Glade crushed one of the larger beetles he had seen thus far under his boot, this one easily the size of his palm. Its serrated red mandibles were a couple of inches long and looked sharp enough to cut leather.
With a sigh, he moved onto the next one. It was getting harder to track the ever growing swarm within his mindscape as the beetles continued their relentless consumption of everything within their path. The caravan guard had been working for a solid two hours, persistently beating back the encroaching insects while the shovel squad dug the fire breaks. It was sweaty, back breaking work.
The problem was, the devourers were a never ending problem. So long as they had food, their queens could continuously reproduce their drones, which was the real threat of a devourer infestation. They’re only redeeming quality was that queens often had corporeal mana shards and other body parts that could be used as alchemical regents. That and the Free Cities paid out bounties for whoever provided proof that they took out a swarm.
As Glade sorted through the myriad of mental signatures to select his next target, Helmund’s lead guard, Grant, approached him.
“Any movement from our guests?” he asked, glancing toward the hills.
“Not yet,” Glade said, shaking his head. He oriented his mind back the 30 or so brighter minds just on the edges of his perception. “They’re still sitting in place, but they seem more agitated than before.”
“The honorless dogs are likely waiting until we light the swarm on fire,” Grant spat, his voice dark. “That’ll be when we’ll need every able bodied person to help contain bloody bugs.”
Glade refrained from speaking his thoughts aloud like he had before. Grant was an able bodied guard, but he was no military leader. While he trusted Glade for the intelligence he could provide, he didn’t trust him enough to place his men’s lives in Glade’s hands.
There was still so much he didn’t understand a about this backwards planet, but it didn’t make any sense to leave a potential bandit threat to instead deal with a nest of bugs.This whole scenario wreaked of an ambush.
Fortunately, Cirea had listened to his concerns and had helped him to enact the first part of his plan, which she had passed off as her own.
“I think you’re right,” Glade said with a shrug, casually stepping on another of the beetles that had been making a line to Grant’s leg. “Do you think they’ll notice the fire break or run right into it?”
“Yes, Cirea has been most helpful on that front,” Grant gave a small smile, observing the wide trench the body mage had dug between them and their uninvited guests. “While I hope for the latter, we should plan that they’ll try to move around to flank us.”
Glade too couldn't help but marvel at the Bailiff’s incredible accomplishment. In less than two hours she had dug the majority of the firebreak using her immense strength and endurance, most of which had been intentionally created as a barrier against their unknown guests.
“If they do, it will funnel them to one side or the other. We should be able to defend those points with just a few men,” Glade said with an air of nonchalance. “Which should then leave them open for a rear assault if they’re stupid enough.”
“Cirea said as much,” Grant sighed. “But it still burns me that they might be taking advantage of a swarm like this. It goes against everything the Free Cities stand for.”
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Glade had his doubts that whoever the group hiding behind the hill was had simply ‘decided’ to take advantage of the situation. The location and timing of the swarm was just too convenient to be a coincidence. But instead of voicing his concerns a second time, he asked, “Are we ready to start burning yet?”
“In a few minutes. We’re getting everyone situated. Once we throw what oil we have into the center and light it, we’ll need everyone we can to help contain the swarm,” Grant said, turning back to the ongoing work. “Myself, my second, and a few others will take the far left in case we need to mount a defense.”
“I guess that means that Cirea and my team will be on the right,” Glade nodded along, absently stepping on yet another beetle. “How thorough do we need to be in exterminating the bugs?”
“So long as we get all of their queen’s we’ll be alright,” Grant replied. “But those will be buried in the center of the swarm. Given its size, I’d bet we’re looking at three, maybe four queens. Five tops.”
Glade gave a nod of understanding, but he wasn’t exactly sure how this was going to work out. If they were alone, he, Ember, and Kedryn could make short work of the devourers. But they couldn’t risk it.
Seeing that their conversation was at an end, Grant walked away. That was when Cirea approached.
“Are we ready?” she asked, her shovel resting over her shoulders.
“As ready as we can be,” Glade sighed.
“And our little surprise?” Cirea asked, her eyebrow raised.
Glade hadn't been happy how Grant had handled the situation and would have stepped in to save his people from what he saw as certain death. But they had been offered support from an unexpected source.
“He says he and the others can handle it,” Glade shrugged.
“Then what are we waiting for?” the Bailiff grinned. “Let's get this show on the road!”
They took a few minutes to describe what was going on to the others before moving to take up their positions. No one seemed overly surprised at the revelation that there were potential bandits waiting to ambush them. All Bragden mumbled was, “Slagging Branded,” but he lacked his usual gusto.
“Do we know what we’re up against?” Gent asked, arming his crossbow.
“I haven’t run into these kinds of mental signatures before,” Glade said. “But from what I can tell, they aren’t as complex as the gnoll’s, but not as dumb as most animals either. There does seem to be one human among them though.”
“Interesting gift you have,” Cirea said with a smile. “How many are there again?”
“A little over 30,” Glade replied, then stomped on two beetles that were hiding in the grass. “That's still more than 6 to one if they come this way.”
“Speaking of which, how do you want to handle this?” Kedryn asked.
Cirea and Glade gave each other a knowing look before turning to the others.
“Yeah, this is going to be a bit more chaotic than we’re used to,” Glade said, looking around as several men began pouring oil at strategic points along the outskirts of the swarm. “The best we can do is disrupt them as best we can before they hit us. That means using ranged attacks as much as we can. Kedryn, try and disrupt any coordinated assaults with your wind blast. Cirea, we’ll be relying on you to take the brunt of the assault.”
“Not a problem,” she grinned, pulling out her great sword and swinging it around. “Just give me enough elbow room and we’ll be fine.”
“Bragden, what can you help with?”
The surly dwarf grunted, pulling out a familiar looking pack. “I’ll put a small enchantment on these stones and throw ‘em into the morons as they charge or into the swarm if needs be. The enchantments won’t hold long and will likely explode, but that’s the point. Just, nobody go chasin the blasted things after I throw ‘em.”
“Good,” Glade said, looking back to where their camp lay. “We also may have some additional support, so stay sharp.”
Before long, Helmund called out, “Everybody ready?”
There was a momentary pause, as the whole group tensed.
“Lighting them up now!”
What followed was pandemonium.