Chapter 149 Trouble Brewing in the Woods.
There is no greater honor,
than putting your life at risk to save others’.
The best use of your life, is to preserve other lives.
Risking your life requires courage that not everyone possess.
Yet, so many people risk their valuable lives for empty glory.
Or mere gold and gemstones, paid for in blood.
Brigit, the Keeper of Life.
“And this is where I say ‘I told you so’” I explain to the corpse at my feet while I observe the charging orcs.
The dead orc does not reply. I leave the lifeless gored body and fly toward the battlefield.
I wipe the blood off my nose and drink a pain tolerance potion for my growing headache.
My Men of Arms form a line of shields, their overly long spears poking out like a porcupine.
But the horde doesn’t stop, they press on their charge. I wince when the orcs hit the wall of spears, impaling themselves.
The first layer of my men leave their spears behind and take a step back, shields raised.
The second line is already there, stabbing their spears between the shields. More orcs impale themselves. The second line reinforce the shield wall with their shields, blocking the lower half of it and creating a solid wall.
The wall stands firm and the few wounded orcs who manage to pass the long spears bang on it with their axes.
It's a violent loud chaos. Loud warcries and screams are the only thing I can hear, and impaled wounded and dead orcs is all I can see.
Zoe and Ovin toss spells from the side. Roots and vines trip a small group of charging orcs, Zoe who cast icy spikes soon copies Ovin and neutralize a larger groups with multiple vines as well.
The pair soon retreat behind the solid wall of shields as the orcs close in on them.
“Kushjak”
The orcs’ assault is halted when a third line of my soldiers shove their overtly long spears through the cracks between the shields. Most of the orcs are already wounded or stuck on the long spears, the few that aren’t, attempt to throw javelins at the solid shield wall of my infantry. A futile attempt as the projectiles bounce off.
The shields go down and my men charge with their arming swords, slaughtering the impaled orcs. The few orcs that manage to get away get shot in the back by arrows.
Then, silence.
And a field of dead orcs.
Wow… I did not expect them to be this efficient… Did we even suffer loses at all?!
From the air, I realize that not all of the orcs attacked us. Many of them are still behind their walls, looking at the carnage with a sneer. Is this… A quarter of them? If they had above two thousand like Berthold’s report, this was a charge of about five hundred… It looked bigger… I guess they’ve split due to Gra’ash’ word…
"Tans fe-lasiuak"
“Barol!”
I call out.
“Here, Shaman.”
The female orc waves from the walls. Her hoarse shout loud enough to carry over.
“Will you leave, or fight?”
“We leafe. They are not true wolfs, they hafe no honor.”
I let out a sigh of relief and fly closer, ready to dodge an attack or raise my defenses. I cancel my spell as I approach her. “What now?”
She gestures and another orc hands her a sack. She reaches into the sack and pulls out Gorlor head by his white hair. “A gift to you, Shaman. We will leafe by next sunrise. And True to Ga’aresh word, we will leafe all of our sheep behind.”
The orc behind her growls and sneers, but multiple nods of agreement are shown as well.
“What if I want you to fight under me?”
“You will hafe to return our sheep to us,” she replies.
“Not going to happen. Leave, don’t come back. We will be watching,” I say and fly toward my army.
“Salik. Have some of your men dig Kolag out of that rubble, tell them to be careful not to remove his helmet by accident. Set up a camp and watch the orcs for another surprise attack. They should leave within a day.”
He nods. “Rogue orcs… They’re worse than the normal ones. You made them free all of their slaves by their honor?”
I raise an eyebrow. “How did you know?”
He snorts. “There’s not much that can set a bunch of angry orcs on a rampage, all while their friends watch from the sidelines. Regardless, the day is ours.”
“That remains to be seen. I’ll only accept victory when I see them gone into the forest.”
He lowers the tip of his straw hat. “Agreed. I’ll stay vigilant. I’ll have the men dig a ditch.”
“Master! That was amazing! How did you go invisible? When did you learn how to do that? Can you teach me how to fly? Please tell me you can teach me how to fly!” Zoe jumps her white stained robes swirling as she hugs me from the side.
