A Wizard is never late, nor early. He arrives precisely when he means to.
Pre-Fall wisdom
“They reacted quickly,” Arturus Windmiller noted.
“A southron army is always ready,” Snowbound Glatteis said, peering over the battlefield with his wraparound glasses.
“I’d have thought levies would be less trained,” the tribal chieftain replied.
“That was an interesting thing your spies gave us. I wondered how they’d get enough troops.”
“Will those new sorcerers be the same, you think?”
“Levies? I doubt it. Finding one Power among your citizenry by chance? Sure. Two? That’s very, very unlikely. Even among humans. I assume they come from down south.”
Windmiller’s troops were arrayed to the side of the valley, ready to move and exploit any opportunity. Multiple wendigos had joined, the slightly diminutive furry figures readying themselves with spear and sword, eschewing shields, unlike the more conventionally geared tribesmen. Bowmen were still stringing their tools.
“One sorcerer to the center, with a second plume, a minor item of power. I don’t see… ah, the other two are coming out as well,” Glatteis said, pointing to the gates from which squadrons and companies were pouring out.
“They’re not using their main artifacts?”
“If your spies’ report is correct, those are useless on the field. I’d be more worried about the minor. Even a lesser item can be a bigger deal than a sorcerer.”
Windmiller grunted. The wendigo’s remark was true, after all.
“Let’s see how that develops. I’m guessing the central mana breath is the old sorceress. If the middle is lost, that’s where she can throw the fogs for best effect,” Glatteis added.
“I’m curious about the mercenaries. I wonder what they can do,” Windmiller answered.
“They’re turning,” the wendigo noted.
“Doesn’t it look like…” the tribal leader asked.
“They’re heading toward here? Yes, it seems.”
“But why?”
Glatteis suddenly swore.
“They… at least one of them has to see me.”
“They see you?”
“Not me, this,” he replied, tapping his glasses.
“Is that possible? I thought only you could…”
“We do not have many artifacts from the flight from Vancouver, but we wendigos know that all we found are the same as Powers, be they sorcerers or heroes. My Ancient Glasses of the Hunter are nothing more than a sorcerer talent, like the Heart of the Mountain’s, amplified to unmatched levels.”
Windmiller turned back to the battlefield.
“So, one has the same power as you get?”
“That’s what I think. And since I doubt they’d recruit someone simply because that sorcerer could see magic, it will be a powerful one.”
Glatteis grinned.
“But meanwhile… I am the bait. We can steer them to wherever we want. The right position…”
Windmiller frowned, then smiled and turned to bark orders.
“Why are they hesitating?” Windmiller said as he watched the two companies clashing. “They should press.”
“The Montana isn’t pushing too,” Glatteis noted.
Then the Montanan troops surged, spear pushing between shields, and the allied had to take a step back before rallying, slamming shields to break the advance. For a second, combat surged, and a few soldiers fell back, then combat stalled.
“Okay, something’s wrong,” the wendigo realized.
“Sorcerous?”
“One of the two, I’m betting,” he said, pointing at the middle of the formation.
Glatteis hadn’t spotted the telltale sign of talents being activated. If the magical talent was contained, it might be possible to miss it from the distance. The Glasses granted mana sight but did little for normal sight. For some of the beasts he hunted, if you didn’t watch the claws, you could miss their skill activation.
There was nothing distinguishing the soldiers at the center from the distance, as the Montana practiced the same caution as soldiers everywhere, avoiding too elaborate outfits for their officers. But unfortunately for the Montanans, Glatteis could see the breaths of mana connecting to the two women. The mana was pouring into the sword-bearing one, while the alternating flow hovering over the spear-bearing one indicated that she was in reserve at full mana, not using whatever her power was. And with his attention focused on the sorcerous duo, he spotted the large man at the side of the active sorceress, and his definitively non-standard hammer firmly grasped in his hands.
Glatteis felt dread suddenly.
