novelraw Chapter 233 233: Stampede
Chapter 233 233: Stampede
Luna sent a glare directly at Violet as they both felt and heard the rumblings of a large amount of creatures moving in their direction. Violet dutifully avoided her companions glare and instead focused on the direction that the beats were coming from.
"Sooo, should we fight or try to run away?" Violet innocently asked the girls around her.
Luna let out a long suffering sigh of resignation as she focused on the immediate threat. "We should try to avoid it I think, at least for now. We don't know anything about this situation, are they running from something? Or running towards something? I say we find a place to hide out and observe what comes along."
No one else seemed to have any other ideas, except for Violet's suggestion that they fight which everyone promptly ignored.
With everyone in agreement the girls began to swiftly move in the opposite direction from the encroaching hord. They moved through the forest at speed, the wide open ground allowing easy navigation through the undergrowth.
Soon the girls spotted a particularly large tree, seeing this they felt that it might be the perfect place to hide in. Violet and Rhyana got to work ferrying the other girls up towards some of the thick lower branches.
Once everyone was secured up in the canopy they proceeded to climb slightly higher up in the branches before settling down to await the coming stampede.
They did not have to wait for long.
Soon the rumbling was accompanied by the cries of innumerable creatures, some familiar yet even more unfamiliar. The volume swiftly rose before they finally began to spot movement down below.
Then the girls saw the beasts. Hundreds of creatures stampeded through the forest, from bovines to felines and canids. They spotted a giant snake slithering along whilst several rodent type beasts clung to its scales, a small flock of birds flying low through the forest above the stampede.
The variety of beasts was truly impressive. None of the girls had ever seen such a wide variety of creatures. Not even during the event in the elemental valley, whilst innumerable beasts had been present there, their was a limited amount of unique species when compared to the menagerie of beasts that now ran through the forest below the girls.
The noise was overwhelming, the countless skreeches and cries echoing out for all to hear.
The herd of beasts continued on for almost 20 minutes. During that time Violet began to get a good feel for the average strength of these creatures. To her surprise, she discovered that not a single one of them was in the fourth tier.
This was unusual for a place such as this with abundant ambient mana and such a variety of creatures to hunt. Yet she soon discovered a potential reason for why no strong creatures existed in this place.
For less that 5 minutes after the last of the stampede passed by they once more heard the sound of footsteps approaching them, coming from the same direction as the herd of beasts originated from.
Importantly Violet felt an oppressive presence wash over her from the direction of those footsteps. The girls all retracted their own presence, hiding any trace that may leak out and expose them to the powerful presence approaching them.
The footfalls echoed like thunder, loud and rhythmical they fell like the steps of a encroaching god.
Then the girls saw the creatures that was following in the wake of the stampede and they understood why so many beasts had been fleeing from this creature. They also had a sinking suspicion that this was the creature spoken about in the quest that they had to deal with.
It was a large creature, in all aspects. It stood around 4 meters tall, and around 6 meters both in width and length. It somewhat resembled a turtle, with a thick shell protecting its back whilst its 4 legs poked out of the corners of its shell. Yet it differed in some ways as it had two heads that extended out of the front, one head had vivid blue eyes whilst the other had burning orange eyes. Out of the back a singular long tail extended, ending in a wicked duel spike.
Its shell was adorned with countless spikes, the vast majority of them being blue in colouration, yet several orange ones were also present. The shell itself was a deep forest green, similar to the thick leathery skin that covered its limbs when extended out of the shell.
It moved with surprising speed and agility despite its size and appearance. Easily manoeuvring through the forest, when it could not fit through a gap it would simply barrel through, destroying whatever tree was unlucky enough to be in its way.
When it passed by under their tree the girls all held their breaths, not daring to make a sound as this apex being moved along beneith them.
Just as the creatures passed by it suddenly came to a stop, its twin heads twisting back and forth as if searching for something.
After several long moments it let out a loud snort before it resumed its chase after the stampede of beasts.
The girls did not move for some time after the turtle moved past them. Only when they were sure that the beast was far enough away and that no other creature would soon pass by did they finally speak up.
"So we have to defeat that giant turtle right?" Violet half asked half stated.
"Hmm yeah I would assume so. It does seem to fit with the description of a great beast that seems dedicated to claiming this territory." Stated luna as she stared off in the direction that the turtle had been heading.
"Question is though, how are we going to defeat it? It seemed stronger than that space creature we killed on the first floor, and we almost died against that one." Susan reasoned.
Then fell into contemplation for a while until Violet spoke up. "Well then we just need to get help."
Noticing the blank stares of the other girls Violet continued. "I'm a dragon, if we go out and find other strong beasts we can get them to help us beat that turtle. We might have to beat them up a little for them to join us but it should be possible."
Luna hummed in agreement at that. "Kinda like what we did during the elemental valley? We managed to gather quite a few beasts to join us, and lots of weaker beasts joined together to defeat that guardian."
"Yeah exactly! Except this time we will be actively recruiting beasts instead of just collecting them as we traveled." Agreed Violet with a smile.
"Umm? H-how exactly are you going to gather beasts to help us?" Olivia asked.
"Simple! We just need to search out any beast lord, then we beat it up and make it follow us!"
Olivia blinked as she heard that simplistic plan, not quiet believing that such an idea would actually work. Yet when she saw the assured look on Violet's face she was left wondering if this would actually end up working out.