“How many patterns can you maintain?”
“Nine.”
“Then form your gravity and wind pools, and I’ll teach you the first way to fly. Keep in mind, it’s a risky way.”
“Yes, Master! I’ll start right now!” She runs off to her tent.
Ovin bows. “Does wood magic have the same power potential as what you just showed us all?”
“I had a good friend with high wood affinity, we fought, and the spells she demonstrated seemed quite powerful. But I honestly don’t know, Ovin. I can only assume so. My wood affinity is rather low, and I don’t use many wood spells. I know a few, but I barely use them. Aside from the low mana, using spells not from your affinity is straining, and if you do it too much your head will hurt. I know because I constantly use energy magic despite my low affinity and here are the results."
I point at my face and wipe another trail of blood from my nose. “My books say it gets worse if you push it too much it can leads to a loss of consciousness and blindness, but I only came close to the former. Regardless, wood magic may not be flashy, but it can keep you fed. It can also poison, and I know there’s a decay sub-element that allows you to rot a living organism directly. I’ve never learned this though, only remember reading it somewhere.”
He leans on his spear, his other hand playing with his bronze belt buckle. “Can you check in your spellbook about a rotting spell?”
"No. My spellbook is quite limited in terms of pages and spells it can generate. I'm sorry. Like I've said, after we're done here we'll visit Tiara down south, and I'll see what I can trade with her for cantrips and spells you can use."
His scar twists with his deep frown. "I see. Thank you. Is there anything I have to do for yo’ll to get more spells or knowledge that you already have?”
“Just ask me, I’ll answer if I know.”
“So I don’t have to… Work for it? Zoe always made me work for it,” he sounds aggravated.
“Zoe is a romantic, and she enjoys playing a sorceress master or something. We already agreed that I’ll teach you for your service to me. I was preoccupied, but that’s no longer the case. Just ask. I have no reason to withhold information or make you ‘work for it’. Don’t overdo it though. I have a limited amount of spells I can create in this grimoire. I won't make new ones just for you, but you can use ones I have already created. Anything you want.”
“What if I want to be able to move faster? Jump higher? Strike harder?”
“Gravity magic can do the first two. There’s probably a way for the third, but I never needed it with Kinetic Burst…”
"Can you teach me?"
"Sure. Learn the "Jump" cantrip, and the "Light Weight" cantrip. It's not in my grimoire, let me draw the patterns for you." He produces a quill and a piece of parchment from his pouch and I jot down the spells for him. "We'll talk once you've got them figured out."
"I’ll learn this first. Thank you, Master.” He bows and leaves, holding onto the parchment like it's gold.
There's more I need to teach them... I nod and turn to Berthold who unstrings his bow a few meters away from us. “Do you know of any magical beast in the area, something we can kill?”
He inserts his bow into his quiver and pockets the string, dusting his gambson. “I spotted a Manticore when I scouted here last month. I’m willing to find their den for you, but you’re on your own fighting those things. I have a family to get back to, I can’t go risking my life for your mad habits.”
“That’s good. We’ll go after the orcs leave and we’ve taken care of the people in the city. I want you to start tracking this thing.”
Berthold crosses his arms. “Things. Manticores hunt in packs. I get the bones of at least one of them like we agreed?"
I nod.
"Good. I’ll get going, the sooner the better.” He turns and heads toward his tent.
I glance at my army. Four soldiers carry Kolag’s armored body. The rest are still in formation, waiting for the orcs to attack.
I get close to Kolag. The soldiers lower him down. I sit on the ground near him and knock on his helmet. It takes a while, and I pass the time reading and knocking on his helmet distractingly. At some point Salik comes to let me know that he has done everything I asked him to.
“Wha what?” Kolag wakes up with a jolt, and Salik ceases his report when I raise a finger to my lips.
“You lost to that orc. Now they’re leaving and taking all of the slaves, are you happy now?” I say, faking bitterness.
“No!” He shoots up to his feet. “We have to stop them! This can’t be happening…”
I remain seated on the ground, lowering my face to hide my uncontrollable smile. "But it did. Why do you have to risk your life all the time?!"
