Chapter Forty-nine

I wasn’t sure how many people I could connect to my comm-node. I already had Krissy, Arde, Hisa, Timo and Dimal on it, and now scout-master Sitanel Niraki joined as the sixth. My Tentacle Horror instinct was basically doing the equivalent of shrugging, telling me that I’d probably notice hitting the limit.

I did have my artificial secondary comm-node of course, with no-one attached to it, but I hadn’t repaired it since I had kicked Kenta and Tommi off it. Besides, the two nodes were on … different “frequencies” — people connected to one node could not hear or talk to people on the other node. Maybe if I tried to connect the two nodes themselves with a short thread, but … there was no time for experimenting, and I wasn’t even sure I wanted to. In my experience, anything to do with the nodes ended in quite a bit of pain for me.

But, we were up and running, and Sitanel Niraki was getting the hang of talking to the others with her thoughts.

You were right, Dimal, I love this. Sini sent her thoughts over the voice-chat, all her sleep-deprivation induced grouchiness vanishing.

‘Thank you for using everyone’s favourite spirit-walkie-talkie. Please like and leave a review,’ I said, grinning on the inside, happy that the experiment was going well, and that nobody was screaming “evil spirit” at me, demanding that I be dismembered and disposed of on the spot.

In truth, I couldn’t say I was surprised by how fast the rangers had grown to appreciate the improvised voice-chat function I provided. It was one of the things this world and good old Earth had in common: military types. Give them a new toy that could make them an even more efficient fighting force, and they’d take it with minimal questions asked, even if they didn’t like the answers to those few questions. Timo was the only one who acted the way I’d have expected all of them to act: with a large dose of suspicion and skepticism

Uh … Misery, what’s he talking about? Sini asked, utterly confused.

He gets like this sometimes. Just ignore him. Krissy said, shrugging.

We need to re-arrange the teams. One ranger with the thread-things in each team. Our reaction time will double or triple. Dimal said, sounding rather excited himself.

Damn spiritualists. You’ve got to love them and hate them at the same time. Sini said, looking at Krissy’s masked face, her thoughts sounding like a long sigh.

Well, it’s just until the barbarians are dealt with. Krissy said.

Yes, well, that will take some time. Can your familiar take more people on … to … uh … whatever this is? She asked.

‘I’d rather not. It’s becoming a little … painful for me,’ I sort of lied to scout-master Sini.

I had no intention to take more people on, in fact, I was already contemplating ordering radio silence — so many thought-voices going through me at the same time was weird. I already dreaded the time when I had to disconnect all these people.

‘Uh … alright,’ Sini said, talking out loud this time, then turned to Krissy. ‘Your familiar’s voice is giving me shivers.’

‘I know. You’ll get used to it, sir,’ she said.

‘Alright then,’ Sini said, then she sighed. ‘I don’t even want to know what the Hellspawn offered the two of you in return for your help. I hope he’s not letting you set up a shrine in his garden.’

Krissy just laughed, waving her hand, her voice slightly muffled by her mask.

Dimal waved Sini over to him, and presented some plans.

‘Alright, Sini, I think this is how we should split and distribute the trainees,’ he said to the woman.

***

Krissy and I were the ones who ended up staying with Sini’s team, watching the dip and the steep, narrow path going down to the beach. Dimal had taken the trainees to insert them into other teams, either watching the beach from the clifftop, or searching the many caves under the cliff walls. If any of them found any orks, we’d know immediately.

Morning was coming; the clouds were starting to glow orange on the horizon, the faint light reflecting off the surface of the sea.

Krissy was dozing off as she sat on the ground, her mask on the grass next to her, only the jerky she was chewing on keeping her awake. Sini was sleeping — I could hear the woman snoring as she lay on her robe, on the rocky ground, a few metres from Krissy and a mere metre away from the cliff’s edge. It seemed she like living dangerous. Her team members were watching the path leading down from the cliff, but they were too far from me to see them.

There was no sign of the enemy. Even my spirit voice-chat was quiet — the last I had heard from anyone was Arde, Hisa, Timo and Dimal reporting when each of them had reached the teams they were to join, giving them the heads-up on the brand new long distance communication ability.

I was used to waiting and doing nothing — half of my life as a spirit consisted of it. Most of the time I had things to think about, or some spiritual building project to tinker with. This time, it was just waiting.

