Chapter 47: On the Road Again (2/2)

“What do you mean?”

“So long as you believe that you fight for justice, he will support you within reason. You will often find his followers on either side of a conflict, for is it not righteous to fight for your people?” Lorn answers.

“And those who act in anger…”

“If the follower commits atrocities or loses faith in his cause, the power of the golden god will be denied to him until he finds absolution,” Lorn continues coldly.

“Implying that Neriad does not have a clear idea himself of what is right and wrong?”

“Sacrilege!” Lorn bellowed. Viv jumped in alarm but the powerful man merely grinned. The guards behind them snickered.

“Just kidding. His will is clear. Neriad wants us to unite against monsters and the dark gods’ servants. And stop being cunts. He won’t force us, though. Too much trouble. It’s up to us to decide what we stand for.”

Discussions started among the ranks after that, though Viv soon grew too tired to participate. She almost sighed in relief when they found a cave higher up the path in the late afternoon. The issue was that it was quite obviously not a natural formation. The group gathered a little further down on a slope that gave a good view of the entrance. Shields and weapons were drawn as a precaution.

“So, think it might be one of those horrible digging insects?” one of the guards asked.

“Could be a gut spiller,” Viv suggested. The others turned to her.

“How do you reckon?” Koro asked.

The witch pointed at the entrance, which was round, large, and lacked the sharp claw marks she would expect from something insectile or worse, a nascent necrarch. The stone had a porous, pitted quality that she had seen in the aftermath of monster vomit. Not even post-bender puke could match its vile acidity.

“This was dug with bile, not claws. I think.”

“Yeah, you are right,” Lorn admitted.

“Witch Bob is good hunter and fighter,” Koro the Amazon said, “Find husband soon!”

The large woman leaned forward to whisper in Viv’s ears.

“But not Courtesan Yan, please.”

“He’s all yours. Now, I can usually make short work of gut spillers but I need a clean line of sight. You think you can lure it out, somehow?”

“We can certainly try. Alright folks, drop your backpacks. Half circle at good range. Those with no shield stand a bit back and mind the puke.”

“Yeah yeah it’s not our first kill,” a bald older guard grumbled.

The group split up and positioned themselves with the efficiency of a well-practiced quad. Viv stared with fascination, eager to see what skill the experienced warrior would use to drag the beast out. Lorn carefully walked up with his shield raised and leaned forward at the entrance. He soon banged it with his sword.

“Wakey-wakey you cocksucker! Come on out now, don’t make me drag your sorry ass outside!”

Something roared in answer and Lorn trotted back as the ground rumbled with the footsteps of a giant. Viv was… a little bit disappointed.

A gut’s spiller giant head, with the twin horns that gave Solfis his eerie appearance, emerged first. It crawled out, first showing arms like tree trunks, then a large belly.

“Bob?” Lorn asked with calm.

The creature finished rawling out and revealed legs as large as an elephant’s.

“Bob?” Lorn asked more urgently.

The creature stood up to its full size, which was close to four meters high.

“Bob!”

“YOINK!”

Her overcharged spell would have struggled to flood the creature’s conduits only two months ago. Now though, it was like filling a gutter with typhoon water. The creature turned to ash and collapsed on itself.

“I had to wait until it was out or we would have been shovelling ash out of the entrance until night fall,” the witch calmly explained.

The guards were clearly a bit upset but it didn’t last. One of them pulled the more or less intact skull from the pile of ash and bone it was embedded into.

“Wow. Nice size that. Should we keep it as a trophy?”

“Sure thing, Erlas, as long as you carry it.”

The skull was left where it was, a mute witness to the violence that had occured.

The group explored the cave and found it empty. It offered a decent shelter for the night. After a stew, Viv crawled under her covers, played a bit with Arthur and promptly fell asleep.