The chittering and squeaking of gnomes grew louder and louder as they flooded the streets. It was like the city had come to life, all of it two feet high and hell bent on destruction. Kaden didn’t see the gnomish war machines but he didn’t doubt they were coming. “What do we do?”
“I already warned Cutter. Then I warned Eve separately.”
Ashi risked a glance out. “Chain Lightning will not be effective, they are too low to the ground.”
As Kaden watched the gnome armies swarm forward, he became more and more confused. “Why stop? There’s a thousand of them. Why not surge into our street?”
“These are true gnomes, not like the monsters we encountered. They can’t survive on enemy territory. They grow stronger on home territory and are average on disputed territory, and take constant damage on enemy territory.” Sara paused as a trio of Messenger Birds landed. “All right, the Guild is responding. The gnomes must clear the block or they can’t claim it. We hold this position until level thirties arrive.”
Kaden studied the masses. “Or.”
“I do not like it when he says that.” Ashi put her hands on her hips. “What is this ‘Or’?”
With a pull, Kaden summoned Trinity. “Resilient Constitution lets me survive any attack. If I’m in a block, is it disputed?”
“If you’re there long enough.”
A peek out the window told Kaden what he needed to know. “I’ll use [Stealth Aura] and sneak all the way to the Strike Quest building. It’s on the opposite corner, eight blocks that way.” The beam of red light was his clue. “If I were a gnome army and suddenly my fortress went disputed, I’d give up the front line and make sure to take it back.”
“You will not be able to take Sara with you. [Identify] says your [Stealth Aura] can cover only two. Perhaps she can coordinate?” Ashi spoke it as a pronouncement.
“Actually—” Kaden swallowed. It wasn’t like any of this was ideal. “I need Sara with me. She holds the third best trump card in this situation. Eve’s [Queen of Entropy] is number one, but, [Anthem of the End] is a close third.”
“It is not casting Gnomes do, any more than opening a door is casting,” Ashi said.
“And her [Herald of Life] title. One percent a minute, it can and does make me deadly with [Resilient Constitution] from Trinity.” Kaden cradled her blind head, then pulled the TriTerror into his soul. “We’re not going to hold the gnomish fortification. We’re going to dispute it until every gnome in the area decides it’s time to take it back. The moment that happens, we [Stealth Aura] our way out.”
“It is a surprisingly reasonable plan. Did Sara come up with it?”
Sara shook her head. “I was just as suprised by the ‘or’ as you were. But I like the plan. It’s similar to what has worked in the past. The key will be running at the right time. If we leave too soon, the gnomes will turn around and come back.”
“I understand. I do not like it, but I understand.” Ashi wouldn’t look at him. “Go quickly, I will send birds when they react. If they do not react, I will also say so. How do you plan to cross into their territory?”
That was a problem. [Stealth Aura] wasn’t like [Shadow Step], which let Trella move between spots if there were shadows. “I’m going to take the long way around.”
Kaden quickly ran to the stairs. Whoever built the Buried city liked their staircases narrow and steep, and it was safer to jump to the ground floor than risk falling. Whoever built it was also really, really into carved stone, or maybe all the wood had rotted away through the ages. “Ready?”
Sara nodded, then startled as Kaden picked her up and activated [Stealth Aura] and slipped out of the front of the house. The front of the house—like all of them—opened straight onto the street, no curbs for pedestrians, which probably meant few wagons.
Kaden’s focus was on [Stealth Aura] and listening to everything it told him. The core of the skill was still [Stealth] and it relied on him being reasonably stealthy. Which was a real problem when he reached the intersection. Gnomes flooded the road, dividing and encircling all the buildings, and they fired unending streams of fire and lightning at the next street.
But as Kaden slowed, he sensed a pattern. The Gnomes mainly fired in response, and the Adventurers had an intense allergy to being blown to smithereens. He waited as a hail of arrows flew from upper story windows, and began to sprint as fireballs returned. With a stutter-step to avoid a late chunk of ice that materialized in front of him, Kaden leaped to the narrow space beween two houses and moved even faster, clutching Sara to his chest.
Movement up ahead came too late to stop, and Kaden had no choice. He vaulted off a low window and leaped upward, sailing over a stream of gnomes that boiled forward and began to form a ladder, spilling into the houses on either side.
The street behind was enemy territory, and while dozens of gnomes waddled too and fro, wands drawn, it was clear to Kaden these weren’t an attack force. No, they were backup, just like Ashi and Sara and Kaden had been.
