The second ruschk’s spear exploded in frozen splinters as Kris sundered it violently, and then plunged Quaver into its master’s chest, making the ruschk jerk. Then Quaver was suddenly a long knife, out of the pumping, steaming wound in the ruschk’s chest and flicked back across its neck to open it wide from inside its guard. That was followed by an instant crashing elbow cracking up under its veiled chin, ripping the burning wound open, chill blue blood gouting and starting to discorporate as the ruschk began to suffocate.

It managed to try and punch at her with jaggedly-clawed hands, and it lost both of them at the wrist as dark blue ichor gushed down its chest. Then she was past it and a swath of flame was passing completely through its thick neck as it tottered there in disbelief, raising charred, scorched stumps where its hands had been.

The last shade had survived my one salvo of Shards, but was barely picking itself up off the ground before the Mick reached it. Bunita was wrist-flicked with coldly pragmatic efficiency, and the shade’s head went flying before she could get back up.

I came gliding in the rest of the way with the other scouts, my eyes on the hole in the ground. “They’ve set up a forward base in that dungeon there. Kris got us up on them too quick, and we caught one outside. It was hoping to bluff away its presence, and was caught out.”

The Mick’s face was ferociously unhappy. “Fuck me runnin’ an’ stiff the whore!” he blurted out, kicking the disintegrating shade.

There was a second chorus of Shards, striking every Summoning point and dead thing with vivic flame. Poofs of unwhite fire ignited over each of them, feeding at the magic starting to gather there.

“Get us off the island right now,” I ordered, startling everyone as I began to back all the Disks with the scouts up. “Now!” I repeated urgently.

The Mick charged over with strides thrice the length of a normal running man, hopped into the air, and Kris smoothly had the Disk there for him to land on as she ran out onto the waves, caught up to me, tapped Quaver to take control of the Disk formation, and backed away from the island.

The Mick was going to say something, but fell silent as he turned around. The subsonic Sublime Chord I murmured had faded… but the magic was still trembling, and not in a friendly harmony.

We were a hundred feet offshore and backpedaling when the first wisp crackled into existence.

It was a shadowed, black thing, unlike the bright pinkish-red Cursed Wisps we’d been running across on these islands. It spun with agitation and energy there in the air.

“Arrows!” the Mick ordered coldly. “Remember, it’s still a wisp! Aim for the middle of the area it spins about!” Bows and crossbows came up, creaking in readiness as he pointed. “Fire!”

A full volley hissed out at the Nightmare Wisp as it bobbed and spun around the entrance to the underground. With a shrill shrieking, the shadowy black Wisp was impaled by some hard, bright reality, and dissolved into sparkles that ignited eagerly as they fell upon the vivus.

The ominous, shaking feeling in the air did not go away.

With another hiss and crackle, two of the Nightmare Wisps materialized there.

“Split fire. Squad one, left! Squad two, right! Reload!” Lord Mick called out as Princess Kristie glided to a stop forty yards from the shore, another twenty to the Nightmare Wisps that were instantly starting to wander above the unwhite flames licking at the stone, ambling towards the hole in the ground.

The scouts were good archers, and sixty yards wasn’t too far for them. Dark shadows raced through the air. Both Wisps shrilled as they broke apart, falling as sparkles into the vivus that reached hungrily up to eat them.

If anything, the weight in the air grew worse.

The snap and crackle of converging magic rippled out, and suddenly there were four Nightmare Wisps there!

There were quiet curses from the scouts as they reloaded. Everyone could do basic math. Kris began to hum a killing tune, low and lethal, saying nothing.

I flicked up Shards, which were noticeably free of vivic flame as they spun formlessly around my hand.

The Mick noticed it. “Most vulnerable to piercing damage in my experience,” the Mick informed me, staring at the four Wisps very alertly. “What be happening here, lass?”

I leveled my hand as the leaf-like shapes of my Shards narrowed to vaned spikes in a rainbow of colors, suffused with Silver-tier killing energy. “Kill as many as we can for free Karma, then pull back, and let whatever is in that dungeon reap the rewards of their infiltration. Kris, just be ready to pull us back, and nobody use more vivus.”

We hadn’t used vivic fire on anything the entire day, and now they had an inkling of why. Still, the scouts settled in gamely, the Mick directed them energetically, and we all hissed as eight more Nightmare Wisps crackled up out of nowhere, dancing wildly above the vivic flames and that dark ramp going down into the ground.

“Wait for the first ones t’ enter the ground,” the Mick said, catching on to what might be happening. “Every one we kill is two more forming, lass?”

“Looks like it.”

“An’ every one THEY kill, be two more forming?” he went on cunningly.

“Damn well hope so, and hope the vivus follows them down that hole.”

Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work!

“Aye, now…” he smiled cruelly. “An’ how long might this effect be going on?”

“I don’t know, but I have the feeling the new name of this place is going to be Black Wisp Atoll.”

“Pick targets.” We all watched as the first of the Wisps went down the hole, following the lure of dark energy and negative emotions. One, two, three, four…

“Fire!” Arrows and bolts hissed out, and only after their targets shrilled and died did my Shards follow, unerringly orienting on the surviving targets and ripping them apart.

None of the wisps came back up out of the hole, and a minute later, there was a crackle and whine of converging magic as eight more wisps congealed out of the manafield again.

