Interlude 11: Scouting Ahead
A day earlier, Liam was trudging through the jungle behind Robert. Considering the pouring rain, he would have much rather stayed back at camp.
“Has anyone managed to get a message through yet?” Martin asked from up ahead, only to be met with negative responses.
“I-It’s the storm. Water can hold much more mana than air. There is enough of it to interfere with any information our systems try to send.” Liam informed the others.
“We’ll have to wait out the storm before we can continue sending reports then.” Their leader acknowledged.
The slog through the pouring rain continued for another bell before Norbert stopped. The large man tilted his head as though trying to catch a sound through the pouring rain.
“There’s somethin’ out there.” He muttered quietly.
Following that ominous remark, the party slowed their already glacial pace even further. They couldn’t stop, even if Liam wished they could. Despite potential predators lurking in the jungle, they still needed to find the source of the scrying spell. Fortunately, the downpour kept the sounds of their travel muffled.
This proved to be a very good thing as they caught sight of something through the trees. The pouring rain made it difficult to make out, but it looked to Liam like an absolutely enormous creature. The thing had dozens of limbs clad in fur, feathers, and scales. As a flash of lightning illuminated the clearing, countless eyes reflected the light.
This wasn’t just a single creature. It was a monstrous army, all gathered together in an unmoving mob.
The sight should have been impossible. Most of these creatures would have normally torn each other apart without hesitation. Instead, they all stood eerily still.
Liam found the sight disturbing on a very deep level.
Martin sent a message to everyone, instructing them to back away slowly. This was an order no one hesitated to follow. Trying to fight such a large number of monsters would have been as foolish as trying to swim all the way back to the empire.
Once a safe distance from the unnerving horde, Norbert let out a quiet curse. Crude though Liam found the exclamation, it did sum up his opinions on the situation fairly accurately.
“Happy though I would normally be to see such unexpected friendships, I’m afraid that there is something sinister afoot.” Salvador remarked, glancing back the way they had come.
“I think we can forget about this scrying thing.” Mathew suggested. “Whatever is causing that gathering seems to be much more dangerous.”
The reminder about the scrying spell made Liam even more concerned. According to Kyo’s mark on the map, whatever cast that spell would have been somewhere very nearby. He really hoped it was just a coincidence, but he had his doubts.
“While I would have liked to identify what was spying on us, reporting this takes priority. We are heading back to the camp.” Martin decided.
As much as Liam would have loved to hurry the entire way back, the torrential downpour made that impossible. Even after several bells of walking, their systems were still out of range of the camp.
As much as they didn’t want to, the group was eventually forced to stop for the night. They wouldn’t do anyone any good if they were killed by ethereal horrors before they could relay their message.
Fearful of the disturbing army they had left behind, Liam spent extra time and effort carving runes for the night. He even carved a few of the strange concealment runes Kyo shared with him. He tried to carve them at least. Those things were several tiers above what his system could automatically produce. His attempts were probably useless, but it was better than doing nothing.
The few Bells he was permitted to sleep before his watch were less than restful. He was already awake when Mathew came to switch with him.
Standing watch was even worse than cowering in his tent. Out here, every shift in the raging storm played on his already frayed nerves. Liam could practically hear the beastly horde splashing through the storm.
After a moment, he realized that he actually could hear something moving through the jungle. Dark figures were moving through the night. The army was on the move.
Liam only hesitated a few moments before waking the others. Groggy though they all were, nobody complained as they readied themselves to defend themselves. Strangely, the need never arose. None of the passing creatures paid their little campsite any mind.
Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.
Disbelievingly, Liam glanced at one of his attempted runes of concealment. Perhaps they weren’t so useless after all.
----------------------------------------
It was well past dawn by the time the last of the beasts had passed the party’s little shelter. There had been a few close calls where a few scattered beasts had stopped to investigate, but they had all eventually moved on with the rest of the army.
The storm was still raging as they took apart their campsite. Without his enchanted raincoat, Liam had no doubt that he would have been utterly miserable on top of being terrified.
“We need to get moving.” Martin commanded as soon as the tents were packed away.
“Really? Those things are still out there…” Robert questioned worriedly.
“The others back at camp need to be alerted to the threat they now face. This dire task falls to us.” Salvador stated gravely before he started marching. “Should we stick to the beasts’ heels, our warning may yet make it in time.”
