The more they ran the more wary Azura became. They were making good time on the way back, mostly because they weren’t being as cautious. A surprise attack was less of an issue When you weren’t running deeper into the wildlands. Still he wasn’t looking forward to the bone graveyard. If his estimations were correct the monster commander would have likely expanded their control into the graveyard by now. Either way they were left with a tough choice. Commanders were dangerous, and one this close to a human town should definitely be eliminated. The question was should they attempt to do it themselves or tell the people in charge of the town's defense and let them take care of it. People would die, but they’d definitely be able to rout the commander, alternatively if they did it there was a chance they’d fail.
“What do you think we should do about the commander?” There was no point making a decision if his traveling companion wasn’t on the same page, so he decided to be the first to bring it up.” Jackson glanced at him from the side, and hummed in thought.
“If we can, I say we leave it. We’re probably 2 of the harder to kill adventurers in town, but I’m far from the most powerful on offense. Better to have the best person for the job in cases like these.” That made sense, and the guide made a good point. It wasn’t an issue of being able to take out the commander 1 on 1. Most of the kids who had made it past the 1st round of the trial could probably do that. It was a matter of wiping out the hordes of monsters under their control, and locating them. So a party of trackers and adventures with very aggressive skill sets would be ideal.
He had a very all rounder approach to magic, so he could fill both of those roles adequately, but a group of people that had taken the 1 branch of skills to the extreme would no doubt be better for an issue like this. “Sounds good to me. We’ll avoid it if we can.” He wasn’t really that optimistic about their chances, but it helped to have a plan, even if the plan was immediately scrapped.
“So you have an idea for when we inevitably run afoul of them anyway?” Huh it seemed he and Jackson had more in common than he’d have thought. Unfortunately despite racking his brain, there wasn’t a ton he could come up with. They would be going through the monsters territory where they would have home field advantage, they were outnumbered, and quite possibly outclassed. Hopefully they would have the speed advantage, because they would need it to even have a shot at avoiding combat.
“Sadly I think we may have to cross that bridge when we get to it.” Jackson looked resigned, the man had probably come to the same conclusion. Improvising on the spot was a risky plan to have. Unfortunately they didn’t have enough info for anything else.
***
They made it back through the valley in only a week, so if things went smoothly from here they may very well be able to get back a few days earlier than expected. Sadly he didn’t hold out much hope on that happening. Especially given the fact that all the behemoths and other skeletal monsters that didn’t have their cores completely destroyed would have regenerated by now. At least the core of one of the monsters was still safely stored in his safe. He once more lamented how much easier it was to move objects than people. Especially over long distances like that, Then again now that his body was pure magic he should be able to teleport much more easily. Too bad he was too nice to abandon Jackson, well that and more realistically he wasn’t confident enough to risk that kind of magic without testing it thoroughly first.
“You ready for the dangerous part?” Jackson’s words pulled him out of his musings. Ready was perhaps a strong word, but it;s not like skipping it was an option. Besides he was looking forward to seeing his friends again, well that and also having his copies memories. He bet they learned a lot, that should make him quite a bit stronger. Although an odd sense of foreboding left him a little nervous about it.
“Ready as I can be given the circumstances.” Jackson laughed and they both grimly made their preparations to scale the valley. His wasn’t an issue, creating wings was now much less mana consuming due to the way he was manifesting them being a lot more natural due to his ‘revelation.’ He really had known the truth about his mother, but had buried it deep down. It didn’t make her evil by any means, but it did mean she had lied to him. He shook his head. This wasn’t the time or place to think about things like that.
“You can fly?! Why is this just being brought up now!” He blinked owlishly at his guide. Why would it matter? There wasn’t a time before now where flying would have come in handy. Being in the air just meant more monsters could see you, and you’d be besieged by a horde of monsters, not to mention you’d attract flying monsters which are always a pain to deal with.
“It wasn’t exactly a relevant skill until now. Besides it was a mana drain up until My little swim in the pools.” The pool had granted him a lot, among them was the fact that condensing mana into an extension of his body became a breeze. Without the need of an enchantment to do the shaping and maintaining it was practically free.
