Sense: A Fantasy LitRPG Saga (A Touch of Power Book 3)

by Jay Boyce

  Lowering her gravity, she started to run vertically up the tree trunk they’d stopped by, keeping her momentum up and using wind to boost her. She kept running, dodging branches as she got higher, until finally she jumped free of the treeline and into the sky, her momentum shooting her up as she looked around.

  She was glad she’d come up, seeing as how the patch they were aiming for was about a mile southwest of them. Of course, had they kept going straight, they would’ve hit another patch in about 2-3 miles. She hadn’t realized they were that close together. It worried her a little bit. Especially when she noticed that beyond her target, probably 4-5 miles away, was another patch. All she could hope for was that they didn’t have some alarm like a giant bell to ring and alert the others to come help.

  Sinking back to the canopy, she clung to the tree and sucked light in again until she felt completely recharged, which took about five minutes of both absorbing the light and eating food she pulled out of her ring. When she was full, she dove from the treeline, enjoying the feeling of the wind rushing past her face in the freefall, slowing herself when she hit about fifty feet from the forest floor.

  She alighted on the ground, gathering the people around her as she quickly erected a wind wall to keep in any sounds they made. “So, good news and bad news. Our original target is about a mile that way.”

  “How far is a mile?” One of the men asked, and she mentally berated herself yet again for not getting their names before this.

  Then she processed his question. They didn’t know how long a mile was, but hadn’t they described...leagues? They’d used leagues. She shook her head. “I have no idea what your equivalent is. Like five thousand feet? Basically, the distance we just traveled in my wind sphere.” They seemed to understand her approximation of that, at least, so she went on. “Anyway, the place we want is about one mile that way, there’s another one straight ahead of us, probably two to three miles away, and behind the target, maybe another four miles, is another bad area.”

  “In other words, we could run into them at any time.” One of the other men chimed in, and she nodded.

  “Exactly. We have no idea if those bad areas are directly on top of their lairs or not. Not to mention, they could have a sentry. Basically, from this point out, be very careful and try to make zero noise.” There were nods from everyone, and Jade looked at Marcelle to see if she had any last things to add.

  Marcelle grinned a little viciously as she spoke, “Let’s kill them all.”

  “Except for the prisoner I need.” Jade chimed in quickly.

  “Right. Kill all except one.” Marcelle’s grin was grim.

  “And stay alive.” Jade added her second point, which had several of the men rolling their eyes.

  “Of course, Mom.” The group chuckled a little at the friendly ribbing, while she pretended to be affronted.

  She gestured to the wind wall. “Okay, I’m taking the wall down now. Silence from here on.” Again, there were nods in response, and she let the magic drop, then began to carefully lead the way, grateful that this part of the forest wasn’t as dense. Granted, it meant there were fewer hiding spots for her people, but also fewer spots for the mesmer.

  She glanced up at the trees, then sighed inwardly, stopping. She glanced behind, then motioned that she was going to go into the treetops, and they were to continue forward. If there was a scout or patrol, they’d likely be up there, and she wanted to be able to catch them before they warned the others. They seemed to get the idea, and started forward as she lightened her gravity once again and started racing silently up the tree trunk.

  Making sure to keep them in sight, she landed lightly on the lowest branch and began to walk above them, watching the surrounding trees for any signs of movement or danger. Seven trees later, she spotted the tainted trees in the distance. She winced as someone down below stepped on something that cracked. To her, it sounded like the roar of drums announcing their presence. The group below was scanning their surroundings as nervously as she was.

  It seemed like they were holding their collective breath to see if something would happen...and then it did. The image came to her from Ramoth. There were three mesmer running along some much higher branches than the one she was on, jumping nimbly from tree to tree. Thankfully, the group below seemed to be alert to the danger, as there was a murmured warning and most of their bows all swung in the same direction: towards the mesmer now coming down the giant tree on the opposite side.

