Steel and Mana

The Dawn's deck was quiet, just as the cloudless night above the fleet, back on their route, sailing eastward. The wind had calmed somewhat from the afternoon, and the waves were settling down instead of trying to throw the ships around. It seemed that this end of the ocean was a bit more violent than down South, but still not something that the ships wouldn't be able to handle.

Standing at the front of the ship, Pion leaned against the rail, his eyes fixed on the sky, watching the stars that were hidden away until the end of the long winter. Counting the days since they had left on this journey, more than a month had passed, and if everything was going according to plan, the army would be starting their move towards the east soon. Thinking about it, his hand absently traced the edge of the radio clipped to his side, the one that most likely won't come active, not until they get in range with the Avalonian army.

"Haaah..." With a sigh, he shook his head, refocusing on the now. It had been three days since their encounter with turtle-beast... He could name the faces of some they'd pulled from the water. And some they hadn't... Although they were not Avalonians, but part of the Sar Empire, they were still comrades and allies, and he hated losing people.

"Pion, you awake?" Polo's voice came through his personal communicator, linking him to the Avalonian forces. Looking back, he couldn't see the Authority, sailing somewhere further back in the darkness, bringing up the convoy's rear.

"As usual. It is not exactly a night for sleeping when my bed is going up and down and makes me feel like I'm drunk," Pion replied, tapping the activator. "Why are you still up?"

"I'm running checks on the Rook. Honestly, some of the joint servos don't like the salty spray that my baby gets dosed with constantly. It can handle monster guts, but this... this is getting to it."

"You should leave it to the maintenance team; that is why they are here. You just focus on being rested. We are in the monsters' territory now."

"They're asleep."

"Yeah, like you should be," Pion muttered, but this time he was not Polo's commander but the man who found him on the street, took him in, and became his new family.

"Yeah, well… maybe I'm not ready to be."

There was a pause between them, and although they couldn't see each other, both of them knew they were smiling.

"How's the crew holding up on your end?" Polo asked finally.

"They're talking a bit less," Pion said. "That's the easiest way to tell they realized the dangers we are facing. No one wants to be the first to bring it up, but everyone's thinking about the lost ship and crew... And that we are facing bastards beyond reason."

"I know what you mean. The same is happening here, and although the Theocracy's people ought to be antagonists to the Sar crew... I can see they began respecting the people from Sar. I like what I see."

"Mhm... Maybe our Sovereign was hoping it would bring the two together," Pion made a low noise of assent by taking a deep breath. "I'm just... We pulled maybe half their crews out of the water while the rest… are gone. I just hope they didn't suffer."

"We can only go forward," Polo cut in. "We are lucky it didn't sink the Dawn."

"Luck isn't something I like to depend on." Pion muttered with a tinge of anger.

"Yeah," Polo agreed, his voice a bit quieter now. "Me neither. Is the ship okay?"

"It just looks bad. We reinforced the inside a bit, though, but it doesn't impede us. If it had been smart enough to hit us with its shell, we might have been in trouble, but the beast was stupid enough to use its head. Probably thinking we are another monster or something."

"It is a blessing they are not smart when they grow to be big..."

Soon, they both lapsed back into silence while Pion tipped his head back, watching his breath fog in the colder, midnight air. The convoy sailed on in a slow, steady formation, each ship running on just enough crew to man the crucial posts while the rest slept.

"Commodore..." The comms crackled again, this time with a much sharper, more alert tone, as Nathel joined the discourse, "You're going to want to see this! My Seeker has picked up wild magic readings, coming into view, on the shore to our left!"

"Details?" Polo asked, activating the Rook as they were about two kilometers out from the shore of the continent, and only the mechs had the technology to see that far in the dark.

"Feeding visuals to the Rook now... Routing my sensor package... Hold onto something... the magic interference is extreme, and it makes the feeling of watching it more dizzying than sailing in a storm."

The Imaginary feed within the Rook's cockpit flickered to life as the Rook was now looking through the Seeker's much more powerful imagery. For a moment, it was just a grainy, color-shifted shoreline, a barely visible forest pressed close against the rocky edge, the waterline hitting the cliffside along it. Then, with a tweak from Nathel, a new overlay bled into the image, painting the trees with a faint blue shimmer as it turned the magical signatures visible and, through it, the view into something clearer.

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"That's a big one," Polo whistled, finally seeing the silhouette of a monster amongst the trees.

"Wait," Nathel said, a bit hurried, "There's more... I'm isolating their signals..."

The first signature just then tumbled out from the forest in a spray of splintering wood and the glow of a magical shockwave blasting towards the sky. From what Polo could tell, it was a hulking quadrupedal beast. As for how well armored it was, he couldn't tell... Trying to zoom in, he noticed that its head was broad and wedge-shaped, its jaws curving from the massive teeth it had. No... those were tusks... From the ridge of its skull, following the magical outline, there had to be a crown of backward-swept bone spikes that were also glowing from the magic running through its body.

