“Shrieks, take your group right. Tree, your group left. Poison, take your scouts and encircle them from the back to sow chaos within the group. Bastet, take your group to attack the front. Sirocco, give me a view from the air. Pathwalkers, Catch, Pride, with me.”
My orders are swiftly followed, our group splitting up into our predetermined battle groups: this isn’t the first time we’ve been attacked. It is the biggest group of attackers by far, though.
We’re facing a veritable horde of what looks like bigger versions of the velociraptors which attacked me long ago and which are called ranars. They aren’t Evolved versions, though – not according to the Inspects which I managed to get off.
As far as I can tell, they are all Tier ones unless Evolving to Tier two doesn’t cause any physical differences. I don’t have enough time to check each one individually, and my general Inspect indicates that they are all a similar threat to me. They are vicious with long teeth and long claws, but they don’t show any signs of having ranged strategies like the other velociraptors had.
It should make this battle easily feasible for us, despite their numbers. A good way to add to our Energy and food stores without having to waste too much time. That’s just as well – this is the second time we’ve been attacked today and we’re all already tired.
With the few Pathwalkers who had been running with us at the time, I make a strategic retreat to the cart with the other Pathwalkers and one of the alcaoris hatchlings – Noir.
Climbing up on top of the wagon, I eye the battle with a calculating gaze, using the Bond to tap into Sirocco’s eyes too. She flies from perch to perch, sending me quick snapshots of what the battle looks like from that perspective even when I’m not actively looking through her eyes.
The sound of irritable cyrans and a shuddering through the cart draws my attention to closer action.
“Flower, keep them calm,” I order the Pathwalker briskly and she tilts her chin slightly before moving to obey. Thanks to her time working with the animals to determine the best ways of increasing their growth speed, she’s developed a mental presence which helps others to feel calm and serene around her and non-sapient creatures to be more docile. I’ve been wondering whether she’ll actually develop a special ability for it, but she hasn’t as of yet. On this journey, she’s been key in keeping the cyrans calm and compliant, saving me from having to create a Dominate Bond with each of them and being able to settle for Tame ones instead for communication purposes.
With the cyrans now more relaxed, I can turn my attention back to the main battle, once more switching between my eyes and Sirocco’s. Taking out my bow and arrows, I start shooting even as I oversee the battle.
The ranars are starting to clump together as they meet the resistance of Bastet’s group at the front. Fighting with her are Fenrir, Lathani, Thorn, Honey, Komodo, Daphne, and Ivor. The ranars stand almost twice as tall as Bastet, which makes them easy enough targets for my bigger Bound, but more difficult for ones like Honey. Noir is being kept back because he’s smaller than his siblings and is far more fragile. He’s not happy with having to stay in the cart, but I’m not willing to risk his life in a fight like this. Of course, Honey doesn’t let her size stand in her way – she just goes straight for the enemies’ legs, savaging them with her own sharp claws and teeth.
Shrieks’ and Tree’s groups of Warriors are causing the ranars to clump together at the sides too. Now we’re just waiting for Poison’s group of scouts to block off their retreat.
“Joy, Sticks, ensnare their feet,” I order the two Pathwalkers. They immediately comply, the roots within the ground below the ranars’ feet growing and weaving around their legs. The difference is noticeable – the rate at which the ranars are being killed increases significantly once they are no longer able to dance out of the way of strikes. But numbers are still an advantage of their own.
My eyes narrow in thought and an idea soon comes to me.
“Tarra, Windy, River work together and try to get some disabling or lethal gas or something in the middle of the pack. Ease up the pressure of the numbers.”
The three Pathwalkers look at each other, then shift together to work out how to put my idea into practice. Unusually for Windy, there’s no argument from her side of things – perhaps she’s more alarmed at the battle than I thought.
I can’t think of how the other Pathwalkers could help at the moment, unless….
Eyeing the battle, I notice how the scouts have reached the back and are starting to press the ranars from that point. The creatures are now in a fairly huddled group which they clearly don’t like if their irritable snaps and hisses at each other are anything to go by. But they can’t make it through the encircling cordon. At the same time, their irritability might start pushing them to force their way out.
Joy and Sticks are doing a good job with snaring their feet, but they can’t cover everyone all at once and the ranars appear to be pushing harder and harder. My assessment is confirmed a moment later.
Tamer, we are being pressured hard, Shrieks warns me.
As are we, agrees Tree. My group are tiring – there are too many of them to manage.
We are doing fine for now, Bastet chimes in, but too much more and we will start having difficulty.
The attention is away from us, Poison adds his own report. But if that changes, we will struggle – my scouts do not have the strength to push back the same numbers the other groups are dealing with.
My thoughts race as I try to find a way of dealing with the situation, asking Sirocco to fly around the battle again so I can see exactly what’s happening. If we hadn’t already had a tough battle this morning where almost everyone had needed to use their daily ability to borrow another Bond’s ability, this would be a perfect time to do so. But the few who haven’t already used it are unlikely to make much difference. Still, I instruct those who can to send what they have the mana for into the mass. Airblades and Enhanced Blows thin the numbers a little, but not enough.
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Greenish gas erupting in the middle of the group indicates that River, Tarra, and Windy have managed to work out a system. Fortunately for those at the edges, it doesn’t diffuse outwards much.
On the upside, that should reduce the numbers in the long term. On the downside, I see it increasing the pressure on everyone around – the ranars are now not just attempting to move away from their too-close confines in the middle, but are actively trying to avoid something dangerous.
I need to stop them moving. Joy’s and Sticks’ efforts are good but not enough and I don’t have any sticky danaris silk to trap them in the centre. Suddenly, I have an idea.
