When Rellina got back, the large doors opened automatically, and the lynx, Ruben, was the first to notice her coming. The lynx rose from where he was seated, and Rellina passed by. She walked outside and into the castle courtyard and turned, looking up at the barrier, looking for the monster, then beyond it for something.
Damian and Darrow followed her eyes. The assassin and the knight also followed her eyes.
There was a shift in the air beyond the barrier, a soft humming that began in the sky above, and magical motes began drifting down. The first scrying spell appeared in the form of a magical eyeball, then it floated above the castle, looking for something. It was not long before another scrying spell appeared, this one in the form of a featureless face. Those were just the first few.
Adventurers were reading the unique bounty quest and getting their mages to activate scrying spells. This was one good thing about the monster being in their world. They could use spells to see what this monster was and maybe accept the quest. Doing the same in a dungeon was much more dangerous. It could attract monsters, especially those that were more magical in nature.
The scrying spells and constructs drifted around the castle like fading ghosts. They appeared and disappeared from location to location in slow and deliberate ways, looking and searching for monsters. They created frenetic lights all over the land surrounding the castle.
This land was a large area filled with ruins of the past that was mostly hidden by the mist, but with that many mages searching the once upper district of Mistwall, it was not long until they first caught sight of the centipede-lizard creature.
The creature’s figure distorted as the first scrying spell found it. The spell adjusted, and the monster retreated back a few steps, then it looked through the spell. All the spells in the area shifted to its location, and like a bundle of fireflies, they surrounded the creature.
Behind Darrow, he saw the maid hold up a mirror for Rellina as multiple images of nobles and reputable adventurers appeared and disappeared, all wishing to speak to her directly.
Now that it couldn’t hide in the mist, the creature let out a low, vibrating growl to warn them off, but the lights simply intensified. It looked for somewhere to hide, but the lights from the scrying spells just followed it.
In the distance, Darrow and Damian watched the lights following the creature from the castle’s old surroundings. They watched it stop, glare at them, and then it rushed toward them. Since there was no way of hiding, it figured it would try one last time to break through the barrier.
The lynx watched it coming and quickly rose to its feet, then let out a sharp hiss while baring its teeth.
The creature locked onto them again. It was agitated, and it was angry. Even worse, it was running to attack the wall again. It struck the wall, and another tremor ran through the entire castle. The courtyard shook, and it stood nearly a meter away from the battlements they stood on.
Rellina stepped forward, and the creature, for about a moment, sensed the power of her class. It's sensed her soul. It looked her up and down, but then turned and raised its body to look down at Damian and Darrow.
Its mandibles clicked, and the sound had the guardian lynx also letting out a low, threatening growl on the other side of the barrier.
“The creature is persistent, my lady. What does it want?” The assassin stepped up beside her and looked at the creature that was glaring at all of them behind the barrier.
The creature tried digging under the barrier, but that just sent static dancing across it.
“It’s looking for weakness in the barrier,” the knight said.
“And are there weaknesses?” Damian asked, and he had to yell thanks to the loud scratching and static of the creature trying to dig its way through the barrier.
“No, there are no weaknesses. None that I know of,” Rellina yelled back over the sound of the creature’s scratching and screeching as it tried to get in.
With how many spells were being cast, Damian and Darrow shouldn’t have been surprised when a spell came flying from the distant building of the Mistcarvers’ guild. The magical fireball slammed into the ground so close to the creature that it was sent falling and stumbling to the side. The group in the castle covered their eyes.
When they opened their eyes, the creature was looking back at the distant building. It let out an angry whistle, then it rushed toward the guild buildings in this district’s city square. It avoided the many other scrying spells, and it ran forward, disappearing into the mist.
“It’s going after them. Bring me my scrying mirror. I must warn them,” Rellina said.
A moment later, she was looking at an enchanted mirror and talking to the Guild master of the Mistcavers Guild, who was a bald man.
---
That was the fifth person Damian and Darrow had seen Rellina talking to. Most of the people who had asked to come into her city had been different adventurer guilders, a few minor nobles, and lords of the neighboring district states.
The lords were asking about whether they should be worried about the monster crossing into their districts, and the adventurers were asking for permission to enact their hunting rights in the city of mists. She handled this all with a calm mind, or at least she tried her best.
It wasn’t long after that when she looked up and sensed a shift in the air. As ruler of the district, she sensed it as carriages and wagons from the Principal city district started entering her city. She could sense everything entering her domain. Whether they were hostile or not, that was another matter.
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She turned her head and noticed their path, for she realized they were heading straight for her castle. The guild mistress must have kept her word, and they were headed here to help her.
Before she could let the magic in the scrying mirror be taken over by another person who wanted to speak to her, she looked around at the courtyard and in the distance at the city square of Mistwall, where the creature was attracting attention.
There in the distance, the resident adventurer guild of the city was engaging with the creature in battle. She only hoped they could hold it off long enough for more help to arrive.
“The adventurers are coming,” she murmured, and the maid turned to her.
“Should I prepare for the guests?”
“No, Clarice. They are adventurers, but I’m guessing you mean the nobles.” She massaged her forehead.
“Yes, the nobles,” the maid Clarice said.
Rellina nodded, and Darrow noticed them discuss a few more things, and the older woman ran back into the old, ancient castle.
“Do you think we can make it back home?” Darrow asked, with half his mind fixed on Rellina.
“We should be able to, especially if the monster is distracted,” Damian said.
“What about her? You think we should tell her?” He nodded toward Rellina, and she didn’t miss the gesture.
