Beastborne

by James T Callum

  150

  Beedle alighted atop the Palebark Treant. He quickly found a niche between its broad silver-rimmed leaves and disappeared within the creature’s branches. If the treant was bothered by the beetle’s presence, the creature never showed it.

  Hal had expected a more violent reaction upon seeing it, considering the predator relationship of an insect like Beedle to a treant. But Beedle didn’t attack, and the Palebark Treant hardly minded the intrusion.

  There was something different about the Palebark Treant. As they left the Manaseed’s glade, there was a shift. For a moment the treant paused, as if realizing for the first time it was leaving its home.

  Hal slowed and looked over his shoulder at the creature. He could feel it similar to how he could feel the Manaseed. It was somewhere between the bond he shared with Noth and the Manaseed, and the magical tether of Dominate.

  While he couldn’t control the Palebark Treant, he felt it was more than eager to follow his commands.

  The difference between the Palebark Treant, and the Disara loping some twenty feet away in the darkness, was that he could command the Disara to go against its desires.

  If he pushed the treant too hard, it could decide not to follow his commands. It might even turn on him, though he didn’t think that was likely. Least of all because there was a thread of the Manaseed within the creature.

  That much was obvious by its changed form. The Palebark Treant shook itself from its stupor and easily caught up with its long strides. At only 10-feet tall, the treant was a runt compared to the creatures Hal had Dominated back in Murkmire.

  Even still, it was fast - and strong - enough that as it began to overtake Hal and Noth, the treant reached down and scooped them up. It was as gentle as a mother with the way it cradled Hal and Noth.

  Once they were secured, the treant showed its true speed. Even the Disara’s lean form struggled to keep up with the long loping strides of the Palebark Treant.

  In short order, they were past the Town Hall and soon after, they found themselves at the wall.

  Sounds of battle and shouted orders filtered out across the chill night air. Tents were strung up several hundred feet back from the wall with hastily constructed wooden pathways to the various sections of the wall.

  Ashera was directing a group of white-robed individuals, one of them was a karak from the Kweh Gang that wanted to be a healer. Ashera motioned for them to enter the nearest tent. When she caught sight of Hal and the others, her soft green eyes widened at the sight.

  Being carried gingerly by the Palebark Treant, the pair must have made quite a spectacle.

  “You can set us down now,” Hal said to the treant. “Thanks for the ride.”

  “Much welcome,” it said in its slow, grinding voice.

  Ashera looked from Hal to the treant, then back to Hal. “You certainly know how to make an entrance.”

  Hal couldn’t help but grin. The ever-present sound of fighting dampened his mood, however. “I had hoped to have more help, but this Palebark Treant is special and will be more than helpful, especially if things turn sour. Did you set up these triage tents?”

  Ashera’s pale cheeks blushed a little at the tone of approval in Hal’s voice. She straightened her spine and stood taller. “I did. I’m organizing our relief.”

  Motioning to the nearest tent, she beckoned them around the side to an open flap. There was a small warm fire set in a metal brazier in the center of the tent. Several makeshift beds were stretched out along the sides. Tables held all manner of glass vials filled with glowing liquids of varying hue.

  “Everybody who could make potions was conscripted for making healing ingredients so we could be as ready as possible,” Ashera explained. “There are five tents in total. As many people who are skilled or would like to be skilled in medicine are on standby.

  “You can mark them by their white robes. Unfortunately, we do not have many that can be taken from their duties on the walls. We have more koblins and karaks attending the wounded than we do people with proper digits but we must all work together if we are to survive.”

  Ashera was right. They barely had enough to man the full length of the walls, and that was if every able-bodied person was on the wall. 750 feet was not a small distance when they hardly had 100 people capable of fighting.

  Several of the white-robed individuals gave a slight nod of respect their way. The karak made a chirping sound. Their clothing was simple, with a golden sash draping from hip to shoulder jam-packed with healing potions of all kinds.

