Academian Quincy and the other evaluators had been on many missions where they were forced to do nothing but observe. As members of the Royal Academy, their central purpose was the collection, protection, and verification of all Oglivarchian knowledge. And while none of them were all that ‘dedicated’ to that particular cause, they still abided by it.
However, sometimes it was difficult to set aside their humanity and watch these weaker cities struggle against such preventable disasters. But, how else would they learn and grow? Simply providing them with the requisite knowledge would hinder their leveling and weaken the kingdom as a whole. Yet, it still weighed on them to stand by and watch them pointlessly waste lives.
“I thought they’d progressed enough to have trained war mages? Why didn’t they just use curved shields?” asked Scholar Yarbarrow.
Academian Quincy didn’t bother replying, the last thing he wanted to do was get into an argument about politics. Instead, Scholar Idrius took the bait and answered Scholar Yarbarrow’s question.
“While they do have several trained war mages, they aren’t very high level or particularly skilled. Most of the ‘wars’ they’ve faced are local noble wars and some bandit eliminations. You have to keep in mind that before the density shift started there weren’t even any local essence anomalies of note. At best, the local threats could be handled by a squad or two of soldiers. Don’t let their city’s age fool you, due to their rebellion, their progress has been practically reset,” she explained in a lecturing tone.
Scholar Vaxas muttered, “It still seems like someone should have thought of curving their shields when barreling into a fire zone.”
Academian Quincy tuned them out, not wanting to listen to their debate. After all, their opinions didn’t matter. The end was already predestined. As the war progressed, the military would learn and adapt. It was inevitable. Besides, the city’s evolving tactical doctrine wasn’t what they were here to evaluate.
His entire focus remained on Lord Walker. Even now, hidden behind a wall of soldiers and with nothing to do, the young man was still experimenting and learning. ‘What kind of inner strength and indomitable will must he have to continue pushing himself like this?’ he wondered.
Considering how much kobald spellfire was reigning down on the humans, he and the other evaluators had been forced to hide near the ceiling on the back wall. They were standing on constructed platforms anchored into the wall and hidden with essence diffusion techniques. He doubted that anyone could see them, even if they bothered to turn around and look up at them.
As a result, due to their distance, he was forced to use a vision-enhancing spell to monitor the young lord. Although he could have used a scrying technique, it wasn’t worth the center considering how chaotic the ether was at the moment.
While his fellow evaluators argued over what techniques and tactics Dorchester’s army should be using, of course taking into account their city’s development level, Academian Quincy was focused entirely on the new movement technique Lord Walker was displaying.
Narrowing his eyes and increasing the power he was feeding into his spell form, his vision zoomed in on the area around Lord Walker. With how close the soldiers were packed, it was difficult to see exactly what was happening, but luckily he was able to see enough to formulate a hypothesis or two.
Fed up with the argument being directly transmitted into his brain, he shouted, “Would you all please stop talking… I’m trying to think here. If you want to continue your argument, one of you can manage a separate communication web. This one will be reserved for our actual observations concerning the unique we’re supposed to be evaluating. Am I clear?”
Sufficiently chastened, the conversation ended. Whether or not they did in fact construct another communication web, he honestly couldn’t care less.
Scholar Idrius asked, “Is he walking on tiny earthen walls?”
Smirking, Academian Quincy replied, “Yes, yes he is. If you look closely, you’ll see the spell forms stamping into existence near his feet. He isn’t even bothering to use his hands as a medium anymore. He’s running his center through his legs and projecting the spell form above where he’s stepping. I’m guessing he’s using his ability to restrict or alter the spell to get the effect he wants. The moment he takes his weight off his back foot, the pillar underneath dissipates and a new one appears in front of him.”
Scholar Idrius, obviously impressed, replied, “That’s a surprising demonstration of spell mastery for someone of his level. Do you think he’s altering the spell form or is he just manipulating the essence directly to get the intended result?”
Academian Quincy’s eyes remained locked on the young lord, making sure not to miss a thing. “I have no idea. As best I can tell, the spell form looks like a standard ‘earthen wall’, but I can’t be sure without having him perform it under an essence monitor. Either way, it’s an incredible leap forward for him. I also think he’s directly imbuing the spell forms with the ambient soul remnants to power them. Either that or his speed at recapturing his center has made a similar level of advancement.”
Chiming in, Scholar Yarbarrow replied, “I honestly don’t know which would be more impressive.”
At that, the hidden evaluators all went silent, each contemplating the implications of what they were witnessing.
Academian Quincy was the first to notice the approaching siege wyrm. He could feel it coming up the tunnel and for the first time in a while he turned away from his target. After sending out a scry to see what the kobalds were up to, he couldn’t help but smile while ordering, “Everyone pay attention. This should prove interesting.”
