TitoVillar
patreon
TWL Chapter 299: Explosions, Echoes, and a Giant’s Gaze
🕑 Added 2025-01-31 00:46:33 +0000 UTCAfter Harald was confirmed alive, Eist could finally breathe a sigh of relief. The mission in the mountains had been a success: they rescued the jarl of one of the main clans who had been kidnapped. In addition, they were lucky not to cross paths with the Ice Giant and, best of all, none of their soldiers died. Everything had worked out in an almost miraculous way.
As the soldiers continued to check on Harald, his eyelids twitched, and he let out a groan.
"Who... Eist?" he muttered in a weak voice.
"It's me. You're safe." Eist crouched down and spoke reassuringly to Harald, whose face still reflected the horror of his captivity.
Harald's eyes moved in bewilderment and fear, looking around without seeming convinced by Eist's words.
"Eist?" he repeated, his voice shaking.
"It's me," Eist replied patiently, motioning for the guards to help him up and begin his return journey.
Suddenly, Harald let out a scream. “No, Eist, you shouldn’t have come!” he cried in despair. “You don’t understand… that creature… the Ice Giant… You don’t know what it has become…”
"Don't worry, Harald." Eist spoke to him in a calm tone. "We haven't encountered the Ice Giant. The seven major clans will unite to eradicate it. No matter what kind of monster it is, it won't be able to take on all of Skellige."
The guards carried Harald and set off back. The passage was narrow and dark, and although the soldiers in front held torches aloft, the light barely managed to dispel the cold and gloom that permeated the caves of the snowy mountain.
Harald was in a state of semi-consciousness, mumbling incoherently as he was carried. But suddenly, he thrashed violently, as if a nightmare had suddenly gripped him. "No, he'll be back! Eist, you have to hurry!"
His desperate cry had barely ended when suddenly an explosion resounded in the passage.
The soldiers immediately went on guard. Had something happened to the troops guarding the rear?
Lann and Eist exchanged glances, and without missing a beat, they quickened their pace. Soon, they could see flashes in the distance, and the sound of fighting and shouting reached their ears.
…
Without anyone knowing how or when it had happened, a horde of monsters had begun to emerge from the mine passages, attacking the soldiers of the Tuirseach clan.
The monsters surrounding them were of one species: the Rotfiends.
The Tuirseach clan soldiers had encountered these creatures before, when they came to the aid of the Tordarroch clan. However, on that occasion, only a handful of them had appeared.
It seemed that the Ice Giant's attack on the Tordarroch clan had been an impulsive move, with not enough time to gather his horde of monsters. Only the sirens, who were fast and agile, had followed him. And in the end, Lann, with the help of the soldiers and the druid, had finished them all off.
The Rotfiends, on the other hand, were not as fast or adept at traversing the mountains, so their presence in that battle had been minimal. But now, their nest must have been nearby, because a multitude of them had emerged from the darkness to surround the soldiers.
"Shields up front, don't engage in melee, use bows!" ordered the officer in charge in Eist's absence. Having faced these monsters before, he already knew their combat tactics.
Lann, who had arrived at the tunnel entrance first, felt a chill upon hearing the order.
"Don't shoot! This is a mine!" he shouted urgently. "The Rotfiends are too close together. If one explodes, it will cause a chain reaction, and the mine could collapse."
The soldiers, who had already strung their bows, hesitated.
Fortunately, Lann reacted quickly and covered his body with a Quen Sign. A golden flash flashed in the air as he teleported to the front line and raised his left hand, forming the Aard Sign - Piercing Cold.
"We've found Harald! Everyone, fall back through the main passage!" Eist ordered in a firm voice as he emerged from the darkness. "Lann will handle this!"
The path they had come by was the widest and the only one free of rotfiends. They had inspected the route carefully to make sure their retreat was clear.
The soldiers who received the king's order did not object and immediately began to exit the mine in an orderly manner.
…
Lann took a deep breath.
He knew he was taking a risk. He wasn't sure if his Piercing Cold would be able to freeze the rotfiends and prevent them from exploding.