  They weren’t unarmed either. Many of them wielded small, one-handed crossbows with the trademark angular design of dwarven make. More than one had a silvery dagger in a sheath at their back as well.

  As they passed the tent, making their way toward the center of the wall, Hal saw several people sitting around the brazier in the middle of the tent. A few of them were eating, others were just relaxing.

  “What are they doing?” Noth asked, slightly confused.

  “They’re resting,” Hal said, nodding his approval to Ashera before she could explain. “We can’t keep everybody fighting at once all the time, they’ll tire out. Ashera’s using the regenerative powers of the braziers - I’m guessing they have the same effect as a campfire - to help those who are tired to regenerate their resources faster. Smart.”

  “I am glad you agree,” Ashera said. Their boots clacked loudly on the roughly hewn planks laid out as a makeshift roadway. “We have carts made up to help ferry any wounded away from the wall and to help replenish supplies.

  “With the tents, we can keep a few people in reserve at all times. Our goal, as per the Guild Mission, is to survive the night. That requires a different mindset when defending. We are not trying to destroy or slaughter our enemy. They seem endless anyway. All we need to do is last until the sun rises.”

  Noth looked at Hal, then back at Ashera with a wide smile. “I knew you were perfect for the job!”

  Ashera ducked her head and did her best to look away from Noth. “Thank you,” she said under her breath.

  “I take it you’re also able to run messages?” Hal asked.

  “Yes,” Ashera said. “Noth tasked me with setting up logistics for the battle. Insofar as much as I could. Athagan has been instrumental in assisting me, he has a great head for this. I would not have been able to do nearly as much as I have without him. There he is now.”

  Athagan was coming down the sloping ramp that led up onto the top of the flat wall. He caught sight of Hal and his group, his eyes clearly marking the Palebark Treant, then the sleek form of the Disara at Hal’s side.

  “Just the man I were lookin’ fer, yer late, lad!” Athagan said by way of greeting. “The wall’s holding, fer now. But the beasties aren’t going nowhere, and the whole of the Shiverglades seems to want to break down our work.

  “The walls are takin’ heavy damage, Hal. Ain’t no way we make it to dawn unless we get some relief so me boys can repair some of the damage. Unless ye got a bright idea?”

  Hal was just thinking about that. “I’ve got an idea for that,” he said, then turned to Ashera. “I need you to get a message out to every party that’s been assembled so far. Firstly, all orders for the wall are to come from Durvin. Secondly, every single party needs at least one Ranger.

  “I don’t care who it is, as long as every available Ranger is in a party, that’s all that matters. If their Ultimate is an explosive or lobbed attack, they can elect to stay up on the parapets if they wish, but anybody else needs to be down on the wall.”

  Ashera nodded. “And what if they already have Ultimates charged? Swapping out of a party will cause them to lose at least some of it, even if they are instantly invited to another.”

  “Have them use it.”

  “Immediately?”

  “Fire at will on any targets they choose.”

  Ashera nodded and took off toward the nearest tent.

  Hal watched her go, then turned back to look at the Pa
lebark Treant. A terrible, reckless idea began to form in his head. When he shifted his gaze back to the wall, to the men and women defending their home, he came to a decision.

  Athagan looked appraisingly at Hal. “Well, out with it lad. I don’t much like that look in yer eye, reminds me o’ Durvin when the fool dwarf is about to rush headlong into a pit full o’ demons.”

  Your Leadership has risen to Level 29(34).

  +1% Party damage (+34%).

  +2% Leadership efficacy (+68%).

  Your Tactician Skill has risen to Level 13.

  +1% Planning efficacy (+13%).

  +1% Ambush & Trap success (+13%).

  -0.5% CP cost of Building Schematics (-6.5%).

  +0.5% Building Schematic parameters (+6.5%).

  Hal pulled free [Emissary] and held it up. It was almost full of mana again. It would be enough. “Something like that,” he said with a grin.

  “Besal?”

  “I’m still recovering, but I can help.” Hal felt Besal open up his wellspring of mana to him.

