“Think they’ll s-send something to look for us?” Oresus was sorting through his fertilizer again. Emokha wasn’t squeamish but she preferred to hunt so Gloe was helping him instead.
Carefully draining blood from a bombardier frog Gloe answered slowly. “Maybe. Depends on that reaver’s connections I suppose. You burned the cultists’ bodies, and I burned his. If anyone stumbles on the scene they’ll think we were just raiding the trading station. They’re official government outposts, so it won’t be seen as an escalation of our previous attacks on patrols and fortresses, right?”
“That m-makes sense. So maybe another demonling sweep?”
“If they haven’t learned their lesson. On the other hand if someone is waiting for or expecting that reaver it wouldn’t be too hard to put two and two together. And, depending on how important he was that could provoke a new response.”
“He was p-powerful. I d-didn’t expect some random reaver to be able to fight Emokha to a standstill.”
“Yeah. I’d hoped that maybe since he wasn’t with Laukis and didn’t have a huge entourage he was one of the weaker ones. And maybe he was.”
Oresus stopped pulling entrails from a mauler ocelot. “I d-don’t like that thought.”
“To be honest I’m not a huge fan of it either.”
Looking around at the trees, Oresus put down the monster corpse completely. “M-maybe we should reinforce the traps and stuff.”
“Not the worst idea. I’ll follow your lead.”
...
When it came, the demon response came on as a storm. A firestorm. The deep wyld was burning.
The little makeshift hut burst into flames without a preliminary spark. It was only a decoy so its loss wasn’t all that telling, but everything around it was burning too, and that hurt. “T-that’s all the traps, isn’t it?”
“No, there’s still one spike pit left...” he watched a burning tree topple over on it. “…nevermind. Yes, that’s all of them.”
“What do you know of their numbers?”
“Feels like at least two companies of demonlings, plus one demon. He’s extremely excited right now, to the point where it’s kind of creepy.”
“A pyromaniakh perhaps?”
“There’s an idea. It’s your call. Run or fight?”
“Run. He khannot trackh us if he’s burning everything in his path.”
“I agree, but it’s f-frustrating. W-what good is my ability against this much fire?”
“You want me to try to catch a glimpse of him before we go? Give us some sort of idea what we’re dealing with?”
“No. Too riskhy. Given this volume of fire we know he must be a powerful pyromancer of some sort. We don’t have a ready counter for this sort of firepower, and dealing with those demonlings would be time-khonsuming without our traps. We shouldn’t takhe the riskh. Although it is frustrating.”
Gloe shrugged. What could they do? Gathering their meager belongings they set the glow of the inferno behind them and vanished into the dark.
...
“It is a tempting target, but what are they doing out here? What is the purpose of their patrol? They seem…aimless. Khonfused almost.”
“M-maybe it’s just routine? A p-presence patrol?”
“You’ve got sharp instincts Emokha.” Gloe grinned. He pointed. “See that clump of shrubbery way off on that hill?”
“Yes. A fine hiding place, but I see no sign of anything amiss.”
“I’m going to go ahead and assure you there’s a demonling hiding there. A jittery, excited little demonling. And a couple more scattered around. They form a chain that stretches off outside my ability range.”
“So this patrol is b-bait.”
“Or perhaps you were right and it is a presence patrol, but they are watching to see if we attackh it.”
“Either way, w-what should we do?”
“Well…they don’t seem to have detekhted us yet.” Emokha’s mandibles twitched into their own form a smile. “Perhaps we should investigate the other end of the chain.”
...
“I can’t tell.”
“Nothing?”
“Well, there are demons down there. At least...” he closed his eyes for a moment “…nine. Can’t tell if the fire guy is there. Aside from that though I can’t tell you much. Although I suspect four of them are those scimitar and dagger fanatics.”
“T-that would make sense. They seem to assign them to c-companies when they deploy a battalion.”
“Hmm. It may be hubris to makhe the leap, but I thinkh we khan assume this trap is set for us. A full battalion khould potentially overwhelm us, especially with demons in the vanguard.”
“Third time this month then. It’s getting harder and harder to get a clean shot at anything a decent distance from the border.”
“M-maybe we need to more dramatically change locations?”
“Or we khould attackh. A hit and run would be dangerous, but if we inflikhted sufficient damage it might makhe them thinkh twice about khonstantly laying traps. If the pyro enemy is not present it might be possible.”
