Chapter Five: Blood and Snow
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Blychert’s boots trudged through the snow with hurried determination, one after the other, as he propelled himself down the road heading west. It was difficult to see through the storm, much less through the evening darkness, but he also doubted that an illumination spell would help his visibility much in that regard, given the sheer volume of snow being swept up through the area.
With that thought, his mind settled on another idea.
“Oculus in twilight, etch gray onto darkness. Lift the veil of concealment, and abandon world’s shadow.” Bly murmured, extending his arm as the raw mana surged, and no sooner had the spell taken its fill of magical energy, did he swipe his hand through the air, adding the trigger word of, “Seeing.”
The spell took immediate hold, and his eyes glossed over almost at once. Suddenly, the darkness of night became little more than shades of gray in his vision, allowing him to cast his gaze much more clearly, and much farther ahead too.
Within a few seconds, Bly could make out the details of his surroundings, which was when he spotted the figures on the road a little ways ahead of him, four of them in total, spread out amongst themselves but only by a few paces each. More curious than that, however, was that they weren’t moving towards town like he imagined someone caught out in the storm would have been trying to. Instead, they seemed to be holding their ground entirely.
“Closing in on the flank!” Somone among them shouted sternly, a masculine voice by tone alone, as Bly approached them from behind. It was a commanding tone of voice too, though edged by a certain weariness, bordering on desperation, “Vineta, we need that ward up again. And—Bredic, can you get into position already?”
“Yeah, yeah, I’m on it!” Another masculine voice whooped in reply, much more enthusiastic by the sound of it, and immediately one of the figures peeled off the group to position themselves towards the back, nearest to where Bly was approaching on the road, “Lisel? Give me something to shoot at, would you? You’d think dire wolves would be easier to spot. Oh, and—wait, hold on, who the hell’s this kid?”
Everyone stopped what they were doing at that moment, and for a split-second, Bly possessed the overwhelming dread of someone who was not entirely where he was supposed to be.
“Sorry to startle you…” Bly said apologetically, breathing somewhat heavily from the effort it took to get this far, though he shook his head stubbornly, “I’m from Kelvalder. We saw you from the watchtower—I came out here to help. Did you say dire wolves?”
The one who’d been referred to as Bredic creased his brow from within the confines of a ruddy brown hood, saying, “Yeah…? Wait, did they send a kid out to help?”
“I’m not—I’m a sorcerer.” Bly insisted, but before he could get in another word, one of the other figures stepped forward, placing a hand on Bredic’s shoulder.
“Doesn’t matter right now.” He interjected, and Bly recognized his voice immediately as the one he’d heard originally giving out orders.
“You serious, Xander?” Bredic argued, “You’re the one who said we shouldn't get the townspeople involved, no matter what. No wolves near the wall, that’s what you said.”
Shockingly, the one called Xander chuckled in response, “He’s not near the wall. And he just said it, he's a sorcerer.” Turning towards Bly, he asked, "You can fight ?"
Bly nodded, “I can handle myself.”
Xander was tall, certainly taller than Blychert was, and donned a series of leather armor pieces, as well as heavy winter furs. A longsword shimmering with blue energy—the kind that reminded Bly of the sword arts Irvin’s brothers used to show off—swung slack in his right hand, as he studied Bly for a moment.
The cloth mask that covered the bottom half of his face obscured most of his features, but thanks to his seeing spell, Bly could clearly see the dark hairs of his short, nearly trimmed hair beneath his hood, and a weathered scar across the bridge of his narrow nose, which wrinkled once as he replied, “Then we'll take all the help all we can get. If you cast spells, you’re in the back. Vineta? Plus one on that ward… for the kid. And can we get a light spell?”
“I’ll do what I can…” Vineta shook her head, her voice drained and fatigued, “It may not hold for very long though.”
“Oh, I can manage the light spell. If you want?” Bly volunteered.
Vineta glanced across at him curiously, and she nodded with a small smile, “Alright, that one’s yours then.”
Thrusting his hand upward, Blychert murmured immediately, “Star light’s splendor, hear my call and burst forth. Light.”