“If it was a mana drain fine, but what do you mean it’s not a relevant skill?! It’s true that flying for a long period of time is going to get you swarmed, but going up briefly to check your surroundings would be fine.” He tilted his head. Maybe if he didn’t have clairvoyance he’d consider that option, but as it was it wouldn't really gain him anything.
“I have better means of searching an area, so it wasn’t necessary.” This was his first time really interacting with a mage who lacked extraordinary talent. The man was strong, but it was clear that it was through hard work and constant battle not any innate talent. Because of that his abilities were rather narrow, so it made sense that all the different abilities he had would throw the guide off.
“You’re telling me that you have area detection spells, flying spells, solid offensive spells, clones of yourself, the more I think of to list the more ridiculous it seems. All that, and you can build bases, your enhancement is above average, is there any kind of magic you can’t do?!” In theory, probably not. In practice was a bit different though.
“Yes and no. I’d say I’m capable of learning to recreate any type of magic, but I don’t have unlimited time on my hands, so I only have the spells I’ve been able to make.” His branch of magic really helped in that regard. Enchantment covered such a wide range of abilities he had rarely needed to branch out and learn other spells. Clairvoyance, and enhancement were just about the only spells he used that weren’t enchantment.
“That’s some confidence you’ve got, but I don’t doubt it. Either way it’s time to go up this thing. Any chance you could carry someone as you go up.” He considered it. He was strong enough to carry Jackson no problem, but He hadn’t had a lot of practice flying, and he didn’t know how much weight the wings could lift, Not to mention the updraft would have to have much more force to get them off the ground. He couldn’t say confidently that he could lift the man without risk of something going horribly wrong.
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“Maybe, but I’ve never tested it, and this isn’t really the place to test out half assed new spells.” Jackson started grumbling, and walked over to the cliff face to start climbing.
***
Jackson laid on the edge of the cliff panting for breath. It had been a lot easier going down the cliff than up it. It was especially grating that his traveling companion was totally fine. The bastard didn’t even start his ascent until Jackson himself was almost to the top. At least the kid had the decency to look away while he took the time to recover from the climb.He had half expected to be ambushed the 2nd they scaled the cliffs, but he didn’t see any enemies nearby, and the kid didn’t seem to detect anything either.
“What are the odds the commander simply assumed we wouldn’t come back this way and isn’t looking for us?” It was a real possibility. They had caused it some trouble, but nowhere near enough to be its primary focus. It had also been several weeks since then so it was entirely possible it had forgotten about them.
“Fairly high, but I wouldn’t call that a good thing.” He furrowed his brow. Marcus really was an enigma. He probably wasn’t kidding when he said he was capable of learning to use any magic, which isn’t something most could say. On top of that while Marcus was plenty arrogant, it never got to the point where he’d call the kid cocky. Marcus knew there were dangers in the world he couldn’t handle, and seemed to accept that well enough.
“How would that not be a good thing?” He had no shame in admitting that Marcus was smarter than him. Maybe not as smart as he thought himself to be, but smarter than him for sure. The kid was still green though, that much was clear, or at least it had been. Whatever happened in that pool, Marcus wasn’t quite the same after coming out. The kid seemed more centered, maybe more concentrated? Whatever it was it was clear that the pool had massively benefited his traveling companion.
“Because it means they think they're strong enough that an attack from the back won’t be enough to stop them from destroying their target, and if that’s the case, then they will attack soon. Worse, I think their target and our destination are the same.” He laughed. The kid had him going there for a sec. There was no way the monsters would be dumb enough to attack Lake Spire. There were a ton of adventurers there. So much so that even mindless monsters tended to steer clear of it.
“That’s a good one. I thought I was the one playing optimist on this trip. Man wouldn’t it be great if they went and got themselves wiped out like that.” He stood up, finally feeling recovered from the climb. Only to be surprised that Marcus still looked grim.
“I wouldn’t be so confident. The commander had higher rank monsters under its control even before, and now it had over a month to prepare. Not to mention extending into the bone graveyard where we were assaulted by several rank 7 monsters at the same time. It's safe to say there are enough dangerous things out here that the town may very well fall to a surprise assault.” His laughing stopped. Marcus made a good point, one he hadn’t even considered. But even still it was hard to imagine the town actually falling.
