Night had fallen on the embattled city of Malvas, and the fire at the gates still burned. Chief Diane had ordered the fire not be extinguished but fed as the night drew in, so an inferno existed between the people of Malvas and Durzog’s waiting horde.
The horde preparing for invasion, Finn thought as he hunkered by the side of the wall, looking back at the dark sea of bodies. The enemy army had been organized into blocks, each two or three hundred trolls deep, with small cook fires running down one side of each block.
Durzog was waiting, just as the Malvanites were. For a time, everything was quiet.
“Ready?” Rosa whispered.
They stood on the far end of the North Wall, almost as far as they could get from the battlefront and Northeast Gates.
“Ready.” Finn nodded, grabbing the rope firmly. Tobias, looking spooked beside him with his own rope, nodded too. The Verdainian had joined them for this mission after their find in the library, telling them that Sister Alharrow believed she knew the location of the Oldtree.
Finn’s eyes were on Rosa, who had drawn her bow and was scanning the dark fields with her sharp eyes.
“Then what are we waiting for?” she hissed, and Finn moved. He’d put an extra two points into his Agility for this kind of thing and hoped it was enough. He leaned out over the battlements, the thick hemp rope firmly in his gloved hands, and jumped.
Finn hissed at the gut-wrenching feeling of weightlessness for a moment before the rope pulled sharply at his arms and shoulders. With a thump, his booted feet hit the wall and he was holding on for dear life.
Oh, crap. Oh, crap. Oh…
“You good?” Tobias whispered from above, and Finn murmured he was. He thought he was, at least. The idea of walking backward down a six-story stone wall wasn’t exactly what he had in mind when he’d woken up yesterday, but then again, he hadn’t thought he would be trying to defeat an entire army either.
At least the wall itself wasn’t a sheer drop. It curved very slightly, making it thicker at the base. Finn took a breath, felt the power of his 68 Strength, and started to slowly rappel down the wall.
There was another hiss of breath beside him, and then a dark shape was flinging themselves out from the wall top as well. Tobias was as silent as a ghost, and his light form meant he took the sudden thud against the wall better than Finn had. The smaller man quickly made his way downward.
“You’re clear! Go!” Rosa hissed. Finn quickly started descending, pushing out with his knees as he hopped himself down the wall again, and again, after the quicker Verdainian.
Thump. Finn’s feet hit the wall. A third of the way down.
Halfway. Thump.
They were making good time, and so far, there hadn’t been any sudden shouts of alarms or whistles to suggest they’d been noticed.
We’re going to make it! Finn thought as he kicked and jumped, loosened his grip on the rope, felt the suck of gravity at his back, and then the thump of his feet against the wall again. Just a little further, I think… He didn’t dare turn his head, just in case it would imbalance him.
His arms and shoulders were starting to ache.
Finn wished that they’d had more time to rest. A quick pass by a healer and a draught of one of Malvas’s precious stock of healing potions was all that any of the trio had allowed themselves to use in preparation for this. Finn prayed it would be enough.
“Last jump!” Finn heard Tobias whisper just a little behind him…
Suddenly, there was the hiss of arrows from above. Finn saw a flicker of silver. Rosa must have shot at someone out there. A troll scout?! There was a gurgle and two thumps from somewhere behind them. They had chosen this far edge of the wall for just this reason—to stay out of the prying eyes of the enemy.
Finn reacted, kicking out as he heard Tobias scrabbling with his rope, hissing in annoyance before it was released.
Have we been discovered? Have we been found out?! If they had, it was all over. The entire plan. Everything. They would be stuck on this side of the wall with an entire troll horde between them and safety…
Thump. Finn’s feet hit the wall, and he turned. Pulling on the release line, he kicked out again, feeling the weightlessness before he stumbled to the ground and rolled. He skidded into a crouch as he drew a dagger—choosing it over his magic blade in the interest of stealth.
It was mostly dark around them. The ground was less churned up there, and there was a low stone wall further out, marking the start of the pasture land around the city.
There were two bodies on the ground. From the size, they had to be trollics. Rosa was clearly a good shot. Tobias took out his small bow and crouched beside Finn, and there was the muted thump as Rosa raced down the wall.