He stomps and turns. "Because someone has to!"
I raise an eyebrow. "But why does it have to be you?"
"Don't tell me it's my fault! It was a mutual decision, you agreed to this!"
I shrug. Not wrong.
"Why am I not dead?" he asks with a hand on his helmet. "That orc wanted to eat me."
"I had to give up my grimoire to that orc just so he won't eat you..."
"Marisha..." His shoulders slump, and he kneels, holding my hands. "We can't let them get away with this!"
I can’t help but show him my grin. “Yeah. I agree. It’s why I won the duel in your stead.”
“So you know we have to… Wait, what?”
“I was pranking you. Gra’ash is dead. Some of the orcs didn’t like it and attacked us, they’re dead too. The others will honor their chieftain’s word and leave tomorrow and they will leave the slaves behind. You slept through all of that.”
Salik chuckles and takes off his straw hat. “I ordered the soldiers to take their rest and posted sentries. I don’t believe the orcs will attack.” His bushy eyebrows form a frown. “Where did you send Berthold, kid? I needed him for some scouting.”
“He’s tracking a Manticore pack for me. I want to teach Zoe and Ovin how to hunt, besides I could always use some more souls.” And hide the fact I ate that orc's eyes and soul... If I meditate now, they'll question why am I meditating without any souls...
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
Salik nods. “Tell me before you send my best scout out. I need to know about it.”
I raise an eyebrow. “Was it anything important?”
Salik uses his metallic hook-arm to scratch his thigh. “We have… Spies trailing our army. I wanted him to take them out for an interrogation. See who sent them. One of the other rulers of this islands or our mysterious assassin guild.”
I get up to my feet. “Send Ovin, I believe he can sneak just as well. They might be from the same assassin guild, send some scouts to help him.”
Salik's hook tugs the oversized piece of jewelry on his chest like he wants to rip it off. “Kid. Ovin might be able to sneak in an alleyway, not the forest. We need Berthold.”
I cross my hands. “Ovin is a wood mage, he should learn how to navigate himself in the woods, don’t you think?”
Salik shakes his head slowly. “He’s not qualified, he should have Berthold teaching him.”
“Think our spies will wait for Berthold to come back?”
“Possibly.” He snorts. “If I knew their plans I wouldn’t need to capture them now, would I?”
“Then let’s send Ovin we won’t know how good he is if we won’t give him a chance. He mentioned he used to be a hunter. Kolag, get Ovin to come over here.”
My armored boyfriend nods, dejected. He thinks he’s invincible. He shouldn’t think that, I don’t want him to die… He's my puppy... MINE!
A few moment later Ovin follows Kolag to our meeting point between the tents. “Yes, Master?” He asks with a bow, the scroll with his new spell tucked under his arm.
What in the five hells did Zoe drill into your head to make you act like that? And why does he drop the act at random times? It makes no sense... “We have a bunch of spies or assassins behind our army. I want you to kill them, capture one of them alive for interrogation if you can.”
“Yes, Master.” He bows again, and turns to leave.
Salik hands me the necklace to control the army, and the silent sentries’ faces shift to me instantly. “I’ll go with him, show him the twigs. I know a thing or two about forest scouting.”
I nod and accept the necklace. “Salik, Ovin. Be careful. Your lives are more important than the task. Come back alive.”
They both leave, Salik patting Ovin’s back in a friendly manner.
“Marisha, we have to save those people in the city.” Kolag says behind me.
“Yes. Tomorrow. Today we’re getting some rest. I bet you’re pretty bruised under that helmet.”
“I’m fine.”
“You’re not. Here.” I hand him a healing potion.
“Hrrm…” He inserts his straw to the potion bottle and drink.
*~*~*
Interlude 149.1
Ovin Redspear.
Ovin clutches his spear. He’s not new to forests. Back before the riots at Apricot City, he was a hunter. He even clashed with bandits and some magical beasts. He did some trading with the former too. He lied about the way he got his powers, he had these powers for a long time now, and the vines had always been his friends.