“B-but we don’t know much about their abilities.”
“What about a compromise? You two set up at the edge of sight range and I do the hit and run? I can take a few hits without losing my ability to run and it won’t give away too much of our capabilities. If we can get a glimpse of what they can do it might be worth it.”
“Y-you can’t fight a whole battalion by yourself!”
“I agree. It would be foolhardy to go in without backhup.”
“I’m not saying I would try to fight. If I move fast and sow chaos in my wake I might be able to provoke a response without actually having to fight very much. At the very least it shouldn’t be hard to keep them confused for a few minutes, right?”
“Perhaps.” She paused in thought. “I wish we knew more about how sojourners and reavers fight.”
“I don’t know how else we’re going to figure it out. If your people didn’t adequately prepare you then I would guess they don’t know.”
“True.” She looked down for a bit. “Perhaps we must takhe riskhs now, while the stakhes are lower. I will not lead more to the slaughter likhe…” she composed herself. “However, we will find a mid-ranged position. If you become trapped we can charge in and extrakht you. No arguments Zekhow.”
“Now I almost want to argue, just for fun. But nah, sounds good. I’m not looking to die again today unnecessarily. Let’s find a spot.”
“W-would you like a spear? I have some emergency blood on me.”
“I appreciate the offer, but you’d better save it, just in case. Can you hold my axe though? I’m going to try to avoid getting embroiled in a prolonged engagement and I’d rather not risk it getting damaged on my back.”
“S-sure. I’ll take good c-care of it.”
“I know you will.” Gloe gave a thumbs up that was awkwardly returned.
...
To begin Gloe was on his belly. He needed minimal exposure while he wriggled through the outer perimeter. Belly-crawling was a great way to sneak unseen, but also a great way to get killed. It was slow, tiring and the sneaker had almost no visibility. It was very easy to run afoul of a patrol or be unknowingly surrounded. Worse, the slow pace and lack of knowledge created a continually rising tension that could drive someone mad, leading them to rush and take terrible risks trying to get through.
The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
It was an excellent method for Gloe though. His emotions weren’t allowed to rise above a certain level and he wouldn’t get tired as long as the enemies were still alive and emoting. Those same emotions gave him a rough idea of their positions so the lack of visibility was alleviated somewhat.
Still boring and time-consuming though. Once through the perimeter Gloe switched to a slow rush method. He found cover and carefully surveyed his surroundings. When he was certain it was clear he made a quick but smooth dash to the next hiding spot, then began the process all over again. It was faster but also more dangerous. Thankfully his senses had improved with leveling up, as had his stealth aptitude, so he was fairly confident he could get pretty close.
When he reached the edge of the encampment he stopped and took another careful look. The demonlings not on guard duty were clustered in small groups. Most were resting or grooming. There were a few camouflaged awnings set towards the middle of the camp, and he set those as his destination. There was an excellent chance those were for the demons, especially any reavers present.
He could just dash straight over, but given how close he had gotten that seemed wasteful. Instead he found the nearest group of sleeping demonlings and crept closer. Silently he drew a couple of butcher knives. He’d found they were not only higher quality steel than the vet’s daggers but the chopping motion they lent themselves to was more effective against C-Types and grapplers than stabs or slashes.
Carefully he planned out each step, each chop, in sequence. Then he executed. The whole group was dead before the faint sounds or burgeoning smells could bring any to wakefulness. He was able to repeat the feat once more, then the scent of fresh blood began to rouse all nearby demonlings. Time to change tactics.
Bowling into a group of vets he chopped down a handful and rushed on. A C-Type blundered into his path, earning itself a couple of savage blows to the face and throat. Onward. Gloe took care to avoid an overly predictable path, zig-zagging towards his eventual destination. He also avoided lingering, only taking strikes of opportunity and always moving forward.
Fast. Recently he had perfected a new imbue technique, and he was using it now to move with a speed and agility he had not been able to display previously. In the past imbuing had taken time. Not a lot, especially as he leveled up, but enough that he couldn’t do it in rapid succession. It wasn’t super important for throwing projectiles since he could imbue multiple objects at once as long as they were all in contact with him, but it really impacted movement.
Before in order to reach maximum speed he’d needed to make long, powerful leaps. This allowed him to deploy his full strength but also gave him time to land, imbue and launch again. Touching surfaces without taking the time to imbue ironically slowed him down, as friction went up but not having time to imbue meant he couldn’t utilize his full strength. Pushing as hard as he could without imbuing the surface meant that he either slipped or wasted energy damaging the material he was pushing off of.