I checked my pools: they were all full. Then I checked the rooms. The spaces in Jack’s Room were easy to quantify — I had 39 spaces available out of 50, and I knew roughly how much physical matter I could stuff in there. My Spirit-Room was trickier: for instance, my old costume, made of Spirit Stuff and Essence, fit in there without problems. The parts of my new costume I was making, using specially altered Essence, took up a lot more space, and there was no way I could fit a whole costume in there. A third of it, maybe, unless I expanded the room. Unfortunately I had reached some kind of limit and I couldn’t expand my rooms or my pools. It bothered me that I couldn’t figure out how exactly spirit-storage-pace worked. Was it based on spiritual weight, or volume, or something else? I wasn’t sure. What I was sure of was that I had to level. I had to grow my body, if I wanted to advance.

I couldn’t lie: I was looking forward to fighting and eating the orks, and possibly some familiars. My Tentacle Horror instinct was giving me the thumbs up as the thought crossed my mind.

When someone finally spoke over the voice chat, reporting enemy contact, I was raring to go and sample some ork souls.

***

Marauders! Group of six greens and two elves. Four captives: three women and one ranger. They look badly beaten and they’re tied up with ropes. Timo’s thought-voice echoed in my mind, carrying an undertone of rage and disgust. They’re heading down to the beach.

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Timo was with a team that had been watching another dip, another path down to the beach from the cliffs. They were about one and a half kilometres to the north from us, at least that was the feeling I got from my thread to Timo.

Sini scrambled to her feet, using one hand to grip her spear and the other to rub the sleep out of her eyes. Krissy jumped up too, a bit groggy and still half asleep, but thanks to Toven and Fenar’s relentless training, she was ready to go even in that state. I lifted her mask to her face using a Mana-gloved tentie, and fixed it in place for her. I didn’t think she even noticed it.

Alright, all teams, you know where Zivek’s team is. Go there, but be stealthy, don’t let the enemy spot you. Sini sent her thoughts to everyone, then addressed her own team. ‘Enemy spotted. Zivek’s team is following them. It’s about a mile from here, let’s get going!’

Sini’s team heard her loud and clear, despite being spread out over tens of meters; the three rangers — two archers and a guy with a spear and sword — sprung up and headed down to the beach, not waiting for their team-leader, or us.

We see them coming down to the beach. They might be going to one of the caves. Kitala Iwani says there are no spiritualists among them. Hisa informed us.

Hisa was with the same team Kiwa had been assigned to, and they had been the ones checking caves. It was fortunate they were close to the team Timo was with. The lack of spiritualists was a little disheartening, but if all went well and we made it to the site before the rangers killed everyone, I could still enjoy some medium-rare ork souls.

That’s right. They are heading north on the beach, probably to a cave to wait for a ship to pick them up. Timo chimed in.

We’ll be in the area in less than ten minutes. Dimal said, making his the fourth team on the way to deal with the ork threat. Based on the thread to Dimal, his team was even further to the north, almost three kilometres - I imagined they were running already.

The path leading down to the beach was so steep we were almost rolling down as opposed to walking down, but we made it in one piece. Krissy followed Sini and her team, jogging on the beach, jumping over rocks of all shapes and sizes — the terrain wasn’t easy to traverse, but she managed to keep up, using about 1 MP per minute.

They entered a cave. This must be one of their pick up points. Timo said over the voice-chat.

We’ve just met up with Zivek’s team. Hisa informed everyone.

Sini! What’s the plan? We’ll meet up with Zivek in five minutes. Dimal said.

We’re rescuing the captives of course, what did you think? Sini replied. We’ll be there in ten.

Marauders! Group of five greens and one elf. Two captives. Children. Arde’s panicked thoughts reached us all. Heading north on the beach, probably to the same cave. The greens are all bloodied, and they’re carrying a lot of weapons. This might have been a larger group that raided a guarded settlement.

Shit! Arde? Wasn’t his team somewhere south of us, down the beach? It felt like he was about two kilometres from us, definitely the opposite direction to the cave we were heading to, which meant there was a group of orks behind us, trying to join up with the first group.

Fucking bastards! Dimal swore, his thought-voice oozing hatred.

The cave is definitely near a pick up point. Two groups of the green shits at the same time? That ship is coming and it’s coming soon. Sini said, her thought-voice trembling with anger. Alright. We are a quarter of a mile north from the dip we were watching. Arde, how far behind us are you?

About a mile and a half, maybe less. Arde relayed the information.

‘Yeah, that sounds about right,’ I confirmed Arde’s estimate.