  He turned to Athagan. “I’m going to buy as much time for you as I can. Call up anybody you need to do repairs now.”

  151

  “Hal, this is a really, really bad idea,” Noth said from about 8 feet below.

  “I know,” Hal said.

  Sitting in the Palebark Treant’s raised branch, curled up like an oversized catcher’s mitt, Hal couldn’t really disagree with her. Up on top of the wall, and with over 10 feet above the wall’s edge, he could see the battlefield ahead of him.

  And it didn’t look good. Somehow, there were even more monsters clogging the gap. They needed to be cleared out.

  Using Shadesight, Hal could see almost all the way to the Shiverglades beyond. There was no end to the sheer influx of beasts and monsters. He could hardly tell the difference between them.

  There were color-shifting cats that Hal recognized as Disara among the Morbolgers, wolves, and strange plantoid monsters. Golems of stone, mud, and vine stomped their way toward the Settlement alongside swift, furry spiders. Burrowing worms broke through the surface two dozen feet from the wall when the ground became too stony.

  Luckily, those were easily killed when they were exposed to the defenders’ bolts, arrows, hammers, and rocks. But there were just so many. Hundreds of monsters were flooding through the gap.

  The walls were holding, but for how much longer? Inspecting them, he could see many of the walls - particularly the center ones - had taken quite a beating and were already dipping below 70% bHP (Building HP).

  He needed to buy Athagan enough time for some repairs to get done. But before that, he reached out to the Manaseed and activated Rallied Defense.

  Every single person in his sight was filled with a shimmering silvery light that washed over them. It cost most of the EP the Manaseed had gained, but there was no better use for it.

  You gain the effect of Rallied Defense.

  +20% Damage of Citizens within influence range.

  -20% Damage taken by Citizens within influence range.

  Duration: 24hrs.

  That should help a little bit.

  He would try to keep Mana Repair in his back pocket, but he knew before long that he would need it. The Palisades had varying bHPs, but most of them were over 1,000 thanks to the boosts provided by Tactician.

  Mana Repair would heal 100 bHP for every point of EP spent. That would allow him to repair roughly 8 Palisades to full. But that was a last resort, only to be used when the fighting grew so feverish that nobody could be risked to repair the wall.

  Hal looked down at the Palebark Treant. “Ready, pal?”

  “Ready.”

  “I can’t believe I’m agreeing with the Reaper,” Besal said into his mind. “But this really is insane, even for you.”

  “Duly noted.”

  “Launch!” Hal commanded.

  The Palebark Treant cocked its branch back like a shot put thrower. With a burst of strength, its branches groaning with the strain, the treant launched Hal through the air with eye-watering speed.

  With Besal’s Second Verse still active, Hal summoned wings of shadow and eldritch. He Spliced insect essence in place of aberration as his third essence.

  Spreading his wings wide, shadowy black things sparking with red lightning that kept him from twisting and spinning about, Hal summoned an insect-aspected Bomb Toss.

  In the dark of night, he felt that the shadow and eldritch were stronger yet lighter. Unlike his aberration wings he first made, these were less strenuous to flap, buying him even more airtime.

  Coasting on the rapidly depleting momentum from the Palebark Treant’s throw, Hal soared high above the gap clogged with monsters. For once, he felt free, above it all.

  Farther into the gap than he remembered, Hal could see the shimmering barrier of the Manaseed’s shielding that prevented Manastorms from encroaching upon its protection.

  Unfortunately, the creatures that the Shiverglades sent at them were able to entirely ignore the barrier. He passed through the protective barrier, feeling a brief sense of loss. His Founder’s Day buff faded, and he banked hard to the left, doubling back.

  The welcoming embrace of the Manaseed’s protection flooded over him. His Founder’s Day buff returned, bouncing his max MP up to 1,043. It didn’t return the MP he lost from passing beyond the barrier, though.