Even if it didn't work, it didn't matter much. Lann didn't intend to kill them but instead planned to use his magic to generate a steady, controlled gale. The force of the storm would be enough to blow them into the air and slow their advance.
After all, on terrain like this, rotfiends were a deadly threat.
The other witchers seemed to sense their intention. Each one blocked a passageway and formed hand signs, ready to buy time as the army retreated.
[Boom!]
One of the rotfiends closest to Lann exploded without warning.
The shockwave and debris flew out, hitting the Quen Sign's protective barrier, which vibrated violently from the impact.
Behind the destroyed creature, several more were knocked down by the explosion of their companion. On the ground, their limbs began to convulse uncontrollably. Their grotesque, bulging bodies twisted like defective balloons, swelling unevenly, as if violent currents of air were stirring within them, ready to burst.
Lann felt a chill.
Lann was still gathering his magical energy, he hadn't attacked the creature, he hadn't even moved.
And yet it had exploded. And more rotfiends were advancing towards him.
[Boom! Boom! Boom!]
Chain explosions were also heard in the other corridors.
What went wrong?
Lann was rapidly retreating. The explosions had shattered several support beams and wooden posts. The other four witchers had also abandoned their positions, and debris was falling steadily.
"This doesn't make sense! These rotfiends aren't acting normal!" Kolgrim shouted. "I haven't used any signs, nor have I touched them, and yet they still exploded right in front of me! I guess the same thing happened to you guys!"
Coen, his face grim, heard the crash of falling rocks and saw dust pouring from the ceiling. "Could it be that they were already badly injured and only just made it to us before they exploded?"
The witchers did not fear for their lives. They knew that Lann could use his Elder Blood's ability to teleport them out of the mine at any time.
"I don't think so." Gerd firmly shook his head. "I didn't see any injuries on them. And even if they did, they wouldn't be serious enough to cause this. They seem to be deliberately self-destructing, like living bombs to cause the mine to collapse!"
Gerd looked up at the shaking ceiling and motioned for the group to gather. He prepared to deploy an advanced version of his Quen Sign as a protective shield.
Meanwhile, the Tuirseach clan guards had already managed to evacuate Harald and were sounding the alarm horn, which relieved Eist somewhat.
"Why are they doing this? It goes against the survival instinct!" Geralt took a deep breath, a theory forming in his mind. His expression turned grave. "Unless there is an existence with absolute power that gave them the order..."
Everyone turned pale. In these mountains, there was only one creature with such authority: The Ice Giant.
But why had the Ice Giant sent the rotfiends to carry out a suicide attack on the mine?
Thinking about the reason, Lann's eyes widened in surprise and urgency.
Before Lann could say anything, a scream of horror rang out from outside.
The echo of the voice trapped in the corridors reverberated through the mine, enveloping the soldiers with an ominous sense of terror. The swords trembled in their sweaty hands.
The mine shook again.
But this time, the roar did not come from the collapse of the mine and the explosions.
It was a steady rhythm. A dull thud that vibrated through the floor, running through their bodies like a nightmare heartbeat.
It was the sound of footsteps.
Giant steps.
Lann's eyes glowed emerald green as he prepared to teleport everyone away from the scene.
However, in the next second, a thunderous crash, like a mountain collapsing, resounded above their heads. A skylight was forced open in the rock face, as if someone had carved it out with sheer brutality.
There was no sun outside. No light came in, just a torrent of freezing air accompanied by fist-sized handfuls of hail that rushed through the opening.
Then, a giant head appeared.
It was rough, grotesque, and savage, with a hard skin furrowed with deep wrinkles like fissures in rock. Its color had a cold tinge, and between these wrinkles sprouted locks of reddish-brown hair, like dead trees on a mountain top.
The face that crowned it was even stranger. The eyes were separated by a disproportionate distance, the nose was short and thick, and in the enormous mouth the teeth were crowded together in an irregular manner. Everything about that face conveyed ferocity and brutality.
But at that moment, the only thing those eyes reflected was not fury or violence... but bewilderment.
The giant, peering into the cavern, muttered a single word in a hoarse voice: "God...?"
