Island Kingdoms' War

by D. L. Harrison

  “This is pleasant,” Steve quipped.

  I chuckled. We’d made a pretty good plan, find the tribe, set up an ambush, kick their ass. Of course, nothing was that simple, since it was pouring rain out, the plan failed at step one. We had very little visibility, and the clouds were low relative to the mountainous heights. In truth, I wasn’t even sure we were hovering over the correct valley, it wasn’t like the ship had GPS.

  On the good side, I truly doubted they could make us out either. The rain was coming down in buckets, and the wind was buffeting the sides of the craft making us slip from side to side. Lyre’s enchantment did good against a headwind, but strong crosswinds were an issue during a storm.

  I was using control water as a windshield wiper of sorts, but our visibility was maybe fifteen or twenty feet.

  “Suggestions?”

  Anlyth said, “Find the river and wait? If they went the way we think they did, then we’ll be ready for them, if they don’t show up for a few hours we can head north. Hopefully this will clear in a few hours.”

  I nodded, and then took the ship down slowly. Very slowly, not wanting to run into a mountainside. The tops of some trees came into view and I stopped going down. We’d be skimming over them. I was pretty sure we were in the right valley, but other than that it was anyone’s guess, so I picked a direction and moved forward. The valley in question was several miles long, but only a half mile wide. Still, it wasn’t easy getting our bearings, and finding the river. It took us almost a half an hour to find it, damned rain.

  The river itself was moving very quickly, and it was overflowing its banks. It looked dangerous to cross, but of course they’d use magic to do it, they wouldn’t be wading.

  I said, “We’ll have to fly up and down the river, constantly. They could cross the river forty feet away, and we’d never see them. Which… isn’t great, they’ll see us as soon as we see them.”

  Assuming they even came that way. Our new mission didn’t have a great start.

  Lara said, “Maybe, but our detect life spells might pick them up before we can see them. Just be ready to stop or go up fast.”

  That was true, the spell worked in a fifty-foot radius, which was about twice our visibility right at the moment. Of course, they’d be doing the same thing, if any of them had the life sphere. Then again, they might not be expecting any trouble.

  Gwen said, “Good point, I’m also using enhanced vision, though it’s not helping as much as I might like.”

  I picked a direction, and then followed the river up and down stream. After the first few times across the valley I was confident about not running into anything and picked up the speed. We had no idea where they might cross, so it was unavoidable.

  It was going to be a long day.

  Chapter Five

  Two hours later the rain cut off like someone had flipped a switch. It actually felt weird being able to see more than thirty feet. The ship rose at my direction at least a few hundred feet, as we all looked out the windows. No orcs. Crap.

  I rose higher, and we did a sweep of the whole valley, nothing.

  Lara giggled, “I think they must’ve gone north and east through the other valley.”

  Steve chuckled, “I want those two hours back.”

  I snickered.

  Gwen pulled out the map, and then pointed the way.

  We flew north over a peak, and down into another valley, which we estimated as the second most likely way they might travel to the rally point before marching south and west as one big army.

  Almost immediately Gwen said, “I’m hiding us, Lara be ready to take over when I say, I can hold it about a minute.”

  The reason was obvious, we could see the tribe moving east in the valley below, there was a well-defined trail between the trees.

  I pointed to a ridge at the end of the valley, more an outcropping. Better, the valley was thin there, more like a small pass, the orcs would have to come close to it.

  “Should we set up there? Or in the trees like bandits.”

  Anlyth said, “The outcropping is better, it looks about forty feet high and sheer, it will make it very hard for them to climb up and close with us. At ten to one odds, I imagine we’ll need that advantage.”

  I couldn’t argue with that.

  I moved the ship in that direction, quickly.

  Gwen said, “Lara?”

  Lara said, “Cloaking the ship.”

  Gwen relaxed next to me, and took my hand, I squeezed hers back. Thanks to her quick actions, it didn’t appear that the orcs had seen us at all. The ship lowered down onto the outcropping as far back as I could get it, from the forty-foot cliff it went back around a hundred feet, before it became a steep incline again up against the mountain.

  “I imagine we’ve got a half hour, maybe forty-five minutes before they get in range.”

  Lyre said, “Time for lunch, and stretching our legs.”

  We popped the canopy, and all piled out. We’d all been stuffed in the ship for a few hours, so it was no surprise we were all a bit stiff. It’d been a miserable morning, and for nothing, but at least we found them, and had a good place to ambush from.

  Gwen claimed a short kiss, which managed to improve my mood a great deal.

  We all drank some water, ate a little deer jerky, and stretched.

  I noted, “I think this worked out better anyway.”

  A cliff was better protection than a river.

  Steve nodded, “I’ll keep an eye on them.”

  He moved toward the cliff’s edge, and then got down onto his belly and squirmed to the edge. We didn’t want to lose the element of surprise.

  It was about forty minutes later, and we were all by the edge of the cliff as the enemy approached. They didn’t even have scouts out, which wasn’t too much of a surprise. We were deep in enemy territory, and the good races had never ambushed tribes before the war started like this before. I was fairly confident, we had the high ground, it wouldn’t be easy for them to rush and overwhelm us, and our levels were higher. All that would make up for the ten to one odds, the ambushers always had the advantage.

