Omen: 7, 9
“What’s up?” Adam asked, sweeping his hair to the side. He pulled his breastplate over his nightval bear leather, which was already cooling him against the late dawnval heat.
Jurot shook his head. “Thinking.”
Adam blinked. “What?”
Jurot threw Adam a look. “What?”
“Nothing,” Adam replied, clearing his throat. “What are you thinking about?”
Jurot shook his head. “Iyr business.”
“Oh.” Adam nodded. When it came to the Iyr, the less he knew, the better he felt. He left Jurot to his thoughts, still finding it weird that he was thinking so deeply.
‘How?’ Jurot thought.
He had awoken in the morning, and had found a long trail of ash from the camp fire. He followed the trail to find a symbol which had been drawn into the dirt by a cane.
The Iyr’s language was made up of several different ways to speak, from using gestures, to speaking in their tongue, to symbols which they usually left on the group for other Iyrmen. Jurot had read the symbol near the temple which had warned him about the great danger ahead, and if the statues hadn’t been destroyed, they would have had quite the fight ahead of them.
The Crowseer had very little to do with the Iyr, Jurot, Kitool, and Jaygak were sure of that much. Yet, the symbol on the floor was undoubtedly the symbol which meant rising danger, danger which would come to them in the future.
‘How does he know the symbols of the Iyr?’
The language of the Iyrmen was secretive, and there were very few outsiders who spoke it. Then there were the symbols and gestures of the Iyrmen, which were kept secret, and some weren’t described in detail to even Jurot. Though the symbol had meant rising danger, it held a much deeper and more accurate meaning, but that had not been taught to the likes of him yet.
The Crowseer perhaps did have something to do with the Iyr, but he, Kitool, and Jaygak, were only Experts, so they may not have the privilege of such knowledge.
‘I need to send word back to the Iyr.’
Unfortunately, Jurot was busy on a quest. Dying in an Outbreak was a good death, but the question of dying for glory had been answered. They needed to live to inform the Iyr of this news.
Jaygak could see how Jurot was deep in thought. It was something she rarely saw from the young Iyrman. Even when they were children, Jurot barely thought, preferring to do than to think.
The news that Crowseer knew their language didn’t bother her much. Jurot and Kitool would bring the news back to the Iyr since she was the one most likely to die. Jurot had his rage to protect him when he was in the thick of things. Kitool had her mobility and her ability to cause creatures to freeze in place.
Jaygak? She had Stormdrake.
The group veered off to the side, away from the road, heading towards the distant hills. Adam could hear the grumblings whenever they took a break, and saw the two groups throw dirty looks towards him every so often. The punk fumed, but he remained calmed by his companions.
“It’s a shame that you had to come along into a group like this,” Adam said, sipping on his waterskin beside Rick.
“How do you mean?”
“I think the Guild brought you here to babysit a bunch of children.”
Rick looked back to the other group, which were full of youths, just like Adam’s group. However, Adam’s party had two very interesting individuals. “Elves aren’t liked much around these parts since that happened.”
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“Yeah,” Adam replied, nodding his head. “I heard. I’m only half an Elf, though, but I guess that doesn’t matter much.”
“Aye.”
“Nor does it matter that I’m not related to any of those Elves.”
“Aye.”
“Ain’t that a damn shame.”
“Aye.”
“At least you’re not so loud about it.”
“Aye.”
Adam nodded his head, sipping his water. “We’re here to work and make coin. We’ve got to look out for each other during the Outbreak. I’ll watch your back, you watch mine, and then once it’s all sorted out, we can go back to hating each other.”
“Aye.”
Adam nodded, leaving the farmer be. He wasn’t sure what they thought about him, but, at the very least, they seemed to be professionals.
The group continued on their way after their short break, before a shout came from upfront.
“Halt! Danger!” came a shout from up ahead.
“Halt! Danger!” came a closer shout, followed by another, before Rick shouted it back towards Adam, though they had heard it well enough.
“Apparently there’s some danger,” Adam said, calmly, to his companions.
Jurot’s eyes scanned the horizon up ahead, and he nodded. “Kurabaras.”
