It took me a moment to process the burst of information. The smell of blood struck my mind to such an extent that I had to stop walking and hold myself back from upturning lunch. The smell of smoke was mixed in, giving me a faux sensation of burning my eyes and nose. The others noticed my retching and stopped, looking on with concern. Before they could say anything, however, I found my voice.
“We need to hurry. Linden seems to be aflame. Not sure if there’s a monster or people. Lots of,” I gagged as I recalled the smell of viscera and stink of decay. “Lots of dead. Unsure on survivors.”
“Slow down, Lios, whats going on?” Adrien raised a hand up just as Sky and Luka burst through the grass of the plains, having clearly rushed back.
“Blood! The town is on fire. We need to hurry and evaluate. Luka told me.” I spoke in short sentences as the smells and visions dissipated. I stood back up, still feeling sickly, and started to jog down the road, not waiting for them to follow. The foxes darted ahead of me, leading us to where they saw it.
“Lets follow for now but don’t rush into town. Linden is pretty large to be sieged like it sounds like, ten thousand strong.” Elric said as he started to jog after me. “We should probably go faster, can you handle it Lios? Its only a few miles away.”
I nodded and sped up, the rest exchanging a glance before they adorned serious expressions and followed. Soon, I saw smoke in the distance. Dark smoke, as though things that were not meant to burn were aflame. The smell of fire soon met our noses.
“I smell the blood. It must have been a damn massacre... Isn’t Linden filled with level hundred adventurers?” Amelia observed then asked. There was worry in her eyes and her usual cavalier attitude had vanished.
“Aye, there tend to be a bunch of em. Cheaper to live and grow there.” Adrien affirmed and furrowed his brow. “Lios, can you have the foxes investigate? They are harder to notice than us and quicker too. Especially Sky.”
“I’ll tell them, see if they can find anything out.” I sent the request through our link and both animals quickly shot off like an arrow. We were pretty quick but getting more information sooner would be integral to evaluating the situation. Our link only allowed us to communicate for a couple of miles, but as we were just behind them it shouldn’t take overlong until we got the information.
I told them to be careful, to not take any risks. They both sent confirmation that they would do their best. I felt a twinge of fear from the foxes but also a steeliness in their desire to help, in their curiosity over the cities plight. I could tell that Luka wanted nothing more than to protect me and that in his mind, helping us get to the bottom of this would in turn help me stay safe.
As we jogged, taking four miles quickly and seeing the cities walls rise in the distance beneath the hazy smoke, I felt a sense of trepidation and concern. If there truly were so many level hundred adventurer’s in the city, I found it difficult to imagine such destruction would lay waste to a city of this size. Ten thousand was a large number, and if even one percent were level one hundred or higher I couldn’t imagine what foe they faced to decimate Linden so.
As we grew closer I felt the connection with the foxes reestablish and Sky, this time, sent over a word “Humans” and images of a slew of masked, robed masculine figures. The odd thing was that they were all similar heights, if not the same height. Their stature was much the same as each other as well. Alongside this, she said “Big Building. Moms and Kits. No Dads.”
It took me a few moments to process the bits of information. “Humanoid assailants, lots of them. Unknown on the number. Masked, with black and red robes. People held in a large building, longhouse of some sort? No men, only women and children. Nothing about the bodies.”
“Ask the foxes to take up a spot and inform us of the positions of these figures. Maybe see if Sky can map out the area with her wind, subtly. We don’t want to expose them. Luka can start making some trap spots in the roads, or try to discover what their doing” Liana started to strategize. She knew more than me about Luka and Skys abilities at this point, even if they couldn’t speak.
“Have him prioritize finding what they're up to. It sounds like they have held the citizens captive and killed everyone else. It’s hard to believe they’d just flee, after all.” Elric spoke up, picking up the pace. “We will need to be in tip top shape. Lets leave our packs near the farmhouse over there, I’m not seeing any life and they should be safe.”
Without a word we followed him and quickly doffed the bags. We were waiting on a response from Luka and Sky, and decided it was best to wait until we had some more information. Sky had set up atop a building and was observing the large building that had guards at each entrance. Luka was burrowing underground, using his magic to sense what was above him to an extent. Neither reported anything overly interesting. Until, that is, Sky showed me that the robed figures had entered the building and exited with two women.
I requested that Luka follow them from beneath, and to stay out of sight. He assented as I described the happenings within Linden.