Kaden headed straight into the closest house, hoping its layout was the same and a long kitchen lined the back, with burnt out heat stone and stone shelves which had probably had enchantments.
And froze.
A single gnome lay sleeping in the kitchen, a pile of wands surrounding it like fire crackers. Above him, the squeaks and chitters of gnomes said the second floor held more.
Sara tapped Kaden’s chest for him to let her down, but the moment he stopped [Stealth Aura], he wouldn’t be able to re-establish it if there was anyone watching.
Sara stood stock still as her pseudod stretched down—and clamped over the gnome’s entire face and head.
Kaden struck as well, not with Remembrance, but with Inventory, seizing every wand in a sweep before tiny fists could grasp them. Every muffled scream, every wet rip and tear, even the Horror’s gurgles as it slurped gnome blood sounded like explosions. The gnome went limp, and the Horror choked it down.
Sara turned and put her arms around Kaden, lifting her legs so he could re-establish [Stealth Aura], then slip out through the empty frame where a door would have been. He studied the piller of red light that marked the Strike Quest, and began to navigate.
Stolen novel; please report.
Now a handful of gnomes gathered in circles, or tested their wands on houses. An explosion in the distance sent a wave of cheers through gnomes everywhere, and told Kaden exactly where they were.
“Hold on,” Kaden whispered. The homes here had narrow stone walls dividing them, and he used them to quickly navigate between houses—and stopped one street over. What had been a pilllar of light, a column like what followed Wandering Bosses was now a square. One thing that stood out was that almost none of the houses had actual damage. Temples, markets, what Kaden thought was a library, all of them nothing but stone.
Stone that not even gnome wands damaged.
This was obviously gnomish construction, an eight story tower of made of metal beams and riveted metal, it covered a building as large as the Temple Eve and Cutter’s Party had taken. The building itself steamed and shook and rattled as though it was constantly in danger of exploding.
Which it probably was.
And gnomes patrolled everywhere, wands drawn, suspicious eyes looking about. The outside of the building was a maze of stairs and railings, walkways with lookout points, all of them sized for gnomes.
Gnomish engineering was at best ramshackle, but Kaden hadn’t imagined a tower that covered the entire space.
“How close do we have to be, and how long?” he whispered to Sara.
“No idea on how long, but definitely in the territory,” She answered.
That gave him only one real option. He ran down a side street, then up into a nearby house. “Get on my back.”
“Only because you asked nicely,” Sara said. She climbed on, wrapping her arms around Kaden’s neck, and clinging to him.
He twisted out the window and climbed onto the room as a series of vast explosions rose like distant thunder. No time to wait, he balanced on the ridgerow and waited until the nearest gnomes turned to move to the next section of the tower—and sprinted forward, leaping.
Kaden sailed through the air and just missed the railing.
He plummeted—and the Horror’s pseudopods latched onto the metal, gnawing. Kaden slammed into the wall with a metalic thud that set off a frenzy of whistles and clangs inside. The whole building shook.
Breathing was impossible with Sara strangling him and her legs crushing him as she clung, but he reached up and grasped a rail and pulled, forcing himself to climb. [Stealth], he thought. Smooth, silent.
The skill clicked into effect as gnomes peeked around the corner, but a ringing bell and clatter of machinery from inside distracted them for the briefest moment—and Kaden climbed, using the railing until at last he perched atop the gnomish building. A wide chimney belched oily smoke and cinders, but Kaden had to jump to grasp the top level, and gnomes were unlikely to be able to reach.
“There.” He patted Sara to let go. “You saved us on that jump.”
“I just got a notification. This area will be contested in four minutes and fifty seconds. You take one corner, I’ll watch from the other.”
Kaden summoned the [FalCrow] and begged it to keep watch—and be silent. With [Stealth Aura] engaged, he leaned over to look down. The patrols had resumed their careful pace, ringing the gnomish tower.
From across the tower he watched Sara’s parrot sail away, most likely telling Ashi.
Waiting was worse than fighting. Every second was months long, and Kaden had lived in his own personal Vichor for five years before Sara held up a hand and began a countdown. He dashed over to cover her with [Stealth Aura].
This territory is now contested.
The longer this territory is contested, the longer it will take to re-establish control.
All Constructs will take continuous damage.
Enemies must be eliminated to establish full control.
A timer began to tick upward. The reaction from the gnomes was instantaneous. Shouts and squeals and long sentences accompanied the ringing and creaking of metal as guards rushed through their routes.
Even more worrying, the building itself began to groan and tremble.