Ovin got the name Red Spear because his spear tip was always red with blood. Yet this pompous pea brained emotional general insists on giving him the most rudimentary lessons about forest silence.
Ovin is superior to this snowy fool. Ovin could teach him a thing or two. Not to mention there are plenty of vines and roots here to control.
“Here, see these? You should avoid stepping on dry leaves or twigs, it’ll make a noise and you want to be quiet.” The general points the obvious.
Ovin had enough. He had a very wrong impression due to that stupid jar, Zoe. He’s not at the bottom of the food chain under Queen Inara. No, he’s right under her. She treats all of her close circle as if they’re directly under her.
There’ll be no repercussions for holding his own.
“Rod’ena.”
Ovin seizes control over the roots of a nearby tree and binds the pea brained general to the large trunk. The roots cover the general’s mouth and keep him in place.
Ovin smiles as the general’s eyes open wide. Ovin's index crosses his lips "shhh." He heads towards the noises ahead, leaving the bound man behind. This pompous general is deaf as well as stupid. Talking is a noise, you don’t want to scare your prey with noise now, do you?
Ovin sneaks closer to the prey. Ovin’s ears are rather sharp, sharp enough to hear the deer running to his left, avoiding the people who scared the animal off. Ovin hears them before he sees them, arguing in low voices.
Two men and a woman, all wearing forest brown and green. The woman’s wheat blond hair stand out on her clothes. She should wear a hood, it makes them quite easy to spot in the greenery.
“…All busy with those savages, we can take her!” The blondie insists in a high pitched voice.
“Go through a whole camp of Men of Arms? Are you out of your pea rotten mind? Those guys sleep with their eyes open! I say we wait until she enters the city. We’ll mix in with the survivors, no one will tell us apart. It’ll give us time to prepare for the strike.” Ovin agrees with the man’s plan, it makes more sense, it’s smarter.
“The longer it takes, the more chance they have to notice us. I want to be done with it and be back at Blue Cypress City. How hard can it be? She’s a magic user, and we have obsidian glass, her magic is useless.” The woman is rather impatient. Blue Cypress City. Ovin notes down this little detail. They have not come from Sajarev, and they are not connected to the previous assassination attempt.
“The glass doesn’t cancel all magic, it only works if she conjures an effect. If she influences the world around her, she can still use her magic.” The man provides a perfect clue for Ovin, he’ll have to be careful with his usage of magic and only use existing vines. Fortunately this is a forest filled with roots and vines.
“Yeah yeah. We’ve already killed three of these sorcerers for our king. They’re too arrogant for their own good and never see it coming when their magic fails,” the woman boasts. Ovin nods to himself. A king sent them. Another monarch. Another mage.
Ovin have options now. He could offer help in killing Inara, proving himself to this other monarch. But no, that is a very bad idea. Inara is a softie, and she treats him with kindness. Too much kindness. She gives him spells for free. He can use that to his advantage. Compared to an unknown king? Who knows how he'll be treated? He'll have to go through a lot of scrutiny too, considering he just betrayed his former Master...
Ovin carefully forms a noose out of vines from the tree above them. Focusing on the magical pattern. He swings the noose and catches the third silent man with it. The noose wraps tightly around the man’s neck and lifts him off the ground. The man struggle and flail his arms violently. He likely makes a futile attempt to yell, but the other two are so absorbed in their argument and don’t notice a thing.
One down, two to go.
“True. But caution never hurt anyone. You’re becoming as arrogant as a sorceress.” The other man chides.
Ovin nods in agreement. Inara would turn these three into mincemeat in a matter of seconds. Obsidian glass or not. That little lady can fly, turn invisible, summon pillars of ice, and loose lightning from her fingertips. He have seen a few sorcerers in his lifetime, and tried to get apprenticeship in the past, but she’s the strongest and youngest one he had ever seen. Best of all, she’s rather naïve. She’s way too trusting, giving him so many spells and information for free. She does not know ambition, nor does she know the true value of the knowledge she possesses.
