“What happened here?”

“I’ll admit, things got a bit out of hand.” A stone clattered down noisily as if seconding his statement.

“I askhed you to neutralize the watchtower guards, not…”

“I assure you, they’re neutralized.” Gloe pointed to the large pile of rubble. “Pre-buried too. That’s a service you don’t see very often. How did the raid go?”

“I’m not done talkhing about this, but it went well. We acqhuired most of what we require. We khould not find suitable clothes for you though, so I brought this khoat for now.”

Gloe looked down at his crude hide loincloth. “I mean, I’m fine with this for now. Cold isn’t too much of an issue, and I have a lot of freedom of movement. Not to say I’m against clothes mind you, but given that everything I’d pieced together was incinerated in an instant I’ve decided I need to try to be less attached.”

“Zekhow, wear the damn khoat. I’m sickh of lookhing at you.”

He frowned. “Why? I mean, I’m not especially vain, but I think I’m growing into a halfway decent specimen, especially given the circumstances of my birth.” He flexed. “I mean, check out these guns!”

“If y-you don’t wear the coat I won’t give you these pickaxes.”

“Insults and threats is it?” Gloe grumbled. “’s not like I’m against wearing the coat y’know. I was just asking about the reasoning.”

“We h-humans are somewhat ugly, it seems.” Oresus showed a sly sideways grin in Emokha’s direction.”

“I never said that! All I said is that I have acqhuired my peoples’ sense of aesthetikhs, and it has mostly supplanted what I had as a human.”

“Fine, I’ll hide my hideous endoskeleton-covering muscles.”

“Just get to workh please.”

Rolling his eyes theatrically Gloe donned the coat. It didn’t smell amazing, which was par for the course in these parts. He was about to ask whose corpse they had looted the thing from, until he found the neat hole right above his heart. The shape looked just about right for one of Emokha’s claws. He decided to let the matter pass. He’d jump in the first body of water they passed.

Taking two pickaxes from Oresus he got to the matter at hand. Carefully setting his feet a bit beyond shoulder-length apart he began to swing at the road beneath him. After he had gotten a rhythm he switched to a windmill technique, continuously spinning the tools at the surface below. Broken pavement began to spray all around him.

“How are y-you so much faster than I am? I’m p-pretty much as strong as you are.”

“Remember I’ve got a lot more practice with pickaxes than you do. Tch.” Gloe winked and pointed as he drew near. “Let me see your technique.”

Oresus grumbled for a moment, then began banging at the ground again. “Okay, yeah, I see the problem. Stop a second. Here, adjust your grip farther down. All the way to the edge, so you get maximum leverage.”

“I’m worried it w-will slip.”

“Remember, you’re a lot stronger than you used to be. It probably doesn’t feel that way. You seem to naturally use your old default strength unless you’re quite excited or really straining. It must be some sort of natural defensive measure so you don’t rip everything around you to shreds.”

“Still, I don’t want to have to s-squeeze so hard. It makes me n-nervous.”

“Your actual grip doesn’t matter, just the placement. Put your hand down at the end of the haft, then line the whole thing up with your forearm. Yeah, like that. Then imbue the pickaxe, the same way you do when you’re lifting something really heavy. That way the pickaxe is effectively attached to you through shroud.”

“Oh. That m-makes sense.” Oresus practiced for a bit. “Yes, that h-helps some.”

“Can’t speak for you, but I kinda love being an aberration…-like being. The general enhancements make picking up new skills so much easier. Okay, for the next step make sure you’re imbuing the ground to stabilize yourself. Just don’t push it out so far that you’re covering the target area with shroud, right?”

“R-right. That h-helps a lot.”

“The other thing I’m doing is a little experimental, but I’m trying to increase my imbue precision. It’s not working super well so far, but I’m trying to isolate the area I’m breaking up. I think if I can create a distinct division the force from my pickaxes will naturally cause the pavement to shatter where in intersects with shroud.”

“I understand what y-you’re saying, but I’m not sure that will work very well.”

Gloe shrugged and went back to his own spot, ripping back into the road. “I’m just letting you know what I’m trying.”

For a while the only sound was the crushing destruction of pavement. “H-hey, I’m doing what you said but you’re still faster!”

“Well, I mean…I don’t get tired. So there’s that.”

“S-shut up.” Crunching gravel filled the air again for some time.

“Hey, w-what are you doing over there?”

“What? Emokha said we should create irregular damage, right? She said logistics and infrastructure maintenance were likely to be weaknesses of a totalitarian kleptocracy centered on metahuman cults of personality. And we all agreed that it’s much easier to replace a completely destroyed section of road than it is to repair a heavily damaged and inoperable stretch, since in the latter case you have to begin by removing the useless surface. Plus if we merely ruin roads as opposed to obliterate them we can effectively cover more ground. Literally and figuratively. Am I wrong?”

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Oresus sighed deeply. “N-no one said it like that, but sort of. I meant, what are those odd s-shapes?”

“Nothing.”

“Those are l-letters, aren’t they? From your old w-world.”

“No. I told you, I never learned how to read. No chance when you grow up in a prison camp.”

“They l-look like letters to me. The kind s-sojourners sometimes use.”

“No, just random shapes. I guess maybe I could be unconsciously copying the style though. I did know a sojourner in prison once.”

Oresus gave him a skeptical look. “Emokha!”

Gloe rolled his eyes so hard his whole head moved. “Really?”

“What is it?” She looked down where Oresus was pointing, then fluttered up into the air to get a better view. When she came back down she slapped at the back of Gloe’s head. “That is absolutely disgusting Zekhow!”

