Unsafe Working Conditions : A He Who Fights With Monsters 6+ Companion Story

Chapter 24 - Sandwich Cake

 Henri exited the bus which was parked next to a stubby mesa. The terrain changed over the hour of their journey from tundra plains to hills with what looked like extrusion of rock thrust up into the air. The extrusions were of various sizes and heights but they all looked to be made from layers and all ended with a flat top.

"Liam, is it me or does this look like a sandwich cake?" Henri was staring up at the layered extrusions.

"Henri, get your ass moving and stop thinking about cake," Liam returned to the loot he had been going over. Many of the items recovered from the Voles were either explosives or components affiliated with lightning. The few different weapons looted were lightning affiliated with one being a broad dagger that could extend into a rapier covered in lightning, the other a lightning gun that looked like a toy.

Henri huffed and walked in the direction that Carlos said his contract was. He had summoned his compass and after checking it started jogging.

Henri was jogging along when he felt an itch in his mind. His racial gift Survivalist was able to sense the lifeforce of organic beings. When Liam and he were escaping from the facility they had arrived in, he had gotten used to the feeling of itches that could resolve as bearing information once he concentrated on them.

Henri slowed down and summoned the compass that would allow him to more accurately locate the target of his contract. Thinking about what his research found, he considered where a flying bore wyrm would nest. It was a creature that consisted of a cylindrical body that manifested in several different varieties that ranged from basic metal to valuable crystal. Its head looked like something found on a deep oil drilling rig, rings of concentric teeth that rotated in opposite directions. Its eyes dotted the area between some of its rows of teeth, this meant that while the creature was eating it would be blind. The wings were a hodge podge between a metallic bat and an owl giving the creature an unfinished look.

What was more important to him at this moment was the diet of the creature, which was crystals. He started to look for veins in the sandwich cake looking rock extrusions while following the needle of the compass. He saw what looked like a warren of mole tunnels in the rock making him excited, these were just what the reports described and what the entries regarding the monster depicted.

He continued to move in the direction of the compass needle, being sure to stay alert to life forces in the area. He could feel dull concentrations around him which would mean either young or old on the verge of dying creatures were in the vicinity.

As he approached another of the extrusions, he heard the sound of rocks being ground together. Dropping his compass, which disappeared in a puff of smoke before striking the ground, he summoned a spear of shadow in one hand and in his other hand he began to gather mana but did not trigger any abilities.

With the vertical surfaces of the extrusions all around him, it would have been very difficult to locate the creature by sound. Thankfully, its lifeforce was close enough he could narrow down its position less then half way up the extrusion. Henri activated the mana he had been gathering and placed it on the tip of his spear, pulling back his arm he threw the spear into the hole where he surmised that the creature was currently residing.

A howling accompanied the spear as it entered the hole, but not from a creature. To the tip of the spear was affixed a vortex consuming everything that it could. Throwing it into the hole he hoped it would consume the creature which would be registered on his bangle as completing his contract. As the wind rushed into the hole in the extrusion it howled like a wounded beast, soon after cracks formed and spread from the hole to cover a third of the extrusion's face.