Journey 3.2

Hey Guys! I hope your week is going good! Its almost over, just a bit more! Here you go enjoy!

Azra POV~~~~~

I stood there in awe at the tower…no, mountain that had just appeared in front of me when I heard a voice whisper next to me, “Superhero landing.” I jerked around but didn't see anyone. I asked Skjold, but he said he didn’t say anything as he was in awe at the moment.

A minute later, a figure dropped from the sky and created a crater as he landed. He was kneeling with his head bowed, he stood up, and I realized it was Master. His body was looking a little darker than usual but other than that he seemed normal. He started to laugh once he finished standing up.

“Ah, I’ve wanted to do that since I first got this body. Totally blew away some stress there,” Master said to no one in general.

“Father!” Z2 shouted as she rushed forward and tackled… hugged Master. 

“Z2! It’s only been a few days, but I can honestly say I miss you all,” Master said as he patted her head. 

“Father,” Puppet said with his ninja kneel. It looked as if Master almost had to pry Z2 off, but he managed separated from her gently and moved over to Puppet.

“Puppet, I see that everyone is still alive and well. Good job,” Master said and patted his shoulder. 

“Thank you, Father!” 

He turned to me, “Good job,” he said with a smile. I nodded, I didn’t need much more to be satisfied. As long as I did my job right. Master turned to Natsuko and Natsuo and asked, “You two been getting along?”

“Hmph, of course, Father,” Natsuko replied, “I have taken good care of Natsuo!” Natsuo nodded as well. 

“Good,” he said as he patted them on the head. 

Master looked around at the gathered automata and mortals. 

He moved over to the automaton that was wearing the white coat and asked, “What is this for?” As he gestured at the structure.

“Creator, it is using the natural properties of the mana spring to generate a pulse of mana for us to stay functioning,” He explained excitedly.

Master nodded, I guessed he was able to understand just from that as it went right over my head and replied, “very good! Caring for your fellow automata is a commendable trait.”

“You flatter me, Creator!” The automaton said, and a moment later, Master created another white coat that seemed fit for a king and handed it to him. 

Next, Master moved over to the Major, “You succeed in your mission, even though it cost you your path home. Even then you still held out with hope. Well done soldier!” 

“Sir, yes, Sir!” He responded with a salute. Master seemed to enjoy the motion that the automaton made, so I memorized it for later.

We told Master about our journey that we had so far, short as it was. Master seemed pretty interested in the ruins near the Valley but waved it away when we told him we destroyed it, I was glad that he wasn’t upset, but as I thought about it, I had never really seen him mad. 

After about an hour or so Master turned to us, “Puppet, I have a new mission for you guys.”

Puppet did his kneel that he usually only did for Master, “Yes, Father.”

“I need you to find the monster horde that is forming roughly to the south of here. Then, you will lead a force to remove the problem.”

“Understood, I already have an idea where they are inhabiting…” Puppet started to say when there was a roar outside the Village.

“What was that?!” Master asked surprised.

“Zuthon!” Hiden the co-mayor of the village shouted. 

We rushed to the wall at the edge of the village and saw the dragon was rushing towards the village. I stood next to Master as he made some weirdly shaped weapons appear, or at least I assumed they were weapons. They kind of reminded me of the giant crossbow things the city guard kept on the towers on the wall of some cities.

I widen my eyes when a dragon burst through the tree line. It was the same creature that we encountered earlier today. He looked pretty flustered if a dragon could look flustered.  

“What is going on here!?” The dragon roared once it finished breaking through the tree line. It froze however after it looked over the wall to see the, taller than some mountains, the tower that Master had built.

“Zuthon? Is that correct?” Master asked. 

“Huh, what do you want puny metal man?” Zuthon said as he kept his gave on the tower. I found that I was starting to dislike this dragon, he better not keep insulting Master.

Master shrugged and continued, “I have claimed this area as my dungeon. I hope this hasn’t crossed any lines with the monster territories around here.”

“Hmph, like I care about territory lines! I am a dragon! I bow or give face to no one!” Zuthon said as Master got his full attention. Did Master not know that dragons were really prideful? You’re supposed to give them a lot of respect when you encounter one. 

“Now, now. I have great respect for dragons, I don’t want this to come to blows,” Master said as he tried to make calming gestures. I tilted my head, but couldn’t think of the words to say. What I really wanted to say though was, ‘no you don’t.’

“I have no need for your respect!” Zuthon shouted and slammed his front claw on the ground. A jut of rock, nearly a small hill’s amount of stone ripped from the ground and shot at Master. 

“We got this,” Skjold said in my mind.

I gulped and jumped forward as I braced my shield. I tried to recreate the effect I did at the completion to absorb the mana and reflect it if I could. It felt like my hand fused to the shield and I became acutely aware of Skjold that inhabited the shield. The boulder slammed into me, I felt what seemed like a tidal wave of terra mana wash over me through the shield. Then I focused all my will on forcing the boulder up into the air. It seemed to jerk strangely as it shot up. Even after the boulder had stopped touching my shield, there was still quite a bit of mana, so I did my best to absorb it as it was basically pure terra mana. 

