Two days later they were ready. Jerome had practiced his Alteration skills consistently, applying Blessing and Specialize to everyone he could, until he’d reached level 9 and was able to use Ether Ghost. However, since no one else on his side had offensive magic, he wasn’t quite sure how it would work aside from using SP to block magic attacks.
Jerome left in the early morning, hours before dawn, with a simple mission: get the stone-exploding power. When Krystyna arrived six hours later with the army, it would split into two halves. The first half would show up in front of the gates and yell loudly, attracting the attention of the defense forces. The second half would come around the back, where Jerome would open up holes in the wall.
If Jerome didn’t get the stone-exploding power then their only other option would be an assault on the main gate, where Jerome would have to hold off nearly the entire defense force while the army streamed in. Then they’d have to come back through the gate with the humans, since the humans couldn’t climb the inside of the walls like a gnoll could.
That was even without considering the palace; without the stone-exploding power an assault there would be an extra complication, one that was far too risky to add. Jerome might complete his Quest, but the king would survive, the gnolls would rebuild, and he would lose the crystals of his army’s fallen warriors… although if their tribe size shrunk to just under 144, the reduced administrative load would be a silver lining to an otherwise horrible cloud.
Still, it was clearly better if he won rather than lost.
First he did his usual infiltration routine. Waited outside the city, snatched a gnoll, placed hands on it, and killed it. It might lose its skills and memories, but it wasn’t truly dead, so he didn’t feel any reason to bargain with it this time.
Then he walked the main thoroughfares, systematically looking for the prison and learning the streets. He’d already done some of this work last time he was in town, when he was walking the grid looking for shops, so in two hours he’d found the prison and satisfied himself that he could find it again, while ‘accidentally’ placing hands on dozens of gnolls just in case he needed extra forms later.
Four hours left.
He set up in an alleyway off the main street near the palace entrance. When someone wanted to enter and exit the palace, chances were they would pass by… and Jerome could inspect them. If a stone-wielding mage passed by he could go and grab its power without having to face down an entire courtyard of hostile warriors and mages.
Traffic was a trickle in and out of the courtyard, but none were mages. Only one even showed significant combat capability. Did they not come and practice until later? The sun rose higher and higher, and eventually, perhaps another two hours later, Jerome decided he had to risk it.
He went out the back of the alleyway and re-entered the street at another point, out of the palace guard’s sight, before walking up the gate confidently.
“I’m here to sell some crystals,” he said.
The guard looked at him askance, then shrugged. “All types finding crystals these days. As long as you didn’t pull it from a kingdom gnoll, I’m fine.”
As he walked through the gates Jerome wondered the profession of the gnoll whose body he’d stolen. It had some grappling skill and some unarmed strikes skill, which were firsts for a gnoll. Maybe a police officer? Those two skills would be good for taking down criminals in a non-lethal manner.
It didn’t matter; he was in. Now he just had to walk up to the practicing mages (when had they arrived?) and touch one of them. And then get out of the courtyard without getting killed.
He switched on Ether Ghost. His Alteration skill had dropped to level 5 because of the form he was in, but he was happy to see that he could still use the move.
He walked straight up to one of the mages practicing earth-shaping. “Excuse me,” he said, putting his hand on the mage, “are you Takatak?”
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Takatak was the most gnollish name he could think of.
It looked confused. “Who are you seeking and why?”
“Takatak… he’s a mage, and—”
“There are no Takataks among the mages. Who has told you that—”
“It’s him!” interrupted one of the other mages. “It’s the human!”
Jerome dashed away, but only got a couple steps away before his SP was completely depleted.
Ugh. Six mages. Luckily their high-level leader wasn’t here.
Jerome transformed, getting a fresh SP pool, turned on Ether Ghost again, then cast Crystal Overload + Magic Burst on a mage who looked like it was about to do something suspicious. The move only ate up a third of his MP due to increased efficiency, but the five-second cooldown for all magic still applied, and Jerome was just about out of SP (again!) before that cooldown was gone.
He switched forms. The first thing he did was set Ether Ghost once more, and then he charged the gnoll he’d used Crystal Overload on before. It had lost a third of its HP from that attack (his magic was getting stronger!), so it would be the first to die. Could he kill all these mages before he ran out of forms? He had dozens, so… maybe.
He used Crystal Overload + Magic Burst, using the version with 3.4 seconds of channeling time so as to inflict maximum damage, and then landed with a claw swipe.
One mage down.
Also down: his SP. Again.
He switched and set Ether Ghost. Three forms used up and one mage killed. If no one changed tactics, he’d need maximum 18 forms to take down every mage here. He had more than that stored up from his earlier exploration.
Unfortunately, these gnolls were smart.
“Back away and spread out,” said one of them. “We can wear him down.”
Jerome targeted that one next. It took four form switches to get to it and kill it, and by the time he’d done that the other mages had gotten far enough away that it would take even more time to reach them. They weren’t damaging his SP quite as fast, but the distance more than made up for it. His advantage in physical combat was effectively mitigated.
Now it was a battle of attrition, their magic attacks wearing at his SP and his Crystal Overload + Magic Burst taking them down from a distance, their health bars disappearing in chunks every 5 seconds.
Except they had more tactics.
One, after getting hit by Crystal Burst, created a stone barrier between them so that Jerome couldn’t see him. When the gnoll emerged once more he’d fully healed.
Then one had the bright idea to create stone barriers to box him in. The weren’t skilled enough to create huge ones from a distance, or fully enclosed ones with roofs, otherwise Jerome would have been toast, but it was still annoying. He had to either run around it or use Blast Off to get over it, taking 10 precious SP.
He went through two forms without making any progress.
And then the warriors arrived.
Right, they’d been practicing just across the courtyard.
Winning was hopeless at this point. Better to run than to run out of forms. He bolted towards the wall, dodging warrior swings, blasting over newly erected barriers, and switching forms three more times before getting to the wall. He used Blast Off to get height, then stuck his claws into the wall and started to his slow climb.
A giant spike emerged from the wall and impaled him. These gnolls just didn’t play fair!
He switched forms again and dropped to the ground. Once there he saw the warriors closing in and decided to take a gamble. He ran up to the wall, switched into the mage form he’d just stolen, and tried to explode a hole into the wall.
It worked! Kind of.
He learned the spell, at the very least.
You have learned the skill Gaia Magic.
You have gained the technique Shape Earth.
He tried it a second time and a jagged hole appeared in the wall. He threw himself through it, then watched as a warrior tried to follow but was cut in half by one of the mages closing up the hole.
He was out! He’d escaped!
Except four holes appeared in the wall shortly afterwards, with four mages and a bundle of warriors emerging from them.
Jerome’s SP bar started shrinking again, and he switched forms once more. He had the Shape Earth technique still, but it was back at level one and while he could create holes for his invading army it would be nearly useless in heated combat until he had time to train it.
Meanwhile, these bastards could basically walk through walls, and he had to escape from them before his army arrived. He took a deep breath and sprinted towards the nearest alleyway.