Chapter 13

  Hitasa thought she heard Dalex shout, “Not again!” just before the mutt plunged back into the forest.

  She stared after them for a moment and then collapsed to her knees in exhaustion. A strange feeling of relief descended on her shoulders. The mutt would undoubtedly kill the human. Even if he managed to slay it with his powerful weapons, no publicized spell offered enough protection to keep a mutt from tearing a human, elf, or beastkin apart. Once a mutt had its prey between its teeth, it never let go. It took no fewer than five experienced mutt hunters with believers in the thousands to bring one down, and that frequently resulted in at least one member of the hunting party injured and probably killed.

  But it wasn’t anticipation of Dalex’s death that gave her relief. The man had been getting on her nerves for the last ten hours with his endless blathering of nonsense questions and pointless non sequiturs, but she didn’t wish for his death. It was true he had saved her and given her the opportunity to safeguard her brother’s body. He even seemed genuinely worried about her health, though she wished he would just leave her alone and stop talking.

  Hitasa couldn’t quite place what it was the brought the relief.

  The gravel of the road dug into the skin of her knees as she listened to the mutt thrash through the trees. It and Dalex were far away now, but the footfalls of such a large creature were impossible to miss. She heard the mutt grunting and growling.

  And then she thought she heard it whimpering. Following on that was a noise like a choking wail.

  The forest went silent for a moment. The wind blew down the road and Hitasa waited to hear what would come next.

  Footfalls.

  They grew louder. She heard the mutt’s growling again. A dark shape moved in the trees. The mutt’s snout appeared, and then the entire creature bounded out of the forest, leaping through the air toward her.

  She looked up at its opening maw and realized where exactly the relief came from. The mutt had killed Dalex and now it was going to kill her. She wouldn’t have to think anymore. She wouldn’t have to try anymore. She could just be gone, and all of her failures and losses would vanish with her.

  Sitoa was waiting for her.

  But then she saw Dalex flying just behind the mutt, all of his limbs still attached and his head apparently unchewed. His blue armor glowed like a clear afternoon sky.

  There was no way he could reach the mutt in time. Hitasa didn’t have a single word of power protecting her. She was right to feel relieved.

  And then, a singular ray of the sun descended from the ether and annihilated the mutt in a blinding flash of light. When Hitasa’s eyes cleared, the creature was in two pieces to either side of her. A torrent of black blood spilled from each piece, pooling onto the road and stopping just short of touching her knees.

  Dalex stopped in the air in front of her, hovering his own height off the ground. “I heard you call it an orbital laser,” he said, clearly not talking to Hitasa. He had a habit of holding conversations with people who weren’t present. There were even names for his delusions. “Seventh, you have to know prismatic strike is so much cooler than orbital laser.”

  He floated forward past Hitasa so that he was no longer over the mutt’s blood and then settled onto dry ground. Hitasa looked at the front half of the bisected mutt, expecting to see the telltale fleshy squirming of its regenerative abilities, but it didn’t move.

  “That was much closer than I thought it would be,” Dalex said. “Sorry, Hitasa. Didn’t mean to give you a scare.”

  “How did you do that?” Hitasa asked, unable to take her eyes off the apparently dead mutt.

  “I call it prismatic strike. It’s one of my own publicized spells, in a way.”

  She shook her head. “I would know about a spell like this. For such a powerful effect, everyone in the Seven Worlds would know. You humans force us to read what your greatest spells are and how they function so they will wax in power. The publicizing of spells is the very foundation of dragon and human control over the worlds. This prismatic strike killed a mutt in a single use, and I have never heard of it.”

  “How about that, eh?” Dalex said, a very annoying grin on his face. “Starting to believe I might not be from around here?”

  ***

  Hitasa continued to reject the possibility that Dalex might be an alien, but now he started to think it came more from a place of stubbornness than actual disbelief. He suspected the longer she hung around him, the more trouble she would have maintaining that intransigence.

  More importantly, Seventh confirmed no more anomalies in her {wards}. It seemed the mutt had been alone, though if another of its kind showed up, Dalex knew what to expect. He wouldn’t ignore its approach again.

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  The corpse of the dead mutt stunk to high heaven. Dalex walked around its forward half, inspecting the damage. The {prismatic strike} had partially seared the flesh, but not enough to keep the creature’s blood and guts contained. He cast {creature autopsy} but the system immediately told him there was very little about the dead mutt that it could identify as recognizable. Where with elf physiology, only two of the organs were mysterious, everything in and outside the mutt’s body was unidentifiable. To Dalex’s untrained eye, it all looked like organ gunk, but he supposed it was different organ gunk than the typical living being.

  On closer inspection of the mutt’s fur and skin, Dalex noticed more out of place elements. Its hair was stiff and sharp and its skin incredibly hard. Dalex’s normal human strength couldn’t exert enough pressure to move its flesh at all. It didn’t have the typical soft malleability of normal tissue.

  Of course, Dalex was in a fantasy world with fantasy monsters. Surely some would have evolved defensive characteristics such as especially tough skin. But, unlike the giant chameleon, the mutt had done measurable damage to Dalex’s {adamantine} armor.

  He walked back around to Hitasa and asked, “You’re sure this is the creature that makes the noise I described earlier? I didn’t hear anything.”

  She replied, “I was told they make the sound when they move in packs. Before today, I had never seen a mutt myself.”

