Mad Hatter's Guide to Clearing The Game
Chapter 243: Ch241. Where fire seeps beneath the skin

Chapter 243: Ch241. Where fire seeps beneath the skin

"I don’t like them..." Sarissa muttered as she buckled the belt that held the sword sheath she had received along with her Huntress outfit. "They smell like trouble to me..."

"I know." Miles replied, his tone strangely calm. "But Jorrin was the first to offer a job voluntarily, and we need to learn not only how the Lodge works, but also the dynamics between groups, and how the more... Dangerous groups behave. Otherwise, we’ll be easy prey around here, and we won’t last long enough to even understand what the Source is, and why the Professor’s rift brought us here."

And after a brief pause, He added, letting out a heavy sigh.

"I don’t trust them either, Sarissa. But... You must have noticed by now, right?" He glanced around, as if searching for any sign that something, or someone, might be eavesdropping on their conversation. "It’s like the whole city is watching us."

Miles’ lips were a straight line as he wore a pair of brass-in-leather gloves, waiting for Sarissa’s response and scratching under Dee’s chin.

"That’s why we’re going to keep an eye open, and do what we always do best."

"Dee!" Dee chirped, but his eyes glowed with a hint of sadness.

"Which is?" Sarissa raised an eyebrow.

"Have each other’s back." His lips curled up ever so slightly, and they left the room. "We’ll be back as soon as possible, Dee. Keep an eye on everything for us, little guy."

"Dee..." Dee huffed through its nostrils, turning around a few times, and laying down on the small carpet.

***

They left Vel’Serath by dusk, slipping through one of the less-guarded rootways that threaded beneath the city. Miles noted the lack of fanfare or farewell.

Ashmark operated like ghosts. No one watched them go, and no one asked why.

Their route took them into the Blistered Grove, a twisted stretch of land warped by ancient wildfires and stranger things. Blackened trees rose like claws, and the soil shifted in patches, hissing faintly with buried heat.

"There’s a den up ahead." Jorrin broke the silence. "Locals say it’s cursed. That beasts keep disappearing. No screams, no blood, just vanishing."

"And the Lodge hasn’t sent anyone?" Miles asked.

"They sent a team two months ago. Only the scout returned, without his eyes." Reva chuckled darkly.

They reached the perimeter of a sunken crater rimmed with bone-white stones. Vekka tossed a handful of powder into the air, and it shimmered like disturbed water.

"It’s awake." She said.

"What is?" Sarissa asked.

"That’s what you’re here to find out." Jorrin crouched and drew a symbol into the ash with his finger. It glowed, then vanished. "We go in quiet. No casting unless you want it to hear you."

Miles gripped his weapon – a simple long sword, like Sarissa’s – tighter. The crater felt wrong. Not like danger, but like the memory of it. Like standing on ground where something had once screamed itself into silence.

They descended in pairs. Murn and Reva first, melting into the underbrush like shades. Vekka moved next, her scaled feet silent on the blackened earth. Harl followed, every step deliberate, his massive blade sheathed in cloth. Miles and Sarissa brought up the rear with Jorrin.

Inside the crater, the air grew thick, heavy, as if each breath had to be negotiated.

Then, they found the remains.

At the center of the basin was a hollow tree, long dead, its bark flayed by something that was not teeth, nor claws. Around it were remnants of gear, bones scorched from within, and marks in the dirt that made no sense. Some spiral, some branching like veins.

Others simply circled endlessly.

"It doesn’t kill in the normal ways." Reva murmured.

Jorrin motioned for silence. He stepped forward and placed a hand on the tree.

For a moment, nothing happened, and then, the ground screamed.

Like something just woke up in the ash.

Sarissa staggered. Miles grabbed her, but his own balance faltered. Reva hurled a seed into the hollow and shouted a word in a language Miles didn’t know. Green light flared.

The tree shuddered. From within came a hissing groan, and then a shape, a coiled mass of heat and bone, lurching into being.

It had no eyes, only vents that pulsed with ember-glow, and a mouth lined not with teeth, but with rings of rotating barbs.

Harl charged.

He struck first, his cloth-wrapped blade unfolding mid-swing into a crescent cleaver that bit into the thing’s flank. Sparks flew, and the creature shrieked, its voice like splitting iron.

Vekka darted behind it, slashing at its joints. Murn flung a bead of something like liquid fire that exploded against its hide. Reva whispered to her vines, and they surged forward to bind its limbs.

Miles and Sarissa didn’t wait.

She drew her blade, her form blurring as she slipped through shadows. Miles moved in sync, his blade already in motion, striking high as she struck low. Their blows landed, but the thing didn’t bleed.

It hissed smoke and bile, swatting at them with limbs that bent wrong.

Then it shifted. Its form collapsed into cinders, and reformed behind Harl. The beast plunged a limb through his side.

He didn’t scream. Just growled and grabbed the arm, holding it in place.

"Hit it, now!"

They did.

Everything became fire. Miles drove his blade through its midsection. Sarissa leapt and stabbed through its throat. Reva’s vines exploded in flame. Murn shouted a word that made Miles’ skin crawl, and the thing finally screamed, but it was not pain.

And then, it died.

The ash settled, Jorrin stood slowly, his eyes fixed on the remains. The crater felt... Lighter, after the thing died. Less haunted.

Harl staggered to his feet, pulling the broken limb from his side. Blood leaked, but he laughed.

"Wasn’t so bad."

"Well. You didn’t die, that’s more than most." Jorrin turned to Miles and Sarissa.

Reva studied them, her expression unreadable. Vekka just nodded.

"What was that?" Sarissa asked.

"Something old." Murn said softly. "Not from this side of the root."

"Welcome to the real Lodge. Not the one with rules and names and hearths. The one where monsters dream, and sometimes, they wake up hungry." Jorrin gave a thin smile.

He walked past them, tossing another spiral-marked token into the ash.

"Sleep lightly." He said. "We’ll call you when the next one stirs."

As they walked away from the crater, Sarissa murmured to Miles.

"Still think we can just blend in here?"

Miles didn’t answer, but he held his weapon tighter.