  Unfortunately, they weren’t bunched up very tightly. The largest grouping was four.

  I fed a thousand of my mana into a mana shield, and then nodded at Lara.

  Lara released her spell, and as I’d suspected she’d enhanced all our attributes by three, for three hundred seconds, five minutes.

  Steve, Lyre, and Gwen rose up to their knees and aimed their bows and crossbow as I released a fire blast.

  I sunk a thousand mana into it, which was overkill in a big way. Fifteen for the spell and the fifty-foot radius explosion. Nine ninety, plus my base which with Lara’s spell was twenty-one plus twenty-eight. Times three for Journeyman put max damage far over three thousand.

  Even with forty percent resistance against fire, the four orcs I’d targeted were immolated taking close to eighteen hundred points of damage, about a thousand more than what was needed to kill them. The reason for that overkill was the other ten orcs within fifty feet of that four-person group. Six of the ten orcs were close enough to die even with the reduced damage, the other four were hurt badly.

  Lyre’s bow twanged, and an arrow covered with coruscating energy shot out at the enemy. I hadn’t seen that during her practice, and it was a pleasant surprise when the arrow sunk into the enemy, and an explosion of electricity radiated out in multiple lightning strikes to hit four others. The one she hit died, as did two others.

  Steve’s bolt fired at one of my damaged ones to finish it off, and the miasmic gray aura exploded outward. Six of the dead orcs started to stir. It was both creepy, and kind of awesome.

  Anlyth took out three more in an explosive earth spike.

  Gwen’s arrow leapt from her bow covered in a glowing darkness, and it struck an orc in the chest. The orc died, but not before he roared in rage and released all his magic in an explosive wave which destroyed the two orcs next to him.

  A third of
the orc forces were already dead with our surprise attack, several others were wounded, and six undead were gaining their feet to fight on our side. Of the forty or so left, five were heavily damaged.

  About thirty of those orcs drew bows, the rest of them sent fire, earth, or water attacks.

  I ducked down, or inched back a little actually, as an arrow storm rose toward the cliff’s edge.

  The arrows flew over us harmlessly or hit the top of the cliff and bounced back. The explosions of fire, ice, and stone ate quickly through my mana shield, but I still took very little damage because of my resistance protections. When I peeked back over the side, about half of them were rushing the cliff face. The other twenty bowman held fast, though some were pulling swords to defend against the six undead.

  I smirked, and then fired my fire blast straight down the cliff face to meet the chargers. So nice of them to gather all together for me.

  The bottom of the cliff, and twenty orcs disappeared in fire. The eight in the center died, as they took a little over a thousand points of damage. The ones on the edges took fifty or forty percent of that, which hurt them badly.

  Lightning blasted out of Lyre’s hand to the right side of where I’d sent my fire, taking out those six. The six on the left side had a bad day as well, when Gwen shot an arrow of darkness, which exploded out into a globe of darkness. The screams of those six orcs were horrifying, and when the darkness cleared they were dead.

  Anlyth sent another exploding earth spike at the twenty archers. The one impaled had his body torn apart in an explosion of stone, while two others were killed by the stone shrapnel.

  Steve shot an explosive aura of miasma at the base of the cliff, and six more orcs stirred. Twelve undead? I wondered how long he could support that many. Then again, given my mana regen rate he might not have a problem, it’d been a long time and a lot of levels since he’d only been able to support three of them. Twelve mana a second should be well within his ability now.

  Lara shot a blast of light at the six undead running toward the archers, and they all glowed for a moment. I wondered what that was about, and I found out a moment later.

  One of the orcs remaining, and there were only seventeen, shot a fire blast at the undead. I cringed, but then chuckled when the fire cleared, and the undead were still charging. She must have protected them against fire, an undead being’s greatest weakness.

  Steve said wistfully, “I love you.”

  Lara giggled.

  Six of the orcs left met them with swords, while the other ten shot arrows and blasted the undead at the cliff base. Unfortunately, those six were unprotected and died quickly.

  One of the orcs called for a retreat, I almost felt sorry for them. Almost.

  The twelve orcs with swords and six undead, were fairly close together, within thirty feet at least, and using my new and greater control over fire I sent out a fire blast. The explosive fire avoided the undead, routing around them as the fire ripped through the six living orcs and immolated them.

  The last eleven were taken out by the rest of the party, in attacks of earth, lightning, darkness, and death.

  Congratulations! Sixty orcs have been slain! You have earned six thousand Experience Points!

  Congratulations! War has begun, and you have struck the first blow!

  You have earned two million Experience points!

  You have leveled!

  You feel a little smarter!

  Congratulations! You’ve advanced the Fire sphere to journeyman level two. You have earned a thousand Experience Points!

  Congratulations! You’ve advanced the Water sphere to journeyman level two. You have earned a thousand Experience Points!

  Congratulations! You’ve advanced the Life sphere to journeyman level two. You have earned a thousand Experience Points!

