“What hah the fuck hah was that?”
Andrew panted from the ground, struggling to draw breath. They’d sprinted back down the plains until the thudding receded, and kept sprinting until the [Heavy Swordsman] had collapsed from sheer exhaustion.
Mandla sat down on the grass next to him.
“That, unfortunately, was the Hegemon.”
The other boys swore out loud.
“Yeah, believe me, I know. But we’re gonna have to kill it somehow. And it gets worse. The way the ground shook even though it was so far away… I think that’s a skill. It’s massive, no doubt, but if it was big enough to cause that level of tremor, it would have left craters with every step.”
Another round of expletives followed. The group had achieved their goal of surveying the area to the north, but run into another insurmountable problem. If they wanted to leave, they’d have to somehow topple that giant.
After Andrew had recovered, they set off once again at a more relaxed pace, now able to fully appreciate the vista in front of them. The sun was nearing its peak and it illuminated the rolling hills and vibrant grasses. The air was clearer than anything Mandla had seen before, as if he’d been living life behind a thin film of dirt and it had been scrubbed away.
Did the system fix pollution? Holy shit, did it fix climate change?
Living in a continent on the equator, Mandla’s plan for the inevitable climate disaster and societal collapse that would follow had simply been not to be here. Possibly emigrating to New Zealand or maybe Canada and watching the apocalypse from an ocean away. Except it seemed like the apocalypse, ironically, had instead cleaned up humanity’s mess. He wouldn’t have to leave.
Instead I get to be trampled or eaten. Joy.
More seriously, they needed to find some way to gain levels. As it stood, they couldn’t even deal with the hyenas, let alone the grey behemoth they’d left behind. They’d get themselves killed even attempting it.
Maybe they could try a kiting strategy? Luring individual hyenas away from the rest of the clan? They didn’t have a problem killing lone hyenas, but the full might of the pack was too much, even if they all attacked at once. They needed to take them apart piece by piece. Or draw them into an area where their numbers wouldn’t mean anything.
Before finishing high school, Mandla had been a huge gamer. He often played grand strategy games such as Hearts of Iron or Crusader Kings, and thus had put a lot of thought into the subject of war. He’d never expected to be in one, but the kind of thinking needed to excel at these games was applicable in all conflict, be it social, professional or otherwise.
They’d been a fun pastime, an exciting way to keep his skills sharp despite having minimal involvement with the “rich person” social scene. Now, Mandla was seeing that he could apply the lessons he’d learned more directly.
They had been thinking of the hyenas’ attack as a tragedy, a shocking act of predation. What if instead, they saw it as the opening shot of a war.
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Making it back to the makeshift shelter next to the highway, the boys arrived to see Nicola and Karl already returned, talking with the rest of the Legends and gesturing animatedly towards the west. Mandla had no way of telling, but the sun was high in the sky so he assumed it was around noon.
Someone here has to have a working watch.
The squad of four got near enough to hear what the pair were saying.
“I’m telling you, it’ll be easy! Karl and I just showed our faces and they scampered. We need a real base, not some raggedy lean-to that’ll disintegrate with the next stiff breeze.”
Nicola was excitedly telling everyone about a meerkat burrow they’d found to the west.
“This thing is huge, already built and only has a few entrances, making it easy to fortify. The meerkats themselves won’t be an issue, they’re like waist height. We need to take it!”
This might actually be the chance we need.
Andrew and Jacob rejoined the group, causing the other Legends to start clamouring for the details of their excursion, while Mandla and Kaveh went to debrief the other two Ascendants.
Giving a short rundown of what they’d seen and run from, the four Ascendants decided that taking the burrow was their best option. They were too exposed here and the shelter they’d built would make an architect weep, whereas the burrow was mostly underground, with a network of tunnels underneath a mound of earth. They’d worried about fighting in a cramped space, but Karl had entered one of the tunnels and even had enough space to manifest [Atgeir] and [Rönd], his spear and shield.
Of course, that begged the question of why waist-high meerkats were building human sized tunnels in the first place. Karl postulated a dominant matriarch that rarely left the burrow, theoretically a simple target if they could wipe out or scatter the smaller ones. Still, the two boys were cautious after realising that animals could use skills. There could be a terrible surprise waiting for them.