The boulder reached nearly thirty meters in the air before it started to drop back to the ground. Master looked at the boulder, and the weapon he had created seemed to follow his line of sight. A moment later, the weapon made a tremendous noise. The force of the blast cracked the wall, and the boulder exploded after it made it halfway through. The second barrel fired a moment later and exploded on impact right in front of the dragon. He was tossed back from the explosion as he seemed to be caught off guard. I was amazed that Master was able to harm such a powerful creature. 

“What manner of magic is this!?” Zuthon shouted. 

“Science. Now, are you ready to talk?” Master asked.

Zuthon thought it over for a minute and finally nodded, “Pride got the better of me Metalman, I offer my apology.” 

“No problem, I assume you felt the mana from the dungeon?” 

“Yes, I was excited as I haven’t eaten in weeks beside normal prey, even a measly goblin would have been nice right now.” 

“I see,” Master said and started to tap his chin in thought. Master pulled out some of the meats the same way he made the weapons appear. “How about this, it's just pig meat, but it was raised in the dungeon.” He tossed what looked like several pounds of meat over to him. 

Zuthon caught it in his claw which was surprisingly dexterous. He sniffed it, probably to make sure it was not poisoned and popped into his gullet. Then his eyes just open like a saucer.

“What!? WHAT IS THIS!?” He roared loud enough that the trees shook a bit. 

“That… my friend is bacon. One of the seven wonders of the world.” Master said. I would have to ask him for the other six wonders later, it sounded amazing. 

“Bacon! More! Give me more!” Zuthon demanded with an almost pleading look. Master waved his hand, and an extra large cart of some kind made out of metal appeared that was loaded with bacon. 

“Zuthon, How about you stay here for now. I can get you more bacon and other meats as long as you protect this village,” Master offered the feasting dragon.

“Metalman… my territory was largely in this area anyway, so I have no problem with this agreement as long as bacon is provided every morning.”

Master then asked, “Why did you let them settle here anyway?” 

“They gave me one person a week, so three people total. It was almost time for the fourth, but this bacon tastes much better. Mortals are crunchy and the other… things have too much metal for my taste after the first one.”

I gulped at the mention of Zuthon eating people. I knew the escapees had no other choice with the forest being full of monsters. It seemed the path to civilization, or south, was blocked by the horde. They were stuck between a rock and a hard place. 

It seemed that Master was satisfied, so he left, but I wanted to talk to Zuthon some more. It wasn’t every day that you get to speak to what was considered one of the purest element creatures, and elementals couldn’t talk. Everyone else followed Master while I made my way off the wall. Some of the villagers were looking at the spot that Master had damaged earlier and trying to figure out how to fix it. 

I made my way over to Zuthon who was still eating to his heart's content, “May… May I talk to you for a bit?” I asked nervously.

Zuthon stopped eating and looked at me. He was even closer than last night, and it was much brighter, so we were both able to get a better look at the other. Zuthon was true to his heritage, with deep green or tan scales. His teeth and claws looked to be made from some of the strongest metal I had ever seen. 

“Now that I look closely at you, you seem to be a distant cousin… very distant,” Zuthon said after what felt like an hour but was only a couple minutes. 

“Cousin?” I asked curiously.

“Indeed. The lizard, “he scoffed at the word lizard, “ beast people are in fact from a dragon heritage. In your case I would say a Land Dragon such as myself,” Zuthon explained and took another bite from the pile of meat, “but it looks like that connection has been weakened by something.”

“I am bound to the dungeon, I was changed when that happened.”

“Ah yes, nasty part of the magic. I once saw a drake that had to bind itself to a goblin dungeon to survive. Poor thing could barely be called drake… all twisted and corrupted. You would have thought the necromancers had gotten to him.”

“Do you have any tips you could bestow upon me? It's not every day that one meets an expert such as yourself. Just the bit with the trees last night, while you were walking through the forest, was already on another level,” I asked and made sure to flatter him, though I meant every word of it. 

“I do know my stuff,” Zuthon said as he gave me a very sharp toothy grin, “Let’s see… terra is the building blocks of the world. Without terra, there is no fire, water, or air. Terra is solid, yes, but it is also soft, giving, and warm. Have you ever experienced a terraquake?”

“No.”

While he still ate from the meat, he swung his tail, and it collided with the ground. A few hundred meters in the forest away from us a rumble started to build. A moment later large sections of the ground seemed to split apart and grind and jump together, creating what looked like chaos to me. The trees were torn apart as they fell into the mass of dirt and rocks. A few moments later, the shaking stopped and then the whole section that was affected seemed to sink and merge creating a small hill that, while it looked rough it still would be commonplace in a forest. 

“That is a small sample. That is an artificial terraquake, in certain parts of this world terraquakes are much more common, and I have heard its impossible to live there unless you are a terra mage. Fast, destructive, but also… part of nature.”

I thought it over for several long minutes. It indeed wasn’t the answer to life, but it did help me understand terra better. I had always formed it to be robust and rigid, the thing with the sand was still solid in my mind, each grain made the pile bigger. But now I saw that terra could also embrace so that new life could grow.

“Thank you, Master Zuthon. I would be honored if you let me practice my terra magic with you some time,” I said and bowed in thanks.

“As long as your Master gives me this magical meat, I don’t mind,” Zuthon said and threw what was probably half my weight in meat into his mouth in one go. 

I quickly made my way back to the tower Master had built. The whole time thinking about the power of the terraquake I was showed.