Jackal Among Snakes

Argrave watched atop a hill where the trees ended, fading into the lily fields beyond. In the far distance, he could see the entrance to the Lily Lurker’s cavern; the entrance was shaped like a canoe, and the earth looked recently overturned. Closest to the entrance, the lilies wilted, but as they grew further away, they turned a dark red hue.

Argrave knelt down with his left hand pressed against a tree for support as he watched what exactly was occurring. The lily lurkers romped about in the field without order, uprooting and flattening the red and white flowers carelessly. It was difficult to spot reason in their movements, but they did not stray too far from a single point.

The Lily Lurkers were about the size of a human head, though three tails on their back end made them seem quite large. Their body was colored much like an orchid mantis. They had six long legs that elevated them off the ground, and twinges of pink decorated their joints. Each bore a stinger on its back with an eerie-looking pink barb on the tip.

The other two of its three tails beside the stinger swayed back and forth as the Lily Lurkers roamed, vibrating and letting out a harsh noise similar to a rattlesnake. According to in-game lore Argrave recalled, their tails allowed them to communicate with each other. As it was now, Argrave felt it made them seem much greater in number than they were. The only thing that might have made him more uncomfortable was if they had wings.

“Jesus,” Argrave muttered into his hand as he watched. “Scorpions. Ants. Cicadas. Someone couldn’t make up their mind.”

“What was that?” asked Anneliese, her eyes closed as she used a druidic spell to scout out what exactly was happening. Above, her pigeon circled their swarm.

“Nothing,” Argrave said louder, not willing to turn his head away from the scene. Those stingers captured his attention. The Lily Lurkers moved far too fast for him to count them effectively. “What do you see?”

“I am unsure. There’s one in the center of their movement… looks unmoving. Dead, were I to guess.”

Argrave ran his hand over his mouth, pondering this. “I think… one of them must have died to the poison, let out pheromones. It’s agitated a bunch of them. These ones are searching for what happened. Ants do that, I read.”

“Pheromones?”

“Don’t ask me,” Argrave dismissed, lacking both confidence and a sufficient explanation. “I can’t exactly check my notes. Bugs don’t occupy my thoughts, and I wouldn’t spend any time reading about them. I prefer to pretend they don’t exist.”

Anneliese retracted the spell, and her pigeon flew back to the trees. “What should we do?”

“If you’ll notice, they’re staying near the corpse,” Argrave pointed out. “Maybe they don’t have ants in the snowscape that is Veiden, but if you’ve ever squished an ant near an anthill, they all freak out. They’re searching for danger. Once they’re certain there’s nothing, they’ll stop.”

The vast majority of Argrave’s knowledge on this topic came from nature documentaries. It was dodgy at best, and considering these things weren’t even ants, doubly so.

“So we should wait,” Anneliese finished Argrave’s thought process.

“Not necessarily.” Argrave finally rose to his feet, feeling some burden relieved from his knees. “I’m not certain what they’re doing, but I can only see this as an opportunity. Imagine them in the trees—or worse yet, in a cavern.” Argrave took one step forward. Anneliese grabbed at his arm, catching his sleeve.

“What are you doing?” she spoke urgently. “If this is how they react for one, imagine how they will react after many deaths.”

“I know—more might come. If that happens, it might actually be for the best.” Argrave took a deep breath and then exhaled, laughing lightly. “You want some insights into my struggles?” Argrave hearkened back to their earlier conversation. “Feeling queasy right about now. Logically, I know this is the right thing to do. Figuring out how these creatures fight is quite important.”

“Right thing to do? I disagree!” Anneliese protested. “Between the two of us, you cannot believe we could take on those creatures. We don’t have the magic for that. Galamon isn’t even here.”

“You underestimate us. And…” Argrave looked at Anneliese. “I can connect my magic to Erlebnis for five minutes,” he said simply, pulling his sleeve away from her grip. “If things go sour, I can call upon that. For now, I need to determine how these things act when confronted with an enemy. It’ll make the spelunking go smoother later if we understand how they hunt. Moreover, I need to learn how to fight things without using potions as a crutch.”

Argrave turned back. “We have to take advantage of these things' limitations, their simplicity. Use spells like the D-rank [Wind Wall] to block them; I doubt they have the capacity to understand and adapt to magic. Use some of the lightning magic you learned, or fire magic. Even if ice magic is more powerful because you’re a Veidimen, it will be too slow-moving to do much.”

With one roll of his shoulders to gather his confidence, Argrave stepped into the field of white. Far ahead, where the lilies began to turn red, the bugs continued to swarm about. Their movements seemed to coincide with the roiling anxiety in his chest. He felt the wind shift, and he foolishly turned to look at his side. Anneliese walked forward alongside him. Argrave didn’t need to have her empathic skills to see that she was wracked with anxiety just as he was.

Seeing her like that, Argrave had a strange moment of clarity. He turned away and clenched his gloved hands tight. I have to become a good leader. The lesson from Mateth isn’t only that this world is ever-changing; it’s that I alone am not enough to deal with everything. The white fields faded behind them as they came to the red, and beyond that into the wilted flowers.

One step after another brought the terrible rattling of the Lily Lurkers ever closer. Soon enough, the insects turned, their two tails quivering and their bright pink eyes locked on the pair as they approached. Argrave estimated they were about twenty. Feeling the distance was sufficient for good accuracy, Argrave stopped and held out both hands, forming the D-rank spell [Writhing Lightning]. The first two bolts of lightning shot out across the field, fell crackling echoing across the fields.

