It was night time as a waning gibbous hung in the sky, shining its white light upon the world, with a cool breeze blowing outside. Oliphant unfurled one of the beast skins on the table as he sat down and started going through them.
The Valley of Sirens was a matriarchal society of deviant humans its leader was an astonishing rank four completion stage Siren. This simply means she has mastered her innate abilities to rank four and this is what is known to the public. No one knows how far she's achieved in the ways of the world that humans practice and no knows what she even classifies under in the practice of the ways of the world. Her innate abilities are said to be so great that she is able manipulate the weather at will thus being dubbed the name Rain Queen, it also seems that all previous martriach received this title when they were in power.
Under her, were five of her female generals among them being her own biological daughters. She was also a general a few hundred years ago to the previous matriarch that means one day one of those generals under her would be a matriarch after the reign of the current one ends. "A matriarchy? That's unusual, but I guess it's understandable since since they are essentially mermaids, their population being mostly females, could Zakia's goal be them or? ..... Considering the innate abilities of Sirens he may be after their rain stones produced after their death that's written here, since this looks like an item Zakia might eye, or he might be eyeing their very bodies themselves. " Oliphant thought as he continued reading the information on the beast skin.
The Valley of Sirens is a mountain range with nine peaks towering over everything five of these are given to the generals to control and sustain themselves and also to become their source of income and stronghold of power in the Valley and Oliphant was on general Raziya's territory. Only the peaks lead by the generals allow entry of pure humans like Oliphant , while any deviant human besides sirens can enter even the other three peaks lead by the martriach, with the last one only allowing entry for only sirens and their kin, and is the most important area in this whole valley. " There's no harmorny in this world humans are excluded in some areas but allowed in others, if that's the case I'll have to rely more on myself in collecting information about this place I bet this is just the rudimentary information which they deem useless even if humans know it. The most interesting thing here for me is the arrival of Prince Mokuti from the Icy North in the Valley to ask for the hand in marriage of one of the Martriach's daughters, this sounds fishy to me everyone knows that deviant humans practically have zero trust in humans why would they even entertain the thought of such a marriage? Wait from the north.. It can't be! It was that young lord from the ship!" Oliphant started to panic at this thought and stood up abruptly with the beast skins in hand.
" This can't simply be a coincidence and I find out about this now, now that I look at it, I met that young lord at the right moment allowing me to cross over swiftly without any mishaps, this can mean Zakia will take over soon....what is this...or is the Prince planning something and wants to use me as scapegoat, well it looks like I won't be meeting him three days later. " Oliphant calmed himself as he sat down again and got through further information about the general layout map of the area as well as special areas and markets where one could buy specific goods which suite them and cannot be found in an ordinary stall or the many stores in the area.
Oliphant didn't have trouble memorizing all these details as he was a Spell Caster which need a strong mind and soul to process the functions of spells which can be far more complicated than details describing an area, so this information about the Valley wasn't much work for him to quickly grasp. Oliphant sat in the dimly moonlit room as he read all the beast skins.
During this process in another area west of Oliphant 's inn far in the mushy swamp outside the Valley of Sirens where heavy rain fell everywhere three men, one thin in a yellow robe another in a hood and pitch black attire whilst the last one had dreadlocks and was barefooted were engaged in a fearsome battle against a monster that looked like the swamp ball of dead plants and rotting soil had gathered into a six metre giant humanoid that rampaged everywhere in this place, black tree vines were randomly slashing about in the area as the three men dodged side to side. The most surprising thing was these people were moving in heavy rain but were dry as if there was no rain at all.
Slash! Slash! Slash!
Ja IL the man in the yellow robe screamed. " Buy me some time! I need just a little more time to use an enchantment so we can take care of it and move forward!"
The other two did not waste time as they used their methods. The barefooted man took out a potion bottle from the skin bag on his waist with an orange colored liquid that was glistering with specks inside, he uncapped it and downed it with one mouthful, his body started expanding upto four meters as fur grew all over his body mostly on his neck area and sharp fangs stuck out of his mouth and his face having a slight protrusion and paws with sharp claws replaced his hands and feet, he turned into a predator with bone spikes on its back, he called this transformation the Spiked Back Lion Mane transformation even though this may sound long the whole process took no more than five seconds to complete this was Zane's most well known transformation with decent power and speed for any situation in the academy. The feline like predetor moved piecingly and slashed it's large clawed out paw at the swamp humanoid.
Boom!
The monster was sent flying like a cannonball despite it's large size then it crashed against a huge rocky hill which then crumbled afterwards before the monster could get out of the rubble the spiked back lion arched it's back and released a screeching sound from it's mouth and the spikes on its back launched out at a terrifying speed and pinned down the swamp ball humanoid to the ground.
At the next instant the area around this battlefield became even more dark and the moonlight became obscured as the area became eerily silent and dim.
The man in a hood named Saka said through the silence in a low voice. " Worldly Pact— Bindings of a Thousand Shadows." Even though Saka said this in a low voice the sound reverberated throughout the area as everyone could hear it. Shadowy arms stretched out from the ground and as if the dead were rising from their graves as the mushy soil allowed the hands to easily slip out of the ground. These hands tangled around and took pieces off of the monster and retracted back into the ground, the mud monster looked like it was being gnawed away piece by piece by the hands, but this was not enough to kill it, the killing blow was also ready to be administered by Ja IL.
" What is taking you so long this thing is already slipping out of our bindings even though the swamp ball humanoid was pinned down it was now passing right through the spikes on its body and the shadowy hands.
Right at that moment Ja IL's voice rang out. "Enchantment Art!"
"Core Targeting Annihilation!"
Swooosh!
Grey colored tattoo like snakes filled the sky and snaked towards the swamp ball humanoid that was trying to break out of its bindings. The grey snake tattoos drilled into the swamp monster and rampaged inside it, this enchantment was one that targeted the source of strength of an organism, so if this was a human hit by this Spell their brain or heart would be the number one target for this spell. The spell targeted the vital area of this swamp monster, soon it's shape deformed as it turned into regular swamp that was on the ground.
The three praised each others cooperation as they didn't even collect any spoils from the monster and tried to leave immediately, but before they could leave they heard a feminine voice from in front of them. "What is the rush gentlemen, me and my sisters here were starting to enjoy the fun." An enchanting figure who had no legs, but in their stead a smooth tail like a fish but not exactly like it was sitting on a small water wave that was rolling under her as it was clear it was used for movement and nothing offensive could be detected from it, her scales shined about even through the rain as they attracted all attention towards her. There were three other females behind her but had legs instead of a fishtails and only their ears and scales gave away that they were also sirens.
"Don't bluff with us do you intend to block us with just you." Saka said with scorn.
"No, but even so these were orders from the Martriach, any who is above rank 2 and wishes to come here should make their intentions clear before entry can be permitted." the female with a fish lower half said plainly.