  But he hadn’t spent long enough within the range of the Manaseed’s barrier in order to recover too much MP over his old max of 835. It was a good reminder to stay within the confines of the shield, however.

  He dropped one Bomb Toss after the other onto the clusters of plantoid monsters below. Curiously, he channeled eldritch essence into a Bomb Toss and let loose another incendiary orb.

  It sailed toward the clump of monsters nearly a hundred feet below and detonated into a devastating swirling mass of red and black energy. The ground withered and changed where the swirling red-black flames stretched and broke across the land.

  Hal had never seen anything like it.

  Almost as surprising was the effect it had on his wings. As if caught in a sudden updraft, he felt pushed skyward without having to flap his wings at all.

  Catching on to the unique interplay between his wings and the energy coming off his eldritch Bomb Toss, Hal began to lob several bombs one after the other in a line in front of his flight path.

  Each blast decimated the creatures below, feeding him a steady stream of EXP and buoying him up even higher into the air. Every kill granted him 1% of his max MP, thanks to his upgraded [Shadowblessed Spaulder].

  Unfortunately, the MP return was roughly the same as it was before. The difference was, as his max MP went higher, the return would be greater. It would grow with him.

  For now, he still gained just a little over 10 MP per kill. With Bomb Toss’ relatively meager 35 MP cost now cut down to 25, he could keep up his bombing runs for a long time.

  At a single point of strain, and with a limit of 50, he had plenty of casts remaining before he had to worry about gaining a Level of Strain Affliction. He didn’t even know if that was going to be much of a problem with Besal aiding him as he was.

  Glancing at his Strain, it hardly seemed to move with each cast of Bomb Toss. The first 2 Strain Affliction Levels would only make him more powerful, but then he’d need to be careful.

  Though the defenders of the Settlement were not great in number, they were quick to take advantage of the weakened enemies Hal left in his wake. Catapults lobbed their payloads, Rangers fired volleys of arrows, and koblins shot strange firework-like projectiles out of colorful tubes.

  Each Bomb Toss kept him aloft with minimal use of SP and left pockets of decimated enemies in his wake. Spines and gobs of acidic ooze reached for him as the enemies below spotted him. It wasn’t hard; his wings were emitting a trail of nebulous red lightning that lingered like an afterimage.

  As high up as he was, their attacks couldn’t reach him, and the defenders took advantage o
f the break in the assault. Slowed, the attackers were forced to split their attention between Hal’s devastating rain of explosive spells and the wall ahead.

  Every Bomb Toss left behind a circular patch that continued to burn for several long minutes with red and black fire. Every spell cast forced the creatures to either take damage by walking over the lingering flames, or to move through an ever-tightening and winding pattern.

  Hal swept back and forth, lobbing Bomb Toss with as much precision as he could manage. Like playing one of those tower defense games, he was trying to make a snaking path free of biting flames. The monsters, little more than unthinking beasts, avoided the patches of black flame as he had hoped.

  They doubled back on themselves through the serpentine path he made, making them easy targets for the defenders on the wall and up on top of the parapets.

  A boulder flung through the air 30 feet to Hal’s right and took out two slimy creatures in a shower of goo. The boulder skipped across the stony ground and rolled forward like a bowling ball, right over the patch of burning black-red flame.

  The half-ton boulder was instantly set ablaze with black-red flames as if it had been doused in gasoline. It continued to roll, spreading the flames in a straight line, ruining his work but bowling into dozens of monsters and setting them on fire.

  Damaged, but not mortally, the monsters fled from the licking black-red flames. As they did, they bumped into other monsters, before Hal could cast another Bomb Toss, the ground below was a patchwork of red and black fire.

  Hal banked hard to the east and finished his line of fire right at the base of the wall to provide a buffer for the men and women that would be charged with its repair. The walls were quickly cleared of any lingering threats that managed to get through.

  Ladders were dropped, dwarves, koblins, and even a few karaks bearing heavy burdens of materials landed on the ground in front of the Earthen Walls and Palisades.

  152