That night we held a funeral for all of the people we had lost. We had lost over a quarter of our troops in a single engagement despite our superior numbers. Persy, as our resident Priestess, conducted the funeral rites and after all of the bodies were placed on the rows of massive funeral pyres she lit each one with a flash of divine magic. Technically, fire wasn’t part of the Domain of the Lord of the Forest, but as she was a Fox, animals which naturally have an affinity for fire. She essentially gave herself an enhanced form of that affinity through a miracle and it’s prayer known as “Creature’s Trait” and used an ignite spell to fake it. The Lord of the Forest chose to let her do it, though he was a bit annoyed.
After the funeral was over, I gave the men the rest of the night off, with training scheduled for the next day. Persy and I would be spending the next day preparing the personal belongings of those that died to be shipped back to Starshine. This would include the armor and weapons. I thought about keeping them and giving them to new recruits, but no one will want to use the equipment of a person that died in their first battle. Many of the recruits would take it as if I was cursing them. The Captains would be spending tomorrow and any spare time they had to write letters of condolence to the families of the deceased, placing them in the boxes with their belongings. Thankfully I hadn’t lost any captains and only one Lieutenant, so the command structure was intact.
The next day all of the troops spent the day in intense training. The equipment we had gotten from the demons would be handed out to the troops in lieu of payment, and since it was worth several gold, as level five toughness mithril alloy armor, and more if it was enchanted, they wouldn’t need to be paid in coin for several months. Our smiths quickly repaired what equipment was damaged and I knew that we would be much better equipped the next time we went out.
I was certain that we had went into battle too quickly and poorly prepared, so I sent out two scouting companies to learn what they could about the enemy troops and their movement. Leaving only one scout company in the castle to act as messengers, I took my personal company of scouts out into the field and gave each of them two level six scrolls containing AoE spells. I had finished with the personal effects of the deceased at around five PM and spent until midnight making these scrolls. Technically, the magic ink I had brought with me was only good for up to level five spells, but as these only needed to last for less than twenty four hours, they would last long enough.
We rode to where we knew enemy supply caravans had been before and waited, hiding behind a hill. In case they were trying to detect magic, the only magic we used was the few detection threads I sent out to detect when someone went by on the road. I had even unsummoned my unicorn, just in case. At around three in the afternoon I detected some movement and looked over the top of the hill. There were, indeed, seven wagons heading towards Goldport on the road. The last two carts were even massive cages, carrying over a dozen slaves in each.
I warned the men to be careful not to hurt the slaves and cast “Storm Call” to darken the sky. They slightly picked up their pace, expecting rain, and once half the carriages had passed, we popped up from behind the hill and unleashed spells upon them. Six random level six monsters appeared in the middle of them, and six tornadoes circled around them, targeting their guards. Then six fireballs flew at them as six chain lightning spells were unleashed at the guards. I focused on pouring energy into the Storm Call, and by the time the last of the scrolls were torn to release the trapped magic, the first drops of rain had fallen.
Only seven of the enemies had survived the attack, one driver and six guards that were at least partially injured. Only two summoned monsters had survived. I had made sure that the Chain Lightning wouldn’t target allies of the caster, but as the summoning spell I had used to make the scrolls did nothing to insure that the monsters would be friendly to the summoner, they were just as hostile to us as to the demons, so they were attacked by the lightning as well.
I flung a few lightning bolts at the demons as the scouts launched arrows at them, and when three of the guards ran at us we charged. Unlike when they sent out raiding parties, The demons didn’t send their best people to guard caravans, so we managed to defeat them with only two scouts being injured. One monster, a Blaze Claw Bear, had survived with heavy injuries, so I threw a lightning bolt into its chest, stopping its heart before it could attack us.
As the rain started to fall faster, we ran over to the wagons. The demons were using a kind of large bird monster called a Razor Beak to pull their carts, kind of like an Emu but with an iron beak and the ability to spit poison. They were well trained, so once seven of our scout’s horses were tied to the backs of the carts, we threw the bodies of the demons and monsters into the backs of the carts, with me casting strength enhancements on four of us so we could lift the bear, and set off back for the fort.
Due to the heavy rain and the extra weight we didn’t arrive until after dark. Thankfully the storm only reached a few kilometers from where we had ambushed the caravan, so we hadn’t had to ride in it for more than a few hours.
