– Era of the Wastes, Cycle 219, Season of the Setting Sun, Day 10 –
Terry ignored most of the heated discussions between the different local leaders and his family during the meeting. His mind was already set.
From the looks on the faces of his friends, it wasn’t just him. They had all seen the damage to the army of constructs guarding the city. The Freedom Cooperative wasn’t able to take many such setbacks.
Everyone agreed on that much, but there was little agreement beyond that.
When the meeting was finally over, his parents and Chadwick asked them to stay behind.
“How did you know?” asked Tiana with a curious expression.
Terry was surprised to see her looking at him while asking. “Know what?”
“When we heard about the situation, you had the same suggestion as my brother,” elaborated Tiana. “Same during the meeting. It was as if your minds followed the same lines of thoughts.”
“Yeah, I was wondering when you had become interested in military strategy,” added Miguel.
“Not really ‘interested.’ When I was imprisoned in the Proving Grounds, I had a lot of reading time.” Terry shrugged. “The Warlord: Inquiries Into the Nature of Power – written by Thanatos himself.” He took a deep breath. “And a few unpleasant practical lessons afterwards.”
“Figures that you would take inspiration from the Mad Empire,” sneered Maximilian. “The counter-points the others made in the meeting seemed just as valid to me.”
“You’re an ass, you know that?” Vess rolled her eyes.
Tiana pointedly looked at Maximilian. “I trust my brother took these points into consideration, and I believe Terry did the same.”
“Practical lessons like being stuck in a besieged city?” asked Patricia.
“He wasn’t stuck. He chose to stay and defend the city,” corrected Lori with a disgruntled glare towards Maximilian.
“Being on the defensive sucks,” sighed Terry. “Yes, you can prepare, and that gives you an advantage. That’s great if you have an exit like a spatial transfer, or if you just have to face a single group. You can prepare traps, or use a hidden card. But against an army? They just keep coming. They can take their time to probe you for any hidden cards. They can perfectly prepare to exploit your weaknesses. They know you, but you don’t know them. You can’t know what’s coming.”
Terry shook his head. “And in this case, they can just raise the dead or create husks and throw them endlessly at their target, which offsets whatever advantage there might have been in being the defending party, not to mention that the city can’t stay locked down eternally. People have to eat, which means someone has to produce the food and bring it to the city.”
“Kind of hard to grow crops when the whole area is drowning in rotten flesh,” remarked Elena with a grimace.
“How are you holding up?” Terry asked Siling.
Siling shrugged. “I’m ready to crack some Lich Kingdom skulls. That’s bound to make me feel better.”
They continued chatting until Chadwick and Isille walked up to them and led them outside.
“We got quite a few volunteers,” said Chadwick.
Terry wasn’t surprised to see his martialist fan club at the front of the gathered people, but he had not expected this many non-martialist volunteers for their mission. He recognized some faces from the vengeful masses pouring into the Freedom Cooperative after they had first made a stand.
“For the best results, we’ll have to be quick,” said Chadwick. “We can’t count on Mia’s cooperation. Even though Dargones said that Amelia is already on her way, we’re going to be without dimensional travel assistance for this round.”
“We have a few emergency scrolls, but we shouldn’t use them unless we really have to,” said Isille, and a frown was sprouting on her face. “Which means we have to spread out. Hit them at multiple locations. Hit them fast. Hit them hard. Clear the occupied settlements. Leave a message. Leave.”
“I can take the volunteers with some basic military training and align with the death hunters to lead one group,” said Chadwick.
“Bjorln and I can take some constructs for another,” said Isille. She looked at Terry. “There are plenty of martialist volunteers, but we would have to put someone in charge. It can’t just be a random nobody. They’ll have to keep the rest in line.”
“Guillermo and Zhang have the backing of their sects.” Terry turned towards the location where he felt their mana signatures. “I can talk to them and then help get the rest to follow their lead.”
Maybe I can also get a message to Peter and Annabelle. Although the abilities of the Blazing Sun Sect would be more useful in defending against the undead hordes instead of liberating occupied settlements. Perhaps they would agree to— Not the time.
“So we can be group four?” prompted Terry.
“Are you sure you’re all up for this?” asked Isille and looked at everyone present.
“This is a conflict between countries,” warned Chadwick. “Not the kind of situation where the Guardians could bail you out.”
Terry nodded, and his siblings quietly stepped to him. Vess followed Tiana. Patricia and Elena joined Lori.
