They ended up running down a total of six packs of mutts, and chasing off another eight, during the column’s push north. Most of those were in close proximity to Templeholm and rapidly thinned out as they moved further form the city. By the time Greogory arrived at the long crevasse the sun had long set and everyone was tired. Thankfully, unlike the flight from the small unnamed town further east, they hadn’t needed to rush, meaning the horses were winded but not collapsing.
The crevasse was the result of a small intermittent stream snaking its way down from the mountains, the sides were steep, though not vertical, and tall. It might be possible to climb them, but it wasn’t something that either man nor mutt could do quickly or in large numbers, and that was ideal. Just as important, the tops weren’t directly overhead, so anything that fell down wouldn’t land in the middle of the canyon, rather having to roll down a steep rocky slope. It was unlikely anything could survive, and even if they did they wouldn’t be in fighting condition.
In short, it was perfect for what Gregory had planned. The goal was to distract the mutts from Templeholm and kill as many as possible. The more time they bought, the more beasts they killed, the better. After a cold night’s sleep on the rough ground everyone got to work. Gregory had been intending to help dig the lines of shallow trenches but found himself mostly organizing the Slayer Knights. The Knights were clearly not used to working in large groups, while they easily formed smaller groups of five to ten, anything past that caused them to struggle.
The trenches, thankfully, required lots of smaller tasks rather than one grand construction. Each trench was only a foot or two deep, which was hard enough with the half-frozen dirt and rocks present. Then they alternated between being filled with stakes and pitch, both of which they’d brought in large numbers from Templeholm. There weren’t enough of either for a true defense that would hold indefinitely, but the plan didn’t call for that. The stakes were just there to slow down the mutts, and the pitch was to hold them off for a short period while the knights regrouped.
It was the other side of the plan that required more cooperation, namely the luring of the mutts into the crevasse. Learning from the battle at the small village, Gregory knew the mutts would chase after those who were marked after killing a large number of mutts. Thus a small group of Knights, all capable of fighting from horseback with proper warhorses, would go out and slaughter larger packs of mutts until they got the main host to follow them. That meant several massed cavalry charges, which required coordination.
Gregory, not having any knowledge of fighting from horseback, ended up passing that task off to one of the senior knights. They didn’t have any more experience with massed horse combat, but at least they knew how to fight form horseback and were respected by the other knights.
With the first few trenches dug and filled, the men and horses mostly rested, the lure group took off to kick the nest while the rest of the knights got ready to receive them. A couple squads of knights remained a the back to work on further trenches and to guard the rear but the crevasse was long and it was unlikely the mutts would think to flank their position.
“Think this’ll work?” Lex asked as the lure group rode off.
“You’re asking this now?” Gregory asked her, looking surprised.
“It is too late to back out I suppose,” she admitted, “still, this seems like of… surreal, going out with a small group to fight off a horde of monsters.”
“If this is surreal for you, imagine how it is for me, only a few months ago I was living in a small apartment with a minimum wage job.”
“I mean… I understood many of those words,” she replied with a slight smirk, “but beyond that…”
“I wasn’t anything special,” Gregory explained, “just an average person, living an average life… yet here I am, fighting monsters to save the world.”
“It’s what Ascenders do,” she shrugged.
“And that doesn’t seem weird to you?” Gregory asked, “that an average person can just… become someone special?”
“What’s so surprising about it?” she countered, “in order to become an Ascender there has to be something special about you to begin with. Not everyone can Ascend.”
“That’s just it, I wasn’t anything special,” Gregory said softly, “I didn’t do anything special, I was taken away in the night, strapped into a chair as an experiment and somehow ended up here.”
“Were other people strapped into this chair?”
“Yes.”
“Did they all ascend as well?”
“No.”
“Then there you go, you survived.”
“This wasn’t some test, it was technology,” Gregory insisted, “it shouldn’t matter who was in the chair.”
“Yet it did,” she said simply, “I’ll admit I don’t understand much about Vituss, but I do know that it isn’t something that can be quantified or measured. You can’t use it like you would a mill, anyone can mill grain if taught how, not everyone can use Vituss no matter how much they’re taught or how many tools they’re given.”
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Greogry didn’t reply, looking down in thought. It was weird how comfortable he was in the situation. He’d never been especially shy in his past life, he worked in customer service so he was used to dealing with people. But normally he was subservient, either by virtue of his job or race. It was a given that he’d do as he was told. Perhaps that’s why he had the facet of control? A desire to be the one in command, to live as he wanted unburdened by the controlling influence of others.
That felt right to him, he could practically sense the facet of his soul resonating with the thought. He was in charge of this operation and he liked the feeling. The rush that came with taking his destiny for himself was intoxicating, the idea that never again would he be unable to protect those he cared about even more so. He swore then and there to himself that he would never submit himself to another, he’d never risk the lives of his friends or family in the hands of someone he didn’t trust.
He felt something shift within him, yet no window popped up. Despite that he still smiled, he wouldn’t make the mistakes of the past, with his power he’d protect what mattered.
\*\*\*\*
“In this world a Season is simply the term for a three month period,” Masood explained to Nathen as the small group of ascenders walked, “there’s no winter or summer, no wet or dry season. The weather will simply change from day to day, week to week, typically gradually but sometimes rapidly, impossible to predict.”
