After my conversation with scout commander Nells, I waited for two days. During that time, my bones finished healing up, thanks to my high Fortitude and my healing ability derived from my attunement. I had to admit, Fortitude was an incredibly useful stat to improve no matter what I ended up doing in the future. Not only did it make it much harder to get sick, and not only did it toughen up my body and make me harder to hurt, but the accelerated healing speed was something to marvel at. Anytime I got hurt in the future, I would be able to feel the effects of my high Fortitude, boosting me along and making the situation better for me.
And considering the fact that I planned on routinely taking massive risks in order to generate more Achievement from one life to the next, I got the feeling I would be getting injured a lot. I couldn’t help but wonder how much Fortitude I would have needed to shrug off the acid that had melted my arm during the second exploration of the ocean in my previous life. I doubted another few grades would have let me keep my arm, but perhaps five more grades would have been enough to emerge from the acid cloud with only serious injuries? Perhaps I would have needed seven? Perhaps I would have needed even less than that. I couldn’t help but wonder whether, at a high enough Fortitude, I could simply sit in a cloud of acid and ignore it completely.
I couldn’t help but feel eager to see what higher and higher Grades in my stats would do as we reincarnated over and over again. I just hoped we would live long enough to see that possible future.
On the third day after our conversation, Nells sent a scout to let me know he was ready to see me again, if I had finished healing. He had talked it over with Ella and Lauren, as well as a few other scouts. After much consideration, Sallia and I had a group of scouts who were willing to let us tag along. Even though we were still children, as shaper-casters who had proven they had the ability to fight against the Orukthyri on somewhat even terms, the city was willing to give us a chance to fight, even though we were children. I suspected that if the city were less worried, the overseer would never have allowed us to help the military. However, a large warband of Orukthyri was a possible extinction event for the city, and so they were willing to grab anyone who was willing to help right now.
Sallia and I met up shortly afterwards, before we started heading to the military command center in the city again. Anise hadn’t wanted to fight, after the experience with fighting the Orukthyri at the border cavern. She seemed to have been more than a little terrified by the fight, and since she was a real child, I didn’t blame her. Felix felt that he couldn’t contribute much to the battlefield right now, since he only knew second-circle spells, and the Orukthyri had proven largely immune to anything below the fourth circle. I felt both of them had good reasons to be absent, so I encouraged both of them to rest easy and not feel guilty. Sallia, of course, was excited to get into a good fight, and I wanted Achievement and to keep the city safe.
A couple hours later, Sallia and I met the scouting team. The scouting team had six members, plus the two of us. One of the scouts, a woman who appeared to be the leader of the group, gave us a quick, curt nod.
“I’m glad to see the two of you,” she said, giving Sallia and I quick glances. “I’ve heard that you two did quite well during a skirmish at the border cavern. Some of the other scouting teams were leery of taking some kids along, but I figure you’ve already proven you have the guts to help out. And we really need help.” the woman smiled grimly for a moment, before she sighed. “So, quick question. Do you know what hit and run tactics are?”
“Aren’t they when you try to attack only groups of enemies that are smaller and weaker than yours, kill them quickly, and then flee before their main force arrives? And then repeat over and over again?” said Sallia, but the way she phrased it made it sound more like a question than a confident answer to the woman’s question.
The scout smiled. “Good! I thought I would need to explain a lot more. What we’re planning on doing is hit and run tactics, because we have no way of winning against more than one or two Orukthyri in a pitched battle. We plan to take advantage of Miria’s ability that she demonstrated a while ago. The main idea is just to weaken the Orukthyri warband a bit before the big fight happens. The Orukthyri breed fast, but they also need a whole lot of food to grow so quickly. And since they aren’t built for surviving underground, their digestive tracts don’t play as well with a diet of mushrooms. Which means they’ll hunt down the local denizens of the darkness first, then get more aggressive as they run out of food. We still have a small window of time to drop their numbers a little before the final battle starts. We want to kill as many as we can with traps. With your magic, we should be able to use a couple final cave-in traps that didn’t get used already, and hopefully we can drop another couple Orukthyri before things go to hell,” she said.
“What about me?” Asked Sallia.
“I hear that you’re a body-enhancing specialist, right?”
Sallia nodded.
“In that case, if you can apply body boosts to us during an emergency, we’d appreciate that. But the most important thing to do is to help us keep the Orukthyri in the traps and all of our members outside of the traps before we spring them. Even if you aren’t as strong as an Orukthyri, I’ve heard you can at least stall them for a bit. I hope you don’t get a chance to fight today, since that would mean things have gone horribly wrong, but based on what I’ve heard of your physique and swordsmanship skills, you could make surviving much easier if an Orukthyri manages to escape being buried alive. Can you do it?”
Sallia nodded eagerly. “Absolutely! Although, I might not be able to apply the body-enhancements to you guys. While I’ve practiced with Miria, since your bones and muscles are different than those of a child’s, I’m not sure if my spells would work perfectly. In the worst case scenario, it might just be a waste of essence.”
“Is that so?” Said the scout, frowning. Then, she sighed. “Fair enough. Give it a shot if it seems like it’s necessary, but focus more on being an emergency plan and don’t worry about boosting us. And make sure Miria don’t fall behind, since both of you are pretty short.” She gave the two of us a humorous grin. “And try not to get into a melee fight if possible. If it happens, it happens, but it’s a last resort.” She gave Sallia a careful look, and while Sallia looked a little disappointed, she nodded. I tried not to chuckle as I looked at Sallia’s expression.
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Then I thought back to the fight Sallia and I had with the Orukthyri at the border cavern, and grimaced.