In an instant, the pale orb lifted into the air some twenty feet above them, illuminating the snow and their surroundings in a brilliant stream of light.
“They’re coming around.” The last figure in the group said, a feminine sounding voice. Bly glanced at the bow in her hand as she turned towards the group, saying, “If we’re going to take care of this, let’s do it already.”
“Lisel’s right.” Xander nodded, whipping around as he assumed the foremost position at the head of the group, “Everyone get ready. Turtle formation. Sorcerer, that means you stay on my tail. If you see either of them move.” He gestured towards Bredic and Lisel, “It’s right or left, in a circular pattern. You move when they do. Alright, here they come!”
Blychert’s heart raced, and his vision wandered past the group momentarily, hastily tracing through the snow—a path farther ahead to where he could just make out multiple large, quadrupedal creatures darting towards them, several making wide berths on either side of the road, while a few came head-on. Their white-gray fur didn’t stand out in contrast too much, but there was no mistaking what they were from this range.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“Everybody hold still… warding now!” Vineta exclaimed.
Pulling her hood down, she revealed long, dark braided hair, before rolling her sleeves partway up to her elbows. She then raised her arms out in front of her body, and her fingers began to gesticulate and interlock in almost unnatural ways—but so much so that magical energy began to weave between them. Soon, the energy emanating from her hands drifted to everyone around her, including Bly, until it formed a sturdy, protective barrier around the entire group.
Without missing a beat, Lisel brandished her bow, notched an arrow, and released.
However, the moment it left her bowstring, it exploded into a slender, purple-colored projectile, which streaked through the air and struck true against one of wolves farther out, which slumped into the snow in an instant. A split-second after the creature had fallen, the purple energy churned and leapt from the animal’s corpse, bouncing across the field as it illuminated eight other wolves in a thin veil of violet light.
Woah… Bly thought. He’d never seen a skill like that before. The arrow was clearly imbibed with void magic, its distinct violet aura told him that much, but she hadn’t cast a spell. Had she?
“Marks are set!” Lisel replied, “Bredic, your turn.”
“Still can’t see shit…” Bredic groaned, but his hands moved to his side just the same, “Okay, you asked for it!”
Presenting a slender tome from a holster concealed beneath his cloak, Bredic threw back his own hood and began to skim the pages. As his fingers crossed the parchment, a red sigil began to form several feet above his head. The symbol gyrated in place and developed more intricate patterns within itself as the seconds passed, folding in on top of one another, and soon a flaming seed began to grow brightly in its core. Raising his hand thereafter, Bredic pointed his finger down the road, and the sigil immediately began to fire off in rapid succession, hurdling motes of fire down the path of presumably his choosing.
From thereafter though, everything was a blur.
Blychert watched as spells and arrowheads flung through the air, picking out targets and hitting them with relative ease. When the wolves drew too close, Bredic or Lisel, or both, used their abilities to create obstacles, pushing the wolves back or steering them on a path of more favorable odds. As they did this, Xander stepped forward and made his own opportune attacks, his blade flourishing with blue energy each time he struck one of the beasts.
The wolves moved in a circular pattern around the group, but the group matched their movements blow for blow. And when the wolves lashed out, the group parried and snapped back with a counterattack of its own.
All the while, Bredic and Lisel called out their movements to let the others know their positioning. This seemed to allow Xander more freedom of movement, but also meant that he was at the head of the attack more often than not, while the rest of them were supporting him from the rear. And when the formation broke down completely, Vineta’s barrier spell rebuffed the beasts with just enough force to allow the group a moment for readjustment.
Everything was almost entirely reactionary; complete defense from the entire group unless provoked.
Like a turtle fighting for its life. Bly thought to himself, too awestruck by what he was seeing to be of any use himself, or so it seemed.
This was what a real adventuring party looked like.
It had to be.
Suddenly, one of the wolves broke forward and lunged at Xander. But Blychert noticed that the barrier’s magical energy was starting to stutter, no doubt as a result of the replenishment cycle for its recasting, or perhaps a lack of mana on Vineta’s part.
Without even thinking, Blychert lifted his arm to cast hastily, “From frozen depths, I call on the element, ice, to pierce the air with frost’s embrace. Icicle.”
