Chapter Fifteen

Daphne

“Firebird Swarm!”

Her throat was hoarse, but thanks to the Summoner’s Staff Will had gifted her, Daphne’s Mana reserves still bubbled along perfectly fine. Above her, Phineas and the dozen duplicates that her Spell formed soared in V-formation towards their target.

To her left was a man who went by Gunny, a Battlemage sending spears of light into the air at a blistering pace, not even waiting to see where the last landed before another formed in his hands and jetted into the sky. From their position on the hill, Daphne had a perfect view of the village below and the battlefield that popped and flashed with bursts of colour under their bombardment. She watched as the her firebirds each picked out one of the enemy fighters and divebombed them, seeing Gunny’s spears thud into the dirt and occasionally straight through an armoured torso.

The gates had already been breached, and their forces had pushed through into the village itself. Things were, on the surface, going according to the Plan that Will and his generals had crafted for them. She’d come out of their portal onto the hilltop, co-ordinated the bombardment Squad to mass fire, and their frontline forces had charged in under the cover of their Spells just as planned.

Another burst of Mana sent more firebirds out, pairing them with a small cluster of lightning hares that zapped through the grass underfoot to head off a rogue-type who’d managed to weave through the fighting towards them.

There’s more of them than we expected here. Daphne

They might have been a good distance from one another, but all of the Chancers were still in range of the Party Chat, and so it only took a few seconds before they replied to her hasty message. It was against Will’s instructions, their leader having argued that outside of emergency calls it could serve to distract them at crucial moments. Still, she couldn’t shake the feeling that they were facing greater resistance than anyone had expected, and the worry that came with it. The left side of her torso twinged with the ghost of pain, right where the huge ice stalactite had pierced her body not too long ago, and the memory was enough to make her risk the telling-off and warn her Party.

She’s right, we’re in the village and there’s at least double the fighters we expected. Unk

We have noticed the same. Okembe

Some of the people I’ve healed say the same. Met

We’ll worry about the information failure once the fights done, but here too. Keep sharp. Will

Not the most useful of information, though she did feel vindicated in sending the original message by the fact the others agreed. They were aware, prepared, and even with the greater numbers the loose alliance of bandit Climbers simply couldn’t hold up against the arrayed forces of Towerfall. Hearing her Uncle’s voice also went a way to calming her nerves, since she had long since lost the ability to track his movements among the fray.

“In the thick of things, East! Our boys are being ambushed!”

Gunny’s voice cut through the sound of Spellcasting and rang in her head like a bell, so she snapped her vision towards where he’d pointed and activated the Farseer Glasses [E] for their final charge of the day. Waiting for the recharge would be annoying, but Towerfall’s Quartermaster had equipped the ranged Squad leaders with them for this exact reason, so she didn’t worry about that.

Zooming in, she observed more than the ant-like clusters of fighters visible to the naked eye, and could pick out the individual members of their forces being overwhelmed by a dozen obvious Barbarians that had burst from a shack to sweep the road. There were just four in Towerfall’s colours, though she didn’t recognise any of them beyond having seen their faces among the Squads for this village. Two wore heavy plate, while the other pair were both more lightly armoured and wielding spears.

Gunny’s light spears started falling near the clash, but with her extended vision she could tell that he was only able to fire in the general direction. Frankly, she wasn’t even sure how he’d managed to notice the ambush in the first place given how far from their hill it was taking place.

“Snipers! We need you on target!”

Seeing Gunny miss spurred her into action, and she stopped just passively observing the fight to do her job as Squad leader. Loudly, she narrated what she was seeing, and began calling out directions to the various members of the Squad that had a good enough range to impact the battle.

The two armoured figures were both clearly Bulwarks, she realised, as a cleaving blow from one of the Barbarian’s axes was dealt to a spearman and transferred immediately to the larger of the two tanks – the man’s chestplate cracking under the force of the blow, his mouth twisting in a shout that she was far too distant to actually hear.

“About four feet to the right Marissa!”

