Kedyn groaned in relief as he collapsed face first to the ground, the sweet smelling grass wrapping around him like a soft blanket as his body went numb to the world around him.
“I couldn’t have said it better meself,” Gent grunted, tenderly lowering himself to sit next to him.
“He’s a monster,” Kedryn said into the dirt.
“Aye, but which one are ye referring to?” Gent replied, exhaustion and pain underpinning every word.
“Both.”
Eight hours. That had been how long it had taken Helmund to finally, blessedly, call a halt to their first day of travel, and Glade had made them run the entire time while Bragden had thrown those accursed rocks.
“I can’t feel anything below my knees,” Kedryn mumbled, wondering exactly how he had been insane enough to agree to this torture.
“I haven’t had naught but water pass these lips since sun up,” Gent complained, looking at his waterskin like it was the most vile thing in the world. “I swear, if that bald rock tosser has had so much as a drop more’n his fair share o’ the mead, I’ll… I’ll…”
Gent’s voice trailed off. Kedryn didn’t have the energy to lift his head, but he could well imagine his friend’s face was likely screwed up in thought as he tried, and failed, to come up with some form of satisfactory retribution for their sadistic magic instructor.
After a long pause, Gent finally muttered, “I’ll think o’ something. After I’ve had a bit o’ rest…”
“Are they going to be ok?” he heard Riya ask. She had remained quiet throughout most of the day, silently watching him and Gent be pelted with rocks while being run into the ground. He could only assume she was still hurting at losing her father. Either that or she was worried about her people. Either would be significant burdens for anyone to bear, which was why he had tried to talk to her the previous day.
No one should have to bear those kinds of burdens alone. Then again, he wasn’t sure he could stand, let alone process anyone else’s problems right now.
“They’ll be right as mithril once they get some food in ‘em,” Bragden laughed, dropping their bedrolls just out of Kedryn’s reach, the jerk. He seriously contemplated using the last dregs of his mana to attack the bald dwarf. Not that it would do them any good. He still couldn’t move and throwing the dwarf a few feet away wouldn’t do anything other than strain his mana channels further.
“I still think we need to take a look at his nose,” Riya said with a hint of worry. “I think that last rock may have broken it.”
“Bah, it was good for him!” Bragden dismissed the comment with a casual wave of his hand as he crouched down between him and Gent, looking at the two. “But the more important question is, which one o’ ye lay abouts is going to make me dinner?”
Kedryn didn’t stop to think. He raised his hand without looking and triggered his spell.
An explosion of air blasted out from his hand. But when there wasn’t a sound of protest, Kedryn finally summoned the will to raise his head.
The torrent of air kicked up grass and dirt, revealing what appeared to be an invisible shield directly in front of Bragden, who was grinning madly down at him.
Honing his mind, Kedryn pushed the rest of his mana into the spell, tweaking the flows of magic just so…
Bragden’s smile quickly turned to confusion as the sphere that was supposed to protect him suddenly lifted off the ground. With one final, mental push, the surly dwarf, shield and all, was thrown back five feet.
“By the Mother!” Bragden breathed, sitting up from where he had landed to stare at Kedryn in disbelief. “I had enchanted meself a shield to protect me from that infernal blast o’ yours, but yer magic shouldn’t have been able to do that! What in the abyss did ye just do?”
Kedryn let his head fall back into the grass, the headache from bottoming out his mana already setting in. But after the day he had? Seeing that incredulous look on Bragden’s insufferable face was like the cherry on top of the world's largest ice cream sunday. Perfection!
The day had started out horrible. He hated running just as much as the next guy, but never let it be said that Bei’Kedryn, the royal elf, ever backed down from a challenge! Especially since it was more of an order from his commanding officer. So, run he did.
If he were being honest with himself, the running hadn’t been that hard for the first three hours or so. It was more of an airborne shuffle. He didn’t even have to wear a pack on his back, which made the whole affair even easier. Combine that with Cirea’s stories and Glade’s pointed questions? It had been like living an actual training montage! He was even able to begin brainstorming what to do about his future Corporeal attunement.
Throw in Bragden’s insane magical training and it should have been a perfect day.
But then Glade had cheated using his mana manipulation speciality.
It had taken more than an hour to even detect when the Captain was interfering with his magic, let alone figuring out how to stop him. A whole hour! During that time he had been pelted with rocks and dirt clods, one of which he was certain had been something that came out of the south end of a north bound mule.
Of course, once he had figured out how to detect Glade’s underhanded use of magic, he was able to develop a counter.
He almost grinned as he pulled up his notifications, but thought better of it. Smiling would take far too much energy.
Congratulations! Due to your unwise activity in which your heart rate exceeded that of what is considered within safe parameters, you have gained +1 to Endurance.