—--
No longer able to keep up his ‘pillar-stilts’ with how fast he was moving, Nero’s height returned to normal. As expected, his small size once again served as an advantage allowing him to duck and dodge his way through the crowd of soldiers without issue.
Unfortunately, the chamber was massive and he quickly found himself needing to pop his head up every once in a while to reorient himself. On the plus side, it gave him the opportunity to keep track of how the fight was progressing with the siege wyrm.
Every time he looked, he was able to see a snapshot of the situation and it was becoming increasingly maddening. The brilliant tactical minds of Dorchester’s elite captains had responded to the wyrm’s appearance by waiting patiently for it to reach the front lines. For Nero, it was like watching a car crash happen in slow motion.
He didn’t see a single unit doing anything to prepare for what was coming. There were no defenses being set up, or massive ritual magics being prepared. Even being as far away as he was, he continued to hope to see something to be done, but every time he looked there was simply nothing.
As he rushed through the soldiers, he did his best not to allow his growing sense of unease to distract him. But, the further he ran, the worse it got.
He tried focusing on whatever idle thoughts he could to serve as a distraction. For example, when he got far enough away from his unit, he noticed his mental connections to Nick and the unit snapping, while the connection to the command web remained perfectly fine. He also couldn’t help but notice the uniforms of the soldiers all around him changing as he passed through the various units. But, nothing seemed to hold his attention long enough to matter.
He felt like he was working himself up to a panic attack, and he couldn’t understand why.
Faster and faster he ran, doing everything he could to avoid colliding with anyone. He flew past groups of injured soldiers being led off the field along with the corpses of kobalds being stacked against the back wall. But he couldn’t bring himself to stop even when he knew he was passing dead soldiers that he should be saving.
It wasn’t until he approached a particularly scared group of young soldiers that he realized what was happening. The combined essence fields of what he assumed to be fresh recruits were like a beacon in the ether radiating fear and concern. The sense of discontinuity between what ‘he’ was feeling and what ‘they’ were feeling was enough to snap him out of his growing panic.
Nero felt his racing heart calm down as his pace slowed to something less reckless.
‘Holy crap, it’s like the combined emotions work together to form a morale buff, or in this case debuff,’ he thought to himself.
It made sense after a second or two of consideration. He’d already determined that people’s emotions could influence each other. And it wasn’t surprising that the closer he got to the siege wyrm there would be more and more people panicking. Unfortunately, nothing came to mind when he thought about what if anything he could do about it. Other than simply being aware of the phenomenon and refusing to let it influence him, that is.
‘What they need are commissars or something to psyche up the troops and encourage their zealotry,’ he decided.
All he could do was continue his rush toward the fight while focusing on keeping his own emotions stable. After a minute or two, he was like a bubble of confidence and determination floating through a sea of despair.
Yet, throughout it all, he continued to pop his head up to check on the siege wyrm’s progress. Until finally, when the situation changed.
He raised himself up with a couple of pillars under his feet and saw a second siege wyrm pushing its head out of the tunnel while the first one reached the closest battle lines it could find. Even though he was much closer, he was still far enough away to see everything from an outsider’s perspective. Instead of dropping back down and continuing his rush, he took a moment to see what would happen and get a better idea of the situation.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
He watched as the humans began throwing spears with chains attached to them over the sides of the beast. Near its stubby legs, he saw groups of soldiers hacking away at its legs. The shield over the unit’s heads flared bright gold as the siege wyrm’s massive maw tried to bite down on them. As the siege wyrm pushed forward, he watched as humans were being crushed under its feet and the shields began to fail. Holding back the beast’s attacks was one thing, but the shields simply weren’t strong enough to stand up to the multi-ton beast's physical presence.
Every time the beast stomped down on a group of soldiers, he couldn’t stop himself from wincing. Although it was impossible, he could swear he heard the screams and sounds of breaking bones despite how far away he was from the fight.
He did see a few people casting spells that splashed uselessly against the siege wyrm's flanks. He wasn’t able to tell if it was a matter of spell resistance or the inherent density of the beast’s essence field, but he could tell that what they were doing wasn’t working. At the rate the battle was progressing, by the time he got over there, it might already be too late for him to do anything.
More and more chains made their way around the beast's neck until its forward progress ground to a halt. Yet Nero could tell it wasn’t over just yet. He wasn’t sure why, but he just knew that something bad was about to happen.
And as if the great god Murphy was listening to his thoughts, he watched in horror as the beast started thrashing in panic. Nero could do nothing but watch with impotent rage as the siege wyrm toppled over and rolled itself into one of the massive pillars holding up the tier over the soldiers’ heads.