To this, Nicola proposed a compromise. The Ascendants would go first, try clear as many out as possible and reach the matriarch’s chamber. Meanwhile the rest of the Legends would be here, protecting everyone else while they packed up. If the four of them could make a sizable dent in the meerkats’ numbers before the other Legends reached them, all the better. If there were some sort of trap, the Ascendants would have the best shot at escaping it.
Finally agreeing on their next course of action, the four Ascendants let the Legends know of the plan, and their role in it. While the rickety shelter groaned its last as it was taken down, the Ascendants had taken off running.
Following Karl and Nicola’s route along the road was enlightening in its own way. They saw several cars left stranded on the road, a clear sign that there were others stuck in the Partition with them. Or at least, there had been. No doubt the drivers had left to try reach civilisation on foot. A deadly mistake for some, as they passed a single human hand just lying in the middle of the road, shrivelling in the sun.
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Mandla shuddered.
I can’t underestimate these things.
Nicola and Karl had gone on about how simple this would be, but as it stood, Mandla only knew enough spearmanship to not immediately stab himself, and that had been the culmination of hours of training. There was no javelin throwing in a tunnel.
Karl had shown him the basics of advancing with a spear and shield, and Kaveh had reassured him he’d be right there in case anything went wrong. Nicola had mocked him of course, but Mandla dismissed her.
Reaching the burrow itself, he saw why Nicola had been raving about it. The mound broke the smooth slope of the grassland like a wart, solid packed earth contrasted with the grassy savannah around it. It was huge, just as advertised, looming over them like a small hill.
There were several openings near the base of the mound that looked like a tight squeeze to get through, but Karl emphasised that the tunnels themselves were much wider.
They waited at a distance and watched the mound for about ten minutes, spying for any activity within. They saw nothing.
Mandla, worried, spoke up.
“Why is there no movement? What are they doing?”
Nicola rubbed her chin, speculating.
“Preparing probably? They did see us and immediately retreat inside when we first came here.”
Kaveh looked puzzled.
“But what could they possibly prepare? They’re meerkats, not engineers. The most I’d be worried about is getting attacked from behind if they can tunnel around us.”
Mandla shook his head.
“They were meerkats. Now, they’re meerkats 2.0 and we don’t know what they’re capable of.”
Karl tsked.
“You three are too fearful. I’ll go first.”
More like you’re not fearful enough.
Still, they crept behind him towards the tall mound. Reaching one of the openings without incident, Karl was the first to drop through. The other three waited until he gave the all-clear, then dropped in after him.
The tunnel was surprisingly well-lit, the openings angled to allow the sunlight to stream in. All four of them manifested their weapon skills.
“[Isihlangu].”
The cow hide shield, mottled brown and white, materialised in a flurry of golden sparks as Mandla examined it. It was large, big enough to completely block his torso from view and the wooden strut running its length was sharpened to a point at the bottom. He felt an encompassing feeling of security from its piebald face.
He needed it.
Summoning his [Ixwa] in his right hand, the bloodthirsty spear was imperceptibly pulsing in his grip.
At least one of us is excited.
Dreading what was going to happen next, Mandla crept forward with Karl, the two of them leading the way with their shields.
It was eerily quiet for about a minute before they heard the alarm going off. They couldn’t see it but a meerkat in a tunnel nearby was raising hell, sounding off a short, scraping series of barks that reverberated around the walls. In response, a wave of angry chittering filled the tunnel.
The Ascendants exchanged glances. The [Ixwa] was tightly quivering, as it did back in the cabin, letting Mandla know the meerkats were close.
“Stay sharp guys, they’re close.”
Nodding, the others all readied their weapons. Just in time too, as at that moment, the walls on either side of the Ascendants collapsed, revealing a swarm of child-sized meerkats, all broad heads and brindled coats, standing on their hind legs, holding strange pointed sticks.
Spears. Holy shit, these things are using tools!
He barely had the time to let the thought form before the two halves of the meerkat army fell in on them in a wave of furious chitters.
Karl, reacting swiftly, rushed to plug the hole on the left, momentarily summoning [Forseti], his massive double-headed axe. With a roar and a wide sweep of his wicked axe, he sheared through the encroaching tide as smoothly as a hot knife through gelatin, kicking the lone survivor back towards Nicola as he resummoned [Atgeir] and [Rönd], bodily blocking the meerkats from entry.
