Over the next several hours he avoided three more scouts as they moved through the screen of eyes and ears the enemy army had this far out from its main force. As they continued to move away from the conflict, scout encounters became rare, until after an hour, Tilly was almost sure he had seen the last of them.
He was really glad they hadn’t encountered this screen of scouts when they first tried to escape. Another mile or two closer to the army and the scouts would have probably been too close together to move through with their whole group.
It had been a good while since he had seen the last scout and Tilly was about to signal back to the others to re-group and set a new heading when he heard a sniffing sound just around the hill in front of him. He scrambled part way up the incline and dived to the ground, stilling completely as the small figure came into view. This one was slightly smaller than the others and his Identify pinged with the reason a moment later.
Level 28 Strigoi Juvenile.
Tilly sent back what he was seeing as the creature continued to wander forward, obviously less focused than the others in fulfilling its duty. Occasionally it would stop and scratch the ground, sniffing at what it found there, then moving on. As it came within feet of Tilly, he noticed other differences in its features. One unlike the other gray hairless adults, this one seemed to still have patchy hair covering its head, and a few loose rags hung from its gaunt frame. Its skin displayed black vein-like patterns connotating a heavy Corruption presence.
As it passed, a realization hit Tilly and he had to fight down the gorge rising in his throat. The hair… the rags… This creature had been something else once. It was a juvenile because it had not shed all of the features of its previous race.
It continued to wander past Tilly, and he hastily warned the others to scatter from the line he had been setting when a coughing bark sounded from just ahead. The Juvenile froze in place and then turned slowly back toward the sound, and Tilly followed its gaze, making sure to keep his movements achingly slow to maintain Stealth.
Another coughing bark sounded, this time more forceful, and the Juvenile scrambled back past Tilly looking chastised. Tilly’s hood finally cleared from his line of sight and he saw it,
Level 72 Strigoi Consumer
It had eight or nine other juveniles milling about its feet, all hunched over in subservience and it was looking down at the stray with fury smoldering in its lifeless eyes. Like the others Tilly had seen, it wore a mix of different armor and several weapons. Up close, Tilly noticed that its grey skin was tinged the slightest purple and it also had a spidery network of heavy Corruption burrowing through its skin. The juvenile scrambled up the hill and skidded to a halt just before the Consumer, who issued a vicious kick for its trouble.
Tilly’s whole body tensed at the sight of such a large group so close. His joints began to ache with the strain as his knuckles whitened around the handles of his hatchets. The chances of his group being able to take this one without the element of surprise were slim. One misstep by him here and it would all be over. Even if they survived the encounter, there was no way they would be able to keep any from escaping to spread news of their presence…
He urgently sent back a command to stop and take cover. Kindle answered with concern and an affirmative that she had passed along the situation. Tilly kept his eyes glued on the Consumer, who seemed to have been assigned babysitting duty. Were there more juveniles wandering around? Sweat began to run down Tilly’s face as the lay there frozen, while the Consumer surveyed the hills before it.
Then screeching sounded from behind the group of Strigoi, echoed by other voices further away. The group’s heads snapped back the way they had come at the sound. The Consumer issued a few barking commands before shooting off. The Juveniles scrambled after, their gangly limbs hardly reducing the terrifying quickness of their four-legged sprint.
The screeching continued, joined by this group and others. They had found something. Something that had merited a full response.
Kindle sent, ‘We come.’ as soon as Tilly issued the all-clear.
For his part, Tilly cautiously moved forward cresting the hill slowly and watching as the distant group that had almost discovered him was joined by other individuals. They converged on a spot a few hundred yards in the distance just out of Tilly’s sight behind another set of hills.
A forceful shout rang out from the area, followed closely by a flash of pink light. The group of creatures pursuing the sound went wild, howling as they increased pace. The pink light continued to shine from behind the hill as the creatures arrived at the unseen source en mass.
“Mr. Tillman, what do you see?” Ichiro whispered urgently from the bottom of the hill.
Tilly backed down from the rise and turned to find the others arriving with Gorock pulling up the rear, shield, and sword ready.
“Something drew the attention of every creature in this area with some sort of magic. The voice sounded humanoid, and whatever it was, it didn't seem like the Strigoi are rushing over to say ‘Hi.’ “
Then the sound of a truck colliding with a wall thundered back over the hills from the confrontation, and echoing screeches of fury rose from the surroundings pulling even more Strigoi into the conflict. There had to be twenty to thirty scouts there by now. Ichiro closed his eyes and listened for things the rest of them couldn’t hear. After ten seconds, his milky eyes flicked open and he drew his sword.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“There is, in fact, a battle in play, and the ones opposing the Strigoi seem to be from another Faction.” He said, dropping his pack, and letting Kindle loose.
“We will move to assist, our goals being the destruction of the enemy force in the area and favorable contact with possible allies in the region. They are swarming, and I doubt they have sent any messages back to the main force yet. Jonathan, you take point, strike first, strike hard.”
“Done and done,” Tilly said dropping his pack in a mirror action to the others who were loosening gear and reading weapons for battle.