  As soon as they landed and started running around the trunk of the tree, arrows flew from those below. “Drop your weaponssssss…” The one in the lead ordered in his hypnotic voice, and as one, most of the bows began to lower. Smiling in triumph, the mesmer was about to issue another order when her arrow penetrated his forehead. A look of confusion flitted across the face of his companions as her group loosed the next barrage of arrows.

  The remaining two mesmer had taken an arrow each, though not in vital spots. Growling in rage, they raced forward in powerful leaps, claws extended to slice into the nearest man. Another arrow thunked into one’s chest from Marcelle’s bow, missing the thing’s heart by mere inches. Just when she thought the man was about to be sliced into pieces, a wall of rock sprang up in front of him, the creature’s claws embedding deeply into it. The next arrow took it in the head.

  The last one roared in rage, yelling at the humans, “No magic! Drop weaponsss!” It screamed with such forceful hypnotism that four of them dropped their weapons and several others lowered their bows once more. It screeched as Jade’s arrow took it in the shoulder, its eyes casting about for the direction the unseen arrows were coming from, even as it swiped down on the man in front of it, opening up a deep, bloody gash.

  She let out a sigh of relief when Marcelle’s sword made a clean sweep, beheading the creature a moment later. The healer she’d requested moved forward, closing the gash on the man’s arm and letting his breathing return to some semblance of normality.

  She was about to jump down to join them and finish when Lilith sent the image of more mesmer running through the trees. She stopped, quickly hiding among the trees and wrapping an illusion around her that made her part of the tree. She wanted to yell down at her comrades, but didn’t want to attract the attention of the mesmer racing towards her.

  Frantic, she chose an emergency option: she sent a mental command down at the group. “Get ready to fight again, NOW!” Directing her thoughts to her fellacai, she gave them their orders too. “Send your pollen through the trees towards them as inconspicuously as possible, then make sure to hide.”

  Thankfully, she saw that those below heard her mental command and were on the alert, watching the treetops. She could see the magic of the fellacai pollen starting to spread towards the incoming mesmer. It was inconspicuous, though she could still pick out tiny motes. Her hope was that the monsters were more concentrated on looking down and that at least a few of them might be affected.

  Her second hope was that this was the only linked encounter, and that they hadn’t set off a series of enemies running at them in waves.

  Chapter Six – Pollen

  She held her breath as the mesmer approached the pollen trap her babies set up. The fellacai each took a different area, though some of them overlapped. The fight with the giant apes mostly involved them dodging, so she hadn’t been able to see their ability, since it hadn’t had time to spread and then she’d left the affected area rather quickly. She was excited to see what it could really do.

  Bolt’s pollen was the first to reach one of the mesmer, from what she could tell. Tiny arks of electricity raced over its skin, and its muscles seemed to seize up mid-jump. Instead of landing properly, it hit the branch and fell off, beginning the plummet towards the forest floor. “Shoot them as they fall!” Her mental command fell over her group, who turned as one to target the only mesmer they could see and began shooting.

  She wasn’t sure if they obeyed so swiftly because of her command, if it had any effect on
them, or if they heard it and decided to obey because it was common sense. Still, she was happy to see several of the arrows hit the thing, especially because the paralysis wore off before it reached the ground, so it was attempting to stabilize itself and land when the arrows struck. The mesmer tried to curl up, but didn’t seem to realize how close it was to the ground. It hit with a loud crunch...head first. She turned her attention away from the ugly splatter, figuring she no longer needed to worry about that one.

  Seemingly wary of where that one fell, and rightfully so, the mesmer split up, jumping to different trees to avoid the area that they assumed was trapped. They were hissing in anger, but probably knew their hypnotism was less effective with distance, since it relied on verbal cues.

  The next two to be hit were on opposite sides of where the first fell. One hit Ramoth’s area, and the creature blinked heavily for a moment as it was running, then slid forward as its muscles locked together and dropped off the side of the branch. Another hit Willow’s pollen and seemed confused as it came to a stop, wobbling slightly as it tried to catch its balance. It too fell off the branch, but managed to dig its long nails into the wood, clinging to the side as it looked around in confusion.