“Lios, now may be a good time to attempt to do something. Be warned, typically people don’t try this until their class evolution but... You have a powerful will and higher stats than others at your level...” Liana seemed to be trying to convince herself of what she wanted me to do.
“What is it?”
“She’s talking about sharing senses with your companions. They currently only ever send an image or sense to you at a time, and usually its even muted through your connection. What Liana is talking about is them allowing you to see, smell, hear, feel, what they do while the connection is established.” Amelia said before she turned back towards the town, a frown on her face. “I don’t like this, it feels... culty. Were there any active cults in the area?” She asked the last bit to Adrien who shook his head.
“Not that I know of. Okay. Liana, cast invisibility on myself, Elric, and Amelia. Then recover your mana and meet us in town when available. The rest of us are going to get in a decent position to strike once we see an opening. Lios, connect with Sky if you can and look for an opening to rescue the townsfolk.” He sighed heavily, clearly debating something. “The enemy is above your paygrade, they were able to take over a town with a hundred fairly high level people. I’d guess at least one level two hundred. Do not engage unless necessary, do you understand me?”
I nod before closing my eyes, sitting on the porch of the quaint empty farmhouse. There was no blood or anything, and the horses were gone from the stable, making me wonder if they had fled to Ironfell. Though, they’d have to go around the town to get there so perhaps not. I tried to pull on the connection with Sky as I watch everyone but Liana take off through [Portent].
I was at 85% mana so I dropped the skill for a bit, wanting to top myself up before I ran into town. I meditated, pulling on the telepathic connection I had with Sky and asking her to let me in. She didn’t understand at first. I pulled on it again and this time I felt a twinge of pain behind my eyes.
I heard a ding of notification but still couldn't see through her eyes. This time she tried to invite me, pulling on the connection herself and the headache increased. I breathed deeply, still unable to see from her eyes, but hearing sounds that weren’t here with me. I heard both the light sound of wind brushing over the farm and the bustle of boots from her much more sensitive ears.
I severed the connection, my skull pounding and I let out a groan. Tears dripped down my cheeks as Liana moved towards me in concern. I held open a hand and shook my head, determined even with the pain, to do what I could. If the team thought it was a good Idea for me to see from Skies eyes and scout then thats what I’d do.
“You may need to move closer, its harder over a distance.” Liana said quietly, trying not to disturb me. I nodded in agreement and opened my eyes.
“Noted, lets get closer then.” I smiled wanly, in part glad for the distraction, I had only tried to connect a couple times and each time sent more pain to my head.
“Sure, but once we get close I’ll have to join everyone else. They’re investigating at this time but... there’s no quest yet in the book so I don’t believe anyone knows whats happening here yet. We have to hurry.”
I stood and ran quickly beside her, she was still faster but went slower beside me. As we got closer to the city I looked for a spot nearby I could hide out in. I settled on a spot beside the walls that had some bushes just beside it, and the wall was low enough I felt I could easily scale it.
“If you can’t get the connection then fret not, and join Sky. Have Luka joining you two, you're not strong enough on your own to join the fight but if you work together and select the right opponents you can help. I wouldn’t guess the guards for the citizens are especially powerful, the most powerful will be wherever they're dragging the people.”
Before I could say anything else she bolted away, casting invisibility on herself as well. There was a faint shimmer where she was, and I could barely tell where it was even as I paid attention. Briefly I considered if I should make an invisibility sword dance but refocused before I pulled myself into the musings. Shaking my head I made my way to the spot near the walls and sat cross legged on the dirt between a couple of bushes. I had to bat away some flies but quickly focused, ignoring the discomfort.
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I reached out through my connection again and tried to pull myself towards Sky this time. Immediately the pain came back but it was dulled. A ding in the background for another notification. I ignored it as I took a deep breath and suddenly, despite my eyes being closed, I saw through Skies eyes. The world, as she perceived it, was significantly less vibrant. It was muted, almost pastel, and missed most if not all shades of red and green. She moved her head as she lay on her belly stealthily atop a roof. Below I saw men in those robes standing still at each of the entrances. My [Intuition] flared out at me, and despite the budding headache I knew I could handle the guards. Liana was right, the more powerful foes were elsewhere.
I watched on for a few moments until some pair of the robed figures entered the longhouse and came back out with two young girls. I frowned at this, ignoring the pain behind my eyes as I urged Luka to follow them from beneath.