Congratulations! You have increased your multi-cast skill to level 3, 4, and 5!
Congratulations! Not only were you able to detect someone interfering with your spell casting, but you figure out how to reassert control by reinforcing your mana flow! As such, you have learned the skill, Mana Control! No longer is a spell simply static or open, by adding or removing mana, you can now shape your spells to better fit your desired outcomes or maintain control.
Warning! Mana channel limitations are still in effect!
All in all, the bonuses he had gained for the hard day's work had more than paid off. Yes, it cost more mana to retain control of his spells whenever Glade tried to mess with him, but so long as he had the larger channels he would be fine. What’s more, his mana control skill had let him pump a little bit of extra juice into his spell just now, which had been the deciding factor in allowing him to throw Bragden as far as he had.
Now all he had to do was get his raging headache under control.
“Did ye hear me?” Bragden growled, stomping up to Kedryn. “How under the Mother’s embrace did ye do that?”
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“Can ye do it again?” Gent asked, eyeing first his waterskin and then Bragden dubiously.
“Out of mana,” Kedryn’s muffled voice said into the dirt.
“Figures,” Gent sighed.
“Let him have his rest,” he heard Glade chuckle. “But maybe a bit of healing would be in order? He does need to be able to sit up to meditate tonight.”
There was a light touch on his shoulder before golden life flooded through Kedryn’s fatigued and worn out body, which absorbed the energies like desert sand soaking up the rain.
A loud groan of relief escaped his lips.
“I don’t know if I should feel embarrassed or complimented,” Riya said before smacking the back of his head.
“Now, don’t ye be forgetting your dear friend Gent,” their hunter said, giving her his best puppy dog eyes, which honestly looked more like a dying carp than a simpering pup. Still, she didn’t hesitate.
“Having a healer in the group is cheating,” Cirea laughed, having just unhitched the horses and was leading them toward the center of the camp.
Kedryn opened his mouth to retort when he heard one of the caravan’s scouts shout from somewhere outside the camp.
“We’ve got a nest of Devourer Beetles just over the rise!” the man called. Turning, Kedryn saw the man jogging back to camp, a look of disgust on his face.
He was just about to ask what devourer beetles were when as a whole, the group stopped setting up camp and began gathering torches and other things.
“What’s happening?” Glade asked, looking toward Cirea.
“Devourers,” she repeated what the scout had said as if that explained everything.
“What now?” Kedryn chimed in, but was stopped from asking anything further by Riya.
“For those of you not from the grasslands,” she explained, already moving to the back of their wagon where their own stash of torches and wood were kept, “devourers are pests that, if left unchecked, will become a regional threat given enough time. It is one of those unspoken rules within the grasslands that if you come across a nest you destroy it. If you can’t, you report it straight away.”
“What happens if…” Kedryn began, but was interrupted by Cirea.
“How about you make yourself useful and grab as much wood as you can carry. I’m sure all of your questions will be answered when you see it for yourself.”
“What about the horses?” Glade asked, though oddly he wasn’t looking toward the camp. He was staring off toward where the scout had come from. Looking about, Kedryn realized that all the caravaneers were mobilizing.
“They’ll be fine,” Cirea said, already striding out of the camp with a huge barrel of wood under one arm and a shovel over her shoulder. “Lun’Svet is guarding them. Besides, the scouts would have already checked for bandits and predators know to stay away from devourer swarms.”
“Swarms?” Kedryn gulped. The only reason he didn’t speak up further was because nobody seemed to be freaking out. Instead, they were all heading in the direction the scout had indicated.
Not seeing anything else that he could do, Kedryn joined the others, grabbed some firewood and torches, and headed out.
As they walked, they overheard Grant speaking with the scout.
“How big of a nest?”
“Looks to be only a couple of days old,” the scout reported. “Four at the most. It wasn’t here when we came through, I can tell you that much.”
“And you checked for bandits in the area?” Glade asked, looking out past the hills.
“It doesn’t feel right to me either,” the scout replied. “It's too convenient if you ask me. A new nest, right next to our camp. But I checked. Did two full sweeps before reporting the nest.”
“Fair enough. We’ll need all hands if we’re going to destroy the nest,” Grant said, giving Glade an odd look.
The rest of what the caravan guard captain said was lost to him as they crested the hill and Kedryn saw a devourers' nest for the first time.
The sun sat low over the horizon of the eternal grasslands, with nothing but knee high grass, a few bushes, and a solitary road that seemed to stretch on for miles. The only exception was a black pit at the base of the hill that looked to be about 30 feet in diameter.
“By the Mother,” Bragden breathed.