I wasn’t eager to re-enact a fight that had left Sallia with a broken arm and me with two broken legs and a broken arm. It had been a small miracle that none of our limbs were shattered badly enough that they healed improperly. In the worst case scenario, I could probably extinguish one Orukthyri if needed. But I would very much prefer it if we could just kill Orukthyri by dropping caves on their heads. It would be several times easier that way, even if Sallia might wish for a proper fight instead.
After the scout leader’s introduction, the scout leader asked for a demonstration of our abilities to make sure she knew how to cope with us. I demonstrated the rune ability I would be using to lure Orukthyri into the trapped caves, and Sallia demonstrated how strong, fast, and tough she was. I noticed that Sallia didn’t actually waste any mana during the demonstration: she kept all of her actual essence ready for a potential fight. However, even though Sallia was only relying on her natural physique right now, the scouts seemed quite impressed by how strong Sallia was. Even though both of us were still suffering from major stat penalties, due to the fact that we were children, Sallia’s stats were solidly in Grade 8 before she applied a single spell to her body. She was already a fair bit stronger than a regular adult, and I suspected that once she finished growing up, she could probably fight Orukthyri in single combat and win as long as she had her spells and attunements running.
Then, after Sallia and I finished our demonstrations, the scouts quickly explained their plans, and our roles in a fight. We spent several minutes learning how to handle emergencies, as well as getting to know the shooting abilities and movement speeds of the scouts.
Once everyone had a decent grasp of the strengths and weaknesses of the others in the group, we set off.
The scouts moved much faster than Ella and Lauren had, much to my amusement. They had a certain… rhythm to how they walked that allowed them to eat ground with every stride, and I could tell that they had spent long hours training their stamina. Sallia and I kept up with them easily, since our stats were much higher than theirs.
We spent over a day traveling through the tunnels under the earth. The scouts frequently stopped at certain caverns, showing the two of us symbols scouts etched into the less stable tunnels that we could use to find our way back to the city if we got separated from the group for some reason. Then, once we started getting closer to the ruined city, the scouts showed us some of the prepared caverns that had already been used. They showed us the small supports that just barely kept the tunnels stable, and how to bring it all crashing down by crushing a few crystals that would burn through the tunnel’s supports in a few seconds.
When I saw the magic crystals, I felt that it was a shame Felix hadn’t come with us. Even if he wasn’t big on fighting, he would have loved to see a new magic item, even if these seemed relatively complex and hard to understand.
I got the feeling the scouts didn’t want to show us how to start the cave-ins, in case we did something dumb and dropped the roof on our heads, but after considering the fact that the scouts in charge of dropping the prepared caverns might get injured or something, they had grudgingly showed us how to drop the roofs in case of an emergency.
Despite the constant delays, eventually, we eventually started approaching the ruined city the Orukthyri had taken over.
The scouts led us through a fairly complex set of passageways as we approached the city. After several minutes of walking, we reached the end of the tunnel we had been walking through.
Our tunnel was well out of the way of the main paths in and out of the city, which was probably why the scouts were willing to use it to check up on the Orukthyri. Our view of the ruined city wasn’t great, and we could only see about a third of the cavern. However, most importantly, unless the Orukthyri were paying very close attention, they couldn’t see us, either.
With our safety at least somewhat guaranteed, I got my first glimpse of the ruined city the Orukthyri had taken over.
There were around 20 or 30 Orukthyri visible to me in the slice of cavern I could observe. However, it was likely there were far greater numbers of them out of view. Many of them had parts of ripped up trees which they wielded as clubs. The sight made me wince.
Wood was rather expensive in the underdark. I wasn’t obsessed with money, but seeing such an expensive material ruined to make clubs still made my heart hurt a little bit. If every single Orukthyri had a club or part of a tree ripped up…
I snorted. At least this conflict would pay for itself, if we won. The soldiers would be able to expect hefty bonuses after the fight ended.
Apart from the Orukthyri clubs, the ruined city itself took me by surprise. There were ruined buildings made of stone and wood everywhere. The passage of time and the marks of abandonment had left the buildings as carcasses of the once massive city. The cavern this city was house in was notably larger than ours, and likely could have housed 50,000 people at its peak. Oddly enough, a few of the buildings seemed to be magically enhanced, meaning that they were still perfectly intact, despite the other buildings being ruined beyond repair.
The Orukthyri hadn’t bothered replacing any of the destroyed buildings. Instead, they had brought simple tents into the ruined city. Many of the tents were patchy, and had large holes in them, but I could see why the Orukthyri were so dangerous. Even if they didn’t have all of the intellect needed to maximize their use of tents, the fact that they knew how to use tents and create makeshift weapons meant that they knew how to use tools. That already made them incredibly scary. They were much stronger than us, and even if their tool usage was clearly inferior, a strong, somewhat intelligent enemy was always dangerous.
Several of the tents in the cavern that I could see were empty, indicating that many of the Orukthyri were missing right now. Of the Orukthyri in the main city, several were children, though there were plenty of warriors prepared to defend the children if we tried to attack them.
We observed the camp for a few minutes, making sure that nothing was amiss. At least for now, the Orukthyri had enough food that they weren’t too aggressive in looking for ways to reach our city. Which was lucky: it gave us a little more time to whittle down their numbers. If the Orukthyri started marching towards the city, we would need to flee as fast as possible and hope that we stayed ahead of the horde. But it looked like we had at least a little time left.
I swallowed nervously, eyeing the massive encampment of hostile monstrous creatures, before the head scout gave me a reassuring nod, and gestured towards Sallia and I, then motioned towards the camp of Orukthyri.
It was time to get started.