“You’re just a coward. We can sneak in there. Men of Arms are as dumb as a pea, they’re not trained to watch out for people like us,” the woman exclaims.
Ovin direct his vines to wrap tightly around the man, binding him to a tree. This is the one thing he agrees with the woman, the man is a coward, cowards are easier to interrogate.
The man shouts in alarm, and the woman’s panicked attention is focused on the bound man. Ovin runs his spear through her back. The woman gasps, looking down at the bloody spear that’s jutting out from between her breasts. Ovin places his leg on her back and pushes her off the shaft as she lets out a gargled whimper, no one survive a spear to the heart.
Ovin hears the man’s teeth chattering in fear, and he turns to him. Ovin plasters his best cordial smile. “I’d like to know who sent you?”
“I-I ain’t talking! Do what you will but I…”
“You will talk.” Ovin say quietly and punches the man. Once, twice, thrice. The man loses his conscious. Ovin’s master will interrogate him. According to Zoe’s story, that little redhead can also read minds. Ovin would enjoy seeing such magic, seeing is the first step of learning.
*~*~*
Power level: 3rd stage apprentice.
Mana pools status:
Crown-knot: Affinity 10: connected: 1 gem replenished per minute.
Neck-Bridge: Affinity 6: formed: max amount of gems drained per day: 91
Abdomen-storage: Affinity 5: connected: 41 neutral gems. Conversion ratio: elemental : neutral-3:1, neutral : elemental-1:1
Air: Affinity 4: formed: 34 gems
Fire: Affinity 2: formed: 17 gems
Light: Affinity 3: formed: 16/26 gems
Water: Affinity 6: connected: 73/75 gems
Earth: Affinity 1: formed: 8 gems
Wood: Affinity 2: formed: 17 gems
Gravity: Affinity 9: connected: 88/113 gems
Cantrip known:
Air: Shavi’s Breeze, Shavi’s Sword. Shavi’s Hair Dryer, Aria’s Enhanced Hearing. Aria’s Sonic Scream. Aria's Increased Voice.
Fire: Nuriss’ Flame. Effrat’s Firefly, Effrat’s Fire Breath. Effrat's Ember Vision. Sorladika's Lesser Heating. Nuriss’ Ignite. Oniga's Soap Creation.
Light: Noxi’s Light. Lako’s Enhance Vision. Lako’s Blinding Light. Rika’s energy hand.
Water: Water Evocation, Water to Ice, Ice to Water, Water to Vapor, Vapor to Water, Mayan’s Icy Spike, Ayla’s Water Jet. Ayla’s instant freezem. Ayla's Flowing Shield. Ayla’s Freezing Vapors. Hot Water Conjuration. Boiling Waterjet.
Earth: Alice’s Oil Summoning, Reiko’s Acid Spray. Alf's Copper Bolt
Wood: Arigor’s Lesser Vines. Kolosu’s Vegetable Summoning.
Gravity: Lumina’s Kinetic Burstm. Tukado’s Repulse. Tukado’s Lesser Shield IIm. Imari’s Minor Telekinesism. Imari’s Jump. Leo’s Pullm. Leo’s Grounding. Alino’s Light Body. Alino’s Heavy Body. Alino's Orbiter.
Transmutation: Oniga's Laundry.
Space: Lumina's Spatial Stepa.
Spells known:
Light: Wassho’s invisibilityb2x2. Rika's Electric Channelb1x3
Water: Mayan’s Boiling Waveb2. Tolste’s Icy Escape.
Gravity: Alino’s Weightless Bodyb1x3. Tukado's Pushb1x4. Tukado’s defense IIIb1x5m. Imari’s Lesser Flightb2x2m. Lumina’s Kinetic Blast Boltb1x6a. Alino’s Crushing Weightb3.
Psyche: Lumina's Mind Touchb3
Life: Brigit’s Lesser Cure Poison. Brigit’s Skin Restoration.
(Little letters by the spells: m=mastered. a=advanced. b=bound spell, number near the b is how many gems of the mana pool binding the said spell takes. The number is determined by the elemental's size that's bound + the number of spells bound.)
