Его не звали, но он приперся / They never called, yet he is here: Глава 29

Chapter 29

Camrad_RIP 30.11.22 в 10:24

Once, when the trees were big, the levels were low, and I was in a frontier town pretending to be a minor alchemist. Ygra and I were able to take down an epic creature called the Forest Yeti. That fight wasn't so dangerous as to call it deadly, but it was still tense and nerve-racking. Ygra, far from his home swamps, would have been torn apart by such a beast simply by virtue of its superior size, characteristics, fighting talents, and home-area advantage.

Camrad_RIP 02.12.22 в 15:57

Now my tame ogre could beat that beast, if not blindfolded, without too much trouble - her levels, her stats, and, most importantly, the skills she uses when she hunts. A great melee master is something much cooler than a regular master, no matter what they say. And if this great master is not alone, but has the support of high-level comrades, among whom was even a brain-dead Hero, then the wood shagger didn't stand a chance.

Camrad_RIP 02.12.22 в 16:14

The advantage of working as a group, multiplied by the intense experience of many fights and the indomitable desire to become stronger, does wonders. Even such strange ones as the search and liquidation of mighty monsters and monsters, being in the very fiefdom of these beasts and monsters, and without an opportunity to escape under the wing of the city walls. Yes, yes, this "routine" has long since become ordinary for us, which, of course, invigorates the blood with adrenaline but is not unusual.

Camrad_RIP 02.12.22 в 16:16

And now we've decided exactly the same.

Camrad_RIP 02.12.22 в 16:16

The beast looked a little different from the one I remembered from the Kraj. The beast's fur wasn't as thick, and it lacked width in the shoulders, but that was easily balanced out by even longer paws and claws on them, greater agility and mobility, and a forty level. This spawn of the wilderness territories could easily tear a hundred regular soldiers apart, devour them, and move on without hurting much in the process. I didn't have to worry about stopping the beast with magic at all - the yeti's wool was still just as easy to negate any energy impact. Well, almost any, within reasonable limits.

Camrad_RIP 02.12.22 в 16:18

The first indication of danger was that the victim he encountered, who looked a bit like an unpalatable orc, was not at all frightened and did not try to run away. Well, Yeti don't know what the prey was thinking, especially since Yeti was not concerned with such lofty matters, and immediately used his familiar deafening roar to paralyze the overly suspicious figure.

Camrad_RIP 02.12.22 в 16:21

Taria's shadow had been stolen beforehand, so I simply shifted the effects of the roar from her to myself - my just ears ached, and all the other effects drained away from my resistance like water from a rock. The monster, reasonably assuming its victim was already paralyzed and powerless, did not wait, immediately rushing to attack, intending to crush and tear the small figure. Yes, it would be a one-tooth meal, but the monster's sense of smell suggested that the meat would be extremely tasty.

Camrad_RIP 02.12.22 в 16:23

Taria was in no hurry to freeze, nor was she frightened, instead sharply drawing her Valerium, sending a loaded projectile of unknown nature straight into the monster's skull. The apprentice rank she had acquired in single-handed gunfire allowed her to aim as accurately as possible, and the subtle influence of the humble me prevented Bigfoot's gut from deflecting from the threat in time. To him, the danger from a revolver seemed to be something on the level of an arrow from a bow, and he had contemptuously ignored such spits since he was young.

Camrad_RIP 02.12.22 в 16:25

The chaotic projectile took on a very exotic nature, not hitting the negative wool-covered skull, but soaking into the wool and bursting underneath it. Some kind of compression effect, like a water cannon loaded with boiling water. Half of his scalp was sheared off, along with some of his facial muscles. It must have hurt like hell, but it wasn't fatal - it only damaged his skull a little, if at all.