“That is extremely unsettling,” Kris murmured from the side, as the dancing chaos of the things once again drifted towards the hole in the ground and the vivus spreading around it.

“This be like free Karma,” the Mick added from the side. “As long as ye can keep them from coming after ye, that is…”

“They aren’t Summons. They can chase you as long as they want to and sense you. So, you’ll have to kill them at some point,” I noted quietly, another flight of Shards swirling up around my hand and turning into spikes. “How dangerous are they?”

“Fire an’ Lightning, Pyreal grade spells. Also Drains and Harms against Health, Stamina, an’ Mana, although they don’t come across as clever users, merely fast an’ powerful. I imagine powerful wanderers might learn decent tactics, as some will start chaining decent combinations o’ spells, but most seem t’ want to come t’ melee, where they lash ye like the coldest part of the soul. Plenty o’ mana to bedevil ye with, too.”

“So, strong enough to hurt and kill whatever is inside the place?” I went on.

“Aye…” There was a pause as he raised his hand, enough wisps moved out of line of sight, and he chopped down. Missiles and Shards shot out and reaped. “Ye aim for some free Karma an’ t’ overload them with wisps afore this all runs out… if it runs out.”

“Sounds like a decent idea to have them do the work for us, and if the shades come to investigate, all they’ll find is an atoll full of deadly black wisps waiting for them…”

“It may take quite a few wisps for that t’ happen,” the Mick remarked knowingly.

“True. The main way to stop it is for none of the Wisps to die in range of the vivus, which means not dying or the vivus dissipates,” I said as I Mana Boosted to get more mana back hurriedly. “I know you’ll run out of ammo, but I’m probably going to be here a while.”

“We’ll do twenty volleys, an’ then withdraw to save ammo,” the Mick agreed. “Make them count, roaches!”

“Yes, sir!” they all called back, and loaded up for another set of shots.

There was a crackle as two wisps suddenly manifested, not eight. I instantly shot them, letting them fall sparkling into the vivus below them.

“Feeding the vivus, helping make it expand so the wisps always die in range,” Kris spoke up. “You’re Feeding the Land…”

The eight wisps we expected crackled into existence.

“The wisps of this place are extruded masses of corrupted mana imbued with emotion, like negative magic Elementals,” I said softly, picking my targets in the middle as they bobbed and swirled towards the hole in the ground wafting out sweet sustenance, the same hole the vivus on the ground was now stealing down and into slowly.

The Mick’s hand came down, and death shot out.

“The Land here is basically puking out the wisps to be killed and recycled through the vivus. It would have done the same anywhere we used the vivus, so I’ve been pointedly avoiding it, afraid of a reaction like this. I was worried it might be hostile, but mostly it’s just knee-jerk reflex. We’re getting rid of its pain and contamination from unclean sources, so it’s throwing it all at us in pure reflex.”

With a crack, four more wisps popped up. Mick’s hand paused, he measured the steady bows, and then it dropped.

Four more wisps fell into the vivus, and the scouts reloaded quickly as I Mana Boosted and brought up more Shards.

“Ye foresee any problems?” the Mick growled, raising his arm as eight more wisps snapped into existence once again.

“There are likely hidden shades on Ithaenc who might be returning here.”

There was a hiss and snap as two more wisps popped up before we fired again. “Hold…” the Mick said quietly. “Roaches, late ones. Lass, pick two.”

“Confirmed.” Seeking Spell meant I only needed targets, not line of sight. I could hit them from around a corner if I knew they were there.

Six of the wisps were under cover, the last two ducking in as I released, and the archers followed suit. Four wisps popped and became sparkling rain.

The crossbows hadn’t reloaded before the next set of eight appeared, so I sniped the two at the back as the others went down, and the scouts were ready as eight returned from the previous batch.

“Ye’re goin’ t’ be busy until they are basically snapping up constantly, aren’t ye, lass?” the Mick asked in the short pause.

“Yes. So, might get some chasing. I’ll have to ask Her Highness to stay out here as a safeguard, at the least.”

“While we wait on the shore for a straggler or two to show, mayhap?” he asked darkly.

Wisps manifested. His hand rose.

“Why, that would be downright dishonorable and unchivalrous, Lord Mick.”

He didn’t need to laugh. All of the Royal Scouts did it for him.

“Aye, so it would,” he replied proudly, and his arm dropped.

Bowstrings thrummed, and wisps died. Kris hummed a killing tune of Heartsong, whispers of “Tremble, tremble…” curling around the notes in Markspace.

------

Eventually the Mick and his students pulled back to the shore, the Disks drifting slowly back over the waves as Kris stood there with me picking off more wisps.

Easy rep counts. In between, I even used Cantrips to haul all the expended arrows back to us and heap them on a spare Disk.

I quickly graduated to Split Ray and Chained spells, concentrating double damage on one and splitting it out into normal damage to the rest of them. I had to spend a LOT of mana for the Chain to apply to even an Iron-tier carrier spell, but the effect was obvious, as I could pop nearly two dozen at a time with the wildly zigzagging pair of Rays hitting for half damage each, and the Kickers on them for full.

Kris smirked at the sight. “I do notice you’re killing more than all of them together could do. Mages kill armies, eh?” she quoted quietly.