“They have more than Sorceresses. They have a Hero in there too.”
Windmiller turned his head, doubt visible in his eyes.
“You didn’t see…”
“Not Heroes. The wendigos have almost no sorcerers, but heroes… like me… we do know and have. Heroes don’t rely on mana. But I’m quite certain a soldier wouldn’t use a hammer instead of a spear… unless he was far, far better with it.”
Windmiller turned back to squint at the center of the formation. Then he barked orders, and bowmen raised their bows, shifting their targets.
“Get ready to charge. I want them taken out. Watch for the hammer!”
The wendigos immediately reacted, running their usual maneuver, only made possible by their natural physical prowess. The bowmen loosened a first volley, then drew their next arrows, to be done as a simultaneous release. Glatteis had a small moment of satisfaction as the sorcerous enemy flinched.
“Gotcha.”
For a second, he thought the spear bearer had noticed him, but she pointed at the vanguard that was crashing at the side of their formation. And suddenly, the mana breath flow stilled, then started to pour into her. Glatteis blinked, because, once again, he hadn’t seen any hint of a skill being activated.
If he hadn’t been a wendigo, he’d have sweated.
“PUSH!” he yelled.
Then, the sorceress's hand briefly flashed with mana use, and a bright flame appeared in it before vanishing immediately.
Johanna felt the pressure, a warmth that flew from her wrist into her hand as she pointed toward the attackers, spear lowering to be ready. The sensation disturbed her… but in a way, she recognized it.
There was power ready. Not in her palm, as she usually felt when lighting a fire, but deeper, connecting all of her hand to the wrist, to the arm. She cupped her hand, trying to reach the fire, but as the usual flame sprung in her palm, she realized that wasn’t it.
The flame extinguished immediately as she let it go, trying to feel the other fire.
Glatteis saw the ball of fire form briefly in the sorceress’s hand before it flew. Not unlike a flame arrow, yet not quite as fast. It went in a straight line too, not the curved line of an arrow’s flight.
Stolen story; please report.
And it smashed into the face of a tribesman, where it exploded, showering flames across the man. A scream rose. More flames splashed across the people next to the hapless tribal who was falling on the ground. He briefly saw the black of burned flesh.
What the wilds?
Each sorcerer was special, but he’d never ever heard rumors of such sorcery. Terri Warren Blackfeet had been one grand power, calling lightning before he fell in the war a few years ago, but one who threw fire across the battlefield, like a jar full of fiery distilled spirits?
He heard shouts, and the sorceress cupped her hand again, and a new ball of fire appeared, flying again. A wendigo screamed, fur becoming suddenly a tapestry of flames. He fared a little better than the first casualty, falling to the ground and trying to extinguish the flames, as the rest of his comrades spread out to avoid the fire.
“FORMATION!” Windmiller yelled.
A third flame ball landed, a bit further in the unit, and Glatteis realized their position on top of the hillock made them more vulnerable. The balls traveled in a straight direction, and while the sorceress managed to avoid hitting her own soldiers, aiming upward made it easier to do so.
“We’re vulnerable here,” he said, grasping the tribal commander’s arm.
“We must…” the man replied, before a new flame ball exploded in mid-air, not too far from their position. Thankfully, this one was a miss, despite the flaming embers falling around.
Johanna realized she had a maximum range as the fireball exploded mid-flight. She’d aimed at the mana swirl, but the ball had broken up.
“Can’t hit them from here,” she briefly yelled at Devereaux.
“Cover her,” he said, looking at Laura and Tom.
The two realized the sudden change in strategy, and a barked order later, the third and second rank of the troops started to part, as Johanna advanced to the front line.
She ducked again because the bowmen were shooting all they could at her, but the front troops raised their shields, intercepting most of the arrows. A few whizzed close, but she squinted, aligning her hand and the hillock. A new ball flashed, this time almost reaching the distance.
“Need closer,” she said.
“PUSH!” Devereaux yelled.
