CHAPTER 71: CHAPTER 71: THE WILDNESS OF THE MINDLESS MUTANTS

The Savage Isle appeared on their map as nothing more than a small dot surrounded by turbulent waters, but as their transport approached the landmass, it became clear that this was going to be one of their most challenging destinations yet. Unlike the previous regions they’d visited, which had been inhabited by intelligent beings they could negotiate with, this place looked utterly wild and hostile.

"Well, that’s not welcoming," Borin said from the pilot’s seat of their latest vessel—a sturdy craft designed to handle rough seas and hostile landing zones. "Look at those cliffs."

The island rose from the ocean like a fortress made of jagged black rock, its shores pounded by waves that seemed unusually violent even for open ocean. But what made the place truly intimidating was the constant movement visible across its surface—shapes darting between rock formations, shadows leaping from cliff to cliff, and the occasional glimpse of something large prowling through the sparse vegetation.

"I’m not sensing any civilized presence at all," Yulia observed, her elven senses scanning the island’s magical signatures. "No cities, no towns, not even primitive settlements. Just... wildness."

"And hunger," Titania added nervously, her fairy nature allowing her to sense the emotional resonance of living creatures. "Everything on that island is either hunting or being hunted."

Quendor circled overhead, his dragon sight providing aerial reconnaissance. "I see movement everywhere, but no signs of intelligence. Whatever lives there has gone completely feral."

"The fragment’s influence," Naia whispered in Evon’s mind. "I can feel it from here. It’s... twisted."

Through his connection to Yena’s other pieces, Evon could sense the fifth fragment somewhere in the island’s interior. But unlike the previous pieces, which had felt confused or corrupted, this one radiated something closer to madness.

"What happened here?" he asked the Arbiter through their communication device.

The golden-eyed mediator’s voice came through with unusual grimness. "This island was once home to a peaceful research colony—scholars studying marine biology and ocean currents. When the fragment landed here, it tried to heal what it perceived as damage to the local ecosystem."

"What kind of damage?" Yulia asked.

"There wasn’t any," the Arbiter replied. "The island’s ecosystem was already balanced and healthy. But Yena’s fragment couldn’t understand that. In its confusion, it began to ’heal’ things that didn’t need healing, ’purify’ creatures that were already pure. The result was..."

As if to illustrate his point, something roared from the island’s interior—a sound that made everyone on the transport wince. It wasn’t the roar of any natural creature, but something that had been changed into something else entirely.

"Mutations," Evon said grimly.

"Exactly. Every living thing on that island has been ’improved’ beyond recognition. They’re stronger, faster, more aggressive, but they’ve lost everything that made them what they originally were."

Finding a safe place to land proved impossible. The island’s shoreline was either sheer cliff faces or rocky beaches prowled by creatures that looked like they’d been designed by a madman with a grudge against the natural order.

"There," Quendor called down, indicating a narrow inlet that offered some protection from both the waves and the visible predators. "It’s not perfect, but it’s the best we’re going to get."

As their transport settled onto the black sand beach, Evon could immediately feel the wrongness in the air. The island’s very atmosphere seemed charged with chaotic energy, and every plant they could see had grown into twisted, aggressive forms that looked more like weapons than vegetation.

"Stay together," he said, drawing the Blade of Fate as they disembarked. "And don’t touch anything that looks like it might be alive. Which, from what I can see, is everything."

The first attack came before they’d taken ten steps inland. What had once been a seagull—though it was now the size of a small dragon, with talons like daggers and a beak that glowed with its own inner fire—dove out of the sky with a shriek that made their ears ring.

Evon’s sword met the creature in mid-air, Lyria’s flames crackling along the blade’s edge. The mutated bird’s momentum carried it past him, but not before his strike opened a long gash along its flank. Instead of retreating, the creature wheeled around immediately for another attack, apparently feeling no pain from its injury.

"They don’t feel pain anymore," Yulia observed, putting an arrow through the wing of a second bird-thing that had joined the attack. The creature kept flying despite having its wing nearly severed, held aloft by pure aggressive instinct rather than aerodynamics.

More creatures emerged from the rocky terrain—things that might once have been crabs, but had grown to the size of horses and developed shell patterns that looked like natural armor plating. Their claws clicked against the rocks as they scuttled toward the intruders with single-minded purpose.

"This is going to be a long day," Borin muttered, hefting his war hammer as one of the crab-things charged straight at him.

What followed was unlike any of their previous battles. In the Prism Sands, they’d fought with art-loving elementals who valued beauty. In the Floating Gardens, they’d dealt with peaceful plant-folk who just wanted their ecosystem balanced. Even in the Pyrofall Ruins, the creatures had fought according to some kind of natural order or hierarchy.

Here, there was nothing but savage, mindless aggression.

