— Herdial expedition force —
[Steam tanks: 15] Mechanized vehicles with enough steel plating to withstand wyvern fire.
[Pit Crew: 200] shoveling coal, loading stores, cleaning the sand out of their tracks, everything to keep the tanks running.
[Infantry: 400] The normal guys armed with muskets
[Miners: 200] These guys will dig a way through the sandworm pass to the mine entrance.
The mouth of the wyvern peaks.
A ravine just wide enough for two steam tanks plus a little bit of leg room.
It bends and turns sharply, making it difficult for the wyverns to strafe the road.
The cliffs on either side rose higher than Carla's walls.
Hikari stands before the cliff side.
To her, a sandstorm brewed in a vast desert.
A good scaling point.
Uneven protrusions for her to anchor her boots on.
A vertical flat cliff side.
A pulley and a set of picks strapped onto her back.
Hikari bent her knees.
Her mana courses through her.
Small pieces of stone chatter on the ground around her.
She jumps.
A third of the way up the peak.
She uses telekinesis to cushion her descent.
Thud.
The shockwave brushes off loose stones.
The stone protrusion holds her weight.
She bends her knees and jumps.
Two-thirds of the way up.
Jump.
She appeared over the top.
The howling wind pushed her silver sideburns behind her shoulder.
She paused, looking into the distance.
Tall pillars over the ridgeline. As impressive as Moradale's spire.
Enshrouded in a thick fog.
Flocks of wyverns flying in and out of the fog.
They showed no sign of noticing her.
Hikari got to work.
She unpacked the pulley set.
Fastened it into the stone ground with picks.
She looked over the ledge.
A group of miners below was signaling to her.
She unfolded the platform.
The pulley system let them move supplies up and down the cliff.
They would construct a lookout post to warn the miners below.
She cranked the lever, hauling the first group of miners up onto the cliff.
They drilled holes around the pulley to secure it.
The second group showed up with telescopes and a bell.
They would ring the metal bell to alert the miners below of a wyvern attack.
The third group brought a steam core which would power the pulley.
They loaded it with coal to power the pulley, freeing up Hikari.
The fourth brought an improvised ballista and bolts for her.
The crude weapon had a low chance of actually hitting a strafing wyvern.
But it just has to dissuade it.
The platform came up.
Supplies. Tent cloth.
They were coated in anti-flame gel the merchant convoys used.
It wouldn't block a wyvern's breath at point-blank, but it was good enough to survive a strafing run.
Hikari found a cliff surface to set up a tent.
The miners did the same.
Stone is a sure defense against the wyvern flame.
She scooped up a pile of supplies and dropped them into her tent.
The steam core hummed as it pulled the platform up.
The miners were fixing armor plating to its side to protect it from wyvern flame.
The lookout post was just about done.
Hikari was getting ready to disassemble her armor for a rest.
Dried rations sat in her tent.
"Wyvern!"
The miners manning the telescope shouted.
The camp froze.
Hikari looked up.
Her bow in resting position.
A ballista bolt between her fingers.
The wyvern flies towards them.
A single youngling.
A musket line with acid-dipped muskets could take care of it.
Hikari draws and fires.
The wyvern startles as the ballista bolt whizzes past.
It changed course and flew toward Herdial.
The camp breathed a sigh of relief and returned to their posts.
Hikari stretches.
Half a morning of matching through the sandworm pass.
A dozen smaller sandworm kills.
A wyvern flies away, its tail between its claws.
That was her day.
She goes into her new tent for some rest.
…
"Ahem! Hikari, are you there?"
Hikari hears a voice outside her tent.
A man's voice that's half a pitch higher than normal.
She finishes the rest of her ration pack.
A leather pouch filled with dried grains, ivory berries, and 'other' stuff.
"Who are you?"
She leans forward and sticks her head out of her tent.
"Rey Hearthstone. I'm in charge around here."
He tilted his head back and looked upwards at the giant face.
