by Simon Archer
“I didn’t have anything to do with that,” I said, still flummoxed as I looked up at the statue. “It wasn’t there last night.”
Jay gave me a pointed look and then made a couple of gestures that made my eyes go wide.
“I think the goblin may be right, master,” Queenie said as she moved to stand beside me. “Our lovemaking must have released the magic to do this.” From the way she spoke, I couldn’t tell if she was pleased or upset. “Though I do not think I look so… vicious.”
“You don’t,” Morlaon said with a shiver. “That statue may look like you on the surface, but it is definitely not you.” He peered closer at the statue. “That thing is evil in its core, cold in a way you’re not.”
“It’s Queen Mab.” I nodded to the statue before holding out my hands and staring at them. “The power of earth and cold I used to make the building was given to me by her.” I’d expected my words to mean something to my companions, but they all looked at me blankly.
“Is she your patron goddess?” Morlaon asked after a few moments. “Because if she is, I might rethink my allegiance.”
“She isn’t,” I said and was thankful that the words felt true enough. “I don’t have a patron, but if I did, I’d have to say it is Rhapsody.”
“The Forger of Worlds?” Morlaon said, and this time I was a bit surprised he had heard of Rhapsody and not Mab, but then again, worlds were always different in what lore found its way to them. “She is a good choice. Wise and strong.” He glanced at the statue once more and shivered again. “And kind.”
“Well, anyway,” I said as I scratched the back of my neck, “let’s get going.” I nodded to the trail. “How long until we get to town?”
“It’s about half a day’s journey from here if we take the side trails,” the bard explained. “We can get there a bit quicker if we take the main trails, but that will take us through ogre territory.” He looked at me for a second before flicking his gaze to Queenie. “And I know you think your master can take all the ogres, and I honestly believe you, but it will actually take longer to go that way because we will have to fight our way through them and deal with all their traps. Call me crazy, but I don’t want to fall into a pit filled with spears to slowly die.”
Queenie pursed her lips before nodding her head once. “Though I agree with you that my master could slaughter all the ogres in the forest, I do not look forward to dealing with traps.” She shook her head. “And it would be foolish to ignore the advice of our guide.” She turned her attention to me. “What are your thoughts, master?”
“I’m good with Morlaon’s plan,” I said, and with that, we started off down the road.
For the most part, it was relatively quiet. In fact, it was too quiet. Yesterday we had heard birds, insects, and even the boughs of the trees as the wind bent them to her whims. Now though?
Now, there were no birds or insects. The wind had all but died so that not even the rustle of a leaf could be heard. With each step we took, the sounds of our feet on the trail seemed to echo in the silence of it all.
“I’m starting to have a bad feeling about this,” I mumbled, and my voice seemed to echo in the complete absence of sound surrounding us. “Is this quiet normal?”
“I was hoping that if we didn’t mention it, it would go away,” Morlaon said as he shot a glance to Jay, who didn’t seem bothered by it. That was understandable, though, since he rarely made any noise when he moved and seemed to relish the quiet. Honestly, it made his association with Morlaon a bit odd, but then again, perhaps he just enjoyed being around the energetic goblin.
“The scouts and soldiers do not detect anything,” Queenie said with a twitch of her antennae, “But if they do--”
Her voice was cut off by an inhuman howl that pierced the silence so profoundly that it was actually painful. Worse, it sounded close.
“One of the scouts is down,” Queenie exclaimed though I could already feel it back in Auric Limbo. For that to have happened, it had to have been dealt a critical blow that made it impossible to stay in this realm. Otherwise, my Aura would have healed the creature through it. “We just lost the two soldiers along with it.”
“What is it?” I asked as I called a halt to our troops with a mental command. “Because I’m getting a whole lot of nothing.”
“I don’t know,” Queenie said through gritted teeth while her antennae swished violently through the air. “It moved too fast to be more than a blur of black.”
