All at once, Alexander felt the urge to run toward and away from the army of pirates. His earlier confidence had drained completely and what was left was a terrified soldier facing a losing battle. Internally, he knew all was not lost. A larger army didn’t necessarily ensure victory, especially when Thomas and Kai had so much destructive capabilities, but Thomas’ words struck fear deep within him.
How many... just how many tribesmen are going to die here?
The shifting lights from the fire at the campsite painted the pirates larger and more fearsome than they actually were, and it wasn’t just Alexander who paled at the enemies. The Puma and Eagle tribe warriors stuck in the center of the clearing backed away, clustering together for security.
Before the Hunters had any chance to regroup, the pirates began their attack. It was a coordinated assault and unfortunately for the tribes, deadly. An assortment of crystallized lightning attacks rained down on the exposed warriors, resulting in an explosion of light. Temporarily blinded, Alexander was ignorant of the results, but he couldn’t imagine a positive result. Neither of the two tribes had any affinity to defense.
Vision or not, however, Alexander needed to go help the tribes. This was the whole reason he was here. Placing one uncertain foot before the other, he moved towards the clearing. Two trails of tears ran down the sides of his cheeks as he imagined the horrifying scenes of the mutilated warriors. What would he even do when he got there?
Out of nowhere, Alexander felt a sharp blow to his face. Unexpected as it was, he fell to the ground, but no follow ups ever came. It was then he heard Thomas beside him. “You need to breathe, Alexander. Panic is not the emotion we need right now.” Two cold hands gripped Alexander’s shoulders, hard, but he didn’t complain. The pain grounded him; he found solace in it.
Slowly, his vision cleared, and he warily opened his eyes. What met him was not a landscape of death but instead just Thomas. As he tried to crane his neck to lay eyes on the clearing, Thomas pushed harder on his shoulders, holding him in place. “Don’t think about it. Don’t feel it either. There will be time to mourn after the battle, once everyone who must be mourned is ready, but right now, we need to be the steady commanders to the frightened soldiers. Their leaders have failed them, landed them in an impossible situation. Now, we clean up their mess.” Alexander tried to speak, but Thomas hushed him by pressing harder once more. “You, my friend, are one of those commanders, but before you can lead, you must go retrieve Pengu. Half a commander won’t cut it.”
All sorts of emotions festered within Alexander. Grief, anger, disgust, all of them showed themselves in his face before one won out. Determination settled in Alexander’s face as he nodded. “I’ll do it. I’ll go find Pengu. But after… after, we make them pay.”
“That we will, brother.” Thomas stood and then extended his arm to help Alexander up but not without forming an ice wall first, blocking his view of the clearing. “Go on. Pengu was being carried with the tribe’s emergency supplies. Should be back in the forest.”
Alexander’s eyes lingered in the distorted view through the ice. He tried to make sense of what he could see, but the thickness of the ice made the colors bleed into each other. Choosing to think optimistically, Alexander trudged deeper into the dark rainforest, leaving Thomas alone.
First difficult battle is gonna be traumatic, but I’m here for you, Alexander. And maybe I can clean this up a little before you’re back.
Ice slowly crawled out of Thomas’ chest as it made its way down his body. The turtle shield and bear inspired spear formed in his hands, and the bones of an armor appeared over his most vital body parts: a helmet, a waist guard, and a pauldron that covered the top of his chest. By the time everything had fully formed, Thomas had already reached the ailing warriors.
The first attack had been effective. Actually, effective was the word that came to Thomas’ mind; most people would describe it as brutal. Most of the warriors who had raided the Green Mamba campsite laid dead on the ground. The only thing worse than the visage of their burnt corpses was the overwhelming stench of burnt flesh.
Their momentary instinct to huddle together resulted in catastrophic results. The warriors in the outer ring were still able to react appropriately, but those in the inner ring were trapped, surrounding by a wall of flesh left helpless as the lightning drew closer, but not all was lost. Several of the stronger Hunters had survived, even those lying in the inner ring.
The largest summoned Puma and Eagle phantoms had been able to withstand the downpour of lightning, and it was these people whom Thomas sought to protect. Twirling his spear above his head, Thomas drew in water from the surroundings and froze it over, creating an icy dome for projectile protection.
First order of business: reestablish order.
“Everybody, back in formation!” Thomas took on the aura of a general as he commanded the warriors. He knew exactly how to act in this crisis, his father had ensured this was so. “On my count, I will begin moving this dome back towards the protection of the trees. The forest will provide cover from their attacks while my brother neutralizes the enemy.” While addressing them, Thomas allowed his mana to run free. The warriors needed something to jolt them into obedience. “Within the trees, we are back in our home grounds; those in need of medical attention will rush to get it, while those looking to enact revenge for your fallen family can follow me.” Thomas didn’t stop to make sure they had heard him. He didn’t need to. “March!”
