Chapter 221 - Sleepers

"Great, just great…" Gale murmured as he watched the group of twenty leave and continue on their way toward the swamp. "Now we'll have to be freaking babysitters. I just wish we were wrong about the monster being in the swamp..."[What? Why? Isn't that the whole point of us going there?]"Yes, of course! But if it is there, they are all going to die."Astarion scoffed. "Yeah, but they clearly don't care. Just look at them! Even after telling them it's dangerous, they didn't change their mind. Bloody idiots, so what if they are searching for some rare herbs? Keeping your life is clearly more important than finding some godforsaken plant!"Gale just shook his head and then urged us forward. "Well, having more eyes can't hurt. Maybe it's going to be okay." He didn't sound too convinced.Shortly, following the bigger group, we came to a boundary. The ground gradually lowered, the lush greenery and nice smells replaced by old decaying wood, waterlogged soil, and a different kind of vegetation that thrived in damp, gloomy environments. The pungent smell of decay was the first to hit us, even before we saw the brownish-gray broth that was the swamp ground."Ugh. Disgusting." Astarion wrinkled his nose."Indeed, it smells awful." Fei agreed.Not too bothered by the smell, Gale stepped on a translucent white path that appeared in the air just above the stagnant water before him and gestured us to follow. It was so nice having a leader who would take care of the busy work. At least I didn't have to conjure a pathway for myself.We walked past collapsed trees covered with vines and half eaten by insects, rotten logs floating on the surface of the water, and mounds of leaves-covered dirt that were everywhere in the valley.The bog was even lower than the verdant valley itself, protected from the wind by the dense foliage, so the smells had nowhere to go but gather at the bottom, making the place worse than the inside of a latrine.I could hear the women pushing down their urge to gag every time we passed by a particularly fresh corpse of green, rotting flesh covered in maggots. The dead beasts weren't strong, but the smell more than made up for their weakness.Plenty of bones were everywhere, making the place seem like a dug-up cemetery. Even I was slowly starting to feel sick from the smell alone. Then I remembered I didn't actually need to breathe anymore, and so I stopped.That made it slightly better. The movement still pushed the smell into my nose. Or came in through my mouth if I wanted to speak. It was the same for everyone, so we traveled mostly in silence.After a while, Gale gestured for us to split up so we could cover more ground. We spread in a line just inside each other's detection range and then traveled at a constant speed straight ahead.I was on the left, furthest from the group, but close enough to call for backup if anything happened. I was also just in the range of the other group of explorers who were finally calming down and paying attention to their surroundings.The area was quiet, incredibly so, with only distant birds chirping reaching our ears. I never imagined such a simple marshy environment would be so dead quiet. It was as if a monster was really hiding in the murky woods, under the surface of water.Everyone was stepping quietly, sometimes over water, other times over small earthly mounds and hills.The ground was uneven, soft, and just wanted to suck you in, into the watery grave. My senses were sharp and my mind was completely alert as my staff softly tapped against the solid golden surface I was walking on.I suddenly heard exclamations coming from my left, but those were just the young guys and gals celebrating as they found some good stuff. Some rare herbs or some such. I didn't really pay attention.They stopped at the food of a larger mound of dirt. I noticed there were many of those around, of all sizes. From small ones just poking out of the water to the big one tens of meters high.They were covered with rotting leaves and fallen branches so they had to have been there for a while already, even though they looked like they were freshly moved. I suspected some kind of burrowing creature made its home in the swamp, something like a large worm or something. Maybe a badger? But the place was quiet, no beasts anywhere."Hey, woah! Watch it!" I heard a shout and then a splash.I saw one of the Cultivators spitting out the rotten liquid and coughing as he was standing waist-deep in the swamp. Somehow he had fallen in. I chuckled and flew closer to get a better look. A few of his teammates were already laughing and pointing. What a great group of friends.But then I noticed one of the dirt mounds shifted. It was the one right beside them. It moved and then a head became visible, and long limbs rose from the water.The creature slowly moved its head around, blinking. Its face kind of reminded me of a sloth, though it was closer to a bear in size. But then it loudly yawned, and all the fun instantly left my mind. Its mouth was like that of a nightmare, with countless teeth and sharp protrusions with a tentacle-like tongue. The group around it didn't seem to notice as they all yawned. I yawned as well, the action being infectious, giving out the feeling that it transcended reality. They had awoken the beast from its slumber it seemed.It was kind of funny, actually.But then I heard a splash. Then another, then some more.The group around the giant sloth just fell down one after the other, their bodies splashing into the murky water. The closest guy fell forward, landing directly on the sloth. I watched wide-eyed as the creature lifted its paw, its curved claws