The woman called agreement, stepping forward for another shot and channelling her Spell. A surging, writhing mass of red and purple energy began to swirl around her body in accelerating circles before launching itself out with a crack of power. This time, it landed perfectly on target in between three of the Barbarians and detonated the cobble floor beneath them. The men were launched backwards, and Daphne turned her gaze back to where both spearmen were twirling and whirring about in a way that reminded her of Will.

Thanks to the massed fire she’d directed, the Barbarians had been cut down to even numbers with the Towerfall fighters, though all eight of the still-standing combatants were moving with the sluggishness of injury and fatigue. Two of Gunny’s spears drove themselves into the chest and neck of one Barbarian, blood spouting from the wounds in a very distressing way, but Daphne held her nerve. She’d signed up for this, time and again. They were the bad guys here, and even though they’d been instructed not to aim for lethal blows, Gunny’s power wasn’t well suited for anything but.

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We’ve got their leader. Unk

A cheer sounded around her, but she shouted it down and continued calling orders. The ambush they were intervening in had ceased, the Towerfall members bundling the living Barbarians into a pile and beginning to retreat. Her Farseer Glasses fizzled out just as Unk’s voice came through, and she quickly shook her head to adjust her vision back to normal. The fight below was still ongoing, though she could see a lot more Towerfall uniforms compared to the random mix-and-match gear of their foes. Getting the group’s leader, or at least what passed for one with this group of hooligans, was their goal but it didn’t make the others all surrender spontaneously.

It ended up taking another half-hour of intermittent fighting before the village had been cleared. Too many of the enemies had managed to exit the Tower or otherwise slip away in the chaos, but they had just under thirty bound up and waiting to be questioned including the huge ugly man that claimed authority over the forces here. Okembe had also reported that his targeted village was conquered, and they’d had a messenger from Orion at the fourth. Will’s group were still fighting, and only the man’s direct orders stopped Daphne from trying to run there. They didn’t have the teleporters to spare, and her Squad were spent. She still had some Mana left, but the last stage of the fighting had been particularly draining and if she was being honest, she didn’t know how much she’d have actually helped the main force if she did go. Instead, she joined the rest of the group in beginning the slow, painful march towards the forward camp where Metrodora and the other healers waited. Their progress was slowed further by the wagons they were dragging full of injured and bound bandits, plus the small contingent of local Denizens who’d wanted to come with them to meet Irikaz and thank him for sending aid.

Unk

There’s more of them than we expected here. Daphne

She’s right, we’re in the village and there’s at least double the fighters we expected. Unk

Hearing Metrodora’s voice saying what he himself had been thinking was a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it comforted him to recognise both hat his intuition had been correct and that his niece was paying full attention to the fight. On the other, as he felt yet another phantom arrow slam into his back through his Bulwark link, it had been something of a distraction. He turned, throwing a Shield Bash that knocked two attackers flat on their backs for the rest of his Squad to deal with, and called his forces forwards.

He’d tried to learn the names of each and every person who Will’s administrators had assigned him, as well as their core abilities. With twenty men and women to keep track of, though, he was forced to rely more on their visible gear and fighting style to identify them as they carved a swathe through the bandit Climbers towards the building they knew would hold the leader.

Two Barbarians, both barely clad in more than rags and wielding brutish looking greatswords he wagered he’d have trouble swinging even with his Strength being what it was, cut through the tail and claws of the huge summoned scorpion that had waylaid their progress, and he yelled encouragement as they began shifting it out of the way so the rest of the group could pass. He couldn’t see where the Summoner had gone, and was trying not to waste mental energy wondering how the man had acquired such a powerful Spell in the first place.

He saw the archer who’d been peppering them for the last minute or two squatted on a roof up ahead, but without even needing to point him out, a spear launched from the hand of Markus (one of the members of his Squad whose name he needed no reminder of, thanks to the man’s unique Human Cannon [D] Skill and the asset it had represented during their fights so far) drove deeply into the archer’s shoulder and sent him tumbling to the ground – hard. Unk called out, and one of the faster members of the group – Kate? Kathy? Kara? Something like that – sprinted towards the fallen archer to stabilise him and bind his hands as they’d been instructed.