“How does that make any sense?” Nathen asked, enjoying the conversation with the man. Both him and the others were friendly, but Masood was especially talkative. Eagerly explaining the oddities of the world to him.
“No idea,” Masood shrugged, “one man, who claimed to be an astrophysicist in his last world, said it was likely this world was unstable on its axis. Sometimes the pole will point at the sun, other times it’ll point perpendicular to it.”
“Didn’t he say that was due to there not being a large moon?” Anton added.
“I can’t remember,” admitted Masood, “I’m not sure how accurate his prediction is anyway, as he couldn’t explain why the mountains move around but the kingdoms don’t.”
Nathen simply listened along, asking questions on occasion, but beyond a lot of speculation there didn’t seem to be many answers. The world was weird and seemed to defy logic, but, as Rainer said when asked, it was what it was. Nathen felt the best explanation was from Anton, who said the world seemed weird so that those who ascended would have more to discover. If the worlds were all the same, he argued, it would be awfully boring. When Nathen asked who could design such a collection of worlds the man shrugged, however. Even the gods seemed limited to this world.
On the more useful end Nathen learned that the column of smoke was their encampment, a beacon so the party could find their way back once the monster nest was dealt with. Before he could learn much more, however, Masood signaled for silence, pointing to the crest of the next rise where a collection of figures watched them. It took Nathen a moment to recognize them as Kobolds, the creatures he’d fought a couple times before, but there was something odd about these ones. The ones he’d fought were wild, almost feral, while these seemed more… composed. Despite that his hand went to the hilt of his sword, almost drawing it before Masood stopped him with a look.
“Aren’t those Kobolds?” Nathen asked, “monsters?”
“These ones seem like the normal, non-insane ones,” Masood replied.
“Kobolds?” Anton asked, cocking his head, “they do kinda look like Japanese Kobolds.”
“Japanese?” Nathen asked.
“Your world not have a Japan? Small island off the eastern coast of Asia?”
“You mean Honshu?”
“Sure?” Anton replied with a shrug.
“I’ll go talk with them,” Masood said, ignoring the other two, “hopefully we can avoid a fight.”
The others nodded as he walked forward, hand visible, to speak with the group of kobolds. A single one of the dog-like creatures also separated from their group to meet Masood halfway between the groups.
“Isn’t Honshu the island Japan is on?” asked Brage.
“I don’t know,” Anton admitted, “I always knew it as Japan.”
“Wait, so you all aren’t from the same world as I am?” Nathen asked.
“Obviously,” Anton replied, “in my experience the different worlds we Ascenders are from are similar enough, but with some notable differences.”
“Weird,” commented Nathen, but the others simply shrugged. It was but one more mystery among many. The others settled into a silence, watching as Masood spoke with the kobold.
Not only were these Kobolds calmer but now that Nathen had time to get a better look at them, they seemed healthier. Their fur was better kempt compared to the mangy hides he’d seen on the others, and they wore proper clothing instead of an assortment of leather scraps and their weapons were iron rather than stone. Immediately Nathen felt justified in not killing the kobolds he’d fought before, clearly those were some kind of outcasts of some kind, but they were part of an intelligent race.
After a few minutes Masood returned.
“They’re after the same thing we are,” he explained, “the nest of Archer Moles, so we’ve decided to team up.”
“Loot?” Rainer asked.
“Even split,” Masood answered just as simply, “they also seem to have a better idea where the nest is so we’ll follow them there.”
“Can we trust them?” asked Anton.
“They outnumber us, but only their leader is an Ascender, so we can overpower if needed.”
With no more questions the group started walking again. Conversation was more muted now, so while Nathen had a million questions about the Kobolds, like how Masood could even speak with them, he remained mostly silent. Thankfully it seemed that while their group had been headed the wrong way they weren’t far from the nest as after a couple hours the Kobolds stopped and pointed to what was clearly a freshly dug hole in the side of a mountain. Even from close up it was easy to miss, only the lack of dried up grasses marking the pile as different from the rest of the mountain side.
“Alright, our team has worked together before but what do you bring to the party Nathen?” Masood asked as their group lined up along side the kobolds.
“Sword,” Nathen said, touching the weapon at his hip.
“Alright,” Masood snorted in amusement, “Anton, Lucas and I are ranged while Brage and Rainer are frontline so you’ll have to work around them.”
“Anything I should know?”
“Brage uses axes and Rainer a sword and shield,” Masood replied, pulling a stack of what looked like cards from a pouch. He held them up while sorting through them as he continued, “I’m something of a supporter, so if you see a card land at your feet don’t worry. Did your world have video games? Think of me as a controller, I buff you and debuff them.”
“How does that work?” Nathen asked, confused.
“Don’t worry about it,” Masood dismissed, “Anton and Lucas use bows, so keep an eye out for their lines of fire. Trust me, you don’t want to be hit by either. Typically Rainer is our tank, so if you get overwhelmed fall back to him.”
“How should we handle them?” Anton asked, nodding towards the Kobolds.
“They’re taking the left side, we’re on the right. Hopefully they can hold their own, I’ll call out if anything happens though. Anything else? No? Alright, let’s show these dogs how it’s done.”