Surprisingly, Maximilian was the first to speak up: “Of course. Even without Guardian backing, the mission is the right thing to do. The cursed kingdoms have subjugated these innocent people and their victims have a right to our help.”
Chadwick furrowed his brow. “Alright. I’ll talk to the death hunters to make sure there are some senior scouts nearby.” He looked at Tiana. “Be careful.”
“Always.” Tiana winked.
Both Chadwick and Vess snorted. Tiana’s brother shook his head. “I wish.”
“I’m surprised you’re volunteering for this.” Patricia looked skeptically at Maximilian. “Weren’t you all against us joining the others for the trip to the Lands? How is this any different? In the Lands, it wouldn’t even have been us that made a move.”
“How is this not different?!” exclaimed Maximilian flabbergasted. “The Lich Kingdoms have violently seized these lands and settlements. They’re the aggressors. We’re just helping the people throw them out. The situation with the Lands of the Four Towers is entirely different. That’s Matteo and Brynn seizing land that isn’t theirs. They’re the—”
“Through legal means,” interjected Terry with a hiss. “‘Seizing’ through legal means. The tower challenges are a core tradition in the Lands‘ culture and enshrined in their legal system.”
“As if that would matter!” Maximilian scoffed. “It’s still a coup, no matter if it’s legal or not. I’m not surprised that you don’t understand it, even though it’s painfully obvious.”
Is it? Terry shrugged and held back his retorts. He didn’t have to get along with the man to work with him. Maximilian appeared loyal to Lori and a capable mage specializing in mobile combat support.
“I’ll pick up one more member for us,” declared Terry. If the goal was to sow chaos behind enemy lines, then there was one particular unaffiliated martialist whom he wanted at his side. “Then we can discuss the plan.”
***
Elena circled her mana into her equipment to step out of the shadows and undo her cloaking. Her helmet was set. Her shield was prepared. Her sword was drawn. Only one thing was missing…
With the ignition of her spell, the whole area drowned with the scent and signature of blood.
***
The vampire in the watchtower reeled around towards the sudden blood signature. The moment his head was turned, an intensely aspected arrow needled through the small opening in the barred windows and pierced right into the vampire’s head. Coldfire burned through the vampire’s blood while a powerful poison mixed into the circulatory system to prevent any regeneration.
“What?! Where?!” The second vampire guard stepped away from the window in shock. The arrow’s angle had been impossible unless they were shooting from the sky and even then, it was unbelievable.
While the guard’s attention was on the window, a figure silently appeared out of thin air. Patricia’s shadows weaved through the vampire’s armor and cut out the heart from the back. She disappeared as quickly and quietly as she had appeared.
There were more Lich Kingdom guards to eliminate.
In the shadow plane, Patricia nodded at Jorg. She darted away while Jorg switched into the regular plane.
Jorg hurriedly rummaged through the documents in the tower and through the pockets of the guards. They needed information, and they had to make sure that there weren’t any dead man’s switches that would trigger an alarm to warn the other guards unless someone regularly maintained a signal. The longer they could keep their activities hidden and keep the focus on Elena, the better.
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Jorg was not entirely happy with putting Elena into the hostile spotlight, but it was the best plan they had come up with. Ironically, Elena herself was mostly complaining about being the only one that had to wear two silver rings. The others were only paired with Siling, but Elena had a second ring to match the golden ring for Terry, who had insisted on it if she wanted to use the blood lure.
Jorg retrieved the little paper talisman that the felan had given him. [No information on the imprisoned town guards or other hostages. But they apparently received a delivery of volatile materials.]
Jorg transmitted the information he deemed relevant while inspecting the inscriptions in the tower. He cursed quietly because someone had put a lock on the inscriptions and he couldn’t bypass it. He had started practicing the runic system, but such a task was still way beyond him. Instead, he attached a few magic detonators. If anyone tried to use these inscriptions against them, they would come to regret it.
***
“Terry found the hostages.” Siling’s bodiless voice whispered through the sky above the settlement.
“It’s really weird talking to you like that,” grumbled Miguel. He was sitting on the thunderblood hawk soul spirit that Siling had dubbed Wingman.
“As the mistress of bling, I’m supposed to stay hidden, if possible.” Siling’s disembodied voice replied. “Guardian’s orders.”
“Can you get by with your equipment for a while?” asked Siling. “He discovered the prisoners faster than expected. I need to position the others and it’s quicker with Wingman. I don’t want to move Peekaboo before switching Elena out, and Maximilian is moving in the opposite direction.”
