Ghasts...

I awoke to the sound of sirens and explosions, I quickly got up, got dressed, and put my armor on.

"Taint any idea on what's going on?" I asked

"Heard some people screaming about ghasts." Taint responded

I quickly moved outside to get a look at the ghasts as I was quite curious about what they looked like, boy was that a bad idea.

They had to be the grossest violations of nature I had ever seen, maybe even topping the taint. They were something straight out of a nightmare, a large misshapen bloated body, there were mouths and eyes littering its body. Its leather was an off-white color with areas around the eyes being stained a darker color likely from the tears flowing out of its eyes. Hanging from the bottom of the body were multiple tentacles covered in suckers, every time one of the ghasts got close to someone on the ground they picked them up and threw them into one of the many mouths.

Every once in a while the ghasts shot a fireball out of one of their mouths which exploded on impact. The ghasts were not small either, easily being the size of a house, and there were at least 30-40 in the air.

I was going to let the people of Urbs Inferni deal with the ghast and go back to sleep but as I turned around to head back inside a ghast crashed into my house taking a good portion of it to the ground.

POV SWITCH

Stella could feel the anger building up inside her, she just got this house and now it was already destroyed! Plus she wasn't even the one to destroy it! As she stood there the ghast that had crashed started to float again, Stella quickly pulled her wand out and ran towards the ghast.

She quickly activated the taint and jumped onto what was left of the roof making her way towards the ghast before jumping on top of the ghast. Stella held on tightly and winced as the ghast screamed. The noises that the ghast made were equally terrifying, they sounded as if thousands of people were dying all at once.

Stella quickly pulled out a knife and stabbed into the ghast so that she would fall off. As the ghast rose she got a good look at the rest of Urbs Inferni, there were at least 12 more ghasts lying dead on the ground with countless buildings destroyed. As the ghast flew upwards trying to throw Stella off in the process, Stella pulled Alumentum out of her bag.

She used the knife to cut a larger wound into the ghast and prepared herself; as the ghast moved closer to its brethren Stella squeezed down on the Alumentum cracking it, before shoving it into the wound she had made. After planting the Alumentum she got up and ran towards the closest ghast jumping and using the knife to make sure she didn't fall below.

Moments later the ghast she was just riding blew up, throwing chunks of it everywhere. She repeated this process a few times slowly jumping between ghasts making her way towards the fortress. She was on her 5th ghast when she was close enough to the fortress, planting the last Alumentum she jumped to the fortress landing on the walkway surrounded by various races all firing weapons at the ghasts. She didn't come out unscathed though, her legs were littered with small cuts from the ghast's teeth when she cut the jump a little too close.

Stella picked up a crossbow and ran towards the stairs leading down shooting ghasts as she went, while she was making her way to the exit she heard someone yell "FIREBALL!" and as she turned she watched as a ghast launched a fireball towards one of the Piglins nearby. As she took cover she saw Queen Vanera pull her sword out and bat the fireball back launching it back at the ghast killing it. There were only a few ghasts after that so Stella reloaded the crossbow and helped finish them off.

POV SWITCH

Despite the ghast's gross look, I was curious about how they achieved flight, especially considering they were rather huge monsters. After the last ghast was dead I took a rest and tended to my wounds, Queen Vanera approached me while I was doing so.

"I don't think I have ever seen someone ride a ghast before! How was it?!" Queen Vanera asked with excitement

"Not as fun as you would think, the threat of falling is pretty big, and even failing your jump means landing near a mouth, which is not fun." I replied while gesturing to my cut up legs

"A bit of a shame then, if ghasts weren't so damn aggressive then we would have tried taming and riding them." Queen Vanera replied looking a little disappointed

"That would have been a horrifying sight." I responded, "Oh my uh house was destroyed by one of the ghasts, I won't need a place to stay as I am moving into the greenhouse in the lab just in case you didnt know."

"I heard about you moving into that freezing place, Pope Ruin was ecstatic upon hearing you were ok with those freezing temperatures." Queen Vanera said

"Freezing? The greenhouse is 'warm' for me the natural temperature of the nether is pretty much unbearable." I said

"Really? If that's the case then we might have a job you can do, there is an area in the nether that goes sub-zero. We cant explore it due to it being far too cold but you might do much better." Queen Vanera explained, "Oh and do head over and speak with Dandle Dorf, I heard he has been pulling his hair out over something related to your thaumaturgy." She added

"Will do, also is there a place I can buy a ghast corpse? I find their structure rather interesting and would love to take them apart!" I asked

"I'll ask Pope Ruin, the Wither Skeletons are the ones that do the material processing for ghasts." Queen Vanera said before walking off

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Word Count: 1025

A little action to spice things up and to allow for more lore! Suggestions and power stones are always welcomed!