A Monster Life Ch. 109-111

Valdys looked at Tera and Lehti. 'You're not worried?'

Lehti shook her head quickly while Tera huffed. 'Trolls don't scare us, so humans certainly won't. We have some tricks up our sleeves.'

Tipper glanced at Handil. 'You're not used to fighting though, are you?'

Handil summoned one seniovi and it perched on her shoulder. 'Apart from witnessing a few brawls in my merchant travels, I've not seen any life threatening action until Rachael and I joined this party.' She stroked the bird's throat with a finger. 'But I decided to stand with her in any situation and will do what I can.'

'We're heading your way, my dears.' said Ulric to Elzbieta and Valdys. 'We're taking a route parallel to your direction.'

'Hold up, hubby.' said Conchim when a few Sisters split from the group. 'It looks like some scouts are going ahead in a wide arch to the left and right.'

Ulric grumbled while Elz spoke up. 'They're probably taking some precautions in case something lurks around to unexpectedly attack them. They don't want a repeat of mysterious deaths and disappearances.'

'We'll have to keep our distance to stay hidden, but then it'll take longer before we can join you when they attack.' said Ulric.

Elz smiled a little. 'Don't worry, darling, we'll certainly stand our ground until you arrive, be it sooner or later.'

***

The group arrived at the place designated by the request, and examined the dense tree filled area with vines hanging from every branch. 'Any sign of big insect monsters?' asked Tipper. 'Or did they just make something up to lure us here?'

Valdys used her discovery spells to scout their surroundings. 'The requests are real because they were written down some time ago and not yesterday. They were also legitimately reported by townsfolk. There must be something here.'

Tera stared for a while at the sparse grassy ground alongside Lehti. 'You're thinking the same thing I do.'

Lehti nodded once.

Elzbieta moved up to them. 'Did you find something?'

Tera kept searching the ground. 'Something's wrong with the ground around here but we can't put our finger on it.'

Tipper came closer out of curiosity. 'The ground?'

'Yeah.' said Tera.

Tipper examined the area of forest ground with patches of tough grass in front of them. 'Looks sturdy and plain enough to me.' she said, and stomped twice with her foot.

Valdys's detection spell went off. 'Watch out!' she shouted.

Two crude hatches opened in a flash, and two dirty white large maggot-like creatures popped out, thrusting four thin and long limbs with rows of tiny hooks at the ends at them.

Both Elzbieta and Tipper jerked one of the fairy girls back and thrust their weapons at the monster insects.

The insects let out a high pitched screech at the amputation of one of their limbs, but were silenced quickly by the sword and spade thrust into the fold of the body behind their heads.

Tipper wiped her brow and pulled out her spade from the gooey wound. 'Good thing their bodies are soft enough to stab them with this.'

Elzbieta pulled out her sword and wiped the yellowish thick liquid from it with clear disgust. 'I'm glad our reflexes were fast enough in the first place. Well done.' She looked back at Tera and Lehti, who moved closer again. 'You two all right?'

Lehti looked closer at the insect, its segmented body a diameter half the height of a human. 'Only a little startled.'

Tera kicked one of the long limbs. 'We've never seen one of these before.'

Valdys laid a hand on her shoulder. 'You will soon. I detect movement all over the area in front of us. There are dozens of them coming fast towards us.'

Tera looked around at the trees, and gave Lehti a knowing smile. 'I think we can do something about that.' she said, and the two girls knelt and laid their hands on the ground.

Vegetation at a short distance rustled and Elzbieta and Tipper stood ready with their weapons while Handil summoned three seniovi. 'They're close.' said Valdys while she stoop ready with her offensive spells.

Tera and Lehti gazed into the trees. 'Watch this.' said Tera when vines shivered on every tree.

The first insects burst through the trees, but the next moment vines lashed out at them, curled around their bodies, and tied them up. More of the monsters appeared but all were captured and struggled to pull themselves from their tough bonds. No more came and it was clear from the sounds deeper into the forest that the others had been snared.

Valdys chuckled. 'The magic of the fairies.'

Handil watched the two girls standing proud. 'I've heard of it. You have a strong association with nature and the magic to use it.'

Tera smirked. 'Yep. We didn't lose its power because we're half human.'

Lehti looked back for a moment at their catch. 'I think it's even more powerful now than it has been before.'

'Oh, that doesn't surprise me.' said Valdys. 'The familiar bond with our beloved has strengthened all of us, although to gain the full effect, there is something you must do.'

Tera suspected there had been something they hadn't told her and Lehti yet about the familiar bond and its effects. 'What is that?'

Valdys smiled a little mischievously, but turned serious when her long distance detection spell alerted her. 'Tell you later, those Sisters are not too far away now.'

Tipper leaned on her spade. 'Well, at least we won't have to worry about these nasty wormy things, but how long until our hairy fellow and the girls arrive?'

'They're not in my range yet, and they're moving at a safe distance from the Sisters to not spoil the plans. We'll have to keep the Sisters busy for a while ourselves.'

Lehti turned to the insects still wriggling in the vines. 'Hmm..'

Handil pricked up an ear. She recognised the look on the girl's face with her merchant experience. 'You have something in mind, don't you?'

Lehti smiled a little as she looked at her. 'We can use the same tactic Ulric used before.' she said, and nudged Tera. 'Come, we have to move these things out of sight.'