  Congratulations! You’ve advanced the Meditation skill to journeyman level two. You have earned a thousand Experience Points!

  Congratulations! You’ve advanced the Sneak skill to journeyman level two. You have earned a thousand Experience Points!

  Congratulations! You’ve advanced the Builder skill to journeyman level two. You have earned a thousand Experience Points!

  Congratulations! You’ve advanced the Hunter skill to journeyman level two. You have earned a thousand Experience Points!

  After the stream of concepts ended, I took stock. I’d gained another intelligence, and with Lara’s boost in effect I’d gained more mana than I’d been expecting for this level jump. I was only eighty-five short of four thousand mana now.

  We loaded up the ship, and we took it down the cliff so we could loot. It’d be worth a few gold pieces for each of us at the outpost, at least. Sixty swords, forty bows, and armor. There were a few magic items as well, but nothing we wanted. We had time before we needed to report to the fort, so we headed back to sell it all and meditate on our gains. As usual, nothing earth shattering in the new sub-concepts, but it would increase our control and understanding over the new major concepts we’d gained at journeyman, until level ten when we’d be ready for the expert level concepts.

  After dinner, we decided to go report at the fort, and meet Colonel Faelyn. There were sixty more hours before we could expect the enemy to arrive, but who knew how much information and planning we needed to review, not to mention meeting the others we’d be fighting with.

  Chapter Six

  The sun was bright in the western sky. The rainclouds from earlier were just a distant memory as we left the woods and headed toward the fort on foot. We decided it would be better to leave the ship behind, between myself, Anlyth, and Lyre we could fly the six of us without it if it became necessary during a retreat. It wouldn’t be as comfortable of course, and it’d be breezy, but the walled elven city in the forest was just a couple of miles away, it wasn’t a big deal.

  We just weren’t sure if we’d have time to grab it when retreat time came, and I didn’t want to lose it to the evil races. Not just because we’d have to rebuild it, but the dark elves could figure out how to make fliers of their own.

  The fort walls were about forty feet high at a guess, and they were made of stone. As we neared, we could feel the grand enchantment which would prevent enemies with the Earth Sphere from tearing it down with magic. The walls were manned by a few elves, humans, and dwarves who were on watch, but didn’t look all that sharp or worried. We knew where the enemy was, and it would be at least twenty-four hours before they marched down, and we didn’t expect them to attack until the morning after tomorrow.

  The gates for the fort were small, too small for wagons, and I imagined they’d have had to unload any supplies and carry them through. Just a doorway really, with an iron door and portcullis. Or perhaps they’d built the walls last, only after the supplies were brought in and buildings raised. Whatever the reason, it would be a lot more secure than larger gates made of wood like the outpost had.

  Inside the fort there were large barracks buildings, a mess hall, large common bath house, command post, and troops. The elves, dwarves, and humans were all dressed in similar leather armor, with swords and bows. I took one look at them and felt a little worried, there was a feeling of resignation and fear in the air. The other undying were easy to pick out, they strutted with confidence, and wore a mélange of different weapons and armor.

  I felt… uneasy. I was missing something.

  With magic detection I was able to determine all the regular troops wore similar enchantments around their neck, which looked more like collars than necklaces, which set off a few internal alarms. What was going on here? What kind of enchantments were they? With a thought to activate the sub-function of my detect life spell, I assessed a number of them. Many were still in initiate levels, although there were a few apprentices as well. I didn’t find any other journeyman. At a guess, there were about two thousand troops within the walls, the majority of them human. Given the size of the fort, that was two full shifts capable of manning the walls, with reserves.

&nbs
p; I held my questions for the moment, but I exchanged a questioning glance with Gwen as we followed Anlyth and Lyre to the command tent. She looked concerned as well, but just shrugged as we entered the command post.

  There were ten elves, a human, and a dwarf sitting around a table with a map of the fort and surrounding area, as well as stacks of paperwork.

  Colonel Faelyn was wiry, with blond hair, blue eyes, and wore steel armor. He had a grimace on his face as he looked over at us, and he was surrounded by several other officers. No one in the command building had the enchanted collars. I assessed them, and of the ones it worked on they were high journeyman or even expert in level.

  I glanced over at Anlyth and Lyre, but they avoided returning the look. What hadn’t they told us?

  Anlyth bowed his head, “Colonel, reporting for duty.”

  The colonel finished looking us over, and turned his gaze on Anlyth, “Welcome.”

  His tone of voice didn’t sound very welcoming, but he waved at one of his officers, who turned to us with a brittle smile.

  “I’m Lieutenant Dane, Six of you?”

  We nodded.

  He said, “Good, you’re to support the east wall,” he picked up a quill and made a few notes, then gestured us to follow him as he headed for the building’s entrance.

  I guessed the colonel was too busy for us, but I didn’t take it all that personally, he was probably very busy running this place.

  Dane said, “We have enough troops to man the walls in two shifts, or worse comes to worst we can call up the second shift to bolster the first. The undying in this battle won’t have a specific function outside of support. Your jobs will be to back-up the regular troops on the western wall, where the fighting is hottest, and close any breaches. Your group will be on first shift. Any questions?”