Chapter 306

I stood tall, looking for whatever I could see. The sounds came from the center of the city, below the tower. Before my disbelieving eyes, the tower cracked, groaned, and fell, stones dropping from at least 100 feet up and smashing into the unforgiving ground below. The one standing structure was demolished, and the guilty party made itself known. One burly arm waved through the dust, the particulates flying away with the irritated movement. Another followed suit, the air clearing under its impetuous actions, and I realized that each arm must be at least twenty feet long. When it waved another arm through the murky air, it was finally clear enough that I could see the beast for what it was.

Though it was vaguely humanoid in form, the monstrosity that destroyed a massive tower in an idle motion was obviously not a mere gigantic human. Though it stood tall on two legs supporting a thick waist, and its torso sported two thickly muscled arms, the giant wasn't limited to a mere single torso. No, from its waist sprouted three torsos, each covered with a gray skin and the mottled coloration of stone. Each of its six arms looked like a human's, though each hand had only three fingers and reached all the way to its knees. On the other hand,its heads were less of a head than a large lump on the top of each pair of shoulders. The creature turned, and I realized that instead of two legs, as I believed, it had a thick leg between each torso, making a total of three.

As the tower-destroyer turned and continued its hideous scream like the scratching of iron on stone, its voices filled and echoed through the city. 

"Can Nievtala give you any information on that thing?" Took asked, her body language hesitant.

I turned the question inward, but she didn't answer. The Administrator gave what little information she seemed privileged to give.

[A Shandise. They're where the name for these mountains comes from. I didn't know if there were any left on the surface. They're generally reticent, so I doubt that this one is angry at you particularly. If you can calm it down, it may leave peacefully.]

Though I didn't love the idea of a giant stonelike giant living nearby and posing a constant threat to my people, I couldn't say that I had any confidence in killing it. The beast was at least twice as tall as the biggest indlovu soldier we'd met, and I didn't know what other abilities it might have, to say nothing of its many arms and obvious strength. If it didn't mind having a building fall on it, I couldn't imagine that throwing more and more keelish bodies at it would leave us with any result except for more and more dead keelish. Maybe I could do something with [Spear of the Many], but drawing sufficient stats into my body to do marked damage to it would leave me with mere seconds to do anything and a long time for recuperation as I damaged myself drawing supernatural strength.

"Says it's called a Shandise and that it might not be aggressive to us." I said, hardly believing it myself. "Foire, Silf, go see if you can check out what's enraged the creature. I'm told it shouldn't be us. Probably."

Even with the lackluster confidence I could hardly project, my two faithful scouts didn't hesitate to do as I asked. They both quickly disappeared into the foliage filling the city's remains, and the rest of my elites standing beside me continued to watch the Shandise. Gladly, it seemed like the Administrator was correct in saying it didn't care about us. Instead, it stomped its feet over and over again into the ground where the tower had once stood, and its sheer mass was apparent when I didn't need to rely on [Tremorsense] to feel the shaking in the ground. After nearly a full minute of stomping, the giant ceased and seemed willing to try to settle down again, but before long, it started stomping in a maddened frenzy once again.

The cycle continued, the tremors of its tantrum shaking the walls, though not nearly so much as to destabilize or make me fear that the walls that'd stood for hundreds, if not thousands of years, would fall. After the third cycle of calming and stomping, Foire returned. Silf wasn't far behind as Foire explained what he'd observed.

"It definitely isn't us." were Foire's first words. "Those giant ants we saw before are all over its legs and are trying to eat it. They seem entirely incapable of harming it, but they're able to prick its flesh a little."

"With what we've seen before, that means that we will at least struggle with getting through the Shandise's skin." Took mused. "Alpha, you would be our primary combatant capable of tearing through its skin, though, I suspect several of the other khatif are near to acquiring the ability to assist you in that. That said, I doubt that you will be capable of hunting it."

"Though it seems slow minded, I doubt that killing it will be necessary." Sybil answered. "We have found the source of its distress, and have the possibility of helping it. Perhaps we should do that in exchange for getting it to relocate?" Sybil looked in my eyes, searching for approval.

"If you're able to touch its mind, then absolutely. We're here, and at the cusp of what may be a mass evolution. Any deaths sustained will be, at best, wasteful. If you're able to communicate with it at all, then we can attempt negotiations."

"Of course, Alpha." Sybil nodded before closing her eyes and a faint sense of her presence washed over me. Looking around, several others of my elites felt it as well, though only Brutus' reaction surprised me. He perked up, his eyes roving for whatever had caused the sensation and once he realized it came from Sybil, he relaxed from his all around vigilance and returned his wholehearted focus to the Shandise giant ahead of us. While Sybil reached her mind out to the giant, I realized I had a question I'd never asked the Administrator.

"What are those shadow things that were ambushing us in the plains out there?" I raised a hand to my subordinates surrounding me, and they quickly realized I wasn't asking them.

[Ahh. The umbral ophidians. Quite the cute creature, aren't they? Unfortunately, I can't tell you anything about them you haven't already figured out. They are aggressive predators, and are extremely sensitive to light. They're currently hibernating, so you only ran into the youngest mating pairs that haven't built up their fat stores.]

Though she'd stated as much with a blase lack of care, her statement shook me to my core. Those were the smallest and weakest? And that most were hibernating now struck me with another blow.

"Do they come up to the mountains?"

[Almost never. They do not get along well with those gargantuan ants that fill these peaks and have left the mountains to the ants and keep the plains to themselves.]

"Why don't they hunt the ants?"

[That is information that you can learn on your own and you do not need to know at this time. I've already pressed my limits enough today.]

With that, the Administrator was done speaking with me and I was left to my own thoughts. Why would we leave a potential source of food alone? Could there be a reason? Sybil's voice pulled me from my musing.

"I believe that they are willing to let us help them, though I cannot say if the end result of us assisting the creature will result in its peaceful relocation."

I flicked my tail. "Lead us forward."