Time passed by, soon, the morning luster was replaced by the brimming midday daylight, only to eventually give way to the smooth afternoon breeze.
Back on top of the plateau overlooking a large portion of the southern wastelands, Captain Don was starting to get restless with worry. His entertainment of torturing their chained captive has already gone pale, boring.
As it turned out, although the strange bristly furred monstrous abominable creature that was a mix between wolf and spider, was quite sturdy, resistant to physical abuse. Yet, fortunately, it turned out that it couldn't really handle even the basics of psychological warfare. Teasing with the alluring smell of a sumptuous meal has quickly brought down the previously indomitable walls that the creature surrounded itself with.
Barely in an hour of its new method of punishment, the creature was singing like a little bird, going into whatever detail they wanted just to finally get something for the promise of a meal.
These creatures, calling themselves P'Thorax, had a pretty horrid history. They were the result of the 'Bareskins', as they called them, the surface dwellers of the eras past. Before the 'Grand Cataclysm', there were many races living above the land space.
A race of long-eared, slender-looking androgynous creatures; an agamous, or genderless race that seemed to somewhat resemble some subsection of a true born race of elves from Eora, have created them as a manner of protection. They were designed to be efficient killing machines, protectors, guardians of this strange technocratic civilization.
Though at first, they were little more than the reanimated amalgamation of local beasts, they somehow formed their own souls over the centuries, eventually turning from tools to beings that started to desire their freedom.
Though their knowledge and myths leave lots of holes to fill, eventually the inevitable war broke out between the two, which after almost 2 full centuries of bloodshed ended in a peace treaty, finally acknowledging the race of P'Thorax as their own, with their then sole City-State of Porthilax being its own nation.
From the creature's telling Captain Don learned that in the upcoming almost 7 full decades that were before the world-changing event, the 'Great Cataclysm' eventually brought the end of all Bareskins and made the Overworld inhabitable for generations, the P'Thorax had their Golden Age.
Though they were far from being immortal existences, they were basically immune to the corrosion of time. They were ageless entities, beings created through a mixture of dark science and magic.
Luckily, or maybe to the misfortune of the Captain and the team, Aiden was not with them at the time, he couldn't tell them the strange peculiarity of these creatures. More so, he might even have missed them if he were to be with the girls at the time during their first encounter! For these creatures although undeniably alive, were closer to magical constructs than true natural living entities, they rarely had any Life Essence inside their bodies and was mostly animated through an artificial-looking core and an abundant amount of viscous tangible fluid of mana flowing through the veins in their bodies!
In any way, Captain Don, finally learned that the creature was one of his tribe's hunters, sent out to scavenge for food on the surface.
However, when he was asked of the location of his tribe and that if there would be a chance for peaceful negotiations, the creature snickered as he pointed towards the west, to the nearby second plateau, shocking the old man in the process.
It seemed that the two teams, that were sent out, had both encountered surprises along their journeys, meeting situations they were not prepared for. Captain Don could only hope that they were still safe and not deep in some disaster…
Captain Don could only sigh and hope that the team of girls joined by his two strongest men, sent to the south, didn't meet any trouble along their way…
—
Bathed in the creature's disgusting fluids and thick, dark oozing blood, Naybeah truly looked akin to a nightmarish, terrifying monster rather than the wild-natured beauty that could captivate and capture the hearts of men.
Heaving heavily after the brutal clash with the humongous insectoid, she didn't seem to notice or at the very least bothered by the fact that her entire upper chest and with it, her bountiful melons were laid out bare, beneath the thin layer of dark viscous coating of goo.
She was deep in her own little world, reveling in the feeling of her glorious victory. Of the fact that she fulfilled her promise, and that she acquired the trophy worthy of her mate. Lying beside the oversized, hill-sized head of the creature, Naybeah's thoughts wandered far away.
As his dashing, handsome figure appeared in front of her mind, a wide, goofy grin soon seemed to emerge atop her expression.
"Naybeah!" The short silence was abruptly broken when a chorus of melodious but worried voices echoed in the gruesome battlefield. Two slender figures dashed towards the lying amazon, ignoring the disgusting pool of fluids that she was surrounded with.
In just a few short moments the two girls, Lily and Galina were already beside her, the rest of their team not too far behind her.
"Sister!" Lilly exclaimed with a concerned, worried tone as she looked over the bruised, battered friend of hers, addressing Galina standing at the other side. "Can you… Can you… help her?" She asked with a bit of hesitancy, fear in her voice. She was afraid that the antics of this friend there have finally caught up to her, and that even with the help of her sister, Naybeah would be beyond help.
Galina was already focused on the task, she didn't react to the question at all. She was looking sternly at the wounds, scanning all the damages whilst a deep frown donned on her face. After a while, she sighed and clicked her tongue.
The signs of annoyance, dismissal could be seen peeking through her expression, as she sighed and slowly reached out with her arms and raised it above the amazon's body.
"Why is she always like this?" She muttered. "Why does she keep thinking that the Young Master needs such a display from her?!"
She sighed, closing her eyes as she shifted her full attention, her full focus on the task at hand. She couldn't waste a single second, and had to use everything she had left in her tanks if she were to hope for a chance to pull her back from the brink of death!
—
"Whe... Wh- What in the…" Suddenly finding her entire environment turning upside down, and twisting beyond recognition, Drake found himself confused as he appeared in the underground damp cell.
The bright, scorching sun was nowhere to be found, replaced by damp, obscure darkness. The large, endless space has turned into barely more than the cell he was invited to during his 'stay' in the Orc's Tower.
Yet, before he could finish looking around, a familiar voice reached his ears.
"B-brother?"
---
AN: Hey there Readers!
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