“I know what it is,” the goblin bard said from beside me, and when I spared him a glance, he looked downright terrified. His greenish skin had paled considerably, and he was taking great, sucking breaths that made me think he was on the urge of vomiting. “It’s a dire wolf.”
At his words, Jay paled as well and then made several signs which made me think he was trying to ward off evil.
“Okay,” I said as I looked between them. “I can deal with some dire wolves.” It was true. In Terra Forma, they were powerful enemies the size of small cars who could bite through an oak with ease, but they were still just animals, and I had an army.
“It is not the dire wolves I am worried about,” Morlaon said as I produced my hobgoblin dagger and axe. “It’s what comes with dire wolves.”
“What comes with dire wolves?” I asked right before something burst through the brush to our left.
It was crazy because I’d have thought something that big couldn’t move so silently, especially given the general lack of sound, but I’d have been wrong because I hadn’t heard it. In fact, I hadn’t heard anything as it came free of the brush. No, I’d sensed its Aura and only just barely.
“Damn, I hate dire bears,” I muttered, and suddenly my dagger and axe felt inadequate because what faced us was a massive bear that had to be almost twenty feet tall. It was massive in a way that made an elephant look small, and its dark fur had a crimson sheen to it that made me think of freshly spilled blood. Claws the size of small trees filled its paws, and when its flat yellow eyes met mine, it opened its mouth in a leer that revealed a mouth full of row upon row of razor sharp, dagger-sized teeth.
Worse, its name was a blazing scarlet hue, letting me know it was quite a bit higher than my current level of twenty-four. So, you know, totally fair odds for me and my army of ants.
Still, we could deal with this. It was, after all, just one monster, and it wasn’t a boss.
“Queenie, get the Sentinels to hold its attention and then have the Spiders bind it in place--”
My words were cut off as it howled, and the ground around us shook with menace. It was crazy because the urge to flee filled me to my brim, and it was all I could do to keep from turning tail and sprinting off in the other direction. I resisted, but it was hard, harder than I thought, and I realized I was under the effects of a fear charm meant to make us run.
I took a deep breath and let my Aura flow out of myself in the same way I had when I resisted the Sentinel’s taunt earlier. As I did, I saw the same ribbons of Aura extending from the creature that I had before, and once again, I focused on snapping each of them with my metaphysical scissors.
I’d just barely managed to break the hold of the spell on when Morlaon let out a cry, and I whirled around to see another of the creatures burst out of the woods, blocking off the direction we would have run had the fear charm worked.
“So, that was your plan,” I grumbled as a pair of dire wolves rushed out of the brush to stand by the new bear’s side. I glanced back at the first bear to see that, yep, sure enough, it also had a pair of dire wolves. “Drive us toward your girlfriend here and then have her slaughter us.” I gave the monsters a slow clap. “Almost worked.”
The bears must not have appreciated my moxie because they both let out bellows that shook the earth and rattled the surrounding trees, and at the sound, the dire wolves tore forward.
Thankfully, we were ready for them. As Morlaon dropped to his knees and began to pray to any and all deities for deliverance, each of my thr
ee Sentinels sprang into action.
Hank taunted the left pair of dire wolves, while Pym and Goliath each took one of the other dire wolves. Then Rocky and Balboa, both Golems already in defensive stance, grabbed the attention of the dire bears. It was a little weird to see all the monsters immediately lose focus on us and go for the ants and golems, but then again, that was their job.
Leaving the Minders to heal the Golems and Sentinels, I turned to Queenie. “Have the army burn down the dire wolves and then focus on the bears.” Then I turned my attention to the pair of hobgoblins I had summoned. “You two, protect Jay and Morlaon.”
As the two hobgoblins rushed to comply with my orders, Queenie sent four groups of Soldiers, Sentries, and Scouts to harry each of the dire wolves before leaping into battle herself.
