Unreal, he leveled up and just fucking ditched me?!
Now I could understand slamming me onto the water for having partially possessed him for all intents and purposes. We'd totally squashed that though, at least I had thought so. However after swimming for 10 minutes now since he's somehow snuck out from under me, doubt crept into my mind. There was very little hint at him outright absconding from our partnership entirely, and I hadn't taken him for a quitter nor overtly sensitive. Unfortunately, this opens the possibility that he's in danger, and that I'm lazily drifting back to the boat thinking poorly of Steve while abandoning him myself. My anger had turned to concern around minute 12 when Steve's voice rang through my head.
"Comin' up on your tail!" He called mentally, bursting out of the water creating a massive slushing sound behind me. Before I could turn and investigate the source, my eyes trailed up a semi familiar serpent body to find a 30 foot Snake with white and yellow feathered wings and tail hovering above me. As the snake looked down, he revealed an arrangement of feathers sticking up at the back of his skull, looking almost birdlike if not for the serpent face and body.
The winged snake releases a gust of wind flapping his feathers and lifting above the water, gliding over the surface. They appeared capable of continuing on for a while given the lack of any lost altitude. Their wings suddenly tucked in toward their body, the snake needle diving back into the ocean. Not more than a few seconds later did the same serpent's head rise from the water in front of me a few feet.
"Eh?! What do you think?" Steve's voice said confidently as the bird-snake before me began posing in a series menacing ways. Only then did it truly click.
"Holy shit, Steve!? You got fucking wings?! And where the fuck did you go?!?" I yelled audibly, a mixture of excitement and anger blending in my shaky tone.
"Oh, I hit level 5 and got my first evolution option. Didn't even know we got those, wish my Patron cared to mention it." The snake murmured through our mental connection, though somehow trailing off mentally as well.
"You evolve? Fuck me that's awesome." I said, activating Identify on my winged slithery companion.
[K'iche Cotl (level - 5)]
Woah
"Hey uh, what exactly does your race mean?" I asked, not bothering to worry about being insulting. I figured being sensitive over a race you joined 12 seconds ago was a bit unreasonable anyways.
"Beats me, I just know the skill options with this one were way better than the other race evolution options. Plus, I can fly now. Hard to beat that." Steve explained gleefully.
"Fuck yeah dude. This is a major game changer." I said, inspecting him thoroughly now. The feathered areas transitioned so seamlessly from hard jagged scales to a bouquet of beautiful multicolored feathers. He looked like something straight out of ancient myths.
"Hey, why don't you fly us back to the ship so I can recuperate, then we could go try out your new evolved self. Sound good?" I offered, still feeling tired from the fight with the Stentorian Mother Orca.
"I'm down, guess you'll just have to wait to see my new skill. Hop on, and for fucks sake do NOT let go." Steve warned as I hopped between his large feathered wings that protruded out of his back. They were massive, and looked borderline angelic if it wasn't for the orange color designs etching the borders of his otherwise white wings. His skin had even taken on a lighter patterned blue across his white belly, now resembling the rest of his skin better than it had before.
Steve's head pierced down through the surface as we dove under, his wings tucked under his cylindrical body while he cut through the water faster than ever. After a few seconds of snaking across the ocean, Steve angled upward towards the top of the water. We continued elevating after breaching the top of the water, ascending about 12 feet as Steves wings expanded. The wind blowing my face nearly launched me from his back for a split second before the pressure abruptly dissipated. Regathering my bearing, my face lit up with childish wonder soaking in the scenery provided by this bird-snakes eye view.
The sun glimmered off of the crashing waves streaking endlessly along the ocean water, large birds in flocks traveling just below the clouds. The air was ripe with natural mana, plenty of it being water but a mixture of a few others I couldn't quite distinguish as well. All except air mana, which I'd recognized by associating an its characteristics with Aerin, that wind warrior from the tournament. It was a relatively cloudless afternoon, providing a crystal clear view of the beautiful blue skies reflecting the ocean surface.
"This shit is straight up magical, Steve. Ten out of ten evolution choice, my friend." I said mentally, unable to contain my reverence for having a giant flying companions selection.
"I know, right?" Steve responded giddily. While enjoying the scenery atop my serpent friend as we glided over the seemingly endless sea, a brown dot caught my scanning eye. To our south east was the tiniest shade of land, Korbin's instruction to report when we saw dry land in that direction surfacing from my memory.
