Morning light awoke the group. Illaria was first up and made a point of raising Alvec to consciousness first. “Go take a look at the Red Banner encampment. I’ll rouse the rest of them.” Illaria said. Alvec made his way to the side of the boat to see what all the fuss was about. The active duty Red Banner army members were mostly awake. Being up early was not uncommon for them.
In the light of early dawn, it was easy to see why Illaria had asked him to take a look. Stretched out in front of them was the splendid city of Ac-Aziza, with its sea-brine white walls. The more striking thing was the absolute field full of Red Banner Army set up outside of the city. As far as the eye could see, there were tents all waving the red banner. The breath caught in his lungs; this wasn’t just an operation... this was a war. This was likely most of what the Red Banner Army could commit to a single location.
Illaria swept up beside him and leaned over the ropes a bit gazing at shoreline. “Do I be right, thinking that this be all of them?” She asked.
Alvec stammered in response for a moment. “I guess,” He finally choked out. Illaria frowned.
“Can’t be a good thing can it?” She asked. Alvec merely shook his head no.
As the boat got closer, he could see that people were sketching in summoning circles. Earth elementals were being called up on top of the forces they already had.
Oh no.
Fuck.
Alvec raised his hands over his mouth in a cone and amplified his voice. “STOP, YOU’RE TOO CLOSE TO THE RIVER STOP!” Summoning circles used precise language, language that interacted with its environment. They were explicitly designed for a single domain, so an earth elemental summoning circle so close to the water was a bad thing. It could have wildly unpredictable consequences. Hopefully, the man had heard him.
He looked up towards the boat, but it was too late; the last rune had been etched in place. Power flowed through it. “To ARMS!” Alvec shouted behind him towards Illaria and the rest of the group as he hastily called up his arcane armor around himself. Rising from the summoning circle were not earth elementals but mud elementals. Denizens which live on the bleeding edge of the planes of water and earth. There was nothing in the magical writing to control them, and as such, they immediately lashed out. His shout may have allowed his allies to get ready, but it also drew their attention towards the ship. The largest one gathered up a globe of itself and launched it at the boat. The blob of mud slammed into the ship, rocking it wildly. Worse, Alvec had heard the splintering of wood breaking from the impact. It was subtle now, but he could feel it; they were starting to take on water. There were a lot of men on here who likely couldn't swim and to whom the current of the river would be extremely deadly. Ice wall could perhaps solve that issue; maybe they could float the boat over to the shore.
For the moment, though, they first needed to neutralize the threat. He dashed back towards his allies, who he was thankful to see were all standing and ready to fight. He cast once more, accelerating them all with magic. Illaria hopped onto the railing, crouched on top of it for but a second, and launched herself as far out from the boat as she could. With the added speed and a little extra panache, she quickly cleared the deep water. She continued her dash toward the mud elementals. She made it to them before anyone in the Red Banner could even consider moving. Her blade flashed out of its sheath, and she was ready to give worse than she got.
Naya followed suit, with Echo rushing behind her. The boat shook slightly as he raced across the deck, men diving left and right to get out of his way. The two leaped off the edge of the boat. Echo went first, enlarging as he soared through the air. Naya went next, not even bothering to attempt to clear the water as Illaria had, but instead jumped onto Echo’s back and, from his back now a few feet further, continued her own jump. Another chunk of mud slammed the boat, knocking Mavec and Sarbie off their feet. Bait and Alvec managed to stay upright. Alvec wrapped his tail to the rope and braced himself with his hands. Bait simply rolled with the jostling of the boat. The boat tipped further. If something wasn’t done soon, there would be a lot of unnecessary deaths. Mavec slid towards the open, lightly netted side of the boat and managed to slam both feet onto the posts and pulled himself back upright, leaning against the rope and clutching it with one hand, he cast with the other, sending a bolt of lightning over the water into one of the mud elementals. The mud sizzled and hardened where the bolt struck, and the creature moved more rigidly. “Just a reminder, these things aren’t immune to electricity, right?” He asked Alvec.
“Just don’t use acid, and we should be fine.” He replied.
Sarbie wasn’t as lucky as Mavec; she slipped between the rope plunging into the river. She took a sharp breath in right before she slipped beneath the river's surface. The current swept her under, dragging her along the bottom. She tried to right herself, but the current was too strong. Ahead of her, a large mouth full of sharp teeth plunged beneath the water's surface. The wolf, with its large amber eyes, spotted her and snapped its jaws around her as gently as it could manage but firmly enough that she wouldn’t be swept any further downriver. As she was plucked from the river, she watched as a hail of gunfire puckered into the creatures, spewing goblets of mud on the ground behind them. One of the creatures lashed out at Illaria, who, with a flash of golden-red steel, sliced its arm clean off from it. Who the hell thought she was a good match for this group? They were all amazing. Meanwhile, she was swept off the boat, bad.