like daggers, and pulled the guy closer. Its long claws pierced his chest and then it opened its mouth, biting down on his head, slowly.The bone cracked and popped, blood spraying out as if it just bit into an over-ripe fruit and not into a human skull. The sloth then chewed, slowly, meticulously, taking measured bites out of the fresh corpse.I just watched, still in shock at what I had just witnessed. Then a higher Realm Cultivator groaned and rose to his feet, with a clear wobble to his form. He rubbed his eyes and massaged his head before his gaze landed on the beast.For a moment their eyes locked, but then he noticed the blood of his teammate as well as his missing head. He screamed. First in alarm, but then with growing anger."You- You! You beast!" He roared and released his Aura, his actions waking up the others.A sword appeared in his hand and he lunged forward, aiming for the beast's heart. The blade struck without problems, sinking up to the pummel into the matted brown fur.The sloth took another bite, seemingly unbothered, chewed slowly, swallowed, and then yawned.The eyes of those who just awoke rolled back and they fell unconscious once more. The guy standing over the creature stumbled and it almost seemed like he was going down as well, but he resisted, pulling out the sword and taking a few steps back. The blade was clear. Not a drop of blood was on it.Forcing down the desire to yawn again, I moved. My feet struck the conjured platform and I jumped forward, pointing at the creature with my staff.[Aurocadaver!]Like a bullet, a flash of light shot from the gnarly wood, and the beast was blown back by an explosion. It rolled a few times and landed on its back further in the swamp. I finally got to see it in its entirety. Turned out most of its body was beneath the water as it slept, and what I thought was just a rotting pile of dirt was actually the back of a four-meter-tall sloth bear.The beast slowly turned around, looking annoyed, but not actually hurt. Where my magic hit, its fur was blown apart and burned, but that's when I realized all the filth mixed with hair gave it an incredibly thick natural armor.The other Cultivator managed to recover from the sleeping spell and became enraged. He roared and blasted the creature with some kind of beam from both his hands, but the sloth just scratched its neck where the attack hit it.Its long claws calmly moved up and down as it yawned again.[Aurocadaver!] I shouted and pointed my staff, playing my role of a wizard perfectly even in such a weird situation.Another blast hit it, that time in its face, and the sleep attack didn't fully activate. The rest of the group slowly awoke from the magic-induced slumber, realizing they were under attack. As they saw their teammate lying in the water, the top half of his body eaten and torn, a few of them shrieked in horror and the few weaker ones panicked. The others, those closer to the peak of Golden Core Realm, instead quickly realized what was happening and attacked the beast as one.Yeah, that was a bad move. The sound and all the magic flying around, trying to kill that one giant sloth, while appearing to be somewhat effective, was actually doing more harm than good.All those dirt mounds, or what I thought were dirt mounds, began to awaken. The loud sounds and flashes of magic disrupted their rest, and dozens of pissed-off sloths rose up, opening their mouths wide.What followed was a slaughter. People kept falling unconscious one after the other, and the beasts just slowly limbered closer, chewing on them like one would on a piece of bland jerky, calmly and with no emotion whatsoever.Some people managed to resist falling asleep with various relics that guarded their minds, but they became sluggish and their magic ineffective."Gerald! What is going on?!" I heard Gale shout and saw the guy rushing in our direction. The rest of his team weren't far behind.I just kind of shrugged and made an apologetic expression. It all happened so fast, there really wasn't much time to react or come up with a plan. In mere moments, half the adventuring group was already dead, the rest of them immobilized and not far behind."Watch out!" Astarion shouted, pointing at me. "Behind you!"I felt a presence looming over me, and then something bit down on my shoulder. I turned my head and saw it was one of the sloths, somehow managing to sneak up on me.[Piss off, big head.] I flicked the beast on the forehead with my finger and its head exploded into pink mist. The body stumbled back a bit and then collapsed, dead.[What are these things?]I shouted over the screams and fixed the crumpled collar of my robe. The bite didn't hurt me. Heck, I barely even felt it."Sleepers!" Gale shouted over his shoulder. He was already near the other group, ready to help. "Damn, I didn't think there would be so many of them! Don't let them yawn!"I ran behind him, joining the group and helping the unconscious Cultivators. I noticed each of them had a golden bracelet on their wrists, just like the four.[I thought these things would protect them?] I shouted as I blasted a sloth in the face and dragged an unconscious girl away from it."No! It's only for guardian beasts! The rest are wild animals, we can't control them!" Gale shouted back, his blade slicing through the group of creatures that tried to overpower them.[Oh…] I turned, my eyes landing on the giant earth hill which began to move. [Kind of like that one?]"What?" Gale turned and his eyes enlarged. The sword he was holding nearly slipped from his palm. "Oh, son of a-!"The rest of his words were cut off as the ground shook, and the small hill moved, releasing a low, rumbling yawn.