The field on the open plain was riddled with pockmarks. To Noble's left and right, there were deep canyons in the distance, but the space in between was full of dark, black spots.
Holes.
Noble had come across a sight like this once before. While she couldn't sense all of them, she could make out the shapes of the ones closest to the surface with her second sight.
Their long, pointed front teeth, patchy, matted brown fur, and unblinking red eyes were not easy to forget.
'Burrowers…'
Noble hovered above the field for a moment, doing some rough calculations in her head.
'They must not have caught my scent just yet.'
Child of Promise was still debating whether to wait or make the first move when a whiskered nose popped out of a nearby hole and sniffed tentatively at the air.
Noble smiled. The creature looked harmless as the nose twitched, searching for something.
Searching for her.
Catching her scent, it froze. A loud squeak echoed through the cavernous tunnels below the ground.
The earth rumbled in response.
Just then, the hole where the nose had appeared seemed to boil with activity. Dozens and dozens of creatures with torsos the size of a shoebox poured out of the ground onto the pockmarked field.
Their front teeth clacked against each other as they squealed across the plain. Noble smirked.
"It's nice to meet you too."
Hearing her voice whipped the burrowers into a frenzy.
Noble was relatively sure they were blind or, at the very least, that their eyesight was not as good as hers.
Before, they had been sniffing along the ground, but now all of their heads turned simultaneously upward. Their chorus of indignation sent a sonic wave toward her. The sheet noise would have been able to rip through a mundane human, or at the very least burst their eardrums.
For Noble, it was little more than a mild annoyance.
"If you weren't so evil, you might make cute pets… individually, of course."
Creatures like these were the most dangerous in groups. While one or two could be handled by a Sleeper or a very careful and well-armed mundane, the sheer number of them became an overwhelming force even for many Awakened.
'It's a good thing I'm a Saint then…' Noble shook her head.
She had become aware of the problem due to one of the recent caravans that had made it through. The group had been fortunate that the road was located on the opposite side of the western canyon and that none of the creatures had been able to leap across. Those that had tried had met an end much like the ancient lemmings, hitting the ravine with a bone-crunching crash.
'Seems that there are still plenty left behind.' Noble clicked her tongue.
Below, the initial hole became clogged with too many occupants, and the tunnels nearby began to disgorge the burrowers with tremendous force.
'There are more than I was expecting.'
Noble noted that this colony was nearly twice as large as the one she had encountered before. What had made this group so prolific?
'Are they the cause of the missing merchants?'
Noble doubted it. No roads snaked through the space between the canyons.
'If they are, then the problem will be dealt with, at least.'
Below, the creatures began piling on top of each other in a desperate effort to reach the uncorrupted being.
Now that they had been able to locate the woman, their bloodlust only grew.
"You want some of this?" Noble arched her brow. "Be careful what you wish for…"
Sparks appeared in her hand and on either side of her as the Ruby Tear and her two Echoes appeared.
She had considered using the Zenith for this task, but she didn't want the creatures to retain any trace of poison that the sword could produce. The beautiful sword shone brightly in the afternoon sun.
Beside her, Helios shook his golden mane and stretched his muscles as his claws raked through the air. Noble reached out and patted his head.
"Good boy."
On the other side, Nectar buzzed softly before spinning around Noble's head. The woman chuckled.
"I know it's been too long. It's not because I don't care, I assure you. Quite the opposite!" Noble felt the fuzzy Soul Bloom nuzzle her cheek.
She had been sheltering the Soul Bloom not only because the Aspect Legacy had been earned during her last Nightmare, but because it was linked to her soul.
The delicate bee was deceptively robust, but if anything happened to it or destroyed it, Noble was pretty certain it would harm her soul far beyond the loss, perhaps even cause her core to collapse entirely.
That was something she didn't want to find out for certain.
Noble removed her hand from Leo's head and held out her finger for Nectar to land.
"I have a special job for you today. Watch my back and make sure things go as planned. Got it?"
The little creature bobbed up and down, nodding with her whole body. She would stay out of reach of the mammalian beasts, and her ability to fly on her own without Noble's guidance was an added advantage.
She turned to Helios. "You know the drill. Kill, but don't shred. We need those little boogers as intact as possible."
Helios purred softly as he lifted his paws. His claws extended to razor-sharp tips. Those were certainly not weapons that Noble would ever want to come up against.
Thankfully, Leo's target today was not her.
Below them, the burrowers had reached critical mass. The plain was filled with the dirty brown creatures as they crawled over each other in an attempt to grab the highest ground and reach their prize.
Noble clicked her tongue. "Tsk, I know another monster that can do that much better than that. They might as well quit while they are behind, oughtn't they?"
There was no good reason for Child of Promise to be speaking to her companions aloud, or at all.
They could react to her commands before she had fully formed them, so verbal communication was not only unnecessary, but also a little silly.
However, Noble considered Nectar and Helios more than just extensions of her ability or assets to be managed; she thought of them as companions and fellow combatants.
More than that, she wanted to talk to them. It helped her to focus, and it felt nice to see them react, even if their reactions were because they belonged to her.
'Who am I kidding? Those two have minds of their own.'
Both had defied her desires in some shape or form, or at the very least had not listened to a direct command.
But today, they were all in one accord. The mass of Nightmate creatures needed to be ended, and they were the ones to do it.
Noble's smile grew wider as she felt her muscles tense.
"You ready?" She asked Helios.
The flying Symncus snorted in response. As if he could ever be caught unaware!
Noble nodded. She shouldn't have been surprised. Gripping her sword, she aimed it at the colony of creatures below.
"Alright then. Let's have some fun!"