Chapter thirty-eight: [Interlude] Green Hell.

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~~~Third person, seventh moon, 276 AC~~~

~~~Sothoryos, Gorosh~~~

"Move!"

"Get the camp ready as soon as possible!"

Orders and commands could be heard everywhere, among an ancient abandoned city in the middle of a vast, virgin jungle.

That said, the city, after more than three hundred years, saw human life again, causing rodents, small animals, and other creatures to abandon the place and wander into the undergrowth.

On the shores of the summer sea, fifteen huge ships floated in the crystal clear waters of the sea.

Ships of a strange style, as their hull, out of the seawater, reached an incredible twenty meters, with several masts adorning their deck and sides, along with several decks, that, together with their length of thirty meters, would make them titans in their own right.

(Image) 

These great ships had brought a crew of some sixteen thousand men, mostly unsullied, plus several cartographers, healers, and witches, the latter being the largest group after the unsullied.

All these people were in the ruins of Gorosh, a ruined city located on the northern coast of Sothoryos. It was located near one of the largest forests in the known world, at Guiverno Point, in the Summer Sea.

Formerly, the city of Gorosh was a ghiscarian penal colony founded in the days of the Empire. Where criminals and slaves were sent to Gorosh to work and die, it remained so until it was abandoned and fell into ruins.

The city of Gorosh was in the northern part of one of the four known continents, Sothoryos, and was home to a multitude of unique diseases such as blood pustules, sweetness, green fever, bronchial testa, red death, psoriasis, diarrhea, bone worm, mariner's plague, purulent eye, and yellow gums.

This made the continent a perilous place for human survival, being the only records of civilizations created thanks to the Ghiscari, along with the rhoynar, evidencing that these had been settling in Sothoryos for a year until, one day, a ship from Zamettar, a city that the Ghiscari had raised, sailed to Yeen, one of the three abandoned cities of Sothoryos, being Zamettar, Yeen, and Gorosh. To find that every man, woman, and child in the ruins of the city had disappeared during the night.

This made even Nymeria, the warrior princess, who had approached Zamettar when she fled with her people, decide to leave the continent the day after what happened.

Now, the reason why people from Xandar found themselves in a place as sinister as this was nothing more than because of the creatures that this continent had.

It was no secret that Xandar, with its extreme wealth and luxuries displayed since its creation, drew unwanted attention, which was why Azrael had left a moon ago for Vaes Dothrak to conquer the Dothraki.

However, the military capability of the other cities was still a very touchy subject, and good consideration and measures had to be taken to deal with it.

That was where Sothoryos, or rather, the creatures that inhabited it, came into play.

All the people in the camp that was being erected arrived with orders to take all the creatures that Azrael had entrusted and take them to Xandar, where their use would be defined.

Among these were many different species, many of them being chosen to fill Azrael's empty zoo, which was getting more and more crowded.

But apart from these not-so-dangerous species, there were two that were a priority. The wyverns and the tattooed lizards. Two different creatures, but lethal everywhere.

As for the wyverns, the choice was to focus on the Painted wyverns and shadowwings. These specimens bear an enormous resemblance to dragons, although they do not reach the colossal size of the latter. They have large, leathery wings and an insatiable appetite, and, although they do not throw fire, they surpass dragons in ferocity.

Azrael's plan with these animals would be to create an entire aerial division focused on warfare, where they would be used to attack enemy armies from the air or send messages over long distances much faster than parrots.

In charge of the expedition was Micaela, a witch older than Valka and perhaps more powerful than her, since she claimed to be present when the first dawn war took place, specifically when Herobrine launched his first assault on the world.

She was now in a tent, gathered with other men and witches, preparing everything for the first hunt at Wyvern Point.

In all, the commanders in the tent numbered three men and four women, in addition to the six other witches who were also present.

"The ideal will be to start the march along the entire coast, We try not to go too deep into the jungle for the moment and to be attentive," Micaela was saying while pointing with a stick to the north coast of Wyvern Point painted on a map.

"That way we can have ground to fight if we are attacked, as well as avoid catching the many diseases that plague these lands."

They had brought with them over five thousand potions, both health, strength, speed, and regeneration.

They didn't know how long it would take them to accomplish the mission, along with the fact that they needed more ingredients on board for the witches to take care of making more potions.

"Since we are going after the brindled wyverns, following by sight will be most ideal, as they are known to hunt in the shallow waters," one of the commanders said, being knowledgeable on the subject after preparing for their mission. "Where we will have trouble is the shadowwings; these hunt at night, and they are almost impossible to see unless you are already being attacked."

"That's why you shouldn't worry," another witch said. "General Micaela and us witches will take care of hunting the shadow wings; we just need you to take care of the Brindled".

"Okay, we can do that."

"Very well, I call the meeting to a close; get your men ready; we will be marching in half an hour," Micaela concluded with the meeting, waving to everyone and leaving the tent.

Micaela began to observe the state of the camp, which was taking shape quickly as a product of good coordination and teamwork.

On this expedition, they had also brought three dozen wolves, including five hundred goats.

Large animals were also used as mounts, and although they were commonly used in the mines, thanks to their enormous strength and great climbing ability, it was not uncommon to see them walking in the streets.

Besides being very fierce animals, they were capable of killing an ox with a single blow of their horns, and, as they were much tougher and stronger than horses, they made goats the perfect riding animals for the expedition.

"Micaela, we are ready." An unsullied approached, bearing plate armor and a netherite spear. Along with a round shield on his back.

Micaela nodded, going to where the men were gathered and those who would go first with her. In total, there were two thousand men, along with ten wolves, including fifteen witches along with Micaela.

They were all already mounted on the big goats, ready for what the journey could offer them.

Oscar, one of the unsullied, commented to the general, "Punta Guiverno is five hundred meters away; it will take us ten minutes if we don't hurry the pace."

"There is no need to rush the pass; it is six hours before sunset; just be alert; they have been watching us since we arrived."

With that, the group began to march, being as silent as possible, with many tenses and attentive to their surroundings.

Where they were going, there was no road at all, only a stone path, which was on a bluff, with the sea to their left and dense jungle to the right.

It was not a good path, along with the salty breeze from the sea and, the humidity and heat of the jungle, which made the weather a bit torturous.

"Look out!" shouted Micaela, grabbing her whip and intercepting a spear that darted from the jungle.

The movement, from taking the whip to using it to grabbing the spear and parrying it, lasted no more than two seconds, speaking volumes about Micaela's lethality as a witch, since not even the unsullied at whom the spear was aimed knew of the attack until Micaela warned them.

"Baerok!" Micaela commanded an order taken by the unsullied in complete synchronization and order, taking their enchanted bows and firing damaged arrows into the jungle.

"Ahhh!"

Several screams rang out from within the jungle, filling Micaela's ears with satisfaction. "Baerok!" Micaela ordered again, with another hail of deadly arrows crashing into the thick jungle, eliciting cries and wails from its green interior.

"Follow," the general said once she saw that there was no danger at all, either because the arrows had killed them or because they had retreated. Whichever of the two reasons, they served Micaela and her people well.

Continuing along the trail, the group came to a large clearing up a hill, a place that would not be easy to reach if it were not for the goats. "Let's go up; when we get there, form up; we might run into the famous wyverns."

The group began to climb the hill, reaching the top in two minutes.

"And voilà!" exclaimed Micaela, watching as several Wyverns slept or rested in the large clearing away from each other. "Let's get started."