One of the mealots spots Olaf, and lets out a blood-curdling scream. The others turn to look, and begin to launch themselves at Olaf.
"DIE!" they roar in unison, in their hellish language.
Olaf thinks he can kill most of them alone if he wants to, but it can become risky, and he could get severely injured now, which will reduce the chances of them being able to do the core mission. Besides, if more keeps joining out of nowhere, he might even get overwhelmed and die.
There is no shortage of Mealots in this world. Every time, as soon as they are released from their shelter, there is a possibility of an encounter with Mealots. Their main mission is to gather manpower. The longer it takes to be able to do this mission, the more likely it is that they will lose the battle against the Mealots. So this mission must be completed as soon as possible. Fighting the Mealots is pointless at the moment. So, Olaf decides to leave quickly without deviating from the main mission and without wasting time and energy.
Before Olaf can even finish his thinking, he notices that Omer is going to do something. Omer grabs his slingshot gun which is facilitated by clockwork mechanism, and aims at one of the leading mealots. He releases the trigger, and the stone pellet shatters the mealot's eye like a ripe melon.
A wave of screeching breaks out from the remaining mealots as the one-eyed monster turns its attention towards Omer. It begins lumbering towards him at a fast pace.
He aims his slingshot again and fires. This time, the stone pellet hits the first mealot in the forehead, which results in the projectile going into its brain. It collapses on the ground, which causes the other mealots to stop and look at the fallen one.
"Run!" yells Omer.
Olaf does exactly that. "Yeah, come on," Olaf yells. "Before they get organized again."
They run away as fast as they can. The monsters give chase.
With the monsters chasing them, Olaf and Omer have problem in reaching a safe destination.
Olaf and Omer run away from the mealots as best as they can in the dense jungle. They are being chased by mealots through the jungle. They sound vaguely like a horde of angry wasps, and Olaf feels like they're going to fall into a trap at any second.
Every once in a while they peek over their shoulder, and see the mealots not far behind.
Omer jumps over a small stream and falls like a stone. "Help! Olaf!" he cries.
After a moment, Olaf realizes Omer's too proud to ask for help again, so he has to go over and help him.
"Watch out for the damn leeches!" Olaf warns
"Shoot, there's a bunch of 'em." Omer yells in disgust.
Olaf looks down at the stream and sees an awful lot of leeches.
Loads and loads of them. He feels like picking them up and throwing them at the mealots, it's that bad.
Olaf offers Omer his hand. "Are you alright?" he asks.
Omer reaches for it, but misses.
"Damn it! Let me help you!" he says, before taking off his belt and offering it to Omer.
Omer grabs on, and is pulled across the stream.
"Thanks," he says.
Olaf's heart is beating fast, and he has to take a quick breather. A canopy of trees blocks out most of the sun, which gives them a little relief. The mealots sound closer than ever, and it almost feels like they're all around Olaf and Omer.
"Alright, we have to keep running."
The stream is only about 3 feet wide, and while the water isn't that deep, neither are they.
They try to ignore the pain of the leeches as they cross over, one by one. When they're halfway across, they hear a howl. It's one of the mealots, and it's alarm call. The others follow suit, and howl back.
Two of the friends quickly run to the other side, and keep running.
As they continue, they hear the howl once again. This time it's much closer. The two of the pals look around, scared.
"It's behind us!" Olaf yells.
Olaf sees that Omer pulls out a gas-bomb from his backpack. The bomb is filled with gas that will knock the monsters out for a while. This will be helpful for Olaf and Omer to escape.
Omer throws the bomb at the monsters. The bomb explodes, releasing the allergic gas. The monsters begin to wheeze, gag, and stagger. They begin to fall down.
Omer and Olaf continue to run. The monsters are now stumbling around, trying to find their faces while falling over, but meanwhile Olaf and Omer are far too fast for them, and eventually lost their sight.
After few minutes of sprinting, they come to a pause.
"What is that gas? And how did you make it?" Olaf asks Omer.
"A mixture of plants and common alchemy." Omer answers.
"Why didn’t you tell me before?"
"You know me. I like to give surprises." Omer smirks.
"Well you are full of surprises, aren't ya?" Olaf says.
"It's all thanks to the fascinating world that provides such plants with amazing properties. Anyways, so, do you like it? Do you think it'll work?" Omer asks in return.
