The Ambush

A vigilant looking meerkat totem with faintly glowing eyes punched out of the ground close behind my feet, spraying dirt on the back of my legs. It wasn’t something real per say I needed time and materials for that. For now it was just a magical construct.

It’s eyes started smoking and glowed with fiery light, I could immediately feel that there were enemies straight ahead, over beyond the clearing.

It was like the feeling of being watched and the hairs on the back of your neck raising, but with a purposeful and clear direction. The others also snapped to alert, the feeling of hostile intent was hard to ignore while under the radius of my [Sentry Ward Totem]. The laughing man stilled but didn’t turn only bending his knees into a loose crouch.

The rustling in the undergrowth exploded into a blur of noise and movement, when six wolf sized lizard creatures burst out of hiding.

They were extremely fast sprinting in jagged leaps, they moved as a pack trying surround the laughing man who still had his back turned to them. They looked like a monitor lizard with a stripe of dark brown scales along their backs, that turned into stripes of yellow down the ribs. Strong camouflage for a leafy rainforest, their long dark blue tongues tasted our scents from open mouths. Neat rows of jagged teeth, dripping with ropes of saliva. They charged on long legs with strong bulldog like shoulders, built for powerful bursts of speed.

I pointed my right hand out and started channelling another totem, I kept my left hand on my neck ready to deploy one of my three remaining charms at a moments notice.

I was so glad when I levelled [Spirit Totem] to level fifty and got access to the sub spell. Having a pre-casted totem had saved my life more times than I could count.

My mate Kraas’vub, a ghost I chanced upon in the Eligere had convinced me that the skill was worth more than it looked. And that it became powerful as you levelled it. Annoying gobbo bastard...

In my peripheral vision I saw the Greek woman next to me take a skipping step forward her left arm raised in the air pointing towards her target. She launched a javelin at one of the leading lizards, it whistled through the air before thumping deep into the shoulder of the huge lizard with a wet thud. Making it trip and tumble to the dirt head over tail, as soon as it fell it was showered with smoking embers. Its scaly hide curled and blackened as it lay still...defeated.

the skin headed one was backing up past me their palm still smoking.

Baldy had good reflexes, the top of humanity wouldn’t have any slouches I guess...

A wave of dirt as high as my knees ripped forward, with astounding noise. Tripping two more of the beasts, as the short serious looking man stomped hard on the ground. He clapped his hands together lacing the fingers tight, and the wave grasped onto the fallen lizards holding them in place.

He had a high level in [Earth Manipulation] or the tier 2 spell [Earthen Grasp] maybe both. Very flexible spells, he chose well.

When the last two standing lizards leapt for the laughing man, his back was still turned. Only glancing over his shoulder… He dropped down to one knee and rolled swiftly to the side letting the one going for the back of his neck sail harmlessly overhead.

The one trying to latch onto his hamstring skidded past his side, slashing out and lacerating his hip and his smooth roll became more frantic.

The big lizard’s momentum carried it skidding past him in a cloud of dust, before the dust cleared it was crumpled against the big green eyed lady with a full speed tackle.

She grabbed it around the neck in a head lock and wrestled it to the ground, choking the life out of it as it bit and flailed trapped in her massive biceps. Her arms turned dark and I thought I saw scales.

The Swordsman stood calmly his breath even, he was watching the tree line vigilantly as he wiped the blood from his rippling blade.

The other beast that leapt through the air, died before it even hit the ground. Nearly bisected down the centre of its belly...I didn’t even catch him move.

The remaining lizards that were trapped in the dirt were being zeroed in on by the toga wearing woman, and the hefty shepherd.

The big lady’s wrestling match was slowing down her lizard was twitching in her now bloody arms it had gotten a few bites in, but was slowly giving up the ghost.

My channelling was complete, and my totem punched out of the ground with another spray of dirt and a hollow wooden clack. It was loaded with a strange combination, the crafting skill [Carving] and the utility skill [Survival].

It looked like a piece of driftwood carved with intricate tribal knot work. Steam poured out of a hollow recess making it look like some kind of modern art sculpture, but otherwise it didn’t seem to do anything.

The toga lady stopped at a distance to her lizard and took a piece of rectangular cloth in her hand, it shot forward with a whip crack.

She controlled it to wrap tightly around the snout and eyes of the lizard trapped in the dirt, the lizard tugged against the ground in a panic, clearly suffocating. It was an unexpectedly brutal method from the kind looking woman.

The heavyset man stopped over by the furthest away lizard and pressed down on its ribs with his stave. He spoke a word I didn’t understand.

A greasy looking pink mist started rising from its mouth, nose and eyes, as it thrashed weakly. It seemed to wither, its skin sagging as the flesh beneath deflated. The pink mist gathered above the lizards deflating body like a tiny rain cloud, while the man stood still keeping a firm pressure on the lizard.

The swordsman gave a shout.

‘Danger!’

