Chp.17: Bestiary (part 2)

"Basilisk..." Sisna seemed to think as she read the list. "There are three types here. Are they different species?"

"Actually, no" Nogg replied. "The great basilisk and the royal basilisk are still part of the same species, but they represent different life stages"

"Different life stages? Like caterpillars and butterflies?" Sisna asked, remembering how in the Karbraland Great Forest she had noticed that caterpillars often turned into butterflies after they were big enough.

Nogg shrugged. "Yes, the process is similar, even if it is a little different. I will explain it to you step by step, and meanwhile I will describe the characteristics of the basilisk in each of these stages"

Sisna nodded. She was glad Nogg was so willing to teach her. "So let's start at the beginning" the hunter began to explain. "Basilisks are born in swamps. This is why they are rare here in the Jurao Kingdom, since we humans have reclaimed almost all the swamps and marshes; however, in beastmen territory many swamps still exist since they are necessary for some of them, for example lizardmen or frogmen. Therefore basilisks are more common there. The female basilisk lays the egg in a very dark part of the swamp, where it is difficult to notice it; the egg is very similar to that of a rooster and emits a flow of mana that hypnotizes the nearby creatures, generally toads or frogs, who begin to defend it even at the cost of their own lives.This is why in the past was common the legend that the basilisk is born from a rooster's egg hatched by a toad. Gestation can last up to nine years, during which time the egg absorbs all nearby mana and converts it into food, often causing entire areas of the swamp to die, after which it hatches and a snake emerges from it. That's a basilisk. This snake grows quickly and can be up to twenty meters long, and its venom is deadly. However, if it's not threatened it's not very ferocious, since it feeds mostly on the mana it absorbs from the environment and on the sunlight that warms it (since he is a reptile). Generally a basilisk after choosing its territory settles there and transforms it into a desert area due to the poison that drips from its mouth, and after which it almost never comes out except when it is really hungry. That's why it's easy to spot one, since the signs of its presence are very obvious"

"It looks very dangerous" Sisna said. When she was in the Karbraland Great Forest she and her siblings never had to worry about snakes, as they were small compared to them and their fangs were too weak to penetrate their scales, so even their venom was useless. However, she was quite sure that a twenty-meter-long snake would have the strength to bite and poison her.

Nogg nodded. "It is. The basilisk has enormous physical strength, and to top it off it can use its mana to fortify itself even more. Its bite is strong enough to tear apart an iron shield like a toothpick, but the real danger is its poison. Its fangs emit a substance so corrosive that once it comes into contact with any material it immediately begins to dissolve it, including skin and flesh. Furthermore, the basilisk does not need to bite you to poison you: thanks to a combination of jaw muscles and mana, it can spit its venom great distances. To fight against one of this monsters, you need to be at least a level diamond". The hunter let out what sounded like a grunt. "However, this animal also has a huge weakness: it is extremely sensitive to high-pitched sounds, so much so that even the rooster crow causes extreme pain to it. This has given rise to another set of legends in the past, which claimed that the the crowing of the rooster was fatal for the basilisk. Therefore, it is enough to find a way to produce a very loud sound to disorient the snake or even make it flee"

This was flattering for Sisna. The dragons could in fact emit extremely acute sounds thanks to their powerful vocal cords, much louder than the crowing of a rooster. If the basilisk's ear pain threshold was that low, then it would have been easy to scare it away.

However, Nogg wasn't done. "Unfortunately, this weak point is lost when the basilisk enters its second life stage" he said. "This is when great basilisks and royal basilisks are born. Both of these variants are basilisks that have reached sexual maturity. Great basilisks are the final stage of the males, while royal basilisks are the one of the females. They are both stronger and meaner than the basic variant, and unlike it they are not afraid of loud sounds because their ears are covered by a bone patina that protects them. However, both of these variants are rare: apparently, only one in twenty basilisks can reach sexual maturity. I don't know why it works like that; it's as if that were a stadium that is randomly unlocked only by certain individuals. After centuries of study, neither humans nor beastmen have ever understood why, at least that I know of. We suspected that it is a natural mechanism to control the population, but we don't know how it works"

Sisna wasn't so surprised actually. Dragons were great observers and she was no exception: during the months spent in the Karbraland Great Forest and in her mother's territory, she had noticed that some animals, under certain conditions, were able to change sex spontaneously, becoming female or male at any time. depending on what was needed at that moment. In other animals (especially fish), instead, only some of them acquired the ability to reproduce if the herd was too large. It was therefore not surprising that basilisks had a regulating mechanism of their own. "I understand. Now tell me about these variants"