The Ant Queen launched herself at the closest dire wolf and smashed into it like a bus made out of razor blades and fury. Her claws lashed out, easily penetrating the tough hide of the creatures that even the Soldiers seemed to have trouble with, but even as crimson splashed across the ground, the creature snapped at Hank.
As the dire wolf's jaws latched around the Sentinel Ant’s neck, Queenie grabbed the creature around the throat, and her muscles bulged and strained as she worked to pull the thing back. While it seemed to be working, there was definitely a problem, and that was the second wolf moving to get at Hank from behind. With him still struggling with the first wolf, I knew he was going to get taken down quickly.
“Shoot it,” I said as I turned to the hobgoblin archer, and as I spoke, I put a hand on the creature’s shoulder. Then as it drew back on its bow, I used Aura Infusion in a way I never had before. I used it to charge up the hobgoblin’s arrow, and as green streaks of emerald light lit the area around the hobgoblin’s weapon, it loosed the projectile.
The arrow streamed forward like a glowing, emerald comet and hit the second wolf right as it leapt forward to take a bite out of Hank’s flank. The glowing arrowhead smashed into the creature’s open maw with a devastating explosion of force that damn near blew the creature’s head off as it was hurled backward to the ground, smoke curling from its body. As it lay there stunned, the Soldier Ants descended on it, finally able to get access to the tender underside of the wolf.
Leaving them to it, I spun back around to see how the others were doing and felt my stomach fall. The golems were getting beat to shit as the dire bears' claws rent huge gouges in their rocky exterior, and it didn’t take a genius to realize that the only thing keeping them in the fight was the Minders’ combined efforts to keep them healed.
The problem was that they were already down to about a third of their Aura, and once they ran out, my Aura would get drained next.
“Jay,” I said because Morlaon was still huddled on the floor, “I need you and him.” I thumbed at Morlaon. “To start playing your music. Now.”
Jay gave me an odd look as he glanced around, then nodded once. With a deftness I didn’t know he possessed, he pulled out his ukelele and strummed a beat that seemed to resonate in the silence of the place. At the sound of it, Morlaon finally looked up. As his eyes caught sight of Jay, the silent one nodded at his friend.
“You’re right,” Morlaon said as he pulled himself to his feet and dusted himself off. I’d thought he might have been embarrassed by his cowering, but something told me he wasn’t, not really anyway. “If we’re going to die, we best go out playing.” He nodded once. “That’s how I want to die, anyway.” Then he smacked his hands on the drum to elicit a quick beat to follow along with Jay’s strumming.
As the sound of their music filled the air, I reached out to grab hold of that sweet magic that came with it and found that it was even easier than it had been before. I didn’t have time to pay much attention as the magic came to me and filled me, and instead, I focused on what I could do with the magic it granted me.
I visualized the battlefield and pictured another geomancer spell I’d used before. It was a relatively simple binding spell designed to open a small hole beneath an opponent’s feet. Then I thrust the power of Jay and Morlaon’s bardic rhythm into the ground. It was a strange feeling because I suddenly felt like a conduit for their power. Magic surged through the air, into me, and into the ground.
Then the world rent open in a scream of pain as the dirt beneath the dire bears split apart into a massive cavern. As they tumbled down, I quickly worked to redirect the magic once more and envisioned a second Geomancer spell, Puddle of Quicksand.
Again, the flurry of magical musical power filled me before lashing out with astonishing speed that filled the holes with quicksand. As they tried to climb out by digging their claws into the sides of their cavernous prisons, they were suddenly overtaken by quicksand rising to swallow them whole.
My heart pounded in my chest from the effort of doing the Geomancer spells since I wasn’t actually a Geomancer, merely borrowing the powers thanks to Mab’s title. Worse, I knew I couldn’t act as a conduit for much longer with the strain, so I did the next best thing. Since I could see the way the music flowed through me and into the spell, I used my Aura Mastery to grab the magic coming from their music and then smashed that end directly into the hungry maw of the spell I’d cast. As I metaphysically removed myself from the chain of magic and used the power of their music to fuel the spell directly, the whole thing bucked in my hands, threatening to shatter at any instant, but I didn’t let that happen.