The shepherd man looked up at the trees. His blank face didn’t even flinch, when an arrow the length of my arm from fingertips to shoulder sank into the middle of his throat. The arrow flashed sickly blue and jerked to the side at the last second just missing his spine.

There were screams of surprise from the group, as the man fell to one knee. Arterial blood coating his hands as they shot to his neck in shock.

but he didn’t collapse to the ground dead... The steaming driftwood totem creaked and splintered as the certainly fatal wound was diverted.

[Carved Heart Totem]

The heart of a tree, looks over the forest from the Sea.

One fatal wound inside radius will be pushed off course.

Will shatter after one use.

Radius:10m

Duration: 10 seconds

Durability: Extremely Low

I quickly pulled the knotted snake charm off my necklace and it flashed and disappeared, while a full size totem shot out of the ground.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

[Cure Wounds] and [Spiritualism] had given me a knotted wounds totem.

[Knotted Wounds Totem]

The knot has no end, it must be cut.

Directs healing to one allies wound in radius, in bursts of healing energy.

Most dangerous wound is prioritised

Radius: 10m

Duration: 30 seconds

Durability: moderate

The man wrenched the arrow from his throat with a horrible sucking sound that I could hear even on the other side of the clearing, he was gurgling with pain.

The Knotted snake totem pulsed with soothing light and the wound’s bleeding slowed. It wasn’t fast enough he was going to bleed out.

I was about to start running to cast a direct [Cure Wounds] when he gripped his stave and the greasy pink mist swirled over him the wound closing faster. It was a sapping skill... Damage for healing, thank the spirits.

We were too exposed in the clearing with a sniper lurking in the trees, I looked around and grabbed the still smoking skin head and we ran to the edge of the clearing trying to get some cover behind a fallen log. The others weren't idle either as the short man shouted in a deep commanding tone.

‘Gather on him!’ pointing at the kneeling shepherd.

His hands moved upwards in a jerk as if he was pulling on something heavy, and a low wall formed in a semi circle around our injured new friend. Everyone bar the swordsman and the wrestler moved into the hastily made cover, while the swords man finished of the weakly twitching lizard still wrapped in the wrestlers arms.

Me and the skin head looked at each other and he said

“The wee meerkat thing! Can ya make another?” in a surprisingly soft voice, it had a heavy brogue.

I grunted and shook my head in response, arrows started thumping into the hastily made earth barrier and peppering the ground around the wrestler. The archers must have been out of range of my first [Sentry Ward Totem], making another wouldn't be worth it.

There were clearly at least a group archers now, the arrows were coming from the bush thick and fast. We had to get the others to cover, we couldn’t let them split us up.

The earth wall was shaking, it wouldn’t last forever.

The Swordsman and Wrestler were weaving and dodging, they were trapped out in the open. The only shelter was the lizard they had killed, the Wrestler proved her strength again by grabbing the beast’s legs and lifting the entire body up catching an arrow with its rib cage.

The Swordsman stacking up behind her and her macabre new shield.

The laughing man was reaching over the edge, and grabbing the arrows that were embedding themselves in the low wall. One of his hands was slick with blood, pressed hard into his hip… The laceration must be deeper than I thought.

My Knot totem was already starting to heal him, the shepherd's neck no longer considered the worst wound in range.

I looked at my skin headed friend and grunted, while pointing at the tree line on the far side of the clearing.

“Smokescreen?” I asked, my voice sounded gritty and rough, I hadn’t spoke English in a very long time.

The spirit tongue was less of a physical language after all.

They looked at me eyebrows raised and grimaced.

“It’ll drain me mana dry, at this distance anyway!”

I pulled the charm that looked like a swirling, Fay like fish. [Find Familiar] and [Spiritualism] gave an effect that would help.

A totem popped up between us the range just enough to cover the low wall, giving the Short man a boost as well. They were about ten meters across from us.

Faint blue-green motes of light floated upwards from the ground in a wide circle nearly too dim to see.

[Spirit Searching Totem]

The sweet breeze draws them, the silver fish dance.

Increase regeneration of mana based on the size of your Spirit attribute.

Radius: 10m

Duration: 2 minutes

Durability: low

Hopefully it would a last the full duration, the skin head looked at the new totem and gave a toothy grin feeling the effects straight away.

A small bead of red light glowed from their hands and shot out in a streak of fire, fast as an arrow it flew over the top of the earth wall.

Arching all the way to the edge of the opposite tree line, and blazed into a conflagration around three meters across.

Embers and smoke flew through the air.

It looked like a low level [Fire Dart] but the range and area of effect were too big by half, skin head must have some kind of fire based trait. The under brush and loam hissed with pillars of steam, the plant life was too wet and the air too humid for a bush fire to start. But that wasn’t the goal.

We had a smokescreen, the arrows stopped abruptly and the skin head waved to our trapped team-mates.