Camrad_RIP 02.12.22 в 16:26

The second roar, much more angry and furious, was met by a trio of dimly glowing arrows that flew into the open mouth. Or rather, only the first flew in, the second was bitten in flight, and the third hit the clenched teeth. The monster's angry, pained howl of an even worse blow hadn't even begun before the distance to Taria had been bridged. There were only five wide strides of enormous paws in that distance.

Camrad_RIP 02.12.22 в 16:36

But the female figure multiplied at once, scattering in different directions and even vertically up the trunk of a huge tree, and very quickly as well. If the beast had been intact, the outcome might have been very different, but even the wounded monster could shatter three of the six illusions. However, if he had gotten all of them at once, he would not have caught the real one - the girl changed her position at the same instant as the shot of the legendary artifact sounded.

Camrad_RIP 02.12.22 в 16:37

The blow, with its claws, flashed in a dark gray smoky glow and was so powerful that a tree that looked like a young sequoia was split in half and slowly began to fall. Yeti would have had a right to be proud of himself if the blow had done any good and if he'd had time to be proud. Still silent in battle, Ygra arose behind him like the rustling of the grass, instantly gripping the paw that had been set aside for another strike, breaking it at the elbow, and twisting it from the shoulder joint.

Camrad_RIP 02.12.22 в 16:40

A flash of hellish pain - which one was it now? - made the creature roar, but now there was more fear in that roar than fury. The second paw that had finished torturing the tree soared as a cobra attack, aiming to pierce the exposed side of the ogre but managing only to shave some of the flesh off its ribs. Green's regeneration could cope with such wounds in a matter of seconds, and her fighting capabilities were unaffected. Shifting her center of gravity, the giantess tried to scrap the other paw, grabbing her neck as well, but her opponent wasn't such a punching bag.

Camrad_RIP 02.12.22 в 16:43

As he fell on his stomach, he used his three remaining limbs to shift his position in space and set Yggra up under the falling tree. She didn't get hit, slipping out from under the falling trunk at the last moment, but Yeti did the same. However, he was no longer able to dodge a perfect double to the head, which was not good for his health. Ygra struck with an open palm, trying to stun and disorient him rather than damage him with his relatively small claws compared hек opponent.

Camrad_RIP 02.12.22 в 16:45

The resulting blows, delivered to the already scalped part of his head, dropped the enemy briefly, causing it to let out a muffled groan and try to roll over itself, disregarding the non-functioning limb. The charging Ygra landed a couple more blows, dodging the retaliatory attack with his working limb quite gracefully. Here was where Yeti made the mistake again, trying to paralyze her with another roar. I don't think the experienced monster had really intended to immobilize such a powerful opponent, but a second of respite would have seemed like heaven to him.

Camrad_RIP 02.12.22 в 16:48

The growl never left his throat, for the growler choked on another pair of arrows, only now the wounds from them damaged more than just his throat. Clairvoyance told me that the magical power Hans had pumped into the arrows had hit the brains hidden in the thick walls of his skull, permanently concussing the Yeti. Ygra drew close, folded her palms together in slivers, and pierced her opponent's side, ripping out a chunk of the liver that immediately went into her mouth. Not because she decided to snack instead of fighting, but because Taria, seizing the moment, sent another projectile into her opponent's head, forcing it to recline due to the momentum it received, despite all the power of the beast's neck. The final point was set by Losius, who dived down from above, shining like a bloody angel, thrusting the blade of his sword into the Yeti's eye up to the hilt, simultaneously releasing a strictly dosed portion of heavenly power to destroy the brain without damaging the rest of the body or any possible reagents.

Camrad_RIP 02.12.22 в 16:50

The entire battle with the epic level 40 monster took less than five seconds.

Camrad_RIP 02.12.22 в 16:51

"Ygra says we go to marshes! Ygra be a lot stronger there than she now!" The green-skinned warrior argued her point, licking her fingers after chewing the last bits of the dead beast's heart that she'd been given as the hungriest.