When we arrived back at the fort we took the animals to the stables, released the slaves to move into the city, and started unloading the supplies. The monsters were sent to the cook tent, as monsters were usually edible and they would best know how to harvest the useful and valuable parts. The demons were stripped of their gear and thrown into a mass grave about three hundred meters outside the walls.
The gear was distributed to the troops if it was in good condition and sent to the craftsmen for repairs if it wasn’t.
Samantha was planning on heading out in the morning, so she had loaded all of the men’s personal effects onto the wagons we were sending back with her. I would have my personal scouts escort her to the border, as she didn’t hire any protection for her caravan on the way up here, but once they reached the border they would have to turn back and she would have to hire guards. A few troops did leave with her, about two dozen who had lost limbs in the fight against the demons. The only way Persy and I had to heal them was with Divine Magic, and we didn’t have the power to completely regrow a missing limb in less than a week. Instead, we did what we could to make sure that they wouldn’t be in pain and sent them back to Starshine. There they would receive a bottle of level ten regeneration potion, the lowest level that could start to regrow lost limbs but which cost five gold each, and would be able to take a job as a trainer at the Company if they wanted to do so.
I wished there were ways to help those that had died here, but while, as a Lord of an Afterlife known as the Great Forest, the Lord of the Forest could allow us to resurrect those whose souls he possessed, he refused to do so. They had lived their lives and now must reenter the cycle of souls, only taking a brief, thousand year, detour to the Great Forest. It was a neutral afterlife that was available to all, but as no one was allowed to rule over others and magic was restricted to level five there, few people chose such an afterlife. I would send money to each of the families that lost someone, but I didn’t have enough on hand. I did, however, tell the Company to send the families of the deceased the full amount for the last month the person served, a gold coin. This, along with the gear they were sent, would hopefully prevent them from suffering additional financial hardship from the loss.
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The next day, as Samantha set off, we received word from some of our scouts that the demons were approaching from the North. They had over twelve thousand troops, most of them appearing to be melee fighters, but around a thousand were dedicated mages. They should be here by tomorrow around noon. As it wouldn’t be safe to wait any longer, I told Samantha goodbye and they left. They would return with more trade goods and any troops I was transferring up here in a month, but if we were still under siege at that time she would wait near the border. My scouts would also be staying there, only coming into the country long enough to harass the demon convoys and engage in a bit of guerrilla warfare like we had earlier.
I was going to spend all day creating scrolls so that we could launch a massive number of magical attacks at the enemy when they attacked, but Duke Deathbringer had a suggestion. While he knew little about how artificing worked, he was a certified Intermediate Enchanter, and had enchanted much of his men’s gear himself. He told me about a method of enchanting called “Bulk Enchantment” and suggested that I might be able to use that to create large amounts of scrolls more easily. The method basically split an essence across many different objects, giving all of them the desired effect, but requiring a much larger input of mana in exchange for less essence use. This method was why all of his men had almost identical enchantments on their equipment.
After we worked out how to do that with a group of scrolls he and I got to work creating scrolls to be charged. With a large amount of mithril and its alloys we upgraded the ink to work with up to level ten spells, and started drawing scrolls. Most of my mages were recruited for the task as well and, even though half of the scrolls weren’t good enough to actually catch the effect, with me and one of the Duke’s wizards doing quality control it was only a few hours before we had over two hundred scrolls which could catch a fireball.
I used a fire spell to soften a scrap of mithril alloy almost to the point where it would completely melt, then used it like a crayon to draw a two meter charging circuit on a stone platform near the training fields. Once it cooled, I had two of my men place the crate of scrolls in the middle of the circle, then, as my mages were busy learning to make scrolls, several of the Duke’s wizards helped me charge the circle, which in turn charged all of the scrolls. To catch a spell the scrolls had to be charged with at least the same pressure mana as the spell it would be catching.
As I hadn’t worked a pressure amplification method into this circle, that meant that I would need to put pressure ten mana into the circle. So I cheated a bit. I removed my necklace and, as it wasn’t being worn, it started releasing its mana at a pressure of just over ten. I was getting a massive headache from the exposure to mana at a pressure that much higher than my own, but I did my best to channel the mana into the charging circle. It started glowing blue, but the scrolls barely responded at all. Then the other mages joined it and the scrolls started glowing brightly enough to light a room.