"Yo, Steve! Head for the ship, I have to report to Korbin, and fucking REST damnit!" I yelled playfully. Though there was merit to needing to rest, since Flow Meditation alone would regenerate my resource pools slowly. Steve didn't respond immediately, instead whipping his body around before descending head-first toward the water.
"Sorry Tom, we need to make another dive really fast. Hang on!" After another plunge down and rapid ejection from the water, the ship quickly came into view. As we soared closer however, one of the magma cannons fired, its orange glow with surrounded in spiraling fire mana barreling straight at us. Followed swiftly by another volley. Steve dropped a wing down spinning his body to the side to avoid the incoming magma balls before diving down into the ocean.
"What the hell, why are they shooting us?!" Steve yelled, swimming in a serpentine maneuver in case of further shelling.
"No clue, just um…swim closer and breach by the deck, leaving only me up. Do it slowly, please." I said, hoping we hadn't been ship-jacked somehow while I was gone. Swimming deep under the ship over 30 feet underwater, Steve slowly ascended beside the vessel lifted me up on his feathered skull. As soon as my head breached was above water, I shouted to the crew looking down at us from above with harpoons and cannons trained on me.
"WAIT!" It's TOM!!" I yelled, waving one hand in the air. A few shipmates relaxed, their heads snapping behind them as if reacting to something. Korbin's quickened pace strolled by the railing shortly after.
"What happened?! Did you kill that dragon thing?!" He hollered sternly.
"NO!! It's not a dragon, it's Steve!!" I yelled back.
"Steve, come on up." I ordered mentally, the serpent apprehensively rising slowly up from the water in response. Korbin's eyes shot open wide looking over my beast companion, before his face contorted into a devilish smile.
"Love the new look, Steve! Come on up, both of you!" Korbin yelled. Steve sank down before launching up again, extending his wings and gliding above deck before swooping down, coiling as he landed. A few of the crew stumbled back in fear. Like they'd never seen a giant mythological looking snake before or something.
Korbin greeted me first while hopping down from Steve's back onto the deck.
"Wow, you're quite the Tamer after all buddy? I'm guessing the waters were rougher than anticipated if he's evolving already." Korbin said with a knowing smile.
"Yeah, fought a giant pissed off mother orca with some dangerous vocals on her. Now I really need to rest but , the real reason I came back was because we spotted some land southeast. It's real, real far, but the view from above and the 14 mile head start we had helped enough." I explained, already beginning to drop down cross legged in front of him to meditate.
"Good, then the info was spot on. Go ahead and rest, send Steve back out and assist him if necessary."
"Why did you have me bring him up here then?" I asked, confused.
"So the unit won't start shooting immediately knowing what he looks like, and neither will I." He explained casually, turning and heading back toward his quarters.
"If you need anything before we prepare for landing, ask Cassi. I need a nap." He called without turning back along his strut. Cassi hadn't even come over to check out the commotion, she was busy heavily sparring the training dummy we brought for the trip. Fine by me honestly, I didn't need a welcoming party. Just a little rest. Standing back up and leaning over the railing, I sent Steve out to patrol ahead and practice flying. After he was off, I sat down for some much needed Flow Meditation.
The next hour went by smoothly, the occasional ding of Steve killing some poor beasts trying to act tough ahead sounding every so often. My mind wandered adrift pondering the many mana's and energy's I'd encountered today, along with trying to understand Steve's evolution better. In theory, him evolving at level 5 made sense if everything else level 5 had evolved too. Issue was, those orcas were level 5, and didn't have any special traits about them. Only the level 6 mother orca was stronger, and much stronger at that.
At any rate, evolution was good for us, albeit apparently inexplicable. Especially since I got to have a little tranquil moment studying the different mana types that flowed over the ocean. It was a shame the only other type I could sunder consistently was wind mana, a few others in lower concentrations however remained unrecognizable. Air mana didn't feel foreign or fully incompatible to me like the others though, just new. Which was strange considering I've severed held any interest in air concepts before or after the integration.
"EYES ON LAND!"
"WE HAVE VISUAL ON A SETTLEMENT!"
My thoughts were abruptly interrupted by the calls of a pair of crew members.