“Sure.” Miguel hopped off the soul and activated some of the inscriptions in his armor to float. In the worst case, he still had the Immovable Object imprints he also used for stabilizing his shots from the flapping thunderblood hawk soul spirit. “The elevated targets are getting thin, anyway. I’ll look for some better spots. Keep me in the loop.”
***
“Who are you?!”
“Lay down your weapons or die!”
Elena stared at the arriving vampires and focused on her breathing. She whispered to herself. “Not yet.” She took a deep breath. “How about you die instead?! You’re not welcome here!” She felt embarrassed at the words leaving her mouth, but Terry had told her to taunt them.
“Kill her!” ordered the commander.
When a smaller group separated to fulfill the command, the earth underneath them erupted in rock shrapnel that tore them apart before the earth reshaped and swallowed them whole.
Elena frowned slightly. Her best friend was as overprotective as ever. It would have been better to draw more of them in before playing that card, but there was little point in complaining.
“Ring the alarm!” shouted the commander.
Elena’s frown deepened. They had left the best-case scenario with that order. It was then that she heard Terry’s voice in her mind. [It’s okay. Maximilian is in position to switch with Rafael. If we move quickly, we can use the distraction to help the others at the hostage extraction. I’ll tag you out soon.”
Elena wanted to grumble at only playing bait, but once she was in the center, she could be more useful again. Despite her complaints, a smile was playing around her lips. Having both Siling and Terry to coordinate everyone from afar was simply a cheat. It was difficult to believe that they once had to retake the bounty hunting examination.
***
[Clear.] Siling heard Terry’s voice in her head. She circled mana into one of her golden rings and found herself in front of a building full of questionable mana signatures. She didn’t have to share Terry’s mana sense to realize that this was a gathering of Lich Kingdom soldiers. According to Jorg, there was also something being built.
Siling didn’t have time to wonder what. She circled mana into another golden ring and shortly after, Rafael appeared on the scene. The felan had switched locations with the invisible elf.
Instantly, the mana signatures inside the building moved. In contrast to Maximilian and Siling, Rafael hadn’t cloaked his life signature. His mask artifact was hiding his mana, but his life was still detectable to the vampires. He also had a powerful resonance technique charged at his claws.
The alarm that started to blare in the distance appeared entirely superfluous.
“HEAVENLY WOLF SLASH!” The gigantic white wolf tore into the building and charged straight ahead to the location of volatile materials that Terry had pointed out. After unleashing the attack, Rafael hurriedly darted away and prepared himself to use the strange crafted item that Jorg had given him.
***
“Get the worm out of the earth!” ordered the commander. The vampiress stepped forth and drew her blade. “Two others with me. We’ll take her alive.”
Before they could make two steps, the woman in front of them disappeared. In her stead stood a man in similar-styled equipment but with a shadow fabric cloak and an odd spear with mismatched colors.
“Any last words?” asked Terry, while lightning snaked around his king spear and his disruption domain unfolded around him.
“You’re…”
Lori dove out of the earth next to Terry. “Are you sure I shouldn’t help out?” She looked at the two dozen vampires that were still left.
“You’re of more use elsewhere,” replied Terry. And Siling isn’t going to let you indulge in second thoughts, anyway. “Have some faith in your brother.”
“You’re Freedom’s Guardian!”
“Where did the dwarf go?!”
Behind the barrier visor of his helmet, Terry grinned. He could briefly feel Siling next to him. The elven woman had changed places with his sister and then disappeared by transferring herself to the location of her thunderblood hawk.
They had briefly considered if they should fight the vampires as a group, but eventually decided that this wasn’t necessary. Terry was sufficient for their primary objective: to keep these soldiers from interfering with the hostage extraction.
“I’ve been itching to pay your empire back,” growled Terry. He only had to wait a moment before the explosion reverberated in the distance and told him that Rafael had done his part. He darted forward and used his enemies’ temporary distraction to hurl the first divine hammers and summon the heaven’s fury with his king spear.
While Terry rampaged through the ill-prepared enemy forces, he had to suppress the gnawing suspicion growing at the back of his mind. He believed that he had missed something about the materials and whatever the Lich Kingdoms had been planning to build, but unfortunately, he was pressed for time.
This wasn’t an investigation mission. This was a raid to liberate an occupied settlement and take some pressure off the Freedom Cooperative’s defense. Whatever questions or uneasy feelings he might have, they had to wait their turn.
