Autumn had come and gone, and with winter arriving the fellowship settled into a groove.
Kalle was happy with the results of his training–the new version of [Wailing Bolt] hit like a blighted ox–and that was according to Brunner who agreed to help him out with testing it, once.
To Brunner it still wasn't as bad as facing the feeling of all his past disappointments, the new one was nevertheless no fun at all being struck with. The well-traveled [Arborist] assured Kalle that it would be tremendously effective on creatures who relied on confidence in numbers and aggression, such as the mosswolves that they had faced. Although I really wish he would describe it more descriptively than ‘A shorter and more intense insecurity’.
The only other thing Kalle got out of him, after some extensive prodding, was ‘it felt more physical’. Sigh.
Livia kept working on funding for their coming expedition in the spring, making deals to provide the [Guilds] services where she could, and even having Harold try to make all kinds of funky new apples at the orchard. They tried some magic versions, but they didn't know enough about such fruits to make anything stable. They tasted good but started turning bad when left out of their cellar’s cold storage for even a few hours.
Harold asked if maybe they were selling the psychedelic honey, but Livia assured him she had plans for that bit of funk much later–once spring had come and gone, and they found a place where the [Guild] could truly settle.
Livia got to celebrate something she hadn't expected, from home; Christmas. Albeit a weird, sort of scandinavian version where most things were, if not the same, then at least recognisable.
It was completely dark out now, not just during the nights but for the day in its entirety.
And so the village of Salcret lit lights all over, even with nothing but fire they had enough lanterns and Skills to make for a picturesque scene. Then they were served mulled apple drink that had been mixed for the season with a lingon squash, to wash down the spicy buns served by a beautiful girl, wearing burning candles of all things, in her hair.
It was a wondrous sight in the dark season, but the pain of thinking of home still made Livia's chest ache. She avoided it as much as possible.
Then in the week after Christmas was when the unexpected happened.
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Harold, Oscar, Kalle and Livia–together with Liam and Ella–were spending a late evening in recovery from both training and the chores of running a farm with a giant, dimensionally enhanced, orchard.
They shared a lovely meal consisting of body cakes filled with spicy mutton that had been boiled in cream and layered over a big helping of grilled kohlrabies. Of course with a side of wild lingonberries, although these ones had been pickled to last the winter.
Kalle was still on the road to recovery so, after the brief focused session of interacting, he went to lie back down.
A mere hour later, just as Liam and Ella were about to start to doze off, was when the Townguard field raised the alarm.
The pillar in the centre of town held an enchantment that sent out a dome of energy that reached a diameter of two kilometres out from the town limits, and the buildings that made up the cluster of Salcret proper.
When it was triggered it sent out a signal to the orchard, and every other house that was part of the defence force, to set off a keening sound that warned of multiple invaders. These specific noises would never be called for something like a single wolf striking off with a lamb, but if enough individuals carrying some killing intent crossed the boundary; every house was alerted.
There were Skills to fool such enchantments, but they were rare and especially ones covering more than the user.
They all sat stunned, not quite believing it yet. Then Harold stood first. "Something is coming, they wouldn't sound off for a full minute if it was a false alarm,"
A thousand warrior wasps rose from the vicinity, and then they all went to grab their weapons and gear, but Kalle was already looking pale from the exertion.
Livia didn't have a combat Class, but if she could get to her guild hall there should be some ways for her to help out, by providing another set of pitchforks in a door, if nothing else.
Even Liam and Ella were part of the defense force, although their task-list included things such as protecting the children and putting out potential hazards like fires. Not that they’d ever go down without a fight, they'd both seen a thing or two in their time.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
So, to the [Esperlock]’s chagrin it was decided that Kalle would remain put, despite his vehement objections that he could at least be carried there to cast a few Spells.
They all felt that his physical state remained too close to a breaking point, and they did not know the extent of the danger yet after all. Despite his weeks of rest, he wasn't ready to truly stress himself, even if his magic pool was greater than ever. Carrying him into combat was just not an option and as long as the whole group was not gone for too long Kalle should be safer here.
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What attacked the town of Salcret in the dark was a seemingly endless sea of giant ant warriors, large as bulls, if not nearly so heavy–led by a single towering Mantis–who carried a glowing circlet on its tiny head and seemed to be directing the various groups.
It was a Mantis Hive raid, and judging by the colours, some lower faction among the race of insectoid warriors, who were so obsessed with draining the areas within their reach of resources.
Especially in winter they would range far and wide in search of materials to fulfil their seemingly endless quotas.
It was not their exoskeletons that had colour though, no. The hundreds of warriors would have looked dark and nearly identical, if it wasn't for the strange, seemingly painted-on patterns that covered their shell, in this case with a rather poor, dark and matted colour.
Despite looking like over-sized ants they also had strangely expressive faces, if you could look past the mandibles.
The group from the orchard came into Salcret just as the charging raiders met the devastating Skills of the highest level humans.
[Foresters] swung their axes and drew arcs in the air that tore through legs and thoraxes alike, while [Hammerers] came in with a workman-like purpose to bang at vital joints, using Skills allowing them to strike a hundred times a minute before a friend had to pull them back, as they had exhausted themselves.
There wasn't an exoskeleton in the bunch strong enough to withstand such blows, not at this size. But a dozen giant, razorsharp mandibles still threatened each warrior who strayed from the line, and as soon as their major pair of combat-suited Skills were deployed most of them needed to back up and give room to someone else with Skills left to unleash.
The warrior ants surrounded the town, but were having a hard time breaking through as a lot of the buildings were unexpectedly reinforced by the Skills of these frontier-civilians.
Even their highest level warriors couldn't penetrate the walls unless left alone with time to demolish, so the towns various [Hunters] just needed to stay on the roofs and keep the few buildings where the true civilians gathered from being overwhelmed.
Their Skill boosted arrows were able to penetrate the tough creatures from that height and angle, but despite them being peppered and clearly feeling plenty of anguish, whatever force the Mantis commander exerted was greater and kept them struggling to kill unto death.
It took a lot of time, but eventually the Humans managed to get the situation under control, with only a few visible spots of red blood streaked across the battlefield.
Harold and Oscar arrived in time to help, and cooperated to strike down one warrior, with some quick thinking from Livia who spotted a smaller ant cleverly finding a way through to an inner section unnoticed.
But the [Guild] were left feeling largely useless surrounded by such high level fighters; the warrior wasps couldn't penetrate such large insects and despite how the seemingly endless supply of enemies had been able to surround the town at the start; once enough Skills had been unleashed; their group were not really needed, not unless something unexpected were to reach the civilians.
What finally broke the raid in twain was the arrival of Brunner. The man lived quite a ways to the north outside Salcret proper, but he had naturally started sprinting as soon as he heard the alarm.
The [Hatchet Arborist]’s twin hatchets carved through the ants as easily as he had the stationary tree back in summer. In fact, with the speed Brunner had charged in, the ant warriors actually reminded Harold of stationary trees quite a bit. He only failed to reach the Mantis commander when it threw the elites it had been holding in reserve at him.
When the battle was done it was estimated that roughly 500 of the ant warriors had come to raid the village, with only 150 or so managing to escape together with their greedy commander.
It was a good result, despite the senselessness of the attack. But there were going to be funerals.