Not anymore. His imbue time had decreased to the point where he could pull off successive imbues, one per step, even as his running speed increased. It wasn’t a perfected technique, as he couldn’t keep pace with his own enhanced physical abilities. Imbued running allowed him to accelerate to the point where he still couldn’t imbue fast enough, despite having physical speed to spare.
There were other problems too. Since imbuing like this allowed him to effectively anchor himself to massive amounts of mass it also let him deploy his now inhuman strength in ways that otherwise were not practical. Obviously he’d learned imbuing in order to lift, throw and push things, but over time he’d discovered the less obvious maneuvering applications. He could use latching onto large-mass objects to stop or pivot on a dime, dispersing the energy into the attached mass. Then he could reaccelerate in another direction, pushing off full force against the mass.
As long as he was careful. Using sequential imbuing Gloe could now accelerate to velocities that were beyond even his enhanced durability’s safety ranges. During practice he’d snapped his leg like a twig twice, trying to reverse direction while moving at too high of speeds. After that he’d been more incremental, slowly approaching and feeling out his limits. He would probably be okay now that he knew them, as long as he didn’t get over-excited and exceed himself…or find the need to do so, regardless of the costs.
Still, overall it was a useful technique. As the demonlings tried to react to his appearance he was able to accelerate to an inhuman speed without losing control in the slightest. The moment the slightest sign of organized resistance appeared he was able to dart off at a right angle with only a minimal loss of speed, and since he was still moving well below his maximum attainable speed (due to safety concerns) he could regain the lost velocity within a few steps.
It wasn’t blinding speed, but it was still incredibly useful. Sure, any demonling that saw him coming had the reflexes to counter and attack him, but his maneuverability meant he was able to simply avoid engaging them if he deemed it too dangerous. There were plenty of other targets. Many of the demonlings were still confused as to what was going on, while others were scanning for additional threats. Even those fully alert could be caught off-guard if they happened to be looking the wrong way when Gloe popped into view. If a demonling didn’t have him in full view when he arrived in sight range of them they weren’t likely to see him at all until after a cleaver severed their spine. And if somehow they did he could always just swerve around them.
Many of the demonlings who had not been attacked angrily set off in pursuit, but his haphazard course was extremely difficult to follow, especially in the short-term. Their efforts to resolve the problem therefore ended up temporarily confusing the situation even more. The camp was in chaos.
So it wasn’t difficult for Gloe to reach his destination. It hadn’t taken him long to get there, but unfortunately the death-screams and assorted shouts had given them plenty of warning. The demons were fully armed and arrayed, ready for battle.
More than he would have liked really. Eleven total. A couple of them apparently were not all that emotional, or had been sleeping peacefully. Or something. Four of those fanatics, at least he’d been right about that. A couple of obvious support personnel, but that didn’t mean they were without combat capabilities. Some assorted fighting demons, either chosen or reavers based on their attire. That could be trouble.
What really drew his eye though was the central figure. His armor was…elaborate. Also incredibly tacky, what with the fake pectorals, the massive shoulderpads, the various spikes and the demonic faces everywhere. Still, it looked like it was made with a lot of gold and jewels, so it must have been expensive. That seemed like a pretty solid sign that he was going to be a problem to deal with.
Another good indicator of that was the flames coming from his hands. Without skipping a beat Gloe veered sharply to the left with minimal deceleration. The fireball scorching the spot he had just vacated indicated that this had been a good choice, so he kept running, zig-zagging even more erratically. Columns of flame blossomed all around him, oftentimes in extremely close proximity, generally detonating on the opposite side from their source. He was getting hemmed in, unable to find an opening to flee.
The only thing keeping him alive was his unnatural maneuverability. The reaver seemed to be having trouble compensating for the otherwise impossible turns and stops. Gloe made a snap decision and doubled down. One of the less intuitive aspects of imbuing was that it operated differently when dispersing force generated by the user as opposed to when it was used to shield against attacks or purely external sources. For the latter thickness was a factor, but for the former it was not.