  The falling one was peppered with arrows, twisting its head around blindly as if trying to see what was going on and hissing in pain, until it landed with another crunch. Giving up on hiding, Jade stepped out on her branch and targeted the confused one. Since it was clinging to the branch, her arrow took it cleanly in the head. The others couldn’t have shot it from below, but she could do so just fine from her vantage point in the tree behind them. The thing hung from the branch like a pinned beetle, infuriating the mesmer behind it.

  Now that they’d noticed her existence, she knew she’d become the main target. Honestly, it was probably safer than having them target those below. “Ssssssshe sssssmelllsssss of magic…” They split into even more trees to approach her, and she counted eleven left. The fun thing about that? There were only seven trees they could use to reach her, and her babies were hidden on the tree with her now, sending their pollen along those branches.

  “You’re all going to die.” She calmly told them as she sighted down her arrow and let it fly. The closest mesmer jumped over it, sneering as it ran towards her rather bravely, if stupidly. The others closed in on her from the other trees and were running forward as well, planning to bum rush her.

  “Noooo magic from youuuu!” One of the mesmer hissed at her, and she merely grinned savagely in his direction. She stood there calmly and watched them approach, which caused half of them to break off their headlong rush forward and stop on their branches as their brethren continued forward.

  There were still five approaching, and to her glee, they all seemed to be hit with pollen at the same time. Her glee turned quickly to almost retching up her lunch as she observed the effects of the pollen.

  Rio and Andy’s effects were similar, at least as far as the end result was concerned. Rio’s mesmer seemed to grow a layer of ice as he skidded off the branch. It started to crack on the way down as he was hit by an arrow, and then...he seemed to shatter on impact. Andy’s turned half of the mesmer to stone, and the arrows glanced off of it as it fell, but the shrill screaming as the rock exploded on impact with the ground was horrifying. Half of its body was gone, and it lay there screaming as it bled out until an arrow ended its miserable existence.

  Cosmo’s pollen was perhaps one of the most terrifying. As the mesmer ran through it, chunks of flesh were torn from its body and teleported about five feet to the side. Half a face, an arm, a foot, chunks of torso…perfectly preserved in their detached state as they began falling to the ground. The thing skidded forward, its chest continuing to take hits and being teleported away, until half of its heart had been teleported and it dropped, bouncing off of the branch to fall to the forest floor below. The impact with the ground cut off the feral screams of pain the creature was emitting. It was a horrible way to die.

  Amber’s seemed to be unaffected until it got further, and it blinked rapidly as if trying to clear its eyes. “It burnsssssssss!” Its screech was raspy as it began to cough. Almost as if in reflex, it tried to wipe its eyes...and put them out with its claws. The long nails raked across its own neck and throat, and she watched as it tried to itch mindlessly, shredding its own face until a nail penetrated the brain and it went silent, falling. What gave her the most pause was the reaction. It wanted to scratch at its face, like that was something it did in the past when it had an itch. Did that mean that it hadn’t always had those long nails? She knew they had to grow at some point, but…the possibilities made her feel ill.

  The last one came to an abrupt halt before turning around and running back towards its comrades. She couldn’t really blame it, having seen how gruesomely its comrades died. What did surprise her was what happened next. It went towards its nearest comrade, and at the last moment, it yelled, “Dieeeeeeeee!” Plunging claws into the heart of its comrade, it smiled evilly. Another mesmer ran over, trying to pull it off, which only got the thing to start swinging wildly at it.

  She watched as they attacked each other, and it took two others to end the rogue’s life. They stared at it as it fell for a second, their eyes burning with hatred as they looked up and locked onto her. She didn’t even know what was going on, until she remembered that that was Lavender’s branch...and Lavender created illusions. It seemed the mesmer got a face full of pollen after all.