"As I said earlier, the great basilisk is the final stage of male basilisks" Nogg explained. "In this stage, the snake undergoes a moult, building a true chrysalis similar to that of a caterpillar, and then emerges completely transformed. It is slightly smaller (it reaches just ten meters), but it is covered by an armor bone of thorns which makes it practically invulnerable; it also develops eight legs with which it can run very quickly, and its jaws become extremely stronger, suitable for crushing even rock. Although it is smaller than common basilisks, it is much more dangerous and to face it you must be at least a level mithril". Nogg paused, then he continued: "The royal basilisk is even more dangerous. It is the final stage of the females. It is born in the same process as the great basilisk, building itself a chrysalis, but when it emerges it is completely different. Its body becomes smaller and proportionate, six to eight meters long, and retains only the tail similar to that of a snake; the rest becomes bird-like. It has six legs similar to those of a chicken, and two large wings resembling those of a eagle. The muzzle loses its reptilian connotations and becomes harder and bony, vaguely resembling a beak, even if it does not lose its poisonous teeth. On its neck and chest it develops a sort of plumage, but its feathers are strange, similar to needles, and are very painful to the touch. They also possess large amounts of mana that they can emit from their eyes, similar to cockatrices, thus killing with just a glance. To face one of them alone you must be at least at the peak of the level mithril, or you don't stand a chance"

It took Sisna a moment to process all that information. Basilisks were clearly very dangerous creatures. "Did the beastmen raise these beasts?" she asked, curious to know how they handled them.

But Nogg shook his head. "Not really. Common basilisks cannot be kept as pets, as being near cities they would be constantly scared and in pain from too many sounds. And using them in battle would also be useless due to the noise. these animals live in their own territories, since they did no great damage unless disturbed, and would only go to capture them when they reached their final stage. The great basilisks or royal basilisks were then used as mounts by beastmen generals and commanders" he explained. "However, due to the war, many things have changed. The movement of armies and the flight of various animals caused by the defeat of the beastmen has caused even the common basilisks to abandon their territories and come perilously close to the border. For this there are bounties on them. As for the great basilisks and royal basilisks… well, they are essentially the survivors of the battle who fled and now roam these lands. They aren't many, but they are clearly dangerous"

Sisna nodded. That explanation actually made sense. "So now there's only one animal left" she said looking at the list.

Nogg nodded. "The hydra" he murmured, staring at the last remaining name, which was also the one with the highest bounty. "It's the worst monster you could come across in this land. It's the strongest predator in the world, surpassed only by wyverns... and of course dragons. It's a huge lizard with extraordinary regenerative abilities and with multiple snake heads. Its speed of regeneration is so high that if you cut off one head, it immediately grows back two, so a hydra can grow to more than a hundred heads, although this is rare as they have no natural predators, and therefore rarely find themselves sustaining a collision that deprives them of their heads. Generally, the number of heads varies from three to nine"

"Can it fully regenerate its head?" Sisna was surprised. "How is that possible? Without the brain, the body shouldn't..."

"The hydra's brain isn't in its heads" Nogg told her immediately. "Unlike most other living things, the hydra's brain is inside its ribcage, near its heart. So even if you destroy all of its heads, they will grow back. The only way to stop the heads from growing back is set fire to the neck immediately after cutting it, as the fire continues to damage it by blocking the regeneration process. The best way to kill a hydra is to destroy all its heads and then take advantage of the fact that it is now deaf and sightless to strike it in the chest and eliminate the brain"

Sisna tried to imagine the inside of that animal. It must have been really strange: all living things had brains directly connected with their sense organs (namely nose, ears, tongue and eyes), but it seemed that the hydra was different. She wondered if that was causing it some problems. "Is it really that dangerous?"

"More than dangerous. Just in physical strength, it's tremendous. But the real danger comes from what it emits from its mouth" Nogg explained. "It isn't poison, but pure mana condensed into vapor. Just being touched by this vapor causes living tissue to degenerate, and inhaling it causes paralysis and then a slow, painful death. The hydra continuously emits this vapor, as which expels it with breathing, and in doing so corrodes everything around it. But not only that: after killing living beings, this vapor causes a horrendous mutation in the corpses and awakens them"

Sisna's eyes widened. "Awakens them?"