“Franklin and Mrs. Cooper, you are on containment, as soon as we engage, your main priority is to lock down the area, no one in or out. Gorock, we will move in and capitalize on Mr. Tillman’s primary strike. Everyone clear?”
Everyone made some version of a nonverbal acknowledgment. Gorock barely contained his giggling delight, and Tilly shook his head in amazement at the Wallbreaker's battle lust. He turned to his bond, suddenly overtaken with worry that she wouldn’t know what to do.
‘Kindle, you are on overwatch, only engage if you have an easy win’ Tilly sent to the Phoenix, trying to give her a role that felt significant, without endangering her too much.
She eyed him, sending back contempt, along with a significant amount of confidence in her own abilities. She then turned away, shook out her wings, and took off into the air, not waiting for any further instructions.
“Shit! Alright, I’ll see you guys on the other side, be careful.” He whispered hurriedly before running after her towards the sounds of confrontation. He heard the others move after him but none overtook his position, and Kindle began to send flashes of the scenario ahead of them from the air.
Through Kindle’s aerial perspective, he managed to gain a basic understanding of the conflict before him as he ran forward at a good clip. They faced a mass of thirty or so juveniles and two Consumers. Three more of the juveniles littered the ground like abandoned rag dolls, and one of the Consumers was missing an arm.
The group had been whipped into a fury, attempting to tear through a glowing pink dome that was somehow managing to withstand their attacks. The two Consumers stood back and watched, seeming to be content to let the younger minions wear down the caster.
The barrier was already showing cracks, and through Kindle's eyes, Tilly could barely make out two figures through the glowing pink surface of the magic. One seemed to be a huge knight, decked out in full plate with its face completely covered. The other was significantly smaller, wearing bright multicolored robes, and holding his hands splayed before him in an obvious attempt to maintain the barrier against the ferocity of the Juveniles.
Tilly slowed his approach, as he crested the last hill. He centered himself fully back in his own senses, making sure his Stealth was still in place before peeking over the crest of the last hill. The scene was just as Kindle had shown him, but with his more familiar vantage, his attention was especially drawn to how closely grouped the majority of the Juveniles were in front of the barrier.
He took one last scan of the field, looking for the most effective place to strike and tip the scales. He quickly discarded going after one of the elites, even the injured one. That would be a waste of his initial bonus if he wasn’t able to effectively remove it from the fight with the first blow and against something of that level, he would only have one shot. His eyes went back to the crowd of juveniles ranging from nine to fourteen levels above his measly level of eighteen.
If this was a video game, their grouping would be screaming at him to stack his bonus to a first strike from Stealth with an area of effect Ability. But this wasn’t a game, and [Resolute] would only block one strike… to fail here would ruin everything.
Fuck it, he had a job to do, and he would do it to the best of his abilities. Some of his old competence rose to the surface as he considered this problem just like he would a burning structure. His two worlds merged and the feeling of being on a razor-edge he used to get going into a burning building slid into place.
Weeks of diving into certain pain and dismemberment paid dividends, and even in the face of possible death, he found himself creeping forward despite leaving behind his momentary hesitation.
The Corruption wriggled within him, egging him to abandon all fear and give in to the call of battle pouring off the scene in front of him. The Strigoi seemed to have no fear, throwing themselves at the barrier in mindless fury and he couldn't deny the pull their frenzy had on him. The freedom it offered was almost intoxicating in its promise of release from his worldly cares…
He acknowledged his desire to give in, accepting it with a deep breath. Then he held it, feeling its power weaken against his acceptance. He pulled the temptation close, not denying it, but letting it be a part of the tapestry of pain and hope that made up his soul. Then he released it along with his breath. His breathing pattern settled into place and he stoked the fire within him steeling himself against Corruption’s influence for what now seemed like the thousandth time.
‘Endurance, don't fail me now.’ He thought as he crept forward the last few yards towards the ongoing conflict.
Cracks now spiderwebbed around the ferocious knot of grey teeth and claws that was the pack of Juveniles attempting to breach the barrier. Beyond the failing wall of magic was the armored figure, cooly holding its mace at the ready.
Tilly army crawled past the two Consumers, who he was sure would have spotted him, even in his Moundstalker gear, if not for the distraction of the conflict playing out right in front of them.
As he neared the back of the frenzied group, Strigoi juveniles began to howl in glee as they shoved their heads and appendages through the widening weak points in the barrier. The knight calmly shifted its stance and hefted the massive mace ready to meet the first to break through. Tilly drew in the flames at his center, compacting them and activating Flame Explusion a foot or two behind the mob.
A second later, the roaring crackle of a conflagration exploded out from Tilly’s center, and he felt it the moment his Stealth failed. A screeching bellow of outrage sounded off from the side of the injured Consumer as blue fire shot out from Tilly’s position in all directions engulfing the nearby Juveniles.
A flash of intuition shot through Tilly like lightning and he activated [Resolute] right as a gaunt one-armed figure exploded through the wall of fire and clawed out his throat.
Or, that's what should have happened. Instead, Tilly felt the blow land against his exposed neck before his eyes even had a chance to register the Consumer’s attack. He was launched forty feet away from the shattered barrier, his throat thankfully intact as he flew away from the conflict.