PreCursive

  My… episode marred our departure from Mt. Umetsuji, and it was far more abrupt than I think any of us had been pnning. Shurenga, Sena, and Gin came to see us off, as well as the horde of cubs that had been dogging (catting?) our heels. I was incredibly thankful that my as hadn’t frightehem off permaly, and I at least mao get a few pets in for the road.

  I was really missing Fade right about now. Maybe his presence alone would have been able to protect me from the Mad God.

  “Be swift, warriors,” Shurenga murmured to us, as the gathered stood at the mouth of the mountain once more. “Father tells me that the whole of the tral range has bee shrouded in a great storm ht. The madness might have touched upon the Immortal Wyrm and stirred him from his quietude. If you wish to reach Mt. Gorenzan safely, I reend haste. Who knows how the Oni have been affected?”

  I grimaced at that and exged a few gnces with my panions. Bel had been stig to me like glue sihe se in the guest rooms and was the first to meet my eyes. Her stormy blue mirrored the warihat I knew had to be in my own emerald.

  “Veins of thunder speak,

  Mountain’s breath this with dusk-

  Wor press onward.”

  Venix intoned, speaking first. He then sighed. “We will go as quickly as we , Lady Shurenga. The time for caution…has passed.”

  “It has,” The queen of the saber-tooth cat said quietly, nodding. “Good luck to you and yours, all of you. Dark clouds gather on the horizon.”

  Figuratively and literally.

  With the final farewells said, we oriented a off towards the ter of the isnd. On said horizon, I could see the storm that had gathered. It almost looked like a tralized hurrie, swirling endlessly above a single, distant point. It was too far, and too obscured to tell what it was, but I knew what it had to be.

  Gorenzan.

  No longer hiking, we sprinted in that dire.

  ……………………………….

  Our haste meant that we were no longer being careful about disturbing the hiding residents of this stony pin. On our sprint towards the tral range, we ranged into three more random enters with Oni. Two of them were wandering out on the pin, heading in the same dire that we were. The first Oni, a small yellow adolest, died before it could eve. None of us were holding ba the slightest, now.

  Surprisingly, Kazuma got the kill for that one. With the Shōmetsu no Kiba still ed on his back, the samurai used his regur bde to decapitate it. We barely stopped long enough to grab the monster’s core from the resulting cloud of foul smoke.

  The sed burst forth from another ravine, in much the same manner as the first Oni we had run into. It held a rge, withered juree in its grip, and tried to crush us with the wooden mass. But it was too slow.

  Using a somewhat familiar Skill, Venix unched a double-yered, crimson X of pure Ki at the leaping crimson adult. The result was that eight pieces of very deceased Oni rained down upon the group.

  Not eve Oni we ran into was able to stop us for long. This was another wanderer making his way towards the tral range, and this time it wasn’t a juve was a much more attentive elder, like the first we had run into. This one was a red, which meant it was aligned more with fire than it was with the storm. At the same time we saw it on the horizon, it saw us. We werely trying to hide the crag sounds of our footsteps across the pin, and so it spun around and bounded our way, bellowing.

  It was a bit of a tougher fight, with the way it was throwing around fireballs rger than I was. But in the end, the squad-based Oni Huactics we had all learned made the fight manageable. After hamstringing this one, I was the person who tore out its throat, this time after getting close to it with Terractus in my transformed state.

  Once we’d regrouped and resumed our sprinting, I took the time to check my Status with my c. All told, I’d mao gain awo levels from all the Oni we’d sughtered out here. That brought me up to level one hundred and thirty-five. Five more levels and I’d get another Skill or Talent from the System, with the way those were ing these days.

  Hopefully, I hoped it would be good because I had no doubt that milestone was ing soon.

  The day, when we reached the outer stretch of the Goryuen mountains, we found the chaos we’d been expeg.

  It was a madhouse in here.

  ………………………………

  I’d put my cloak ba, and food reason.

  I was getting soaked from the torrential rains that were falling oire group. Thankfully, it wasn’t ing down so hard that I couldn’t see out into the storm from the oint we’d reached. Our pany had oered into the tral rahis m after running through the night. Once here, we’d discussed matters and decided that we o get a better look at what awaited us, now that we’d reached our destination. The peak wasn’t much more than a mildly impressive hill, and after a hike that was only difficult in the slightest due to the rain, we’d all crouched there to get a bead ouation.

