“Oh fuck it. Go ahead,” he conceded. “But I’m putting you back in my brain for a few hours so you can sleep that shit off.”
Chapter Four – Emissary
With a full-bellied Handsome sleeping soundlessly within the confines of his mind, Garath , still in his human form, and Bill picked their way through the broken city toward the mysterious pillar of smoke. Garath moved casually, his mind preoccupied with what he could do to counter the soul tainting effects while Bill scouted ahead. After a quarter hour of maneuvering around long-dead car fires and broken asphalt, they finally caught sight of their quarry. It was not at all what Garath had been expecting.
Like the icon on the world map, Rum’bah resembled a massive turtle. The armored reptile was even larger than Aldrasyl, with a burnt orange shell and a long, hooked nose. The smoke that had led Garath to the gargantuan turtle was not coming from the monster itself, he noticed, but rather was rising to the sky in its wake. Behind the turtle and the smoke, a variety of flora completely foreign to Garath was sprouting into existence and growing at an unnatural rate from the ashes left behind by the World Boss. The Necrologist triggered Inspect.
Rum’bah
Emissary of Vy’thishrak
Health: 43,000/43,000
Level: 20
Station: World Boss
Mana: 200/200
Description: An Emissary of Vy’thishrak, dispatched to spread the life of The Tower to all of Vy’thishrak territory.
Garath was pretty sure he could take the big monster down. As slow moving as it was, Garath would be able to avoid its attacks indefinitely and defeat it with DoT spells.
He forced himself to take a step back, and consider whether attacking the emissary was something he should do.
The last thing his soul needed was more corruption. But it occurred to him that his Crow form hadn’t been tainted at all to that point. He made a mental note to acquire more BeastScape forms in order to always have an untainted option, at least until he figured out a more long-term solution.
The familiar tingle at the back of his neck spread over his rapidly shrinking body, Garath’s arms lengthened into wings and black feathers sprouted to replace his skin and worn clothing. With a forward run and a few flaps of his wings the Necrologist took to the sky, landing a moment later on a bent telephone pole. He watched from his perch as Bill ran toward the monster, barking and growling as Rum’bah continued his painfully slow march north, unconcerned at the demon dog’s approach.
With a thought, Garath dismissed Bill back into his mind. His very clear mind, he noticed. For the first time in recent memory, the lust for greater power was completely absent. As any good gamer would, Garath still had the drive to improve his character, himself in this case, but he was now able to differentiate the healthy desire for improvement from the murderous lust that often threatened to overtake his rational mind. It was a relief to know he could still tell the difference. Garath made a mental note to shift into Crow form if he found himself tempted to murder someone he considered a friend for something as easy to come by as Experience Points in the future.
From his perch, Garath was able to gather a much clearer picture of exactly what this Emissary from Vy’thisrak was up to. Big Mac crushed and burned everything he landed on with each massive step forward. From the ashes of destruction left in his wake, countless young trees, ferns, flowers, and other flora that Garath couldn’t put a name to rose from the charred earth, leaving a world of green growth and new life in the wake of the huge, armored reptile.
For the better part of an hour, Garath watched in wonder as the foliage that had only just entered the world grew into a verdant forest, dense with every shade of green and a myriad of other colors speckled throughout the underbrush. With the eyes of a crow, he could even make out tiny creatures flitting about between the quickly growing stems and trunks.
He wouldn’t attack this creature. Even if he could defeat the World Boss by himself. It wasn’t a life-taker like the monsters of The Culling had been. If left to his task, Rum’bah would take care of the health concerns caused by the thousands of rotting corpses before they ever became a problem. There was one foreseeable complication though - the huge turtle was headed straight for BoTH HQ.
Considering its agonizingly slow pace, Garath’s best guess was that the massive turtle would make it to the old brick building in around four hours. It was a rough guess, but he was fairly sure they had a minimum of at least two hours to get everyone out of Rum’bah’s way if need be. He hoped that wouldn’t be the case. It would be a shame to lose the building that had kept them safe throughout The Culling, and that The Band had made their home in the time since. Garath wouldn’t condone any course of action that would lead to a fight with the big turtle, though. Not even if it meant losing BoTH HQ.
Garath spread his black wings and took off, leaving Rum’bah to his work and heading back to HQ. As he flew north, Garath’s sharp Crow eyes caught sight of an osprey scanning the waters below for prey. Garath had always been a big fan of the graceful aerial hunters native to his home, and this was his chance to unlock the BeastScape form.
He banked left, nosing down slightly for the extra bit of speed. As he neared the osprey, Garath slowed to watch as it moved easily over the Pacific. He didn’t want to get too close, knowing the agile predator could easily outrun him if it chose to, but he’d have to
