“Lieutenant General Valerie!” Cried Olindar. “We have eyes on them!”
Valerie burst up from the battlement and stared down at Cracked Hill. The last few hundred feet of the road that ran through it were clearly visible from the wall. Even without Thalia’s conjured spyglass, she could still easily make out the hulking Stalker.
Unconsciously, Valerie inched back a little upon witnessing the beast. It was significantly larger than she’d seen before, perhaps 11 feet tall. Its appendages spread wide. So much so that they grazed the rockwall. But most startling of all, was that it was running along the fucking rock-face.
As it speared into the wall, ashen clay, rock and soil tumbled to the ground, burying the road behind it. Before the beast, a tiny dusty figure sprinted for their life. A tiny dusty, human figure.
“Christopher!” Shouted Valerie. “We’ve got a man on the ground down there. Stay fixed on them, but hold your fire unless they try something!”
SIr Christopher shouted something vaguely affirmative back, but his voice was lost over the disgruntled murmurings of the soldiers getting their first sight of the creature.
The Stalker and the man were approaching the end of the ravine, where the two walls touched briefly forming a precarious earthen bridge. Valerie hoped for everyone's sake that the bridge would stop the Stalker’s approach. Sure, it probably wouldn’t cripple the beast, its dense adamantine bones had allowed it to tank any brute force they’ve ever thrown at it before. But it might just slow the Stalker down somewhat.
Following the bridge, they had roughly a thousand paces until the beast reached the stronghold. At four hundred paces, they might have a chance at hitting it, though hitting the little man running in front of it would be more likely. He had better hope he manages to gain some more ground, because Valerie would not be hesitating to open fire as soon as possible.
Valerie nocked her arrow and stroked the limb of the bow. Long sweeping runes alighted in response. They glowed a cool blue colour. She placed her foot on the battlement, squared her shoulders and prepared to take aim, her arm resting on the loose string.
To Valerie’s left, the mages burst into a chorus of muttering. Thalia looked deeply troubled as Olindar and Elora quietly argued about something beside them.
Valerie interjected without taking her eyes off the target. “What’s going on over there Thalia? I don’t need you keeping anything to yourself. I will decide if it's relevant.”
Thalia hesitated and Elora jumped in, her brown bob danced widely up and down as she began energetically spouting out, “We believe we know who the man is. It looks like-”
“Eyes up everyone! Something is happening.” Announced Thalia.
Valerie could see it too. The man had abruptly stopped and thrown up a cloud of grey dust into the air. The Stalker continued bolting forward, hungrily anticipating its prize. What was the fool doing? Did he mean to blind the beast? The Stalker possessed no eyes to blind! Or was he surrendering to extinction? Had he really reached his limit?
What happened next sent Valerie and the entire garrison upon the parapet reeling. The man wound back his arm dramatically and took a swing at the wall beside him. He cleaved through the rock with ease, spitting fragments at the Stalker. It didn’t affect the beast’s advance, but what happened next definitely did.
The explosion rumbled the ground they stood on. A sharp crack reached them a second after bright, vibrant colour lit up the dark plains. In an instant, branching tendrils of lightning had suffused the blazing wave of fire which swept up the ravine walls.
To her left, Thalia’s conjured spyglass wobbled and burst apart in her face. Below, the little man flew backwards almost twenty feet, just barely escaping an incoming landslide. The Greybone Stalker disappeared behind the blast, but for a moment Valerie glimpsed its scarred, seared head before it was swallowed by surging dark stone.
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Silence swept over the parapet as a towering cloud of ash meandered across Cracked Hill. The lone figure of the unconscious man was embraced by dust. It obscured his body. The silence stretched on. It pulled taut over the stronghold right until Valerie stood up, returned her arrow to its quiver and slung her greatbow over shoulder. The glowing runes died out the moment they left her hands. As Valerie marched off towards Thalia, the wall erupted with noise. It was a mixture of cheers, shouts, sighs and confused babbling quickly followed by the vigorous and lethargic shouts of Siddal and Christopher.
