“...Behold the new day!”
Light streamed over the peaks and mountains that remained to the east of us as the Salute to Aru finished. Lightly breathing soldiers knelt to receive the touch of revitalization and benevolent encouragement, now appreciating the little gesture far more than they had only a couple of days ago.
Tou-Tou was due north of us, up over one mount on a well-trod path clearly scored by the thousands of Shaded that had taken it over the years, coming down to the shores and roving about madly until they were killed, doubtless only to do it again.
Armor was retrieved from the floating silvery-translucent Disks they’d been heaped on for the morning run, quivers were slung, Weapons readied and examined, mana topped.
There was a line of humanoid forms up top on the ridge waiting for us. As the drums began to pound and the army of the living turned, the undead waiting there waved flags to let the Moon Legion of Master Ben Ten know we were coming. The undead archers who had fought with us had already rejoined him, so it was for us to get up there and lead the way in, while the Freeholders and Moon Legion prevented any breakouts.
“Feel the land TREMBLE! Long Stride, Sound Off!”
“Tremble, Tremble!” everyone called back to Warlord Kristie Rantha’s voice of command rippling over them with Heartsong’s power.
“We passed the beach, we passed the stones!”
“We passed the broken, shattered bones!”
“We stood the test, we made the Stand! Long stride!”
“One, two!”
“Sound off!”
“Three, four!”
“Boots coming down!”
“Tremble, Tremble!”came ringing back to her, and the pace picked up, echoes of the old power that had once enabled the residents of Dereth to run as fast as a racing horse pulsing through them now.
“Up the mountain, and up the hill!”
“On up to where the booze flows still!”
“Across the hill, across the sand! Long stride!”
“One, two!”
“Sound off!”
“Three, four!”
“Boots coming down!”
“Tremble, Tremble!”
This was an aspect of the Trembling Song not seen quite so often, employed as a marching tune and not a battle hymn. Warlords could do all sorts of stuff if they were Heartsingers, and a boost to movement rate while effectively neutralizing the fatigue involved was actually fairly minor. The lugians off to the sides pounding the drums were actually the most important part of the cadence.
“My lover waits, for my return!”
“Their need so great, they’re like to burn!”
“On satin sheets with trembling hands! Long stride!”
“One, two!”
“Sound off!”
“Three, four!”
“Boots coming down!”
“Tremble, Tremble!”
Hooting enthusiastically, the living surged up for a great standing place of horror, spirits aflame and ready to put down something even the best of the elders at the height of their power had never been able to.
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“Eyes in the sky are up!” I announced, as the Eagle’s Vantage materialized a thousand feet overhead and gave me a bird’s-eye tactical view of the situation, which I promptly fed over to Kris, who shared it with all the Marked who needed to appreciate the tactical display and make instant decisions on the ground when needed.
Tellingly, it was very, very similar to a certain area of empty beach on Ithaenc which had been Shaped and formed into a pattern of ruins and streets for some arcane purpose, and these soldiers run through it in drills that were now reality.
Shielded by the lines of undead, the first splitting into twelve teams, six on breaker duty, six to defend them, took place. The squads and companies ran to their places around the city, looking down on the dark and corrupted stone and soil, making out the very, very familiar layout of where they had to go and what they had to do.
Adjunct officers working with the undead had their archers form up in lines, ready to advance as the living did, preceding their attacks with magic and arrow fire to soften up the Shaded there.
These were true Summons we had to face, and the undead had been looking hard for any free-willed shades or anything that might be able to command the forces below, at which point our tactics would have to shift quickly if the guardians arranged themselves intelligently around the locations below we had to hit. The undead hadn’t seen any signs of such intelligence, and we were all pretty damn sure that any that had stayed there long enough to evade our eyes would be as mad and deranged as the rest of the things, unable to effectively command.
We’d only have to worry about the Shaded proccing one another off nearby combats, but that was what the Dark Poles and the Sound Bubbles were for.
The former were spells of Continual Darkness 15’ radius, put on the end of twenty-foot poles and so basically a form of complete visual interdiction.
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The Sound Bubbles naturally enough encapsulated all the sound in a given area, completely swallowing the calls, commands, clashings, and crunching sounds of combat in a confined bubble.
No sight, no sound, no procs. At most the Summons would be wary of the silent bubble of darkness moving around, nothing more, and would not move unless they had actual targets to face.
The bubbles looked odd, floating behind and off to the sides of the assembled troops, but the tactic had been tested on Summons across the Vesayans to make sure that it worked, and it had performed fine.
Flags dipped in unison at Kris’ command. The undead trotted forward to within arrow range of the outer archers, the marguls, grievvers, and zefirs just holding position. The first spells went off, lighting the Shaded up in damage-magnifying Vulns and armor-softening Imperils, and the fight was on as the living charged down the hills towards the Shadow Pillars.
The Shaded were in clusters, usually in numbers of one to four. Sometimes it was mixed species, sometimes it was all the same, but the points and the places were all known, and the living forces rolled down the hill and into the fight knowing what to do, where to go, and how it would all play out.