Timo, Hisa, tell your teams to wait for Dimal’s team to get there. Watch the cave, but don’t go in. Sini gave her orders to them, then immediately addressed Arde. Arde, tell Havan we’re turning back to help his team deal with the second enemy group. You’re behind them, we’re in front of them. We’ll pincer those shits and get our children back.

Got it, sir! Everyone on my comm-node acknowledged the orders.

***

The beach was a weird one, nothing like the pebbly beaches of Misery Island, or the sandy beach we’d seen down south where we had arrived on Solace. An abundance of rocks, from as small as a penny to as large as a garden shed, made it quite difficult to move fast. But it also made it easy to hide. The orks and their pet elf were in for a surprise. I would have to ask later why the hell elves were working for the marauders, but that had to wait.

Sini and her rangers hid themselves, crouching behind car sized rocks — the two archers holding their bows, ready to nock arrows, Sini and the other guy gripping their spears. Krissy of course followed suit and hid, keeping her hand on the hilt of her sword.

The scout-master took full advantage of my invisible presence; she instructed me to keep a lookout for the enemy so the team could stay hidden for as long as possible. So, I stuck a tentacle through the rock, looking for the approaching enemy. I was useful in many, different ways, wasn’t I? I was beginning to feel quite good about myself.

Krissy, on the other hand, was breathing heavily, her hands shaking. I had never been a fighter myself, but in the absence of other spirits, I wasn’t in any danger. But Krissy? This wasn’t going to be as forgiving an affair as her bouts with Timo on the training ground.

‘Krissy, draw as much Mana as you need,’ I told her, hoping she’d calm down. ‘I’m with you.’

‘I know,’ she breathed the words out under her mask. ‘I’m ready.’

Sini had heard this exchange, and chimed in.

Listen, Misery, the green bastards are tough and strong. It takes some time to bring them down. But they’re slow, well, slower than elves. I wouldn’t bet on a human, normally, but I know your lot, I mean spiritualists, can move fast and cut through a rock if they have to, so don’t hold back.

It was good advice.

I’m ready. Krissy said, making an effort to slow her breathing.

Good. Sini said, then she addressed me. Spirit-man, can you see anything? I think I hear something.

I was amazed by how good her hearing was, for the enemy was indeed coming.

The dead creature in the forest hadn’t been much to go on — it had been too damaged and covered in too much blood. Now I got to have good look at them; they were every bit the greenskinned menace I’d expected them to be.

The five orks looked like they’ve just come back from a long trip in the Mad Max universe: leather and fur clothes, mail and plate, and of course plenty of spikes. They were huge and heavy, taller than a man or an elf, and at least three times bulkier. Tattoos or body paint covered their mossy-green faces and arms. Their tusks were smaller than those of the fantasy orks I knew, at least as far as I could tell from this distance, but they looked ready to murder their way through any obstacles.

One of the orks carried two elven children — both kids on one shoulder, as if they were nothing but a bag of feathers.

Then there was the elven barbarian, walking ahead of the orks, like a scout or something. He reminded me of the frontman of a Scandinavian black metal band: long, silvery hair, black and white face paint, spiky rivets on his clothes along with macabre decorations made of bones. I was sure mayhem was this guy’s bread and butter, with a little bit of setting churches ablaze on the side.

Sini was right: holding back wasn’t an option here.

'I see them. A hundred or so paces,' I informed the scout-master.

And? Sini demanded.

'And what? They’re coming,' I said, not exactly sure what she wanted me to say.

Their set up! Their formation! Weapons! The kids! Come on you stupid, spirit! Details! Sini’s thoughts sounded like a strange mixture of hissing and screaming.

'Oh. Okay,' I said, rather embarrassed by my own shortcomings. I stuck a couple more tenties through the rock, just to make sure I wasn’t missing anything, and I began describing what I saw from this distance. 'So … the elf is like ten or fifteen paces in front of the rest. Scout, maybe? He’s got a spear. Then five orks … or greens, two at the front, the one behind them has the kids on his shoulders, and the last two are bringing up the rear. Yes. As for weapons … meat cleavers, clubs, axes, a spear … and one of them has a round shield. Anything else you want to know?'

No, that’s good. She said. Sivet and Narak will put a few arrows in the elf. Then we all get in close with the greens, spears and swords. Gavil and Sivet left. I’m in the middle. You’re on the right, Misery, with Narak. Remember, the goal is to keep the bastards from killing the children. When Arde and Havan’s team catches up, then we we slaughter the green fucks.

I’m ready. Krissy said, steadying her hands, gripping her sword like there was no tomorrow.