With every passing second, the voices below grew louder, the arguments angrier, the rattling even worse.
A glittering mana-dragon materialized to land on Kaden, and Ashi spoke. “Eve must reconsider now, what is the most Kaden thing you have done. They come. The Guild decides now, take territory or attack the tower.”
“Kaden.” Sara spoke softly. “Look.”
The streets below thronged with gnomes. Hundreds of gnomes. Maybe a thousand, and gnomish war-wagons, and a vast construct that reminded Kade of the Rolling Fortress the Saint’s Hall had used to protect commoners.
The tower shook and pitched to one side, dropping three feet.
His Agility let Kaden land on his feet and even catch Sara.
[Stealth Aura] did its best to quiet how he landed, but the constant Gnome-Speek fell silent as it echoed. One corner of the tower now dipped a good ten feet lower than the other three, the metal crumpled inward. Railings and stairs had wrenched off and now jutted into the air.
“Listen,” Sara whispered.
The sound of small hands climbing.
Kaden held her close and projected [Stealth Aura].
A pair of gnomes shimmied out along a broken railing, then swung and jumped to land on the roof, wands out. They turned slowly, scanning—and shouted a non-word before leaning over to shout down again.
Then one ran to the smokestack and leaned over, looking down.
Did the smoke harm it? Not that he could tell. On the other hand, when the second gnome pushed the first into the smokestack, that apprently hurt based on the screaming. The stack belched oily smoke and the murder-gnome laughed to itself.
Sara pulled at Kaden.
He could oblige, lifting her up and using [Stealth Aura] to creep up. He held up a hand and drew Remembrance. [BackSlash!] Remembrance struck right at the base of the gnome’s neck as the Horror attacked from the other side.
The gnome was stunned for just a moment, and only managed a short squeak before the Horror’s rasping tongue thrust down its throat in the most horriffic kiss ever. Kaden tore a wand from the gnome’s grasp as it pulled it from Inventory, then collected everything as it frantically tried to save itself—and went limp.
Sara couldn’t help smiling as the Horror swallowed the gnome like a python. The counter continued its inexorable climb, but now Kaden had much bigger problems. The gnomish tower rattled and groaned and twisted, like it was pulling in on itself. The smokestack only belched brief intervals.
Railings crashed to the ground, falling off the building.
“We need a way off here,” Kaden said.
A peacock landed on Sara’s arm and Eve’s voice shouted. “We’re coming! It’s a full scale assault. Get off the tower, it’s about to get swarmed.”
Kaden looked out at the streets below. Gnomes covered every square foot, wands drawn. Many stood atop their war wagons. At the other end, a phalanx of [Shields] approached, blocking every fireball, shattering ice, and behind them came more mages.
“Tell me you have a plan. Lie if you have to,” Sara said.
“I do. It’s not a lie, but I have one more thing I want to do before we let the calvary handle it. Climb on, hold on, don’t let go.” Kaden studied the area below and made his decision. He leaned out over the edge.
Activated [Wrath of the Furnace]
His mana immediately hit zero, and Kaden almost collapsed.
You have mana shock!
You must wait for Mana to regen.
But the other reason he almost collapsed was the wave of molten, pure fire that spewed from his mouth in a fountain that stretched forty feet. It hit the gnomes below, causing chaos. Flaming Gnomes ran everywhere, while some tried to use ice wands to extinguish the destruction.
Kaden stood and ran for the corner of the tower as it piched and began to lean further and further toward the street. He leaped off it, drawing Remembrance to murder a gnome sitting atop one of their wagons.
You have suffered 400 points falling damage!
He’d suffer a lot more if he stuck around. The last time he’d been attacked by gnomes, the [Mages] at the tower had marveled at the construction of their war wagons. There wasn’t a control for speed up—only one for slow down, a round circle that could be carefully tuned, or—it tore off in Kaden’s hand.
The war wagon shot forward.
Sara had both swords drawn, each pseudopod devouring a different gnome, and he barely snagged her belt to keep her aboard as the wagon rocketed down the road. “Stealing a war wagon was your plan? And what the hell was that volcano skill? You should do that to all of them.”
“It’s a once-a-day thing!” Kaden said. His mana ticked up to one.
“The tower’s falling!” Sara shouted.
That was great, but Kaden was fighting to steer the war-wagon. He swung it hard right and began racing at an angle through the city. “We have to figure out how to stop.”
“Go! Go! Do not stop!” Sara shouted.
A ball of flame exploded on the wagon’s front right wheel.
The chase was on.