None of them had used their powers yet, because the blasts of colorful energy would draw the horde toward them.
“We won’t have long before they find the bodies,” Rosa whispered.
Finn looked at the corpses and wondered for a second if they could hide them, but he shook his head. Let the two just go missing, and then let Durzog wait for them, and then wonder while a search party out was sent out. All of this would add to the confusion they needed.
“There’s no time to worry about them. Let’s go.” He loped forward into the night, away from the city’s wall.
Finn Callahan felt the night surround him like a blanket, and he was a hunter within it. He knew that his body was tired, he only had a fraction of the Mana or Stamina he would have wanted, but he still felt invigorated as adrenaline ran through his body.
I’m not sitting behind walls, waiting for the enemy to come to me. I am the hunter, and I am coming for my enemy…
The three shapes ghosted along the low meadow wall. The dull roar and glow of the inferno at the gates continued. When Finn shot a glance at it, it looked like the mouth of hell.
“Okay, we’re almost in place,” Rosa whispered when they reached the crook of the low wall where it met another. There was a patch of trees that stretched out toward the back of Durzog’s horde.
“We’ll use these, just as we planned.” Finn stopped only to take out the pot of black gunk that Sister Alharrow had quickly cooked up for them. He liberally applied it to his cheeks and wherever he might need it, and then he pulled his hood tight over his head.
“Tobias?” he whispered. The Verdainian, similarly smeared with camouflaging goop, nodded and stepped in front of them before clearing his throat and closing his eyes. He started to murmur under his breath. A moment later, his long-fingered hands came up, and a fine trace of green light spilled from them as he wove his Earth Path enchantment.
The green is too bright! Finn thought in alarm, looking to where there were the vast collections of sleeping and waiting bodies. They had two meadow enclosures between them, but still. Surely this light was as noticeable as any of their guttering oil torches…
But there were no shouts or angry cries. He didn’t know if Tobias’s magic did that or the horde just didn’t notice. Either way, he was relieved. He watched the green energy float in between them and softly settled on him and Rosa, disappearing into their bodies.
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> Earth Path Camouflage has been cast upon you. Do you accept the enchantment?
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Finn accepted the enchantment and saw the slightest blur around the edges of his vision before that faded, too.
“Nothing’s happened!” he muttered, seeing that Tobias must have already gone on ahead while Finn worked out what to do. “Tobias, come back!” he began, but then the darkness in front of him moved. It was like looking at one of those magic eye pictures as the leaf shadow, fragments of the stone wall, and glitter of the star light reformed and into his friend Tobias, although all his edges appeared blurred.
“I haven’t gone anywhere yet, Finn. It’s the spell. Look at yourself!” Tobias said with a small smile.
Finn looked down in amazement to see that the same thing had happened to him. His legs appeared fuzzy with grass green and shadow, while his boots were no more than a collection of rocks. The edges of his arms appeared to dissolve and fragment to match whatever piece of nature he stood next to. At the moment, the right side of his body had entirely dissolved into the half-stone wall.
“Incredible!” he said. “Maybe I should have gone for Earth Path, after all.”
“Fire was pretty useful up on the wall,” Rosa whispered, stepping out of the shadows and branches to grin at them.
“As was Air,” Finn agreed, before turning his attention back to the tree line. “Come on.” The trio loped forward, their forms disappearing into flickers of greenery and stone.
* * *
“We’re getting close.” Tobias paused at the edge of the trees, dropping to his knees. There was one last standing oak, because the rest of the line had been cut down to stumps. There was a line of stumps stretching up the hillside to the dark forest proper. Finn felt a dull anger at that wanton destruction. Whether Durzog had wanted wood for his war machines or just to spite the Malvanites, Finn couldn’t tell, but he could see the supply tents and the moored airships beyond it.
Finn crouched beside Tobias as they looked toward the nearest tent. It was a fair distance from their current spot, but there didn’t appear to be any guards here at the back of the horde.
