Chapter 13.
The Luck.
After the revelation that the Lizardmen had killed all ten humans in another Secta that had also found themselves in the jungle, we lost ourselves in a frenzy of work.
It was preparation, the promise of retaliation. It was also an escape, an attempt to run from the truth.
We had probably caused the other Secta to be killed, their bodies hung out as a warning. Apparently the Lizardmen had learnt that trick from me.
But for now the work was over. Our steel sharp, and our will solid.
It was time to fight.
Indaya quietly directed us through the shadowed leaves, under the effects of my [Spirits Masked Totem] the palms making striped bands of light run across his face. His dark skin was also striped, burnt yellow war paint was dotted across every exposed piece of skin on his torso, arms and face making him look like a fierce predatory leopard. The colours would look outrageously flamboyant out in the open, but here in the shadows he was almost invisible the profile of his body broken up.
I knew the effect was matched on my own body.
We were shown how to apply the woad like paint carefully, Indaya instructing us in the application. And demonstrating the effect with some leaves to make any improvements.
Indaya notched an arrow to his new bow, it was a simple looking thing… Beautiful in its practicality.
He had explained it to me as I helped him carve it, passing it between us as we worked on it together. My [Carve] skill and [Spiritualism] guiding my hands, his experience and wisdom guiding his own.
Indaya had been a tribesman of the Hadzabe tribe from Tanzania, before the Eligere. They were a tribe that even in the modern times of Earth, had kept the lifestyle and culture of a hunter gatherer alive. They were genetically the earliest known humans, and according to Indaya all other tribes came from them.
They were bow hunters and each tribesman was expected to know how to make and maintain a bow, living off the land.
We had made this.
[Beast and Bird Bow]
Straight Bow
Made from expertly carved Spiritual Tholletia wood and expertly tanned Toregosaurus hide decorated with Hoatzin feathers
Bowstring:
Made of Toregosaurus ligaments expertly weaved with magically conjured silk.
Magic Weapon.
Increase to draw weight
Bonus to stealth.
It was a simple tapered curve of purple wood, thickening in the middle, it had been wrapped in dinosaur hide and white flecked feathers were glued and tied on each side of the grip for decoration and luck.
It made no sound as the arrow was released. And I couldn’t see the projectile as it flew through the air.
I dropped a totem covering the narrow hunting trail. Just as Indaya released his arrow. It was a raptor striking its prey, wings spread.
[Raptor’s Claw Totem]
The eagle dives, the prey bleeds.
Any open wound in radius bleeds more heavily.
Adding damage over time.
Radius: 3m
Duration:5 minutes
Durability: low
It was a combination of [Carve] and [Find Familiar]. I wasn’t a huge fan of it, but it would make this fight go fast. As the totem noisily burst out of the ground, with a hollow sounding thunk. I charged. My maul in hand.
The arrow landed first, suddenly sprouting from the armpit of the Lizardman hunter at the back of the line when they lifted an overhanging branch. Arterial blood poured from around the wound, draining into the dirt unnaturally fast.
I sprinted out. A dart of fire swirled past me, hissing through the air. It impacted a pair of the domesticated monitor lizard dogs at the head of the line, engulfing them in a conflagration. They were writhing black shadows trapped in the flame.
I barrelled out into the second chameleon like hunter, who was stunned by the sudden ambush. They turned sharply to see what the commotion was, raising a blowgun. I burst from the bushes, appearing in their vision. My skin rippling with yellow woad.
“Waaagh!!!” I gave a deep primal roar., my eyes wide.
Planting my foot and torquing my hips, I rotated forward with my shoulders and put my whole bodyweight into the swing.
Smashing my maul into the hollow crook between its neck and shoulder with a crushing horizontal strike. The heavy wood obliterated bone, and the dense metal spikes rent flesh. I felt something snap, deep inside the neck of the Lizardman. Blood sprayed out across my chest.
He crumpled lifelessly to the dirt, his reptilian snout slack.
The final Lizardman turned and charged for my exposed back, with a sharp spear raised. Before making a confused gurgle. A massive arm curled around its throat, as a razor sharp knife point protruded from its scaly chest.