“Move ya bastards!” their thick brogue was heavy with stress, the Swordsman and Wrestler sprinted towards us.

The Wrestler dived gracelessly into a heap behind the log, panting hard. An arrow was lodged in the meat of her shoulder, the broken tip had snapped off during her mad dash. It was visible out the back.

The Swordsman vaulted over the log landing in a neat roll, he ended up with his back to the log. He was breathing long and slow in some kind of breath technique.

I peeked over the log wondering how I could draw out the archers, the steam wouldn’t last long it was already drifting away.

When I head a scuffle and loud grunting. It was further back in the trees, but my senses were in overdrive. There was a thud and everything went quiet.

All I could hear was the droning of insects and bird song in the distance, had something else attacked the archers, while they were distracted?

Huddled behind the log were me, Skinhead, Swordsman and Wrestler. Behind the low wall that was slowly crumbling were Short man, Laughing Bloke, Toga and the Shepherd.

Were was the Javelin Thrower? I scanned the forest edge and saw movement in a bush on the side of the clearing. Laying prone, javelins laid out in front of her was the Javelin Thrower. She must have backed off after her first javelin hit, trying to line up another shot when the arrows started flying.

Wait a second, where was Backpack man? I hadn’t seen him since the action started, I hope he was OK he was half naked in this jungle after all…

I was tense as we huddled down looking for a threat we couldn’t see. My skin headed friend was smoking from the palms sweat beading on their forehead, maybe powering up a flame thrower spell or something, or bleeding off heat from the powerful [Fire Dart].

I was channelling another totem, I had tugged the broken arrow out of her shoulder and was looking at the bites on the Wrestlers arms. I immediately saw she had scales covering her hands all the way up to the shoulder, they were dark the same colour as the monitor lizards. The biting jaws of the lizard had still sheared into the scales, and blood was tricking thinly out... They didn’t look so good, The wounds were hot to the touch and already swollen tight around the edges.

Monitor lizards in the real world had septic saliva, maybe these monsters were similar. I peeked over as my latest totem popped up, I chose to make it into a charm. Its range wouldn't reach the earthen wall and I wanted to get laughing man and the shepherd as well.

I looked over and saw the toga lady running a length of cloth through her fingers the cloth shimmered with runes after it passed through her hands and she tucked it away and pulled another length from thin air, the runes beginning to weave themselves onto the conjured cloth.

The shepherd was rubbing his neck and looking around at the tree line I couldn’t see his face but I imagined he was shaken, we were only just dumped into Potestas for ten seconds and he had nearly died.

“Hey!” I shouted at the earth surrounded group, and they all looked over at me. The Short man was sweating hard, his hands buried to the elbow in the crumbly earthen wall. I was glad he was in range of the [Spirit Searching Totem], that wall wouldn’t have been cheap for how fast he made it.

They needed to move.

I waved them over and pointed out to the side at a massive fantasy version of a jack fruit tree, far bigger than anything on earth.

It was just out of the clearing about 25 meters from our log. Its roots were mostly buttressed above the hard ground, and standing as tall as the side of a two story house.

It was a good place to hide in for a while and make a plan. The Short man looked over and gave a quick nod, I saw the Javelin Chucker grab her spears and sprint for it immediately.

The others doing the same, it was risky but the Short man couldn’t hold that wall forever. My fallen log gang got there first and I popped out my totem right at the back of a large crevice between two roots.

It was a combination of [Cure Wounds] and [Find Familiar].

It looked like a lizard perched on its hind legs, using its tail like a tripod. It’s left hand was lying at its feet the stump curled to its chest protectively.

[Lizard’s Retreat Totem]

A shed tail grows back, care you don’t shed something else.

Allies regenerate health while in radius, cannot grow back severed limbs.

Duration: 10 minutes

Radius: 3 metres

Durability: Extremely Low

It was fragile but I had given it as much Duration as possible with short notice, I made sure to place it protectively in the back of the hollow.

As soon as it was down the wrestler sighed in relief the arrow wound’s bleeding slowed and the raised swollen edges on her bites fading. As the bites closed I realised they were the real danger. The arrow was easily fixed, but we would have to be more careful of infections. Rainforests and jungles were packed full of nasty creepy crawlies, and those lizards had a nasty bite. The wrestler rolled her shoulders and the scales faded away, it was a defensive mimicry skill of some sort...

The others made it safely to shelter and the Short man slumped to the ground with relief. He looked up at us and said.

“The arrows stopped and we heard a fight, there was crashing and hissing we think they were some kind of Kobold’s. Hopefully the man with the backpack got around them and it wasn't another predator. I would hate to trade archers for lions.” His deep voice was strained. He was spending mana like crazy with all the walls he was throwing around, and my [Spirit Searching Totem] was about to run out.

We were lucky it was still in range of our new tree. I started channelling another one, that had a smaller radius but would last as long as [Lizard’s Retreat].

We were secure, at least for now.