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How arrogant Durzog is… Alright, the war-boss had many thousands of warriors right there—which probably did wonders for his confidence—but Finn’s face slowly cracked into a savage grin.
“You won’t expect a thing!” he promised. He and Tobias broke ranks first, flitting to the next splintered tree stump, and then the next. Their shadows fractured and flowed, then recombined as Tobias’s spell kept melding them with their surroundings.
Halfway. The large tents loomed ahead. Finn could see their dirty, stretched canvas. Just ten meters to go… Finn and Tobias hopped from stump to stump, crouching a little every time until their camouflage field melded and then moved again.
There was a sudden hiss from somewhere up ahead, and Finn turned to see a shape emerging from between two of the largest tents. It was a trollic, holding a guttering torch and looking in their direction, clearly confused and blinking at the flicker of shadows in the dark.
Something cut the air past Tobias’s shoulder, and the trollic went down with one of Rosa’s arrows through the neck.
“Move!” Finn hissed, his dagger appearing in his hand as he leaped forward.
The trollic’s body hit the ground with a gurgle, but there was no cry of alarm—not yet, anyway. That wasn’t the problem. The torch had hit the edge of the adjacent tent and slid to its base.
Uh-oh… Finn reached the edge of the tent just as the flames started to ribbon up the side of the canvas, running in crimson-and-orange fingers as they ate greedily at the dry material.
“Oh hells!” Tobias breathed.
“I’m sorry! I couldn’t give them a chance to sound the alarm,” Rosa said, her form flickering from the shadows as she arrived a moment later. When Finn turned to her, he could disconcertingly see that the camouflage spell had turned her nearest side into a shimmer of flames.
“No time. Maybe this will work in our favor!” Finn said, turning to run down the avenue made by the tents as the fire grew. Tobias and Rosa followed, and in moments, they were among Durzog’s horde and running out of time.
The giant tents formed a block or neighborhood of sorts, Finn saw as he skidded out of the alley. There were two more lines of them, each one large enough to house several carts.
Are their supplies in there? Maybe the dropped torch had been a good thing, after all. Without thinking too much about it, he turned back and pointed at the bottom corner of the nearest tent.
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> Fire-Spark.
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> Create a ball of fire with size and brightness equal to Mana spent.
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> You have spent 20 Mana.
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It wasn’t a lot of Mana, but the sudden illumination that burst from his bare hand still seemed far too bright in the darkness. He held the floating ball along the bottom edge of the tent and pulled it back as the fire started to spread. He added another 20 Mana and sending it flying low through the air across the ‘street’ to the next tent.
“Finn, what are we doing? I thought we were going for—” Tobias began just before there was a whoosh of flame from two more tents.
“Thinking on our feet!” Finn responded.
At the sound of a startled hiss, the trio spun around to see two more trollics emerging from a tent. One had a torch, and another had a bell.
“Oh hell,” Finn whispered, doing the only thing that came to mind.
Finn threw his dagger and it slammed into the first trollic’s throat. Everything was in slow motion as the trollic gurgled and fell back. Their bell flew away, letting out a clear chime as it hit the ground. The torch flames joined the rest of the flames.
“Fleshies!” the second trollic shouted. This one didn’t have a torch, but they had a bell in one hand and a curving short blade in the other.
Maybe the rest of the horde is asleep. No one will hear one voice or one chime! Finn thought as he threw himself into a run at the snarling trollic. There was another ripple through the air and then the monster fell with an arrow in their neck.
“Damn, Rosa! Just how good are you with that thing?!” Finn skidded to a halt, ignoring the notification that his stats updated with the shared experience from the lowly trollic guard. It was hardly worth noticing.
“Been practicing.” She shrugged.
Finn stooped to gather his long dagger, and as he straightened up, he heard the unmistakable chime of another bell from the other side of the tents. And then another.
“Is that for us or the fires?” Tobias hissed as he ran to where they were.
“Not sure. There’s a mighty big something else for them to be alarmed about right there.” Finn nodded back toward the three tents half-consumed with flames. The clamor and alarm bells were coming closer. “Quickly now! This is perfect!” he hissed, looking ahead as he threw a small ball of flame at the nearest tent and broke into a run.