Twirling his spear with even more ferocity, Thomas advanced, and the dome moved with him. A steady stream of water continued feeding the dome the whole way to forest, maintaining the warriors protected. Once they were safely behind the cover of the trees, the ice melted away.
“Help your family receive the care they need. I will blaze a path forward, but remember, guerrilla warfare, warriors. We are the ones on the backfoot right now.”
Focusing his mana on his feet, Thomas rocketed away. His figure reached such speeds that together with the shade of the night, it seemed as if he disappeared. And to the pirate hiding within the branches of a tree, it very well seemed as if he had teleported. Piercing the man with his spear, Thomas leapt to another tree. And another. And another. There was no pause; no matter how fast he butchered the pirates, there seemed to be no end to their forces.
It didn’t help that Thomas could barely tell who was who. The warriors who had managed to escape the devastation from the pirates’ first strike had already engaged the enemy. The clash of steel and crystal resounded throughout the forest, but there was no light by which Thomas could distinguish ally from enemy. The tribes had departed without torches nor lanterns in favor of stealth, and the Green Mamba had clearly also planned to use the night in their favor.
Thus, Thomas was left with picking off stragglers and solitary pirates. The tribe was struggling against the pirates’ long-range attacks the most, but he was yet unable to stray too far. It was more important lead these warriors to the healers and clearing out the area around their supports. Without them, they would fish on land- living on a timer no matter how much fight they put up.
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Regardless, Thomas trusted Kai to deal with the nuisance that was the constant rain of lightning. Even before he had said anything, Kai had already flown away, approaching the source of the lightning full of wrath. It was uncharacteristic of him, but Thomas couldn’t complain. Every so often, while Thomas cleared out the endless droves of pirates, he would catch glimpses of Kai.
Bouts of lightning, explosions, and screams that really shouldn’t have been audible in a battlefield marked his presence in the forest. The man was a humanoid storm as he laid waste to the Green Mamba, but perhaps this battle was personal for Kai. Thomas wasn’t sure, but he certainly had never seen Kai attack with such… barbarity. The explosions were constant, and from Thomas’ location, it would appear most were directly over the pirates.
It's to our benefit, though. There’s no good and bad in a fight of this scale. To us, the pirates are the oppressors, but to them, we are the grim reapers here to collect on their lives.
Skewering another group of pirates, Thomas analyzed their movements. They were what he expected to be halfway to their supplies, but the horde of pirates had not thinned. If anything, the actual number of Green Mamba members had more than doubled. Thomas no longer had to strain his sight to find targets. Even if he randomly shot out his spear, it was very likely to pierce an enemy.
But why? This can’t have been mere anticipation of our retaliation. Someone with considerable ability in the field of combat theory has crafted a plan of action for the pirates. It must be, and if this is true, unlike the yesterday’s battle, there is probably Executives on the field. The problem is… how many?
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Sprinting through the trees, Alexander gasped for air. This wasn’t exhaustion but panic causing him to hyperventilate. Clawing at his throat, Alexander struggled to breath, but he did not stop. Powering through, Alexander hoped more than anything that the adrenaline would kick in soon; he needed something to distract his body from the overwhelming panic.
It wasn’t long after separating from Thomas that the panic had set in. Worry was charming that way; it preyed on the lonesome.
Alexander thought of everything that could go wrong, everything currently going wrong, and it weighed on him. Could he have done more to help the tribe? Should he have stepped in to back up Kai when he voiced his concerns? If he had accepted the label of hero from the tribe’s men and women. Surely, he should also accept the responsibility of failure.
Buried in internal turmoil, Alexander didn’t realize he was being attacked until he felt a crystallized dagger slink into his side. He expected the crystal weapons to be icy, cold like the steel he had felt before. Instead, the weapon was hot as it drove a current of lightning to his rib cage, but Alexander hadn’t wasted the time spent in Nidra’s land. As soon as he registered the foreign object touching his body, he spun around, turning what would have certainly been a penetrative wound to the lung into a superficial gash running along the right side of his ribs.
The well-timed movement protected his organs, but it did nothing to reduce the blunt force on the surprise attack. Knocked to the ground, Alexander rolled on the ground until a tree was able to stop his momentum. He was hurting, but he couldn’t stay on the ground, not with death looming over him. He thought about channeling the white to heal himself, but his body was still recovering from the mana overdraft. He was better off than Pengu, but it wasn’t much better. A few bursts of mana usage were all he could spare for the rest of the night.