  “Are they uncommon?”

  She shook her head. “There are a lot of them to the east of Telman. They generally don’t attack the town or roam farther west, but sometimes one or two will slip past the mutt hunters.”

  He remembered the six heavily armed elves and beastkin leaving the armory in town. The shopkeeper had called them mutt hunters. Now Dalex had some idea of who they were. They had a dangerous job.

  “Ask her if these creatures are native to her planet,” Seventh suggested in his ear.

  Dalex pondered the question a moment before asking Hitasa, “Are mutts a recent arrival or have they always been around?”

  It took her a moment to respond. Dalex thought she might ask him how he didn’t already know this, but it seemed they were moving past that phase of their relationship.

  “Mutts appeared on Gaia Eta fifteen years ago.”

  Something about that timeframe sounded familiar.

  Hitasa continued, “The first sighting came shortly after the War in the Dark Firmament.”

  Dalex had a bad feeling. “And what was the War in the Dark Firmament?”

  Hitasa shrugged with her hands. “No one knows. I saw it myself, but I was only a little child, so my memory is hazy. There were thousands of dazzling flashes in the night sky. They lit the worlds like it was day. Many thought it was the end of all worlds, but they were fools. Humans speculated that their old gods warred with the dragons and were finally defeated.”

  When she finished her explanation, all Dalex could say was, “Oh,” because he knew exactly what that war had been about.

  Seventh confirmed it for him a moment later. “The event she describes matches the likely experience of a humanoid person observing our battle with the Unknown Faction near the black hole. Further, the arrival of the ‘mutt species’ coincides with the predicted arrival of the Unknown Faction’s probe.”

  “Uh huh,” Dalex grunted, remembering the vessel the enemy {far realmers} had launched before the space battle began in earnest. He gestured for Hitasa to step away from the dead mutt. “Let’s not stand too close, shall we?”

  “Why?” She suddenly looked concerned. “Is it not dead?”

  “No, I’m pretty sure it’s dead. I’m just a little worried it might be dangerous from the grave. Do you have any idea how many of these things might be out there?”

  “I’m not sure. I never spent much time around mutt hunters.” Her eyes lit up. “But they did post notices at their lodge. I remember one mentioned fifteen mutts had been sighted within a day’s ride of Telman. That was two years ago, though. There are likely more now.”

  “Is it the same elsewhere on this world?”

  Hitasa nodded. “Their numbers have been growing in recent years. Most towns have a mutt hunter lodge. I’ve also heard mutts have been spotted on Gaia Zeta, though I don’t know how they could have snuck through the Waterfall Portal. There are thousands of them far to the east. Their arrival destroyed the frontier cities of Sotovo and Mandak. Most of the populace was evacuated, but only the hunters dare go so far east these days.”

  “This complicates matters,” Seventh said.

  “I’ll say.”

  Finding the {adamantine} suddenly felt a lot more urgent. Extrapolating Hitasa’s figures to the number of settlements Seventh had spotted across the first world of Gaia BH1, there might be thousands of {far realmer} mutts wandering around. And if they were appearing on worlds other than this one, they were able to travel deeper toward the core of the realm, something that Seventh still couldn’t replicate with the {void stalker}.

  The enemy {far realmers} had a fifteen-year head start on Dalex.

  Dalex turned away from the mutt corpse, furrowing his brow in thought. “But this gives me an idea. The mutts already may have tracked down some veins of {adamantine}. If we can find where they are keeping it stockpiled, we might take back some lost ground.”

  “Tracking mutt movements will be difficult,” Seventh said. “Prior to the creature’s attack, I did not detect a significant Unknown Faction presence. They seem to be employing some form of stealth technology. However, it will likely be easier to defeat this technology than to search for benefine on our own.”

  “Sounds like it might be smart to get in with these mutt hunters.”

  “I agree with that course of action.”

  “Um,” Hitasa said from behind Dalex. “Are you done talking to yourself?”

  “Hold on,” Dalex said, realizing earlier Hitasa had named her world for the first time. He turned back to her and asked, “You also call this realm Gaia?”

  Before Hitasa could answer, Seventh tsked in his ear. “It’s a translation. She used a totally different word from Gaia. Gaia Eta denoted the outermost planet. Gaia Zeta is one planet inward.”

  “Of course,” Hitasa added, unaware that Seventh had already clarified for him. “Would you call the Seven Worlds of Gaia anything different?”

  “No, I suppose not. Listen, things are a bit different now that I know more about these mutts. We’re headed west towards a city, but I don’t know its name or anything about it. Is there one of these mutt hunter lodges there?”

  “A very famous one, yes. The hunters of Batulan-bar are known to be quite skilled.”

  “Perfect,” Dalex said. “My friend tells me it’ll take us a week to get there on foot at our current pace.”

  “That sounds right.” She cocked her head to the side. “Your friend?”

  “Don’t worry about that right now. What’s important is that I don’t think I can wait a week to get there. We’re going to have to {fly}.”

  Prior to encountering the mutts, he hadn’t minded the idea of a leisurely walk through the woods. Now he felt in a rush. A week probably wouldn’t make a big difference after losing fifteen years to the enemy, but it seemed imprudent to delay any longer.

  Hitasa looked startled. “Fly? Um, I don’t– What do you mean?”

  “I mean exactly what you think I do. Unfortunately, if you want to come with me, I’ll have to carry you.”