I switched from Sky, enamored by my new connection with them, and focused on Luka. He was underground, and the smell of dirt and worms and dust and roots flooded my olfactory nerves. It nearly overwhelmed me as my physical body sneezed. Above, I could vaguely sense the vibrations as the figures walked towards the city center. I felt the amount of mana in the air increase and, more importantly, smelled the blood that was rotting in the earth, soaked in deep. The iron of the blood, the scent of decay and even human waste - urine, fecal matter, blood - flooded our noses and caused me to gag heavily, breaking the concentration.
I stood, feeling the need to go where Sky was, to take out the guards and begin leading the citizens away from the long house. Amelia’s intuition seemed correct, some sort of cult had attacked the city and were forming some kind of ritual.
“Sky, Luka, please direct me. Help me avoid them. We need to save those people while Adrien and the rest fight the big bads” I sent through our bonds, ignoring the nosebleed that had come with the headache. I climbed up over the guardless wall and ducked down behind a barrel of water that was upon the wall. I saw bloodstains and viscera but no bodies.
Growling, not taking much time to observe the surroundings, I turned on [Portent] to avoid ambush. I quickly jumped from the fifteen foot wall, rolling to break the fall, as I received an affirmative from the foxes. Luka was closing in on my location, from beneath, and Sky observed from her perch. Such a weird, birdlike, fox she was.
Drawing my sword I took a moment to verify there were no foes in my immediate area, [Portent] had increased in range by half a meter per level, giving me a pretty decent range of thirty or so meters to observe. Confident that there was nothing around me I started to make ym way to Sky. Luka sent me messages as he found people to avoid. Part of me wanted to take them out now before they were a problem, but the other part didn’t want to get us noticed so I snuck around instead.
It took around ten minutes of sneaking and pausing at times to reach the back of the longhouse that held everyone. We weren’t aware if there were guards inside, so I asked Luka to check. Waiting a few more moments, he came back saying there were no masked men in there. Even after feeling the vibrations through his senses, I wasn’t sure how he perceived if there were masked figures or not.
I took a few steadying breaths, looking out at the two masculine figures standing still beside the door. “Luka, can you send spikes up through their legs when I make my move and Sky, do you have anything to isolate their screams?” I ask the foxes.
Isolate? Sky’s soft, girly voice appeared in my head.
“Like... make it so no one else can hear them?”
No Big Brother. Came her reply, sounding a bit upset that she didn’t have that ability.
Rethinking my plan for a moment I decided to rush them, and quickly cast “Energy Burst”. The spell, as before, allowed my body to exceed its typical limits while not going so far as to tear my muscles or bones. Still, the strain of it was enough that I was reluctant to use it too many times in succession.
I cast the spell and felt energy flood my body, external mana electrifying my muscles and I jolted forward, coming from around the house behind which I had hidden. I rushed towards the two figures who took a moment to move to action. Before they could move or dodge away from me, and even draw their weapons, rocky spikes stabbed upwards and through their feet, keeping them pinned. The next second I was upon them and my sword lashed out, severing ones neck before he could call out. The other started to draw the dagger on his hip and let out a soft cry, but I reacted before the sound could go too far by shoving the point of my longsword through his mouth. The sound cut off as I pierced the mans brain and I panted as the spell started to fade, my muscles aching minorly from the stress and quick movements.
I quickly pulled the bodies to the side and searched them for a key or something to the building. I found nothing, but did pull some pouches of coins from the body. As far as I knew there was still a touch of time before I would be discovered, so I pulled them into an empty building nearby, and tried to kick some dirt over the blood stains that had been left on the cobblestone near the building.
I glanced up at Sky, telling her to let me know if anyone was approaching, and then sent a pulse to Luka to do the same. It was like having my very own satellite system, and both of them had powerful skills to help with scouting. Not to mention their senses being, on average, better than those of humans. Sky sent me an affirmative and I felt the wind pick up a little bit. I wasn’t positive what the ability was called but it seemed like she was using the wind to find where people, objects, or beasts were. Luka sent his own affirmative but I felt no magic from him, only that he entered the tunnels he had already made beneath the longhouse that housed a solid number of people.
I reached for the handle to the door, eager to evacuate some folks. Before I did so, though, I considered how I’d get them out as I hadn’t cleared a path. I sighed and turned.