Just the lips would cover his torso.
The ruby-red eyes were as large as his head.
Nonetheless, he seemed unfazed.
"Rey Hearthstone. You may call me Rey."
Rey pulled a wrapper from his pocket.
He felt the giantess lean toward him.
"Herdial chocolate. The cacao farm from which it is made is blessed with the spring water of the goddess of water, Herda herself."
Hikari leaned her face towards him.
Her nose hovered over him.
He could feel her breathe.
The giantess stuck out her tongue.
He hesitated.
That mouth was big enough to suck him like a lollipop.
He tossed the chocolate in.
The huge tongue rolled up and withdrew.
He could feel the jaw movements.
The ruby-red eyes closed for a moment as Hikari savored the taste.
Deep cacao flavor. It wasn't just oversweetened like the ones Ria bought from Moradale.
"I'm glad you liked it. Now, a word in private."
Hikari's gaze turned back to him.
"Come in."
The giant face disappeared into the tent.
Rey gulped and walked through the slit in the tent cloth.
A strong stench engulfed his nostrils.
The smell of sweat from a march through the sandworm pass filled the air.
He covered his nose with his hands.
The tent was dark.
Only the eerie glow of the giantess's ruby-red eyes stared down at him.
He lit his lantern and sat down.
He glanced to his left.
A pair of boot soles, each as big as his bed.
In front of him, a pair of giant socks that could hold his whole body.
He looks up.
The dim silhouette of a muscular giant woman.
A pair of titanic moons.
He swallows.
"Ahem! Good job on the sandworm titan. I really wasn't expecting a titan to appear. I would have been dead if it didn't happen to be you who was on the raid."
"Megaphone."
"Ah, you're right. I am one speaking through the megaphone. I thought I sounded quite different while speaking through the device."
Hikari leans towards him.
She studies him.
He was about the same build as Ria.
She could sense a hint of mana in him.
But it was weaker than even Ria's.
Rey sweated as the ruby-red eyes loomed over him.
"So-."
Before he could start his next sentence, the giantess moved.
He stood frozen in place.
She could easily crush him with a misstep.
Hikari leaned back against the stone surface at the back of the tent.
She stretched out her legs.
Rey stood still as two giant, thick-socked feet flanked him.
The smell was even stronger; he could barely breathe.
The pair of moons approached.
It stopped right in front of him.
Hikari touches her toes with her fingers.
She leans back against the wall.
She senses a slight tremor in Rey.
Her legs were withdrawn.
She crosses them in a meditating pose.
Rey was breathing heavily.
He tugs at his collar and wipes the sweat from his neck.
"Come closer."
Rey's legs moved on their own.
They trembled, but he could still walk.
"Closer."
He stopped about a meter away from the giantess's socks.
Lying horizontally, they were still taller than his kneecaps.
Hikari looms over him, looking down at him.
She sees his crotch armor.
A thick piece of wood.
Double rubber straps hidden under his shirt.
"You have good control."
"Well… yes… You do have a certain reputation. I want a normal conversation with you… so I have taken the necessary precautions."
It was a rather uncomfortable discussion.
The giantess lowered her hand in front of him.
A gentle flick of a fingernail against the crotch armor knocked him back.
"Hey!"
He complained as he struggled to maintain his balance.
Hikari observes.
The Herdial general still maintained his composure.
"Hmm…?"
"Hortifern. A suppressant commonly used by merchants to avoid being manipulated during negotiations. It's very common. Herdial is the potion's biggest exporter. I issued some to the man."
Rey couldn't see Hikari's amused expression in the dark.
Thud.
Thud.
Hikari flicks her fingernail at Rey's crotch armor.
Thud.
He falls backward onto the ground.
"Hey… stop that."
"You're good."
"Can we just get down to business now?"
Hikari keeps her hands behind her legs.
Hikari giggles.
The tiny general looked cute.
Rey sits upright.
He sets his lantern beside him.