Even without proper marks for scale, he guessed it stood thirty meters at the shoulder, or... maybe even taller. It was then that there was a blinding light, visible even for Pion, who was watching with the naked eye. It didn't last for long, but it was powerful as it was the result when two massive spells clashed, sending a beam of light towards the stars.

"They are going at it with full force!" Nathel grunted, refocusing the Seeker.

When finishing, the second shape came into the image just seconds later. It was a taller, bulkier monster, moving with a strange, rolling gait that reminded Polo of a crocodile that was standing halfway upright. Its torso was massive and barrel-shaped, the long neck holding up an angled, spear-shaped head, with serrated fins running from the skull down its spine. Its forelimbs ended in four hooked claws, as far as he could tell, and the hind legs were thick enough to step on two mechs at once.

"Fuck," Polo breathed, cursing without thinking, "We've got such a welcoming committee?"

"They're not here to greet us," Nathel said with a chuckle, "Wanna bet which wins?"

"Is there an option that both of them die?" Pion snorted as, from the shore, another blinding light rose, followed by a magical explosion, waking the crew on the ships as everyone was coming out to see what was happening.

When it died down, the four-legged monster roared, infusing its voice with magic, becoming a sound that blasted out like a shockwave, shaking the Imaginary's feed with distortion. The second monster answered with a roar of its own, becoming surprisingly quick and ramming into its prey.

Even from kilometers out at sea, the impact was visible as the forest cracked and crumbled, like a child throwing a tantrum, kicking over his building blocks. Crashing, the four-legged one hooked its armored skull under the crocodile-beast's chest and heaved, flipping the taller monster onto its side, causing another audible, loud crunch.

Yet, that sluggish-looking monster recovered with shocking speed, its massive tail lashing out like a whip. Polo watched as it struck the other's flank with a crack that would have splintered a ship in half... most likely. He could see as magically infused scales or armor plates broke loose and skittered across the shore, landing in the water as it howled again.

"Looks like it hurt," Polo murmured.

"Yeah, its magical signatures are weakening." Nathel agreed.

The feed tracked them as they tore into each other one more time, claws going across both of their body, their teeth sinking into any exposed flesh they could find. The four-legged beast tried and fought low, bulldozing forward with its mass, trying to flip its enemy again, while the standing one used its reach and height, snapping with its long jaws, trying to get to its spine from above.

In the end, it managed to do so, and it bit down on the 'smaller' beast's neck. Polo saw the spray of dark fluid scattering far out. In the feed, it appeared as a blue shimmer, revealing the true strength of the magical component in the beast's blood. Following that deadly attack, the smaller monster staggered, then rammed forward, in a last-ditch effort, its own jaws locking around the taller one's forelimb. Even from there, the people heard the crunch and howl as it, with maddened craze, bit it off.

But there was nothing to do, and before long, the end came fast for it. The crocodile-beast never let go of the other's neck, and by now, its throat was in its jaws as it cracked any kind of armor it may have had, driving it down into the ground. The smaller monster still thrashed, claws gouging trenches into the earth, but the taller one held it down firmly, sometimes shaking its head, trying to bite off its head... Then, finally, with an audible wrench, it did behead its prey.

With a triumphant roar, the monster let out a guttural growl, and Nathel and Polo watched as it hungrily dug into the open neck of the spasming body, almost as if it was trying to climb into its corpse. Yet... when its head emerged, they watched as there was a bright, practically star-like glow between its teeth. Of course, it was only shining in the Seeker's feed, showing how strong a magic signal it had, becoming a beautiful sight amidst the ravaged scenery.

Polo, of course, knew it for what it was... A monster's core.

For a long moment, the creature just held it in its mouth, almost as if it was hypnotized, but then, its aura began brightening, coming to glow nearly as bright as the core in its mouth.

"What is it doing?" Pion asked, because with his naked eyes, he could not perceive what Nathel and Polo were seeing. For them, everything went still and dark, leaving them unsure of what was happening in the darkness.

"Never seen one feed like that," Nathel said quietly... "It is synchronizing its magic with the captured core... as far as I can tell."

When their brightness matched, the victor finally raised its head, growling in an audibly satisfied manner. Then, as if the fight had been nothing, even with all of its injuries, it swallowed the core, ignoring the body of its prey, no longer interested in it. Without hesitation, it turned away, lumbering back toward the forest, missing a leg, its form vanishing from view for good.

What remained behind was the decapitated body, lying still, half-hanging down the cliffside, its blood pouring into the water.

"Damn..." Finally, Polo exhaled, disconnecting from his mech, "I just hope that this is an everyday occurrence here..."

"Same," Nathel gave a humorless chuckle, "It would be good if they fight against each other a lot, and we can just sit back and mop up the injured beasts."

"We won't be that lucky." Pion spoke up, eyes closed, feeling himself shivering a little, pushing it down, "Also, if this type of feeding empowers the winner... If we let them continue, we'll end up with a kind of monster that may be impossible to deal with. We will sail around to our designated checkpoint... Then, decide what to do after. We must find that Pass, no matter what... If we don't seal it, millions will die.