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Blood fountained out alarmingly. Oleksiy slid his new kukri free, it was dark and lethal almost the length of my arm. The straight blade dipped drastically into a wide tear-drop near the end terminating in a wicked tip. It had been named after a folk tale, the Slavic version of a vampiric spectre.
The Lizardman dropped to its knees holding its chest, a look of shock in its bulbous eyes. Oleksiy wound back his arm and chopped out, lopping its head off in a single strike.
[Upiór]
Kukri
Made with master-smithed Spirit-born Song-steel and a handle of expertly carved Toregosaurus horn
Growth Weapon
Increased bleeding
Increased chance to sever limbs
Keisuke had done something beyond what I thought was possible. Kraas’vub had never told me that growth weapons were craft-able, I only thought they were items created by Potestas’ eldritch system. Or bought from the auction.
But the strangely deep connection made by my [Entreat Ancestors], Jack’s powerful fire control, and Keisuke’s own personal skills as a master blacksmith had converged, and made the blades of our little group incredibly powerful.
I had never even heard of Spirit-born Song-steel, the material clearly influenced by the Ancestors of Yamato far outside my own tier 1 spells effect.
We dragged the bodies into the bushes and took what we could, Indaya filling up on arrows and snatching pouches of darts for a blowgun. Oleksiy taking their food and supplies, fitting them into his spatial pack.
Indaya and Oleksiy had found the narrow hunting trail while we were crafting, it was downstream of the waterfall. Leading around the outskirts of the clearing we had arrived in.
We had stalked the party of Lizardmen for hours. Making sure we would not alert more than the just the ill-fated, small hunting party.
As we dragged the bodies out of sight Jack joined us, she was angry. Looking at the corpses of the reptilian sapient's with badly hidden disgust.
Her horror at seeing the gruesome bodies of our fellow Delegati had turned into a deep loathing anger. Forgetting that we had done the same thing.
She wanted blood, we all did. Humanity could not afford to lose any more Delegati so soon.
I used [Earth Manipulation] to sift the dirt, burying the spilled blood. I walked over and smashed my raptor totem apart with my maul, leaving no trace as it dissipated into drifting motes of energy.
Oleksiy began trapping the narrow hunters path. His bag full of spools of Delia's rope, and his trapping components.
We made a series of swinging log traps. set to be triggered by a leading scout, then swinging into the side of the trail... Smashing anyone following.
I dug out some pitfalls, Indaya filling them with spikes covered in poisonous sap. Jack fire hardening the sharp wood making it tough and hardy. Her small hatchet carved through the logs with ease, leaving smoking cuts behind.
[Ghost-Fire Axe]
Hatchet
Made with master-smithed Spirit-born Song-steel and expertly carved Spiritual Ironwood handle expertly wrapped in Juvenile Nematog leather.
Growth Weapon
Increased temperature conduction.
Ghost-fire: Spirit attribute adds to fire damage.
Delia had outdone herself, with the rune scribing on Jack’s hatchet in particular. The runes Kraas’vub had left for me had shown her how to transfer heat, and to connect your heat to the Ethereal Sea to make Ghost-fire.
They were old Goblin techniques, the primal nature of the elements were a large part of Goblin culture.
Ghost-fire was the same shifting green colour as the Ethereal Sea. It burned the flesh, as well as the spirit making a very dangerous weapon. It was also seen as a proto-religious tool.
A respected Goblin elder would be cremated with Ghost-fire, they believed it strengthened the connection of the Spirit to the Ethereal Sea as they passed into the afterlife. Kraas’vub was one such elder, maybe even the last before the end.
Jack could fill the small hatchet with mana and ignite the edge, burning through anything she chose to carve into. Goblin war casters would use weapons like this, wreathed in Ghost-fire. The hardy goblins burning open any entrenched enemies defences.
Shock and awe. It suited her, and the spirit-born steel had a peculiar resonance with Spirit based effects.
We set the traps, filling an entire stretch of pathway with hidden obstacles. The hunters would be missed, and we wanted to leave a gift for the ones who came looking for them,
We left.