“Thank the Overseer it's still small,” Helmund said, coming up from behind, his expression grim. “Still, it's going to be well past midnight before we’re done here.”
“Alright, this ain’t nothing we haven’t seen before,” Grant called out, giving Glade an odd sort of nod before the two walked determinedly down the hill. “Except this time, we’ve got some guests that can lend us a hand!”
There were a few murmurs of agreement, and some chuckles as Cirea flexed her arms in some pose that emphasized her bulging arms. He couldn’t help but notice her tight leathers also showed off some shapely legs.
There was a smack, and Kedryn turned just in time to see Bragden glaring at Gent.
“What was that for?” Gent whispered, rubbing the back of his head. “I wasn’t doing nothing!”
“Yeah, but ye were thinking it!” Bragden hissed.
Kedryn stifled a chuckle as his friend muttered something under his breath about it being ok to look, which earned him another smack upside the head. For once, Kedryn was glad it wasn’t him being told off.
“For those of you who are new here, we’ll be dividing up into four teams,” Grant continued. “Those with shovels, start on the firebreak. Wind is blowing from the southeast, so we’ll be digging the fire breaks to the north. Those without shovels, you’re on beating or picking detail. Your team lead will tell you which. Any questions?”
Kedryn had a thousand questions, but one look from Riya told him this was not the time or place to be asking. Instead, he followed their lead.
Cirea immediately began shoveling a good distance away from the beetles, scooping out mounds of dirt as if it was nothing bust soft sand. In moments, she had dug the trench wide and deep, throwing the dirt high up on the outside of the trench. There were five others with shovels, who worked quickly, but nowhere near as fast.
Everyone else simply began beating down or pulling grass inside the trench area.
“Why are we…” Kedryn began but was interrupted by Riya.
“This is the way humans have devised to deal with devourer nests,” she said, pulling out tufts of grass and throwing it toward the churning mass of beetles. “Our job is to slow down the swarm until the fire break is complete. Once it is done, there will be some well placed fires which should spread toward the nest and kill it.”
“Then what’s all the firewood for?” he asked, looking at the piles of wood they had scattered around the perimeter.
“Two reasons. The first is that grass doesn’t burn long enough to kill the larger devourers,” she said with a grunt, pulling up another clump.
“And the second?”
Before RIya could ask, there was a yelp of pain as their waggoneer jumped back from where he was pulling his own tuft of grass. A four inch long black beetle with serrated pincers was embedded into the man’s hand.
“Dammit!” Grant swore, ripping the beetle out and beating it with the length of wood in his hand.
“No more picking! Beating only!” he cried.
The crowd groaned, and started beating the grass with either their feet if they had heavy boots or the lengths of wood in their hands.
“This sucks,” Kedryn sighed, wishing he hadn't left his staff in the cart as Riya healed the man.
“Oh, not yet it don’t,” an old man laughed at him. “Wait till it gets dark!”
----------------------------------------
“Is it times yet?” one of the more edgy hired fodder whined from behind their blind.
“Not until they light the fires,” Yelenzi replied lazily, laying back in the grass with his hands behind his head. The trick to working with the less disciplined races like the ratkin was to beat them into submission so there is no question as to who was in charge... or so his father had told him. Or was it the guild master? It was someone important, he was sure. But that way was boring. So, he had improvised.
“Jorn Jorn, the mighty slayer of Fire Claw, thinks we should attack now,” his edgy fodder declared, slamming the butt of his wooden spear to the ground for emphasis.
Yawning, Yelenzi pulled a piece of grass from the ground and put it in his mouth.
“Jorn Jorn is a wise leader,” Yelenzi commented in what he hoped was a positive tone before tipping his hat over his eyes. The caravan would be working for hours to prepare the firebreaks. Until then, he could get some rest. He just needed to get this worked up hairball to relax a bit.
“Yes,” Jorn said, standing tall. Yelenzi didn’t know if his name was Jorn or Jorn Jorn, but the double name thing was beginning to give him a headache. “Jorn Jorn is very wise!”
“And wise leaders always wait until their enemy is fully distracted. Afterall, that is how you wisely defeated Fire Claw, isn’t it?”
Yelenzi had actually killed the previous ratkin chief with a poisoned dart while the two idiots scrabbled at each other like, well... rats. But he doubted Jorn remembered that detail.
“And that is how we will defeat these enemies!” Jorn declared, slamming his spear into the ground again.
Yelenzi was grateful he had put their blind so far back. The noise this little piece of fodder was making would have drawn attention if they were any closer.
“So, we’ll wait until they light the fires?” Yelenzi prompted.
“Yes!” Jorn declared, turning to his pack. “We wait until they light the fires!”
Yelenzi settled into the grass with a contented sigh. Sometimes, he really loved his job.