"We'll be heading into the mine soon. I could use your strength. Who knows what kind of horrors are living there now?"
"Horrors?"
"Yes… The mine shaft isn't just for mining. It has long been a monster-hunting ground. The monster population would have regrown after the mine had been closed for so long."
"I hate caves."
"I figured that. I saw you fight that wyvern on the road here. But it happens to be something my house specializes in. I'll introduce you to my sister. She'll teach you the basics of sand bending."
"Sand bending?"
"It's not a hard mana form to manifest compared to the Razenheir form. We train hundreds of sand benders a year. Don't be fooled by the sand. We are most comfortable when fighting in the desert. But we can also bend certain types of stone as well. The stone in the Wyvern Peaks is one of them."
Hikari pauses.
She leans forward.
Her massive moons loom over Rey's head.
"Busy?"
"No, not really- uh… I mean yes! I am very busy. I need to oversee the construction of the forward base and- "
Rey backs off and falls backward.
His bottom hurts.
The ground sheet didn't cushion him much against the stone.
The moons follow, looming over him.
"I'll be gentle."
"No, wait! Hold on-"
…
Hikari marches towards the trading town.
A shelter at the mouth of the wyvern peaks had been built, letting her return to the RazenHeir camp for a break.
She was sick of the dried rations and was looking forward to her cauldron back at the RazenHeir camp.
No wyvern kills, sadly. Some wyvern meat would have been nice.
Her arrows scared them away before they could get close enough to kill.
She passed by a convoy of steam tanks.
They were fixing the road.
Shovels attached to the tank's front cleared out the sand.
A roller flattened the road.
Sand benders on either side were hardening the ground.
Infantry guarded them.
They pressed their hands into the sand.
A patch crystallizes into hardened stone, like the mountainous terrain of the Wyvern Peaks.
Novices that the Hearthstone house trains.
Their mana was too weak for her to learn anything from it.
She cleared the sandstorm.
The trading town was within sight.
Movements. She stopped and drew her throwing daggers.
They hovered around her, forming a blade barrier.
The sandworms lunged out of the sand.
Small ones that prey on individual soldiers.
Her presence had attracted the whole pack.
The repaired road was too tough for them to burrow through and attack her directly from below.
Her throwing daggers whirl around her, slicing through the baby sandworms no thicker than her thumb.
She senses more sandworms burrowing under the sand towards her.
An inner ring of whirling steel.
But something else was approaching. Something large.
A raging sandstorm approaches her at breakneck speed.
Hikari draws her sword.
A woman emerges from the sandstorm.
Tanned skin. Short hair.
Her skimpy clothing reveals her incredible physique.
Thud!
She slams onto the ground, kicking up a splash of sand.
Hikari could feel her incredible aura.
The sand around her swirls.
She releases a pulse of energy.
The sandworms below the ground turned their attention to her instead.
The whole pack was gathered right below her.
"Watch out."
The sandworms lunged out of the sand.
Their teeth bared.
The woman held her stance.
A burst of energy.
The sand beneath her suddenly hardened into stone, crushing the sandworms' bodies.
They drop harmlessly on the ground, squirming.
The woman gathers a cloud of sand around her and coalesces it into stone.
She crushes the remaining sandworms, slamming the stone down on them.
"Hrmp, nothing but small ones. She grumbled."
She turns to look at Hikari.
With a leap, she landed right in front of the knight clad in wyvern skin.
Hikari keeps her sword.
"Hikari of RazenHeir."
The woman circles her, visibly impressed by her physique.
"Sheela. Sheela Hearthstone. My brother said there's a giant who wants to learn sand bending from me. Ho, looks like he isn't lying. With those muscles, you'll make a fine sand bender yet"
She turns around.
"Come along now. We have no time to waste. You have only a few days to learn before he throws you into the caves with him. You don't want to be buried under the rock slides, do you?"
With a thrust of her legs, she leaps toward the town, skating along the sand as if it were a smooth sheet of ice.