It was only the four of us, and we didn’t feel ready to face a larger group of Lizardmen unsupported. Only feeling confident enough to face these five today because of our new gear. We would harry the hunting parties, removing a food source. Forcing the Lizardmen to commit groups of warrior caste to come defend them, wasting time and resources.
Oleksiy knew these kinds of guerilla tactics, being a veteran of the Ukrainian War. It was brutal and long, a tiny power against a titanic juggernaut. We didn’t have the numbers, or desire to infiltrate the city. Killing the Lizardmen isn't our overall goal in this jungle after all. But we needed to draw their attention.
We needed to control the movements of the Lizardmen warriors, drawing their gaze to our section of jungle. We wouldn't allow them to capture any more unaware humans if we could help it.
A few hours later we were swimming up the ravine, careful of lurking monster fish. Calling up to the landing for the ladder.
No ladder came, so I slowly climbed up the wall. Making and removing handholds in the stone as I went.
I lifted myself over the edge of the landing and channelled a sentry ward. When I didn’t get a feeling of enemies in range, I dropped the ladder. ‘The others must still be out…’
Oleksiy with Grubs, carefully cleared each room of the hideout. In case anything had sneaked in while we were out. Satisfied, we relaxed and I refreshed all the totem effects we had grown used to in the hideout.
All six of the others had gone upriver today while we went down.
They were looking for other humans, we needed to band up.
We ate and discussed the viability of the plan, whether our traps would be effective. We had drawn the Lizardmen into a deadly trap already, and the leaders of the war bands would be wise to look carefully for more.
I had considered whether to use the bodies as a warning again, stringing them up in the trees. But we had decided as a group that using those tactics was too dangerous. The Lizardmen’s violence would just escalate more and more.
Spiralling out of our control.
We had some time before dusk so we ranged around the top of the waterfall, collecting edible plants and ingredients.
“Oi! I see ‘em.” called Jack, she had an armful of a stringy weed-like plant. It was what we used to mix our camouflaged paint, turning into a thick yellow paste when crushed and mixed with clay from the riverbanks.
Paula was leading the larger half of our team-mates, her Patu was slick with blood.
[Kaitiaki Patu]
Patu Pora.
Made with master-smithed Spirit-born Song-steel expertly wrapped in Juvenile Nematog leather.
Growth Weapon
Increased Regeneration of wielder.
Adapts to wielder’s transformed state.
The Patu was a flat and wide stocky club, I had initially mistaken it for a fat looking stumpy machete.
Made by Maori warriors throughout the Polynesian Islands and Aotearoa. It had a sharpened leading edge and was normally made of heavy hardwood, whale bone or stone, the Maori not able to mine for metal easily at the time they were in use. It looked almost like a hand held paddle.
Keisuke had used a large amount of the steel to make Paula a weapon of her ancestors, even the handle and pommel were formed from the same piece. Hammered into shape unaware, while in our fugue state. The Ancestors of Yamato acting as our hands, judging the most appropriate weapon for each of us with unknown means.
I had engraved a serpentine creature along the wide spine and pommel of the steel with a chisel at Paula's request, and Delia had wrapped the grip in comfortable sturdy fish skin.
As Paula approached I pointed to the blood on her weapon.
“Trouble?”
“Nah, just some more worms. Elina thinks there is a nest of them upstream. Where the river is deeper and wider.” She seemed relaxed, so I guess no one was bitten this time.
“’Ey, we found something.” She gestured back to the approaching group. Her quiet voice exited.
Had they found more humans?
“Looky looky!” Elina called, bounding up beside Paula.
She held up a squarish piece of bark, it had writing carved on it in multiple combinations of Terran languages.
[To any humans that find this message. our group has banded together with another and we are camping in a cave system south east of this river. Must join forces... Jungle, already claimed two Delegati.]
it was a crude way of ensuring the language was only readable for [Delegati of Terra], the Accolade not only translated words but gave cultural context. The message would look like nonsense to any Lizardmen who read it, and it would be extremely difficult to translate as the languages were non-unified and none of the words repeated.
They had found traces of more Delegati!
We needed a map!