The fights continued in the same vein, Unk starting to run low on health potions as he took a full third of the damage aimed at his entire Squad. They made steady progress as the vanguard, arriving before the hastily fortified Mayor’s Office and charging forwards. An equal number of opponents surged to meet them, and battle became thick in the air around Unk.

His Bulwark abilities were working overtime immediately. Clearly, whoever had been put in charge of this village by their foes had kept his best fighters back for personal defence. Not unexpected, but he could feel through the Soul Link that multiple members of his Squad were taking injuries that they wouldn’t have if not for the bloody conflict that it took to get this far. Still, he reflected, smashing his mace into the knee of an onrushing swordsman and stepping over him to dive in front of a fireball being shot at Markus. It splashed off his shield, and he heard the Austrian man yell thanks, but didn’t take the time to reply. He could see another pair of fighters in Towerfall colours, not even members of his Squad but another that had come to reinforce their assault, being ganged up on by bandits – and that meant he had more work to do.

By the time Unk was able to actually set foot inside the Mayor’s Office building, he could feel blood and sweat sticking to the leather underlayer of his plate armour and making every single movement slightly painful from the ripping sensation. He used his last available charge of Bulwark’s Might to send the final defenders back and let his forces pile in to bind them, continuing to sprint for the room he hoped still held their target. If the man was smart, he’d have left the Tower, but Will had promised that during an active conflict like this the time to exit would be extended by the Tower itself and that meant that just a touch of arrogance or optimism from the bandit leader would be enough to keep him in place till Unk arrived.

He heard a scream from the girl whose name began with ‘K’ and turned his head, mouth falling open in shock and anger at the sight of a masked Assassin slipping back into shadows with her blood dripping from his knives. He wasn’t the Bulwark responsible for her, that burden had been shared with the other members of the Squad that had the Class, and he made a mental note to shout at whichever idiot had dropped the link before the fight was complete. Still thinking in a somewhat detached fashion, he let the other members of his group make the final push for the leader while he darted over to the girl’s fallen form and pulled his last health potion from his Spatial Bag.

Luckily, though the Assassin’s daggers had found purchase between the gaps in her leather armour, she clearly had a decent Endurance Stat and was still breathing in halted gurgles. He managed to lift her head and force the potion down, his head swivelling side to side in case the dagger wielding bandit returned for more. He called out a warning to the backs of his Squad, looking back towards the girl and sighing in relief as her wounds started to knit together.

“Boss!”

He left her on the floor, reluctantly, striding over to the source of the call. He disliked being called Boss even more than Will seemed to, but he was the leader of this Squad and that meant accepting it. Now that the fighting had stopped, an eerie quiet hovered in the large building, though it was not total silence thanks to soft groans and muttered curses from their downed opponents. Members of the Squad busied themselves with moving through the rooms binding and stabilising, helping both Towerfall members and enemy bandits avoid death, as Unk stepped up to where a man with a face like ruined Mr Potato Head knelt.

The ugly man had countless rings and jewellery on his body, along with gear that was clearly beyond his Stats. It lined up exactly with the sort of person Unk had expected to find among these bastards. Though not the primary focus, he hadn’t failed to notice the signs of native Denizens being killed and brutalised en-masse throughout the village. Before he could even find the words to say to someone who’d oversee such behaviour, the bandit leader spat blood from split lips and it splashed on Unk’s chestplate.

He saw the struggling form of the Assassin who’d hurt his teammate bound a few steps away, and drew satisfaction from that to calm his anger. Instead of his first idea, which was to deliver a backhand with his armoured gauntlet directly to the bandit leader’s head, he just clapped his hand heavily onto the figure’s shoulder. Breathing deeply, he channelled Will and let his next words come out with a tone of icy finality.

“You’ll lose that cockiness soon. I promise.”

As the man shuddered and started to bluster in response, he turned away to look at the prone form of the injured girl. Her chest rose and fell more steadily now, and another of his men had knelt at her side to continue administering first aid. When Unk checked his link quickly, he let a small smile creep onto his face. Not one of the people he’d personally tanked for had died, even if the adrenaline wearing off had already started to make their wounds on Unk’s body start screaming. He looked forward to a rest, but before that he had to let the others know.

We’ve got their leader. Unk