Camrad_RIP 02.12.22 в 16:54

On the one hand, I'm glad to hear her say that - because before, even with the exact same thoughts, Ygra would not have been able to put them into words. Yes, in the swamp, she could hit harder, attack more powerfully, win more easily and hide even more perfectly. But how to explain to this child in a three-meter-tall titty body that everyone else present (even Hestia) from being on the marshes will howl like wolves? And Kostya will be the first and the loudest to howl!

Camrad_RIP 02.12.22 в 17:34

"I think it's better to move aside for the day and start over," Taria spoke up, even though we haven't even called a vote here. "We've already made a fuss here. And over there, we'll safely prepare a place to fight."

Camrad_RIP 02.12.22 в 17:39

The place for the fight with Yeti had indeed been prepared with great care, though we did not know who or what would get here first. Several boar and deer carcasses, suspended on homemade and essentialist-treated grass ropes, were dripping blood, luring more and more opponents down. And we met them quietly and laid them down, either one at a time or as a team.

Camrad_RIP 02.12.22 в 17:41

Personally, I intervened seriously only twice: when I pulled Taria from under the stream of rare-grade acid vomited by a ravenous armadillo and when I finished off a giant raven that had almost managed to teleport and wanted to escape through the Wind Realm in a rush to escape from an ambush. Both times, like the hunt in general, gave me little or no experience, but my comrades did develop more in skill and cohesion than in levels. Although Taria was only one level away from choosing a second class, Hans had managed to develop his Pathfinder class skill to a new rank. He joked that, at this rate, he'd be shutting down his regular class shortly. Not that he was joking, come to think of it.

Camrad_RIP 02.12.22 в 17:44

"No, young Asterium, I strongly disagree with your opinion," Hestia argued coldly and evenly. "Oglaf Comicson certainly has talent, but I simply refuse to consider his depraved smears as works of art."

Camrad_RIP 02.12.22 в 17:45

"You look at this question from your viewpoint, not realizing that Oglaf deliberately makes the subjects of his paintings grotesquely depraved and vulgar, bringing the usual vices of our society to the point of absurdity." The swordsman objected unaccustomedly fervently. "One must simply look at the situation differently."

Camrad_RIP 02.12.22 в 17:47

"Dear one, I am thirty-five years old, and I spent fifteen of those years in Melareth's army." There was a weary despair in her indifference at not being able to prove obvious. "I know far more about vulgar jokes than the young people of the capital, from whom you picked up your admiration for this individual. If we set aside our attempts to find a deeper meaning in Oglaf's paintings, all the plots of these paintings can be summed up in one phrase, which will sound, forgive me plebeian curses, like the banal "either fucked or fucked or all of them together".

Camrad_RIP 02.12.22 в 17:49

"And I believe such an opinion is imposed on us by pride." Just as calmly but confidently, Losius objected. "Too often, we see ourselves in these caricatures, and his jokes piss off the aristocracy a thousand times more than the commoners. Only the merchants are angrier, but their inability to laugh at their shortcomings is considered a clinical case and cannot be cured by healers."

Camrad_RIP 02.12.22 в 18:41

This was not the first time this argument had been repeated, for Losius had finally found an interlocutor to his liking and status. But Raimel, who had a great deal of life experience and a very different set of values, rarely agreed with him. Hestia's classic "eh, so young, so green" was not insulting, but it was so well-reasoned that it made you feel unwittingly foolish.

Camrad_RIP 02.12.22 в 18:46

The name of the artist they're discussing seems vaguely familiar to me, and the phrase Hestia said is something I've heard before. But I don't want to remember where I heard it because I hurry to tear out as many reagents as I can from the body of the dead epic, trying to place the most valuable ones in tubes. I have too few containers with me for a carcass of this size, and I want to take all of them. The Vessel of essence has long been filled to the brim, and I would not refuse to give it a new improvement. Some of the essences stored there even had to be discarded to fill the space vacated with more valuable concepts.

