CHAPTER 17 PART 1

CLAN

Lucas’s eyes were adjusting quickly. He still had to shut them if direct sunlight landed on his face, but under the canopy of the forest the light was soft enough to keep his eyes open. He and Korah were moving away from the Old Road deeper into the forest, Scouts roaming in all directions. Lucas kept his Map open in birds eye view, but shrunk it down to a little square glued to the top left corner of his vision. This allowed him to view his surroundings but also keep an eye out for notifications from his Scouts. Judging by the gleaming sun above the canopy, they had been walking for more than two hours when the Scouts flashed an alarm. It was a cluster of red dots, five in total. They were about a hundred metres away, making their way south through the forest. Lucas motioned in that direction to Korah.

“We’ve got something. Five somethings actually. Some kind of pack animal maybe.”

“Maybe..” Korah replied, as if she had another idea.

Lucas sat on the ground and closed his eyes. Activating Scry projected his perspective through his Map power to the Scout who had spotted their prey. Through the stop-motion perspective of his Scout, Lucas saw five male Hominids skulking through the forest. They forest here was mostly thin, tall birch trees and flat ground. Despite the open terrain they displayed impressive stealthy movement, crouching low to minimise thier outline and keeping their Auras tightly compacted.

The Scout had activated Stealth as they passed, then continued skittering and hoping along behind to keep them in view. Lucas tried to use Analyse on one of them through the spider’s perspective. Unsurprisingly it didn't work, but it did confirm that his Analyse had limited range, probably requiring the target to be within reach of Lucas’s own Mana.

He reoriented himself back to his body.

“Hominids. A hunting party I think.” Korah blinked at him.

“You called them Clan right? Human-like creatures, like the girl I killed.”

“Clan, yes. So what do you want to do?” Korah asked. “They are probably from the same tribe as that girl. Maybe they are out here looking for her.”

“Well they are not going to find her are they…” Lucas said Darkly. He had made a promise, and it seemed to him that he was being called on to keep it.

“These Clan, how many might live in a tribe? Would they have a little village around here or something?” He asked Korah.

“The Clan usually live in caves or exposed ruins. It’s always one large family living together, so maybe ten or more. If many families live nearby they will have a Shaman that acts as a leader for all of them.”

“That sounds like enough Mana to wipe out an enclave of Slavers.”

Korah nodded grimly in response.

Lucas saw on his Map that the Scout with an entourage of Ambushers was heading towards an intercept point with the Clan group. He considered calling them back, but decided against it. He generally trusted their instincts and this could be a good chance to see how they would handle this kind of situation. If they were going to try to set up an ambush, then he and Korah could work with it. The Arachs moved very quickly through the forest, and were almost in place. Lucas picked up his pace and motioned Korah to do the same. As they pushed their way through the underbrush Lucas hurriedly explained the situation.

“My spiders are setting up an ambush. We are trying to get ahead of the group to help them. I'll Stealth to the ambush site to join them. You will need to stay back to keep out of sight. When you hear the fighting start come as quickly as you can."

Korah seemed content to follow Lucas’s lead. The trees here were too thin to hide behind, so she crouched low and withdrew her Aura. It wasn't as close as he would like, but the area being so flat and open made it hard to get close without being spotted. Lucas continued on, activating Stealth and creeping the rest of the way at the maximum speed Stealth would allow.

The Ambushers were shuffling between the upper branches of two tall birch trees. Lucas crept close, then watched his Map as he waited for the Hominids to approach. He could sense the Auras of his Ambushers in the trees. They brimmed with anticipation and, much to Lucas’s amusement, a little bit of nervousness. Their Broodlord was watching and they wanted to make a good impression. Lucas was a little worried. After having spent so long working to harmonise the body and mind of the Brawler in the dream-scape, he realised he really had not given his Ambusher design the same level of care.

The Clan Hunters had come alarmingly close by the time Lucas saw them physically. They were all thick and squat, like the other Clan Lucas had seen. Thick black hair covered their bodies, almost dense enough to be called fur. Underneath, their skin was very pale and covered in tattoos or body paint. Strange patterns of blue lines wove over their skin from head to toe. They all carried flint axes, which were basically a bit of sharp stone strapped to a wooden handle.

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‘Storing the effects implies they can be emptied. Hopefully they are only single use.’ Lucas thought to himself.

Every Hunter was covered in these tattoos, each one with differing patterns. That probably meant that each was sporting a unique selection of stored powers. Lucas was down to 4 out of 6 Mana after using Stealth and Analyse. Remembering what had happened during the Bear fight, when he had used all of his Mana too early, Lucas refrained from using Analyse on any more of them. Fighting against unknown powers was dangerous but so was emptying his Mana pool before the fighting started.