"It's fine, and it will work," Olaf says. "But I'm curious about something. Did you make a large vat of these to release at once? The effects aren't as strong as they would be if you had made smaller releases?"
"No, I don't think we have the resources for that. I only made a small vat for this reason."
"Ah. I see." Olaf replies in kind. "Well, it might be a little strong for now. But it was good to make it for you, Omer."
"Thanks, Olaf. If only we could scavenge deeper into the woods, we could find abundant plants like this. We need more manpower for scavenging."
"We'll definitely gather men this time. I'm not going back until I do that today!"
"Well, we should keep going,then. Mealots may appear again."
As they walk again, Omer starts complaining about everything again. Olaf ignores.
Omer: Are we sure we aren't being followed?
Olaf: No.
Omer: There's something following us. I don't like this.
Olaf : Now you are acting like Hank. "Paranoid".
Omer: This is for real, mate.
Olaf: Well you need to get used to it. It's the reality of our situation. Now hush.
Omer: I am not hushin-
Olaf: SHUT IT!
Omer: Alright, alright, (sigh) I think it's gone now.
Olaf: So? Settle down, will you? I'm trying to find the root of this forest, because I've had my fill of shadows and snow, thank you.
Omer: Well, let's continue then.
Olaf: In a moment. Take a look at this.
In the middle of the forest, there's a strange, glowing plant.
Olaf: What the hell is that, beyond anything I've ever seen?
Omer: I've seen more mushrooms than you've had hot meals. That isn't a plant, it's a hecking artifact.
Olaf: What, like a magical plant?
Omer: No, it's more than that. That thing is probably supposed to tap into the magic within the planet itself.
Olaf : Probably?
Omer gives Olaf a look and shrugs.
Olaf: That looks like... a power node. You know, like a storage battery?
Omer: Yeah, I've seen those too. Do you think that it could power a vehicle?
Olaf: We can hope.
Omer: Sure! It's probably got enough juice to do it.
Olaf: No, that's no ordinary node. That's maybe a spirit node. There's something much more important going on with that than just a simple energy source.
Omer: Well, we should probably grab it. We aren't going to find any more easy sources of energy. That was probably our last stop.
Olaf: Be careful with that thing, OK? I'd rather not get too close. The last thing we need is some sort of energy disturbance or a curse that we can't reverse.
Omer: We need to test it and experiment once we get back to shelter. I'm sure we can figure out how to harness its power.
Omer wears his gloves and grabs the artifact with both hands.
Olaf: Hey! What the hell are you doing?
Omer: This probably contains the essence of the planet! If we mess with it, there might be consequences! But, we can't just let such a discovery slip away.
Olaf: Well then, we need to get it back to the shelter so we can figure out how to harness its powers!
Omer: Yeah, I know how to do that.
Omer puts the artifact into Olaf's bag, and continues on the walk with Olaf in the jungle.
"You noticed mealots were eating human feet?" A sneaky smile plays out in Olaf's face as he asks Omer.
"Yeah! Spooky! Gives me the shivers." Omer replies in a pale expression.
"Hah! This is amazing" a crazy joy radiates from Olaf's eyes. " This means there are more humans here!"
"Tsk. Hope they are alive."
After a few minutes of walking, they come across a small clearing.
In the center of the clearing are three dead trees. Right in front of the trees sit a pair of clay golems.
They are sitting like Buddhas, staring blankly at the sky.
The golems slowly stand up, to a height of about fifteen feet, like they were alive, staring at Olaf. A low guttural growl emanates from both of them.
Their bodies are incredibly thick, and made entirely out of clay. They have no eyes, only a big hole where one would be. They seem to be completely featureless, except for the big hole where an eye would be. Their mouths is just a big hole in the center of their heads. Each of them are holding a worn, blunt and thick heavy sword.
One of them makes a move with their mouth hanging open to reveal a long tongue, and they begin to walk towards Olaf and Omer. Their footsteps are very heavy. They slowly approach the team and gradually the speed increases like a glacier as if they couldn't care less about the threat Olaf poses to them.
Resembling deceased deities. Powerful and unpredictable. As if the deity has abandoned them, and they have been left to rot in the afterlife.