"Exactly. They come back to life, but their body remains dead. They move only because they are powered by the hydra's mana. They become its servants and provide it with all the food it needs and protect its territory" Nogg lightly squeezed his fists. "For this reason, a hydra's territory is a barren and dead land, where only breathing can be lethal, and before facing the hydra anyone must deal with its minions. Furthermore, since hydras generally live in swamps, the Their lethal vapor is diluted in water, and just stepping into it can be deadly. This makes hydras veritable natural calamities, and you must be at least a level adamantium to deal with them. Fortunately, they are quite rare. In beastmen territory, there were only three of them, which were used as mounts by some of the chief lizardmen, and two of them died in the battle. So at the moment there is only one loose around. As far as I know, it should have settled very close north"

"Can you tell us exactly where it is?" asked Sisna apprehensively, who absolutely not wanted to come across such a monster.

Nogg shook his head. "I'm afraid not. But you will have no difficulty in understanding that you are close to it: as soon as everything around you starts to die, you will have to leave immediately, because it means that the hydra isn't far away"

Sisna was a little discouraged, but not too much. With their noses, dragons wouldn't have had a hard time smelling death. Avoiding the hydra's territory would be easy. "Thank you. You've been a great help"

"Don't thank me. After all, I don't mind helping you"

"Just out of curiosity, if there are such dangerous animals around, why are you moving alone? Shouldn't you be having a party with you?"

"No. I hunt alone"

"But you won't stand a chance against these beasts"

"It doesn't matter. I'm old now, and I want to die doing what I love most: hunting. I know that on this journey I will surely meet the beast that will kill me, but it's fine with me"

Sisna was a little surprised at the answer. "That doesn't make sense to me" she admitted.

Nogg giggled. "Of course, you're still young. You have your whole life ahead of you. When you'll be old, you'll understand. You too will rather die the way you want than to end your days agonizing on a bed, struggling to breathe as life rushes at you, slowly slip away". The hunter stood up. "Don't worry too much about my choices, you wouldn't understand them at your age. Rather, if you don't have any other questions for me..."

"We part ways, I know" Sisna said. "I have nothing else to ask of you. As promised, I let you go. I hope you find what you are looking for"

"I hope so. I..." Nogg never finished his sentence: his head exploded and his blood and flesh bathed Sisna's face. The body of the adventurer fell lifeless to the ground. Behind him, her sister Malchia had appeared, her tail covered in the man's blood. Her other sisters also appeared one by one out of nowhere. "Apparently the plan worked" Finiar said. "Congratulations, sister. You were a very good actress"

That had obviously been all a strategy by the dragons to get information about the local dangerous animals. First, they had sought out a lone adventurer and made sure he was a mage by following him and observing how he hunted; this was because mages needed to recite incantations to use mana, therefore making them more manageable in close combat. After that only Sisna and Rhaegal had made themselves visible, while their sisters had used the rune of invisibility to avoid being seen: even if Nogg didn't know it, all the time he had had dragons behind him, ready to kill him as soon as he came. tried to recite a magic formula. Then Sisna and Rhaegal had put on a play to get him to help.

Before that day, the dragons had always used violent methods to get information, but this time they couldn't torture Nogg as his screams would be heard everywhere; so they had used another strategy. Sisna remembered how Darbi had told him that Haku had been able to trick Ethan into helping him; why not use the same method? And so Sisna and Rhaegal had pretended to be two tragic survivors of a broken family. Humans were very emotional beings, and in fact Nogg couldn't help but empathize with them, and in the end he had voluntarily helped them. It was a very complicated plan, and it could go wrong in an instant, but it had worked. Obviously they had never intended to let Nogg go: it would have been too dangerous. Sisna and Rhaegal had promised not to kill him… but all of their sisters hadn't.

"So, now we know what we're getting into" Corgorin murmured. "What do we do?"

"We'll think about it. Now let's get rid of the body" Sisna said. "Let's eat him and leave only his clothes and some bones, so they'll think he was attacked by a beast. After all, he was old and weak, no one will be surprised"

The dragons thus devoured Nogg's corpse. Sisna was not sorry: after all, this death was exactly what the hunter had said he wanted, to be killed by a beast. After all, the animals rarely attacked head-on: they usually used surprise attacks. This Nogg surely knew that and was ready to die like that, so Sisna didn't feel guilty about granting his wish. Once the meal was over they arranged the bones and clothing to look like it had been mauled and altered the terrain to create fake tiger footprints and they split some rocks and moved the earth to give the impression that there had been a fight, and then they left.