The Clan wove swiftly through the forest towards them. The Ambushers had picked their position well. The only path through the area that made sense was between the two large trees. The branches intertwined above in the canopy, allowing for the Ambushers to position themselves with ease as their prey approached. Lucas looked up into the trees as the first Clan Hunter approached, the others trailing behind in a loose line.

In complete silence the first Ambusher fell off its branch backwards, like a skydiver dropping out of a plane. In mid air it spun its body, using its Scythes as a counterbalance to adjust its position. Lucas got the impression that it didn't work quite like the Ambusher had intended, as it ended up flailing in mid air for half of the drop as it tried to stop itself from spinning.

‘Sorry little fella, that's my fault.’ Lucas thought with a grimace, the massive Scythes and thick armour of a Combat Spider made it very heavy. Adding the behaviour of one species to the body of another turned out to have some big drawbacks. He should have at least spent time in the dream-scape training before hatching them. Luckily, it adapted to its unexpected lack of grace and managed to get the Scythes in position before making impact.

Lucas never got to see what an Erupting Flame looked like. The force behind the massive Scythes was enough to cleave the defenceless hunter from neck to groin. Blood erupted over the area and a cascade of ravaged organs slopped out to the forest floor. Lucas cursed as the Clan Hunters Aura dissipated uselessly, dead on impact.

His Ambusher had not fared much better unfortunately, its body plan was apparently too heavy to deal with the fall. The Scythe that had eviscerated the Clan Hunter was totally ripped off and it appeared to have broken most of its legs. It was desperately trying to drag itself away from the other Clan Hunters as they stood for a surprisingly long moment, stunned with shock and horror as blood and gore dripped from their faces.

Lucas’s poor Ambusher was crawling towards the last place it had seen him, a desperate plea in its Aura. He instinctively wanted to reassure it, but he couldn't do that and maintain Stealth. It had managed to drag itself most of the way to him before the first Clan Hunter responded, a bellow of rage erupting out of his lungs.

As if that was a signal, they all burst into action. Their sprinting speed was shockingly fast, stubby feet tearing up the forest floor as they catapulted forwards. It came as a surprise to his second Ambusher also, as it failed to calculate its drop properly. It landed with a crunching sound after all the Clan Hunters had passed, its Aura dissipating a moment later.

The first of the Clan Hunter’s reached the injured Ambusher just as it had hobbled up to Lucas’s stealthed position. The Hunter’s stone axe was raised in a mighty overhand chop just as Lucas appeared, dagger in hand. The Clan Hunter had no hope of reacting in time before Lucas clutched its arm to stop the axe, and drove his dagger into the Hunter’s stomach. In the moment it took for the hunter's senses to reconcile what was going on, Lucas twisted the dagger to tear up the Hunter’s insides as much as possible. Yanking himself out of Lucas’s grip, the Hunter stepped out of range with a horrified expression.

The crippled Ambusher's Aura beamed with gratitude as it continued to hobble its way to safety, bleeding a trail of slime behind it. The injured Clan Hunter stepped behind its comrades as the other three reached them. The three newcomers fanned out as the injured one muttered a few guttural words under his breath. The tattoo lines that patterned his body began to writhe like so many blue snakes, converging on his solar plexus where they appeared to spiral into his skin like water going down a sink. The blue lines squirmed their way out of his open wound then sucked his flesh together from every direction, pulling the wound shut. In seconds, all that was left was a garish pink scar that puckered in like a sphincter.

‘Fuck,’ Lucas thought to himself, wishing he had asked Korah to come closer. He now found himself exposed and outnumbered. Lucas matched them in Strength and Agility, but he had very little experience in combat against an armed opponent. Even one of them might have been his match, but four on one was a certain death.

Lucas dived to his left, rolling to stop himself from getting surrounded as they closed in. He fed one Mana into his Enchanted Armour, triggering its reactive hardening quality and reducing his Mana pool to 3. The Clan Hunters changed tactics when they recognised that they were trying to corner a fleeing enemy. Instead of diving for him directly, they spread out and began taking swings with their axes, cutting off any paths of escape before they opened up.

Axe blows began descending from every direction. Escape was not an option, avoiding getting hit was not an option, all Lucas could do was attempt to mitigate the damage and buy time. He darted, scrambled and ducked desperately, trying to leverage his armour to take the hits. The armour worked perfectly, turning hard as stone wherever the axes hit. This not only prevented the axes from penetrating, it also dispersed the impact force over a moderate area.

His armour did not cover all of his body however, and the Clan Hunters soon realised the futility of hitting his armour. Lucas bolted for any opening, forcing his enemies to spread out and cut off escape angles instead of closing in to get a hold of him. Despite his best efforts, in less than ten seconds, Lucas was gashed and punctured on various parts of his body that his armour didn't cover.