  It…really wasn’t looking too good out here.

  The rain was ing down hard enough that the previously bone-dry valleys between the mountains had bee raging, fast-moving rivers. The ey of the range floor was now a byrinthi of flowing, debris-filled death. These were le streams we could easily fjord. If we tried, we’d likely get run through with any one of the braumbling through the grey waters, or crushed by boulders the size of cars. To make matters worse, the width of these els wasn’t anything to s, either. Any one of them was far, far too wide to risk trying to jump across, even with our status-enharength. Some of us might be able to make it, true. Hell, even though I still didn’t know how to use the wings that came with my transformation for actual flight, I had figured out how to use them for enhanced leaps. But not all of us would make it, and we didn’t dare split the group.

  Because the Oni had gone mad out here.

  I’d been told before that the Oured to Goryuen in order to fight each other to the death for supremacy, uhe watchful and eager eyes of Tatsugan. Supposedly, that only happened when he was nearing his Apex, so he could ge himself on their strength and fully asd to a Camity.

  That…might be happening now.

  In the st few minutes we’d been up here, we had watched as what could only be two rival violence’s csh on a nearly ft-topped peak. Each group of Oni had been prised of what seemed to be more than ten of the monsters, each led by absolutely massive elders. One seemed to be a group of yellow Oni, and the other blue. In other words, thunder aligned versus lightning aligned.

  The resulting war betweewo groups was loud and bright enough to drown out the natural equivalents that raged in the heavens above. Through the raiched as the yellow elder ripped the head off of the defeated blue elder, and ched into the resulting Core as if it were a grape. The victrew another foot i and sprouted another pair of horns from his head.

  Disturbingly, despite being more than a mile away from the flict, and doing our best to keep a low profile, the elder saw us. Before he and the remaining members of his violence departed their battleground, he turo face our dire. Even across the distance, I could see the surprisingly calg intelligen those malicious, blood-red eyes. But thankfully, after a moment of too-human sideration, the elder snorted and turned away from us.

  I let out a tense sigh as the elder and his band vanished over a nearby ridge. o me, Renauld did the same, except his was far more shuddering than mine was. He nudged me weakly. “Close one, eh?”

  “We were not worth the risk and effort for him,” Venix said lowly, to my right. “Make no mistake, he longed for our death. But the surer path to power lies in the hunting of his fellows, and the devourment of their Cores. It is the problem with the Oni elders, as they grow in strength. They bee far too ing.”

  Azarus grunted but seemed preoccupied with something. His eyes were locked on a far distant peak just barely visible through the rains to tower over the lesser mountains. I saw him he wet clumps of his long crimson hair from out of his eyes irritably, and turo look at the raging rivers below us. He didn’t speak, though, not before Liora did.

  “We will not be able to fjord those valleys, and so we must take to the ridges,” She said, just barely loud enough to be heard over the rain.

  Renauld cast a gnce aska her. “What, with those things fighting all up and down them? I’m pretty sure there’s anht going ohattaway.” He waved his hand in the dire of another mountain, far off into the distao our left. I squinted, and I thought I could see some distant figures fighting in the raid, but I couldn’t be sure.

  Wait, yup.

  That was a big old fsh of fire all right. It didn’t st long, sider the rain, but it had fred up. No doubt there was another full violen violetle taking p that dire. A shame, too, sidering there was a nice, clear, ft ridgeline skirting out in that dire.

  It would be folly to go that way, though.

  Venix shook his head. “We skirt the edges of the struggles and do our best to stay out of sight, and we might just avoid attention. It is our best option.”

  “Not sure we take the risk of movin’ slow,” Azarus spoke, drawing everyone’s attention. His, though, was fixed on Venix. “This whe, how’s it shaped?”

  Venix furrowed his chitinous brow. “What do you mean?”

  Azarus made an irritated noise. “I mean, what’s the damn topography? Nate, let me see that map the nob gave you.”

