Chapter 449: (443) 6.57. A Whisper on the Wind

Shia returned to Terra while Vin was explaining his current exploration plans to Linda. The last thing he wanted was for the council to panic and wonder where he was as the next battle grew ever nearer, and Linda promised him she’d ensure they all knew he’d be back long before Josh and Golrim’s rough predictions. As Vin left the town hall, he was surprised to find Shia, Scule, and Reginald all waiting outside.“Hey, Vin,” Shia smiled, looking ready to go as always with Blossom already in cat form at her side. “Thanks for the message. Glad all that craziness was handled so quickly.”

“Quickly? It took him ages to wrap up that dream journey,” Scule snorted, hopping off Shia’s shoulder and happily climbing onto Vin’s instead as Reginald scurried into his pocket. “Let’s go grab Alka and get the hells out of here. Bill is deep in work mode and doesn’t want to be disturbed, and Casper is trying to collect as many reagents as he can for the upcoming battle, which means you chumps are the only friends I’ve got.”

“Touching,” Vin drawled, focusing on Shia. “How are you doing? I know it’s been a good while since we created the staff, but you looked pretty drained at the time.”

“You don’t know the half of it,” Shia snorted. “I slept for three days after that. Erik explained the gist of what happened, and it sounds like your new really put the two of us through the ringer. Honestly, I’m glad that was probably a one-time thing. I’d be worried about trying to survive something like that again until we’re twenty levels higher.”

“What staff?” Scule asked, looking between the two of them. “What happened? Nobody tells me anything!”

Shaking his head, Vin cast Dimensional Sheath, causing Scule to flinch backward and tumble off his shoulder as the grand artifact appeared in Vin’s hand. The swirling, multicolored wood pulsed with pure mana as Vin held it up, and he tapped a golem finger against it.

“ staff. Shia and I tried making a replacement for the old staff I lost, and we sort of went a little overboard.”

“No, you think?!” Scule asked, leaping to his feet and staring up at the staff in awe. “Vin, can feel the mana radiating from that thing, and I’m not even a mage! Is that even safe to carry with you?!”

“Safer than you could possibly imagine,” Vin chuckled, making it vanish once more. “Which reminds me, I was hoping you could help me run a few tests on the artifact when we have a minute. It’s got a pretty interesting defensive ability, and I want to see how it holds up to stuff like poison.”

“As long as you can promise me it won’t react to anything I do with a bolt of lightning, I’ll do what I can,” Scule muttered, hesitating for a moment before sighing and climbing back onto Vin’s shoulder. “Okay, any other surprises, or are we good to head out? Pointy ears, you coming?”

“Absolutely. I want to keep myself balanced, and I’ve spent the last week and change working on the bond aspect of my class,” Shia explained, getting up onto Blossom. “Time to focus on the Druid portion. That means working on new magic and meeting new plants! Let’s get moving!”

With that, the four of them put Terra behind them and ran out to the forest dungeon to grab Alka. Sure enough, they found the golem watching over her Slayers as they fought mock battles against her strongest warriors that played the roles of fake monsters. Though Tiffany and Trod weren’t the only ones with the role of monster this time around.

was there as well.

Vin watched as the Hunter of Men easily fought off three members of the new guard all at the same time, flowing around the Slayers and somehow always ending up in the perfect location to ensure at least one or two of his opponents would be hampered by their own teammate. The man didn’t even try to hit back, he focused purely on dodging and evading, knocking punches aside with precise strikes to the wrist and weaving between blows. It was like watching a choreographed dance, and Vin was reminded as to just how skilled a warrior Curash truly was.

There was a real chance Phil was no longer the deadliest warrior Terra had within its walls.

Alka let this go on for a solid twenty seconds, before barking out an order.

“Swap!”

Instantly, the three Slayers who had desperately been trying to take Curash out switched to focusing on defense, but nothing they did really mattered. Curash shot toward them with a glint in his eye, easily dispatching one after another with carefully calculated blows that always seemed to find their marks. Anytime one of the Slayers went to block, Curash’s strike shifted almost unnaturally to hit a different part of their body instead. In under ten seconds, he took down all three opponents, and Alka grunted as she called for everyone to stop.

“Curash, show everyone what you just did again, but do it slow enough they can comprehend where they messed up. After that, Tiffany and Tall Phil are in charge. Keep up the training as usual. I’m heading out with Vin for a few days to make sure he doesn’t get himself killed.”

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“Slayer!” the near forty warriors called out, snapping out crisp salutes as Alka turned and went to join Vin and the team.

“That guy is just as scary as I remember him,” Scule muttered, shuddering as Curash flashed them a quick smile before turning and showing the Slayers exactly what he’d done to wipe the floor with them. “And we’re sure he’s on our side, right?”

“So long as Golrim is,” Shia shrugged. “He’s soul bonded, remember? He doesn’t really have much of a say in what his future holds.”