Well, everyone but the paramounts who hadn’t bothered to engage in that kind of practice, as there hadn’t been any actual Karma for them to harvest while running about like fools. They got quite a surprise, as they were ALL in reserve positions for this fight, only to engage after the soldiers did, even in direct combat against the Summons themselves. The Casters were there only to Heal and Dispel at this point, because the point-blank War Magic and Vulns coming in were going to be brutal, and everyone knew it.
But everyone deployed, the head melees crashing into the Summons, and the nets swirled out to trap and bind, discrete and separate combats allowing the tactic to be used multiple times easily now. Sound Bubbles led the vanguard, restricting all the noise and clamor to the immediate area, while the men with the long Dark Poles streamed past with the poles held horizontally, severing line of sight to the next Summons.
Even if they’d seen the living advance, without that visual or audible trigger from being in range, the Summons wouldn’t advance without external orders!
Marked were relaying Kris’ and my observations from above, watching the tactical display for their area to see what was coming and how the Shaded were responding. The biggest dangers were the Fire Pillars and the Shadow Vortexes; every Shadow Pillar was in spell range to at least one team, and the maddened elemental forces inside each of them were eager to unleash some devastating spells upon the attackers.
The Shield Wallers were there precisely to draw that fire, tower Shields up and locking together, making sure they were the first and closest from each company to the spell-hurling, writhing fonts of energy. Their Shields locked tight as the magic came in, with those assigned to Shadow Vortexes additionally Mass Death Warded.
Incantor-level magic of flame and nether energies pounded at them and their Enhanced, Hardened, and Impervious Shields, additionally Fire Baned to take half the damage straight off from at least the Fire Pillars. Some really obdurate steel shook as it took the hits… but take it the Shields did, as the Shades were cut down around and behind them.
The primary teams ripped through the Shaded with coordinated ease and speed, while the secondary teams closed on the Shadow Pillars and proceeded to hack them down.
Touch of Adamant, Sundering, and Breaking were the Artificer contributions to the Weapons wielded against the things. We’d been informed that they weren’t pseudo-alive like the Fire Pillars and the Shadow Vortexes were, and they were true pains to hack down and destroy.
It turned out they were as vulnerable to adamantine’s ability to chew through softer materials as almost everything else, and the men and lugians with the big Axes, who’d spent a lot of time practicing on speed-lumberjacking trees, went to it with rhythm, purpose, and a great deal of speed and energy. Vivus was blazing up with every cadenced hit, Axes biting into the unnatural stone with great vigor while the primary company rolled forward, officers calling the advance section by section to get to new spawns without drawing in too many fireballs from above. The Vantage sight from above was priceless for telling them exactly where to go and how far to pivot their lines down the streets, even when the Dark Poles cut off line-of-sight on the ground.
I was laying in Fastcast Shard volleys, ripping through the Summoned with repeated twisted Shardrays that zipped through empty windows, down crumbled alleyways, and around the edges of ruined buildings and foundations, Seeking the targets I painted from above. I brought them down with repeated volleys as they tried to run and find whoever was blasting them, and found no targets in ready sight… at least not before they were basically dead. The combination of a vertical line of sight and Seeking meant I didn’t need to be anywhere near them as long as I knew the path to get there, and it didn’t have too many twists and turns.
The rest of the time I was on ranged Heal reserve, specifically Breath of Life if it was needed, and it definitely was. Within the first minute of fighting I had to bring back four men who would have died to near-simultaneous War Magic going off on them, and could only shake my head at it all. The Shaded didn’t coordinate, but they only had a limited set of pre-melee and ranged attack options, so coincidences were inevitable, if undesired.
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The Mick hewed the head from the Void Lord, which was wrapped up tight by three Aun who’d been handling nets since they were children. He jumped back to give them room to unwind the wrapped corpse as it started to Burn, no time to waste, glancing at the Vantage view and pointing with Bunita to their next target before the Aun were done.
Fire was exploding against his Shield Wall team, with Harms and Drains coming in to accent it, keeping the mages busy with counter-Healing. A margul was all wrapped up and being pounded to paste by some heavy Hammers, while a bunch of sharp Blades hacked apart some sprawled and twitching black and green Grievver Shredders, also tied up and unable to move effectively.
The shades were actually the hardest to corral, with the zefirs not enjoying the Stillflight Zone in place and being easily netted with wire-woven catch-nets, pinned, and beat to a pulp as they meeped and jumped about frantically, trying to get free.
The soldiers had a lot of coordinated practice beating down a lot of gourds and coconuts, getting that cadence down to maximum speed so they didn’t interfere with one another. Groups of five counted off at great speed, not slowing down and yet not getting in each others way as they hacked, hammered, or stabbed at their bound targets, giving their stunned targets precious little time to struggle, try to evaluate their options, and most especially not get off another spell while tied up like they were.