Olaf's adrenaline starts pumping, and he finds himself getting both excited and annoyed by the threat.
The golems charge Olaf and Omer. They raise their fists to unleash a powerful blow. No time to run.
Olaf purses his lips, a slight furrow between his brows and with an icy coldness he says "Great! Tsk!"
Olaf reaches for his sword, and fights back against the golem.
Omer throws a flask of some sort at the golem. It breaks against its body, but the slime that leaks out causes it to break into a fit of coughing fits.
Omer and Olaf exchange blows with the golems, but eventually, Olaf is sent into the air, and slammed into the ground with a thud. Mean time, Olaf sees that Omer desperately tries to crawl away, but the golem grabs him and slams him to the ground as well.
The golem, now only ten feet away from Olaf, looms over him like a giant. It swings its sword down, cutting through the air where Olaf once was. Olaf rolls out of the way, and does a barrel roll.
Olaf is not just any man. He's a veteran commando type who once took down 100 soldiers all by himself.
He draws his sword, and charges at the golem.
Olaf moves incredibly quick, evading the heavy sword blows like a master dancer. In between the heavy sword blows, Olaf manages to land some good strikes akin to a master swordsman. The golem is not easily defeated though.
He spins onto his back like a top, grabbing the sword. He stands up, twirling the sword in front of him to protect himself as if he was a Roman gladiator.
Quickly, he punches it in the side, knocking the sword out of its hands. The sword is left spinning in the air like a deadly Catherine wheel, and it falls to the ground with a thud.
Olaf grins evilly, and charge at it with a heavy punch.
The massive golem is sent flying into the air, and it crashes to the ground with a thud, scoring a huge dent in the ground.
"Take that, you annoying puppet!" Olaf says.
Before he can take this opportunity to strike a critical blow at the clay golem, the other clay golem charges at him, and just like a professional bull fighter, he immediately dodges backwards, jumping into the air, grabbing a tree branch, swinging on it and dodging the next heavy blow as if he was a monkey.
He lands on a rock, grabbing it with both hands. The golem slams its fist into the stone, and he is sent backwards like a rag doll.
He rolls to the side, grabbing his sword as he stands back up, taking a swing with his sword, cutting through the golem's arm like a paper cut. Mud spils out from the wound like water from a burst dam.
"Damn this golems! So annoying!" Olaf mumbles with an angry tone.
While the golem is occupied engaging with Olaf, taking this opportunity, Omer aims his slingshot gun and shoots at the golem, and it's hard shot pierces the golem's hand, before bouncing off like a rubber ball.
Still, the noise causes the golem to try and twist its head around to see what is attacking.
Taking this opportunity after seeing the opening as the golem is being distracted , Olaf quickly runs at it, slamming the flat of his blade as his sword runs directly into the clay golem's body. As he slices through, the sword becomes covered with a thin layer of slime.
The golem lets out a pained cough.
"Tsk! Die already." An expression of utter irritation plays through Olaf's face.
Olaf is about to swing another one, but suddenly an arrow from the left pierces into his hand. Pain runs through his arm like fire. He cries out, dropping his sword as he attempts to yank the arrow out, and suddenly he lets go of his sword.
As he yanked the arrow out, he takes a step back, and he looks. To his surprise, there stands a mysterious goblin warrior, holding an armbow, standing by a tree, an arrow ready to be used once more. He's wearing a hood over his head, but his body bears the tribal scars of a goblin. He's green and huge. He's so tall and muscular that he barely looks like a goblin, rather like a muscular human, but with unusually large hands for a human. In one of his hands, he's wearing a mystical armband.
"To think that a mere human can overwhelm the clay golems...!" a deep shame envelopes his voice. "But, it isn't unexpected from you. You are a major threat."
"What the hell?" Olaf's sense of annoyance increases by many folds, added with astonishment as well.
He points at the wounded hand of Olaf, and lets out a bark-like laugh. "You're wounded!" He says. "The hand of a warrior is his most precious asset, and injuring it even for a just cause is always a tragedy!"
Then he turns to the golem, and barks out a strange command, which enrages the golems to attack Olaf even more. However, Olaf and Omer are not concerned about the furious golems as their concern is overlapped by the complete awe and astonishment to this strange discovery of the fact that a monster can speak their language.
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