Grand Saint Alloy

The next few days passed awkwardly. Eve seemed distant and hollow at the same time. Tristan had no idea what to do about it, but on the morning of the second day, they reached another farming community. Clive proved to be a decent craftsman. He found a farming scythe made a crutch out of its shaft and cut up mattress pieces.

With Bruce using the crutch, their speed was actually raised. Tristan distracted himself with the crabs. They would show up and he would kill them. He would simply harden his knuckles and pummel them. The brain hemorrhaging was unlikely to leave any scent to lead their friends back to the party. So while they experienced attacks, the cycle of bigger and bigger crabs never started up.

It felt like a weight was taken off Tristan’s shoulders when the Stone Fort finally came into view. It felt like a long time since they had last been here, but it had been a little over two and a half weeks. Tristan paused, then swore to himself getting everyone’s attention. Even Eve’s listless gaze filled for a moment, before drifting back to the horizon.

“What?” Bruce asked, looking around for something other than the one that Tristan was holding by the tail, “Did something go wrong?”

“The entire purpose of this mission was to get Hadrid to create something to stop the crabs,” Tristan said.

Bruce grimaced and clenched his fists, “Everything we went through was for nothing then!”

“Uh, no,” Clive’s timid voice came from the back. Everyone turned to him, even Eve, “I picked these up when you guys started fighting.”

In each hand, he held a jell pack. Through the ruby jell, Tristan could see the white seed growing nubs out of it. They were unrecognizable at the moment, but he knew that those nubs would turn into pointed legs, scythe claws, and a stinger. It was both horrifying and oddly fascinating to see the process that killed so many people.

“How?” Bruce asked.

Tristan had the same question. Fortunately, Clive did not keep them waiting, “When you guys decided to slug it out with Regis, the two warriors, Leo and Selt pulled me over to their spot.”

“Why would they protect you?” Bruce asked.

“Well I am just the cook, so I guess they simply did not hold me responsible for Regis’s brother,” Clive shrugged, “Though I was only able to grab these two when we left.”

Tristan nodded, “Good job,” he held out his hand to Clive, “Hand me one.”

“What, why,” Clive asked. He seemed opposed to handing the seeds over, but it only took a few seconds of Tristan staring at him to break down his resistance.

Tristan took the sack and took a few steps away from the path. The three of them watched as he dug a hole and placed the package inside, before covering it with a thin layer of dirt. If the Stone Caldera planned the same thing as the Lake Caldera, the crabs would still have been destroyed. Tristan was getting the feeling that the events in the plains were more about political maneuvering than actually removing the parasite.

Lesly had started by warning them that politics were involved. The ownership of the plains was up for grabs to whoever could claim it. If anyone brought their warriors in, so would everyone else. They would rather risk some lower tiers than risk their elite in the plains where conflict between calderas was bound to start.

It seemed that the time of probing and the peaceful solutions of the leadership had passed. Sending out a tier-four monster like Regis was a huge escalation. Forest would have to send out the Golden Heart patriarch, though Tristan was skeptical about the Golden Heart’s ability to handle Regis.

Between Regis and Siren, he was not sure who would come out on top. Both were warriors who pushed themselves to perfect their craft, both had achieved tier four recently. Siren had stealth and defense skills, whereas Regis was pure offense. Siren could push himself against strong single opponents, while Regis pushed himself against entire groups. Both were out of Tristan’s league, for now.

Tristan finished with his excavation and stood, “Who is ready to get out of here?”

Clive raised his hand, “I am!”

Bruce was giving Tristan an odd look, “Why did you bury it?”

“I think that the Caldera Elders are getting caught up in the political games surrounding these plains,” Tristan said, “What they failed to take into account are the two or three hundred guard crabs in the city. Our warriors only outnumber those things two to one, and if you remember William, those guard crabs are an exact match for a skilled warrior.”

“So,” Bruce said, “We have more than just tier three warriors.”

“Your assumption is predicated on the caldera’s cooperating,” Tristan said, “Can you see the Forest Caldera and River Caldera teaming up before something catastrophic happens? Can you see them capitalizing on the catastrophe to take control?”

Eve’s eyes cleared, “My grandfather would do no such thing!”

“My uncle would,” Tristan said.

“Uncle?” Eve asked. Her anger gave way to confusion.

“Yes, his uncle is Elder Forest,” Bruce said, “Well, not legally, his father disowned him for being a silver devil.”

Tristan shrugged. It was an old wound, it no longer hurt to poke it. However, that could be because he was never close to his uncle. Elder Forest was not married and had no heirs, which put Tristan next in line. Hellen and Forest had a younger sibling who was married and had a son, so Tristan was not surprised that the Elder pushed him out of the way. No one would be willing to follow a silver devil Elder.

Tristan started walking toward the Stone Fort, “Are you coming?”

It did not take long before they were crossing a bridge to get back out of the plains. The trip back had been much easier after they left Regis behind. Though most things were easy compared to that. It still had been hard to get a good night's rest, so Tristan looked forward to finding a bed and taking a nap.

The tier one bridge operator asked in a board tone, “Identification and infestation level.”

Bruce took a step forward, “I am Bruce, and none of us have been stung.”

That was not exactly true. Tristan had been stung quite a bit, however, the stinger was not able to penetrate far enough to deposit an egg.

“Identification,” The operator said a little more forcefully.

Bruce frowned, he hadn’t been handed any paperwork or any type of marker to prove he was who he claimed to be, “I have none, my sister, Lesly should be able to vouch for who I am.”

“Sure you know the commander,” The operator said sarcastically.

Tristan had a nap to get to and he was tired of listening to an argument he viewed as pointless. So he did what he did best. He caused some chaos.

Tristan cupped his hand over his mouth, “MAN DOWN! MAN DOWN!”

He almost flinched at his own volume. Did people get louder with every tier? Tristan did not care, many of the guards on the fort turned to face the group and watched Tristan walk right past the startled operator.

“You can’t do that,” The operator put a hand on Tristan’s shoulder.

Tristan redid his assessment, this guy was tier two, at least judging by his grip strength. The gates of the fort opened and a few people came jogging out. Some of the hunter teams were also making their way over. In total, around thirty people wielding sharp objects were heading in Tristan’s direction.

“Ok, stop me then,” Tristan said.

“Tristan, please don’t do this,” Bruce sighed.

The operator pointed at Tristan, “Detain this man, he has not brought proper identification, and refuses to follow orders.”

“Cool,” Tristan raised his hands in surrender. He had seen the cells before. They were just padded rooms in the medical building where people could take the poison safely. The hallucinations could cause self-harm, so a safe environment was needed.

Bruce seemed surprised, “you wanted to be arrested?”

“You have to give a long detailed report, while I get to take a nice long nap and unwind,” Tristan chuckled.

There was more to it than that. He wanted to avoid being alone with Lesly. She was a manipulator. Tristan was sure the directions to the Lake Caldera were intentionally faulty and he would stay away if he could. He also needed to start studying the three alchemy books in earnest, which would be easier if people weren’t constantly bothering him.

The hunters got to the site and looked for someone injured. Finding no one they looked at Tristan confused. The team from the fort saluted Bruce and glanced at the operator.

“We don’t see anything wrong here?” Kale, who was leading the team said, he looked at Tristan, “Or a man down.”

Tristan sighed, “I guess take me to your leader if you have to.”

Then he looked at the operator who was annoyingly close, “Take a step back, Jim. We’ll take it from here.”