I spent the rest of the evening working on defenses for the small valley we had chosen as our killing ground. The first defense that went up was a simple wall, about two and a half meters high, with a parapet slightly under two meters up. The wall had an unsecured opening in the middle, allowing for a single fighter to defend it with ease, hopefully it would be enough to draw the wolves in.
Further down the valley, I had used my Ice-runes to compress the loose snow, giving me a smooth, hard-packed surface that was sealed with a smooth layer of ice, making it quite challenging to climb the valley. Getting down took some getting used to, mostly forcing us to use our hands to grab hold of the valley’s walls and slowly, slide downwards, one arm-length at the time. But wolves won’t be able to emulate that, given that they don’t have the significant advantage of opposable thumbs. One could say, it is a handy thing.
I thought about adding spikes to the ice, but decided against it, fearing that it might add traction instead of being an obstacle. So, no spikes. But caltrops, those were quite easy to make out of hard ice and will not add traction where we didn’t want any.
Until events put a stop to it, the others had been carrying as many supplies into the valley as they could, mostly firewood but also any game they could scare up and bring down. Not that it was a lot, the area seemed to be over hunted as it were. Maybe due to the combination of predatory birds from the mountains and wolves from the forest, who knew.
That collection went on, until a few howls came from the forest to echo around in the mountains.
“They found the area where we killed those wolves today. There is a lot of anger in their howls.” Sigmir told me, as she was quite close to me at that time.
“Finish up, cover the tracks you made and get behind the wards. They might lose our track outside and give up.” I said, with little conviction in my voice. I was pretty sure we would have to give the wolves a seriously bloody nose to make them back up. Hopefully, that would give us the time to leave their territory.
After they could no longer venture outside, they explored the cave from which the stream that had dug the valley sprung from. It was a disappointment for multiple reasons. After a few, maybe ten, meters into the mountain, the cave narrowed to the point that one had to crawl on the ice that covered the stream, making it a risky proposition. In addition, it was completely dark, to the point that even my low-light vision did not help. Those two factors made us decide to simply close the narrow opening with some ice, relying on the idea that anything strong enough to break the ice would be heavy enough to be unable to crawl over the ice on the stream.
But once those steps were taken, the main-part of every combat-operation set in. The waiting. I experimented a little, using the scrying-spell I had happened upon, trying to use it to scout out predetermined locations. Shifting my own viewpoint worked quite well after a couple of tries and after about an hour of experimentation I was able to comfortably use the spell to skip from shadow to shadow, in essence allowing me to scout without leaving the valley. There might be ways to trace the spell back to its origin, meaning me, I was even certain that there were, but I doubted that a pack of wolves had the magical sophistication to use magic in that way. I could be wrong, but I doubted it.
Part of me wanted to ask Lenore to fly out but tracking a bird was something easily within the expected skill-set of a wolf-pack, so she stayed back, letting me borrow her Astral Power regeneration.
I tried to let my scrying move into the mountain, using the narrow opening in the cave but sadly, the fact that I was looking out from a shadow did not mean that I was able to see in the darkness. Lenore’s magic sight worked from her point-of-view, meaning that even when she was in my Hallow and, in theory, looking through my left eye, it was impossible to use it at through the scrying-shadow.
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
While I was busy, using my magic to scout, Adra was making dinner and Sigmir and Rai trained together. Normally, I would monitor them and correct Rai, but right now, his training sadly had to take a backseat. Once it resumed, we would also have to look at ways to give him a ranged-option in combat, being purely focused on melee-attacks was a good way to find an early grave. There were enemies that nobody, especially not fragile speed-focused types like us, wanted to get close to, due to the fact that they had the ability to annihilate anyone foolish enough to try. The devourer we had faced in Tegi was an excellent example for an enemy like that. Or enemies that simply used their innate ability to fly and cast spells while flying to stay out of range, never giving you a chance to strike back. No, he needed a ranged-option. Even Sigmir had a few throwing axes, mostly made by me, out of hard ice, but also a few out of normal material that she had liberated when we had visited her tribe.
Late in the day, when the fading light of dusk had almost given way to the pure darkness of night, a few howls caught my attention. There had been the odd howl all day, but those sounded slightly different and closer.
“They are in the area but have no idea where we are, so now they spread out, searching for scents and noises.” Sigmir announced in a soft voice.
“So, training ends for now. No need to help them find us.” Adra said, as she used her magic to snuff out the fire we had used. Using water would have been easier but wasted the remaining fire-wood.
In the spirit of not giving our position away, even by accident, I stopped my scrying and moved into the cave, pulling Rai along. I was rather curious about his ideas when it came to ranged weapons.
“Now, disciple, what are you going to do against an enemy that you can’t reach?” I asked, using my Inscrutable Master-voice. It was a work in progress.
He thought for a moment, before answering, “Hide. Wait for a chance to get to my enemy and strike only when I have a good opening. If no opening presents, make a distraction. If that does not work either, retreat and fight another day.”
I nodded, his answer was a good one for his skill-set. “What if that does not work? For example, assume that the wolves attack and you need to man the wall I put up. Your blades will be utterly useless. ”
“So, if I can’t reach my enemy, I have a problem?” He answered, slightly cheeky, as it was a quite obvious observation.
“In a way. Most likely, you will never have problems again, as you will be dead. The solution is, you need more tools for your toolkit. Currently, you are quite good when it comes to causing damage at close range and sneaking up on enemies. Sigmir told me that she plans to help you with your tracking, a lesson I plan to take as well. But for the original question, the answer is to increase your own reach. That can be done with magic, as I do. Or rather, I mainly use magic and have my blades for times when the enemy forces me into melee in order to prevent me from using my magic. Adra has her Longbow and a few spells to increase its power and Sigmir has a couple of throwing axes.” I explained.
“So, dear disciple, you see that none of us thinks it would be wise to rely on a single type of weapon. I want you to think about a good second option for you, something you can use to reach out and get to your foe. It can be a ranged weapon or a type of magic, depending on your choice, either one of us will train you, or we will help you train yourself.”
Rai nodded, understanding my point. It was not as if it was a complicated one.
“In Adernas, I have tried learning the Bow and the throwing spear. It did not work well. That reminds me, you never use your stealth-skill to conceal yourself, do you? You always use magic, right?” He asked, in a bit of a non-sequitur.
“Yes, I use the Shadows to conceal me.” I answered in a confused tone. “But what does that have to do with the price of butter?”
“I was just thinking. If I learned a sort of magic, it would be good to have one that allows me to improve my main mode of combat, right? My best feature is my stealth, I doubt that will change. So, learning magic that improves that feature and gives me options to attack at range would be the best of both worlds, right?”
“Sound logic. Some diversity is a good idea, so a single resistance can’t fully shut you down, but that is what you are doing. So, yes, Darkness Magic would be a good idea. We will just have to find out if you have talent.”
It was quite fitting, I would have to throw together a few spells for Rai, it should help him start out.