Cleaning up after the battle took far longer than the fight itself. Even mostly crippled, the remaining beasts were still too dangerous to leave alive. As one of the few combatants still healthy enough to continue fighting, I worked with the others to pick through the bodies for survivors. It was grisly work that needed to be done.
By the time I returned to the settlement, I was nearly too exhausted to stand. Even then, I was one of the luckier ones. Many people would never stand again.
I respectfully bowed my head towards the bodies being prepared for burial. I hoped that their shades would be led to peace quickly by their forebears. They would need all the support they could get to overcome such violent deaths.
Using my spear as a walking stick, I stumbled my way past the ruins of the wall. Workers were already putting up a temporary fence to protect against any stragglers from the horde. Others were clearing bodies or picking through the ruins for salvageable timber.
Staggering along towards the bunks, I noticed people looking at me differently than they had before. Prior to the fight, most people seemed to see me as an oddity that they had mostly grown used to. Now, they were once again giving me curious looks mixed with something else I couldn’t place.
I was too exhausted to try and figure out other people. Instead, I passed by some equally exhausted women and collapsed into my bed.
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I woke to the sounds of quiet sobbing. On a nearby bed, one of the rune carvers was crying into her pillow. I wished I knew some way to comfort her, but I wasn’t sure if there was anything I could do for her.
Unsure what else to do, I decided to give her space. The poor woman was facing away from me, so I figured I could take a look at my interface without bothering her. I still had a boon to select.
Physical Enhancement: Variable
Select from a list of physical enhancements. May be selected multiple times.
Mana Form Simulation: Adaptive Suggestions
Enhances simulations with the ability to recommend corrections and improvements to mana forms.
Improved Environmental Analysis
Enhances local information gathering ability of the system.
Privileged Resource Distribution
Receive a greater share of collective processing, distributed mana, and other system resources.
Mana Form Simulation: Shared simulation
Enable others to view and interact with simulations.
It looked like I only had one new boon available this time, but it looked appealing. I was still trying to teach others how to craft sigils while learning more about rune carving in turn. Being able to share my simulations with others would probably make learning much easier for all involved.
I was tempted to select it for my next boon, but there were two others I wanted more. Things could have gone much worse if my simulation wasn’t able to help me counter the fox’s control over the horde. Improving my system’s ability to gather information or my simulation’s ability to help me craft new spells could mean the difference between life or death.
With that in mind, I selected the adaptive suggestions boon. Even if I didn’t end up in another life threatening situation, it would still be useful to have more guidance when working with magic.
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
With my choice made, I waited a little while for the distraught woman to collect herself. There was still a lot of work to be done.
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Interlude 25: Callous Complaints
“...with thirteen of those fifty-seven being noncombatants that were killed by the flying enemies that got past our line.” Roy finished.
The damage report was even worse than Lady Eileen Halrand expected and her expectations were already bad enough.
“More than half my underlings dead in a day and more than half the rest injured. Their incompetence is going to reflect very poorly on me once this gets out.” She seethed. “Add to that a camp without a single undamaged building surrounded by the ruins of what you assured me was ‘a nigh impenetrable barricade’. Anything you want to say about that?”
“That wall would have held against a barrage of cannon fire. The only reason it fell was because one of our foes held an ability perfectly suited to collapsing such a barrier.”
“How convenient for them.” Eileen deadpanned. “I’m sure subpar construction had nothing to do with it.”
Though he gritted his teeth, Eileen’s head mage was smart enough not to contradict her. It wouldn’t fix his mess, but at least she didn’t need to listen to the man groveling.
“All of this, and I haven't even gotten to the best part.” She griped as she paced angrily back and forth in the depressingly plebeian office she was forced to work from. “I have finally received word that the second fleet is no more than a tenday away.”
“Would reinforcements not be a good thing at this point? We could certainly use the extra man power rebuilding.” Roy questioned hesitantly.
“Do you have any idea what those cowards are going to think when they get here? Even after leaving me to claw a foothold on this sun-scorched deathtrap of a jungle, all they are going to see is this mess.” She snarled.
There was no chance the scorched cowards coming to take credit for her hard work wouldn’t send word about this disastrous battle. If her father were to hear, her already unfair exile would undoubtedly be extended. Without something to distract those nobles, there was no escape. She needed to find something to redeem the situation.
“Is there anything positive you can tell me? Surely there is at least some way to spin this debacle.”
“Well, there may be one thing…” Roy began hesitantly.
“Spit it out.”
“The girl. We… We were very, very wrong about her.” He admitted.
“How could that little savage possibly be relevant?”
“The girl, Kyo, I believe her name was, is a true caster.”
“If you are going to waste my time on an idiotic joke, at least make it half-way believable.” Eileen warned coldly. “Your competence is already in question. Don’t push it further.”
The mage paled, but didn’t fold. “I swear that it is true. I personally witnessed her using fifth tier magic.”
“What could that savage have possibly done to lead you to that mistake?”
“I am not the only one to witness her using magic akin to Yorick Sunblessed himself. The magic she wielded was best described as a smaller, more focused version of the demigod’s beams of searing light.”
Lady Halrand nearly reprimanded the man further for his inane claims, but paused to consider. It wasn’t the first time such a feat had been linked to the nearly human native. Perhaps it wasn’t completely impossible for the little savage to have a useful trick or two.
The claim of it being a true caster was obviously nonsense though.
“So the little savage has a strange boon that lets it use a form of magic it shouldn’t be able to. Perhaps we can make use of it after all.” She allowed.
“That isn’t all… She may have been the only reason we defeated that army. I didn’t personally witness her doing so, but according to those who fought alongside her, she was the one to disable the majority of our enemies.”
The claim was clearly insane, but her head magician seemed to truly believe it. Despite his recent failings, he was usually reliable when it came to magic.
“Explain.” she demanded.
“Each of the creatures had a spell placed upon them before the battle which likely was what drove them to cooperate. Shortly before they collapsed, the enemy forces were affected by a burst of manaforms. I was able to confirm that the epicenter of this burst was at least nearby where the girl was reported to have been during the battle. Those that witnessed the event directly have been mistakenly speaking of the girl as though she is a young archmage. To the unlearned, it appeared as though she felled the entire horde with her own power using only a single spell.”
“Utterly preposterous.” Eileen scoffed, but then a thought struck her. “Though, Perhaps we can make use of this after all. Do what you can to ensure those rumors continue to spread.”
“That would be much easier than trying to stop them at this point, but may I ask why you wish for me to do that?” Roy asked in confusion.
“Sometimes even an exaggerated story holds a value of its own.” She explained with a self-satisfied grin. “Perhaps this little ‘archmage’ we’ve found will be enough to still a few tongues once we ship it back home.”