Standing up and feeling out my rejuvenated body from having meditated for an hour straight, I walked over to the side the yell echoed over from to see for myself. In the distance along the horizon was the outline of what looked like a castle, at the edge of a cliff overlooking the ocean. The land it sat on jutted out in a small peninsula, its rocky form raised high above sea level. Both the structure and cliff face had to be gigantic if I was able to see it from this far out, having only been a few miles closer than when I spotted the island atop Steve.
The crews boots clapped and thumped heavily along the deck heading urgently as into different hallways leading down into the ship, most likely to gather their gear for possibly our first siege. Korbin said he wanted our approach to be diplomatic first and hostile later, but I'm not so confident in humanity's propensity for negotiation nowadays. I pinged Steve over to let him know we were preparing to land soon before heading into the ship toward the meeting room. Korbin said we'd rendezvous there for a headcount to avoid spooking any enemy scouts that may be watching.
After another 15 minutes of unadulterated boredom, everyone finally showed up for roll call. Cassi made a point to give the last soldier to show an absolute ear full heading back up toward the deck as a unit, Korbin and I at the front with Cassi in back. The squad did look quite impressive, no doubt Korbin hooked them up with some decent equipment before shipping out. An Identify revealed a few had hit level 2 as well, something tough to do for most back home if you're not mainlining your profession.
By the time we'd returned to deck, the ship was far closer to the shore. The navigators Korbin brought along all relaxed in lethargic bliss, collectively relieved having gotten us here properly. I'm sure Korbin put a strong incentive to fear failing to fulfill their contracts or something. Can't say I could blame him either, considering what was at stake if they were wrong. Luckily they weren't, though it was a little unfortunate I wouldn't get to see what happens for them if they defied their contract. Then again, I could just ask Korbin.
The castle in question hung high above us, our speed slowing toward the beach still at sea level, just south of its position. The deck shook from the chorus of slamming boots rushing towards the rope ladders while our vessel dropped anchor just outside the sandbar. The uncannily steep drop off between the depths and shallow ocean allowing for a near pinpoint park job. Everyone slowly waded their way onto shore before regrouping on dry land. The cliff we'd spotted the castle had actually faced the settlements backside to the sea, and was way too steep for anyone to be hiking up anyhow. The only logical route available was through the woods just past the beach. We'd just have to head inland through the forest and hike up the mountain, right to their front door.
The forest itself housed much thinner branched trees with much bushier leaves than the woodlands west of our Pylon, along with far greater diversity in plant life. Colorful glowing mushrooms that pulsated different hues resembling lungs peppered the earth along tree roots, and giant exotic flowers scattering the forest foliage. As we first stepped onto the greenery however, a cacophony of high pitched yips echoed through the forest.
"Is that…are those foxes?" Korbin asked himself aloud. At least I assumed he asked himself, until Cassi approached from behind, stopping beside him while answering.
"Think so, I remember seeing folks have them as pets. That annoying yipping sounds familiar." She said, brooding toward the forest.
"Who cares? If it's just some little foxes, it'll be good training for the squad along the way, worst case." I said casually walking ahead. The group followed behind but far more vigilantly, creeping low through the forest shrubbery. Part of me considered Steve and I were by far the most experienced with the beasts roaming random biomes in the group having hunted them actively alone and trigger, slowing my pace in empathy. Sure, I could scout ahead confidently but, I'd really rather not have a replay of day 1.
The constant ambient chirps and yelps cyclically echoing all around this forest biome were far more…annoying. It was like there were hundreds of cicada bugs covered in chalk singing a medley out of sync. The yips, squawks, and squeaks made my ears ache and temper flare internally. Lonni's heavy boots woke me from my resentful train of thought as he caught up after meandering about the middle of the pack much of the trip.
"Folks are getting restless already, they assumed we'd be met with force by now." Lonni said in a hushed tone, walking beside me through the admittedly gorgeous forest foliage and patches of tall waving grass.
"On what basis? None of them have really been out here, besides me and you." I said, recalling the quest I'd given him to protect Zach and Terra alone.
"We haven't been here either though. There were beasts you didn't even encounter in our forest, Tom. Like the snakes I had to flee when you left me in charge." He urged through a whisper.
"Lonni, that's because my snake's bigger." I said, gesturing to Steve slithering beside me. He wanted to protest, but I could tell he had nothing.
"Just keep your head on a swivel, and protect the new guys. Including Cassi. We'll inevitably piss something off here soon, I always do." I said, smiling into the forest recalling prior adventures. The next couple of minutes were as peaceful as a noisy forest can be, until heavy movement crossing nearby shrubbery east drew my attention.