“They’re advancing. She’s got a limit, I think, but she’s far too accurate. No curve.”
Windmiller wanted to press, but the wendigo was right.
“Pass the word! Disengage! We retreat. Arrow cover, get ready.”
More arrows flew at the front line, trying to prevent their advance.
“This is going to be a rout,” Glatteis grunted.
“You run,” Windmiller said.
“No way. Your council may acknowledge your bravery and sacrifice, but they’re also going to say Wendigos leave their allies to die. We both run.”
Moore spotted the massive rush of XP. It looked… well, it looked like when the four had chased the level 1 Felid. You got some experience when defeating people even if you did not kill them. The enemy soldiers were now retreating. Once Johanna had started chucking flaming missiles at them, the balance had changed.
That looked like some abuse, so he expected that free XP to be limited. But it felt better to get XP without killing enemies. The briefing and papers he’d read “over” his team’s shoulders had given him the idea of wild native savages, but, save for the wendigos’ odd presence, the enemy had looked more like professional hardened soldiers rather than barbarian warriors. The only trace of unorganized fighters was the more diverse leather armors.
A few troops were even running, while the rest covered their retreat. Enemy commanders? One wendigo was an Explorer, the other was a simple level 6 human but with slightly more ornate clothing.
Johanna threw a last fireball at the enemy troops, but they were throwing a heavy barrage of arrows, and then the company stopped.
“They’re defeated. Let’s break the center now,” Devereaux said, holding Johanna’s arm.
“Okay.”
The company slowed, as the retreating tribals threw a last flight of arrows. The captain turned and barked a few orders, and their auxiliary company moved to the side, bypassing them to pursuit. Meanwhile, the troops turned.
The center of the battlefield was still heavily disputed. Arrows flew, and companies were clashing. Devereaux’s force started to jog, and Johanna readied. She had a better idea now of how that ball of flames worked. It flew true, but it was limited in range. If she aimed too far, it would break into flaming debris before crashing into something. The splash of flames was very obviously intense, hotter than her flaming hand, while much, much larger.
They ran toward one fight, and she threw one ball as they closed in. This one fell short by a yard, but the enemies noticed and started splitting their focus.
“Good,” Devereaux said at her side.
Then, she heard horns. The tribals, Johanna realized, used them to signal where the Montana had bugles. An invisible wave coursed across the battlefield, and she realized the enemies stopped pushing.
“It’s a retreat. We won,” the captain said.
The tribals were good at covering their tracks.
“Do we pursue them?” Johanna asked.
“Can you?”
“I have no idea how many of those I can do. Elena – Lady Worchester – says action-based effects are hard to gauge, but it’s like continuous effects. After a while, you exhaust yourself, and need hours to recover fully.”
“Then we leave the pursuit to the common troops. Once we know more… we’ll break them. Eventually. Good job, Milton,” he said, slapping her on the shoulder.
They stopped, watching the army pushing the tribals. A handful of wendigos and tribals held their ground while their own armies moved backward.
The battle was over, Moore noted.
Hurrah for fireballs, he mentally cheered.
He waited until they were back at the garrison camp, cheered by soldiers. He saw the officer, Adorno, coming to offer his own felicitations, and waited a bit longer. As the general – if that was what the fancy stars on his uniform meant – turned back to address the troops, he opened up the interface for the last two of the team.
Tom went first. He’d looked a bit at what was in the cards both for him and Laura at various points during the battle, stealing moments extended by the slowdown effect.
He did not have to think long about it. The DEX specialization he’d spotted on the battlefield was about piercing weapons, spears and pointy things, and the newly unlocked AGI version, Swordbringer, was all about swords. By comparison, the Empathy-based Specialist Battler was actually more… generic, and fit better the blunt/smash build, as it enhanced general skills rather than weapon-specific ones. Including the ridiculously-named Double Tap.
