The next day, a torrential downpour was still falling from the sky. The dim light of the rising sun revealed vast gray clouds and a muddy and rocky dirt road. Everybody quickly took down their tents and jumped into the wagon, soaking wet.
Kooco didn’t look pleased. Her feathers were waterlogged, and her tiny talons were caked in mud. She didn’t sit up front where she would drive the wagon. Instead, she sat in the back with the rest of the group as she placed a few dirty eggs into Meriah’s hands.
While starting a conversation, Lee conjured some water to help clean off her feet. “Do we ride out in this weather? I don’t think any of us know how to drive a wagon, but I’d be willing to try it if you don’t want to sit up front, Kooco.”
Kooco raked her talons across the wooden floorboards of the wagon, trying to dislodge mud as Lee’s water splashed her feet. “It’s okay, Friend Lee Barnes. The horses know where to go.”
Kooco cast a spell, causing the wind to jerk the reins, causing the horses to start plodding along through the mud.
Lee blankly stared at the horses moving by themselves as two thoughts came to his mind.
These horses aren’t normal. And I knew she didn’t know how to drive.
Ignoring his now self-driving wagon, Lee looked back through the flaps to spot Em. She didn’t seem fazed by the weather. He noticed that she was crushing the tiny rocks beneath her feet with a smug look as she followed after the cart. He decided to let her have her fun.
The rain dissipated into a slow drizzle after a few hours on the road. The wagon started to pick up speed, but the rocky road jostled the wagon often. Lee couldn’t really focus on anything while being thrown about, so he looked out in front to see the landscape.
While the road was slightly filled with sharp rocks as they camped, it was now cluttered with sharp, jagged stones. The muddy dirt underneath the road was hardly visible anymore, and Lee was now mildly concerned about the wagon wheels.
They were now in a forest. No more flat grassy plains greeted him as he gazed around outside. The soaked trees and gray cloudy sky gave the forest an ominous appearance.
As he was opening the back flap to check on Em, he spotted something off in the tree line—a lone statue. It was a statue of a tall woman dressed in what he would call a Greek dress. The woman had long flowing hair and a blindfold covering her eyes. It was lifesize and must have been made here because the statue held onto one of the trees. Almost as if it was peering out onto the road.
Lee stared at the lone statue for a few seconds, pondering why one would be built in such a remote location. They still had another day to reach the nearest village, so it was odd that the statue was out in the middle of nowhere.
He glanced at Em, seeing her also looking upon the statue—her face not one of curiousness but wariness.
Lee didn’t know why, but a sinking feeling was forming in his stomach. He quickly looked up and down the treeline, spotting several more statues peering around trees. They varied in age, appearance, and race. Male, female, young, old, injured, and healhy—some of them goblin, and some of them human. Most had basic blindfolds; others covered their eyes with their hands or arms.
And they were all facing toward the wagon.
He felt his wisdom alert him of danger, but the danger was from all around him.
“Stop the wagon! Now!” Lee yelled as he hopped out the back and strode next to Em. Em’s eyes were locked onto the first statue of the woman, unmoving and focused.
Lee cautiously looked around the road, spotting statues peeking through the trees. Nothing was moving; the only sounds he heard were the rustling of people exiting the wagon, his racing heartbeat, and the rain pattering.
Jeremy hopped out of the wagon equipped with his sword and shield. He crouched in a defensive posture and warily approached Lee, scanning for threats.
Lee kept turning, scanning for the source of his unease. Unlike when his wisdom had previously informed him of danger, it stayed this time. There was no arrow coming for his life, there were no immediate threats, and he wasn’t sure about what to do.
Before Jeremy spoke, Lee turned to meet his eyes and stated his feelings. “My wisdom is telling me there is danger, and I’d be a fucking idiot to think it wasn’t because of these statues. Do you know what they are?”
Jeremy glanced about, his muscles tensed, prepared for any sign of danger., “I don’t know. What do you suggest we do?”
By now, everyone had exited the wagon. Armed and mildly dangerous. They stood around the wagon defensively, prepared to defend their means of transportation.
Lee didn’t immediately respond. Instead, he used Medical Attention to scan for the enemies' health.
There was nothing to scan. The statues were simply statues, but his wisdom was ringing in the back of his head.
He didn’t know what to do.
Em started to string metallic thread around the wagon, scuttling to and fro, weaving her deadly web.
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Meriah was trying her best to focus. She was shaking and worried, but she wasn’t completely freaking out yet. Kooco was by her side; wings fluffed up in a threat display.
Belgrate stood in a boxer's stance, clearly nervous and afraid, and Kendri stood resolute with a spear in hand.
Lee was turning to ask Em her opinion on the situation when he noticed a discrepancy. His mind replayed what he saw with what he knew and stuttered for a second. The original statue he spotted had moved. Instead of peering around the tree, it was now in front of it. Its body was locked in the motion of walking toward them mid-stride.