"Korbin, movement ahead."
"I saw it." He said holding a fist up, the troops behind halted. Cassi made her way to the front with Lonni.
"What's up, why'd we stop?" She asked.
"Movement. Tom, Steve, scout ahead. Cassi, take our flank. Lonni, stick to the center of the new guys and be ready for an attack." Korbin instructed concisely. Excited to get first dibs on hunting new shit, I hopped on Steve who wriggled through the foliage toward the rustling. It was only a hundred feet away or so, however when we arrived to the source breaking through the tall shrubbery, I couldn't help but feel underwhelmed.
Behind the bushes lay a dozen or more Red Fox the size of wolves, all chewing on the corpses of a family of large green skin deer with thick twisted vines for horns. The foxes' heads wrapped around to face us in unison, my Identify triggering before any reaction did.
[Deathpine Fox (Level - 4)]
Steve and I must have done the same thing, because immediately after realizing how much stronger these foxes were than our soldiers, the snake flung me up into the air with his tail before biting down on the nearest fox, crushing its spine instantly. My eyes scanned over the group in my landing zone focusing on their movement patterns. One Fox timed a jumping bite as it kicked off the a tree through the air. Its Flow traveled through its body reaching its neck when my twinblade Flow Strike pierced through its jugular, extending out the back of the foxes neck.
My second blade glided around my shoulder, my hips twisting hard into the next attacking Fox slashing its lower jar clean from its skull. Another bloodthirsty Fox leapt at me from the side. Flow Stepping away diagonally, my arms extended out looping my twinblade chain around its neck. Turning my back to the fox, I ripped over my shoulder hard, its neck compressing into its spine as lightning surged through my weapons and its body before falling limp to the ground. The sound of Steve's unforgiving chomp shattering bones behind me drew my attention, finding my snake had just saved my ass from a flanking Fox.
Backing towards Steve, a group of 5 foxes slowly approached together snarling their teeth. Before I could lunge to split them up, another 4 arrived from the tall shrubbery behind them. Then another 2.
Then 6 more.
Before long, 20+ foxes stalked me and Steve as we backed away in readied stances. Turning my head enough for the edge of my peripherals to see behind me, the group still stood firm about 70 feet behind. None coming to assist.
"Alright, as soon as one of them strikes, we unload with full force. They got nothin' on the momma orca." I said to Steve mentally.
"You kidding me? I'm just excited for a big lunch." Steve scoffed, his split snake tongue slithering out, his eyes trained on the prey trying foolishly to intimidate him. They tried to surround us in a half circle, however Steve's lurching bites kept them in a cone shaped funnel towards us.
Tired of the standoff, I faked my chest forward imitating an attack at the lead fox, officially recommencing our fight. The lead fox flinched back at my feign before snarling angrily and launching forward. Steve's feathered wings spread wide before flapping toward the Foxes, sending a massive gust of air blasting the leaping fox into the tree next to it. The tree collapsed with an aggressive crack from the speed of impact, the foxes mangled body collapsing like a rag doll to the ground.
The Foxes swarmed us wildly in response, yipping their terrible yelps. Their relentless pressure forced me and Steve to constantly dodge and retreat while picking them off one by one. My blades were moving so fast the trail of light the mana in my blades emitted looked like a cloud of energy at some points, selectively using Lightning Stabs and Flow Strikes blasting through their soft bodies. They were incredibly fast compared to most of the beasts I'd slain, however my stats, skills, and equipment boosts compounded, leaving my agility at a whopping 44. Suffice to say, I was faster.
With every slash and stab that ended one Fox, two more would attack in its place. Water Step continued proving its immeasurable utility, keeping me at a comfortable range from their uncoordinated attacks. Steve was whipping groups of three's around the forest with his tail and literally consuming those who dared try a frontal attack on him. It felt like a one sided affair, except the carnage persisted for 30 seconds straight. Yet, their numbers hardly dwindled regardless of how many we slaughtered, only more Foxes to kill while we retreated.
Confused, I got a little confidence and stepped off of Steve's whipping tail having read the Flow from his bite working down his body. Launching 10 feet in the air, a glimpse of one of the foxes leaned over its fallen kin caught my attention. Its eyes glowed a deep black and golden hue, a cloud of golden smoke beaming from its maw into its dead brother. The Fox corpse jumped up almost immediately after, its body devoid of ant visible wounds joining the fight.