***
“By the kings, what was that?!” exclaimed one of the vampire guards.
“Check it out!”
When some of them stormed out of the prison to check what was going on, they were assaulted by lightning from the back.
One vampire was knocked out, but still regenerating. The others stared at the tall woman with visible blood vessels.
“Is this all of you?” Tiana looked disappointed. “How boring.” She could see that her taunt was effective when the incensed shouts were causing others to emerge from the building.
Tiana stepped sidewards to draw the vampires’ attention. When the two groups converged on her direction, Vess appeared out of the shadows and ignited her empowered metal barrier to cut off the outside soldiers from the other guards inside.
“Ridiculous,” spat a vampire. “You alone against us?”
“Me? Alone?” Tiana chuckled. “Never, I’m afraid.” A lightning elemental appeared next to her while she switched into a proper combat stance for her shield and sword.
Behind the metal barrier, she could see that Elena and Maximilian were rushing inside. They would join up with Patricia and Jorg, who were stepping through the shadows. With their numerical advantage, this shouldn’t take long.
Afterwards, Maximilian and Vess could focus on healing the imprisoned combatants while Patricia and Jorg would go back to sieving through the city.
Tiana eyed the vampires warily. Even though her lightning elemental could provide support, she didn’t want to risk their advantage. She still remembered some of the problematic spells that Terry had warned them about. Her equipment provided magical protection, but it was better to be careful.
The loud ruckus coming from different directions at once told Tiana that some of them were engaging in a different strategy. It sounded like Terry, Rafael, and Lori were competing over who could collapse the most buildings.
Tiana engaged the enemies with careful probing while leaving the self-exposing attacks to her controlled elemental.
When the first coldfire-aspected arrow hit one of her opponents, Tiana instantly switched to a more aggressive stance.
***
“Found you, little rat!”
Miguel dodged the vampire’s blade by rolling to the side. He quickened a cast of Burning Hands to buy enough time to exchange his bow for a dagger.
The vampire cursed when the coldfire invaded his blood vessels, but his blood control allowed him to prevent it from spreading.
Before the vampire could get far, a pair of talons ripped into him with the arrival of Wingman.
More vampires were soon levitating in the sky around the rooftop, but they were bombarded by spells from all kinds of directions while the thunderblood hawk picked them off one by one.
One vampire hurled an empowered spear of blood at Miguel, who was frantically channeling mana to activate the protective barriers from his armor.
A bright light shined in the distance, and when the Blink spell finished, Jorg appeared in front of his friend with a quickened barrier. He dropped several spheres that positioned themselves at different locations on the roof. Before the blood spear could even reach the first barrier, additional barriers of different aspects and even a raised wall of stone were blocking the spell’s way – courtesy of Jorg’s crafted items.
Miguel, Jorg, and Siling worked together to get rid of the remaining vampires.
Afterwards, Jorg took a deep breath and grumbled at Miguel. “Next time, you get a ring, too.”
“Whaaat?” drawled Miguel while grinning sheepishly. “I’m supposed to keep my distance. My other equipment is as good as yours. You need the training rings more than I do. You’re also more useful to shuffle around. How is the hostage situation?”
“Under control,” said Jorg. “Some were in terrible shape, but Vess and Maximilian are healing them.” He looked into the distance. “Although Maximilian might have to switch to mobile support again. Rafael’s and Terry’s battles appear to be larger. With this much damage, there are bound to be some injured citizens.”
Jorg frowned. “Speaking of which. Terry told me there is a building at risk of collapse that holds manaless bystanders. I’ll have to go to make sure the thing remains standing while people are inside.”
With those words, Jorg jumped onto the roof’s edge and then used Blink to get back to the ground and sprint towards the location where people needed his help.
[Anywhere I’m needed?] Miguel transmitted Siling a message.
[Things are calming down,] replied Siling. [Terry is still fighting some, but he says he’ll be done soon. Lori has switched to building stabilization, just like Jorg. Tiana is leading the town guards to retake the walls. According to Terry, the towers are already clear. You can either help Elena protect the injured hostages with Muttonchops or take out the remaining tail of soldiers chasing Rafael. Although I suspect our furry friend actually enjoys leading them around.]
[The town might appreciate me shortening the felan’s rampage,] replied Miguel. Elena and the purplemist soul spirit would be sufficient to protect the hostages, especially with Vess being present as a healer and Maximilian still hanging around the area. As such, Miguel had his next target. They might have already won the battle, but he still wanted to make himself useful.
***