“Let’s go back home, talk to Aunt Cass, get some help. Maybe she can help us get the scepter from this Lord Targid.”
“But she knows, you know. Our secret,” Darrow added, and Damian frowned.
“That’s why we do what she wants and forget we ever met her.”
“What are you two planning?” They turned and found Rellina looking at them with narrowed eyes.
“We are leaving to get you what you wanted,” Damian said.
“What about the monster? It’s hunting you,” she said, looking from Damian to Darrow.
“It’s busy fighting the Mistcurvers. This is the chance we can use to run.”
“Yes, it’s distracted,” Darrow fingered a thumb back in the direction of the distant buildings, repeating what Damian had very clearly pointed out.
Rellina frowned as she looked out beyond the mist and into the distant city square that glowed with lights. The creature was fighting the mages of the Mistcurvers’ guild and tearing apart the few buildings they had in Mistwall. There were even fires glowing in the distant buildings on the foggy day.
Rellina’s eyes widened, half in fear, half in anger. Those were her people, and the mages of the mist city were proving to be no match for the creature they had provoked.
Thovak stepped forward and shook his head, and she paused. She couldn’t do anything right now. Maybe if she had one of the skills of the [Warlord] of Fenroth, maybe then she could have fought the beast herself.
“Which path will you be taking out of my city?”
“We’ll take the long way around. We don’t want to attract the monster anymore.”
There was another explosion in the city square, which made them turn and watch as some of the merchant lords fled the Mistcurvers’ Causeway on magical flying mounts, carriages, and in magical gliders that hovered away from the chaos.
“I’m sorry,” Rellina whispered as she looked on at the burning ward. It was an apology to her people.
Damian and Darrow stepped backward slowly. They exchanged a look, and for them it was now or never. They didn’t know if the creature would follow them to Principal City, but it was far better.
They walked towards the castle’s gate, and they hesitated. The fog, which was a bit light thanks to the daylight, swirled unnaturally at times, but they eventually stepped beyond the barrier.
Far in the distance, on one of the partially broken buildings in the Mistcarvers’ Causeway, the creature froze. It stopped its rampage suddenly, and its head lifted, sensing something. The creature turned sharply toward the castle, and its mandibles clicked. It dropped the torso of a dying guard in its jaws to lighten itself and skittered toward the castle, letting the dying, dismembered man scream in the background.
Its mandibles clicked as it rushed forward, and everyone in Mistwall turned at the noise. But the creature had a goal. It had sensed them. It crushed through the ruins leading up to the castle that were once built to withstand ages and rushed toward them.
The twins froze. They had gotten far enough from the castle, but not close enough to any shelter. One of the mages tried shooting lightning at it from where he stood in the air, but it simply ignored him. It used its massive tail and swatted him, sending him flying back into the distance. He was not the target.
Its eyes lit up with recognition as it saw them in the distance, and Damian swore under his breath.
“Damian, I think it sees us.”
In response, the creature sped up straight in their direction, despite how obstructed it was by the ruins.
Not far from them, and on the same path, in fact, the wagon wheels of the guild caravan glided across the road. The clerks who had been sent by the guild mistress were seated in one carriage, followed by wagons filled with silver and bronze rank adventurers who had come to fight the monster without going through the bureaucracy needed to enter a dungeon. Also, it was always easier to fight a monster that was not in a dungeon.
The enchanters sat with them in the carriage as well. They were to contain any portals that might appear.
One of the adventurers hopped down when he saw the pair of them coming down the road. The warrior raised a hand to wave at them, stretched, and even complained about how chilly the district was.
They run past him.
As he stretched, another adventurer waiting inside the wagon looked up, squinted, and pointed toward the fog excitedly.
All the adventurers turned in the same direction Damian and Darrow were looking, and they saw a large figure moving fast toward them. Those with [Danger Sense] skills all turned in one direction. They didn’t know what it was yet, but that didn’t last very long.
The creature shrieked a deep, hunting, whistling cry, and in the next moment, they saw it split the fog and rush toward them, or at least they thought so.
The ground trembled beneath their feet, and their eyes went wide. The fog made it hard to see for the warriors, but not for the archers. They saw it. They saw the creature closing the distance, mist curling around its mandibles as it broke into sight.
“The monster is incoming!” one of the adventurers yelled.
Damian and Darrow watched as the caravan came to a stop instantly. The guild flags flapped in the misty wind, then the silver and bronze rank adventurers jumped off their wagons and began to draw their weapons.
One of the mages in the back used a spell and activated a bright mana lantern, and the light spread out all around them. What the light also did was reveal the figure of the charging centipede that was headed in their direction.
The scrying spells that had generally lost sight of the creature began to reappear all over the place, and the onlookers were ready to see what this creature was all about against real adventurers.
The adventurers cheered in a frantic surge to prove themselves against a creature that had given up its home advantage, and they also charged to meet it. Different guild parties would level if they killed the beast. They knew it.
Magda, watching from her scrying orb, frowned. The monster was of the unique category, and there was no way it was less than a high silver rank threat. Even worse, the way they were charging, they were all fighting for their individual guilds, even though they were supposed to be fighting together.
The clerks and enchanters she had sent, on the other hand, fled back into the carriages and started moving toward Rellina’s castle at a greater speed.
The spirit carriages rushed past the two brothers, and they hesitated.
“You think we should have asked to get onto their wagons?” Darrow asked.
“No. This is our chance to get back home as the adventurers fight it,” Damian said, and he turned away from the castle and the adventurers.