"Steve, they're reviving each other, mangle as many as you can at once." I instructed, anger building for their sneaky behavior. It bordered a certain rodent's nature but, it wasn't that bad of a transgression yet. Steve said nothing, communicating through action instead moving far more sporadic and violently, thrashing his head about as he tore through the foxes mercilessly. I focused on dismembering the beasts to my best abilities, hoping a two legged fox would be harder to heal, or at least marginally slower afterwards.
Their numbers remained unwavering as we slowly dismembered each attacking Fox. Their intensity definitely began waning, yet their assault persisted regardless of their lingering injuries. A tingle of a deep pitted aching in my stomach was slowly worsening with each strike. The pain had grown enough for me to grunt with every attack when a slew of water shards flew over my shoulders, peppering 5 of the front line foxes in front me. As my head twisted bank to find the source, Cassi's leg flew across my eye line, crashing through the chest of another leaping Fox whose body concaved around her foot before flying back, colliding into another Fox.
Her hands were covered in those familiar watery gauntlets she manifested, her armor a blue and black medium sized metal set with her cloth underclothing hanging below her waist, as well as a hood she kept down at her back. She wore a helmet similar to the soldiers, only it bore two horns resembling that of a Vikings out of top. Cassi punched, kneed, elbowed and roundhouse'd her way through a few of the front lining Fox by the time me and Steve Stepped in to capitalize.
We'd taken out another 8 or so when the rest of our troops arrived. The soldiers scattered around the foxes, bottling them in before cutting through any who attempted to flee in cowardice, leaving the survivors completely surrounded. One soldier nearly had his face bitten into if it hadn't been for Lonni's spiked flail smashing the Fox's skull as it stood atop the soldier from 10 feet away. Lonni strutted over and casually extended his arm to assist him up, forcing me to Water Step over and impale the Fox at Lonni's flank.
The battle ended quickly after that, especially since I no longer had to defend myself so vigorously. My blades crackled and exploded with the energy it passively cycled as I diced through the last dozen or so foxes with the squad of recruits. After the final yipping fox fell lifeless against the forest floor, silence hung in the air. One soldier lifted his arm to whale in victory, however I silenced that shit real quick, quickly palming his mouth while shushing him. No better way to attract more beasts than to sound like a wounded one.
Korbin made his way over from the trees behind us, apparently not feeling necessary for that long drawn out fight.
"Great work ladies and gentlemen. Now gather your bearings, there's still much work to do, the hill to the Pylons in sight now. Let's get a move on." Korbin said, clapping his hands and walking toward the hill himself. Seeing a few soldiers exchange high fives, I headed over to meet him.
"Hey! How come you didn't join in? That felt like free experience points." I said, making a note to count how many foxes I'd killed later while dropping to the ground, preparing myself for a quick Flow Medidation.
"Didn't need me. Besides, the recruits are green as hell. They needed to get their feet wet with less intelligent foes in real combat, their nerves are still damn-near palpable." Korbin said with a knowing grin.
"Fair enough, you think I should have hung back when they got there?" I asked, curious now at this angle.
"Maybe, but I couldn't expect you to. I sent a scout to flank around once you guys started taking too long. Said they were reviving each other when you weren't looking so, I figured you just needed some numbers to keep the momentum moving forward." Korbin expertly surmised. Well, expertly to me, as I would've just ran in. Which, I guess is exactly what I did.
"That was a good call, appreciate you having our backs out there." I said, hitting the side of his shoulder open handed.
"It takes a special type of class to be 'that guy', what can I say?" He said in a sarcastic humble voice, his hand against chest. Cassi spoke up approaching from my rear.
"No thanks to me? I was the first one there to pick up your slack." She teased me with a grin.
"I thought you'd be busy showing your recruits how to win with grace, one damn near announced our location to the tutorial." I fired back with an equally devious smile.
"I'm only responsible for their ability to win in battle. Common sense isn't in the contract, is it Korbin?" She asked, turning to Korbin. He smiled, then curiously stared forward before his eyes traced right to left, as if he was speed-reading.
"…nope! Nope no common sense instruction required. They can be morons." Korbin concluded.
"HA" Cassi launched a pointed finger toward me, leaning in close insuring I could hear her triumphant laugh.