He quickly glanced at the other statues. Most of them were in their original position, but some had moved. It was only a few feet, but they had moved nonetheless.
He looked at the first statue again and noticed it had taken another step while he wasn’t looking. The urging of his wisdom made him anxious, so he used Identify, hoping that it would ease his strain.
Stone statue.
“The statues are moving. Em, what do you suggest we do? I have a skill that lets me see the health of everything around me, and they don’t have health. Identify doesn’t tell me anything either.”
Em didn’t respond. She sprinted forward and attempted to bulldoze into the statue. She bumped off it and fell to the side. The statue toppled over but appeared unblemished from Em’s charge.
She rolled across the ground and twisted her body, eventually getting upright. She felt at her chest and winced in pain; then she cast Mend Wounds.
Lee looked at the statue and then the sharp, jagged, rocky dirt road. The colors matched, and he saw that some of the larger pieces of the rocky road could be pieces of a statue. The road was not filled with simple stones but shards of broken statues. The question was, how did they break? If Em could not brute force one down, he didn’t think the others from their group could do better.
He twisted to inform the others, spotting a statue frozen mid-lunge mere inches from Belgrate’s back. Its goblin mouth was open absurdly wide, revealing a shark tooth interior. Its eyes were blank; no pupils were carved into its being, giving it an unsettling appearance. Several other statues were locked into place mid-run, traveling toward the group.
Lee locked onto Jeremy and shouted at him. “Jeremy! Lock eyes with me. Now! Scan behind me with your peripheral vision. Everybody else turn and watch behind the others. Belgrate, don’t panic.”
Belgrate turned to see the goblin statue inches away from his head. He stumbled backward, face turning pale in fright. Lee couldn’t really blame him for his reaction. Everything about this whole scenario was unsettling to the extreme.
Without turning his head, Lee spoke aloud. “Em, see if you can lift a statue and move it. If you can’t, then lock it down with your webs. Everyone else, just keep your eyes peeled. If you see one move, shout out immediately.”
Em strode over to the goblin statue and heaved. It was heavy, evident from Em’s straining muscles, but she did manage to lift it up. She carried it away toward the treeline but didn’t set it down on its feet. Instead, she planted it head-first into the soft soil. The rain was doing her a favor in that regard; the soil was soft from the constant rainfall.
Once finished, she scanned around at all the statues, counting all those she could see. “I count thirteen. Someone else should count now. See if I am missing any.”
Kooco didn’t even turn around to look but calmly replied. “Friend Lee Barnes, I also counted thirteen.”
Lee nodded and asked Em to grab all the statues they could see and place them in a group—front and center. She didn’t complain about having to uproot the goblin statue, which in itself showed her seriousness of the situation. Once finished with her task, Lee and the others grouped by the wagon. All of their eyes never left the statues.
The soldiers looked to Lee for what to do, but Lee looked toward Em. She was obviously the most collected of the bunch and at the highest level. Admittedly, he wasn’t sure what to do about the statues and was grasping at straws.
Eventually, he decided to destroy them. Simple, yes. Barbaric? No. Effective? He would find out.
Lee gestured for everyone to stand behind him as he tried a new spell. He needed firepower, so he reached for his glacial mana. He had Glacial Cascade, but he wanted single-target damage. If Em couldn’t break the statues with her bulk, he didn’t want to waste mana using an area-of-effect spell.
He had Icicle spear for ice mana, so he tried his best to replicate the spell with Glacial mana. He imagined his mana forming into an actual spear, not a sharp, jagged pole of ice. After a few seconds of concentration, a long, beautiful white-blue spear formed before his outstretched hand. White clouds of foggy vapor flared off its eternally cold form, and the tip was aimed at his first target—the goblin statue.
He never really used the variable component for most of his spells, as he had never needed to. This case was different. Icicle Spear had a variable component, so he was hoping this new spell would also have one. He pumped more and more mana into the floating spear of eternally frozen ice, causing the white vapor to appear like steam. It rolled and picked up in intensity.
He eyed his mana.
MP 175/475
Then released.
A sonic boom erupted as the glacial ice spear launched at unbelievable speeds. It reached the statues in the blink of an eye and obliterated his primary target and the following two goblin statues behind it. It continued on past, launching through the thick forest. The force from the spell pushed the rain droplets aside. Leaves and rain parted in its wake and formed a circular tunnel of clear sky.
The recoil from the displaced air knocked him back into a stumble, causing him to bump into Em’s fangs as she caught and steadied him. Lee looked upwards toward her face, but her face was locked onto where the jagged shards of stones were dropping from the sky.
She slowly lowered her head, meeting his eyes. “I’m going to steal that spell.”
Spell Created!
Spell Name: Spear of Eternity.
Spell Description: Launch forward a spear formed of glacial ice, which pierces, slows, and deals massive damage to all those within its path.
Secondary Effect: Small chance to freeze targets.
Costs: 100MP + Variable.