Instead of letting the whole thing fall apart, I envisioned the binding between their musical magic and the Geomancer spell as a wall that was cracking apart, and my Aura as spackle. I quickly matched over the holes, filled in the gaps, and smoothed out the whole thing as best I could. It was hard, but thankfully, even with the bleed-off of not conducting it perfectly, there was more than enough power to keep the spell going without blowing the whole thing to kingdom come.
Satisfied the dire bears were bound, at least for the moment, I pulled my attention back to the rest of the battle just in time to see Queenie tear the head off the dire wolf while it was still latched onto Hank’s throat. As blood, gore, and sinew dripped down her like she was some kind of avenging goddess, the wolf’s massive jaws finally loosened, and she was able to wrench it free of Hank.
Better still, a quick glance let me know the other ants had taken down the one I’d had shot with the arrow and had moved to assist Pym and Goliath.
Queenie and I locked eyes for a second, and with mutual nods, I headed toward Goliath while she dropped the bloody head and leapt for the dire wolf attacking Pym. I didn’t bother to watch her fight because I was too busy running toward Goliath. Like with Hank, the dire wolf had its jaws latched around the Sentinel’s throat, so it didn’t offer much in the way of resistance when I drove my axe into its flank, nor did it pay me much mind because it was focused on rending the ant’s head from its body.
That was perfect though because I let Aura flood into my muscles as I stepped in and drove an overhead swing down into the back of the creature’s neck. It hit with a wet thunk that split the creature’s fur like wet paper and sent a spray of blood and bone into the air.
I didn’t stop. Instead, I hit it again, and three Auric Smashes later, the creature’s head came off, and its body hit the ground with a thud.
That was when the dire bear to my left finally burst free of the quicksand. Its massive claws gouged into the earth as it pulled itself free of the pit I’d dug with magic, and as sand and dirt cascaded off it, Rocky rushed to intercept it.
Only the bear knocked the golem away with a backhanded swipe to the knee that sent it crashing to the ground. That was a problem because while the golem could take a huge amount of damage, it couldn’t exactly pop to its feet like Jackie Chan. I could deal with that because Rocky distracted the bear long enough for me to spin on my heel and build up Aura before I flung the axe right at its stupid head. The Aura-infused axe hit the creature right between the eyes and embedded into its thick skull.
It didn’t seem to care
save to let out an annoyed roar.
That’s when an idea struck me.
As the bear knocked my axe away like it was swatting an annoying fly and began to climb out of the hole, I grabbed hold of the magical music in the air once again, then I closed the hole it was struggling to free itself from.
The earth shut with a massive crunch that ripped off the lower half of the bear, and as blood and thicker bits sprayed out across the dirt like we were in a low budget slasher movie, I watched in horror as it kept climbing toward me. It buried its front claws in the ground and pulled itself forward in a move that left a macabre snail trail of gore in its wake.
Still, it wasn’t moving very quickly, so instead of dealing with the half-a-bear myself, I told the ants that had been helping Goliath to deal with it. The big Sentinel quickly taunted the bear, and the moment it moved toward him, I turned my attention to the other bear.
It was still beneath the surface of the quicksand, and while I wasn’t sure if it was dead or not, I was done playing around. There was a massive crunch from that side of the battlefield as I sealed that hole an instant before a geyser of blood shot from the earth.
That’s when I saw the messages.
You have leveled up. You gain three stat points and one skill point to distribute.
You have learned the Subskill: Auric Interrupt.
Even though I knew the battle had to be over for me to have seen the messages, I still turned back toward the dire bear, and instantly, I wished I hadn’t. In the few moments I had been looking away, the ants had torn every bit of its inside out through the gaping hole where the bottom half of it should have been in a move that left it strewn across the trail like a grisly tribute not to fuck with us.