"Regardless, they did good work. You taught them decent." I admitted, not unwilling to give flowers where their due.
"What the fuck? She's trained them for like a day. I had them the longest?" Korbin said, sounding offended.
"It's my fault you secretly trained a group of water Druid's without telling me? For all I know you taught them to tie their shoes seven different ways." I said, laughing. Korbin definitely wasn't.
"Okay yeah, that's what I taught them. I'll remember that." He said, before walking back to address the troops.
"Celebrating the massacre of the native wildlife here is over, folks. Time to get moving." Korbin said, though i quickly shuffled over to silently protest in private.
"Oh hey uh, can we get like a quick 20 minutes? I need to restore some of my resources meditating." I asked, keeping my voice low avoiding any active defiance in front of the soldiers.
"…fine. 15 minutes, starting now." Korbin relented after some thought. Immediately I dropped down into Flow Meditation, hoping to restore enough mana to suffice our next fight.
After 15 minutes that passed like seconds, and my stomach ache having fully dissipated, we made our way towards the castle. We hiked up the mountain leading to the settlement for quite some time, as the flat forest land quickly became steep hills to climb heading back west. The castle sat far atop the mountain, yet its unprecedented size still made it difficult not underestimate our distance from it.
After a 20 minute hike, we finally gotten within 30 yards from the large wooden castle door. Korbin stopped the group, walking forward while pulling me to the side.
"Look, I'm just going to remind you so you can tell your flying snake, we negotiate first, and fight if we absolutely must. Got it?" He said, his tone stern as ever. I sighed in annoyance.
"…alright, fine. But if we die, we died doing it your way." I said, half joking.
"Fair enough." He answered with a smile, before signaling the soldiers to continue forward. As we drew nearer to the settlement, a large burly man with all forms of armor except a chest piece rode up to us atop a giant fuckingKomodo dragon. It was huge, standing on all fours at the height of a horse. It had a strange red skin beard, and red feathers poking out the top of its head. They looked much like Steve's but, way less majestic. The burly bearded man spoke gruffly as he visually scanned over our troops.
"State your business on our territory!" He demanded. Korbin stepped forward to answer.
"We are merely here to negotiate an understanding. I am Korbin, leader of a Pylon across the ocean, and I have much to offer." Korbin exclaimed, his hands out graciously. Mine however, were hovering the release buttons on my twinblades' sheaths.
The gruff man scoff dismissively, however his posture straightened as his eyes locked onto Steve. A dastardly grin emerged under his half face plated helmet, as he spoke far more affably.
"That's a fine beast you have there. Mighty fine…alright. I think the boss would have a word. Follow me." He instructed, whipping the Komodo on the side of its face, its body turning and walking the same direction. Korbin waited for us to catch up before he continued following.
"Are you sure you want to fucking negotiate with these guys? I'm pretty sure he just wants Steve." I whispered to Korbin.
"Yes, I'm sure. We've not spoken more than three sentences to these people, and already you want to pillage the Pylon? Have some control, Tom." Korbin whispered back as we followed into our possible demise.
"I'm just saying, he slapped that beast in its face with a leather whip. That usually isn't the actions of civilized people willing to negotiate peace treaties." I pointed out.
"You must have forgot horses existed. It just might be the only way they know how to do it. How much do you know about taming a giant Komodo dragon?" Korbin whispered pointedly.
"Just give me a minute for fucks sake." I urged him, grabbing his shoulder. He brushed it off.
"No. You wait for my 'go' and that's final. We made a deal." Korbin sternly whispered back, his eyebrows furrowed.
"Fine! Fine." I finally relented. He could be right, I very well might just be paranoid. It's true most of those I've encountered wanted me dead on sight. It's also true none of them had a shot at achieving that goal, so in reality I shouldn't be all that concerned anyhow. Still, if he's right I'll definitely feel like an ass, which tends to happen.
After finally reaching the gate, a few other big burly guys looking well over 7 foot came riding their Komodo that were standing guard approached They had a word with our lead brute, before looking at us and smiling. After exchanging some mutual nods the guards backed away, followed by the loud metallic creaking sound of the gate mechanisms churning as it opened. Korbin looked at me, smiling victoriously, before turning back and heading into the settlement.
Before he could step a foot onto their territory, his smile dropped. Leaning in to see inside their Pylon settlement through the gateway, I found little reason for me, or anyone here to be smiling either.