Chapter 8.19 - The Scent of Fury

It was not the first time Gale's squadron flew over enemy territory. The first time was when they tried to win by winning over hearts and minds. It was in the peaceful days, when Gale's payload had been honey and notes welcoming immigrants. Although it had given them an initial immigration pull, Gale realized his efforts hadn't been worth it in the long run.

This flight was similar in a way to his candy drop. Gale's squadron was flying over enemy territory, except his squadron, the Nightingales, had their ships painted all black. Their target was the coastal city of Targe. They weren't going to bomb them, not in the sense of it. This pleased Gale, as he had already let his commanders know he would have issue killing innocent children with bombs.

When he explained the plan Gale nodded. It was not ideal, but it was acceptable.

So the Nightingales flew.

Their payload took a bit of an explanation.

In the capital dungeon of Haven, within the 1300 Jungle biome's 54th floor, there is a very unique creature. Unlike most other creatures in the dungeon, it was slow, weak, and posed no direct threat to anyone who interacted with it. It was not parasitic, did not have acid for blood, and initially thought to be more of the terrain than a creature of the floor. It is a slug.

The initial Dungeon Guide team that had gone in had been confused, as when they arrived on the floor, they encountered no hostile enemies. There were monsters, sure, but they were docile. The original Dungeon Guide team, when determining that there was no threat, set to explore mode and the assigned tamer went to work identifying and categorizing the various monsters they had observed. A trove of docile creatures had never been heard of, and the ability for Haven to gain access to numerous new species of domesticated animal was worth their efforts. And the floor was peaceful for the tamer to work in.

Of course, that was until one of the dungeon guides stepped on one of the small slugs that was crawling around.

The slug's body was easily crushed underfoot. It did not explode into acid or eat its way into the guide who had stepped on it. It only let out a bit of spray that was described as a strong musky odor. The report from the tamer said it smelled like 'clothes left wet in a backpack for a week'.

The slugs' musk was not an issue directly. It had no effect on the adventurers, however this aerosolized excretion caused a change in the other inhabitants of the dungeon.

All of the monsters when catching wind of the musk went into frenzy. It was as if the slug's defensive ability set off all of the other dungeon inhabitants, and what went from a quiet floor exploration almost became a Dungeon Guide Team wipe.

It had been the fast acting of one of the guides to incinerate all of the jungles, which burned away all the slugs and the miasma they had created. Of course this led to the investigation of the floor later, the isolation of the slugs and the compound they excreted, the discovery of its universal effects on non plated creatures, and then its weaponization.

So on a cloudy night, Gale and his squadron flew fast and low over the city of Targe. The first group passed, releasing an invisible cloud of gas that would be imperceptible if not for its odor.

The second group dropped colonies of slugs. Not native to the coast, they would die, and as they were all males they had no risk of ecological contamination.

But until then they were all biological landmines.

The squadron continued, but did one more pass. They did a low pass over the beach and docks.

They immediately had to pull up, as a large tentacle came from the water to swat at them. The sea itself seemed to come alive as all manner of monsters from the surrounding waters took to shore, called by the sweet scent of Fury.