Breaking into a series of flips and springs Gloe began to whip his body into even more dynamic evasions. It wasn’t more efficient, and in fact the lack of regular motions actually slowed him somewhat. However, it was even harder to comprehend and anticipate. In order to imbue and push off Gloe only needed the barest of contact with the surface in question, so he could pivot off the touch of a finger, toe, elbow or knee. His strength had increased incredibly but his mass was more or less the same (aside from additional muscle he’d put on,) so he could send himself flying with ease. He had to slow down so he didn’t snap his fingers off, but they were a lot tougher now so he was still going pretty fast.
It was bizarre-looking, which was the point. While the reaver was still trying to figure out where to aim Gloe began working his way out. He couldn’t engage like this. He was barely avoiding the fire as it was, and that didn’t take into account all those other demons, or the demonlings moving to surround him. Taking advantage of the latter Gloe flipped into a group and, using them as cover, fled.
That turned out to be a miscalculation. The moment he started moving in a straight line to accelerate out a fireball blazed towards him. The dozen or so demonlings immolated screamed, giving notice of its path. Gloe flung himself sideways in response, but it was too late. Mostly.
Avoiding the center of the fireball he was still caught in the outer layers. Those flames were hot, and he ignited. The fire burned right through his shroud and his clothes and skin went up instantly. The pain was excruciating and immobilizing. A follow-up attack came flying in and incinerated Gloe.
Or would have. Gloe was on fire, but he wasn’t burnt out. Not yet. He’d taken the fireball to the back, so he still had some vision, although it was hazy. Kicking off the ground sideways, he deliberately made the angle too low, so instead of skimming the ground he struck it, the force of his kick sending him tumbling wildly. With his shroud almost depleted the evasive maneuver inflicted additional damage to his exposed flesh, but the wild roll also extinguished most of the fire. He couldn’t really slow down very well, but he’d aimed at a dimly seen large rock, and his impact with it finally smashed him to a halt. And gave him a concussion by the feel of things.
Time to worry about that later, if he survived. For the moment this rock needed to cover him. He reached out to pick it up and discovered an unforeseen snag, in that he couldn’t snag the rock. It was hard to see fine details, but apparently the combination of fire and rapid abrasion had rendered his hands inoperable. They looked…pretty bad. In his old life just the sight would have incapacitated him through sheer nausea and horror. He couldn’t feel them given all the burnt, screaming nerves. He was going to have to assume they were out of the picture for now.
That was…unfortunate. He needed a few seconds of obscured vision from his foe. Without them his chances of escape were virtually nil. His forearm look relatively intact. Maybe he could knock the boulder flying? It would probably shatter the arm, but that was acceptable if he got away.
How to position it though? He pawed at the rock for a second and his sub-conscious saved his life. He was desperately trying to leverage the rock loose and he reflexively imbued- his feet to the ground, and his mangled hand to the rock. In less than a heartbeat he realized what had happened, and capitalized. Ignoring his fuzzy vision he aimed at the gloating superiority flowing from behind him. Casting off with his arm he whipped the rock around, releasing the imbue connection at the right moment.
The abrupt, awkward force was too much for even his strengthened bones, and his arm snapped, although not before he achieved his goal. Relying on memory he launched off, running in the shadow of the hurled sedimentary. The moment he saw a large blur he darted past it and changed angles. It didn’t matter what it was, as long as it broke sightlines. He repeated the maneuver each time he encountered something that could cover his retreat.
Growing rage far behind, two sources of predatory glee drawing near, but not quite on a perfect intercept course. His evasion was probably working, or at least would long enough. Two sources of watchful tension up ahead. As he rounded the (probably) tree and came into sight those morphed into horror, disgust and a fair bit of pity.
“Oh s-shit.”
Emokha swore softly in her own language, then steeled herself. “We had better flee. Khan you use your ability?”
“Eh, ah-uh-ly.”
“Your l-lips are burnt off.”
“Just nod.” He complied. “Good. I’ll kharry us all out of here, that way we won’t leave a trail. Hold still.” Gingerly she picked up Gloe with her top arms.
“Ay! A rinehc arry!”
“Stop trying to talk. Oresus, can you hold onto my other two arms without cutting yourself?”
“Y-yes. For a b-bit at least.” He carefully secured a grip above her razor-sharp scythes.
“Ere ey oao.”
“I said shut up Zekhow. We’re leaving.” Emokha’s ability activated full force and she was able to pick up both her companions, slowly rising into the air. She stopped before she cleared the canopy, buzzing through the treetops to safety.
“Eeeeeeeeeeeeee!”