Patterns Foci:
Air: 16
Fire: 8
Light: 12-13
Water: 21
Earth: 8
Wood: 8
Gravity: 22
Social status: The Queen of Red Cedar City. Inara, Daughter of Mysteries. Apprentice to the Maven of Mysteries. Sorceress.
Carried Wealth: 384 Magical Gems. 102 diamonds. 40 Golden Peas, 20 Silver Scales. 20 Copper Bits.
Personal Items:
Magical necklace. Contains 100 gems of general mana, can be drained like a mana pool. It’ll recharge by itself at the rate of five gems an hour.
1 potion of lightning body.
1 potion of mana, medium grade.
3 potions of Lesser Healing.
4 potions of Pain Tolerance.
An enchanted belt with eight pouches, the enchantment keeps the pouches’ content fresh. Each pouch may contain 10g of petals or six potion flasks.
31g Rose petals.
7g Lavender petals.
10g Sowbread petals.
10 empty soul bottles. Glass with a diamond stopper, put in scaled leather wrapping.
The Great White Egret grimoire. Dedicated by the Maven of mysteries to Inara. 39/100. Unlocked.
A bent Wand of Lightning Bolts charges 0/5
Present Pawns:
Kolag of house Befar. Control Method: My puppy.
Berthold. Control Method: His sister's health.
Ovin. Control Method: A promise of magic and power.
Zoe. Control Method: fulfilling her idle fantasies.
Salik. Control Method: Glitter.
Loyal. Control Method: Unknown! Fixated on me. Unreasonably Loyal. Potential threat.
Absent Pawns:
Jerro. Control Method: Sharlafyn's love.
Sharlafyn Nettledew. Control Method: Pity.
Ryon. Control Method: Food and Sex.
Languages:
Toml’a
Sinteo
Myrsha
Felul
Nim
A'arkalu
Injuries and scars:
Curses: unknown extracted parasite, possibly bloodline related. Gone due to an unknown bloodline magic.
-
Kingdom’s treasury: 25,234 Golden Peas. 765 Magical Gems.
Kingdom’s citizen:
Red Cedar City: 3,609 adults. 1,654 children.
Apricot City: 1,877 adults. 504 children.
Kingdom's army: 5,000 Men of Arms. 123 Footmen. 16 Peacekeeper Knights. 500 Blood Spears.
Total Souls: 12,644 souls.
Pawns at Court:
Tasiya Keyholder: Control Method: Threats on her life.
Jolla SilverQuill. Control Method: Pursuit of knowledge in her presence.
Talbot Bookkeeper. Control Method: Agoraphobia.
Aisha? Control Method: Humane acts?
The board has many pieces, which one to move, which one...
God's relationship: Unknown interests. Expect the worst.
Tukado: Unknown interests. Known pawns: Jolla.
Koshavi: Clearly Interested. Known interest: Kolag's love for me. Cordial so far. Wants something. Known pawns: Kolag.
Nuriss: Unknown interests. Possible pawns: Salik.
Noxi: Known interest: My death. Hostile. No known pawns.
Lokamesh: Unknown interests. No known pawns.
Tonisha: Unknown interests. Possible pawns: Berthold.
Amaret: Unknown interests. Assume hostility, Noxi's ally. No known pawns.
Brigit: Unknown interests. Assume hostility, Noxi's ally. No known pawns.
Rakisha: Unknown interests. Known pawns. Ovin.
Kilako: Unknown interests. No known pawns.
Tiyadi: Helpful so far. Wants something. Unknown interests. Known pawns. Jerro.
Mayan: Unknown interests. No known pawns.
Fae Monarchs Coalition: Unknown interests. Assume malicious intentions.
Twilight, Maiden of Darkness: Unknown interests. Assume malicious intentions. Known pawns. Sharla. Possible pawns: Berthold.
Devil lords: Potential Unknown interests. Assume the worst.
Hot Iron: Unknown Interests. Assume malicious intents. Known pawns. Ryon.
Arch mages:
Maven of Mysteries: Known interest: An apprentice in her image. Currently distracted.