  None of the mesmer moved, seeming to contemplate the girl standing boldly on the tree before them. There were only five of them left, and two of them were injured from their fight with their comrade.

  She put her bow away into her ring as she prepared to cast magic. As one, the five of them hissed at her, “No magic! Come to usssssssssss.” She felt the commands hit her like a ton of bricks, and her hands dropped to her side. She began to walk forward as if in a daze, and felt the slight breeze of her fellacai clearing a path in their pollen so she could walk through unharmed. With the order concentrated on her, they were unaffected, since the mesmer assumed she was the one who’d been casting magic, given that everything happened to them when they tried to approach her.

  They watched her walk along the branch, her eyes unfocused as she got closer. She could hear shouting coming from below, and one of the mesmer leaned over to command those below, “Sssssssssilence, sssssssssstay there!” The voices stopped.

  “Come, come clossssser.” They enticed her with their voices, drawing her towards them, confident now that she finally succumbed to their hypnotism. When she was about ten feet away, one of them jumped towards her to grab her, claw reaching out to spill her blood in retribution for their fallen comrades.

  The claw was inches from her face when it stopped, scraping along her personal wind armor. It could now see her eyes focused entirely on it, hissing as it attempted to break through her shield. “Oh, my bad, I forgot you told me not to use magic. Sorry to disappoint. I just needed to get close enough to make this work...”

  The creature tried to say something, but couldn’t seem to get any words out. All five of their pale faces started to become purple as her wind walls blocked any oxygen from moving through their lungs. One of them tried to jump away, only to realize it was caught in a wind cocoon, trapping the four of them in her favored bubble. It beat helplessly at the boundary, trying to claw its way out until it collapsed, the rest of them soon following suit.

  She released the wind walls blocking their throats so she didn’t kill them, then placed seeds on their chests, touching each of them and quickly beginning her siphon. With a push of her nature magic, long vines sprouted, securely binding her foes. She brought some of her metal out, forming casings around their hands so they wouldn’t be able to claw anything.

  Satisfied that they were well and truly bound, she quickly grabbed them in her bubble and jumped down from the tree, her fellacai resting and nibbling on the branches as they kept watch for her. Her group saw her jumping
down and seemed to let down their guard a tiny bit. Bow strings were relaxed as she landed nimbly, setting down her burden.

  “Are they all dead?” One of the men asked cautiously.

  She gestured to her five prisoners. “These ones are still alive, but the rest should be dead. However, I have no idea if there are more coming, so we’ve got to be quick. How are you all doing?” She scanned them, searching for the man who’d been injured.

  She figured she’d found him when she saw his arm had been slashed, blood staining the edges of his armor, but showing clean skin underneath. He nodded to her when he realized her attention was on him. “I’m fine. Lewis healed me up.”

  Walking over, she placed a hand on his arm, nodding to the healer, whose name she now knew to be Lewis. “Just going to remove the taint really quickly then.”

  “I almost forgot about that…” She heard the young man mutter darkly, and she spared the poor healer a smile. It wasn’t his fault that he didn’t know how to remove the taint. She seriously needed to teach other people how to do it, but this probably wasn’t the time. Hand on the man’s arm where the cut was, she sent a healing surge through him to test the waters. There, she found the taint festering. The man winced as she made a small cut, drawing the taint out and healing him again behind it. Holding that sickly colored blood in her hand, she incinerated it and brushed the ash off.

  “There we go. Watch the surroundings for me, will you? I’m going to create a wind wall around us so that they can’t make too much noise, but watch for anything coming.” They nodded assent as she walked over to her prisoners. They kept close so she didn’t have to make the wall any bigger than was absolutely necessary.

  Using water magic, she splashed the first mesmer, then spoke coldly, layering her voice with both compulsion and hypnotism directed at only it, “Wake up.” As soon as she saw the eyelids flicker, she continued. “Stay still and do nothing except answer my questions. No magic, no hypnotism, no harm to others or yourself.” Taking a deep breath, she began. “Are there more mesmer coming?”