“He’s just what the Slayers need,” Alka said as she joined them. “Remember, Slayers specialize in fighting against monsters. We practice man-to-man combat to cover our bases, but it’s not where most of our training lies. However, with everything that’s happened and the knowledge that there are ten thousand highly skilled warriors who do nothing fight one another lying only three fragments away, I thought we should start devoting a bit more time to similar training. As a Hunter of Men, and a damn good one at that, Curash is the perfect instructor.”

“If we’re lucky, the rankers will never figure out a way out of their three fragments,” Vin said. “Though yeah, I think taking the extra precaution is probably a good idea.”

“So who would win in a fight between the two of you?” Scule asked, still watching the Hunter as he taught. Vin half expected Alka to try and flick Scule off his shoulder, but the Slayer merely turned her head around a hundred and eight degrees, watching Curash teach as well.

“It’s a hard call. Most of Curash’s training and abilities require his opponent to be, understandably, in order to work. My body doesn’t exactly have weak points he can strike against, and my weird joints make grappling almost impossible. That said, he’s still much stronger than I am due to his levels, and he’s quite talented. It would be a toss up. If I had to choose, and something important was on the line, I’d still rather go up against Phil than Curash. Vin, if you could work on trying to figure out a way to make me stronger, I certainly wouldn’t complain. It’s rough not being able to advance in levels like the rest of you.”

“We can check in with the librarian the next time we see her. Maybe she’ll have an idea or two,” Vin said, leading them through the forest dungeon. It was a fun feeling, having the old team back together again. But without Lumel, they were forced to fight their way through the dungeon rather than warp straight to the Underside entrance. Even if their ‘fighting’ consisted of little more than allowing Shia to skewer the beast-type monsters that showed up with a few casts of Grass Spikes.

At this point, anything shy of an elite monster was barely worth their time.

As they ran through the Underside, Vin told them about the hilly fragment and his time spent with the Whisperer and the Tamers. Shia was quite interested in the concept of someone who had managed to give up her own levels, while Scule wanted to meet the Tamers and see if they had any cool tricks he could learn to help with Reginald’s growth. Alka was far more interested in the insect-based monsters lining the fragment, and she all but laughed gleefully when one of the large centipedes came scurrying their way. Ripping Dream Eater from its sheath, Alka ran straight at the monster, cleaving through spear-tipped legs one after another as the others watched.

“Insects are already large enough pests,” Scule grumbled as Alka carved her way through the monster, all but cutting it in two as she came out the other side. “Why did the Gods have to make them even ”

“I hear it was to make them better able to eat petians,” Shia said unhelpfully, grinning at Scule even as the Rogue turned to glare at her. Vin merely shook his head, ignoring their banter as usual as he used Create Water to hose all the insect blood off Alka’s darthsteel form.

He didn’t know why he even bothered. The moment they were beset upon by the next monster, Alka threw herself at that one as well, practically shoving her head straight through its carapace.

It didn’t take them long to clear the dungeon, and Vin frowned as the others walked out onto the ridiculously hilly fragment. He’d hoped at least one of his friends would have issues with the uneven ground and random divots, but Alka didn’t look bothered in the least, and Blossom’s four legs kept her incredibly sturdy. Before he could get the chance to complain, Vin blinked as a familiar voice called out to him on the wind.

“Vin. Welcome back to our humble fragment.”

“Oh, hey there,” Vin replied. He began venting his mana without even thinking the moment the woman’s powerful words reached his ears. He was far enough away that he was probably fine, but better safe than sorry. Vin noted how his friends looked at him like he was crazy, and he couldn’t help but laugh. “It’s the Whisperer. She’s talking to me like how I told you guys she could. I knew she could reach across her entire fragment, but this is still pretty cool.”

“Huh. Any chance she can speak up so the rest of us can hear her?” Scule asked, frowning as he looked around from atop Vin’s shoulder.

“I think asking someone who goes by ‘the Whisperer’ to speak up might be slightly offensive to these people’s culture,” Shia pointed out.

“Not to mention lethal,” Vin muttered, recalling the dwarves' warnings as to just what could happen if the Whisperer ever raised their voice. The Haven, the largest building in their entire Burrow and their holy place, had been rebuilt four times over the years due to such occasions. “Anyway, what’s up?” he asked, directing his question to the sky. “I brought some of my friends along with me this time, but we actually weren’t planning on dropping by the Burrow. We’re on something of a timer, and we have three fragments we want to investigate over the next few days.”

“In that case, it would behoove you to come listen to what my people have to say. Once they were done here, the Tamers we hosted attempted to continue east as they explored. Not all of them made it back, but those who did brought back unpleasant news. What they discovered is more than a little concerning.”

“Oh no,” Vin said, his heart dropping as he thought back to the cheerful, friendly Tamers who seemed to hunt for any excuse to throw a party. The news that some of them had perished hit him much harder than he expected, and he cleared his throat to keep the lump out of it. “What did they find?”

“An invasion in progress.”