“Still, I’m far from the strongest adventurer in town, and the defense force are all pretty powerful too, even if the monsters have a decent size force, I just can’t see them wiping everyone out.” Still he didn’t doubt they’d be able to cause a lot of damage, and he had seen the power of sheer numbers before. If there were enough of them, even an ant could kill a lion.
“Who said anything about wiping everyone out?”
***
It was a common enough thing. Most people who lived in a well defended city like Lakespire never really dealt with monster attacks. So they often didn’t realize the way they tended to go down. Azura however had defended against them before. Not every settlement in his father’s land was well protected, and it was a noble’s duty to protect those that lived on their property. Even if he and his father had different reasons for believing that to be the case they could at least agree on the rule itself. As such he had been sent to quell more than a few monster attacks in his time, and not all had gone in a way he was ok with. He had never failed to repel the monsters, but that wasn’t the same as saying he had saved every town.
“The monsters won’t be trying to wipe everyone out. They will try to take prisoners, and destroy as much as possible. I have no doubt the monsters will be repelled eventually, but the damage done to both the town and its inhabitants will be disastrous in that time.” He fought the memories trying to surface in his mind. The only good thing about those memories was that he had chosen not to bring Katy. She didn’t need to see things like that.
“Ok so that’s definitely bad, but what are we going to do about it? They are way ahead of us, and even if we move fast enough to get to them before they get to the town, it would be tough for us to deal with their numbers.” He sighed. Jackson was correct. The 2 of them on their own likely didn’t stand a chance, and a few extra defenders would hardly be enough to keep the civilians safe If the used Reign to fly them to the town they could get there first, but it would have the side effect of making the monsters attack earlier, and probably attracting other monsters which would only make things worse.
“I may have an idea, but you’re not going to like it.” Jackson looked at him with wary eyes. He couldn’t say he blamed the man. His plans hadn’t exactly been very kind to his traveling companion. Especially the one that got him cut in half. And this time he even said that his guide wasn’t going to like it.
“I feel like I’m going to regret asking, but what is this plan?”
***
“For the record, this is a dumb plan." Jackson whispered quietly With his arms bound together loosely behind his back, and a spear pointed at his back. Marcus had somehow made himself look like some kind ofWhite and gold lizard monster and was pretending that he was his prisoner. To say that he didn’t love this plan was a bit of an understatement, but he reluctantly agreed that it may very well be their best bet.
“It’s too late to turn back now, they’ve spotted us, so you're going to have to shut up and trust me.” He closed his mouth grumpily. As a big group of monsters came over to inspect them. It was a bunch of low level monsters, but some of the more intelligent ones which meant they could still be dangerous in the right circumstances. This was one of those. The group of 15 or so goblins stopped directly in front of them and began grunting loudly. To his surprise Marcus growled back without missing a beat, Flicking his gleaming white and gold tail into the ground in front of him hard enough to create a dent in the ground. He was guessing the goblins backing away in mild terror was the intended result of the action. He had to say whatever shapeshifting magic the kid was using was incredible. If he hadn’t seen the shift with his own eyes he would have thought him a real monster. Although an oddly pristine looking one with gleaming white scales with thin golden designs here and there.
Marcus gently kicked the back of his knees, and he fell to the ground as if there was actually force behind the kick. At least the kid wasn’t taking advantage of the situation to beat on him. Marcus growled again, this one was much longer, but less aggressive. The tone shifted a little as the growl went on. The goblins even seemed to be understanding it as if it was a language of some kind. He knew that not to be the case. Marcus had informed him that most monsters use body language and magical energy to communicate, his growls were just a part of that. How the kid had learned to communicate with monsters was beyond him though.
The goblins grunted back, and a conversation he couldn’t even remotely interpret went on for a while. After a few minutes the goblins seemed to have conceded something and they rushed off. Marcus however didn’t move an inch, and so neither did he. As much as he didn’t like it, this was the only chance they had to insure that Lake Spire and it’s inhabitants didn’t get razed to the ground. After all, as strong as this group was, they’d never expect a monster to assassinate the commander, and certainly not one who had captured a human as a sign of good will.