“What?” He ducked under the blow. “I’m just cutting randomly, like you told us to!”

She threw him another exasperated look and headed back to her own section of road. “Hurry up, there’s a bridge several hills over I want to try to khollapse.”

“Ooh. That sounds fun.”

“We aren’t doing this f-for fun.”

“True. Consider it a fringe benefit.” Gloe went back to making a bunch of random cuts that only coincidentally resembled exclamation points.

...

“There, see?”

“That is a l-lot of wagons.”

“And qhuite a few guards. Cavalry too, with lances. Even if they’re normal demons that could be a problem.”

“M-maybe not. I had an idea about that, and we p-passed a good spot to try it yesterday.”

“Some of those guards look like those aberration fanatics to me. Could be some reavers inside the wagons too.”

“And do we even wish to strikhe this khonvoy in the first place? True they are wearing uniforms and flying military banners, so they are a legitimate target, but what are they kharrying?”

“This r-road goes southwest, as far as we’ve seen it. That’s towards the b-border with the Duchy of Nalost. My g-guess is that they’re supplies for the army.”

“What supplies? Demonlings skhavenge food from the battlefield, and don’t reqhuire medicine.”

“There have to be a lot of r-reavers there too.”

“Mere supposition though. I am uncertain we should undertakhe such a fight and inkhur such riskh without khlear khause. If we attackh it will reveal our presence.”

“True, but we already wreaked havoc not too much farther along this road, right? They hit that stretch and they’re gonna reach out and tell somebody. Same general effect, right?”

“I w-want to hit them. I think I c-can take the cavalry.”

“All of them?” Gloe whistled softly.

“Hmm.” Emokha seemed on the fence.

“I count…nine fanatics. I don’t see any obvious signs of chosen or reavers, but like you said they could be hanging out in one of the wagons. What would you need to deal with the cavalry?”

“We would need to g-get them to charge me.”

“Emokha, what do you think? Could we make that happen?”

A sigh came in reply. “I have some knowledge of standard demon khavalry takhtikhs. A ranged ambush in the right terrain khould induce them to launch a flankhing sweep. A small khontingent would likely remain behind to guard the kharavan, but it would be manageable.” She held up one finger. “If, and only if, Zekhow and I were able to takhe the fanatikhs.”

“What kind of terrain do you need Oresus?”

“J-just a meadow or something. Knee l-level shrubbery.”

“Hmm. What about something like this?” Gloe began sketching in the dirt.

...

“You should try for two.”

“What? No. As long as I khill one of the jaulys that wagon will stop. That will akkhomplish our goal.”

“Part of our goal. We also need to sell the deception, so I say you should go for a through and through.”

“That seems unnecessarily riskhy.”

“You can do it. I believe in you.”

“Of khourse I khould do it, but no one is one hundred percent akkhurate. Plus you have to akkhount for wind and target movement.”

“If you miss just run over here and throw a second time. We’ve got two decoys.”

A low-volume buzzing, hissing sound emanated from her frame, then she finally threw all four hands up in the air. “Fine. Have it your way. I will makhe the attempt.”

“Tch. I believe in you.”

“You already tried that line.”

“Yeah, but last time I did it without the wink and the finger gun, so I understand why you weren’t persuaded.”

“Shut up Zekhow. I need to fokhus.”

“You got it chief.” Gloe turned away, running his hand in curious patterns on the ground, a look of intense concentration sweeping across his features. For her part Emokha ran yet another of endless checks on all the gear and moving parts involved in this plan.

...

The time passed glacially, each minute adding minutely but appreciably to the rising tension. They remained calm though, unnaturally. Eventually Gloe smoothly rose to his feet, no sign of stiffness or his limbs falling asleep after being seated for so long. Unnaturally.

Emokha cut him off before he could get out more than a few incredibly exaggerated and incomprehensible counterfeit sign-language gestures. “Talkh to me Zekhow. Where are they?”

“On the road, closing. I suspect at least a couple are sleeping. Tastes like nightmares. The beasts of burden are aching, they’ve been driven hard. Doubt they have much get-up and go left.”

“Checkh on Oresus, would you?”

“Yeah, sure.” Gloe faded into the undergrowth on the backside of the hill, popping out at ground level on the west side, north of the road. “They’re coming. How ya feelin’?”

Oresus rolled his eyes. “Does it l-look like anything has changed?”

“No. If anything they seem a bit more relaxed than I was hoping for. Hope that doesn’t bite us in the ass.”

“It w-will go fine. I can handle the cavalry and Emokha should be able to h-hit and run most of the fanatics.”

“What about me?”

The answering grin was slight. “I d-doubt you’ll stay dead.”

“Hey, don’t make any assumptions. If it looks like they’re about to kill me I expect you to rush to my rescue. Us ugly human males gotta stick together.”

“Pff.”

“I’m serious. The plan is for Emokha to head back to her people eventually. Do you want to be the sole hideous spectacle for a whole army of Viluota, or do you want another fugly one to share that burden with you?”

There was a long pause. “I’ll th-think about that.”

“That’s all I ask.” Gloe vanished back into the nearby plant life, reappearing atop the hill.”

“How did he takhe it?”

“He’s fine. Excited even. If his plan works…”

“Yes. It khould be a turning point for him.” He wings twitched slightly. “However, if it does not workh…”

“It’ll work. Probably.” Emokha cocked her head slightly, staring silently until he relented. “Fine, fine. I’ll keep an eye on things. So to speak.”

“Exhellent. Be ready.”

Gloe fell backwards into the grass, threading his hands behind his head and closing his eyes. “Roger that.”