Anger blinded me and I rose up, sword in hand.
Thorm grabbed at my wrist and pulled me down. It took everything I had not to strike out at him, but did not resist.
“There are too many, Vivian,” he said, tone firm. “No need to commit suicide when we now have the advantage.”
“Advantage?” I hissed. “How do you figure we have that?” Getting my anger under control was difficult considering my tormentor was a short sprint away.
Thorm released my arm, and calmly said, “We know we’re in the right place, now. Before it was just speculation. Let us bide our time, at least for a little while longer, and try to learn more.”
The rational part of my brain wrestled with the animal aggression which howled for revenge. But Thorm was correct. We had Ogden now. There would be no more hiding. If I wanted to end this once and for all, it wouldn’t be gained from rushing at him here. But I wanted to. Badly.
I glared at Ogden from the safety of our hiding spot. There was small satisfaction to be gained knowing he was unaware of our presence, and that I could kill him now. But it would be both suicidal and, most likely, unsuccessful.
Ogden had surrounded himself with a large cadre of guards. No doubt, because he knew I would be out to get him. Another small bit of satisfaction.
Still, he only had me to be concerned about, while I, on the other hand, had a blood-thirsty subset of the server’s population out to get me.
“What is he waiting for?” I asked.
Thorm shrugged. “That hill is strange, maybe-.” Before he could finish, Ogden stopped speaking to his companion and raised a wing above his head. A signal.
Suddenly, the hill before us moved.
The vast object heaved upwards as if forced from below by tectonic forces. The sound of cracking rock and earth filled the air, blotting out the natural noises of the marsh.
Stunned, Thorm and I could only watch in wide-eyed amazement.
The hill shambled forward, its huge murky outline getting bigger. Then, it stopped moving.
From the middle of its dark mass two large ovals appeared. They illuminated brightly as if many lanterns or torches burned from within. Then the bright ovals blinked.
I stifled an intake of breath.
They were eyes.
The eyes moved in closer and a colossal reptilian head formed. A hooked beak, mottled with lichen and muddy grass appeared beneath them. It took me a second to recognize what I was gaping at. A turtle. A huge, mountain sized turtle.
None of the group before us fled in fear, they simply waited, as if being confronted with one of the largest creatures in the game was a normal occurrence.
“Whoa,” Thorm said, awestruck.
“Yeah,” I said. I’d encountered nothing like this before. It was terrifying as much as it was impressive.
“Pull up its stats,” Thorm said.
I did.
Name: Wally’s Womp
Species: Void Titan
Subspecies: Guardian
Leveclass="underline" Unknown
Hit Points: Unknown
Mana: Unknown
Armor Class: Unknown
Attack Rating: Unknown
Damage Range: Unknown
Weapon Type: Unknown
Abilities: Unknown
Special Abilities: Unknown
Notes: Enslaved. Avoid at all costs.
“Holy cow,” I said, amazed.
“What is a Void Titan?” Thorm whispered. Then in an incredulous tone, said, “And why is it named ‘Wally’s Womp’?”
My thoughts flitted back to the void portal I had opened earlier that day before Mudhoof sent Kragg through it. I’d seen something big moving in the distance. “That is something we don’t need to be messing with.”
The titan shuffled forward, shaking the ground. The dark shape I took for a hill was in fact its shell. This thing was the size of a palace. The gargantuan beast brought its head down to ground level.
I said, “What is it doing here?”
The titan settled its house sized head onto the path before Ogden and his riders, blocking the way.
Still, none of the others reacted in fear.
Ogden moved his horse mount closer until he was only a short distance from the creature.
Then, without being given any obvious signal or command, the Void Titan opened its massive beak. Wider and wider its mouth stretched out until the opening to its throat was exposed.
And there, somehow inserted into the flesh deep within its mouth, was a travel gate, its silver surface shimmering.
“Well I’ll be,” Thorm said.
Then, without a bother in the world, Ogden rode his horse over the rounded edge of the monster’s lower beak, and entered its mouth. He casually moved up the large tongue which resembled a wide, wet road.
The rest of the group followed suit, along with the wagon, picking their way up and inside the living cave.
At the travel gate, Ogden rode through its flat surface and vanished. All the other riders did the same.
Then, after a few moments, the beak slowly closed. The Titan shut its eyes and was still.
Both Thorm and I were speechless. So that was how the gate was protected. Ogden had somehow secured the safety of his guildhall entrance within the maw of this colossus.
I slumped to the ground, leaning up against the dead tree. How were we expected to gain entrance through that? For the first time in quite a while, I felt utterly hopeless.
Thorm sat down next to me, still speaking softly. “We’ll wait here for him to emerge. Then hit him when he is further down the trail.”
I shrugged. “We don’t know when that will be. This arrival could signal the beginning of a long stay. We have no inkling whether he’ll ever leave or not.”
After some thought Thorm gently nudged my shoulder. “I believe there may be a way inside, but you will have to go solo, I’m afraid.”
I gave Thorm a confused look. “Okay, you got me. What way?”
Thorm started to answer when he was suddenly interrupted.
“There you are you FILTERing FILTERs!” shouted a voice behind us.
Caught of guard we could only spin around and look.
A man wearing a bright white cloak sat on a horse a short distance from us. Behind him, other mounted men rode out of the gloom into view.
These were the guys who’d chased us through all those gates. And somehow, by some miracle of miracles, they’d found us.
“Uh oh,” I said.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Thorm and I were instantly on our feet, weapons at the ready.
The man with the white cloak did not attack. Not yet. The other riders, well over a dozen of them, began to encircle us.
If it was a fight they wanted, then we would oblige them.
But Thorm had a different plan. He turned to me and said, “I’ll slow them down, you go do that trick you showed me.” He nodded toward the Titan.
“What trick—,” I started to ask, but Thorm suddenly lunged forward and swiped his huge broadsword at White Cloak.
The Holy Knight did this so fast that White Cloak barely parried the blow causing his mount to rear back.
Thorm then summoned Snowflake, and the massive snow-leopard instantly attacked the nearest horse, sending the rider sprawling to the ground.
This all happened in the blink of an eye.
Thorm turned back to me, “Go!” He brought out his kite shield just in time to block an arrow from a mounted archer.
Damnit! I thought. Not another friend making a sacrifice because of me.