Creatures that had once been rabbits now moved in packs like wolves, their teeth grown into fangs and their hind legs adapted for leaping attacks. Something that might have been a deer bounded through the rocky terrain, but its antlers had become weapons of living bone that could extend and retract at will.

"How are we supposed to get through this?" Titania asked, having made herself as small as possible to avoid attracting attention from the flying predators that seemed to hunt anything that moved.

"We don’t stop moving," Evon replied, cutting his way through a tangle of what had once been flowering vines but were now more like aggressive tentacles with thorns. "The fragment is inland, probably near the center of the island. We push through whatever gets in our way."

Quendor took point, his dragon strength allowing him to bulldoze through the worst of the terrain while his fire-breath cleared paths through the most aggressive vegetation. But even his draconic constitution was being tested by the sheer relentless nature of the attacks.

"These things don’t retreat," he observed, batting away something that looked like a cross between a bat and a porcupine. "They just keep coming until they’re dead."

"The fragment’s influence," Naia explained through their bond. "It’s trying to make everything ’pure’ and ’perfect,’ but its understanding is corrupted. It thinks pure aggression equals perfect survival."

They fought their way inland through terrain that seemed designed to test every skill they possessed. Yulia’s arrows found their marks consistently, but the creatures they struck kept fighting until they physically couldn’t continue. Borin’s hammer strikes that should have been instantly lethal merely slowed their attackers down. Even Quendor’s dragon-fire seemed less effective than usual, as if the mutations had made the creatures more resistant to elemental damage.

As they pushed deeper into the island’s interior, the creatures they encountered became increasingly dangerous. What had once been the island’s natural predators had been transformed into living nightmares.

A pack of wolves—if they could still be called that—emerged from a grove of twisted trees. Each one was the size of a small horse, with fur that looked like it was made of living shadow and eyes that glowed with unnatural intelligence. But it was their coordination that made them truly terrifying. They moved like a single organism, anticipating each other’s actions and working together with a precision that was completely inhuman.

"Those aren’t animals anymore," Yulia said, nocking three arrows simultaneously. "They’re something else."

The pack leader, larger than the others and bearing scars that suggested it had fought and won battles against even larger creatures, studied them with those glowing eyes before letting out a howl that was answered from multiple directions around the island.

"It’s calling for backup," Evon realized.

The battle that followed was their most desperate yet. The wolf-things fought with a combination of animal instinct and tactical intelligence that made them incredibly dangerous opponents. They used the terrain to their advantage, coordinated flanking maneuvers, and seemed to learn from each exchange, adapting their tactics in real-time.

Evon found himself relying more heavily on his goddess-enhanced abilities than he had since the battle with the Corrupted God. Naia’s water techniques allowed him to predict the pack’s movement patterns through the subtle vibrations in the ground. Lyria’s fire gave his blade the power to cut through their shadow-fur armor. Veyra’s technological integration helped him analyze their coordination patterns and disrupt their communications. And Sythara’s draconic reflexes kept him alive as claws and fangs came at him from multiple directions.

But it was the appearance of the island’s apex predator that really tested them.

The creature that emerged from the forest was something that defied classification. It moved on six legs like a massive cat, but its body was covered in scales like a reptile. Its head bore features from multiple different animals—the eyes of a bird of prey, the jaws of a crocodile, the ears of a wolf. Wings that looked like they belonged on a pterodactyl spread from its shoulders, though they seemed too small to actually lift its bulk.

"What the hell is that thing?" Borin asked, raising his hammer defensively.

"I think it used to be several different things," Yulia replied, her elven sight allowing her to see the chaotic magical energies swirling around the creature. "The fragment has been... combining creatures."

The chimera-thing let out a roar that incorporated sounds from every creature it had once been, then charged with a speed that belied its size. Its attack patterns were completely unpredictable because it was literally using the fighting instincts of multiple different species simultaneously.

Fighting it was like battling a living chaos storm. Every time they thought they understood its attack pattern, it would shift to a completely different set of instincts and catch them off guard.

But gradually, they began to gain the upper hand. The creature’s very unpredictability became a weakness as its multiple sets of instincts began to conflict with each other. It would start a pouncing attack like a cat, then try to shift to a charging attack like a bull, resulting in awkward movements that left it vulnerable.

When Evon finally landed the killing blow, driving the Blade of Fate deep into the creature’s chest where all its various hearts seemed to be located, it almost seemed relieved. As it collapsed, its form seemed to separate slightly, as if the various creatures that had been forced together were finally allowed to rest.

"The fragment is close," Evon said, feeling Yena’s presence like a burning wound in the island’s heart. "Just ahead."

As they prepared to face whatever guarded the fifth fragment, Evon couldn’t help but wonder what they would find. If the fragment had done this to an entire island’s ecosystem, what had it done to itself?

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