The greater fight happening throughout the entire chamber seemed to pause as everyone turned to watch the thrashing beast try to use the pillar to scrape off the restricting chains holding it down. Despite how loud its roars were, they were overshadowed by the sound of cracking stone. Chunks of pillar began breaking off and falling down onto the soldiers nearby.
Nero couldn’t help but wonder if the beast’s own perception of the spell stone was contributing to the effect. Could something that big passively convince a construct that it was real? How long would the chunks of broken stone remain before they broke apart and returned to the ether? Was the overall pattern even affected by the localized disruption?
Hundreds of questions about how spell constructs could be affected by the people around them, not to mention the world itself, rushed through Nero’s head as he stood paralyzed, futilely watching the disaster happen without being able to do anything.
As he feared, the pillar finally gave out, and the entire tier above them came crashing down. Not just the one above the fighting, but even the one above that as they were both connected to the same support pillar. Thousands of humans and kobalds reigned down along with the rubble onto the soldiers below, shattering the shields and burying the troops under the rubble. It was in a word… horrifying.
Even worse, it didn’t seem to be enough to stop the siege wyrm. The resulting chaos from the collapsing tiers had disrupted the groups of soldiers holding it down, and now it was free. Like a wingless dragon emerging from the earth, it forced its way out of the rubble and stood tall over the destruction It raised its bloody maw and roared in victory, shaking the entire chamber with its furious declaration of victory.
Despite how injured it looked, Nero could tell it wasn’t nearly done. In fact, it was just getting started.
All around him, he could feel the soldier’s essence fields broadcasting their fear and hopelessness. Even though underneath that sense of despair there was a sense of determination and willingness to fight until the end, Nero could tell that their spirits were broken.
Something about the entire situation seemed to just piss him off. All of these lifelong soldiers, who’d fought against who knows how many bandits and monsters were scared of a stupid lizard. Granted, it was a big-ass stupid lizard, but it was still just a stupid lizard.
‘So what?… They tried fighting it with the same tactics they’d used in an open field and failed miserably. Now they’re just going to give up? Or more likely, try the same dumbass plan again? Hoping and praying that his time would turn out differently?’ he asked himself sarcastically.
With his fist clenched in rage, he shouted, “NO! Not only no, but HELL NO! I’m gonna mount that damn thing’s head on my wall and turn whatever’s left into a pair of pimped-out leather boots!”
He could feel the soldiers all around him reeling back in shock at his outburst.
Deciding that he was done fucking around, he altered his course and headed directly toward the siege wrym. Knowing that he’d have to cut through the front lines, and THEN through a good portion of the kobald’s defenses, he reached out and collected as much essence as he could to form some solid fucking mage armor.
As he knew he’d need the brainpower, he let go of the connection to the command web he’d been holding on to and focused on imbuing the mage armor with the concept of absolute defense. He felt his center reserves drop like a rock and instinctively reached out to refill them from the soul stuff permeating the ether.
With a grin, he kept pumping more and more center into the armor, feeling it practically vibrate over his skin. It reached a point where there was more center in the mage armor than he was capable of producing. Somehow, it became easier and easier to maintain, as if it were becoming self-propagating and actively sucking his center on its own. The resulting film over his body felt more like an enchantment than an actual spell technique.
As he pushed through the soldiers in front of him, he approached the kobald lines at a run. Rather than deal with trying to explain what he was doing, he stamped his trusty pillar spell into the ether and watched as the ground erupted in front of him. The fighting line was pushed open by a 10 ft tall 4 ft wide earthen pillar composed of essence charged with his center along with a generous portion of soul stuff and no small amount of his hate.
Stumbling off the sides, the soldiers along with the kobalds stepped back, unsure of what was happening. Figuring he’d take advantage of his distraction, he drew his sword along with another from his personal space and rushed forward. And like Johnny coming through the door with an axe, Nero exploded through the pillar the moment he dismissed it, his twin swords glowing with imbued essence.
Shouting like a madman, he screamed, “Come on you fucks! You think a clone army of midget lizards is gonna stop me!”
With his heart pumping loudly enough to be felt in his ears, Nero hopped over the kobald’s wall and rushed directly into their forces. Although he felt numerous weapons raking against his mage armor, his continuous feeding of center into his defenses made him practically invincible to their pathetically weak attacks.
Hacking and slashing, he didn’t allow himself to be slowed down. Further and further into the lines he pushed, eventually running into surprised kobalds who weren’t expecting to be fighting anyone just yet. That of course worked out just fine for Nero as he was able to swipe at them with his swords as he ran by.
Leaving nothing but confusion and bleeding kobalds in his wake, he barrelled through the lines like a battering ram. He could tell that he was using the same type of telekinesis he did back when he’d fought the archer assassin in the forest. In front of him, there was an almost hazy outline of force pushing aside anything that stood in his way.