A crackling of blue magical energy sprawled out across his hand and forearm. The mana quickly began to channel through him towards the contact point. From the palm of his hand, a short, sharpened spear of ice took shape. And it wasn’t a second later that the icicle had left his grasp, shooting across the gap.
The impact was almost instantaneous, as the icicle punctured deep into the wolf’s neck. It stumbled onto its hind leg, which seemed to give Xander just the momentum he needed to react.
Xander lifted his blade through the air and performed a series of attacks in quick succession. One, two, three cuts, followed by two more swipes, another diagonal cross, and a heavy, overhanded slash. Each attack flourished with crackling energy as metal met thick hide. Stepping forward, he used his shield to parry the creature’s massive maw as it tried to bite at him, before delivering a fatal blow to the side of its head, which sent the wolf tumbling to the snow in a spray of blood.
“Hey… the kid’s pretty quick on his toes.” Bredic said amusedly, even as his own fire spells continued to punch through the air, “You better thank your ancestors, Xander. He just saved your skin.”
“Bredic! Focus!” Xander shouted, who brandished his weapon and shield as he repositioned himself within the group, “Just a few more to go.”
With his elemental spell still active, additional mana began to funnel through Bly’s arm, feeding directly into a newly forming icicle. The icy projectile blasted from his right palm in a flash, but unlike the last, it shot over his target by a meter and exploded into the snowbank. Several more icicles escaped Blychert’s grasp thereafter; right hand, right hand, left hand, right hand again… ice combined with fire, fire with arrows, arrows with ice, and all of them with the guiding blade of Xander at the forefront.
The snarling ceased, the heavy panting and running of beasts subsided, and before Bly knew it, there wasn’t a single dire wolf left standing in that field.
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{SAGE --> Raven System Notification}
--- [50%] overworld penalty applied; party detection triggered… [0%] party bonus applied ---
[Experience gained: +40 xp]
[Experience total: 6,552 xp]
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“Phew.” Bredic resounded through the post-battle silence, snapping his tome shut as he stowed it away, “Been a little while since we went to the limits in a single day, huh gang? That was fun…”
“Everyone alright?” Xander asked motheringly, his voice drowned out somewhat by the wind, “Nobody’s hurt, are they?”
“You kidding?” Bredic scoffed, “Vineta’s got the magic touch with that tethering barrier. Talk about having an ace theurgist on our side—”
“—Witch.” Vineta scolded, but muttered under breath, “I won’t be lopped in with those weirdos…”
“I’m good, Xander.” Lisel chimed in warmly, but turned unexpectedly towards Blychert, “It’d sure be nice to get out of this storm though. You… said you were from town?”
“I second that notion.” Vineta groaned, and Bly wondered if she wasn’t feeling well. Putting a hand up to her forehead, she confirmed it by saying, “My mana is spent, capital S. Please tell me there’s somewhere we can get a warm drink?”
“Uh…” Blychert stammered for a moment.
For some reason, he was completely at a loss for words with these people all of a sudden.
Lisel frowned, “Are… you feeling okay?”
“Um—yeah.” Bly shook his head clear, “Yeah, I’m fine. Kelvalder’s just up ahead, there’s an inn and tavern there, I… take it that was your destination. Originally? Kelvalder, I mean.”
“And you’d be right.” Xander affirmed, as he stepped up in front of Bly with an outstretched hand, “I’m Xander, by the way. That’s Bredic, Vineta, and Lisel. How about you?”
Blychert smiled awkwardly and accepted the gesture. “Bly—Trelen, I’m… I’m Trelen.”
Too close! He clenched his fist irritably.
“Well, how about it, Trelen?” Xander smiled back, “Looks like everyone is down for a drink, or least ready to get out of this cold, and… I’m thinking we owe you one for the help. As long as it’s not an inconvenience to you?”
“Uhm, I mean…” Bly offered a confused glance, unable to figure out how any of them still had the energy left to be this enthusiastic. Nonetheless, he replied with an agreeable nod, “Yeah, I know just the place. Follow me.”
And just like that, Bly was leading an adventuring party of his own, if but only for a few hundred yards.