“Bless you.”
“What?” Jurot asked.
“Oh. You what?”
“Kurabaras.”
“What’s that?”
Jurot pointed ahead. “Lizard creatures whose backs are covered in scales as hard as stone.”
Adam looked out to where Jurot had pointed, and there were a horde of such creatures, numbering about two dozen. There were indeed as Jurot had described them. Lizards the size of tigers, with large scales on their back which seemed to be made of stone.
“Well, damn. They really are like lizards with stone scales.”
“Yes,” Jurot said. “That is what I said.”
Adam shrugged his shoulders. “They seem to be coming towards us.”
“Yes,” Jurot said, donning his shield.
Adam reached back casually and strapped his shield onto his arm. “How strong are they?”
“Very,” Jurot said. “Each is troublesome for an Expert.”
Adam blinked. “What?” He looked out to see at least twenty of them, and each would be difficult for an Expert? “Why didn’t you say that in the first place?” Adam moved ahead, watching as the other parties had already formed a dome around the carts, a shield wall ahead made up of the armoured group, and the ranged group behind them.
Adam joined beside Jurot as the rest of his party formed at least half the wall since most of them were well armoured and preferred to fight up close.
The ground began to rumble as the kurabaras charged towards them.
“We have to hold the line,” Oliver called, trying to calm the two younger parties.
“Can I Fireball them?” Adam asked, looking to his brother.
“Yes.”
Mana: 18 -> 15
Spell: Fireball
8D6 = 30 (1, 3, 3, 3, 4, 4, 6, 6)
30 damage!
Onward Soar: 0 -> 1
Mana: 15 -> 12
Spell: Fireball
8D6 = 24 (2, 2, 2, 2, 3, 3, 4, 6)
24 damage!
A quiet whoosh passed the group as Brittany shot her arrow, though it fell between a pair of kurabaras. The farmers also shot their own arrows, and continued doing so at the distant kurabaras.
Adam raised his axe towards the group of kurabaras. “Noonval’s a bitch.” Though he was wrong in his complaints, for it was still dawnval, his words were full of magic. His axe glowed for a moment, before the glow concentrated towards the head of the axe, and a tiny bead made of light shot forward towards the raging kurabaras.
The kurabaras were many metres away still, and arrows continued to fly towards them, though they dropped off the side of the creature’s stone backs. However, the bead fell behind a pair, and expanded, exploding into a roaring fire as it encompassed three of the kurabaras within its range, which could have easily swallowed an entire party whole.
The kurabras shook violently as the flames engulfed them all, causing them to cry and screech, but they continued to push forward.
However, Adam was not quite so simple. Onward Soar fuelled him with greater strength, allowing him to cast another Third Gate spell immediately, as he called forth the magics once more.
“Explosion!” he shouted, cutting the air with his axe. The motions were needed to channel the magic, and his Wizard’s Axe, which he could use as a focus, as the Mana flooded out through from his heart and through his veins. It was uncomfortable to cast Fireball so quickly, all within the span of a few seconds, but it was his greatest technique outside of guaranteeing critical hits.
This time he aimed the Fireball to another set of Kurabaras, focusing on whittling down their strength so that the others would have an easier time to deal with them. He aimed for the kurabaras which were on the opposite side, those which were charging towards the weaker parties which were sandwiches between the White Ghosts and Fate’s Golden.
Dunes and Vonda had also let loose a few spells, using their Tricks which had been empowered after they had become Experts.
However, from the other end of the line, Oliver stared at the kurabaras. ‘What?’ He swore he had seen one Fireball, but then another had appeared immediately afterwards. He didn’t know there was anyone who could cast such a spell within the group, but to see two Fireballs, back to back, was impossible.
He assumed it was both the Priests, but in the split second of him thinking, he was certain neither of them could cast the spell. Dunes was Aswadian, but he was definitely a follower of Lady Arya, Goddess of War, so it couldn’t have been him.
The confusion only lasted a moment as another set of arrows loosened to strike the kurabaras as they braced for the creature’s charge.