Camrad_RIP 02.12.22 в 18:48

Instead of a vessel, I use ordinary test tubes, concentrating as much as possible on the collected essence, and even then only that which was part of the perishable reagents. Even taking into account the mythical class, fifteen percent of the same blood was lost. The rest of the blood was recycled into several large flasks filled with essence concentrated to the limit. I simply could not provide a greater density anymore, rather due to a lack of suitable containers.

Camrad_RIP 02.12.22 в 18:50

I decided to leave the fur, fangs, claws, and bones, which were not going to deteriorate from prolonged exposure to the open air, as well as the animal eyes, for which I did not spare a few containers, until the moment when I could work properly in the main camp. The one where my mirror was still waiting for me.

Camrad_RIP 02.12.22 в 18:51

"We're not going to the marshes, Ygra," I said softly and aloof, trying not to disrupt my concentration, which, even at the legendary level, is strained to the limit and a little higher. "And we will not prepare a new ambush, no matter how you like our time, Taria. I'm loaded to the max right now, and I need to process at least some of the reagents I've received if I don't want to throw them away a little later."

Camrad_RIP 02.12.22 в 19:04

"That's the way it always is!" Dramatically, the disappointed dancer raises her hands in the air. "Just when I get a taste of real adventure, I get my wings clipped like a bird. Right, Green Tits?"

Camrad_RIP 02.12.22 в 19:06

"Ygra not a bird, Ygra not fly!" She scratches the back of her head and doesn't catch the irony. "But Ygra likes a fight! You can get tasty meat! But don't stand there in one place. That's not good!"

Camrad_RIP 02.12.22 в 19:07

Well, yes, the ogre's opinion is obvious here - she is not used to hunting by deliberately baiting prey, preferring to pursue her chosen target on her own. Add to this the absence of native marshes, and you get an understanding of how uncomfortable our paradigm of hunting local wildlife is for Ygra. But she preferred good hunting and hearty prey to the lack of it, especially since we all slowly managed to convey to her the charms of working in a group. Here, by the way, it's strange - she knew how to fight in pairs before, even if she was used to the fact that her partner was a small and skillful man-mage in my person and not the same ogre. But two or more helpers seemed so wrong for her that even through dreams it was hard to prove otherwise.

Camrad_RIP 02.12.22 в 19:14

"You see, Tin, even she agrees with me!" Along with the end of the phrase, Taria raised her finger victoriously upward. "And you're telling me something. Here."

Camrad_RIP 02.12.22 в 19:15

"Ygra disagree with nobody!" The green one was indignant, which looked more threatening than endearing for her size, and didn't care about the bouncing boobs. Ygra just like hunt."

Camrad_RIP 02.12.22 в 19:17

The mere fact that the ogre was engaged in verbal battles, even if it was unscrupulously losing them time after time, caused a cognitive dissonance of fabulous proportions in my mind. Although. At times Ygra made such phrases that you could not help suspecting that she was trolling others very gracefully while hiding this fact from clairvoyance.

Camrad_RIP 02.12.22 в 19:18

The argument between Losius and Hestia, as well as between Ygra and Taria, didn't stop me and Hans, who was completely exhausted, from dismantling the stinking Yeti carcass and slowly getting ready to leave the place. The others were aware of that, too, but they were not going to stop poking fun at each other; when there were not enough people to talk to, it helped a lot to bring up a topic of conversation out of nowhere.

Camrad_RIP 02.12.22 в 19:20

"At least orcs and other savages don't bother us," I grumbled under my breath, trying to pour some more essence into the flask, which nearly cracked from the overload. "I'm just waiting for the next tribal incursion. I didn't like it at all last time."