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Illaria followed up her parry with a quick repost and then launched into a series of swings herself. She struck the creature three times in rapid succession. The creature’s severed arm oozed back into itself, but the damage she had done to it was significant. As they became wounded, they were shrinking, quickly losing the threat their large size gave them. Before long, they’d be nothing more than annoyances, if that. Naya joined her moments later, laying into the nearest one with wild abandon. The creatures were simply too big to dodge out of the way, and her whirlwind of steel had no problem finding its mark.
Alvec let out a sigh of relief as he saw Sarbie plucked from the water by Echo. He’d been ready to summon the dolphin, but since she was safe, it was time for him to do something different. This boat was going down, and the men around him were beginning to panic. As he had suspected, very few of them knew how to swim, and worse, many of them were in armor. Some were starting to strip out of it as fast as they could. The fear that it would weigh them down and drag them to a watery death wasn’t unfounded, but perhaps the ship could still be saved. He took a deep breath. He began to sketch the arcane runes in front of him.
An ice wall crept over the multiple holes in the hull, and with the added buoyancy from the ice, the boat began to stabilize. For now, they were safe, but it might not be long before he was left trying to float the entire ship. He still had another casting of ice wall left, and if it took too much more damage, he’d need it to help the boat limp along. Hopefully, the rest of the team could handle it. Based on how Naya and Illaria were doing, there was no need to panic. He scoffed at the thought.
Bait and Mavec again rained down spells from afar; a ray of heat baked one of their chests before bullets slammed into it, shattering vast sections of it. Echo let Sarbie down in the shallowest part of the river and dashed forward, biting the one Naya was fighting. More gunfire erupted from the boat. Musketeers joined in with Bait in pelting the elementals with lead. It was only a few more moments before the fight came to a swift end. The boat still wasn’t in the best of positions; it had taken on a lot of water, and Alvec’s fix was temporary and not holding well enough.
“Naya, have Echo tug us to shore. I’m going to float us as best I can.” Alvec shouted as he formed another ice wall, this time at the front of the boat. Echo darted around the ship to the other side and slammed himself into it, forcing the boat over to one side of the river; with a mighty heave, he pushed it up onto the river bank. The Red Banners and Blue Banners on board hopped off onto the solid ground and began to help pull it up while Echo gave it a further push. The damage was pretty bad for only having been hit twice. These boats were meant for transport and not actual live combat.
As soon as they were all safely gathered. Alvec pointed to Mavec and the summoning circle and started walking to it.
“Who in the nine hells green-lit this?” Alvec asked, producing his bronze badge that identified him as a classically trained wizard of the Empire. As he stormed up onto the summoning circle.
The Red Bannerman standing at the circle was taken aback. “Orders were to create 12 summoning circles for earth elementals. We did just that.”
“Look at the circle. Do you see the problem here? Or do I need to give a damn lecture on summoning to you?”Alvec asked.
“There's nothing wrong with it; it's an earth elemental summon circle; this isn’t anything advanced.”
“Tell that to me again, sir; this circle nearly killed an entire transport of Red Banner Army soldiers,” Alvec said as he pointed to the circle. “I’ll ask again: do you see the problem.”
“Alvec, Alvec, this guy's not getting it. So I’ll just answer your question. It's too damn close to the river. Caused the spell to fail to summon earth elementals, and instead summoned mud elementals, who weren’t bound by the arcane constraints which make summoning an elemental safe to begin with.”
“Thank you, Mavec, now again. I asked who approved of this? My friends nearly drowned over this, so I want to know whose fault this is.” Alvec stated.
“Captain Tyir of the Third Arcane Regiment authorized it, but he didn’t personally oversee it. I’ll have to confirm where he wants a new circle set up.”
Alvec’s tail went stiff, and he made eye contact with Mavec. This was the first time they had even heard someone bearing the same name they had been searching for for months. They needed to know if this was THE Tyir.
“We’ll be going with you to get a better understanding of what happened. We’d like to speak with Captain Tyir immediately,” Alvec insisted.
“That won’t be necessary,” the man said, waving away the idea.
“Oh, I think it's quite necessary. Someone must take responsibility for nearly drowning a whole regiment of Red Banners and ourselves.”
“And who exactly are you anyway?”
“We’re the Sarosa-blessed Cheese Acolytes, and we’re here as part of the Blue Banner Army's Coffin Flotilla,” Mavec replied. “And more importantly, we just saved that ship from your incompetence. So we’ll see this through, thank you very much.”
The man let out a hefty sigh. “Nothing I say will convince you otherwise, will it?”
“Not even slightly, sir,” Mavec replied.
“Alright, follow me to see the captain.” He said before escorting them to a tent far from the river. The man walked to a tent where a Tiefling with dark curly hair and ram's horns wearing the Red Banner colors and light armor stood. “Captain Tyir, we have visitors from the Blue Banner who would like to speak to you regarding an incident that just took place."
“Alvec, why does it feel like I’m looking into a mirror?” Illaria asked as she looked between the two Tieflings. There were slight differences between the two, but they looked as if they could be brothers; the resemblance was uncanny.