Up ahead, the airships rose into the air.
“Fire! FIRE!”
They could hear the shouts of the trollics and the deeper, guttural snarls from the larger trolls as they ran toward their real goal. They were almost at the end of the tents, moving as quickly and as quietly as they could.
“Finn! Tobias! Prepare the oils!” Rosa hissed as she slid to a stop behind them, nocking another arrow.
Finn grabbed one of the full leather casks of lamp oil from his belt and hoped that it would be enough. They all had several such heavy leather pouches with easily broken stoppers. He raced toward the nearest airship, looking for any place where the flame might easily take.
There was a sudden shriek of fury as shapes flung themselves off the airship deck.
Zephyr guards! Of course the ships are guarded as well… Finn and Tobias ran forward, and Finn threw his pouch of oil anyway. It sailed over the ship’s railing and slapped wetly somewhere above.
The first guards were swooping down on Tobias.
“Dammit!” Finn growled, interrupting his next throw, and jumped forward, slashing his long dagger between his friend and the zephyr.
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> You have struck the Zephyr for 80 points of damage.
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The bird-man snarled and staggered back before they had even had a chance to land. Finn was already spinning around, slashing to catch them before they could right themselves.
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> You have slain the Level 12 Zephyr Guard. Experience awarded.
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There was another rush of an arrow as Rosa took out the next, and Finn was free to throw his second oil pouch. He flung a Fire-Spark after it. For a second, there was nothing, and then there was a dull whumpf and a glow.
“The wingless! Humans!”
There was a sharp screech from deeper in the moored ships. Finn hissed in annoyance as he’d wanted more time to douse as many ships as possible before having the change plans.
“Plan B!” he snapped.
“What’s Plan B?!” Rosa asked hurriedly as Finn led them up the length of the burning airship’s hull and toward the next, where there was already the magical glow of lights starting to awaken as the zephyr searched for the infiltrators.
“Plan B? We haven’t done Plan A yet!” Tobias exclaimed as Finn stopped in front of the airship and changed his dagger for the Pyrrhic Blade.
There was a whoosh of crimson as his jagged teardrop blade burst into life, and he pointed it up at the prow of the next airship.
“Oh. That’s Plan B,” Tobias grumbled as Finn fired.
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> Fire-Bolt. Convert Mana to Damage.
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Finn gritted his teeth, this time dropping 100 Mana into the strike. There was a burst of blue energy from behind him as Rosa added her wind powers, feeding the flame and sending the inferno up to the dark sails and mast.
“Right. You guys do what you do, and I’ll see what I can do with these!” Tobias said, snatching up two of the oil pouches and running between the ships. He threw what he could to douse as many as possible.
“Next!” Rosa yelled, but they had barely crossed in front of the burning prow when there was another snarl of voices and shapes swooped toward them.
The first zephyr shrieked and brandished its spear as Finn leaped forward. The monster went down to the sweep of his sword, and Rosa took out the second just as quickly. There was another shriek from the deck above them. Finn turned and fired another Fire-Bolt at the sails. The flames took hold quickly, and Finn realized that Tobias must have already hit this ship.
Another zephyr flung themselves from the side of the airship, throwing their spear. Finn tried to dodge out of the way, but he didn’t have time. He succeeded in half-twisting, slicing his blade through the air so that the spear tip caught his gauntlet and elbow rather than his chest.
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> You have been struck for 75 points of damage.
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Finn swore, ducking from the swing of the zephyr’s scimitar. Rosa was already leaping into the air to battle the next closest zephyr. She had exchanged her bow for her Staff of the Aethers, and the result was flaring sparks of blue energy.
“Here! Wingless, HERE!” the bird-man screeched.
Finn gritted his teeth in annoyance. He couldn’t have this. There were already more chimes starting up around them as the rest of Durzog’s horde awoke to the fact that their supply tents and almost half of their airships were going up in flames.
Finn swept the Pyrrhic Blade toward the zephyr’s head, knowing how his enemy would respond. With a cry, they flapped their wings to propel themselves back from the strike. Finn reversed his grip at the last moment, lunging forward with both hands on the blade in a powerful, overhead strike.