  I’d holy fotten about that thing, but it robably the time to dig it out. It was supposed to show us where the bunker was here in the tral mountains. I’d never had to use it until now, because it only showed the tral range and not the stony pins or the outer jungles.

  Thankfully, it was roofed with wa, so it wasn’t ruined as I dug it out and ha to my best friend. We all crowded around the dwarf as he rolled it on top of a ft rock. Helpfully, Liora held up a hand and ignited a light Skill to help us see better through the rain. I evehe long, tailing end of my cloak to shield our huddle.

  Azarus studied the map for a moment, occasionally looking up from it to study the horizon before looking back down. He sighed. “Yup, we’re gonna hafta get a move on, or we’re boned. And it’s not ‘cause of the Oher.”

  I matched his sigh. “What now?”

  Azarus pointed ohickly muscled finger out to the distant, barely visible peak on the horizon. “I’m guessin’ that’s Mt. Gorenzan, and the map firmed it. If that’s where we’re goin’, then if we g too much, the entire area is gonna be uer before long. That includes our bunker. See, this entire range,” He swept that finger out in a broad gesture at the surrounding mountains. “Looks ta be a bit oddly shaped, ta my eyes. Kind of like…a bowl, with another, deeper bowl in the ter, yeah? Gorenzan itself is at the bottom of those two bowls, and the lower one is separated by a high ridge line, accordin' ta this. Now, all the rain from the outer bowl is flowin’ towards the ter, but ’t reach it because of the ridge. It’s been rainin’ for a while, so there’s already a bit of a ke in the inner bowl I’m guessin’. Thankfully, the map is tellihat the door isn’t at the base Gorenzan like we thought. It’s a bit up the mountain. But if we dally too long, the dam holding back the outer bowl back will break…”

  Bel frowned sharply. “Then the whole damn area is gonna flood and bee an innd sea, swallowin’ up the door.”

  The bottom dropped out of my stomach at that annou. There was no way we could search the bunker if that happened.

  Renauld didn’t seem to uand the issue, judging from the fused look on his furry, drenched face. “Why? I mean, it would suck to swim down to it, but it’s not like it’s impossible. It might eveter. And an innd sea could be calmer than the rivers, at least, so we might be able to dive in. That ouldn’t have to climb up to the door, just swim over to the approximate spot and then downwards.”

  “Calmer?” Bel muttered to herself. “Maybe, but I dunno about that.”

  I slowly shook my head. “That’s not even the real problem,” I said, for the people who hadn’t been ihe bunker yet. “If we open the door to the bunker when it’s submerged, who knows how much water is going to rush i’ll ruihing ihe doors are pretty big, and the st bunker I was in stretched deep down, in a kind of spiral. That water will flow to the deepest point, which is where I’m guessing what I’m looking for is. It’ll destroy the sole. No matter how quickly we close the door, enough water will get io screw things up.”

  “Could be that this bunker is different tha,” Azarus pointed out, a note of doubt in his voice. It didn't sound like he believed his own words.

  I frow him and shook my head. “I’m not willing to take the risk.”

  Liora frow me in fusion and interrupted us. “sole?”

  “The information ste device…thing.”

  “So should we wait until it stops raining?” Renauld asked, eyes dartiween each speaker.

  Venix broke his silence. “It will not stop raining until Tatsugan is sin. Damnation, I did not sider that. If the bunker is submerged, we will have no choice but to join the Solstice’s Fme in their quest to sy the Wyrm.”

  I had fotten Kazuma in my irritation, but the samurai had been watg the discussion quietly from the sidelines. “So. You seek some form of…‘bunker’ at the Throne of the Wyrm.” He mused. I noticed his eyes had gained a calg gleam.

  I cursed to myself but didn’t let it show on my face. Thank God for Ag.

  “I have an offer for your pany,” He announced with a triumphant smile on his face. “I possess a water affinity and have studied the Art of Sealing. With tration, I project a barrier over the entrance of your bunker and prevent the water from rushing in until whatever door you seek is closed.”

  My eyes narrowed at the man. “And what do you ask iurn, Kazuma Higanashi?”

  His smile widened, baring straight white teeth in victory.

  “You must assist in sying the Wyrm, of course.”