Inside his center, he felt like there was a storm… a towering twister sucking down soul stuff and pumping out glorious, prime, Grade-A ‘Nero’ from his center out into the ether. He was converting whatever leftover soul potential there was floating around in the ether and infusing it with his singular desire to get to where he wanted to go.
Considering how poorly organized the kobalds were, it wasn’t surprising that they struggled to come up with an appropriate response to his suicidal charge. He knew for a fact that if he stopped moving forward, the kobalds he’d alerted to his presence would swarm and eventually bring him down. So, he just didn’t stop moving forward.
While he ran, he continued to slash throats and hilt punch whatever kobald managed to look at him in fear as he ran by. Those few who did manage to strike out at him were held back by his mage armor charged with who knows how much center dedicated solely to his defense.
He was an unstoppable force of nature… as long as he didn’t stop.
On and on he pushed, rushing through the kobald lines like a bullet, leaving nothing but confusion and death in his wake.
As the kobalds were shorter than he was, he kept his head low but made sure to unerringly head toward the siege wyrm he was committed to killing. His progress was fast, almost too fast. He leaped over the short walls and avoided whatever groups he could that had the larger kobalds among them, all the while laughing in excitement at what he was about to do. Occasionally, he was even able to surprise a shaman or caster who hadn’t been paying attention.
He didn’t stop or slow down for anything until he eventually got close enough to sense the siege wyrm with his essence field.
In his mind, it was like running into a wall of disruption throughout the ether. Compared to any other beast he’d seen, the damn thing’s essence field was like the density of molasses. ‘No wonder the spells they were throwing around didn’t do shit to it,’ he said to himself.
But it didn’t matter, he wasn’t planning on killing it just yet anyway. He had a better idea.
Seeing one of the mud huts the kobalds were using as a fortification, Nero used an earthen pillar spell to launch himself up onto the roof. And as expected, the moment he poked his head above the masses, he felt multiple spells heading his way.
Dropping one of his swords, he pulled out his trusty shield, The Wall 2.0, so he could hide behind it. As he ducked underneath it, he began imbuing it with so much center that the damn thing began to actually glow. After making sure his arms and legs were completely underneath the large tower shield, he figured it should hold out long enough for what he wanted to do.
Rather than waiting to see if his preparations were sufficient, he instead focused on casting his trusty artillery spell. With how much soul stuff from the dead humans there was in the ether, there was more than enough to overpower the hell out of it.
Not bothering to aim it all that well, he relied on just pointing it at the siege wyrm’s essence bubble. Grinning like a lunatic, Nero muttered under his breath, “Hey big fella, why don’t you come over here and pick on someone your own size.”
Like an angry red glowing paintball, the spell shell launched toward the beast over the heads of the kobalds. Taking advantage of his current elevation, he completely bypassed their defenses. While hiding under his shield, he began charging another round while watching the shell fly toward its target, its reflection lighting up the kobald’s spell shields underneath it.
Just as he’d hoped, the spell shell exploded beautifully, slamming directly into the siege wyrm’s side and grabbing its attention. Although it didn’t do nearly enough damage to actually injure it, he still laughed victoriously.
Seeing the wyrm's hateful gaze looking his way, he fired another shot.
Just as he did, he felt the kobald’s spells land all around him, shattering the roof of the building he was using and sending him tumbling into the room below. Unsurprisingly, he found himself surrounded by now injured kobalds struggling to understand what was happening.
With his mage armor still up and running, he was completely unhurt. In fact, he felt great. Hearing the roar of the angered wyrm, he muttered, “Well, that’s phase one of the plan complete.”
At the edge of his essence field, he could sense the giant blob of disrupted flows heading toward him, indicating that the siege wyrm was heading his way.
Shaking off the rubble, Nero hacked and slashed his way out of the room, killing several injured kobalds along the way. Figuring he needed to keep the damn thing’s attention, he launched another spell shell at the approaching beast, barely bothering to charge it.
Like he’d hoped, the furious wyrm ran over the kobald's lines, killing them by the dozens and wrecking what little defense they had, not caring in the least about how much damage he was doing along the way.
With a grin, Nero put away his shield and pulled out another one of the spare swords he’d stored in his personal space. “Time for a merry chase you big dumb bastard,” he said happily before running off toward the other siege wyrm.
All around him, the kobalds looked on in confusion, unsure of what they should be paying attention to. Which was the bigger threat? The crazy ass smooth skin that wanted to die, or the rampaging siege wyrm which was currently decimating their forces against its orders.
Charging through the lines, Nero muttered happily, “Stupid ass lizard clones…”