkev.” The older looking one waved its arms to me, and turned back to its brethren. It spoke brokenly in the whistling language of the Morokai. “Dis great savior! Save Dokkev kin!”
Willow let out a low growl when the elder approached too close, and it immediately backed up while shivering uncontrollably. The savagery she showed left a mark in the little guy’s mind. The fur all along its body spiked up, and some of the fire left its sails.
I frowned, and crossed my arms. Saving an entire species sounded like an incredible hassle. “You with. Morokai?”
”NO!” The elder shouted with a surprising volume for such a small creature. “Morokai—dems evil! Dey not like great savior hummie! Dey capture us Dokkev. We’s forced to makes stuffs for dem.”
”You know. Humans?” I wasn’t exactly human, but it was close enough.
”Oh yes.” The fluffy ball obediently nodded his… torso? “Other hummies be captured by evil Morokai. Save dem too, savior! Dey suffer!”
The small creature hadn’t lied to me yet. Of course, there could be a lie of omission somewhere in there, but Discerning Allspeech hadn’t triggered yet. They truly did seem like a group of unfortunate creatures.
”Let’s go.” I patted Willow on the back. The big cat pressed up into my hand and let out a contented purr, which seemed to terrify the fluffballs even more than they already were.
“Wait savior! We’s helpful! We help you save kin.” The older one lunged forward, and grabbed at my foot. A tendril of Ebonshroud from Willow pushed it back just before it could touch me.
A group of the fluffballs moved back toward the crashed HAT and brought over some broken parts. Under my watchful eye, they scrambled around and clanked on the parts with tiny hammers. In mere moments, the scrap metal turned into scrap assault rifles.
Oh… I see. I glanced back toward the rust bucket of a transport truck. It looked mostly the same, though was obviously made from rusty metal instead of the stuff from the HAT. “You make. Morokai stuff?”
”Dey forces us.” The elder shivered and stood back up. He spat on the dead Morokai as if to make his distaste for them all the more apparent. “We’s weak. We’s small.”
[Nighteye watches the Dokkev with interest. They certainly seem to have a knack for building things.]
Indeed. They definitely had some kind of crafting magic at the very least. Or maybe some kind of reality warping effect? What do you think would happen if they were given actual parts to build with instead of scraps? If they were slaves of the Morokai, I wouldn’t mind freeing them when I razed the wood creatures to the ground.
I turned to leave once more, though paused instead. I had absolutely no idea where the Morokai settlement was. “Know settlement?”
”Yes! Savior saves us!” A cheer went around the gathered Dokkev, and they danced around. The manacles at their feet clattered with the movement.
I flicked my hand, and a dozen Ebonshroud daggers struck out at the manacles. At the black tar weapons, the Dokkev froze and trembled. Once they were freed from their chains, they turned even more ecstatic and started to sing.
The elder Dokkev stepped away from the others, and rubbed at the matted fur of its leg. “I’s guide savior.”
”They’ll be okay?” I nodded to the other Dokkev. They were… how should I put it? Innocent looking? Incredibly weak at a glance? The Ashlands would eat them alive.
”We’s survivors. Dey fine.” The elder waved his hand dismissively, and let out a shout I couldn’t quite understand.
The moment the elder’s shout went out, the gathered Dokkev vanished. The Ebonshroud daggers melted into a flat pane and flowed back toward me, but didn’t run into anything. Whatever they did, it was beyond just invisibility. “Where?”
The Dokkev waved his hands as if to calm me down. ”Dey’s safe! Dey follow from behind.”
“Why not. Earlier?” I waved toward the vanished Dokkev. Suspicion raised its ugly head. It sure was convenient they waited until just now to show off such an ability.
”Dis iron.” The elder poked at one of the manacles like it was some horrifying beast. In a way, I guess it kinda was. “Iron holds Dokkev. Nasty stuffs.”
Hmm… some kind of species weakness? It being iron was rather unfortunate, though. Iron was in almost everything these days. Life in the city would tear these little guys apart… although the image of a gangster fluffball was kind of amusing.
The elderly Dokkev grabbed my shoelace and pulled me toward the rusty truck. “Come, come savior!”
“Aylin. Name’s Aylin.” I bent down and picked up the fluffball before it could untie my shoe. A wash of Ebonshroud flowed out and displaced the filth covering the elder. By the time it passed over him entirely, its fur was mostly cleaned up.
”Savior Aylin!” The little guy wiggled around in my hand uncomfortably. I set him down on Willow’s back instead. The tiger just shot me a look like really?
Sorry, Willow. Just bare with it for a bit, okay? If I had to wait for the little guy to walk, I’d actually be here forever. I scratched under her chin, and nodded to the Dokkev. “Which way?”
”Dey’s inhabit de dark fang forests.” The elder lifted a stubby arm and pointed up toward the mountains to the south of the Ashlands. We were a fair distance away from them.
“Wait here.” I split off from the duo and headed back toward the HAT to check on something. The door had been completely blown apart. That was only natural. The bots back then had self-destructed to buy us some time and hide evidence.
The humans were gone. Or, at least, the remains were entirely gone. I half expected to find some burned out bodies, but it seemed they’d been scavenged at some point. I poked around, and found a fresher discarded wrapper from Bastion. Did Lucia send a group to collect the dead?
I pushed out of the broken HAT, and turned away from it. It was so weird being back here. It almost felt like a lifetime ago even though it’d barely been any time at all… granted, the 157 years spent back in Serhymn thanks to Schizofennec was probably affecting me.
Willow rubbed up against my leg, and purred softly. From above a caw erupted, and my other two companions dropped down onto the hood of the trashed transport truck. I shook my head and turned back to the matter at hand.
”C’mon. I’ll drive.” I popped open the door of the rustbucket. She jumped into the passenger seat, and the Dokkev clamped tightly onto her fur to avoid being knocked off. With my four passengers in tow, I started up the transport truck and started the long drive toward the mountains.