Using his arms to push off the ground, Alexander instantly understood the nature of his injury, even without his diagnostic spell. Leaning harder on his left arm, Alexander grit his teeth through the pain. His back was a mess; his scapula had deviated as the nerve succumbed to the blunt force. His nerve and, thereby, his muscles had been heavily injured. He expected the muscle one, hard not to when the slash was so long, but it was really unfortunate to have nerve injury. His right arm mobility would be hindered for the rest of the night, if not longer- nerves were never easy to heal.
Lunging to the left, Alexander dropped to the ground again as the pirate continued slashing at him. Have to focus on neutralizing the pirate before anything else. His attacker was just a grunt. Alexander didn’t spare the mana to try to measure his strength, but he was quite sure his physical strength would be enough.
The pirate’s slashes and stabs were pretty slow now that Alexander was aware of him. He didn’t rush to end the battle, though. The threat of death brought calm to his mind as he began to plan for the night. His first order of business would be figuring out the limits of his arm; it was integral for his survival that he decided, and correctly if he wished to be of any help to the tribe, whether it needed healing or not.
Alexander limited his movement and resorted to slapping away the dagger. His upgraded physique was more than enough to subdue to the pirate, but he stalled. A dozen exchanges later, and Alexander struck the pirate straight in his solar plexus. As the man buckled, Alexander uppercut with his left arm to knock the pirate out.
Healing is not a priority. It’s painful, sure. But pain I can deal with.
Alexander restarted his sprint. The movement in his right arm was stiff, and he couldn’t raise it past his shoulder. He could make do without that, though. His biggest concern at the moment was the presence of pirates so close to their supplies. The generals had allotted a small militia to protect these supplies and ordered any tribe members specialized in scouting and stealth to return here. They would act as the triage and potentially the vanguard if ever necessary, but if they were eliminated first, the main army would die without ever knowing what hit them. Picking up his pace, Alexander rushed to find the grotto where Pengu was resting.
A few minutes later, he finally caught sight of a live Puma tribe member. A deluge had begun by this point, not uncommon for the area, but certainly a new annoyance for Alexander. He looked haggard; his cloak, the same one the Hunters wore, was drenched from the rain and muddied with blood, not entirely his own. A few more pirates had intercepted him, and a group of them had given him more trouble than he expected. He certainly wouldn’t have spotted this warrior had he not known where to look.
Alexander quickly informed the tribeswoman of the situation and told her to warn the rest of the Hunters. Everybody needed to be on guard tonight.
Following his connection to Pengu, he limped, a gift from the group of pirates, towards some stacked crates. Alexander’s connection with Pengu had strengthened with proximity, and he had used it for navigation. As he reached the crate, he heard the chirps he had become so familiar with.
You’re back!
“Yes, I’m finally back.” Hugging Pengu, Alexander felt himself relax. He could do this. They would return to the clearing and force the pirates away.
The sound of crunching twigs caused Alexander to whip his around. He hadn’t seen anyone around the crates as he approached, and he had already commanded that Hunter to tighten the defenses. Nobody should be here. “Who goes there?!” He laced his words with aggression.
“You’re new. What’s a fire Elementalist doing in this rainforest?” A tall man stepped towards the crates. A brown leather, cowboy hat covered his head with a poncho hiding away the rest of his body. He wore a red handkerchief over his face, but Alexander still noticed his glowing blue eyes. They pierced through the forest’s darkness and revealed him to be the Bucko, one of the Green Mamba’s executives.
Grabbing on to Pengu, Alexander put his back against the crates as he desperately tried to recall all the information he could recall on this executive.
“Oh, and he’s got a penguin, too. Let me see. That’s a King penguin, Bison! Never seen one of those so far up North. Could make for a nice prize after we kill that guy.” The Bucko spoke casually, as if he wasn’t talking about killing Alexander.
Alexander again heard the sound of branches snapping. Except this time, it was different… heavier.
A mountain of a man walked to stand beside the Bucko. 7, 8, maybe 9 feet tall? Alexander wasn’t sure, but he knew he’d never seen someone quite as large as this man. The very air near him seemed heavier. He was muscular, too. A steel mace dwarfed only by the man himself hung on his back. “Let’s just kill them both. Don’t wanna fuck around in the rain.” The man’s voice was expectedly gruff and an octave or two lower than Alexander’s.
We’re going to be okay, Pengu. Alexander gripped her harder to comfort the penguin but a slight tremble in his hand gave away his fear. The odds were certainly against him.