***

Erima, the group's leader, looked on with satisfaction while the elf, the dwarf, and the undead woman fought the monster maggots, while the fairy girls and the Ruza lay among a few of the dead ones. 'Three already down.' she whipered to Meril, the Sister next to her. 'I didn't think those two kids and that beast woman were really strong enough to hold up their own.'

The three remaining party members struggled, but eventually killed the last of the bulging insects and sat down tired on the ground and a trunk of a fallen tree. Erima gestured for the Sisters to surround them.

Elzbieta looked up at the woman appearing from the trees in front of a line of more armed women. 'Your help comes too late.'

Erima sniggered. 'We're not here to help you. We're here to help ourselves.' she said, and laughed at the startled expressions on their victims' faces. 'You shouldn't flaunt around your wealth when you can't defend it.' She gestured with her head to the others. 'Take their valuables after their lives.'

The three stood up in defence, and several of the Sisters attacked them. Erima enjoyed the prolonged entertainment of watching them desperately fending off her strong comrades in futility. She laughed again at their expense until someone behind her screamed in shock. She spun around just in time to see two of the insect monsters drag one Sister away into the shadows between the trees, and several more bursting onto the scene from other sides. 'There are more!?'

The Sisters caught the attack from the monsters and killed many, but the numbers overwhelmed them and some fled at the first opportunity. Erima cut deep wounds into the blubbery body of the insects attacking her and noticed the tactic retreat of some of her group. 'Fuck this. I'm not staying either until I'm the only one left.' she grunted to herself, and hew her way through a small group of the large maggots and into the trees. She ran and wondered why the scouts she had sent out hadn't alerted her earlier, when she ran past one of them lying dead on the ground. 'Shit shit shit. Those things are more dangerous than they appear.'

Meril and a small group of Sisters remained after the horde of monsters was slain and lay in jiggling parts on the ground. She breathed hard not only from the fight, but from the anger at Erima fleeing in cowardliness. 'I'm going to cut you down, you bitch.' she grumbled, then turned to the three surviving members of the party and pointed her sword at the dwarf's throat. 'Don't think you survived this.'

Tipper stuck her spade into the ground, and smirked as she leaned on it. 'I think he's a pervert and ought to be kept on a short leash, but I also know that despite my thoughts, he will not let anyone harm me if he can help it.'

Meril gazed in confusion at her. 'What are you talking about? Who?'

Tipper leaned her chin in her hand. 'The hairy hunk behind you.'

Goosebumps covered the back of Meril's neck when a hot breath of air brushed it, and a cold shiver ran down her spine. She turned her head for the sight of the large bloodwolf behind her baring his fangs at her.

***

Running halfway to town, Erima realised the same thing had happened as with the previous group sent to kill members of the Quaint party, and slowed down to a walk. 'Fuck! Are we cursed or something?' She dreaded the thought if they really were, and wondered who could have done it. "It can't be that someone survived and is taking revenge upon us now. We killed all of them." she thought and went over the probabilities in her mind.

So deep in thought, she nearly had a stroke when Ti appeared before her seemingly out of nowhere with several of the Sisters. 'Erima, why are you here alone?'

'Shit, Ti, I almost died while I barely escaped with my life earlier.' said Erima and looked behind her. Still no one else had shown up. She hadn't even seen one of the Sisters whom had fled before her. 'We were overrun by an overwhelming horde of a kind of maggot monster when we surrounded those party members. I'm the only one that survived as far as I know.'

Ti clenched her teeth as she tried to take a broad view of the situation for the Sisters as calm as possible. 'Are you sure you're the only one?'

'I haven't seen the ones that fled the fight early, and anyone else had no chance of surviving against the sheer numbers of monsters.'

Ti wanted to make sure of it for herself, but with it came the risk of encountering danger and losing more of her people, but on the other hand taking out the few members that were left of the party right now was likely the best opportunity while she had enough people. It couldn't be that they'd encounter a loss for the third time in a row. 'All right, we're heading for the last members of Quaint. We will end this today and take their gold and stones.' She grabbed Erima's shoulder. 'Gather everyone still in town and meet us at the lake.'

Erima watched Ti and the others leave in a hurry towards the site of the second request taken by Quaint, and thought about just packing up and abandoning town instead. It wouldn't do her much good because anyone who did that before didn't go far. She herself had killed two former Sisters who thought they could run off without a word. She sighed. Keep going as she had done all these years was the best bet in her mind, and she hurried towards town again.

***

'Thank goodness you're all right.' said Rachael after the last Sister and some late arrivals from the maggot monsters were slain, and hugged Handil tight.

'I'm happy to see you again, sweetie.' said Handil, and kissed her.

Valdys smiled with a glance at the two and the ground around them while hugging Ulric. 'This mess reminds me of the worms at that old tower.'

Ulric looked around at the dirty white sticky remains of the insect monsters covering everything, and sniggered. I'm glad I'm not soaked in disgusting goo this time.'

'It was a great idea from Tera and Lehti to release these things, and let them attack the Sisters while I shielded us from them and pretended to fight.'

Ulric looked at the two young fairy women with some pride. 'You two have my deepest gratitude for working so well together.'

Tera huffed. 'We're just fulfilling the obligation we have to our queen.'

Lehti blushed a little and returned a quick smile before Tera dragged her away to help recover the bodies of the Sisters in the area.

'Wolfie, girls?' said Iphigenia across the link while she and the girls with her stared at the creatures crawling out of the lake and the ponds around them. 'We could surely use your help now.'