The electricity struck the first bug, and Argrave paid close attention to how the creature reacted. The lightning surged through its body and then spread through the ground and some close to it. The Lily Lurker spasmed for far longer than Argrave thought it might, and then its two quivering tails changed in pitch. This change was soon echoed in the other insects present, and they surged forth with an uncomfortably fast speed.

Argrave delivered lightning spells in measured bursts, targeting the ones he already knew were damaged as he retreated backwards in slow, steady steps. Anneliese mirrored his actions. The magic was much more effective than he thought it might be, and several of the bugs died as they drew close. As they drew closer, Argrave’s anxiety only rose, even though he had a plan ready.

“Stick close,” said Argrave loudly to Anneliese over the din of rattling, lacking the time to check if she heard and obeyed.

One leapt towards them, and Argrave’s heart leapt in unison. He instinctively used [Wind Wall], and the creature slammed against it, splaying out ungracefully on the field. Anneliese finished it off with two quick bolts of lightning.

Argrave took a deep breath, keeping an eye on the open cavern far ahead for any movement. As the remainder grew closer, Argrave continued to use lightning magic from behind the cover of his [Wind Wall], the spells passing through easily. The bulk of the insects, of which likely half remained, finally came close enough to the two of them. Argrave internally reminded himself of the purpose of this fight: to test their reactions. He was uncertain if insects would be afraid of fire as animals were.

Once many grew close, Argrave stepped out of the cover of the [Wind Wall] and formed the only C-rank attack spell he knew; [Wargfire]. A great lupine jaw emerged from his hands after the matrix formed. The creatures barely seemed to see the fire until the gaping mouth came shut, catching two. Argrave fell behind the [Wind Wall] spell once more, watching and waiting.

The aflame Lily Lurkers spasmed, their twin tails jerking about while their stinger contracted wildly. It looked as though the insect was stinging itself, but Argrave knew such a notion was ridiculous. Despite the fire, the rest of the insects rushed forward, averse to but not afraid of the flames. The dry, wilted flowers were a natural accelerant, and the flames spread alarmingly quickly.

Anneliese grabbed Argrave and pulled him away as the flames continued to grow. Argrave devoted all of his attention to getting away without tripping. Soon enough, the insects were consumed by the flames which continued to spread in the ring of wilted flowers. Argrave grew worried that he had caused a large fire, but the air was quite humid and the ring of red, unwilted lilies did not catch aflame easily. The flames were short-lived, but the insects caught fire.

Once they were a safe distance away, Argrave and Anneliese came to a stop and watched. The creatures writhed about, appearing in intense agony, but Argrave could not say for certain that insects even felt pain. He knew one thing, though.

“That seems to work,” Argrave concluded as he watched. “Started to get pretty scared, there. Fortunately, these things burn easily enough.”

Argrave kept an eye on the cavern entrance, looking for flashes of white to emerge and ruin the victory. Anneliese said nothing as she caught her breath.

“See? We learned something.” Argrave looked back. “I told you it was purposeful. A lot less traumatic to kill insects with fire.”

“You are much too reckless,” she finally said. “And this knowledge is not especially useful. When a fire is lit in a cave, those inside most often suffocate, or the rock overhead shifts and falls. I have heard many tales from Veidimen miners detailing such grisly fates.”

“It’s still good knowledge,” Argrave shook his head. “We’re fighting against time. Three years until Gerechtigkeit’s descent might seem like plenty of leeway, but there’s a lot of holes to patch in this dam before the flood comes. I need to be reckless. The fact I even have to get the Amaranthine Heart to fix my body is a waste of time.”

Anneliese didn’t look satisfied with the answer, but she said nothing more on the matter.

“We should stay here for a time, make sure that no more come out.” Argrave nodded. He stepped into the cavern and looked into it. He saw a patch of loose dirt descend for a bit and then vanish into darkness. Even with the sun overhead, one could not see especially far down. Argrave felt an unpleasant squirming in his guts when he reminded himself he would need to go down there in the future.

“You mentioned you watched these creatures last night, had an idea about something?” Argrave inquired.

“Yes,” Anneliese responded quickly. “I watched their habits. These creatures are much like you, in fact.”

Argrave looked away from the cavern incredulously. “What does that mean? Too-big, spindly, highly flammable?”

Anneliese crossed her arms. “They clean themselves compulsively.”

“Well, that’s…” Argrave frowned. “Good hygiene is important. Even these things have some virtues, it would seem.”

“They often use their mouths to clean themselves,” she continued. “Each other, too.”

Argrave nodded slowly, perturbed. “I can’t recall doing that, unless I have some bizarre sleeping habits I’m unaware of. Might be I have some apologies to make.”

“You’re missing the point. We needn’t lace food with poison. We need only get some of the poison on them—place it near the entrance, have them walk over it, and then clean themselves.”

Argrave blinked a few times as what she said sunk in. “That is definitely worth trying,” he concluded. “We still need to check which poison actually worked. They’re on the far ends of the field, so they shouldn’t be disturbed…,” Argrave paused, looking at Anneliese. “Very observant of you. I’m reminded of why I was so willing to bring you along.”

“It may not work,” Anneliese dismissed with a shake of her head.

“We’ll see, I suppose. I hope it works. This little venture of ours needs to end soon. That tax collector coming to this quaint countryside tells me there’s a storm brewing in Jast, and I’d like to make it there before it starts.”