Thalia met Valerie halfway, leaving Olindar and Elora behind with the mage students who once again were bouncing off of them in excitement. Their curiosity had once again taken over their senses.
Valerie called out to Thalia, “Do you know what in Vestia’s name was that? What did that man down there do?”
Thalia blinked rapidly and fumbled with her words, “I. I have never seen any spell casting or fire splicing like that before Valerie.” She paused, inhaled deeply and then continued at speed. “It wasn’t just the instantaneous fire-splicing either. They seemed to possess some significant talent with lightning - which is rare in of itself, on top of their immense physical strength. Possibly result of some subdermal engravings or cardiovascular kinesis. Or maybe it was an obscure form of blood-splicing. I need to-”
“Thalia”, Valerie placed her hand on Thalia’s shoulder, “slow down. There is time to speculate later. Now I want you to prepare for a greater incineration spell and come down with me and a squad to burn the flesh off that Stalker’s bones. And, I want Olindar to come down with some anti-mage restraints, he should have some right?”
Thalia paused, nodded slowly and processed the information.
“I can be ready in five minutes.” She stated.
“Good, now-” Valerie was interpreted by dozens of hushed voices. She ground her teeth, well and truly tired of the garrison’s lack of discipline. But Elora rushed over and clarified the disturbance.
“Lieutenant General, Master Thalia, the man has gotten up! Shale is standing up!” Elora announced.
Valerie turned and looked over to where the man had been laying, and saw that he was indeed no longer there. He had begun walking up to the stronghold!
How had he survived that blast? How could he even walk after that? Who was this man?
“Elora, hold on. What did you say? Who is standing up?” Asked Valerie.
“Did Thalia not tell you General? We believe we managed to discern that the figure down there was our own Shale Kadran.” Elora hesitated, and then murmured, “You know, the one who took a frozen pea to the eye several hours ago.”
Valerie most certainly recalled it. There’d been a great upset earlier in the night when Shale, the aberrant surviving Blight-born enlistment had seemingly killed himself with a frozen pea. Typically, he had been a most competent Blight-Burner and a diligent, disciplined soldier.
There was a pile of paperwork waiting for her in her room to be filled out regarding said incident. A little relief washed over Valerie as she considered not having to fill out all that paperwork, but the bleak, more likely reality of the man’s reanimation quashed that quickly.
“Christopher!” Valerie called to the ignoble aristocrat who had been floating in the background of their group. “Send someone to bring the undertaker over here right away! Top priority!”
Sir Christopher stormed off grumpily and Valerie turned to Thalia. “Why did you keep this information to yourself Thalia? This completely changes the situation. We might have damned Revenant Puppet. You just told me yourself how powerful and complex that magery was. Either that undertaker can’t take a pulse or this may be an Elder spirit!”
Thalia looked up at Valerie, holding back tears. “I’m deeply sorry Lieutenant General Valerie. I take full responsibility. I should have alerted you right away. I foolishly wrote off the possibility because I have never seen any spirit manifest in such a way, or manage to cast such powerful magic! I apologise! My arrogance has cost us time.”
Valerie gave Thalia a stern look. She saw a tear run down Thalia’s face and continued a little more softly. “We will pick this up again later. For now, we have an issue to address. So calm yourself, and be the mage I need you to be. You may still be proven right, I’ve sent for the undertaker, and I need you and Olindar with me so we can determine whether that man down there is a serious threat, or a major asset. Understood?”
Thalia rubbed her face and sniffed loud and wet. “Understood Lieutenant General.”
Valerie sighed. The poor girl was never a true soldier. A cruel hand had landed her here fresh out of school eight months ago. Now, she had the responsibility of being Mage Captain at nineteen years old. Surrounded by murderers, hardened soldiers and monsters.
Her genius ought to have been the driving force of a new age of Palirian prosperity. Instead she was here. At the very least, Valerie would try to bring the best out of her. Not as a mage, but a leader.
“Now then,” Valerie mumbled to herself, “How long until the target gets here?” She looked back down at Shale Kadran, hobbling up towards the stronghold. He was still several hundred paces out. Just within range of her greatbow.