With a resigned sigh, Liam started walking towards the unstoppable tide of beasts that had passed them by.
He was really not cut out for heroic actions.
----------------------------------------
----------------------------------------
----------------------------------------
I followed the rush of people out to the wall as best as I could. With everyone scrambling around in the rain, the crowd was a confusing mess.
Things were a little more organized closer to the wall. Roy, the rude man who was so dismissive of my magic, was directing people up the ladders in an orderly fashion. He gave me a condescending glare as I waited my turn to climb up, but didn’t turn me away.
At the top, people were watching the jungle with extremely worried expressions. Now that I wasn’t rushing across the camp, I had a chance to look at the message that had everyone so worried.
Massive gathering of beasts sighted heading directly towards camp. The beasts are of many types and are showing extremely unusual levels of cooperation. All combatants should immediately prepare to defend against a large-scale attack.
That didn’t sound good.
“How long do you think it will take for them to get here?” A man standing near me asked.
“From the sounds of things, not long.” His friend replied while double checking the string on his crossbow. “I was standing nearby when Lady Halrand got the news. Never seen her look so flustered.”
“Well the less time we have to spend out in this scorched rain, the better. If this is all just a mistake, I’ll-” I didn’t get to find out what the man would do before a sentry loudly called out.
“Enemy sighted!”
Like everyone else on the wall, I immediately focused back on the jungle’s edge. True to the sentry’s words, beasts could be seen gathering at the very edge of the clearing.
Unexpectedly, they didn’t immediately charge. Instead, they sat just out of range of our weapons as though waiting for something.
“That’s awfully queer… What ‘s holding them back?” The man next to me asked in worried confusion.
He soon had his answer as dozens of birds took to the air. Unlike a regular flock, this one was formed from creatures of all shapes and sizes. I saw everything from little parrots to a winged snake like the one that attacked me while I was climbing down a cliff. Another difference from a regular flock was the fact that most of these creatures were clutching stones in their mouths and talons.
Twangs sounded out around me as my fellow defenders shot their crossbows into the sky. A number of beasts fell from the air, but it was only a very small portion of the growing cloud rising out of the tree tops. The distance was far enough for the airborne creators to dodge around many of the bolts. The flaming darts someone cast into the sky were more effective, but could only take out so many.
It didn’t take long for the leading birds to drop their carried stones over the camp. Most of the stones were small enough to be of little danger, but those carried by the larger creatures looked like they could easily prove fatal.
Were it not for the fact that the camp’s barrier formed a complete dome, the barrage of rocks and pebbles would have likely inflicted a great deal of damage. Luckily, not even the largest of the weapons made it through.
With the attacking beasts flying so high, I didn’t have many spells that could reliably reach them. It was quite fortunate that I had recently created one with a very impressive range.
Weaving together many different mana forms, I took aim with my deadly light spell. Just like in the simulation, it formed a narrow beam that easily tore through the wings of each creature I hit. Aiming proved easier than I expected, with the slightest shift in my aim tearing a swath through the smaller fliers.
Despite the ineffectiveness of their first barrage, parts of the flock soon returned with more stones to drop on us. Paying no regard to the heavy toll it was taking on them, they continued their futile assault.
I wondered about their strange behavior. The only thing their attack was doing was exposing them to danger. That, and distracting us…
Getting a really bad feeling, I looked down towards the edge of the jungle again. This time, I cast mana sight.
Slender threads of mana extended across the entire horde. Each and every creature had at least one of these threads leading to their head.
With such insidious magic driving them, the actions of these beasts made a little bit more sense. Following where all of the threads lead, I spotted a creature absolutely covered in mana forms. Many of them seemed to control the threads leading to the other beasts. The others were less clear in what they were building up to. I could tell that they were mostly comprised of control mana forms, but I couldn’t identify what they were for.
I couldn’t tell what sort of creature I was looking at through the wash of colors coming from my mana sight, but I knew it needed to be taken out. I quickly started weaving together a stronger deadly light spell.
Unfortunately, the beast was faster. The unidentified mana forms surrounding it shot forwards and impacted the camp’s barrier.
At first, it looked like nothing was happening. I nearly finished weaving together my spell before the foundations of the barrier exploded outwards. With giant gashes torn through the entire structure, the wall started to collapse.
Just as the last of my mana forms came together, the ground gave out beneath me.