The blow connected with devastating effect.
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> You have slain the Level 12 Zephyr Guard. Experience awarded.
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“Come on, we have to go!” Finn shouted as another plume of fire burst from the furthest airship, which must have been Tobias’s work. His small friend appeared a moment later, glee on his face.
“Where to? The ropes?” Rosa landed, gasping for air.
Finn spied two more airships and at least three more supply tents. He frowned. “Yes! Back to the ropes, go!”
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> You have destroyed the Level 25 Zephyr Airship. Experience awarded to all parties.
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Finn felt the surge of power run through him as their first target succumbed to the inferno. It wouldn’t be long before the other three would as well.
“Finn? Come on!” Rosa and Tobias had already run past him in the flaming, chiming, screeching mayhem.
“RUN!” Finn bellowed, seeing how difficult their escape was going to be. He turned back and raised his magical blade high in the air.
“Finn! What are you doing?!” Rosa stopped and screamed at him. There was a pained grunt as Tobias dispatched two trollics who had found them.
“Buying us some time. Now go!” Finn shouted as he twirled the Pyrrhic Blade in both hands, throwing the last of his Mana into it and flinging the firestorm at the remaining, untouched airships and any guard who dared to come for them.
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> Fire-Bolt. INT Base damage (48) + 200 Mana.
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> You have struck the Level 25 Airship for 124 points of damage.
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> You have struck the Level 25 Airship for 124 points of damage.
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The firestorm was powerful, but Finn knew it wasn’t enough to destroy either airship outright. Hopefully it would be enough to keep them grounded for a while.
Finn suddenly dropped to his knees as exhaustion gripped him. The flames were taking quickly, thanks to Tobias’s oil-throwing, but Finn knew that such a flamboyant attack wouldn’t just be about the damage.
It’s a declaration. He forced himself to his feet when he heard a roar and the thunder of feet. A shadow burst through the wall of flame and charged straight at him.
A troll-ogre!
These weren’t the largest of the trollish species, as that dubious accolade belonged to ogre proper, but they were close. Eight feet tall with mottled pink-and-gray skin. They had enough intelligence that they could wield weapons and fight in units. Finn had no idea if this one had been on guard or ordered into the fiery maelstrom.
“Found the fleshie!” the troll-ogre roared, their topknot flailing behind them as they jumped forward with a metal club the size of a regular quarterstaff in their hand.
Finn managed to leap out of the way of the first swipe, hitting the ground and rolling before he scrambled up to his knees almost underneath one of the burning hulls.
“Ugly little human. You done gone and made Durzog ANGRY!” the troll-ogre yelled, jumping at Finn again. This time, Finn was ready. He had no where to go behind him, but he could go forward. He had to go forward.
The Pyrrhic Blade slashed upwards as it struck flesh and studded leather armor.
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> You have struck the Level 22 Troll-Ogre for 128 points of damage.
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The strike was nowhere near enough to kill the creature, but that hadn’t been Finn’s goal. He heard a sharp snap and a growl as the troll-ogre stumbled, half-sliding to one side as they spun around.
Finn pulled an oil pouch from his pack and flung it straight at the troll-ogre. It was an easy throw, since there were only a few meters between them. The pouch splattered all over the mighty creature, hitting their chest and face, making them sneeze and splutter.
“What?! What is this?!” The troll-ogre swung their tusked head in confusion. Finn jumped forward and kicked them in the chest, sending them back into the burning hull.
Thanks to the creature’s weight and the already damaged beams, the wooden planks cracked on impact and were engulfed in flames. Finn jumped away, turning toward the only direction where there didn’t seem to be chiming bells and shouting—the forest.
He staggered and ran as fast as he could toward the dark, hoping he had bought at least enough time for his friends to get back to the wall ropes before they were tracked.
Finn was rewarded with notifications of destruction as he ran.
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> You have destroyed the Level 25 Zephyr Airship. Experience awarded to all parties.
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> You have destroyed the Level 25 Zephyr Airship. Experience awarded to all parties.
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> You have destroyed...