Camrad_RIP 02.12.22 в 19:21

"They're savages, not dull, feeble-minded fools!" Hans grinned in amazement and amusement, obviously laughing at my misgivings as if I had said something stupid. "They aren't exactly the brightest of minds, but they're a lot smarter than most people think. What was it like last time? A lot of weak people found themselves in the depths of their land: well, it's a sin not to overpower the rightful prey! And now, they see are not the weakest beasts hanging in the trees and dismantled bodies of creatures even more terrible than the ones on the trees. And there are almost no traces. Even Losius has already learned to walk properly. That's why they're shitting their asses in here. Tin, how many scout spirits have you beaten off?"

Camrad_RIP 02.12.22 в 19:25

"Eight and a few more possessed creatures," I answered, throwing the rest of the essence I couldn't get into the container into the air. "Maybe there were more birds up there, but they didn't come down low, and you couldn't see much from above through the trees, I guess."

Camrad_RIP 02.12.22 в 19:30

"Not always, my friend, not always." The pathfinder negatively shook his head. "There are such birds and such spirits in them that they can even see through walls. But even if they had a contract like that, they'd only see Losius and the little one, and that's not certain. It's not clear to them, and all that's not clear, it's better not to touch. Maybe some Legend has made a nest here and is hanging tags on it. So they don't risk chasing us, and if they do, they'll die."

Camrad_RIP 02.12.22 в 19:32

Well, that makes sense, to be honest. But once they figure out who we are and assess our strength, they might summon something more terrifying than mere scout spirits. Like the Skin Taker, we had the displeasure of meeting. But for that to happen, the Greenskins would have to try too hard, and we would have to drive them into a frenzy so that they'd hit us with their main caliber.

Camrad_RIP 02.12.22 в 19:40

So, I was reassured a little bit.

Camrad_RIP 02.12.22 в 19:42

Just a little bit.

Camrad_RIP 02.12.22 в 19:42

We did not hunt at the rock camp, located on the site of the ancient battle, but simply killed and fed all the animals that came out to it to The Shadow. We arranged a carnival of bodies hanging from trees a day's march from here and only to one side so that the sites of our hunting parties would not surround the camp in an eloquent circle.

Camrad_RIP 02.12.22 в 19:46

I also took care of the camp, using the same stone mirror as the basis for the Dream Barrier, which covered the clearing itself and about five hundred meters of space in the radius of the clearing. The protection was good at first and then excellent - every time I returned from a hunt, I modified the mechanism of the barrier, making it more powerful, perfect, and invisible from both Reality and the Dream. My design may not be as durable as the nastiness hung over the Stone or Whitewater, but it's certainly more powerful and refined. The fee in the form of regular "technical inspections" suits me more than completely. Well, all played a role in the area of the barrier, which I have a very small in comparison with these examples. Encapsulating a smaller volume is much easier than an entire city.

Camrad_RIP 02.12.22 в 19:51

Attempts to see us by clairvoyance or find us by search rituals are now doomed to fail unless they know our exact location beforehand. And even then, it's not certain that they'll be able to penetrate - I've created dozens of false targets and deceptions at once that will shift the focus of directed attention to another location. I can even vouch for the fact that such a dome would last a few minutes under the gaze of the Shoreless Eye if it got here and if it was pointed at us. It will not hold longer, for the elements that are responsible for the deception of this artifact, I do not fully understand, but I can give the first minutes of guarantee.

Camrad_RIP 02.12.22 в 19:53

I couldn't have done either, but, thank you, Secret Guards, I've had time to watch the way the Eye works and the way it picks up another's presence. My construction of multiple reflections, redirecting the desire to know in random directions, is too fragile, but the Eye risks overheating its structures as it breaks through it. What does it look like? Well, let's say the Eye is looking at us, after which its gaze will be caught and redirected to another point, preventing it from knowing the exact coordinates of the camp. The Eye is used by no fools, so it recognizes the deception quickly, returning its gaze to its former image. The gaze translates again, causing the Eye to automatically start pushing even harder, which moves it sideways again, but now, with amplification, the Eye returns to us even faster... to sideways again.

Camrad_RIP 02.12.22 в 19:54