Luka, can you try to find an escape route for the people in the building? May have to kill some more cultists... The fox immediately replied and I felt him burrow around beneath the roads. Like Sky, he had a better senses than humans, but now with his earth affinity and with Liana’s help, he was able to sense things above the earth as well as within it. He used this ability to hide and then ambush his prey fairly frequently, and I had been privileged to see it happen a few times. Don't engage, I’ll handle any of that, if you find someone.
__________________________________________
Luka burrowed faster than before, expending mana quickly but he knew haste was necessary. Papa had asked him to find a route for the folk in the big cabin, and he couldnt help but wish he was big enough to make a tunnel for them. Someday, someday he’d be able to make people tunnels and not just critter tunnels.
He wizzed through the series of tunnels he had made that connected to the various sewers. He hated using the sewers too, but knew he would run out of energy far too quickly if he didn’t use the stinky tunnels. He growled softly at some normal rats that inhabited the place as he rushed past, warning them that he was not prey, he was the hunter.
The rats and mice and other vermin that pervaded the stinky tunnels scattered as he rushed past, warned by the subtle vibrations he sent through the earth to map the surface. Above, he could feel the buildings and found several spaces where people had fled to underground. Smart people, smart smart! Underground is best for hiding. He though to himself, assured they would be fine for a while, as he turned his attention to the many pairs of people walking the streets. Some folk were checking the houses and things but didn’t seem to be looking for anything in particular, they were hardly taking anything just looking.
Nobody that was on the street was alone, all of them carried weapons and from what he could tell all wore a mask and a robe. Some felt like they had armor beneath it, but he wasn’t sure. They all seemed powerful. Very strong. Stronger than him and Sky, mostly weaker than Papa. Papa would hunt these dummies so fast. Luka felt self assured at the thought, as though his papa winning was an inevitability even against these folk.
He kept moving until he found a large, circular room in the sewers. It smelled worse than the rest of them and had light coming in from outside. He pushed his way through some debris blocking his way and tried his best not to smell anything as he nosed past the soft mounds in his way. Slowly he made his way to the top of the pile and looked about. He was horrified. Disgusted.
Luka was not particularly fond of humans in general. Aside from the spooky scary lady, the man with weird stripes, miss Liana, and the guy with the big sword, Luka didn’t care for any aside from Papa and his family. He couldn’t help it. Peoples were nice but they weren’t special. They could be prey too. Such as the man who had tried to step on Luka so long ago.
But even with his apathy for humans and peoplefolk, Luka was appalled at the site before him. Here, in the towns sewers, within a chamber meant to fill up so the sewer did not flood during a storm, what lay before him sent terror down his spine. His fur stood on end, and tail poofed out, bristling with anger, sorrow, fear, and malice. He felt Papa reach out through the connection, having felt the cursed emotions through their bond.
“Luka, are you okay, whats happening?” Papa’s voice emanated in his mind. He had to resist the urge to howl a lament, such a thing would not be stealthy. Before he could send a reply the light from above was blocked for a moment and he rushed to the side of the chamber, hoping not to be noticed. As he did so an object fell from above and, with a sickening thud, splattered against the bodies surrounding him.
Bodies that had been drained of their blood, and that had been cut into by countless blades. No teeth from what he could see. Only cuts and gouges and wounds meant to drain blood. The horror before him, thousands of people dumped into this stinky hole, dead. He shuddered and waited a few moments to make sure nothing else would fall, and made his way to where the newest addition had rolled down the pile of dead.
He sniffed it, found it to still be warm. It was a young woman, maybe Papa’s age. A young womans body that was still warm. Luka couldn’t help it, he let out a soft whimper before stifling himself. She, despite being wrinkly and her skin having sunk, reminded him of the nice girl that Papa talked to a few towns ago. She had the same kind of hair and nice eyes, eyes wide in terror now, but he could see how they should have been.
Finally, feeling the press of curiosity and concern from Papa, and even Sky, he sent Papa an image of the room.
He realized aside from the hole above, there was no exit. He attempted to retrace his steps but could not find the way he came in. He started sniffing at the wall to see if there was a way to break through, to tunnel again to the surface or deeper underground, but his search was interrupted by a tremble beneath and around him. Dust rained down and then he heard it. A massive sound, like a rumble of fire or thunder. The sound of a waterfall, perhaps, although brief. It was an explosion or crash, he couldn’t tell which from beneath the earth. He hastened his search for an escape, feeling he would be needed elsewhere.