That’s when the Duke came over. He created a blue fireball in his hand that was over a meter across, and, instead of throwing it, which would cause the powerful attack to be split into 200 parts, he simply lowered it until it touched the top of the crate. As soon as a scroll touched it, the scroll started absorbing the fireball, making it shrink and causing the Duke to put more and more mana into trying to maintain the spell. After a minute or so of that, however, the Duke’s mana pressure dropped to below ten, and the scrolls stopped absorbing the effect. They wouldn’t be damaged, however, as they already contained a more powerful version of that effect. He ended his fireball and we ended the charging of the scrolls.
We now had a crate of two hundred level ten fireball scrolls. All of us decided to take a break as the effort had taken a lot out of us. I was probably the most effected, though. I had managed to maintain the channeling for the entire minute and a half it took to do the job, but blood was currently pouring out of my nose from the strain. Such a forced effort was the equivalent of trying to bench an extra ten kilos when you were already worn out and at your limit, and I’m pretty sure I had suffered an aneurysm as a result. We would need to do it several more times, though, if we wanted to win the upcoming battle with minimal casualties.
So, once again I cheated. I told them that I was going to go to my room to lie down and rest, but when I got there, instead of sleeping, I focused on the regeneration ability of many lizards that was part of His Domain, and fed some divine energy into it. Soon my brain and blood vessels were completely healed and even the soreness from all of the riding I had done for the last few weeks was gone. Now that I was at perfect health, I stopped the miracle. If anyone asked how I did it, I would tell them that I am a healer, so I healed myself. I put back on my necklace to replenish the mana, which was feeling a bit low for some reason and closed my eyes.
I was awakened by a servant telling me that they were ready to charge another group of scrolls. The first thing I noticed after getting up was that my magic seemed much stronger. I analyzed my strength for a few seconds as I walked towards the training field, and noticed that my mana pressure was somewhere in the high sevens. After the next charging session I might go up to above eight. The only thing I could think of that could have caused that was channeling so much pressure ten mana. There was also the possibility that fully recovering from the ordeal had made my pressure increase even faster. I might have to test that by having Persy channel from the necklace and then heal herself with a miracle.
The next lot of scroll charging was much easier. The Ten pressure of the necklace caused me a headache, but this time it wasn’t at migraine levels. These scrolls were all charged with a Chain Lightning spell, and when we were finished I was merely tired instead of completely exhausted. This time I simply put on the necklace and let my mana recharge. Sure enough, my pressure had increased greatly, though this time only to seven point nine.
We did one more round of scroll charging before sunset, this time a Tornado spell. That brought me up to eight point one. Now that we had six hundred level ten spell scrolls, the rest of the mages who weren’t part of the daytime scroll making crew could use the circle to charge scrolls for the rest of the night. Many of the scrolls that weren’t good enough this morning were rejected because of relatively minor mistakes, like missing or extra lines. They would spend tonight correcting these and charging them with level eight spells, the minor mistakes weakening what could be done with them.
I had also taught several mages the magic circle for the random summoning I had made scrolls of for the scouts. Tomorrow they would make as many of those as possible and I would mass charge them before the enemy got here. That way we could release hundreds of monsters into their ranks when they began their attacks. The Duke hadn’t learned Summoning, so he hadn’t been able to cast it at level ten so we could get some truly powerful creatures to slaughter our enemies. Still, level eight was pretty good. The level six bear we had killed had Toughness five hide, and the leather worker in town was currently tanning it and the other four of five toughness hides from the ambush. A week from now he will have made two sets of leather armor for us from the bear hide to give to our scouts or mages, people who wouldn’t be able to function properly in metal armor. After that he would work though the rest of the hides. If we sent level eight monsters against the demons we could probably end up with at least level seven toughness leather armor, like my Salamander set I was currently wearing.
The next day, by lunch, we had distributed one of the level ten scrolls to each of the melee fighters on the wall, as well as over a thousand level eight and lower scrolls. Each scroll had what it was written on it in both Ferin and Theosian script, as the dialects were a bit different, which meant that the men shouldn’t cast the spells wrong. Still, anyone important was going to stay off the wall until the scrolls were finished. Those scrolls included over one hundred and fifty level eight summoning scrolls, made by holding a summoning circle around the scrolls, and over a thousand level four to six spells of various types. One mage had even decided, due to what I assumed was lack of sleep, to mass enchant Mass Dysentery on thirty seven scrolls. Hopefully it would work as a distraction, at least. While the idea of throwing in low mana non-lethal spells was a good one, surely Mass Blinding or Mass Sleep would be better.