Nicola had been spamming her [Bodkin Point], blasting through the massed meerkats on the right like she had a gun. When Karl kicked the one back at her, she activated [Rondel], summoning a long straight dagger with a tapered point. Dodging a clumsy spear thrust, she rammed it home through the top of the beast's skull, blowing an errant hair out of her face, then continued firing away at the right side breach.
Kaveh was doing much the same with his [Sahm], as Karl had successfully blocked off one side, allowing them to concentrate their efforts on the creatures spilling out from their left. Meerkats erupted in boils and died. They foamed at the mouth and died. Their fur fell out and they wept blood, then died. Kaveh’s poisoned arrows were a grim reaper, plucking unlucky meerkats and condemning them to the most gruesome ends.
Mandla was panicking. He stood behind his shield and held his [Ixwa] out in front. The battle-hungry weapon was almost keening with glee as it sawed through the endless influx of soldiers, leaving each one a leaking fountain of steaming blood. It was all Mandla could do to keep repositioning his shield as the spear jerked him around, seeking more bloodshed. For its part, his [Isihlangu] was doing a stellar job. Whenever the points of the rudimentary spears thrust toward him, once they neared his shield they just slowed, like they were suddenly pushing into thick tar instead of empty air.
It was sheer chaos for a few minutes, but then the group heard more chittering from the tunnel up ahead. Reinforcements. They couldn’t deal with an attack from three sides. Kaveh called it.
“Retreat! We need more numbers!”
Slowly fighting their way backwards, they inched all the way back to their initial ingress point before Karl used [Rönd]’s knockback ability, bowling the sea of meerkats over and giving the four Ascendants a chance to leap out.
Emerging out onto the plains, the group ran a short distance away from the mound, just to be sure they weren’t being followed. Collapsing onto the ground, they collected themselves for a second before breaking out into laughter, releasing the tension.
Man, we almost got swarmed by fucking meerkats.
Mandla felt birthed anew. He was covered in blood, and they’d just been forced to retreat, but he’d tasted it. He’d tasted real battle and come out alive. His peripheral vision was filled with kill notifications and he ignored them all. The [Ixwa] in his hand was exultant and it was hard not to be affected by it. Maybe he did like fighting.
Sitting up in his position on the grass, he and the other Ascendants went over what went wrong. Eagerness, lack of preparation, arrogance, they were just lucky they could laugh about it now instead of mourning.
Our powers let us take dumb risks like this without thought and we’re only first Rung.
The Bloodline Ascent really was everything Nicola had said it would be when they first gained access. But with every new benefit, Mandla’s underlying dread increased. The warning had clearly said “Power demands sacrifice” and right now, they hadn’t sacrificed a thing. Other than sacrificing clothes, if that counted.
The other shoe was going to drop. And you know what? Mandla intended to be ready.
Karl exclaimed, pointing out a slowly resolving mass in the distance. The other Legends.
While they waited for them to arrive, they heard a chittering from the mound. Several meerkats were poking their heads up out of the mound, staring unblinkingly at the group of approaching youths. They chattered to each other in their unintelligible murmurs before growling as one, then disappearing inside the burrow.
Kaveh sighed.
“I guess we can expect more traps next time.”
Mandla was all smiles.
“And they can expect more blades.”
Kaveh looked down at his friend’s crazy grin.
“Did you get hit in the head? The fuck’s up with that rictus smile?”
Mandla chuckled.
“Nah nah, I just made a realisation. I’ve been thinking about this whole situation all wrong, like we just have to survive this one ordeal, bust through the Partition wall and we can go back to some semblance of normal. But no. This is our life now. Insecurities, fears, none of that matters any more. Either we adapt or we die. And I’ve been trying not to adapt because, honestly, all this scares me. Violence doesn’t come naturally. I was made for the boardroom, the ballroom, and the bedroom, not the battlefield.”
“Were you really made for the bedroom though?”
“Shut the fuck up, I’m monologuing. Either way, this…”
He gestured down at the drying blood spattered across his body.
“This isn’t me. But it’ll have to be. No more playing catch-up. Let’s start a fucking war.”