As for Laura, her specializations options were simple, comparable to Johanna’s. Each of the three options he saw simply added a +1 to multipliers for any EMP-only skill, as well as +1 to any skill that used the stat selected as a secondary, even if it wasn’t based on it. Water Walking, for instance, got a +1 on both Tyrant and Deep Fixer and stayed at 2× for the Combat Fixer.
And that was it. No other skills popping, no skill loss. Moore wished it had been that good for Johanna. The five stamina-based skills that gained multipliers, like Burning Blood were not worth the loss of multipliers on the rest unless she turned into a full spellblade, a magical fighter.
Is this a plot to make low-level mages less powerful like in D&D?
Not that keeping multipliers didn’t mean a serious choice. Once again, Moore wished there was a way to communicate. Even if it was just one of them writing down a wish list or plan on how to use their skills – he’d be able to read it and incorporate it into the build.
But until that happened, he had to guess what was the best option to suit them.
Combat Fixer, he quickly settled upon. All specializations offered interesting situational enhancement, but he liked the reduction in cost and the significant increase in duration to bring First Aid. What clinched it was the perspective of Succor, a skill that would let Laura literally teleport to a wounded teammate. As a general Fixer skill, it was a bit limited in range, but at 2× it was already impressive – and reasonably expensive. All she needed was some Strength, and suddenly, the hazards of battle were lesser. And besides, he did have just enough XP for that.
Succor
Requires: Strength 16/Dexterity 16/Empathy 16/Level 5
Effective: N × Strength + Level (adds mana)
Passive: You instinctively know the severity of any wound.
Action: Instantly move to a person within (Eff) feet that has suffered physical trauma or open wounds
Action cost: 1 mana per level of target
Combat Fixer
EMP 17/AUT 16/Lvl 5
N=2
Deep Fixer
EMP 17/AGI 16/Lvl 1
N=1
Fixer
EMP 16/Lvl 1
N=1
Tyrant Fixer
EMP 17/AUT 16/Lvl 1
N=1
Tyrant Fixer… well, if Laura was destined to be a real offensive support type rather than a heal-bot, it would offer perspectives. Including at level 6 with a new skill point, the possibility of a massive Bolster. The skill was an enormous buff to the team, adding 53% of Laura’s stats to a team member to raise his or her skills. If he picked that specialization.
But that wasn’t enough. For a game, maybe. For a situation where death was real… your healer had to be able to save you, no matter what else.
3000 points went into Strength, and Moore committed the whole package.
Welcome to the big leagues, Tom and Laura…
Laura Anna Vogel
Female human, 18 years, 11 months
Combat Fixer
Level: 5 (8000 XP needed)
25/188 mana (+14 per hour)
0 unallocated skill point
XP: 0 + 202
STR: 16 (3000 XP needed)
Succor (37)
AUT: 16 (1370 XP needed)
Falter (37)
AGI: 16 (925 XP needed)
Cleanse Toxins (21)
PER: 14
DEX: 16 (861 XP needed)
First Aid (37)
EMP: 17 (102 XP needed)
Close Wounds (56)
Johanna heard the gasp, as General Adolfo was haranguing the army. She turned her head as another deafening cheer rose, and spotted Laura looking slightly pale.
“You ok?”
“Yes… it’s just that… it’s happened.”
“What happened?”
“What you describe. I just got that empty feeling, as if my mana was squeezed out almost completely. It’s disturbing,” Laura explained.
“Me too,” Tom said.
Johanna turned her head to the other side to look at her husband. His clear eyes merely blinked.
“A brutal… tiredness.”
“Right now? Both of you.”
She turned back to watch the general, who remained blissfully unaware of what the four were talking about behind him, immersed in his grand speech. He turned and gestured at them, and they came forward again, waving, to the massive cheers of all, and Johanna fell silent, merely offering smiles.
Why now? Why not before the battle? I can understand not during, if you get all your endurance squeezed by that… rank up in power. But why is it needed?
What is coming up?