“Sticks, Joy, focus on the ranars around the edges – the ones directly in contact with our groups. Try to reduce the pressure they’re dealing with – we don’t want any losses. Dusty, with me.” So saying, I climb down from the cart. Catch moves towards me, Pride following. “No, stay here,” I tell him, answering his unspoken question. “Guard the Pathwalkers.” He tilts his chin upwards in wordless acknowledgement, returning to his previous patrolling, watching out for anything that might approach the Pathwalkers.
Dusty and I head at a run towards the front lines of the battle.
“Bastet,” I say, knowing she’ll hear me through the Bond even if she can’t hear my words over the din of battle. “We need to cast some magic. Protect us, please.”
Too much pressure to pull back, she warns.
“I have a solution for that,” I grin, focussing on communicating with the little fire elemental who, as always, is bobbing over my shoulder.
Aingeal is, as expected, overjoyed to do something, and happily zips forwards. While he does that, I sink my awareness into the earth and spread it as quickly as I can through the ground on which the ranars stand.
“Right,” I say, my mind rapidly adjusting my plan based on what I feel. “Pull back.”
Bastet’s team immediately disengages, though Honey does so with a distinct air of reluctance. Aingeal fills the gap that they left before the ranars can and flares itself brightly. It requests fire mana in its wordless way of communicating and I just about manage to feed some to it without losing my connection with the earth.
With the extra mana, the fire elemental flares even brighter – it’s enough to put the fear of forest fire in the ranars. Those at the front turn and flee, trying to bodily force themselves into the ranars behind them. It rather reminds me of the London underground at rush hour, everyone so pressed together that it becomes almost impossible to move.
Perfect.
I focus fully on the ground, now doing more than just connecting with the magic in the earth. Instead, I send mana through my boots and into the network of connections. From there, I use the inherent connectedness of earth to send my mana further away, something I’ve learned from Kalanthia. It’s hard, and the further I push my mana, the harder it is to control, feeling much like when I try to Flesh-Shape one of my Bound at a distance. But practice makes perfect and I’ve definitely been trying to practise ever since I gained the Skill.
Not wanting to move closer to the ranars themselves while so vulnerable, I’m forced to reach further than I ever have before. In comparison to Kalanthia, it’s not far – only to the centre of the velociraptor horde – but considering that up until now, I’ve only been able to affect the area within a few metres directly in front of me, it’s a significant distance
“Alright,” I say through gritted teeth, barely able to focus on anything but holding the mana ready at a distance. “Dusty, pull water from the air and sink it into the ground in the centre of the ranars.”
With a far more traditionally samuran ability than Happy, Yells, or Hunter, Draws-in-the-dust – Dusty to me – developed the power to shape water after her Evolution. It’s something I want to learn too, but for now working together should be good enough.
The Pathwalker wordlessly focusses and grunts in effort as she does as I asked. The water vapour in the air condenses and drips downwards, the surface starting to glint as if after a recent rainfall. She also works on grabbing water from some puddles nearby which remain after the real rain last night.
While I can’t affect the water itself like Dusty can, I urge the earth to accept it and to soften as a result. A quick dip into Sirocco’s vision shows that I’ve had the effect I want: the whole middle section of ranars has sunk in the new mud up to their heels. Like on the samurans, these are a good way off the ground meaning that the ranars’ mobility is significantly impeded.
With my own grunt of effort, I ask the earth to harden once more, and to harden even beyond what it had been before. The earth obliges, though slowly. If not for the other groups harrying the sides and rear of the creatures, I’m sure we’d have lost a large number of them. As it is, they succeed in stopping the attempt to flee, and even send the ranars back to the trap.
Dusty pulls at some of the water that is forced out of the hardened earth and uses it to kill some of the creatures, the water running up their bodies to wrap around their heads and suffocate them. She can’t do more than three or four at once, but every little helps.
With the central ranars trapped, it doesn’t take long for the battle to reach its inevitable conclusion. The fight turns more into a clean-up, samurans and my other Bound moving forwards with more tiredness than enthusiasm to kill all the creatures.
I take part in some of the clean-up but when my tiredness from almost overusing my mana and mental focus causes me to be injured as I’m unable to dodge an incoming blow from a still-fighting ranar, I take it as a sign to leave the job to others.
Retreating back to the cart, I take a seat on it and close my eyes for a bit.
Honoured Tamer? I open my eyes what feels like a minute later, but is probably more like fifteen or twenty from how much my mana has regenerated. In front of me is Tree, also looking rather exhausted.
“Yes?”
Would you be willing to undo what you did to the earth? It is hard for us to retrieve the carcasses or to be sure that they are all dead with them trapped as they are.
I sigh, then push myself to my feet with a groan. I might not have done much physical fighting, but using mana the way I did still leaves aches in my body.
“Alright,” I tell him with another sigh. “I’m coming.”
Undoing the trap is easier than creating it had been, partly because I can stand far closer to it than before, and partly because I’ve already worked with this patch of earth before, meaning I have more of a bond with it than other places.
Fortunately, I don’t have to do anything more than that – other samurans come in to efficiently deal with the carcasses so I just return to the cart to rest. As I approach it, Tarra and River leave it, presumably going to help the wounded. I probably should be doing that too, but I’m just feeling so wrung out right now that I can’t face it. I do send a message to River to let me know if anyone is injured enough to need my Flesh-Shaping.
Of course, she replies. But for now, rest. I can sense how fatigued you are.
The Pathwalkers who remain murmur quietly around me, but I don’t pay attention to what they’re saying, instead drifting in something which is not quite Meditation, but is not all that dissimilar either. I’m sure someone will come to interrupt me soon enough – I might as well take my rest while I can.